Sunday, April 15, 2012

Update - 195



Posted: 12 Mar 2012 11:45 AM PDT
AT&T is still playing a severely slow game of catch-up with Verizon and their vast and quick 4G LTE rollout. They’ve just announced a couple of new markets that will soon be getting the fast 4G LTE speeds and we have all the details. According to AT&T, Cleveland will be up next to receive the update and that is coming soon. Then 11 other markets are going to get the blue switch flipped from AT&T too.


Like mentioned above, Cleveland is up first to receive the upgrade to AT&T 4G LTE and then another 11 markets will get the same treatment. This list below is where we can expect to start seeing LTE speeds although the announcement detailed this as coming soon. Stating the updates should start rolling out sometime in April, so users probably wont have LTE in these cities next week, but can expect them shortly.
– St. Louis, Missouri
– Naples, Florida
– Bloomington, Lafayette and Muncie, Indiana
– Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Lousiana
– Akron, Canton and Cleveland, Ohio
– Bryan-College Station, Texas
– Staten Island, New York City
AT&T has been slow to launch their 4G LTE network but these new locations will join the existing markets in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, Washington DC, and New York to name a few. With the new HTC One X (or One XL) coming soon to AT&T with 4G LTE we have a feeling these markets will launch before the end of April, just in time for the AT&T launch of the new HTC Flagship phone.
[via SlashGear]

Posted: 12 Mar 2012 11:07 AM PDT
In case you haven’t heard CBS or the NCAA announce their new Android application we have all the details. With March Madness officially kicking off tomorrow it’s time we all get prepared for the onslaught of close games, 3 pointers, and nail biting finishes that are surely coming soon. The NCAA has just released their official March Madness app for Android and it’s quite awesome.


Available right now in the Google Play Store the official app works great, is designed well and even offers a live stream of all 67 March Madness games from the first one on the 13th, to the final game all on your Android smartphone. Currently there seems to be no tablet support, and streaming isn’t available on all devices but most will have access. Live Streaming will be $3.99 total to get all the games on your mobile device, or online. A pretty good deal if you ask me.

Streaming wont work on the Galaxy Nexus or Android 4.0 devices but everything else is working great here. From checking scores, calendar of games, brackets and more. For those that don’t want to pay for streaming the app does offer radio broadcasts of every single game, so that is a plus. We also have alerts for upsets, overtimes, crunch time (close games), or for users to select alerts for their favorite team.
All the details on the free features or the paid live streaming and more is available from the official market at the Google Play Store linked to below. Get those brackets ready to go, buy some beer and Dorito’s and enjoy the best month of college basketball.
Play Store – March Madness
Screenshot_2012-03-12-10-50-14 Screenshot_2012-03-12-10-49-39 Screenshot_2012-03-12-10-46-45

Posted: 12 Mar 2012 10:29 AM PDT
Another member of the Galaxy family from Samsung is all set to launch on T-Mobile in a few short days. The new 4″ mid-range Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G has been officially announced by T-Mobile. Originally detailed as coming this March we now know it will be officially available March 21st in select stores, and with full retail availability on the 28th nationwide.


For a higher end mid-range phone this device has some decent specs and a fair price although I’d hardly call it budget friendly. T-Mobile will be selling the Galaxy S Blaze 4G with a new 2-year contract for just $149. This does however require a $50 mail in rebate making it not so budget friendly at first, but later you’ll get the rebate.
However, for $149 you’ll get an awesome device with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, a 3.97-inch Super AMOLED display, 5 megapixel camera on the rear with flash. Under the hood we have the popular Qualcomm 1.5 GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM, making this a pretty powerful phone for the price. If you missed our previous coverage or the hands-on from Mobile World Congress, check out the links below or head to T-Mobile.com to learn more today.
TMO_SGH-t769_left IMG_4915

Posted: 12 Mar 2012 09:50 AM PDT
Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 7.7 has been one of the companies most hotly-anticipated tablets, due in no small part to its 7.7-inch Super AMOLED screen. While WiFi versions have been available for some time in Europe and the US has an LTE version from Verizon, Samsung’s home country of South Korea has been sadly bereft of a 7.7 model of its own. Until now: Samsung announced that the Galaxy Tab 7.7 LTE is coming to South Korea from SK Telecom. It’ll be priced at 800,000 won without a contract, or just a little north of $700 USD.

Interestingly, the South Korean version of the Galaxy Tab 7.7 will also be able to make voice telephone calls. This capability is usually included in international Android tablets, but is almost always disabled for their American counterparts. (Thanks, US cell carrier system.) Other than that and the obvious switch to a GSM radio, the specifications remain identical to the US version: a 1280×800 screen, 16GB of internal storage, a 1.4Ghz processor, 1GB of RAM, 3.2/2.0 megapixel cameras and Android 3.2 with TouchWiz.
In our recent review, we concluded that the Galaxy Tab 7.7 is a great device, in spite of the high price tag and (currently) outdated software. We’re still waiting on a WiFi version in the US, but phone functionality might go a long way towards tempting those who only need it occasionally, and don’t mind toting a bigger device around. Hopefully it’ll be available to more carriers around the world sooner rather than later – especially since an upgrade to the original hardware can’t be too far away.

Device Specifications and Information
Device Info
    Device Name : Galaxy Tab 7.7
    Manufactuer : Samsung
    Carrier : NA
    Announced Date : September 01, 2011
    Release Date : March 01, 2012
    Also Known As : Verizon Galaxy Tab 7.7 LTE
Display
  • Screen Size : 7.70 Inch
  • Resolution : 1280x800
  • Screen Type : Super AMOLED Plus
Dimension & Weight
  • Height : 7.74 Inch
  • Width : 5.24 Inch
  • Depth : 0.31 Inch
  • Weight : 335 Grams
Battery & Power
    Battery Type:
  • Lithium Polymer
  • Battery Capacity : 5100 mAh
  • Talk Time : NA
  • Stand By Time : NA
Software
    Android OS:
  • 3.2.x
Hardware
    CPU : Exynos
    CPU Clock Speed : 1400 Mhz
    Core : 2
    Ram : 1024 MB
    Internal Storage : 16GB GB
    Front Facing Camera :
    Camera Resolution : 3.2 MP
    External Storage:
  • MicroSD
  • MicroSDHC
    Camera Features:
  • Auto focus
  • Flash
  • 720p Video Recording
    Sensors:
  • Accelerometer
  • Ambient light
    QWERTY :
Cellular Network
    Network Technology:
  • GSM
    GSM Band:
  • 850
  • 900
  • 1800
  • 1900
Device Connectivity
    Wi-Fi:
  • 802.11b
  • 802.11g
  • 802.11n
    Bluetooth:
  • Bluetooth 3.0
    Location Features:
  • Compass
  • GPS
  • Cellular location
  • Wi-Fi location
    FM Radio :
    NFC :

[via SammyHub]

Posted: 12 Mar 2012 09:16 AM PDT
What makes a quad-core flagship phone from one of the biggest Android manufacturers in the world even more special? A pair of Beats headphones, of course. HTC has announced a new Deluxe Limited Edition of the upcoming HTC One X smartphone for the Taiwanese market, with exclusive retail packaging and an included set of Beats Solo headphones. The pre-order price for the package is 24,900 TWD, which converts to around $840 dollars. For comparison, the HTC One X itself will be the equivalent $780 including taxes when it launches in the UK, and the Beats Solo headphones currently retail for about $180.

Pre-orders for the Deluxe Limited Edition will begin on March 20th in HTC’s home territory of Taiwan. At the moment there’s no indication of a bundle elsewhere, though HTC hasn’t been shy about incorporating the Beats brand with its own products. All three members of the One family (X, S and V) feature Beats technology, though the Deluxe Limited Edition of the One X is the first we’ve seen of an actual pack-in set of headphones. While it’s possible that the is set or something like it might make it to the US, the current subsidy model would make it complicated.
The HTC One X is currently set for a worldwide release in April, though only a few markets have retailers or carriers that hve actually confirmed this. In the United States AT&T will have an LTE version, which unfortunately necessitates switching form Nvidia’s Tegra 3 processor to a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core design. For a close-up look at the One X and its Ice Cream Sandwich/Sense 4.0 operating system, check out our hands-on post from Mobile World Congress.

Device Specifications and Information
Device Info
    Device Name : One X [AT&T]
    Manufactuer : HTC
    Carrier : AT&T
    Announced Date : February 26, 2012
    Release Date : TBA
    Also Known As :
Display
  • Screen Size : 4.7 Inch
  • Resolution : 720x1280
  • Screen Type : S-LCD
Dimension & Weight
  • Height : 5.31 Inch
  • Width : 2.75 Inch
  • Depth : 0.36 Inch
  • Weight : 131 Grams
Battery & Power
    Battery Type:
  • Lithium Ion
  • Battery Capacity : 1800 mAh
  • Talk Time : NA
  • Stand By Time : NA
Software
    Android OS:
  • 4.0.x
    Audio Playback:
  • AAC
  • AAC+
  • AMR
  • MID
  • MP3
  • WAV
  • WMA
    Video Playback:
  • h.263
  • h.264 / AVC
  • MPEG-4 (MP4)
    Messaging:
  • SMS
  • MMS
Hardware
    CPU : S4
    CPU Clock Speed : 1500 Mhz
    Core : 2
    Ram : 1000 MB
    Internal Storage : 16 GB
    Front Facing Camera :
    Camera Resolution : 8 MP
    Camera Features:
  • Auto focus
  • Flash
  • 1080p Video Recording
    Sensors:
  • Accelerometer
  • Ambient light
  • Proximity
    QWERTY :
Cellular Network
    Network Technology:
  • GSM
    GSM Band:
  • 850
  • 900
  • 1800
  • 1900
    CDMA Band:
  • 850
  • 1900
  • 2100
Device Connectivity
    Wi-Fi:
  • 802.11b
  • 802.11g
  • 802.11n
    Bluetooth:
  • Bluetooth 3.0
    Location Features:
  • Compass
  • GPS
  • Cellular location
  • Wi-Fi location
    FM Radio :
    NFC :

[via Unwired View]

Posted: 12 Mar 2012 08:34 AM PDT
Apparently the triple-pronged attack of the Xperia S, P and U phones unveiled at Mobile World Congress wasn’t enough for Sony. A new Android phone, this one with the codename “Pepper”, has appeared in an otherwise nondescript online ad. There’s not much information in the leaked ad, but you can spot Xperia S-style NFC tags, indicating that the new phone will have NFC capability at the very least. The render was spotted by Blog of Mobile, who guesses that the new phone will slide somewhere in between the U and P models already unveiled.

The styling on the phone is a pretty obvious departure from those unveiled at Mobile World Congress. Gone are the semi-transparent navigation buttons and totally squared-off edges – this phone takes a lot of design inspiration from the Walkman series of PMPs. The screenshot in the promo is Android 2.3 Gingerbread, though that’s unfortunately predictable; the three navigation buttons, however, suggest that the phone will see Ice Cream Sandwich before too long.
Unconfirmed specs include a dual-core 1.0Ghz processor, 5 megapixel battery, 1320mAh battery (rather small, even for a mid-sized phone) and a 3.7-inch, 480×854 screen. The display is described as “floating”, though there’s no elaboration – there are a handful of technologies that could fit that description. Considering the source, the Pepper could be a replacement for various mid-range Xperia phones on the market right now, but it might not make it out of Japan any time soon.
[via PocketNow]

Posted: 12 Mar 2012 07:49 AM PDT
Tired of the back-and-forth from Samsung on the release of the Ice Cream Sandwich update for its flagship Galaxy S II? Then how about some back-and-forth from  a Korean wireless carrier? SK Telecom, one of the largest wireless providers’ in Samsung’s home country of South Korea, tweeted out that updates for its Galaxy S II owners would begin tomorrow, March 13th (which is just a few hours away, with the time difference). Unfortunately, the tweet was deleted almost immediately. It said that the update would begin at 10 AM local time.

Those waiting for the official update to the international version of the Galaxy S II must fee like they’re listening to a broken record. Last week the Korean branch of Samsung said that the software would be released on Saturday the 10th, or the 15th, or possibly the 1st. Obviously at least two of these haven’t come to pass, but the continuing leaks and rumors would certainly seem to indicate that the update is due very soon. Keep in mind that an Ice Cream Sandwich update for the various international versions of the Galaxy S II would probably precede the US variants by a couple of months at least.
There’s been no shortage of alpha and beta versions of the official ROM, three of which have already made it to the outside world and are probably running on thousands of rooted phones right now. Based on the leaked ICS software, it’s extremely similar to Samsung’s TouchWiz-flavored Gingerbread, with the expected added features and Nova theme thrown in. Updates to most of Samsung’s high-end offerings, including the Galaxy Tabs and Galaxy Note, should follow shortly.

Device Specifications and Information
Device Info
    Device Name : Galaxy S II
    Manufactuer : Samsung
    Carrier : AT&T
    Announced Date : February 13, 2011
    Release Date : April 28, 2011
    Also Known As :
Display
  • Screen Size : 4.27 Inch
  • Resolution : 480x800
  • Screen Type : Super AMOLED Plus
Dimension & Weight
  • Height : 4.93 Inch
  • Width : 2.6 Inch
  • Depth : .33 Inch
  • Weight : 116 Grams
Battery & Power
    Battery Type:
  • Lithium Ion
  • Battery Capacity : 1650 mAh
  • Talk Time : NA
  • Stand By Time : 710 hours
Software
    Android OS:
  • 2.3.x
    Audio Playback:
  • AAC
  • AAC+
  • MP3
    Video Playback:
  • h.263
  • h.264 / AVC
  • MPEG-4 (MP4)
    Messaging:
  • SMS
  • MMS
Hardware
    CPU : Exynos
    CPU Clock Speed : 1200 Mhz
    Core : 2
    Ram : 1000 MB
    Internal Storage : 16 GB
    Front Facing Camera :
    Camera Resolution : 8 MP
    External Storage:
  • MicroSD
  • MicroSDHC
    Camera Features:
  • Auto focus
  • Flash
  • 1080p Video Recording
  • 720p Video Recording
    Sensors:
  • Accelerometer
  • Proximity
    QWERTY :
Cellular Network
    Network Technology:
  • GSM
    GSM Band:
  • 850
  • 900
  • 1800
  • 1900
Device Connectivity
    Wi-Fi:
  • 802.11b
  • 802.11g
  • 802.11n
    Bluetooth:
  • Bluetooth 3.0
    Location Features:
  • Compass
  • GPS
  • Cellular location
  • Wi-Fi location
    FM Radio :
    NFC :

[via The Verge]

Posted: 12 Mar 2012 07:18 AM PDT
Hipsters and iOS converts rejoice: your long period of expressionless suffering is almost over. The photo app that’s taken the Internet by storm and inspired dozens of beatings towards wannabe Ansel Adams of the world (unconfirmed) is coming to Android “very soon”, said Instagram executive Kevin Systrom. Android users have been clamoring for an official Android app since the photo sharing service began to surge in popularity last summer. There still isn’t any concrete date for the app’s release, though it was shown running on a Galaxy Nexus at SXSW in Autsin.

If you’re unfamiliar with Instagram, good for you. Essentially it’s a mobile-only photo sharing service, akin to Flickr and Twitter combined. Users take photos in an “artistic” 1:1 format, tweak them with some built-in tools and post them to the Instagram website, where they’re judged, lauded or dissed by a jury of the users’ oh-so-artistic friends. Quick sharing to Twitter and Facebook makes sure that no friend or family member is safe from the public displays of aesthetic crime.
Company representatives  said that the Android app was better than its long-standing iOS counterpart in many ways, though they didn’t elaborate on exactly how. If you’ve just got to get that Instagram experience and you can’t wait, most camera apps (including the default on Ice Cream Sandwich) include the same series of “artistic” filters and modifications, and (gasp!) can also post to Twitter and Facebook. So with a little ingenuity, you don’t need to wait for the developers to take advantage of a market 300 million users strong before annoying everyone in your social circle with poorly filtered shots of yourself in the bathroom mirror.
[via SlashGear - image from the hipsters at HicksDesign]

Posted: 12 Mar 2012 06:37 AM PDT
By all accounts, traditional comic book stores are doing even worse than bookstores in the digital age ,which is to say, not very well at all. But a new initiative by comic giant Marvel aims to breathe some life into retail comics via the very medium that’s threatening them. Their new Marvel Infinite Comics line brings a new dimension (literally) to some of the best-known superheroes in the world, via the now-familiar method of augmented reality. Marvel showed off the new comics with launch partner Aurasma as SXSW in Austin, Texas.

Marvel explained the initiative as sort of DVD extras for individual comic books. While 3D animations and trailers can only be activated in the real world with the upcoming Android and iOS app, digital buyers will still be able to access all the extra content in a separate manner. The example demonstrated for panel attendees in Austin was a digital Iron Man that popped out of a comic book cover and did some of his signature moves “live” on camera. Observe:


Readers will be able to use the app to either view animated panels in a digital reader or watch it through the AR interface via their phone or tablet’s camera. Marvel didn’t give specifics on the app or comics’ availability, though they did say that the Infinity extras would be included on the highly anticipated Avengers vs. X-Men series due later this year. If you’re not a comic book person, imagine it as the Super Bowl of superheroes, at least on the Marvel side of things.
[via TechCrunch]

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