Again Motorola DROID 4 Leaked – Demo Unit Pictured In The Wild

There’s pretty much nothing we don’t already know about Motorola’s worst kept secret, the Droid 4, other than an actual release date. With that being said, the “Razr with a keyboard” is actually looking more like the Bionic from the latest leaked pics taken by John and team at TechnoBuffalo who got some hands-on with a demo unit earlier today. The device, while not exactly a working model (more of those shells you find on display at Best Buy) does give us a better look at it, with pictures showing off every angle. The Droid 4 will most likely make an appearance at CES 2012 next month of which the entire Phandroid staff we be on hand bringing you the very latest in Android tech....

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Android’s Chinese Manufacturers Form Alliance To Defend From Apple and Microsoft Patent Lawsuits

Digitimes is reporting that Chinese OEM’s could be quietly banding together to fight off the ever looming threat of patent lawsuits from Android arch nemeses like Apple, Microsoft and Nokia. The Chinese coalition would be formed by ZTE, Lenovo, TCL, Coolpad and Konka who, it’s assumed, would pool their patent resources and share information on how to work around alleged patent infringements and keep from paying the dreaded “licensing fee.” As the Chinese smartphone market grows — currently the largest in the world — OEM’s are sure to draw attention from Apple and Microsoft who spend much of their time attacking Android manufacturers. [Digitimes via Electronista]...

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Verizon Wireless Backtracks – Says They Will NOT Charge $2 Fee To Pay Bills

Breaking news from the Wall Street Journal who is reporting that Verizon Wireless has offically reversed its plans to charge customers a $2 convenience to pay bills online. This news comes right after the FCC announced they would be investigating the matter. Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead said in an official statement, "At Verizon, we take great care to listen to our customers. Based on their input, we believe the best path forward is to encourage customers to take advantage of the best and most efficient options, eliminating the need to institute the fee at this time."...

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New Device To Be Introduced By LG and Intel At CES 2012

LG’s mobile department hasn’t exactly had the best year but rather than give up — they’re trying new things… or rather, revisiting old ideas. According to the Korea Times, LG is getting ready to debut an all new smartphone at CES 2012 powered by none other than Intel’s new Medfield mobile processor. We heard rumors a few weeks back that Samsung would be partnering with Intel for an upcoming smartphone to be debuted at CES in January but maybe it was the other Korean manufacturer this whole time. The only question that remains if whether or not the device will ever hit market given LG and Intel’s past. At CES 2011 they they actually showed off a smartphone that of course, went belly up due apparently due to “lack of marketability.”...

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Verizon’s $2 online and telephone payment fee to Be Looked By FCC

Verizon confirmed yesterday that it will tack on a $2 convenience fee when customers make a single-time payment online or over the phone using a credit or debit card. The news spread like wildfire across the tech blogs and eventually caught the attention of the FCC. The regulatory agency released a statement on Friday that states, “On behalf of American consumers, we’re concerned about Verizon’s actions and are looking into the matter.” I have to give the FCC credit for responding to Verizon’s upcoming billing change so quickly. Though the FCC isn’t launching an investigation, this response is a reminder to Verizon that the FCC is watching it closely. This close oversight may be enough to compel Verizon to rethink this change. We’ll...

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HTC Jetstream Gets Permaroot and CWM Recovery

It’s been a long time coming for the HTC Jetstream but the job has finally been done. XDA user DooMLoRD has made public a permanent root and recovery method for the HTC Jetstream meaning ROMs will be on their way. The development community was next to dead without these things and now that they’re here things should nice and fruitful before too long. Head over to XDA for the download links and full instructions and be careful not to blame others if something goes wrong with your phone. [Thanks Josh!]...

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Sony Announces ICS Updates for Tablets, Tablet P SDK Now Available

Sony Ericsson has announced that the Sony Tablets – we assume both the S and the P – will be getting upgrades to Android 4.0 in due time. They didn’t have anything to announce regarding a timeframe but we’re glad they’ve committed to bringing it. In addition to that, they’ve made the SDK for the Sony Tablet P available online so developers can take advantage of its gaming roots. We’ll be right here with a post for you guys whenever those updates start rolling out (but I wouldn’t wait for one in the near future). [via Android Guys]...

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Nielsen: Samsung, Motorola and HTC Top Five in Recent Smartphone Market Share

Nielsen’s ringing in with their end-of-the-year lists of top brands, companies and web destinations. One that caught our eye, of course, was the smartphone manufacturer chart. They pulled data from the months of August 2011 through October 2011. This isn’t overall OEM market share but gives an idea of the trends that were developing leading into the holiday season. At the top of the chart was Apple taking up 29% of the sales throughout this period, but HTC is not far behind with 21%. RIM, surprisingly, is sitting at 17%, ahead of Samsung and Motorola who both have 11% each. It would be nice to get an idea of how these numbers stacked up through Christmas but those numbers will make their way to the forefront soon enough. To see more...

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Gift Cards Worth $100 Offered by Amazon for Users Purchasing Select Hotspot Devices From Sprint and Verizon

Amazon Wireless is offering users who buy select 4G hotspot-capable devices a $100 gift card upon activating their phones with the hotspot feature enabled on their plans. Some of the devices they’re offering up are the DROID Bionic and HTC Thunderbolt from Verizon plus the Motorola Photon 4G and Samsung Epic 4G Touch from Sprint. They have many more options so you’ll have to head on over to Amazon and check them out. No AT&T or T-Mobile phones, unfortunately, but if you’re with one of these CDMA carriers and planning on buying any of these phones with hotspot anyway, this will be a good deal. That $100 could go toward some accessories or pretty much anything on Amazon’s site. [via PocketNow]...

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Samsung Epic 4G, LG Optimus 3D and More Gain CM7 Support

Some new devices have finally been added to CyanogenMod’s list of supported devices. We’ve got the Samsung EPIC 4G and LG Optimus 3D as notable additions. We’re also seeing support for the LG Optimus Black, Optimus Hub and Optimus Pro. These devices are on the list for CM7, of course, though we don’t expect all of these to be absent from CM9′s party sometime down the line. (The first two we mentioned are definitely high up on that “probability” list.) Head over to CyanogenMod’s site for the downloads. [Thanks to all the excited Epic 4G owners who sent this in!]...

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Root almost any Android phone with Unlock Root (One-click solution)

Yes, that is true. It is the mother of all rooting tools, and can help you in gaining root access on around 200 Android smartphones (to be frank, I did not count them, but that list of supported devices is huge). This tool supports devices from manufacturers like HTC, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson to unknown Chinese OEMs running on different Android versions. While, it is unclear which exploit this tool is using, but it works. We tried it on two devices that we had in our hands right now and it worked like a charm. To use this tool, all you need is a Windows PC, device drivers, usb cable and the device. Just grab the tool download from here and start rooting your Android phones. Do let know in comments if you were successful in rooting...

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Why Verizon had three mass network outages this December, See here

It’s no surprise Verizon has the fastest and most developed 4G LTE network in the US, but consistently terming them most reliable would be an overstatement for the month of December. And frankly, three mass network outages can cause some serious communication issues for both work and leisure. Heck, many families are now doing away with a central home phone, and just subscribing the entire family to a plan of cellphones.Well, Verizon has issued an official statement for the causes of these network outages; and all three network failures had isolated causes. The first during December 7th was apparently caused by a failure in the back-up communication database. The second one was from an IMS element not responding properly, and the one...

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Acer Iconia Tab A700 Shows Up In Russia – On Its Way To CES 2012 With A 1920×1200 Display

A pair of Acer Iconia Tabs showed up in Russia today and since we know just about all there is to know on the more affordable A200, we wanted to focus on the higher powered, more premium A700 model. The Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core toting Acer Iconia Tab A700 will be arriving at CES 2012 next month (where the entire Phandroid team will be on-hand) and to give you a better idea of what to expect, this new tablet will have a 10.1-inch 1920×1200 resolution display that is sure to make die-hard Android fanboys shed tears of joy. Along the sides of the tab are SIM and micro USB slots, rotation lock switch, audio jack and micro HDMI port. The rear of the device is noticeably different from the A200, featuring a 5MP shooter accompanied by an ...

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Custom Google Music App Coming To All Devices By Cyanogen Mod Team

If you though the Cyanogen Mod launcher — Trebuchet — was the only thing CM9 had going for it you’d be wrong. Turns out those wild boys are also working on a modified version of the Google Music player app. Andrew Neal, one of the team’s devs, broke it down for everyone mentioning there will more tweaks and enhancements than you can shake a phone at. No really. One of the tweaks is the ability to set custom shake actions that will work no matter which app you’re in or if the screen is off/on. Completely customizable notification controls will also be found in the app along with a full theme engine to change up the look of the app as desired. Pretty fun stuff. My only complaint with Google Music is that it’s not very smooth (unless you...

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Verizon Wireless Discounted Galaxy Nexus Battery Now 50% Off – $20 For A Limited Time

If your recent Galaxy Nexus purchase found the battery life to be a bit… lacking, I have some good news. Verizon Wireless has the official Samsung — NFC enabled — 1850 mAh batter for only $20. That’s half-off the original asking price! Let me tell you, there’s nothing quite as liberating as having a spare battery at hand. Still a bit expensive for a regular ‘ol battery (you can get a 3-pack from China for half that price) but that’s the price you pay to keep full NFC capabilities intact.We have no idea how long this deal will last so you may want to hurry. [Verizon Wireless] Via Droid-Life...

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Samsung Conquer 4G Discounting To $50 In January Sprint – Offers You Another One FREE With Purchase

Sprint is trying to kick off 2012 into high gear with a new winter promotion starting next month. From January 8th through March 10th, new or existing Sprint customers (with an upgrade) can get a Samsung Conquer 4G at the discounted price of $50 but that’s not all — it also comes with a matching Conquer for free. Deals always sound more fun with you throw BOGO into the mix and you could do a lot worse than the Conquer 4G. As a refresher for anyone suddenly interested in the device, the Conquer features a 3.5-inch screen, 1GHz 2nd gen Snapdragon processor, 512MB of RAM and connectivity to Sprint’s 4G WiMax network (where available). Not too shabby for $25 a pop when you buy two. [Via SprintFeed]...

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Apple applies for “Face and Presence Detection” patent — Android laughs

I’m not really sure where to start on this one other than oh wait — Android already has the feature. It’s called “Face Unlock” and is available on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus within Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Just like our friendly source over at Phandroid I don’t really want to simply sit here and bash Apple but I can’t help but do so a little bit with this latest “innovation” and patent they’ve applied for. At first glance your are probably thinking seriously, what the hell. And I was too but after looking through the patent and information a bit closer over at PatentlyApple you’ll quickly notice that this has been in the works for at least a few years — and originally wasn’t aimed at iOS or mobile devices and actually was for...

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Gameloft Weekend Sale Starts NOW – All Games Only 99 Cents

Gameloft’s weekend sale is in full effect dropping the price of every single one of their paid titles in the Android Market to a mere 99 cents. If you’re first instinct is to jump on their newly released Modern Combat 3 (you’re not alone), Gameloft did mention that although currently excluded form the promotion, the title will also drop it’s $7 price tag but will only be available for 24 hours at $1. No word on exactly which day that will occur so you can either check the Market everyday or like/follow them on Facebook/Twitter for updates. In the meantime, you can drool over the trailer below. Must resist…. buying every…… game… [Gameloft Market Lin...

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Verizon Confirms $2 Fee for Paying Online and on the Phone

Late yesterday it was revealed in a leak that Verizon would begin charging consumers $2 for each single bill they pay on the phone and online. Users who pay in store or pay online via electronic check or autopay would not be affected. Verizon confirmed the news today and said that it is indeed to help offset the costs of them having to accept those types of payments. "The fee will help allow us to continue to support these single bill payment options in these channels,” said Verizon. So there you have it. It’s set to go down on January 15th. We know many of you are wondering about contract options and we’re sure Verizon has thought this one out carefully. Since you can avoid the charge in one way or another it probably doesn’t breach...

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Qello for Google TV Now Available

Qello has announced that their Google TV application is now available in the Android market. Qello is a service that brings to you a huge catalog (they claim to have the biggest) of live music performances and they deliver them to your television in HD. The ability to create setlists artist. You can mix and match multiple different artists to keep things varied. Grab the 5.4MB download in the market here. [via GTVSource]...

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Amazon Shipped 4 Million Kindle Devices This Holiday, Wouldn’t Show How Much the Kindle Fire Accounted For

Amazon has mentioned today that they have shipped four million Kindle devices this holiday season, a great feat for the company. This includes the e-ink readers they sell in different configurations as well as the Kindle Fire. Unfortunately Amazon didn’t give us a rundown of which devices did what exactly but we expect the Kindle Fire did well enough. We assume a good chunk of that 4 million were cheap e-ink Kindle models as they start at just $79 and were seen as perfect gifts for first time eReader users. We’re crossing our fingers for some exact figures whenever Amazon releases their financial report sometime early next year. [via Electronista]...

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Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime vs LG Optimus Pad

The tablet market is awash with quality devices, all vying to end up in your shopping bag this sales season, but which tablet will give you the most for your money?Do you choose power before portability? Should you opt for a device with expandable memory? Or should you just cast all research aside and just choose the biggest, fastest, most expensive device on the market?Well, we're here to help you wade through the myriad statistics on offer, as we take the latest, greatest tablet from Asus, the Eee Pad Transformer Prime, and weigh it up against one of last year's surprise packages, the LG Optimus Pad.DisplayAsus' Eee Pad Transformer Prime is kitted out with a stunning 10.1-inch Super IPS+ LCD display that is super responsive and glorious to...

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IP expert says Apple could earn $10 for every Android device

Apple’s been pretty ruthless when it comes to Android litigation, even if their success rate has been hit or miss lately. After suing Samsung and HTC in the United States and everywhere else they can send a legal team, they’ve become the bane of many an Android OEM. In an interview with Bloomberg, intellectual property guru Kevin Rivette notes that the licensing fees that Apple earns on its patent lawsuits could be as high as $10 per device – a figure that could seriously impede manufacturers, especially on cheap low-margin phones. To be blunt, that seems extremely unlikely. Apple has proven that it’s unwilling to negotiate with just about anyone, instead taking the all-or-nothing approach and going for a sales ban, as in cases with...

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CyanogenMod 9 Alpha Now Available for the Motorola DROID 2 Global is Now Available

Who says older phones (in tech time) can’t handle Ice Cream Sandwich? It’s the latest device to get an early taste of CyanogenMod 9. As it’s an alpha build you shouldn’t yet consider this to be your daily driver but if you want a quick preview of things to come down the road feel free to get your feet wet. Instructions and download links are over at XDA and be warned that anything that may happen to your device as a result of flashing it is your own fault. [XDA via PocketNow]...

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