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Nov

Samsung Galaxy Tab Review: Getting A Handle On The Tab

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Galaxy Tab, News, Reviews, Samsung, Tablet Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Last week, Samsung was awesome enough to send us the T-Mobile variant of their Galaxy Tab for review. As of this writing, I've spent a full 9 days using the 7" tablet - more than enough time to get an intimate feel for it. Without giving too much away off the bat, I have to say that I'm fairly impressed with it, despite having a few minor niggles.

So what does the Tab do right, and where does it come up short? Read on to find out.

Hardware

Build

The first thing you notice about the Tab is that it's very solid; at nearly 14 ounces, it has a good heft without being too heavy.

Nov

White And Regular Editions Of Motorola Droid 2 Global Now Available From Wirefly For Half Of Verizon's Price - Just $99.99 On A New Two-Year Contract

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Droid 2 Global, Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless

So look, Verizon's price for the Motorola Droid 2 Global is nice (or at least pretty decent for a phone loaded with a 1.2GHz processor and dual GSM/CDMA radios), but it can't stand up to the deals you and I both know Wirefly's been cooking up. Well now the Internet's largest authorized retailer of cell phones has come out and made it official - it's selling both the white and the regular versions of the phone for just $99.99 with a new two-year contract. As for add-a-line plans, you'll be coughing up $129.99 , while existing Verizon customers looking to upgrade will be handing over $149.99.

Nov

Is Sprint About To Release 4G To The Bay Area?

Sprint 4G In The San Francisco Bay Area To Launch December 28th, 2010

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Epic 4G, EVO 4G (Supersonic), News, Sprint

Along with hundreds of thousands of people inhabiting the San Francisco Bay Area, I've been waiting for the Sprint 4G launch ever since Google graciously gifted us the EVO 4G powerhouses back at the I/O conference. In fact, it was June 16th, which happens to be my birthday, when I first noticed a strong 4G signal in Mountain View, not too far from Google's own headquarters. Little did I know back then that the wait was not over, and we wouldn't be getting 4G until the very end of the year.

I am glad to report that the cat is out of the bag, and the tentative when was finally let out by a Sprint rep via twitter.

Nov

Virgin Mobile USA's Cyber Monday Deal: $75 Off Samsung Intercept ($174.99, No Contract)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Deals, Intercept, News, Samsung, Virgin Mobile

The Black Friday is long gone, but another, potentially even bigger event, called Cyber Monday, is now upon us. Cyber Monday is what happens when the Black Friday goes online, and Virgin Mobile USA does not disappoint. The carrier, which uses Sprint's network, is offering its only Android handset, the Samsung Intercept, for a whopping $75 off. The deal is valid for the duration of Cyber Monday, so hurry up if you want this 800MHz Android QWERTY slider for $175, with free shipping. The beauty of Virgin Mobile USA, of course, is its plans starting at $25 a month, with NO contract to sign.

Nov

Sprint 4G Launches In Los Angeles, CA; Washington, D.C.; Miami, FL; Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, OH

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Epic 4G, EVO 4G (Supersonic), News, Sprint

As the Thanksgiving weekend is coming to an end, residents of Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Miami, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus can say thank you to Sprint today as well. The nation's 3rd largest mobile carrier announced that 4G, otherwise known as WiMax, is officially live in the aforementioned cities. This puts the Los Angeles area full 2 days ahead of schedule, as the 4G launch there was expected on December 1st. SF Bay Area next, please (the launch there is expected sometime in December)!

Go ahead, fire up your EVOs and Epics, and give the network a good test using the official Speedtest.net app (download below) - after all, your speeds should have increased about 10 times compared to 3G.

Nov

[Updated] Android 2.3 And 3.0 Discovered On Nexus One In Adobe AIR Performance Tests

Posted by Stephen Tenerowicz in Gingerbread 2.3, News

Note: As Frandroid has shown us via the comments below, the OS version and build are easy to fake, and the Honeycomb results were indeed faked by them. Whether the Gingerbread ones are also fake or not is not confirmed, but all signs point to that.

We just spotted Android 2.3 (aka Gingerbread) and 3.0 (aka Honeycomb) on Adobe's AIR Benchmark site, which was designed to test Adobe AIR performance on mobile devices. Interestingly, both new Android OS builds were running on a Nexus One, with no Nexus S or GT-i9020 (the handset rumored to be the Nexus S) in sight.

Nov

How To: Install The Android Market In The Android Emulator

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, News, Tips & Tutorials

Ever since I started developing Android apps, I've been baffled by the absence of the actual Android Market in the Android SDK. None of the virtual devices created for the emulator have the Market anywhere in the vicinity. Maybe Google is trying to reserve it for actual devices, so that you don't go rating or trying out apps on something that isn't even a real phone, but it makes it quite inconvenient for us developers because we can't easily install our favorite apps, such as the Astro file manager or DiskUsage. With necessary limitations in place (like disabling the rating functionality), Google should have included the Market app as part of the SDK to make the emulator experience closer to real life.

Nov

New Version Of MIUI ROM Now Rolling Out Over The Air, Bringing Built-In Theming, Better Folders, CPU Management, And Major Speed Increase With It

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Desire (Bravo/BravoC), Development, Froyo 2.2, Google, HTC, Milestone, Motorola, News, Nexus One (Passion)

The MIUI ROM is definitely one of those things you'll either love or hate, but judging by the waves the arrival of the latest version of the mod has been causing, the community (or at least most of it) is of the former opinion. And rightly so, if you ask me - the ROM is now even faster, features user-creatable (and downloadable) themes, and pinch-to-zoom on homescreens, among many other additions. While it still has a detectable iPhone aroma about it, it's arguably worth it, if for no other reason than the fact that its system animations zip along at 60 FPS, which is more than three times higher than those of a stock Nexus One.

Nov

Rovio Confirms Angry Birds Christmas Edition, Episode 5, New Birds, All Coming Soon

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Apps/Games, Games, News

It may only be Thanksgiving, which consequently means that December 25 (Christmas) is still a month away, but it looks like Rovio Mobile, the company behind the insanely popular Angry Birds, is already stocking up on Christmas gifts. Yes, a Christmas edition of Angry Birds no longer exists exclusively in your dreams - @RovioMobile, the company's Twitter account, recently replied to this tweet from @SkeenaNC:

with this message:

What "new things," you ask? Finnish website mtv3.fi yesterday acquired the following screenshot from what is presumably the Christmas version of Angry Birds:

That screenie does look a little squished, which could cause suspicion, but the company's Twitter account once again gave it all away:

The fact that the first annual Angry Birds fan meetup is going down on December 11th has caused some to mark that as the date for the game's release, but according to mtv3.fi, it will be here before November is out.

Nov

[Review] TeamViewer Lets You Remotely Control Your Friends' Computers, And It Does It Well

Posted by Brad Ganley in App Reviews, Applications, Apps/Games, News, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Yesterday, TeamViewer unleashed its beta app for Android on the world via their website and, boy, let me tell you, it is awesome with a capital "a." Of all the VNC viewers I've used on Android, this is the by far the best. Let's dive in a little bit and I'll show you why.

After you install and run the TeamViewer Android application, you'll be confronted by this screen:

So, at this point, it's fairly obvious you'll need a computer running the desktop software to go any further. In order for your Android device to play nicely with your computer, you'll need the version 6 beta of the desktop client, which you can grab here.