As many of you will have already seen today Gawker and its various websites have been hacked and their user database compromised. The database contains details of more than a million members and includes information such as their email addresss and passwords.
Gawker says that the passwords are encrypted, but the group claiming responsibility for the attack, Gnosis, have already claimed that they have unencrypted some passwords. Gawker are advising their users to immediately change their Gawker password and the password used for any other sites that was the same as their Gawker password.
Any of our readers who use any of Gawker websites are advised to change their password immediately.
Continued support from manufacturers for old Android devices has been a hot topic lately. So HTC is bound to win some good karma they are updating Vodafone UK HTC Magic droids with Froyo, not so long after the T-Mobile myTouch 3G and 3G Slide started getting their updates.
The HTC Magic was one of the first Android phones and getting updated to Android 2.2.1 Froyo is a big deal as Android has come a long way since 1.5 Donut new and improved Gmail and Market apps, installing apps on the microSD card, tethering support and enhanced Bluetooth and camera UI.
The HTC Magic will also get a speed improvement and wider support for some of the coolest apps in the Market. Do not bet on the other big selling point of Froyo though the Flash 10.1 plug-in requires a newer CPU than the Magic has to offer.
Anyway, Vodafone UK is beginning a staged rollout of the update and users should get a notification in the coming weeks. Once you get the notification, you can update immediately or put it off for later its a big download so you might want to wait until you are in range of a Wi-Fi hotspot.
We hope that updates for old phones become commonplace though not all manufacturers are very enthusiastic about it. The idea that you have to buy a new phone just to get a few software updates is certainly putting off some potential Android buyers.
The Android version of the popular Skype app was first launched only a couple of months ago and now we can welcome its first major update which makes Skype for Android fully compatible with the Samsung Galaxy S devices out there and allows you to store the app on the device SD card.
The recently updated Skype app for Android-powered devices brings along only two improvements but those are definitely worth mentioning. First off, if your smartphone or tablet is based on the Froyo, you will be able to store the app on your microSD memory card. As for the other novelty brought by the refreshed Skype app, the version released back on 5 October had some issues with Samsung Galaxy S smartphones but those should now be done with.
There is a tiny little catch, the latest version of the Android-Skype will only be compatible with your Galaxy S if its running the Android 2.2 froyo.
You can now:
- Use the app on your Samsung Galaxy S, as long as its running Android OS 2.2 or later.
- Store the app on your phone SD card if its running Android OS 2.2 or later.
If you store the app on your SD card, the data Skype uses while the app is running is still stored on the internal memory of your phone. We expect this to take up around 15MB of space for most people.
Download!
Android has gone from strength to strength over the past few years. the operating system has quickly become a dominant force in the mobile industry today. The open-source platform is free from restrictions that come with other devices, and this has lead to the development of some really fantastic software.
In this Article I am gonna Show you Some Tips for Android OS and Also Some Applications that you Really Need on your Android phone if this is your First Time on Android!
Article Updated Daily with Latest Apps and Tips!
PART 2
Best Utility App
Sleep Now!
Gentle Alarm helps you wake up; Sleep Now!, by the same team, helps you fall asleep. It plays relaxing music or white noise to help you drift off, and uses Android accelerometer and touch screen to detect when you’ve fallen asleep. It will then let you sleep for as long as you’ve specified in the settings before playing an alarm of your choice to wake you up.
Sleep Now! is great for power napping, and the built-in automated sleep logger is interesting. The only downside is that it doesn’t integrate with Gentle Alarm. Perhaps in the future…
Price: $1 (free trial available, which works for three days in a row, then skips a day)
Sleep Now!
Gentle Alarm helps you wake up; Sleep Now!, by the same team, helps you fall asleep. It plays relaxing music or white noise to help you drift off, and uses Android accelerometer and touch screen to detect when you’ve fallen asleep. It will then let you sleep for as long as you’ve specified in the settings before playing an alarm of your choice to wake you up.
Sleep Now! is great for power napping, and the built-in automated sleep logger is interesting. The only downside is that it doesn’t integrate with Gentle Alarm. Perhaps in the future…
Price: $1 (free trial available, which works for three days in a row, then skips a day)
Best Tasks App
SMS Backup +
My last phone refused to sync to my computer. One day it turned itself off, and when I turned it back on again it had deleted all of my text messages. Dang.
SMS Backup automatically copies all your SMS messages to a folder on your Gmail account, as soon as you receive them. So not only do you keep a backup of every text you’ve ever written or received, but you also gain the ability to search all your messages within Gmail. And it’s all done in the background, so you do not even have to think about it.
Price: Free
Best
Launcher
App
Slidescreen
This home replacement application has a different slant to the others we’ve looked at so far; it’s focused on your information: text messages, email, phone calls, agenda, RSS feeds, and social networks.
Price: $6.99 (FREE ad-supported version available)
Best
Office App
TeamViewer
TeamViewer is another "remote control" application, aimed at the higher end of the market. (The Android application is free while its in beta, but the iPhone app costs $99.99)
It does justify this with a more elegant design and a host of advanced features, try it out before you buy it to make sure you need the extras.
Price: Free for beta use; full pricing will be announced in Feb 2011
Best Widget
Open Home
Open Home gives you access to hundred of free skins and icons packs, and adds a lot of customization options for fonts, colors, and so on. Download it, then search the Market for Open Home to see just how many skins are available. A couple are pictured in the screenshots below.
Price: $3.99
Android Tips and Tricks
Add More to Your Home Screen
So you know that you can add applications and widgets to the home screen. Have you ever looked at the different kinds of shortcuts that can be added, though?
You can add contact cards, so that you can call people in a hurry; bookmarks, for websites you absolutely need to have at your fingertips, geographical locations, for fast navigation; and music playlists, perhaps for different moods.
Streamline Your Application Updates
Android Market 2.2 introduced two new features to improve application updates: Update Automatically and Update All. Open Market, navigate to your Downloads, and tap any application to reveal an "Allow automatic updating" checkbox; tick this and the application will be updated whenever there’s a new version available.
That is, unless the new version requests some new permissions that way, a simple widget cannot suddenly gain control of your contact lists and emails without your allowing it to.
In the Downloads section, an Update All button will be visible if any of your applications have new versions available; tap it to install them all.
Quickly Search Using Your Voice
Hold down the Search button for a second or so, and a "Speak now" dialog will appear. Say something, and Google will search the web for it.
It does more than that: try saying, "navigate to [place]" or "call [business]". This YouTube videogives a great rundown of the different voice commands.
Take Screenshots Without Rooting
If you have rooted your device, you have a wide range of screenshot-taking applications to choose from: just Google screenshot android application rooted for a selection. If you have not, the procedure is surprisingly complex:
- Download and install the Android SDK.
- On your device, go to Settings > Application > Development. Check the "Enable USB Debugging" box.
- Plug your device in to your computer via USB.
- Run the DDMS.bat file inside the \tools\ directory, in the folder where you installed the Android SDK.
- A program called Dalvik Debug Monitor Service should appear, with your device listed in a panel on the left-hand side.
- Click the name of your device in the list.
- Click Device > Screen Capture in the window menu to open another window, Device Screen Capture.
- Press Refresh in this window to grab the current screen from the device.
- Press Save to save the screenshot to disk.
Article Updated Daily with Latest Apps and Tips!
PART 2
In all the recent excitement over Chrome OS unveliking it might have been easy to forget that many an industry watcher has ben asking just how Google new OS will fit in alongside Android. Indeed some have been asking if there is even a point to it given that Android can be, and indeed is being, used for tablet devices.
Fresh criticism in that vein has come from no less than the man who created Gmail, former Google employee Paul Buchheit. He did not mince his words in his appraisal of Chrome OS:
"I was thinking, is this too obvious to even state?, but then I see people taking Chrome OS seriously, and Google is even shipping devices for some reason."
Despite the fanfare of the Windows Phone 7 launch Microsoft are being decidedly more coy when it comes to revealing the sales figures for the platform so far. This has led many a pundit and industry watcher to conclude that things are not all sunshine and rainbows in Window Phone land.
however, an analysts at Neeham Co, Charles Wolf is bucking that trend to say that he thinks Windows Phone 7 has had a successful launch. Annoyingly he makes no mention of sales figures, like Microsoft themselves, but does note that the Windows Phone 7 Facebook app has 135,000 active users.
Wolf is confident that Microsoft has enough financial muscle to persuade handset manufacturers to give their new platform a whirl, and of course Microsoft has not been a shrinking violet when it comes to throwing money around. They have already been paying developers to create apps for Windows Phone 7 and have sunk a cool $500 million into an advertising campaign.
You will probably remember the Motorola tablet device Andy Rubin was flashing around just last week. Well today it had its first proper leak thanks to everyone's favourite photographer Mr Blurrycam.
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Its a 10 inch beast running Honeycomb, the version of Android due for release after Gingerbread. The chap who sent the pictures into Engadget was not 100% sure of the name of the device, perhaps Stingray, perhaps Everest or even 'Trygon'.
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Anyhoo the specs are what people want to hear about more than a name. The device will be powered by a 1 GHz Tegra 2 T20, feature a gyroscope, 512 MB of RAM, 32 GB of internal memory and a 1280x800 resolution multi-touch enabled screen. There should also be micro-USB support and the ability to use microSD cards up to 32 GB. The device also sports a HDMI out slot and a standard 3.5mm jack.
LG is set to release the Optimus 2X in their native South Korea and it looks to be a local branding of the already known LG Star that has leaked on the internet.
The two handsets are pretty much the same, the only differences between them being the product code, SU660 for the Optimus 2X and P990 for the Star, as well as a differently configured array of buttons underneath the screen.
The Optimus 2X should be seeing the light of day within the coming months, meaning it will be going head to head with arch-rival Samsung Nexus S. Speaking of Samsung, check out the video below where the Optimus 2X puts in a very respectable performance compared with the Galaxy S.
3 Videos below!
O2 UK is wrapping up a gift for Dell Streak owners an update to Android 2.2 Froyo. The Streak, which launched in June running 1.6 Donut, has made the jump to 2.1 Eclair and now, its getting ready for another update.
Unlocked Dell Streak tablet/phones have been running Froyo for almost a month now, but carrier-branded devices had to wait till December. And while munching on frozen treats are probably not the best you could do in the cold weather, we're sure Streak owners will enjoy Froyo and that new Stage UI that comes with it.
If you have missed it, the previous 2.1 Eclair update has added 720p video recording to the Dell Streak and it also brings compatibility for many apps, improved keyboard, pinch zooming and live wallpapers.
Anyway, the Froyo update for the Streak should come out this week and it will give apps a performance boost and enable Flash in the browser as well.
South Koreans just got their version of the LG Star officially announced. Dubbed LG SU660 Optimus 2X, the smartphone made its first official appearance on the Asian shores, but the even better news is that its worldwide availability is fast approaching.
Unfortunately LG kept their tradition and revealed next to none of the new handsets specifications. Good thing a preview surfaced the other day and did the job for them.
We did stumble upon a new video though, which showcases the Optimus 2X computing prowess. In case you have been wondering how much of an improvement the dual-core Tegra is over the current best CPUs, you should definitely check it out. The Hummingbird-powered Galaxy S gets a trashing it will not be forgetting anytime soon. While one synthetic benchmark is not necessary too meaningful for the real-life performance, the SU660 Optimus 2X certainly possesses impressive computing skills.
The white color version of the highly popular Samsung I9000 Galaxy S hit the Spanish market several months back and now, right on time for Christmas, the white device is ready to start selling over at the stores across Germany.
The casing color put aside, this is actually the same Samsung Galaxy S we reviewed and compared to the iPhone 4 a while ago and you should know pretty well by now. It sports a gorgeous 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen and right underneath it there is the 1GHz Hummingbird processor accompanied by 512MB RAM, 2GB ROM and 8 or 16GB storage.
It also features a 5MP autofocus camera with nice 720p HD video recording and all-you-can-eat connectivity options. Unlike the Gingerbread-powered Samsung-made Google Nexus S, the I9000 is still serving Froyo but there is still a chance for the Android 2.3 to come on board.
The white Samsung Galaxy S is already available in Spain, Germany and probably many other countries around the globe. Currently, the black Galaxy S 8GB is sold for around €415 while the white one costs €455.
After six weeks of techno-trash talking and silicon-based slander, one gadget has climbed to victory atop a mountain of dead, to crown itself the winner of our Greatest Gadget of the 21st Century tournament. And that singular piece of gorgeous, gallant gadgetry is the iPhone4.
We knew from the start Apple smart phone was a formidable contender, and over the course of the competition it has cruised, swanlike, through the rounds, crippling all who dared so much as glance at its touchscreen.
Along the way the iPhone has crushed such champions as the Amazon Kindle, the BlackBerry Bold 9700, the TomTom and even the mighty Robosapien. The iPhone's moment of glory came at midnight last night, when voting closed it roundly trounced its fellow finalist, the Xbox 360, with a massive 69 per cent of the vote.
The Xbox 360 has its own success story to tell having ousted the Nintendo Wii, the Sony S470 Blu-ray player and the JVC Everio camcorder to battle through to the finals. But it didn't have the backing or the resolve to take down Apple's mobile monolith. While this is a sad day for console gamers and Microsoft fans alike, the iPhone has been a massively influential and impressive gadget and we reckon this is a win well deserved.
Indeed, the iPhone was the first true Internet phone, and the first device to perfect the touchscreen. What's more, in a few short years, iTunes and the App Store have opened up mobile music, video and gaming to a massive new audience. The mobile market is now the fastest-moving, most exciting sector in tech, and for that we have the iPhone to thank.
The affordable Acer beTouch E140 first popped up a couple of weeks back but this time it's not yet another rumor involving its name that caught our attention but Acer itself who has just officially it.
As expected, the Acer beTouch E140 runs Android 2.2 Froyo and comes in a tiny little plastic shell with a 2.8-inches resistive touchscreen of OVGA resolution on the front and a 3.2MP camera.t he 200-euro smartphone also touts diverse connectivity options, sports an inbuilt GPS receiver and is powered by a 600MHz processor.
Android has gone from strength to strength over the past few years. the operating system has quickly become a dominant force in the mobile industry today. The open-source platform is free from restrictions that come with other devices, and this has lead to the development of some really fantastic software.
In this Article I am gonna Show you Some Tips for Android OS and Also Some Applications that you Really Need on your Android phone if this is your First Time on Android!
Article Updated Daily with Latest Apps and Tips!
Best Utility App
Barcode Scanner
That weird, black and white, pixelly square to the right is called a QR-Code, and it stores text in the same way that a supermarket barcode stores numbers. In this case, it stores the URL of the Android Market page for the Barcode Scanner application.
Barcode Scanner lets you hold your phone camera up to any of these QR-Codes, quickly decode the contents, and open the URL either in your phones browser or using the Market application. Unfortunately you will have to download the Barcode Scanner application itself using the old-fashioned method of typing the name into the search box, but after that you will be able to grab any of the other application URLs from this page in a couple of seconds.
Price: Free
Best Tasks App
Google Tasks Organizer
We use a lot of Google products at Envato: Calendar, Docs, Mail. If you are the same, you will like this application: its based around your Google Tasks. I particularly like that it syncs with multiple Gmail and Google Apps accounts, since I have one for work and another for personal use.
Price: $2.85 (free Trial available)
Best
Launcher
App
LauncherPro
Another launcher taking cues from HTC Sense, with up to seven home screens and animated screen previews. Its completely down to personal preference as to which one of these works best for your particular needs.
Price: Free
Best
Office App
Quickoffice Mobile Suite
Like it or loathe it, Microsoft Office is everywhere. With Quickoffice, you can view and edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files from your mobile. It also integrates with Google Docs, Dropbox, Box.net, and MobileMe. its the Best Office Editor available for Android as Microsoft Office is not Available for Android yet.
Price: $9.99
Best Widget
Power Control Plus
Sometimes you want to switch off your GPS to save battery, or your Wi-Fi to force the phone to use its 3G connection. The built-in Power Control widget lets you toggle either of those things with a single press, as well as bluetooth, automatic syncs, and the screen’s backlight.
Power Control Plus takes this even further, allowing you to toggle Airplane mode, Silent mode, Auto-screen rotation, screen lock, and many other options. You can also modify the color, size, and orientation of the widget to better fit your screen.
Price: $1.99
Android Tips and Tricks
Multi-Task
This is not a hidden feature, but its surprising how many Android users are not aware of it. Hold the HOME button to pop-up a list of all open applications. Tap any of them to switch to it.
Do NOT Bother With Task Killers
As explained by Android software engineer Dianne Hackborn and expanded upon by Lifehacker, the way that the Android platform is designed means that task killers applications that force other applications to stop running are unnecessary. Do not bother choosing and installing one, then monitoring your running applications obsessively to stop them as soon as they’re no longer needed, its a waste of your time.
Enable Labs in Google Maps
The Maps application has a few experimental features that can be enabled. To do so, open Maps and press MENU. Select More, then Labs. You will see a list of features, tap any to turn it on.
Connect Your Computer to the Internet Through Your Phone Data Plan
Away from home and need to get online with your notebook? If you are running Froyo, you can use your Android phone as a portable Wi-Fi hotspot, connected to the Internet through its data plan.
Press MENU, then tap Settings > Wireless & Networks, and tick the Portable Wi-Fi Hotspot option. If you want to save your battery, plug your phone into your computer and tick USB Tethering instead this will not require the phone Wi-Fi to be on.
Article Updated Daily with Latest Apps and Tips!
The sWaP Rebel had me doing a double take because I thought it was yet another iPod Nano watch, but its not. Its actually a cellphone, camera, music player, video player, clock, FM radio, calendar and e-reader rolled into one worn on your wrist.
Pop in your GSM-based SIM card and you 1.46-inch touchscreen sWaP is good to go. Relax, yo will be getting blank stares from strangers in no time when you start speaking into your watch on the street. "Do you copy? Over."
I have always had a knack to channel my inner spy, but never had the means to do so inconspicuously, until now. With support for 3GP and MPEG-4 video recordings, 128MB of internal storage (expandable up to 8GB with a microSD card) and USB transfers, the sWaP looks like a resourceful way of stalking a Facebook friend, I mean real life friend.
Spy gear is not cheap, especially not one that does not look like spy gear. Americans will have to hop over the pond to get a sWaP Rebel because its only available in the UK for about $298. And look at all those pretty colors.
Apple has disabled, without explanation, a jailbreak detection API in iOS less than six months after introducing it. Device management vendors say the reasons for the decision are a mystery, but insist they can use alternatives to discover if an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad has been modified so they can load and modify applications outside of Apple iTunes-based App Store.
Jailbroken devices pose a serious security threat to the enterprise. Even if the end user does not intend to load malware, he will be completely unaware of malware present in unauthorized apps.
Parallel app markets are beginning to spring up all over the Android platform, what with special app packs and stores for carriers and manufacturers, and devices like the Nook Color coming out that specifically limit functionality. But if you’re on a plain ol’ Android phone, you are generally going to be going to the plain ol’ Android Market for your apps. And although the newly-announced changes to the interface make it more attractive, it’s still not the best for discoverability.
I have found AppShopper to be a useful tool on my iPad for seeing a random sample of weird and price-shifted apps, and Appsfire might might be the equivalent of that on Android, if they can get their interface under control.
The main screen is a constantly shifting set of app conveyor belts ostensibly showing off whats new, whats popular, and so on. But without names or descriptions, the icons are almost meaningless, except for ones whose graphics you recognize, and in that case you probably already know about the app. The Discover tab shows much of the same stuff but in a list format, and is similarly information-rich, with many controls and arrows and instructions. My impression is that the casual Android user will be mystified by the busy UI.
For the seasoned user, though, there is a lot of handy information. Being able to favorite a few apps to wait for a price drop, or bulk install/uninstall a few to try out are great, and quite easy to do.
The rumored LG Star droid equipped with a promising dual-core CPU has not been made official yet but its just been reviewed and liked. The Tegra2-based smartphone specs turned out great not only on paper: the thing sure is pretty powerful too.
But you already knew that from the previous leaks involving the LG P990 Star. Speaking of the LG Star features, most of them are no longer a mystery: the thin device has a Tegra2 processor (benchmark test caught on one of the videos below), packs an 8 megapixel sharpshooter with 1080p Full HD video recording and an HDMI port.
As seen before, the LG P990 Star is running Android 2.2 Froyo, but Gingerbread 2.3 should come on board right on time for launch. The Android smartphone is expected to be announced at the next year’s CES, which is due in less than a month.
2 Videos Below!
Gigabyte is preparing to launch a dual-SIM smartphone running on Android v2.2 Froyo. Its called GSmart Rola and it will launch on the bargain 175 euro in the beginning of 2011.
After the decent dual-SIM GSmart S1205 running on Windows Mobile 6.5, Gigabyte is ready to take their dual-SIM business over at the Android camp. The GSmart Rola runs Android v2.2 Froyo but packs barely decent specs a 3.2-inch resistive WQVGA touchscreen, a 528MHz processor, 256MB RAM, 512MB ROM, a 3 megapixel fixed-focus snapper and a microSD slot.
The Rola connectivity however has everything covered Wi-Fi, quad-band GSM, 3G with HSDPA support, GPS Bluetooth and even FM radio. We suppose the 3G would be available only on one of the SIMs though.
Gigabyte GSmart Rola will launch in Q1 2011 in selected regions with an expected retail pricetag of 175 euro.
The title says it all, but let us get into some details about the closing of Microsoft KIN Studio, which was the backbone in the cloud for the device.
Evidently, come January 31st, people with KINs will lose the ability to do everything over-the-air, except use your Zune Pass over WiFi and email. Check it:
- Feed Reader will stop working
- Search Near me will stop working
- Posting Photos to social sites will no longer be possible
- Most pictures currently on Kin will only appear at thumbnail resolution
- Posting to Social Networks will no longer work.
- No comments from the loop
- Social network contacts will disappear.
- Loop will stop to work
- Kin Spot will only send to emails.
- Social networks only accessed from web browser.
So outside of making phone calls and playing music, the KIN is really, truly dead. Why even bother after that last, half attempt at a re-launch? We have no idea either. But Verizon is trying to make things right by letting users know now to back up their data now and going one step further, allowing them to pick a 3G phone of their choice for FREE. Offer is valid only through March 31st. Attached are some images from the pamphlet that Verizon is sending out to KIN customers.
Latest Registered Mobile Devices from Federal Communications Commissions site Friday (11/12/2010).
Phones
Read - Sharp SH011
Read - Sharp SH-05C
Read - Sharp 004SH
Read - Samsung i9003
Read - Samsung C3500
Read - Samsung SHW-M190S
Read - Samsung S5830
Read - Samsung B7722i
Read - Samsung S7230L
Read - Samsung SGH-i987
Read - LG A175a
Read - LG 800G
Read - LG T325G
Read - Huawei U7520-7
Read - ZTE CX991
Read - ZTE X632
Read - VeryKool i119
Read - Movistar Pulse
Read - Blu Cubo
Peripherals
Read - ZTE MF656A
Read - Novatel MC545
Read - Jawbone JBF
Read - LG L-05C
Read - LG PD200
Read - Huawei E173u-63
Read - Huawei E713s-65
Just a few evenings ago, Motorola pushed out a software update to around 10,000 Verizon Droid X handsets or, at least, they tried to. You see, they sent out the update under the shadows of the night in hopes that it would keep their servers from getting hammered quite so hard once word of the update got out. The only problem? As part of a built-in, late-night battery saving practice, the Droid X stops doing not-so-urgent stuff like checking for updates once the sun goes down. As a result, far fewer people got the update than what was intended.
Today, Motorola trying again but this time, its a free-for-all. No stealthy late night pushes; no hoping that you are in the limited sample group. Just pop into Settings > About Phone > System, then tap the update button.
The update, packs a few little gems. You will get beefed up stability throughout the OS, a new Data Widget for your homescreen, improved ActiveSync and Visual Voice Mail support, and Adobe Flash comes auto-installed.
The winter has come to Moscow and has brought subzero temperatures with it. For a few days, the thermometer was showing 20 degrees Celsius or even more than that. During that period, I had a lot of hard time talking on the phone in the street as on the one hand, it was too cold to hold the device without gloves and on the other hand, the sensor screen of the iPhone or HTC Desire would not respond unless the gloves were taken off. My way of solving the problem is using a Bluetooth headset. You put the headset on and you have no problems answering calls or dialing numbers. Unfortunately, it takes just a few conversations and a 15-20 minutes walk in the cold for the tiny battery in my Bluetooth headset to die whereas under the regular conditions it could last for a few days. Even putting the jacket's hood on, so that the headset becomes protected from the wind, cannot help it.
Although we tend to neglect that, the cold affects phones, too. I remember my Samsung Xcover having spent two days in the cold and still having some battery power left, which was a real surprise. In my opinion, it would be great if batteries in mobile devices had some clothing that would help protect them from the cold. The necessary technologies are already there. One can create air pockets in the casing or apply some heat insulation. The only thing to keep in mind is that the protected device shouldn't overheat during the summer or while recharging. I do not think such protection would significantly increase the size of the battery or the device itself. It's just a matter of a few extra millimeters. Alas, I'm not an engineer and hence I will have to give away this idea to those who can actually do it. Who knows, maybe one day there will be a whole class of devices with cold resistant batteries on the market. From my experience, headsets should be priority number one.
There goes another observation to follow up on the cold theme. Several times last week, we were being visited by film crews that would come to our office with two gigantic batteries for their cameras. In the cold, those batteries would die very quickly despite the fact that the cameramen wouldn't spend much time outdoors.
Here is some unhealthy advice for you. If you want your phone to last longer, do not leave it in the bag but keep it an inner jacket or jeans pocket instead. The extra warmth will keep it from freezing. Most handsets have their working temperatures indicated in the user guide and those are rarely different from zero to 30 degrees Celsius. No device has been specifically designed for subzero temperatures and the Arctic phone is yet to be created. Correct me if I'm wrong.
I also did a little survey among my friends and colleagues trying to find out how many of them had bought the special iPhone gloves last year. It turns out that those are being made by many different companies but nobody from my pool is actually wearing them. Occasionally having to take off one favorite gloves or mittens, etc. appears to be preferred to having to wear the special gloves all the time. Surprised? Looks like I have identified another useless accessory on the market. Of course, my survey need not be precise and representative and may even turn out to be completely wrong yet, having discarded such gloves myself.
Its already common knowledge that Microsoft have, what may be a major or minor, update for Windows Phone 7 planned for January, but the latest scuttlebut is that there is another update in the works ready for deployment soon afterwards in February.
WinRumours are reporting that "Microsoft second update will introduce enhanced developer controls for applications" and that "Microsoft is expected to open up several new APIs that will allow for greater multi-tasking, in-app downloads and better customization for end users."
The second update is already apparently shipping out to select beta users for testing. This would perhaps explain why the January update was initially expected to be 'massive', perhaps it has been split into two seperate updates?
At any rate one of the new features expected to be introduced in the February update is Silverlight support with Brian Keller, Win Phone 7 senior technical evangelist, saying of it "I think we are saving those, for say another event. If only there was a massive event in Barcelona on mobile phones and or other events in the future." The obvious reference there being MWC, which takes place in Spain in February.
Granted this is not mobile phone related, but look its technology related and it involves an ancient computer and LEGO. Do I need any more justification for posting it? No, did not think so!
Andrew Carol, an engineer at Apple, took 1,500 LEGO pieces and recreated a working version of the Antikythera Mechanism, regarded by many as the first computer, built by the ancient Greeks more than 2,000 years ago. The device was used to calculate celestial movements such as solar explipes.
HTC is a company on the up, much like its dominant product line, Android handsets. The Taiwanese manufacturer is apparently aiming to increase its shipments in 2011 by an astonishing 200%.
So far this year HTC is on course to ship 20 million handsets, with Q3 2010 having seen 6.4 million shipped. That's a big increase over the 2.6 million shipped in Q3 2009 and 20 million for the whole of 2010 is a huge leap from the 11.7 million shipped in 2009.
DigiTimes are reporting though that HTC are aiming for a figure of 60 million for 2011. HTC is said to have outlined its plans during a meeting with parts suplliers in Taipei. No doubt Android will feature prominently in this lofty goal, but Windows Phone 7 could increasingly feature in HTC's portfolio, assuming that it manages to break out and gain a serious foothold in the market as a whole.
Android afcionados keen to give Windows Phone 7 a whirl can test the water (sort of) with a new theme for Android that mimics (sort of) the Metro UI that comes with Windows Phone 7.
Just to be clear here, this is just a theme, it offers none of the functionality associated with Metro UI. For example, there are no slick animations and the tiles will not display live information, they are just shortcuts for launching your apps. Customisation is also pretty limited as you are limited in terms of what colours you use and repositioning apps is a bit of a pain in that you have to rmeove them and then re-pin them to move them about.
Well at $2.99 I would have to say no unless you really really want your Android device to gain a Windows Phone 7 look.
The long rumored PlayStation Phone just can not stay away from the news. This time it got benchmarked with the Qualcomm Neocore, but it scores far less than the Google Nexus S.
The Sony Ericsson gadget managed to score 24.4 fps on average. It does npt look bad, but the recently announced Nexus S did 55.6 fps on the same benchmark.
Sony Ericsson PlayStation phone is still in the rumorland and it was not announced yesterday as it wassupposed to. The benchmark score here cannot be objective, since its done on a prototype of an unannounced phone, with hardware and software nowhere near their final version.
Brits can now pre-order the sophomore Google smartphone the Google Nexus S. It will be the first ever phone to run Android 2.3 Gingerbread and Google has its eye on the future with this one with NFC built-in and a unique curved display.
The Google Nexus S starts off with an excellent technology base and builds on top of that the specs sound great on paper and it got positive nods in early previews. But all that gadget power is sure heavy on the wallet UK Carphone Warehouse offers a SIM-free Nexus S for £550 (€657, $870). Of course, you have the option to get it for free on a two-year contract for £35-a-month.
The Google Nexus S should ship by December,20 and its available for all major UK operators with plenty of plans to choose from. The only little perk is that it's exclusively sold by Carphone Warehouse.
Still, the price seems a bit steep as a comparison the Samsung Galaxy S costs £415 SIM-free and is very close feature-wise to the Nexus S. Samsung is still undecided on whether the Galaxy S will get a Gingerbread update but at least it has a proper microSD card slot and HD video recording, which the Nexus S strangely lacks.
The affordable Acer beTouch E140 first popped up a couple of weeks back but this time its not yet another rumor involving its name that caught our attention but Acer itself who has just officially it.
As expected, the Acer beTouch E140 runs Android 2.2 Froyo and comes in a tiny little plastic shell with a 2.8-inch resistive touchscreen of OVGA resolution on the front and a 3.2MP camera.
The 200-euro smartphone also touts diverse connectivity options , sports an inbuilt GPS receiver and is powered by a 600MHz processor. No info about the price yet!
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Android growth has been on the up for a while now, indeed that's a pretty big understatement given just how fast its moving. Andy Rubin, Android's head chef, has provided the world with another impressive figure concerning the little green robot that could be 300,000 activations a day... Almost like Apple iOS!!!
To put that into perspective it was only four months ago in August that Google CEO Eric Schmidt was proudly boasting of Android 200,000 daily activations. So in a period of just four months Android has seen a 50% rise in daily activations, or to put it another way that's approximately 9 million activations a month.
With Froyo starting to dominate the Android version charts and decrease fragmentation, or perhaps in spite of fragmentation, Android shows absolutely no sign of slowing down.
It seems that installing more than 15 push notification apps on a Windows Phone 7 device is not such a good idea... basically because they stop working if you do.
It seems that the OS can handle 15 of the apps just find and dandy, but as soon as app 16 is installed the whole show goes belly up and the apps stop receiving updates. The initial reaction of many may be to assume this must be a bug or a flaw and to then suitably chastise Microsoft for it. However, it is no flaw.
Microsoft system attempts to maintain a single connection to the server that handles the various requests by different applications. The underlying reasoning behind this approach is esentially an attempt at improving battery life. It's the same approach Apple adopted for iOS.
Android on the other hand has developers using their own notification system, collating all the disparate notifications from different apps in the single notification bar at the top of the screen. This means that Android can pretty much handle as many push notification apps as your phone has memory for. Incidentally, its worth noting that this approach seems to work out just fine when it comes to battery life.
At any rate Microsoft made two important points regarding the issue: pre-installed Microsoft apps don't count towards the 15 total, and the limit may be upgraded somewhere down the line.
Its also worth pointing out that 15 push notification apps is quite a lot so realistically few people are likely going to notice this problem.
It was just yesterday that LG were saying the Optimus line would not be receiving an upgrade to Gingerbread and that was that. The seemingly underpowered processor of the Optimus line just could not handle Gingerbread's awesomeness according to LG. BUT Today is a new day and LG has a different story.
"LG released information prematurely regarding the minimum processor upgrade requirements for the LG Optimus. Google recently announced the Gingerbread platform and has not yet published the Gingerbread Compatibility Definition Document (CDD) or the public branch open source code. Once the CDD and the source code is public, LG will evaluate the upgradability of the Optimus Series. We apologize for any confusion or misunderstanding. We will alert you as soon as more information on this topic is available."
This is NOT a guarantee that Gingerbread will find its way to Optimus devices, but is definitely better than a flat out no.
The world leading networking equipment supplier Huawei has just announced a couple of new Android smartphones. Both Huwaei Ideos X5 and Ideos X6 are running on the Froyo edition of the Google OS, but rumor has it that they might see a Gingerbread update soon.
The Huawei Ideos X6 comes with a 4.1-inch capacitive LCD touchscreen of WVGA resolution. The smartphone is powered by a 1 GHz CPU and packs excellent all round connectivity. Wi-Fi b/g/n, GPS and 3G with HSPA up to 14.4Mbps are all supported and there's also an HDMI port on board.
The 5 megapixel snapper of the Huwei Ideos X6 is capable of recording HD videos. The list of highlights is completed by Dolby mobile surround sound.
The other new announcement, Huawei Ideos X5 is slightly more compact, coming with a 3.8 display. It also offers HSPA-supporting radios as well as Wi-Fi b/g/n and A-GPS. The Ideos X5 5 megapixel camera is accompanied by a LED flash.
An interesting wee patent from Sony Ericsson has turne dup depicting a device with an inbuilt projection screen. Yes I did type projection screen and not projector, although it has one of those too.
The idea of cramming a projector into a phone is nothing new of course, there have been designs and patents before, but it's never been a technology thats gotten off the ground and found mass appeal. Probably because of the limited use it would find outside business types.
Anyway, Sony Ericsson idea here, as you can see in the patent illustration, is to include an extendible projector screen in the device. That pretty much instantly solves the dilemma of having to find a suitable projection surface and it also gives you a hefty chunk more of display space for things like watching films.
T-Mobile UK is giving away a free Nokia Booklet 3G when you buy a Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type on a pay monthly tariff. The Black gloss and Icy white colors are available for both the phone and the Booklet.
To get a FREE! Nokia Booklet 3G with the X3-02 Touch and Type you must choose the £40/month tariff by T-Mobile UK when you check out from the Nokia UK online store. It offers 1200 minutes, unlimited texts and 1GB worth of data transfers.
Nokia Booklet 3G costs £589 contract-free. Quite a gift for Sure!
Android v2.3 Gingerbread is out and the update mess has returned once again. LG was the first to confuse its users about the update, while Samsung is yet to decide the fate of the Galaxy S firmware. All this has already become quite irritating.
Samsung has Anounced that it is unsure whether the latest version of Android, version 2.3, will be coming to the Samsung Galaxy S, following the announcement that its new flagship phone, the Samsung Nexus S, will be packing the new operating system when it launches later this month.
Samsung has Comment:
“In case a new version of Android operating system is publicly announced and released, Samsung will review the possibility of implementation of such new version to the existing Samsung products with Android operating system.
Such a review will be based on various factors including, without limitation, the overall effect of such Update to Samsung products, the system requirements, the structural limitations, and the level of cooperation from the component suppliers and the software licensors”.
We have to say we are a little baffled by the comment that neither suggests or denies whether Samsung is looking to bring the new mobile operating system from Google to one of the top phones of 2010.
The good news however is:
“If Samsung decides to make the Update available to the users after such consideration, Samsung will use its efforts to develop such Update, which may be released to the users upon successful completion of such development”.
Read more:Pocket-lint
Whether you are resisting the temptation to upgrade to newer, faster hardware, or a year worth of use has made your Android phone feel slow and laggy, here are some ways to make your older phone run a bit smoother.
This guide provides a number of tips you can use to speed up your phone, and while not every tip will apply to you or your phone, you should find at least a few tips in here that will. Whether you have rooted your phone, overclocked, flashed a new ROM, or none of the above, you will be able to take advantage of a number of the tweaks below to get your phone from sluggish and glitchy to quick and smooth.
Everyone phone is different, too, so note that some of the more advanced tweaks may take a bit of trial and error on your part. I haveve experienced good things with these tweaks on my Galaxy S, but I will note where a different approach to a specific tweak will help owners of older or more underpowered phones. Users with newer phones (like the Galaxy S) may not need these tips as much, but I have heard from several sources that even speedy phones like those have benefited from these tips, so they're worth playing around with no matter what phone you have.
TIPS!
If You Have not Rooted Your Phone
There are a lot of great tweaks out there for rooted phones, but there are a ton of really simple things you can do to speed up your phone, even if you haven't done any hacking whatsoever.
Try a New Home Screen Launcher
We have talked about the benefits of other home screen launchers on more than one occasion, but I cannot stress how great of an upgrade this can be. As always, I am a huge proponent of LauncherPro, as it will not only bring you a noticeable speed increase upon installing it, but it also has lots of advanced features we can tweak to boost our speed even further. Of course, ADWLauncher is also very popular, and the Android Market is rife with other options.
I am going to write the rest of this tutorial from the perspective of a LauncherPro user, since from what I have seen, it has the most speed-boosting options, but you should be able to find many of the settings I mention below in other launchers, too I will note where a few of them are along the way, but you may have to do some poking around of your own depending on what Launcher you are using.
Lower the Number of Home Screens You Use And Ditch Those Widgets
If you have an HTC phone with the exclusive Sense UI and you would rather not ditch it for something like LauncherPro, thats fine you can still put this tip into practice. While some phones, like the Motorola Droid, come with a mere five home screens, many come with up to seven. While this is pretty handy if you like lots of icons and widgets, they can really take up a lot of memory on your phone, which can cause jerky animations, lag, and force closes.
In our guide to organizing your Android home screen, we mentioned the two philosophies behind home screen usage. It's fine to have lots of home screens, icons, and widgets, but if your phone is not performing up to your standards, you may have to compromise and try using fewer home screens. I went down from seven to three home screens and have not looked back the jump in performance was pretty incredible.
If you are using LauncherPro, you can pick your number of home screens by hitting the Menu button on your phone, tapping Preferences, then tapping Homescreen Settings. If you are sticking with your stock launcher, you may not have the option to actually decrease the number of home screens, but you can still benefit by removing some icons and widgets from two to four of your home screens. It probably won't give you as big of a benefit as getting rid of the screens entirely, but those widgets can still suck up tons of memory, and deleting them from your home screen should make your phone run noticeably smoother.
Uninstall Misbehaving Apps
When we discussed the myth of Android task killers, we mentioned that one of the real problems with slow phones is running poorly coded apps apps that use up too much CPU in the background. Previously mentioned Watchdog is still a great way to keep track of those apps: if something is constantly running in the background, it may be causing some of the performance hits on your device. Unless its something you cannot live without, uninstall it and find an alternative.
Note: that some of the worst offenders in this category are apps that come pre-installed on your phone. Unfortunately, you need to be rooted to uninstall these, but we will talk about that in a bit.
Uninstall or Move Apps to Free Up Space
Its also worth mentioning that even if an app does not misbehave, it can cause slowdowns on your device. Believe it or not, the more free space you have in your phone internal memory, the faster your phone can write to the disk. If you are not sure how much free space your phone has, you can check it by going to Settings > SD Card and Phone Storage to see. You can also see which ones are taking up the most space by going to Settings > Applications > Manage Applications, hitting Menu, and sorting them by size. If you find you aren't even using an app thats hogging space, you might as well uninstall it, no point in keeping it around just so it can slow down your phone.
Your other option is to use the ever-handy Apps2Sd to move some of those apps off your phone internal storage and onto your SD card. By default, the developer of a given app usually decides whether an app will install to your SD card, but with the App 2 SD app, you can do it yourself. Just pop open the app, and you will get a list of apps that are on your internal storage that have the ability to move to the SD card. Just move them over to free up space.
Tweak Your Launcher Memory Usage
If you really want to dig into your system settings, there are a few more advanced tweaks you can make to your launcher that should help it run a bit smoother.
If you are using LauncherPro, hit the Menu button and go to Preferences > Advanced Settings > Memory Usage Settings. While you can tweak the Advanced Settings to your liking, the easiest way to take advantage it to use one of LauncherPro many Memory Usage Presets. These presets tweak different settings to fit the needs for different people and different phones.
Overclock Your Phone Processor
A surefire way to get a speed boost out of your old, underpowered phone is to overclock it. We have also discussed this already before, so we will not get too deep into it here, but I will remind you that to overclock, you'll need to install a custom kernel. These are specific to your device, so you will have to do some googling for compatible overclocking kernels to find one thats right for you. Generally, kernels are organized by two things: voltage and clock speed. The higher clock speed you choose, the more likely you will need a higher voltage kernel. As long as you are not going overboard with the overclocking, you should be able to get by with a low or standard voltage kernel without a problem.
Uninstall Crapware
If your phone came pre-installed with all sorts of applications that you do not need, you can unisntall them with an app called Titanium Backup. Once you have downloaded it, just open it up and hit the "Backup/Restore" button at the top of the screen. Tap the app you want to get rid of. You will probably want to back it up first, in case it ends up being integral to your phone operation, but once you have you can uninstall it from the same screen. Alternatively, you can just freeze the app, which will not free up space on your phone memory, but will keep it from running in the background and slowing your phone down. Note also that, like all these root-only options, you could seriously mess up your phone if you go too crazy, so maybe a full-phone backup is also a good choice here.
Special Thanks to LifeHacker.com
The YouTube app got updated to version 2.4.10, which brings visual changes like better use of bigger screens and smoother transitions between the different screens of the app. Apparently, the video resolution has been increased as well, but there's no confirmation of that by Google.
Grab the apps from m.Google.com . You might have to use the phone native browser so that the sites can properly recognize which phone you are using. Oh, and Symbian^1 users can also update their Skype to enjoy the SILKy voice quality.
Two key apps got an updated for Symbian^3 Skype is now available for Nokia N8, C7 and C6-01 and YouTube has been revamped with better support for the bigger screens and you can now log in with your account.
It took a while but Skype for Symbian^3 is now available it lets you talk and chat over either 3G or Wi-Fi with support for Skype-to-Skype and SkypeOut calls. The app also supports the SILK codec, which allows it to adapt to changing network conditions and provides reportedly better audio quality.
HTC has just announced that the Android 2.2 Froyo update for the Legend is starting to roll out to customers around Europe. The Over-the-air update package is being pushed to owners of unlocked devices as we speak.
As usual in such cases availability for carrier-locked versions varies. The good news is that this time it will no take too long. As a matter of fact Vodafone and Orange have already pushed the update to their subscribers.
HTC also reconfirmed that the low-end Wildfire will also be getting a Froyo update soon, but they did not mention a specific date. Previously they have promised that the low-end device will be updated before the end of the year so lets hope they keep that promise.
Unfortunately, there is no mention if either of those devices will be getting to taste a Gingerbread update.
I have already mystified you that mobile revolution must be expected at CES, but I would like to add more fire. Watch a speech by CEO of Nvidia, which explains how the company sees future developments.
During the week Nvidia published a white paper on multi-core solutions for mobile devices, in particular, Tegra 2. They shattered a belief that this solution requires more power than its contemporary rivals. On the contrary, similar tasks will need 40 percent less.
The document is very interesting and puts everything in its places. I advise to familiarize with this PDF file (7 MB Below!). Whether you want it or not, but dual core processors will become a norm for mobile devices with multi-core solutions (4, 8 and more) to come. It becomes a necessity.
Gartner shell-shocked the public by unveiling US retail details in the 3rd quarter of 2010. It happened that Samsung has a whopping 32.1 percent share of Android solutions, largely courtesy of carriers versions of Galaxy S. Only in the US the model sold 3 million items and the demand is still phenomenally high. Unprecedented demand for Galaxy S made the company reject the use of SuperAMOLED screens in other devices due to their deficit.
Samsung success is wonderful, especially taking into account attempts of Motorola to get a firm foothold in its home market with Android models. It is not a secret that the US is the leading market for Android models, though sales go up elsewhere too. In the Spillikins I have already mentioned that by putting all eggs in one basket Motorola can be left empty-handed if others come up with more attractive solutions. This scenario is becoming closer to reality even faster than I thought. Everything will depend on January announcement of Motorola and the market response to it. So far we can only claim that this news will not bring positive consequences for the manufacturer and will only increase pressure on it.
It also shows how unrealistic are top managers of Sony Ericsson amid the sound bite from its CEO that SE plans to become player No 1 on the market of Android solutions. Samsung also released figures on sales of Galaxy TAB, which reached 1 million items worldwide and by the end of 2010 the company plans to sell around 1.5 million tablets. These results are better than expected, despite the inflated price. It became possible due to sales through many channels in numerous countries. Samsung views this product as crucial and uses this flagship to compete with iPad. Frankly speaking, I was surprised by these sales figures.
.jpg "HTC Desire HD")
HTC says that it plans to boost some of its Android phones up to Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the recently-relesed edition of the OS, but exact details are still scarce.
Trying to find out when top Androids like the HTC Desire HD will get their bump up to Android 2.3, Pocket-lint talked to HTC to find out if they could discover more about the manufacturer Android update plans. The response was very vague, but does suggest that some of HTC stop dogs will get an update:
"We are excited about the OS update coming for Android. And while HTC will definitely have some phones running this OS, we do not have a specific timeframe for new phones or updates at this time. Please stay tuned for more details."
As detail-free as this statement may be, it does suggest that HTC will take Android 2.3 seriously. The handsets we’d wager are at the front of the Gingerbread update line are the HTC Desire HD and HTC Desire Z, both of which currently run Android 2.2.
Local brands cannot provide appropriate service or marketing and can be attractive only due to low prices, especially if we speak about DUAL-SIM solutions. My interlocutor spoke for a period of time, while I kept on listening. He mentioned low quality and millions of people who purchased handsets to suffer afterwards. He added that Indian companies have no models of their own and only copy Chinese solutions. I heard a traditional speech of a mid level manager from Europe, who works for a manufacturing company. He sounded calmly and labeled the threat as temporary.
How a manager working in Russia can be sure about the superiority of products offered by his employer without ever visiting India and analyzing what is going on there. Low price alone cannot explain the tremendous growth of local producers. Apart from the price they should know the needs of customers. During the discussion I prepared several traps and when my opponent was caught in all of them I showed several web pages to spare him time and expense of going to India. Its a pity I have not taken a picture of his face when all arguments were shattered after he visited some web sites.
Video Below!
Samsung smartphone OS for the masses, Bada OS turned one and Samsung threw quite a party to celebrate. The results of the Developer Challenge were announced and $2.7 million dollars worth of prizes were handed out.
Introduced an year ago, the new OS is doing quite well the first Bada phone, the Samsung S8500 Wave, passed the 1 million sales mark in just under four weeks. Since then quite a few new models have been released and Samsung expects Bada handsets to total 5 million by the end of this year.
The developer challenge, intended to kick start the Bada OS section of the Samsung Apps store, attracted 2,077 teams but only 34 winners were selected. They will split a total of $2.7 million.
$300,000 of those will go to the top app a game called Little Sailor. Eight other apps badaSports, Doogie, Bang, WAMOCamera, TouchRetouch, Bling-Bling Reader and Parking each earned $100 thousand for their developers.
Apps placed second and third in each of the 24 categories won $60K and $40K respectively, with yet more awards going to other developers.
The Android 2.3 SDK released today has thrown up a rather interesting surprise, which seems to confirm the existence of the much talked about PlayStation phone. The revelation takes the form of support coded into Gingerbread for various new input keys with tags that strongly suggest they are for the PlayStation phone.
The new input keys are labelled A, B, C, L1, L2, Mode, R1, R2, Select, Start, ThumbL, ThumbR, X, Y, and Z.
The exitence of the PlayStation phone is all but confirmed really with various pictures and videos having made appearances in recent weeks. All there is left is for Sony Ericsson to make it official and judging by the support present for the device here that may not be too far off. Indeed initial reports suggested that an announcement might take place before Christmas.
TechRadar are reporting that everyone favourite Taiwanese manufacturer, HTC, are aiming to be market leaders in 3D enabled smartphones. Apparently sources within HTC are saying that the company is looking to get a commercial product product to market before the end of 2011.
HTC had previously demonstrated 3D display technology at MWC in Barcelona, but that was very much a demo, not anything that would be construed as an end product ready for market. HTC latest RD centre in the US. is said to be taking a very keen interest in both 3D display technologies and AMOLED displays with some e-ink thrown in for good measure.
Intersecting nicely with such reports is a job advertisment from HTC for an engineer familiar with 3D display and imaging technology.
Of course the big question is whether the public are even interested in 3D displays, after all it would not be the first time the mobile industry assumed that consumers wanted a feature when they did not!
The PlayStation phone has been a gold mine for the internet rumour mill for longer than just about any other device and its still churning out nuggets! The latest rumour is that the device will be launched this coming March after a demo at MWC in Barcelona.
ITProPortal claims that a source at Sony Ericsson confirmed the launch window as well as the MWC demo and also mentioned that it would be on show at CeBIT.
Of course all of this come sont op of the persistent rumour that the handset will be announced tomorrow, 9th December.
The LG Optimus One has been doing some very brisk business, having sold over a million units to date and running Froyo, making it a very attractive option for comparitively little money.
However, all is not well in Optimus One land, LG USA have confirmed via Facebook that the handset will not be getting the upgrade to Gingerbead (Android 2.3). Indeed the Optimus line of handsets as a whole will not be getting any Gingerbread love. The stated reason was due to slower processors, but as you can see from the picture someone pointed out that a 1 GHz processor is not required for Gingerbread.
The Google Nexus S was announced just two days ago and is not even available just yet but its first review just surfaced. The first Gingerbread running smartphone made a very good first impression, but unfortunately the reviewer confirmed that it only records D1 videos.
The Google Nexus S looks just as attractive in those live shots as in the official press materials and its performance is obviously pretty great Despite the new platform it offers, the author claims that user experience does not differ all that much and Android users will feel right at home.
Still, there are new transition effects and animations added, plus the support for NFC and new video and audio codecs. The reviewer comments that the camera still image quality is dubbed equal to that of Galaxy S, but the video is worse even if you do not count the lower resolution.
The contour curved display was found pretty comfortable to use and generally the Nexus S was a great handset to use even though it comes good 6 months after the Galaxy S.
BAD NEWS! for LG Optimus One P500 is obviously going to be stuck to Froyo for the rest of its life. The device that is certainly one of the best bargains you can get for the holiday season, but despite being announced just a few weeks before Gingerbread was released, it will not get a chance to taste it.
Its not the first time a manufacturer has let down its users with OS updates. Besides it is probably more tolerable here, considering that the Optimus One is meant to rival high-end feature phones, rather than smartphone top-dogs. However whats most embarrassing is the way LG brought the news to its customers.
A post on the LG Facebook page states that the Optimus One P500 will not be updated because there is a 1GHz minimum requirement for Gingerbread. Makes total sense, They cannot update it without fixing the hardware, which is impossible. Except that its not true and there is no such Gingerbread requirement and that was confirmed by the Android guru Dan Morill.
The Nokia X7-00 makes another appearance. Its still not officially announced by Nokia but that will not stop the X7 getting an early preview. And those four speakers might turn out to be a sham.
So, someone got their hands on a Nokia X7-00 and posted a few new photos online. The ATT logo on the phone means that it will launch in the US but rumor has it that it's going to be available in Europe as well. Its the same story as with the N8 the hardware of the Nokia X7-00 is good but Symbian^3 does not cut it.
From what we know about it, the X7-00 is like a C7 except for a bigger screen and the four speakers. But some new info has surfaced saying that there are only two loudspeakers despite the four grills in the corners of the Nokia X7-00. As for the camera on the back of the Nokia X7-00, it seems to be the same as the one on the C6-01, C7 and E7 that is 8MP fixed-focus with dual-LED flash.
Review COMING SOON!
Most phones are still waiting on the newest version of Android, but if you want as much Gingerbread action as you can get right now, you can download the 2.3 launcher from the Market for your 2.2 phone.
We have shown you how to get the new Gingerbread keyboard on your 2.2 phone, and there are even a few Gingerbread ROMs out for phones like the Eris and the Evo. For the rest of us, though, it looks like someone also ported the new home screen launcher to 2.2 for those of us that can't wait. You do not even need to have a rooted phone just download, install, and choose Launcher when you hit the home button to see what it looks like.
There are not a ton of new features in this launcher, you have got the standard app drawer at the bottom with two docked shortcuts and five home screens to fill up. The launcher does feel pretty snappy, though, so that's a nice improvement over whatever stock launcher you may be running. Hit the QR code at the right to give it a test run.
Gingerbread Launcher is FREE to download for Android 2.2 phones
The test WP7-driven Samsung Taylor has just made it to the headlines once again. And this time, while posing for the camera, it demonstrates the upcoming copy-and-paste functionality, which is supposed to ship as a first major Windows Phone 7 software update.
Microsoft promised to bring copy and paste to the Windows Phone 7 and according to the following images and the video below them the company sure knows how to keep its promise.
As you can see, the rumored Omnia HD-like Samsung Taylor with the WP7 build 7.0.7338.0 on board features copy and paste.
Video Below!
Google Maps for Mobile 5 just got previewed on stage today and as it turns out, it will bring major changes to how GMaps looks and works on mobile devices. Some of the additions are 3D view, offline mode and new multitouch gestures.
The graphics engine inside Google Maps for Mobile 5 was reworked to use vector graphics, which accounts for many of the advantages. Maps are not pre-rendered images but are rendered on the device itself, making scaling and transitions seamless. Rendering 3D buildings is also supported.
Vector images are also more data efficient they download faster and make caching easier. Speaking of the offline cache, it stores more than just the map, Google Maps Navigation will actually be able to reroute you if you stray from your course. To create a new route, you'd still need a data connection though.
The new multitouch gestures enhance the 3D mode by letting you tilt and rotate the view. For the feature to work, it will need some additional hardware support that is not present in all multitouch-capable phones.
The majority of Android phones should work with Google Maps for Mobile 5, though not all of them will support all the features. Here is the current list of droids that will fully support version 5 features:
- Samsung I9000 Galaxy S
- Motorola Droid
- Motorola Droid X
- Motorola Droid 2
- HTC Droid Incredible
- HTC Evo 4G
- Nexus S
- T-Mobile G2
The iPhone 4 is an exquisite gadget indeed, but with its sales surpassing 20 million units it takes extra effort to get noticed when carrying one. Fortunately the famous British jeweler Alexander Amosu will give you the chance with its limited edition Diamond Spider a diamond-encrusted iPhone 4 with some exclusive features.
The sides of the iPhone 4 Diamond Spider are covered by 846 brilliant-cut VVS1-grade F colour diamonds totaling 5.66 carats. You are free to transfer those diamonds to another handset or just turn them into some kind of jewelry when you decide to switch phones.
You can also pick any color for the back of your Diamond Spider iPhone black, white or any other you may want.
There has been yet another development in the seemingly never ending saga of what could very well be the single most boring mobile phone story ever ... the will they will not they drama of the white iPhone 4.
Ever since the iPhone 4 was first launched people have been wondering where the white version is and various rumours have come and gone saying that it was either about to be released or that Apple had scrapped the idea because apparently making a product coloured white is beyond the capabilities of one of the world's leading consumer electronics companies here in the early 21st century.
So onto the latest development in the story... apparently American network ATT might be releasing the white version in April or May next year. Certainly that appears to be the case according to the picture that 9to5mac managed to get their hands on.
Palm is probably not the first manufacturer that comes to mind when you think of touchscreen keyboards, famously having plumped for a hardware solution pretty much consistently. Even more so that Blackberry one might argue.
Well that looks to be changing with the discovery of a full on touchscreen keyboard tucked away in the latest version of webOS 2.0 Its not fully functioning and will require a bit of jiggery pokery and patience with its bugs, but it does hint that touchscreen devices sans keyboard are on their way from HP/Palm in the not too distant future.
Video Below!
According to Apple component suppliers, the completed iPad 2 will be shipped in February, 2010 for an April, 2010 release. Apple primary manufacturer, Foxconn, has been told to prepare 400,000 to 600,000 units over the next couple months.
DigiTimes says that Apple had originally planned for a January release, but firmware fixes have pushed it back. That would place the iPad 2 launch at exactly one year after the first iPad. Maybe we can count on April being the official iPad release month, as are June and July for the iPhone.
Previously reported that the new iPad would add five exciting new features: video calling, an improved display, a USB port, a 3-axis gyroscope, and better mobility. After the inclusion of the front-facing camera on the iPhone 4, and many other brands devices, the dual-camera design is a must.
The iPad 2 is expected to be a dual-mode device, functioning on both CDMA and GSM networks. The current model is GSM-only, and therefore requires a hotspot when connecting to CDMA networks like Verizon. A dual-mode device would not only make the iPad world-capable, but also simpler to produce and distribute.
According to Apple component suppliers, the completed iPad 2 will be shipped in February, 2010 for an April, 2010 release. Apple primary manufacturer, Foxconn, has been told to prepare 400,000 to 600,000 units over the next couple months.
DigiTimes says that Apple had originally planned for a January release, but firmware fixes have pushed it back. That would place the iPad 2 launch at exactly one year after the first iPad. Maybe we can count on April being the official iPad release month, as are June and July for the iPhone.
Previously reported that the new iPad would add five exciting new features: video calling, an improved display, a USB port, a 3-axis gyroscope, and better mobility. After the inclusion of the front-facing camera on the iPhone 4, and many other brands devices, the dual-camera design is a must.
The iPad 2 is expected to be a dual-mode device, functioning on both CDMA and GSM networks. The current model is GSM-only, and therefore requires a hotspot when connecting to CDMA networks like Verizon. A dual-mode device would not only make the iPad world-capable, but also simpler to produce and distribute.
As expected the Google Gingerbread announcement was garnished with a new Google handset, dubbed Nexus S. The Samsung-made smartphone features the latest Android version and an unusual curved display that should be more comfortable to handle and hold next to the face.
Quite expectedly the Google Nexus S features almost the same specs as the Samsung best-selling Galaxy S. The 4-inch WVGA Super AMOLED screen returns, embedded within a curved glass and protected with anti-fingerprint coating.
Nexus S is powered by the 1GHz Hummingbird processor, packs 512MB RAM and 16GB internal memory, but there is no word about microSD slot. There camera department stays the same as on the Galaxy S a 5 megapixel snapper with HD camcorder but this time it comes with a LED flash. There is a secondary video-call camera too, but no FM radio.
Finally the connectivity is top-notch as usual Wi-Fi b/g/n with DLNA support, GPS, quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G with HSPA, Bluetooth and even Near Field Communications capabilities.
Google Nexus S runs on the latest Android v2.3 Gingerbread and offers all Google NEW goodies!
Official Video Below!
The Android dev team just made the latest version of the mobile platform official. Following Google alphabetic-dessert naming convention Android 2.3 is called Gingerbread. The new version of the OS brings a host of cool new features as well as extended API support, improved performance and improved power management.
Android smartphones are frequently criticized for poor battery management so Google acted up and tried to fix that with Gingerbread. The system will now take a more active role in managing, closing them if appropriate to ensure better performance and maximum battery life.
Text selection has also been improved, making it easier for Android users to mark, copy and paste text when web browsing or texting. The standard organizer package has been updated too, though the dev team stays mum on the details.
Other end-user features supported by Android Gingerbread include Internet calling, through SIP, NFC (or Near Field Communication) support and improved camera interface. The download manager has also been improved and there is now a single app that gives you an aggregated view of all your downloads.
As usually there is also a bunch of new developers features that might not have instant effect but should lead to higher-quality apps arriving to the Android Market shortly. Enhancements are mainly connected with gaming and multimedia.
Video Below!
How about that! Sony Ericsson is secretively working on a Froyo update for their XPERIA X10. Unfortunately, this update will not come before Q2 2011. But you know what its actually sad cause at that time Google will probably be outing Android 3.0
Reportedly, this new bit of info comes from a Sony Ericsson Turkish support representative. Their statement is Above and written in Turkish
In other words, "Sony Ericsson is planning to release the Android 2.2 update in the second quarter of 2011". So X10 owners Get Ready for the Froyo its coming in Approximately 6 Months from Now!
Android Fans! we have some God NEWS we have just got some New photos of the Nexus and it appears clearly on those photos with its 4-inch AMOLED and the Gingerbread Android 2.3 on it... Samsung Really has made a Great work on this device.
As you can see below its very thin and have a Round Shape, 3.5mm and MicroUSB. Also All the Buttons above are capacitive buttons and all covers with scratch resistance Glass.
See Photos and Video Below!
Today, All Nexus One owners Around the Globe feeling Very Happy as the Android 2.3 Gingerbread is being pushed out to the N1 as we speak. We would imagine that all the slick new features that do not require new hardware will be there. So go and Update your Phone NOOW!!
We Know everybody is very Excited to see the New Features on the Gingerbread... We Will make a Full Review of the Nexus One with the New 2.3 Update Soon!
Back in September, we uncovered that ngmoco, a smashingly successful app development house that had long worked exclusively on iOS, was working on Android tools and games. We could not get official confirmation from the company right off the bat, but they went ahead and announced it three days later.
At the time, they announced that their popular game We Rule would be the first to make the jump from iOS-land; turns out, thats not the case. Pocket God.
At least, not on iOS. Pocket God for iOS was developed by Bolt Creative. For the Android port, however, they brought in ngmoco as a partner to help with the transition.
I learned about the Nokia C7 defect accidentally. For a test of some carrier service, I needed Symbian^3 devices and the Nokia N8 and Nokia C7 were the only models available on the market. Since I needed as many as five phones for the test purposes and did not feel like spending a fortune on that, the logical decision was to go with the cheaper Nokia C7. The units were bought at an official Nokia retail store and as such were part of a regular shipment for Russia.
am glad that Nokia acknowledged Nokia N8 defects, but sadly they hide similar defects in Nokia C7. Probably Nokia think that as its sales have just started they will have time to solve the issue before it becomes know to the public. Its risky. There are some controversial issues Nokia has not issued the service bulletin for Nokia N8 and all service centers follow the standard procedure. They resurrect handsets and return them to clients, but they die at the end nonetheless. One of clients posted an angry message on Nokia forum and you can see it below. The phone switched off on November,1, he had it returned from the service centre 16 days after, but the next day it switched off again. This story is quite sad.
Nokia shops in Russia advise clients with such problems not to install additional software and "carefully observe the phone". It is not a solution, but Nokia has not decided how to exchange the phones. According to engineers you cannot repair such phones as they require the replacement of boards.
It seems the white iPhone 4 is coming next spring after all. The information comes directly from Apple via iPhone 4 shop window ad in a Genius Bar.
So the wait continues. It makes you wonder when this thing comes out in time, would not be wiser to wait for the white iPhone 5 in June?
If you are one of those who did not convert their black iPhone 4 with original panels and still wait for the official device, you'd probably have to wait for another five months.
Lets just hope Apple finally releases the problem-free device. We think its more than enough time to fix all known and unknown issues that crippled the black lineup and were an obstacle for the white one.
Actually, the Asus E600 was said to hit the stores on time for Christmas so its premiere might take place even sooner than expected. When we first met it, we only got to take a look at its user interface but now, thanks to the numerous images found over at the FCC website, we also see how the E600 will look like.
The Asus E600 sure is handsome, with a nice, sleek design, and keeping in mind what the WP7 hardware requirements are, we can expect it to be just as smart, too. However, none of the E600 features has been revealed (May have 5.2MP autofocus camera with LED flash).
Video Below!
Google likes to have its fingers in a lot of pies and the latest would appear to be the online book business. The Wall Street Journal are reporting that Google will have an online ebook store up and running in the US by the end of the year with an international launch in February, 2011.
The store, to be called Google Editions, will seemingly rely on independent book sellers as the basis of its sales the WSJ reports:
"Users will be able to buy books directly from Google or from multiple online retailers including independent bookstores and add them to an online library tied to a Google account. They will be able to access their Google accounts on most devices with a Web browser, including personal computers, smartphones and tablets."
There also looks to be a revenue sharing model in place for Editions with websites and blogs able to link to Editions so their readers can buy a particular book and the site can then take a share of Google cut of the sale for driving the purchase. It miht mean a much more personal means of selling books, with speciic sites able to discuss or review particular works and drive sales to just that title.
We have been trying to get my hands on this device for a long time and now we finally have it at my disposal with manufacturers of all kinds offering their visions of such accessories. However, just like it is with Bluetooth handsets, there is not much space for creativity there. You get some sort of a pad that connects to an AC outlet and a special module that connects to the charger port of your mobile phone or other gadget and talks to the pad. It can be a clip-on module or a case, You put the device with this module on the pad and here be magic.
If I worked in the retail, I would go on describing how beautiful, neat and technological that is. But in fact, there is nothing more than wild marketing to it. You can use the standard cable to charge your iPhone. Or you can connect a charging pad to an AC outlet, insert something into your device, put it on the pad and feel very happy about it all. In my opinion, it is like eating with the help of a special gadget attached to your hand. I guess you can come up with your own, better examples. Today, I am going to tell you about the Powermat system, which is one of the most popular brands in the market offering a whole lot of wireless chargers for various devices.
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The system is very simple. You put your iPhone with the special case on or the universal receiver with some other gadget attached to it in either charging position and wait a second or two for the process to begin, which will be indicated by a pleasant sound. Thanks to the light indicators, you can always find the mat in the dark. The charging time seems to be fairly adequate. For example, it took the Powermat about three hours to fully charge the HTC Desire battery, or maybe even two and a half hours as I simply connected the receiver, put it on the mat, left off to run some errands, came back and saw it ready.
Its gettin hard out here for a car jacker, folks. It used to be that you just roll up, knock on a window, be threatening in one way or another, and bam you have got a new and totally unearned ride.
Nowadays, though, you Have got all this new fanged technology to worry about. Lojack. OnStar. Oh, you did nOt notice the smartphone sitting in the cup holder? Enjoy county lockdown, bub. Such is the case for one lucky gent, who was able to send cops to his car less than 10 minutes after it was jacked, thanks to an app running on his Android phone.
The story,guy runs to the store for some snackage, steps out of the car, and gets pounced on by a car jacker. The downside: his car is now speeding off into the distance. The upside: as luck may have it, he has his laptop with him and an Android phone running Lookout sitting in the car.
Video Below!
Many arguments were farfetched yet some were strong indeed OVI Maps that offer free navigation throughout the world. However, one should not overestimate navigation capabilities, which are just another factor that affects onechoice of a phone or smartphone and not the most important one for the majority of customers.
My friend argued that Google Maps do not support turn-by-turn navigation, which is not true as the latter is in fact available for North America. Such ignorance is not uncommon among Europeans and can easily be explained. In March or April, Google will offer turn-by-turn, voice-assisted navigation for virtually any country in Europe and select countries in other regions. Since the feature is offered for free, it is a strong move. When that happens, the only thing that OVI Maps will be able to oppose is the ability to work offline, without a network connection. It could be a great advantage if you are roaming but in my experience, most of the time, the maps don't work offline properly, refusing to indicate your current location. And you will definitely have to go online if you want to get some traffic data, so it looks like the navigation solutions from Google and Nokia are more or less equal in terms of functionality. Roughly speaking, the solutions appear equal to the regular customers with the only exception that Google Maps come pre-installed with many devices and all of them will get a seamless navigation update. In a matter of weeks, the mobile version of Google Maps will become the dominant navigation system for mobile devices.
Throughout August 2010, the navigation system was used by over 100 million users worldwide. And those were actual users and not a simple device count hat Nokia uses for this kind of statistics.
The new version of Google Maps will add a number of other familiar features, like Street View, Drive OR Walk modes, comments. As of this writing it is not known, however, whether or not we will get some functionality similar to 4square. Nevertheless I can assure you that the market is about to go boom, bringing new and exciting features to Android.
We have stumbled upon a bunch of camera and video samples of Samsung I9020 Nexus S and we are quickly sharing them with you. Just do not expect any miracles, the samples are rather uninspiring. Also there is a Sample Video Below shows you the Video recording Quality of the Nexus S... Also not very good BTW!
The camera samples were uploaded on Picasa and were shot in a Google bus, some building and in home environment.
Photo Sample
Video Sample Below
After the blurry Sony Ericsson PlayStation Phone spy vid from the other day we can now enjoy not one but two more videos of greater quality. Luckily, Mr. Blurrycam has nothing to do with both of them. Meanwhile, a few ZEUS Z1 camera sample images popped up as well.
Speaking of camera samples, up until now there was no word on the Sony Ericsson PlayStation Phone camera but these 2952-by-1944-pixel images spotted over at Picasa suggest that we can expect the Z1 to arrive with a 5 megapixel snapper on board. And the video below clearly shows that the thing also packs a tiny LED flash placed just next to the camera lens.
The handset codenamed ZEUS sure looks thick but we guess thats the price you pay to get a phone with these sort of gaming capabilities. As you just might have noticed, the fatty runs the upcoming Android Gingerbread and as the next vid reveals there will also be some sort of pre-installed PlayStation software.7
2 Video Below!
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