Ice Cream Sandwich Sony Ericsson XPERIA Rumors Disspelled

If you happened to be browsing the UK site SoMobile yesterday for some mobile news, you got a heaping helping of surprise when you found that a UK spokeperson supposedly confirmed the notion that all 2011 Sony Ericsson XPERIA devices would be getting Android’s next-gen mobile OS. From what we understand given the information we got from Eric Schmidt himself, this new version of Android will be released inside October or November of 2011. What we’re to understand now is that Android 4.0 has NOT been decided on for the XPERIA 2011 lineup as of yet, this being confirmed directly to Chris Davies of SlashGear in this morning’s UK afternoon.

While this may come as a surprise to some, those of the ladies and gentlemen in the audience who know of the potential for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich can guess that Ice Cream Sandwich may not be the best system to add to an already-established line of Sony Ericsson devices. Sony Ericsson representatives spoke with SlashGear today saying the following:

“When it comes to future platforms of the Android OS, we will make them available to consumers in a timely manner as long as they improve the user experience and are viable from a hardware point of view.” – Sony Ericsson to SG

We know from our original official introduction to Ice Cream Sandwich back at Google I/O 2011 that “This new version of Android wont have any new hardware requirements.” This means that should a device be capable of running Ice Cream Sandwich if it’s already capable of running either the tablet-based Android 3.x Honeycomb or the handset-based Android 2.3.x Gingerbread. The announcement above only covers the news that Sony Ericsson had “confirmed” they’d be upgrading their 2011 line, instead they’re just noting that there’s no official policy that they’re sharing on upgrades at the moment.
Will we see 2011 Sony Ericsson XPERIA devices upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich?
Only your barber knows for sure.
[via SlashGear]

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Xperia Play 4G heads to AT&T September 18

If AT&T is the network you prefer and you have been waiting for a cool Android phone to land the good news is that the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play 4G will be coming to AT&T soon. By soon we mean September 18 and the smartphone will be very cheap with a 2-year contract at only $49.99. I am sure they will sell a bunch of the devices at that price. The Xperia 4G is the PlayStation smartphone that we have covered extensively in the past.

On AT&T, the phone will not be working on a real 4G network like LTE; it will operate on the HSPA+. The smartphone will come in an exclusive stealth blue color and inside the package will be pair of bonus accessories. Those accessories are the multimedia dock DK300 and the MC100 music cable. That docking station turns the screen of the smartphone into a large clock and the music cable allows connection to external speakers.
The smartphone will also come with a bunch of free and cool games. The free game package includes Dungeon Defenders Second Wave, Asphalt 6 Adrenaline, Star Battalion, Madden NFL 11, The Sims 3, Tower Bloxx, and Crash Bandicoot. That hardware side is the same we are used to with a 1GHz CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, Android 2.3.3, and the 4-inch 480 x 854 resolution screen with 60fps graphics. The rear camera is 5MP with a VGA front camera. What do you think, will this phone sell well on AT&T?
[via SlashGear]

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GetJar Gold offers premium Android apps for free!

GetJar just kicked the Amazon Appstore in the twins with the announcement of the GetJar Gold service. GetJar Gold has been in beta testing for the past month and is now ready for the public. Rather than one app you may or many not like for free, GetJar Gold gives you 50 free apps all the time with new apps added. These aren’t apps of questionable quality either. GetJar gold offers some of the coolest games and apps around for free.

At launch, the free apps will include Splashtop Remote Desktop, TuneIn Radio Pro, Age of Zombies, and my favorite Fruit Ninja. If you grab all 50 of the free apps, you would save $60. The apps chosen for the store and must meet certain criteria. The can only be premium paid apps with no ads in them. Rather than a split of the proceeds from the sale, GetJar Gold will pay developers for each install of the games.
GetJar also notes that it is in talks with another big name in the app industry, but can’t say who it is right now. GetJar plans to make money off the gold service by making loot off sponsored listings with developers inside the store. GetJar thinks that this will work better for developers since the user is more likely to download and install if an app is free.
[via TechCrunch]

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Citrix launches GoToMeeting app for Android

If you work in a setting where your coworkers are spread all around the country, city, or world you are probably familiar with GoToMeeting. This free service lets you hold virtual meetings with people from anywhere. We use it quite a bit around here to get together for one thing or another since we are scattered all around the world. If you have folks in you group that need to attend meetings, but they are never in the home or office this new app will be perfect for Android users.

A free GoToMeeting app has landed on the Android Market for download. With this app, those people who are never in the office have no excuse for not attending your meetings. The app is pre-loaded on the Droid Bionic and ready to go. The app allows the users to join a meeting by clicking a link in an email or clicking the app icon and typing in the meeting ID.
The app uses integrated VoIP audio to stream though the integrated mic and speakers on the Android device. You can also mute yourself and the background sounds using the app. The app supports portrait and landscape modes and you can see a list of the people attending the meeting.

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HTC Rezound Android Phone Gets DLNA Certification

We've recently heard of the HTC Rhyme getting its DLNA certification and it might as well be the female-targeted HTC Bliss. What we didn't seem to hear about is a certain HTC Rezound which also just recently got its DLNA certification.

Aside from the fact that the DLNA website lists it as an Android phone, we don't know anything about the device. It might as well be an upcoming handset from the Beats line-up, judging by the name but HTC phone codenames might very well have nothing to do with actual features or functionality. We'll just leave it at that, for now, and we'll follow up as soon as we get our hands on some new bits.

Source: DLNA

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Cricket announces the Samsung Vitality with Muve Music

Cricket Communications this morning announced the Samsung Vitality -- the first Android smartphone with deep integration of the Muve Music service. Muve itself has been around for a while -- it already has 200,000 users -- but this is the first time it's been built into an Android smartphone.

The Vitality itself is a capable mid-range Android smartphone. Specs include:

• Android 2.3.4
• 3.5-inch display at HVGA (320x480)
• 800MHz processor
• 3.2MP rear camera
• 4GB microSD card (3GB for music storage, 1GB for user downloads)
• 3G/Wifi data
• Stereo Bluetooth
• 1600mAh battery
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Dimensions: 4.6x2.4x.06 inches
• Weight: 4.16 ounces
• Muve Music

The Samsung Vitality will be available later this month on Cricket for $200 on contract.

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HTC Droid Incredible Gingerbread update the manual way

Verizon has had its fair share of Android-powered devices in addition to the hot selling iPhone 4, and one of the better loved Android devices in their stable is the HTC Droid Incredible. This handset proved to be top dog when it first arrived some time ago, and has managed to hold its own to a certain extent even against newer competitors. Nice to know the Android 2.3 Gingerbread update is finally coming your way, and only a handful of people received it Over The Air at the end of last week in a test run by Verizon. Since then, the Now Network has pulled back the OTA update, but for those who want to manually install it, do expect a fair number of changes seen.

Among the changes would be the correct sending process of MMS messages, properly saved audio files from MMS messages, the ability to play audio from MMS messages successfully, Bluetooth connection that carries Internet support, Wi-Fi operated VZ Navigator and having the camera work even when an SD card is inserted among others.

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Apple sues Samsung in Japan

Apple’s legal department must be a darned good one – with tentacles all over the globe, especially now that we have just heard that Apples’ legal eagles have descended upon the Land of the Rising Sun, and will be suing the pants off Samsung Electronics in that corner of the world. The accusation? Patent violations concerning both the iPhone and the iPad, which is starting to prove annoying. First it was Germany, then Europe, and now the fight has come all the way to Japan. Where else next? The continent of Africa?

Apple’s suit was filed with the Tokyo District Court, where the California-based company wants to stop selling Samsung Galaxy phones in Japan, in addition to adding another $1.3 million into their coffers as compensation for damages. The first hearing was held yesterday, and it remains to be seen just how the entire event is going to pan out in the end.

What do you think of all this? Will Samsung be able to pull something out of their hat in order to fend off the seemingly relentless pursuit of Apple, chasing them all over the globe?

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LG Optimus Note slider smartphone seen in leak

There seems to be more leaks of upcoming products these days than the holes in my roof, and that is a good thing (for the site, not my home). One of the more recent leaks would be a press shot of the upcoming LG Optimus Note which is a slider smartphone that has been whispered to go along the lines of a 1.2GHz dual-core Tegra 2 processor, not to mention accompanied by a 4″ WVGA NOVA display as well as Android 2.3 Gingerbread right out of the box so that there is no need to wait for a software update from the time you purchase it.

When it comes to shooting images with the LG Optimus Note, how does a 5-megapixel camera with an LED flash at the back sound to you? Up front, the VGA camera should be good enough for video calls if you aren’t too fussy on image quality, while the 8GB of internal memory ought to bring it some distance in terms of file storage before you pop in a memory card to augment that further.


People who dislike virtual keyboards even until today will be pleased to hear that there is a four-row sliding QWERTY keyboard with the LG Optimus Note, making it a whole lot more comfortable to type out your text messages and emails in a flurry. The LG Optimus Note will measure 12.3mm in thickness, but I suppose that is the sacrifice one has to make to accommodate a sliding keyboard.

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