Amazon announcing the Kindle “Fire” tablet tomorrow, We’ll be there live

Last week Amazon sent out invitations for a media event scheduled for Wednesday, September 28th, and that is tomorrow. We have heard tons of rumors regarding the Amazon Android tablet and it appears we’ll be seeing just that come tomorrow. The name being tossed around is “Kindle Fire” and it will be a 7″ tablet heavily skinned to look nothing like Android, more details below.

Earlier this month TechCrunch had all the details, and claimed they even enjoyed some hands-on time with the tablet. Tomorrow marks the day we’ll all find out what Amazon has been pushing through the pipelines as of late. According to new details it will be called the Kindle Fire, and will be marketed different than current e-reader tablets as they plan to sell both. It will be 7″ and run with an unknown TI dual-core processor. According to the same report, this tablet is made by the same company making the BlackBerry Playbook so it will resemble the BB tablet in terms of design. Given the same design the familiarities end there, the Kindle Fire will have a much better user interface that is complete, as well as a stable and smooth ecosystem all ran by Amazon.
We have heard it will run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread but look nothing like it. Amazon has made their own unique Kindle UI that will have zero resemblance to Android. It will also be offered with their own suite of applications like the Amazon App Store, Kindle app, Amazon Prime for movies, Amazon MP3 and everything else that Amazon has to offer, and show as little Android and Google as possible.
We don’t have any confirmed full details or a price as everything has remained extremely tight lipped by Amazon and their manufacturers. While this is all just rumors and speculation for now we will know everything after the event tomorrow.
Be sure to stay tuned to Android Community as we will be live in NYC to get a first hand look at what is revealed by Amazon come tomorrow morning.
[via SlashGear]

Read more »

Motorola Xoom 2 tablets launching in November

Motorola is prepping a few tablets to refresh their lineup from the original Xoom. We first saw what appears to be a 7″ Motorola Tab in the wild earlier this month, then more pictures leaked last week. We have heard about an 8.2″ media edition so they might even have a 7, 8.2, and 10.1″ in the works but that has yet to be confirmed. New details are claiming the 7″ Motorola tablet will launch this November.

According to Digitimes, Motorola is building the 10″ model in-house while letting Compal work on the smaller slate. We are also hearing neither will launch with Android ICS and instead come with Android 3.2 Honeycomb but that was to be expected this early on. However, because of Google’s planned acquisition of Motorola Mobility, the expectation is that the new tablets will be first in line once Ice Cream Sandwich is finally here and being pushed to manufacturers for updates.
A full gallery of both the 8″ and 10″ were leaked this weekend, giving us yet another look at these unknown tablets. We know they are coming, and soon, but that is about it. No specific hardware details have been released other than they are super thin and will be around 9.3mm thick. These newest photos reveal a more industrial and unique design compared to the original Xoom’s standard black design and look. With angled edges and an entire different looking rear it appears Motorola is taking a new angle on design.
According to tipsters the 7″ variant will land sometime this November, and the Xoom 2 coming in at 10.1″ will be available in December but as always these dates are subject to change.
[via SlashGear]

Read more »

Google Maps update available, improves transit navigation

Today we see another update hitting Android for Google Maps. As usual the update brings a few improves as well as the usual term “bug fixes”. Google has been busy with Maps and is continuing to make it an awesome experience on mobile, we’ve seen a lot of updates lately all bringing great new features.


Back in August it was updated to support transit navigation and more and today a few fixes are aimed just at that for all you public transit users. While transit navigation is still in BETA many users have been trusting it for their day to day in big cities such as NYC and other large cities with huge public transit systems. Today the update should add stability as well as help the location services be more accurate.
Google has been busy this week with updates to the Nexus One, Nexus S and now Google Maps. I must say though, my favorite new feature still probably is the option to download maps before you travel, so while out of service you can still get directions thanks to Google Maps. If you haven’t gave that a try I suggest you check it out for your next vacation.
Feel free to let us know in the comment section below if the new update improves accuracy for navigation and location.
[via Google Maps]

Read more »

CyanogenMod and FreeXperia team up to offer CM7 on 10 Sony Ericsson devices

Back in August we first heard a few minor details that the members of CyanogenMod were planning to support more device, especially a wide array of Sony Ericsson smartphones. Yesterday Cyanogen himself (Steve Kondik) confirmed support for 10 new SE phones over on Google+. With a joint effort by the CM team and the group known as FreeXperia we can expect to see CM7 and future releases support many Sony Ericsson and Xperia play devices moving forward.

While none of the phones pictured above are Sony Ericsson it does show the wide array of smartphones supported by CyanogenMod, and now with 10 more coming I’m sure plenty of users are excited for things to come. Detailed on Google+ Cyanogen mentioned all 10 SE phones they plan to initially support — they include:
- Xperia Arc
- Xperia Neo
- Xperia Mini
- Xperia Mini Pro
- Xperia Play
- Xperia Ray
- Xperia X10
- Xperia X8
- Xperia X10 Mini
- Xperia X10 Mini Pro
Kondik also mentioned that the FreeXperia team is now a part of the CyanogenMod development group, this means that with upcoming releases from Sony Ericsson like the rumored Nozomi users can expect to see support by CM7 or 8 for many new phones as they come out.
Great news for all the Sony Ericsson users out and around, CM is one of the greatest custom ROM’s available for Android and will be for a long time to come.
)

Read more »

SanDisk 64GB Micro SDXC cards working on multiple Android devices

Recently we told about the new 64GB Micro SDXC cards just released by SanDisk designed specifically for mobile devices. While most smartphones and tablets only offer SDHC support we are now happy to inform you all that many Android devices are in fact able to take full advantage of the 64GB SDXC cards by SanDisk, even though they aren’t listed as supported.

They might not be cheap coming in around $219 for now, the SanDisk Micro SDXC cards offer a huge storage limit of 64GB all in the size of a fingernail. After we ran the news of the new cards we quickly learned that many smartphones including the Samsung Galaxy S II, HTC Sensation 4G, ASUS Transformer tablet and more all work with 64GB MicroSDXC cards.

There are also reports that they are working on many older devices for those wondering. Some include the EVO 4G, original Galaxy S, and even the HTC Desire Z (aka T-Mobile G2). With both old and new, smartphones and tablets being able to take advantage of the 64GB SD cards this is a good sign many more will have the same fate. We can only assume manufacturers didn’t state SDXC support because none were out on the market at time of launch, or maybe there are other reasons yet unknown.
At first insert the device may say corrupt or error, just reformat your 64GB card inside the Android phone or tablet and you’re good to go. While many are currently working, this doesn’t mean they have full support. The chance of the cards failing, getting errors, and possibly losing all your stored data is still a possibility so use at your own risk for now. Hopefully we see more 64GB SDXC cards soon and at lower prices because $219 is a bit steep for me. — Thanks Murray!
[via AndroidNZ]
)

Read more »

The HTC Thunderbolt Gingerbread update changelog has been posted

The changelog for the HTC Thunderbolt Gingerbread update has been posted. Besides finally getting Gingerbread on the first 4G LTE device from Verizon, the update also fixes a number of issues and brings on new features and enhancements. Let’s hope that Verizon keeps their promise to update the Thunderbolt with Gingerbread this month.
Check out the new features, enhancements, and bug fixes that will come your way via the Gingerbread update:

enhancements:

• Download Manager App: New App to manage all of your downloads from web browsing, email attachments and other apps.
• App and Power Management Details:Under Manage Applications, a new “Running” tab displays a list of active applications and the storage and memory being used by each. Power efficiency mode option has also been added under Settings > Power.
• New Desktop User Interface: New widgets, icons and screens with refreshed colors.
• Dock Icons:Static Phone, App Launcher and Contacts icons are replaced within a customizable dock. Three swappable icons and the App Launcher icon are fixed to the Dock at the bottom of all home screen panels for easy and instant access

Additional device features:

• Alarm notifications will no longer appear while in Emergency Mode.
• Improved data connectivity.
• Improved audio quality while using Bluetooth®.
• Decreased wait time when saving audio attachments.
• V CAST Tones now comes preloaded.
• New Google Books app.
• Enhanced UI for data roaming.
• SMS messages send to correct recipient.
• Reduced Force Close errors while using TuneWiki.
• Reduced Force Close errors when using the front camera.
• Audio on BT Car Kit no longer reroutes to phone when receiving a SMS message.

Source: Verizon Wireless

Read more »

Nexus One Units Begin Receiving Android 2.3.6

Google has issued the Android 2.3.6 update to Nexus One handsets. If you don’t remember, this update solved an issue that predominately affected Nexus S users – the Voice Search application would activate intermittently and randomly on its own.
Unfortunately, we’re hearing that this update somehow breaks pinch-to-zoom in the default Gallery application, something Google is sure to take a look at once a thread over at their support site starts filling up. For now, go ahead and check for the update and think long and hard before downloading it. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Read more »

HTC throws a party on October 6 for Beats Audio phone

HTC has announced that it will be holding a press event on October 6 to out the new Beats Audio equipped smartphone. The event will be held in London and will include a party that is open to the public. The HTC event doesn’t hint what specific smartphone will be the focus, the image is simply showing a Beats Audio headset.

Our man Chris Davies suspects that the smartphone at the event will be the Runnymede also known as the HTC Bass. We spied that gem of a smartphone on video not too long ago and it looks good. We have few hard details at this point on the Bass/Runnymede smartphone, but it is thought to have a 4.7-inch screen, an 8MP camera, and use HTC Sense 3.5.
There are more details on the event on the HTC UK Facebook page including the location of the event and how you can get tickets. There will be 1,001 tickets available with some sort of contest to determine who gets tickets. The flyer about the event notes that there will be surprise music guests with some of the hottest artists on the scene.
[via SlashGear]

Read more »

LG makes the Optimus EX official

A few days back we caught a glimpse of some leaked press photos of the LG Optimus EX smartphone packing Android along with a few specs on the device. Today LG has gone official with the new smartphone and given up all the details on the device along with a slew of photos and specs. The Optimus EX is aimed at the high-end Android smartphone market.

An NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor at 1.2GHz powers the device. The operating system is Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The screen of the smartphone is very bright with an IPS panel that is 700 nits making it the brightest screen around. The phone supports HD video output, 1080p video recording, is 9.65mm thick and weighs 127g.
The smartphone also has Bluetooth, WiFi, HDMI output, DLNA compatibility, and a lot more. We had previously reported that the smartphone would get a 5MP rear camera with no flash, a front facing camera, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of internal storage. The battery is said to be a 1500mAh unit. Pricing and release date is unknown.
)

Read more »