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BlueStacks App Player For Windows PCs Now In Beta Form

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by Roy Alugbue on
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It’s no secret that our use of apps on mobile devices have taken off to unprecedented heights. As you might expect, some individuals have pondered the idea of running actual apps on our desktops as opposed to our phones and tablets. That’s why the gang at BlueStacks created their App Player which allows you to run your Android apps on a Windows-based desktop. We previously highlighted BlueStacks was looking for beta testers, but the development team has followed-up and ressurected the program in its beta form and will be looking for individuals to give the program a shot and see how it works out for them.

BlueStacks features some solid technology in order to power the various Android apps. The App Player will feature BlueStack’s patent pending LayerCake technology to make applications run buttery smooth as if on ARM devices. In addition, the development team has enabled hardware acceleration— ensuring your apps will run at an optimal level when the option is enabled.

The App Player is available for anyone interested with a Windows-based PC. You’ll need to visit their homepage and sign-up as a beta tester in order to get the file needed to run on your computer. As an added bonus— BlueStacks is including a couple of sweet apps pre-installed including Fruit Ninja, Evernote and of course Angry Birds Space. If you have a Windows PC, make sure you all sign up— but first hit the break to find the presser and the signup links.

» Read the rest

Bluestacks Now In Beta, Brings Android Apps to Your Windows PC

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by Stacy Bruce on
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Back in October, we told you about the free Android app called Bluestacks that stores your smartphone apps in the cloud so they can be synced and accessed on your Windows Vista, or 7-powered PC. Well it looks like Bluestacks is finally out of the alpha stage and will be heading into beta soon. The app has received a ton of accolades including CNET’s “Best of CES” title from this years show. If you want to sign up to be selected as a beta user, you better hit up the source link below. Who knows how many people they will select or when they will stop taking testers.

Thanks Arron!

[via Bluestacks]

 

Firmware Update Now Available For Asus Transformer Tablets

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by Justin Routhier on
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A new firmware update has been released by Asus for their original Transformer tablet PCs and is now available OTA as version 8.6.5.21-20111216. (This device should not to be confused with its successor, the Transformer Prime.) The update addresses HDMI problems some owners experienced while operating the tablet with newer HDTVs and it enhances stability and incorporates input lag reduction fixes too. The Android version remains the same and it is said that this will be the final such firmware update until the big jump to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

If you live in the US, UK, Taiwan or Germany the update is now available for you and any Transformer devices with generic WW SKU.

 

[via goodreader]

Acer Founder Stan Shih Confident Android Will Overcome Apple

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by Justin Routhier on
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In a recent interview with Taiwan’s Chinese-language United Daily News, Acer Inc. founder Stan Shih states that the Android operating system is destined to overcome Apple’s iOS through its combined efforts of Wintel (Windows+Intel) and Google innovations. Shih goes on to say that the alliance between Intel and Google is a match that proves to be good news for “Android leaguers” as the two companies will innovate and provide better solutions for optimizing Android’s speed and performance. Furthermore, he predicts the Android-powered, Atom processor-built portable communication devices will overtake Apple in PC development.

Regarding the post-PC era, Shih said that we shouldn’t expect a true end to that part of the industry but rather we will see it evolve into more diverse forms such as tablets and smartphones. Manufacturers of display panels and IC chipsets, he says, will be instrumental with their production capabilities and capacity for the global supply chain of PCs, whose production will also evolve to envelop the growing PCD consumer demand.

[via cens]

Miro 4 released – will sync tunes to your Android device – and it’s free

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by Jesse Bauer on
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Similar to what Winamp can do for syncing your local tunage to your Android device, Miro 4 has launched, and is on a mission to take over your computers ability to sync music and video to your Android devices. Just looking at the interface is almost enough for me to want to use it over Winamp, I mean, just look at it. It looks super sexy! It’s got the iTunes look and feel, yet it’s an open source project, which many of us love to support as much as we can.

Now to the functionality…Miro has done a great job putting together some 30 second videos to brainwash convince you to at least try Miro 4 with Android, some of which the features are as follows;

  1. Works with your current music library
  2. Converts and syncs to Android
  3. Buy Music and Apps inside Miro
  4. Download and play almost any video
  5. Convert any video
  6. Share Your Media on your Network
  7. Open-source – don’t lock yourself in!
  8. Ultra-fast torrent downloading
  9. Miro is a simple, beautiful, unified way to download, organize, and watch videos and listen to music. And it’s totally free

miro4 sync

Miro 4 is available for PC, Mac, and Linux. It’s Free, and if other partners start helping this project along (Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, etc.) it may actually take off. That said, it sort of conflicts with what they are already trying to do with cloud storage and sales.

Download it here.

[via intomobile]

Turn your Android device into a second monitor with iDisplay

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by Jesse Bauer on
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Android-iDisplay

This may or may not be the best use of your Android’s display ever conceived. That being said, it would look OK if you were using your laptop, and needed a second screen onto your newly purchased Motorola Xoom perhaps, taking advantage of its 10inch screen. This would be annoying for me to use on my smartphone, as a 4 inch screen just wouldn’t cut it.

The app is called iDisplay, and it’s been around for some time for Apple products, but it’s now available in the Android Market and will only cost you $4.99. It uses an app that needs to be installed on either your PC or Mac (sorry, don’t see any Linux support just yet), where you would enter the IP address of your computer onto your Android device so it can grab the streamed display.

Key features include:

  • Extend the display – spread the desktop over both displays and drag items between the two screens.
  • Duplicate displays – view the same desktop on both the monitor and the Android device.
  • 100% Compatible – works with the Samsung Galaxy Tab, Google Nexus One, or any other Android tablet or smartphone on the market.
  • Works in portrait or landscape device orientations.

You can purchase iDisplay by clicking here for the Android Market

[via intomobile]

Access your Nook Color Mass storage with this app

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by Jesse Bauer on
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Ever wanted to be able to access your mass storage on your Nook Color? maybe throw some music and movies on there after you put Honecomb on it? No problem. XDA member samuelhalff‘s app will let you access that storage on a PC via USB connection. The app will open SD or internal storage, and can mount any partition as well.

If you want to check it out, just head over to the link here and grab the apk file. You’ll find support and issues there as well. This app is in Beta version and tested on Honeycomb and Froyo OS.

[via XDA-Developers]

Maxthon Browser comes to Android – leaves PCs behind

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by Jesse Bauer on
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Looks like the once ‘ahead-of-its’-time” browser for PC has finally made its way to Android. I actually used to use this browser on my desktop for sometime, and needless to say, I’m glad it’s on Android now too. The browser got left in the dust after other browsers such as Firefox and Chrome came out with tabbed browsing and tab groups, but I can definitely see this being a popular browser on Android, if only people will give it a try.

The browser has several features such as the following;

  • Sync to the Cloud – Your bookmarks/favorites travel with you from desktop to mobile.
  • RSS reader widget – Find, manage and read your favorite content quickly and easily
  • Quick Access of the best sites on the web.
  • A Download Manager that makes is easy to sort, schedule and grab the downloads you need: wherever, whenever.
  • Super Gesture – Use touch screen commands to surf with your fingertips.
  • Tab browsing – Powerful tab management that puts your mobile screen to maximum use.
  • Amazing speed – Get websites super fast.
  • Powerful personalization – Avatars and more.

It looks to be pretty fast, and is a viable replacement for the default Android browser. If you want to give it a try (I recommend that you do), check out the links below or scan the QR.

Scan the QR code below
maxthon QR
Android Market Link

[via TalkAndroid Apps]

Smartphones outsell PCs for the first time in Q4 2010

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by Jesse Bauer on
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You know it’s a monumental shift when something that has only been around a few years takes over something that’s been around for a couple decades. An article at ReadWriteWeb posted results of smartphone sales versus PC sales in Q4 of 2010. Smartphones sold 100.9 million OEM units in that quarter, while PCs sold 92.1 million OEM units. That marks the first time that smartphones beat out PCs.

What’s even more puzzling about the chart above is that Nokia shipped over 100 million units in 2010, while Research in Motion shipped 48.8. Don’t worry though, those numbers are sure to shift in 2011 after manufacturers like HTC and Samsung put the heat on for Android this year. Craziness.

[via BGR]

HTC To Launch “Flyer” Tablet In March?

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by Axl Logan on
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And the tablets just keep coming in.  The latest company to enter the tablet wars, as expected, is none other than HTC.  Thanks to a source over at DigiTimes, HTC plans to launch a device that resembles a large version of the HTC Desire, it will be called the “Flyer”.  This is reported to be one of three different tablets to be released in the first half by HTC.  The device will be released with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and will be upgradeable to 3.0 (Honeycomb) when it becomes available. » Read the rest

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