Posted: 05 Mar 2012 02:06 AM PST  According to the official Samsung Israel Facebook page, March 15 will be the release date for the Samsung Galaxy S2 upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. As the Israeli version of the Samsung Galaxy S2 is based on the international version of the S2, it's safe to assume that the freshest version of Android will soon roll out globally to all Galaxy S2 smartphones, aside one major exception that I'm sure many of you have already guessed: it's very likely that US, carrier-branded versions of the Galaxy S2 will get Ice Cream Sandwich with some sort of a delay. While there is hope that the delay will not be as big as it was the case with the original Galaxy S’s update to Android 2.2 FroYo, I wouldn’t bet on AT&T, Sprint, or T-Mobile rushing to provide the ICS update for the Galaxy S2 (Verizon “passed” on the S2, but they did get a time-limited exclusivity on the first ICS device, the Galaxy Nexus). Depending on the carrier, the FroYo update arrived on US versions of the Galaxy S around 3-4 months later than it did on the international versions, many blaming the carriers themselves for their unwillingness to roll out the update. Official reasons blamed the slight, carrier-dependent hardware variations that required further testing. No matter what the cause of the delay was, that’s one scenario that nobody wants to see repeated. If you can’t wait for the official Android 4.0 to roll out, you can go ahead and install one of the leaked ICS ROMs. Of course, if you choose to go down that path, you do so at your own risk. YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
This article, Samsung Israel Outs The Galaxy S2 Android 4.0 Release Date: March 15 , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source. |
Posted: 05 Mar 2012 01:33 AM PST  As you may know, in August 2011, HTC bought the majority ownership of Beats Electronics, the company that makes the favorite high-end headphones of Dr. Dre, Lady Gaga, and a bunch of other celebrities. Beats Electronics' business model is simple – create product, get rapper/basketball player/movie-star endorsement, sell like crazy. But when they paid $300 million for Beats, HTC probably wanted more than just a piece of the niche, albeit lucrative high-end audio equipment market. HTC wanted to take advantage of the valuable Beats brand image.  Erick Renko/Flickr Fast forward to MWC 2012. In Barcelona, HTC launched its new generation of smartphones, the One series, including the One X, One S, and One V. The new One phones all sport prominently the red Beats logo on their back. HTC claims that the integration of Beats Audio technology into its new smartphones will give customers an "authentic sound" experience. But what exactly is Beats Audio? Beats Audio – Is it For Real?At the most basic level, Beats Audio is nothing but a fancy equalizer. As The Verge's Chris Ziegler noted in a review of the HTC Rezound (another Beats-branded phone) , Beats Audio works great in combination with the red headphones the come with the Rezound, which HTC claims that are a $100 value. The Beats equalizer makes the music sound much "bigger", with deeper basses and fuller sound.The improved listening experience is made possible by a combination of software and hardware, because, as Ziegler notes, the headphones sound relatively dull when the equalizer is not running. Annoyingly, the Beats processing software doesn't always kick in when using music streaming apps, such as Pandora or Spotify, but HTC promised to make the Beats API available to app developers for better compatibility. Ziegler claims that the Beats experience is, in most cases, on par with the experience of using a high-end (like in $500+ high-end) pair of headphones. If that holds true for the One series, music lovers have a strong reason to buy HTC's new Beats-branded smartphones.  Beats Audio is Just a Package Flashing AwaySo, Beats Electronics hardware plus Beats Audio software makes for great music. How about Beats software on its own? You can find out yourself, without buying a new HTC One phone. All you need to do is install a custom package, courtesy of XDA Developers. XDA member RockoDev reversed engineered the Beats application and made it available as a flashable package that you can install on any ROM based on Android 2.3 or higher.The prowess of the Android modding community never seizes to amaze us. But will this ripped Beats Audio app give you that "authentic sound" promised by HTC, without those expensive Beats headphones? That's not guaranteed, but many users that tried it out reported an improved listening experience. Of course, that could be just placebo. If you decide to try it out, let us know your opinion in the comments. To wrap it up, the One series' Beats Audio integration will get you more than a cool Beats logo to boost your status, although we don't have any information on the headphones on the upcoming One phones. We'll check'em out as soon as they come out and get back to you with more juicy details. YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
This article, Beats Audio – What's All the Fuss About? , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source. |
Posted: 04 Mar 2012 06:09 PM PST Combat may not exactly be the place where we envision tablets being used – but the fact that they are easily portable gadgets that can provide communication and information cannot be easily ignored. Heavy-duty rugged tablets aren’t anything new though, although they’ve usually been used by more peaceful users like explorers and construction workers on deployment. The Harris RF-3590 is a pioneer because of its use of the Android OS, the Honeycomb version at that – and that it is specifically designed for use in combat zones.  It has some pretty decent specs that should be a boon for any soldier: a 1024 x 600 multi-touch display which is backed by a powerful dual-core 1.5GHz CPU. It also has two 8-megapixel front and rear-facing cameras – which would help commanders get a ground-level view of the combat zone. Soldiers equipped with this tablet can have live updates of enemy positions and new orders at a touch of the screen. It also gives them access various intelligence sources like live feeds from video cameras, satellite data and a lot of of other information that can mean life or death for a soldier.  Being a comfortable 7 inches, the tablet is easy to carry and fits well in the hand or in a soldier’s pocket. Also durably made, the Harris RF-3590 is a military-grade product – which means its meant to take a pounding and keep on kicking, which is important for soldiers on the go. Supporting most military communication platforms, it could be easily included in any force with the minimum of fuss. With the increasing presence of technology on the battlefield, this tablet looks to be a logical next step. YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
This article, Android Fighting On The Frontline , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source. |
Posted: 04 Mar 2012 04:52 PM PST  We've recently talked about Samsung's fascinating plans to incorporate flexible and bendable displays into its products, and noted that the first devices to be equipped with flexible panels will come later this year. Now, a Forbes report confirms the Q2 2012 timeframe that previous sources have suggested, but also offers us a tantalizing glimpse of how exactly Samsung is going to implement its ground-breaking plastic-based AMOLED technology into actual products. Edge Displays Coming Soon?Although the rumored foldable screens are definitely coming to Samsung devices, Nomura Research analyst Richard Windsor says that we shouldn't expect them sooner than 2013. Nevertheless, this year, we can hope to see another amazing development from the South Korean mammoth tech company – bezel-less smartphones with displays on their sides. Although the idea seems crazy, a mockup image provided by Nomura shows us that the concept can look very appealing. Forbes According to the Nomura report cited by Forbes, future Samsung smartphones will not have the bezel or screen border that is present on most current models, and instead the display will fold over the edge of the screen. As you can see from the mockup, the "edge display" might be used for listing icons, but we can imagine many other potential uses for it, including a notification area or an unlock mechanism. Flexible displays replace the conventional glass substrate with a polyamide, which gives the display the capability to bend. To get an idea about the flexibility of Samsung's displays, the panels that the Koreans revealed so far can be easily bended around a 2cm (about 0.8 inch) diameter cylinder. Smaller Weight, Improved ResilienceNomura's analyst claims that the flexible panels will improve more than just the appearance of Samsung's upcoming devices. As we noted in our recent piece on flexible displays, plastic-based substrates are much more resilient than glass, making the screens virtually unbreakable. Another advantage of equipping gadgets with this next-gen technology is the "exceptionally slim form-factor" that can be achieved.Windsor predicts that the flexible displays will be more popular than the AMOLED display found on Samsung's hit device Galaxy S2. Moreover, thanks to the incorporation of flexible panels, Samsung's upcoming tablets will be up to 30% lighter than current models that are equipped with glass-substrate screens.  Erich Strasser/Flickr As a conclusion, Nomura's Richard Windsor believes that the flexible display technology will "clearly differentiate Samsung's products from others" in terms of design, thickness, and weight. But it's not only Samsung that is interested in flexible displays. Apple too is rumored to be in talks with Samsung for getting flexible AMOLED displays for future iPad models. For now, nothing is certain, because Apple demands improved resolutions and bigger production capacities. According to Oled-Display.net, with its current production facilities working at full capacity, Samsung would be able to deliver 54 million panels per year, which is a little over half the demand that Apple preconizes for the iPad this year. What’s to Come?Flexible AMOLED display technology is definitely one of the most exciting developments in mobile technology to come in years. We hope that manufacturers will take full advantage of it to produce devices that are not only prettier but also smarter and more resilient.Let us know in your comments what you would like to see from manufacturers. Do you think flexible displays will catch? YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
This article, Samsung to Replace Bezels in Smartphones with Edge Displays , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source. |
Posted: 04 Mar 2012 12:24 PM PST  The Nexus program has always been meant to demonstrate Google's vision for Android, by combining the best software (the latest purebred Android version) with the best hardware, to deliver the best possible user experience. When it comes to smartphones, Google's efforts have produced outstanding results – Galaxy Nexus and the other Nexus devices have received both critical acclaim and commercial success. So it makes perfect sense for Google to extend the Nexus program to tablets, an area where Google admitted that it didn't fare too well. With Andy Rubin announcing that 2012 will be the year of the tablet for Android, and a slew of rumors surfacing over the past months, it seems that the Nexus tablet is finally closing to reality. Up until now, we've learned that the Nexus tablet will be priced at $199, will enter production in April, and will probably be launched at Google I/O, in late June. And now, the last pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. Report: ASUS to Build the First Nexus Tablet, Possibly Named PlayAccording to Taylor Wimberly from AndroidAndMe, Google has chosen ASUS to be the OEM for the first Nexus tablet. Now, in our recent Nexus tablet round up, we speculated that Google would choose to build the first Nexus tablet in-house, through the newly acquired Motorola. After all, Motorola built the first tablet to run Honeycomb, the original Xoom. But since we published that round up, Google representatives have been vocal about the fact that Google and Motorola will very much be separate companies.If AndroidAndMe's scoop is to be trusted, it will be ASUS, not Motorola, that will build the first Nexus tablet, which will be presumably called the Google Play. The clue? Google's favorite domain privacy service, MarkMonitor has recently registered a host of domain names that are related to "Google Play", including googleplayapps.com, booksonplay.com, and googleplaymusic.com. Just today, we noted that ASUS' executives are optimistic about being at the frontline of the Android 5.0 Jelly Bean rollout, and we know that Google uses the Nexus line to introduce new Android versions. Could the two news snippets be related? Probably not. AndroidAndMe says that the Nexus tablet will ship with stock Ice Cream Sandwich. Although Digitimes suggested that Jelly Bean would come this summer, we think that it's simply too early for Google to launch yet another version of Android. Already, fragmentation is a big issue for Google, with devices still coming out with Android 2.3 Gingerbread installed. Even with the impeding threat of the tablet-native Windows 8 coming, Google should tone down its Android release cycle. Most likely, the Nexus tablet will be an ICS device. Nevertheless, ASUS may have obtained Google's promise to get priority access to Jelly Bean, as a "bonus" for collaborating on the Nexus tablet. The Nexus Tablet: Tegra 3 Quad-Core at $199?Is it possible? Can ASUS and Google deliver a quad-core tablet that costs just $199? Wimberly thinks so, noting that ASUS already has a low-cost quad-core tablet in the pipeline, the $249 Memo 370T (announced at CES and due sometime in the second quarter of this year.) According to Wimberly's sources, the 7-inch Nexus will be similar to the Memo, but might come with less storage space, to cut costs (the same strategy used by B&N when it announced the $199 8GB Nook Tablet). The Memo will be available with two storage options – 16GB and 32GB. The Nexus tablet may come with just 8GB, but customers may be enticed with a generous amount of space on the upcoming Google Drive cloud service. A $199 quad-core tablet would be extraordinary. If Google manages to pull this off, Android on tablets may finally gain the steam it needs to challenge the iPad's position, at a time when success is crucial. Apple is set to release its iPad 3/HD next week, presumably coming with a 2048 X 1536 display and Siri integration. Moreover, according to a leaked Samsung memo, Apple should launch a 7-inch "iPad Mini" sometimes in Q3 2012, which would give it a foothold in the $200 tablet area, that proved so attractive to customers. If Google is to tackle the cheap tablet market, it must act before Apple makes its move. Perhaps more importantly, a $199 tablet would undercut Amazon's Kindle Fire, which Google clearly perceives as a threat to its business. The Kindle Fire runs Android, but it's Jeff Bezos' Android, completely outside of Google's control. So a successful $199 Nexus tablet would be a heavy blow to both Apple and Amazon. For Google, the move seems to be ideal, both strategically and tactically, even if there will be no immediate profit coming out of it. Do you think it's possible? Can Google deliver the "highest quality" tablet that Eric Schmidt promised last year? Will we get the full Android experience on an amazing $199 quad-core tablet? YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
This article, Report: $199 Quad-Core Nexus Tablet to Be Manufactured by ASUS , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source. |
Posted: 04 Mar 2012 07:36 AM PST The T-Mobile MyTouch smatphones family is not aimed at Android users on the lookout for top-end devices. Historically, these smartphones were more of a mid-range, budget-friendly option for first-time Android users, but that doesn’t mean that their bang-for-buck ratio was not something worth taking the time to consider. While previous manufacturers included HTC (for the original MyTouch released in 2009 and the 2010 MyTouch 4G) and LG (for the 2011 MyTouch and MyTouch Q), a recent report published by PocketNow claims that Chinese manufacturer Huawei is next in line to provide a 2012 revamp of T-Mo's MyTouch series. At first glance, it seems that we're looking at two identical smartphones, codenamed the U8680 and the U8730, except for one major difference: one of them comes with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Most of the specs are still a mystery at this point, but we do know that both smartphones will run Android 2.3 Gingerbread (no word on a possible ICS upgrade but I wouldn't hold my breath) and that they will sport a 800 by 480 pixel resolution (WVGA) display. These specs seem unimpressive enough for them to be real.  Some voices in the Android community raised the issue that Huawei is a "lesser" OEM and that LG or HTC probably would have been a better choice for T-Mobile. But while Huawei's past endeavors were aimed at entry-level feature phones, they are the fifth biggest phone producer in the world. Granted, most of their sales come from their homecountry, but they have recently made it very clear that they “want in” on the Western smartphone markets (that's where the real money is). One must admit that the devices they revealed at MWC 2012, such as the quad-core Huawei Ascend quad D, the slim Ascend D1, or the quad-core HD MediaPad 10 tablet, place Huawei in a very favorable position to actually break the ice and make an impact in the bustling Western markets. YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
This article, T-Mobile Chooses Huawei As Manufacturer For MyTouch Series Revamp? , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source. |
Posted: 04 Mar 2012 06:54 AM PST  Some of you might know OnLive as the cloud gaming service that lets you play the latest video games on your 5-year old laptop, on your TV, or even on your smartphone or tablet. How does OnLive accomplish this apparent feat of magic? It's simple and very cool: all the processing is handled by OnLive's cloud servers, which simply stream the game to your device, just like Netflix does with movies. When you click or hit a key, the input is sent to the cloud, and the resulting animation is streamed back to you. With a good connection, even frantic first person shooters play smoothly, and overall, the illusion is close to perfect. By offloading all the processing loads to its servers, OnLive makes it possible for users to enjoy a high-end gaming experience on just about any device that can be connected to the Internet. The next logical step? Offer the full PC experience on tablets. A Windows PC on your Android TabletIf OnLive is able to seamlessly stream complex video games, it can definitely handle streaming a full Windows PC desktop. This is exactly what you get with the OnLive Desktop app for Android tablets that just launched last week.OnLive Desktop comes in several plans, including a free plan that gives you access to a cloud-based Windows 7 machine, plus access to Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Acrobat Reader. You also get 2GB of free storage space, so you can save your files in OnLive's cloud. To make the files from your PC or Mac accessible on OnLive Desktop, you'll have to manually upload them on OnLive's site, but after that, you'll find them in the Documents folder, on your virtual Windows 7 machine.  We've put OnLive Desktop through its paces, and we can confirm that the app runs smoothly for most of the time. It's easy to forget that you're not using Windows 7 on your tablet, especially if you connect a keyboard and mouse via Bluetooth. The spell is only broken when you try to right-click – for some reason, only left-click is supported . UPDATE: Andrew PyGy Pyle, let us known that you can simulate the right-click in Onlive Desktop by holding one finger on the screen and tapping with another one. Thanks Andy for the tip! And here’s a video of OnLive Desktop in action, courtesy of YouTube user PyGuy95: OnLive Desktop Prices and AvailabilityOnLive Desktop is available in several versions, besides the free version that we described above. The Desktop Plus version costs $4.99/month and gives you priority access to OnLive's virtual infrastructure, as well as a "Gigabit-accelerated" Flash-supporting browser (IE9). In other words, regardless of your Internet connection, you're pages will load in a blink, because OnLive's cloud will do all the heavy lifting for you.The Desktop Pro version, available for $9.99, is currently listed as coming soon. It will give you a whopping 50GB of storage space and the possibility to customize your virtual PC by adding your own applications (must be vetted by OnLive). And finally, there's the Enterprise version, which gives you all sorts of business-oriented bells and whistles. For now, OnLive Desktop has been tested on a limited number of slates, but it should work on any tablet running Android 2.3 or higher. Here are the officially approved slates:
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This article, OnLive Desktop: Windows 7 and the Office Suite (for Free!), On Your Android Tablet , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source. |
Posted: 04 Mar 2012 05:59 AM PST  Out with the stale Ice Cream Sandwich and in with the fresh Jelly Bean! Although we haven't even seen a proper rollout of Android 4.0 ICS, companies are already courting Google to get Jelly Bean in high-priority. Asus has publicly announced that it wants to be the first company to be offering devices running Android 5.0 Jelly Bean. Speaking with TechRadar, Asus exec Benson Lin said that, considering the close relationship that Asus has with Google, there's “a high possibility that we [Asus] will be the first wave to offer the Jelly Bean update." Queuing outside Google's door is another Taiwan-based company, HTC. Only a few days ago, we reported that HTC is sending love signals to Google. You see, HTC is hoping to rekindle the romance they once shared with Google; back in 2010, the Taiwanese powerhouse was the OEM of the first ever Google flagship smartphone, the Nexus One. The competition for the Nexus prize has been pretty rough since then, with the rise of Samsung and LG, not to mention the complications created by Google’s acquisition of Motorola. We’ve all seen how Google had a change of heart before, choosing Samsung for its Nexus S line, also known as Galaxy Nexus. Will Google pivot again? Speaking of Jelly Bean, details about its arrival are sparse for now, except for some wild rumors that make the rounds of the blogosphere every now and then. At one point, the successor to ICS was expected to launch in April, while later rumors point to a summer 2012 release. Should we really expect Jelly Bean so soon, considering that ICS was officially rolled out just last November? The answer to this question may be somehow linked to the impending release of Windows 8 tablets, and its critically acclaimed Metro UI. As for our readers, do you think Google should stick with Samsung for the release of its next flagship smartphone? Do Asus and HTC stand a chance? Let us know your thoughts. YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
This article, Asus Hoping to Be the First Manufacturer to Offer Jelly Bean Devices , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source. |
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Update - 136
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