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Nov

T-Mobile Comet Launching November 3rd - $9.99 On Contract

Posted by Stephen Tenerowicz in Comet / Ideos, Froyo 2.2, Huawei, News, T-Mobile

Last Updated: November 3rd, 2010

Well folks, we had a date for the launch of the T-Mobile Comet and now we have a price-$9.99 with a $50.00 rebate on contract. This, coupled with the carrier’s new $10.00/200MB data plan makes for a very good price point for this entry-level smartphone. The Comet will feature 7.2Mbps HSPA, FM radio, an integrated Swype keyboard, microSD expansion up to 32GB, and a 3 megapixel camera. On top of all of that, it will be powered by Froyo! All of this makes for a pretty bad ass device, with the only downside being the QVGA screen.

While this might not attract a hardcore smartphone enthusiast like myself, I can really see a lot of first time smartphone buyers being interested in this.

Oct

Android 2.1 Now Rolling Out For Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, X10 Mini, X10 Mini Pro

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Eclair 2.1, Sony Ericsson, Xperia X10 (es209ra), Xperia X10 Mini / Mini Pro (Robyn / Mimmi)

Right on time, Sony Ericsson's begun rolling out the update to Android 2.1 Eclair (build number 2.0.A.0.504) for the Xperia X10, X10 Mini, and X10 Mini Pro. Judging by what we're seeing on Twitter and from what our tipster told us, it's only available in Scandinavia for now, so we can only hope that other regions will get to join in on the fun soon enough.

Our tipster also mentioned that Universal Androot does not work, although a bit of digging through the forums revealed that SuperOneClick does indeed root the phones, even after the update. On that note, where's our Froyo?

Oct

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, X10 Mini, And X10 Mini Pro To Start Receiving Update To Android 2.1 In November

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Eclair 2.1, News, Xperia X10 (es209ra), Xperia X10 Mini / Mini Pro (Robyn / Mimmi)

Try to contain your excitement, here: Sony-Ericsson will begin rolling out an the update to Android 2.1 (Éclair) for the Xperia X10, X10 Mini, and X10 Mini Pro devices starting November 1. As sarcastic as we are about being updated to an already out-of-date version, it's still a huge step up from the current Android 1.6. Major features of the updates:

Xperia X10:
• HD video recording with continuous auto-focus for high quality videos
• Upgrade of the Android platform to Android 2.1
• New back up and restore application, with extended content back up
• 5 homescreens for apps, widgets, shortcuts and folders
• Social phonebook which automatically syncs contact pictures from Facebook and shows when your friends are online

Xperia X10 mini and X10 mini pro:
• Improved Bluetooth functionality with support for sending and receiving pictures, contacts and more
• New backup and restore application with extended content back up
• Automatic synchronization of your contact pictures between Facebook and your phone book
• Improved ways of handling pictures, audio, text and numbers in your messages
• Upgrade of the Android platform to Android platform 2.1

Android 2.1 brings a slew of benefits on its own, so their "Upgrade of the Android platform to Android 2.1" entails an awful lot of changes on its own.

Oct

NPD: 28% Of Smartphones Sold In Q1 2010 Were Android

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, News

Finally, some empirical evidence that illustrates what we've known for some time now: Android is growing like gangbusters. In fact, 28% of smartphones sold in Q1 2010 were Android, compared to 21% for iOS. RIM still holds the top spot with 36%, but that's a drop of roughly 12% in the past year - while iOS has fallen approximately 10% itself. In the same period, Android increased over 20%.

In fact, it seems like Android grew at the expense of just about everyone else - excluding a minor 1-2% increase in "other". And as Android continues to expand across the line of devices - from smartphones to ultra-cheap featurephones - it's likely that the overall number of Android devices will continue to grow.

Oct

Android Gingerbread, Next Nexus, Information And Speculation Round-Up

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Android OS, Devices By Manufacturer, Gingerbread 2.3, Samsung

These last few days the Android blogosphere has been awash with excited spluttering, dubious rumours and hopeful conflation. Kicking things off was City A.M., a "London-based free daily newspaper that specialises in financial news". According to an article on their website, Google had struck a deal with the popular phone retailer Carphone Warehouse. CPW were to sell Google's next phone, the Nexus Two by any other name. Their position as a reseller of phones and contracts on most if not all networks in the UK and wider Europe makes them a logical choice, right? Nexus One sales online didn't exactly break records, so it makes sense to try the next carrier-agnostic option.

Oct

[UPDATED] CyanogenMod 6.1 RC1 Is Here, Download It Now

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, Froyo 2.2, News

Last Updated: October 29th, 2010

After celebrating CyanogenMod 6.0 hitting the final release version for a multitude of devices, the CM team got right back to work on the next version of the largest Android ROM on the planet. 2 months worth of sleepless nights paid off, as minutes ago, Cyanogen announced a new major milestone - CM 6.1 Release Candidate 1. According to the team, the release is definitely good enough to be a daily driver, and the remaining bugs will be quickly squashed, so go ahead and fearlessly hit up the download links below.

Features

Feature-wise, Cyanogen mentions "Pedlar’s notification powerbar, insane performance boosts on all platforms (install SetCPU if you want to take it further), powerful new features in the camera app, new email features, FM radio support (contributed by the MIUI team), and a whole lot of other great stuff!

Oct

HTC Aria Gets Leaked Froyo ROM

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Aria (Liberty), AT&T, Development, Froyo 2.2, HTC

Thought the miniscule HTC Aria wouldn't be getting a bite-sized scoop of Froyo to call its own? Wrong! ls377 over at the Android Central Forums has packaged the leaked Froyo Sense RUU for the Aria into a flashable .zip file. There isn't really much else to say other than that you can flash it just like any other ROM (through Recovery Mode or through an app like ROM Manager) and that some users seem to be having issues with the Android Market. Still, if I were rocking an Aria, I wouldn't hesitate to leave Eclair - after all, who doesn't love themselves some nice, cool frozen yogurt?

Oct

New Sony Ericsson Video Suggests X10 To Get 2.1 Very Shortly

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Android OS, Devices By Manufacturer, Eclair 2.1, News, Sony Ericsson, Xperia X10 (es209ra), Xperia X10 Mini / Mini Pro (Robyn / Mimmi)

This morning Sony Ericsson posted a teaser video on YouTube explaining to X10 users the differences they will find in the update from Android 1.6 to 2.1. As painful as it is to watch a video of someone demonstrating five homescreens, slide-to-unlock and live wallpapers like they're brand new features, the video underscores the growing expectation that an update will be released for the X10 within the next few days.

According to the Sony Ericsson blog:

(Note – It does have some wording on getting the update now – that is not yet really valid and it wasn’t scheduled to be released until the update is out there.

Oct

Sony Ericsson PlayStation Phone Is Real, Looks Just Like Renders & Packs Some Solid Hardware

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

Last Updated: January 11th, 2011

Remember that Sony Ericsson PlayStation phone we heard about back in August? Turns out it's not only real, but a prototype is out and about in the wild - and Engadget has landed themselves some surprisingly clear and detailed pictures of the device. Better still, it looks pretty close to the renders we saw in August - surprising, given the track record for Android rumors.

Between the PlayStation moniker and the slide-out gamepad, I think it's pretty clear that this beastie will be marketed as a gaming phone. In support of that fact, word has it that the phone will support a custom Sony Marketplace with games specifically designed for the platform - if they can garner enough developer support, that should be a fairly nice selling point.

Oct

Alpha Froyo ROM Released For ZTE Blade / Orange San Francisco

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Blade, Devices By Manufacturer, Froyo 2.2, News, ZTE

Here's some great news for owners of the budget flavour-of-the-month, the ZTE Blade. Saddled with Éclair at birth, the dudes over at MoDaCo's ZTE Blade section have given their phones a new lease of life with a Froyo port from the domestic Chinese model to their beloved Orange San Francisco.

The ROM is very much in the Alpha stage right now, but even so it is very exciting news for those of you who have heard of the Blade. For those of you scratching your heads in bewilderment, stay tuned - our ZTE Blade review will be up early next week.