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Certainly makes sense (get it?), doesn't it. Nearly every EVO owner I know has, at some point or another, complained about the fact that their battery life drops about 5-10% as soon as they unplug it. Well, it turns out that's because of there's an overcharge protection chip inside Li-Ion batteries.
App store analytics company Distimo has released a report reviewing the changes in the Apple, Android, Blackberry, and Nokia app stores in 2010, and the results are impressive for all four. To highlight a few points from the 28 page report:
It's not unheard of for tuners to throw a small PC into a car (commonly called a "carputer" in the industry). It's a lot less common for Android to appear in cars, though it does happen - GM has considered using it to power OnStar and has a Volt app, while the Roewe 350 rocks Android in a pretty hardcore way. We've yet to hear of aftermarket tuners taking advantage of Android - until now, that is. Chip tuner Superchips has released what appears to be custom software built on Android and running on the Archos 43.
Word around the web is that Skype is in the process of purchasing Qik for a cool $150 million. While not expected, the deal isn't exactly surprising, either: Skype is already a major player in the internet phone business, and in 2010, Qik substantially expanded its presence in mobile video calling and streaming. In fact, 2010 was huge for Qik: they expanded their customer base from 600,000 to 5 million users - roughly an eight-fold increase.
Looks like T-Mobile's not planning on resting on its laurels in the 4G tablet wars: they've just officially announced the Dell Streak 7 will be coming in the following weeks. At the same time, they're also promising to increase 4G speeds in the coming year, aiming to double download speeds. Impressive, especially considering just how far behind T-Mobile was in coverage just a few short years ago.
PhoneArena has stumbled across a brief YouTube video that pits the browsers of the upcoming LG Optimus 2X and iPhone 4 against each other. Unfortunately, there are few (read: no) details available on how the test was run, and there are only two "trials" - hardly scientific, but hey, it's something, right?
Sprint's just sent out the official press release announcing the HTC EVO Shift 4G, and it looks like just about everything we've heard is true - right down to the price. Need a refresher on what this baby EVO is packin'?
What a whirlwind year for Android. Although the T-Mobile G1 - the first Android handset - dropped way back in October of 2008, it arguably took until 2010 for Android to become feasible for the mainstream. In fact, when the Nexus One was released in early January, it was widely hailed as being the first true Android competitor to the iPhone, in no small part due to the advancements made with Éclair.
In an impressive display of nerdery, XDA member JsChiSurf (who you may remember as the guy behind the re-mapped EVO buttons and a shout-out in Fresh 3.5) has used a host of tools and tricks to create an app that allows him to use his EVO as a garage door opener. Check out the video below (it's on the longer side at nearly 4 minutes, but it's got all the details).
Many Android owners seem to have a love/hate relationship with live wallpapers - no matter how stunning they are, they generally zap performance and battery life too much to be used for long. Here's one that might work on both sides of the coin: meet Solar Wind LWP.
I've been avoiding this one for a few days because it doesn't really seem like much of an issue to me, but it hasn't gone away, so I've changed my tune. Maybe this post will help somebody from getting a Trojan - and that has to count for some brownie points or something, right?
Yesterday, CNN Money posted a rather interesting piece that posed the question: could Google become "your new phone carrier?" If you're anything like me (and I hope for your sake that you're not), your first response was "Google? A carrier? #$%^ Yeah!" But as awesome as I'm sure that would be, the more I think about it, the less likely it seems.
If Droid Life's sources are to be believed - and given their track record, I'd say they are - then the upcoming Honeycomb tablet from Motorola will be called the DROID XOOM. We've heard of Motorola filing trademarks for the XOOM name, so it would certainly seem to fit. One other tidbit mentioned by their source: the tablet won't come packing LTE.
Device updates that break root are fairly common - in fact, I'd go so far as to say that the majority of updates do so. What's a bit less common, though, is an update that resets your device because you're rooted. The device in question here is the NOOKcolor, and unfortunately it looks like that's exactly what's happening.
If you're ever looking for a good webcomic, look no further than Abstruse Goose. Case in point: today's Nexus S comic. There's not much to say about it, so here it is:
Oh, internet... we have such a love/hate relationship, don't we? Those of you who follow regularly know that I'm generally pretty skeptical of rumors and speculation - although I'm really not a contrarian by heart. This time around we have two similar, but fundamentally different, rumors floating around.
It's certainly been a good few days for Android gaming, hasn't it? And it looks like the trend is still going: the hotly anticipated Android version of popular iOS game Dungeon Defenders has just landed in the Market with a holiday price of $3. What makes the game so great? Aside from the fact that it's powered by the Unreal engine (!) - which means the graphics are superb - it's long been one of the best-rated iOS games on the market. And indeed, after just an hour on the Android Market, the game has 15 ratings for an average of 4.8 stars.
Fresh off the presses (read: Twitter), @SamsungUK has just tweeted saying that Android 2.2 (Froyo) is now available for the Samsung Galaxy S "on all networks." As this is SamsungUK,I'm guessing that means in the UK only, but I've tweeted back asking for clarification just in case - although whether I hear anything back is dubious at best. Regardless, I'll post here once we have some clarification. It looks like the update will have to be applied manually, through Samsung's KIES software.
If you've been holding out on buying any EA Mobile games, today's your lucky day - they're all priced at just $1. Oddly, we've heard no official word of this from EA themselves (rather, just an anonymous tip), so we have no idea how long the sale will last. A look at the Market confirms it to be true, although AppBrain takes a bit to update, so only two of the four titles show the sale price as of writing.