09
May
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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."

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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

08
May
2011-05-08 08h43_54

Sprint customers hungry for vanilla Gingerbread can stop holding their breaths now - the Nexus S 4G just went on sale. Sprint will charge you $199.99 for the Samsung-made device, but if you're looking for the best bargain in town, you'll want to visit Best Buy - they're selling it for just $149.99 with a new two-year contract. BB's upgrade price is still $199.99, but at least free shipping is offered by both retailers (ETA: 5/11-5/14 at Best Buy; 2-5 business days at Sprint).

As a reminder, this stock Android machine comes loaded with:

  • 4-inch Super AMOLED Contour display with a WVGA (800x480) resolution
  • WiMAX connectivity
  • 1GHz Hummingbird processor
  • 512MB of RAM
  • 16GB of internal memory

All in all, the handset isn't exactly a spring chicken in terms of specs, but the software is what really matters - and just like T-Mobile's version of the phone, the NS 4G delivers on that front with stock Android 2.3 and Google Voice integration.

07
May
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Last Updated: September 3rd, 2011

It's that time of the week again folks - time to hit the polls. This week's question is one that'll allow you to express what you think an Android handset should let you do in terms of customization, modification, and other various tinkering (think rooting, custom ROMs, kernels, etc). Basically, we want to know how important it is for you, as a consumer, that your next phone be easy to customize. Or if that really isn't important at all.

Let us know in the comments what ROMs, rooted apps, and other goodies only available to the rooted/unlocked users among us that you just can't live without.

06
May
t-mobile-lg-g2x

On Monday, we teased you guys with an early look at Gingerbread running on the G2x from This Is My Next. There was some definitely some disappointment in the air when you realized that a download wasn't available at that time, but that all changes now.

This is for rooted devices only.

The leaked version, which also appears to be the final version, of Gingerbread for the G2x is now available for those running rooted devices.

05
May
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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.

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.

05
May
at&t

AT&T has taken a lot of heat from Android fans, and for good reason - they were the last of the four major US carriers to truly embrace it, and even then they made the controversial decision to block users' ability to sideload apps - i.e., install apps not offered on the Android Market. Their intentions were only to protect users from "bad apps," but of course this also meant that users have been unable to install any type of beta apps or, more notably, the Amazon App Store. Fortunately, they plan to reverse this decision going forward, as Senior VP of Mobile Devices Jeff Bradley announced:

"I think we'll go more open.

05
May
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File this under "things that look good on paper." On Tuesday, a federal judge for the Northern District of California issued an order forcing Oracle and Google, in their fight over various Java patents allegedly infringed by Android, to reduce the number of patent claims and defenses thereto to a "triable" number. That number? Three. And Google will be allowed eight "prior art references" to defend against those claims. (Note: A "prior art reference" is a way of showing that a patent was trying to patent something someone else had already invented prior to the filing, a complete defense against patent infringement, invalidating the patent in question)

Oracle's complaint ended up amounting to 132 patent claims against Google's Android mobile operating system - a staggering number for any court.

04
May
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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.

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Now there's only one thing left to do: wait. Drop us a line in comments and let us know when this hits your device.

04
May
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Last Updated: July 26th, 2011

Wow, this didn't take long at all - the Android 2.3.4 update for the Samsung Nexus S that we were afraid would take a couple of weeks to surface, has already shown up and is ready to be flashed to your Nexus S running 2.3.3 (GRI40 or GRI54).

Just like before, manual update instructions couldn't be simpler, so why wait for your device to be updated OTA (who knows when that will happen) when you can do it all by yourself and get that Google Talk video and voice chat right here and now?

Note: If you don't have GRI40 (2.3.3) or GRI54 (also 2.3.3) and instead have GRH78 (2.3.1) or GRH78C (2.3.2), then head over here and install GRI40 first, then proceed below.

03
May
gingerbreak

Well, that was fast. It hasn't been very long since the vold exploit was found that allowed root access to Gingerbread and Honeycomb systems, but Google has already patched it and moved the fix into the AOSP code (see these commits: [1], [2], [3], [4]). This means that once this update is pushed, we will need to find another route to achieve root access on devices running Gingerbread and Honeycomb.

Don't let this stop you from buying a new device right now, though, because it's far from certain when this fix will actually end up hitting devices.