Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Google Android News Android Forums

Google Android News Android Forums

Signs For The Sprint Galaxy Nexus LTE On The Rise? Could Be Coming As Early As This Sunday

Posted: 10 Apr 2012 03:50 PM PDT

Well, if you’ve been thirsting for some G-Nex love on Sprint’s network, the wait might be shorter than you think.  Thanks to our friends over at Phandroid, they’ve spotted some signage at one of the Sprint store locations for the up and coming Google experience device.  Question is, will the device come with LTE?  If Sprint knows what’s best for their customers, it sure better.  The sign makes no mention of LTE, a feature you’d think a carrier would want to tout, if indeed it’s on board.  And even if it is on-board, not many of you will benefit much from it.  Unless you’re in the Atlanta, Houston, Kansas City, San Antonio or Baltimore area don’t count on it.  According to the signs, we should see a launch this Sunday, April 15th.  The other question is, does one get this device over the HTC Evo 4G LTE?  What makes the decision difficult is deciding whether to go with an LTE-less device but get timely updates from Google being a pure stock ICS device, or go with the high spec’d Evo 4G LTE which is LTE ready but could be left in the dust for while in the update dept, given HTC’s track record for not updating a device in a timely manner.  The only other device I could see making this decision even harder, would be if Sprint sprang the deadly trio by tossing the rumored Galaxy Note on their network.  Hot damn, wouldn’t that be something?  Feel free to toss your thoughts in the comments section below.  

source: Phandroid

 

Unboxing of the HTC One V [Video]

Posted: 10 Apr 2012 01:39 PM PDT

We’ve all heard plenty about the HTC One Series, especially the One X and the One S. There is another handset in the series, though, called the One V. The website Netbook News has located the budget handset for sale in Taiwan, on Chunghua telecom. It cost 10,000NT, which is around $325 USD, off contract. That’s a pretty sweet deal.

The One V is considered low end because it has a SLCD2 screen with 420 x 800 pixels resolution, along with a 3.7-inch display. It will be equipped with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box, along with HTC’s Sense UI. The One V has a uni-body aluminum shell, just like the HTC Legend. It will contain a 1GHz single-core Qualcomm processor, 512 MB of RAM and 4GB of built-in storage. The microSD card slot will let you expand the memory up to 32GB. You can expect a 5 MP camera and Bluetooth v4.0. It will also have the new HTC ImageSense software so you can do nifty things like shoot pictures while you’re filming a video, or use the camera in low-light situations. This handset uses a regular-sized SIM card slot, while the other One series phones need a Micro SIM.

Check out this video to see the HTC One V get unboxed, as well as a gaming test with Shadow Gun and Temple Run. Several benchmark tests are run as well, such as vellamo, quadrant, antutu, sunspider, and nenamark 1 and 2. Let us know what you think about this HTC offering in the comments.

Click here to view the embedded video.

source: Netbook News

 

 

LG Optimus 4X HD faces up to HTC One X in benchmark tests

Posted: 10 Apr 2012 12:18 PM PDT

As sure as night follows day, benchmark bickering follows the release of a new Android device. I guess we never really outgrow the childhood “My Dad’s bigger than your Dad” complex. Only a couple of days ago we showed you how HTC’s One S performed and now it’s big brothers turn as the One X goes head-to-head with LG’s Optimus 4X HD in a battle of the quad-core titans.

Techblog got its hands on both devices and put them through popular benchmarking tools Quadrant, AnTuTu and NenaMark2. Not surprisingly the results were relatively similar with each phone performing stronger in certain areas. Quadrant saw the LG score a very respectable 4,512 with the HTC posting a market leading 4,909. LG came out the narrow winner in the AnTuTu test posting a 11,147 over HTC’s 11,030.  Finally the HTC managed 47.6 fps ahead of the LG which managed 44.5 fps in the NenaMark test.

So whilst all the publicity and hype is firmly set around the HTC device it’s encouraging to see that LG’s flagship phone more than holds its own against the best in the market. The true test as always will come down to which one performs every tasks better, no doubt a story for another day. Will you be considering the Optimus 4X HD as an alternative to the LG One X? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

source : Techblog

via : engadget

Google Play Music lab features go live

Posted: 10 Apr 2012 11:32 AM PDT

Google showed further commitment to improving its Google Play Music services today by switching on a few new labs features. Google fans will no doubt be familiar with the companies famous labs projects, labs features are generally experimental options or works in progress that Google allow users to add onto existing products for testing purposes. Some make the final cut and others never see the light of day.

There are 3 new features introduced which you can enable and disable at your leisure :

Desktop Notifications
Find out what’s playing without having to switch back to your Google Music tab. A notification will appear at the start of each song with the song title, artist name, album title, and album cover. This lab only works in the Chrome browser.

HTML5 Audio
Listen to your music without the need for Flash. Works in all browsers that support MP3 playback with HTML5 audio: Chrome, Safari 3.1+, and IE 9+.

5-Star Ratings
Rate songs on a 5-star scale rather than thumbs-up or thumbs-down

 

You can switch these features on by clicking the link below however don’t forget that they are experimental and not the finished article. Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

 

source : Google Play Music

Tapatalk 2 Graduates from Beta, Now Available In the Google Play Store

Posted: 10 Apr 2012 11:11 AM PDT

If you are an avid forum user you already know how much of a pain it can be trying to do so from your phone. The best option in this case was always to use the Tapatalk app as long as the forum you visit supports the app. Now that ICS is around, some users found that Tapatalk didn’t play nicely with the new OS and it was obvious a refresh was in order. Enter Tapatalk 2. The newest iteration from the folks at Tapatalk has graduated from its beta stage and is now available in the Play store.

Tapatalk 2 addresses all the prior issues people were having with ICS and also includes some new features as well. Along with a slightly new look and feel, Tapatalk now features a cool cloud syncing feature. This is probably the most notable addition to the app and it syncs “all your forum accounts among all mobile devices with Tapatalk installed.” Sign in to one forum and you will now have cloud syncing of all the other forums you have used with that same email address. Pretty slick. Other features include forum recommendations, theme support, better look and feel, and an improved interface. The app is still going to run you $2.99 but if you were on the OG version of Tapatalk you can snag the update for free. Hit up the links below for the update or to grab the app for the first time and be sure to let us know in the comments how you like the new digs! Oh, and don’t forget to visit our newly revamped forums, too!

qrcode

Google Play Store

 

Spring Cleaning: How to clean up and speed up your Android smartphone

Posted: 10 Apr 2012 10:28 AM PDT

It’s Springtime which means it’s time to clean out the clutter in your life. While it’s important to do it in your home or office, you shouldn’t forget to do it with your smartphone. Like any clutter, it’s actually better to do it periodically so things don’t “pile” up, but hey, even if it’s once a year, it’s better than never. With most people on 2-year contracts, it’s nearly impossible to never do some cleanup and keep your phone running like it was the day you first turned it on. Also understand that it’s not always about the slowness of your phone. Many phones have limited storage space and you might be experiencing errors from lack of free space. In either case this guide will make sense.

If you really want to clean and start anew, the best way is to do a factory reset, but it makes sense to avoid it if you can. Try these six steps and you could avoid the headaches of a reset and get rid of the sluggishness you’ve been experiencing. Even if you think you phone is running okay, I still recommend going through this short guide to keep things from “piling up” down the road. Some of these steps won’t pertain to you so don’t feel like you have to complete each step. Hit the break to get started.

#1 Delete old text messages. If you do any amount of texting, you will be surprised how many pile up, and you really don’t need them. Grab Delete Old Messages from the Google Play Store. This is a simple free app that will delete all messages based on your specifications. For example, you can tell it to delete all messages older than 1 month ago. It offers more fine tuning options for pro users, but this free version should suffice. I’m not a heavy texter so I chose to delete all messages older than 2 months. If you text upwards of 500 messages per month, I would go no more than one month, and 1 or 2 weeks might make more sense.

#2 Uninstall unused apps. We’re all guilty of downloading an app to try and then forget about it. Now is a good time to look at all your apps, and if you aren’t using them, just uninstall them. Most of you veterans know how to do this. With ICS and some manufacturer UI’s it’s easy to do it from your launcher drawer. Just open your launcher drawer and long press on any app you want to uninstall. If you have ICS or the manufacturer UI has the built-in feature, you will see an option to uninstall. Just drag the app icon over that. If you don’t see the option, then the best way is to open the Play Store, tap the menu, and tap my apps. This will show all the apps installed on your device. Just tap the ones you want to remove and tap again to uninstall.

#3 Clean the cache from your apps and browser. Cached files are temporary files created by all your apps. These can take up a lot of space and drain you memory, especially for apps you don’t use often.  There are a number of apps that will clear out your cache and some will even go so far as deleting text messages (step #1), but I like Easy Cache Cleaner. Upon opening the app, it will scan all your apps and tell you the total amount of cached files. I had over 507MB the first time I ran it. At the top, you will see the option to “Clean All.” Go ahead and tap that. The whole process from opening the app to clearing all your cache will take less than a minute. Unfortunately a lot of these apps don’t work with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich so you will have to manually delete the cache for each app. Just make sure to click “Clear cache” NOT “Clear data.” If you don’t have ICS, you can still clear your cache by using this method as well, if for whatever reason you don’t want to delete all the files.

#4 Move apps to your SD card. If you have an older phone with limited internal storage, it’s a good idea to move some of your apps to your SD card. Just grab Apps2SD from the Google Play Store. All apps aren’t eligible to be moved to your SD card so Apps2SD takes out all the guess work. It will let you know which apps can be moved and for those that aren’t eligible now, it will notify you when things change. I would start with the apps that you don’t use often, but don’t use this option to move unused apps. If you don’t plan on using an app then please uninstall it from your device as mentioned in step #2. Apps2SD happens to have a built in cache cleaner so you can utilize this app instead of Easy Cache Cleaner from step #3.

#5 Delete unused files on your SD card and on your device. I know you’re thinking there must be something wrong with me because I just told you to move apps to your SD card, and now I’m telling you to clean it up. Utilizing your SD card for apps is okay, but you should go through it and look for files that are not needed. Sometimes apps that you’ve uninstalled leave folders behind. Delete all those. Look at your photos. Do you really need all of them? The same with music. Delete what you don’t need. You can do this by connecting your phone to your computer via USB or through an app called Astro File Manager from the Google Play Store.

#6 Remove deleted (or trashed) emails. If you’re using the stock email app (not gmail) there could be a lot of unwanted emails in your trash. Unfortunately there isn’t an easy way to “delete all emails” in the trash folder so you might have to actually remove the email account from your phone and set it up again. This will start things from scratch, but if your email is IMAP based, this won’t be a big deal. If you’re using a POP account, you will lose all your “non trashed” emails that are on your phone. In that case you might have to manually delete them which won’t be any easy task. If you can live with it, I highly recommend just deleting the account from your phone and setting it up again. It won’t take long at all.

If you follow these 6 steps, I think you will find your phone will be back to how it worked when you first got it. If you find that these things just aren’t enough, than you should consider a factory reset. You need to make sure you’ve backed up everything that you want BEFORE doing it. If you are going to go this route, you should download MyBackup Pro to back up what you need. Please understand, if you’re aren’t rooted you will not be able to save game progress data or your usernames, passwords, and other settings for your apps. Some apps do have a back up feature so for any of those, make sure to back up that data to your SD card. For most devices you can perform a factory reset by going to menu/settings/privacy and selecting factory data reset. Make sure you don’t have “delete SD card contents” checked. Again, I want to be clear, by doing this, you delete everything on your phone and unless it’s backed up, you won’t be able to retrieve it.

If you have any other recommendations please add them to the comments below.

Amazon Launches In-App Purchases For Developers

Posted: 10 Apr 2012 10:11 AM PDT

Amazon has finally answered the cries from both developers and its customers by finally launching the in-app purchasing system after what was seemingly an endless development. In a nutshell, it allows for developers to sell additional paid content from within an app. Since developers can just use Amazon’s distribution system instead of having to create their own, it just makes more sense and gives added convenience in order to gain additional revenue. Check out how the new feature works by taking a look at the video after the break.

 

Click here to view the embedded video.

 

 

 

source: Amazon App Store Dev

Major U.S. wireless carriers team up to fight cellphone theft

Posted: 10 Apr 2012 08:02 AM PDT

For those of you that like to buy used phones on eBay or Craigslist, we have some good news. The four major wireless carriers are teaming up along with the U.S. government to build a central database of stolen cellphones. I don’t understand why this wasn’t started years ago.

Currently, Verizon Wireless and Sprint block any phones that have been reported stolen. Unfortunately AT&T and T-Mobile don’t, but now all four will work together in an effort to reduce crime and hopefully the resale value of stolen goods. Many of these stolen phones end up on eBay or Craigslist, and some are even exported to China, Latin America, and Africa.

Of course, nothing is foolproof because hackers might be able to use software to alter the identity of any stolen phones. Unfortunately even that’s not considered a crime, but hopefully that will change with legislation. Either way, the carriers need to do something and this is a start. Final details are yet to be worked out, but the proposed outline has.

source: wsj

 

Latest Galaxy S III rumor: Home button and five columns for icons

Posted: 10 Apr 2012 06:51 AM PDT

It’s time for another round of Galaxy S III rumors. Sorry, I don’t have a fake picture or an official release date so settle down. The latest involves some design elements, which I don’t think will shock anyone out there. Apparently the Samsung team has been torn with keeping the hardware home button that’s been synonymous with the Galaxy S and Galaxy S II. It’s either that or no hardware buttons much like the Galaxy Nexus. It looks like the home hardware button has won so you can expect to see it on the final product. The other interesting tidbit is that they will go with a five column layout for icons, which is basically how the Galaxy Note is. Just about every other device has a 4 column layout. The Galaxy Note is a 5.3-inch screen so it made sense to go with five columns. We certainly don’t expect the Galaxy S III display to be that large, but it could be in the neighborhood of 4.8-inches to make it work.

source: ddaily
via: pocketnow

Android 4.0 Factory Images Officially Available For The Google Nexus S 4G Smartphone

Posted: 10 Apr 2012 06:41 AM PDT

 

Happy days continue for owners of the Google Nexus S 4G smartphone. The much-anticipated Android 4.0 update is officially on its way and now the “soju” factory images are officially available as well, which officially brings Sprint’s version of the Nexus S current with the GSM versions of the device. Android AOSP wunderkind Jean-Baptiste Queru takes some time to make some key distinctions of the newly available factory image:

“This is meant to be used by people who built and flashed their own custom version of AOSP and wish to return to the factory state. If you’re currently running an official retail build, I simply recommend that you wait for the OTA”.

In summary folks: the factory image is meant for those who well you know… fiddled or tinkered with their device by adding a custom ROM for example– and want to flash their device back to its stock state. If you’re on stock Android now, you’re probably better off waiting for the actual OTA update instead of flashing your device to the latest build. When attempting to flash the factory image to the Nexus S 4G, please be aware that there’s a known bug in the bootloader, you’ll have to boot into whatever version of Android is on your device, and then return to fastboot and restart the flashing sequence.

Happy flashing all!

source: Google Code
via: Jean-Baptiste Queru+
Posted by at 5:46 AM

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