release - 9/28 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Dec

Official Demo Android 4.0 Update For The Huawei Honor (U8860) Released

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Huawei, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

In a major "Surprise!" moment, Huawei has officially released what looks to be a demo build of Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) for the Honor (model number U8860). Details are incredibly light at the moment, since all we're really going on here is a product support page that's been Google Translated from Chinese to English and contains next to no information:

According to the poster at XDA, the posted update is actually just a "demo" (beta?) and not the final version. A Huawai Senior VP (Yu Chengdong) has been sharing pictures and some details via Chinese social media service Weibo (auto-translate is including such gems as, "I use black Honor, equipped with the latest 4.0 version of the operating system Andrews.

Dec

[Rumor] Verizon's Galaxy Nexus May Not Be Available On December 9th After All

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Galaxy Nexus, News, Rumors, Verizon Wireless

Ready to add another rumor to the pile surrounding the US Galaxy Nexus release date? No? I don't blame you. Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do to stop this whirlwind of release date madness.

We've been hearing December 9th as the final release date for the Galaxy Nexus on Big Red for several days now; heck, an orgy of proof showed up yesterday that all but confirmed it - or so we thought. Now we're hearing that 12/9 isn't the day after all. No one is sure what's actually going on, but we can say that we're not alone - a slew of other sites are hearing the same thing.

Nov

[New Game] Invictus Releases The Long-Awaited Race Of Champions For Android - Gorgeous, Polished, And Free

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Games, News, Videos

The official Race Of Champions game of unbelievable quality that Invictus has been teasing us with since October was just released in the Android Market. First organized in 1988, RoC is a real annual motorsport event "where stars from Formula One, World Rally Championship, NASCAR, sportscars and touring cars compete against each other, going head-to-head in identical cars" (per Wikipedia).

The Android version has stunning graphics and the level of detail you would regularly expect from a console game. Championship races, 4 different control schemes, highly-detailed real cars and tracks, replays, leadership boards, achievements along with excellent music and sounds can be found in the Market for...

Nov

[Video] AOSP Source Tree Visualized, From Cupcake To Ice Cream Sandwich

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Android OS, News, Videos

Have you ever wondered what the AOSP source tree would look like if someone stitched together a video of every commit, update, and release? Ponder no more, friends, because YouTube user xcco3x has made that a reality. A visually amazing 21 minute reality, to be exact.

A little background info, per the description on YouTube:

The graph represents the source tree. Non-leaf nodes are directories and leaf nodes are files where their color represents the type of file. Files appear as they are modified and disappear if they are not touched for 2.5 seconds.

In other words, each "blast" from a user is a commit.

Nov

Gameloft Delivers Movie Game "Immortals" Unto The Humans; The NES Would Be Proud

Posted by Brad Ganley in Apps/Games, Games, News

Gameloft, the gaming studio behind such games as Modern Combat 2, N.O.V.A. 2 HD, and Asphalt HD, has recently released a new game for all you mythology and movie fans out there. If you're familiar with Gameloft's games, though, this may be a bit different from what you've grown accustomed to.

From the movie "Immortals", you play Theseus, a-hackin' and a-slashin' through all sorts of fun Greek and Roman mythology, including, but not limited to, minotaurs, titans, and generic disposable guys in strange armor holding swords. It's a side-scroller and, on top of what I assume is 100% historical accuracy, the graphics are reminiscent of games designed during that time period.

Nov

Ice Cream Sandwich Source Coming November 17th, Says Notion Ink CEO

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News, Rumors

Rohan Shravan, CEO of Notion Ink, updated a blog post yesterday with a rather nonchalant statement revealing that the source code behind Ice Cream Sandwich may be released November 17th. Yes, you read correctly – this Thursday may be the day.

Normally a remark like this wouldn't be taken at face value, but Shravan already has a track record with this sort of thing, having accurately predicted the release of Android Gingerbread last year. Shravan's claim seems even more plausible when considering the fact that the European Galaxy Nexus has been confirmed for launch on the 17th. You may also remember that Dan Morrill made it clear last month that Ice Cream Sandwich's source would not be released before the Galaxy Nexus.

Nov

T-Mobile Announces 4G-Enabled Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus - Set To Become Available November 16th

Posted by Liam Spradlin in 4G, Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News, T-Mobile, Tablets

Rounding out their holiday offerings, T-Mobile announced today that Samsung's Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus will become available (complete with 4G capability) beginning November 16th, bringing an even more portable version of the Galaxy Tab we've come to know and love to the hands of T-Mo subscribers.

The 7.0 Plus boasts many of the features of its older siblings, including a crazy-thin, lightweight form factor, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, and more. Here's a more complete look at what you can expect from the latest addition to T-Mobile's growing tablet portfolio:

0.77lb weight
7" multitouch display
Android 3.2 Honeycomb with TouchWiz UX overlay
16GB Internal storage
microSD card slot, expandable up to 32GB
1.2GHz dual-core processor
HSPA+ 4G connectivity
3MP rear shooter and 2MP front camera

Wondering how much this little slice of Honeycomb will cost you?

Oct

Google+ App Updated To 2.1 With Ice Cream Sandwich Styling, Major Enhancements And Bug Fixes

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Applications, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Update: It appears the widget for Google+ has disappeared in this update, and images now appear somewhat compressed and pixelated. ~~It's unclear if this is intentional~~ (It seems one of the app's developers has said the widget will return soon, over on Google+.)

The Google+ app team just dropped a surprisingly massive update onto the Market, and it brings changes galore. In fact, there's so many changes that they've called it a "completely new app." Take a look:

The UI has taken a turn towards the styling we've seen in Ice Cream Sandwich, and menus have been reworked to resemble the next version of Android as well.

Oct

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 Or 10.1 LTE Coming To AT&T At Some Point According To FCC Filing

Posted by David Ruddock in 4G, AT&T, Galaxy Tab 10.1, Galaxy Tab 8.9, News

We try to avoid excessive posts about FCC filings that may or may not be for Android goodies coming to the US, but this one was a dead giveaway for AT&T. Just take a look:

The guys over at WirelessGoodness dug up this picture from a recent FCC filing, and it clearly shows the device is either a Tab 10.1 or 8.9, and that it has the official AT&T 4G LTE logo. Hard to call that a "rumor." It seems likely that AT&T will announce the device before the holiday season.

WirelessGoodness

Oct

Timeline Graphic: US Android Phone Releases - We're Definitely Moving Faster, But How Fast Is Too Fast?

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials

There's been some discussion of late that, perhaps, Android phone manufacturers are iterating handsets at a pace which is detrimental to product polish and subsequent software support. In fact, a couple of days ago I took a look at the state of Android phones on US carriers with a few simple charts.

I also promised to write another post looking at how quickly, as opposed to how prolifically, Android handsets are moving in the US marketplace. I decided to look at two carriers - T-Mobile and Verizon. In the interest of cleaning up the timelines, I decided not to include budget handsets or QWERTY phones, because we all know the subtext of this whole conversation: the iPhone.