The GOOGLE | ANDROID Thread

[Swisha]

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play (update: video and full spec sheet!)

Size: 119 x 62 x 16 mm
Weight: 175 grams
Phone memory: 400 MB
Memory card support: microSD™, up to 32 GB
Memory card included: 8GB microSD™
Operating system: Google™ Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
Processor: 1 GHz Scorpion ARMv7
Talk time and networks Networks

Talk time GSM/GPRS: Up to 8 hrs 25 min*
Standby time GSM/GPRS: Up to 425 hrs*
Talk time UMTS: Up to 6 hrs 25 min*
Standby time UMTS: Up to 413 hrs*
Talk time CDMA2000®: Up to 7 hrs 40 min*
Standby time CDMA2000®: Up to 405 hrs*
Game play time: Up to 5 hrs 35 min*
MP3 playback: Up to 30 hrs 35 min*
Networks

UMTS HSPA 800, 850, 1900, 2100
GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900
UMTS HSPA 900, 2100
GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900
CDMA2000®, cdmaOne, EVDO
Colour

Black
White

We'll forgive you if you thought the Xperia Play was eons before. Let's quickly run through its short-yet-illustrious history: we published first details in August last year, followed by the very first pictures in late October. More and more details emerged throughout the remainder of the year. By the time 2011 hit, a prototype was making the Chinese media rounds (teardown included), and then we managed to get our own Xperia Play prototype for preview. It's at this point that Sony Ericsson joins in on the fun with its creepy Super Bowl ad reveal.

But after months of detailed leaks, early hands-on previews, and numerous executive non-denials, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is finally 100 percent official.

As we've heard for ages now, it'll run Android 2.3 Gingerbread on a 1GHz Snapdragon processor with Qualcomm Adreno 205 graphics and display those games on a sizable 4-inch, 854 x 480 multi-touch LCD screen, the combination of which Sony says will provide 60 frames per second playback and manage up to 5 hours, 35 minutes of battery life in a single game session with the slide-out PlayStation Certified controller. Gaming credentials aside, you're looking at either a quad-band GSM or CDMA and EV-DO smartphone with a 5-megapixel autofocus camera, LED flash, stereo speakers, Bluetooth and WiFi functionality baked in, as well as Sony Ericsson's Timescape UI layer.

The phone comes preloaded with a "legendary" PSone game of the undisclosed variety, as well as a bevy of popular Android games including Asphalt 6, The Sims 3 and Tetris, and Sony Ericsson promises a library of 50 additional titles available at launch from 20 publishing partners. Some games ported from existing smartphone platforms (like Reckless Racing) will have bonus content on Xperia Play, too. Local area multiplayer gaming is a go, as you'll be able to host a WiFi hotspot on one device and join the game with another. It's launching in March, and will be available on Verizon (a US timed exclusive) in "early spring," suggesting that we'll see the European launch before it hits the States.









Engadget

[Swisha]

Samsung working with Sybase and Cisco to make Galaxy S II enterprise-friendly

BlackBerry may be the go-to enterprise smartphone platform, but Samsung is positioning its newly unveiled Galaxy S II as new contenders for the crown. To get there, Samsung's working with Sybase to bring far more advanced security to the handsets than stock Android offers, including control of individual applications and ports and also allowing for remote administration -- including admin-pushed app updates. Samsung also talked up the phone's Exchange compatibility and, with help from Cisco, the phone offers WebEx compatibility, VPN support, and VOIP calling. Know what this means? Your next corporate phone just got a lot more interesting.


Engadget

[Swisha]

more hands on with the Galaxy S II...


Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II UI demo

[Wolfie]

Do not like.

[achillies]

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play (update: video and full spec sheet!)

Size: 119 x 62 x 16 mm
Weight: 175 grams
Phone memory: 400 MB
Memory card support: microSD™, up to 32 GB
Memory card included: 8GB microSD™
Operating system: Google™ Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
Processor: 1 GHz Scorpion ARMv7
Talk time and networks Networks

Talk time GSM/GPRS: Up to 8 hrs 25 min*
Standby time GSM/GPRS: Up to 425 hrs*
Talk time UMTS: Up to 6 hrs 25 min*
Standby time UMTS: Up to 413 hrs*
Talk time CDMA2000®: Up to 7 hrs 40 min*
Standby time CDMA2000®: Up to 405 hrs*
Game play time: Up to 5 hrs 35 min*
MP3 playback: Up to 30 hrs 35 min*
Networks

UMTS HSPA 800, 850, 1900, 2100
GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900
UMTS HSPA 900, 2100
GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900
CDMA2000®, cdmaOne, EVDO
Colour

Black
White

We'll forgive you if you thought the Xperia Play was eons before. Let's quickly run through its short-yet-illustrious history: we published first details in August last year, followed by the very first pictures in late October. More and more details emerged throughout the remainder of the year. By the time 2011 hit, a prototype was making the Chinese media rounds (teardown included), and then we managed to get our own Xperia Play prototype for preview. It's at this point that Sony Ericsson joins in on the fun with its creepy Super Bowl ad reveal.

But after months of detailed leaks, early hands-on previews, and numerous executive non-denials, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is finally 100 percent official.

As we've heard for ages now, it'll run Android 2.3 Gingerbread on a 1GHz Snapdragon processor with Qualcomm Adreno 205 graphics and display those games on a sizable 4-inch, 854 x 480 multi-touch LCD screen, the combination of which Sony says will provide 60 frames per second playback and manage up to 5 hours, 35 minutes of battery life in a single game session with the slide-out PlayStation Certified controller. Gaming credentials aside, you're looking at either a quad-band GSM or CDMA and EV-DO smartphone with a 5-megapixel autofocus camera, LED flash, stereo speakers, Bluetooth and WiFi functionality baked in, as well as Sony Ericsson's Timescape UI layer.

The phone comes preloaded with a "legendary" PSone game of the undisclosed variety, as well as a bevy of popular Android games including Asphalt 6, The Sims 3 and Tetris, and Sony Ericsson promises a library of 50 additional titles available at launch from 20 publishing partners. Some games ported from existing smartphone platforms (like Reckless Racing) will have bonus content on Xperia Play, too. Local area multiplayer gaming is a go, as you'll be able to host a WiFi hotspot on one device and join the game with another. It's launching in March, and will be available on Verizon (a US timed exclusive) in "early spring," suggesting that we'll see the European launch before it hits the States.









Engadget

this is not looking to bad

[Swisha]

HTC refreshes Android lineup with Incredible S, Desire S and Wildfire S (update: hands-on)



The buttonless wonder we once knew only as "HTC's upcoming flagship device" has today been revealed to be the Incredible S. It's a new 4-incher that emulates the Droid Incredible's successful industrial design, but deviates in a lot of other ways, including the fact it'll launch globally -- at some point in early Q2, but with only Android 2.2 on board. We got to see one in person ahead of today's unveiling and we have to say it feels like a very solidly and neatly built pocket machine. The capacitive buttons' labels are not painted on and actually rotate with the screen, so that they can be either in landscape or portrait mode, whatever your wishes (and physical position). We found that ever so simple little feature added a greater sense of interaction with the phone, plus -- let's face it -- it's just a ton of fun to do.

in terms of hard specs, the Incredible S comes with a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 backed by 768MB of RAM, a 720p HD video-capable 8 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash and autofocus, a 1.3 megapixel front-facing image taker, and a 1450mAh battery. Resolution is your standard-issue 800 x 480.

That res is also shared by another in HTC's newly launched handsets today, the 3.7-inch Desire S. It is essentially an HTC Desire inside a new aluminum unibody shell, making use of largely the same design language and specifications. The camera is still a 5 megapixel unit, and is joined by an MSM8255 powering things from within, a new front-facing camera (1.3MP), 768MB of RAM, and a 1450mAh battery. The big difference between it and the Incredible S it is launching alongside is that the Desire S will ship with Gingerbread (2.4) from the start, which should be some time in the middle of Q2 2011.

Soon after its launch, we'll all get to witness the debut of the Wildfire S, the new low-end offering from HTC, which cranks up resolution from QVGA to HVGA relative to its predecessor and adds yet more colors and vibrancy for the sake of that ephemeral youth appeal that all these phone makers are hunting for. A big point in the Wildfire S' favor is that it'll also come with Gingerbread preloaded. We'll soon be grabbing more hands-on time, along with pictures and video, with all of these devices, so bear with us.


Engadget

[Swisha]

Androidify App - Make Android Your Own

Androidify, available free from Android Market, lets you take the little green Android, and turn it into yourself, your friends, your family, anyone! Stretch it , shrink it, add a hoody, style its hair, throw on some shades, or even give it a parrot and a pirate hat. Arrrgh!




YouTube

[Swisha]

Google demos Android Movie Studio for Honeycomb



Google won't let anyone take pictures during its MWC 2011 keynote, so you'll just have to trust us when we say Eric Schmidt just demoed a new video editing application called Movie Studio for Honeycomb tablets. The app was built from the ground up for tablet devices, and it features everything you'd expect: a timeline-style editor, picture effects, soundtrack and audio support, and of course, HD support with uploads to YouTube. Unfortunately we don't know much else about it, but we'll be digging for more details, so stay tuned.

Update: We snuck a picture! You can see the timeline and the playback controls -- it looks really nice, don't you think?



Engadget

[Swisha]

HTC launches 1.5GHz, 7-inch Android 2.4 Flyer into the tablet wars (update: hands-on video!)



Boy oh boy, HTC is entering the tablet arena with quite a bang. The company has just taken the wraps off its brand new 7-inch Flyer Android tablet, which touts a 1.5GHz single-core CPU, 1GB of RAM plus 32GB of flash storage, an aluminum unibody construction, 1024 x 600 resolution, a tablet-optimized version of Sense, and... what's this, a pressure-sensitive stylus! The HTC Scribe trademark we saw floating around in legal waters turned out not to be the branding for a tablet, it's actually the name HTC gives to the technology enabling what it calls a "groundbreaking pen experience." Other details include a 5 megapixel camera on the back paired with a 1.3 megapixel imager up front, a 4000mAh battery rated to last for four hours of continuous video playback, and memory expandability via a microSD card.

The Flyer will ship in Q2 2011 with Android Gingerbread 2.4 on board. HTC says it'll be indistinguishable from 2.3 as far the end user is concerned, though we all know it won't be quite as good as the 3.0 stuff. We're told not to worry, however, since the new version of Sense being introduced with the Flyer will be the focal point of the company's software offering. As far as HTC is concerned, Sense matters more than the underlying platform, and the reason Honeycomb isn't the shipping OS here was explicitly stated as HTC not having enough time with the latest Google code to customize it to the full requirements of Sense. Guess that settles that.

There are a couple more software enhancements, both marking the introduction of the fruits of HTC's recent deals: OnLive cloud gaming will be coming with the Flyer in the form of an app you open up to access the web-connected bored-relieving service, while that Saffron Digital acquisition has turned into an HTC Watch app for movie streaming and downloading.

We spent a bit of quality time with a Flyer unit recently, although we weren't allowed to turn it on, and our early impressions are rather mixed. On the one hand, we do appreciate the ruggedness and durability that's afforded by the one-piece aluminum shell, but on the other, the Flyer is quite the chunky beast in your hands. We'd imagine strapping in such an extra-speedy processor is the main culprit for its extra girth, though the Flyer is, ironically enough, not terribly light either. We found it heavier and generally a lot less polished from a design perspective than Samsung's Galaxy Tab.












Engadget

[Swisha]

The LG Optimus Pad (Hands-On)





The LG Optimus Pad was made official as the World’s first tablet with 3D video playback. It's the global version of the US-bound G-Slate. This new tablet has a 8.9" 15:9 widescreen of WXGA (1280x768) resolution. It runs the new Android 3.0 Honeycomb on a dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2.

The LG Optimus Pad has two cameras at the back for 3D video capture - though we can't confirm the actual resolution at this stage. We guess 1080p video playback will only be enabled over the phone's HDMI port, much like the G-Slate.

In an attempt to set its tablet apart, LG are breaking away from 7 and 10-inch tablet screens. The Optimus Pad features a “unique” display of 8.9 inches, which LG claim is more comfortable in single-handed use.






Engadget

[Swisha]

LG unveils the Optimus 3D & the Optimus Black

LG Optimus 3D



The front of the LG Optimus 3D houses the phone’s main feature - the world’s first 4.3-inch stereoscopic LCD screen, on which 3D content can be enjoyed without special eyeglasses.

The Optimus 3D is powered by a dual-core OMAP4 processor by Texas Instruments and uses 512MB of dual-channel memory. At the handset's back are the dual 5MP cameras that work together to capture 3D photos and videos, which as we reported, can be directly uploaded to YouTube 3D.
3D videos are limited to 720p resolution, while regular 2D capture is in full HD.



And since 3D is the main attraction here, a side-mounted hotkey will launch a special 3D UI with shortcuts to various 3D-enabled apps, such as Camera, Gallery, Apps&Games, YouTube 3D and the 3D guide.





The LG Optimus Black





The Optimus Black was announced a month ago back at CES. At the MWC, LG tried to help it out of the shadow of its 3D sibling. Interestingly enough, the Optimus Black will be available in white, just like the Samsung Nexus S.

The 4.0" WVGA IPS LCD NOVA display of the LG Optimus Black is touted as the brightest to have on a phone at 700 nits of brightness. Powered by a 1Ghz OMAP processor, the Black runs the latest version of Android 2.3 Gingerbread.



GSM Arena

[Swisha]

Motorola Atrix 4G review

The Atrix 4G might be our favorite Android device that we've tested. It's got specs that run laps around most other devices, which should make most potential purchasers feel a little safer about laying out cash for a smartphone right now. We're not saying the phone doesn't have its issues -- and we're really not big fans of Motorola's skinning -- but this is a powerhouse of a device in a sleek package, and Android's openness to customizing means you'll be able to turn it into a phone that feels like your own. So yes, yes to the Atrix 4G, because it is an awesome phone.

Engadget

[RASC]

more hands on with the Galaxy S II...


Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II UI demo

MAJOR lag at "0:09" "1:17" (I'll add more as I watch the rest of the video)

But then again...I'm a fan boy of WP7 right?
I only PRETENDING to see that...

[RASC]

so I watched the full video of the galaxy s 2. I just duno how you guys making out with all that lag. When he got to the camera app... Wow... Horrendous! I wanna jump on board but geez man that's too much. The uneven scrolling was just too much to here... Not to mention the load in that keeps popping up. What's taking so long with he dual cores man.

At least the UI looks a bit more mature and refined. Not like some nerd in a basement did the styling. Far off from the sleek contemporary metro UI on wp7... But at least it's a start, and getting away from the kiddie look.

[RASC]

so I watched the full video of the galaxy s 2. I just duno how you guys making out with all that lag. When he got to the camera app... Wow... Horrendous! I wanna jump on board but geez man that's too much. The uneven scrolling was just too much to bere... Not to mention the load icon that keeps popping up. What's taking so long with he dual cores man.

At least the UI looks a bit more mature and refined. Not like some nerd in a basement did the styling. Far off from the sleek contemporary metro UI on wp7... But at least it's a start, and getting away from the kiddie look.

OEMs need to get those dual cores rocking asap. This lag issue is killing it. The iPhone 5 is coming out this year...not to mention Nokia teaming with you know who...

[tr1ad]

is nexus one or nutten

[RASC]

is nexus one or nutten

Painfully slow...
Trackball? 2008 All over again.

[tr1ad]

as i said before

never had problems with mines.... trackball.... oho thats what it is... never used it tho

[RASC]

Triad. I think its a case of either or. Either I have ocd or you've become so used to lagginess that you do not notice it. I used be like that also. But trust me once you start experiencing real speed with zero bog, you'll catch my drift. Did you watch the video above

[tr1ad]

i'll take a look at the vid later, it's blocked here in work

wrt lag, the clear winner is bb

[Greypatch]

more droid phones than you can shake a stick at

[achillies]

Now this is the kind of device i'm looking for, only thing really missing is the dual core

Not a big fan of HTC sense though, i absolutely hate the people app

[achillies]

so I watched the full video of the galaxy s 2. I just duno how you guys making out with all that lag. When he got to the camera app... Wow... Horrendous! I wanna jump on board but geez man that's too much. The uneven scrolling was just too much to bere... Not to mention the load icon that keeps popping up. What's taking so long with he dual cores man.

At least the UI looks a bit more mature and refined. Not like some nerd in a basement did the styling. Far off from the sleek contemporary metro UI on wp7... But at least it's a start, and getting away from the kiddie look.

OEMs need to get those dual cores rocking asap. This lag issue is killing it. The iPhone 5 is coming out this year...not to mention Nokia teaming with you know who...

Wel Nokia is in my opinion one of the top device makers with regards to hardware, they only teamed up with WP7 because their new CEO was previously employed at Microsoft, its sort of ironic that a Swedish company didnt go with a Linux based OS seeing as Meego is based on Linux and Linux was invented by a Swedish designer

they would have been much better off if they had gone with both Android and WP7, jus as HTC did, but what can i say, to each his own, we will see how it works out

Sony has gone deep with android, so has Mororola and Samsung, Android is the fastest growing OS on planet earth, if u think Nokia made a good business decision, well i say no more......

[achillies]

Lookout Mobile Security has issued another report from their App Genome Project and it confirms what we've been hearing for a while now: the Android Market is maturing. For those of you who aren't familiar, the App Genome Project is the world's largest application dataset that basically shows mobile applications across platforms, and in our case, Android v. iOS. The project has analyzed more than 500,000 Android and iOS applications and was created as an ongoing effort to provide insight into mobile market dynamics, gain insight into how mobile apps access personal data and sensitive capabilities on mobile devices, and identify security threats in the wild.

Some key findings about the current condition of Android as compared to other platforms:

The Android Market’s prevalence of paid apps increased from 22% in August 2010 to 34% in February 2011, whereas the proportion of paid apps in the Apple App Store decreased slightly during the same period, going from 71% to 66%.
The number of apps available on the Android Market increased by approximately 127% since August 2010
Android Market price points have increased: the proportion of paid Android Market apps costing $0.99 or less decreased from 61% in August 2010 to 37% in February 2011.
In terms of advertising within apps, the Google AdMob SDK is integrated into more free apps in both the Android Market and the Apple App Store than any other ad platform, though iAd is quickly gaining traction in the Apple App Store.
If each market continues to grow at the same rate, the Android Market will have more apps than the Apple App Store by mid-2012.
Android Market developers typically release more apps than Apple App Store developers. On average the Android Market has 6.2 apps per developer and the Apple App Store has 4.8 apps per developer

Lookout has done an amazing job here, gathering tons of information beyond just that of showing how Android is growing. More developers are taking Android seriously, and are looking forward to writing applications for Android OS. If you want some great info that compares and contrasts Android and iOS, definitely check out the site. It's worth a good once-over.

[achillies]

Motorola “Not Entertaining” Windows Phone 7, is 100% Committed to Android



As it appears today, Motorola is not looking beyond Android for help with their smart phones. With the slow rise in Windows Phone 7 and a new set of devices to contend with, one might have expected the handset maker to join the likes of Samsung and LG. In speaking with the press at Mobile World Congress this week, Motorola representative Christy Wyatt hammered home their desire to stick with Google's mobile OS.

"I don't envision us using Microsoft. I would never say never but it's not something we're entertaining now. We're the only vendor who is 100 percent Android"

At one point, it was suggested that Motorola would consider other platforms, including the reborn Microsoft OS. However, thanks to a much delayed rollout and closed approach, Windows Phone 7 doesn't get a second look today.

"...But there were a bunch of things that we believed about Microsoft that ended up not being true, mostly about what functionality it would have in what period of time... We would like an opportunity to create unique value and we don't feel we could with a closed platform."

[achillies]

For The Guys With Nexus Ones



Take this one with a big grain of salt, but MobileCrunch's Greg Kumparak is reporting that a Google employee at MWC "casually mentioned" that a Gingerbread OTA for the Nexus One is around the corner. Other sources confirmed to him that the OTA will be on the way later this week or early next week.

I am, in the legendary words of the Great White, once bitten, twice shy about rumors like this, so I'll believe it when I see it.

Let us know what you think. Excited for a possible OTA? Or have you already taken matters into your own hands?

[Swisha]

Google details some of the Honeycomb features coming to Ice Cream: action bar, 'hologram' visual style



Google has already confirmed that its Honeycomb and Gingerbread iterations of Android would be combined in the next version of OS -- dubbed Ice Cream by all accounts -- and it's now also providing a few more details about what Honeycomb features will be carried over to smartphones. Speaking to Phone Scoop, Google Android Engineering Director Dave Burke said that the contextual "action bar" at the top of the screen on Honeycomb tablets will be used on phones as well, but that the system bar at the bottom of Honeycomb might not make the transition. You can apparently expect the so-called "hologram" visual style of Honeycomb to carry over though, along with the multitasking app switcher that provides a snapshot of each app running. That's about all the details there are at the moment, but you can be sure we'll be digging for more.


Engadget

[Swisha]

Dell's 2011 smartphone and tablet lineup leaked: Android Ice Cream



Wrigley, Hancock, Millennium, Gallo, Sterling, Rosemount, Silver Oak, Peju and Opus One. What are we rattling off? Oh, just the list of codenames from one of the largest leaks we've ever seen out of Dell. WPCentral and Android Central got their hands on alleged smartphone and tablet roadmaps for the entire year, detailing the company's plans for devices running operating systems that have yet to be formally announced, including Android Ice Cream (yes, Ice Cream!) and Windows 8 as well as the tablet-friendly Honeycomb. Here's the full rundown.

Smartphones:

Things look pretty boring (and by boring, we mean beautifully curvy) until approximately mid-April of this year, when the Venue Pro gets some "additional features and enhancements" which we're pretty sure we can name.

Then, Q3 brings the Wrigley, what looks like a vertical QWERTY slider identifying itself as "Windows Phone 7 Next Gen," and sporting a 1GHz CPU, 4-inch 800 x 480 screen, and a 8 megapixel camera with 720p video recording. Nothing out of the ordinary, as far as we know.

By September, things should get very interesting as Android Ice Cream will apparently be out, and Dell's Hancock will scoop it onto a a 4-inch qHD screen with dual cameras, dual-core processing and 1080p recording.

Starting Q4, would-be Hancock buyers will have a dual-core multimedia slate alternative, as the Millennium drops the keyboard for a larger 4.3-inch screen and DLNA support (though the front-facing camera is limited to VGA resolution.)



Engadget

[Swisha]

now realize there's an Android theme in Gmail...sweet

[tr1ad]

Sorry RASC
i wouldn't call it MAJOR lag
what phone wouldn't experience lag like that?
if it bothering you take your OCD arse outta here