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Dec

Some Users Experiencing Voice/Data Connectivity Dropouts With The Verizon Galaxy Nexus - Are You One Of Them? [Poll]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Galaxy Nexus, News, Polls, Samsung, Verizon Wireless

After a rollercoaster of emotions and months of waiting, the back-from-mythical Galaxy Nexus was finally released on Verizon yesterday, but were the main reasons for the delays, in fact, related to unstable and poor connectivity? I've had endless problems with connectivity on the Thunderbolt (even with the latest firmware), and plenty of you had similar issues with pretty much all other LTE devices.

Can the Galaxy Nexus be no different? I assumed loss of data (even 3G, I'm not even talking about 4G here) and voice was a thing of the past with the Nexus, but having run into this Reddit post with multiple confirmations, I decided to do a quick poll using our social media accounts.

Dec

Gingerbread Now Running On 50% Of Android Devices, Just In Time For Ice Cream Sandwich

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Cupcake 1.5, Donut 1.6, Eclair 2.1, Froyo 2.2, Gingerbread 2.3, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News

Last Updated: August 20th, 2012

Google has released the latest of its monthly Android version distribution charts, and for the first time Android 2.3 Gingerbread is present on over half of all Android devices. A milestone, to be sure.

We also get a look at the end success rate of Honeycomb (a tablet-only version of Android), which achieved a mere 2.5% piece of the Android pie since the first Honeycomb device release back in February. Android 1.5 and 1.6 (Cupcake and Donut) have continued their march toward extinction, commanding only 2.1% of the Android population total. Android 2.2 has remained relatively steady at 35%, but is clearly on the downtrend.

Nov

EFF Defends Android Dev Trevor Eckhart From Carrier IQ's Bogus Legal Threats After Exposing Phone Data Logging

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Legal, News

If you don't know who Trevor Eckhart is, you might remember a little piece we published earlier this year about a massive HTC data vulnerability caused by the company's data-logging operations. Trevor was the guy who found that vulnerability and did almost all of the legwork in investigating it. Since then, Trevor has been hard at work looking at more mobile data logging applications used by various manufacturers, including one written by a company called Carrier IQ.

CIQ, as it's more commonly known, harvests various user data from its host device and sends it back to carriers or manufacturers for analysis and record-keeping purposes.

Nov

Sprint Updates Pricing And Bandwidth For Non-Smartphone Data Plans

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Sprint

In order to remain competitive, Sprint is constantly tweaking its data plans for non-smartphone devices like tablets, mobile hotspots, and laptops. The most recent update to the plans came today, which offers an increase in bandwidth, as well as a drop in price -- always a good combination.

These changes apply to non-smartphone devices only. Smartphones still have unlimited data.

Beginning immediately, The Now Network will be offering 6GB of data for $49.99 and 12GB for $79.99; if that's too much bandwidth for you, though, there is a 1GB option (tablets only) for $19.99, as well as a 3GB plan (tablets and mobile hotspots only) for $34.99.

Nov

Republic Wireless Launches Its First Phone And The $19/Month Wireless "Hybrid Calling" Plan - Here's Everything You Need To Know

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in LG, News, Optimus One, Republic Wireless

Seemingly out of nowhere, a new wireless brand Republic Wireless, a division of Bandwidth.com, announced earlier this month that it would revolutionize and shake up the mobile industry by introducing a Hybrid Calling plan that costs only $19 a month. This plan has indeed gone live today over at RepublicWireless.com, together with the first and only mobile device the company is offering (for now) - the LG Optimus.

The low-cost offering is made possible thanks to heavy reliance on Wi-Fi data - Republic Wireless devices are designed to prioritize Wi-Fi networks, and certain measures have been put in place to make sure you don't hog an unfair share of the mobile network (powered by Sprint).

Oct

Chart: Are There Really Too Many Android Phones? That Depends On How You Look At It

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials

After reading a couple of great pieces on Droid-life about how Android manufacturers seem to be moving at breakneck pace to advance hardware and iterate handsets like crazy, I had an idea - let's visualize it in different ways. First, we'll start with a pretty basic comparison, showing the US's four major carriers and the number of Android devices they currently offer.

*includes upcoming DROID RAZR and Galaxy Nexus on Verizon. Based on respective carrier websites as of 10/28/11.

Next, we'll see how much each of the major handset manufacturers contributes to these numbers at the present moment.

*includes upcoming DROID RAZR and Galaxy Nexus.

Oct

Dan Hesse: The Sprint iPhone Is Actually Helping Keep Unlimited Data Around Longer For Smartphones

Posted by David Ruddock in News, Sprint

When Sprint confirmed that the iPhone 4S was headed to the US's Alamo of unlimited data, current Sprint subscribers feared that a tidal wave of iDevices could finally force the company to surrender to tiered data pricing.

Speaking to Forbes, CEO Dan Hesse said the iPhone was actually having the opposite effect, and that Apple's smartphone would actually reduce the rate of growth of smartphone data consumption because it uses Sprint's network more efficiently. Hesse claims the iPhone uses significantly less mobile data, and hits the network less often, than Android devices. Apple's strict guidelines about app network efficiency mean the iPhone, on average, is less data-hungry than its competitors.

Oct

[New App] 'My Sync Center' Offers Automatic Two-Way Data Sync Between Your Android Device And PC Over Wi-Fi

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

If, like me, you have always wanted a good data sync solution for your Android device, then we have a new app for you to check out. It's called My Sync Center, and it syncs data between your device and PC using your local Wi-Fi connection. This allows you to keep certain data up-to-date regardless of which device you're using, easily backup photos and videos, keep copies of your Titanium Backup files, and more. Did I mention that it does all of this automatically? Yep, you don't even have to to think about it.

It doesn't just sync content from your phone to your PC, either -- you can also set it to automatically transfer music or videos from your PC to your phone (or tablet).

Sep

Sprint Delays Data-Throttling On Virgin Mobile Until 'Sometime In 2012'

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Virgin Mobile

Back in July, Sprint announced plans to begin throttling speeds for customers who use more than 2.5GB of data in a month on its pre-paid subsidiary, Virgin Mobile. Naturally, this announcement did not sit well with Virgin customers, despite Sprint's claim that the change would only affect "3% of all data users."

However, the Now Network has decided to delay this throttling plan until sometime in 2012 to "ensure [they] have all the necessary systems in place so that [their] customer experience will remain positive."

There's no word as to exactly when this changeover will take place, but the company "will provide further information on timing beforehand so [their] customers have advance notification."

So, Virgin customers, breathe a sigh of relief, because it looks like you'll be able to bathe in unlimited data for a while longer.

Sep

[Update: AT&T And Sprint Support Added] Smozzy Bucks The System, Lets T-Mobile Customers Browse The Web Without A Data Plan

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Update: If you've been itching to try this workaround on a non-T-Mobile phone, then now's your chance. The Snozzy dev has added experimental support for AT&T and Sprint, and untested support for Verizon, Virgin, Cricket, Straight Talk, US Cellular, and Viaero. Since the latter group is completely untested, there's a good chance that it will be extremely buggy, if it even works at all. If you decide to give it a go, make sure to drop us a line and let us know how it turns out!

With all this talk of data plans - unlimited, tiered, throttled... whatever - one developer decided to find a way to circumvent the system and gain access to the web without paying carrier prices.