Devices By Manufacturer - 81/546 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jan

First Official CyanogenMod 10.1 Nightly Shows Up For The Nexus Q

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Nexus Q (Steelhead)

It seems that the Nexus Q, while still not officially re-available in the Play Store, is apparently anything but forgotten. The device – which is codenamed steelhead – just got its first official CyanogenMod 10.1 nightly build. Neat-o.

Definition: A "nightly" is a bleeding edge release that is built on a daily basis, usually at night after a full day's worth of new code has been committed.

It could oftentimes be unstable and not properly tested, lacking any changelogs, but eventually evolving into alphas, betas, release candidates, and finally stable releases.

Installing this build works basically the same as other Nexus devices: boot into recovery and flash.

Jan

Cool: Use Your Android Tablet To Paint In GIMP, Just Like A Real Graphics Tablet

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Galaxy Note 10.1 (GT-N8000 / N8010 / N8013), News, Samsung

Any self-respecting digital artist these days uses a graphics tablet to pipe pen input into PC applications. The problem is that good graphics tablets like the Wacom Intuos line are pretty spendy. If you've got an Android device lying around and like to use the GIMP image editor on Linux, you've got all you need for a basic graphics tablet setup thanks to a new app.

The XorgTablet app and driver developed by the gimpusers.com team allow you to select your Android tablet as an input device in GIMP. You may be thinking that sounds interesting but limited – after all, graphics tablets are useful because of the pressure sensitivity, and capacitive screens don't have that.

Jan

Redditor Translates LG France Exec Interview, Revelations About The Nexus 4 Launch And Supply Problems

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, LG, News, Nexus 4

Since day one of availability, everyone's question about the Nexus 4 launch has been - in essence - what went wrong? Well, a lot of things. But number one on that list has been the very limited supply of phones available for purchase.

Recently, LG's head of mobile in France Cathy Robin was interviewed by French publication Challenges, shedding some light on the availability issue. Now, you could read a Google translation, but we all know how that goes - things get lost. Fortunately, Reddit user floflo81 has actually posted a human-translated version of the interview, which you can read here.

Jan

Larry Page On Apple's Thermonuclear War: 'How Well Is That Working?', Also Facebook Is 'Doing A Really Bad Job On Their Products'

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

It's hard to argue that Google hasn't been a significantly different company under Larry Page's leadership. If nothing else, it has certainly become more directly competitive. Mountain View has generally (though not always ) preferred to be passive in its approach to other companies, allowing the product to speak for itself (whether for good or ill), rather than outright antagonize others. Apparently all that reservation was just saving up for when Page would take the helm and let the zingers fly. In a Wired interview, the CEO had this to say on the subject of Apple:

Wired: Steve Jobs felt competitive enough to claim that he was willing to “go to thermonuclear war” on Android.

Jan

Sony's CEO Says He Wants To Focus On High-End Android Phones, But Is That Enough To Change Anything?

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, News, Sony

You can now count Sony among the smartphone manufacturers that have promised to narrow their portfolios, and move away from featurephones and other very cheap handsets.

Sony's CEO, Kazuo Hirai, speaking to Bloomberg, had this to say.

"We basically are out of the feature-phone business and in the Android-based smartphone business ... We are more in toward the high end of the market as opposed to trying to get into the commoditized portion."

So, what does that... mean, exactly? Sony's going to focus its phone business on the part of the phone market that's profitable? Shocker. Really, Hirai is just reiterating the company's new brand initiative - pushing Sony products as "premium" with unilaterally premium pricing.

Jan

Punit Soni, Motorola Mobility's VP Of Product, Promises To Deliver On Every Promise Moto Makes Moving Forward

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Google, Motorola, News

It's no secret Motorola has left a bad taste in customers' mouths over the last couple of years. Cancelled OS updates and broken promises have understandably left many owners vowing never to buy a Moto product again. Who can blame them, really – when purchasing a device, it's not unreasonable to expect good support moving forward. Unfortunately, that's just not something Motorola has been able to deliver on in the past.

Of course, when Google officially acquired Motorola Mobility back in May of 2012, we all hoped that would turn the tables for ol' Moto. Naturally, speculation ran wild – rumors of Motorola Nexuses and pure, stock Android devices were all over the Android community.

Jan

Samsung Releases Jelly Bean Kernel Source For The U.S. Galaxy Note 10.1 (N8013)

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Galaxy Note 10.1 (GT-N8000 / N8010 / N8013), News

Hot on the heels of yesterday's Jelly Bean OTA for the U.S. variant of the Galaxy Note 10.1, Samsung has published the matching kernel source code to its Open Source Release Center. This will allow developers to push the device to its limits, add battery-saving tweaks, and more.

For those who may have missed it, the U.S. Note 10.1 was the first of Samsung's Galaxy devices to receive Android 4.1.2 (all the other updates were 4.1.1). The update also brought some enhanced features to Samsung's Premium Suite, as well as all of Jelly Bean's added goodness.

If you're ready to get tinkerin', you can find the source code download right here.

Jan

Sprint Galaxy Nexus Android 4.2.1 OTA Update (GA02) Available For Download Right Now From Google

Posted by David Ruddock in Device Updates, Galaxy Nexus, Jelly Bean 4.2, News, Sprint

The official OTA update to Android 4.2 for the Sprint Galaxy Nexus has just hit Google's servers, and you can grab the build (GA02) right now. Here's a direct download link, originally found on XDA. Sextape at SXTP Developers posted yesterday indicating that a leaked version of this build would end up as the final OTA release. Here's the detailed build info:

post-build=samsung/mysidspr/toroplus:4.2.1/JOP40D/L700GA02:user/release-keys

md5: 4a023ce78c17c8256dfec8ae0615707f

File size: 102,838,616 bytes

So, now you're wondering how you go about flashing this build, right? Well, you can do it now, but it's not a one-step affair. I've placed instructions below, but proceed at your own risk - the OTA update will probably be going out through Sprint fairly soon, too.

Jan

[Deal Alert] Amazon Drops Price Of DROID DNA To $99 For New Customers ($149 For Upgrades)

Posted by David Ruddock in Deals, DROID DNA, News, Verizon Wireless

The DROID DNA is a phone I have little trouble recommending to most people, even if I can't say it's my very favorite piece of hardware out there. A 5" 1080p display, quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, great build quality, Verizon's near-ubiquitous LTE coverage - there's a lot to like about this phone. At $200 on contract, I might even say it's kind of a good deal already. But that wasn't low enough for Amazon. After dropping to $150 on contract back in December, Amazon has slashed another $50 off the DNA's price tag for new customers. You can pick one up for just $99 if you're a new Verizon subscriber, and if you're upgrading, the price remains a reasonable $149.

Jan

T-Mobile's Galaxy Note II Getting A Bug-Fix OTA, Patches The 'Exynos Exploit'

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Galaxy Note II, News, T-Mobile

If you have a stock Note II on T-Mobile, it's time to hit the "check updates" button, because a fix for that nasty Exynos bug is on its way. If you're not familiar with said bug, it basically allowed any app to root and gain full access to any Exynos 4-powered system. And that's a bad thing.

Fortunately, Samsung recognized the issue and started working on a patch almost immediately. It has already rolled out to the Galaxy S III in the UK, and now it's coming to the Note II on T-Mo. Hopefully other carriers will follow suit shortly.