Devices By Manufacturer - 407/546 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

HTC To Launch Two Bigger, Better Flyer Tablets With Honeycomb This Summer?

Posted by David Ruddock in Flyer, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, HTC, News

There's not a whole lot of specificity that comes with this information, but at the same time it seems pretty likely that HTC isn't putting all of its tablet eggs into the Flyer and EVO View 4G basket. DigiTimes is reporting that HTC is planning to release two Honeycomb tablets bearing the Flyer moniker later this summer, both with larger displays than the incoming Gingerbread version.

This doesn't come as much of a surprise, as the Galaxy Tab and other small, non-Honeycomb tablets have demonstrated that consumers want a device with a bigger screen and a proper tablet operating system. HTC, it seems, is going to be last of the major manufacturers to enter the Honeycomb tablet foray.

Mar

WiFi-Only Motorola XOOM Will Be Available At Costco March 27 (Sunday) For $599

Posted by David Ruddock in Motorola, News, XOOM

Great news for those of you holding out for that WiFi-only XOOM of your dreams: Costco has moved up its availability date for the LTE-less version of the tablet from April 1 to this coming Sunday, March 27. So if you walk into your local Costco this weekend, presumably the WiFi XOOM will be there to greet you for the reasonable price of $599.99.

But, if you order online, you'll get a couple of perks (even if it does mean you won't be getting your XOOM on Sunday). Namely, $10 off ($589.99), a free gel skin case, and free shipping. If you can't wait, you can pay $10 more at your brick and mortar location this weekend and let your XOOM go case-less.

Mar

Video: CyanogenMod 7 (Gingerbread) Gets Unofficially Booted On HTC Thunderbolt, Not Yet Usable

Posted by David Ruddock in Development, Gingerbread 2.3, HTC, News, Thunderbolt (Mecha), Videos

DANGER: There is a link to download this unofficial, unsupported CM7 ROM in an XDA thread linked at the bottom of this post. Use of that software is 100% at your own risk, and unless you're a developer, there's not much reason to be playing with at this point. There is no data connectivity, no sound, and no Google Apps. Consider yourself warned.

A number of Gingerbread-hungry developers (including some from the CyanogenMod team, particularly Slayher) are hard at work preparing CyanogenMod 7 for its Thunderbolt debut, and progress is steadily being made. In the video above, you can see CyanogenMod 7 successfully booting up on the HTC Thunderbolt (albeit without the signature boot animation) and running through various simple tasks in Android.

Mar

PSA: Don't Blame Root And Unlock For Thunderbolt's Network Issues - Verizon Is Suffering From 3G And 4G Outage

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in News, Thunderbolt (Mecha), Verizon Wireless

Droid-Life has just confirmed what Justin's been hearing: that Verizon's network is having issues. Apparently both 3G and 4G are affected, and Thunderbolt activations are also reportedly being held up. No word on what the issue is or what areas are affected, but Droid-Life has asked readers who are experiencing issues to drop a line with the details in the comments, so that would be a good place to check.

Justin Case and TeamAndIRC have been fielding complaints/accusations/questions from angry rooted Thunderbolt owners who think their root method may be to blame. Don't worry - that's not the case; your rooted Tbolt has nothing do with it.

Mar

ATRIX 4G To Receive First OTA Update - Doesn't Include HSUPA Or Call Quality Fixes, But You Can Sign Up To Test It

Posted by David Ruddock in Atrix 4G (Olympus), Motorola, News

Motorola is preparing to release its first over-the-air update for the ATRIX 4G (beta signup link here, open until Friday at 12PM EST), which should be exciting news for owners of the device, though it may end up inspiring more angst than joy.

The ATRIX 4G has been known in particular for two problems since its release: first, a lack of HSUPA (high speed upload) support in the software and, second, poor voice quality on phone calls. Motorola has promised to address both of these issues - just not right now. Moto has yet to release the change log for the incoming update, but the admin on the Moto forums who posted on it has made it a point to confirm that neither of the ATRIX's biggest annoyances are being taken care of in the impending release.

Mar

It Wasn't Just Verizon - The HTC Incredible S' Bootloader And Recovery Are Signed As Well

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Development, HTC, Incredible S (Vivo), News

Conspiracy theorists would have you believe that the ThunderBolt's signed (and locked) bootloader was all Verizon's doing, but it appears that isn't quite the case - the Incredible S, one of HTC's unlocked GSM phones, is shipping with a similar failsafe system. That basically means no custom ROMs for you (at least until a viable workaround is discovered).

Proof? Look no further than the contents of this Incredible S RUU:

From what our friends at AndIRC can tell (note that they don't have a device in hand), the Incredible S includes a signature check much like the one on the ThunderBolt.

Mar

HTC Releases First Ad For EVO 3D - Plays And Captures 3D, Makes Popcorn

Posted by David Ruddock in EVO 3D (Shooter), HTC, News, Videos

HTC launched the EVO 3D's ad campaign today with a YouTube video, and it's full of all sorts of multi-dimensional panning and various "woosh" noises:

Thanks Abhishek!

Mar

First One-Click Root + S-OFF For HTC Thunderbolt Out Now

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, HTC, News, Thunderbolt (Mecha)

If you've been looking to unlock your HTC Thunderbolt but have been putting it off until a one-click solution springs up, you may start rolling up your sleeves - you've got some downloading to do. dbzfanatic from xda released the first one-click easyroot + S-OFF, which uses AndIRC's lengthy, yet effective, instructions, but wraps them up in one easy to use package. The program runs on Windows and weighs in at over 800MB, so fire up your PCs and get ready for some heavy downloading.

This article deals with a couple of advanced topics. If you’re unfamiliar with some of the terms, hit up our primers here:

Rooting Explained + Top 5 Benefits Of Rooting
Top Android Apps Every Rooted User Should Know About: Part 1 (Apps 1-8), Part 2 (Apps 9-16)
Custom ROMs Explained And Why You Want Them
How To Fully Back Up And Restore Your Android Phone Using Nandroid Backup
How To Flash A Custom ROM To Your Android Phone With ROM Manager + Full Backup & Restore

Disclaimer: As always, Android Police, team AndIRC, and dbzfanatic accept no responsibility for any damage to your device, including potential bricking.

Mar

Rumor: Motorola Is Developing Its Own Mobile OS, Android "Shooting Itself In The Foot"

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Motorola, News

In what can only be described as a truly "WTF" moment, an inside source has informed Information Week that Motorola is in the process of developing its own web-based mobile OS. The question everyone is undoubtedly wants to ask is "why?"

The insider cites Motorola's frustration with Google's support of manufacturers, Android's fragmentation problems, and the difficulty of product differentiation in an Android-saturated smartphone market. These things together, says the tipster, have led Moto to believe Google is "shooting itself in the foot." The source of this rumor cites the fact that Motorola has quietly been picking up numerous former Apple and Adobe employees to work on the project over the past few months.

Mar

The Super-Thin Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 And 10.1: As Seen From Outside A Glass Box

Posted by David Ruddock in Galaxy Tab 10.1, Galaxy Tab 8.9, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News, Samsung

Yesterday at CTIA, Samsung unveiled its revamped Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the all-new Galaxy Tab 8.9 (check out our live coverage of the event). Unfortunately, that's about all Samsung did with them - neither was ever powered on. Samsung's CTIA exhibit housed the new devices in glass security cases (as you can see below), while early "prototypes" of the 8.9 and 10.1 running Honeycomb with Samsung's TouchWiz 4.0 overlay were available for hands-on time, in order to demonstrate some of the software the company plans to include when the devices are released.