Android OS - 150/164 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Sep

Arabic Support Comes To FroYo, Google Looks On In Stunned Silence

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Development, Froyo 2.2, News

Last Updated: September 27th, 2010

Update: As several commenters have pointed out, Android does support some right-to-left languages like Arabic out of the box, it just doesn't do so correctly. The method described below does.

Surprising as it may be that Android, which is now a major player in the mobile operating system game, does not ship with support for any right-to-left languages such as Arabic, Persian, or Urdu, there's no denying it; languages were never one of Android's strengths.

Well, at long last, it appears our beloved operating system is getting support for at least one of those three languages (Arabic), but, surprisingly enough, Google was not involved.

Sep

Stefano Giovannoni's AlessiTab Cooks Up November Release Date (In Italy), €399 Price Tag

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Eclair 2.1, News

Last Updated: August 1st, 2012

Well, it looks like Motorola's updates to Android 2.1 Eclair updates aren't the only things leaving users hopelessly disappointed due to delays; Stefano Giovannoni's AlessiTab, which promises to be the ultimate kitchen device, has just been delayed from its scheduled release date of October to a vague point in November of this year. Worse still (at least for us who live in the United States), the home tablet will initially launch exclusively in Italy, and for the price of €399 (about $535), which is a full €99 more than what it was originally priced at. Still, with:

a DVB-T digital TV tuner
a 10.1-inch capacitive touchscreen
a front-facing camera for video chat
a unique and super sexy design (see pictures above)

it's no wonder this device got me so excited at first.

Sep

Motorola Flipout Unofficially Official For AT&T, Now Available Exclusively On eBay

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in AT&T, Eclair 2.1, Flipout / Twist, Motorola

Last Updated: August 1st, 2012

A version of the Motorola Flipout designed just for AT&T? Not possible, they say.

Ah, but what's this? According to a recent auction on eBay hosted by seller hotjdragon, who, mind you, has a satisfaction rating of 99.9%, this square little device is indeed real and is indeed selling for the off contract price of $388.88. Of course, it's always possible that AT&T will jack up this price in order to lock customers into a two-year service agreement, but, at least for now, here is what $388.88 gets you:

a "brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item [Motorola Flipout] in its original packaging" along with a GSM radio designed for AT&T, although, of course, it is sold off contract
specs like :
- a 700MHz OMAP3410 processor
- a 2.8-inch QVGA (320x240) display, similar to that of the Charm
- a 3MP camera
- 256MB RAM, 512MB ROM
- WiFi 802.11 b/g
- Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
- a 1170 mAh battery
- a 2MB MicroSD card out of the box that can be swapped up to any other capacity microSD up to 32GB
- a swiveling form factor
- assisted GPS and eCompass for location services
- a 3.5mm headset jack
MotoBlur on top of Android 2.1 Eclair
packaging that looks something like this:

and a device that looks something like this:

If you want one, you better hurry, though, as there appears to be only a few left!

Sep

Verizon’s Motorola Droid X Froyo Update Causing Issues?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Droid X (Shadow), Froyo 2.2, News, Verizon Wireless

After we posted that Verizon had begun their rollout of the Froyo update for the Droid X yesterday, a number of people told us they were having issues with music and ringtones on their devices. As this seems to be more than an isolated incident, we pinged Verizon to check if they were aware of the issue or had anything in the works. Unfortunately, all we received back was a curt "We're looking into it."

It doesn't seem to be affecting more than a minor percentage of users, so it's likely most people updated without a hiccup. Still, this is the only time we've had multiple users complain of the same bug on an update (at least, in recent memory).

Sep

[How-To] Root Your Motorola Droid X Running Android 2.2 Froyo

Posted by Brad Ganley in Development, Droid X (Shadow), Froyo 2.2, News

This article deals with rooting your Android phone. If you’re unfamiliar with this term, hit up our primer here: Rooting Explained + Top 5 Benefits Of Rooting

If you installed the Froyo OTA update this morning on your Droid X and lost root, fear not! The Droid 2 root method works swimmingly with the Droid X update and is a painless as painless can be.

Stephen Bird (AKA birdman), of Droid X custom ROM fame, posted this tweet not 12 hours ago:

The link in the tweet points to this page at XDA Developers which provides a one-click root for the Droid 2.

Sep

T-Mobile UK Confirms Samsung Galaxy S Froyo Update Will Roll Out Before The End Of September, Will Be Windows Only

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Froyo 2.2, Galaxy S, News, Samsung, T-Mobile

T-Mobile UK is on a roll - HTC Desire Froyo update has been rolling out for a few days now, and today a mod at the same official T-Mo forum confirmed that a whole truckload of frozen goodness is coming to the Galaxy S owners as well:

Hi there,

We are pleased to announce that there will be a software update for the Samsung Galaxy S at the end of the month. This will update your phone software to Android 2.2 and will be available through the Samsung Kies PC application.

Regards
Stef
Forum Team

If you rewind your memory to the end of July, you may remember this tweet by SamsungMobileUK promising an end of September Froyo for all Galaxy S handsets:

Very nice to see at least 1 network is coordinated enough to follow up on the promise.

Sep

Froyo Update Officially Rolling Out For Motorola Droid X

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Droid X (Shadow), Froyo 2.2, News, Verizon Wireless

We had a pretty good idea it was coming, and now it's here: Verizon has started rollout of the Android 2.2 update for the Droid X. As usual, some users are already receiving notification that an update is available, but if you don't want to wait, you can always check for the update manually.

Obviously, the most major change comes from updating Android itself. However, it looks like Verizon has also made a few other tweaks while it was at it. Full slide (same one from yesterday):

And that's about all there is to it. Go forth, download, and enjoy.

Sep

Nexus One Has Better HTML5 Performance Than iPhone 4, But Flash Is Still King

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Apps/Games, Froyo 2.2, News, Nexus One (Passion)

While trying to figure out the best way to develop a cross-platform game, developer Christopher Black created a simple HTML5 benchmark, which he then ran on a Nexus One (N1), iPod Touch 4G, and iPhone 4. For some further variety, he also tested Flash 10.1 on the N1. The test itself was simply a black ball bouncing, and the results were incredibly surprising: the Nexus One ran the animation 67% faster than the iPod Touch, and 81% faster than the iPhone 4.

Even better, the N1 managed to keep rendering the ball (albeit slowly) during zooming - not so for the iOS devices.

Sep

Google Finally Separates The Gmail App From The OS, Releases New, Speedier Version 2.3

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Android OS, Froyo 2.2, News

With the release of Froyo, Google promised to start decoupling applications bundled with the Android at the core - we've already seen it done to Maps, Navigation, Street View, and other programs. Today Gmail joins the party with the rollout of a new version 2.3 that can now be installed from the Market.

What does it mean? Well, previously, the Gmail app was only updated when you upgrade the whole operating system. Now that the app is downloadable from the Market directly, any updates will be available immediately.

Unfortunately, only users of Froyo and above are able to install the standalone version - everyone else is out of luck.

Sep

DROID X 2.2 Update Coming Tomorrow? Seems Like It

Posted by David Ruddock in Droid X (Shadow), Froyo 2.2, News

It seems the DROID X's overdue update may be coming a day sooner than previously thought.

Wait, didn’t we just say yesterday that it would be coming on Wednesday? Yes, yes we did. I’d say right now that 9/22 looks pretty likely at this point.

Kellex on Droid-Life

Droid-Life has pointed eager X users to Verizon's support page for the device, which has been updated with a PDF espousing the delights of Android 2.2, along with various DROID X-specific changes. There's also a PDF with instructions on how to get the update- but we've yet to see any confirmation that anyone has actually gotten it.