The Android version of the world's most popular mobile browser, Opera Mini has just received an update. So far Droid owners only had access to the beta version of Opera Mini 5, but now they are getting an updated feature pack and the chance to enjoy a final version at the same time.

The optimized Opera Mini engine allows cutting on mobile traffic usage by as much as 90 percent, which should improve speed and decrease data charges at the same time. The latest 5.1 version is also designed to consume less system resources, being more suitable to low-end and mid-range handsets, wherehardware constraints are stronger.

Finally the Opera Mini 5.1 now gives the Android users the option to select it as the default browser. The Norwegian company hopes to match its success with the iPhone, who got its first official version not long ago. In the 24 hours following its release to the App Store, Opera mini registered over 1 million downloads topping the charts in every single country, where the Apple application store is available.

Android users, you can now head for the Android market and give the new version a try or follow this linkfrom your smartphone and get Opera Mini 5.1 directly from the developers webpage.

If you Recently switched from the iPhone to an Android phone (Good for you!), you may have noticed a bug where people who previously were sending you iMessages cannot anymore. There is a quick solution to this bug, however, so you can un-trap your messages.

TechCrunch reports that bug is apparently is due to the iMessage system not deactivating the service after you switch your phone number to the other device. Here the Steps to fix this issue:

• Go to: https://supportprofile.apple.com/MySupportProfile.do
• Log in if not already logged in.
• Click on "edit products"
• Click on the "x" to the right of the product.
• Click "unregister"

Android app virtualization specialists BlueStacks have announced a version of its cross-platform software support for Windows 8, adding titles created for Android phones and tablets to the Metro UI of Microsoft upcoming OS.

The new version of BlueStacks App Player software will come preloaded on some new Windows 8 PCs later in the year, the company has confirmed.

Information regarding an upcoming HTC Android smartphone has just leaked on the web. Known as the Runnymede, it is going to be the first phone born out of the HTC and Beats by Dr. Dre collaboration.

The specifications of Runnymede are as follows:

• 4.7-inch, 800x480 display
• 1.5GHz single-core Qualcomm MSM8255
• 768MB RAM, 16GB internal storage
• 8 megapixel rear camera with LED flash, backlit sensor, 28mm wide-angle lens and f/2.2 focal length
• 720p video recording at 60fps
• 1.3 megapixel front camera
• DLNA
• Less then 10mm thick
• Android 2.3.4, Sense 3.5
• Bundled Beats by Dr. Dre headphones

The specs of the device puts it a notch below the likes of the HTC Sensation and Galaxy S II. Only interesting bits are the massive 4.7-inch display, camera specs and the Beats Audio technology, along with the bundled headphones.

HTC Start Sending Invitations to its next major event and it will take place on February 26. Look like HTC will announce its new smartphones the day before the MWC 2012 starts.

Perhaps HTC really has something special for the MWC this year. It may be the rumored Android ICS powered HTC Edge with a 720p screen and a quad-core CPU, it will be the first Quad-core Android phone for HTC.

HTC already announced devices a second round is ready to be unveiled after the first one for the HTC Sensations and Evo 3D line.

A reliable internal source received information about an April release of Android 4.0 with HTC Sense 3.5 for the HTC Desire S, Desire HD and Incredible S. The three devices will receive the new firmware on different days during the month, and will follow the upgrades of the Sensation family (February) and the EVO 3D.

The HTC Primo will be targeted as a mid-range Android smartphone running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. However, it seems that HTC will be moving to make its premium audio experience with Beats Audio Integration, more widely available and the mid-range Primo will be bundled with Beats Audio.

The latest image of the HTC Primo depicts a device with a 3.7-inch screen without any Android navigation keys. Using onscreen navigation keys instead. The device will feature Gorilla Glass but it is unclear if this will be the new Gorilla Glass 2 screens that were introduced at CES 2012. The phone will have a dual-core 1.0 GHz Snapdragon CPU, 512 MB RAM, and rear-facing 5-megapixel camera with 720p HD video capture.

Planning to buy an HTC smartphone ? Do Not expect HTC to pack a Beats headphones or earbuds with the Evo 4G LTE, One Series or any of its smartphones for the time being.

HTC is shelving the idea. One lesson the company learned from last year Sensation XL and the Rezound, that customers do not really choose smartphones based on the headphones even headphones with a brand as recognizable as Beats.

"An accessory like the headphone doesn't factor in when someone is buying a smartphone. If they want a Beats headphone, they'll buy it directly." Martin Fichter, HTC Product executive

Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3 update is already available for the HTC Sensation and Sensation XE smartphones. The new ROM is about 300MB in size and we suggest doing a backup before applying it.

ICS has been available in Germany and the Nordic region since March, while Malaysian users also got the update two weeks ago.

Since the beginning of April users from the UK, France and the Netherlands have reported getting the ICS update. We assume that more countries will be joining this list in the upcoming days. We can also confirm Sensations in Pakistan are being updated as well, so the update rollout should continue in Asia as well.

UPDATE! 18,April

HTC One X Firmware 1.28 is Now Available worldwide addressing Wifi bug and battery life Improvements, Middle-East region also got Arabic Support along with the Update too.

The HTC One X has a power management problem according to some developers over the XDA forum who are wooing on creating custom ROMs. The problem is that an NVIDIA power control app known as "NvCPLSvc.apk" was misplaced in the /system/bin folder, rather than its proper location in /system/app.

The Developer "mike 1986" posted an unofficial fix that puts the APK in the proper location. The problem involves Tegra 3 power management controls and is obviously only on the international variant of the model, which comes equipped with the quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor under the hood.

The incorrect APK placement is costing the HTC One X user 10% to 20% of his battery life. The fix that was posted on the Xda forum claimed to recapture that missing battery life. If you want to try the fix on your One X head to the source link below. We suggest to wait until the One X Firmware 1.28 release, as it will address all battery issues, including this bug too.

HTC rezound alresy got an ICS RC-1 back in March, This new leak is version 3.13.605.7 RC-2 (the one from March was 3.11.605.22) and also includes a new radio baseband. Keep in mind that this is still not official but a BETA testing ROM before the actual release , so there is always the possibility that it may still contain bugs and damage your phone. But those of you who are feeling adventurous can give it a try.

Change-log:

• Facebook force close when you tap a video album

• Roaming charges when in Canada & Mexico

• Resets

• "Android updating" message on power up

• Camera not launching

• Hotspot turning off after 10 minutes

• Exchange mail account removed after FOTA

• Car dock limiting charging current

• "Set Current Date" popping up frequently

• BUA+ (multiple issues)

• Flash player removed

• OTA over incorrect APN

• OTA SW update time

• Camera dark when using Facelock

• Text field difficult to read

Source

Today, HTC has officially announced the HTC Desire C as the successor of HTC Explorer, The deivce brings all ICS features on avery affordable price (around $270 or 180).

Desire C Full Specifications

The Desire C powered by Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich with Sense 4.0 on top out of the box. It also features Beats Audio technology (no headphones included in the box) and packs a 3.5" LCD of HVGA resolution.

The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 chipset with a CPU clocked at 600MHz. The actual chipset model number wasn't announced, but it is probably the MSM7225A with a Cortex-A5 CPU and 512MB RAM.

The HTC Desire C brings some more upgrades compared to its predecessors. The camera is a 5MP unit with F/2.8 aperture and 34mm focal length (in 35mm equivalent). You also get 4GB of built-in storage (plus 25GB cloud space from Dropbox for 2 years), a microSD card slot, 3G with 7.2Mbps HSDPA, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi and USB 2.0. The battery has 1230mAh capacity and it's user-accessible.

MobileGo is a fantastic application, designed to interact with many aspects of your Android phone. The big difference to other applications for Android is that it does not run on your phone it runs on your Windows computer and offers up several tools, all of them beneficial and enhancing. In this review I will be explaining and critiquing these features.

How It Works

First off, you need to know that MobileGo can work either through a USB connection or over a local WiFi connection. You must have USB debugging enabled in Settings > Applications > Development. Having this option toggled as On opens up several software APIs and ports on your phone for external applications to use. These accessways into your phone must be open for MobileGo to do its stuff.

Upon connecting via your USB cable, MobileGo automatically remotely installs its daemon program on your phone. If you wish to operate over WiFi, then during your first startup of the computer application you should see a choice of connection displayed on the left hand side of the Home pane. Click on "WiFi Connection Guide" to be given instructions of how to install this daemon seperately so MobileGo can access your phone over the air; it only takes around five minutes.

Interface

The interface is minimalistic for most functions, and sports a crisp and clean layout which could not be better for a productivity- and convenience-oriented application. The primary functions of MobileGo are listed along the top of the application window as large clickable icons. Clicking one of them modifies the main pane of the window to reflect the function chosen. I will review these functions pane-by-pane.

Home

As you can see in the screenshot below, the first thing you are presented with upon successfully connecting to your phone is the Home pane, which is predominantly a break-down of its storage usage, along with a formal model name and Android operating system version.

The memory representations resembles how iTunes displays its memory analysis of an iPod. If you are not familiar with this information layout, then look for the colour keys underneath the bars; in my screenshot, green represents music, and orange represents movies. Next to the key is the exact amount of space each media category is taking up on your phone, although the visual representation helps you better understand the scale of your usage. You can see here that I am a far bigger fan of listening to music on my phone than watching movies.

Since I am not using even half of my SD card memory yet, this visual guide really serves only as a convenient reminder of my usage patterns. If people start to run out of space, however, they could use this to decide what they need to cut back on. The internal phone capacity is also listed below the SD card capacity handy, if you want to keep track of how much space is left.

Back Up Your Phone to Your PC

This is not a button across the top of the screen; instead, this feature is placed underneath the Phone Storage Information in the Home pane. There are many Android-based applications which offer you safekeeping of your contacts and applications, but most slow down your phone whilst doing it and only back up to your SD card, meaning that if you lose your phone your contacts still go with it, even though they are "backed up". Some alternatives, like Lookout Mobile Security, do genuinely backup your contacts remotely on their servers, but it is still a time-consuming activity that involves a load of complications when you come around to restoring them.

MobileGo is different. Since it has a whole computer at its disposal, it offers you the opportunity to back up all of your contacts, SMS messages, and applications to your computer in one fell swoop. I cannot emphasise how convenient this is. People always forget the importance of keeping their data safe, assuming that modern hardware is unbreakable or the software is so finely made that it will not crash. That is not true. Your phone can be damaged and software canmess up. Even if it is only once a month, leave for your phone plugged in for about fifteen minutes, and get that data sent over your contacts especially, since they are more awkward to get back than you may think. It potentially saves you a lot of time and hassle in the long run, believe me.

The file that MobileGo exports to is a custom filetype, meaning that only MobileGo can restore it again if it becomes necessary. The downside is that this does bind you to using MobileGo, which some people may not be so happy about.

Contacts

This pane displays all the contacts you have stored in your phone, including those pulled in from other resources like Google Mail. In this pane, you can choose to send a message , assign groups to your contacts, or import and export them. The Groups feature helps you keep track of who is who in your life; for instance, you know that if you are at work, the people in Coworkers need to be focused on more than those in Friends.

Of course you can also add and delete contacts in this window too. Clicking "Add Contact" in the top left corner of the pane gives you a detailed selection of various data fields you may want to fill in about somebody. Once confirmed, the contact is automatically synchronised to your phone.

SMS

One of the things I love most about MobileGo is the ability to manage your phone text messages from your computer. Not only can you sort through and view them, but you can actually compose and send them too excellent if you have a job that frowns on texting at your desk! The phone can be in your pocket, and you can send and receive texts over WiFi from your computer. Fantastic. Naturally, messages are sorted however you like, by contact, time, etc, and are exportable for being saved and viewed elsewhere, perhaps if they contained important data.

Music

Adding music is simple enough, just click on the big "Add Music" button on the left. You can select multiple tracks or folders to be imported at the same time. To my understanding, iTunes formatted files, MP3s, WAVs, AACs, and FLACs are all supported for automated conversion to allow for playback on your phone.

Alternatively you can drag and drop the music files into Mobile Go Music pane and it will synchronise them for you in the same was as if you had chosen to "Add Music". Both methods automatically maintain a good folder hierarchy and title convention.

A further handy feature is a "Set as ringtone" drop down box. This saves you the hassle of setting a ringtone through the moving files around on your SD card and then selecting them in Android. Now you can simply right-click a track, hover over "Set as ringtone", and choose whether it is your call, alarm, or notification tone.

Movies

In case you did not already know, I should explain that the movie file types your phone can play depends not only on your phone type, but also on its resolution, and the precise encoding style can vary too. You may have tried to copy a small clip to your SD card, only to find that the clip would not appear in your gallery, and if it did it was not playable. By choosing to "Add Movie", you can select several files and they will be automatically resized and formatted with respect to your phone. For example if I get bored I can watch Family Guy from a Wildfire friendly 320×240 mpeg-4(mp4) file.

Photos

For me, it used to be a pain to get photos off of my phone. Once I had taken them, I had to either plug my phone into the computer and browse through folders.

MobileGo quietly reaches into your phone and grabs all of your photos, then arranges them on a grid for you to enjoy. This is far better than most inbuilt galleries and definitely better than viewing them through a USB cable and Windows Explorer. If you see a photo that you want to export, right-click it, click Export, select a destiniation folder, and it is done. You can use Ctrl and Shift to select multiple photos, just as in Explorer.

The Photos Pane (I like Androidify)

DOWNLOAD HERE (FREE!)

At a recent Dreamforce conference in San Francisco Eric Schmidt has confirmed that Ice Cream Sandwich, the next Android version, will debut this October or November.

The next droid OS is said to combine Honeycomb (Android for tablets) with Gingerbread, with no home-brewed UIs and with a unified look and more.

Video Below!

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Font
Among the first new features championed by Google at the Hong Kong media event was a brand new typeface for Android in the shape of the easy-to-read "Roboto." Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich System Bar and Action Bar.

At the launch event, Google showcased a host of virtual buttons that appear at the bottom of the screen in some apps and allow users access to areas of the device like phone and contacts.

These are located in the System Bar present in all apps and enables you to navigate instantly to Back, Home, and Recent Apps. Virtual buttons are present across all apps, but can be dimmed by applications for full-screen viewing.

You can also access the contextual options for each app in the Action Bar at the top of the screen.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich voice control
Android 4.0 introduces new voice input engine, You can dictate the text you want, for as long as you want. After dictating, you can tap the underlined words to replace them from a list of suggestions.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich multitasking
Multi-tasking has also been given a boost and with ICS it's easier to see which apps you've been using recently. If you decide you're done with using one, you can easily flick it away to close.

Google says it has made multitasking "even easier and more visual" on Android 4.0. The Recent Apps button lets users jump instantly from one task to another using the list in the System Bar. The list pops up to show thumbnail images of apps used recently tapping a thumbnail switches to the app.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Face Unlock
Perhaps the most 'Star Trek' of all the new Android 4.0 features is a new piece of functionality called Face Unlock which, as the name suggests, unlocks your handset based on facial recognition tech.

You can also do more without unlocking. As in iOS 5 you can jump straight to the camera. You can also pull down the notifications window.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Home Screen folders
Like iOS before it, Android is now getting home screen folders too. You can group apps or shortcuts together and, as with iOS, you can do this just by dragging icons on top of one another.From the All Apps launcher, you can now drag an app to get information about it or uninstall it should you wish.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich notifications
Notifications have also been improved. On larger devices - tablets - the updates appear in the System Bar, while on phones the notifications roll down from the top of the screen as before.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich favorites tray
On phones and other "smaller screen devices", there is now a customisable favorites tray. You can put anything you want here apps, folders, shortcuts - whatever you want check out this screen:

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich widgets
As in Honeycomb, you can now resize widgets on phones too. As in that OS, the widgets in 4.0 are designed to be far more interactive, enabling you to flick through appointments, play music and more.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich data
Android 4.0 includes new graphical displays so you can see how much data you're using and how much you have used over Wi-Fi or cellular. You can also see the amount of data used by each running application.

Warning levels can also be specified, as well as determining how much background data apps can use.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich camera
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich also brings some much-needed improvements to Google camera UI, which the company says it has been working on with Samsung.

ICS devices, and the newly announced Samsung Galaxy Nexus in particular, will have 1080p video, zero shutter lag, a new picture-stitching panorama mode, easier sharing and Instagram-esque filters.

In the panorama mode, you can start taking the picture and then move the camera. The phone assembles the full range of continuous imagery into a single panoramic photo.

"When taking pictures, continuous focus, zero shutter lag exposure, and decreased shot-to-shot speed help capture clear, precise images," says Google. "Stabilized image zoom lets users compose photos and video in the way they want, including while video is recording. For new flexibility and convenience while shooting video, users can now take snapshots at full video resolution just by tapping the screen as video continues to record."

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Apps & Beam

The People app does what many manufacturers have been doing on Android for ages bringing together various social networking feeds into one place, This offers richer profile information, including a large profile picture, phone numbers, addresses and accounts, status updates, and a new button for connecting on integrated social networks.

The Calendar app has also been updated to bring together different calendars, while the email app can now autocomplete responses and is able to store oft-used replies.

The web browser is also improved especially in terms of speed and now allows up to 16 windows. You can now sync it with Google Chrome and the browser supports offline browsing it can save versions of web pages you choose.

There is also a new NFC-based app called Android Beam, which allows two phones to exchange a wealth of information, just by holding them together.

Google has launched the Android Design site, a page of guidelines, design principles, UI best-practice and style shortcuts for developers working with Ice Cream Sandwich. Made up both of guiding principles for apps and interfaces, such as "delight me in surprising ways" and "let me make it mine", as well as the actual building blocks of an Android UI, including tabs, seek bars, switches and spinners, the site marks Googlemost obvious attempt to-date to get all Android coders on the same style-sheet.

Much of what we saw and praised in Ice Cream Sandwich is being put forward as best-practice by Google today. The People hub, new in Android 4.0, is used as an example of using pictures instead of words, while the shift from physical buttons to virtual and the changing context menu is used to push the idea of not overwhelming people with too much at any one time.

AppTech new ReconAge Android app rocks. Relying on a proprietary technology developed in partnership with Cognitec Tecnologia Brazil and data processing specialist BrScan Tecnologia, it can recognize the approximate age of anyone using the phone's built-in camera to take pictures.

Available as a free download, the application is made to demonstrate the power of this patented technology called FaceMidia. which will be able to ascertain the age, gender and ethnicity of their audience and evaluate whether they are advertising the right products to the right demographics.

Verizon announced during its earnings call today that 15 million Android phones were activated and nearly 11 million iPhones were sold. This news comes after the largest wireless carrier in the United States activated a record of over 4 million iPhones in the fourth quarter.

Apparently these numbers were not too impressive as investors punished the company stock because costs associated with offering the iOS handset weighed heavily on Big Red earnings.

Despite a point of contention over the true nature of these applications, a string of 13 apps have been identified as potential threats on the Android Market. One of the largest security software makers in the business, Symantec say they have identified these applications and relate them to a botnet-like virus called Android.Tonclank.

The applications in question run a type of malware called Android.Counterclank. Botnets spread from a host command computer and take control of other device via means of spam messages or in this case, malicious applications.

Un-install These Apps Immediately, If you already have them!

Symantec already say millions of users could be affected and they consider the damage level to be "medium" with regards to data and identification theft. So far a list of 13 applications have been identified on the Android Market as malicious, with the majority of them being mobile games of some form.

According to a study by Crittercism on Android and iOS, both platforms have their share of apps that crash and it shows that iOS apps crash more often. The company which specializes in providing real-time crash reports for mobile apps evaluated reports over a period of one month and found that iOS apps crash quite a lot more than their Android counterparts.

In the first of the three quartiles we got data for, iOS apps crashed after 0.51% of all launches, whereas Android apps only crashed in 0.15%. In the second quartile the picture is similar with iOS apps crashing in 1.47% of the cases, whereas Android apps did so 0.73% of the time. Things are much closer in the third quartile 2.97% crashes for Android vs 3.66% for iOS.

Crittercism even gave us a detailed breakdown of the most problematic releases by OS. As it turns out, iOS 5.0.1 generates more than a third of all iOS crashes 33.93%, while iOS 4.3.5 is the second most problematic with 10.62%. That sounds quite believable as these two software versions are the two latest releases of iOS4 and iOS5.

Google Has just released the Chrome browser  for Android. This beta version is currently only available for ICS phones and tablets and like its desktop progenitor, the synced settings and bookmarks are all in tow. Expect to see a new, more natural mobile view of the tab system.

It will also remember what you were last looking at on your desktop Chrome browser, and sync it across to your mobile device it is like Kindle or iBook bookmarking system, but for the web. Your autocorrect content from the desktop is similarly synced.

You can now bring your personalized Chrome experience with you to your Android phone or tablet. If you sign in to Chrome on your Android device, you can:

• View open tabs: Access the tabs you left open on your computer (also signed into Chrome) picking up exactly where you left off.

• Get smarter suggestions: If you visit a site often on your computer, you'll also get an autocomplete suggestion for it on your mobile device, so you can spend less time typing.

• Sync bookmarks: Conveniently access your favorite sites no matter where you are or which device you are using.

Chrome for Android Beta is available on phones and tablets running Android 4.0+, Ice Cream Sandwich in the Following Countries:

• United States

• Canada

• United Kingdom

• France

• Germany

• Spain

• Australia

• Japan

• Korea

• Mexico

• Argentina

• Brazil

Chrome For Android [Market]

Demo Video Below!

We saw some rumors about a Google-Android Home Entertainment device a while ago, Today, We can confirm that Google is allegedly working on creating her own entertainment device capable of streaming music in multiple locations within a house. Imagine a Google Music Player that uses latest NFC integrations and Android OS around you gomee.

The information about the Google-branded device comes from a "Wall Street Journal" report from unnamed people briefed on the project. If true, it would mark the Google first attempt at creating a hardware product without the aid of an electronics manufacturing partner. The search giant is concentrated recently on its open-source Android operating system software for mobile and streaming media devices.

Did you ever thought about using your Android Smartphone as your Desktop PC ?

Well, Christian Cantrell did thought about it. Cantrell posted an 8 min Video on his Youtube channel showing how he used his Samsung Galaxy Nexus as a Desktop PC with Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.1 (Not rooted) with some cables (that you may already have!) which will only cost you about $20-40 ONLY.

Cantrell showed that with only some cables and a little experience can make a useable Android-Desktop Computer with a big screen, Android devices Nowadays have enough CPU and RAM to do this, Here is the Stuff that Cantrell used to create the Android Computer:

• Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Not-Rooted)

• LCD Screen

• MHL cable for the Galaxy Nexus (for Display)

• MicroUSB Cable with a USB Hub

• 3.5mm Cable for Sound output

• Galaxy Nexus Charger to charge the phone while using

• Keyboard (wireless)

• Trackpad OR Mouse (wireless)

Ice Cream Sandwich Software buttons

He also showed how useful is the Ice Cream Sandwich Software Buttons as he no longer need to touch his phone, He can simply use his trackpad or mouse to click on the buttons which appear on the right-side of the screen as you can see on the screenshot above. So you have sound-output, Display-output, Wireless control, wifi ,Internet access and your phone is charging at the same time. What you need else? pair of bluetooth headset and you are good to go (or good to stay home!).

Chrome For Android and More

He shoed on the video Chrome Beta for Android running very smooth, Google Music, Notes, Facebook, Folders, Search, Gallery and all other Apps with no lag or anything. So, How much it will cost you to do that ? $20-40 depending on the cables prices that may vary between phones and retailers.

Rockstar keeps delivering great news to gamers around the globe today. First it was the new trailer of the upcoming Max Payne 3 and now the game studio confirms that the original Max Payne game will hit iOS and Android devices "very soon".

The news came from a Q&A session hosted on the Rockstar website, where a fan asked whether Max Payne will be ported for mobile devices and Rockstar responded "Yes, it's on its way".

This is not going to be the first time Rockstar launches its older game titles on mobile platforms. In fact it is quite understandable that after the successful release of Grand Theft Auto III, Max Payne is on his way.

Android had pretty tasty Names from the begins: Alpha, Beta, Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich... and Now Jelly Bean. They all alphabetically organized with a name of a tasty-sweet inside. After announcing that the Android 5.0 Jelly Bean (JB) is coming in Q2, 2012... We start thinking about the Future version of Android 6.0 Name!

Rumors suggest that the Upcoming Name for the Android 6.0 will be "Kendal Mint Cake" (KMC) which begins with a "K" and its a 3 parts name like the Ice cream sandwich and its a sweet ofcourse. So this is the Most likely Name for the Android 6.0 which might be released by Early 2014.

It seems ZTE just could not wait for MWC to announce two of its upcoming Android smartphone. Both of these new phones will be running on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box.

The first one is the PF200, which will be a high-end model. It has a 4.3-inch display with 960 x 540 resolution, 1.2GHz processor, 8 megapixel rear camera with a 1080p front facing video camera, LTE, DLNA, MHL and NFC connectivity.

The second one is the N910, which should be a mid-range model and will work on CDMA networks. It will have a 800 x 480 resolution display of unknown size, 1.5GHz processor (likely to be single-core), 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, 1080p front facing video camera, LTE, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and DLNA connectivity.

The popular free call making and SMS sending Viber for Android has received the long-waited update for Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 devices.

Not only the update allows Viber to work properly on Ice Cream Sandwich devices, but also brings some bug fixes and new features to the table.

One of the most important ones is a new Voice engine, which should improve voice quality over the previous versions. The app can now even detect your location with a single tap and share it with your messages. Also Viber can now send and receive photos and supports landscape mode for messages, if you desire a more thumb-able keyboard to tap. And last but not least, you can now see when somebody is actually typing you tanks to a typing indicator.

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Box for Android is giving a whopping 50 GB of free storage to any Android user who activates an account within the next 30 days. Box is in the red-hot cloud storage space and this offer will make it more of a competitor to Dropbox. But even if you never use it for before, that 50 GB of storage will be yours for free for the life of your Box account.

Box Also Update its Android app to include a revamped user interface that Box worked with Google on and this brings many Android Ice Cream Sandwich elements to the app. That new user interface will be coming to all versions of Android though and it will also include multiple file uploads.

How to Get your FREE 50GB ?

1- Go to the Market to Download & Install Box App on your Android phone.
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BOX [Market Link]

After Apple introduced Siri personal assistance for iOS, Google had to fight back by improving its voice command software to take a New shape and higher intelligent integrations. A report from TechCrunch showing that this product may have codenamed as "Majel" and to be officially named "Google Assistant" when released.

Google Assistant is now in the hands of the Android team. Reports showed Google goals of this product, There is three goals Google will accomplish on this product :

• Gather all information and make it understandable by computers.

• Create a personalization layer.

• Build a mobile, voice-powered productivity engine, which is focused less on finding information and more on getting things done.

Unfortunately, Google Assistance will be release by Q4 of this year.

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Before, Google limited the Android Market applications (.apk) size to 50MB, and developers have had to make smaller apks and the user will download the expansion files after installing the APK, Well Google changed this today by increasing the Market App size Up to 4GB. The new maximum application size of 4GB does not necessarily mean the size of the APK will be increased... but rather the Android Market will host the application expansion files. This will help the Google keep a closer eye on when a user completely finishes the download of a large application to properly start the refund period.

Most of us have experienced a long in-game download like Gameloft Asphalt 6, and then realized the refund period has already passed. In the Android Market, these expansion files are added to the 50MB size of your application so users know how much space the app will really take from his Phone Memory after full Installation.

Verizon has released a list of devices that it says will be receiving the Android 4.0 update. As for the time frame each manufacturer has a say in when the Ice Cream Sandwich update will be rolled out for its devices with HTC models expected to receive Android 4.0 in the first half of this year while Motorola is planning a Q3 rollout of the latest Android build.

The Verizon's ICS Devices list:

• HTC ThunderBolt, HTC DROID Incredible 2,HTC Rhyme and HTC Rezound.

• Motorola devices included are the Motorola DROID BIONIC, Motorola DROID RAZR, Motorola DROID 4, Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX, and the Motorola Xyboards 8.2/10.1.

• Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7/10.1.

• LG Spectrum.

If you do not know yet, There is a new name for the Android Market now, its Google Play Store. For those of you who want to see what the name change and new logo looks like on your phone. You can do it directly from within your phone in about 30 seconds flat.

How to Upgrade to Google Play Store:

• Go to "Settings" and then "Manage Apps".

• Look for "Market" under the "All" tab, open it and press "clear data".

• Now open the newly updated "Play Music" app (Google Music).

• Hit that little "Market" icon in the bottom tray (If you can't find it, open the Market icon from All Apps Menu, it both cases it will work)

• Confirm Google Play upgrade.

NOTE: If the Method Above didn't work for you, You still able to Download the Google Play Store 3.4.7 APK from the link below to install it on your phone and Enjoy the New Play Store!

Download Play Store 3.4.7 [APK]

Google has updated its Maps Application for Android with minor small change and some bug fixes. The new version was pushed out to the Google Play Store today, and it brings Google Maps to version 6.4.0.

The only change made in this version was in the design of the menu in Navigation mode. The menu has been changed from a list of text-only options to a more touch-friendly version laid out with some icons to quickly help you find what you need.

Google Mpas 6.4.0 [Play Store]

Facebook has released a new update for its Android app. Version 1.9.0 brings Major performance update, which make the whole app feels a lot faster than before.

Also With the latest Facebook Update, It brings Two New Apps , "Camera" and "Messenger" along with the Facebook App.

Facebook Camera App is a simple App that use your phone's camera to captor photos and Instantly upload it to your facebook account without you clicking anything. The Messenger App is a direct link to your Massages on the facebook App.

So with This Update you will Get three Apps with three icons, but it worth it. Scan or Click on the QR code below to Update your Android Facebook app.

Update Facebook!

The New Android Market which known now as Google Play Store has received another incremental update to v3.5.15 with some new features, you can Update yours by Downloading the

There are two main improvements to the app: under the My Apps menu, you can see Installed and All Apps in a separate tab. This allows you to re-download any app you've previously tried and deleted, or paid for and uninstalled, bringing the functionality more in line with the desktop portal. There is still no option to manually re-install all, or a select portion, of your apps, which would go a long way to building in the same functionality for non-root users as Titanium Backup does for root users.

Google Play Store 3.5.15 [APK]

Android ICS 4.0.3 released first on the Galaxy Nexus, All manufactures promise to update their latest phones from Gingerbread to ICS. Now, most major phone manufacturers including Asus, Samsung and Sony have finished the testing and certification and are ready to update device to ICS very soon.

Phone makers have not yet updated their devices to the latest Android despite the fact that the 4.0.x version was released in November of last year. That is nearly a five month gap in which Gingerbread continues to be the dominant Android version on high-end handsets on the platform.

And if the rumors are true, Android 5.0 JB should make fragmentation even worse as the publication expects the new version to arrive as early as May or June. Internally, this is allegedly slowing down phone manufacturers with ICS updates as they try to prepare for 5.0.

Samsung has already pushed an ICS update for its Galaxy S II, and next in line are the Galaxy Tab 8.9, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Note. Asus has also updated its original Transformer, and Sony recently announced plans to bump up the Android versions of the Tablet P and Tablet S by end-April.

Good News! Best Buy has posted Ice Cream Sandwich release dates on its internal employee news site. And we have also an even better News... it is coming Next week!

According to the BestBuy post:

"Software updates are coming for Verizon handsets next week to bring the OS to Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0). Updates will be delivered via standard Over the Air (OTA) update."

Updates Schedule

The Motorola RAZR and RAZR MAXX will begin receiving the update on Wednesday 4,April.

HTC Rezound is scheduled for Friday 6,April.

Google CEO Larry Page made a statement regarding the Android Google State in 2012 bringing us the latest statistics, Page puts it plainly Android is on fire, and activating over 850,000 devices each day.

"Android is on fire, and the pace of mobile innovation has never been greater. Over 850,000 devices are activated daily through a network of 55 manufacturers and more than 300 carriers. Android is a tremendous example of the power of partnership, and it just gets better with each version. The latest update, Ice Cream Sandwich, has a beautiful interface that adapts to the form of the device. Whether it is on a phone or tablet, the software works seamlessly." L. Page, Google CEO

This number was about 500,000 last year (2011), this huge increase on the number of daily activated handsets is very impressive in our opinion.

The Google Dev team at Android Design section have just put up some new sections into their guide for Android developers and made some changes to the UI of the Settings and Navigation bar design guidelines.

Highlights include a brand new section on how to create a design layout for application settings, as well as how to link to other Android applications and how to navigate to your app using widgets.

If you are an App developer or you just like to look at the Android apps layout Make sure to check out this Page HERE Enjoy!

The stylish Panasonic ELUGA originally launched in Japan, but has now touched down in Germany. The next stop for the waterproof and dustproof smartphone is the UK, where it will be available on April 24th. In Germany the device was priced in a range of €370-€400 ($484-$523 USD). In the U.K., €365 should allow you to take it home.

The waterproofing allows the device to sit in up to 3 feet of water for 30 minutes with no problems afterwards, Also the Eluga is Dust-proof, there is no Micro SD memory slot and it have a 1Ghz TI OMAP CPU with 1GB RAM.

Meizu just announced a Quad-core version of its MX smartphone, running Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich. The handset will carry the name Meizu MX quad-core, and will bring several improvements to go with the new silicon.

The CPU of in the updated device will be a 32nm High-K Metal Gate, quad-core Samsung Exynos chip, featuring four Cortex-A9-based cores. Curiously enough, there is no info on the clock speed of the aforementioned. It will also have a 1,700 mAh Batery and will come with five colors.

Meizu MX Original Specifications

The Meizu MX quad-core will come in a 32GB and 64GB versions. They will be priced in China at the highly attractive ¥2,999 (US$480) and ¥3,999 (US$635) respectively.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini announced during a financial earnings call that the company's first Atom based smartphone will go on sale "later this week".

This is not really a surprise because the Indian company Lava, with whom Intel partnered to make Atom based Android phones, has already announced their intentions to launch the Xolo X900 tomorrow, April 19, in India.

The X900 has a 4-inch display with 1024 x 600 resolution with proximately 295 PPI, 8-megapixel camera with flash, 10fps burst mode and 1080p video recording, 1.3 megapixel front camera, 1GB RAM, 16GB internal storage space, HSPA+ connectivity up to 21Mbps, HDMI out and NFC built-in. The device will launch with Android Gingerbread 2.3.7 and will be Upgraded to 4.0.3 in the near future.

The Xolo X900 will use Intel Atom Z2460 processor that has a single-core 1.6GHz Saltwell CPU with Hyper-Threading, PowerVR SGX540 GPU clocked at 400MHz and 32-bit Dual channel LPDDR2 memory. This processor, however, is based on Intel x86 architecture that differs from the one that ARM uses on almost every other SoC on the market, which means application compatibility is going to be an issue initially.

Android Updates are very slow in releasing especially the latest update to Ice Cream Sandwhich, The technical lead developer on the Android Open Source Project, Jean-Baptiste Queru, posts a post on Google+ saying that he believes the slow update rate many Android users have had to endure is very reasonable. He said on his Google+ post:

"This is actually a very reasonable time, since under the hood Ice Cream Sandwich is quite different from Honeycomb (and upgrades from Gingerbread are likely to take longer as those differences are huge),"

He Also added:

"...some variants of the Google-engineered flagship devices still haven't received Ice Cream Sandwich (or are stuck with older versions of Ice Cream Sandwich) because of delays introduced by operator approvals."

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As we all know with the Android law-suits with Oracle vs Google on the whole Java issue, some clever people thought that instead, just port all of the Android code automatically to C#. And, they are getting there!

Basically, they take the Android AOSP code then pull it through a tool they have helped develop called "Sharpen" which translates Java code to C# and the results are amazing. While only some of the Android code is physically working without Java at all, it is a great start and hopefully seeing this on low-end devices can speed things up a little.

A little more on the technical side, the way Android runs Java through the Dalvik virtual machine is fairly efficient, but using Java limits you severely by it's design and complexity, slowing down execution everywhere. While Android appears to do a fairly good job, it does not do it as well as it could do with Oracle efforts.

Here is a graph from the project showing performance:

As you can see, clearly using the C# is faster. However, there is still a while to go which if you want to have a look or even help out check out the link in the source for more technical information.

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A New version of the Google Play store has just been released v3.5.19, We currently don't have a full changelog but the new update is faster in Updating and loading Apps from the Play store and also adding some security enhancements too.

We highly recommed you to Upadate your Android smartphone by downloading & installing the [.APK] file from the link below or by scanning the QR code to directly install it on your phone.

Download Play Store 3.5.19 [.APK]

Guess What !? Today, George Clooney was spotted filming a commercial for an Android smartphone in Malibu yesterday. This is some game-changing news... isn't it ? The Photos below shows Clooney with a Samsung GALAXY Nexus and playing with his dog.

Well, to be true about it, It's unclear what exactly the commercial is going to be, although it is said to have been an Android commercial.

It doesn't seem to be a commercial for the Galaxy Nexus itself because the Samsung branding was blacked out on the phone (as you can see on the photo above) OR the Nexus could be Clooney's own personal phone.

What's your comment on this, share your opinion on the Comments section below!

This Device (MK802) may look like an ordinary USB stick, but it is a fully-functional computer. Of course, you need to attach it to a display, and connect some sort of keyboard/mouse combo, but the MK802 could very well be the smallest PC around. This computer is powered by Android 4.0 ICS and you can attach any mouse or keyboard to use on the linux-powered Google Operating system.

There are, of course, some trade-offs involved here. The MK802 is from an unspecified manufacturer, and has a single core 1.5Ghz processor. Also, the HDMI is a connector, rather than a socket, so you will need to use a cable rather than just stick it into the back of a TV.

Here is its Specs

1. Use Allwinner A10/1GHZ Cortex-A8 high speed
processor Core frequency reach 1GMHZ ,Coretex-A8 is the most advanced core.

The comprehensive processing ability , hardware performance close to desktop computer .Play HD video ,share blog ,share game amusement and Website read to give you the delight fully digital experience .

2.With 3D Graphical processor

3.Use 512M (slect 1GB) DDR3 high capacity memory.

4.With WIFI 802.1b/g/n Wireless to get rid of the wire bond

5.Support the latest HTML5 ,Flash10.3 ,etc, network standard.

6.Support Full HD 1080P/2160P.

Pre-Order from Here

Google's purchase of Motorola Mobility has been approved by Europe and was was pending chinese approval. Today, A Google spokesman has confirmed that Chinese regulators gave the okay for the purchase on Saturday, and the formal approval should be coming this week.

According to reports, there is one major stipulation given by the Chinese regulators which says that approval is based on the promise that Google will keep Android open and freely available to anyone who wants to use it for the next 5 years. So, for anyone who still harbored some crazy idea that this move would lead to the closing of Android, that is now impossible... for 5 years.

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Samsung sold more than 27.8 Million smartphones in Q4,2011 alone. Samsung has confirmed, making it the world largest smartphone vendor and contributing significantly to its record-breaking financial quarter.

The new stat was tweeted out by Samsung South Africa, and follows the company announcement last month that it had shipped over 300m handsets both smartphones and dumbphones in 2011 as a whole.

Another day of leaked ICS ROMs, Samsung is really working hard on their ICS Update for the Galaxy S II to make sure they deliver the best ICS experience to all Galaxy S II users by the End of this Month.

The Latest ROM has just been leaked today the XXLP2 with some enchancments and less bugs than the LP1. It is still has the same TW interface but alot faster and with some ICS tweaks.

Build date is 10 January 2012

Android version: 4.0.3

Download XXLP2

Change-log of LP2:

• Faceunlock is back.

• Option to use taskmaneger.

• Interface: Nothing in case of XXKPA.

• Battery: Battery feels better.

• Faster: Phones looks faster.

• Touch: Touch response is better.