Android Phone Fans |
- T-Mobile 4G LTE tests being run in Kansas?
- Verizon announces new Jetpack MiFi 5510L for you WiFi-only lovers; January 31st for $20
- Rumor: YouTube getting paid subscriptions, pay-per-view
- Hands-on: Super Hexagon by Terry Cavanagh [VIDEO]
- Guerilla Bob developers tapped to create Alien vs Predator: EVOLUTION [VIDEO]
- Is this a white Nexus 4?
- Epic Citadel demo comes to Android with benchmarking utility [VIDEO]
- Rovio teases “Escape from Hoth” update for Angry Birds: Star Wars
- Google granted patent for multi-LED flash, could be seen in future Android devices
- ZTE Blade C with Android 4.1 unveiled
- T-Mobile to donate money to heart disease awareness from red accessories purchased in February
- Android-powered GameStick design finalized, gets docking station
- Gun Bros 2 teased with new trailer [VIDEO]
- Nexus 4 back in stock at the Google Play Store
- Could Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8.0 launch before MWC?
| T-Mobile 4G LTE tests being run in Kansas? Posted: 29 Jan 2013 04:01 PM PST Back at CES, T-Mobile announced that its very first 4G LTE city would go live. Las Vegas was the city to get that love, of course, considering that’s where the tech world converged for close to a week, but some recent evidence suggests Kansas may be next up to bat. An XDA member in Wichita was able to get his Band 4-compatible Galaxy Note (the original) up on an LTE network that seems to be in testing by T-Mobile. The speeds don’t look great — 10k kilobits down to 5k kilobits up, just about — but that’s not important here.
What’s important is that T-Mobile has reached a stage where it’s comfortable with lighting a signal up for the purposes of testing the many different variables of network technology, and that we’re getting closer and closer to an onslaught of launches for Magenta. By the time this thing goes live and some devices are released to actually take advantage of the network we should see those speeds increase ten-fold. While T-Mobile might be behind the rest of the pack in terms of rollouts and device launches, the company is expected to be very aggressive and get a majority of its current 3G footprint covered by the end of 2013. T-Mobile will also look to have the first major LTE upgrades to make their network compliant with the standards set in the 3GPP Release 10 document. We’ll have to wait and see just how much of an improvement that turns out to be over current Release 9-compliant deployments. Unfortunately there’s still a lot of work to be done so we can’t say when, exactly, T-Mobile expects a full-on launch. Devices should be rolling in starting at some point in Q2, though, with a full suite of products ready to chow down on LTE goodness starting in the second half of this year. [XDA Developers via TmoNews] |
| Verizon announces new Jetpack MiFi 5510L for you WiFi-only lovers; January 31st for $20 Posted: 29 Jan 2013 03:35 PM PST WiFi-only tablets are quite attractive. For starters, they tend to be cheaper — sometimes, a lot more so. It also means your device doesn’t have to be tied down to specific carriers or data technologies. You also stand to kill more birds with the one stone you’re afforded as you might want to deliver data to devices such as your laptop or an MP3 player. The problem is that, well, you can’t get data unless you happen to find an open WiFi hotspot to connect to. That’s one of the reasons we love wireless hotspot devices, and why we’re excited to see that Verizon’s latest option has finally come to the forefront.
Verizon has officially launched the MiFi 5510L, a device that should satiate the needs of any users looking to go this route. Its monochromatic display gives you a bevy of information that some other devices simply don’t, even going as far as showing you what your usage is without having to launch the device’s console in a web browser. The device also has indicators for signal type, signal strength, current upload or download activity, battery life and the amount of devices currently hooked up to the MiFi unit. Take it from someone who has owned Samsung’s particular units: as sleek and slick as they are, they are quite useless in the information department. It’s always important to consider how a MiFi device communicates these seemingly small bits of data to you while you’re supplying a fresh 4G connection to your tablet, and you won’t realize how much easier it’ll make life if all of that is readily available at your fingertips. You can buy the device for $20 following a $50 mail-in rebate and a two-year contract agreement starting this Thursday, January 31st. |
| Rumor: YouTube getting paid subscriptions, pay-per-view Posted: 29 Jan 2013 02:18 PM PST Some interesting allegations have sprung up via AdAge. According to a source of theirs, Google is looking to implement a subscription-based model for YouTube publishers who want to charge their viewers a monthly fee for the privilege of watching content. It wouldn’t be unlike the magazine subscriptions we currently have on Android or what we pay for the likes of Netflix and Hulu. As awful as the idea might sound, you should note that Google is only rumored to be trialing this first, and only with a few select YouTubers. If successful, we could expect a widespread rollout to anyone with partner status. AdAge also seems to have it on good authority that a pay-per-view model might be introduced alongside that.
It’ll be an interesting situation to watch unfold, if true. There’s nothing wrong with giving top YouTubers the ability to do this, but you have to wonder whether anyone thinks it’s worth risking thousands and millions of subscribers for the sake of penny-pinching. I would expect a bit of hesitation from any serious YouTuber to start out. Ads alone seem to be enough for most big YouTubers right now. One route that would be interesting to see Google go is to offer a hybrid experience. Just like with Android apps, users would either put up with ads at the beginning or end of a video, or pay that subscription (or perhaps even a one-time fee) to get rid of them. This sort of flexibility would please the most people at the same time as it gives people a choice rather than being forced one way or the other. As for the pay-per-view aspect, I see this being ideal for the likes of HBO, UFC and the WWE. These big name entertainment providers can leverage a pay-per-view system to allow more people to watch their premium programming without needing a cable or satellite plan. I most certainly would love to take advantage of such a system as long as they can guarantee quality. These are all just rumors for now, though. I wouldn’t expect any drastic changes to be made without proper testing first, and even then Google will probably just test the waters to see if any of this is worth doing at all. It’s said that all of this could start happening as soon as the second quarter of this year, so that’s something we could potentially see Google showing off at I/O this upcoming May. What would you say to something like this?
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| Hands-on: Super Hexagon by Terry Cavanagh [VIDEO] Posted: 29 Jan 2013 02:16 PM PST
I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about Super Hexagon ever since it was released on the Google Play Store a few weeks ago. For the most part, my friends were unable to explain the appeal of the game only saying things like, “You just gotta try it.” At only $1 (for a limited time) on Google Play, I figured now was a good a time as any to give the game a spin. A weird mix of music, sounds and mazes, you can’t really peg Super Hexagon to any specific genre (hardcore casual maybe?). With graphics straight out of the Atari era, I had a feeling I wasn’t going to take to the game… Oh, how right I was. Here’s a quick video of my frustrating brief encounter with Super Hexagon. I’ve oft seen or heard of games like Super Hexagon. Games so difficult, you either wanna snap your phone in half, or throw it against the wall in frustration. If masochism is your idea of a good time (hey, we wont judge), then Super Hexagon is exactly what the doctor ordered. If you hurry, the “game” is currently 66% for a limited time only. For seasoned veterans of the Super Hex, care to screenshot any of your highest scores? I’m curious to see if anyone’s ever passed the 5 second mark, or if I’m simply that bad at it. |
| Guerilla Bob developers tapped to create Alien vs Predator: EVOLUTION [VIDEO] Posted: 29 Jan 2013 01:37 PM PST Fox Digital Entertainment has announced the forthcoming launch of a new Alien vs Predator game for mobile. It’ll be called Alien vs Predator: EVOLUTION, and will obviously pit the two alpha creatures from their respective races against each other in what should be quite the epic extension to an age-old franchise. The developers behind Guerilla Bob will be behind this title, and if the quality of that one is anything to go by then we should expect to get our money’s worth. You can expect a third-person shooter that also features melee combat, and you’ll be able to play as both Alien and Predator who have differing styles of destruction. You’ll be battling through locales such as the marine base, an alien hive, a temple arena and more. Character upgrades and abilities will also be available so you can keep adding on to your character’s arsenal throughout the game. The game was built using the Unity engine, a powerful 3D engine that has been able to rival the best of the best when it comes to mobile. There’s no reason to expect anything less than sheer beauty, and that expectation shines through quite nicely in the short trailer you see above. Give the play button a good workout and look forward to its Android release some point soon.         |
| Posted: 29 Jan 2013 12:46 PM PST With the regular Nexus 4 finally back and plentiful in the Google Play Store we’re a little bit beyond color preferences, but if you were waiting on a white edition of this phone to come out then you might be in luck. More evidence has surfaced suggesting Google will look to introduce a white version of the elusive handset sometime soon.
A photo of the device in the wild doesn’t do much to excite us — after all, it’s just a Nexus 4 from the other side of the color spectrum — but there it is anyway. PhoneArena, the outlet responsible for the leak, says the device was shot with an LG Optimus G. That little details seems to suggest that an LG employee took the photo of the device. It’s not outside the realm of possibility, but either way this information should be treated as little more than circumstantial. The phone was originally rumored to be coming out after Carphone Warehouse accidentally published renders of the device in white way back in November. We pondered whether or not the UK-based retailer would bring it out soon, but haven’t heard anything since then. We imagine it took so long to bring this new color option out because of LG and Google’s recent troubles in trying to fill orders, but if today’s widespread availability of the Nexus 4 is any indication then it looks like LG could finally have the time to create this alternate option. |
| Epic Citadel demo comes to Android with benchmarking utility [VIDEO] Posted: 29 Jan 2013 11:58 AM PST Epic Games has announced that its Epic Citadel, a demonstrative tool to show off the power of Unreal Engine 3, has finally come to Android. The tool was previously available on iOS, but with this particular release Android users are getting a bit more than folks on the Apple side. Epic Citadel for Android features a benchmarking tool that’ll spit out some scores based on the performance of the engine. It’s a rather straightforward benchmark that uses frame rates as its standard scoring metric. It’s a great way for folks to see how their devices measure up against others. This particular benchmark is a lot more graphically intense than your typical affair. No benchmark is perfect, and they aren’t always definitive, but it doesn’t hurt to have another tool to use to help boost the e-confidence you have in your hardware’s capabilities. Epic Citadel will feature 3D locales from Infinity Blade, an Unreal Engine title that has its fair share of dynamic reflections, lighting, particle effects and high-resolution textures. Testing it out on my Galaxy Note 2′s Exynos 4412, an ARM Cortex-A9 quad-core chipset clocked at 1.6GHz with Mali-400 graphics, I was able to pull an average FPS of 45.7. Mind you, this was at a resolution of 1280×720 with the performance quality set to high. A subsequent test yielded a comparable 45.8. Despite it not being a full 60 frames per second visual feast, the demo ran just as beautifully as you could ask for on a modern day smartphone. The graphics, while not quite up to par with today’s standards, best the PS2/original Xbox era by miles, and could even pass as a Xbox 360 or PS3 game in some areas. It definitely exceeds expectations for mobile, though, and that’s as far as I need it to go. Now how about we get an actual Infinity Blade release going for Android, Epic? Watch the trailer above, and be sure to let us know what your device scored after you download it from the Google Play Store. |
| Rovio teases “Escape from Hoth” update for Angry Birds: Star Wars Posted: 29 Jan 2013 11:25 AM PST Rovio has a fun way of teasing what they’re looking to do with each update for Angry Birds: Star Wars, and yet another teaser has been posted to the developer’s Twitter account. It’s an image that features a Millenium Falcon drifting off into a tunnel that we imagine will lead to some mystical underground planet. In the tweet, Rovio used the hashtag “#EscapeFromHoth” which would indicate that the birds are trying to make their way off the planet featured in the previous update.
While this isn’t the first of these images we’ve seen, Rovio doesn’t always use the “#comingsoon” hashtag used to tease this one, so we can definitely expect some sort of update in the near future. With each update typically comes a new element of gameplay. Whether it be new birds, new powers for existing birds or new physics to overcome, it will be interesting to see what, exactly, we’re getting. Unfortunately Rovio decided not to go into much more detail, but if the update is as fun as the others have been then we know we’re i for a pretty nice treat. Expect at least 15 new levels whenever it does arrive. [via Droid Gamers] |
| Google granted patent for multi-LED flash, could be seen in future Android devices Posted: 29 Jan 2013 11:15 AM PST
On a typical smartphone we’ll see one, maybe two, flashes accompanying the onboard camera, but if Google has its way might more be in the future? Google has been granted a patent for the use of multiple LED flash bulbs — in some cases up to eight — to be used in capturing better photos with the camera technology currently available to handheld devices. The patent was originally filed for back in September of 2011, so Google has been stewing on the idea for a while. The patent doesn’t necessarily mean Google is actively working on a device with any of the several LED layouts portrayed, but speculation has immediately jumped there anyway.
Remember, Google wasn’t yet in the hardware game at the point the patent was filed, and still technically isn’t, unless you count rumors of the first Motorola device designed with Google’s direct input post-acquisition. Do we think the so-called X phone will feature eight LED flashes? We’d be cautious about jumping on that speculation, but it is obviously something Google might like to see in future devices. Not only would multiple flashes allow for better lighting, eliminating shadows and bright spots, but the equipment could be used sequentially to snap off a series of several pictures to be stitched together in an HDR-like fashion. The possibilities are as numerous as the flashes themselves. More likely, however, is that sensor technology will advance to take advantage of current flash deployments, rather than vice versa. [via DroidLife] |
| ZTE Blade C with Android 4.1 unveiled Posted: 29 Jan 2013 10:47 AM PST ZTE is continuing its long line of budget phones with a new entrant called the ZTE Blade C. The device, cheap enough to entice anyone looking for any ordinary smartphone, will come with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the first in the series to launch with the modern version of Android. It looks like the Blade C already exists in some form over in China, as the ZTE V889S is said to be nearly identical. That particular device costs just over $100 so we wouldn’t expect the Blade C to be much more than that.
The package you’re getting features a 4 inch WVGA display, MediaTek’s 1GHz dual-core MTK6577 processor, 512MB of RAM, a 3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 4.0, 4GB of internal storage, a 1,600mAh battery and more. ZTE wasn’t shy in letting us know that this device is totally aimed at the entry-level range of the market, and it hopes the phone will sell like hotcakes to those not interested in spending multiple hundreds to have a capable smartphone. For a budget phone the Blade C doesn’t look all that bad in form, but it will be the function that should determine its fate. We’ll have to see if a subpar MediaTek chipset and just 512MB of RAM is enough to keep Jelly Bean going smoothly, though we imagine Project Butter helps it out a ton. As you might expect we’re not exactly sure where this device is headed, but a European release of some sort is expected and it would be a miracle if we were to see it anywhere near North America. [via Unwired View] |
| T-Mobile to donate money to heart disease awareness from red accessories purchased in February Posted: 29 Jan 2013 10:24 AM PST It looks like T-Mobile wants to do something special during the month of February. The company will look to help out the heart disease cause by offering a number of red accessories throughout the month of February. For every qualifying accessory bought, $1 will be donated to the Hope Heart Institute. It’s a fitting month to do it, what with all the heart-induced imagery flying around thanks to Valentine’s day.
Among the eligible items are Skullcandy’s red Merge headset for $30, Body Glove’s heart pattern cleaning cloth for $10, a SCOSCHE RHYTHM bluetooth armband pulse monitor for $100, a red silicrylic case by Incipio for the Samsung Galaxy S3 for $30, and a red Body Glove diamond case for the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 for $35. Up to $50,000 will be donated so there’s a nice chance to get the Hope Heart Institute some major funds to help drive awareness. You can find more eligible accessories here, and these are also available in-store if you want to check them out in person. You might want to shop online, though, as T-Mobile is offering a pretty decent discount off all accessories sold. Use promo code FEBACC20 to take 20% off any accessory you buy, then proceed to feel good knowing you had a small hand in helping out a big cause. |
| Android-powered GameStick design finalized, gets docking station Posted: 29 Jan 2013 10:22 AM PST
Though PlayJam’s GameStick surpassed its Kickstarter funding goal by leaps and bounds, the final design of the Android-powered portable gaming unit wasn’t finalized until now. Using input from early backers of the project, PlayJam retooled the controller/console to be “more ergonomic” to “better sit in the hand.” Changes also include relocating the pop-out HDMI stick from the bottom of the controller to the back. A microSD card was also added, giving the unit a total capacity of up to 104GB of storage. In addition to a revamped controller, PlayJam also revealed a docking station that will both charge the GameStick as well as offer connections via USB, HDMI, and ethernet. The dock also features wireless charging. It can be purchased as part of a bundle with the GameStick for $109.
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| Gun Bros 2 teased with new trailer [VIDEO] Posted: 29 Jan 2013 10:04 AM PST Glu Mobile has just announced the sequel to one of the hottest titles in the Google Play Store. I’m only talking about Gun Bros, of course, and the second edition of the title is headed our way sometime soon. The news was dropped on us with a little teaser to get the hype ball rolling, and that particular piece of media did its job quite nicely, we’d say. We already know the price of this title as it’s going to be the standard freemium affair that has swept the mobile gaming world as of late, but Glu mobile is not yet ready to deliver a release date. The trailer above seems to feature mostly cinematic action, but we imagine the graphics won’t look much different (albeit in a top-down and zoomed out matter). The original Gun Bros brought top-down shooting mayhem to the pockets of gamers everywhere and became an instant hit. Its free price tag helped it along to at least 5,000,000 downloads, and for there to be a sequel coming we imagine Glu Mobile walked away with quite a nice bit of change delivered by micro-transactions. Give the original a shot in the Google Play Store while we wait for the second one to drop — I almost guarantee you’ll have a blast the moment you fire it up. |
| Nexus 4 back in stock at the Google Play Store Posted: 29 Jan 2013 09:32 AM PST
The Nexus 4 is back in stock. Ready for purchase. Get your credit cards ready. Not only can you pick up this rare diamond of an Android smartphone right now from the Google Play Store, but the listing says handsets are shipping in one to two weeks. That’s not one to two months, people. That’s seven to fourteen days. I shouldn’t have to tell you to act quick. Fingers are crossed that this time Google has plenty of back stock to meet the remaining demand, but don’t sleep on clicking the “Add to Cart” button. $299 gets you the 8GB version of the phone right now. (For our German readers, note that the 8GB and 16GB Nexus 4 are also back in stock for that region. We don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves, but it sounds like Google might finally be prepared to meet global demand for the phone at a much larger scale.) [via DroidDog] |
| Could Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8.0 launch before MWC? Posted: 29 Jan 2013 09:19 AM PST
We’re fairly certain HTC plans to unveil their M7 flagship not at Mobile World Congress, but rather at a February 19th press event in New York City. Could Samsung not only follow suit, but actually have their Galaxy Note 8.0 available for purchase in advance of the year’s biggest mobile trade show? According to German site MobileGeeks, several European retailers not only have the Note 8.0 listed (complete with specs) but also have the device availability listed as February 19th. It would seem odd for Samsung to simply launch the device for sale without some sort of press event (though not unprecedented), but the odd timing could work out if the device ships within the week of Mobile World Congress, which directly follows. The date could also merely be a placeholder, but we can’t be sure either way. What we can be fairly sure of are the specs that the listing has confirmed. The Galaxy Note 8.0 is listed with an 8-inch display with a 1280×800 resolution, 5MP camera, and 16GB and 32GB storage options. The slate, which carries model number GT-N5100, will retail for 450-550 euro depending on storage capacity. While we expect to see that exact tablet at MWC, we have our doubts about availability prior to the event. Either way, expect to learn a lot more about the tablet come the end of February. [via AndroidCommunity] |
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