Android Central |
- Jelly Bean factory images now available for the Verizon Galaxy Nexus
- ASUS Transformer Primes in Sweden getting Jelly Bean update
- Water-resistant, LTE-connected Sony Xperia V tipped for December launch
- Replacement Google: In case the real thing goes on strike
- How to tell if your Samsung phone is vulnerable to today's USSD hack
- How we'd improve the Nexus Q
- Ice Cream Sandwich finally coming to the Motorola Atrix 2 - but first, a soak test!
- Now playing: 10-Pin Shuffle
- Barnes & Noble brings its own streaming video this fall
- Can't believe all you former BlackBerry users left this behind
- Indestructible brings free multiplayer demolition derby to Android
- Sony Xperia acro S now available unlocked in the U.S.
- Deal of the Day: Incipio SILICRYLIC DualPro SHINE Hard Case for HTC One X
- Major security vulnerability in some Samsung phones could trigger factory reset via web page
- Samsung reportedly developing its own mobile browser, just as it always has done
- Samsung Galaxy Note coming to UK on Oct. 1
- 'Martian pink' Samsung Galaxy S3 is official, headed to South Korea
- Nexus 7 and Google Play Books now available in Japan
- Adobe's HTML5 Edge development suite goes live today
- Who needs a car head unit when you have a Galaxy S3?
| Jelly Bean factory images now available for the Verizon Galaxy Nexus Posted: 25 Sep 2012 03:40 PM PDT
A few days back Verizon finally got the LTE Galaxy Nexus updated to Jelly Bean, and that means new factory images to play with. Google has updated the Nexus factory image page to include build JRO03O, which is unadulterated, pure Android and frankly sexy as hell. Ask anyone who just got the update -- Jelly Bean brings the Galaxy Nexus right up to the front of the smartphone pack, even with the "dated" hardware of the year-old Galaxy Nexus. So, what does all this factory image stuff mean? Don't worry, it's nothing you have to fool with if you don't want to. It's a set of disk images that are flashable directly to the Galaxy Nexus hardware, to bring the phone back to a fully updated factory state. Think of it as a fail safe incase things get so screwed up that the path back is gone. It's great for hackers and flashers, but it's also a good thing to have on hand for regular folks as well. If you ever need them, there's people in the Verizon Nexus forums who enjoy nothing better than flashing phones, and they're ready to guide you. Hit the source link for the download. Source: Google 
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| ASUS Transformer Primes in Sweden getting Jelly Bean update Posted: 25 Sep 2012 03:19 PM PDT
ASUS Sweden has taken to Facebook and let everyone know that users of the Transformer Prime in Sweden should be seeing an OTA update to Jelly Bean available. While there is no word on other areas, this is a good sign that ASUS is prepared to roll the update out en masse shortly. My own source "close to the matter" says we should see it in the U.S. in early October should everything go well in Sweden. Along with the obvious perks of Jelly Bean, ASUS wants to remind everyone that they will be losing Adobe Flash official support, and that the Jelly Bean update will remove Wifi-Direct from the Prime. On that note, they also say no users will be forced to accept this update. If you're rooted and ROM'ed, ignore all this and be ready for better custom work from your favorite developer. If you're not, you can check for the update from the device settings -- let us know if you see it! Source: ASUS. Thanks everyone who sent this in! 
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| Water-resistant, LTE-connected Sony Xperia V tipped for December launch Posted: 25 Sep 2012 02:49 PM PDT
As Sony prepares to launch the Xperia T in the UK this week, eyes are already on the T's quirky sibling, the Xperia V. Unveiled alongside the Xperia T at IFA last month, the V boasts water resistance and LTE connectivity, in addition to similar internals to the Sony flagship. The screen's been shrunk down to a 4.3-inch panel, although the resolution remains the same, at 1280x720. Today a Swedish retailer has given us our first tentative Xperia V release date and price point. Dustin.se is now listing the Xperia V as available for pre-order, with a price tag of SEK 4299 (around $650) and a release date of Dec. 3. That's a long time to wait for Sony fans, who'll have plenty to tempt them in the fourth quarter. We'll be crossing our fingers for an earlier release, as it's not every day you see LTE, a 720p screen and water resistance in a single handset. Tempted by a high-end waterproof device like this? Shout out in the comments. Source: Dustin.se, via: XperiaBlog 
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| Replacement Google: In case the real thing goes on strike Posted: 25 Sep 2012 01:54 PM PDT
We won't spoil the surprise. Hit the source link below and get searchin'. Source: Replacement Google; via @CharlesApple 
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| How to tell if your Samsung phone is vulnerable to today's USSD hack Posted: 25 Sep 2012 01:35 PM PDT
A quick way to tell if your Samsung phone is at risk, and what to do if it isThere's a lot of confusion as to exactly which Samsung phones are affected by today's big scary USSD vulnerability, which could cause some phones to factory reset themselves upon visiting a malicious web page. Some Galaxy S2 and S3-class phones are susceptible, others less so. In some cases it depends if you're running the latest firmware or not. In others, there's no patched firmware available yet. Samsung will surely be hard at work rolling out fixes for devices that remain susceptible, but in the meantime we've got a quick, easy to tell if your phone is at risk, without taking the plunge and running the malicious code itself. Find out more after the break. 
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| Posted: 25 Sep 2012 01:05 PM PDT
The Google Nexus Q is the coolest sphere sitting atop our entertainment center. OK, so it's the only sphere we've got. And despite how cool it looks, and its great build quality, it really doesn't do all that much, especially when you consider its $299 price tag. Of course, that was before Google decided to shelve the Nexus Q, ceasing sales and giving away a free sphere to anyone who preordered. Now it sits in a state of limbo as Google works "on making it even better." Maybe it'll return. Maybe it won't. We're holding out hope. So how would we improve the Nexus Q? We've got a few ideas. 
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| Ice Cream Sandwich finally coming to the Motorola Atrix 2 - but first, a soak test! Posted: 25 Sep 2012 12:50 PM PDT
Update: We've confirmed that this, indeed, is the Ice Cream Sandwich soak test. Huzzah! Good news, everyone! Maybe. There apparently is a soak test going out for the Motorola Atrix 2 this afternoon. Is it the long-awaited Ice Cream Sandwich update? Dunno, and Motorola's site still just says "Further plans coming soon." We'll keep our fingers crossed, though. Here's the text of the message:
Keep your ears to the ground, folks. More: Atrix 2 forums; Thanks, anon 
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| Posted: 25 Sep 2012 12:06 PM PDT
I'm a sucker for bowling games. Always have been. (It's part of the reason I've kept the Zune HD around for so long.) This week I've been playing 10-Pin Shuffle, which as the name implies is a shuffle-bowling game. The app itself is free, but it's limited to just one poker-style game until you cough up a few bucks via an in-app purchase. Game play is simple enough -- flick the puck forward. It's also plenty smooth, and the graphics are decent. Not great, but good enough for some quick play. Give the free version a shot before paying, though, and see if this one's up your ally. Also available on Amazon and Nook. 
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| Barnes & Noble brings its own streaming video this fall Posted: 25 Sep 2012 09:49 AM PDT
Those of you rocking a Nook Tablet will have more video options in the weeks and months ahead. Barnes & Noble this morning announced Nook Video, which will stream, erm, video from HBO, Sony, STARZ, Viacom, Warner Bros. and Disney to the Android-based e-reader. That brings it a little more in tune with the likes of Amazon's Kindle Fire, which long has taken advantage of streaming video Also, you'll be able to link your purchases of physical DVD and Blue-ray discs to your Nook via UltraViolet, making the deal that much sweeter. Customers in the U.S. will get Nook Video this fall; those in the UK have to wait until the holiday season. Source: Barnes & Noble 
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| Can't believe all you former BlackBerry users left this behind Posted: 25 Sep 2012 09:27 AM PDT | ||
| Indestructible brings free multiplayer demolition derby to Android Posted: 25 Sep 2012 08:55 AM PDT
Glu has just launched a free-to-play multiplayer game on Google Play called Indestructible. It puts players in the driver's seat of some dangerous vehicles, and pits them against others online. More often than not, they're just cars with all manner of dozer blades, laser cannons, and armor plating riveted to them, but you'll also see armored personnel carriers, hovercraft, and semi trailers. game modes include the good old-fashioned deathmatch, capture the flag, and a collection game type called recover the charge. As you play through, you earn experience points, level up, upgrade skills, and unlock new gear for your various cars. Those of you that are worried that this is a pay-to-win scenario, don't be. I hopped into a game last night, and came out on top even though I was using the bare-bones entry-level vehicle. Some of the upgrades are really sweet, and the four-player action ran nice and smooth on my Nexus 7. 
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| Sony Xperia acro S now available unlocked in the U.S. Posted: 25 Sep 2012 07:50 AM PDT
The Xperia acro S has been hanging out in the Sony online store for a few weeks marked as coming soon, and today it goes on sale for $599.99 unlocked. Just as a reminder, the Xperia acro S is a solid mid-range phone with respectable (if not top-of-the-line) specs.
You can get a quick glimpse of the device over here in our hands-on time at IFA, or dive into the official product page. The Xperia acro S definitely looks like a high-grade piece of equipment, but how many people will realistically be buying it unlocked? How much longer will it be until we hear some carrier announcements? Would any of you be interested in picking this one up if it was subsidized? Anyone with the coin can pick up the Sony Xperia acro S online here with black and white models available. 
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| Deal of the Day: Incipio SILICRYLIC DualPro SHINE Hard Case for HTC One X Posted: 25 Sep 2012 06:52 AM PDT
The Incipio SILICRYLIC DualPro SHINE Hard Case is available for just $19.00, 46% off today only. Backed by our 60-day return policy and fast shipping! Never miss a deal. Sign up for Daily Deal alerts 
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| Major security vulnerability in some Samsung phones could trigger factory reset via web page Posted: 25 Sep 2012 05:40 AM PDT
Updated: Clarifications on which phones are affected, and the nature of the vulnerability. A major security vulnerability has been discovered in some TouchWiz-based Samsung smartphones, including the Galaxy S2 and certain Galaxy S3 models on older firmware. The bug was first demonstrated days ago by security researcher Ravi Borgaonkar at the Ekoparty security conference. It involves the use of a single line of code in a malicious web page to immediately trigger a factory reset without prompting the user, or allowing them to cancel the process. Even more serious is the possibility that this could be paired with a similar glitch to render the user's SIM card inoperable. And as the malicious code is in URI form, it can also be delivered via NFC or QR code. Our Verizon Galaxy S3 was not reset by the malicious code embedded in a web page, though we were able to trigger a reset using similar code tied to a hyperlink. Mobile dev Justin Case tells us the issue is fixed in the latest AT&T and international Galaxy S3 firmwares, though devices that have not been updated may remain vulnerable. Others have reported that devices like the Galaxy Ace and Galaxy Beam are also affected. As far as we can tell, though, the bug does not affect Samsung phones running stock Android, like the Galaxy Nexus. The vulnerability is the result of the way the native Samsung dialer app handles USSD codes and telephone links. USSD codes are special combinations of characters that can be entered in the keypad to perform certain functions, like enabling call forwarding, or accessing hidden menus on the device. On Samsung phones, there's also a USSD code for factory resetting the phone (and presumably another for nuking your SIM). This, combined with the fact that the dialer automatically runs telephone links that are passed to it by other apps, results in a particularly nasty issue for anyone unfortunate enough to run by a malicious web page. There are, of course, other applications of this glitch -- for example, the ability to automatically run numbers through the dialer could be used to call premium-rate phone numbers. But the fact that just visiting a web site could factory reset your phone, wipe your internal storage and nuke your SIM is a very serious issue. So we'd advise you update your software if you're running an S3, and if you're not, we'd recommend using a third-party dialer like Dialer One until all this has blown over. We've reached out to Samsung for comment on this issue, and we'll keep you updated with any information they provide. Source: @Paul Olvia; via SlashGear, @backlon, @teamandirc 
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| Samsung reportedly developing its own mobile browser, just as it always has done Posted: 25 Sep 2012 04:31 AM PDT
The Internet's in a bit of a tizzy this morning over reports from a Korean news that Samsung has begun development of its own WebKit-based mobile browser, to be used in future smartphones. ETNews reports that Samsung's browser will be offered as an alternative to Google Chrome on mobile. WebKit, of course, is the open-source software at the core of many mobile and desktop browsers, including Chrome, the native Android browser, and Safari. Today's report says Samsung has recruited several "WebKit professionals" in order to accelerate its browser efforts. The project is said to be based out of the Samsung Information Systems America R&D Center in Silicon Valley. While this would be a fairly noteworthy development, it's not as big a deal as you might think. Google has been pushing Chrome as the default browser for Android for a while now, and it comes pre-loaded on upcoming phones like the RAZR M and RAZR HD, as well as Samsung's own Galaxy Camera. Samsung's already shown that it wants to foster its own ecosystem rather than relying on Google's. Competing Samsung and Google services are numerous -- Music Hub versus Play Music, Video Hub versus Play Videos and TV, Samsung Apps versus Play Store. So with Google taking the initiative to push Chrome center stage, a reaction from Samsung was only natural. But today's news is only a natural progression of the work Samsung's been doing on its own native Android browser for the past several years. If you examine the bundled browser on a Samsung phone, you'll find it's quite far from the stock Android browser. Samsung was the first to introduce tiled rendering on Android in the Galaxy S2, and on the Galaxy S3 it offered its own unique tab control and power saving options. Other Android OEMs have done the same, so in a way they all have their own mobile browsers. And with Chrome replacing the stock browser as the default on Android handsets, we wouldn't be terribly surprised to see the likes of HTC and LG follow a similar path. It's possible Samsung might be developing its browser from the ground up, based upon WebKit, though today's article is light on technical details like this. What we think is more likely is that we'll find Samsung's own S Browser, based upon the speedy stock Jelly Bean browser, made available alongside Chrome on future Samsung Android handsets. And really, that's not all that different from the way things work right now. 
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| Samsung Galaxy Note coming to UK on Oct. 1 Posted: 25 Sep 2012 04:08 AM PDT
Samsung has announced that its latest smartphone/tablet hybrid, the Galaxy Note 2, will land on British shores next Monday, Oct. 1. Like the Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 10.1 before it, the Note 2 will be available first at the Samsung brand store at the Westfield shopping center in Stratford, London, as well as major UK networks, and independent retailers. That roughly fits with what we were hearing yesterday from Phones4U, which expects to fulfill Note 2 orders from Oct 2. The Galaxy Note 2 will become the first major non-Nexus Android device to hit store shelves with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. And with a 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos CPU and 2GB of RAM, it's no slouch in terms of hardware specs either. Like its predecessor, the Note 2 comes with a Wacom-based Samsung "S Pen," which this time around has been redesigned for easier grip and better on-screen action. For more on the Galaxy Note 2, check out our hands-on coverage from IFA. Samsung informs us that the Note 2 will be available in both marble white and titanium grey colors, so it looks like there'll be no waiting around for secondary color options, as was the case around Galaxy S3 launch time. Anyone picking up a launch day Galaxy Note 2 in the UK? Hit the comments and let us know. We've got today's press release in full after the break. 
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| 'Martian pink' Samsung Galaxy S3 is official, headed to South Korea Posted: 25 Sep 2012 02:21 AM PDT
New color launches in South Korea, as sales figures suggest six percent of the country's population now own a Galaxy S3It was leaked last week, but now it's official -- the Samsung Galaxy S3 will be launching in South Korea in a new "Martian pink" color. Currently, Samsung plans to make available just 100,000 of the pink S3s across South Korea's three main mobile operators. On its official Korean blog, the company quoted an official as saying (roughly translated) --
Samsung also notes that it's surpassed 3 million Galaxy S3 sales in its home territory, which is all the more impressive considering the country's population of just under 50 million. By our calculations, that suggests that six percent of all South Koreans now own a Galaxy S3. Internationally, sales of the phone stand at 20 million, and that's expected to rise to 30 million before the end of the year. Samsung's accustomed to strong sales of its handsets in Korea. Back in January it emerged that some 5 million Galaxy S2 phones had been sold in the country, the equivalent of 10 percent of the population. Samsung hasn't announced any plans to launch the new Martian pink S3 outside of South Korea, but given its track record with the pink Galaxy S2 and Galaxy Note, we wouldn't be surprised to see this a Martian pink invasion of Europe taking place in a few months' time. Source: Samsung (Korean, Translated) 
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| Nexus 7 and Google Play Books now available in Japan Posted: 25 Sep 2012 01:51 AM PDT
Google has a treat today for all Android fans in Japan. The Google Nexus 7 is now available in the country, and brings with it Google Play Books for the ride. Available from the Play Store for 19,800 Yen ($250) for the 16GB variant, it's good to see the same great pricing expanding across the world with the device. Despite rumors of an upcoming launch in India before the years end, this marks the first expansion into the Asian market following the Australian, North American and European launch markets. Google has even given the Nexus 7 its own Japanese launch page, which you can find by hitting the source link below. Source: @GoogleNexus, Google Japan 
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| Adobe's HTML5 Edge development suite goes live today Posted: 24 Sep 2012 07:42 PM PDT
Adobe has kicked off their Edge development tool suite today with the release of Edge Animate and PhoneGap -- tools designed to develop HTML5 and wean the Internet off of Flash, as well as package things up for smartphones. While this is exciting news for developers, its significance shouldn't be lost on the rest of us. I've been lamenting for weeks that Flash on the Internet won't ever die until easy to use and robust tools are provided, both to ease development time and costs as well as drive the platform (meaning pure HTML5 on the web) forward. The reason we ever needed Flash players on our computers or smartphones was because it was so easy to use it became the de facto web standard for interactive animations. Just because the Flash player for mobile was going the way of the dodo, didn't mean the existing content developers would abandon its use. Tools like the Edge suite are what it's going to take. In addition to the full IDE for creating the content, Adobe has released a few other tools to assist web developers. Edge Inspect is a cross platform debugger, Edge WebFonts bundles over 500 free fonts (including two new fonts from Adobe) and the one we're pretty interested in -- PhoneGap. PhoneGap is a cloud based utility that can take HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript created with tools like Edge Animate and bundle it all up in an application for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, webOS, BlackBerry OS, Bada, or Symbian. If you're a developer, be sure to head to Adobe's site, as Edge Animate is being offered for free as a promotion, and free beats $499 any day of the week. It looks like the gap left when Adobe killed off mobile Flash Player should be filling up nicely in short order. Quick -- someone tell Facebook. Source: Adobe 
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| Who needs a car head unit when you have a Galaxy S3? Posted: 24 Sep 2012 06:06 PM PDT
Looking for something to replace that lackluster 8-Track, cassette, or CD player that came with your car? Instead of using some goofy adapter or FM transmitter, why not replace the entire unit with a Samsung Galaxy S III? That was the train of thought for Steve, aka youtube user philstuffs. He had an old JVC head unit that just wasn't cutting it. So instead of spend the money on a stand-alone head unit for his vehicle, he used his trusty SGS3. He modified a standard car charger so the phone charges when the car is on and he hooked up the audio-out from his phone to the amplifier in his trunk. Simple and effective. Before you get on his case for the phone not being centered, he knows this. He states in his youtube video description that he still needs to come up with a "prettier facia" and is even thinking about using fiberglass. What I want to know is: How does he take the phone with him when he leaves the vehicle? From the looks of it, that facia he cooked up is removable, and he can unhook his SGS3 and be on his way. Not the most practical solution. Maybe his final design will be more practical and user friendly. Would you replace your entire head unit with your smartphone? How do you listen to music from your phone in your car? Let us know in the comments. Video after the break. 
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