Android - page 92

According to an HTC patent filed back in 2011 and a new device design discovered by Patent Bolt, it appears HTC is working on a handheld PMP device to rival the ever dominant iPod Touch. With companies like Philips, Sony, and Samsung all failing to chip away at the iPod Touch’s domination, I guess it couldn’t hurt to give HTC a chance. This new device combined with the new Google Play model could give this HTC device a fighting chance but I wouldn’t put my money on it.

Announced at CES 2012 in January, Verizon’s Jetpack MiFi 4620L is finally launching on April 12th, Verizon announced today. The Jetpack MiFi 4620L packs 4G LTE and 3G and will be available for $50 with a two-year contract, after a $50 mail-in-rebate. If you don’t yet have a Verizon LTE enable iPad, this will be a nice way to get Verizon’s blazing fast 4G speeds on all of your devices. 

Ever wonder who exactly Samsung hired to test out the Galaxy Note before shipping it out to retailers across the globe? It was no easy task finding a quality assurance team that measured up to the pure magnitude of the Galaxy Note, but after interviewing nearly a dozen teams, Samsung went with lead QA Engineer Peter the elephant and his expert team of mixed mammals.

With more than 100 Android devices out in the wild and more being manufactured every day, OEM’s are running out of clever names for their devices. Of course they could always use the highly technical Android Phone Name Generator to come up with the next magnificent mobile moniker, but that would be too easy. Instead, it appears manufacturers are looking to the condom industry for their tantalizing trade names.

Update: And just like that, Microsoft has decided to do the right thing and award Sahas his prize.

Microsoft concocted a brilliant marketing campaign where they challenge mobile users to complete various tasks faster than a Windows phone. Any contestant able to “smoke” a Windows phone with their current mobile phone will be awarded a Hunger Games Special Edition PC worth over $1000. Even if you lose the challenge (which Microsoft has made certain of), you will win the opportunity to trade-in your current phone for a free Windows phone (excluding the Nokia Lumia 800). The contest has been hit heavily with accusations of Microsoft rigging the contest via various methods including deliberately throttling Wi-Fi speeds for non-Windows Phones. Despite the many unfounded accusations, one challenger has come forward claiming Microsoft blatantly denied him his prize after legitimately “smoking” a Windows phone with his Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

If you thought interest in the slingshotting hit Angry Birds has faded over the years, you’d be sorely mistaken. In fact, it seems to be even more popular according to the latest numbers announced by Rovio. According to Rovio, their latest Angry Birds Space netted 10 million downloads in less than three day. That’s quite an accomplishment, and to put things into perspective, it took Angry Birds Rio ten days to reach 10 million downloads.

If you visit www.instagr.am/android you’ll be greeted by the above sign-up form. That’s right, Instagram has started letting users sign up to be “the first in line” for its official Android app. No details about the app or its release date have been given at this time, but the launch is definitely on the near horizon.

We told you that Instagram was coming to Android last week, adding that the app’s co-founder believes the upcoming Android version is “better than the iPhone app” in some ways.

How will the two apps stack up? We’ll let you be the judge!

So you just bought yourself a new Android tablet, and you wish you’d gone for the iPad. Well, that’s too bad. But you’ll be pleased to hear that you can still get your hands on the iPad’s home screen, thanks to Espier Launcher HD.

Those clever Chinese people are great at copying anything. Fake iPhones. Fake Louis Vuitton bags. Fake Gucci sweaters. Fake Disneyland. The list is endless. We’ve even seen quite a few fake Apple Stores pop-up in China over the years. Some even looked like an exact replica of the real thing. Well now some clever Chinese citizens have moved on and are now opening up fake Android stores. The only problem is, Android phones don’t sell so well, so they sell genuine iPhones and iPads

We’re only two days away from experiencing the new gravity defying, interstellar slingshotting Angry Birds Space game and Rovio wants to make sure we don’t forget. Today they released the official game trailer and while we’ve already been exposed to in-game footage, the trailer gives us a bird’s eye view of the latest avian egg abduction. So grab your freeze-dried astronaut food, pack yourself a month’s supply of adult diapers and start counting down to this year’s out of this world blockbuster.

We’ve known about Verizon’s plan to introduce family shared data plans for quite some time now and have been patiently awaiting their release. It now appears we may see them soon as new images have popped up suggesting Verizon is in the end stages of development. PhoneArena managed to get their hands on a screenshot showing what appears to be Verizon’s future Family Data Usage Calculator. If it looks familiar to you it’s because it follows closely with Verizon’s current Data Usage Calculator which helps customers figure out which plan would best fit their data usage needs.

Free apps that display in-app advertising are sucking the life out of your cellphone’s battery. A team led by Abhinav Pathak, a computer boffin at Purdue University, Indiana, found that around “65%-75% of energy in free apps is spent in third-party advertising modules.”

Translation: Free apps like Angry Birds and Facebook may actually cost you more than paid apps in the end.

The Humble Bundle is back again, this time bringing five games never-before-seen on Android. If you’re wondering what Humble Bundle is, it’s a pay-what-you-want bundle of multi-platform, DRM-free, and independently developed games. Not only do customers get to pick their own price, but they also get to allocate their payment by deciding how much goes to the developers, how much goes to charity, and how much goes to Humble Bundle (which pays for the bandwidth and development of the promotion). They usually offer a slew of games for the price of “whatever” and then throw in a bonus game for those willing to pay more than the average customer (which isn’t that expensive).

Activision Product Director Noah Heller talked with T3 a bit about their Call of Duty Elite app and its natural progression from smartphone to tablet.

“We’re working on the tablet app right now, I can’t tell you much about it but what I can tell you is that it will be a truly native, customised application for the tablet, it’s not just a simple port.”

Bringing COD Elite to the tablet has many advantages to the smartphone counterpart as it allows Activision to take advantage of the additional screen space. What additional features will be added to the tablet app remain a mystery but there’s been talks about possibly adding live Heat Maps among other things.

Paypal has finally made it into the mobile payment market after being beat to the punch by the likes of Square and Intuit. PayPal may be late to the party but they have a more recognizable name in the world of payment systems and that may just be enough to push them to the front of the line. Besides their name, they’re also offering merchants a 2.7% flat rate on transactions versus the 2.75% offered by Square. PayPal didn’t stop there either, launching a full on geometrical attack by choosing a triangle as the shape of choice for their card reader dongle.

Experts at the Intrepidus Mobile Security Group came across some interesting parsers definitions within Google Wallet’s source code that could hint at a possible iOS release. How Google actually plans on getting Google Wallet to work on a non-NFC/SE iOS device is another story, but for now, let’s take a look at the iOS definitions found by Intrepidus.

In the latest patent war saga, a Dutch court ruled that Samsung cannot assert 3G patents against Apple products using Qualcomm’s baseband chips — as Samsung has a licensing deal with the U.S. chipmaker — thus denying their bid to ban the sales of the iPhone and iPad in the Netherlands. However, Samsung didn’t consider the ruling a complete loss as the Hague court also ruled that Samsung could seek damages over the use of Intel chips. While Apple doesn’t use Intel chips, this gives Samsung ammunition against those that do.

When we think about security for our mobile devices, we’re usually protecting it from nefarious individuals. Well guess what? It apparently works both ways. In a story straight out of James Brown’s diary, the FBI is having a hard time busting a notorious San Diego pimp thanks to Android’s pattern lock feature.

There’s no denying the fact that Verizon leads the charge in 4G LTE expansion. In fact, come this time tomorrow, over 200 markets will be blanketed in the lightning fast speeds of Verizon LTE. To put things in perspective, AT&T, who recently announced twelve new markets, covers a total of 28 markets. With the majority of devices now being manufactured to take advantage of LTE (including the new iPad) this huge gap in market coverage could very well push a large number of users over to Big Red’s network.

Today the International Data Corporation raised its 2012 tablet forecast to 106.1 million units, up from its previous forecast of 87.7 million units thanks to a stronger-than-expected 2011 finish. According to IDC, tablet shipments rose 155%, leading to a full-year 2011 total of 68.7 million units shipped. The IDC credits Amazon for raising consumers’ awareness of the tablet category in 2011 thanks to their popular $199 Kindle Fire.

Instagram is one of the most wildly successful apps to ever hit the iOS App Store. The app’s co-founder, Kevin Systrom, recently revealed that Instagram now boasts 27 million active users on the iPhone alone during the South by Southwest conference (SXSW) in Austin, Texas.

We’ve all been clamoring for the popular social photography app to make its way to Android for many months, and it has been confirmed that Instagram for Android is coming “very soon.” The app is currently being tested in private beta.

The boldest claim Systrom made was that Instagram for Android is, in some ways, “better than our iPhone app.”

Are you an iOS/Android/Web Developer looking to work with a great group of individuals in a startup environment? Do you like Korean food and FIFA 2012? Then you might want to take a look at Boxee as they’re looking for developers in NYC to join their crew. To get potential candidates excited, Boxee is even offering up free Boxee Boxes to interviewees. That’s right, if you apply and end up getting an interview (whether in person or over Skype), Boxee will award you with a free Boxee Box. It’s like getting paid for trying to get paid!

AT&T has announced a dozen new markets set to receive 4G LTE in the coming months. While they didn’t give any specific rollout dates, the following cities are next on the list for an upgrade and should see LTE soon:

Do you own a Mac, but are forced by an employer/spouse/parent/other evil entity to use an Android phone? Then we have some good news for you. No, I’m not going to buy you an iPhone. But I will tell you about a new Android app that syncs with your iTunes library. It’s called Airbind, and it’s free.

We’re two weeks away from launch day, the day Angry Birds boldly goes where no bird has gone before. I’m of course talking about Angry Birds Space, Rovio’s next Angry Bird iteration which looks to turn the series upside down. To prepare us for the challenges of launching a projectile in a weightless environment while compensating for the gravity fields of neighboring planetary bodies, NASA astronaut Dan Pettit gives us a quick physics lesson while aboard the International Space Station.