eclair - 5/6 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jun

Google Update Platform Versions Chart, Call Fragmentation A ‘Bogeyman’

Posted by Chris Dehghanpoor in Android OS, Devices By Manufacturer, News

Yesterday, Google Open Source & Compatibility Program Manager Dan Morrill (his business cards have to be 10 feet long to fit that title) wrote a pretty interesting blog post over at the Android Developers blog, where he called the idea of fragmentation a ‘bogeyman’.

He tries to diffuse a lot of the controversy that the idea of Android fragmentation has stirred up – indeed, it’s probably the biggest argument used against Android by its detractors.

He doesn’t directly address the fact that there are still a lot of devices in the wild that are running legacy versions of the operating system, and are unable to take advantage of some of the new APIs the newer versions have introduced, but instead implies that it doesn’t necessarily matter anyways.

May

Want A Rooted ROM Based On The Official Sprint HTC Hero Android 2.1 Update? Get The Fresh ROM By flipz

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, Hero (Sprint, HeroC), HTC, News, Sprint

If you are a Sprint Hero owner and want the latest official 2.1 update baked into a custom ROM with root, then you currently have only one alternative - the Fresh ROM.

Custom ROMs For The Hero

There are pretty much only 2 main Sprint Hero custom ROMs - DamageControl (by damageless and TrevE) and Fresh (by flipz). Both are very good, have an excellent track record, and great communities behind them.

I've personally been using DamageControl on my Hero but post-official 2.1 update, flipz has moved a little faster than damageless and TrevE, and incorporated it into his Fresh ROM pretty much on the next day, while DamageControl is still stuck at 2.08.1.

May

BREAKING: Android 2.2 Froyo OTA Now Available For The Nexus One!

[Live Updates] [CONFIRMED] BREAKING: Android 2.2 Froyo OTA Now Available To Some Nexus One Users!

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in HTC, News, Nexus One (Passion), T-Mobile

Check the bottom for the most recent updates

It looks like Google has started the rollout process of Froyo to the Nexus One. Go to your device's settings and have it check for updates - there is a chance that you can download it right now.

MG Siegler of TechCrunch has successfully performed the update after seeing an update notification on his Nexus One and snapped the photos below.

At the Google I/O conference, the only answer I could get from Android developers regarding Froyo release to the N1 was "soon". However, they hinted that it would *really* soon, and so I was very skeptical of baseless updates like this one claiming a June release date without a source to back it up.

May

Google Updates Platform Version Stats Yet Again, 2.1 Finally In The Lead

Posted by Chris Dehghanpoor in Carriers, Devices By Manufacturer, News

Once again Google has updated their platform version chart, and this time OS Version 2.1 has something to celebrate.

If you haven’t been keeping track, Google has a chart that illustrates the breakdown of Android versions on devices currently in the wild. This is done primarily so developers will know what version to develop for, but has also been used as ammunition for Android’s detractors who like to bring up fragmentation as one of Android’s biggest flaws.

Until April, the chart would go several months with out any new updates, but since the fragmentation argument started gaining ground, Google has switched to a more consistent update schedule, posting new results every few weeks.

May

HTC Officially Introduces A New, More Social, Phone: Meet HTC Wildfire

Posted by Chris Dehghanpoor in Carriers, Devices By Manufacturer, HTC, Wildfire (Buzz)

Last Updated: April 2nd, 2011

After the good gentlemen over at Smartphone Arena broke embargo this morning, HTC went ahead and made things official with their latest Android handset, the HTC Wildfire.

Looking like the bastard child of an HTC Legend and Google Nexus One, it seems the Wildfire is intended to further flesh out HTC’s lineup of Android handsets. The handset is set to hit Europe and Asia in Q3 2010, which is a shame, because this is definitely the kind of handset that T-Mobile US could use. At this point, their current line up is beginning to show its age and their latest announcements, like the MyTouch Slide and Garminfone, aren’t exactly drool-worthy.

May

Samsung Moment Android 2.1 Update Goes Live Early, Available Now From Sprint, Already Rooted

Samsung Moment Android Eclair 2.1 Update Goes Live Early, Available Now From Sprint, Already Rooted

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, Moment, News, Samsung, Sprint

We are still trying to assemble all the bits and pieces but it looks like Sprint was preparing the 2.1 upgrade for tomorrow, May 14th but uploaded the updater and the new instructions today.

A user of SDX-Developers by the name of chrisfeltdrum was downloading what he thought was an older, previously released in February update, when he realized the OS version he upgraded to was actually Android 2.1.

Chris immediately posted this information to the SDX-Developers forum for confirmation, and in a matter of minutes other users have confirmed the update was indeed official 2.1 and not the old Feburary release.

May

Verizon FTW: Droid Eris 2.1 Update ‘Coming Soon’

Posted by Chris Dehghanpoor in Carriers, Devices By Manufacturer, Eris, HTC, News, Verizon Wireless

I guess Sprint was feeling a bit lonely: Verizon has recently revealed on their official support site for the Droid Eris that users can expect an update to 2.1 ‘soon’. Unfortunately, they don’t offer a more specific time table, but they do provide documents both detailing the benefits of upgrading as well as instructions on how to do so, which is definitely reassuring.

Reading through the documents provided, it looks like Verizon is going to deliver the update over-the-air, as well as require the user to wipe the device. Exactly how thorough of a wipe will be required is unclear, but they do mention that you will lose your contacts (though they are easily resync’d) and that while you will also lose the Verizon Visual Voicemail application and some system settings, it’s implied that applications downloaded and installed from the Market should be preserved.

Apr

Sony Ericsson To Keep X10 Relevant With Multi-touch And 2.1

Posted by Chris Dehghanpoor in Devices By Manufacturer, News, Sony Ericsson, Xperia X10 (es209ra)

Last Updated: April 18th, 2010

Sony Ericsson generated plenty of hype with the leaked screenshots and videos of its 'Rachel' UI on top of the Android operating system, but managed to stem the excitement a bit when it was revealed that it would be based on top of Android 1.6.

X10 fans can rejoice though, because according to the blog mobiles.co.uk, a Sony Ericsson rep told them that users can expect a 'very big update' in the second half of 2010.

Mobiles.co.uk has taken that to mean that yes, the phone will receive 2.1 with multi-touch enabled. I, as usual, remain a bit skeptical, due to the fact that the Sony has said in the past that the hardware is not capable of handling multi-touch.

Apr

OpenEclair - ROM That Brings Android 2.1 To Dream/G1 And Sapphire/myTouch3G - v1.3 Released

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, Dream, G1 (Dream), HTC, myTouch 3G (Magic), Sapphire

We have some great news this morning for the rooting/ROM fans out there - a new milestone of OpenEclair has been reached and version 1.3 is now available for download here.

If you are interested in the discussion around this release, head over here.

What Is OpenEclair?

OpenEclair is a community ROM based on the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) 2.1 source code (with lots of Cyanogen mixed in).

The goal of OpenEclair is to bring to the community a fast and stable Eclair 2.1 ROM, with contributions from numerous ROM developers.

To clarify what may not be obvious on the OpenEclair site, the ROM is aimed at 2 devices specifically:

HTC Dream - T-Mobile G1
HTC Sapphire - T-Mobile myTouch 3G

OpenEclair is actively developed (just look at the number of filed and fixed bugs), maintained, and tested by the community which means frequent releases, attention to users and testers, $0 price tag (of course), and all the great stuff open source software development brings with it.

Mar

Confirmed: HTC EVO 4G Will Run Froyo - The Next Version Of Android

Posted by Android Police Team in EVO 4G (Supersonic), HTC, News, Sprint

Last week, after the announcement of HTC EVO 4G at the CTIA conference, Sprint quickly dropped a bunch of developer documentation onto their Android dev site. Having dugg in a little deeper, we saw confirmation from the horse's mouth itself (Sprint) that the EVO 4G will be running on Froyo - the version of Android following Eclair (2.1).

Here is the relevant part of the developer document v0.10 (also unchanged in v0.11):

According to the above, TYPE_WIMAX - a constant used for dealing with WiMax connectivity features - should be added in the Froyo SDK. While developers can use a temporary workaround (the value 6) to trick their apps into thinking WiMax is supported and carry on developing, actual SDK support for it will not be coming until Froyo is released.