official - 9/11 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

T-Mobile's First Dual-Core Phone, The G2x Made By LG, Now Official Ahead Of CTIA - Coming This Spring

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in G2x (p999), LG, News, T-Mobile

While AT&T and Verizon both announced dual-core devices at CES (Atrix 4G and Droid Bionic, respectively), T-Mobile and Sprint have been quiet about their offerings. It was only through accidental leaks that we found out about the LG Optimus 2X, rebranded as T-Mobile G2x, coming to T-Mobile and the EVO 3D coming to Sprint.

Now, after being spotted at CTIA, the G2x really had nowhere else to hide, so T-Mobile decided to finally officially unveil it to the public. As expected, the G2x sports a dual-core 1GHz Tegra 2 processor with a 4" capacitive display, an 8GB ROM, an 8MP rear camera with 1080P video recording, a 1.3MP front-facing camera, DLNA capabilities, and the stock version of Android 2.2 (!).

Feb

[Updated] Sony Ericsson Expands The Xperia Brand With Gingerbread-Powered Neo And Pro

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in News, Sony Ericsson, Xperia Neo (Hallon), Xperia Pro (Iyokan)

The days where the Nexus S was the sole Android 2.3 smartphone are over, it seems - as are the days where Sony Ericsson had only one Android-powered Xperia-branded device.

SE just announced two new Xperia devices: the Neo and the Pro. Both pack 3.7-inch WVGA (854x480) displays, 1GHz Snapdragon processors, 2MP front-facing cameras, 8MP rear counterparts, Bravia graphics engines, and Gingerbread-based software, with the Pro adding a slide-out QWERTY keyboard to the mix. Additionally, the pair of smartphones will feature HDMI ports and Exmor R technology, which improves photo quality.

Sound like a good time? The Neo will be available "globally in selected markets" starting at the end of Q1, while the Pro will launch at the end of Q2.

Feb

Plixi (Formerly TweetPhoto) Releases Official Android App

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

You've probably heard of Plixi, a picture-sharing service heavily aimed at social networking users - after all, according to Alexa, it's the 372nd most popular site in the world. Or maybe TweetPhoto, the company's previous name, rings a bell? As you can see below, its popularity is undisputed, but until now, the millions of users sharing their media to Plixi have been doing it mostly through 3rd party apps.

Frankly, I'm surprised it took them this long, but today the company announced the official Plixi Android app, dedicated 100% to uploading photos from your Android devices and sharing them with your social graph.

Feb

Revision3 Quietly Drops 6 New Apps In The Android Market: Hak5, Dan 3.0, GeekBeat.TV, Young Turks, Totally Rad Show, And Scientific Tuesdays

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Revision3, a popular Internet-based TV network started in part by Kevin Rose, just quietly released not 1, not 2, but 6 apps for 6 of their popular shows.

The apps allow you to stream episodes in standard or hi-def, view comments, and view individual show segments - the Segments tab acts a video table of contents of sorts - a subtle feature, but it really makes all the difference.

There aren't many features besides the ones I've listed, but what the apps do do (ha), they do very well. Sometimes simple is good, and in the case of video streaming apps like these, the statement holds true.

Feb

Samsung Galaxy S 4G, T-Mobile's Fastest Smartphone Yet, Launching Later This Month Alongside An Expanded HSPA+ Network

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Galaxy S 4G, News, Samsung, T-Mobile

Following several wild conspiracy theories, a smattering of purported leaks and rumors, and an odd semi-announcement a few weeks ago, T-Mobile and Samsung have finally revealed the full specifications of their latest smartphone, the Galaxy S 4G.

While it's not exactly revolutionary, it does pack some unique goodies - most importantly, T-Mobile claims its Samsung ST-Ericsson M5720 HPSA+ 4G modem makes it capable of theoretical peak download speeds of 21 Mbps, whereas the G2 and myTouch 4G are limited to 14.4 Mbps. As an added bonus, T-Mobile just announced that it's expanding its HSPA+ network - it is now available in eight new major metropolitan areas.

Jan

Samsung Galaxy S 4G, Android-Powered Sidekick 4G "Coming Soon" To T-Mobile

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Galaxy S 4G, News, Samsung, Sidekick 4G, T-Mobile

So it's true: Samsung and T-Mobile have indeed built an HSPA+ version of the Galaxy S, although it didn't cause the Android 2.2 update for their current offering, the Vibrant, to be held back (contrary to what some had assumed).

Unfortunately, we don't know much about the phone yet - in fact, all we've been told so far is that:

It'll be called the "Galaxy S 4G" (not the "Vibrant 4G," mind you).
It will feature full HSPA+ connectivity, meaning that it will be able to reach theoretical download speeds of up to 21 Mbps. Up until now, T-Mobile's HSPA+ devices (the G2 and the myTouch 4G) have been limited to 14.4 Mbps.

Dec

Awesome: Android-Gingerbread-Skeleton-Zombie Painting Found In The Official Gingerbread SDK

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Gingerbread 2.3, News, Off-Topic

Google loves putting Easter eggs into their products, and whoever sneaked this late Halloween piece into the official Gingerbread SDK release over at Google is a real master. This is art, people! Found among the boring buttons and icons in the depths of the new Android SDK at this path: platforms\android-9\data\res\drawable-nodpi\platlogo.jpg, this painting is a work of a pure genius:

Source: Android Central

Dec

[Updated] Google Announces 2.3 Gingerbread! Here Is Everything You Need To Know

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Gingerbread 2.3, News

Last Updated: December 10th, 2010

The moment we've been waiting for so many months - it's finally here! I can hardly contain my excitement as I'm writing this, but both Gingerbread and the Samsung Nexus S were officially announced 30 minutes ago. As expected, the new OS bears the version number 2.3 and brings updates to the SDK and the NDK as well SDK tools and the Eclipse ADT plugin.

As expected, a lot of the OS improvements are under-the-hood, which will result in better gaming, responsiveness, and overall Android experience.

New Features/Enhancements

OS/SDK/NDK

The new OS features and enhancements include:

enhancements for game development, including a new concurrent garbage collector, more native APIs, faster event distribution, updated video drivers, and new sensors (gyroscope) - this is amazing for developers; expect gaming to get a lot more responsive and versatile
lots and lots of attention in the above bullet point has been given to the NDK - the Native Development Kit.

Dec

Official Google Reader Android App Now In The Market

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Completely unexpectedly and without much fanfare, Google just dropped its official Google Reader app into the Market. I gave it a quick look and found that it's basically a great interface to the mobile version, lacking any advanced features (such as pre-caching) or settings.

The 3 great things about it are:

Google Reader login integration, which uses your phone's built-in Google auth, after you grant it permission. This means the app never asks for login credentials.
The app syncs everything with the web version very seamlessly.
It's fast and doesn't hang anywhere, unlike gReader.

Now the bad things:

As far as I can tell, there's no pre-caching or any kind of cache control at all.

Nov

Samsung Introduces The Continuum Galaxy S Series Phone In An Official Video

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Continuum, Samsung, Verizon Wireless, Videos

The Samsung Continuum, announced earlier this week, is going up for pre-order tomorrow. This Galaxy S series phone is the first Android device with a secondary ticker screen providing access to updates, a-la Android top notification bar. Some consider it a gimmick, some think it could be really useful, but you can decide for yourself after watching this official intro video, complete with overly cheerful (with the exception of the guy who lost money in the stock market) folks that apparently have 0 time to look at their actual phones and rely on the tiny 1.8" display instead. The ticker jumps in and saves the day, making everyone even more cheerful, no matter how impossible it may sound.