17
Aug
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After dropping source code for the Wi-Fi Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus (along with the Galaxy Note 10.1 and Tab 10.1) just last week, Samsung is once again providing eager developers with something to play with over the weekend, releasing kernel source code for T-Mobile's variants of both the Galaxy Note and the Galaxy Tab 7.0 to their Opensource download center.

Both packages carry source code for their respective devices' Ice Cream Sandwich-powered kernels.

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Those looking to grab a handful of fresh source code and begin tinkering with the T-Mobile connected Galaxy Note and Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus need only click through the appropriate link below to grab the download.

17
Aug
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According to Bloomberg, Motorola Mobility has just filed a new lawsuit against Apple at the ITC. Now, ordinarily, we might not report on the filing of such a suit - especially when the complaint hasn't been made public (we have basically zero details). What makes this particular filing important, though, is that it is the first lawsuit filed by Motorola now that it is officially, 100% a part of Google. That's a big deal.

It means Google signed off on this action. It means Google isn't interested in playing a purely defensive role in the mobile patent wars. And while this is sort of by proxy (MMI is in many senses separate from Google), the fact that Motorola filed this suit at all says a lot.

17
Aug
sony-xperia-p-to-receive-ics-update-between-august-19th-and-25th

How often do you hear this? Sony has started to roll out Ice Cream Sandwich to the Xperia P ahead of schedule, beating its own date of August 19th.

According to a post on the Sony Mobile blog, the upgrade process is beginning today and continuing globally "over the next few weeks", so if you're an Xperia P owner, keep an eye out for any upgrade notifications on your phone. When ICS is ready for your device, you will be alerted, but Sony says that some users may have to use their PC Companion software to perform the update.

Some of the cool features and functionality you can look forward to include:

    • New ways to experience your media with new media applications – “WALKMAN”, “Album” and “Movies”
    • Extended standby mode, increasing standby time by up to four times (depending on user-profile and data consumption)
    • Lock screen with improved functionality
    • Resizable widgets for improved personalization
    • Improved control of your mobile data consumption
    • Recent Apps button for a clear overview of your applications

    The post also says that there will be another update for other Xperia phones "shortly", listing the Xperia U, Xperia sola and Xperia go.

    16
    Aug
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    In a post to its official blog that's sure to excite users across the globe, Google has just announced that Voice Search is now available in thirteen new languages. The list of newly included languages, which range from Basque to Swedish, brings the total number of supported tongues up to 42.

    In the post, Product Manager Bertrand Damiba explains just what it takes to add a new language to Voice Search – first and foremost, Google must collect "hundreds of thousands of utterances" from volunteers to bring speech recognition up to par.

    While this sounds easy enough, Google engineers also face challenges in adding support for new languages – Damiba explains that languages that don't follow predictable pronunciation rules (like Swedish) require that Google recruit native speakers to pronounce thousands of individual words.

    16
    Aug
    gs3-jelly-bean-info

    We saw a video yesterday of a Samsung Galaxy S III running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, with a revamped notification bar and access to Google Now. Fast forward 24 hours, and you can now get hold of that firmware yourself to try it out on your very own Galaxy S III.

    Update: A newer firmware I9300XXBLH4 got leaked over at XDA by Samsung-Updates.com. It's an OTA (meaning incremental update) that applies directly on top of I9300XXBLG8/I9300OXABLG8/I9300XXLH1.

    The folks at SamMobile have managed to get hold of the image, which is a slightly different build to the one shown in the video yesterday.

    15
    Aug
    play

    One of the most common complaints against Google's Play Store is the lack of certain content or functionality in countries outside the US. Google has been making progress in expanding access to other corners of the globe, though. You may remember, for example, that Play Books hit France just last month after Play Movies opened for the French in March and for Spain in June.

    Today, Google (finally) brought Play Movie rentals to Germany, much to the delight of German users who have been asking for more Play content for quite some time. Strangely, the addition of movie rentals to the German market came without an official announcement, but was confirmed by multiple Twitter users and our own readers.

    15
    Aug
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    Last Updated: October 17th, 2012

    A new Google Play Store v3.8.15 apk started rolling out to Android devices today, but upon running through its UI, I was unable to uncover anything different from the versions before that. Yet the apk size gained a few pounds kilobytes, and not knowing what the 300KB of code and resources added was killing me. Not to worry, a few minutes later, I decoded both 3.7.15 and 3.8.15 and compared their contents.

    Play Store Gift Cards

    What I found inarguably points to Google gearing up to finally release redeemable Play Store gift cards - something we've been anxiously waiting for since the Android Market started supporting paid apps.

    15
    Aug
    4.1 better

    In something of a surprise, it appears Samsung has already been hard at work on preparing the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update for the Galaxy S III, as evidence by this YouTube video posted by AndroidMX. The build is labeled as i9300XADLG4. It's definitely looking legit, and while the visual changes to the Galaxy S III in Jelly Bean seem minor, there's no doubt that many owners of the device are absolutely chomping at the bit for access to Google Now in its full, un-ported glory. First, the video (warning: it's long and highly repetitive):

    Now, here are a few screencaps we managed to grab:

    4.1 better

    notibar introscreen

    noti2 home

    One thing you may notice is the revamped notification bar, which incorporates some of the new actions found in Jelly Bean like the instant sharing option for screenshots.

    14
    Aug
    adobe-flash-logo

    I remember the first time I really heard about Flash for Android. Well, maybe not heard about it. The first time I got sort of excited about it. It was in San Francisco, at a trendy Spanish-restaurant-meets-brewery back in the summer of 2010. The taps were pouring freely (and by that, I mean free of charge), tasty little hors d'oeuvres came at us from from all directions, and everyone was having a good, if typically nerdy-awkward, time. The free booze definitely helped. It was also, coincidentally, the first time I met the man in charge of Android Police, Artem, and one of our long-standing editors, Aaron Gingrich.

    13
    Aug
    Jelly-Bean-Logo_thumb1_thumb
    Last Updated: October 14th, 2012

    GTKA is back! For those that don't know, this is the series where we compare the new version of Android to the previous one, in excruciating detail. I'm going to dub this the "Miscellaneous edition," because there is a bunch of new things I want to talk about, but they don't really fit into a nice, organized category. (This doesn't mean I'm running out of things to talk about, not by a long shot.) The usual GTKA style applies, Ice Cream Sandwich is on the left, Jelly Bean is on the right. Let's get to it:

    wm_2012-06-27-20.40.36_thumbwm_2012-07-01-14.13.11_thumb

    Has anyone else noticed a general toning down of the Tron design from Honeycomb to ICS to Jelly Bean?