News - 771/941 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Feb

Motorola XOOM User Guide Leaked, Now Available To Download

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

Sure, you've already spent hours salivating over the Motorola XOOM, checked out some apps built for Android 3.0, and even played with the Honeycomb emulator, but obviously, the one thing you've really been longing for is the XOOM's user guide.

Thanks to Droid Life, you can now sift through that clumsy collection of instructions you never would have read otherwise. Nonetheless, go ahead and download the guide if you so desire; we didn't discover anything previously unknown during our preliminary reading, but who knows - something new and exciting could be contained within!

Download link

Source: Droid Life

Feb

[Rumor] Toshiba's Honeycomb Tablet To Be Called "Antares"

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News, Rumors, Thrive / Regza / Antares / AT100, Toshiba

Last Updated: April 16th, 2011

Toshiba has already spend a good deal of time talking up its forthcoming Honeycomb tablet, but one thing the company hasn't mentioned - yet - is the device's name. However, if you believe Dutch website TabletGuide.nl, NVIDIA might have spilled the beans - at its MWC booth, the chip maker reportedly showed off a prototype of the tablet loaded with stock Android 2.2. And in the "About phone" section of the Settings app, the tablet listed "Antares" as its model number.

It's worth noting that this may not be the name of the final retail unit - not to mention the fact that a handset's model number isn't always the same as its title.

Feb

[Updated With Internal PDF] Confirmed: Samsung Epic 4G & Sanyo Zio Receiving Android 2.2 (Froyo) Update OTA On February 21

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Epic 4G, Froyo 2.2, News, Sprint, Zio

Earlier today, Android Central caught word that the Epic and Zio would receive an over-the-air (OTA) update to Froyo on February 21, but had nothing more than copied and pasted text from the Sprint system. Fast forward a few hours, and we now have more concrete evidence in the form a screenshots from Sprint's internal system that confirm the update is coming:

The image is courtesy of XDA member bentiger, and confirms his earlier statement that there was a Sprint internal announcement that the updates were rolling out:

I just saw an official release from Sprint Dealer News.

Software Updates: Samsung Epic (EB13, Froyo) & Sanyo Zio (2.200SP, Froyo)
Effective 2/21/11, software updates will be available for both devices Over-the-Air (OTA).

Feb

[Deal Alert] HTC Inspire 4G For AT&T Now Shipping From Amazon - $59.99 For New Accounts, $69.99 For Upgrades

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in AT&T, Deals, HTC, Inspire 4G (Ace, Stallion), News

How terribly boring were the last 2 months with regards to picking yourself up a new Android handset? We've seen hundreds of exciting announcements but practically no products to actually buy - end of December and January always seem to be those kinds of months. However, things are picking up, and one of the first new devices on the market fresh out of the oven is the HTC Inspire 4G for AT&T.

The device will cost you $99.99 + tax from AT&T, but on Amazon, where it just went live, it is available for $59.99 to new customers (including family plans) and $69.99 to those upgrading.

Feb

Battle Of The Best: AnandTech Benchmarks 27 Devices, Including 4 Dual-Cores, 3 iPhones, An iPad, A Blackberry, And A WP7 Device

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Atrix 4G (Olympus), Devices By Manufacturer, Galaxy S II, News, Optimus 2X (Star, p990), Optimus 3D (p920) / Thrill 4G (p925)

In what's sure to be a hit with hardware nerds, AnandTech has run a suite of benchmarks on 27 different devices. The line-up is dominated by Android, but also includes the iPhone 3GS (both on 4.1 and 4.2.1), iPhone 4, iPad, Blackberry Torch, and the WP7-powered HTC Surround. The results? Broadly speaking, Android comes out looking damn good. As for the dual cores - well, as you'd expect, they performed even better.

The hardware was all over the map, including dual-core devices such as the TI OMAP 4430-powered LG Optimus 3D, the Tegra 2-powered Optimus 2X, and the Exynos 4210-powered Samsung Galaxy S II, all the way through today's run of the mill (single core) high(er)-end devices packing A4's, Hummingbirds, Snapdragons and beyond.

Feb

ViewSonic Debuts The Dual-SIM V350 Android Smartphone

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Froyo 2.2, News, V350, Viewsonic

Another day, another well-meaning manufacturer launches an Android phone. Today it's ViewSonic's turn, and they've debuted the V350 Android 2.2 (Froyo) smartphone.

This lower-end smartphone features a 3.5-inch screen, 600Mhz processor, 512MB of memory, 5 megapixel camera and access to all the other standard Android apps and services.

Setting this device apart from the other countless Android smartphones is the two built-in SIM card slots; allowing the user to have two different phone numbers from (potentially) two different carriers on one single device. There are very few smartphones that offer dual-SIM technology and this in itself makes the V350 an appealing device.

Feb

Google Reader App Update Brings Widgets And Other Improvements

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, Applications, News

The Google Reader app for Android is streamlined, slick and easy to use. It performs one function and it does it well: reading your RSS feeds.

So, I was pleasantly surprised when the app updated today with some additional useful features.

Firstly, two new widgets have been added, one to show the unread count and one to display new stories in a news ticker format. The unread count widget can be set to show the number of unread stories in a feed, label, person or on all your items. The news ticker widget scrolls through any of the RSS feeds in Reader.

Feb

[Update: Now Confirmed] Motorola Atrix 4G May Launch Sooner Than Expected On February 22nd

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in AT&T, Atrix 4G (Olympus), News

A few weeks ago AT&T revealed that the Motorola Atrix 4G would be on sale from March 6th, but according to BGR's sources the netbook-smartphone hybrid may be launching as early as February 22nd.

Update: It's confirmed.

The earlier announcement also indicated that this highly anticipated phone would cost $200 with a two-year contract and $500 in total with the dock (if bought separately, the phone would cost $200 and the dock would cost an additional $500).

Early reviewers aren't exactly huge fans of this novel, albeit flawed device. The reportedly sluggish performance doesn't justify the excessive price of the dock.

Feb

Google Puts One Over Apple - Launches One Pass Subscription Service

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, News

Google has announced a new subscription service called One Pass, which will allow publishers to create a centralised system for "user authentication, payment processing and administration".

One Pass will take a 10% cut of the cash collected, with 90% going straight to the publishers. This will be a welcome alternative to Apple's draconian model which takes a significant 30% of each transaction. However, Google will also be providing publishers with the names and email addresses of subscribers, something which Apple has refused to do.

Furthermore, One Pass will work across multiple websites and platforms, so it will be possible to purchase content once and then view it on all your different devices.

Feb

[Updated] CyanogenMod 7 RC1 Now Available For 17 Android Devices

Posted by David Ruddock in Development, Gingerbread 2.3, News

Warning: This article contains information about flashing custom ROMs to your phone. If you're at all new to this, give our complete guide to custom ROM flashing a read.

Well folks, the day has finally come: the Gingerbread-based CyanogenMod 7 Release Candidates have landed for 17 Android devices. These "RCs" are suitable, generally speaking, for everyday use and have been road-tested enough that TeamDouche feels they're almost ready for prime time. Hit the links for the individual threads, which contain instructions and download mirrors: