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Jan

Google Translate For Android Hits Version 2.0, Receives Conversation Mode, Updated UI

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Applications, Google, News

As far as Android translation apps go, Google Translate is still among the best available - sure, it isn't perfect, but it's free and for the occasional translation it'll suffice. To celebrate the app's first birthday, Google has updated it to 2.0 and added a new feature called "Conversation Mode."

Image Credit: Engadget

Conversation Mode allows you and your foreign friend to speak in two different languages before having Google Translate display the words you say onscreen in your native languages (as seen in the second screenshot above). For now, it only works with Spanish and English, and it has problems with regional accents, background noise, and rapid speech, but it's a start.

Jan

Sprint Holding Event On February 7th, Master Illusionist David Blaine Will Be There

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in News, Sprint

As a loyal Sprint customer, I must say - I was disappointed by the carrier's lack of announcements at CES. In fact, the only new phone they introduced was the HTC EVO Shift 4G, which offered little that we haven't already seen in a million other phones. But as it turns out, the nation's third-largest carrier isn't resting on its laurels; it was merely saving the more important announcements for its own event.

Indeed, Sprint has just sent out a handful of invites (see above) for an event on February 7 where "yet another industry first" will be announced. As usual, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse will be there...

Jan

Samsung Vibrant 4G Is Coming To T-Mobile With A Front-Facing Camera, Full 21Mbps HSPA+, And Froyo

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Galaxy S, Galaxy S 4G, News, T-Mobile, Vibrant

Last Updated: January 20th, 2011

Well, if there was any lesson against being an early adopter, let it be this: TmoNews has gotten ahold of some official T-Mobile slides that give details on the Samsung Vibrant 4G, an update to T-Mobile's version of the Galaxy S that will make any current VIbrant owner cringe:

Full HSPA+ connectivity
Front-facing camera with Qik (not Skype) pre-loaded and still no flash on the rear camera
Android 2.2 Froyo

By full HSPA+ connectivity, I mean that the Vibrant 4G is able to reach download speeds of 21 Mbps (2.6 MB/s) and above, while T-Mobile's current 4G phones, the MyTouch 4G and G2, are limited to 14.4 Mbps, or just under 2 MB/s.

Jan

Andy Rubin: Next Version Of Android To Be Called "Ice Cream Sandwich"

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

As you probably know by now, versions of the Android OS tend to be alphabetically named and include some sort of reference to a dessert. Therefore, it was only reasonable to assume that the version of Android following Honeycomb would be called "Ice Cream."

However, according to Andy Rubin, that is not the case - instead, the name will be "Ice Cream Sandwich."

We still don't know Ice Cream Sandwich's version number, the features it will introduce, or anything else about it, but for those of you interested in the reason behind the name, TechCrunch has a pretty good theory: Google's statue for Android 2.2 includes frozen yogurt, which would be pretty hard to distinguish from ice cream.

Jan

Editorial: iPhone 4 Is Coming To Verizon Wireless - Should Android Be Worried?

Posted by David Ruddock in AT&T, Editorials, News, Verizon Wireless

The big question on everyone's mind (well, at least ours) today is: How will the iPhone coming to Verizon next month change the smartphone landscape? At this point, it's anyone's guess, but Android's unabashed domination on the US's largest wireless carrier will certainly be challenged in the coming months. However, there are significant forces at work that won't exactly help the iPhone with its Verizon debut - namely, Verizon and Android. That's not to say the Verizon iPhone won't be a success, it's just a question of exactly how much of a success it will be. Here's our take.

Upgrade or Downgrade?

Jan

Sony Ericsson Confirms That Xperia Arc Running Android 2.4 Was A "Misconfiguration"

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News, Sony Ericsson, Xperia Arc (Anzu, X12)

During CES 2011 Sony Ericsson's newest smartphone, the Xperia arc, was sighted running Android version "2.4".

A few weeks ago there were rumours that Honeycomb, Google's next iteration of the Android platform, would actually be Android 2.4 and not Android 3.0. Although it was later confirmed that Honeycomb will indeed be Android 3.0, rumours suggested that an incremental update to Android was being readied. The About section of the Xperia arc, displayed below, appeared to confirm that there was indeed a version 2.4.

However, yesterday a post appeared on the Sony Ericsson Product Blog confirming that the version numbers "higher" than 2.3 appearing in the display of the Xperia arc phones was merely a "misconfiguration" and "nothing to get too excited about".

Jan

Distimo Pegs Android Market At 130,000 Apps - A (Nearly) Six-Fold Increase Year-Over-Year

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

App store analytics company Distimo has released a report reviewing the changes in the Apple, Android, Blackberry, and Nokia app stores in 2010, and the results are impressive for all four. To highlight a few points from the 28 page report:

The Apple App Store is still by far the largest, with roughly 300,000 apps. The Android Market is second at 130,000, the Nokia Ovi Store checks in at 25,000, and the BlackBerry App World manages a respectable 18,000.
In all 4 stores, free app growth outpaced that of paid apps. The App Store doubled in size, while the Market experienced nearly six-fold growth.

Jan

Android Soon To Be Used By Automotive Chip Tuners As Tuning Device/Carputer

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

It's not unheard of for tuners to throw a small PC into a car (commonly called a "carputer" in the industry). It's a lot less common for Android to appear in cars, though it does happen - GM has considered using it to power OnStar and has a Volt app, while the Roewe 350 rocks Android in a pretty hardcore way. We've yet to hear of aftermarket tuners taking advantage of Android - until now, that is. Chip tuner Superchips has released what appears to be custom software built on Android and running on the Archos 43.

The results are impressive, especially considering this is the first we're seeing of Android making its way into a device like this.

Jan

Rope Cut, A Cut The Rope Clone, Enters The Android Market

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Games, News

Back in October of last year, ZeptoLab, the maker of a very popular iOS game Cut The Rope, announced its tentative plans to port the hit to Android, albeit without an expected release date. We've waited for a few months, but the release didn't come (though, I'm sure, they're hard at work). Feelingtouch Inc, however, didn't want to wait and in the meantime developed and released a clone - Rope Cut.

Everything about Rope Cut is similar to Cut The Rope - it is, after all, a clone. The goal of the game is to cut the ropes on the screen in a certain sequence in order to grab all the stars and end up in the little snake's mouth.