Android OS - 137/164 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jan

Toshiba Announces Tegra 2-Powered Honeycomb Tablet, Lets Its Name Remain A Mystery

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News, Thrive / Regza / Antares / AT100, Toshiba

Last Updated: April 16th, 2011

Aren't excited enough for CES yet? Toshiba might have just what's necessary to get your saliva going - namely, a Tegra 2-powered Honeycomb tablet.

The specs are really the most impressive part of this story, so let's get right to them:

10.1-inch capacitive 1280x800 display
"Adaptive Display" technology, aka an ambient light sensor
Accelerometer
5MP rear camera, 2MP front-facing
USB, miniUSB, and HDMI ports
SD card slot
1.7 pounds in weight; 0.6 inches in thickness

Unfortunately, its name is still a mystery - hopefully, this will be resolved at CES.

Engadget had the chance to play with a prototype of it a few weeks ago, though the unit on hand was non-functional and therefore couldn't be turned on.

Jan

eLocity Announces Seven 10-Inch Tegra 2 Tablets, Indicates That Honeycomb Will Be Android 3.0 Rather Than 2.4

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in eLocity, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News

Here's a little something to tide you over while you're waiting for CES: eLocity today made no fewer than seven Tegra 2-powered Honeycomb tablets official.

While the company hasn't publicized many details about the devices yet (they say in-depth specifications will be available at CES), here's what we do know:

All of them are members of the A10 line
They will feature "high-resolution" multitouch displays
They will be powered by dual-core Tegra 2 processors
They will include microSD card slots as well as USB ports and an HDMI port capable of 1080p output
They will ship with a front-facing camera

While this is all very exciting, there's another item of interest here: the press release consistently refers to Honeycomb as "Android 3.0," despite the previous information we had indicating that Honeycomb would be version 2.4.

Jan

Nielsen Releases Smartphone Market Share Figures, Android Domination Imminent?

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, News

America's most trusted name in bar graphs, Nielsen, released an updated look at smartphone market share distribution today. The results aren't terribly surprising: Android is growing, and quickly at that. Blackberry's free-fall into the abyss has slowed to a steady death march. But what about Apple's fare?

Since the release of the iPhone 4 in June, Apple's total share of the smartphone market has increased by a paltry 0.7%, while Android has gained 10.8% more of the smartphone pie to reach 25.8% of the total - a mere 2.8% behind Apple, as you can see below.

Meanwhile, Android is outright dominating smartphone purchases made in the last six months, representing over 40% of all smartphones purchased since June.

Jan

Samsung USA's Official Update On The Galaxy S Froyo Situation: "We Are Still Running Tests"

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Captivate, Epic 4G, Fascinate, Froyo 2.2, News, Samsung, Vibrant

If you've been waiting for Android 2.2 "Froyo" to officially hit your Samsung Galaxy S device, be it Fascinate, Vibrant, Epic 4G, or Captivate, prepare to be disappointed, as Samsung is still stuck doing complicated testing required for the upgrade to go live. Countless over-promises and delays have upset many Galaxy S owners over the last months, but after releasing and pulling back Froyo upgrades in Canada, Samsung wants to really do things the right way this time. Back to the waiting room we go.

Source: @samsungtweets

Jan

Android: A Look Back To 2010, And A Look Forward To 2011

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Editorials, News

Looking Back: Andy Conquers The World (And Then Some)

What a whirlwind year for Android. Although the T-Mobile G1 - the first Android handset - dropped way back in October of 2008, it arguably took until 2010 for Android to become feasible for the mainstream. In fact, when the Nexus One was released in early January, it was widely hailed as being the first true Android competitor to the iPhone, in no small part due to the advancements made with Éclair.

From there, Android took off: Eric Schmidt announced in May that over 100,000 Android handsets were being activated daily. By June, the number was up to 160,000.

Dec

[Rumor] LG To Unveil 8.9-Inch Honeycomb Tablet At CES

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, LG, News, Optimus 2X (Star, p990), Tablets

Looks like Motorola won't be the only one showing off a Honeycomb tablet at CES 2011 - according to the Korea Times, LG plans to bring an 8.9-inch Android (2.4?) device to the infamous electronics show.

While the words "LG," "Honeycomb," and "tablet" are probably enough to excite many Android fans, the Korea Times was also able to confirm that LG will have another awe-inspiring device on display at CES: the much-anticipated Optimus 2X, better known as the world's first dual-core phone.

What say you - are you ready for LG to (finally) make its appearance on the high-end Android scene?

Dec

[Rumor] Motorola's Android Tablet To Be Called DROID XOOM, Won't Pack 4G

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Motorola, News, XOOM

If Droid Life's sources are to be believed - and given their track record, I'd say they are - then the upcoming Honeycomb tablet from Motorola will be called the DROID XOOM. We've heard of Motorola filing trademarks for the XOOM name, so it would certainly seem to fit. One other tidbit mentioned by their source: the tablet won't come packing LTE.

Is the lack of 4G disappointing? Sure, but based on what we've seen of the tablet (Andy Rubin using it, leaked pictures, teaser video, and teaser site), it may be very, very well worth it anyway.

Dec

Viewsonic G Tablet, From Rags To Riches - An Owner's Guide To Making The Best Of A Great Tablet

Posted by Jakub Glodek in Applications, Development, Froyo 2.2, gTablet (SMB-A1002), Tips & Tutorials, Viewsonic

Last Updated: December 31st, 2010

Over the past couple of weeks, I spent countless hours debating whether I should wait around a few months and see what tablets come out or get one now. In the latter case, which tablet was right for me?

Let me start out with what I wanted out of a tablet. First and foremost, I needed a device that let me check my email and read the news. Every morning, I wake up, grab my Sprint EVO 4G, and check my email using Gmail and my work email using Exchange. I then drift to the USA Today App to read the day’s news.

Dec

[Update: Nope] Rumor: The Real Samsung Epic 4G Froyo Update To Roll Out December 26th

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Epic 4G, Froyo 2.2, News, Samsung, Sprint

Update 12/29/10: Nope, either the rumor was false or Samsung/Sprint decided to delay the update once again:

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Epic 4G users, remember the Froyo update (DK28) that we thought was final but turned out to be nothing but a leaked test build? Shortly after the leak, Sprint released a statement discouraging the download and reaffirming the official latest supported build was Android 2.1 with Sprint's software version DI18.

The wait resumed, but not for long, as an official-looking photo of what looks like some sort of a memo in Sprint's internal customer support system, showed up over at Phone Arena.

Dec

Photos Of A Tiny Xperia Phone Hint At An X10 Mini Pro Successor

Posted by Anuj Ahooja in Gingerbread 2.3, News, Sony Ericsson, Xperia X10 Mini / Mini Pro (Robyn / Mimmi)

Sony Ericsson has always had upgrade issues when it came to Android - with the X10, the X10 Mini, and the X10 Mini Pro just recently receiving the update to Éclair (2.1), the majority of Xperia users have been deprived of the numerous features available in Android 2.x. Recently, with leaks of the Playstation Phone (a.k.a. Xperia Play) and the Anzu (a.k.a. X12), it has been made clear that Sony is most likely coming with back with a storm of devices with up-to-date firmware and its usual competitive hardware.

Today, we have a couple of leaked photos of a smaller Xperia phone, similar to the X10 Mini series.