release - 6/28 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jun

[Update: False Alarm] Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 32GB Now Up For Pre-Order On Amazon: $550, Shipping In 3-5 Weeks

Posted by David Ruddock in Galaxy Note 10.1 (GT-N8000 / N8010 / N8013), News, Samsung

Update: We've heard from Samsung that this page was put up by Amazon by mistake (aka, it was set to auto-publish), and has since been taken down. If you submitted an order, it'll likely be refunded in a short time, if it hasn't already. We can still take something from this, though - the Note 10.1 is coming soon (probably next month), and it'll likely be $550 for the 32GB version.

Original Article: Pre-orders for Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1 have just gone live on Amazon. You'll need to shell out 550 big ones to get your hands on the upsized sibling of the original Note.

Jun

Spotify's New ICS App Now Out Of Beta And Available In The Play Store

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Applications, News

The "freemium" music streaming service Spotify has had great success on the desktop and on iOS, but its Android offering has always been rather lacking, with an extremely dated-looking application that did no justice to the greatness of the service itself. Back in April, Spotify made its first motions towards bringing the app up to speed with a public beta of a rather pretty Holo-themed application for Android 4.0, and now that beta has borne fruit.

In a blog post today, Spotify announced the immediate release of the finished version of this Android 4.0 client to the Google Play Store.

Jun

[Rumor] Amazon May Be Ready To Launch Its Appstore In Europe Very Soon

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Amazon, News

So far, Amazon's Appstore, which competes with Google's own Play Store on Android apps, has been stuck within U.S. borders. A report from All Things D, however, says that may be about to change soon. The online retail company, the site says, is preparing to launch in Europe. No details on when beyond "later this summer" were available.

All Things D speculates that this might herald the arrival of the Kindle Fire, however it also rightly points out that launching a device in a new country is more complicated than launching a software storefront. We're a little skeptical that an international launch of the Appstore will mean the Kindle Fire is heading to our friends across the pond.

Jun

HTC Drops Kernel Source Code For One S - Once Again Neglects The US Version On T-Mobile

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News, One S (Ville)

HTC has given developers another treat today, in the form of kernel source code for the HTC One S. HTC's Dev Center has the downloads available, categorized by carrier and region. Unfortunately, the US variant on T-Mobile is conspicuously absent from the list. Previously, when HTC released the kernel source for the One X, the AT&T version was similarly missing and remains so to this day.

HTC hasn't explained why the US models are being left off the list, though it isn't difficult to imagine that the US carriers are simply more fussy than operators elsewhere in the world. In any case, if you use an HTC One S outside the states, and have need of the source code for your device's kernel, it's buffet time.

Jun

US Cellular Announces The Samsung Galaxy S III, Pre-Orders Begin June 12

Posted by David Ruddock in 4G, Galaxy S III, News, Samsung, US Cellular

Alongside Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile, regional carrier US Cellular has made official that it will be carrying Samsung's Galaxy S III, with pre-orders beginning on June 12th. Pricing has yet to be announced, but as a regional carrier, US Cellular often has slightly higher premiums than its national counterparts, so potentially expect something above the standard $199 price-tag for the 16GB model.

As with all the announced US Galaxy S III devices, it is packing a Snapdragon S4, rather than a quad-core Exynos processor, which means full LTE support.

US Cellular will offer the device in both blue and white; however, only the Marble White color will be available with the 32GB capacity version.

Jun

It's Official – Samsung Galaxy SIII Headed To Five Carriers In The US Beginning This Month

Posted by Liam Spradlin in AT&T, Galaxy S III, News, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Verizon Wireless

Well folks, it's official. In a press release sent out just moments ago, Samsung confirmed that the Galaxy SIII, easily one of the most anticipated smartphones this year, will be available on five major carriers in the US beginning this month.

The carriers, which are expected to make individual announcements in the "coming weeks," include AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and US Cellular. And yes, the SIII's design will be consistent across all carriers. Feast your eyes on some official (non-carrier specific) press images below:

For those wondering, some of the rumors we've heard about the US' Galaxy SIII are indeed true.

May

Samsung Drops Source Code For The Galaxy SIII (AKA I9300) – Get It While It's Hot

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Development, Galaxy S III, News

Mere days after its (official) launch in 28 countries worldwide, Samsung's Galaxy SIII – perhaps the most hotly anticipated Android phone to date – can be tweaked and modded by eager developers the world over. That's right, Samsung officially dropped the I9300's source code today at the manufacturer's Open Source Release Center.

While those of us in North America wait (im)patiently for the SIII's release, those looking to get their hands on the device's source need only stop by its listing at the OSRC here, or head over to github (here), where user chirayudesai has already uploaded the (unzipped) source into three branches: master, stock, and stock_update1.

May

Canadian Galaxy S III Will Launch On June 20th Packing LTE, 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4, And A Monstrous 2GB Of RAM

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Galaxy S III, News

While Samsung pushes its newest flagship, the Galaxy S III, out all over the world, a few markets have been rumored to get a version with modified guts. Rumors previously circulated that the Japanese variant of the device would include twice the RAM of its global counterpart, and now we're hearing straight from Samsung that the Canadian variant will, in fact, come with 2GB of RAM. Additional internal changes include a 1.5GHz S4 processor (sorry, no quad-core Exynos in the Great White North), and LTE.

While the rumors of a Japanese variant including 2GB of RAM were not yet officially confirmed, this certainly lends a huge amount of credence to the story.

May

Infinite Dreams Releases Ghoulish Sequel To Shoot The Birds: Shoot The Zombirds

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Games, News

Released in the second half of last year, Shoot The Birds was an interesting and popular take on the familiar Duck Hunt genre of games. If you didn't get enough of your favourite crossbow-wielding pumpkin head hero, he returns in a ghoulish sequel to do what he does best: Shoot The Zombirds.

Developer Infinite Dreams has retained the original Shoot The Birds formula, i.e. the Pumpkin Boy must protect the little Pumpkids by shooting the birds out of the sky. However the sequel brings a new twist in the form of undead zombified birds. There are also a number of new challenging objectives and skills.

May

Total Commander For Android v1.0 And All Its Plugins Finally Enter The Play Store

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Total Commander, which only graduated to the "final" status yesterday, made it all the way to the Play Store today, along with all three of its plugins: FTP, LAN, and WebDAV. This event concluded the saga that started back in July of last year when the very first preview release was unveiled by Christian Ghisler, the author of the wildly popular application for Windows.

The fate of Total Commander's Play Store listing has been up in the air until only recently, when Christian confirmed he indeed/ decided to go through with it and deal with potential support issues. At the time of the original release, available only via sideloading, Christian stated to us that TC was unlikely to ever show up in the Market.