News - 19/20 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

HTC Representative: Gingerbread Hitting HTC ThunderBolt In Q2 2011

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Gingerbread 2.3, HTC, News, Thunderbolt (Mecha), Verizon Wireless

Here's some news that ought to make ThunderBolt owners smile: an HTC representative reportedly told a customer that Gingerbread will be made available for Verizon's new flagship phone in - wait for it - Q2.

According to Droid Life, John (or rudyt83) emailed HTC customer support after experiencing some issues with Bluetooth on his new ThunderBolt. HTC's (rather lengthy) response included this little nugget of information:

We are excited to announce that the Thunderbolt will receive the Gingerbread (Android 2.3) update in Q2 2011. Stay tuned for details as we get closer to the update availability.

The rep proceeded to list features added in Gingerbread, though the similarity to Google's own Android 2.3 changelog leads us to believe that the additions aren't specific to the ThunderBolt.

Mar

Gameloft Turns To Amazon To Distribute Games On Android

Posted by Brad Ganley in Games, News

In a recent interview with Reuters, Gameloft stated that they will be focusing their attention on the Amazon App Store to distribute their games on the Android platform. The company's games are already insanely popular on Android (and iOS, for that matter), despite being actively opposed to Google's Android Market. Their Android offerings have thus far only been available on their website, so their move to a Market isn't so surprising.

Their reasoning for choosing the Amazon App Store? Consumers are already comfortable making payments through Amazon, and it provides a better ecosystem for game distribution. More importantly, though is that Gameloft sees Google's DRM to be wildly inadequate.

Mar

[Review] My Taptu: Social Media + News + Eye Candy = Success

Posted by Brad Ganley in App Reviews, Applications, Apps/Games, News, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

If you, like me, are constantly checking what's going on in the world of technology, science, world news, entertainment, gaming, music, and a million other things - on top of social networks like Facebook and Twitter, have I got an app for you. Picture, if you will, an Android app that will aggregate all of these news feeds and your social media streams into a cohesive and, quite frankly, sexy interface. You just imagined My Taptu, my new favorite news reader.

My Taptu's interface is really easy to grasp immediately and adding feeds, modifying the existing feeds, adding your Facebook and Twitter, and sharing all of this information just could not be any easier.

Feb

USA Today Joins The Slate Club, Releases Tablet-Optimized Android App

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

CNN is not the only news organization with a tablet-optimized Honeycomb app - USA Today today (ooh, 2x "today"s in a row, it must be your lucky day) jumped on the same bandwagon with their own take on what a tablet news app should be like. News, Money, Sports, Life, Tech, Travel, Photos, and Weather sections are available, and... well, there is not much else to say about this - it's a news app on a larger screen. You can find the download links towards the bottom of the page.

Press Release

MCLEAN, Va., Feb. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- USA TODAY, the nation's top-selling print newspaper, today announced the USA TODAY Android 3.0 App for Motorola Xoom is now available.

Dec

Notion Ink's Rohan Shravan Answers A Few Of Our Questions About The Adam Tablet, More To Come

Posted by David Ruddock in Adam, News, Notion Ink

As some of you may have noticed in the comments section of our previous piece, Rohan Shravan, in a kind gesture, has reached out to Android Police with the goal of clearing the air of confusion over the Adam's launch, pre-order, and current status. We asked Rohan some questions about issues regarding the Adam that many (myself included) have expressed concern over, and Rohan has done his best to answer those questions. The unedited questions and responses lie below:

AP: Regarding the December 18th video that has been promised, many do not understand why there is such a delay in producing a video to satisfy what are relatively simple demands (a few minutes of hands-on time with the Adam and Eden UI).

Dec

[Updated Again: Rohan Responds] Notion Ink Pre-Order Page & Return Policy Are Arousing Suspicion, Anger

Posted by David Ruddock in Adam, Editorials, News, Notion Ink

Last Updated: December 11th, 2010

Note:

Let me direct you all to our most up-to-date post on this issue:

Our Response To Rohan's Blog Posting

Please leave comments there - this thread is getting a little unwieldy.

Thanks,

David

Update #4: If Notion Ink is planning to unveil Adam at CES, why are they not listed in the CES exhibitors list?

Update #3: Rohan Shravan has posted, in response to many users' concerns, some information on his blog regarding many of Notion Ink's policies, shipping costs, and warranty.

Rohan has also stated that on December 18th, a video demonstration of the Adam will be posted for all to see.

Oct

Official Yahoo Finance Application Now Available In The Android Market

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Take a look at what I found in the Android Market this morning when I was doing a casual sift through the swamp of garbage that the Market is today. It's the official Yahoo Finance app - an app that trails behind Google's own super popular Finance app by over a year. Of course, the more the merrier, and Yahoo is a huge player in the finance world with its Yahoo Finance site, so I downloaded it to take a look.

Yahoo! Finance

Official description: Yahoo! Finance, the Web's #1 Finance site, is now available on your Android phone.

Oct

[Breaking, Hands-On] Skype For Android Now Available For Download In The Market For All Phones! Still No Calling Over Mobile Data In The US

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

After months and months of waiting for a voice-enabled Skype to be out on Android and giving Verizon users an evil eye for that exclusive deal Skype signed with the largest US carrier, I am here to tell you that less than 2 hours ago, Skype officially hit the Market. This time, the long-awaited app is no longer restricted to Verizon, so download away (Android 2.1+ required)!

Update: the official Skype blog post is now live, including an intro video. It also acknowledges problems with Galaxy S phones.

Download

Without further ado, fire up that download and then read on for the details.

Sep

ClockworkMOD Recovery Now Available For The Epic-It Was Only A Matter Of Time

Posted by Brad Ganley in Epic 4G, News

There is talk of rooting and ROMs throughout this article. If you aren't familiar with the process or its pros and cons, you can check out our primers here:

Well, SDX didn't waste any time rooting the Epic 4g, so it should be no surprise that they have now gotten a custom recovery running on it. Apparently it wasn't easy but, after much trial and error, the SDX devs finally arrived at this beautiful, beautiful screen:

They were even so kind as to create a one-click, dummy proof method, the hardest part of which is the installation of the Android SDK.

Sep

Samsung Intends To Dominate The Tablet Market That Doesn't Quite Exist Yet

Posted by Brad Ganley in Galaxy Tab, News, Samsung

As we all know, Samsung is very adamant about its famed Galaxy S's older brother, the Galaxy Tab. We're getting more details about it as days go by, but so far it appears that Samsung is planning on selling it exclusively through wireless carriers and has already secured several deals with Europe carriers.

What is very interesting is this quote they made in an article by the Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Yoon [Samsung's Product Executive] said Samsung expects to ship 10 million Galaxy Tabs and take a third of the global tablet market next year. Samsung is exploring the possibility of a tablet with a 10-inch or six-inch screen, and Mr.