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May

[I/O 2011] Ice Cream Sandwich: One OS To Rule Them All

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Android OS, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Shortly after Honeycomb dropped, we were told that the next version of Android would bridge the gap between tablets and phones. That bridge was officially announced this morning at Google I/O: Ice Cream Sandwich.

Ice Cream Sandwich will be the newest version of Android, and it's going to bring the goodness of Honeycomb to phones, along with Gingerbread features to tablets. The update is due out in Q4 of this year, and the goal is to unify the Android experience across devices, which is a huge step towards ending fragmentation as we know it.

It's clear that between this and the Android Alliance, Google has really paid attention to the biggest problems in Android and is making a collaborative effort to efficiently address them.

May

[I/O 2011] Android Honeycomb 3.1 Officially Announced, Available Today For Verizon XOOM 3G

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2

Last Updated: May 11th, 2011

Google just announced during the keynote presentation that Honeycomb is officially being updated to Android 3.1. The update will begin rolling out today for owners of the Verizon Motorola XOOM 3G - no word yet on when the WiFi model and other 3.0-rockin' tablets will receive the update, though.

They mentioned a few key improvements they've made with 3.1, though we're sure they only just scratched the surface. For example, they've improved multitasking to now allow more apps to run simultaneously. To make sure the performance doesn't suffer, though, they have a system in place that automatically halts and shuts down apps as available (presumably without making any sacrifices in terms of usability).

May

Unconfirmed Rumor Says T-Mobile G2 To Receive Gingerbread "Soon"

Posted by Cameron Summerson in G2 (Vision), Gingerbread 2.3, News, Rumors, T-Mobile

Good news for G2 users: it looks like the Android update fairy may be smiling upon you! According to TMoNews, a Gingerbread update for the G2 is in the works and it should be ready "soon."

In a nutshell, this update should bring improved battery life, some UI improvements, and a better keyboard. There really isn't a whole lot of other information available, but we'll definitely be keeping an eye on the situation and let you know as soon as more info drops.

Source: TMoNews

May

Google Goggles Gets Updated, Now Includes Notes, Better Business Card Recognition, And Result Suggestions

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Everyone's favorite search-by-picture app, Google Goggles, received an update today that brings a few new features to the table, like better history search with notes support, better business card recognition, and adds the ability to suggest a better result.

Now, when you snap a picture with Goggles, you can add a tag to the photo that becomes searchable within your personal history. For example, if I snap a pic of something and add the tag "this was great!", I can later search my history for the word "great" and get a quick display of both note and photo. Pretty rad, yes?

May

ADW Launcher EX Gets Major Update: Theme Management, Honeycomb Support, And More

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, News

It's been a while since the last ADW Launcher EX update, but it may just have been worth the wait. The author of ADW EX has implemented some major changes and fixes for version 1.3.0. Check out the change log below:

ADWLauncher EX v1.3.0

Changelog:

Completely redone the app drawers code from scratch to improve memory usage and scrolling performance, even with transparencies, live wallpapers, etc

Scroll snapping on the vertical drawer/4d drawer “a la launcher 2″. (option enabled by default)

“True” home screen looping (enabled by default) ported from ADW2.

New theme management screen with added functionality (and more will come)
Dock and dockbar background customization moved into the new theme management screen.

May

ASUS Says Eee Pad Transformer Delays Are Due To Demand, Ramps Up Production To Meet It

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Eee Pad Transformer, News

We've all heard the rumors surrounding the shortage of Eee Pad Transformers, but now an ASUS spokesperson has come forward to let us all know the real deal: demand. One would assume that a company like ASUS would be able to predict that putting out the most economical device in its category would generate a lot of demand, but apparently it doesn't work that way.

ASUS spokesperson David Chang said that they would be dropping 100,000 Transformers in May, with an additional 200,000 to be shipped in June. If that still doesn't meet demand, Chang said that they would "have to continue to ramp up production in order to fulfill our customers' demand."

Sounds like good news for everyone that has been patiently waiting to get their hands on this tablet-netbook-hybrid...

May

[Updated] CyanogenMod 7.0.3 Goes Live - Download It Now

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, Gingerbread 2.3, News

CyanogenMod 7.0.3, an incremental release for CM 7, is now live at cyanogenmod.com. While we're waiting for the official changelog from Cyanogen himself, I can tell you that it does not contain Android 2.3.4 (it's still based off 2.3.3) - that's been saved for CM 7.1 (if you can't wait for 2.3.4, you can update to it by using the nightlies). It does, however, contain important security fixes, among other things. We'll update this post as soon as we get the details.

This article deals with a couple of advanced topics. If you’re unfamiliar with some of the terms, hit up our primers here:

Update #1: Here we go, the changelog is up - not much there, as you can see:

This update contains a bug fix for our update notification system, as well as an important security fix.

May

PowerAMP Updated To Build 369, Brings Crossfade, True Gapless Support, Bug Fixes

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

PowerAMP, hands down the best music player in the Android Market, was updated today to include a couple of long-sought features, most notably true gapless playback and crossfading between tracks. Gapless playback is pure joy for people who listen to a lot of mixtapes broken down into individual songs, and crossfading is the icing on the cake, preferred by many music lovers.

Other notable additions include .cue file support, a silence remover, backing up and restoring settings into the cloud (finally someone's implementing this functionality available ever since Froyo!), and a host of bug fixes. Full changelog along with the app widget and download links awaits you below.

May

LiveJournal Is Alive And Kicking, Brings App To Android

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

I'm going to be really honest about this one: I had no idea that anyone still uses LiveJournal. Much to my surprise, though, it has been going strong all this time - it's even ranked #71 in the world according to Alexa. After realizing that tidbit of information, it's not surprising at all that there is now an official LiveJournal App for Android.

For a mobile blogging app, I must say that this one seems quite feature rich: you can post new journal entries and photos, create polls, edit entries, create drafts, and manage settings. From just a quick look, I think that this may be the best on-the-go blogging app that I've seen thus far.

May

European HTC Desire HD And Incredible S Getting Gingerbread... Right Now

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Desire HD (Ace), Gingerbread 2.3, Incredible S (Vivo), News

A couple of months ago, we told you that the HTC Desire HD and Incredible S would be getting an OTA update to Gingerbread, but we didn't know exactly when this would happen. It looks like the wait is over though, because HTC has started rolling out the official OTA update to European users. Unfortunately, there is no official word when the Desire Z will see an update, but we're still expecting it sometime close to the end of the second quarter.