Verizon Visual Voicemail App for Galaxy Nexus hits the Android Market

Well folks, Verizon might finally be making some headway with the Galaxy Nexus rocking those all important 4G LTE speeds. The Galaxy Nexus will come mostly bloatware free and because of that — the Galaxy Nexus will not launch with Verizon’s popular Visual Voicemail application. I personally use Google Voice but to each their own I guess. Today the Verizon VVM application has hit the Android Market being used on none other then the Verizon Galaxy Nexus.

Back in November we mentioned Ice Cream Sandwich was missing a visual voicemail feature and that is because Google has opened it up for carriers to build their own, exactly as Verizon has done. While we are still waiting for the fancy updates to VVM to hit Google Voice this should hold all you Ice Cream Sandwich users over in the mean time.
Between the leaked pictures and video of Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus yesterday, and this new application hitting the market today we could actually be very close to an announcement and release date from Verizon. Best Buy is claiming it will be available starting December 11th. If that is the case Verizon will probably be announcing the Galaxy Nexus with 4G LTE between now and Monday. Lets sit back and hope that’s the case.
Market Link

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Play it again, Sam: Best Buy may release Galaxy Nexus on December 11th

Raise your hand if you’re tired of waiting for Verizon to release the Galaxy Nexus. One, two… we may be here for a while. An internal Best Buy screenshot has made its way to Engadget, showing the big box retailer with a possible December 11th release for the much-anticipated Google phone. This contradicts earlier rumors of a December 8th launch, but then, those rumors contradict all the other rumors that have been flying around.

As the source notes, this may simply be a slightly delayed release for Best Buy – it’s not unusual for second-party resellers to get a late start on new products. Then again, discrepancies over some of the listed specifications cast doubt on the validity of the leaked information… not that Best Buy is any stranger to error. The continuing wait for the Galaxy Nexus, and especially Verizon’s total silence on the upcoming release, has many US customers and potential converts seeing red.
But there may be light at the end of the tunnel. Google was the first to finally show off the LTE model that will be gracing Verizon’s airwaves, and at least one person has an apparently completed retail model for spy shots. “Confirmed” pre-orders on Tuesday, November 29th turned out to be completely and utterly bogus – again, a big thank you to Richi Jennings and Computer World for claiming a second-hand conversation with a customer support rep as a reliable source. The continued lack of communication is starting to make eager customers – not to mention self-referential tech bloggers – incredibly frustrated.

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AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket comes in white December 4th

There’s only three phones that use AT&T’s 4G LTE network so far: the upcoming LG Nitro HD, the HTC Vivid, and the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket. You can get any of them in any color you want, so long as you want black. But come December 4th, you’ll have at least one more choice, as the Skyrocket follows its Galaxy S II predecessors in offering an arctic white option.

That’s not to say that the Vivid is without its charms, but the Skyrocket’s brighter screen, better battery life and screaming 1.5Ghz dual-core processor make it one of the best phones available for AT&T right now. That might change when the LG Nitro HD lands, also on December 4th, sporing a gorgeous 720p IPS display – we’ll see.
The white version of the Galaxy S II Skyrocket is otherwise identical to its more somber progenitor, and will come in at the same $249.99 price tag. Don’t need LTE? You can save a few bucks on T-Mobile with a white version of the original Galaxy S II.

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FIFA 12 launches for Xperia Play and more

EA Mobile has announced that the FIFA 12 mobile game has launched for the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play smartphone. We learned that the game was coming to the Xperia Play back in August as an exclusive until February of 2012. When the game was announced as a limited time exclusive for the Xperia Play we didn’t know exactly when it would be coming.

EA’s FIFA franchise is the most popular soccer franchise in the world and Sony Ericsson has scored quite a coup with landing the game as an exclusive throughout the holiday season. The game will let players play as their favorite soccer stars with famous players like Wayne Rooney and Kaka. This game was developed just for Android users.
As it turns out the Play isn’t the only Xperia smartphone that will be able to get the game during the exclusive periods Other Xperia devices can download the title as well including the Xperia arc S, Xperia arc, Xperia ray, Xperia neo, and the Xperia pro smartphones. The new game promises better gameplay, more depth, updated teams, a new replay system, and new stadium designs.

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Android Design Preview tool mirrors PC screens for live previews

Here’s a fun hack that should be useful for Android developers and designers, and at least interesting for the rest of us. If you’re designer who’s working on high-quality mock ups for a new app, seeing how they look on your actual device is a bit of a hassle – you’ve got to save the files, copy them over to the device, try it out, then make changes and repeat. The Android Design Preview tool takes all those steps out by allowing your phone to see a one-to-one pixel representation of your computer screen.

In practice, it works kind of like a tiny secondary monitor. Connect your Android phone to your computer using ADB, then start the tool on your computer. Move the preview window to the editing app of your choice (make sure it’s scaled at 100%) and you’ll see the screen appear on your phone. It refreshes automatically, so you can preview multiple screens or elements, or just watch your phone while you edit. You don’t need a corresponding app for Android – everything is handled over the ADB connection. Developer Roman Nurik has released the program as a free Java app, so it should play nice with Windows, Mac and Linux.
Check it out in action below:




So why is this better than a remote access tool, like VNC or SplashTop? Specifically, the pixel-perfect preview size makes it ideal for designers. There’s not a lot of utility elsewhere, since it doesn’t actually extend your computer screen, but designers with a little technical know-how should be able to preview their creations much faster – not to mention wow a few of their less savvy clients.
[via XDA]

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New Ice Cream Sandwich Hidden Feature: “Dreams” (Screensavers)

Those boys over at Google definitely know how to have a good time. First it was the NyanDroid Easter egg and now we have this. Well, I wouldn’t exactly call this an Easter egg. More like a hidden feature no one has heard about — until now. It’s called “Dreams” and it acts as a screen saver that strangely serves absolutely no other purpose than looking kinda flashy. The feature is actually buried deep in the Ice Cream Sandwich OS but with a little know-how and the use of Launcher Pro, Dreams is easily accessible. So, when you want to zone out and just watch all of your icons fly at your face — now you can. If you’re into that sorta thing. What’s more is the flying icons can actually be tapped and if you’re quick enough, maybe you’ll launch your intended app. We keep learning new things about Ice Cream Sandwich and it’s fun little tidbits like this that keep it interesting. Can’t say screen savers would ever be a feature I would want on my phone (battery killer) but how ’bout you?
[Via AndroidPolice]

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Verizon rolls out DROID CHARGE Gingerbread OTA update

If you bought a Samsung DROID CHARGE when it launched back in May, you’ve been waiting for this for a long, long time. After numerous leaks, Verizon is finally sending out its Gingerbread update to eager DROID CHARGE owners. As always, you can wait for the over-the-air rollout to come to your area or initiate it manually in the Settings menu.

Verizon has a boilerplate for their software updates, and in addition to Gingerbread the CHARGE will get a download manager, the new UI color scheme that was seen in the leaked version, and options for encrypting both the phone and storage card. The calendar app has been updated with some user interface enhancements, and selecting, copying and pasting text should be considerably easier. Perhaps most importantly, Verizon’s WiFi Hotspot app now uses an encrypted password. Other speed and stability tweaks have been added here and there.
As usual with these updates, we like to provide a little perspective. It’s been more than eleven months since Android 2.3 Gingerbread became available to carriers, manufacturers and everyone else, and six months since the CHARGE launched with outdated software. On the plus side, the phone is only $199 on contract now. Don’t expect an Ice Cream Sandwich update any time soon, if at all.

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Foxit Mobile PDF Reader available in the Android Market

If you’ve been using the Internet for any amount of time at all, you probably know one of its founding principles: Adobe Reader sucks. Many savvy desktop users choose a lightweight alternative for displaying simple PDFs, and Foxit PDF Reader has long been a favorite among them. Now Foxit Software has released an Android port of its popular reader, and you can download it now in the Android Market.

Unlike the desktop version, only a $2.99 paid app is available, but that’s comparable to the other 3rd-party PDF viewers on the Market. The standard zoom and reflow features are present, as well as bookmarks. Foxit seems to be focusing on its reader experience with a set of noted additions: the app will automatically load the last document and page you used, and it can adjust the brightness for its own use, like the Kindle and Nook apps. There’s also a set of annotation tools, including comments, highlights, and a pencil tool.
Can Foxit carve out a space for itself on Android? It’s tough to compete with free, but they’ve got a recognizable brand name, at least in geekier circles. $2.99 is still kind of pricy for a reader that can’t edit documents beyond its own annotations. THat said, early response in the Android Market is positive. Both smartphones and tablets are supported.

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Motorola Xoom 2 Media Edition vs Samsung Galaxy Note

The Media Edition of Motorola's upcoming Xoom 2 Media Edition is a device very much aimed at people on the move. It's a smaller, easier to handle device that still packs a decent punch. To get a view of the device's quality we've decided to measure it against Samsung's Galaxy Note, a device which has more power than most tablets twice its size.

Software
The Motorola Xoom 2 Media Edition runs on version 3.2 of Android, otherwise known as Honeycomb, which is the version of the platform specifically tweaked and re-designed for tablet use.

The software is smart, fast and very easy to use and includes re-designed core apps, a neat new UI and plenty of other add-ons to boot.

There are plenty of apps on offer for the OS in the Android Market, but tablet-only apps seem to be a forgotten premise to Android devs, so don't choose the device if you're looking for tablet only applications.

The Samsung Galaxy Note has version 2.3.5 of Android installed, AKA Gingerbread, which is a fast, stable iteration of the software that runs excellently on the device, and is nicely augmented by Samsung's TouchWiz 4.0 UI.

The smaller screen size is perfect for making the most out of Android apps, and you won't rue the aforementioned lack of tablet support owing to the device's hybrid style making it more akin to a large smartphone than an actual tablet.

Both the Xoom 2 Media Edition and the Galaxy Note benefit from Google's operating system though, of that there can be no doubt.

Winner - Draw

Power
Samsung's Galaxy Note runs on the company's Exynos chipset, which consists of a 1.4GHz ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core CPU and a Mali-400MP GPU - both very capable processors.

The inclusion of 1GB RAM speeds things along nicely too, allowing the device to multi-task quickly and efficiently.

The Galaxy Note is pretty much as fast as you are, making it a really rewarding device to use.

The Xoom 2 Media Edition is driven by an nVidia Tegra 2 T20 chipset consisting of a dual-core ARM Cortex A9 1.2GHz CPU and ULP GeForce GPU, giving the device some real chops when it comes to gaming.

Motorola opted to fit the Xoom 2 Media Edition with 1GB RAM, the same as on offer in the full-size tablet, and the device is nice and fast as a result.

The Xoom 2 Media Edition also has 16GB of on-board storage, while the Galaxy Note is available in both 16 and 32GB flavours.

Both devices offer Micro SD card support.

Winner - Samsung Galaxy Note

Form & Build
Motorola Xoom 2 Media Edition - 216x139x8.9mm, 386g
Samsung Galaxy Note - 146.9x83x9.7mm, 178g

The Xoom 2 Media Edition is a vast improvement aesthetically over its predecessor. The cut-away corners and narrow bevel are reminiscent of a smartphone rather than a tablet, and the design really seems to work for the device.

Another nice feature of the Xoom 2 Media Edition is the build. It's solid, without being bulky, which is ideal for a device of its kind.

As you would expect from a device that's being touted as a more portable tablet, it's small and light and at just 9mm thick is only a shade off Apple's iPad 2 for thickness (which is 8.8mm).

The Galaxy Note is also extremely portably, but that's because it's something of a mutt. It's bigger than a smartphone yet miles smaller than even the most compact tablet.

The hybrid thing works well for the Galaxy Note though, and it's quite an attractive device to boot.

The build quality is sound enough too, though the plastic housing that Samsung insist on relying upon never really lends a feeling of prestige to its devices.

Winner - Motorola Xoom 2 Media Edition


Camera
One thing that Samsung has consistently done well in its mobile devices is photographic capability, and the Galaxy Note's 8-megapixel camera is a tremendous performer in ideal conditions.

The device has an LED flash, geo-tagging, touch focus, face & smile detection and image stabilisation too, as well as boasting 1080P video capture.

The device's secondary camera is a nice 2-megpixel front-facing effort which is ideal for video calling.

The Xoom 2 Media Edition offers a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, autofocus and geo-tagging as well as 720P video capture. The camera is decent enough for a few snaps here or there but the results, even in fine conditions, won't win any contests.

Similarly the front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera is good, but un-exceptional.

Winner - Samsung Galaxy Note

Display
The Samsung Galaxy Note has a 5.3-inch Super AMOLED screen which operates at a resolution of 800 x 1280 and offers up a pixel density of 285PPI. Put bluntly, the Galaxy Note's screen is a stunner! It's vivid, responsive and just looks super sharp and bright.

The Xoom 2 Media Edition features a plain old 8.2-inch TFT touchscreen which is nice but, again, un-exceptional. Performance-wise it's fine and dandy, responding well to the touch and displaying nice, vivid colours, but it seems to do just enough, rather than offering anything of note (no pun intended).

Winner - Samsung Galaxy Note

It's a decisive victory for the Samsung Galaxy Note.

The device may be small, but it packs a mighty wallop and if you're in the market for something a little bigger than your average smartphone you should have a long look at the Note before you make a decision. It's fast as lightening, small and very well spec'd.

The Xoom 2 Media Edition is a nice device. There can be no doubt of that. But at its heart there isn't anything new, special or interesting to capture ones eye.

It's very well built and the design is pleasing, but beyond that we can't think of any reason to choose the Xoom 2 Media Edition before one of the many other 'mini' tablets on the market.

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