Android OS - 153/164 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Sep

FroYo Update For HTC Desire On O2 Goes Live Before Dying A Sad, Sad Death

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Desire (Bravo/BravoC), Froyo 2.2, HTC, O2

Well it's not the first phone to get FroYo, or even the first phone with HTC's Sense UI to receive the delicious update, but Froyo is coming to UK carrier O2's HTC Desire. The update hit the air - before being pulled almost immediately!

According to O2's full statement posted on their forums,

Hi all
As some of you will have noticed the Android 2.2 Froyo update for HTC Desire on O2 went live this morning. While we’re pleased that so many of you have been able to download it successfully and are enjoying the benefits of 2.2, we have seen that a small number of people are having problems installing the update.

Sep

No Flash On The iPhone? Motorola Has A Droid 2 Ad For That

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Droid 2, Froyo 2.2, Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless

Fun and advertising rarely come together...unless, of course, Motorola and Verizon's Droid ad campaign is involved. First it was iDon't, then it was DroidDoes, and now it's a series of newspaper ads, the first of which poked fun at the iPhone 4's external antenna and the latest of which takes a jab at Apple's war on Flash.

As the above newspaper ad shows, it turns out more people than just us Android nerds care about Adobe Flash (or at least, that's what Motorola would like us to believe). Personally, we're just happy our FroYo-loaded phones allow us to spend all day watching South Park without even leaving our couches.

Sep

Samsung Galaxy Tab Hands-On Preview Roundup; Consensus: It's The First Serious Android Tablet

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Editorials, Froyo 2.2, Galaxy Tab, News, Reviews, Tablet Reviews

Last Updated: August 1st, 2012

Ever since the first rumors about an Apple tablet started circulating around the blogosphere, we Android enthusiasts have been dying to see an Android tablet of equivalent caliber, and it seems like Samsung's new Galaxy Tab might just be the one.

Unfortunately, Android Police did not have a chance to visit, simply because no member of the team lives close enough to Germany to drive there in a reasonable amount of time, and not one of our readers offered to pay for the plane tickets (how disappointing!).

However, several other tech blogs were there, and for now, we'll have to settle for their humble opinions, at least until we get our paws on a review unit, which shouldn't be too long (besides, it's not unlikely that we'll get some hands-on time with the Tab at Samsung's New York City press event next week).

Sep

Engadget Previews Viewsonic 10" Tablet - Dual-Boots Win7 & Android 1.6

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Donut 1.6, News, Tablets, Viewsonic

Last week, we found out that Viewsonic would be rebranding and selling a 7" and 10" tablet; the 7" tablet would be Android while the 10" would dual-boot Android and Win7. Now Engadget has a hands-on preview of the 10" with additional details, and suffice it to say there are some ups and downs.

Bad news first, though: the tablet runs Android 1.6. The reason for this lies in the CPU used, but that doesn't make shipping a tablet with an OS that's over a year old suck any less. Also bad news: Engadget was rather unimpressed with the screen:

We weren't impressed with the quality of the display, or with the pixel density, but at least the capacitive touch seemed to be working fine...

Sep

Samsung: Honeycomb (Android 3.5) Will Come After Gingerbread (3.0); Larger Honeycomb Tablet Coming

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Galaxy Tab, Gingerbread 2.3, News, Samsung

Disclaimer: initially, I was reluctant to pass this one on, but it looks like it may be more credible and less speculative than I first thought.

During IFA today, Samsung confirmed that Gingerbread is next and will be Android 3.0, and that it will be succeeded by Honeycomb (3.5). It is possible that things will change between now and then, but this is an official, public word from Samsung in direct response to a question - fairly concrete.

They also divulged that they're working on a larger (presumably larger than the Tab) tablet for Honeycomb. As for the Tab itself, it'll ship with Froyo (which we already knew), and will be updated to Gingerbread once it's released.

Sep

Motorola Milestone 2 Announced

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Droid 2, Froyo 2.2, Milestone, Motorola, News

It was only a matter of time, right? Just as with the original Droid, Motorola has been quick to create a GSM version of the Droid 2 for all of our non-American friends (hello, John Thompson) that appears to be identical to its Verizon-bound cousin.

That's right: the Motorola Milestone 2 has just been announced, along with Android 2.2 FroYo, an enhanced MotoBlur skin, a 5MP camera, 8GB of onboard storage as well as an 8GB microSD card, a 1GHz OMAP SOC processor, 512MB of RAM, and 720p HD video recording (one of the Droid 2's major omissions). Laptop users will also be happy to know that the Droid 2's Mobile Hotspot capability has not been removed and is still kicking around somewhere in the apps menu.

Aug

First Custom Motorola Droid X ROM Released, Gives (Partial) Finger To eFuse & Motorola

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

Awesome news today on the Droid X front: the first custom ROM for the Droid X has been released by birdman. For anyone not living under a rock, this is a pretty big deal - Motorola was pretty serious about locking down the Droid X, and it's a relief to see that manufacturers can't completely kill the aftermarket.

The ROM seems to be based on the earlier leaked 2.2 ROM, and has only a handful of customizations:

v0.1 includes

OptiPNG optimized apk's

Deodexed

Busybox

Updated Superuser.apk (credits to chainsdd)

Removed
3g hotspot

Kindle (market app)

Blockbuster (bankrupt company)

EMERGENCY (dial 911 for emergency's...dont screw around with an app)

My Verizon (bad market app)

Maps (market app)

Voice search (market app)

Swype (removed for their constant anger towards rom devs)

Skype (market app)

Google search (market app)

The ROM can be downloaded via ROM Manager, and as far as flashing it goes, it looks like you'll need to be rooted and have ClockworkMod Recovery.

Aug

Xperia X10’s Android 2.1 Upgrade Due By “The End Of September” According To Sony Ericsson UK

Posted by John Thompson in Eclair 2.1, News, Xperia X10 (es209ra)

With the US release of Sony’s Xperia X10, we were given taglines such as “smarter is coming”, but with Android 1.6 running the show, smarter may be a little bit of a loose term for now. Those of us on the other side of the pond may be in luck pretty soon, however, as Sony Ericcson’s UK Twitter account posted a reply to a user stating that Android 2.1 is due for release in the UK “before the end of September this year.”

If this information is indeed accurate (and we sure hope that it is), then X10s all over the UK may finally get the upgrade to Android 2.1 from Android 1.6, which has plagued the device since its release.

Aug

T-Mobile G2 To Take "With Google" To The Next Level Thanks To Google Voice Widget

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Froyo 2.2, G2 (Vision), HTC, News, T-Mobile

The crafty folks over at Droid Dog have just unearthed another secret buried deep in the G2's source code: a Google Voice widget.

They claim that it looks a lot like this:

and displays the amount of money in your Google Voice account, a compose message button, settings for Voice, a button for quick access to your inbox, and a button to turn Voice off.

Droid Dog is also reporting that the G2 will come with "just about every Google app available for Android," right out of the box. Then again, it's always better to have Google Translate pre-installed on your phone than AT&T Navigator (you know, that useless navigator that comes with all AT&T Android phones and essentially duplicates Google Navigator's functionality), right?

Aug

Verizon Begins Rollout Of Flash To The Original Droid

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Android OS, Droid (Sholes), Froyo 2.2, Motorola, Verizon Wireless

Sure, FroYo for the Droid Incredible was out and about this morning, and FroYo for the original Droid rolled out a while ago, and now we've got even more update news, this time for owners of the original Droid.

If you recall, (don't worry, I don't either) the first FroYo update for the original Droid brought many things, but downloading Adobe Flash player from the Market was not among them. Well, according to an email sent from Verizon to Engadget, a second OTA update will be rolling out soon that will enable the download.

Anyone seeing the update on their OG Droid yet?