Monday, February 6, 2012




    Posted: 04 Feb 2012 03:05 AM PST

    Unfortunately, Google complies with carrier demands from time to time to censor applications that would circumvent certain restrictions that the carriers are imposing – even if such a restriction in made on some of Google’s own apps, like the Google Wallet application.
    But sometimes, a few smart developers manage to find other ways to install these applications from the market (you can do it anyway if you’re rooted). It might not lost too long, so use it while you still can, but apparently someone did it again and found a loophole for downloading any type of carrier-blocked application from the Android Market, such as Wireless Tether, Google Wallet and Car Home.
    Here’s how you do it:
    *Tip:  You may want to clear data and defaults on browser and Market before doing this.
    1.  From your phone open the browser and head to http://market.android.com.
    2.  Search for "Google Wallet."
    *If your browser prompts you to open the Market, don't. Just stay in the browser.
    3.  When the results come back, tap on the Google Wallet icon.
    4.  Tap the "Install" button from within the browser and then sign into your Google account.
    *Again, this is all from the browser, not the Market app.
    5.  Once you have signed in, you should be redirected back to the Market page in the browser.
    6.  Obviously, you will not have the option to install there since the VZW Nexus is not supported.
    7.  Tap the back button until you are prompted for the Market or Browser again, this time choosing the Market.
    8.  The Android Market should open to the Google Wallet page with an option to install.
    Also a video on how to do it:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI-f2T4cCWI

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    This article, How to Install Carrier-Blocked Apps Such as Wireless Tether, Google Wallet and Car Home , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
    Posted: 04 Feb 2012 02:28 AM PST

    Some apps use ads from some shady ad networks that allow developers to push ads into the notification bar of your phone, without requiring any action from you. In a way they are as bad as pop-ups that show up when you click a link on the web, and they are annoying because they keep popping up in your notification bar all of the sudden.
    Lookout is now releasing a solution to fight this, called Push Ad Detector, that will warn you if the apps you’ve installed use this type of ads. It does this mainly by scanning for the following ad networks who employ such tactics:
    • Airpush
    • Appenda
    • LeadBolt
    • Moolah Media
    • Startapp
    • TapIt!
    Once you scan your phone using the Push Ad Detector, it will show you a list of offending apps (if there are any), and will give you the option to opt-out of those networks, to get more information on them, or simply uninstall the applications using them.
    Lookout has one of the best security apps in the Market, so it’s very trust-worthy. Although, I don’t usually focus too much on the “anti-virus” capabilities of such apps, the truth is Lookout has been very innovative and on their toes. They were one of the very first to make a detector for the CarrierIQ software, and now they are releasing this Push Ad Detector.
    They also have one of my favorite anti-theft solutions inside their security application. So even though the anti-virus part is all but useless, these security firms can still focus on providing other ways to secure your phone, and Lookout seems to always be on the “look out” for such new ways to protect your device.
    Download the Push Ad Detector application at the source link – it’s free.

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    This article, Lookout Launches “Push Ad Detector” for Those Annoying Notification Ads , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
    Posted: 03 Feb 2012 08:59 PM PST

    This piece of news is probably a bigger hit to RIM than anyone else, because when it comes to enterprises and Governments who want to use secure smartphones, they have always been their first choice. Now it’s becoming increasingly more clear that Android is a viable choice for Governments, military, security agencies and companies who want secure devices.
    Currently, those with access to classified information are not allowed to view it using unsecured smartphones, and unfortunately for them they still have to use “secure” phone models from maybe more than 5 years ago, that don’t even have touchscreens. That is starting to be unacceptable for many Government officials when they’re using much more modern touchscreen smartphones for their personal affairs already.
    One of the most important features of this secure version of Android, is the ability to block any app permission you want. Google isn’t allowing normal users to customize the permissions an app can get in Android right now, probably because they want to make it easier for developers, so they don’t have to worry about making their app work only with certain permissions.
    Still, it wouldn’t hurt Google to at least clarify some of their permissions better, because people get scared when they a SMS app require full Internet connection (which usually just means needing access to retrieve the ads) or read/write access to the SD card (which might be because the app is keeping data on the SD card).
    So whether they will give the user more fine-grained control or not, they certainly need to make those permissions more fine-grained, because some apps do require certain permissions that it shouldn’t get, but because it’s not clear enough to the user what it wants, the user accepts it anyway.
    One interesting tidbit of information is that the people working on the Security Enhanced Android said that they can deliver updates to their Android phones within 2 weeks. Well that could certainly put our favorite manufacturers and carriers to shame, who sometimes update one of their phones in 6 months or more. If only private companies could be as efficient as the Government in updating Android! (that’s something you don’t hear everyday, do you?).
    Now, the question remains, will Government officials get ICS on their phones before most of us do?

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    This article, “Secure” Android Phones to Be Given to Government Officials and Contractors , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
    Posted: 03 Feb 2012 08:58 PM PST

    Samsung was already using Gorilla Glass in their Galaxy S devices to make them more scratch resistant and shatter proof, but they are now signing a partnership with Corning to manufacture the next generation of Gorilla Glass, called Lotus Glass. The Lotus Glass will withstand higher processing temperatures that are needed to manufacture AMOLED displays, so Samsung will benefit not just from being able to brag with a stronger display, but also to more easily and more cheaply manufacturer their panels.
    The Lotus Glass will also consume less power and will support higher resolutions. In fact, beyond using them in future Galaxy S devices,  Samsung will also use the Lotus Glass in their future Super AMOLED TV’s. The stronger Lotus Glass, together with the waterproofing nano-coating, should increasingly make Galaxy S devices more “life-proofed” in the future, which should be a big competitive advantage over products that are not life-proofed.
    Will this stronger display be in Galaxy S 3, too? Although, this partnership with Corning seems a little too close to the launch of the Galaxy S 3, the truth is Corning announced Lotus Glass quite a while ago, and Samsung has probably been sampling it ever since, so if this partnership was signed, they must already be ready to put it into production. That could mean Lotus Glass is coming to Galaxy S 3, too.
    Press Release:
    February 02, 2012 08:00 AM Eastern Time
    Corning and Samsung Mobile Display Form New OLED Glass Venture
    New business expands Corning's long-standing collaboration with SamsungCORNING, N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Corning Incorporated (NYSE: GLW) and Samsung Mobile Display Co., Ltd. have signed an agreement to establish a new equity venture for the manufacture of specialty glass substrates for the rapidly expanding organic light emitting diode (OLED) device market. The new business will be located in Korea.
    "Samsung Mobile Display has led the global display industry by constantly seeking innovations and challenging current technologies' limits. We are confident that combining our business powers with Corning's technology leadership will deliver greater value to our clients"
    Combining Corning's Lotus™ Glass substrate technology and Samsung Mobile Display's OLED display expertise, this new entity will be well-positioned to provide outstanding product solutions for current and future OLED technologies, from handheld and IT devices to large TVs and beyond.
    The newly formed entity will supply OLED backplane glass substrates for Samsung Mobile Display, as well as for the broader Korean market.
    According to a recent NPD DisplaySearch report, OLED technology advanced rapidly in 2011, setting a trend that is forecasted to continue through this decade. They estimate that OLED display revenues will exceed $4 billion in 2011 (approximately 4% of flat panel display revenues), and will reach more than $20 billion (approximately 16% of the total display industry) by 2018.
    Samsung is playing a leading role in this emerging market through its Galaxy mobile device products and Super OLED TV technology introduced in January at the International Consumer Electronics Show. Corning's ongoing advanced glass technology development includes a strong focus on high-performance displays. Most recently, this focus has been demonstrated through Corning's new Lotus™ Glass substrates, which deliver the higher processing temperatures and improved dimensional stability needed to produce the new high performance displays.
    "Samsung Mobile Display has led the global display industry by constantly seeking innovations and challenging current technologies' limits. We are confident that combining our business powers with Corning's technology leadership will deliver greater value to our clients," said Soo In Cho, Samsung Mobile Display's president and chief executive officer.
    "Corning and Samsung have a long and successful partnership in the display industry, dating back nearly 40 years to the early days of television," said Wendell P. Weeks, Corning's chairman, chief executive officer, and president. "The strength of our business relationship is built on Corning's ability to develop and make high-technology glass with the key attributes that enable Samsung's next-generation displays. Together, we have led the evolution of displays – from the high-growth years of CRT, to our current successful business supplying world-leading substrates for today's high-definition LCD TVs, and now to the launch of this important new venture to advance OLED technology," Weeks stated.

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    This article, Samsung to Make Super AMOLED Displays Even Stronger Thanks to Lotus Glass , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
    Posted: 03 Feb 2012 07:40 PM PST

    Liquipel is a company that can completely waterproof your phone for about $60 with a nano-coating that is completely transparent so you won’t even notice it with the naked eye. If this rumor is true, then Galaxy S 3 may come waterproofed by Liquipel. The rumor comes from an independent UK retailer and is said to be reliable. The source also says the insurance coverage will likely be altered account for the device’s new protection against water spilling and such.
    So how believable is this rumor? I think the rumor is believable because it would give Samsung a nice way to differentiate from the competition and it would make for a great bullet point in their advertising campaign. But more importantly, I’ve said it before that because these devices are becoming such important tools in our lives, and since the industry is booming, the trend will continue to make phones as resilient as possible, whether we’re talking about surviving harsh whether conditions, or surviving a fall on concrete.
    The design of the phones will remain an important aspect of the phone’s hardware, so these proofing methods will not all come at once, but rather in steps, because although people will want their phones to be more protected, they don’t really want them to look like tanks either. But as technology evolves, we’ll see the phones become increasingly more protected against any type of damage, without taking a huge penalty in the looks department.
    We started with making their screens scratch resistant, now we’re moving on to making them water-proof, and then we’ll continue with making them more shatter-proof. The Motorola Defy has already achieved all of these, without taking a huge hit in the design department (although it is slightly thicker than many brand new phones) so they are already showing that this is possible and it’s coming, which makes me hopeful that not only Galaxy S 3 will receive these sort of treatments in the future but also other devices.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFVSDsTKojM

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    This article, Galaxy S 3 to Be Waterproofed by Liquipel? , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
    Posted: 03 Feb 2012 07:27 PM PST
    While there is now official word on pre-orders starting at BestBuy on Sunday, South Korea is very much enjoying their taste of the Samsung Galaxy Note. Since Samsung is based out of South Korea, customers were able to purchase the device late last year.
    These customers are very lucky indeed, as approximately over 700,000 devices have been sold in South Korea alone. This counts for an outstanding 66% of all LTE devices in the country.
    Hopefully the device becomes a big success in the U.S as it it has in S.K. I believe that if the device is released on Verizon's LTE Network alongside AT&T, the popularity of the phone will skyrocket.
    And if you are not familiar with the Samsung Galaxy Note it sports an impressive 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, a Super AMOLED 5.3" screen. Alongside the processing power and beautiful screen is an 8 megapixel rear camera and a 2 megapixel front facing camera with the ability to record in 1080p. Of course at this time it will only support AT&T's network in the U.S.
    With the massive screen, hybrid of a tablet and phone, the Galaxy Note will prove it self to be a worthy competitor against upcoming phones. Do you have a Galaxy Note? Do you think that the screen is too big/small? Should it come to Verizon? I would love to hear your comments and remember to check out our review of the Samsung Galaxy Note.

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    This article, South Korea Sells 700K Galaxy Note's and Counting! , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
    Posted: 03 Feb 2012 07:00 PM PST

    So it’s friday night and it looks like you have nothing better to do then to surf the greatest Android News website on the planet, of course we are talking about ourselves, Android Authority. So let’s put this time to good use and vote in our latest poll. Tonight we are asking you, how many apps do you have installed on your Android phone (we will do one for tablets in the near future).
    Nowadays with all the bloatware that comes on these devices, they come stock with about 50 applications or more, so when you vote in the poll below use the number of applications that you actually installed. So this does not include apps like calendar, email, gmail, etc.
    If you’d like to take it a step further, you can post your apps in the comments. That way if some of us are looking for some new apps we can just surf through the comments and find some nice ones.
    Check out our past Nightly Polls:
    Do you have any ideas for future polls? Email us and let us know, you may see your question posted here in the near future.
    Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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    This article, Friday Night Poll: How many apps are installed on your Android Phone? , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
    Posted: 03 Feb 2012 04:48 PM PST
    Earlier today a lot of people began to notice that Google had taken their CDMA Nexus’ off of the list of what they consider to be developer phones. They removed the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon, the Nexus S 4G on Sprint, and the Motorola Xoom LTE.  All of which are CDMA devices. Now when this broke earlier today, it scared the crap out of a lot people. For most, the reason why they bought a Nexus is so they would get timely updates from Google.
    Not to long ago Google issued their statement regarding this:
    Hello! This is a quick clarification about support for CDMA devices.
    For various technical reasons, recent CDMA Android devices implement core telephony functionality in .apk files provided in binary form by the carriers. To function correctly, these .apk files must be signed by the so-called "platform" key. However, when an individual creates a custom build from the AOSP source code, they don't use the same signing key as these CDMA flies were signed with.
    The result is that these files don't work properly, and pure AOSP builds running on these devices can't place calls, access mobile data, and so on. Because we aim to make sure that we are as clear as possible about the degree of support that devices have, we updated the docs over at source.android.com to reflect this reality.
    We will still make available as many as possible of the closed-source binaries for these devices, and Nexus devices will continue to have unlockable bootloaders. And, of course, GSM/HSPA+ devices are still supported, as are any other devices we're able to support. We've simply updated the documentation to be clearer about the current extent of CDMA support.
    We are of course always working to improve support, and we'll keep everyone updated as we make improvements. Thanks as always for your interest in AOSP!
    So basically, CDMA is not widely supported as we mentioned earlier and is also simply a pain. From what we have been told though, the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon is still a "Nexus" and will continue to be updated in a timely manner, but Google is simply making it clear that a device running a CDMA radio cannot be officially "supported" since its files are signed differently from AOSP code. If that makes any sense.
    It’s pretty confusing isn’t it? Honestly, we are still a bit confused by all of this. But from what we can garner it looks like Google technically will still be supporting their CDMA devices, but as far as updates are concerned it looks like we have to wait for Verizon to sign the radios first.
    Any developers out there want to clarify this a bit more? Feel free to do so, either leave a comment below or you can email me and I will update this post to reflect the clarification.

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    Posted: 03 Feb 2012 08:55 AM PST
    Ok, before this turns into an “Apple bashing” post, let’s first point out that there are a lot more software versions of iOS than Android. These are all facts, not opinions, although Android is better. Just had to throw that out there.

    According to a new mobile app monitoring startup called Crittercism, iOS apps are crashing at a greater rate than your favorite Android apps. For a two month period, a whole lot of data was compiled and broken down by OS version and in some cases by app, and then into quartiles to give a better representation of the crashes. In the end, there was a clear winner well technically loser, which was iOS. If you look at the pie chart above you will see that more than half the pie chart is used by iOS versions.  Especially for the Apple fan boys that swear iOS blows Android away. Hey fan boys, numbers don’t lie!
    As much as I know everyone is tired of hearing about “fragmentation”, it’s important to note that Android isn’t the only platform suffering from “fragmentation” although it is the one that suffers from it the most. Through this study Crittercism discovered that iOS has 23 different versions of their software still being used, while Android has 33. Even with the larger number of software versions for Android, their numbers for app crashes are still significantly lower.
    So these numbers look pretty good, but in all honestly both platforms have apps crashing at less then 1% which is pretty darn good I say. How often do apps crash on your device? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to add which Android version you are running.

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    This article, Study Says iOS Apps Crash more often than Android Apps , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
    Posted: 03 Feb 2012 07:58 AM PST
    It was great when XDA developers released a version for Google Wallet for root users. But after that, a version was released that did not require you to root. You have to love the Android development community, huh?
    There is now an even more legit, and safer way to download the payment assistant to your phone. You will now be able to download the application straight from the market, with a glitch discovered by Kellex at Droid Life.
    The process could be a “hit or a miss”, but it did in fact work on my Galaxy Nexus. So, lets get into it.

    Download Instructions:

    1. On your Verizon Galaxy Nexus, go to the browser Android Market page. Make sure that you are on the browser. Or, simply go here: Google Market (Browser Link)
    2. Now in the search bar, you will need to search "Google Wallet". This will then bring you onto a page within the browser.
    3. Tap/ Click the "Install Button" and it will prompt you to sign in with your GMail account. * Luckily, Android 4.0 has a feature which involves letting you sign in with a click of a button.
    4. Now you should be back at the Android Market (Browser) page. All you have to do is press the "Back" button and it will allow you to go to the Android Market.
    5. Then, you will have the option to install the application in the "Market".
    In case it is not working for you, or you have feared that something you have done is wrong we have a video from Droid Life you can refer to. Later today I will make a video also to display the process.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI-f2T4cCWI
    Have you tried installing Google Wallet from the Android Market on your phone? If so, how is it working out for you? I would love to hear your comments. Happy February!

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    Posted by at 9:57 AM

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