nexus s - 5/9 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

May

Download: Google Talk With Video/Audio Calling For Rooted Android 2.3 Devices (Ported From The Nexus S)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Gingerbread 2.3, News

One of Android 2.3.4's main new features, which was officially released to the Nexus S late last week, was video and audio calling in Google Talk. While having this feature on the Nexus S is great for its owners, Android users of other devices were left behind. If there is one thing Android users don't like to do, it's wait, which is why britoso from xda managed to rip out the app from his Nexus S and modify it to be compatible with most devices running Android 2.3.

Unfortunately, because he had to modify the apk, he needed to sign it with a different key, which means you need root to install this version (you won't be able to install it over the original Google Talk app as an update due to mismatched signatures, which means you need to uninstall the original app first, and that's not possible unless you're rooted - Google Talk is a system app).

Apr

Samsung Nexus S 4G To Hit Sprint On May 8th for $200

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Nexus S 4G (Crespo4g), Sprint

We've known about the Sprint variation of the Nexus S 4G for over a month now, but now it finally has an official release date. You will be able to get this hunk of Gingerbread-powered love on May 8th for $200 with a new two-year agreement. I'm sure that most of you already know the specs, but what kind of person would I be if I didn't throw in a reminder?

WiMax
4-inch Super AMOLED display
1GHz Hummingbird processor
512MB RAM
16GB Storage
Stock Android 2.3 Gingerbread

It feels good to type "Stock Android" for a change. If that doesn't warm the soul, then I don't know what does.

Apr

[Rumor] Android 2.3.4 To Introduce Video Chat - Expect An Unveiling At Google I/O

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Gingerbread 2.3, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju), Samsung

The Google I/O rumor mill has been surprisingly calm this year - certainly calmer than it was last year, that's for sure. But a recent tweet from @MAFiA303, who reportedly "works with Samsung," changes that completely - have a look for yourself:

Frankly, we were expecting to see more than a new iteration of Gingerbread at I/O, but hey - we'll take what we can get, and video chat is a seriously hot addition to mobile Gmail (especially given that "impressive quality" statement). And this is Google we're talking about, so expect a curveball - who can wait to see what surprises Andy and co.

Apr

Canucks Rejoice: Nexus S and Motorola Xoom Now Available In Canada

Posted by Zak Stinson in News, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju), Rogers, TELUS, XOOM

If you travelled back in time to the middle of 2010 and asked your average Canadian about the selection of Android devices available to them, you would not be impressed with their answer - it seems that up until this year, the Android selection in Canada was about 6 months behind the curve.

Canadians, myself included, can now stop bemoaning their second rate options. As of today, two major new devices, the Nexus S and the Motorola Xoom, have been made available to those in the Great White North.

The Nexus S has landed on Videotron, Mobilicity, Telus and Koodo as of today, with Wind and Rogers expected to release it in the very near future.

Apr

One Size Does Not Fit All: Andy Rubin Responds To Recent Cases Of Misinformation And FUD In The Press

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, News

Android In Recent News

Fragmentation has been one of the biggest criticisms of the Android platform. Essentially, Google allows anybody to take the Android code and tweak it suit their own needs. This is how manufacturers like Motorola, HTC, and Samsung are able to create custom layers (MotoBlur, Sense UI, and TouchWiz, respectively) over the vanilla Android interface and how some carriers load up new phones with crapware. Although this is a price to pay for openness and customizability, a recent study indicates that 86% of developers are unhappy with the state of Android fragmentation (24% of them describing it as a "huge problem").

Apr

AT&T Samsung Nexus S Shows Up On Samsung.com, Now All But Officially Confirmed

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in AT&T, News, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju), Samsung

Samsung's Nexus S, the first Gingerbread device, was a T-Mobile exclusive in the U.S. until last month, when Sprint announced the Nexus S 4G - a CDMA (and WiMAX) counterpart of this sleek stock Android device. Can Samsung pull the same trick it did with the Galaxy S phones that came to all U.S. carriers? It sure looks like it.

We've already seen a Nexus S with model GT-I9020A (as opposed to T-Mobile GT-I9020T) hit the FCC with AT&T bands, and now the same exact model has shown up on Samsung's own site, citing AT&T as the carrier. Whether Ma Bell will subsidize it or not (they didn't offer subsidies for the Nexus One) remains to be seen, but now the AT&T Nexus S is all but officially confirmed.

Mar

CyanogenMod 7 RC4 Has Arrived For All Supported CM Devices - Bug Fixes Abound

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Aria (Liberty), Desire (Bravo/BravoC), Desire HD (Ace), Development, Droid (Sholes), EVO 4G (Supersonic), EVO Shift 4G (Speedy), HTC, Legend, Motorola, myTouch Slide (Espresso), Nexus One (Passion), Nexus S (Crespo/Soju), Samsung, Wildfire (Buzz)

CyanogenMod 7 has earned its reputation as the most reliable Gingerbread ROM, even though it hasn't yet entered stable mode. And tonight, the fun goes on - ~~RC4~~ RC3.14159265358979323846264338327, as the CM team so lovingly refers to it, has just been launched for all supported CM devices.

While RC4 doesn't contain any ground-breaking new features, it does bring a number of bug fixes - for example, hardware acceleration has been added to the Nook Color, and EGL has seen a big fix. It isn't perfect yet - kmobs notes that there may be some "lingering GPS issues on the EVO and the N1 call audio bug hasn't been fully fixed" - but it's still worth the update.

Mar

[Updated] Google Nexus S Now Available In 17 More Countries

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in News, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju), Samsung

Earlier today, Sprint launched its new Nexus S 4G smartphone with tight Google Voice integration. Riding the buzz, Google in turn announced that the Nexus S is now available in the following countries:

Spain
France
Greece
Italy
Portugal
Romania
Germany
Croatia
Ireland
the Netherlands
Norway
Austria
the Czech Republic
Switzerland
Hong Kong
S. Korea
Australia.

To buy the phone, visit the country-specific Google url http://google (.es, .fr , .gr, .it, .pt, .ro, etc.)/nexus and select the carrier of your choice. If you get tripped up by the country's URL, just visit the source links below for more details.

The phone's specifications remain largely the same with a 4.0" WVGA SAMOLED screen, 1 GHz CPU, 16 GB ROM, 5MP rear camera, front-facing VGA camera, NFC support, and, of course, a quad-band GSM antenna.

Mar

[Update: Study Seriously Flawed] After 45,000 Page Loads, Extensive Study Determines Android's Browser Is 52% Faster Than iPhone's

Posted by Will Shanklin in Android OS, News, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju)

Last Updated: March 18th, 2011

Update: After getting a lot of initial press, experts are weighing in and crying foul with the methodology of this study. Apparently the custom app the researchers used relied on Apple's UIWebView, which doesn't utilize recent optimizations made to the actual Safari browser.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball says:

"That's not to say it isn't interesting that Android's WebView for apps is faster than iOS's UIWebView for apps, but it just isn't true that these results are indicative of anything regarding Mobile Safari's performance. It's easy to see that Mobile Safari is faster than UIWebView - just run something like the SunSpider benchmark twice, once in Mobile Safari and once in any app from the App Store with a web content view.

Mar

Adobe Flash 10.2.155.67 For Android Leaked, Includes Honeycomb Compatibility - Download It Now!

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Applications, Gingerbread 2.3, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless, XOOM

Remember that new version of Flash we reported on this morning? Yeah, well it's still scheduled to roll out on March 18th - one week from today - but thanks to BBCrackman from My Droid World, you can download a leaked copy of version 10.2 now.

Just as promised, it (finally) includes support for Honeycomb, meaning you can now watch South Park, Conan, or any other Flash video on your XOOM. Artem and I briefly played with it on our XOOMs, but unfortunately, we discovered that the experience wasn't without its flaws - video quality wasn't exactly top-notch, some controls were hard to utilize, and no, Hulu still doesn't work.