Verizon Wireless - 27/33 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Sep

Verizon Releases Manual, Minor Update For Samsung Fascinate

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Fascinate, News, Verizon Wireless

While not nearly as big a deal as the Froyo rollout for the Droid X, Verizon is also releasing an update for the Samsung Fascinate today. Doesn't look like users will receive a notification for the update quite yet, so to get it you'll need to check for it manually.

The changes:

Instant notification of Visual Voice Mail messages on your messaging bar.

Improved syncing between your phone and email accounts.

Prompt notification when switching to Airplane mode.

Faster switching to 3G services from 1x.

Easily search your phone during calls.

Improved Enterprise Exchange password alerts.

No Service audio alert removed.

Sep

DROID X 2.2 Update Coming Tomorrow? Seems Like It

Posted by David Ruddock in Droid X (Shadow), Froyo 2.2, News

It seems the DROID X's overdue update may be coming a day sooner than previously thought.

Wait, didn’t we just say yesterday that it would be coming on Wednesday? Yes, yes we did. I’d say right now that 9/22 looks pretty likely at this point.

Kellex on Droid-Life

Droid-Life has pointed eager X users to Verizon's support page for the device, which has been updated with a PDF espousing the delights of Android 2.2, along with various DROID X-specific changes. There's also a PDF with instructions on how to get the update- but we've yet to see any confirmation that anyone has actually gotten it.

Sep

Total Equipment Coverage/Insurance For Verizon Customers Now Includes Free Mobile Recovery Software

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Applications, News, Verizon Wireless

Good news for those of you with Verizon phones and a 'Total Equipment Coverage' insurance plan. VZW have just let us know that they are partnering with Asurion to provide some useful security functions for Android owners. The free Mobile Recovery application includes the ability to remotely:

Sound an alarm on the phone, even when on silent
Locate the phone using GPS, with maps and directions to the handset
Lock or wipe the phone, if it is irretrievable

Sounds pretty great for a free service (if you have the qualifying insurance, obviously), and may help to soothe any envious pangs you felt following the demonstration of HTCSense.com’s new security features.

Sep

Leaked HTC Lexikon Stock ROM Points Towards A Future On Verizon

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Devices By Manufacturer, HTC, News, Verizon Wireless

It’s difficult to keep track of all the leaked device names out there, we know, but if you can cast your mind back a month or so you may remember the mysterious HTC Lexikon and HTC Bee phones whose details were sourced from the 911sniper blog. Well, the same guys over in China have just posted what is believed to be a copy of the Lexikon’s operating system, complete with “VERIZON” in the filename, and a render of the phone to keep you hooked.

From the image alone, the Lexikon looks to be similar in styling to the still extant Droid Incredible.

Sep

HTC Desire HD Look-A-Like Coming To Verizon?

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Desire HD (Ace), Devices By Manufacturer, HTC, News, Verizon Wireless

A couple of weeks back, Boy Genius Report got their hands on some photos of a very svelte looking, EVO-esque HTC phone that is supposedly coming to Verizon.

Now they have a suspicion that it is in fact Verizon’s model of the Desire HD, announced a few days ago in London.

There are one or two things to say about this - firstly, the handset they obtained images of has a kickstand, a feature notably absent in the super-slim Desire HD. Also, there have been no announcements as yet of a CDMA version at all, although that may well come in the future.

Sep

Verizon Teams Up With Good Technology To Beef Up Android For Enterprise

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in News, Verizon Wireless

Looks like Verizon is pushing Android for enterprise pretty hard: they've inked a deal with Good Technology and are bringing some pretty major enterprise features to Android. Specifically, the company provides encrypted and high security email, messaging, and mobile access, as well as features such as remote wipe.

Good is a fairly major player in the enterprise space: in the first half of 2010 alone, they added 1,500 enterprise clients. Obviously, this is bad news for RIM (the makers of BlackBerry), who currently rule the business market; losing a competitive edge certainly isn't going to help their already sagging market share.

Sep

Samsung Releases Source Code For Fascinate

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Development, Fascinate, News, Verizon Wireless

Samsung has released the source for the Fascinate, roughly a week after the phone was released. As usual, any bits that are special to Sammy aren't included in the release, but there should still be enough material in there to get tinkering. As I've said before, the layperson doesn't really benefit from the release, but modders can get down and dirty with the code to tweak things just the way they'd like - and hopefully, make those changes public so that others can get in on the action as well.

_{"Ergo, you can now produce modifications to your mobile device, vis-à-vis the fundamental programming found within its hardware."}

Once again, a note on navigating the Samsung Open Source Release Center: click on Mobile (near the top), then scroll down to SCH-i500 - that's the Fascinate.

Sep

Motorola Mobility CEO: No Tablets Until "Early Next Year" At Best; We're All "Oh, Really?"

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Motorola, News

During the Deutsche Bank Technology Conference yesterday, Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha said, “I will only develop a tablet if it is sufficiently compelling. Hopefully, that is early next year.” In fact, according to his comments, it seems that they haven't even started development of a tablet yet.

This doesn't quite jibe with what we've heard before. In mid-August, word around the 'net was that a Motorola tablet device was coming to Verizon sometime in November. The next day, rumor had it that Moto was working directly with Google on a 10.1" Android 3.0 tablet. We're talking separate rumors here, not one stemming from another.

Sep

Verizon Page Teases Froyo Update for DROID X - Really, It's Coming. When? Good Question

Posted by David Ruddock in Droid X (Shadow), Froyo 2.2, News, Verizon Wireless

With a leaked 2.2 build for the DROID X already floating around, Froyo for the DROID X is not a matter of if, but when. Unfortunately, "when" is best answered as "soon." This was the speculation after the leak, but soon has not come nearly soon enough. Given Motorola's very stern warning regarding copyright infringement on the leaked version, the delay is probably owed to Moto patching up the exploits that have allowed the DROID X to be rooted and its bootloader security to be circumvented (à la Birdman and Koush).

Regardless of the reason behind Moto's delay in updating the DX to 2.2, it seems Verizon's having trouble containing its excitement over the Froyo jump.

Sep

Verizon Decides To Make More Bad Decisions - VCAST App Market Is The Latest

Posted by Brad Ganley in News, Verizon Wireless

Well, Verizon is up to their old tricks again. Last time they did something worthy of a head-scratch was just a short time ago, when they forced Bing onto the Fascinate and abandoned the built-in Google bits and pieces for search.

Now they've decided that, in addition to Google Maps, Google Search, and Google Voice Search not being necessary, the Android MARKET is insufficient. Introducing the Vcast App Store!

Verizon seems to think that they are somehow more likely to persuade users to buy apps. While there may be some advantages (carrier billing being the only one i can think of), it is really starting to look like Verizon hates Google.