07
Jan
IMG_8228_wm
Last Updated: January 11th, 2011

Following on from their press release on Wednesday, Sony Ericsson invited the media this morning to a designated conference room at the Hard Rock Hotel for some play time with their newest Android device. We spent over an hour with the handset to get an idea of what to expect when it hits the market.

The reps there acknowledged the difficulties they had experienced with their previous Android handsets, and showed what appeared to be decisive commitment to putting those hold-ups behind them. With the Xperia arc (sic), Sony Ericsson has trumped its competition at CES with the first Gingerbread device to be announced since the Nexus S.

07
Jan
IMG_8253_wm

At Motorola's booth today, we got a chance to play with the Atrix 4G - a dual-core HSPA+ equipped slate handset, sporting a whopping 1GB of RAM and packing a couple of notable features. Along with the laptop dock demoed in the video below, the Atrix 4G also has a media dock (called "HD dock") which allows you to connect it to a larger screen (and use the same WebTop desktop-like interface) as well as plug in a keyboard and a mouse. The Motorola rep also informed us of plans for regular charging and car docks, so it looks like wherever you may be, the Atrix will have a bespoke resting place.

28
Dec
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This announcement should warm up some cold, digital, audiophile hearts. Following the rumors, Korean digital audio player maker Cowon announced its latest creation - the D3 "Plenue," running Android 2.1. Following on from the renowned D2/D2+, Cowon's newest device bests its predecessors in just about every way.

Much like the S9 before it, the D3 places a capacitive AMOLED screen front and center, boasting an 800 x 480 resolution in a 3.7" panel.

The D3 also mirrors the S9's candybar format, ditching the somewhat outdated square-block design of the D2s. It will be available in 8, 16, and 32 GB variants.

15
Dec
optimus 2x
Last Updated: December 23rd, 2010

Planning on buying a Nexus S when it's released tomorrow? You may want to re-think that: LG has just officially announced the next phone in the Optimus line, the Optimus 2X. What makes this phone so special? Aside from all the regular features in high-end Android phones, it's packing the dual core Tegra 2 processor, a first for any phone. And the rest of the phone's specs won't disappoint, either:

  • 1 GHz dual core, Tegra 2 processor
  • 4-inch display
  • Android 2.2 with plans to upgrade to Android 2.3
  • 8 megapixel rear camera, 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera
  • HDMI
  • 1080p video playback
  • Gyro sensor
  • 1,500 mAh battery
  • microSD card slot

According to the press release, the Optimus 2X will be released in Korea next month, with a launch in Europe and Asia to come shortly after.

30
Nov
lg-star-homescreen-550x412
Last Updated: December 23rd, 2010

While most of us would be content with one Tegra 2-loaded device, one Android Forums member has managed to get his hands on two of LG's new Star dual-core beasts. What he found was quite enticing: a Quadrant score of 1759 (which outranks even the Droid Pro's 1528), an HDMI port on the top of the device, and... yes, despite the rumors we heard originally, LG apparently decided to include their own custom skin, which looks surprisingly similar to Samsung's Touchwiz UI.

lg-star-homescreen-550x412 lg-star-hdmi-550x412

The model in question was said to be running the aforementioned skin on top of Froyo, though as Phandroid pointed out, the OS could be upgraded to Gingerbread before launch time rolls around.

02
Nov
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It's been a while since we've heard about the official HDMI dock for the HTC EVO 4G, but it looks like it's finally landed. You can go to a Sprint store right now and pick one up for $39.99, which is a fair price for an ultra-shiny docking station and a 6-foot HDMI cable.

10x1102ub35evo5h

As with a dock for any other phone, the EVO dock is no exception to the rule of not playing nicely with cases or extended batteries of any sort, provided they add even a millimeter of thickness to the bottom of the phone. Despite the fact that you have to make your phone naked to use it, the dock still definitely looks like a worthwhile purchase to me.

15
Oct
realHDMI

On September 30, developer gman announced he would be pulling his popular Droid X app Real HDMI from the market. Now, it looks like that time has come and gone, as the app is no longer available for download from the Market, AppBrain, or anywhere else (as far as we can tell). He provides 3 main reasons for having done so:

Issue #1 = Droid X 2.2 is broke and I can't fix it.
There is (at least one) critical bug in the Droid X 2.2 that causes a statistical chance of the Droid X LCD Driver to crash when transitioning from HDMI ON → OFF.

23
Sep
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In the excitement of HTC’s unveiling of the Desire HD and Desire Z in London, we missed out on this sweet little gadget. HTC announced plans to release a Media Link wireless DLNA adaptor in Q4 2010, as a companion piece to its continued expansion of the Sense experience.

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Credit: SlashGear

What this little box purports to do is allow you to stream media from your DLNA-equipped phone to a suitable TV, irrespective of whether that TV has DLNA or not. There doesn’t appear to be a whole lot to the device: plug in the microUSB power cable, and connect the box to your display with the mini HDMI output.

30
Aug
realHDMI

A few months back (before it launched), we found out that the Droid X would have limited HDMI functionality - mainly, it would only work in gallery mode. Today, we stumbled upon a new app on AppBrain called Real HDMI that seems to remove that restriction. Check out the item description:

Warning: This only works for the Droid X.

Finally you can enable and disable the HDMI port on your Droid X. Use your favorite video players, applications and emulators on your big screen TV or Stereo.
- HDMI Video/Audio Out
- Car/Media Dock Modes

Find us at: http://www.droidxforums.com

realHDMI

User reviews for the app are overwhelmingly positive - it has about 4.8 stars (out of 5), and is in the 100-500 downloads range.

06
Jul
pr_droid_x_large_narrow
Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

In a blog radio interview with a Motorola developer, when asked about how the Droid X’s HDMI-out could be used, the following answer was given by the Moto dev:

"The only time that we are enabling the HDMI driver on the device is when you are in the gallery mode. [...] The HDMI driver is not active any time outside the gallery"

As Android users are aware, gallery is the native photo and recorded video viewing application on Android devices. The mechanism of controlling the HDMI-out on the Droid X remains unknown, but for the time being it appears that, without root, the Droid X’s HDMI out is extremely limited in its usefulness.

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