Samsung Galaxy S II coming in October for under $200 to AT&T

If you have been waiting for the Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone to land at AT&T there are only a couple weeks left to wait. AT&T has gone official with the launch date and the price of the S II smartphone. It will land on October 2 and the official price will be $199.99. Naturally, that price will require you to get a new contract.

The smartphone is a very nice Android device and is one of the best on the market right now. For the $200 you get a big 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, and a very thin phone at 8.89mm. The front camera is a 2MP unit and an 8MP rear camera. It will support 1080p video recording and WiFi calling as well.
You can also get the optional HDMI adapter for the phone and a USB host kit to connect things like keyboards, cams, printers, and more.

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Verizon Wireless unveils the LG Enlighten smartphone

Verizon Wireless is getting a new smartphone that runs Android 2.3 called the LG Enlighten. The smartphone will hit Verizon online on September 22 and it will be in stores on September 29. The Enlighten is a smartphone aimed at messaging, email, and apps in one package. The smartphone has some decent features that entry-level shoppers looking for a low price Android device might appreciate.

The screen is a 3.2-inch unit with a resolution of 320 x 240. The processor is an 800MHz unit and it has a QWERTY slide out keyboard. It supports Flash, hotspot connectivity, and has customizable home screens. The rear camera is a 3.2MP unit with autofocus and camcorder. The smartphone naturally supports the Android Market for apps.
Rounding out the features are Bluetooth 3.0, WiFi, support for Exchange, and a 2GB microSD card is included. The Enlighten will be offered for $79.99 after a $50 MIR and a new 2-year agreement. Voice and data plans will start at $39.99 and another $30 monthly for data. The hotspot feature will cost you another $20 monthly.
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Samsung’s Galaxy Note due November claims retailer

Samsung’s Galaxy Note smartphone-tablet-hybrid has been pencilled in for a late November release, for the UK at least. According to retailer Clove, the first Galaxy Note stock will come in midway through Q4, with retail price as-yet unconfirmed but expected to be in the region of £500+VAT ($783).

That gets you a 5.3-inch 1280 x 800 capacitive touchscreen that recognizes not just finger control but Samsung’s bundled digital stylus. Handwriting recognition is supported, along with the ability to annotate screengrabs, notes and other content.

Elsewhere it’s everything you’d expect from a high-end Android smartphone, so there’s an 8-megapixel Full HD video capable camera on the back, a front-facing camera, 3G, WiFi b/g/n and all the usual sensors. A dual-core 1.5GHz processor is inside, keeping things running.

[via SlashGear]

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Zynga launches free Hanging With Friends Game for Android

Zynga makes some of the best game apps out there and the company has announced a new free offering that you can get on the Android Market right now called Hanging With Friends. The app is a social game twist on the traditional Hangman game that we have all played at one point. The game play has friends taking turns to create and guess words to stump other players.

The app allows the player to choose an avatar and then join in the game to see who can hang on longest. Rather than a noose, the game has the avatars with balloons in their hands. To survive to the next round the player has to guess properly and avoid losing all their balloons.
There are also strategic lifelines to help and other crucial hints in the game. There are also instant replays that let players study how the others play. The game is cross platform allowing Android users to play with iOS users. They can find other players using their existing With Friends account and use Facebook.
[via Zynga]

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HTC outs Raider 4G with LTE and 1.5GHz dual-core

HTC has launched a new LTE smartphone, the HTC Raider 4G, though so far the Android handset is only announced for South Korea. Pairing the 1.5GHz dual-core processor from the Sensation XE with a 4.5-inch qHD IPS display, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, the Raider 4G offers up to 100Mbps downloads and 50Mbps uploads on LTE networks.

If you’re out of LTE coverage, then the Raider 4G is also good for up to 21Mbps 3G downloads or 5.76Mbps uploads. There’s also WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, and all the usual sensors you’d expect, along with an 8-megapixel rear f/2.2 camera with dual-LED flash and a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera. Full HD video recording is supported. OS is Android Gingerbread with HTC Sense on top.
HTC will also offer the Raider 4G with an optional DMB dongle, allowing owners to tune into digital TV broadcasts when in South Korea. The whole thing measures 128.8mm x 67mm x 11.27mm and weighs 163.8g with its 1620 mAh battery. No word on pricing or availability internationally at this stage, though AT&T is tipped to get the Raider 4G at some point.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

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Two Android Vulnerabilities Allow Malicious Apps To Install On Your Device Without Your Permission

About a month ago, two Android researchers were able to find two vulnerabilities within the Android OS that have yet to be addressed or patched up by Google in the latest Android updates. What exactly are these vulnerabilities?
Well, the first bug is called a “permission-escalation vulnerability” and apparently, it affects all Android users. The exploit allows for an app to be installed without a user approving of the permissions typically required when installing an app. For instance, say you were to install a seemingly harmless (but infected) app from the Market. A hacker could then use this vulnerability in Android to gain additional malicious permission privileges after an install.
The second exploit is known as a “Linux kernel privilege escalation” and it allows for an unprivileged application to escalate or gain privileges and gain full control over a device.
Last year, Jon Oberheide, one of the researchers who discovered these 2 vulnerabilities, was able to upload an app disguised as an “Angry Birds expansion pack” into the Android Market. Once downloaded, without any user knowledge or input, the expansion pack was able to install three additional apps that monitored a phone’s contacts, location information and text messages. That data could then be transmitted to a remote server. Jon “O” had this to say,

"The Android Market ecosystem continues to be a ripe area for bugs. There are some complex interactions between the device and Google’s Market servers which has only been made more complex and dangerous by the Android Web Market."

Both Oberheide and his fellow researcher Zach Lanier plan to speak more about these Android vulnerabilities at a two-day training course taking place at the SOURCE conference in Barcelona later this year. You can find a video from Oberheide showing off these Android bugs on his Nexus S down below.


[Via TheRegister]

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Google Wallet to support Visa, American Express, and Discover

When Google launched Google Wallet two days ago, there were concerns on how Google had chosen to launch the NFC-based system. Today’s announcement has expanded the horizon for the service.
With the current state of the release, only Now Network customers using a Nexus S 4g had access to Google Wallet. At that, only Citi and Mastercard users could link their credit cards to the service. Google’s announcement that it has gained the support of Visa, American Express, and Discover shows that the major credit card companies are finally willing to back the service.
Though Google Wallet doesn’t currently support these credit cards, Google has announced that they are working hard to bring these other backers up to the service as a part of their “commitment to an open commerce ecosystem.” In doing so, they are widening the potential audience for the application. Hopefully Google Wallet will receive greater adoption through the release of more NFC-enabled devices in the months to come.
[via Google]

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Samsung Galaxy Tab Plus with T-Mobile spotted

TmoNews has just released images of the next generation Samsung Galaxy Tab headed for T-mobile. Though the pictures reveal little of the software on the device, they clearly show a profile of the device’s hardware.

The successor to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7″ has just been spotted in the wild. It will run on T-Mobile’s 4g network, with Android 3.2 and a version of Samsung’s Touchwiz interface that was described the source as “phenomenal” and “simple and fun.” Whether or not this device is in line with the Galaxy Tab 7.7 that was recently shown in Berlin is unknown at this point.
This may also be the same Samsung tablet that had been rumored to replace the sold out Galaxy Tab on T-Mobile. That device was found to have a Super-AMOLED/Plus screen 1024×600 and a Cortex-A9 processor. Pricing and availability of the tablet are unknown and we have yet to hear an official release from Samsung themselves.

[via TmoNews] )

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Huawei MediaPad Android 3.2 tablet hits the streets this October

Who remembers the Huawei MediaPad from that neat little video back in June? If you’ve been wondering when you can enjoy this 7″ Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet wrapped in that nice aluminum shell we now have a firm date. Coming this October over in Malaysia, and the rest of the world and US later this fall.

The MediaPad was announced back in mid June and brings with it some pretty impressive specs, even if the design sadly looks like an enlarged iPhone 4. Inside there’s Qualcomm’s 1.2GHz dual-core processor – presumably the same chip as inside the HTC Sensation, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot for those in need of more. Coming in at just 11mm thick it’s no Galaxy Tab, but its thinner than many tablets currently available.

Pair all of that with HSPA+ connectivity, WiFi, a capacitive touch beautiful IPS display and HDMI Full HD 1080p output you have a pretty nice little contender here in the world of Honeycomb tablets. Available now in Malaysia and it will be coming to the U.S. and other markets shortly. It appears it’ll be a bit later than the promised Q3 2011 date they gave during the official announcement, but this might just be worth the wait. Pricing has been said to be around $475 and I can’t help but feel that is a bit high for a 8GB tablet although it does come with 3G HSPA+ connectivity. Hopefully we’ll see a more reasonable price come launch on US soil.
[via SlashGear]

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