Dell Streak 5 receives official Android 2.3 Gingerbread ROM

Dell might have stopped selling the Dell Streak 5 in the US, never mind the fact that this little puppy has been cleared for use at the Pentagon, but that does not mean the Texas-based computer manufacturer has stopped all forms of support for the Streak 5. In fact, Dell has just rolled out the official Android 2.3 Gingerbread ROM for said device. If you are one of the few folks out there who own a Dell Streak 5, just head on to the link here and begin the 155MB .pkg file download. Having said that, I would recommend your device is plugged in to a power source, or has full battery capacity, while you perform the download over a Wi-Fi connection.
Also, do remember to make a backup of your device and all the information inside as you can never tell just when something might go wrong. Installation should be a fast and painless effort, assuming you have the right stock recovery version installed (version 350). Those who have already made the update, how do you find your Gingerbread experience compared to Froyo?

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Amazon No Longer Blocking Kindle Fires From Accessing Web Version Of Android Market

A lesser known fact about the Kindle Fire — when entering “market.android.com” in the device’s web browser, the device would actually forward you Amazon’s own Appstore instead of Google’s world famous web version of the Android Market. Pretty frustrating and somewhat alarming to some users as they were essentially being blocked from accessing a website which in this case, was Google’s app Market.
Well, some good news came out of that “root breaking” update we told you guys about earlier. Apparently, Amazon wised up and is no longer blocking users from accessing the web version of the Android Market in their device’s browser. And although Kindle Fire owners wont be able to install any of the apps from the Android Market (web), they can still browse music to upload to Google Music or movies, books, etc. Yay, freedom!
[Via GigaOM]

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Motorola DROID 4 launch date pushed until February 2, 2012

To be honest, this shouldn’t be a surprise. The Galaxy Nexus was postponed for more than a month, and we all figured the Motorola DROID 4 wouldn’t see a pre-holiday release 3 days before Christmas. It was rumored we may see the device tomorrow, but evidence was still thin. Now we have some concrete info from a Verizon document stating a February 2, 2012 launch date.

It’s much better that the device has been pushed a few months, rather than every couple of days like the recent Galaxy Nexus LTE. This way, consumers that need a phone in the very near future should count on the DROID 4 as a possible candidate. I’m sure many OG DROID owners that are now eligible for a 2-year upgrade are furious, and may be forced to wait it out. QWERTY lovers are hard to convert.
The DROID 4 will most definitely ship with Android 4.0 by February, and if it doesn’t then remember to call me out on it. Like all information found through leaked documents or emails, they are subject to change. It could see store shelves earlier than predicted, but in the end – Verizon should take all the time they need to iron out all of the bugs. There is nothing worse than hyping up a device, just to find out there’s something wrong with it a few days later.
[via Phandroid]

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MIUI on Galaxy Nexus LTE currently in the works, almost fully functional

Well that was quick. Developer DroidVicious over at RootzWiki has almost ported his ViciousMIUI ROM over from the Thunderbolt to the Galaxy Nexus LTE. Before even a day had passed, he had calls, call audio, and data all working perfectly. The only feature currently broken and acting buggy is WiFI and the softkeys. Though we’ll have to wait for a WiFi fix from him directly, we can mend the softkey problem by downloading Soft Keys from the Android Market.

Over on the thread, there is also a second flashable .ZIP that will temporarily fix the softkey issue – so take your pick. I’ll have some screenshots of the ROM our community Forums as soon as WiFi is fixed later tonight. My Galaxy Nexus has been plagued with some pretty significant signal issues, regardless of what Verizon previously stated. Also, do note that DroidVicious used AOSP 4.0.3 as the base for this port, so it will likely be up to date as soon as those running stock ROMs are pushed 4.0.3 officially.
Users are reporting it working great, but with a very noticeable battery drain. To be honest, my Galaxy Nexus drains quickly anyways so I will probably not notice the difference. Using MIUI on my previous devices had been an excellent experience, and paired with the Galaxy Nexus I could’t imagine it getting any better. Who knows, maybe upgrading to the 4.0.3 based AOSP ROM will cure the signal issues too.
[via RootzWiki]

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HTC EVO View Honeycomb update now available

Though Best Buy recently pulled their HTC Flyer from their online store, the “Now” network’s EVO View 4G – essentially the same device – has an Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) update available for download. It will be pushed to devices tomorrow, but can be easily downloaded and updated today. Honeycomb brings some much needed features to the EVO View 4G, and the most noticeable being the new “Notifications” menu.

Honeycomb is really the bridge from Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) to 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Features from both combine to make Google’s new OS, and only the strongest survived. My personal favorite is the new “Recent Applications” menu icon; if would have been a shame if it was left out.
EVO View 4G owners won’t look back on their previous OS, as Honeycomb is meant to be much more tablet friendly. For those of you wanting this update right now, navigate through “Settings > System Updates > HTC Software Update > Check Now” on your device; it should start right up. Those of you have gone through with the update, let us know if it requires a data wipe – that could really help out the community when preparing to update.
[via Phandroid]

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Hasbro sues Asus over Transformer Prime name

There’s no question that Asus knew about the association with a certain mega-popular toy line when they christened their follow up to the original Transformer as the “Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime”. Anyone born before 1990 will remember the Transformers action figures and cartoons, and anyone born after 1990 will recognize the Michael Bay films. Hasbro, the original creator of the transforming toys, didn’t take kindly to Asus’ free bit of nostalgic nomenclature. According to MocoNews, the toy manufacturer is suing the electronics manufacturer over the name, claiming that it could be confused with the series protagonist Optimus Prime.

The idea that a 40-foot fictional robot/truck/BAMF could be confused with a 10-inch Honeycomb tablet is pretty ridiculous. But saying that Asus didn’t know about the geek value of a name like “Transformer Prime” is also pretty ridiculous, and Hasbro might just have a legitimate concern that fans might think it’s somehow sponsoring or associating with the product. Verizon’s DROID line falls into the same camp, but they’ve licensed the name from Star Wars production company Lucasfilm, and even created a Star Wars themed version of the Motorola DROID 2. LG’s in hot water as well if they ever decide to release a phone named the “Optimus Megatron”.

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Samsung designers reveal the inspiration behind the Galaxy Nexus

There’s at least one thing that hardware manufacturers are inspired by: making so much money that they have to sell more phones to make room in the warehouse for a fleet of Bentleys. But the Galaxy Nexus enjoys a design that’s fairly unique, between its curved construction and its deliberately spartan layout. So what was the inspiration behind the shape? If you said “taking a Galaxy S II and bending it like a Pringles chip,” you’d only be half right: according to the company design blog, the curved shape is meant to recall the outline of a floating magnolia flower petal.

Designers TaeJoong Kim and GiYoung Lee extrapolated on the process that went into the hardware design of the Galaxy Nexus. “All the design projects I’m working on take cues from nature,” says Kim. Previous projects in the Galaxy line were designed to look like sports cars, but the subtle curves and flowing lines of the Nexus is meant to imply a more organic origin. The emphasized curve is meant for comfort both when speaking on the phone and “putting the phone in the back pocket of skintight jeans.”

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Sony Ericsson LT28at 4G LTE 4.55″ 720p phone leaked with 13 megapixel camera

It appears that SONY really is going all in with Android because the details of this latest leaked phone sound extremely nice. This 4.55″ 1280 x 720p reality display packing smartphone is headed for AT&T with an awesome display and an equally impressive camera to snap some high quality beautiful photos. Leaked as the LT28at this phone could very well be their next flagship device and seen at CES 2012 coming up shortly. More details and photo samples below.

The image above is a render of the recently leaked more than a few times known as the Nozomi. Its codename is LT26i so seeing LT28at for this latest leak leaves us to believe this new leak will in fact be their next big flagship device while the Nozomi will be the Arc HD. We don’t have a lot of details other than a few highly impressive specs on screen and camera, as well as a few sample photos snapped with that impressive 13 megapixel camera.

We’ll have a 4.55″ 1280 x 720p HD display, AT&T 4G LTE and a whopping 13 megapixel on the back and a 720p HD camera up front. No other details are really available at this time but we’ll take what we can get. Hopefully some pictures of the actual device will be leaked soon but for now at least we get a few image quality samples. I sure hope whoever is pictured doesn’t work for Sony Ericsson because he might just be in trouble now. Below are the photos snapped using the 13 mexapixel camera and for now this is all we get but we’ll be sure to update once we see or hear more.

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HTC Sensation Android 4.0 ROM Leaks, teases Sense UI on ICS

While developers have been going crazy porting and working on ROM’s for all devices to get a taste of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich today we have something even better. This appears to be a full Android 4.0 ROM for the Sensation XE that was leaked to the public. Developers have already ported this to the regular HTC Sensation and it seems to be working great. This also gives us our first glace at what to expect with HTC’s Sense UI on Ice Cream Sandwich — more of the same sadly.

This ROM comes to us courtesy of XDA Developers and has already become hugely popular in just a few short hours since being released earlier today. Based from the leaked Android 4.0.1 build for the Sensation XE it currently has HTC Sense UI 3.5 but we may see 4.0 from HTC at release. The changes being seen could very well change once final but for now it’s a good start — for those that like Sense of course. I personally love my Vanilla whether it’s Gingerbread, Honeycomb, or Ice Cream Sandwich but that’s just me.
Being an early leak there are a few bugs and users cant set wallpaper from settings, battery life is quite terrible (although tips are available on the first post) and that is all currently being listed but I’m sure there are a few more bugs somewhere. At first glance nothing really looks different. I personally love the visual changes with ICS so I’m a little sad to see them staying so similar here. You’ll notice this does feature Face Unlock, the new ICS font, menu, and more but either way Sense is still Sense.
If getting some semi-official ICS on your Sensation is of any interest make sure you follow all the directions provided by the developers at XDA and proceed with caution. This being an extremely early leak, and for the XE makes the possibility for issues bigger than usual. Many comments are saying it works great so give it a run and let us know what you think.

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