News - 769/944 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Feb

[Hands-On] WiMAX Hits CyanogenMod 7 Nightlies - One Moar G, Way Moar Speed

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Development, News

Last Updated: August 1st, 2012

Last night, Cyanogen revealed on Twitter that WiMAX had officially landed in CM7, via the latest nightly. No small feat, given that the team had to write their own code entirely from scratch. And while CM-based builds with WiMAX have been floating around for a few weeks now, this is the first official release - effectively addressing the last major qualm many EVO owners had with CM.

I have to say, WiMAX in CM7 certainly doesn't fail to impress: I managed to hit 6.5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload. In 3 tests, I averaged 5470 Kbps download and 1041 Kbps upload - handily beating the roughly 4.5-5 Mbps download I hit on stock-based ROMs.

Feb

Motorola XOOM Review Roundup: An Android Tablet, Done (Mostly) Right

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless, XOOM

It's launch day for the XOOM, and already the major news outlets have had a chance to spend a few days with the much anticipated device. Not only does the XOOM bring a new standard in high-end to the masses (a la Tegra 2), but it's also the first device to ship with Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) on board. It's also really the second major Android tablet to launch (the Galaxy Tab being the first), and the first to match the 10" form factor of the iPad. But how does it fare? Let's take a look at what our reviewers thought.

Feb

The Flood Of Tegra-Optimized Games Begins: Fruit Ninja THD And Backbreaker THD Now In The Market, 'Cept You Probably Can't Play Them

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Apps/Games, Editorials, News

The raw power behind NVIDIA's soon-to-be ubiquitous Tegra II chipset makes for some interesting possibilities when it comes to gaming. However, there are certain pitfalls when one manufacturer leap-frogs the competition. Being the first to market in this latest generation of system-on-chips, NVIDIA has developers and exclusives pretty much at their beck and call. Who are you doing to develop for, the company with a multitude of devices hitting the market right now, or the "other guys" without any firm release date? NVIDIA's in a strong position right now, and it's going to do its best to solidify that.

Some of you may recall the stunt NVIDIA pulled with their PhysX engine, essentially crippling graphics on hardware without PhysX enabled - namely their ATI rivals.

Feb

Trademark Research Fail Or Balls Of Steel? ChaCha Suing HTC For Trademark Infringement While Xoom Corp Is Going After Motorola

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Chacha, HTC, Motorola, News, XOOM

You would think that large hardware manufacturers, such as HTC and Motorola, would dedicate at least a few hours to trademark searches before naming their products and investing millions of dollars into promotional efforts for said products. That would be a fair assumption, right? It seems like the answer sometimes is: not exactly.

HTC ChaCha

Last week at MWC, HTC unveiled 6 new devices, one of which was bearing the name ChaCha (that's one of the Facebook phones). Unsurprisingly, exactly a week later, on February 22nd, ChaCha Search Inc, which owns the trademark ChaCha in the U.S. and Europe, filed a trademark infringement suit against HTC America.

Feb

Lookout Launches Lookout Labs And Its First Android App - The Ingenious "Plan B" [Hands-On Review]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in App Reviews, Applications, News, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Lookout Labs

Lookout Inc's Lookout Mobile Security app is one of the most popular and trusted security apps on the Market, and while the company is going to continue active development of its flagship product, today it is launching Lookout Labs - a separate Android Market developer account dedicated to "pushing the bounds of mobile apps."

Plan B

Introduction

The first fruit of Lookout Labs' labor is a brilliantly simple yet very useful app called Plan B. Plan B was only made possible recently, after the release of the official Android web Market. The app is designed to be the last resort for finding a lost (or maybe even stolen - more on that later) phone and getting its latest position emailed to the account associated with the Android Market.

Feb

Roseville Best Buy Thinks HTC Thunderbolt Is Delayed Till March 4th, But Can It Be Trusted To Use A Calendar?

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in HTC, News, Rumors, Thunderbolt (Mecha)

Last Updated: October 10th, 2011

Among all the Thunderbolt delay rumors, here comes the latest one from the Roseville Best Buy #129. Their Twitter account, currently followed by 372 people, tweeted a few hours ago that the launch has been delayed further than we were anticipating - till Thursday, March 4th.

If true, this means earlier rumors of the February 24th and 28th launches will have turned out to be false, arousing even more suspicion around the reasons behind such a disastrous release of Verizon's first LTE handset. Are there last-minute problems with the LTE network? With the device itself? We don't know, but our curiosity sure is peaking.

Feb

Motorola XOOM System Dump Now Available To Download

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Development, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless, XOOM

This one's for you, developers: XDA user adub007 just posted a full Motorola XOOM system dump. What new and unprecedented goodies does it contain? That remains to be seen... feel free to download the 112MB (183MB when unpacked) file and start digging for yourself.

Android Police mirror

Source: XDA-Developers via Droid Life

Feb

Gmail App Updated For Gingerbread To Include Long Press To Copy Text

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Applications, Gingerbread 2.3, News

In a minor update to the official Gmail app, Google has addressed one of "the little things" that have been plaguing Android since the beginning. In this case, a lack of uniformity for copying text.

In all previous versions of the Gmail app, a user would have to press Menu, More, and then Select Text. Fortunately, this update fixes that issue by making copying text the same as in the Browser or a textbox: by long pressing it. It's not a huge addition, and is only available for those with devices running Gingerbread, but it is definitely a step in the positive direction.

Feb

Xoom 4G LTE Upgrade Will Require A Shipment To Motorola

Posted by Nate Kimmey in News, XOOM

For anybody who is planning to buy a Xoom tomorrow, we finally have an idea on how the upgrade to 4G LTE compatibility will work. Instead of just being a simple software update, you'll have to send your device to Motorola, which, while free, will take "up to 6 business days." The process will be available approximately 90 days after the Xoom is released, and will remain available for six months. Be warned, however - this may result in some unpleasant circumstances, as users are warned to backup their device before shipping it. The details should be available officially tomorrow, and will be found on Verizon's soon to go live Xoom 4G LTE upgrade page.

Feb

Cool Android Activations Visualization Shows Staggering Growth

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Android OS, News, Videos

We've heard a lot of numbers about the number of Android device activations per day in the past, but it's always nice to see it displayed visually. AndroidDevelopers has posted a very cool video that does just that, showing the number of Android activations throughout the world from the beginning - all the way back to the G1 - to January 2011. It's a nice reminder of just how far the platform has come. Take a look for yourself below.