Android Community |
- ASUS Transformer Prime update rolling out with Gmail and keyboard fixes
- ZTE Grand Era LTE flaunts its dual-mode LTE
- Google Music adds matching for US-based users
- NVIDIA Tegra 4 details leak, confirm A15 and 6x the power of Tegra 3
- Wunderlist 2.0 update now available in Google Play
- Secret Santa visits SlashGear with a Nexus 7 Giveaway
- Samsung 3,000 mAh Galaxy S3 extended battery now available for pre-order
- SnapKeys SI launches for Android in private beta
- Polaroid said to be working on an Android camera with an interchangeable lens
- Huawei Ascend D2 image leak shows the Emotion UI
- Samsung Galaxy Grand smartphone announced
- Tumblr for Android app update brings tablet support
- Android Community Nightly: December 17th, 2012
- Verizon lighting up 4G LTE in 16 more markets December 20th
- Eric Schmidt interviews Stephen Colbert and talks Google Play
- Verizon Galaxy Nexus Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean (CM10.1) hands-on
- T-Mobile Galaxy Note 2 update coming on December 19
- Simple Android app teased for “early” next year
- HTC M7 leak shows a 1080p 4.7-inch display with Jelly Bean and Sense 5
- CyanogenMod 10.1 nightlies land for Verizon Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7
| ASUS Transformer Prime update rolling out with Gmail and keyboard fixes Posted: 18 Dec 2012 11:13 AM PST All you Transformer Prime owners will be happy to know the folks from ASUS are busy pushing out an update to your tablets today. Sadly this isn’t Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean, but you’ll be happy to learn they’ve fixed multiple bugs, improved browser performance and fixed a slew of other minor issues. Full changelog is available below.
Today ASUS is rolling out an update to the Transformer Prime TF201 quad-core Tegra 3 tablet that brings it to version 10.4.2.18 and should only take but a minute. While we don’t have any big changes, there’s a few fixes that are pretty important for many users. The Problems with the Dutch and Spanish keyboards has been fixed — which was causing quite a bit of headaches. The update includes changes to the ASUS IME keyboard. They’ve patched the errors in the Dutch and Spanish keyboard that was preventing some characters from being typed. Then ASUS fixed the bug in Gmail that wasn’t allowing “Show quoted text" in threads with more than two emails. A small bug with a big problem. Polaris Office was updated, then all you Chinese users will be happy to know you can now connect to a WiFi access point with Chinese characters in the title. If you were having issues, that could be why you couldn’t connect to your home WiFi. They’ve also improved some video playback issues, as well as increased performance and stability in the browser, but that’s all we’ve heard on that front. The update isn’t anything major, but it’s nice to see these quick bug fixers coming from ASUS. Hopefully we get the latest Jelly Bean soon, but for now this will do just fine. Let us know how things are post update, and if you notice anything else new. Check for updates right this moment. Enjoy! Device Info
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 [via Android Police] |
| ZTE Grand Era LTE flaunts its dual-mode LTE Posted: 18 Dec 2012 10:41 AM PST ZTE today revealed its first dual-mode LTE smartphone in Hong Kong, the ZTE Grand Era LTE. This phone is billed to be part of the launch of China Mobile Hong Kong’s first commercial converged TD-LTE / LTE FDD network, so it should end up being a pretty big deal over there. While dual-LTE is undoubtedly going to be the star of this show, there are some pretty solid specs to boost that functionality up.
With the ZTE Grand Era LTE, you’ll have a dual-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz running the show, along with 1GB of RAM. The 4.5-inch multitouch screen is covered in Corning Gorilla Glass to make sure it stands up to some abuse and is displaying at 1280×720, so you’ve got a phone with a HD display here. It’ll also be running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box, but that will be partially hidden away behind ZTE’s Mifavor User Interface, which hasn’t been officially revealed yet. To hop on Hong Kong’s new network, the ZTE Grand Era LTE will benefit from the company’s new FDD/TDD dual-mode MF93E uFi device and MF825 data card. Both the device and the data card have enjoyed a nearly 33% decrease in size and power consumption, which has the added bonus of making them both faster and smaller. That doesn’t sound bad at all, but don’t expect to see it hit North American shores anytime soon. In any case, it’s pretty neat that ZTE is planning to launch a dual-LTE phone to support China Mobile Hong Kong’s new converged network, so this phone might just take off as the LTE craze continues to spread. This definitely isn’t the last time we’ll be hearing about the ZTE Grand Era LTE, so keep it here at Android Community for more. [via SlashGear] |
| Google Music adds matching for US-based users Posted: 18 Dec 2012 10:37 AM PST Google Music launched in Europe about a month ago, and when it arrived it did so with a feature that was not available for US-based users. That feature was music scanning and matching and in fact, it remained unavailable for US users until today. Simply put, Google has officially announced that those in the US now have access to music matching.
This feature should make things easier for those just getting started with Google Music. After all, with matching you now have the potential for faster upload times. Well, faster set-up times may be more accurate as the matching can potentially save you from some uploading. As Google notes, they will “scan your collection and quickly rebuild it in the cloud.” The scanned and matched music will be streamed back at 320 kbps. Also worth noting, Google Music was, and remains available for free. All said and done, this seems like a win for existing Google Music users and it should also be enough for those who held back because they had large music collections and were turned off by the long upload times. In fact, the one question that seems to remain is whether or not these matched tracks will count against your 20,000 track limit. We suspect they do, however given you are not technically uploading any music, it would be nice if those were not counted towards the 20,000. Of course, we have to wonder how many users are actually uploading 20,000 tracks. [via Google+] |
| NVIDIA Tegra 4 details leak, confirm A15 and 6x the power of Tegra 3 Posted: 18 Dec 2012 10:22 AM PST The upcoming next generation quad-core chipset from NVIDIA has apparently leaked in a set of slides today, confirming the Tegra 4 processor along with some mighty impressive specs. The leaked slide details the SoC as “Wayne” and shows a significant increase in graphics cores, USB 3.0 support, 28nm processor fabrication for more efficiency, and much much more. They’re touting 6x the performance of Tegra 3. Read on for the full details.
The image above, leaked by Chiphell, should give you most of the details you need. NVIDIA will finally be moving to the new and impressive Cortex-A15 platform for the Tegra 4, keeping four cores under the hood, and adding 72 graphics cores for some of the best mobile graphics to date. That’s some serious Bruce Wayne power there Batman! Samsung’s recent Exynos 5250 powering the Nexus 10 is currently the only Cortex-A15 based mobile processor available, and it’s only a dual-core. NVIDIA is looking to beat the competition by being first to the A15 with a quad-core set up. As usual NVIDIA will incorporate their 4-PLUS-1 technology with a 5th battery saving core as well. Qualcomm’s been busy with their own quad-core S4 Pro Krait, but if these specs are any indication they’ll have some serious NVIDIA competition next year. Some of the specs that stood out aside from the A15 based 28nm processor fabrication is the USB 3.0, 4k resolution support, 2560×1440 encoding, dual-channel DDR3 RAM, and of course the last one being 72 GPU’s (graphics processing units). The slide touts the Tegra 4 as being 6 times more powerful than the already impressive Tegra 3 we all know and love right now. NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 was left behind for most smartphones due to not supporting 4G LTE, but this time around they’ll be well positioned to take on the others in the processor game. We’re expecting more details at CES in January, or Mobile World Congress in February. It will be an exciting first few months in 2013. [via SlashGear] |
| Wunderlist 2.0 update now available in Google Play Posted: 18 Dec 2012 10:03 AM PST Wunderlist has been updated and the most recent release can be found in Google Play. And while some may say this app had been overdue considering the previous update came back in June, this 2.0 release appears to have been worth the wait. Yup, Wunderlist has gone up to version 2.0 and along with a fancy new number comes some new features and a new look.
That being said, lets get the basics out of the way — Wunderlist 2.0 is free to download, free to use and requires Android 2.2 or later for use. For those not familiar with Wunderlist, it is a to-do app. But perhaps more important, a to-do app that also syncs with the web as well as with your Mac or Windows computer. Some of the new features include reminders as well as recurring tasks and subtasks. Other goodies that have come along with v2.0 include improvements in terms of speed and stability, a new background collection, improved widget, Smart Lists, advanced sharing of lists over Facebook, email or phone and what is being described as a new “supercharged” Cloud Sync. The app has also gotten notifications which can be delivered over push or email. In terms of notifications, Wunderlist also has the in-app notifications as well as a new Notification Center. All said and done, if you were using the previous version of Wunderlist you are going to want to grab the 2.0 release sooner rather than later. And for those who have considered, but not yet begun using Wunderlist, this 2.0 release seems like as good a time as any to give it a shot. [via wunderkinder] |
| Secret Santa visits SlashGear with a Nexus 7 Giveaway Posted: 18 Dec 2012 09:40 AM PST Tis the season! With plenty of holiday cheer to go around our good friend Santa has arrived a bit early to offer up a few Nexus 7 3G tablets to a few lucky readers. For those interested in getting their own little gift from none other than Secret Santa, head to our sister site SlashGear for their Nexus 7 Holiday Giveaway!
This year Santa has the awesome and ever so popular Nexus 7 3G HSPA+ tablet and a $25 Google Play gift card up for grabs. Not just one either, SlashGear has five Secret Santa packages they’ll be sending out this year to lucky readers. We will be sending a few out before Christmas, and the rest at New Years to kick off 2013 right. Read on for the details. Start by reading our Nexus 7 review should you have any questions on the Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean quad-core Tegra 3 tablet, then you’ll be heading to the SlashGear Facebook thread to kick off your chances at winning one. Don’t forget to like SlashGear, and while you’re at it like Android Community on Facebook too. For full details on how and when you can win your own Nexus 7 + mobile and a $25 Google Play Store gift card head to the official SlashGear Holiday Nexus 7 Giveaway! This giveaway starts on Monday, December 17th, 2012 and runs until Wednesday, December 28th at midnight. We’ll pick a collection of our favorite entries and from that set we’ll choose five winners at random, three of them in the next three days then two more on the 28th – we’ll announce the winners as soon as we get in contact with them – be sure to have your Facebook settings open to messages from SlashGear!
Prizes consist of a pack including one Google Nexus 7 + mobile tablet and a $25 Google Play gift card. There are no other alternative for prize winners unless this prizes become unavailable, in which case SlashGear reserves the right to substitute another prize of equal or greater value. Giveaway provided by SlashGear. Prizes provided by Secret Santa for SlashGear readers! Any questions regarding this giveaway should be directed to giveaway [AT] slashgear.com. |
| Samsung 3,000 mAh Galaxy S3 extended battery now available for pre-order Posted: 18 Dec 2012 09:19 AM PST Samsung has launched a larger extended battery option for those carrying a Galaxy S3. The battery is 3,000 mAh, which will add an additional 900 mAh over the stock battery. The one catch, while the batteries are official replacements from Samsung, they are still only available in pre-order status.
And while we expect to begin seeing these batteries available with more retailers, the availability seems to be limited to those in the UK. The retailer is Mobile Fun and they have the battery priced at £39.99 (including VAT). Also worth mentioning, while these are available for pre-order today, Mobile Fun has not offered any estimate in terms of when they may begin shipping. The battery ships with a replacement back cover, which means you will need to order based on color — making sure you pick either blue or white depending on the Galaxy S3 you are carrying. Keep in mind though, given the battery is larger in mAh, it is also larger in physical size. In fact, the battery will stick out a bit further as compared to the stock 2,100 mAh battery and cover. And given these are official Samsung made batteries, they will also feature support for NFC which means you will be able to continue making payments using Wallet or controlling your phone using the Samsung TecTiles. Bottom line here, if the 2,100 mAh stock battery was not cutting it for you and you would prefer one larger as opposed to swapping two 2,100 mAh batteries — now may be a good time to place that pre-order. |
| SnapKeys SI launches for Android in private beta Posted: 18 Dec 2012 08:34 AM PST SnapKeys SI has launched for Android as of today. SnapKeys SI, for those unfamiliar is a keyboard replacement. More specifically, a keyboard replacement that is said to be social, simple, fast and intelligent. And as you will likely see in the image and video included in this post — SnapKeys SI is a keyboard replacement with a rather unique look.
Touching on that look, the folks at SnapKeys note that because the keyboard has only four keys and a few letters it becomes a simple and intuitive way to enter text. For right now we are going to have to take their word. As of right now, the SnapKeys SI app has launched and is available only as a private beta. The keyboard shows four vowels; A, O, I and E along with eight other letters that you use most often. You will begin your typing by hitting one of the boxes that contains the letter you need. And if for some reason you need a letter that is not shown, you tap in the middle, between the boxes. The space bar is on the right-hand side and the back space key is over on the left side. Of course, as one would assume given the limited keys displayed, SnapKeys SI will predict your words as you type. Word suggestions appear on the right-hand side with the word you are typing appearing in blue. Special characters can be accessed by pressing and holding the space or back space keys. And similar to other predictive solutions, SnapKeys SI will learn your typing style over time. With that, those looking to give SnapKeys SI a look will need to head on over to the SnapKeys website, click the blue Download Beta button and fill out the short form. From that point, it looks like you will be added to the beta list |
| Polaroid said to be working on an Android camera with an interchangeable lens Posted: 18 Dec 2012 07:57 AM PST Samsung has recently released the Galaxy Camera and Nikon has Coolpix S800, and well, assuming this latest rumors proves to be accurate, it looks like Polaroid will soon be getting into the Android based point-and-shoot camera game. The Polaroid camera is said to be the IM1836 which will feature an 18.1 megapixel sensor.
That being said, this isn’t the first time we are hearing about an Android camera coming from Polaroid, however it is looking like an announcement may be coming during CES. But before we get ahead of ourselves, lets focus on what we have already seen in terms of the Polaroid IM1836. To begin with, the camera is said to feature interchangeable lens. And what may be exciting for some, this would make the IM1836 the first Android camera with an interchangeable lens set-up. That bit aside, this latest round of details comes by way of the folks over at Photo Rumors who have discovered the above image on a Russian social media site. The image offers a decent look at the front as well as the back of the camera. And speaking of the back, that display measures in at 3.5-inches. Some of the other specs are believed to include Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, Wi-Fi, HDMI-out, headphone jack and a pop-up flash. Other goodies include the camera having blink detection, the ability to take panorama images and using a microSD card for storage. So far there has been no mention as to whether or not Polaroid will have a model available with cellular connectivity. [via The Verge] |
| Huawei Ascend D2 image leak shows the Emotion UI Posted: 18 Dec 2012 07:19 AM PST While we have already seen the Huawei Ascend D2 unveiled for those in China, it is looking like a global release may be coming sooner rather than later. In fact, the latest in the rumor mill suggests Huawei will be showing off the Ascend D2 at CES in January.
We have yet to see anything in terms of which carriers would be getting the handset, or how much they would be selling the handset for. Taking a step back from individual carriers, we haven’t even seen which markets will be getting the handset. As for the part about the CES announcement, that reportedly comes by way of comments from Huawei execs on Twitter-like services. The Ascend D2 will feature a 5-inch (1920 x 1080) 1080p HD display along with a massive 3,000 mAh battery, 13 megapixel rear-facing camera and a quad-core 1.5GHz processor. The handset will be running Jelly Bean with a custom skin on top. The custom skin will be the new Emotion UI from Huawei. And thanks to the leaked press image, you can get an ever-so-brief look at what it will look like.
That all being said, there is obviously plenty we still need to learn about the Ascend D2. Nonetheless, this is one that looks like it could be an interesting device. We are more than a bit curious to see which, if any of the US based carriers will pick up this handset. Uncertainty aside, one thing seems clear — 5-inches seems to be the new normal for smartphones these days. [via Google+ (unwired view)] |
| Samsung Galaxy Grand smartphone announced Posted: 18 Dec 2012 06:42 AM PST Samsung has officially announced the latest Galaxy branded smartphone, the Galaxy Grand. They were pretty forthcoming in terms of specs, however Samsung was quiet in terms of when the handset would be available for sale, which markets the device would be available in and how much it would cost.
Simply put, we can review the specs for the Galaxy Grand, however we are going to have to reserve any excitement until we hear some more details. That being said, the Galaxy Grand will arrive running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean with TouchWiz and the latest versions of the Samsung Hubs preinstalled.
Some of the other software goodies include Direct Call, Smart Alert, Popup Video, AllShare Play and S Video. Direct Call is a nifty feature, one that allows you to make a call by simply raising the phone to your ear. Smart Alert deals with alerts, Popup Video will allow the user to play a video in a window while still doing other tasks, AllShare Play will let you share content across Samsung devices and S Video lets you take control of your phone using your voice. Moving over to the hardware side and we have a handset that looks strikingly similar to the Galaxy S3. Not to say that is bad though. The specs include a 5-inch display, dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot (with support for cards up to 64GB in size), a 2,100 mAh battery, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and HSPA+ 850/1900/2100MHz and EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900MHz connectivity. Otherwise, the Galaxy Grand will have a 2 megapixel front-facing camera, an 8 megapixel rear-facing camera and come available in a dual-SIM (GT-I9082) and single-SIM (GT-I9080) variety. [via SlashGear] |
| Tumblr for Android app update brings tablet support Posted: 18 Dec 2012 06:21 AM PST Those using Tumblr and carrying around an Android tablet will be happy to learn that an update has arrived. And yes, it does involve proper support for Android tablets. That alone sounds like some good news, however the app also brings a few other goodies. Not to mention, we cannot help but smile just a little considering the folks at Tumblr rolled-out proper tablet support for Android before they offered an iPad version.
Jab at iOS and iPad users aside, the latest version of the Tumblr app is currently available in Google Play. This update brought the app up to version 3.2.0 where it remains available for free and with support for Android 2.2 or later. In addition to the tablet support, Tumblr v3.2.0 brings a new Following screen and some design updates. All said and done, the update looks like it will be welcomed. In fact, the one catch we can see — while the app does run and look nice on a tablet, you will be stuck using the app in portrait mode. We hope to see that change in the future, but for now, the addition of tablet support is the plus that overrides that quirk. Not to mention, we suspect not everyone will be bothered by that. Otherwise, aside from those few tweaks, the Tumblr app will still allow you to create and edit posts, manage multiple Tumblr blogs, view and rely to messages, customize tweets and find people to follow from your address book. Bottom line here, if you are using Tumblr and have an Android tablet, this is likely an update you will want to grab. [via Tumblr] |
| Android Community Nightly: December 17th, 2012 Posted: 17 Dec 2012 07:00 PM PST It was another exciting Monday here at Android Community and we had plenty of Android news to share with the world. Hopefully you all enjoyed the weekend, and we have just one more to go before we can all celebrate Christmas and spend times with friends and family. Starting off with news, Amazon is offering the Galaxy Note II for dirt cheap these holidays, and Google has started a new promotion offering daily deals throughout the rest of the year.
Yup, Google was in the news a bunch again today. As mentioned above they’ll be offering deals each day until 2013 starts — so you’ll want to keep an eye on the Play Store daily until 2012 comes to a close. Google’s chairman Eric Schmidt was in the news again today, only being funny while interviewing Stephen Colbert from Comedy Central. Then Google UK head had some negative words towards LG regarding Nexus 4 supply — or lack thereof.
Samsung made the rounds again this afternoon with the US Cellular Galaxy S III getting Jelly Bean next week. Their Galaxy Tab 2 is set to come in the same AT&T Garnet Red color soon, then the T-Mobile Galaxy Note II is getting an update this week bringing bug fixes and multi-window view features. Last but certainly not least the Samsung Galaxy Nexus from Verizon finally got Android 4.2.1 — just not officially. CyanogenMod 10.1 now supports the Verizon Galaxy Nexus, so check out Android 4.2.1 with the Verizon Gnex in our hands-on video. Now for some random news from today. Sony detailed their Jelly Bean update plans for next year, and their 5-inch 1080p Xperia YUGA leaked into the wild. Talking about 1080p HD displays HTC’s flagship M7 leaked again, this time confirming it’ll have an amazing 4.7-inch 1080p HD display. That’s a lot of pixels! Last but not least Verizon LTE is headed to more places in Arizona and Iowa, and the visually stunning and fun shooter for Android Dead Trigger received a Christmas update. Shoot some zombiefied Santa’s and enjoy yourself. Have a great night! |
| Verizon lighting up 4G LTE in 16 more markets December 20th Posted: 17 Dec 2012 03:55 PM PST We’ve been talking quite a bit about Verizon lately. Between launching multiple new 4G LTE devices, including the Galaxy Camera, to updating markets across the US with 4G LTE speeds. Last week we reported many new cities in the northwest were set to receive 4G LTE, but today Verizon has announced another 16 cities to add to their ever growing list.
Starting on December 20th Verizon will be turning on their blazing fast 4G LTE network services in multiple cities throughout Washington and Oregon. We later learned that December 20th they’d also be firing up a few more in Utah and Idaho. Apparently that wasn’t all either because today they’ve announced another 16 locations. Talk about not slowing down anytime soon! Verizon is miles ahead of their original projections. They’ve passed all their goals, exceeded 400 4G LTE markets, and is widely available to millions and millions of Americans. They’ve recently celebrated 2 years since launching LTE, and expect their rollout to be 100% complete by the middle of next year. That’s less than 3 years to give their entire “can you hear me now” network next-gen “long term evolution” 4G speeds on their smartphones and tablets.
On top of all the other regions and cities we announced last week, Verizon Wireless just confirmed the 16 new locations listed above. Stating that they’ll all also be able to enjoy 4G LTE on the 20th of December too. A quick little Christmas gift for the millions of users in Iowa and Arizona. Stay tuned for more details and expect these LTE speeds to show up soon. |
| Eric Schmidt interviews Stephen Colbert and talks Google Play Posted: 17 Dec 2012 02:53 PM PST One of my favorite late night TV hosts Stephen Colbert from The Colbert Report is in the Android news world today after being interviewed by Google’s own Eric Schmidt. As I’m sure many of you know (or don’t) Colbert is known for his outrageous comedy and talks of politics, interviews with celebrities and more. Today however in a comedy skit Colbert takes a stop by Google‘s NY headquarters to be interviewed by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, and it’s certainly worth a watch.
We won’t be talking Android here too much, nor about his Super PAC, but instead about Stephen Colbert’s new book. For comedy sakes he takes some funny and laugh filled questions from Google employees as he and Schmidt try to keep a straight face, and it’s quite enjoyable. For those that watch The Colbert Report regularly this will be funny, for everyone else — he’s a little odd. The video below is about an hour long, so you can enjoy it if you choose but the fun part here being that Eric Schmidt took a few opportunities to talk about Android, the Google Play Store, and bash Apple at the same time. Something we’ve been seeing from Schmidt a lot as of late. At times I wish he’d stop interrupting and trying to be funny, but he did quite well considering Colbert does this nightly. The good stuff starts about 8 minutes in. Eric Schmidt mentioned "I should not turn this into an Android commercial," but after a few moments he got his plugs in where possible. Schmidt used the moment to talk up Android over Apple, and that one rainforest company (Amazon). Stating Android is currently "five times bigger than the iPhone." The funny interview was all about Stephen Colbert’s new book (don’t ask) but Google’s chairman took that moment to attack Apple too. Mentioning that offering his new book “in the Google Play Store people will actually be reading your book." They briefly made jokes about Android, Google, the Nexus 7 and a few other things so it certainly is worth a watch if you’re a fan of Android or The Colbert Report. Hit the links below to see everything Eric Schmidt’s had to say lately regarding Android and Apple. [via AllThingsD] |
| Verizon Galaxy Nexus Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean (CM10.1) hands-on Posted: 17 Dec 2012 02:00 PM PST Today we have quite the treat for all you Galaxy Nexus users. As we all know, the Verizon Gnex is the only Nexus still hanging out in the Android 4.1 era, while Google’s updated all the rest to the latest and greatest Jelly Bean. While Verizon updated their Galaxy Nexus back in September, we’re all still awaiting Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean. Today however thanks to CyanogenMod we have it right now, so lets take a peek below.
Earlier today we reported that the CyanogenMod team has officially added nightly support for the Verizon Galaxy Nexus (toro) to their CM10.1 Android 4.2.1 builds. So we decided a quick hands-on video was in order. For everyone that is rocking a Galaxy Nexus and for some odd reason hasn’t rooted and tossed a custom ROM on her, this is certainly a reason to do so. For those wondering what’s new with Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean see our what’s new post. That should give you an idea of what to expect, not counting all the awesome features of CyanogenMod. Below is a quick video showing off what’s new in Android, and not specifically CyanogenMod. As you saw above, Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean brings plenty to the table that improves it over the previous version. Google Now continues to improve each and everyday, especially for 4.2 users, expandable notifications are awesome and makes calling back or replying to texts a breeze, and of course gesture-based typing. Google’s introduced their own Swype and SwiftKey Flow competitor for those looking to glide across their screen to type — and it works wonderfully. Then of course we have the new Photosphere 360 degree panorama photos. Last but certainly not least is the quick settings panel easily accessed from the notification bar. Swipe down with one finger for regular notifications, two fingers for the quick settings. This saves precious space in the notification bar for informative expanding notifications, and lets us quickly toggle to change settings with ease. While that isn’t all that’s to be expected from Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean or from CyanogenMod 10.1, this was just a quick hands-on video showing off everything working great on Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus. The developers at CM have already released CM10.1 (Android 4.2.1) for multiple devices, and today is the first day it’s available for the Verizon (toro) Galaxy Nexus. Get it as we speak from Get.CM to get started today. As usual this is a custom ROM so we’d recommend you do a Nandroid backup, and ask any questions at your favorite developer site like XDA, or at the Android Community Galaxy Nexus forums. Don’t forget to wipe first, and get the latest gapps. Give Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean a try on your own Galaxy Nexus today, with no help from Verizon. — Thanks Rick and Jellybro! Device Info
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| T-Mobile Galaxy Note 2 update coming on December 19 Posted: 17 Dec 2012 01:51 PM PST The Galaxy Note 2 may have launched with Jelly Bean, however that does not mean that it cannot be updated. And in fact, T-Mobile has just announced an upcoming update. The update will be available beginning on December 19, which is this coming Wednesday. It will bring a new feature along with some fixes.
The new feature is the multi-window support. This is a nice little perk, and one that is seemingly welcomed by those rocking the oversized smartphone. Of course, with a 5.5 inch display, multi-window support somehow sounds like it makes sense. Otherwise, the fixes include one for those using Gmail and one for those using Exchange. The Gmail fix deals with being able to swipe through messages and the Exchange fix deals with calendar events. More specifically, this should resolve the issue where Exchange calendar events were not appearing on device Calendar. Those with a T-Mobile Galaxy Note 2 will be able to grab the update over-the-air or using Kies. The update will keep the software as Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean. The baseband however will change and once updated should be as version T889UVALK8. All said and done, this is certainly not an earth shattering update, however given the fixes deal with two often used services, we suspect that more than a few T-Mobile users will be looking forward to Wednesday. Device Info
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[via TmoNews] |
| Simple Android app teased for “early” next year Posted: 17 Dec 2012 01:28 PM PST Simple is a new take on banking. One that is aimed at those looking to replace their bank. And for those who have been turned off by Simple in the past because it was available only for those rocking an iOS device, you may be happy to learn that Android support is coming.
The folks at Simple recently took to Facebook and shared the news (along with a few screenshots). Simply put, Simple is coming to Android. We have yet to learn a specific release date, however the Android app is said to be coming “early in the new year.” Aside from not having a firm release date, the other details are just starting to come available. The folks at Simple did mention a little in terms of device support though. The app is expected to drop with support for Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) or later. Of course, we suspect those familiar with Simple and using Android will be happy with the few details that have been released. Otherwise, for those not yet familiar with Simple we have this, they are described as not being a bank, but instead a solution for you to replace your bank. With Simple you get an account where you can deposit your money, a Simple Visa Card that you can use anywhere Visa is accepted and at ATM machines and the app which allows you to manage it all. The one catch, Simple is still in a closed beta stage and only available with an invitation. [via Facebook] |
| HTC M7 leak shows a 1080p 4.7-inch display with Jelly Bean and Sense 5 Posted: 17 Dec 2012 01:09 PM PST We saw some details for the HTC M7 earlier in the month and it looks like a bit more information has since been revealed. This latest round of details confirms some of those earlier bits and includes quite a bit more. And while we cannot say these details are official as they did not come direct from HTC, they have come by way of a reliable source.
That being said, lets dive right in with the details for the HTC M7. The specs begin with a 4.7-inch display. But perhaps a bit more important — a full HD 1080p display with a pixel resolution of 468 PPI. And just for the sake of not making those with an iPhone 5 feel bad, lets just say that the M7 PPI will be much higher. Some of the other specs include a second-generation quad-core 1.7GHz Snapdragon processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, a 2300 mAh battery, 2 megapixel front-facing camera and a 13 megapixel rear-facing camera. The handset will also have LTE connectivity, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Beats Audio, Sense 5 and Android Jelly Bean. Touching back on the rear-facing camera for a moment and further details reveal that it will have a ‘Cinesensor’ image sensor which is said to increase image quality and also allow for super slo-mo and video HDR. With that, the latest in the rumor mill suggests that the HTC M7 will be unveiled during Mobile World Congress. As for carriers, in terms of a US release, the M7 is expected to arrive with two — Verizon Wireless and Sprint. Of course, as with rumors, details can change. But if nothing else, what we have seen thus far does have us more than a little interested. [via unwired view] |
| CyanogenMod 10.1 nightlies land for Verizon Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7 Posted: 17 Dec 2012 12:38 PM PST We have some excellent news to start this week that arrived from the official CyanogenMod crew. They’ve been working hard on CM10.1, which is the absolute latest Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean, and have now begun nightly builds for the Verizon Galaxy Nexus, the Nexus 7 3G and a few others. While most Nexus devices are already enjoying 4.2 Jelly Bean, Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus isn’t so here’s your chance to enjoy the latest and greatest.
While Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus is still a few updates behind to say the least, those trusty developers have saved the day as usual. CyanogenMod 10.1 is their AOSP version of Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean with a few improvements and added features. You all should know plenty about CyanogenMod already, so this is just a PSA. For those rocking Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus you should be headed to your favorite developer site as we speak to get the latest CM 10.1 nightly. Or just head to get.cm to get started. As usual, nightly builds aren’t quite what the dev team would call “stable” but have progressed to a point where they’ll be releasing nightly builds as they are stable enough for daily usage. I’ve been rocking CM10.1 for a few weeks now without issues, so it’s pretty darn stable so far. Expect some hands-on coming soon. They’ll update “nightly” (obviously) with improvements, bug fixes, new features and more so be sure and get ready for some crackflashing — as we like to call it. The CM team has 10.1 available for multiple devices from the link above, but today have started official nightlies for the Verizon Galaxy Nexus (toro) the toroplus, as well as the 3G enabled Nexus 7. Head to the link below and find your respective device. Don’t forget to Nandroid backup and get the proper gapps folks. [via Get.CM] |
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