LG Esteem officially announced, headed to MetroPCS

Today LG has officially announced their new higher end Android smartphone for MetroPCS. This may not be a top tier high end smartphone, but for MetroPCS it’s one of the best they have to offer and is available now. Earlier last week the LG Esteem was first leaked online and it spilled the beans on all the details and specs including Gingerbread, and 4G LTE.

The hardware specs are nicely rounded off with a 4.3″ WVGA display, 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 512MB of RAM, and a 5 megapixel camera on the rear with LED flash. The Esteem will also offer a 1.3 MP camera for chatting up front, 8GB internal storage with micro-SD support, and even comes with micro-HDMI out as well. A nice well equipped smartphone if you ask me. If you didn’t know this is basically the LG Revolution, but for MetroPCS.
That’s not all either, we also have Android 2.3 Gingerbread and 4G LTE on board making this the best smartphone offered by MetroPCS. With 4G LTE smartphone plans starting at just $40 dollars this makes a great alternative to other options in the 4G LTE realm. Available right now Metro’s offering the Esteem for $250 with no contract (with a mail in rebate sadly). Along with the purchase users will get Rhapsody unlimited free for 90 days as an added bonus. Head over to MetroPCS.com for full details.

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Google seeks to protect confidential Android information in AT&T/T-Mobile merger case

Google has filed a petition with the judge presiding over the case between the Justice Department and AT&T over AT&T's proposed purchase of T-Mobile asking to keep confidential data about Android from being disclosed to the public. Google had provided the information to the Justice Department as part of its investigation into the proposed purchase.
According to Google, the data is "competitively sensitive" and is in regards to internal products and launch plans for unannounced devices. It asked the judge to require both sides of the suit to give it advanced notice of possible disclosures in court or to outside experts.
"Without such additional protection, Google and other non- parties could find their confidential information - such as Google's business plans related to Android - in the hands of competitors (or their competitors' consultants), or even in newspapers, without having had prior notice of its disclosure," said Google in its petition.
The trial is set to begin on February 13 of next year. [via Bloomberg]

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Samsung Galaxy S II from AT&T Is a Slim, Speedy Smartphone

AT&T's (NYSE:T) Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone, which I've had the pleasure of using as my primary phone for the last several days, will launch Oct. 2 for $199.99.
Normally, I would do a full-review, but the device is certainly the baby brother to Sprint's Samsung Galaxy S II, Epic 4G Touch smartphone, which launched Sept. 16 for $199.99 and which I reviewed earlier this month. I also created this gallery of AT&T and Sprint's S II models. 
Both phones run Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android 2.3.4 "Gingerbread" operating system and both share a lot of the same attributes under the hood.
AT&T's S II is a touch lighter and leaner, at 0.35 inches thin, compared with the 0.38 inches of Sprint's S II, and 4.3 ounces compared with 4.6 ounces for the Epic 4G Touch. Both phones are black and feature the same textured plastic back.
With a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED (active-matrix organic LED) Plus display, AT&T's unit felt more comfortable in my hand than Sprint's gadget, whose 4.52-inch Super AMOLED Plus screen I found difficult to grip. The 4.3-inch screen is as high as I would go in a smartphone.
Like Sprint's S II, AT&T's model is powered by a 1.2GHz, dual-core processor, whose speed improvement over existing 1GHz dual-core chips was noticeable. Both phones are 4G-capable, though only Sprint's 4G WiMAX network was available to me; combined with the souped-up chip, the phone deftly processed YouTube content and rendered Web pages much faster.
Both handsets use Samsung's TouchWiz user interface technology, which renders widgets and other tools completely customizable across the 7 home screens.
Both devices are motion-activation-capable. Users may hold two fingers on either phone and tilt to enlarge or shrink browser screen size, or press and hold on a screen to access Vlingo's Voice Talk speech-recognition software, which will let users text, email and do searches by speaking into the phone.
Sprint's model does have a nice screen-capture feature that lets users grab and share images of screens, a feature AT&T's S II lacks. Unlike the Epic 4G Touch, AT&T includes Facebook for Android and Qik Lite for users who want to easily access their social network, or trigger video chats from the phone's 2MP, front-facing camera.
Each phone has pretty much the same 8MP rear-facing camera, which takes great pictures with little latency and captures video in 1080p high definition. Plug in a High-Definition Multimedia Interface- (HDMI-) out cable, and you can watch your video clips on an HDTV at home.
Calls were equally crisp on both S II smartphones, though I would note I always seem to have better reception on AT&T than Sprint in my neck of Connecticut.
Sprint easily wins the battery power contest, boasting an 1,800mAh power source, compared with 1,650mAh for AT&T's model. AT&T isn't running on 4G LTE yet, so the battery didn't get sucked down too much compared to the Epic 4G Touch, which slurped battery power while running on Sprint's 4G WiMAX mobile broadband.
In conclusion, I'd recommend either AT&T or Sprint's S II for people who want speedy Web and application processing. If comfort in the hand is key, go with AT&T. If you don't want to sacrifice the 4G power Sprint's phone offers in most regions around the world, go with that model. 

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Order the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet today, only $199

Amazon has just announced their latest device, the Kindle Fire tablet. The Kindle Fire is based on Android, and will allow you to do more than just reading books. Use it to read books, access emails, play games, listen to music, browse the web, watch movies and TV shows, and much more.
The Kindle Fire is going on sale on November 15, can be pre-ordered right now. Simply click here to pre-order your Kindle Fire tablet. You will be taken to Amazon.com where you can complete the transaction. The Kindle Fire sells for $199.99 and will ship on November 15.
Don’t wait until the tablet goes on sale to order yours. Pre-order today by visiting Amazon.com/kindlefire to guarantee your Kindle Fire when it is released.
Buy: Amazon Kindle Fire for $199 at Amazon.com/Kindlefire

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Amazon Silk: Cloud-Accelerated Web Browser for the Kindle Fire

Along with the announcement this morning of the Kindle Fire, Amazon also had something else exciting to share with everyone. They’ve developed a brand new cloud-based accelerated browser specially for the Kindle Fire and future Amazon tablets — called Amazon Silk Browser. Essentially this is a browser that uses the many cloud based services and technology offered by Amazon and does all the dirty hard work and rendering for you, so users have blazing fast browser performance no matter what the situation. We have a few details and a video demo below.

The Silk browser consists of two things they are calling Amazon Split that basically makes it a two part browser. The image above is a good demonstration of how Split will be using Amazon’s EC2 super computer cluster loads, and then processing intense webpage images and code on Amazon cloud servers. This will free both the browser and the Kindle Fire’s resources to continue working on much simpler tasks, as well as seriously improve battery life.
Amazon Silk Demo





As you can see from the image and video above, Amazon’s servers will do the majority of the work and then pass the crunched and accelerated web page down to the end user. This is a similar approach as the Opera Mini or Opera Mobile has been doing, but I have a feeling Amazon’s implementation will be much better, not to mention they have a huge database of servers and cloud storage.
The Amazon Silk browser will also store cache and frequently visited sites right on the cloud and the EC2 servers. This means you’ll have virtually unlimited cache as well as be able to quickly load frequently visited sites like Android Community in the blink of an eye. Soon you’ll be able to get as much Android news from Android Community as quickly as possible thanks to Amazon’s Kindle Fire, and Silk browser.
We’ll be sure to get our hands-on coverage video of the Silk browser up as soon as possible so stay tuned. For all the new information regarding Amazon feel free to check out our portal for the Kindle Fire.
Bonus Video: Kindle Fire Commercial





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Amazon Kindle Fire 7″ Tablet officially announced, just $199

Well folks, we are live here in NYC for the event today where Amazon has just unveiled their new tablet, the Amazon Kindle Fire. Today they’ve fully unleashed this new 7″ tablet and are aiming for the likes of the iPad. Being smaller and more than half the price at just $199. We have all the info and pictures below so head on past the break for full details.

Today in NYC Amazon announced not only a $79 Kindle e-reader, but the much anticipated Android running Kindle Fire Tablet. That is what we wanted to hear so lets break it down. Just like recent leaks the Kindle Fire will be a 7″ IPS display Android tablet with gorilla glass, powered by a dual-core processor and weighing just 14.6 oz and features 8GB of internal storage. We have no hardware buttons in terms of navigation and everything will be on-screen controlled. The rest of the hardware specs remain a bit scant but most likely it will have 1GB of RAM along with that powerful dual-core processor. It is running on Android but it looks nothing like it. We see zero resemblance. The Amazon Kindle Fire looks very similar to the BlackBerry playbook and has no cameras, this is purely a consumption device people.

Kindle Fire will have access to over 100,000 movies and TV shows, 17 million and more songs, access to the Amazon Android AppStore (growing everyday), Kindle Books and more. This story is developing and so are the details so stay right here as we continue to update.
[Update] The Kindle Fire will officially be $199 and will ship starting November 15th. Pre-orders will be going fast even though they’ve probably got millions on the way. Pre-order the Kindle Fire right now at Amazon.com by clicking here.
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Microsoft signs Android licensing deal with Samsung

Microsoft has announced that it has landed a patent agreement with Samsung that will allow Samsung access to the patent portfolio that has to do with Android smartphones. The announcement means that the two largest Android smartphone firms in the US are now licensing patents for Android from Microsoft. The agreement will see Microsoft paid royalties from Samsung for tablets and smartphones on the Android platform.

Microsoft also notes that it and Samsung will be working together on Windows Mobile Phones. As TechNet points out, this is the seventh licensing agreement that Microsoft has landed in the last few months. Right now Acer, General Dynamics Itronix, Onkyo, Velocity Micro, ViewSonic, Wistron, and HTC are all signed up.
That leaves one of the few Android holdouts being Motorola Mobility, which Google has purchased. Microsoft has already filed suit against Motorola for infringement. It appears that Google will soon face the prospect of licensing patents from Microsoft to use its own OS. Microsoft hails the deals as a way to prevent patent litigation. Google complains that this sort of deal limits software innovation.

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ASUS EeePad Transformer update to bring Android 3.2.1, fixes

ASUS today dropped word on its Facebook page about an impending update to the EeePad Transformer. Here's what's in store:

• Google Update: Android 3.2.1: Security enhancement
• New Feature: Supernote
• IME/Translation: Added Farsi IME support; Czech IME improvement : support Qwerty & Qwertz; JP SKU fixed translation bug and Polaris office font; Added more language translation into ASUS App
• App Updates: CN SKU 3rd party app bug fix; Polaris office & ASUS WebStorage update
• Improvements: Browser with Adobe Flash improvement; ex: YouTube; Browser force-close improvement; Improve Wi-Fi stability; Improve Chinese handwriting prediction : recognize character from each stroke

Looks like some are seeing the update push out now.

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Intel Officially Abandons MeeGo

Intel today indicated that it will no longer develop and advance its mobile Linux platform called MeeGo. MeeGo was a merged project between Intel and Nokia, which combined their Moblin and Maemo mobile Linux systems. The first (and apparently only) MeeGo device to reach the market is the Nokia N9, which went on sale this week. Nokia has since ditched all efforts to develop MeeGo and Symbian, and is focusing on Windows Phone 7 instead. Intel is backing a new mobile Linux platform with the support of Samsung, called Tizen. Intel said it hopes to transition its MeeGo developers to the new Tizen platform. Intel also recently announced that its mobile chips will support Google's Android platform.
more info at Intel »

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