New Display Technology Allows User To FEEL Virtual Textures – Coming Soon To Smartphones And Tablets

Good gawd. Now here is a technology I wasn’t aware even existed. A company called Senseg has manufactured a new type of touchscreen that will actually allow you to feel a variety of virtual surfaces on your fingertip. This is a whole lot different from haptic feedback which uses moving parts to vibrate a device — this actually changes surface friction under your finger to correspond with the texture being displayed on screen. Damn near revolutionary.

Immediately I’m thinking of all the ways this could be implemented anywhere from braille for the blind, gaming, to more “adult” apps (you know you were thinking it). You’re looking at true innovation at its finest. The technology could start hitting smartphone and tablets as early as next year and seriously, we all know which OS dominates that market.
Seriously, Google. I’ll make this simple for you. Buy it. Patent it. Deploy it in Jelly Bean. Profit.

[Via Cnet]

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Samsung, Intel and Sprint Announcing New Smartphone At CES 2012?

Some big announcements could be made at CES 2012 in January according to AndroidandMe who has it on good authority that Samsung Mobile will release the first Intel powered Android phone and it could be making its way to Sprint. Let’s try and piece everything together.
It’s been rumored that Samsung could be getting out of the PC business but has reportedly extended their partnership with Intel. Strange, what would a renewed partnership with Intel bring? You guessed it — smartphones.
We told you guys a few weeks back that Intel was waiting on Ice Cream Sandwich before arriving on the scene with an Android smartphone and today, PCWorld is reporting that Intel already has Android 4.0 up and running on a device powered by their Atom processor (also known as Medfield) and is currently working with manufacturers to get everything optimized on those devices.
Intel’s CEO, Paul Otellini, is scheduled to give a keynote at CES 2012 and has been touting to AllThingsD, their Atom processor’s superiority over ARM’s chips in graphics, javascript and browser performance. Not so much in the battery department (no surprise there) where they came in around 3rd and 4th.
Intel wont be the only ones dropping bombs at CES. Sprint too, is gearing up for a big announcement January 10th at CES and what else could it be but another one of their famous “industry first” keynotes announcing an Intel powered smartphone running on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich? I know it sounds crazy — crazy like a FOX.
Exciting things in store for next year and you can rest assured knowing the entire Phandroid team will be on hand at CES 2012 bringing you guys all the latest in just a little more than 40 days. I’m ready, packed and moist.
[AndroidandMe | PCWorld | AllThingsD]

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Paper Zombie Lets You Cut, Shoot and Blow Up Brain Eaters – Now Available In The Market

I know we’re a little past Halloween but cuttin’ up some zombies is good anytime of the year. Paper Zombie is a new to the Android Market and boasts 300,000+ downloads on iOS. Now Android users get a chance to see what the hype is about in this cute and gruesome hack and slash. Gameplay is more or less reminiscent of something like Fruit Ninja where you swipe your screen to decapitate zombies and even have a few added weapons at your disposal like firebombs, chainsaws and shotguns.

I wouldn’t say there’s too much here in terms of depth but Paper Zombie is a great way to kill some time (and zombies) while waiting for your root canal or to keep you from dozing off in class. If you want to see the game in action a video trailer also provided for you down below. You can download Paper Zombie for free right now in the Android Market.

[Market Link]

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Lookout Mobile Security Releases Carrier IQ Detector – You May Not Like What You Find

Carrier IQ. We all hate it. But not every device has it. Like the clap, sometimes you just want to know if you’re infected. Well, Lookout Mobile Security has heard your cries and has released a tool to diagnose your phone and best of all, it doesn’t require root. Simply called Carrier IQ Detector, this app will let you know if every swipe you make is being watched. Carrier IQ Detector is completely free and although it doesn’t remove Carrier IQ from your device, it can either give you peace of mind or make you even more paranoid. Let’s get some comments going to see who’s infected — you know, with Carrier IQ.
[Market Link]

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US judge denies Apple injunction – Samsung sales are safe for now

It’s a good evening for Truth, Justice and the American Way, even if those on the receiving end are Korean. Reuters reports that late Friday the judge on the docket in Apple’s suit against Samsung in the United States threw out the case, stating that an injunction on Samsung’s devices would not prevent serious damage to Apple’s sales. It’s the most significant development yet in a case that’s been going on since April of this year.

In the U.S., Apple claimed that the Samsung Galaxy S, Galaxy S II and Galaxy Tab 10.1 violated its design patents, bearing a resemblance to the iPhone and iPad, respectively. In November a judge ruled that Samsung’s tablet might indeed violate the patents, but expressed doubt that such was a justification for granting a sales injunction. District Judge Lucy Koh made good on those statements today, saying, “”It is not clear that an injunction on Samsung’s accused devices would prevent Apple from being irreparably harmed.”
This isn’t the end of Apple’s litigious crusade. The Cupertino company will almost certainly appeal, though at this level of the U.S. civil court system it’s entirely possible that the appeal will be denied. Apple has a stable of patent firepower, and if this case fails completely they’re likely to fire back at Samsung with another in a few months, as they are already doing with rival Android manufacturer HTC. Apple has been particularly litigious against Samsung worldwide, particularly in Germany and Australia. Down under Apple won a preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1, which is scheduled to lift on December 9th, baring a successful appeal. The injunction against the same model is still in place in Germany, though Samsung has released a revised Galaxy Tab 10.1N… which Apple promplty filed a lawsuit against.

It is to be hoped that a failure in the U.S. District court system, if indeed it comes to that, will influence Apple or at least other court systems to treat the company’s frivolous and vague design patents with more skepticism. Just today Apple’s requirements for a non-violating device were made public, including “a non-rectangular shape without rounded corners” and “a thicker profile”. Though Apple’s legal crusade against Android manufacturers (and notably not against Google) is likely to continue, the decisions handed down in the U.S. and Australia indicate that judicial systems worldwide are beginning to see the company’s flawed idea of a competitive market as just that: flawed.

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ASUS Transformer Prime may be at your local GameStop this weekend

Of all places, I bet you wouldn’t expect to see the highly anticipated ASUS Transformer Prime debuting in your local GameStop this weekend. However, there is a catch – it will be on display and not for sale.This will be a great time to give this tablet a test-drive to make sure it’s worth getting for either yourself or as a gift during the holiday season. We can’t imagine you’d be disappointed in the least, but it’s always best to get a personal hands-on before forking over that much money on anything.

Remember, this is the first tablet to sport NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 Quad-Core processor so try pushing it to the limit. As far as reviews go, Chris Burns wrote an excellent one of the device just today – so be sure to check it out. Just like the first ASUS Transformer, the lower dock assembly will be sold separately. Whether or not that will be included within the in-store display is unknown, but they work superbly well together so I don’t see why they wouldn’t.
The best way to find out if your GameStop will be getting any in is to call your local store directly. I’m sure they will know when/what shipments come in. I imagine more popular stores will receive them first, but since this device will exclusively be available in GameStop before other places they could be populated throughout all of them. And if you’re wondering how the Transformer Prime compares to other devices, SlashGear has conducted a great benchmark comparison.
[via Android and Me]

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Sony Ericsson Nozomi pictured running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)

The Sony Ericsson Nozomi (LT26i) has leaked for us in a very tiny cropped picture watermarked from sebbsit168.com. It’s looking quite sleek from what we can see, but there’s really no way to tell how small or large the display actually is. My guess is it’s right at around 4″. From playing around with the Nexus S running an AOSP Android 4.0 ROM, 4″ is a great size to run ICS on.

If you zoom into the photo you’ll notice a few things; first off under the Camera heading, you can see it will take 1920×1080 video capture. Next you’ll notice it has a dual core processor and even microSD support. I’ve always been a fan of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA line, and this phone looks the best by far. Unlike the Galaxy Nexus, it seems to have three softkeys included near the chin of the device, making navigation not completely dedicated to the display.
It looks extremely thin, but then again most recent XPERIA devices (such as the Ray) were. I hope it makes it here to the states soon, because it would be a shame for the Galaxy Nexus to not have some proper competition! But chances are, our main man Chris Davies over in London will get it first – as most Sony Ericsson devices hit international waters first.
[via Phandroid]

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MIUI custom ROM shows off an early Ice Cream Sandwich build

You didn’t think CyanogenMod was the only ROM starting on an Ice Cream Sandwich version, did you? The MIUI team, makers of arguably the second most popular custom ROM out there, has already begun porting their extensive set of Android customizations to run on Ice Cream Sandwich’s open source code. The developers issued a special preview on their website, with a walk-through of the updated interface.

The changes don’t look that different from the current build of MIUI, but then the aim is not to duplicate Ice Cream Sandwich‘s look. MIUI has an interface all its own, borrowing elements from Android, iOS, WebOS and the various flavors of manufacturer customizations to make something that attempts to blend the best of all available options. Just about every app, from the launcher to the music player to the phone dialer, is uniquely styled.
The developers haven’t said when they’ll release the ICS version of MIUI, but you can expect it some time in the next couple of months. Supported devices should see an immediate upgrade with updates following weekly. Like CyanogenMod, MIUI releases its source code upon publishing, so user customized versions for even more phones should begin appearing shortly after that.
MIUI has the distinction of being the only community-authored ROM that’s openly featured on a retail device, Xiaomi’s MI-One. Though the “MIUI Phone” isn’t mentioned in the latest post, it will almost certainly see a flashable update as soon as the fourth version is ready, and Chin Unicom may send an over-the-air update soon after that.
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Samsung Nexus S Android 4.0 update rolling out to Google employees

Good news guys, it appears the process has just begun and Google is pushing the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update to the original Samsung Nexus S. Apparently a few employees from Mountain View have received the OTA update on their very own Nexus S smartphones and it’s safe to say the “dogfooding” testing has finally started. This is a great sign and I’m sure we’ll see this available for download shortly.

The term dogfooding is Google and a few others way of saying the update is in its beta stages and is being rolled out in a controlled manor to a few devices. For now this should only be hitting those lucky few peoples phones and its being reported all over Google+. According to Android Police most of the employee tweets or posts have since been removed or deleted but don’t worry as a few readers were quick enough to snap a screenshot — and for that we thank you.

We don’t have many details at the moment other than the update is rolling out and hopefully we’ll get a leak or two shortly. If all goes well Google could be set to start the official Nexus S Android 4.0 ICS rollout in the next few weeks or around Christmas time. That would be a nice gift don’t you guys think? So much for the Galaxy Nexus being the first US device with Android 4.0 because if Google has anything to do with it they might beat Verizon to the punch, but I doubt that. Stay tuned for more details and hopefully we’ll have a download for this OTA shortly.

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