Monday, May 7, 2012

Android Central

Android Central

From the forums: Galaxy Nexus OEM Desktop Dock

Posted: 06 May 2012 03:56 PM PDT

Galaxy Nexus Desktop Dock

Patient British Galaxy Nexus owners have finally reached a once far away moment. OEM accessories for the device are starting to appear at retailers such as Clove Technology. One such patient Nexus owner is nhuth​ from the Android Central forums. The precious Desktop Dock has just shown up in the mail, and nhuth ​was good enough to share with us a couple of photos of the item along with a quick first impression.

I preordered the Galaxy Nexus desktop dock and vehicle dock from Clove.co.uk back in February and just received my desktop dock today. All that was in the box was the dock itself and quick-start guide. There are no cables included. The Galaxy Nexus fits in smoothly with a nice, quality feel. The pins work just as I would have hoped. Out back is a micro USB port and 3.5mm audio jack. Unlike the Nexus One dock, no bluetooth is included. So, there is no way to control your music with the phone out of the dock. The connection is solely through the three-pin connection.

Sounds like a bit of a mixed bag. A quality item, but functionality limited a little to what it might have been. Either way, we're glad to see these items are starting to appear in peoples hands. If anyone else has recently taken delivery of the same dock, let us know your own thoughts in the comments below. 

​Thanks nhuth!

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Android Central weekly photo contest winner: The great outdoors

Posted: 06 May 2012 02:10 PM PDT

Justadye4

Congrats to Justadye4, who won this weeks photo contest with his perfect composition of a budding pine in Boulder taken with the EVO 4G. The depth of field and focal effects are gorgeous. Thanks for entering, and keep an eye on your inbox for info about your prize.

This week was the hardest photo contest to judge yet. I'm pleased to say that almost every single entry was pulled out and considered for the winner. I don't know if it was the subject, or random luck, or just that you guys are so damn good with your cameras, but the quality of this weeks entries just floored us. Have a look through the contest thread and see for yourself. We tried to pull a few out that deserve a special nod (see those after the break), but each and every entry was special. The best part? We'll be back next week to do it all over again. Keep those lenses clean folks!

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Verizon getting a blue Motorola Droid RAZR on May 18?

Posted: 06 May 2012 08:26 AM PDT

Motorola Droid RAZR Blue

We've seen the Motorola Droid RAZR in white, black and purple. Now it looks like Verizon's got a blue version joining the ranks as well. According to the inventory screens we've received, it's slated for release on May 18. It's the same as Droid RAZR we first reviewed back in November -- and that means it's also running Gingerbread, we're told. And we also can't help but notice that this shade of blue isn't unlike what Nokia has on the Lumia 900. Coincidence?

No word on pricing yet (or if there's a blue MAXX version on the way), and remember that none of this is official until Verizon says it is. So stay tuned.

Thanks, anon!

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From the Editor's Desk: A look back at London, a look ahead to New Orleans

Posted: 06 May 2012 07:26 AM PDT

Phil Nickinson at Samsung Mobile Unpacked in London

The Samsung Galaxy S III event has come and gone. Some say that's true about the phone as well, that it's so disappointing it's done before ever getting off the ground. Of course, many of the people saying that have yet to actually touch or use the Galaxy S III. Not that you shouldn't be able to form some sort of opinion about a phone before getting to experience it — otherwise why the hell did we do 30-something stories on it? But predicting a device's failure should at least require physical contact, no?

Regardless, Samsung will sell a bunch of these things, both in the form we saw at Earl's Court, and in variants to U.S. (and other) carriers. It'll sell 'em because Samsung is Samsung, and it has the clout with carriers — and more important, it has the marketing budget — to sell just about anything, and as much of anything, as it wants. Make no mistake about that. Samsung would never let the Galaxy S III wither and die, no matter what bloggers and analysts thing about it. Probably the more telling line came from Samsung president JK Shin, who all but made fun of the media for all the pre-launch speculation. (I can't say I blame him.) He made it pretty obvious Samsung's going to push this thing hard, never mind the blogs. Hardly a surprise there.

So what do I think? Pretty much what I said in last week's podcast. I rather like the hardware. The HTC One X wins in the display department, thanks to SLCD 2, but the SGSIII's got some nice lines to it, and I'm fairly smitten by the Pebble Blue version. Yeah, the screen's even bigger than the Galaxy Nexus or the SGSII or the One X, but Samsung's done it in a way so that the phone itself hasn't significantly grown in size. And it's thin enough at 8.6mm, with a nicely balanced weight.

It's the software that's left me underwhelmed. Ice Cream Sandwich was a fresh start for Android. HTC took advantage of that (even though many of the UI tweaks on the HTC One line were coming anyway, ICS or no). But hte Galaxy S III still seems stuck in the Gingerbread era, as far as the user interface goes. I'll be using a third-party launcher on it, most likely (and there are some really good ones available these days). Things like S Voice, and the phone being able to anticipate that you're going to make a call, and to go picture-in-picture are fun, but they're gimmicky. And for the most part, they're neither overly intuitive nor integral to the use of the phone, and these things are complicated enough as it stands. Maybe I'll be wrong and we'll hear a chorus of "Hello, Galaxy" rising up from the sidewalks of America.

But that was last week. It's already time for the next show.

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AT&T's HTC One X available today!

Posted: 06 May 2012 06:44 AM PDT

AT&T HTC One X

The wait is over. As of today, you can purchase the HTC One X directly from AT&T for $199 with a two-year contract. If you're on the fence, be sure to read our complete AT&T One X review, and we've got some incredible discussions going on in our HTC One X forums as well. Is this one the phone for you?

 

Late night poll: Samsung Galaxy S III or HTC One X?

Posted: 05 May 2012 10:57 PM PDT

Galaxy S III vs. HTC One X

You knew this was coming. In one hand you have the HTC One X. Tegra 3 or S4 Krait; 720p SLCD2 at 4.7-inches. Sense 4. The hotness. In the other hand, you have the Samsung Galaxy S III, the world's newest Android phone. Quad-core Exynos, 720p SuperAMOLED at 4.8-inches. The new Touchwiz and it's cool voice interaction and face recognition. It's a good time to be an Android fan.

Chances are, you aren't going to have both. So, which one would pick? Hit the poll, let us know.
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