Android OS - 59/164 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Feb

First Official CM9 Nightlies Now Available For Galaxy Nexus GSM/CDMA, Nexus S GSM/CDMA, And Motorola Xoom Wi-Fi/LTE

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Development, Galaxy Nexus, News, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju), Nexus S 4G (Crespo4g), XOOM

Last Updated: March 2nd, 2012

Just under a week after receiving almost unprecedented support from the Android community to fund the purchase of new build servers, the CM team has begun pumping out CM9 nightlies for a handful of devices. There's no question - the CM team is moving quickly, and the release of so many nightlies in such a short time span is exciting, to say the least.

Koushik Dutta, in a Google+ post earlier this evening, expressed appreciation, confirming that CyanogenMod "was able to purchase 3 top of the line, ridiculously geared, build servers," which will soon have an automatic build schedule. Dutta also indicated that CM7 nightly builds will be up and running again soon.

Feb

NEC Outs A Dual-Screen Phone, Two Other Ice Cream Sandwich Powered Beauties On The Way To MWC

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, NEC, News

Adding to the heap of pre-MWC goodies we've seen lately, NEC decided to show off three of their new Android-powered phones today in Japan, and if nothing else, the devices look interesting.

The first thing that jumps out is the strange gizmo on the far left – it appears to have 2 displays back to back (when folded), and is labeled as the "best cloud device," hinting at easier cloud connectivity. According to The Verge, the handset also has a super powered battery to keep both displays running.

Next is the "Large Screen in One-hand" phone which, as the label suggests, appears to have a luxuriously large screen.

Feb

[Updated x2: US And UK On February 24] Ice Cream Sandwich Update For ASUS Transformer TF101 Rolling Out Now, Starting With Taiwan

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in ASUS, Eee Pad Transformer, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Update #1: According to ASUS' Twitter, the Android 4.0 update should begin rolling out in the U.S. tomorrow, February 24th. Yay!

Update #2: ASUS UK confirmed the same date.

After numerous delays and much confusion (mostly due to ASUS Singapore being more out of touch with reality than other regional divisions), ASUS finally started the Ice Cream Sandwich over-the-air update process for the original Transformer TF101 today.

The official ASUS Facebook account stated that the OTA with version number 9.2.1.11 is going to be available in Taiwan first, followed by other regions "soon after." Hopefully, that means the rest of the world will be able to enjoy ICS within the next few days, barring any unexpected issues.

Feb

LG Outs Optimus 4X HD Ahead Of MWC - Packing Tegra 3, 720p IPS Display, And More

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News, Optimus 4X HD

Last Updated: February 27th, 2012

LG has officially unveiled the Optimus 4X HD, a rather impressive Ice Cream Sandwich-powered phone which ended up being too exciting to keep under wraps until MWC.

The Optimus 4X HD features NVIDIA's Tegra 3 processor (in all its 4-Plus-1 glory), and a handful of other powerful specs. A full list of specifications hasn't been released just yet (and presumably won't be until MWC), but here is what we know so far:

Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
Tegra 3 Quad-Core Processor at 1.5GHz
4.7" IPS display at 720p
8MP rear camera and 1.3MP front shooter
1GB RAM
16GB onboard storage
2150 mAh battery
Razor thin 8.9mm thickness
SHSPA+ 21Mbps connectivity

As things stand, the Optimus 4X HD is slated to be LG's first Ice Cream Sandwich-powered phone.

Feb

PSA: California's New App Privacy Policy Requirement Just Made Life Harder For Developers Everywhere, Here's What You Need To Know

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Apps/Games, Development, Editorials, Legal, News

Privacy is a good thing in the digital world - you'll get no argument from me. I don't like my data floating around in cyberspace without my consent, but I also realize that much of what makes the internet (and computing generally) so great is that I can use my own judgment to decide who I will and will not trust with my information.

Things like app permissions, which have been a part of the Android package installation process for quite some time, are nice, but let's face it: 95% of us don't read them. And if we do, we may not even be sure what those permissions really entail, or how the app will use those permissions to gather information, or even what kind of information will actually be collected.

Feb

ASUS UK: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Coming To Transformer In The Next Week

Posted by David Ruddock in ASUS, Eee Pad Transformer, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

After ASUS's Singapore Facebook stated an Android 4.0 OTA would be hitting the OG Transformer as late as March, it now seems that ASUS UK's Facebook page is indicating that said update will be landing in the next week:

A quick refresher on the TF101 ICS Update that you are all so patiently waiting for. Our engineers are working hard on getting this ready for you as soon as possible and are still aiming for a February release. As always as soon as we hear any further news or a definitive date we will let you know.

ASUS UK Facebook

While different regions do have differing release time frames for various reasons (eg, language support), you'd think ASUS would go about announcing this sort of information in a way that might be slightly, uh, organized.

Feb

Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G Set For March Availability From T-Mobile

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Galaxy S Blaze 4G, Gingerbread 2.3, News, T-Mobile

T-Mobile and Samsung announced just moments ago that the Galaxy S Blaze 4G that was unveiled at CES earlier this year will be available beginning in "late March," priced at $149.99 (after $50 mail-in rebate card) for two-year agreements with qualifying voice/data plans. The S Blaze 4G will be a T-Mobile exclusive device, and will evidently include T-Mo's 4GPro App Pack, meaning the phone will come with apps like Dropbox, Evernote, Square, TripIt, Camscanner, and LinkedIn preloaded.

Besides coming with a few practical items of software, the S Blaze 4G packs some decent specs for a phone in its range (though there's no word on the phone's RAM or internal storage capacity):

Android 2.3 Gingerbread
Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 Dual-Core Processor clocked at 1.5GHz
3.97" Super AMOLED display
5MP rear shooter with 720p video capabilities
1.3MP front-facing camera
Expandable storage via microSD slot

While there's no word on exactly when the S Blaze 4G will be available, we'll be here to track any relevant details as they emerge.

Feb

Twitter For Android Updated, But You'll Have To Be On Ice Cream Sandwich Or A Kindle Fire To Really Care

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Update: Here's the Market changelog, which brings a few more tweaks in the update to light:

Swipe shortcut

Improved scrolling and network performance

Improved support for devices running Ice Cream Sandwich devices

Confirmation dialog for Find Friends

Security improvements

New languages: Filipino, Simplified Chinese

Many other bug fixes, improvements, and polish

The official Twitter for Android app just received a substantial update, and you can download it from the web Market now, or wait until it's available on the device Market in the next hour. Twitter posted a changelog on its blog, but here are the excerpts you'll be interested in:

Swipe shortcut: Swipe a Tweet in your home timeline to reply to, retweet, favorite or share it, or view the Twitter user’s profile, without leaving your timeline.

Feb

[Video] Canonical Employee Gives Us A Closer Look At Ubuntu For Android, Makes Us Want It Even More

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Android OS, Apps/Games, News, Videos

Earlier today, Canonical announced Ubuntu for Android, an incredible new system that will put a full desktop OS on your Android-powered phone. Now, one employee has taken the time to show us just a little bit of what Ubuntu for Android is capable of, and it's nothing short of awesome. Check it out:

http://youtu.be/gUXUjjg9qQ0

As if we weren't excited enough after the initial announcement, seeing it in action really makes us want to get our hands on this and give it a whirl. Anyone at Canonical ready to hook Android Police up with some beta software?

On a side note, anyone happen to notice that all of the screenshots on the official Ubuntu for Android page display 12:04 as the time?

Feb

Harris Corporation Chooses Android To Power Ruggedized Tablets For Defense And Public Safety Communication

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, News

Harris Corporation, an international communications/IT company catering specifically to government and commercial markets, officially unveiled their own 7" Android-powered tablet today, meant to provide a rugged tool for the transmission of "mission-critical" communication for defense and public safety. The tablet is specifically aimed at military personnel and first responders, who "require secure real-time information at their fingertips to execute their missions."

The tablet has been graded as a ruggedized device, meaning it can stand up to extreme heat, cold, or other rough environments and still provide critical functionality to its users. Dana Mehnert, group president of Harris RF Communications further explained the benefits of Harris' new tablet in a press release today:

The new Harris tablet builds on our leadership in mission-critical communications to provide a powerful device for processing mission-critical information.