Android OS - 69/164 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jan

TiVo Releases Hotly Anticipated Android App

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, Applications, News

Along with a software update to the TiVo Premiere DVR, Margret Schmidt VP of TiVo User Experience tweeted the release of their first Android app:

Oh, and the other cool new thing? Android! market.android.com/details?id=com…

— TiVo Margret Schmidt (@tivodesign) January 6, 2012

This comes as great news to TiVo owners as it allows them to control their DVRs from the comfort of their Android 2.1+ phone or 7-inch tablet (the app description makes particular reference to "7-inch tablet").

The app looks to be a great first try with most of the features a TiVo user would want, including:

Browse the channel guide and record shows without exiting the currently running programme
View shows up to 14 days in advance
Schedule and manage TV shows and movie recordings
Search for content over your TV, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video & Blockbuster in an integrated view
Explore information on the cast and crew of the current show
Comment and share information about the show on Facebook and Twitter
Use a TiVo remote control replica (but don't worry you won't have to use this interface as you can use the app's gesture based controls)
Schedule, search, and browse content when you are away form your device

As expected, the app has garnered plenty of favourable reviews, however its rating is currently at 3.9 owing to a small number of 1 star reviews.

Jan

Rumour: Google To Launch 7-Inch Nexus Tablet In Late Q1 2012

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, News, Tablets

Late last year Google chairman Eric Schmidt commented to an Italian newspaper that "in the next six months [Google planned] to market a tablet of the highest quality". His statement generated much speculation primarily over whether Google planned on releasing a self-branded "Nexus" tablet or whether they would merely partner with a device manufacturer, such as Motorola, Samsung, or HTC.

According to a rumour from Taiwanese electronics daily DigiTimes, Google may be preparing to launch an "own-brand tablet PC...targeting Amazon's 7-inch Kindle Fire". Naturally, Google Taiwan has already released a statement indicating that it has "never heard about plans of launching an own-brand tablet PC".

Jan

Android Market Cracks The 400,000 Application Barrier, Becomes The Largest Store In The World For Free Apps

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Android OS, News

The Android Market hit a milestone over the holiday weekend - it now contains over 400,000 apps, putting it only 100,000 apps behind Apple's App Store in terms of sheer quantity. What's even more impressive, though, is that the Market is now the largest store in the world for free apps, with a whopping 68 percent of its collection available sans price tag.

Sure, that is great for consumers, but there's no denying the dark side of free software: it generates less revenue than its paid counterpart. While 65% of the Android Market's revenue comes from apps using the freemium model, the App Store generates four times the income of the Android Market, as less than half of its available apps are free.

Jan

Google Requires OEMs To Include The Stock Set Of UI Widgets In All Ice Cream Sandwich Devices, Developers Can Stop Skins From Messing With Their Apps

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Android OS, Applications, Development, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

We are going to need some restraint and careful explanation for this one.

Google is making life a little easier for developers. Today a post on the official Android Developers Blog announced a new rule for OEMs that insist on skinning Ice Cream Sandwich: You must also include the unmodified ICS "Holo" Theme files. Regular users still have to deal with a skinned OS, but developers can opt out of the skinned parts for their app. Observe:

This is what developers currently have to deal with. Apps will look wildly different depending on what skin your phone has. On the left is Motoblur, on the right is stock ICS. It's the same APK, but everything looks different because apps take many parts of their UI from the OS.

Jan

Android: A Look Back To 2011, And A Look Forward To 2012

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Android OS, Editorials, News

Last Updated: January 5th, 2012

Happy New Year! A new year means it's time for the annual Android prediction post. First off though, a trip down memory lane with a look at Aaron's post from last year.

A Look Back To 2011

Way back in January 2011, we were all gobsmacked at the recent announcement of 300,000 Android activations per day. That looks cute now, doesn't it? A year later and it's more than doubled, now we're up to 700,000 per day. That's just incredible. Android could hit a million activations per day by the end of the year.

Last Year's Predictions

Tablets: The New Netbook - Netbooks definitely died.

Jan

[Updated x2: LG Thrill] CyanogenMod Team Brings Nightlies To A Handful Of LG Devices, Adds Official CM7 Support For Samsung Epic 4G

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Development, Epic 4G, LG, News, Optimus 3D (p920) / Thrill 4G (p925), Optimus Black (p970)

The minds behind CyanogenMod have done it again, bringing nightly updates to several LG Optimus variants, and adding official CM7 support for the Epic 4G (not to be confused with Sprint's Galaxy SII variant).

Among the newly-supported LG devices are the Optimus 3D (p920), Hub (e510), Pro (c660), and Black (p970) (which is technically seeing the return of nightlies). It may be worth noting that the Optimus Hub and Pro both received RomManager support tonight, making it excessively simple to get CM goodness on the devices.

Update #1: The Epic 4G (epicmtd) nightly just showed up as well.

Update #2 1/2/12: LG Thrill (p925) appeared today.

Dec

Best Of The Worst: The 5 Most Bittersweet Moments For Android In 2011

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials

2011 was a great year for Android - Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich was announced. The Galaxy Nexus was released. A whole truckload of Android tablets came out. The first 4G LTE smartphones appeared. But there were some significant speed bumps as well. Here are, in no particular order, the five things in the world of Android in the last year that really got our hopes up, but ended up being a little disappointing.

1. HTC ThunderBolt / All Early Verizon 4G LTE Phones

It's really hard to know where to start with the ThunderBolt. It wasn't actually a terrible phone in terms of usability or performance, but the delayed release, abysmal battery life, overheating, and seemingly endless wait for Android 2.3 drew more angst from owners than probably any other device we've ever seen.

Dec

CyanogenMod Team At It Again - Nightlies Arrive For Several Xperia Devices

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Development, News, Xperia Active (Satsuma), Xperia Pro (Iyokan)

Just after expanding Nightly support to Samsung's Epic 4G and a slew of LG handsets, the CyanogenMod team has brought nightlies to a handful of Xperia devices, including Coconut (the Xperia Live with Walkman), Iyokan (the Xperia Pro), and Satsuma (the Xperia Active).

In a Google+ post earlier today, CyanogenMod announced that CM7 support had arrived for multiple new devices, throwing out a special hint to Xperia users.

For those not familiar, a "nightly" is a brand new released, built on a daily (or nightly) basis with a day's worth of new code. Often times, new features contained in nightly updates may be unstable or not fully tested.

Dec

[Update: Incredible S Added] HTC Expands Bootloader Unlock Compatibility – Incredible 2, Thunderbolt Make The Cut

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Development, HTC, Incredible 2 (Vivow), News, Thunderbolt (Mecha)

In a continued effort to unlock bootloaders everywhere using their online tool, HTC has added several exciting entries to the "supported devices" list. Perhaps the most notable of the new entries are the Droid Incredible 2 and HTC Thunderbolt. Officially, HTC's online unlock tool is compatible with all devices launched after September 2011, but the new additions reflect an effort to add compatibility for older devices.

Update: HTC just added the Incredible S to the mix. Go get unlocked!

"What does this mean for users of the Incredible 2 or Thunderbolt," you may ask. An unlocked bootloader basically allows users not only to root their device with (relative) ease, but also to write to partitions that may otherwise be protected (namely the recovery partition), opening up even more possibilities for those interested in tweaking their phone to perfection.

Dec

Motorola Droid Bionic And Atrix 2 Fastboot Files Leak – Come Back From Soft Brick In A Snap

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Atrix 2, Bionic, Development, News

Hot on the heels of the Droid Razr's leaked fastboot files, two more Motorola devices can now be restored to stock configuration in case of emergency.

Motorola's Atrix 2 and Droid Bionic have both had their fastboot files leaked in recent days, providing a bit of insurance for daring users and developers alike. The Atrix 2's files are available here, while the Droid Bionic's fastboot set can be found here.

For those not in the loop, fastboot allows users to flash unsigned partition images via USB (including recovery images), meaning it is possible to bring a device back from a soft brick.