Android OS - 138/164 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

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.

Dec

[Updated] Samsung Product Pages Hint At Android 2.2 For (Some) U.S. Galaxy S Devices

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Captivate, Continuum, Epic 4G, Fascinate, Froyo 2.2, News, Samsung, Vibrant

Update: Samsung has since updated the product pages in question to reflect the fact that the Galaxy S phones are still stuck on Éclair. And the wait goes on.

A number of Android Central tipsters have noticed something rather interesting while looking at the product pages for the US Galaxy S devices: the Epic 4G, Vibrant, and Fascinate all show as rocking Android 2.2 (Froyo). The funny thing is, the actual update is nowhere to be found. Could this be a hint that the update is imminent? It would certainly make sense.

Unfortunately, the Captivate and Continuum are still listed as running Android 2.1 - either their pages have yet to be updated, or (more likely) the update isn't quite ready for prime time.

Dec

[Rumor] Samsung To Reveal Galaxy S2 (And Maybe Tab 2) At CES. Or Is It MWC?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, News, Samsung

Oh, internet... we have such a love/hate relationship, don't we? Those of you who follow regularly know that I'm generally pretty skeptical of rumors and speculation - although I'm really not a contrarian by heart. This time around we have two similar, but fundamentally different, rumors floating around.

Both involve Samsung and the successor to the Galaxy S (which the internet has dubbed... wait for it... the Galaxy S2). And while there's little doubt there will be a successor, that's about the only common thread to the rumors. One version (Korea Times) says it will debut at CES alongside the Galaxy Tab 2.

Dec

[Update: Hands-On] Honeycomb Music Player Leaked, Now Available To Download

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

We've known about the fancy new music player contained in Android 3.0 (aka Honeycomb) since Google I/O, but up until now, we haven't really had a chance to get a look at it ourselves. Well the suspense ends today - an APK has just been leaked and is now available to download.

First off, the much-anticipated wireless syncing feature isn't here, as this is most likely a beta version of the final app (which wouldn't be surprising considering how buggy it is in its current incarnation). What it does have, however, is a gorgeous new UI. Judging by what I'm seeing in the video above, it's a lot like the Gallery app that's been with us since Éclair, right down to the stacks of music seen in landscape mode.

Dec

Run, Run, As Fast As You Can: A Round-Up Of Gingerbread ROMs

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Development, Gingerbread 2.3, News

Last Updated: January 2nd, 2011

Introduction

A few days after releasing the Android 2.3 SDK, Google officially pushed Gingerbread to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Shortly thereafter, developers (such as the CyanogenMod crew) immediately started working on their custom ROMs based on the AOSP code (e.g. CyanogenMod 7).

It has only been a few days since CyanogenMod released version 6.1.1, their most recent stable update, so it's still likely to be a few weeks before a stable release of CM 7 is available. Nevertheless, a group of eager CM developers and enthusiasts have taken the liberty of packaging early unstable releases of CM 7 (with Android 2.3 Gingerbread) for a variety of Android devices.

Dec

Samsung UK Says Froyo Update Now Available For All UK Networks

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Carriers, Froyo 2.2, Galaxy S, News

Fresh off the presses (read: Twitter), @SamsungUK has just tweeted saying that Android 2.2 (Froyo) is now available for the Samsung Galaxy S "on all networks." As this is SamsungUK,I'm guessing that means in the UK only, but I've tweeted back asking for clarification just in case - although whether I hear anything back is dubious at best. Regardless, I'll post here once we have some clarification. It looks like the update will have to be applied manually, through Samsung's KIES software.

To anyone unfamiliar with the situation, this update has been a long time coming after having been delayed a few times - which would explain why people were fairly pissed.

Dec

OTA Update Fixes Bugs, Brings Latest Version Of Maps To Samsung Nexus S

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Gingerbread 2.3, Google, News, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju), Samsung

The Nexus S may have just been released, and it may be running the latest version of Android - but Samsung and Google aren't holding back on software updates. Instead, the two have teamed up to release the first OTA update for the device, which contains "important bug fixes" as well as the latest version of Google Maps. Don't feel like waiting for the update to hit your device? The file is already available to download from Google's servers, so after this, you can simply flash it as you would any other ZIP file:

After the file is downloaded, rename it to "update.zip".

Dec

"Android Data" Trademark Withdrawn From Erich Specht, Google Free To Continue Calling Android "Android"

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Android OS, Google, News

If you were worried that Google would no longer be able to call its mobile operating system "Android," fear not.

From 1998 to 2002, a gentleman by the name of Erich Specht ran a company called "Android Data." Android Data went bankrupt in 2002, and Erich hasn't used the name since. However, when he heard of Google's use of the "Android" name, he put together a website to "prove" that Google had infringed on his trademark. Shortly after, he sued Google, Android Inc., and the Open Handset Alliance for infringing on the name for $94 million.

Luckily for us Android enthusiasts, the judge in charge of the case wasn't convinced and consequently threw both the lawsuit and Erich's original trademark out the window, stating that the latter could result in confusion with Google's trademark and that Erich had used his mark "as a sword" against Google.

Dec

Android Market Updates Continue With New Application And Game Categories

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Android OS, Applications, Apps/Games, Games, News

Continuing with the numerous Android Market updates, Google just refreshed the categories that users can use to filter and browse Market apps and games. The changes are now live on both the backend Developer Console and the live Market.

Here is a table showing the previous and new categories (new categories are in green, modified in yellow):

Previous app categories	New app categories	Previous game categories	New game categories
	Books & Reference	Arcade & Action	Arcade & Action
	Business	Brain & Puzzle	Brain & Puzzle
Comics	Comics	Cards & Casino	Cards & Casino
Communication	Communication	Casual	Casual
	Education		Sports Games
Entertainment	Entertainment
Finance	Finance
Health	*Health & Fitness*
Lifestyle	Lifestyle
Multimedia	*Media & Video*
	Medical
	Music & Audio
News & Weather	*News & Magazines*
	Personalization
	Photography
Productivity	Productivity
Reference
Shopping	Shopping
Social	Social
Sports	Sports
Themes	Themes
Tools	Tools
	Transportation
Travel	*Travel & Local*
Demo
Software Libraries	*Libraries & Demo*
	Weather

A shot of the Developer Console:

Thanks, yuku

Dec

AppBrain Adds A Filter To Hide Sexually Explicit Apps In The Android Market

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, Applications, News

Google's recent updates to the Android Market have further refined the process of installing and purchasing apps, but they still haven't developed a suitable desktop alternative to browsing the thousands of Android apps available. AppBrain is a third-party website that fills this gap by allowing users to browse apps on their computers and then choose which ones to install on their phones.

AppBrain is a great tool, but it is limited by the policies of the Android Market, which allow almost any app to be installed. Unlike Apple's App Store, Google does not employ any kind of filtering system, so there are a number of apps which could be harmful for end users (i.e.