Motorola promises Ice Cream Sandwich update for DROID BIONIC

We’ve heard a lot in the last couple of days from DROID BIONIC owners who are more than a little miffed about the relatively quick launch of the DROID RAZR. Well take heart, early adopters: a Motorola representative confirmed that the company is planning on upgrading the BIONIC’s software to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The confirmation came after a Facebook user asked the question on the company page.

Motorola and other manufacturers are waiting for Google to release the Ice Cream Sandwich source code, which will probably happen a couple of weeks to a months after the Galaxy Nexus makes it to retail stores. Once the source is public, code monkeys across the Android world will begin crafting software for new and old phones alike. BIONIC owners should check out our Ice Cream Sandwich coverage in the comfortable knowledge that their phones will receive the new features… someday. Verizon and Motorola have yet to fix some of the early bugs that are still plaguing owners.
Unfortunately Motorola has a pretty lackluster track record for device upgrades – for example, the DROID X2 only got Gingerbread in late July, almost nine months after the source code became publicly available. Motorola tends to load down their phones with a custom don’t-call-it-BLUR interface, and Verizon also has a bad habit of including bloatware and other customizations. It could be quite a while before BIONIC owners get to taste Ice Cream Sandwich, but at least their expensive 4G phones will get it eventually.

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ZTE makes it so with Warp for Boost Mobile, available Nov. 2nd

As a prepaid MVNO, Boost Mobile doesn’t always get the latest and greatest of Android hardware. ZTE is aiming to change that with their new Warp Gingerbread phone, featuring a full 4.3-inch screen and a 1GHz processor. The phone is set to be available on November 2nd for $249.99, without contract.

The Warp isn’t quite ready to hold up to late-model phones like the Galaxy S II or DROID RAZR, but it easily outpaces the rest of Boost Mobile’s Android offerings. It’s only the second Boost phone to use Android 2.3 Gingerbread (after the Samsung Transform Ultra) and as of now it’s got the  largest screen on the carrier as well. Resolution isn’t mentioned in the press release or on Boost Mobile’s website, but a standard 800 x 480 LCD panel is more than likely. The Warp has an undetermined amount of on-board storage, but the MicroSD card slot is pre-packaged with a 2GB card, with support for cards as large as 32GB.
Boost is differentiating the phone with “ID packs,” packaged downloads of apps, widgets, ringtones and wallpapers along a particular theme, like sports or music. ID packs that will launch with the phone include MTV Music Pack, E!, Socially Connected, Professional, Entertainment, Lo2Yo Latino, Lo2Yo Mujer and Lo2Yo Futbol. The ZTE Warp will include the full suite of Google Apps and access to the Android Market.

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Asus says original Transformer will get Ice Cream Sandwich

The EEE Pad Transformer is an impressive and versatile tablet, and just because Asus is preparing a successor with an insane quad-core processor doesn’t mean it should be left behind. Fortunately, that does not appear to be the case: Pocket-lint is quoting a source inside Asus that says the original Transformer will be upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Unfortunately, the source didn’t give a timeframe for the software update.

Despite running on hardware that’s nearly a year old in development terms, the original Transformer is no slouch when it comes to specifications. The 1GHz Tegra 2 processor and a full gigabyte of memory handle Honeycomb just fine, and should be up to the task of Ice Cream Sandwich without any problem. It’s encouraging to see Asus confirm that ICS is coming to its current customers, especially after chairman Jonney Shih hinted that the upgrade could come before the end of the year.
Currently Google is expected to release the Ice Cream Sandwich open-source code two weeks or so after the Galaxy Nexus launches, and as we’ve been hearing for months, the new operating system is designed to play well with both smartphones and tablets. With the Transformer 2 announcement coming November 9th, it’s entirely possible that we could see the first Ice Cream Sandwich tablets hitting the market before New Years. We’ll keep you updated on the upgrade options for the Transformer and other Honeycomb tablets as news breaks.

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AMD invests in BlueStacks to bring Android apps to Windows tablets

Android and Windows users had something to cheer about last week when start-up BlueStacks released the first version of their Android emulation software, which makes running and syncing Android apps on Windows easy. Now hardware giant AMD and virtualization software maker Citrix are investing 5.6 million dollars into the small company, hoping to spur development and expand x86 hardware’s capabilities to include the wide range of Android apps. BlueStacks says that they’ll use the cash to quickly bring feature-complete versions of its Player software to desktop computers.

The potential for BlueStack is promising to say the least. Windows doesn’t have a lot of touch-optimized software at the moment, and with the tablet-friendly Windows 8 on the horizon, that’s a definite handicap. Opening up Windows and other desktop operating systems to hundreds of thousands of Android apps can only help, and considering that x86 tablets tend to be 2-3 times the price of current Android slates, it wouldn’t pose a threat to Honeycomb or upcoming Ice Cream Sandwich tablets. Not only does BlueStacks run Android software on Windows, it can also sync apps with users’ phones, though this early in the development cycle the selection and support is rudimentary at best. The Pro version, which will run paid Android apps, is expected before the end of the year.




AMD could use whatever help it can find at this point. The company has been trailing behind Intel in the processor market for years, and while its Fusion low-power netbook chips have been well-received, they’re still not making a significant dent in the desktop market. Both AMD and Intel are having trouble finding traction in the tablet market, with ARM processors being the internals of choice at the moment. Citrix, a professional virtualization company that already supports the iPad and Android tablets, is also investing in BlueStacks.
[via SlashGear]

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Asus EEE Pad Slider tablet launching in the UK October 24th

Americans have had access to Asus’ EEE Pad Slider with its integrated slide-out keyboard for a while, but come next Monday, Brits can pick one up at their leisure. Asus has announced that the Slider will be available starting at £429.99, or about $680 USD. Retailers PC World and Curry’s will be the first to offer the tablet, both online and in-store.

In case you’ve forgotten, the Slider is a lot like the EEE Pad Transformer with a keyboard that tucks away when not in use, instead of detaching completely. The dual-core Tegra 2 processor runs at an impressive 1.2GHz, powering Honeycomb on the 10-inch 1280 x 800 screen. 32GB of on-board storage should be enough for all but the largest media collections.  The Slider is currently only available in WiFi form, and sadly, we haven’t heard anything about a mobile broadband version.

If you’re on the fence about a Transformer or Slider purchase, you might want to wait a few weeks. Asus has been teasing the upcoming Transformer 2 with a slick CG video, and an executive showed off the device on-stage while confirming its quad-core Tegra 3 processor. The official announcement is slated for November 9th, and considering what the executive said about Ice Cream Sandwich tablets, it could be ready to hit the market before the end of the year. We haven’t heard of a successor to the Slider, though, so if you’re heart is set on an all-in-one form factor, go right ahead.

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Samsung Galaxy Nexus barometer is for faster GPS lock

There have been some folks wondering why among the sensors that the Nexus has, Samsung chose to include a barometer. After all most of us, tend to think of a barometer as only useful for weather forecasting.

One of the Google engineering team that works on Android is Dan Morrill and he has cleared the air on why a barometer is inside the Galaxy Nexus and for that matter the older Motorola Xoom has a barometer as well. Morrill says that the barometer is there to help the smartphones and tablets get a GPS fix more quickly and accurately. As some of the comments point out a barometer is almost the same as an altimeter.
The barometer helps the GPS device solve a set of equations needed to get a signal lock with more speed and accuracy. The barometer could certainly be used for other things too, but the main reason is to speed GPS locks according to Morrill. Now you know!

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Analyst predicts 339 million low-end Android phones by 2015

The last figure we heard from Google on official Android activations was a jaw-dropping 190 million, but that didn’t make any distinction between late-model, high-end smartphones and the lower-end phones that have been filling out carriers’ line ups lately. According to analyst firm In-Stat, the number of low-end Android phones (under $150 USD unlocked) alone will jump to 339 million over the next four years, spurred on by Android’s flexibility and other mobile operating systems’ lack of competition in the space. But that isn’t necessarily a good thing for everyone.

As we all know, manufacturers and carriers have no real reason to support their phones with new software once a customer buys it. While the current Android ecosystem puts upgrade pressure on manufacturers and carriers for high-end phones, many low-end phones see slow upgrades or none at all. Most users of cheap smartphones aren’t all that interested in software upgrades, if they care about the operating system at all. In-Stat says that makes the expanding low-end market a minefield of outdated software, dragging the rest of the Android ecosystem down.
As Android makes leaps and bounds in its software with Ice Cream Sandwich and later versions, a larger percentage of outdated phones that don’t use or can’t handle the newer OS could be a real headache for app developers and carriers. The popular wisdom is that more people with access to smartphones is a good thing, especially in emerging markets, and there’s nothing in this report to dispel that. But as Android grows to service consumers and hardware at every level of the economic spectrum, software makers and infrastructure companies will have to balance making the latest and greatest available with maintaining support for older and less-expensive handsets.
Check out our hands-on coverage of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich:
Ice Cream Sandwich Hands-on


[via SF Gate]
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iPhones dominate AT&T Q3 sales, but Android is catching up

For a long time, there was no real challenger to the iPhone’s smartphone dominance. That all changed after Android started getting traction and the devices running the OS started to sell in droves. AT&T was the first of the iPhone carriers in the US and the iPhone still continues to be the most common smartphone sold on the network.

AT&T has released the results for Q3 and talks a bit about the iPhone and Android devices in with the usual profit numbers. AT&T notes that the iPhone was its most popular smartphone with 2.7 million activations during the quarter. That counts up to more activations than all other devices combines. However, AT&T also notes that the iPhone and Android together were almost half of its total 4.8 million smartphones sold.
Android is also catching up to the iPhone quickly on the network with sales of the Android devices on the network nearly doubling year over year. AT&T postpaid customers are now using more smartphones than dumb phones for the first time. AT&T reports a total of 68.6 million postpaid subscribers and 52.6% of that number is smartphone users. In the same quarter last year, only 39.1% of all users on the network were rocking smartphones.
[via SlashGear]

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Insiders claim Samsung smartphone sales topped Apple in Q3

I wonder if Apple will find a way to blame rumors for this one as it did for the missed expectations on its earnings for fiscal Q4. Insiders are claiming that Samsung actually sold more smartphones than Apple in Q3. These insiders are claiming that Samsung moved 20 million of its devices. Apple has previously confirmed that it moved 17.1 million iPhones.

Undoubtedly, the fact that consumers were holding off on buying the iPhone 4 led to the reduced shipments. Apple will surely have a bang up quarter with the iPhone 4S on the market now. The other issue with confirming this story is that Samsung doesn’t offer shipment numbers in its quarterly reports. That means other than the unnamed insiders we have no proof that Samsung actually shipped 20 million smartphones.
The numbers for Samsung seem believable enough though. Strategy Analytics has previously said that its estimates predicted Samsung shipped 12 million smartphones in Q1 2011 and then in Q2 it shipped 19 million. That 20 million number suddenly seems more believable. What do you think the odds of Samsung holding on to that lead are going into the current quarter? The iPhone 4S is now here and so is the Galaxy Nexus.
[via SlashGear]

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