Motorola Xoom finally will see 4G LTE upgrades starting tomorrow

Well folks, in case you’d lost hope or given up on old Motorola they’ve finally came through today — just a bit late. Along with Verizon, Motorola will finally start offering the 4G LTE upgrades for the original Motorola Xoom starting tomorrow. The 3 month window has obviously long since passed, but better late than never right? Now we can start calling it the Xoom 4G — More details after the break.

We’ve seen the photo above more than a few times, and at least they’ve sort of hit that new date for September because we are now officially hearing updates will start tomorrow. For those that still happen to own a Motorola Xoom now is the time to start jumping for joy. The update should go live tomorrow so I’d be sure and check this site throughout the night and hopefully be one of the first in line.
Verizon will also start selling pre-installed Motorola Xoom 4G LTE models starting October 13th for just $499. Basically like over $200 more than most payed for the 3G Xoom back when it launched (assuming you bought if off contract like I did). While that is some bad news for early adopters, things don’t always go as planned for the early takers but at least we will finally see the upgrades start. It’s just a shame it took so long. We first saw this way back in June, then select users started receiving the upgrade in August too.
This is good news indeed, just a shame it took so long to finally come end users. Just like DL says, maybe Verizon should give us early adopters that waited so long 3 months of free 4G LTE service for being patient. I doubt that will ever happen but it was worth mentioning.

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Official Flickr App for Android available now

Flickr is no doubt one of the best photography options available on the web. For a long time now Android users have been waiting for something official instead of relying on third party applications. It appears that Flickr has finally answered all their users calls and have now announced the official Flickr app for Android.

This offers the best way to share your life in photos – now available fully on Android. Being able to do almost anything you need right from your android device. From signing in, sign up, tagging and editing photos and even sharing with friends. Here is some of the outlined features below.
Features:
• Share photos only with the people you want to with easy privacy settings.
• Full screen browsing and slideshows for your photos, your contacts photos or any of the public photos from the global Flickr community.
• Share the story behind your photo with titles, descriptions, comments and tags.
• Keep your track of where you took your photo by keeping your location data automatically through geotagging.
The Android Flickr app features a built-in camera application where users can shoot, share, edit, tag, and even send to Facebook and more all those perfectly caught moments. It features flash, auto focus, and 10 powerful filters for customizing your photos. Right inside the application you have all those tools to edit and do anything you’d like, upload right to your Flickr account, and then share with friends should you choose. You can even read all the comments right inside the app too.
For all the details and to install the brand new Flickr for Android head down to the market by clicking here and start sharing those photos.
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Amazon Free App of the Day: Cut The Rope

Cut The Rope is one of the best games for Android. When the popular and much talked about iOS game finally landed it caused a lot of stir in the world of Android too. Being first available on GetJar but with in-game ads many were hoping for something better. Then in June Cut The Rope hit the Android market ad-free and users everywhere rejoiced.

Today we have even better news — Cut the Rope is FREE today thanks to the one and only Amazon Free App of the Day. Cut the Rope is very similar to Angry Birds in the sense you must complete a set amount of tasks with the limited options and time allotted. Users gain 1-3 starts and its based on a very similar rating system. Available now at Amazon.com or on your mobile right in the Amazon AppStore.

Angry Birds isn’t the only game getting plenty of attention from users and kids worldwide. Cut The Rope has been at the top of both the Android and iOS charts for a long time and continues to sell extremely well. Cut the Rope start “Om Nom” also has his own set of comics and stuffed animal plush toys — move over you Angry Birds and pigs.
If you’ve been waiting for a good deal, or for this to be free today is your lucky day. Hit the source link today only and go snag it while it’s still freeeeee.
[via Amazon]

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U.S. Cellular announces the HTC Wildfire S, Hero S, and Flyer Tablet coming soon

Today U.S. Cellular has just announced three new exciting Android products to their existing lineup. We have the HTC Wildfire S entry level smartphone, the HERO S, and the HTC Flyer Android 2.3 Gingerbread tablet. All devices will come running with Android 2.3 Gingerbread and will be available starting next month.

The one we probably know the least about is the HERO S. Previously codenamed the Kingdom and also leaked as the EVO Design 4G. This is a nice mid-range smartphone bridging the gap between the Motorola Electrify dual-core smartphone, and other lower end devices for US Cellular. The HERO S is a 4.0″ qHD 960 x 540 resolution packing smartphone with a 1.2 GHz single-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 768MB of RAM and a 5 megapixel camera on the rear with LED flash. It also features a VGA front for video chat, Android 2.3 Gingerbread and HTC Sense UI. It comes with a 1520 mAH battery and will start at $199.
 The Wildfire S comes in rocking a 3.2″ HVGA display, Sense UI, a 600 MHz processor, 512MB of RAM and again a 5 MP camera on the rear with LED flash. This is as entry level as it gets and is an awesome low priced Android smartphone — Launching for just $79 after a $100 MIR.
The HTC Flyer will be available for $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a two-year contract and a $54.99 eligible data plan.
The benefit of US Cellular is customers on belief plans who are eligible for a phone upgrade can get the Wildfire S and Hero S at the same promotional price without having to sign a new contract. These are some great additions to the US Cellular lineup and should be available early next month. More details on all of these smartphones can be found over on uscellular.com
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LG Esteem officially announced, headed to MetroPCS

Today LG has officially announced their new higher end Android smartphone for MetroPCS. This may not be a top tier high end smartphone, but for MetroPCS it’s one of the best they have to offer and is available now. Earlier last week the LG Esteem was first leaked online and it spilled the beans on all the details and specs including Gingerbread, and 4G LTE.

The hardware specs are nicely rounded off with a 4.3″ WVGA display, 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 512MB of RAM, and a 5 megapixel camera on the rear with LED flash. The Esteem will also offer a 1.3 MP camera for chatting up front, 8GB internal storage with micro-SD support, and even comes with micro-HDMI out as well. A nice well equipped smartphone if you ask me. If you didn’t know this is basically the LG Revolution, but for MetroPCS.
That’s not all either, we also have Android 2.3 Gingerbread and 4G LTE on board making this the best smartphone offered by MetroPCS. With 4G LTE smartphone plans starting at just $40 dollars this makes a great alternative to other options in the 4G LTE realm. Available right now Metro’s offering the Esteem for $250 with no contract (with a mail in rebate sadly). Along with the purchase users will get Rhapsody unlimited free for 90 days as an added bonus. Head over to MetroPCS.com for full details.

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Google seeks to protect confidential Android information in AT&T/T-Mobile merger case

Google has filed a petition with the judge presiding over the case between the Justice Department and AT&T over AT&T's proposed purchase of T-Mobile asking to keep confidential data about Android from being disclosed to the public. Google had provided the information to the Justice Department as part of its investigation into the proposed purchase.
According to Google, the data is "competitively sensitive" and is in regards to internal products and launch plans for unannounced devices. It asked the judge to require both sides of the suit to give it advanced notice of possible disclosures in court or to outside experts.
"Without such additional protection, Google and other non- parties could find their confidential information - such as Google's business plans related to Android - in the hands of competitors (or their competitors' consultants), or even in newspapers, without having had prior notice of its disclosure," said Google in its petition.
The trial is set to begin on February 13 of next year. [via Bloomberg]

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Samsung Galaxy S II from AT&T Is a Slim, Speedy Smartphone

AT&T's (NYSE:T) Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone, which I've had the pleasure of using as my primary phone for the last several days, will launch Oct. 2 for $199.99.
Normally, I would do a full-review, but the device is certainly the baby brother to Sprint's Samsung Galaxy S II, Epic 4G Touch smartphone, which launched Sept. 16 for $199.99 and which I reviewed earlier this month. I also created this gallery of AT&T and Sprint's S II models. 
Both phones run Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android 2.3.4 "Gingerbread" operating system and both share a lot of the same attributes under the hood.
AT&T's S II is a touch lighter and leaner, at 0.35 inches thin, compared with the 0.38 inches of Sprint's S II, and 4.3 ounces compared with 4.6 ounces for the Epic 4G Touch. Both phones are black and feature the same textured plastic back.
With a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED (active-matrix organic LED) Plus display, AT&T's unit felt more comfortable in my hand than Sprint's gadget, whose 4.52-inch Super AMOLED Plus screen I found difficult to grip. The 4.3-inch screen is as high as I would go in a smartphone.
Like Sprint's S II, AT&T's model is powered by a 1.2GHz, dual-core processor, whose speed improvement over existing 1GHz dual-core chips was noticeable. Both phones are 4G-capable, though only Sprint's 4G WiMAX network was available to me; combined with the souped-up chip, the phone deftly processed YouTube content and rendered Web pages much faster.
Both handsets use Samsung's TouchWiz user interface technology, which renders widgets and other tools completely customizable across the 7 home screens.
Both devices are motion-activation-capable. Users may hold two fingers on either phone and tilt to enlarge or shrink browser screen size, or press and hold on a screen to access Vlingo's Voice Talk speech-recognition software, which will let users text, email and do searches by speaking into the phone.
Sprint's model does have a nice screen-capture feature that lets users grab and share images of screens, a feature AT&T's S II lacks. Unlike the Epic 4G Touch, AT&T includes Facebook for Android and Qik Lite for users who want to easily access their social network, or trigger video chats from the phone's 2MP, front-facing camera.
Each phone has pretty much the same 8MP rear-facing camera, which takes great pictures with little latency and captures video in 1080p high definition. Plug in a High-Definition Multimedia Interface- (HDMI-) out cable, and you can watch your video clips on an HDTV at home.
Calls were equally crisp on both S II smartphones, though I would note I always seem to have better reception on AT&T than Sprint in my neck of Connecticut.
Sprint easily wins the battery power contest, boasting an 1,800mAh power source, compared with 1,650mAh for AT&T's model. AT&T isn't running on 4G LTE yet, so the battery didn't get sucked down too much compared to the Epic 4G Touch, which slurped battery power while running on Sprint's 4G WiMAX mobile broadband.
In conclusion, I'd recommend either AT&T or Sprint's S II for people who want speedy Web and application processing. If comfort in the hand is key, go with AT&T. If you don't want to sacrifice the 4G power Sprint's phone offers in most regions around the world, go with that model. 

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Order the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet today, only $199

Amazon has just announced their latest device, the Kindle Fire tablet. The Kindle Fire is based on Android, and will allow you to do more than just reading books. Use it to read books, access emails, play games, listen to music, browse the web, watch movies and TV shows, and much more.
The Kindle Fire is going on sale on November 15, can be pre-ordered right now. Simply click here to pre-order your Kindle Fire tablet. You will be taken to Amazon.com where you can complete the transaction. The Kindle Fire sells for $199.99 and will ship on November 15.
Don’t wait until the tablet goes on sale to order yours. Pre-order today by visiting Amazon.com/kindlefire to guarantee your Kindle Fire when it is released.
Buy: Amazon Kindle Fire for $199 at Amazon.com/Kindlefire

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Amazon Silk: Cloud-Accelerated Web Browser for the Kindle Fire

Along with the announcement this morning of the Kindle Fire, Amazon also had something else exciting to share with everyone. They’ve developed a brand new cloud-based accelerated browser specially for the Kindle Fire and future Amazon tablets — called Amazon Silk Browser. Essentially this is a browser that uses the many cloud based services and technology offered by Amazon and does all the dirty hard work and rendering for you, so users have blazing fast browser performance no matter what the situation. We have a few details and a video demo below.

The Silk browser consists of two things they are calling Amazon Split that basically makes it a two part browser. The image above is a good demonstration of how Split will be using Amazon’s EC2 super computer cluster loads, and then processing intense webpage images and code on Amazon cloud servers. This will free both the browser and the Kindle Fire’s resources to continue working on much simpler tasks, as well as seriously improve battery life.
Amazon Silk Demo





As you can see from the image and video above, Amazon’s servers will do the majority of the work and then pass the crunched and accelerated web page down to the end user. This is a similar approach as the Opera Mini or Opera Mobile has been doing, but I have a feeling Amazon’s implementation will be much better, not to mention they have a huge database of servers and cloud storage.
The Amazon Silk browser will also store cache and frequently visited sites right on the cloud and the EC2 servers. This means you’ll have virtually unlimited cache as well as be able to quickly load frequently visited sites like Android Community in the blink of an eye. Soon you’ll be able to get as much Android news from Android Community as quickly as possible thanks to Amazon’s Kindle Fire, and Silk browser.
We’ll be sure to get our hands-on coverage video of the Silk browser up as soon as possible so stay tuned. For all the new information regarding Amazon feel free to check out our portal for the Kindle Fire.
Bonus Video: Kindle Fire Commercial





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