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Those of you who are familiar with F7U12 (FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU) comics will appreciate this: developer Jor dan has released a Forever Alone widget for the stock messaging app. When your unread SMS count is 0, the widget displays the Forever Alone face. When you have unread messages, it switches to the happy Forever Alone face (coincidentally, is there an official name for that?) and shows the count.
We have some somewhat good news for Fascinate owners: a new, official, very final-looking Froyo build DL30 for the Samsung Fascinate has been leaked, and it's been released completely unmolested (short of pre-rooting it). Even the bloatware has been left intact.
Based on the press release and official video, Verizon's new VZ Navigator VX is awesome. Really awesome. Potentially better than Google Maps 5/Google Navigation - and yes, I can hardly believe I'm saying that either, since the new GMaps combo provides a hell of a punch. But check out the short (just over two minutes) promo video, and you'll see what I mean:
Ah, the power of open. A team of people (mainly developers) has come together to develop a new communication method for times when existing infrastructure just doesn't work. They've come up with two systems:
The title says it all, people: those enterprising individuals over at XDA-Developers (where else?) have conjured up a permanent root for the EVO Shift. As this is the first method available, the process isn't quite so easy as it's become for other devices. Still, it's not too outrageously complicated, either.
Been wondering when we'd hear more about T-Mobile's newest Sidekick? If so, today's your lucky day: TmoNews has some new info on the device, and a few blurrycam shots to boot. Perhaps the two most important facts: it will be manufactured by Samsung, and is apparently running Android 2.2.1.
It looks like a bit of an oopsie has resulted in Samsung's official Mobile World Congress (MWC) schedule leaking out. The details of the slip aren't available and aren't especially important, because this looks and sounds legitimate - especially since it (sort of) reinforces rumblings we've heard before.
This morning, I noticed an interesting thread in the EVO subsection of the XDA forums that claimed to be able to fix music streaming (which was broken in some apps after the latest OTA), while boosting 3G speeds by .2 to .6 Mbps. As the process is very simple and easily reversible, I gave it a go - but decided that I was going to use SpeedTest to benchmark the changes. Unfortunately, what I found wasn't what I expected.
Great news for those who have pre-ordered Notion Ink's first tablet, the Adam: they're starting to ship. Notion Ink has apparently just received their first large shipment, and posted their own unboxing and hands-on photos, while some pre-order customers now have tracking numbers in their hot little hands. Very exciting, no?
Oh, boy... what a mess this is. Earlier this week, a Motorola employee with access to the company's official YouTube account replied to a (now deleted) comment about their locked bootloaders with "if you want to do custom roms, then buy elsewhere, we’ll continue with our strategy that is working thanks." Issues about eFuse aside, that's a pretty poor thing to say from a customer service perspective. Apparently, Motorola recognized that fact after somebody posted on their Facebook page they'd be taking that advice:
Remember the mind-blowing Honeycomb UI that we saw a preview of during CES? Well, the absolutely beautiful clock widget from the update is now available for download. The free version offers the standard blue widget we saw on video, while the $1 paid version offers customizable colors. As our friends at Droid-Life point out, this marks the second app available that provides a taste of Honeycomb - we've been playing with the music player for some time now.
While only tangentially related to Android, a post on the Harvard Business Review by Eric Schmidt (the CEO of Google, in case you weren't aware) provides a glimpse of what he sees coming in the world of mobile technology. His post isn't especially long, and I'm not too keen on plagiarism, so here are Schmidt's three points:
XDA member Dysgenic was apparently unsatisfied with his current Android boot animation - so like any good Android lover, he decided to do something about it. The result: an ever-expanding list of absolutely awesome boot animations. Just take a gander at these two (there are currently 8):
Oh, Google, always so sneaky and humble. This go-round, they've quietly implemented support for mobile number porting into Google Voice, making the service even more convenient.
Boy, do we ever have some fantastic news for the AOSP ROM-loving crowd: CyanogenMod nightlies are finally back, meaning the first official CM7 builds are rolling out as I type this. Sure, they're probably moderately buggy (although generally, CM nightlies are still pretty good), and yeah, they may be missing some features - but let's be frank: it'll still probably be one of the most solid Gingerbread builds around, regardless of what device you're using.
A few weeks ago, Samsung USA tweeted that Froyo updates for the Galaxy S phones are being delayed due to further testing. Then, just 4 days ago, AndroidSPIN reported that the Vibrant update (if not others) wasn't rolling out so that the Vibrant wouldn't steal the Vibrant 4G+'s thunder. And now the saga continues, as a new anonymous source has stepped forth to clarify the issue.
Greek site Techblog managed to land an Optimus 2X, and took the chance to run Quadrant on the device - and damn, does the "binuclear [thanks, Google translate] NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor clocked at 1 GHz" ever manage to impress. It looks like the 2X is every bit the little monster we expect it to be: not only does it have a super-speedy browser, but it managed a 2,391 in Quadrant.
Every month, mobile advertiser Millennial Media releases their Mobile Mix, a report detailing where things stand in the mobile industry. This month marks a significant first, as well as some all-around good news for Android. Their highlights:
I'm not really sure how we missed this app when it was released way back in July, because it's damn cool. A company called Directed Electronics produces an automotive remote start kit that's called Viper SmartStart, and the kicker: it's controlled via smartphones. The app was available on iOS and BlackBerry for some time before being released for Android in July, and it's some pretty neat kit - check out the video (sorry, it won't embed because it's unlisted).