Monday, August 20, 2012

Android Central

Android Central

Motorola Xoom speaker docks on the cheap at Woot!

Posted: 19 Aug 2012 02:18 PM PDT

Xoom speaker dock

DoctorWu spotted a pair of Motorola Xoom docking stations nestled in Woot!'s sellout pages, and if you're using one of the original Android tablets it might be worth a look. The speaker dock features integrated speakers and an HDMI port, charges through pogo pins, and puts your Xoom at just the right angle for watching a video. It's available for just $17. The standard dock has pogo pin charging and a line out jack for external speakers or headphones, and checks in at just $8. Both offers expire August 21 at 9AM CT.

Either or both of these sound like a great deal, and your Xoom will love you more for it. Hit the source link for more info and ordering.

Source: Woot!; via Android Central forums

Here are your five lucky Android neon light winners

Posted: 19 Aug 2012 01:10 PM PDT

Step into the light

Remember when we were giving away five of those killer neon desk lamps shaped like bugdroid last week? Today's the day we announce the winners of what's probably the coolest thing you'll have in your house. After much deliberation the king of the Sea-Monkeys I keep in a Mason jar on the window sill has given me our winners, and here they are. Not really, we use a random number generator, but how cool would it be to have a talking Sea-Monkey king like the one on the box? Anyways, here's your winners.

Congrats ladies and/or gents, keep an eye on the inbox of the e-mail account you used to register for Android Central, because Michelle will be contacting you shortly about redeeming your prize. Let's all congratulate these fine folks, and get ready for the next contest from your pals at AC.

From the Editor's Desk: Discussions with devs; CM10 nightlies; Kate Upton, where were you?

Posted: 19 Aug 2012 10:24 AM PDT

Phil Nickinson

No rest for the weary, so here are a few quick hits to start the week:

  • Developers rock: A late-night quip on Google+ about how there are some good Android apps with horrible scrolling has turned into a pretty awesome discussion about how things work. My point is that scrolling is one of those basic things that most of us (at least those of us who don't code for fun or money) take for granted, but it's also more difficult to do well than you'd think. The developers of Carbon and Tweet Lanes weigh in. (And you get some insight into what's taking Carbon so long to be release, if you're curious.) Check out the whole thread here.
  • CM10 nightlies: Remember me? The guy too busy to put anything custom on his Galaxy Nexus, a process that takes all of 10 minutes? Well, I just slapped the first CyanogenMod 10 onto the Verizon Galaxy S3. Only took three flashes back to stock (thanks, Odin!). Guess I'm a little out of practice. I've used the New TouchWiz for a month or so now. It's been a while since I've run a CM ROM. The biggest thing I'm missing thus far is a good camera app. Samsung's just has far more features. (So do all the manufacturers' camera apps, actually.) It's only been a day, but overall, I"m liking what I'm seeing.
  • Google Play gift cards: Finally! This is a big deal, folks. Because the music labels and movie and television studios presumably are involved, this couldn't have been simple as ginning up some redeemable codes and putting them in stores. Let's just hope things don't go sour after someone thought it was a good idea to share how to redeem codes that you're not supposed to yet have in the first place. Unzipping a Google Play apk to see what's what is one thing. Telling folks how to purchase things with money they're not yet supposed to have access to to is another thing entirely and crosses a line.
  • The other Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 event: Apparently our invitation to the second GNote 10.1 event was lost in the mail. Don't get us wrong, it was a fine press event. I just think Samsung missed a golden opportunity to have some bloggers teach those models and celebrities a thing or two. That and Kate Upton kept texting, asking us where we were.
  • The NFL returns: Preseason sucks, but, man, I can taste it.

TTFN. It's back to work I go.

Sony Xperia SL gets official - 1.7GHz Snapdragon S3, coming in four colours

Posted: 19 Aug 2012 10:23 AM PDT

Android Central

After numerous leaks, Sony's Xperia SL (LT26ii) -- a refreshed version of the Xperia S -- is now listed as "coming soon" on the company's website. The site listing confirms earlier rumors that the phone's Snapdragon S3 CPU has been clocked to 1.7GHz (up from 1.5GHz), and that two new colors, grey and pink, will be available in addition to the Xperia S's black and white. On the software side, the Xperia SL comes with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box, so you won't need to worry about applying any updates when you first start the phone up.

We imagine the Xperia SL will be joined by a wide range of other Sony Xperia phones at the company's IFA press conference on Aug. 29. Naturally, we'll be live in Berlin to bring you full coverage.

Source: Sony, via: Engadget

Huawei P1 to be 'enhanced' as it arrives on UK shores

Posted: 19 Aug 2012 08:58 AM PDT

Android Central

We have only just got first UK availability of the Huawei Ascend P1 -- read our full review here -- but according to the fellas at Coolsmartphone it might just be about to get some improvements.

By the time it gets into UK Android fan hands, the P1 will definitely qualify as a mid-range handset. A dual-core device living in a quad-core world, but it doesn't mean it isn't a perfectly capable smartphone. Apparently the UK version is to be given a more "premium" feel -- whatever that entails -- and the battery will actually be an 1800mAh powerplant. Not the 1670mAh we saw in our review unit and in the one listed for sale at Clove Technology. Considering we already spoke pretty highly of battery life on the P1, an additional bit of juice can be no bad thing. 

Source: Coolsmartphone

Sprint Motorola Photon Q available today for $199

Posted: 19 Aug 2012 05:49 AM PDT

Sprint Motorola Photon Q

Just a quick heads up that the Sprint Motorola Photon Q is available today for $199 with a two-year contract. If you've yet to do so (slacker), be sure to check out our hands-on with the Photon Q (we'll have a more thorough review this week), but already it's shaping up to be a solid slider from Moto, with Ice Cream Sandwich and a new UI.

It's also important to remember that this is a world phone, so you business types who have been longing for something with a keyboard that'll work outside the states have something new to consider. And it's also worth noting that the Photon Q is the first to take advantage of Motorola's new bootloader unlocking tool -- a tool of which we've already availed ourselves -- so you hacker types can have your way with it, too.

So ... who's buying?

Snapshot: Verizon Galaxy S3 captures lightning strikes [from the forums]

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 06:20 PM PDT

Lightning Strikes.

That the Samsung Galaxy S3 has a great camera is hardly a secret. But just how fast is that burst mode? Android Forums member BasPilot says he took nearly 2,000 pics of a recent storm in burst mode and got 25 or so good ones. Never mind the percentage on that one. Any good photog knows to just keep shooting. (This is the digital age, after all.)

Even better is that BasPilot's sharing a few of his captures in the forums. Hit the link below to check 'em out.

More: Caught Lightning in Action

read more
Posted by at 5:46 AM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)