Sony Ericsson Supports The Android Modding Community – Helps Developers Build Custom ROMs

Sony Ericsson is well aware of the Android modding community and unlike other OEM’s who try and squash it, they’re doing their part to help support it. Whether it’s creating a custom ROM or modifying the kernel, the Sony Ericsson Developer program is aimed at helping these devs cook up nice and stable custom ROMs and they’re starting with a group of devs called “FreeXperia.” These are the guys responsible for creating custom ROMs based on CyanognenMod and porting/modifying them to various Xperia devices lke the Play and Arc.
Sony Ericsson was one of — if not the first Android OEM to announce they would provide the option to unlock the bootloaders in their 2011 Xperia lineup. Karl-Johan Dahlström, Head of Developer Relations for Sony Ericsson and all around nice guy (whom I had the pleasure of meeting at E3 this year), has been doing a great job at keeping Sony Ericsson devices open thanks to his close work with developers. According to Mr. Dahlström,

“We firmly believe in the openness of Android and we are really impressed by the huge activity shown in our products. By being supportive and open, we hope to both learn from the open community, and also share knowledge when that is possible.

When it came to Sony Ericsson’s involvement with the FreeXperia developers,

We were impressed by the passion shown and decided to help out with some bits and pieces. A few proprietary solutions needed to be explained and we helped them with that. We also supported the group with approximately 20 devices, to make their work easier.

Sony Ericsson would also like to remind you that unlocking the bootloader and loading a custom ROM on their devices will more than likely void your warranty. A risk we’ve been willing to take since rooting our G1′s back in the day. For your normal, average Joe Schmoe consumer, keeping your device is 100% stock is usually the wisest choice. Either way, it’s refreshing to see the steps Sony Ericsson has taken to support the Android modding community and something other Android OEM’s can definitely learn a thing or two from.
[Via SonyEricssonBlog]

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ROM Maker Peter Alfonso Now Supports Nexus One

The venerable Nexus One is coming up on its second birthday (which is practically octogenarian by smartphone standards), but like the OG Droid, it’s still got its loyal users. Count ROM cook extraordinaire Peter Alfonso among them. He’s begun supporting the Nexus One with new nightly builds of his self-branded series of Gingerbread ROMs.

Previously Alfonso supported the original Motorola Droid, the Motorola XOOM tablet and the Samsung Nexus S. The Google-branded Nexus One will be his first HTC device, with hopefully more to come like the very similar Droid Incredible or Desire. Alfonso began his work on the “Passion” (the codename for the HTC hardware) just a few days ago, meaning the project is still very much in nightly form. Nexus One users who are happy with their current custom ROM may want to hold off for a week or two before trying it out.
The adventurous among you can head over to Peter Alfonso’s website to check out the latest builds of “Peter Alfonso Gingerbread” for the Passion. Given his previous work, Alfonso is likely to update the ROM every day or so, so keep an eye on the download page. And remember, you lords of the custom recovery: be sure to keep a Nandroid backup handy.

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HTC Holiday spotted in the wild, this time down under

The HTC Holiday keeps popping up its head for everyone to see and today it has done it again. It was first spotted way back in August after someone sold it on eBay, and since has seen countless leaks. Today was no different and it was spotted in Australia soaking up the sun and running some impressive 4G speeds.

Even today the Holiday was spotted clearing the FCC on its way to the US on AT&T rocking 4G LTE. In the image shown above it’s still being called the HTC Holiday and we are now hearing that is just the internal codename given by HTC. It will in fact be called the HTC Raider 4G on AT&T, and HTC has confirmed that as well.
I actually liked the name Holiday although it does seem a bit weird for a smartphone name. Raider 4G gives it that tough and powerful sound, right Oakland Raiders fans?

Shown in the image above from the Australian version running on Telstra it seems to be blazing along with those 4G LTE radios. The Holiday will be the first 4G LTE smartphone for Telstra in Australia according to recent leaks and for those waiting for a good phone this will certainly be it. With an aweome 4.5″ qHD display, 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8MP camera and more this is a top-end smartphone that is for sure. If you look close you can see Brisbane Australia listed in the speedtest application. We are seeing some mighty impressive speedtest results thus far, hopefully they will be the same when it launches and networks get crowded.
[via CNET Australia]

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Amazon CEO says Kindle Fire is an end-to-end device – like the iPad

Bezos goes so far as to say that he doesn’t consider the Kindle Fire a tablet at all. “We think of Kindle Fire as an end-to-end service,” he told an interviewer, saying that the Fire is a wrapper meant to consume a wide array of digital media, from books and magazine to video, apps and music, all while staying constantly connected to the cloud.
It’s hard not to think of Apple’s strictly-enforced walled garden of hardware and software when one hears about an end-to-end service. And while that may sound like a sour note to the Android faithful, there’s no denying that it’s allowed Apple to dominate the tablet market, with the iPad holding on to an 82% market share even as Android tablets become more and more advanced.
Amazon may even have an advantage over Apple in the long-run, since the heavily-customized Kindle Fire relies almost exclusively on cloud services for a la cart and subscription content. As more and more consumers get access to ubiquitous broadband internet, services like Amazon Instant Video will become more and more popular. Shoppers sure seem to think so: the Kindle Fire jumped to the top of Amazon’s product list as soon as pre-orders were made available.

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Microsoft’s Android patents could be worth $444 million a year

Microsoft has been collecting licensing agreements from Android manufacturers like Samsung and HTC for months now. According to ZDNet, this adds up to some serious dinero, to the tune of $444 million every year. With Android continuing to dominate in markets around the world, that number can only grow.

In today’s litigious IP environment, it’s often wiser for a company to pony up to patent holders rather than fight an extended court battle, even if they’re not entirely sure they’re in the wrong. Microsoft has banked on that, and a Goldman Sachs analyst estimated that every Android phone sold with a licensed manufacturer nets the technology giant between $3 and $5.
Of course, not everyone’s thrilled with the arrangement. Google objected to Microsoft “extorting” Android original equipment manufacturers, saying that they hindered the progress of innovation. Microsoft executive succinctly replied on Twitter with a single word: “Waaah!”
I’m sure that the manufacturers themselves aren’t thrilled with the arrangements, and neither are consumers or carriers, who will share the burden of a more expensive product. And to be perfectly honest, Microsoft would probably trade the relatively small amount of kickback money they’re getting for a phone platform that wasn’t stuck in the “other” section of the market share pie charts. To sum up, nobody’s very happy with the state of licensing fees — Microsoft’s just unhappy all the way to the bank.
[via ZDnet]
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Nexus Prime system app list leaks, including face recognition

The Nexus Prime, AKA the Galaxy Nexus, AKA The DROID Nexus, still isn’t official yet. But based on what we can cobble together it’ll be a variant of Samsung’s Galaxy S II with a pure Android Ice Cream Sandwich experience, just like the Nexus One and Nexus S. A shadowy forum member has posted the list of apps coming from the Nexus Prime, and what it does and doesn’t include is fascinating.

First of all, there appears to be zero bloatware apps. None. No Blockbuster, no Skype, no annoying trial versions of Need For Speed. This is a Nexus phone to the core (if the list is real, of course) and almost every bit of software on it is straight from the Android gods at Google. Speaking of which, there are some exciting new apk files that Android enthusiasts will be salivating for until the Droid Prime’s release.
Among such familiar favorites as GenieWidget.apk and OneTimeInitializer.apk is “FaceLock.apk”, which would seem to indicate that Google is integrating its facial recognition software even earlier than expected. Also of note is “ChromeBookmarksSyncAdapter.apk”, probably the first step in integrating the Android mobile browser and the Chrome desktop browser, just like Google hinted last month. Infrastructure apps like “VZWAPNlib.apk” and ”VZWAPNService.apk” indicate that this is indeed a Verizon smartphone.
Here’s the full list of apps. Note that the /system/app folder isn’t necessarily the only place to store apk files, so the it may not be entirely complete:
ApplicationsProvider.apk
BIP.apk
BackupRestoreConfirmation.apk
Bluetooth.apk
BooksTablet.apk
BrowserGoogle.apk
Calculator.apk
CalendarGoogle.apk
CalendarProvider.apk
CameraGoogle.apk
CertInstaller.apk
ChromeBookmarksSyncAdapter.apk
Contacts.apk
ContacsProvider.apk
DefaultContainerService.apk
DeskClockGoogle.apk
DownloadProvider.apk
DownloadProviderUi.apk
DrmProvider.apk
EmailGoogle.apk
ExchangeGoogle.apk
FaceLock.apk
Galaxy4.apk
GalleryGoogle.apk
GenieWidget.apk
Gmail.apk
GoogleBackupTransport.apk
GoogleContactSyncAdapter.apk
GoogleEarth.apk
GoogleFeedback.apk
GoogleLoginService.apk
GooglePackageVerifier.apk
GooglePartnerSetup.apk
GoogleQuickSearchBox.apk
GoogleServicesFramework.apk
GoogleTTS.apk
HTMLVierwer.apk
HoloSpiralWallpaper.apk
IMSFramework.apk
KeyChain.apk
LatinIMEDictionaryPack.apk
LatinImeGoogle.apk
Launcher2.apk
LiveWallpapers.apk
LiveWallpapersPicker.apk
Maps.apk
MarketUpdater.apk
MediaProvider.apk
MediaUploader.apk
Microbes.apk
Music2.apk
MusicFX.apk
NetworkLocation.apk
NfcGoogle.apk
NoiseField.apk
OneTimeInitializer.apk
PackageInstaller.apk
PhaseBeam.apk
Phone.apk
Phonesky.apk
PlusOne.apk
SDM.apk
Settings.apk
SettingsProvider.apk
SetupWizard.apk
SoundRecorder.apk
Stk.apk
Street.apk
SyncMLSvc.apk
SystemUI.apk
TagGoogle.apk
Talk.apk
TelephoneProvider.apk
Thinkfree.apk
UserDictionaryProvider.apk
VZWAPNlib.apk
VZWAPNService.apk
Videos.apk
VisualizationWallpapers.apk
VoicDialer.apk
VoiceSearch.apk
VpnDialogs.apk
YouTube.apk
[via MyDroidWorld]

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Motorola Xoom OTA update brings new market for tablets

New details are just hitting the wires that another update is hitting the Motorola Xoom. Last week it received an OTA to Android 3.2.1 and we are now hearing another update has hit devices this morning. Along with it brings a brand new Android market for tablets — looking beautiful just like what we now have on our smartphones. As soon as I get more details I’ll drop the APK so everyone can enjoy the new market too.

According to many over on XDA the update was actually started sometime yesterday for the Wi-Fi Xoom but most are getting the notification today. As always users can go ahead and manually pull the update by going to menu > settings > about tablet > and check for updates. The brand new market can be seen below, and is said to work amazing on tablets and you can now post reviews and more. I’ve seen it ported to the larger screen — but this is the real deal right from Motorola.

Regarding the Xoom, the update brings it to build HTK75D and from what users are reporting not a lot has changed. We are still on Android 3.2.1 and nothing looks different except for the awesome new Android Market for tablets. It is possible the update brought changes needed for the new market to work, but that is doubtful because then plenty of tablets will be waiting a while to see it themselves. As soon as we get more details and possibly a working APK for all you Honeycomb tablet users we will update this story — stay tuned.

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HTC Raider sails through the FCC with AT&T 4G LTE

The much rumored HTC Holiday is all set to receive its wings and come to the US now that it has recently cleared the FCC. The Holiday leaked back in August and looked pretty stellar from our point of view. Hopefully this recent FCC filing means it will be headed to AT&T here soon now that they’ve launched their LTE networks.

Recent reports suggest the HTC Holiday will be called the HTC Raider upon its launch on AT&T. The recent FCC filing is for a similarly sized HTC device headed to AT&T with those 4G LTE radios so it only makes sense. Not to mention we’ve even spotted the HTC Holiday in the wild showing off those 4G LTE speeds.

All the links above confirm the details but in case you missed them we have a 4.5″ display, 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 4G LTE, 1GB of RAM and more with this beast of a smartphone. Last we heard AT&T officially outed this as the Raider, that along with the FCC reports lead us to believe it will be coming sometime soon. Stay tuned for more details on the HTC Raider with AT&T 4G LTE.
[via FCC]

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Kindle Fire blazes to Amazon’s best seller list

Just as we expected, the Kindle Fire is selling fast according to recent reports. The hot coals from the Kindle Fire can already be felt as Amazon has stated its flames have reached the top of their best sellers list, and it did on the first day. The high sales have continued and are going strong today suggests Amazon.

The Kindle Fire, announced yesterday seems to already be a big hit with buyers when Amazon threw it up for pre-order the same day — It will ship November 15th. We didn’t stop there either, we also have a quick Q & A for you to check out.
Apparently the $199 Kindle Fire is in the top spot for the second day in a row and is showing no signs of slowing down. Amazon didn’t mention any sort of specific numbers but they expected sales to soar, and should have plenty on the way to fulfill all of those orders. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said the number of sales should reach the “millions” but we have nothing further regarding an actual number although its only been two days.
One appealing aspect is the new Amazon Silk browser that should make a huge difference for browsing the web on a mobile device, they also have plenty of Kindle Fire accessories available for pre-order that too will ship come the 15th.
So, who plans to buy one, or who pre-ordered already? Do you think the Kindle Fire will be a success? We’d love to hear your thoughts.
Bonus hands-on videos






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