Android OS - 135/164 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jan

Motorola Estimates Sales Of The XOOM Tablet To Reach 700,000 To 800,000 In Q1 2011

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Motorola, News, XOOM

Motorola is expected to launch its XOOM tablet in February 2011 and, according to DigiTimes, they have placed an order for about 700,000 to 800,000 units. If there is greater demand, DigiTimes expects the order to reach up to one million units by the end of the first quarter of 2011.

Interestingly, DigiTimes also claims that Motorola and Samsung are being given special treatment by Google, while competitors, such as LG and HTC, are being left behind. This could explain why Andy Rubin, VP of Engineering at Google, originally demoed Android 3.0 Honeycomb on a (then unofficial) Motorola XOOM.

At this point, Motorola's sales estimates seem rather modest, considering the Samsung Galaxy Tab sold over 1 million units in its first month and the Apple iPad is expected to sell up to 7 million units in the first quarter of 2011.

Jan

The Coolest Android Gadget At CES 2011: Recon's Android-Powered, GPS-Enabled, Camera-Streaming Snow Goggles [Video]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Devices By Manufacturer, Froyo 2.2, News, Videos

I've been roaming the booths of CES for 3 days now, and I think I've seen almost everything even remotely related to Android that was worth seeing. One company, Recon Instruments, has been on my mind since the beginning, however, and I'm really glad I finally made it to their booth today.

Their current product, called Transcend, is a full snow goggles solution incorporating a little color LCD screen in the bottom right corner. This screen is small but it gets magnified optically to show a whole array of information, such as your current speed, temperature, altitude, time, vertical odometer, and the trail map overlaid on top of Google Maps (among other things).

Jan

CES 2011: Video Walkthrough Of Toshiba's Anonymous Tegra II Tablet

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News, Thrive / Regza / Antares / AT100, Toshiba

Last Updated: April 16th, 2011

While Toshiba's original attempts at an Android tablet running on the Tegra chip didn't exactly go down a storm, they seem keen to continue with Android devices, and brought a new tablet with them to CES. Artem got a video demo from one of their reps, and as you can see there are some attractive features to note.

Like the Motorola XOOM, the nameless Toshiba tablet (henceforth "Anon") has a 10.1" WXGA (1280x800) screen, which was unsurprisingly nice and crisp. It also sports the convenience of full-size USB and HDMI ports, along with a full SD card slot allowing for storage expansion up to 64 GB.

Jan

CES 2011: ASUS's Eee Pad MeMO - Dual-Core Snapdragon Sketchpad

Posted by Brian O'Toole in ASUS, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News

Last Updated: January 11th, 2011

ASUS turned a few heads with their recent device unveilings, with one of the more intriguing ones being their Eee Pad MeMO. Unlike almost every other tablet device here at CES, the MeMO is not using a Tegra II processor but will instead be powered by the latest Snapdragon. The MSM8260 is the first dual core processor we've seen from Qualcomm, and we were eager to put the 1.2 GHz chip through its paces. Unfortunately, the MeMO crashed during the 3D rendering section of the Quadrant benchmark. Prior to this, the Neocore benchmark had gone into some kind of endless loop, so our attempts at empirical measurement of the device's capabilities were frustrated.

Jan

CES 2011: Deep Dive Preview Of The Sony Ericsson Xperia arc - Video Walkthrough And Details Galore

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Gingerbread 2.3, News, Sony Ericsson, Videos, Xperia Arc (Anzu, X12)

Last Updated: January 11th, 2011

Following on from their press release on Wednesday, Sony Ericsson invited the media this morning to a designated conference room at the Hard Rock Hotel for some play time with their newest Android device. We spent over an hour with the handset to get an idea of what to expect when it hits the market.

The reps there acknowledged the difficulties they had experienced with their previous Android handsets, and showed what appeared to be decisive commitment to putting those hold-ups behind them. With the Xperia arc (sic), Sony Ericsson has trumped its competition at CES with the first Gingerbread device to be announced since the Nexus S.

Jan

Sony PlayStation Phone Given An In-Depth Review, Now All But Official

Posted by Josh Cooter in Gingerbread 2.3, News, Sony Ericsson, Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone)

Last Updated: January 11th, 2011

Just days after Kaz Hirai teased the world with talk of Sony's future in smartphones, tablets, and the PlayStation brand (all without confirming or denying the existence of a PlayStation phone), Chinese site IT168 has posted an in-depth review of the engineering version that they managed to get ahold of. Not only is the PSP Phone very real; from the looks of it, the device is almost ready for prime time.

Before delving into the details, here are the specifications and features that we are working with:

Qualcomm Adreno 205
1GHz Snapdragon Processor
1,500 mAh battery
4" LCD display with 854 x 480 resolution
5MP autofocus camera with LED flash (720p video recording unconfirmed)
512 MB RAM
512 MB ROM
Micro SD slot
SIM Slot
Micro USB
Rear Mic for noise cancellation
Android 2.3

Hardware

The design of the PlayStation Phone is comparable to the form factor of the PSP go, so avid mobile gamers can rest assured that the hardware controls will blow traditional touch screen controls out of the water in terms of precision.

Jan

Huawei Ideos X5 HSPA+ Android Smartphone Officially Announced

Posted by Josh Cooter in Android OS, Huawei

Today, Huawei announced the Ideos X5, its latest addition to the smartphone line targeted at busy professionals whose focus is productivity and connectivity. The device boasts an ultra slim form factor, at just 11.4 millimeters thick, and ergonomic curves complemented by a brushed metal finish.

Other Specs:

3.8" 800x480 px TFT capacitive display
5MP camera with 720p HD video capturing capability, autofocus, and flash
HSPA+ compatible
WiFi 802.11n (most likely with b/g as well)
4GB onboard memory with expandable SD slot
Bluetooth 2.1, A-GPS, compass
1500 mAh battery

Huawei strives to provide constant connectivity with Facebook and Twitter applications as well as an office suite for business professionals, complete with Word and Excel for creation on-the-go.

Jan

Verizon Gives Walkthrough Of Honeycomb With New Notifications And Task Switching

Posted by Anuj Ahooja in Android OS, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Motorola, Tablets, Verizon Wireless, Videos

We've been getting a lot of information about Honeycomb over the past two days. Earlier today we got some more previews from T-Mobile and just now, at Verizon's CES keynote, they introduced us to an updated notifications system and a brand new sleek task switcher. Here's a video of the full walkthrough which gives us other new visuals like how to mess around with homescreens, a look at the new YouTube app, Maps 5.0 (which got quite a bit of oohs-and-aahs), Dungeon Defenders, Gtalk video chat, and much more!

via Phandroid

Jan

New Honeycomb Previews Released Thanks To T-Mobile G-Slate Video Promos

Posted by Anuj Ahooja in Android OS, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, LG, Motorola, News, Tablets

Since yesterday's Honeycomb video leak and the introductions of the Xoom and G-Slate, Android fans everywhere have been awaiting more information on the sweet tablet OS. Seems like our wishes have been heard and granted by T-Mobile who has unleashed videos of the G-Slate UI. In these we find brand new user interface layouts of Gmail, the browser, Gtalk (including video chat), Google Books, and the brand new homescreen interface. Check out the videos below.

via BoyGeniusReport

Jan

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Line Will Not Receive Android 2.2 Froyo Update

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, Eclair 2.1, News, Sony, Xperia X10 (es209ra), Xperia X10 Mini / Mini Pro (Robyn / Mimmi)

Sony Ericsson has confirmed that it will not be updating its Xperia X10 line of smartphones to Android 2.2 Froyo. So, owners of the Xperia X10, X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro will be stuck on Android 2.1 Éclair for the foreseeable future. However, Sony Ericsson has promised to provide some minor software updates, with features such as multitouch, later this year.

If you were looking for another reason to buy Google's Nexus S, here it is. No matter what promises hardware manufacturers make, the users are at their mercy when it comes to software upgrades. Still if you are keen on running the latest version of Android on your Xperia X10 there are a number of custom ROMs available, just search the XDA-Developers forum.