News - 788/939 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jan

Notion Ink Adams Start Shipping - Tracking Numbers Received, NI Posts Unboxing Photos

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Adam, News, Notion Ink

Great news for those who have pre-ordered Notion Ink's first tablet, the Adam: they're starting to ship. Notion Ink has apparently just received their first large shipment, and posted their own unboxing and hands-on photos, while some pre-order customers now have tracking numbers in their hot little hands. Very exciting, no?

First up are the shipping details, courtesy of Adam fanblog AdamLogs. Looks like the person behind the blog has found that there's now a link to "Check Pre-Order Status" on the Notion Ink website. Once you do, you can find your details and a tracking link:

And once you click on the tracking link:

They're also sending an email to those whose Adam is on its way explaining just that fact, and explaining how to track the order:

Dear Mr.

Jan

T-Mobile To Launch A Massive Pre-MWC Sale On February 11th - 12th

Posted by Josh Cooter in Deals, News, T-Mobile

T-Mobile is planning a huge sale on February 11th and 12th to kick off the new year, TmoNews learned today. According to a memo sent to T-Mo retail stores, "it is expected to be similar to the first half of the Father's day promotion," which reportedly reeled in over 100,000 new customer contracts last year.

Little else can be confirmed about the sale until more information is provided on February 8th, but we can be sure that it will be a knockout because each store is being told to "max out as many employees as possible for the first half of the day."

Curiously, the big sale goes live 2 days before MWC, where we expect to see a flood of mobile related announcements and product launches - clearly, T-Mobile is having the fire sale before it's too late.

Jan

Launcher Pro Updated With Homescreen Transition Effects [Video]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Development, News, Videos

Launcher Pro, my favorite launcher replacement, got updated today with a much requested feature - homescreen transition animations, available to all LP users, not just Plus. In addition to the usual and very smooth slide effect, we now have 4 more: Scale, Rotate, Flip, and Cube. All are smooth, except for the Cube transition, so I would advise against using it until Fede makes it a bit more snappy. Out of 5 transitions (including the regular slide), my favorite is definitely Flip. What's yours?

^{Excuse the poor frame rate in the screencast - unfortunately, that's ShootMe's max for the time being}

Source: Launcher Pro

Jan

Samsung Galaxy S 4G, Android-Powered Sidekick 4G "Coming Soon" To T-Mobile

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Galaxy S 4G, News, Samsung, Sidekick 4G, T-Mobile

So it's true: Samsung and T-Mobile have indeed built an HSPA+ version of the Galaxy S, although it didn't cause the Android 2.2 update for their current offering, the Vibrant, to be held back (contrary to what some had assumed).

Unfortunately, we don't know much about the phone yet - in fact, all we've been told so far is that:

It'll be called the "Galaxy S 4G" (not the "Vibrant 4G," mind you).
It will feature full HSPA+ connectivity, meaning that it will be able to reach theoretical download speeds of up to 21 Mbps. Up until now, T-Mobile's HSPA+ devices (the G2 and the myTouch 4G) have been limited to 14.4 Mbps.

Jan

Motorola Working On A Developer-Friendly "Bootloader Solution" After YouTube Comment Debacle

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Development, Motorola, News

Oh, boy... what a mess this is. Earlier this week, a Motorola employee with access to the company's official YouTube account replied to a (now deleted) comment about their locked bootloaders with "if you want to do custom roms, then buy elsewhere, we’ll continue with our strategy that is working thanks." Issues about eFuse aside, that's a pretty poor thing to say from a customer service perspective. Apparently, Motorola recognized that fact after somebody posted on their Facebook page they'd be taking that advice:

Does this mean they're doing away with eFuse? Maybe... maybe not. But at least we know they're exploring the possibility, and that a more modder-friendly Moto isn't completely out of the question.

Jan

Finally - Android 2.2 "Froyo" Update For T-Mobile's Samsung Vibrant To Start Arriving January 21st

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Froyo 2.2, News, Samsung, T-Mobile, Vibrant

In the past few weeks, we've seen multiple accusations portraying Samsung as the bad guy in the Galaxy S Froyo upgrade drama in the U.S. First, there were many delays, followed by the update finally rolling out pretty much everywhere outside the U.S. Then, all anonymous and unconfirmed, an accusation that T-Mo's new Vibrant 4G was the reason for the, possibly indefinite, delay and a report that Samsung charges U.S. carriers for Android updates, later denied by Samsung.

As it turns out, the truth is much less complicated, although we can't say for sure the recent hubbub that undoubtedly did some damage to Samsung's Android reputation didn't accelerate today's events.

Jan

The Beautiful Honeycomb Clock Widget Hits The Market

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Apps/Games, News

Remember the mind-blowing Honeycomb UI that we saw a preview of during CES? Well, the absolutely beautiful clock widget from the update is now available for download. The free version offers the standard blue widget we saw on video, while the $1 paid version offers customizable colors. As our friends at Droid-Life point out, this marks the second app available that provides a taste of Honeycomb - we've been playing with the music player for some time now.

The official feature list:

Features:
- beautifully designed Android 3.0 Honeycomb replica clock
- click to open alarm clock settings(currently stock android only)
- clean futuristic look

Download:

Free: Paid:

[Source: Droid Life]

Jan

Eric Schmidt In HBR: "Preparing For The Big Mobile Revolution"

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, News, Off-Topic

While only tangentially related to Android, a post on the Harvard Business Review by Eric Schmidt (the CEO of Google, in case you weren't aware) provides a glimpse of what he sees coming in the world of mobile technology. His post isn't especially long, and I'm not too keen on plagiarism, so here are Schmidt's three points:

Focus on developing LTE networks
Using mobile phones for commerce (to transfer money)
Smartphone proliferation - put smartphones in the hands of the poor

While short, it's an interesting piece; certainly worth a read.

[Source: Harvard Business Review]

Jan

Sony Ericsson Has Sold Over 9 Million Android Phones, Despite Fewer Sales Overall

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in News, Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson posted profits of 35 million euros ($47.14 million) in Q4 of 2010, due largely to major downsizing combined with a shift towards Android-based smartphones. Although Sony Ericsson sold fewer phones overall, Android enthusiasts will be happy to hear that they managed to sell over 9 million Android-based Xperia phones, including the X10, X10 Mini, X10 Pro, and X8, since their launch.

In the last year, Sony has made significant changes after reporting losses of 836 million euros in 2009 ($1.13 billion). A total of 4,000 employees were laid off and annual operating costs were reduced by over 880 million euros ($1.19 million).

Jan

Android Lovers, Meet Awesome Custom Boot Animations

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Development, News

XDA member Dysgenic was apparently unsatisfied with his current Android boot animation - so like any good Android lover, he decided to do something about it. The result: an ever-expanding list of absolutely awesome boot animations. Just take a gander at these two (there are currently 8):

Installation is essentially comprised of three basic steps: first, download the animation(s). Second, rename the one you're using "bootanimation.zip." Finally, use ADB to push it and overwrite the existing animation. Alternatively, you can use an app to handle the dirty work.

I've yet to try one myself (although I will later), so I can't speak from experience here, but I'd guess these may not be silky-smooth on lower end hardware (hell, it's giving my netbook a hard time - yay Atom).