What can we expect from future smartphones?

TweetThe smartphone has come a long way over the past 10 years. It has gone from a simple contact and calendar database to including a camera, video camera, GPS, and thousands of apps available with the touch of a button. Over the next year, NFC will be incorporated which will be the next major breakthrough.What can we expect from smartphones over the next few years? Of course we are going to have better displays, faster processors, and more memory, but there will be more. Here are some of the things I am expecting to be implemented or continue to grow over the next few years:Wireless HDMI: micro HDMI ports have been added over the last year and I think it is a great step, but it is inconvenient to have to carry around a wire. More...

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HTC Marvel coming to T-Mobile after the Sensation and Doubleshot

TweetThis is some fresh news from our friends over at TmoNews. According to some recent photo’s that have been found, T-Mobile plans to bring a nice mid-range device in the HTC Marvel, better known as the Wildfire S. You can see our hands-on here. It should come looking pretty similar to the Wildfire S, only with T-Mobile branding and the rest of the goodies assuming T-Mobile doesn’t become AT&T anytime soon.The HTC Marvel is a nice mid-range phone with a 3.2″ display and sporting a 800 Mhz Snapdragon processor like all other HTC phones. According to the sources it will be coming after the HTC Sensation, and the HTC Doubleshot. Yes they mention it will be after the Doubleshot, a device we still don’t know much about. There is...

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CyanogenMod 7 running strong, Installed on over 200,000 devices

TweetFor those that may not be keeping score of our favorite ROM developers CyanogenMod, I have been watching for you and I can now say it looks like they have hit a pretty large milestone. 200,000 users running CyanogenMod 7. That is extremely impressive for the guys from TD. This all started back on the G1 and has grown into something larger than any of them had ever expected. This is only for CyanogenMod 7, this doesn’t count users that for some reason may still be on CM6, or even CM5 from the good ol days.From the photo you see above, clearly I am doing my part with the CM7 installs. I have it on all 3 of the devices I still own, not to count the others I’ve sold with CM installed. (Took more than a few tries to get that photo timed...

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How Intel’s New 22nm 3D Tri-Gate transistors will Blast Android into Outer Space

TweetAre you familiar with Moore’s Law? It’s a trend described by Gordon E. Moore, co-founder of Intel, noting that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. What’s that got to do with Android? It’s quite simple – bigger processing power in the same size package. Today Intel has announced its 22nm 3D Tri-Gate transistors, processing technology that they say will bring 50% power reduction at constant performance (that means better battery life) and 37% performance increase at low voltage – a better job for less!So what is 22nm – what’s that mean? “nm” stands for nanometer, one nanometer is equal to one billionth of a meter. In the semiconductor industry,...

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Copy Angry Birds progress to multiple devices without root & for free

TweetWhat I have for you today is a little treat for all you Angry Birds fanatics out there. I know there is plenty of you. Even if you don’t admit it we know you play it while your bored at work, daily. I’ve looked into this myself and didn’t know it was possible, but we now have a way to backup your game saves and progress on all 3 versions of Angry Birds. Regular version, seasons, and Rio. So now keep your progress on your G1, Thunderbolt, and on your Motorola Xoom (or whatever devices you own) so you never have to replay all the levels unless you want to of course.This story along with most good things for android, comes from a user at XDA. He has done all the research for us and has all the details as well as full instructions....

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Droid Charge Review at SlashGear

TweetOur best buddy Vince at our sister site SlashGear is at it again, with a full review of the Droid Charge. Android Community’s Burnsy posted his review of the Charge last week, complete with pictures of his beautiful new baby, but Vince’s opinion is one you don’t want to miss. A quick overview of his review follows below, and you can read the whole thing over at SlashGear.The Charge is still delayed after Verizon’s 4G outage last week, and it will be Verizon’s second 4G LTE smartphone. The HTC ThunderBolt paved the way for ultra high-speed handsets, which could double as useful mobile hotspots, but sucked the battery down so quickly that the ThunderBolt expired before its time. So the Charge by Samsung needs to deliver on better...

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Nexus T Toshiba Tablet Next Official Google Release?

TweetLet’s talk about this situation and see if we can’t piece together a few factoids. First, waaay back at the beginning of this year, a mystery tablet started showing up – one made by Toshiba, having a 10.1-inch screen, and sporting what would become Android 3.0 Honeycomb (testers floating around had Froyo, of course.) Have a look at our big reveal post and continue on – does that look like a tablet that Google would officially endorse as the next step in their flagship series? That very much appears to be what may be happening now!Our good pals at Metalev have a few clues gathered up that point directly at this device being the next in the Nexus series – Nexus T they’re calling it, and with it’s NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, prismatic...

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New in the Market: Snap, Style, and Share with Snapbucket by Photobucket

Tweet Photo editing apps are starting to get a little crowded, but Photobucket thinks they have something unique with the new Snapbucket app that just became available in the Android Market. Snapbucket is a separate app and complements the currently offered Photobucket app.With Snapbucket, users can snap a photo and apply various filters, vignettes, and frames to it. You can immediately share your edited photos on Facebook, Twitter, or your Photobucket albums. You can even create your own filter sets.Some of the cool features you get with Snapbucket are:* “Retro,” “Lomo,” “Sunrise,” and “’70s” – just a few of the awesome sets you can use to style your photos.* Over 9500 combinations of sets are available, many more than Instagram,...

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ViewSonic ViewPad 10 Finally Gets 2.2, Making Dual-Boot Worthwhile

Tweet On paper, the ViewPad 10 was a really cool device, bringing dual-booting to those people that needed (or just wanted) both some Android and some Windows 7 features. It was like a software peanut butter and jelly sandwich. In practice, the problem came with the fact that the tablet came with Android 1.6, an outdated version of the software that was lacking some pretty big features. Well, anyone toting the ViewPad will be happy to know that the tablet will be receiving an update to 2.2, making that Android boot a lot more useful. The downside here is that in order to install the update, you need to upload it to a thumb drive and then plug in that thumb drive and a USB keyboard into the tablet. But that’s a small challenge for...

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Sprint launching updated tiered pricing for embedded devices on May 8th

Tweet It looks like May 8th will bring a change in data plans for Sprint mobile broadband and embedded devices like tablets. The new packages will be 3GB for $34,99, 5GB for $49.99, and 10GB for $79.99.Sprint currently offers 5GB for $59.99 per month and a 2GB tablet-only plan for $29.99 per month.These plans should be good for the Motorola XOOM, BlackBerry Playbook, and the new Samsung Galaxy Tab...

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Asus Gearing Up To Produce World’s First Quad-Core Tegra 3 Tablet

Tweet Nvidia is gearing up to show the world it means business with its up and coming ground breaking new industry technology, yet again.  It looks like the company, the first to bring us dual-core in a smartphone with the LG Optimus 2X overseas, then making its way to the US as the T-Mobile G2X, is at it again.  DigiTimes reported that Asus, makers of the Eee Pad Transformer have announced the production of the new Tegra 3 based tablet.  One would imagine programs and navigation on a device like this would move at the speed of thought.The device will be built around the new Kal-El quad-core specifications and could arrive sometime in August of this year.  When this Superman chip enabled device comes to light,...

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Android 2.3 OTA update for the Desire HD and Incredible S rolling out now

TweetYour phone will receive a notification of FOTA update when it is made available. Simply press OK to accept the update via a data connection such as Wi-Fi or GPRS/3G. After installing the update, you can confirm a successful update by confirming the Build number (From the Home Screen go to MENU> Settings> About Phone> Software Information> Software number). The new Build number after the update will be 2.36.405.5. Update: Android 2.3 upgrade. Note：Please back up your data first before upgrading your phone. We recommend using a free Wi-Fi hotspot or an unlimited data plan to apply this update. If not, standard data connection charges may apply. For any questions, please contact us at http://www.htc.com/www/CA_Hotline.aspx ...

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T-Mobile grows 21Mbps HSPA+ by 3 markets

TweetT-Mobile announced, via Twitter, that Fort Myers, Florida; Pueblo, Colorado; and Wilkes Barre-Scranton, Pennsylvania have been added to the list of markets that have 21Mbps HSPA+. This adds about 210,000 subscribers that now have access to their 4G network.T-Mobile plans on doubling the bandwidth for their HSPA+ to 42Mbps later this year. They are the fourth-largest mobile operator and plan on delivering 25 4G-capable devices this year.  ...

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AT&T Prepaid Fight vs. Verizon Wireless Unleashed Plan

TweetWhen it comes to prepaid plans two big names such as AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless always rival each other, this is good and healthy competition that always keeps the pricing down. So who will win the fight for glory?RCR Wireless have hit on this subject and it is somewhat very interesting indeed, Verizon Wireless have a plan called “Unleashed” and this offers customers unlimited mobile Web services, unlimited messaging and unlimited calling over its network for $50 per month, the only downside to this is that they only have three phones that use this plan. There are a few limitations such as lack of phones and its mobile Web experience is limited to the Web browser that is included on the three handsets and this does not give you the full web browsing experience.The...

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Give Your Smartphone An Exotic Look With aniPet Aquarium LiveWallpaper (Video)

TweetIf you’re an exotic fish lover and you adore Android, boy do we have a treat for you.  aniPet Aquarium LiveWallpaper gives you the next best thing to having the real deal.  This live wallpaper allows you to create your very own aquarium with the ability to choose from 114 different kinds of species of fish. While the developer promises more species will follow, they’ve allowed for up to 15 of your chosen favorites to be displayed at any given time.  The application is extremely interactive and is sure to keep your little ones busy in the back seat for those long trips.The app sort of reminds me of those Digi Pets, thanks to the added feature that allows you to feed your fish and watch them grow.  You’re...

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Triple threat: Motorola Droid X2, LG Revolution, and HTC Trophy to launch May 12 on Verizon Wireless

Tweet A month ago we told you that Verizon was going to have some nice releases for April and May. It looks like the Motorola Droid X2 and the LG Revolution are on schedule and will be released next Thursday, May 12. The HTC Trophy (WP7) which was originally expected to hit in April, will now be released next Thursday as well.For those waiting for the Sony Xperia PLAY, you will be happy to know that it has been scheduled for Thursday, May 26th. This phone was also originally scheduled for April, but due to some bugs it was pushed back.The Droid X2 will be Verizon’s first dual-core Tegra 2 phone. The LG Revolution will be a 4G LTE phone and be the first Android phone with Netflix support.  The HTC Trophy will...

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FroYo now on 66pc of Android devices; Honeycomb on 0.3pc

TweetAccording to the latest Android platform figures from Google, Android 2.2 ‘FroYo’ is now on over 65% of the total Android devices, while Android 2.1 aka Éclair is still present on 25% of the phones.Gingerbread is limited to just 4% of the total market because the delay by device vendors in pushing the updates. First Gingerbread devices have just start reaching market from the likes of HTC, while Samsung is still waiting for release a Gingerbread phone apart from Nexus S.Motorola is totally absent from the scene, no Gingerbread device till now, and its track record with updates is worse than none. Sony Ericsson is the only vendor with two Android 2.3 devices in the market, and third is waiting to be launched, but the Earthquake...

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Spotify Mobile App Now Available for All (Still Not in the US, Though)

TweetIf you have been a Spotify Free user jealous of premium users and their access to the Spotify app on mobile devices, today is your lucky day. The music streaming and download service has made their Android app open to all users, bringing the ability to sync your Spotify playlists wirelessly with your smartphone.Unfortunately, Spotify is still unavailable for those living in the United States. That may change soon, sort of. Recent rumors suggest Spotify is in talks with Google over a new-format Google Music service. When and if that happens, it may be the only taste of the wildly popular music player the US gets. For everyone else, feel free to download it now.  ...

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HTC Desire HD and Incredible S Android 2.3 Gingerbread going OTA now

TweetHTC has confirmed it is pushing out the Android 2.3 Gingerbread update for the HTC Desire HD and HTC Incredible S. The OTA update will be flagged up with a message on the smartphones themselves, and bring the handsets up to speed with newer HTC devices like the HTC Desire S.Of course you’ll still have HTC Sense and all the usual apps, but we’re expecting a little extra speed and stability thanks to the joys of Gingerbread. HTC advises backing up your phone before you upgrade, though it’s not clear if the update will actually wipe your phone in the process.We’re checking our Desire HD now and will report back when we find out more. Let us know how you get on in the comments! Update – HTC Desire HD Firmware Over The Air (FOTA) ...

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Galaxy S II gets root-friendly insecure boot ROM

TweetThe Samsung Galaxy S II has only been on the market for a short while – and units are still in high demand – but we’ve already seen one of the first hacks of the smartphone. MoDaCo’s Paul O’Brien has come up with a custom GSII insecure boot image that allows for adb shell root and adb remount.The ROM itself doesn’t actually root the Galaxy S II, but it will allow owners to push the su binary and Superuser APK required for root. It also disables the flash-recovery script, replacing it with a call to /data/local/custom-scripting.sh.It’s not the first root – one method was released at the tail end of April – but we’re definitely excited to see more modders turn their attention to the Galaxy S II. While the phone itself impressed...

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Vodafone HTC Sensation pre-orders open ahead of May 19 release

TweetVodafone UK have begun taking pre-orders for the HTC Sensation, ahead of what’s expected to be a May 19 release date for the dual-core Android smartphone. Announced last month, the Sensation will be priced from free with a new, two-year agreement of £35 ($58) per month or above.Your money – and commitment – gets you a 4.3-inch qHD display, 8-megapixel camera, Android 2.3 Gingerbread and the latest version of HTC Sense with a clever lock-screen that integrates various widgets and app shortcuts. There’s also Qualcomm’s new dual-core 1.2GHz processor keeping things running, and 1080p HD video capture.The Sensation is expected to launch in the US later in 2011 as the T-Mobile Sensation 4G, but for the moment Vodafone have exclusivity...

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HTC ChaCha launch tipped by HTC Facebook events

TweetHTC only confirmed a Q2 2011 release window for the HTC ChaCha, one of its two “Facebook phones” announced at MWC 2011 a few months back; however, it seems the company’s own Facebook pages have tipped more accurate dates. HTC Germany has announced a series of Facebook-centric events in Dortmund (Germany), Wien (Austria) and Zürich (Switzerland) kicking off June 18.The Austrian event follows on July 2, while the Swiss event will take place on July 18. We’ve seen HTC hold similar public launch events before; the HTC Sensation gave them cause to stage a party in London last month for the new flagship.Of course, that doesn’t mean the ChaCha – and perhaps its Facebook friend the HTC Salsa – won’t arrive in other markets first....

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Google Voice Integration With All Sprint Numbers is Now Live

TweetSprint and Google have been beta-testing a full integration of Google Voice with the Sprint network over the past several weeks, and today the service has been declared “live.” Sprint customers can now use their Sprint number to run all of their Google Voice services, allowing them to set the phone to ring at multiple locations, or even different locations determined by the caller or time of day. Or if you’d prefer, you can have all outgoing calls go out through your Google Voice service. This brings a lot of versatility, and the process is fairly seamless, though by default it will disable SMS messages from coming into your phone and route them through Google Voice instead. This feature isn’t hard to reverse, and tonight we’ll...

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What is the HTC Kingdom?

TweetEarlier today, two ROMs from unknown devices were leaked, referred to as the HTC Kingdom and HTC Rider. Code in the Rider ROM makes reference to KT-KR, Korea’s cellular network, making it probable that this is going to be a Korean-released phone. While early reports seemed to indicate that the Kingdom was the HTC EVO 3D, some ROM developers dissecting the leak have come to the conclusion that it’s some other device. This seems to stem mostly from the fact that while the HTC EVO 3D has stated specs of 1 Gig of RAM and a 4.3″ qHD screen, the code in the Kingdom leak mentions specs of 768 Megs of RAM and a 4″ qHD screen. Other developers argue that the code also refers to the device as the PG86100, the model number of the EVO 3D....

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