Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Wirefly unboxes the Verizon HTC Thunderbolt

5:47 PM Simranpal SIngh No comments



Wireless retailer Wirefly has unboxed a pre-production model of the Verizon HTC Thunderbolt and posted the video on Youtube.  The phone comes in a mysterious black package that has all the traditional accouterments.  And aside from some slightly comedic difficulty getting the phone out of the box, there’s some really interesting details.

The phone comes with a 32GB microSD card (amazing how huge those things are getting in capacity, isn’t it?),  it has a 1Ghz processor, the same 4.3 inch touchscreen available on the HTC Evo, two cameras (forward facing 1.3mp for video chat and 8mp for HD video and still shots), a dual LED flash, and the cool “kick stand” made popular by the Evo.  Currently, the Thunderbolt is being shipped with Android 2.2.1 (Froyo).

And in addition, there’s apparently word coming out that Verizon may be delaying release of the Thunderbolt to costumes from it’s debut on Valentine’s Day.   In addition, Verizon may also be delaying roll out of it’s LTE mobile hotspot feature as well.  There’s no ETA as to when the roll out of the Thunderbolt will occur, but it looks like Valentine’s Day is out.   That’s a drag for those hoping to get it as a profession of love from that someone special.
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Sprint doubles down on Android for 4G

5:45 PM Simranpal SIngh No comments

With Verizon rolling out their 4G LTE network in over 200 cities this year, and the inevitable rumor mill of a 4G iPhone on the horizon, wireless telecom Sprint isn’t sitting on their laurels.  In an effort to shore up their lead on the superfast 4G network race, Sprint will be adding more 4G supported Android devices this year. With a current offering of about twenty 4G devices, Sprint will be bumping up their Android4G offerings to more than seventy percent of their mobile catalog.





Though details are sketchy as to models at this point, Sprint recently announced availability of the Evo Shift 4G,  three other 4G phones, and a 4G enabled netbook powered by Dell.  Sprint also recently announced availability Kyocera’s Dual Screen Android Phone known as the “Echo,” which we covered in detail yesterday.   Look for phones to start rolling out this Spring.

sprint4g sprint_android_logo-540x405 echo Sprint-Shift-4G-02-slashgear1-540x303


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Sony XPERIA Play Extended “Thumbs” Ad Spot [video]

5:42 PM Simranpal SIngh No comments


If you’ll recall a few days ago we showed you a severely disturbing ad spot from Sony Ericsson depicting a man running through some dark streets, past dingy workers in a rush to deliver something or other to what turns out to be a man performing surgery. The surgeon is hard at work doing no less than grafting human thumbs onto a 3 foot tall Google Android. This commercial was leaked in a terrible quality video, then replayed during the Superbowl, and is now here for you in full quality, in a totally extended video that’ll creep you out just as hard as it did in the short mix.


The thumbs of a human give an Android the ability to use the XPERIA Play. I’m sure whatever cadaver the surgeon stole the thumbs from wasn’t going to use them, and the Android seems pretty happy at the end of the spot, his antenna flipping back and forth with glee. This video reminds me of an art/music video featuring Daft Punk entitled ELECTROMA. In this video, the two robot DJs are living in a world where everyone has either one of their helmets or the other. Partway through the video, Daft Punk are given human faces made of clay.
In a display just as gruesome, Sony Ericsson has turned Android into a functional human as well, able to play games as it never has been able to before. Now let’s rip those thumbs off, get this metaphor out of the way, and start playing some Mortal Kombat and Tony Hawk. Check out the full commercial here:


Screen shot 2011-02-08 at 5.57.57 PMAnd don’t forget to stick around for the part where the Android exits out into the street, as you’ll be able to see a lovely site: a live action Android floating above the ground. Just like a landspeeder!
Screen shot 2011-02-08 at 5.58.47 PM Screen shot 2011-02-08 at 5.58.16 PM 
 
 
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Motorola “Bee” Concept Phone Runs Android 3.0 Honeycomb, Sports 4.3″ Super AMOLED and 5MP Front-Facing Camera

5:38 PM Simranpal SIngh No comments

We’ve all heard about Honeycomb (Android 3.0), and how it will be limited to tablets only. Now, with the rumors flying about that Android 2.4 will actually be “Honeycomb for Phones”, it’s probably only a matter of time until genius minds – like those at xda-developers – come up with a full port of Android 3.0 for phones. Until that glorious day comes, however, we’ve got a mockup of a concept phone, dubbed the Motorola “Bee”.
This cool concept would run Android 3.0 Honeycomb, specially ported for the phone. It would also have:
  • 3G+ support
  • 8MP camera w/ full HD capture capability
  • 5MP front-facing camera
  • 4.3″ Super AMOLED multitouch display
  • 1280×720 screen resolution
  • 32 / 64 GB internal storage options
Be sure to hit the break to check out the full gallery of concept mockups, and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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Adam up for sale again as Notion Ink kicks off more orders

5:36 PM Simranpal SIngh No comments



Notion Ink is throwing open the order books for the second round of Adam tablet orders, though you’ll still have to be pre-registered if you want to get in first. According to CEO Rohan Shravan, a “huge” number of order invite emails are already making their way to would-be customers.
Shravan also confirms that Adam will skip straight over Gingerbread and instead “will be directly migrating to Honeycomb in future,” though no timescale for that update is given. As for the missing Android Market, “Adam does not have market access because it is not a phone” he suggests, and “Android Market is an app store for phone apps.”
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OliveSmart V-S300 promises Gingerbread for India

5:32 PM Simranpal SIngh No comments



Indian mobile device company Olive Telecom has announced its own Android 2.3 Gingerbread handset, the OliveSmart V-S300, an HSPA+ smartphone with a 4.1-inch capacitive touchscreen. OEM is unclear, but the V-S300 has a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with 720p HD video support, 1GHz Snapdragon MSM8255 processor, 512MB of ROM and WiFi b/g.
There’s also a front-facing webcam, WVGA display, GPS and Bluetooth 2.1, along with HDMI and a digital compass. The whole thing is expected to measure 122 x 66 x 9.9 mm.
Release date isn’t clear, and the fact that Olive has used a screenshot of an earlier Android version than Gingerbread doesn’t exactly fill us with confidence, but we’ll hold judgement until the smartphone emerges into the wild. Olive had previous promised an Android 2.2 device in the first week of March.
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AT&T support page showing Samsung Captivate running Froyo, is update on the way?

5:31 PM Simranpal SIngh No comments


Although Samsung has become quite notorious with owners of Samsung Android devices for not sending out updates to their Android devices nearly as often as they should, a small ounce of hope was discovered. What you’re seeing in the picture above is a screenshot of the Samsung Captivate running Android 2.2, otherwise known as Froyo. This was found on the AT&T support page for the Samsung Captivate, in the section that describes how to find the Captivate’s firmware version and operating system.
With many other Android phones already running Froyo and Gingerbread already going public, it seems as though the Captivate would never get the Froyo update. But, this lucky find does shed a small ray of hope on the situation for Captivate users wanting Android 2.2. Hopefully this means that the Froyo update is on the way.
You can check out the support page by clicking the source link below. Be sure to leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments.
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HTC Wants to Push Games on Smartphones, Makes a $40M Investment in OnLive

5:29 PM Simranpal SIngh No comments

OnLive, for those who may not be aware, is a gaming service that does all the computing and processing server-side, and then sends the results via the internet to the client. It’s a fairly new service that enables low-grade PCs to play some of the newer games but moving all the hard work to the cloud.
Well, HTC wants in on the same. In order to improve the gaming experience on smartphones, HTC is investing a nice sum of $40M to the OnLive service, intending it to be applied to bringing its service to smartphones. It’s expected that when launches, the service will hit Android phones first, likely made by HTC, but rest assured that they won’t stop there. With all the hard processing done on the server side, games ought to be accessible from many different clients, provided that the internet connection is stable enough to transmit the data. Hope you have wifi, or an unlimited data plan.

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Last.fm Will No Longer Allow Free Streaming to Mobile Devices

5:28 PM Simranpal SIngh No comments


I’m a big fan of Pandora internet radio service on my Android phone, but I’ve experimented with a little Slacker and Last.fm. Last.fm has been available for free, ad-supported, on a myriad of platforms – Xbox, desktop, and various mobile devices. Sadly, it has been determined by the Last.fm management that it is not cost-effective to continue to offer free versions on all platforms. The only services that will remain available in free versions will be Xbox Live and Windows Phone 7, as well as the desktop version.
So, my Android-using friends…if you use the free version of Last.fm on your Android phone, it will be coming to an end on February 15th. While Last.fm has to maintain their bottom line, it’s always a shame to see free services come to an end. So enjoy this service while you can, because you’ve got about a week left!
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