Holier than thou: Pope Benedict lights Christmas tree with Android tablet

The Lord hath spoken: “What iPad?” MSNBC reports that at a tree lighting ceremony in a small Italian town, Pope Benedict XVI used a Sony Android tablet to remotely activate the lights on a huge electronic display. The Pope himself was in his apartments at the Vatican, and a remote trigger was rigged up for the special occasion. He greeted crowds gathered at the event via teleconferencing.

The tablet in question is absolutely the Sony Tablet S, the company’s flagship slate. The lights in question were placed on a mountainside overlooking the town of Gubbio. MSNBC reports shock and surprise at the fact that His Holiness wasn’t using an iPad, but as Android Community readers know, Droid Does what iOS can’t. And after all, when comparing Apple and Google, which one has “don’t be evil” built right into their motto? I rest my case.
This opens up all sorts of religious opportunities for Android expansion. American megachurches could probably afford pews full of Nook Tablets loaded up with KJV, NIV and all sorts of alphabetically inclined Bible translations. Sliding the Torah across a Galaxy Tab screen would be a whole lot easier than unrolling those scrolls every time. And when all else fails, there’s the old standby of sitting in the back row and playing with your smartphone until either the service ends or the priest falls asleep. Not that I’d know anything about that.

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Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus LTE battery appears with 2100mAh of juice

LTE speeds are fantastic. So is LTE power drain, in a purely technical sense of the word. Verizon’s LTE version of the Galaxy Nexus is already a hair bigger than its HSPA+ brother to accommodate a slightly larger 1850mAh battery, or at least it will be, if the company ever deems the phone fit for release to us mere mortals. But Samsung aims to extends its battery life even further with a plus-sized 2100mAh battery and a slightly larger cover.

Samsung has already shown an extended battery for the HSPA+ version of the Galaxy Nexus, which gets included with the hardware in its home country of South Korea. The two extended batteries aren’t identical, but they’re very similar. The snapshot above was taken by a customer who purchased the extended battery at a Verizon store or reseller. The price is $49.99, which might not justify a couple of hours of extra runtime, but would be a decent upgrade if you were planning to get multiple batteries anyway. Galaxy Nexus to DROID RAZR: “Stick that in your MicroUSB port and smoke it.”
The 250mAh boost doesn’t hold a candle to the 2750 mAh extended battery for the HTC Rezound, which appears to be designed with a natural disaster in mind. Once the battery finally runs down, you can use the extra bulk for shelter. And no, there’s still no confirmation from Verizon on any sort of date for the phone itself, because they hate you and don’t want your money.

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Verizon Wireless data outages have a bad sense of timing

Among the Android audience, Verizon has been something of a punching bag over their mishandling of the Galaxy Nexus launch. Now reports are coming in form all over the US that the wireless carrier’s data is down, centering in the Midwest. The outage is affecting 4G LTE and 3G services. There is no word on when it might be repaired, though Verizon assures its customers that a fix is incoming.

It’s a pretty lousy time for Verizon to have a major outage. Not 24 hours ago, Consumer Reports lauded Verizon as Americans’ choice for the most reliable carrier, notably placing its biggest competitor AT&T at the very bottom of the short list. Now instead of capitalizing on some free publicity from a trusted source, they’re playing damage control and scrambling to get service back to millions of unhappy customers.
Verizon’s wireless data isn’t out of service everywhere – this very story is being written from the secret Android Community bunker miles beneath North Texas, using a Verizon 3G connection that seems to be intact. While assurances that people are working on the problem are good, no communication as to the time for a fix isn’t. And given Verizon’s reputation as one of the most expensive options for wireless service, they’d best get all their ducks in a row sooner rather than later.

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Facebook App overhaul brings faster performance, better UI, ICS support and more

Today Facebook will be pushing a much needed update for their Android application. It is currently not available yet but should hit the Android Market sometime today according to the official Facebook Blog. They are calling it a faster Facebook for Android and it has tons of new features, improvements to the UI, faster performance, and that all important support for ICS (since the menu button has been missing for Nexi users). Check out these renders on the Galaxy Nexus and the full details below.

Apparently this update is all about speed, something that has been needing some attention for some time in the world of Android and Facebook. The UI has some awesome changes and the screenshots above only show us a small glance. A huge part of Facebook is photos and that part of the application has received a huge overhaul too. Photos and albums are said to be around two times faster than their current app. With photo sharing, comment viewing, and caption editing all seeing major improvements.
Messages and notifications have now been moved to the top of the display. Respond to friends and more all without leaving the current page you are on. Having notifications on the top as well as the menu button up there as well should make things easy, simple, visible, and extremely fast for users. A lot of these changes are similar to the desktop version and it’s nice to finally see Facebook making some huge improvements for Android. It is not available yet but should be pushed to the market later tonight for download. I’ll be hanging out at Google+ personally.
Facebook Market Link
[via Facebook Blog]

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HP TouchPad firesale starts again December 11th on HP Ebay Store

Who’s ready for another crazy round of HP tablets selling like crazy for the low low price of just $99? New details have now confirmed HP will be having a huge sale on refurbished TouchPads starting at $99 for the 16GB model and going up from there. Sunday December 11th on the HP Ebay Store you’ll get a chance to snag an awesomely cheap tablet — then install CM7 on that bad boy.

Apparently starting December 11th (Sunday) at 6:00 PM Central time the Ebay store will open up and start accepting orders for the refurbished units. I have a feeling things will get a little crazy and they’ll probably sell like hot cakes. From there you’ll see information on Android OS installations such as CM7 and more for the TouchPad.
We are hearing there will be limited quantities but I have a feeling they have a pretty big stash. Users will be required to pay via paypal but that shouldn’t be an issue for most that have used Ebay in the past. Although this is awesome news there is a small catch:
— The tablets will be refurbished tablets.
— TouchPads are limited to two per customer.
— All sales are final.
— There is only a 90 day warranty.
It was recently updated to alpha 3 and should work quite well for all you current and future TouchPad users.
Who’s buying one?
[via liliputing]

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Google+ update: Snazzy new icon, +1 photos, higher resolution photo support and more

Our new favorite social site Google+ just received a huge update today from our friends at Mountain View. Google is pushing the update now and with it comes tons of improvements and changes. We even have a snazzy new icon for G+ and the Messenger too. That isn’t all as they’ve added tons of new feature and stability improvements and all the details are available below.

Especially now with all the higher resolution support coming with Android 4.0 ICS today Google+ added support for adding higher resolution photos — we can also +1 said pictures. They’ve also enabled +1 for comments instead of entire posts too, something I’ve been waiting for although I’d also love a -1 for comments at the same time. That would be perfect. Here is a full list of the new features for the mobile app:
— Search
— +1 photos
— +1 comments
— High resolution photo upload support
— See if someone’s online and currently typing in Messenger conversations
— Start Messenger conversations by just entering a phone number
— Links to posts or profiles can now open inside of the app
— Instant Upload supports videos again
— Several stability improvements and bug fixes
Gone is the black Google+ app icon and instead Google’s opted to go with an all red icon for both the main app and the messenger (huddle, group) or whatever they are calling the chat function these days. Another big feature is links inside posts will now open inside the app instead of exiting. Sadly it appears notifications still seem to struggle and while they’ve been improving the app steadily I’d still love a stable notification system for Google+. The new version is available now so head down to the source link below and enjoy it.
Google+ Market Link

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New Android app lets you add Facebook friends via NFC

Remember Bump, that app that allowed you to swap contacts with a quick nudge of both party’s phones? The one that everyone forgot about in a week or so? Well there’s a new app in the Android Market that’s brought the same functionality to Facebook, with an NFC-enabled twist for the new generation of Android smartphones. Simply titled “Add Friend“, the app connects to your Facebook account and adds someone when a similarly-equipped phone is activated.

So it’s come to this. Digital, vicarious spooning through smartphones. As an extension of the social world, the image of two smartphones smothered against each other is hard to beat – and judging by the app’s featured picture on the Android Market, that’s exactly what the developer had in mind. Still, to each his (or her) own. The usage case seems a little limited, though; you’ll need two high-end Android phones, each equipped with the free app and connected to your Facebook account, three separate conditions that are hard to combine at the moment.
The success of these types of apps will largely depend upon Near Field Communication’s adoption worldwide, and it isn’t looking good outside of Asia. The payment options of NFC are complicated by cross-company deals and alliances, at least one of which is probably keeping Google Wallet off of the Galaxy Nexus for the time being. But with Android Beam, Ice Cream Sandwich users should at least become more comfortable with the idea of “bumping” information across devices.
Say, why don’t we just go back to IR ports? It worked great on my old Palm M105.
[via Engadget]

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Eric Schmidt Says 'Android will be bigger than iOS'

Eric Schmidt was addressing the crowd at Le Web in Paris and recounted a tale when an Android user asked why apps were often written for iOS first, and then ported over to Google's OS. His response? "My prediction is that six months from now, you'll say the opposite." After the uncomfortable silence had died down, he added that Android's "open" model meant the company had volume on its side -- and volume is what he feels will attract developers. He added that Ice Cream Sandwich would redress Android's device fragmentation and the sheer number of hardware makers would ensure that 2012 would be Google's year to lose. At which point, everyone in the audience probably went back to their iPads to read Twitter. 

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Motorola phones getting upgrade to ICS in about 6 months

We have heard and seen plenty of reports from all types of manufacturers over the future of their Android line up. Many have stated when updates to the new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will arrive and today Motorola has made the process even more clear. They stated the DROID RAZR would see ICS early next year and also unlock bootloaders, but we’ve heard that chime from them before. Today Motorola breaks down the process but I’m not sure how I feel about the news.


Motorola has also recently tweeted devices would see ICS updates within 6 weeks of Google releasing the source code. We now know that meant we would all receive an update and details on when to expect ICS for their devices — not that they’d actual get updated that fast.
In a Motorola Blog post we now have a breakdown of the events and a timeline for what to expect. How does around 4-6 months and possibly more sound? CM9 anyone? For those expecting Android 4.0 ICS on their new Bionic or RAZR early next year, you might be waiting a little longer than expected.
Here is the breakdown of steps needed to bring an update — according to Motorola:

1. Merge and adapt the new release for different device hardware architecture(s) and carrier customizations
This means that we take the source code and incorporate it into upgrades for devices on which this can perform well, along with making sure the carrier requirements are met. Silicon partners such as Qualcomm, TI, and nVidia adapt this to their chipsets in parallel and we incorporate these as they become available. This is also the time when we begin integrating all of the Motorola-specific software enhancements into the source code. Features like MotoCast, Smart Actions, and our comprehensive enterprise solutions are integral parts of our device experiences, and we want to make sure we continue delivering differentiated experiences for our consumers with these software upgrades.
2. Stabilize and ‘bake’ the result to drive out bugs
This means that we will prepare the upgrade to meet the quality and stability requirements to enter the wireless carrier’s certification lab.
3. Submit the upgrade to the carriers for certification
This is the point in the process where the carrier’s lab qualifies and tests the upgrade. Each carrier has different requirements for phases 2 and 3. There may be a two-month preparation cycle to enter a carrier lab cycle of one to three months.
3.5 Perform a Customer pre-release
We may perform some customer testing before a final release is delivered publicly to our user base.
4. Release the upgrade
We are planning on upgrading as many of our phones as possible. The ability to offer the upgrade depends on a number of factors including the hardware/device capabilities, the underlying chipset software support, the ICS support and then the ability to support the Motorola value add software.

After looking at past updates and how long devices took to receive Gingerbread this actually all sounds pretty accurate. We are looking at around 4 months at the soonest, and 6+ months at worst. Verizon isn’t the quickest company either when it comes to approving software updates so that could also be a factor here. Many phones are just now getting Android 2.3 Gingerbread while 4.0 is already here, so it is same to assume the same could happen for many with this latest iteration of Android. I’ll be rooting and installing custom ROM’s before I wait that long — but that is just me.
[via Motorola]

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