Ubislate7 - Aakash's Commercial version on Sale

Aakash, the $35 Android tablet by DataWind has taken commercial shape in form of Ubislate7. Ubislate7 is priced at 2999 INR, roughly $60 and will be out by late January next year. DataWind has already started Pre-booking the tablet. Ubislate7 is touted as the next generation tablet which will be commercially available everywhere and to everyone. This next version of Aakash is loaded with better features and specifications.

Ubislate7, as per spec, is a 7" tablet like Aakash and 3x faster than the former. The tablet runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Below are the detailed spec of the tablet.

• 7" inch TFT capacitive multi-touch screen
• Android 2.3 Gingerbread
• Cortex A8 – 700 Mhz
• 3200 mAh
• Wifi & GPRS connectivity

It is interesting to note that the Aakash tablets have already been sold out and only Ubislate7 versions are on sale. 2012 is going to be year of cheap tablets. Ubislate7 is definitely right on target with the price point and features. Book your own Ubislate7 from here.

Read more »

Android activations grow to 700,000 a day

According to Andy Rubin, Android smartphones are now being activated 700,000 times in a single day. In the big scheme of things, that shows amazing growth. The OS is quite popular, but growing from 550,000 daily activations in July to 700K is incredible! It was estimated that we may be at 1 million activations a day by October 20th, but it undoubtedly digressed from the projected path.

So currently, that makes 4.9 million phones activated each week. Overall, Google states that over 200 million Android devices have been activated – so if the trend continues we could see Android surpass the 250 million iOS devices. This not only shows Android is dominating the smartphone market, but that it is continuously becoming more popular. Eventually we will see it peak out, but it’s hard to tell when.
Hopefully, Android owners are statisfied with their devices. If not, this could lead to a very adverse effect in projected market growth. It may take a while for them to bounce back – but with how fast the software is innovatively growing, the end user experience will undoubtedly lead to more repeat Android customers. But if Apple keeps jabbing patent related law suits at Android device manufacturers, we may never see Android surpass them.
[via The Verge]

Read more »

T-Mobile rolling out new 3G bands

T-Mobile will be following through with their addition of the 1900MHz frequency bands to their network. They’ll be updating their towers from here on out, and this will make many current T-Mobile customers extremely happy; the 1900MHz bands should allow unlocked and imported devices to finally reach 3G speeds.

Sure Edge speeds let you access the internet, but it’s those with an unlocked speedy smartphone on T-Mobile’s network should at least be able to access 3G signal. There’s no idea where they’ll rollout the updates to the network first, so unlocked iPhone users just keep an eye on your device to see if you finally connect to a 3G network. Maybe we can find an update pattern.
Most future devices from T-Mobile will probably come equipped with capabilities for the new bands – but until then unlocked/international devices will be the only ones compatible. Personally, I was expecting an update to 1900MHz from T-Mobile due to their suggested AT&T buyout deal. Since that has fallen through, hopefully they continue with their plans.
[via TalkAndroid]

Read more »

Root users: install Google Car Home on your Galaxy Nexus

One thing that surprised me when looking through my Galaxy Nexus apps wasn’t the presence of Verizon’s bloatware, it was thew absence of something that’s become a standard on Android phones: Google Car Home. It’s the app that launched when you slide a phone into a car dock, featuring big, easily pressed buttons to help you stay focused on the road. When I looked for it in the Android Market, there was no sign, and navigating via the web version revealed that Google Car Home isn’t yet compatible with either the Galaxy Nexus, Ice Cream Sandwich, or both.


Of course, being an obsessive Android tinkerer I couldn’t simply let things lie. So I downloaded the latest version of Google Car Home on my DROID X, then copied the APK file over to my SD card, and eventually to my computer. Then I copied the APK over to the MTP root folder of my Galaxy Nexus. You can see where this is going. When I tried to install the APK via the Root Explorer file manager, it popped out an error message. So as a last ditch attempt, I activated root permissions and copied the APK file straight into my /system/app folder. Eureka! The app showed up in my drawer immediately, and Google Car Home works just fine, as far as I can tell.

Here’s the Google Car Home APK if you want to skip the roundabout or don’t have a spare Android phone. Just copy it into your /system/app/ folder using a root file explorer. To use the easy method you need to be rooted, but those with stock Ice Cream Sandwich will have to use ADB to manually move the file from your computer into the correct folder. Here’s a guide if you’re new to ADB.

All this is a little disheartening for Verizon Galaxy Nexus users, since the official Samsung car dock for the LTE version doesn’t use the three electrical contacts to automatically enter car mode like the GSM dock does. But the Google Car Home app is still much safer and easier to operate while driving, and features quick links to hands-free voice activation and maps. If you’ve got a Bluetooth-enabled car stereo, you can set Car Home to launch as soon as it makes the Bluetooth connection. And if you’re looking for a good, cheap universal car dock, I’ve had great results with the SGP Kuel S20.
Disclaimer: this app, and the process for installing it, are offered on an as-is basis. Android Community is not responsible if you use it to play Angry Birds in the middle of the highway and end up with some angry people… or worse.

Read more »

Cee Lo hides white DROID RAZR in LA, Motorola gives away 6 more

Sprite spokesman, American Dad! guest star and occasional R&B singer Cee Lo Green has a white Motorola DROID RAZR, and he wants to give it to you. Not you, personally, but at least one of his Twitter followers, now numbered at about half a million. He’s hidden it somewhere in Los Angeles, and will be tweeting out clues to its precise location on his official account, @CeeLoGreen. You probably shouldn’t check under the big “W” in the Hollywood sign.

For those of us without the inclination to join the madding crowd or the means to go scavenger hunting in LA, Motorola will be giving out another six units via Twitter. Follow @Motorola, do some pimping with the #WhiteRazrXmas tag, cross your fingers, and the company might just pick your for a frosty new smartphone on December 27th. Since the promotion is for a Verizon-branded phone, only residents of the United States can win.

Read more »

Galaxy Nexus gaming performance: ShadowGun and Riptide GP

Wondering how the Verizon Galaxy Nexus will handle all the high-end games that are coming out and taking advantage of super-powered Android hardware? Well wonder no more. Chris Burns over at SlashGear took his shiny new Nexus on a gaming bender, trying out two high-profile 3D games that are quickly becoming the standard for Android graphics: third-person shooter ShadowGun and jet ski racer Riptide GP.

The results are impressive, to say the least. Despite the Galaxy Nexus’ 720p resolution, both games run quickly and smoothly at the highest settings. On ShadowGun you can notice minimal slowdown during screen-filling effects, but that’s about it. When playing Riptide, the racing is incredibly smooth and fluid even with the multiple water effects at play. Notice that in both titles, the virtual buttons on the Galaxy Nexus don’t disappear like they do with active videos – this may be a limitation of the APIs in question, or it could be adressed by future releases of either game.
Check out the videos below:








Of course, neither game looks as good as it does on the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, but that’s to be expected. The quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor combines with a slightly lower system load for Honeycomb as opposed to Ice Cream Sandwich, and Riptide GP has a special version designed specifically to take advantage of the hardware. But there’s no doubt about it: the Galaxy Nexus is one of the best Android smartphones out there for gaming, if not the best at the moment. We’ll see how long it can keep its crown when Tegra 3 smartphones from HTC and others start arriving in Q1 of 2012.

Read more »

Celebrate New Years with the Official Times Square Ball Drop App

Celebrate New Years Eve in New York City and Times Square live right from your phone this year with the Time Square Official Ball App. Everyone celebrates the new year a little different but I’m sure everyone’s watched the NYC Ball drop a time or two. I used this last year and today the application has been updated with full support for 2012 in just 11 short days. The countdown has already started. Who is ready for 2012?

In 2012 we’ll be seeing tons of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich quad-core phones and tablets — it will be a fun time for the world of Android that is for sure. What better way to celebrate then watching the NYC Ball drop right from your Android smartphone or tablet since we can’t all be lucky enough to live in the Big Apple.
I’ll most likely be out on the streets of the Las Vegas Strip with a warm jacket and a few friends but I’ll be sure and watch this from my shiny new Galaxy Nexus. The official app allows for sharing of photos, sharing your location, watching the ball drop live, reading up on past New Years Eve events and more. A few lucky uploaded photos will appear on the Toshiba super-screen so be sure and upload a few.
For those that love to get into the seasons and the mood this would be the perfect application. Get it today from the market link below and bring in the New Year with ease.
Market Link: Times Square Ball Drop

Read more »

Dropbox Beta updated with ICS support, improved gallery, and bulk uploads

Everyone’s favorite cloud storage option for Android has just released their latest beta build. Currently the version available in the Android Market is the same one we all already use and love but today Dropbox has pushed their latest beta build over at the Dropbox forums. Complete with an overhauled UI that not only looks like ICS but fully supports it too. Download links and more details are available below.

The Dropbox forum has posted a few awesome beta versions in the past but this latest release today is extremely nice and polished — but I do have one complaint. They added a bulk upload option but sadly they didn’t do the same for downloads. Being able to download all the files that aren’t in a select folder in bulk at once would be awesome — I sure hope this makes the final release. Here’s the list of changes with the latest Dropbox beta:
• Favorites: quick offline access to files
• Bulk upload photos and videos
• Rename files and folders
• Single-tap access to all file and folder actions
• Improved gallery view
• Upload from and export to local storage
• Numerous bug fixes and stability improvements
In the forums they mention this is just a beta preview although it should be released to the Android Market here soon. For those that would like to try this latest version of Dropbox today click that download below and give it a try. I love it and wont be going back to the old anytime soon — that is for sure.
Download: Dropbox beta-v1.3.0.6

Read more »

Acer Iconia Tab A200 pricing and picture gallery revealed

ACER is all set to launch their next Android tablet named the A200 and while we don’t have a quad-core processor or anything revolutionary from their previous attempts this tablet should be quite impressive. We’ve seen various leaks and ACER officially announced this dual-core Tegra 2 slate in early December but no launch date or pricing was given. Today we have a full image gallery and some suggested prices courtesy of NotebookItalia.

While this isn’t the best tablet around it does offer impressive specs and a promise to be upgraded with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in early 2012 — all for a great price. The official press release didn’t give us any of those details but below you’ll find both suggested price, and availability. The A200 features the standard to Honeycomb tablets with a 1.0 GHz dual-core Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of RAM inside, 8 and 16GB versions for storage and a 10.1″ 1280 x 800 resolution display — not to mention front and rear cameras like most slates as of late.

The A500 was a pretty fat and chunky tablet so it’s nice to see the A200 coming in much lighter and thinner. The image gallery below will give potential buyers a better idea of what to expect with the A200 once it hits the streets. According to NotebookItalia the 8GB model will be priced around $399 USD with the 16GB flavor coming in at $449. Not the cheapest prices around but with a thin chassis, dual-core processor and ICS on the way it could be a great sleeper tablet come 2012 — until the A700 quad-core slate gets released of course. 

Read more »