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Oct

How To: Create A Customized Android Phone 7 Theme - Part 1

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Development, Tips & Tutorials

Last Updated: November 7th, 2010

About a month ago, XDA-Devs member newone757 created a really great theme based on the one used in Windows Phone 7 - hence the name, Android Phone 7. He was kind enough to post the image files, a template image, and a short how-to, as well. I've taken the personalization a step further and created icons to fit my needs, and now it's your turn.

This theme was made for, and written using, a high resolution device (EVO 4G - 800x480). It hasn't been tested at lower resolutions, although it should work. For lower resolutions, you may want to consider using fewer icons on each screen or manually resizing them in Photoshop once Part 2 is available.

Oct

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, X10 Mini, And X10 Mini Pro To Start Receiving Update To Android 2.1 In November

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Eclair 2.1, News, Xperia X10 (es209ra), Xperia X10 Mini / Mini Pro (Robyn / Mimmi)

Try to contain your excitement, here: Sony-Ericsson will begin rolling out an the update to Android 2.1 (Éclair) for the Xperia X10, X10 Mini, and X10 Mini Pro devices starting November 1. As sarcastic as we are about being updated to an already out-of-date version, it's still a huge step up from the current Android 1.6. Major features of the updates:

Xperia X10:
• HD video recording with continuous auto-focus for high quality videos
• Upgrade of the Android platform to Android 2.1
• New back up and restore application, with extended content back up
• 5 homescreens for apps, widgets, shortcuts and folders
• Social phonebook which automatically syncs contact pictures from Facebook and shows when your friends are online

Xperia X10 mini and X10 mini pro:
• Improved Bluetooth functionality with support for sending and receiving pictures, contacts and more
• New backup and restore application with extended content back up
• Automatic synchronization of your contact pictures between Facebook and your phone book
• Improved ways of handling pictures, audio, text and numbers in your messages
• Upgrade of the Android platform to Android platform 2.1

Android 2.1 brings a slew of benefits on its own, so their "Upgrade of the Android platform to Android 2.1" entails an awful lot of changes on its own.

Oct

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Motorola Droid Pro Official For Verizon; Fans Of The BlackBerry Form Factor Now Have A Decent Android Option

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Droid 2 Global, Droid Pro, Motorola, Verizon Wireless

Verizon has just announced the Droid Pro (that's right, the same device that was previously rumored to have a dual GSM /CDMA radio for global roaming, a 1.3 GHz processor, and a 4" display), and let me tell you, the thing's got a few surprises hidden up its sleeve.

For starters, it's not a landscape slider, unlike the Droid 2. Instead, Motorola's decided to go with a candybar form factor for this one, much like the form factor used by RIM for numerous BlackBerries and also by Palm for the Pixi. That in itself should set it apart from the rumors we'd heard earlier, which claimed that the Pro would essentially be a world edition of the successor to the most popular Android phone ever to grace what us humans know as the Earth.

Aug

Root Available For the Epic 4G You Don't Even Have Yet

Posted by David Ruddock in Development, Epic 4G, News

That was quick - the Sprint's Epic 4G has already been rooted by the crew over at SDX-devs. In other words, now you can root that phone you don't have yet. It's a method requiring adb (Android Device Bridge) commands and thus desktop connectivity, but a one-click solution will probably emerge sooner rather than later. Note: it says EVO root, but the method works on this phone as well, don't let the filename fool you. Instructions below:

download this file
http://evo4g.me/downloads/evo-root.zip

run these commands thru adb
adb push c:\downloads\rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin /data/local/tmp
adb shell
chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin
cd /data/local/tmp
./rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin

exit out of the adb shell, and type adb shell again.

Jul

Follow-Up: Astro File Manager Goes Pro, Removes Ads

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, Apps/Games, News

Yesterday we published a piece regarding Astro File Manager’s now-mandatory ads. Earlier today, the developer of Astro (Metago) released Astro File Manager Pro. It comes in at $2.99, and its only “Pro” feature at the moment is that it removes ads from the application.

Some users may feel this is a cheap-shot. I disagree. Metago has taken the high ground in regard to the paid apps philosophy, here’s how. The ad-supported version of Astro has all the features of Astro Pro, and is in no way limited in its functionality. To say that the developer deserves no income from their application (which is far and away the best file explorer on Android) is rather ludicrous, given the readily apparent effort put into Astro File Manager.