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May

Why Wait? You Can Get The DROID X2 Right Now At Best Buy Stores For $199

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Droid X2, News, Verizon Wireless

If you've been waiting in anticipation to make the Droid X2 your next Android purchase, but just can't convince yourself to wait a few days, then we have good news. You can score VZW's first dual-core phone in-store at Best Buy right now. We called a Best Buy to confirm - and the X2 is a go.

It will set you back $199 with a two-year agreement (or upgrade), but what's a little bit of extra money in exchange for instant gratification? I know we just told you the official specs yesterday, but it would be both cruel and unusual of me to leave out that bit of vital information...

May

[Update: Now Flashable] DROID Incredible Gingerbread Test Build Leaks

Posted by David Ruddock in Development, Gingerbread 2.3, Incredible, News

Update 2: You can now get a fully-flashable ROM of the Gingerbread test build for the DROID Incredible, and it includes a new radio baseband version as well.

Get the ROM here, and the new radio here.

Instructions below:

Instructions:

*Includes superuser.

1. Download the GB file from above and drop it on your SD card.
2. Boot into Clockwork Recovery and perform a factory reset.
3. Choose “install zip for sd card” and locate the file from above.
4. Install it.
5. Enjoy!

Update Radio:

1. Download “New Radio” file from above and drop on root of SD card.

May

Verizon's LTE Market Hits Nine More Metropolitan Areas, Expands In Five Cities

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Verizon Wireless

Verizon's LTE network is probably the hottest thing smokin' right now as far as networks are concerned, and, as of today, it has been expanded to nine more major metropolitan areas including Mobile and Montgomery, Alabama; Greater Fairfield and New Haven, Connecticut; Gainesville, Pensacola, and Tallahassee, Folorida; Fayetteville-Lumberton, North Carolina; and Bryan-College Station and Temple-Killeen, Texas.

Also included in this rollout is an expansion to five areas that currently have LTE coverage: Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Denver, Colorado; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

This brings the total number of covered metropolitan areas up to 55 now, which isn't bad considering that VZW just started rolling out LTE in December of 2010.

May

Motorola Droid X2, VZW's First Dual-Core Android Phone, Now Live At VZW.com For $199.99, Amazon/Wirefly For $149.99

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Droid X2, News, Verizon Wireless

The refreshed version of the original and very popular Motorola Droid X - the dual-core Droid X2 with a hi-res qHD screen - is up online at VerizonWireless.com for $199.99 on a 2-year contract a whole week earlier than you will be seeing it in brick and mortar stores. With free overnight shipping, you can rock Verizon's newest and, ironically, first dual-core Android phone by tomorrow (Bionic who?).

The Droid X2 features a dual-core 1GHz processor, a 4.3" qHD display, an 8MP camera with 720p recording (no 1080p :-[), HDMI with mirror capabilities, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, DLNA, 8GB internal memory, and 8GB microSD.

May

Qik Releases Video Chat/Mail App Optimized For Samsung Devices

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News, Samsung

While browsing some new arrivals this afternoon, I noticed that Qik, one of the large players in the mobile video chat business, today released an app called Qik for Samsung, clearly targeted at users of Samsung Android devices. Qik has been releasing apps customized to certain classes of devices, or even individual ones, for as long as I can remember, starting with the EVO 4G last year, so seeing yet another variant doesn't surprise me (see Qik for Sprint, Qik for T-Mobile, and Qik for Atrix).

What is not clear is exactly what is optimized for Samsung devices compared to the regular Qik app and whether higher resolution video is available, so I'm going to leave it to you, Samsung device owners, to figure out and report back.

May

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Now Available For Pre-Order From Verizon Wireless For $199.99, Ships Overnight May 25th

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in News, Sony Ericsson, Verizon Wireless, Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone)

Like clockwork, the thumb-hungry Xperia Play from Sony Ericsson went up on VZW's site, ready for some early pre-order action. It will set you back $199.99 on a 2-year contract and should ship out May 25th to be in your hands by May 26th, all for free.

This Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" phone features a 4" screen, slide-out PlayStation-style controls, a 1GHz single-core Snapdragon processor with Adreno 205 GPU, a 5MP rear and VGA front camera, and comes with a bunch of games pre-installed: Madden NFL 11, Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior, Asphalt 6: Adrenaline, The Sims 3, Star Battalion, Crash Bandicoot, and Tetris.

May

[Video Hands-On] HoopsAR Creates An Augmented Reality Basketball Game Right In Your Lap

Posted by Matt Demers in Applications, Game Reviews, News, Reviews, Videos

Last Updated: August 2nd, 2011

Earlier today, a tip about a new augmented reality game called HoopsAR hit our inbox. Since augmented reality is a relatively new and kind of cool subject, I decided to take a deeper look and go hands-on. Before I could play the game, I needed to print out a basketball "ticket" which serves as the game board. The phone's camera then scans it and overlays the court on top of it in 3D.

If you're still a bit confused about how it works, don't worry - I whipped up a quick video hands-on in order to explain the overlay function and simple controls that make this game worth checking out.

May

[Update: T-Mobile Sensation 4G Too] Bummer - Latest HTC Sensation System Dump Reveals Signed Bootloader, Custom ROM Support Is In Danger

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, HTC, News, Sensation / Sensation 4G (Pyramid)

HTC is continuing to release devices with signed locked bootloaders, as we found out today after taking a look at the latest HTC Sensation system dump. The upcoming HTC Sensation is one of the most powerful and desirable devices coming up, alongside the Galaxy S2, but while the latter's bootloader is unlocked, the one in the Sensation is protected via HTC's private key.

Unless we get really lucky, this means no custom kernels on the device (i.e. no custom ROMs) or recovery (i.e. no Clockwork, RA, or nandroid). Lady Luck was hovering around when we got our hands on the Thunderbolt - Justin Case and Team AndIRC who fully unlocked it can tell you just how lucky they got, but we may not get so lucky with the Sensation.

May

26 Best New Android Games And Live Wallpapers From The Last 2 Weeks (5/5/11 - 5/18/11)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Best Apps/Games/LWPs Of The Week, Games, News

Welcome to the weekly roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Market or were spotted by us in the previous week or so.

Last week, due to Google I/O, I did not have proper time to put into making the roundup, so this week contains apps from the last 2 weeks. This is the first part of the roundup with games and live wallpapers. The second part with apps will go live later on (probably tomorrow).

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the AppBrain widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.

May

[Deathmatch] Google Music Beta Vs. Amazon Cloud Player

Posted by Cameron Summerson in App Reviews, Applications, News, Other Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

When Amazon Cloud Player hit the scene, my exact words were "Google Music who?" and now that Google Music Beta invites are starting to rollout to the masses, I can aptly answer that question.

I've used Amazon Cloud Player as the primary music player on my Android phone since its inception at the end of March, so I've become quite familiar with how it works. The service has its pros and cons (like any service, I suppose), but overall I am a big fan. Now that I have had a day or so to play with Google Music, though, I thought it would be appropriate to put these two in the ring together to see who would rise as the victor.