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EVO Shift 4G in line for an update

Posted: 03 Aug 2011 05:49 PM PDT

EVO Shift 4G
  

Heads up, EVO Shift 4G owners. A small update that will bump you up to v2.76.651.5 should be arriving on Monday, Aug. 8. Once updated, anyone experiencing intermittent MMS/SMS sending issues will no longer be seeing error messages and MMS/SMS messages will go through as expected. Let us know when you get the update -- it should pop up as a notification on your device.

Source: Sprint

A tour of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 launch event in London (update: video!)

Posted: 03 Aug 2011 05:19 PM PDT

And the winner is... not us :(

Update: We've added a video of some of the lucky Tab 10.1, Galaxy S II and Samsung TV winners after the jump!

While a few lucky Americans waited to have their Galaxy Tab 10.1's updated with Samsung's TouchWiz UX, we were lined up among hundreds of eager British shoppers waiting to get their hands on the European version before anyone else. Like the Tab 10.1 currenty on sale in the US, it's rocking Android 3.1, however the European version is rocking TouchWiz out of the box. We've taken a closer look at TouchWiz on the Tab in our sneak peek and hands-on features -- so be sure to check them out.

Early adopters were treated to a selection of drinks and delicious miniature snacks courtesy of Samsung, and there was also the chance to win a Galaxy S II's, Galaxy Tab 10,1's and a £1500 (~$2450) value Samsung TV via the Samsung Tab Grabber. We used the Tab Grabber, but all we grabbed was a plastic egg containing a raffle ticket that didn't win us anything :(

Check out our virtual tour of the event after the jump, where you'll find photos and videos of people having fun and winning expensive Samsung gear.

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Hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 at the European launch event

Posted: 03 Aug 2011 04:08 PM PDT

Android Central

We've just left behind the flurry of tablets, giveaways and canapes that was Samsung's London-based launch event for the European Galaxy Tab 10.1, and can offer up some brief first impressions of the final retail units that were on show, complete with Sammy's TouchWiz software out of the box.

We've also got a quick look at TouchWiz running on production hardware, so join us after the jump for more words and video!

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HTC will unlock bootloaders through a web-based tool

Posted: 03 Aug 2011 03:58 PM PDT

Sensation, EVO 3D up first; future devices will still ship locked

HTC

It's been nearly a month since HTC's last updated us on how it intends to start unlocking bootloaders, and it the Taiwanese manufacturer just dropped a doozy of an update on Facebook. Here's the deal:

  • New devices will continue to ship with locked bootloaders.
  • HTC will allow bootloaders to be unlocked using a web-based tool.
  • This month, you'll see an update to the the non-U.S. version of the HTC Sensation, with the T-Mobile U.S. to follow shortly thereafter. The EVO 3D will follow the HTC Sensation. This update won't actually unlock the bootloader -- it'll lay the groundwork for doing so.
  • The actual bootloader unlocking will take place via a web tool. You'll have to give HTC an e-mail address and acknowledge that you know what you're doing and promise not to complain when you brick your phone.
  • You'll plug your phone into a computer with the Android SDK loaded, then type in a device ID token, which you'll receive by e-mail, into the web tool.
  • Then the unlocking process will begin.

This is the perfect scenario. Shipping unlocked phones likely was never in the cards -- even Nexus phones and the Motorola Xoom don't actually ship unlocked. It's a win-win for everybody.

If you want to read HTC's update word for word, hit the Facebook link below, or ease on past the break.

Source: HTC's Facebook page
More: Everything you wanted to know about bootloaders

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UX update, Uninstalling apps [From the Forums]

Posted: 03 Aug 2011 03:58 PM PDT

From the Forums

Already checked out the latest news and rumors in the blogs, and wondering what to do now? Have you checked out the Android Central forums yet today? If not, now's as good a time as any to help someone out or just discuss some Android love.

If you're not already a member of the Android Central forums, you can register your account today.

Leaked Verizon document shows Bionic, Stratosphere, Vigor release dates and more

Posted: 03 Aug 2011 03:51 PM PDT

Verizon roadmap

The folks over at IGN (yeah, the game guys) got their hands on a leaked internal Verizon document that shows release dates for a slew of Android phones, as well as info about the LTE upgrade for the Motorola Xoom.  The big fellas on the list, the Motorola Bionic and Samsung Stratosphere, look to be scheduled for a September 8 release date, here's the break down:

Interesting to see the Thunderbolt and Revolution getting replaced in stores so soon, but that doesn't mean they are gone out to pasture -- just that something else will occupy their shelf space.  Also seeing the Stratosphere (rumored to be Verizon's Samsung Galaxy S II) and Bionic launching on the same day comes as a bit of a shocker.  And maybe the most interesting thing is the unnamed Galaxy Tab P8 -- could that be the 8.9 inch Galaxy Tab so many of us have been waiting for?  We'll have to wait a bit and see.  In the meantime, looks like the whole Verizon lineup just got a good bit better.

Source: IGN

Motorola Xoom 3.2 update offers read-only SD card access

Posted: 03 Aug 2011 03:37 PM PDT

Motorola Xoom

The Android 3.2 update for Honeycomb rolled out to folks with Wifi Xooms a few weeks ago, and word is that the update should be hitting LTE 3G Xooms any day now.  One of the things people are really looking forward to is the long awaited SD card support for the stock Honeycomb Xoom, and that's included in the 3.2 update as well as things like better rendering and the zooming feature.  But not everything is as it seems on the surface.  According to Motorola, the SD card support for the Xoom is read-only, meaning you can't write anything to the card unless you use your computer.  After a quick look through the Xoom forums, this certainly appears to be the case. Here's exactly what Moto's saying:

The Google Experience Devices like the Motorola XOOM (3.2 update coming soon) and Motorola XOOM WIFI allow you to write to the SD card from your PC and use the Android File Transfer on Mac or a cable transfer on Windows to transfer files from the Motorola Xoom to the SD Card.

While a user cannot move apps to the SD card, the device comes equipped with 32 GB of on-board memory that provides plenty of storage. Users can also store and play videos or music from the SD card if the content was copied to the SD card via the aforementioned file transfer processes. However, videos or pictures taken from the device itself can only be saved to the internal memory and not to the SD card.

Is this a deal breaker?  Probably not.  (Hell, it's no worse than what you have now, right?) But when other manufacturers and independent Android developers are able to bake read/write SD card support into the operating system that works well -- even through a dongle -- it does make a person scratch their head a bit.  I'm sure there was a reason, and Motorola or Google would do well to tell it to us, but instead we're left guessing.  Let's hope this is addressed, one way or the other, with Ice Cream Sandwich -- which should be hitting the Xoom shortly after release.

Source: Motorola. via the Android Central app

Clearwire announces plans for LTE Advanced network, still committed to Wimax

Posted: 03 Aug 2011 02:23 PM PDT

Clearwire

In a press release today, Clearwire has announced their intent to add LTE Advanced capabilities to their existing network infrastructure.  LTE Advanced is true 4G technology as originally defined by the various groups that define such things, and this will be its first appearance.  The LTE Advanced tech standards call for peak download speeds over 100 Mbps, and Clearwire says their trials have exceeded 120 Mbps.  That's fast. 

Clearwire also is quick to mention that they are not abandoning their existing Wimax network or customers, and expect to gain over 2 million additional users throughout the rest of 2011. 

The big winner here looks to be Sprint, who already has a business arrangement with Clearwire and has announced a partnership with LightSquared to bring LTE to their customers.  Customers have 4G now with Wimax, "better" 4G later with LTE, and "real" 4G with LTE Advanced.  Sounds like someone has all their ducks in a row, let's hope it pans out.  Read the full press release after the break.

Source: Clearwire

 

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Hands-on with the TouchWiz update for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in NYC

Posted: 03 Aug 2011 01:49 PM PDT


Youtube link for mobile viewing

We spent some quality time with Samsung this morning at its TouchWiz update event in New York City (you might have seen a tweet or 20), and I got my Galaxy Tab updated as part of the shindig.

We've already done a screenshot preview -- now it's time for our video hands-on. Probably the most important change is the quick-launch tray, which gives you a sort of dock down at the bottom of the screen.

Check out our video above, and stay tuned for more from the London event.

Google's chief legal officer calls patent war 'a hostile, organized campaign against Android'

Posted: 03 Aug 2011 01:09 PM PDT

Google

We've heard the cries. "Why isn't Google fighting back on the patent front?!?!" Trust us, there are people in suits working on this every day. And today David Drummond, senior vice president and Google's chief legal officer, penned a blog post explaining what's going on, saying:

Android’s success has yielded something else: a hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents.

Drummond recaps what you've likely already read -- that Microsoft, Apple and others worked together (or ganged up, depending on who you ask) to outbid Google for suites of patents from Nortel and Novell, plus the spate of lawsuits demanding licensing fees for every handset -- or demanding that they not be allowed into the United States at all.

So what's Google doing about it? Drummond's post doesn't really say anything we didn't expect, calling the bidding process an "anti-competitive strategy" that caused the winning price of the patents -- $4.5 billion -- to go way over what they're actually worth, and that "the law frowns on the accumulation of dubious patents for anti-competitive means." He continues that Google's lobbying the Justice Department to investigate the patent auction for anti-competitive practices, which it's rumored to be doing, and that Google's going to beef up its own patent portfolio, which it's also said to have been working on.

While you should read the entire post (link's below), we find zero surprises in any of that. Question remains: How will it play out?

Source: Google Blog

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