uk - 9/9 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Sep

Orange San Francisco - £99 WVGA AMOLED Phone - Unboxed On Video And Already Rooted

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Devices By Manufacturer, Orange

Here's a device that's been making some waves in the UK Android community. Over at MoDaCo.com, founder Paul O'Brien picked up Orange's rebranded ZTE Blade for £99 ($160) with a pre-paid SIM. Judging from his video, it seems that you get quite a lot of device for your money, including that aforementioned 3.5" AMOLED screen. Despite being burdened with a silly name and an abundance of network shovelware, the Blade/SanFran's 600 MHz CPU appears to run Android 2.1 pretty nicely.

As is his wont, Mr O'Brien has cracked the Blade right open, with root being achieved pretty much immediately, and the tantalizing prospect of an AOSP Froyo ROM hanging in the air.

Sep

T-Mobile UK's HTC Desire Froyo Update Now Officially Rolling Out

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Desire (Bravo/BravoC), Froyo 2.2, HTC, News, T-Mobile

Unlocked HTC Desire owners have been enjoying their chilled Froyo update for over a month now, and today T-Mobile UK announced that its customers are finally going to be able to catch up to the rest of the pack.

Want to know what Froyo can offer you on top of Éclair? Check out our Everything You Need To Know About Android 2.2 Froyo roundup.

Over at T-Mobile UK forums, Sorcha from the T-Mo team posted the following announcement:

Hi all,
We have some exciting news for all our Desire users.
The 2.2 firmware update (FroYo) will be available from today and will be sent over the air (OTA) direct to your phone over the coming weeks.

Jul

UK Samsung Galaxy S To Receive Froyo Official By The End Of September

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Froyo 2.2, Galaxy S, News

According to the Samsung UK Twitter account, the Froyo update for all Galaxy S phones in the UK is on the way, and is set for release on every carrier by the end of September. They’ve given themselves a full two months of wiggle room, so this seems like a date you can put some faith into.

This is still good news for everyone outside of the UK. The update may still be in the development phase, but a September release means carriers in countries outside the UK should be receiving the update in the same timeframe (which is good, because the phone has already launched in several countries.) If you simply can’t wait, you can try out the leaked Froyo ROM that is already available here.

Jul

Samsung Galaxy S Strikes Again - Now Available At Three UK

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Galaxy S, News

Just in case you thought the Samsung Galaxy S would stop its myriad of launches around the world – the Super AMOLED phone has just become available at Three UK under three different pricing plans.

The three price plans are £35, £38, and £40 a month for two years, with the highest plan (called “The One Plan”) giving you 2000 calling minutes, 5000 texts, and 1 GB of data – something users in the US aren’t really familiar with (Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile all having unlimited data, and AT&T having a max of 2 GB.)

If you’re interested, head over here and check it out.

Jul

Acer Stream Coming To eXpansys In The UK On August 2nd; Packing Android 2.1, 1GHz Processor, 3.7” AMOLED, HDMI And More For £400

Posted by David Ruddock in Liquid Stream

The Acer Stream is coming to the UK, and it’s coming soon. Acer’s newest and most powerful Android device to date will initially be available exclusively through eXpansys.com in the UK starting on August 2nd. £400 will get you the device, unlocked. This is your only purchase option, as no carrier subsidies have yet been announced. I will say it’s pretty robust on the spec-sheet. The Stream features:

A 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Processor
3.7” WVGA AMOLED Display
512MB ROM / 512MB RAM
2GB Internal (Flash) Memory
MicroSD Card Slot
WiFi (presumably B/G/N), Bluetooth, and GPS
Mini HDMI-out
3.5mm Headphone Jack
720P (24FPS) Video Recording
5MP Camera
Android 2.1 with Acer Touch 3D UI 4.0

And here is the Stream, in all its glory:

The first thing I notice about the Stream is its lack of a trackball, d-pad, or optical trackpad.

May

HTC Wildfire Release Date Announced For T-Mobile UK

Posted by Andrew Huff in Devices By Manufacturer, HTC, News, T-Mobile, Wildfire (Buzz)

The very recently unveiled HTC Wildfire now has a release date for those of you over in the UK who want to get your hands on this entry level Android phone. T-Mobile UK just announced, via Twitter, that they will offer the HTC Wildfire starting June 14th, 2010.

Even though this particular phone is considered an entry level device, it does comes sporting Android 2.1 with an updated Sense UI, which should make a lot of people happy.

Here is a screenshot of the announcement made by T-Mobile UK via twitter…

Specs

If you have not already read up on the specs for this entry level phone, here is a quick rundown of the most important ones:

CPU – Qualcomm 528MHz
512MB Flash ROM
384MB RAM
3.2-inch QVGA Touch screen
5 megapixel camera with LED Flash
Android 2.1 with Sense UI
4 available colors

The above specs further illustrate how entry level this phone is - while not the worst specs we've seen on an Android phone, they are certainly far from mind blowing.

May

Motorola Milestone UK Android 2.1 update

Motorola Milestone Android 2.1 Update Finally Rolls Out In The UK, Brings 9 (!) Home Screens

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Milestone, Motorola, News

Last Updated: May 7th, 2010

About 40 minutes ago, Motorola posted a message to its Motorola Europe Facebook group announcing the launch of the Android 2.1 update in the UK for the Motorola Milestone (known as the Droid to the US users).

The ~~update is not OTA~~ is now available both OTA (over the air) and by executing a .exe file which seems to require a Windows computer and a MicroUSB Data cable (non-Windows users are out of luck?). Here is all you need to know:

The page with instructions
Android 2.1 software update file (.exe - download this to your PC)
The "What's New in Android 2.1 " PDF

The update brings, among other things:

Animated (live) Wallpapers - this additional wallpaper option enables you to select from a number of wallpapers that can move on your home screen<s>.

Apr

Vodafone Launches Nexus One In The UK

Posted by John Thompson in Carriers, Devices By Manufacturer, News, Nexus One (Passion), Vodafone

Yesterday, Vodafone announced that UK customers can pre-order the Nexus One which is going to be available in the UK from this Friday, April 30th. This comes after the company told customers that the phone would be available in ‘a few short weeks’ way back at CES.

The phone will be available for free on various plans starting from £35 a month on a 24 month contract. The most interesting part of this is that consumers can purchase it directly from Vodafone either online or in store, deviating once again from Google’s plan of allowing consumers to mix and match between phones, carriers and tariffs when purchasing a device on their sales website.

Apr

Google’s Turn By Turn Navigation Finally Comes To The UK

Posted by John Thompson in Applications, News

Being in the UK myself, one thing I’ve continuously struggled with when using Android is Google’s navigation on Maps. I’ve tried the hacked version of Maps in the past giving people in the UK navigation features, but it’s always been slightly unstable and troublesome for me. You can, therefore, imagine my delight when I woke up this morning to find a ‘Navigate’ option under a search result on Maps.

Although there’s some confusion as to when navigation was enabled for UK users, most suggestions point to the feature being enabled overnight, and no update was required. I’m using the latest version of Maps on a Nexus One and no actual updates were pushed to my phone, which indicates that it was activated by Google for UK devices remotely.