16
Nov
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The Kindle Fire, Amazon’s content-subsidized tablet, has been arriving to the delight of people all across the U.S. The heavily-skinned Gingerbread Android device has left many questions in the minds of the Android and Gadget community. For instance, will we be able to install apps outside of the Amazon Appstore? How about using adb? And, of course, the most important question of all - can the Fire be rooted?

If you remember, Amazon said it wouldn't do anything special to prevent rooting or interfere with those who want to customize their devices in other ways (although the status of the ...

28
Jul
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Not content to wait for manufacturers to get in to shape and update our phones to the latest and greatest versions of Android, most of us here at Android Police have had a brush with a number of custom ROMs in the past.

Whether it's the latest version of Cyanogen or a more obscure mod, there is always a ROM floating around on my phone, and until now I've always had to uninstall one before installing the other. Fortunately, that's about to change thanks to a new application on the Market called BootManager.

This article deals with a couple of

...

25
Jul
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After 2 weeks of delays, the much anticipated Nexus S 4G update (Sprint only for now, sorry AT&T/T-Mo) to Android 2.3.5 (GRJ90) started rolling out earlier today. If you haven't gotten yours yet but want to apply it immediately to enjoy that nice boost to 4G speeds, among other things, then proceed to our instructions below - you'll be rocking the official 2.3.5 build in no time.

Instructions

Note: Make sure you're running stock Android 2.3.4, build GRJ22 (the update will likely fail if you're rooted).

  1. Download the update file GRJ90-from-GRJ22 and rename it to update.zip (make sure
  2. ...

25
Jul
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In a quiet update to the web Market, Google today rolled out these handy charts showing on each app page a 30-day history of installs. The charts can help gauge relative popularity of a given app throughout the last 30 days of its existence, but are relatively basic and not very practical.

Still, we'll take any addition to the Market that doesn't make it worse. I suppose it's actually kind of fun to see what effects new releases, updates, and promotional campaigns have on applications - for example, take a look at the chart of SwiftKey X, which recently ...

19
Jun
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P3Droid of MyDroidWorld has scored an early (debug) Gingerbread build for the Samsung Fascinate, and it's apparently quite polished. So far P3 and Justin (of AndIRC) are the only two to have laid hands on the build, but the issues they have found are that Tetris force closes, Google Maps isn't pre-installed, and some market apps don't show. Otherwise, they say it's a very solid build. P3 has provided a quick (37 second) video preview:

Justin was also kind enough to snap a few quick photos:

1 5 6

7 8

Ready to take the dive? Hit up the source for ...

18
May
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Well, that only took one media firestorm. Google, in response to widespread reports of a potential credential security hole in Android (which not only affects Android, but any OS using authTokens), is starting to roll out a fix for the public Wi-Fi vulnerability to all affected Android devices today. Google's statement, below:

Today we’re starting to roll out a fix which addresses a potential security flaw that could, under certain circumstances, allow a third party access to data available in calendar and contacts. This fix requires no action from users and will roll out globally over the next few days.

...

04
May
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Last Updated: July 26th, 2011

Wow, this didn't take long at all - the Android 2.3.4 update for the Samsung Nexus S that we were afraid would take a couple of weeks to surface, has already shown up and is ready to be flashed to your Nexus S running 2.3.3 (GRI40 or GRI54).

Just like before, manual update instructions couldn't be simpler, so why wait for your device to be updated OTA (who knows when that will happen) when you can do it all by yourself and get that Google Talk video and voice chat right here and now?

Note: If you don't ...

02
May
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Nexus One owners, tonight you're getting a nice treat in the form of the incremental Gingerbread update 2.3.4, previously available only to Nexus S owners. To recap, the main feature in this release is the video and audio enabled Google Talk, although since the N1 lacks a front-facing camera, it's not going to be as useful as it was for the Nexus S.

Update: Err, looks like there is no video or audio support in this release at all, according to those of you with Nexus Ones. Why Google didn't just disable the phone's camera and left ...

12
Apr
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While Google Maps already made headlines today for omitting the changelog in the latest update, causing hundreds of 1-star comments, it does have a reason to celebrate, which overshadows this snafu by a long shot. The 50,000,000 installation mark, never before achieved by any app in the Market, has been reached, and by none other than Google Maps, making it the most downloaded Android application ever.

It's no surprise - the absolute brilliance of the Maps team helped create a product which wows first-time users, single-handedly lures them over to Android, and keeps innovating time and time again. Who needs ...

27
Feb
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Last night, I spotted a tweet from simms22 linking to a video of the Honeycomb boot animation on a CM7ed Nexus S. This morning I awoke to a tweet from him with a link to download it. Update: about an hour ago, simms notified me that the original animation is the work of XDA member zul8er, and tnpapadakos then released an updated (fixed) version.

sims22_hcomb_boot

I think this is the first time I've ever seen his pretend pervertedness actually pan out.

And indeed, sexy it is. For those who missed the boot animation the first go-round, we were impressed the ...

24
Feb
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Google may have jumped the gun on announcing that the Android 2.3.3 update for the Nexus One was available - although they did say that it could be a few weeks until the update deployed OTA, it wasn't available for download and install, either. Or, rather, it wasn't until now: the update .ZIPs have been posted and can be downloaded directly from Google.

Nexus S:

Nexus One:

Obviously, Gingerbread brings a ton of new features, and 2.3.3 builds upon them even further. ...

06
Feb
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As the results of our Friday poll show, quite a few of you aren't convinced by Google's official Android Market Web Store; it looks like a lot of people are sticking with good old AppBrain. Well you AppBrain fans will be happy to hear that one of the site's best features - Fast Web Installer - has finally returned after being disabled back in November of 2010.

To utilize it, you'll need to download the latest versions of the AppBrain app and Fast Web Installer to your phone. Next, enable Fast Web Installer in the AppBrain app's ...

21
Dec
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Google's recent updates to the Android Market have further refined the process of installing and purchasing apps, but they still haven't developed a suitable desktop alternative to browsing the thousands of Android apps available. AppBrain is a third-party website that fills this gap by allowing users to browse apps on their computers and then choose which ones to install on their phones.

AppBrain is a great tool, but it is limited by the policies of the Android Market, which allow almost any app to be installed. Unlike Apple's App Store, Google does not employ any kind of filtering system, so ...

11
Dec
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Remember the new, upgraded Android market we told you about last night? Well, now it appears that the APK has been ripped and posted for all to enjoy (or loathe, depending on your personal feelings).

You can find it here  (mirrored by us) and it brings with it all the UI changes and issues (15 minute refund limit) we discussed earlier. I should warn you that as of now, the APK we have only works for stock Android 2.2 devices. I have it working on both my stock Android 2.2 Nexus One and stock Android 2.2 G2....

27
Nov
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Ever since I started developing Android apps, I've been baffled by the absence of the actual Android Market in the Android SDK. None of the virtual devices created for the emulator have the Market anywhere in the vicinity. Maybe Google is trying to reserve it for actual devices, so that you don't go rating or trying out apps on something that isn't even a real phone, but it makes it quite inconvenient for us developers because we can't easily install our favorite apps, such as the Astro file manager or DiskUsage. With necessary limitations in place (like disabling the ...

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