Carriers - 202/216 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jun

Want Froyo On Your EVO 4G? Feeling Adventurous? Try EVOlutionV8 ROM

Posted by Chris Dehghanpoor in Android OS, Carriers, Development, EVO 4G (Supersonic), Froyo 2.2, HTC, News, Sprint

This article mentions rooting and the flashing of non-stock roms. If you’re unfamiliar with either term, hit up our primers here and here for additional information

As with most popular Android phones, a community of developers has cropped up over at xda-developers, who are dedicating their time and leet programming skills to ‘cooking’ and releasing improved ROMs for the EVO 4G.

In this case, developer Avalunchmods has released an overclockable version of Froyo for the EVO 4G, ported from the leaked Nexus One FRF72 release, and it seems like it’s nearly good enough to be a daily driver. The ROM's biggest issue at the moment is getting the camera to work, but for users who don’t use the camera often, or just can’t wait to get Froyo running on their EVO, it’s probably worth checking out.

Jun

Android Forum Roundup: Where Do You Go For Android Help And Discussion? Vote For Your Favorites

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Carriers, Development, Devices By Manufacturer, Samsung, Sprint, T-Mobile, Tips & Tutorials

Last Updated: July 11th, 2010

Where do you go when you have an Android related problem? Where do you hang out on a rainy day? Where does a good percentage of Android news originate from?

I'm talking about Android forums. Today, inspired by this reddit post, I wanted to highlight some of them and provide a list for people looking to ask questions, start an Android related conversation, report a problem, or just become part of another community (of course, you should always be close to Android Police by following us on twitter at @AndroidPolice and keeping up with the RSS feed).

Android Forums

General

AndroidForums: http://androidforums.com/

Howard forums: http://www.howardforums.com/forumdisplay.php/379-Android

AndroidCentral forums: http://forum.androidcentral.com/

AndroidCommunity forums: http://androidcommunity.com/forums/

Dev/ROM Oriented

XDA-developers: http://forum.xda-developers.com/index.php

MoDaCo forums: http://android.modaco.com/forum.html

Samsung devs: http://forum.sdx-developers.com/

Device Specific

Droid Forums: http://www.droidforums.net, though they also have non-Droid sections

NexusOne Forum: http://www.nexusoneforum.net

Carrier Specific

Sprint

Sprint Users: http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=145

Sprint.com forums: http://community.sprint.com/baw/community/buzzaboutwireless/phones-and-devices/android_phones?view=overview

SprintDroids: http://www.sprintdroids.com/forum/

T-Mobile

T-Mobile forums: http://forums.t-mobile.com/t5/Android/ct-p/Android

Poll

Where do you go hang out when you need help?

Jun

Latest Froyo Build For T-Mobile Nexus One Leaked (FRF72) – Now Available!

Posted by Ian Douglas in Development, Froyo 2.2, News, Nexus One (Passion), T-Mobile, Tips & Tutorials

Discovery

Good thing for our readers that I’m a night owl, and I happen to love my Nexus One, and love me some frozen yogurt. Especially together:

And now I have my T-Mobile Nexus One updated with the latest and greatest FRF72 build.

I just happened to be browsing a forum about the upcoming official Android 2.2 Froyo release when I see someone leak a URL for the FRF72 build that Google Employees were given a week ago. Someone at xda-developers.com seems to be the original source.

Download URL and Instructions

Here’s the URL for the upgrade, while it lasts:

http://android.clients.google.com/packages/passion/signed-passion-FRF72-from-FRF50.bc033f9e.zip (1.9MB)

Based on the filename, it appears to be an incremental build from FRF50, so you must already have FRF50 installed to use this new build.

Jun

Droid 2 Sneak Peak: First Impressions

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Droid 2, Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless

One of Gizmodo's readers Zack unexpectedly stumbled upon an upcoming Motorola Droid 2 at a tech show and didn't hesitate to snap some pictures and play around with this Droid successor.

Here are the main points of his review, in my favorite bullet point style, to save you some time:

about the same size as the original Droid
dark chrome overall color instead of the black
feels really nice - more curves, fewer edges
different button placement as the original, both on the outside and on the keyboard
blue coloring around the keyboard instead of gold
there is now a dedicated voice search button on the keyboard and the horrible d-pad is gone, replaced by cursor keys
no more lip on the right side with phone open
the Droid 2 name might change - Motorola reps are unsure of what it will be yet
same 5MP camera, though noticeable faster
most likely will come with vanilla Froyo - not Ninjablur
8GB internal memory, 8GB micro-SD card
1GHz processor

And here's Zack's full account if you want the original:

I am a summer intern at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA) this summer and today there was a tech show on the lab.

Jun

Verizon Planning On Eliminating Unlimited Data Plans As Soon As This Year

Posted by John Thompson in Carriers, News, Verizon Wireless

Verizon subscribers: say goodbye to unlimited data on that internet hungry Android device of yours. According to Businessweek, Verizon is planning on following AT&T’s lead in replacing unlimited plans in favor of a tiered pricing structure.

In an interview with John Killian, chief financial officer of Verizon, it was clearly suggested that a new pricing structure will have to be put in to place, as data traffic increases with the rollout of 4G in the future.

We will probably need to change the design of our pricing where it will not be totally unlimited, flat rate

Verizon will be conscious of potential strains on their network as more people purchase smartphones and consume more data in the future.

Jun

White HTC EVO 4G Coming Exclusively To Best Buy July 11th, Sprint Stores August 8th - Preorders Open Now

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in EVO 4G (Supersonic), HTC, News, Sprint

Last Updated: July 11th, 2010

This was unexpected - Best Buy is offering exclusive preorders on a white version of the HTC EVO 4G, scheduled to arrive in Best Buy stores on July 11th. The white version is going to have the same specs and price of $199 on a 2-year contract. As usual, a $50 deposit in the form of a Best Buy gift card is required.

I am not sure personally that I would like the white version over the black one, but I guess some people expressed desire for one.

How about you guys? Which color do you prefer?

Jun

Understatement: T-Mobile Does An Amazing Ninja Act With HSPA+ Rollout

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Carriers, News, T-Mobile

Last Updated: July 21st, 2010

T-Mobile announced today that 25 new markets are coming online for their “3G” HSPA+ network. Seems like no biggie, right - the other 3 big dogs (Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint) all know that 3G is so 2008.

Wrong. This isn’t any old 3G network – current tests show speeds anywhere from the same as, to 4 times faster than, WiMax – and T-Mobile’s only rocking HSPA+ 21 Mbps. HSPA+ has recently been demonstrated at speeds of 84 Mbps. For comparison, my home DSL runs at 1.5 Mbps (yea – the 4G on my phone is faster than that). Not only that, but those 4G speed tests were conducted before any 4G phones were released by Sprint, meaning now that a 4G phone is available, speeds will likely drop as devices bombard the limited number of towers for data (in comparison, the HSPA+ speed tests were run on an active, normal T-Mobile network).

Jun

Verizon Updates The Droid Site, Offer More Details On The Droid X

Posted by John Thompson in Carriers, Devices By Manufacturer, Droid X (Shadow), Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless

We’ve been hearing a number of things about the upcoming Droid X in the past few weeks, and Verizon have now updated their Droid site, giving us a few more details about their latest and greatest device.

The page confirms three things that we already suspected of the device. Firstly, it has a 4.3” display, most likely with a resolution of 854 x 480. Originally, when you hovered over the phone, you were told that it has a “720p screen”. This has now been changed to say “Captures 720p”, undoubtedly dashing the hopes of many people who saw the original post.

Jun

AT&T and Samsung Announce Captivate, Force Me To Eat My Words

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in AT&T, Captivate, Carriers, Devices By Manufacturer, News, Samsung

Last Updated: June 23rd, 2010

Just in from AT&T and Samsung (days after I say AT&T has no high-end Android phones, no less) – the dead sexy Captivate, described in the press release as part of the Galaxy S class of devices, will be coming to AT&T in the near future.

We’ve been talking about this phone and its variations for some time now, and all in all we have high hopes for it – and it looks set to deliver. It will come packing some pretty high end features, such as a 4" AMOLED screen, a 1GHz Hummingbird CPU, and 16 GB of internal storage.

Jun

AT&T To Customers: You Can Have Any Android You Want, As Long As It Sucks

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Aria (Liberty), AT&T, Backflip, Carriers, HTC, Motorola, News

If you’ve been paying attention to the news releases regarding the HTC Aria, you know that AT&T will once again be locking down the apps users can install by restricting unofficial app downloading. If you’ve been paying attention for a while now, you also know that they did the same thing to the Motorola Backflip – the only other Android phone they offer.

Both phones already feature smaller, lower def screens, when compared to their Android brethren available on other networks. They both also have significantly slower processors than most Android phones. What gives?

Now granted, I’m no expert, but that just seems like bad business to me.