HTC Flyer missing from Best Buy online

Could the Flyer be discontinued? It is no longer available for purchase on Best Buy’s website, and the trend may follow with other retailers soon. It has been discounted many times over the past couple months, and may be nearing the end of its shelf-life. Of course, after using the tablet myself – it functions better than many of the current tabs out there.

In one sale the Flyer dipped down to $240 for a brief moment, and that was quite the deal. It may not have appeared for $99.99 like the famed HP TouchPad, but still 50% off. If Best Buy is pulling its inventory, another “Firesale” could be underway soon.
When a tablet is discontinued, the developmental community is bound to worry. The HTC Flyer has many unofficial developers on its side producing some excellent ROMs and kernels. Knowing the Flyer may never see Android 4.0 could be quite the disappointment, but at least developers won’t be waiting on it. It may even give a few the spark to start a something from scratch.
[via Phandroid]

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Netflix could get scooped up by Verizon for 4.6 Billion

Rumors suggest video streaming service, Netflix, could get purchased by Verizon Wireless for $4.6 Billion. The source also revealed Verizon has been currently looking for a way to minimize costs for video streaming, thus Netflix sounds like an excellent company to get involved with. Netflix is already available for practically every capable Android device, so syncing it within a service would be amazing.

However, we just heard yesterday Verizon was preparing a service with RedBox termed “Project Zeotrope”. This service would allow subscribers to pay for credits prior to a media purchase. Then of course, the media would be available for up to 24 hours after a rental. Could Veizon be dealing with both RedBox and Netflix? It seems like they would pick one of the two.
Verizon using Netflix technology to stream both movies and TV shows would practically eliminate the need for their Verizon Video application. Verizon Video already has a great selection with the latest TV episodes on many channels, and tied in with the vast Netflix library it couldn’t get much better. Of course, it helps to operate all of this over a WiFi connection – streaming video takes quite the toll on your allowed data usage.
[via TalkAndroid]

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ASUS Transformer Prime hitting Australian shelves in January

The ASUS Transformer Prime is said to be hitting the US before Christmas (December 19th?), but for Australian retailers – expect to see the device in early January of next year. The price is yet to be confirmed, but the Transformer Prime may end up seeing an instant OTA update to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) due to the delayed release. In my opinion, this tablet is the best announced thus far for the year – so once updated to ICS, the best will just get better.

This news was gathered directly from an ASUS (Australia) tweet, so it’s official. We’re not sure the cause of the actual delay in the states to December 19th, but there had been rumors of WiFi issues. To give you a rundown on the tablet’s specifics, it will sport a 10.1-inch SuperIPS display and 1.3GHz quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 Processor.

It’s the first quad-core tablet, and has some excellent benchmarks. The best feature by far, is the capability of to connect to the lapdock keyboard with the included touchpad. It’s finely tuned, and looks just like a laptop when clamped shut. And with 12 hours of video on a single battery charge, there’s not much this tablet doesn’t offer.

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Sega snubs Android, delays Sonic CD release till 2012

If your only experience with Sega‘s blue hedgehog is post-Dreamcast, you can stop reading now – this story isn’t for you. If, however, you’ve been patiently awaiting the Android arrival of one of the most celebrated 2D platformers of all time, prepare to be disappointed. Though the Sega CD classic Sonic CD will see a release on the iPhone tomorrow, December 14th, it won’t be hitting Android until early next year. We’d blame Dr. Robotnik, but you’d think that he’d be on board with Android all the way. Android fans should be used to waiting by now.

It’s not all bad news. XPERIA Play owners can add Sonic CD to the ever-growing list of games that will support its game pad, and with a fast twitchy game like Sonic, that’s a godsend. And it’s good to know that more people will at least get to play Sonic CD, which had a pretty small audience way back in 1993 due to the Sega CD’s failure to sell. We can wait in good company – the Windows Phone 7 release has been delayed as well.
While you wait, you might as well check out some classic Sonic action with this here trailer. Sonic CD is considered by many to be the best of Sonic’s 2D adventures, with gigantic stages and high-fidelity music made possible by the denser CD format. The re-release will be getting the original Japanese soundtrack. Though Sonic has fallen on hard times in modern 3D versions, Sonic CD remains a highlight of his fast-paced career.




[via Pocket Gamer]

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Xiaomi’s MI-One Ice Cream Sandwich build shown on video

If you’re a fan of the MIUI family of custom ROMs, you’re almost certainly aware of Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi’s MI-One, the phone that comes with MIUI pre-installed. Keeping their title as the most mod-friendly manufacturer in the eastern hemisphere, the company is hard at work integrating the Ice Cream Sandwich version of MIUI into its flagship phone. The company showed off a video of their progress on YouTube – see below.

MIUI version 4 is the first update with Ice Cream Sandwich at the core. But like previous versions of the custom ROM, it’s integrating a home-built user interface that combines elements from Android, iOS, WebOS and just plain beautiful design. It’s not for everyone, but MIUI has gained quite a following in the Android community, and interest has only grown since it became the only aftermarket ROM to feature in a commercial phone release.
Check out the progress below. At the moment it looks exactly like stock ICS, probably running on a kernel that’s only been slightly modified:




MIUI is still a ways out from delivering an ICS-based ROM that’s ready for prime time, but considering its reputation for solid performance and regular updates, I’m sure it’ll be a welcome upgrade for many. Remember that the MIUI ROM is available on a variety of devices – head on over to their official website to check them out.

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Monopoly by EA finally in Android Market — tablet support not included

Yes! I get Boardwalk, Park Place, Waterworks, and all the railroads — you can have the rest. EA has finally brought the popular game we should all still love to the Android Market — Monopoly. It was originally exclusively available on the EA store and Amazon’s App Store but now it can finally be purchased right in our very own Android Market.

Sadly one of the perfect opportunities to play this game would be while using a tablet but currently they don’t offer tablet support. A major “oops” if you ask me. I can’t see myself playing Monopoly on my phone but rocking that on a 10″ tab while on a plane or camping would be awesome. However, it does offer the same unique board-style gameplay in a full out 3D environment.

Monopoly offers multiplayer support with your friends, as well as playing against the computer. You can customize the rules, number of players and even the environment. It also offers multiple game saves to save your progress during those extra long Monopoly sessions. I know I had more than a few of those when I was younger that took us deep into the morning hours.
Instead of $200 on Android it will only run you $5 after you pass go so head to the market via the link below and enjoy this classic best-selling board game on Android.
Market Link – Monopoly
[via Android Police]
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ASUS Transformer Prime pre-orders available from EXPANSYS

ASUS and their hotly anticipated quad-core tablet the Transformer Prime has been causing a bit of a stir lately. Selling out everywhere before it’s even available and multiple online retailers having to turn away pre-orders. I know many of our readers have been looking for a place to order so today we have some great news — Expansys-USA has opened up pre-orders and you can get one now, but you’d better hurry.

What’s even better is the fact they are also allowing a coupon code making the Prime just $480 for the 32GB version. Just apply the coupon “20OFFLS” at checkout and you’ll have the best deal around — on the best tablet around. The online retailer isn’t listing quantity like the did with the Galaxy Nexus, or a shipping date but at least they’ll throw in free shipping.

A few recent rumors went around that the Prime was being delayed for WiFi issues but we experienced zero issues while enjoying it for a full review. All the details and more are available below from our new Story Timeline. We have heard scattered reports that Canada’s supply might be a bit low and delayed but last we heard from ASUS everything was on track and as planned for the US.
Head down to EXPANSYS if you are still interested in a pre-order before they are all gone.

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Motorola Milestone (DROID) brand new and unlocked for $189

We could call this a good deal right? The original Motorola DROID also known as the Milestone brings back some good ol Android memories for many. This device may be a dying breed with all the 4.0″ screens and dual-core processors these days but if you love some original DROID and a keyboard this is a pretty solid deal and worth a quick shout if you ask me.

This here is a brand new, fully unlocked and contract free Motorola Milestone for only $189. If I saw this deal about 18 months ago I would have lost it and bought three. In today’s high-powered Android smartphone world this is more of a novelty device than anything. I know there are still thousands of users still rocking the OG DROID — and many are probably finally ready for an upgrade and are awaiting that Galaxy Nexus.
This is a bit different than the original DROID from Verizon. The Milestone is the GSM packing European brother to the Verizon edition but is basically identical. So no, you can’t buy this and hope to use it here in the states on Verizon but for all others this is actually a fairly decent deal — I suppose. If a 600 MHz single-core processor, 512MB of RAM, QWERTY keyboard and a Motorola phone absent of their “Blur” UI interests you then this would make a perfect phone. Get in while the deal is still available. Have fun!

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Skype 2.6 for Android announced

There is a new version of Skype for Android – where the version number has been bumped up to hit 2.6, opening up a whole new world of possibilities as you are now able to send photos and videos to friends or family from Skype using your Android-powered device. Not only that, doing so is free, and it does not matter whether you’re hooked up to a Wi-Fi network or on a 3G mobile data plan – it will work fine either way, although those banking on the latter might want to look into some sort of unlimited data plan if you’re going to do so often, as the total number of bytes might add up in the long run.
It is also said that sending videos and photos aren’t the only improvements with Skype 2.6 for Android, as battery life is improved with this version especially for devices running on NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 chipset – where these will include the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Motorola XOOM and Acer Iconia Tablet among others. Not only that, a bunch of other devices that now support video include the HTC Amaze 4G, Motorola DROID 4 and Motorola DROID RAZR, just to keep up with the times. Basically, as long as your device has Android 2.2 Froyo or better, you can always try to give Skype video calling a go.

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