Android Community |
- Samsung and LG going back to court over OLED displays
- CyanogenMod Music Player Apollo hits the Google Play Store
- Samsung planning three new colors for Galaxy S III Mini, Note II
- Nexus 4 gets the inevitable drop test
- Google Music signs deals with European music publishers
- LG Optimus G for AT&T and Sprint successfully unlocked
- Motorola RAZR i MT788 announced for Chinese Market
- Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 LTE gets Jelly Bean update plus VoLTE
- Android 4.2 deletes December events from People app
- ZTE Grand X Pro leaks on Twitter
- Nexus 4 gets teardown by iFixit – looks pretty inside and out
| Samsung and LG going back to court over OLED displays Posted: 19 Nov 2012 11:21 AM PST You’d think that with all of the lawsuits Samsung has been a part of lately, the company would want to take a little breather. You’d be wrong, apparently, because Samsung announced today that its hitting LG Display with a lawsuit. As it turns out, Samsung wants a court to invalidate a number of LG Display patents relating to OLED technology, an area where both companies fiercely compete.
This appears to be a direct response to LG Display’s lawsuit against Samsung from September, when LG sued the Galaxy S III maker for infringing its OLED patents. The Galaxy S line up and the Galaxy Tab were included in that patent suit, so you can see why Samsung might be looking for a bit of revenge. In all, Samsung wants a total of seven patents invalidated, which presumably includes those that LG claims have been infringed. Samsung says that these LG Display patents aren’t actually innovative, so therefore, LG Display shouldn’t have them. The two companies have a lot riding on their display divisions, with Samsung making displays for mobile phones and LG Display focusing more on TVs, among other things. They’re obviously both big players in the smartphone space, so expect to hear more about this lawsuit shortly. Samsung is no stranger to the courtroom. Aside from the lawsuit with LG in September, Samsung and Apple went to court in what was one of the biggest lawsuits of the year. Samsung ended up getting the short end of the stick in that lawsuit, but its legal battle with Apple is far from over, as there’s another Samsung-Apple lawsuit that’s scheduled to go before a judge in 2014. Stay tuned, as we’ll have more information for you once it’s available. [via Yonhap News]
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| CyanogenMod Music Player Apollo hits the Google Play Store Posted: 19 Nov 2012 10:59 AM PST The official music player and Google Music option for CyanogenMod since CM9, Apollo, is finally available for everyone, not just those running the popular Android custom ROM. The app is called Apollo and this weekend it finally arrived in the Google Play Store for all to enjoy. Their slogan is “illuminate your music” and their app will do just that for you.
Apollo offers everything and more that Google Music currently offers. It finds your album artwork for you (usually always accurate) has an awesome user interface that matches Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and beyond, and is just an awesome alternative for all the music fans out there. We first mentioned Apollo back in May, but now you can try it yourself.
Apollo is fast, functional and extremely customizable — just like CyanogenMod is — but sadly the market version comes with built-in ads. Apollo+ however is only $0.99 and gives you everything completely ad free. For now their initial launch is pretty awesome. It comes stock with the black color theme, but also has white and many other themes for those interested. They also state multiple updates will be coming soon. The images below are just a few to give you an idea of the layout and user interface for Apollo, and once some updates arrive we can expect tablet specific features, new layouts, customizable widgets and more. For now you can pin an entire album or song to your homescreens, use their current and awesome widget, and they even support gapless playback. The new version in the Play Store is different from the current versions bundled with CM10, so we suggest giving them both a try and seeing what you like best. Enjoy that Apollo Music Player guys!       [via Play Store]
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| Samsung planning three new colors for Galaxy S III Mini, Note II Posted: 19 Nov 2012 10:31 AM PST Samsung loves its variants, as evidenced by the fact that it has a total of six different colors available for the Galaxy S III. The Galaxy S III isn’t the only phone getting love though, as it appears that Samsung is gearing up to launch new colors for the Note II and the Galaxy S III Mini. Spotted by SamMobile, both phones should be getting three new colors soon, with Samsung set to show them all off at MWC 2013.
The Galaxy S III Mini will be getting new variants in Titan Gray, Onyx Black, and Garnet Red, while the Note II will be painted Amber Brown, Topaz Blue, and Ruby Wine. It’s worth pointing out that a few of these colors have already been featured on the Samsung Galaxy S III, so looking at those should give you a pretty good idea of what the Galaxy S III Mini and the Note II will look like with those hues. According to SamMobile’s source, Samsung will begin shipping the new Galaxy S III Mini variants either next month or in early 2013, while the new Note II colors won’t ship until some undetermined date next year. As if that wasn’t enough, SamMobile has also uncovered La Fleur Editions of the Galaxy S III, the Galaxy S DUOS, the Galaxy Ace DUOS, and the Galaxy Ace II (pictured above). These feature a flower print design on the back for a lean that’s a little more feminine, and they should be available sometime in January. Other than the flower print pattern on the back, these La Fleur phones will have the exact same innards as their standard counterparts, so the only changes you’ll be getting are cosmetic. So, it looks like a pretty wide array of Samsung devices will be getting new colors relatively soon, but unfortunately it sounds like most of them won’t be launching in time for the holiday season. Will you be picking up any of these new color variants?
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| Nexus 4 gets the inevitable drop test Posted: 19 Nov 2012 09:47 AM PST For some odd reason this has continued to be a growing trend with basically every smartphone or tablet that gets released. Drop tests are becoming the norm these days and now the brand new LG Nexus 4 has just received its share of drops. Spoiler: it doesn’t do too well, just like most phones. For those that enjoy these odd videos showing the obvious, take a peek below.
What it all comes down to is you probably shouldn’t drop your smartphone, ever. If the unlikely and sad moment happens where you indeed do drop your smartphone, pray that it isn’t cracked in some form or another as the screens are only getting bigger and bigger, and thus more fragile. I’m just going to go out on a limb here and recommend you buy a case. Either way, users still seem to be uploading drop test videos for basically every new phone. So we might as well take a look at just how well the Nexus 4 handles being dropped from waist height, as well as about 6 ft from your ear. As usual we have multiple camera angles, slow-motion video recording, and absolute silence as the smartphone collides with the world of concrete. Enjoy the video even though it’s not in English. We’ve been hearing various reports around the interwebs that LG and Google’s new Nexus 4 isn’t all that durable — even if the build quality is LG’s best yet. The problem isn’t with build quality, rather it’s the odd glass panel on the rear of the device. Didn’t they learn that lesson with the iPhone 4? XDA users are reporting little cracks and damage without even dropping their devices. We’ll be sure to monitor this as the device starts landing on more doorsteps, but so far it doesn’t look like the back is too durable. Keep a death grip on that smartphone guys, or just buy that official Nexus 4 bumper case from Google. Device Info
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| Google Music signs deals with European music publishers Posted: 19 Nov 2012 08:50 AM PST Google has reached licensing deals with representatives of European music publishers, artists and composers. This deal will give Google Music access to 5.5 million musical works. These songs span a total of 35 countries, which opens up a ton of options for Google. The deal with Armonia, the alliance of French, Italian and Spanish licensing groups, is considered the broadest of its kind.
This deal does not necessarily open cross-country licensing of music. Meaning, it does not necessarily mean Google can use the deal to sell Italian songs in the US, for example. Of course, we need more details about the deal to know exactly what kinds of ways Google can leverage it. Either way, this is a big deal in the music licensing world, and it could help Google a great deal. The biggest difference between this and the way Apple and Amazon do similar deals is that those companies typically go country-by-country, and are not as sweeping as Google’s. Google also rounded up the British and American catalog of Universal Music Publishing and Sony’s Latin songs. Hopefully this deal opens up Google Music to a slew of countries where it was not available before. Only time will tell what comes from this. [via BusinessWeek]
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| LG Optimus G for AT&T and Sprint successfully unlocked Posted: 19 Nov 2012 07:51 AM PST If you’ve been on the fence about grabbing an LG Optimus G because of concerns about the device being unlocked, you can stop worrying. The folks over at XDA-Developers have been hard at work, and they have figured out a method for unlocking both the AT&T and Sprint versions of the device. However, the unlock is a private beta, so for the time being, it is only being distributed to a selected group of testers.
One thing that they make sure to point out is that once this goes live, it’s not recommended to update your device OTA. LG could choose to issue a patch that would cause the unlock to break, and it may not be something that could be broken through again. This could actually lead to your device being bricked, and no one wants that to happen. mrcubed did not say when the final release will be made available. Presumably, they are going to want to test it extensively during the private beta, and go from there. Hopefully, they release it to the public soon, but we shall have to be patient for the time being. We will keep you posted. [via XDA-Developers]
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| Motorola RAZR i MT788 announced for Chinese Market Posted: 19 Nov 2012 07:31 AM PST More and more smartphone creators are looking to break their way into the Chinese market. With the reports of Android’s complete and utter domination, it’s no surprise; clearly people in China love some Android. Reports came out that HTC was brining the DLX to market in China, and now, Motorla is following along with the RAZR i MT788.
Of course, with a new market, there is bound to be some changes to the device, and Motorola has made some important ones to this particular phone. The most obvious is the chassis of the phone, which looks different from the western version. The battery is also smaller at only 1,735mAh instead of the RAZR i’s 2,000mAh. It also comes with only 4GB of built-in memory instead of 16GB. The last notable change comes to the front-facing camera. It has actually been bumped from .3-megapixels to 1.3-megapixels. The price has not been announced for the device yet, but interested buyers in the Chinese markets will be able to grab one from China Mobile in mid-December. [via Engadget]
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| Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 LTE gets Jelly Bean update plus VoLTE Posted: 19 Nov 2012 06:20 AM PST Samsung is bringing the most sought after software update to Samsung Galaxy 10.1 LTE devices. The update also adds simultaneous data and voice to the LTE toting devices. The new update is coming to South Korean carriers initially, and will hopefully spread out to other places from there.
The update also adds improved S Pen functionality such as the new Easy Clip that debuted on the Galaxy Note II. The update also adds Air-View, which grants a preview of photo and video galleries, message content, calendar entries, and other data when the pen is hovered over them. It also adds Quick Command, which triggers new emails, searches, and other features with an upward swipe. VoLTE address a common concern for LTE devices. Now, if you need to make voice call from your tablet, you will be able to do so without losing your data. With a smartphone, not being able to call and use the Internet is acceptable, since often you will have the phone pressed to your ear, but a tablet, you are probably using a hands free device, and thus, may need to use Internet. VoLTE solves that, but it does require carrier support to work. Samsung has not mentioned the actually rollout dates for the update. [via SlashGear]
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| Android 4.2 deletes December events from People app Posted: 19 Nov 2012 05:50 AM PST Android users with important dates to remember in December have an issue they need to know about. Android 4.2 has a weird bug that is causing a problem with the People app. The entire month of December has disappeared from the calendar in the app.
The good news is that other calendars within devices are not affected by the flaw, so you can store your important reminders for gifts there. Supposedly, this flaw exists in all Android 4.2 devices, so if you own a Galaxy 4 or Nexus 10 tablet, chances are you will see this problem. Looks like the Grinch is trying to steal Christmas via Android devices. Google has not issued official word on the matter. However, this is Google we’re talking about, so you can assume that fix is in the works. In the meantime, just be aware that if you store dates in the People app, you could miss some important dates. As always, we will keep you posted and let you know when a fix for Android 4.2 comes along. [via SlashGear]
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| ZTE Grand X Pro leaks on Twitter Posted: 18 Nov 2012 12:18 PM PST The image below is a new smartphone from the folks at ZTE being called the Grand X Pro. Those guys from the popular Twitter @evleaks have been quite busy this week, and now have released another image for us all to enjoy. This time around we sure don’t have any specs or details, but can clearly see a nice smartphone and on-screen navigation buttons.
The device is the ZTE Grand X Pro, but other than the crisp image that has leaked we have no additional details. No specs, carrier, or anything else for that matter. We do see a neat little volume rocker on the side and that’s about all. Looking at the image on-screen we’re guessing Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, but could possibly launch with Jelly Bean. Earlier this year ZTE released the Grand X LTE (see our hands-on) coming with a 4.3-=inch qHD display, dual-core Qualcomm processor, 1GB of RAM and Android 4.0 ICS, so it was pretty mid-range. Being that they’ve named this new unknown device the “Pro” hints at an upgrade of some sort — but again the details aren’t clear at this point. The guys from @evleaks have been pretty consistent with their awesome level of details and accurate leaks, so we’re assuming we’ll see and hear more about the Grand X Pro very soon. For now all we have to go on is the leaked press image, and will update as soon as we get more information.
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| Nexus 4 gets teardown by iFixit – looks pretty inside and out Posted: 17 Nov 2012 01:04 PM PST The brand spankin new LG Nexus 4 is certainly a pretty smartphone, but now we're getting a look at the inside and seeing it's just as pretty under the hood. The folks from iFixit just finished giving the Nexus 4 the usual teardown treatment and we get to see everything that makes this quad-core Android run. As usual we have a comprehensive breakdown of the hardware, as well as some neat photos of that wireless charging battery cover.
These teardowns are always neat to check out simply to see how everything's neatly packed into these smartphones we use daily. Not only that, but the new LG Nexus 4 isn't supposed to be opened up by the average consumer, even if there's little screws on the bottom teasing you with the idea. Under the hood you'll find the non-replaceable battery and LG's wireless charging parts.
As usual this is more than just for fun, iFixit rates the Nexus 4 in terms of "repairability" a 7 out of 10, which is actually a pretty good score considering the battery isn't replaceable. Just as a comparison, the Galaxy Nexus received a 6. Overall the Nexus 4 earned points for being easily opened and accessed with the simple T5 screws on bottom. It also lost points with the relatively hard to access and replace battery, as mentioned above. iFixit mentions the display is fused together with the front protective glass and digitizer, as usual, but also glued to the actual display frame. This makes it extra durable and sturdy but makes replacement expensive as well as a task not meant for a first-timer. As usual iFixit has some excellent photography skills, so you can enjoy some awesome photos of the Nexus 4, as well as the Galaxy Nexus, iPhone 5 and a few others before they start the breakdown. Last but certainly not least, the LG Nexus 4 does indeed have a 4G LTE chip imbedded deep in the motherboard. While it isn't capable of 4G LTE at the moment, the hardware exists. Interesting factiod right there. Maybe we'll see it come to Verizon or AT&T in the future, but that's doubtful. [via iFixit]
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