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Slacker Radio application receives update, now compatible with Ford SYNC

Posted: 29 Nov 2011 04:31 PM PST

Slacker Radio

Are you a Ford owner who just so happens to love Slacker Radio on your Android powered device? Well, good news for you as Slacker Radio has just released an update to their Android application which now allows for syncing with Ford vehicles such as the Fiesta, Mustang, Fusion and several others. Gone are the days of fumbling around trying to switch songs on your device while driving, now simply talk to skip songs, change stations and many other awesome features. If you are a Slacker Radio user be sure to hit the break for download links.

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Gingerbread for Optimus 2X reaches the UK at last

Posted: 29 Nov 2011 03:13 PM PST

Android Central

We'll chalk this up as a case of better late than never, but the European Optimus Gingerbread upgrade has made it to UK Optimus 2X devices. 

Making the announcement via their Facebook page, the update goes live today. As ever, bear in mind that carrier bonded devices may be subject to delays but if you have an unlocked Optimus 2X there's a good chance you'll be seeing it right about now.

They even went so far as to offer an apology for the delay. It's not ICS, but it's a start. Hit us up in the comments if you've seen the update. 

Source: LG

The Kindle Fire shows off some early CyanogenMod7 love

Posted: 29 Nov 2011 02:10 PM PST

Kindle Fire CM7

Let's start off with this -- no it's not ready, and no we don't know when it will be. Now that we got that out of the way, XDA forums member JackpotCalvin has gotten a build of CM7 to boot on the Kindle Fire. While it is still an early build, and the image rotation is off, the developer says he knows how to do some fixes to get it more polished, and we can hope for a build we can play with in the coming weeks. This is definitely a good sign for those hoping to hack up their Kindle Fire!

Source: XDA; Thanks, Ali!

RIM announces BlackBerry Mobile Fusion -- gives IT managers control over Android and Apple devices easily

Posted: 29 Nov 2011 01:05 PM PST

Android Central

Many large companies who offer corporate devices tend to offer employees BlackBerry devices because they could control password settings, and other policies on the devices. With recent growth in other mobile OS platforms such as Android and iOS, RIM has realized they needed to do something to keep those customers, which is why they have announced BlackBerry Mobile Fusion. This will allow IT managers to set password requirements, remotely wipe lost or stolen devices, manage the applications and software on the devices, and much more. For full details be sure to hit the source link.

Source: CrackBerry

Galaxy Nexus cracked open -- silicon, tiny screws and magic found inside

Posted: 29 Nov 2011 12:06 PM PST

Android Central

As is customary with any big, new phone, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus recently received the teardown treatment from the fearless spudgers over at iFixit. There's nothing too surprising lurking inside the chassis -- after all, we've been over and over the specs for this thing in the lead up to its release. Nevertheless, if you're big on electronics and want to see what the Nexus looks like on the inside without cracking yours open, then it may be of interest. Note that this is a teardown of the GSM version -- the guts of the elusive Verizon LTE model will likely look a little different.

Head to the source link for the full teardown, or check out our GSM Galaxy Nexus review if you want to see more of what this phone looks like on the outside.

Source: iFixit

Adobe Flash Player 11.1 coming to the Galaxy Nexus by end of year

Posted: 29 Nov 2011 11:26 AM PST

Adobe Flash

Adobe's been saying this for a week or so now, and today it made it officially official in an official blog post: Flash Player 11.1 will come to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Huzzah. Look for the update in December (makes since, because November's 24 hours from being in our rear-view mirrors).

Glad to see another one last update for Flash Player (and AIR as well, which we're already seeing in the Android Market) for the Galaxy Nexus. Now if only we could get the phone in North America.

Source: Adobe; Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Music sharing service Exfm arrives on Android

Posted: 29 Nov 2011 11:11 AM PST

exfm

Popular music sharing service Exfm has finally arrived on Android and is now available for free in the Android Market. If you're not familiar with Exfm, it allows you to easily listen, discover and share music with friends and other users on Exfm. The developers have had a Chrome and iOS app out for some time, so it's great to see Android finally getting some love.

With the Android app, you can:

  • Love tracks to favorite them and post to your exfm profile.
  • Listen to ALL your friends and followers loved tracks, too.
  • One-Touch sharing to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Last.fm.
  • Seamless purchases from Amazon.
  • Play all the local music files on your device.
  • Account set-up and management right from your Android device.
  • View the Tastemakers section, which aggregates music from some of the top music bloggers across the web.

As mentioned above, the app is free from the Android Market. We've got links after the break.

Source: Exfm

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Google Maps goes indoors in Version 6.0

Posted: 29 Nov 2011 10:00 AM PST

Google Maps update

Tired of looking lost outdoors, staring at Google Maps on your smartphone like a total tourist? Now you can have that same experience indoors with Google Maps 6.0! Google's taking maps inside, offering up floor plans at some of the largest retailers and airports in the U.S. and Japan. Also, the UI's been reworked a little bit, with a quick-selection menu up top to bounce between Maps, Places, Navigattion, Check in, Latitude, Location History and My Places.

Check out the videos after the break for a closer look, and hit the links below to see the indoor locations Google currently has mapped, and how to add your business.

Source: Google Blog; More: Indoor Maps availability; how to add floorplans

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Games now available from Android Market in Korea

Posted: 29 Nov 2011 09:37 AM PST

South Korea

South Korean users will be happy to learn that they can now download games from the Android Market. The complicated world that is country-by-country licensing agreements has prevented many markets from getting key features available in the United States. Despite South Korea's rapid adoption of Android, customers in the market have only been able to get apps while they have had to watch popular game releases with envy. Starting today, Korean customers can go to the Android Market to download and buy games through direct carrier billing.

On their Developer Blog, Google is also encouraging game developers to adjust their app prices for the Korean market and add their currency, the Won.

It's always great news when another market can access thousands of apps or games that they had previously been restricted from.

Android Developers Blog

Mobile Nations 12: 2011 mobile gift guide

Posted: 29 Nov 2011 08:39 AM PST

Kevin, Phil, Derek, Dan, and Rene discuss the future of phone fashion, how to pick a tablet for the holidays, and what happens when all phones are smart. Plus, our holiday gift guide! This is Mobile Nations!

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Video hands-on with Cluzee: Not quite a Siri competitor

Posted: 29 Nov 2011 07:45 AM PST


Youtube link for mobile viewing

There are a few things a voice-recognition app needs to do well to be successful -- and must do extremely well if it wants to call itself a competitor to Apple's Siri.

  1. It needs to be easilly accessible, and launch quickly. Very quickly.
  2. It needs to actually understand what you're saying.
  3. It needs to return results quickly.

As we continue to find out, this is easier said than done. The latest victim candidate is Cluzee, which bills itself as "Your Intelligent Personal Assisant" -- and which despite some initial glowing press doesn't really stand up to simple testing.

Let's start with Point 1: You need to be able to launch a voice app like this quickly. The iPhone 4S has a leg up by allowing you to long-press the home button to launch Siri at any time. Simple, quick. With Cluzee, you need a home screen shortcut, which means having to wake and unlock the phone first. If the app's not yet in memory, it takes several seconds to launch -- an eternity for this sort of thing. It really has to be faster. (And it is, so long as Cluzee remains loaded.)

On to Point 2: Cluzee understood our tests some of the time, but not all of the time. And even in our abbreviated use, it seemed to struggle more than it should. That ties into Point 3: Returning results for local pizza locations took so long we thought the app had hung on us (force closes are not uncommon at this point). And opening applications through Cluzee took too many steps. (Us: "Open Google Maps." Cluzee: "Which application do you want me to open?" Grrrrrr.)

That's not to say Cluzee doesn't have potential -- it most certainly does, and it does a decent job at personifying itself, using the pronouns you'd expect from something like this. But let's not go calling it a Siri competitor just yet. If you want to give it a shot, we've got download links after the break.

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Motorola Milestone 2 Gingerbread update starts tomorrow

Posted: 29 Nov 2011 07:33 AM PST

Milestone 2

Back in August, we got word that the Milestone 2 would receive the Gingerbread update sometime in Q4. Motorola has now announced that the update will start tomorrow, November 30th and will roll out in stages. If your phone is not the first to receive it, just be patient and it will come.

This has to make owners of the second iteration of the Milestone, the international version of the Droid, very happy. Motorola Europe made the announcement on their Facebook page and said more info will be coming from there, so if you have any questions, hit the soure link.

Source: Facebook

3DMark benchmarking app coming to Android

Posted: 29 Nov 2011 07:16 AM PST

Android Central
 

Finnish developer Futuremark has announced that its 3DMark benchmarking software will be headed to Android phones and tablets in 2012. 3DMark has long been an important benchmarking suite for PC gamers, and as Android devices become more powerful, it should come as no surprise to see benchmark-makers attempting to get a piece of the action.

With development just now starting to ramp up, Futuremark is inviting Android device manufacturers to join its "Benchmark Development Program" in order to ensure their products are fully supported when the app eventually hits next year.

The developer's planning to implement CPU, GPU and physics processing tests in 3DMark for Android, along with online rankings, just like its current Windows offerings. Interestingly, scores generated by the Android app are also said to be "comparable" with those from the next Windows version of 3DMark, presumably giving users a way to directly compare performance between devices across the two platforms.

Clearly it's still early days, but it should be interesting to see what Futuremark comes up with over the next year. If nothing else, 3DMark on Windows has always offered a generous helping of eye candy.

Today's press release can be found in full after the jump.

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Victoria's Secret Android app now available

Posted: 29 Nov 2011 06:37 AM PST

Victoria's Secret for Android

Attention women, husbands, boyfriends and anyone who just needs to feel pretty from time to time: The Victoria's Secret app has slinked into the Android Market. The app itself isn't all that well done -- it's more of a mobile portal than something that feels like a true native app, and it requires too many taps before you get to the merchandise -- but it does give you a way to shop from your phone. You also get video previews for such things as the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show (that's on TV tonight, by the way), a look at some of the VS supermodels, a store locater and barcode scanner.

We've got screenshots (you're welcome) and download links after the break.

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Motorola's MOTOACTV available Dec. 1 in the UK

Posted: 29 Nov 2011 04:56 AM PST

Motorola MOTOACTV

Motorola this morning announced that its MOTOACTV exercise/music accessory (read our full review) will be available in the UK starting Dec. 1. Available for £249.99 (suggested retail), you get the SF200 sports wired headset, wrist strap, clip and USB charging and sync cable. Another £39.99 gets you an arm band, bike mount and wall charger. You'll be able to get the MOTOACTV at Sweatshop stores (apparently that means something different than here in the U.S.) and at sweatshop.co.uk.

Source: Motorola

Galaxy Nexus volume bug gets unofficial fix

Posted: 28 Nov 2011 05:24 PM PST

Android Central

While we wait for Google's promised Galaxy Nexus volume bug patch to arrive over-the-air, Paul O'Brien from MoDaCo already has an unofficial (or at least semi-official) fix ready to download today. The MoDaCo volume bug fix takes the form of a new boot image file (apparently sourced from a test version of the official fix) which you can flash across, assuming you've unlocked your bootloader. If you don't know what any of that means, you're probably better off waiting for the official update to arrive over-the-air -- it shouldn't be too much longer now.

But if you're a reasonably technical individual who's also been frustrated by the infamous glitch, then head over to the source link and enjoy your newfound ability to use data and calls over 2G without any nasty side effects.

Source: MoDaCo

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