devices - 2/3 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jul

Official (And Open-Source) iFixit App Hits The Play Store – Tear Down And Repair From Anywhere

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Perhaps the most popular (and complete) free repair manual in existence, iFixit, launched an official app for Android recently, bringing detailed step-by-step repair instructions and (of course) the saucy teardown images we've come to know and love from the service's online counterpart to your Android devices.

For those who don't know, iFixit provides users with incredibly detailed repair guides for a huge variety of things from laptops to mobile devices, game consoles, and even cars, including great imagery and nice explanations for why hardware is the way it is.

The free repair manual's official app offers the same easy-to-grasp instructions as iFixit.com, delivering them to your mobile device with a simple, easy interface.

Jun

First Batch Of CyanogenMod 7.2 (Stable) Builds Now Available For A Ton Of Devices

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Development, Gingerbread 2.3, News

Those of you who have been waiting for a stable Android 2.3.7 build for your device from CyanogenMod are in luck - the first stable CyanogenMod 7.2 builds have just been released for an absolute slew of devices. For those who don't feel like decoding all the code-names for themselves, here's a handy list of supported devices (at the time of writing – more devices are being added):

Barnes&Noble

NOOK Color (encore)

HTC

Hero CDMA

myTouch 4G (glacier)

myTouch 3G Slide (espresso)

Desire (bravo)

Desire HD

Tattoo (click)

Wildfire (buzz)

Incredible (inc)

Incredible 2 (vivow)

Droid Eris (desirec)

LG

myTouch T 4G (e739)

Optimus Sol (e730)

Optimus Hub (e510)

Optimus Pro (c660)

Motorola

Droid 2 (Global)

Samsung

Galaxy S (galaxy smtd/sbmtd)

Galaxy SII (AT&T and international)

Fascinate

Nexus S/4G (Crespo/4G)

Galaxy Ace

Sony Ericsson

Xperia Pro MK16 (iyokan)

Xperia Neo (Hallon)

Live w/ Walkman (coconut)

Xperia Arc (Anzu)

Xperia Ray (urushi)

Xperia Play (zeus)

Xperia Mini/Pro (smultron/mango)

ZTE

Blade

Arcee notes in a post to the CyanogenMod blog that 7.2 brings a few backported ICS features and a few important bug fixes to a list of devices which includes 20 more than the list of 7.1 recipients.

Jun

Open Garden Beta Comes To The Play Store – Create Mesh Networks, Share Internet Connectivity On The Fly

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Applications, News

Open Garden is hands down one of the most impressive apps I've seen this year. The app, first introduced at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC 2012 as the startup that would go on to win the conference title of Most Innovative Startup, allows users to create an "open garden" of internet connectivity for multiple devices to share. The startup's official website explains it this way:

The operators sell us fancy handsets, but behave as if broken networks are a fact of life. … Imagine, instead, if all of the smartphones in any location could use their formidable processing power to share access to the Internet.

May

Millennial Media Report Shows Android As Top OS, Galaxy Tab As Number 2 Tablet

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News

If we told you that Android was the number one mobile OS worldwide, you shouldn't really be surprised by this point. By most metrics, the little green guy has overtaken the competition in just about every area, including sales, actual userbase, and ad impressions, as demonstrated here by Millenial Media's report. There are a couple surprises in the report, though.

For starters, while the iPad being the top ranked tablet is no surprise, the Galaxy Tab beating out the Kindle Fire is. The model in the report appears to be the original Galaxy Tab. The seven inch slate running Gingerbread.

May

[Update] Google Appears To Have Backpedaled On Music Deauthorizations, Now Allowing More Than Four Devices To Be Removed

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

Well, that didn't take long. Earlier today, we reported that Google was limiting the number of devices that can be deauthorized from your Google Music account. The official limit on Google Music devices was 10 active devices, with the proviso that up to 4 devices could be removed from your account every year. As of this moment, the Google Music help page still echoes this, but Google might be back pedaling. We're hearing reports that some users are able to deauthorize devices after being told just this morning that they'd reached their limit. Cameron, who had already reached his limit this morning, tried it out and lookie here:

^{Earlier this morning (left), and around 3:30 EST (right)}

While it's unclear how Google's stance on this has changed (we've reached out to Google for comment), it does seem very clear that some customers are now able to deauthorize devices that, just hours ago, they could not.

May

Google Music Now Only Allows You To Deauthorize Four Devices Per Year

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

The problem with any account-based music streaming service, from a corporate standpoint, is that end users are a shared password away from getting access to free media. Really, who hasn't shared their Netflix account once or twice? In an effort to prevent this kind of abuse, Google Music (likely at the request of the music labels) has instituted a cap on the number of devices you are allowed to deauthorize: Four. Per year. It gets worse, though.

For the uninitiated, here's how it works: you are allowed a maximum of ten devices that can be associated with a single Google Music account.

Mar

Sprint Says No More WiMax Devices Ever, Promises To Launch 15 LTE Devices By Year's End

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News, Sprint

It's only been a couple years since the EVO launched as not only the first WiMax phone, but the first "4G" phone (by carrier reckoning). Now, though, Sprint says that not only will there be no more WiMax phones, which we knew earlier, but no more WiMax devices at all. That means hotspots and tablets will also lack any WiMax antennae. Don't worry, though. Sprint has promised 15 LTE devices by year's end.

Sprint's LTE plans have been no secret, although not without a fair amount of bumps in the road. Still, Sprint insists that its LTE plans are on schedule.

Feb

[Poll] What New Device Announced At MWC Are You Most Looking Forward To?

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Polls

Mobile World Congress means different things to different people. To marketers, it means reaching new audiences, to company execs, its their chance to make us of those public speaking lessons. For us gadget nerds, it means one thing: shiny new toys! What are you most looking forward to adding to your personal arsenal of gadgets? A shiny new HTC One device? Do you have a need for a projector phone that's gone unfulfilled until now? Or are you eager to get your hands on a phone/tablet/netbook with 14,000 mAh worth of battery?

Once you're done voting in the poll, head to the comments to let us know why you're drooling for them.

Feb

[Review] iDapt i4 Universal Charger Combines Practical Functionality With Sleek Design, Charges All Your Devices With Ease

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Other Reviews

If you're anything like me, you're not so good with keeping track of charging cables or their corresponding adapters. Either that, or every cord ends up together, looking like a bowl of spaghetti with no discernable beginning or end. Looking to end our charging cable woes, the folks at iDapt have created the iDapt i4 universal charger.

The charging station is actually one in a family of devices. iDapt also offers the i2+ which can charge up to three devices at once, and the i1 Eco which sports a totally different design, can charge two devices, and heavily touts the fact that it is "ecological," being made of recyclable materials.

Feb

Google: There Are More Than 850,000 Android Devices Activated Daily, 300 Million Activated To Date - 450,000 Apps On The Market

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

Call it momentum, a robot invasion, or a force of nature, the one thing you can't say about Android's proliferation is that it's insignificant. Andy Rubin took the opportunity during MWC to let slip some new Android activation figures. Chief among them, Android is now activating more than 850,000 devices daily, and Google has activated a lifetime total of 300 million devices.

This number is absolutely astonishing. To put that in perspective, at the current rate of activation, roughly every ten days Google activates more devices than there are people in New York City. By mid-march, there will be more Android devices in the world than there are people in the entire United States.