Motorola Xoom 4G LTE upgrade now officially available

by Stacy Bruce on Sep 29th 2011, 12:53pm
tagged 4G LTE, 4G upgrade, motorola xoom, Verizon

The wait is finally over! Motorola Xoom owners can now upgrade their tablet to the blazing fast speeds of 4G LTE. Beginning today, you can send in your device for the free upgrade and expect to have it back within six business days. I know it’s no fun being without your tab for almost a week, but will be worth the wait since 4G connectivity is a vast improvement over 3G speeds. I highly recommend the upgrade and it’s free!

If you have already signed up on Verizon’s website for email alerts you should check your inbox. Reports say the notice has already been sent out. If you haven’t received a notification yet be sure to check your junk/spam inbox for details on how to get 4G’d. If you haven’t signed up for the alerts head to Verizon’s website for complete instructions on how to get your upgrade.

If you have been waiting for the pre-baked 4G version of the Xoom it will be launching on October 13th for $499.

Full press release after the break.

» Read the rest

Inductive Charging Brought to Samsung Galaxy S Courtesy of Modder…With No Voided Warranty

by Mitch Wright on Sep 19th 2011, 10:22am
tagged galaxy s, inductive charging, mod, modding, palm

If you’re looking for some real mod-fu, check out the inductive charging mod that a fellow name Qian Qin performed on his Samsung Galaxy S. Qin was looking to get inductive charging going on his Galaxy S, so he decided to go out and purchase a Palm Pre inductive battery cover and Touchstone base for his modding needs. His stipulations for the mod were that it couldn’t be outwardly visible and it couldn’t void his warranty. Low and behold, the man succeeded, by implanting the Palm Pre inductive charging chip in the back cover of the Galaxy S, leading a wire from the chip to the charging port, and using the microSD mount as a ground point. Qin then posted a visual representation of his modding skills via YouTube. Check out the video below and let us know what you think in the comments!

[via engadget]

Tricked Out Sensation 4G Looks Good In Chrome

by Andrew Greenfield on Jul 25th 2011, 12:52pm
tagged customization, HTC, htc sensation, HTC Sensation 4G, modding, T-Mobile

While most Android customization comes from software modifications, every now and then someone brings up a cool way to make your phone’s hardware look even better. Paul white has managed to find a rather simple way to polish the back of the HTC Sensation 4G to get a cool, futuristic chrome look. If that’s not your cup of tea, he also explains how you can get a brushed metal look. The process is actually incredibly simple and his guide to doing it contains a lot of pictures for your visual learners. Even though it’s low risk, modding the outside of your phone can still lead to problems if you aren’t careful. Regardless, I have to say I’m kind of jealous that nothing like this has been done for the Evo. It just looks cool.

[via pocketnow]

Nook2Android Seeks to Simplify the Upgrade to 2.3 Gingerbread on the Nook Color

by Ryan Brooks on Jul 19th 2011, 8:55pm
tagged 2.3, Android, Android Tablets, B&N, Barnes and Noble, Gingerbread, Nook, nook color, nook2android, tablets

Until recently, owners of the Nook Color have resorted to various third-party modifications in order to turn their devices into a true tablet. Not so anymore.

Seeking to capitalize on these hacks’ popularity , the company Nook2Android hopes to simplify a process that can, and often will, brick your device if done improperly.

For a paltry $35, one can treat themself to the latest 2.3 Gingerbread in its entirety. This includes full a/b/g/n wifi, the Android Market, Gmail, Facebook, Pandora, and more. It’s as easy as turning off the Nook, inserting the 8GB SD card pre-loaded with all the necessary software, and turning it back on again. Even better, should you decide to change your mind, it’s every bit as easy to uninstall.

Better yet, the company legitimately sells their product through Amazon, even offering a 14-day return policy. The few reviews already present, are positive.

Sure, it isn’t free, and it takes some of the fun from hacking the device yourself. However, for your everyday user, it’s a great way to enter the world of Android at a fraction of the cost of owning a real tablet.

[via cnet]

Android-Controlled RC Car “Blue Drone” Launches for just $59

by Ryan Brooks on Jul 19th 2011, 2:00pm
tagged android apps, apps, rc car, remote control

You may remember the remote-controlled AR Drone from several months ago, the relatively inexpensive helicopter capable of remote control via Android, iOS, Bada, and Symbian devices. That idea has sparked the interest of many such projects, including one such car – capable of control via (almost) every Android device on the market today.

The BlueDrone Team intends to release an RC car following the same model as the AR Drone: release a prototype, judge public interest, and manufacture accordingly. One can “buy in” for a small sum of $59, and add to the team’s production costs via Kickstarter. If the team’s goals are met, you’ll get a scale-model of the RC car, and the app needed to control it. If not, you’ll get your money back.

The RC uses class 2.1 bluetooth, so you’ll get roughly a 30ft range while lasting as long as three hours, full-throttle. This is an excellent price and a great deal, as the price will likely increase once this goes live (and it will). Check out the video after the break, and leave your comments below!

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Enable USB host mode on the Motorola XOOM

by Robert Nazarian on Mar 11th 2011, 2:50pm
tagged motorola xoom, OTG cable, Root, rooting, usb, USB host mode, Xoom

So you have a Motorola XOOM and you need more then the 32GB of on board storage. You could use the SD card slot, but that is not enabled yet. What do you do? If you have rooted your XOOM you can enable USB hosting which will give you the ability to hook up a flash drive or use a USB keyboard.

Your XOOM must be rooted If you have not rooted your XOOM yet, you can follow the directions here.

You will also need an OTG Cable.

Instructions as from the source:

Very similar to rooting the device. Extract the img file from the ZIP above, and place it in the same folder as your adb and fastboot binaries. Then, run this:

adb reboot bootloader – (reboots into the bootloader)
fastboot flash boot rootboot.usbdisk.img - (which loads the new boot.img onto the system)
fastboot reboot- (Reboots the device)

Lastly — using adb or root explorer, you need to alter your /etc/vold.fstab by adding this line to it: dev_mount usbdisk /mnt/usbdisk auto /devices/platform/tegra-ehci

This tells VOLD where to mount the device, when it’s plugged in. After the change, you need to reboot. The altered boot.img adds a folder called /usbdisk, so that way if you connect a USB thumb drive using the cable I linked to above, it will automount the thumb drive and you can access files. I tested this with an HP 125W FAT32 8GB thumb drive, and it worked without an issue. The only caveat I can think of is that YMMV on thumb drives – some might require more power than the Xoom can supply.

[via slatedroid.com by androidcentral.com]

XDA Provides Stable Android ROM On HD2, Ditches Build From SD Card

by Joe Sirianni on Dec 30th 2010, 9:22pm
tagged android on hd2, android on htc hd2, Android rom, Boot up, bootloader, custom ROM, HTC HD2, NAND memory, ROM, sd card build

Who can deny that the HTC HD2 is some pretty impressive and sexy hardware for a cell phone? The only thing that stood out like a sore thumb was the Windows Mobile 6.5 that is illegally married to it. Well, the next best thing to do would have been to run over to XDA and grab yourself a nice stable “build” that could be run off of your SD card. Meaning? Meaning, that you have to load up WinMo first, then run the build from your sd card. Well, once again, XDA provides an escape from the daunting wait for Windows Mobile to boot up first. Hit the break for more info and to check out the video of the install process in action. » Read the rest

Health Updates sent to your Android device in Real Time

by Jesse Bauer on Oct 11th 2010, 1:16am
tagged Android, ban, body area network, health, health monitor, nRF24L01+, scan, scanner, star trek

The future is getting very close to us. I remember watching old Star Trek TV episodes, you know, the ones where they simply scan a handheld device over someone’s body to see if anything is wrong with them, or where the injury may be. You’ve seen it too, fact is, we see it everywhere we turn in today’s world. The technology that was pictured to be “futuristic” is starting to pop up in our daily lives now.

Here we see Dutch researchers have found a way to connect a wireless receiver into an SD slot of an Android device to receive wireless data from a Body Area Network (BAN). The data streams in real time from sensors attached to the body and sends it directly to the phone. The network streams over the nRF24L01+ radio wireless standard instead of a bluetooth connection standard.

$40 lens set from Photojojo, said to work with any camera phone

by Chris Moor on Aug 17th 2010, 3:40pm
tagged camera, lens

Photojojo, an online photography retailer, has introduced a set of inexpensive camera lenses said to “work with any camera phone”. First in the set is a wide angle/macro lens. This allows users to take both wide shots as well as close-ups. The second is a fisheye lens. For those who want to get creative this lens curves the edges of photos, turning a square image into what looks like a sphere. The wide/macro sells for $20, the fisheye for $25, or you can get them both for $40. The lenses attach via a small metal ring which is placed around the phones existing camera lens. The lens is then attached to the metal ring with magnets. This seems like a nice edition for a phone with a high megapixel count such as the Droid X (8 MP). Is anybody out there looking for something like this? Let us know in the comments.

[via Information Week]

Mount your HTC EVO in a Wii Wheel

by Chris Moor on Jul 29th 2010, 5:34pm
tagged Android, HTC EVO, mod, wii, wii wheel, wiimote

While using your Wiimote to control your Android phone is nothing new, mounting your phone to a Wii Wheel sure is. User Syanni85 at ppcgeeks.com figured out that his HTC EVO 4G fits perfectly and even devised a mounting system:

» Read the rest

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