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Jan

24

2012

Huawei Honor with Ice Cream Sandwich to arrive by Valentine’s Day on China Unicom

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by Robert Nazarian
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The Huawei Honor is a really nice mid-level phone available on China Unicom. It’s going to get that much better because Huawei and China Unicom just announced the Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Honor will be available by Valentine’s Day. Kudos to Huawei for getting this done faster than the likes of Motorola, HTC, and Samsung. I guess this can’t be a surprise since we wrote about the ICS demo build a little over a month ago. To refresh your memory, the specs of the Honor include:

  • 4-inch (854 x 480) display
  • 1.4GHz single-core processor
  • 512MB of RAM
  • 4GB of ROM
  • 8MP rear camera
  • 2MP front-facing camera
  • microSD for up to an additional 32GB of storage
  • 1900mAh battery.

source: mobile-review
via: pocketnow

Categorized as Android Carriers, Android Manufacturers, Android News, Android Phones, Android Updates | Full Post

Jan

24

2012

Download: Get The New Experiments Gmail Feature On Your Non 4.0.3 Device Now, Adds Local Indexing and Drag & Drop Contact Fields

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by Joe Sirianni
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As we all know, it’s been a couple of weeks now since we’ve seen the new Android 4.0.3 update hit devices like the Transformer Prime making it the first tab to receive the new firmware.  Subsequently, after the update we saw a few nice features and improvements to multiple applications and the UI itself.  However, it’s been discovered by the folks over at ComputerWorld that there’s a hidden little gem in the Gmail application.  A new Gmail feature has been discovered labeled “experiments“.  Sounds super duper secretive doesn’t it?    The experiments feature is basically just a few useful options Google engineers added for the user to try out but may not be necessarily “stable” by any means.  First up on the new experiments feature is “Enable Full Text Search” which is obvious right?  The feature allows you to perform a complete search throughout your threads for key words while indexing them nicely for you.   » Read the rest

Categorized as Android Applications, Android Customization, Android Hacks, Android Manufacturers, Android News, Android Phones, Android Updates | Full Post

Jan

24

2012

Samsung – The Next Big Thing Is Already Here: Urban Camping & Type With Your Voice

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by Roy Alugbue
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Samsung is out to remind us about the next big thing already being here. The following installments of the awesome series highlight more of what the Galaxy S II phone can do and of course what the iPhone can’t do.

The first ad highlights the theme of Urban Camping. A casual couple arrives at a coffee shop only to be surrounded by iPhone fanatics who want to go camping. While talking, the male Galaxy S II owner reserves a camping area, right from his phone using 4G. The barista and campers in the shop are clearly not impressed and the campers proceed to proclaim they’re doing “urban camping”… right in a line as they wait for an iPhone.

YouTube Preview Image 

The second ad highlights a poor fellow waiting in the cold, long line for an iPhone, only to see the power of the Galaxy S II. Here, the frostbitten iPhone owner dashes into a store and needs gloves desperately. He’s greeted by a beautiful store associate who offers him the only pairs of gloves left, but the frostbitten man is concerned he is unable to use the gloves because he will not be able to text message while having them on and asks her how he will be able to text with them on. The store associate then pulls out her handy Galaxy S II and uses the impressive voice-to-text feature. She later highlights her phone is a Galaxy S II with an innocent smile. Tormented, the frostbitten iPhone owner asks the store associate about “what else the Galaxy S II can do”, in an awkward, unusual flirtation no less.

YouTube Preview Image

Categorized as Android Manufacturers, Android News, Android Phones | Full Post

Jan

24

2012

Verizon Wireless kicks of 4X4 Galaxy Nexus Giveaway today at 10:00am

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by Robert Nazarian
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If you’re not already following @VerizonWireless on Twitter, you might want to because they’re kicking off a 4×4 Galaxy Nexus Giveaway in a little less than an hour (10:00am EST). Each day over the next 4 days, they will award a lucky winner a Galaxy Nexus.  You can see in the above image what your task is going to be for each day. You will have from 10:00am to 11:59pm to send your tweets and you’re limited to 10 tweets for each period. Winners will be picked by a random drawing and announced by January 31. Good Luck!!

[via phandroid]

Categorized as Android Carriers, Contests | Full Post

Jan

24

2012

Apple has tossed $100 million into the fight against HTC

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by Jim Farmer
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It’s only the first round and already Apple has reportedly burned through $100 million on its legal battle with HTC, and the fact of the matter is, here lately they have had little to show for it. Newsweek’s Dan Lyons notes Apple’s onslaught of lawsuits around the world have yielded precious little while meaningful wins have been few and far between in its ongoing legal battles against Android vendors. Apple did manage a victory last month when the International Trade Commission banned the import of several HTC smartphones it deemed to be infringing on a patent, but HTC responded the same day and said a simple workaround was already set to be rolled out. How do you like them apples? No end in sight yet however, and if it comes down to cash, Apple certainly has the resources and drive to ruin HTC. Hopefully HTC can continue to rectify their disputes quickly and simply.

[via BGR through RealDan]

Categorized as Android Lawsuits | Full Post

Jan

24

2012

Skydroid – The Windows 8 inspired launcher

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by Jim Farmer
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Custom launchers are one of those aspects that make Android so awesome. They offer a realm of customization unmatched by Android’s competitors. However, those competitors sometimes offer a unique experience of their own, that is until an Android launcher dev decides he wants that look on his device. In particular, XDA member, TheRedDrake, decided he like some of Windows’ looks and eventually created a Windows Phone 7 launcher. Despite this being well received, TheRedDrake and four other XDA members have since moved on in efforts to bring Windows 8 to Android. The team would like to qualify that in saying that their up and coming launcher is not a copy but rather inspired by the Windows 8 Metro UI. What really makes this launcher special is that the team is going above and beyond. They are implementing custom apps to go with the launcher. Upon launch they expect to have twenty and have so far posted eighteen that they have been working on. Here’s the list:

  • Dialer
  • SMS
  • Email
  • Calendar
  • People with IM and social
  • Calculator
  • Player
  • Gallery
  • Camera
  • Browser
  • Notes,
  • Stock + Currency converter
  • Meteo
  • Alarm
  • News
  • File manager
  • Settings
  • Launcher
The team says a release will come sometime in late March to early April. Until then below is the only teaser picture offered up so far (yes they didn’t post a higher resolution image). By the way, who here would like to see them change the name to Metroid?

 

[via XDA]

Categorized as Android Customization, Android Development | Full Post

Jan

23

2012

AT&T, T-Mobile Ask FCC for Approval of $1 billion Spectrum Transfer

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by Stacy Bruce
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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that AT&T and T-Mobile have filed an application with the FCC asking for their approval to transfer $1 billion worth of AT&T’s AWS spectrum over to T-Mobile. AT&T had already promised the spectrum to T-Mobile as a part of the failed $39 billion merger deal that went TU in December. “This additional spectrum will help meet the growing demand for wireless broadband services,” said Tom Sugrue, T-Mobile’s senior vice president for government affairs. We hope the FCC will move swiftly to approve the license assignments.”

Along with the AWS spectrum, AT&T also promised to pay T-mobile $3 billion in cash to make up for the botched merger attempt. T-Mobile also claims the spectrum is needed to keep up with the stiff competition from other US carriers.

Source: WSJ

 

 

 

Categorized as Android Carriers | Full Post

Jan

23

2012

Want HDR Video Recording On Your Smartphone? Sony’s New CMOS Sensors Can Make It Happen (Video)

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by Joe Sirianni
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As I’ve always said, “Damn, if this isn’t an awesome time to be in the mobile industry“.  It’s no surprise that companies like Sony and Samsung produce incredible cameras to accompany their incredible handsets since they’re no strangers to the stand alone camera.  Sony has some of the best camera sensors one is ever going to find in a majority of their handsets.  Devices like the new Sony Ericsson Xperia Ion and Sony Xperia S house a 12 megapixel Exmore CMOS sensor with the ability to capture beautiful shots in a number of different conditions.  However, the company is looking to one-up itself by announcing an even better CMOS sensor which touts “RGBW Coding” enabling the ability to capture HDR video.

» Read the rest

Categorized as Android News | Full Post

Jan

23

2012

Gameloft and Verizon to Bring Voice Over LTE for Multiplayer Gaming

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by Stacy Bruce
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Gameloft and Verizon have recently announced plans to revolutionize Android gaming that could potentially change the game (pun intended). Plans are in action to enable in-game voice chat over Verizon’s 4G network that will work much similar to online gaming on Xbox and PS3 consoles.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Verizon to illustrate the potential of in-game voice chat and multiplayer over the 4G LTE network,” said Baudouin Corman, vice president of Publishing for the Americas at Gameloft. “Gameloft seeks to provide gamers with a complete mobile gaming experience and feels that these features are at the forefront of the platform’s future.”

According to the demo at this years CES, only three gamers are able to play and talk at the same time but I imagine that will change once the technology gets perfected a bit more. If you are anything like me and like to play online multiplayer games, then you know how important this feature can be and that it will take more than three people to be completely effective. To see how this is going to work, jump past the break to check out the short demo video and don’t forget to let us know what you think!

Now if Verizon would just activate voice over LTE we’d be set!

» Read the rest

Categorized as Android Carriers, Android Gaming, Android News | Full Post

Jan

23

2012

DROID RAZR Android 2.3.6 update (6.12.173) leaks, Install without root

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by Robert Nazarian
tagged

From time to time leaked builds become available for certain devices. Most of the time, it’s not the final build, and we never know for sure whether or not it is. In this case the Android 2.3.6 update for the DROID RAZR is now available for you to install, and you won’t need to be rooted. The new build number is 6.12.173 and it brings you to Android 2.3.6 from 2.3.5

We’re told this build brings a LTE radio update which is probably the biggest reason to install it. You will also find some Blur enhancements along with some new bloatware like the Moto Car Finder we told you about a couple of months ago.

Instructions after the break

» Read the rest

Categorized as Android Hacks, Android News, Android Rooting, Android Updates | Full Post

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