PowerSkin debuts battery case for HTC Amaze 4G

Over the last few months, there have been several expanded batteries launch for Android smartphones. These batteries will give the phones they fit about twice the run time with the downside of making the device much fatter and ensuring no cases will fit. PowerSkin has the solution for the person looking for more run time from the HTC Amaze 4G and not wanting a fat battery.

PowerSkin has a new power case for the smartphone that has an extra 1500mAh of power inside. The outside of the case is made from silicone so it will help protect the device if you drop it. The extra juice will help the smartphone by adding up to 410 more minutes of talk. It will also add more time for your video watching and gaming.
I am sure this case will add bulk to the Amaze 4G as a larger battery would. However, at least with the case you can take it off if you want to have a thinner device for some reason. The case will hit T-Mobile stores next week for $69.99.

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Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich brings native stylus support

We already know that Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will be getting all sorts of cool new upgrades and features. The tweaks will be many and a tip has surfaced today that those wishing for a stylus for their device will love. Google has confirmed that ICS will bring with it native support for a stylus allowing the tablet or smartphone to be controlled with the users fingers or a stylus.

Apparently, an API first spotted by Reddit can differentiate between a stylus, finger, mouse, and eraser. It will also support pens with up to three buttons. It sounds like this will be the operating system for the designers out there that want to draw directly on the Android tablet. If you are wondering the existing tablets that have pens, the HTC Flyer and the Samsung Galaxy Note both had custom pen-control software.
Google also expects that the new native support for a stylus will also boost the precision for gestures on the screen. Handwriting recognition is also possible, but Android has no native handwriting recognition engine at this time. The coming of a native stylus control system for ICS leaves questions as to what Samsung and HTC will do with their proprietary systems. Both had held their system would be adopted by devs.
[via SlashGear]

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Steve Jobs had pledged “thermonuclear war” on Android

No matter what you think of Apple or the business practices the company uses, you have to admit that the firm makes some fantastic products in the smartphone and tablet range. I think no matter your smartphone of choice, we were all a little saddened by the passing of Jobs. Today we have learned from the AP via an early release copy of the biography on Steve Jobs that he was very set on destroying Android and Google.

According to the biography, Jobs had called Android a “grand theft” of iPhone technology and had vowed that he would go to “Thermonuclear war” to kill Android. According to the biography, Jobs had a meeting with Eric Schmidt when Schmidt was CEO of the search firm. Allegedly, in that meeting Jobs refused to consider any settlement of the suit between Apple and Google.
Jobs is said to have quipped that Apple had “plenty of money” and the only settlement he wanted was for Android to stop using Apple ideas. According to the biography Jobs said, “I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that’s all I want.”

“I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong … I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this” Steve Jobs

[via SlashGear]

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Another Look At Google TV 2.0 Complete With Android Market

What do we have here? It’s yet another look at Google TV 2.0! These images appeared online today giving us another glimpse at a few of the new features coming along with Android 3.1. First and foremost we have the main attractions — the Android Market. You can see a few Google TV specific apps are already available like "QVC for Google TV."

The UI of Google TV 2.0 is definitely more streamlined and screams shades of Ice Cream Sandwich (even though the firmware is technically Android 3.1). As a Logitech Revue owner, I can’t say I remember seeing some of the features shown in these pics like being able to view all the movies currently playing on live TV (complete with time remaining). Pretty nifty.

Not sure what was up with the delay of Google TV 2.0 but I honestly cannot wait until Google releases the update. Unlike the previous version of Google TV that was in most cases, lets face it -- a total flop -- version 2.0 has the potential to be a real success. Apps, internet and live television? Sounds like a winning entertainment combination to me. What do you guys think?
[Via GTVSource]

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Another Great Siri Alternative – Introducing Speaktoit Assistant for Android

I’ve been getting a lot of Phantips on another possible Siri alternative for Android. This time it’s an app called Speaktoit Assistant. While I can’t say I’m too big on these voice activated personal assistants, I received enough feedback from this app that I figured it was worth featuring. The app works very much in the same way as the popular iPhone app, Siri, in that you speak to your phone in a natural way and magically, it knows the context of what you are saying.
 
Speaktoit for Android will answer questions, launch apps, and connect with services like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc. It doesn’t stop there either. You can also get maps, search for news and images, look up the weather, convert currency and measurements, shoot out emails and get horoscope predictions with their available add-ons. Even the avatar is fully customizable allowing you to change his/her look to something like a hardcore punker chick or hot Asian librarian (I wont judge). Although I will say, the app’s female Steven Hawking type voice was anything but arousing.
Unfortunately, as you can see from the above screenshot — it didn’t quite get my name just right but in the apps defense, I have a horrible problem enunciating my words. From now on I shall be known as “Chris Chiladas” (kinda has a nice ring to it).
You can find Speaktoit Assistant for free right now in the Android Market. Be sure to leave a comment after you give it a whirl. Would love to hear your feedback.
[Market Link]

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Get The Look Of Ice Cream Sandwich On Your Rooted Device Now [Download]

Love it or hate it, Ice Cream Sandwich has made a drastic change in the overall look of stock, vanilla Android. What some are calling the “Tron UI” from Honeycomb is officially the new look of the Android OS on smartphones. If flashing buggy and extremely alpha versions of the SDK port aren’t exactly your cup of tea, XDA member sonnysekhon has cooked up a great theme for CM7 users dying to have the look of ICS and nothing else. Well, I shouldn’t say nothing else seeing how many of the new features introduced in ICS have been found in CyanogenMod for about a year now — but I digress.
The theme works using the Theme Chooser app included in CM7. After downloading and installing the theme, all you have to do is select the theme from the Theme Chooser app and BOOM, ICS on your Gingerbread device. According the his thread, the developer is constantly updating the ICS theme so make sure to check back regularly for updates. Enjoy!
Ice Cream Sandwich Alpha 2 App [Download]

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Race of Champions headed to Android, graphics look amazing

I’ve played a few great racing games on Android such as Asphalt or Bang Bang Racing but this new game shown below looks incredible. From the popular game developers Invictus Games comes a brand new racing game for Android, and that other popular mobile platform I wont mention. Just looking at the screenshots has me excited already. With stunning graphics and awesome real-life cars I can’t wait to try it. Hopefully they have an NVIDIA Tegra HD version in the works.

Race of Champions is a yearly event and Invictus has built this game to release right along with the annual race this year, taking place in Germany. ROC is like the X-Games with cars instead of skateboards, brings the best drivers from around the world with all types of styles and races to one huge event. We are hearing the screenshots above while actual game footage come from an iPad, so most likely the graphics will look even better once this game hits for our NVIDIA Tegra 2 powered Android tablets.

Just like the actual racing event each year, Race Of Champions the game will include off-road, drag, and circuit racing. As well as various other types and challenges for drivers and their elite skills. We are hearing the game will support cross platform multiplayer so we may end up being able to race against some of those iDevice wielding drivers and our friends. According to the official Invictus ROC webpage we should be seeing Race of Champions sometime in October or early November well before the actual event kicks off later this year.
Race of Champions should be available on both Android in the Android Market, and iOS within the next few weeks and we’ll be sure to get some hands-on time and report our findings — I can’t wait to give this game a spin. A few more screenshots and their official video are below.




[via Android Police]

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Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime landing page rolls out

Those of you who were disappointed that the Galaxy Nexus missed its Prime moniker are in luck: it looks like the tablet formerly known as the Transformer 2 will get it instead. Asus has pot together a landing page for the “Eee Pad Transformer Prime”, thrilling Android tablet fans and children of the 80s together in one fell swoop. The page is quick to point out the tablet’s Nvidia Tegra 3 “Kal-El” quad-core processor and thin new design.

The website doesn’t mention a release date ,but if you believe Asus’ Jonney Shih, they’ll be announcing the second-generation Transformer on November the 9th. Other confirmations that Mr. Shih was nice enough to divulge include a super-thin 8.3mm frame and a 10-inch screen, likely the same one as in the original. The signature keyboard dock looks a little different, which probably means it won’t be interchangeable with the previous generation. Pricing and availability are up in the air, but considering how successful the original Eee Pad Transformer was at $399, I can’t see Asus messing with it too much.
Check out the sci-fi preview video of the Transformer Prime below:




One interesting thing I notice: have a gander at those navigation buttons on the screen. They don’t look anything like standard Honeycomb, but they don’t look exactly like the Ice Cream Sandwich navigation buttons either. That means one of two things: Asus has taken liberties with Honeycomb and done a little  skinning, or those are the tablet versions of Ice Cream Sandwich’s nav buttons, reworked for a larger interface. Okay, maybe three things: it’s a production render and there’s no way to make any real judgement either way. But given how much Asus has been talking up Ice Cream Sandwich, it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see the Transformer Prime launch with Ice Cream Sandwich or get a quick upgrade.
We wait with breathless anticipation for the official announcement, tentatively set for November 9th.

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Google Maps updated to support NFC and different screen resolutions

Google isn’t wasting any time it seems, Google Maps has just received an update in the market adding a few notable features just in time for the Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich. First off, the size of Google Maps will now be smaller or larger based on device screen resolution. Devices with qHD or Galaxy Nexus 1280 x 800 resolution displays will have a different, larger download to support the higher resolution on the display and older devices will see smaller download sizes and times.

Then more importantly, we now have NFC support in Google Maps. While this doesn’t matter to most users currently, this will be a big part of Android moving forward with Ice Cream Sandwich and the new Android Beam. For more information on Beam click here. In Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with Android Beam users will be able to use NFC to simply tap phones together and share content. From Youtube videos, pictures, web site links and pages, and of course maps. If you’d like to share the map with a friend just tap your phones together and initiate the Beam.
Most likely we’ll be seeing similar updates to YouTube and other applications over the next few days as we get closer to the Galaxy Nexus launch date but today Google Maps is already on board. There is a possibility other features are also included here with the latest Google Maps, but nothing was mentioned in the release notes. Either way go ahead and download it now from the Android Market.

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