News - 857/942 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Oct

Logitech Schedules Google TV-Related Event For October 6

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Google, Google TV, News

What do you think of when you hear the word "TV"? Fox News? Family Guy? Creepy Logitech ads?

If you just chose the third answer, it appears that, come October 6th, Logitech will finally have a chance to explain (or excuse) itself for that god-awful advertising campaign. Oh yeah, and the company will also introduce a "line of products for Google TV," which could end up being seriously awesome considering what Google unveiled at the I/O developer conference, but if I were Jerry Quindlend, Logitech CEO, all I'd be thinking of right now is the best way to publicly apologize for this.

Oct

Froyo Leak Available For Samsung Captivate Along With Numerous High-Fives

Posted by Brad Ganley in Captivate, Froyo 2.2, News

Over at XDA, user designgears got this leak from an anonymous source and, while we were initially skeptical of its authenticity, it does appear legit, according to the users who have flashed it. The instructions to install it are fairly simple for even inexperienced users:

Download the leaked file I897UCJI6-OCD-REV02-Low-designgears.exe (hit the source link at the end of this post).
Turn off your Captivate.
Launch the I897UCJI6-OCD-REV02-Low-designgears.exe file you just downloaded.
Hold down the volume buttons and plug in your Captivate.
Hit "Start" on the Odin program. Sit back and relax.

After that, you should be greeted by this in your "About Phone" menu:

The usual "not my bad if you break it" lingo comes in at this point but you were expecting that.

Oct

Samsung Pulls Update For Epic 4G, Community Begs To Differ

Posted by Brad Ganley in Epic 4G, News

Aw, snap! That update Sprint was supposed to deliver to the Epic 4g yesterday didn't happen due to "administrative issues" per this announcement from Sprint:

We learned this evening that there were administrative issues getting this software loaded to Google's servers. We don't yet have an expected time when this will be available but will update you as soon as possible. Please see the statement below that was sent by the Sprint Product Management team:

We were planning to release an update for your Samsung Epic 4G on 9/30. The file was delivered and on track for distribution but late this afternoon, we learned that an administrative issue prevented Google from releasing the update as we had planned. We are working to resolve the issue and will provide an update as soon as we understand the new delivery schedule.

Oct

T-Mobile G2 Units Shipping With Partial Internal Storage, Loose Hinges

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in G2 (Vision), HTC, News, T-Mobile

Nothing's perfect, and it looks like the T-Mobile G2 is no exception - according to the latest batch of complaints coming from users who received their devices ahead of the scheduled release date, units are shipping with only 2GB of internal storage, whereas HTC's G2 website lists it at 4GB. Since this just so happens to be the same amount of internal storage offered by the G2's international cousin, the Desire Z, Engadget speculates that a mix-up may have occurred somewhere along the line, a theory which, I am sure, is not far off. Hopefully T-Mobile will be able to replace these phones or provide larger microSD cards to make up for it, because if there's one thing us Android fans do well, it's causing a riot.

Oct

Swedish Carrier Telenor Offering Samsung Galaxy Tab Free On New Two-Year Contract, We Hope US Carriers Will Be As Kind

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Galaxy Tab, News, Samsung

Lest you were under the impression that the only way to get your hands on one of Samsung's hot new 7-inch Android tablets would involve letting around $1,025 trickle out of your wallet, Telenor Sweden has just unveiled its pre-order page for the Galaxy Tab, which prices the device at the magical price of FREE!

Of course, there are some complications, such as the fact that this deal requires you to sign up for a new two-year contract and that you'll be coughing up 369 SEK (about $55) every month thanks to Telenor's Surfa Bas plan. That may be quite a bit more than AT&T's $25 plan for the iPad, but then again, it's not like AT&T's offering Apple's tablet for free (quite the contrary, the versions with 3G radios are the more expensive ones), and besides, AT&T's offering is capped at 2GB.

Oct

Microsoft Files A Patent Suit Against Motorola Over Android

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Motorola, News

First it was Apple vs. HTC, then it was Motorola vs. us power users, and now it's Microsoft facing off against the third of those three companies.

That's right - Microsoft has just filed an ITC complaint against Motorola over infringements of nine patents allegedly violated in Motorola's Android-related devices. Although Microsoft did not specify the exact patents violated in their press release (which you can read in its entirety below), the company did say that they are related to "synchronizing email, calendars and contacts, scheduling meetings, and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power." I do not see how Motorola has violated any of these; what’s more, all of the violations mentioned are most likely built into the Android OS and therefore not Motorola's responsibility, but then again, sometimes companies make as little sense as the devices they push past the FCC.

Sep

Samsung Epic 4G Receives Update, 3G Gets Faster, 4G Gets More Capable, We Wish It Were FroYo

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Epic 4G, Froyo 2.2, News, Samsung, Sprint

To offset the not so successful news of the Samsung Vibrant's supposedly (but not actually) GPS-fixing update, Samsung has just rolled out software version S:D700.0.5S.DI18 for the king of the Galaxy S ring, the Epic 4G for Sprint. It isn't FroYo, but it does introduce a number of important fixes, including:

an issue where the battery would drain as a result of the cell modem continuously searching for available networks while on standby
an issue with 3G upload speeds
an issue with Amazon not being able to download music over 4G
an issue where large emails would be slow to upload

The update will be rolling out over the next few days and will be available in typical over-the-air fashion, with Sprint citing download times of around seven to eight minutes.

Sep

Verizon Device Roadmap Leaked: An LTE Tablet, And Global Radios Aplenty

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Devices By Manufacturer, HTC, LG, Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless

Having one device leaked is so last fiscal year, man. Verizon is hip to the new trend of leaking out details of all of your devices and giving people a heads-up to not buy phones that are out right now since they're just gonna get replaced anyway.

Androids aren't the only things on show, but forgive us for omitting those not relevant to the droid-heads (check BerryPolice.com, great site).

Motorola's got the lion's share of the devices. Starting with the Venus, a portrait QWERTY phone to be released this month that Engadget thinks may be similar to the Charm. It isn't mentioned whether or not the phone is a slider, but we do know that there is one out there somewhere.

Sep

FCC Approves Motorola's New i866 Android Handset... Without A Touchscreen

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Motorola, News

Motorola may have brought us the original Droid - one of the most game-changing Android devices ever - but with phones like the Backflip, the Cliq XT, and the Charm, it looks like they want to back down into the days of the Razr once more.

According to a recent FCC filing, Motorola will soon introduce a device with the model number i866, which will feature:

a dual keypad design with a numeric keypad on the front as well as a full QWERTY keyboard when slid open
iDEN technology, meaning PTT support (Push To Talk)
Android (we've confirmed it by looking at what you can see in the 2nd screenshot from the filing)

What it won't feature: a touchscreen.

Sep

Paid Android Market Support Comes To 20 New Countries

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Apps/Games, News

Last Updated: October 5th, 2010

A guest post by Eric Chu just went live over at the Android Developers blog, officially announcing the expansion of the Android market to 20 new countries. While we can't exactly say we didn't see this coming (and have an idea what countries it was coming to), it's nice to see nonetheless. It looks like Distimo's estimation was pretty dead-on, too: 11 of the 13 countries they listed are confirmed by Mr. Chu's post. The full list:

Support for paid application sales is now expanded to developers in 29 countries, with today’s additions of Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland and Taiwan.