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Dec

Walkthrough And Hands-On With The Gingerbread UI And The New Gingerbread Keyboard In All Its Sexiness

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Gingerbread 2.3, News

As you may have seen, Google took the covers off Gingerbread today and released the new SDK, which allowed me to immediately jump into an emulated Gingerbread instance. After playing with the new UI for a while, I've taken a bunch of screenshots, which you can find below, along with some of my notes.

Before I dive into the Gingerbread screenshots, here is a side-by-side comparison of the same Settings screen in Donut (1.6), Froyo (2.2), and Gingerbread (2.3):

^{From left to right: Donut, Froyo, Gingerbread}

As you can see, not much has changed since Froyo, except for most of the elements getting darker and/or greener.

Dec

Android 2.3 User’s Guide – 350+ Pages Of Newly Updated Info

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Gingerbread 2.3, News

Last Updated: December 9th, 2010

With a new OS comes a new manual, and this one's pretty hefty. The 374-page manual for Gingerbread is now available for your perusing pleasure, with plenty of screenshots and details about the new OS. This includes information about the new Near Field Communication function found in the Nexus S:

And the new Downloads app:

The userguide can be downloaded as a PDF or viewed in the Google Docs viewer. Do let us know if you find anything of interest, won't you?

Source: @FreedomITA via @PaulOBrien

Dec

Gingerbread OTAs Not Rolling Out Just Yet - Arriving In The Coming Weeks. Yes, That Means Even You, Nexus One Owners

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Gingerbread 2.3, News

Earlier today, Engadget posted a pretty sensationalist article (now deleted) implying that Gingerbread OTA updates are being streamed down to Nexus One device owners. Since I haven't seen a single confirmation yet, I grew more and more skeptical. To put an end to all rumors, Google's own Reto Meier just sent out a tweet refuting any OTA rumors and putting the Gingerbread update timeline as "in a few weeks":

And so the wait begins.

Source: @retomeier

Dec

[Updated] Google Announces 2.3 Gingerbread! Here Is Everything You Need To Know

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Gingerbread 2.3, News

Last Updated: December 10th, 2010

The moment we've been waiting for so many months - it's finally here! I can hardly contain my excitement as I'm writing this, but both Gingerbread and the Samsung Nexus S were officially announced 30 minutes ago. As expected, the new OS bears the version number 2.3 and brings updates to the SDK and the NDK as well SDK tools and the Eclipse ADT plugin.

As expected, a lot of the OS improvements are under-the-hood, which will result in better gaming, responsiveness, and overall Android experience.

New Features/Enhancements

OS/SDK/NDK

The new OS features and enhancements include:

enhancements for game development, including a new concurrent garbage collector, more native APIs, faster event distribution, updated video drivers, and new sensors (gyroscope) - this is amazing for developers; expect gaming to get a lot more responsive and versatile
lots and lots of attention in the above bullet point has been given to the NDK - the Native Development Kit.

Dec

[Updated] Froyo For Samsung Epic 4G Now Available To Download [Hands-On] [Instructions]

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Development, Epic 4G, Froyo 2.2, News, Samsung, Sprint

Last Updated: July 2nd, 2011

Update: A Sprint official has just posted on the Samsung Epic forums saying that this is not the final version of Froyo for the Epic. What's more, he gave one commenter an ETA of about three weeks. Ridiculous, isn't it?

Below is a statement from the Epic Product Manager regarding the leaked release (DK28):

Sprint is working on a software package for the Samsung Epic4G that will upgrade it to the Froyo version of Android. Over the weekend, some users were able to access and download a test build (DK28) for the Samsung Epic from some 3^rd party developer sites. Unfortunately, this is not approved software for Sprint production devices and we strongly recommend that users refrain from loading it.

Dec

[Updated] Notion Ink Sparks Yet Another Gingerbread Release Date Rumor - This Time, December 6

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Adam, Gingerbread 2.3, News, Notion Ink

I woke up this morning to a slew of tip emails stating that Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) is definitely coming out on December 6. I initially decided to pass it up (at this point, I'm so sick of Gbread rumors that I almost don't care anymore), but for the sake of you, dear reader, I thought I'd pass it along. The reason for the latest rumor is that Notion Ink posted on their blog stating the following:

6th December is another big day for Android and you will find out how fast Notion Ink can work. (Eden is extremely compatible with 2.3)

Having said that I'm sick of all the rumors, it follows that I'm also now extremely skeptical (hell, even pessimistic) every time I hear a new one, so this may just be my own annoyance...

Dec

Sony Ericsson's PlayStation Phone ZEUS Z1 Makes Surprisingly Clear Appearance On YouTube

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Devices By Manufacturer, Gingerbread 2.3, News, Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone)

Well, this one's a bit special, isn't it? In a marked shift from the traditional blurrycam espionage, what we have here is a nice, calmly filmed tour of the no-longer-mythical Zeus device. While there isn't a great deal of new information presented in the video, we do catch a glimpse of a PlayStation icon in the menus. The software is labeled Gingerbread in the About screen, despite a distinctly Froyo-esque appearance. As for the hardware, the Zeus sports an impressively large display and a curvy (if rather large) waist-line. We also get a glimpse of the camera and flash on the back, as well as several Sony Ericsson logos in various places.

Dec

T-Mobile UK Delays Android 2.2 Update For Samsung Galaxy S Devices Yet Again After Announcing It Was Ready

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Froyo 2.2, Galaxy S, News, Samsung, T-Mobile

T-Mobile UK is certainly digging itself into a ditch on this one, and seriously pissing customers off in the process. You can't really blame people for being upset: after promising the Froyo update for Samsung Galaxy S owners by November 30 via FOTA, then reiterating just two days ago that the update was ready to roll out, they've now pushed it back at least a week. Turns out they're also not going to be able to do it over-the-air, either - rather, it's going to be installed with Samsung KIES instead. The official post on T-Mobile UK's support forum:

Hi folks

I've been talking to the handset team and the Samsung people today and the latest news is as follows.

Dec

Android Gingerbread UI Gets Exposed In The Crispest Video To Date

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Gingerbread 2.3, News, Videos

Wow, this went unnoticed for a while, didn't it? On November 23rd, Google's own GoogleinHK YouTube account posted a video walkthrough of the new Google Voice Search in Cantonese. With only 2100 views, this official Google-authored video did not grab anyone's attention, until someone noticed that it featured over a minute of the clearest Gingerbread user interface video we've seen to date. The greens, the blacks - it's all there. Have a look:

Update #2: the original video was pulled but luckily, I found another copy:

Update #3: another mirror, in case Google takes down our YouTube mirror.

Dec

Android Platform Version Stats Updated Again, Froyo Now Dominant

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Android OS, Cupcake 1.5, Donut 1.6, Eclair 2.1, Froyo 2.2, News

If you love devouring Android stats, Google's Android Platform Versions sub-site, which is updated about once a month, just got refreshed with the latest batch of data. Last month, Froyo ate up some 36% of the pie, while Éclair was found to be running on about 41% of devices, with the remaining 23% being taken up by Cupcake and Donut.

As you can see for yourself in the graph above, this month was quite a turn-around - Froyo (at 43.4%) finally stole the throne from Éclair, which was left with 39.6%. As for 1.5 (Cupcake) and 1.6 (Donut), they each gobbled up 6.3% and 10.6%, respectively.