Android Archives - Page 7 of 12

China Finally Clears Google’s Acquisition Of Motorola Mobility Months After US And Europe

The mobile industry was taken by storm with the news of Google acquiring Motorola Mobility last year. This brought together Google, the company who created and produces the Android OS that we all know and love, and Motorola, one of the top Android manufacturers with several highly successful devices including the original DROID which launched Android 2.0.

There were some issues though, as a lot of analysts were predicting that this acquisition would have some trouble getting cleared. It also spawned the ideas of other Android OEM’s such as Samsung, HTC, and LG having much worse relations with Google and Motorola, and that Google could possibly play favorites with their new hardware company. These rumors were soon put to rest by Google, Motorola, and the other manufacturers themselves. This brought the reason for the acquisition to light, that the main reason Google acquired Motorla Mobility was for patents. With Apple constantly giving Android device manufacturers trouble with things like patents, there couldn’t have been a better idea than to stock up on patents through the Motorola acquisition.

A few months back, both the US and Europe cleared the deal for the two companies, and now the last thing standing in Google’s way has as well. China has also cleared the acquisition which means the two companies will be able to finally make this thing official very soon. In fact, Google has released a statement saying that they should finalize things as early as next week, and Motorola Mobility will officially be a part of Google.

Source: Engadget

Updated Motorola ICS Roadmap Released, Good News For Most Users

Ever since we got our first taste of ICS with the Galaxy Nexus, Android owners from just about every carrier and manufacturer have been patiently waiting for the beloved list that maps when their device will get Android 4.0. After just about every other OEM roadmap has been released, Motorola has finally updated their release map, and many users should be glad to see their device on the list. Folks using the Motorola Xoom WIFI in the US have already received the update, but there are a lot of new devices that are still waiting.

The Motorla DROID RAZR and DROID RAZR MAXX are on the list for Q2 ICS updates, and even devices such as the Atrix, Atrix 2, and DROID Bionic, and DROID 4 have made the cut. All of these devices except the pair of Atrix’s and DROID 4 will be updated in Q2, with only these three devices having to wait a little longer until Q3. Thankfully, users will start seeing these updates soon, and will finally be able to take advantage of the features that come with Android’s latest OS iteration. Let us know when you start receiving the updates, and we will continue to keep you updated on Motorola’s behalf.

Samsung Galaxy S III Pre-orders Have Already Hit 9 Million

The Galaxy S II was Samsung’s best and fastest selling phone the company has ever produced. This pushed Samsung to the top of Android manufacturers taking almost 50% of the mobile OS’s sales. The Galaxy S II was one of the best mobile devices put out all year, and because of that it set many records for the company, just recently hitting the “20 million sold” mark.

The Galaxy S III shattered it.

Before this device was even released, Samsung has told us that they have received 9 million preorders for the device already. For one, single Android device, this is unheard of. Heck, this is unheard of from anyone but Apple. But Samsung has really changed everything in Android. To be honest, the GSIII doesn’t really bring any game-changing features–no holograms, no futuristic battery life, no ridiculous screen resolution, just a solid improvement over the GSII. It has a faster processor, a bigger screen, LTE, and of course, Android 4.0 ICS at launch. All of these are features we had come to expect before the device was released, and apparently, that’s all we needed. Some were disappointed that the GSIII didn’t bring just a little more to the table, but clearly it wasn’t that big of an issue for 9 million confident customers.

The Galaxy S III will be hitting the US this summer, with all of its LTE action, but also a dual-core processor as opposed to the global quad-core edition. While this is a little disappointing, the GSIII is still a killer device, and will most likely have incredible sales and reviews when it finally comes to the US. Until then, we will keep you posted with a review when we finally get our hands on one.

Google Sets A 4-Device Limit On Google Music Unauthorizations, Soon Retracts Due To User Dissatisfaction

Since Google Music was launched, there was always a limit on the number of authorized devices. 10 devices was the most any person could have linked to their Google Play, and everyone (well, most everyone) was fine with that. However, people’s comfort with the service’s limits began to change a little when Google announced that they would only let you unauthorized 4 devices a year from you Play account.

So what’s the big deal?

Well, many people are fine with a 10 device limit because at any time they can un-authorize the devices that they aren’t using and add new ones without any problems. With this new rule however, people can only do this 4 times a year. That means if you get a bunch of devices that you don’t use on Google Play and have maxed out your unauthorizations, you’re stuck with what you’ve got. This is especially bad news for those who root their devices, because a lot of times your Google Music will recognize the same device as a different device because it’s running a new ROM. You can see how this can quickly become an issue. If you have a computer, tablet, and phone all synced and authorized to your Google Play account you should be okay. That is until, you flash a new ROM a couple times to find which one you like most, or add another computer or get a new one. With this new regulation, Google is really handicapping a lot of people who take advantage of using multiple devices.

Because this was such an issue, Google has currently retracted this rule, allowing things to return to normal…for now that is. Google has released the following statement to clear things up a little:

“Yesterday we made a change to our device policy for music on Google Play. Any user can associate up to 10 devices to his or her account. Once you have connected 10 devices, you may add a new device only by deauthorizing an existing one from your account, and you may do this up to four times per year.

We limit the number of times you can swap out new devices at the request of some of our music partners in an effort to limit abuse. We understand this has caused some issues for users who often deauthorize and reauthorize the same device, and we are currently re-implementing the solution in a way that works for our users and music partners.

We apologize for any inconvenience and will update this page as new changes are made.”

Hopefully they find a way to allow users a little more room to breathe with authorizations, because I for one, will not be able to last very long on a 4-unauthorization limit. I’m sure many of our readers would agree, especially those who like to root their devices and flash ROMs. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on the situation, and until then make sure you have only the devices you want on your Google Play account, because you may not have much time.

Verizon Will Eventually Force All Users Into Tiered Data, Starting With 4G LTE Upgrades

Farewell, unlimited data, it was a joy having you as long as we could. These are the words that many Verizon customers will be speaking soon, according to CFO Fran Shammo. In an interview with the CFO today, Shammo made the following quote that is likely to break the hearts of plenty of Big Red’s customers:

“LTE is our anchor point for data share. So, as you come through an upgrade cycle and you upgrade in the future, you will have to go on to the data share plan. And moving away from, if you will, the unlimited world and moving everyone into a tiered structure data share plan.”

Many loyal Verizon customers have sat back laughing at those forced into tiered data plans as they were happily grandfathered in to their unlimited data plans. Users who start new contracts have had to make a choice of GB/month and keep watch over their data, while those of us enjoying unlimited have been surfing, streaming, and doing anything we want with our data without batting an eye.

Sadly, this is about to change.

Verizon’s CFO made clear that with LTE being the center of shared and tiered data, any upgrades to 4G LTE will require a switch to a shared data plan. This was where many felt the line was crossed. However, he went on to say that eventually everyone would be on a tiered data, which leads us to believe that at some point (likely a cutoff date) Verizon will force everyone into capped data, even the 3G-only subscibers. New line–crossed again. Whether this is the aforementioned cutoff date, or just a slow migration to only offering LTE devices, which would inevitable force all customers who upgrade into a new data plan, Shammo did say everyone. Many people have been up in arms over this decision, and Verizon really hasn’t answered with any type of response or even comment. Big Red is planning to make a lot of money off the combination of LTE and tiered data, and if everyone is forced over like they have planned, it shouldn’t be too hard. The more families switch to LTE phones and add lines, the more they will have to up the tiers, leaving Verizon to bathe in the heaps of cash. Let us know what you think in the comments, and be sure to check back for more updates.

Source: Verizon via Engadget

“Appreciate” Is Your Personal Android App Store

An Israeli startup called Triapodi has introduced a new kind of Android app store into the Google Play Store. Appreciate is part app discovery app, part aggregator, and also your personal Android app store.

Appreciate has already seen hundreds of thousands of downloads. People are loving the fact that Appreciate can make app recommendations based on the apps you currently have downloaded as well as apps that your friends have downloaded. To achieve this, Appreciate syncs with your Facebook account and other like users across the Appreciate network.

The app, launched in February, has garnered a lot of downloads and a lot of users because of the relevance in their app recommendations. This is due to their “Appreciate Relevance Engine” technology that scores apps on relevance to the user at a number of different levels.

“As we evolved Appreciate as a platform and improved the AI, we were able to make a complete departure from how other marketplace apps delivered recommendations to their users,” said Amir Maor, CEO of Triapodi. “We know our customer. We understand that generic lists of the market’s most popular apps do not meet the needs of the Android community, and we designed our latest version of Appreciate specifically to give our users 100% personalized and relevant app discovery for the first time. It is all about giving our customers exactly what they need.”

The current version of appreciate has these features:

* Connect to Facebook and see what apps your friends discover
* Get personal application recommendations based on what YOU like
* View for every app how well it fits with your personal taste
* Send applications directly to your friends’ device to install

* Get community updates on hot apps people discovered
* Manage your apps
* Gain quick access through app lists
* Share your favorite apps with other users and Facebook friends
* Widget with quick access to daily recommendations

It’s no secret, the despite the fact that Google’s primary business is search, discovery in the Google Play store is like searching for a needle in a haystack. That’s where you’ll come to appreciate, appreciate (see what we did there). Unlike some third party app stores, Appreciate functions within it’s own app and has it’s unique functionality to deliver the best possible app choices from the Google Play Store.

Try it out today.

Download Link at Google Play

Nibletz is the voice of #startups “everywhere else” check out these new stories

We’re on a sneaker strapped nationwide road trip, check it out and support us here

UPDATED – London Startup: Lightbox Acquihired By Facebook

Facebook is obviously using their last days of independence to scoop up whatever companies they want. Of course everyone knows about the $1 billion dollar acquisition of Instagram. Facebook also recently acquired social discovery app Glancee which uses Facebook as it’s backbone and was the closest competition to Highlight at South By Southwest in Austin this year.

Now we’ve learned that Facebook has acquired the seven man team behind Lightbox. ~~Including designer Giles Peyton-Nicoll, the companies creative director and the driving force behind their UI.~~

Giles Peyton Nicoll The Creative Director behind Lightbox, acquired this week by Facebook, has announced plans to launch a new global design consultancy and build a portfolio of brands “as cherished as Coca-Cola, Apple and Nike”.
As the seven-strong Lightbox engineering team prepares for its relocation to the States, Creative Director and Product Designer Giles Peyton-Nicoll is staying in London and is set to launch a new agency. Full Press Release Below

No financial details were announced. The Lightbox team is based in London, so it’s also unclear where they will work out of or if they will all move to Silicon Valley.

Lightbox is a photo sharing app for Android. They debuted last year and had a pod set up at Google IO. The service is very similar, at least in the sharing aspect, to Instagram. In fact, before Instagram arrived on the Android platform Lightbox would send out emails to it’s user base touting it as a better than Instagram and available on Android. They continued with the same marketing message after Instagram launched on Android just days before the Facebook acquisition.

It was widely reported that on the Facebook investor road show, the company was highly criticized on their mobile efforts. Despite pushing out regular updates of the Facebook app some investors seemed worried that more and more users are resorting to the mobile device and that Facebook needs to make sure they own that position the way they do with social media.

It’s also obvious that Facebook is taking photography very seriously. They recently updated their mobile site and mobile apps to enlarge the size of photos on users walls and news feeds. With the acquisitions of both Instagram and Lightbox they must be working on some bad ass mobile photo app to integrate into the social network.

source: VentureBeat

FULL PRESS RELEASE:

LIGHTBOX CREATIVE TO LAUNCH NEW CONSULTANCY

The Creative Director behind Lightbox, acquired this week by Facebook, has announced plans to launch a new global design consultancy and build a portfolio of brands “as cherished as Coca-Cola, Apple and Nike”.
As the seven-strong Lightbox engineering team prepares for its relocation to the States, Creative Director and Product Designer Giles Peyton-Nicoll is staying in London and is set to launch a new agency.
The 41-year-old is a world-leading branding strategist with a wealth of experience in designing and developing global brands. He founded boutique design agency Aspect, which sold to GYRO in 2000. He then took on a Creative Director role at GYRO, helping them achieve global recognition.
After leaving GYRO in 2002 he became a Digital Strategy and Design Consultant working on global brand, advertising and marketing campaigns for some of the best London digital agencies.
With extensive experience in brand guardianship for many of the world’s favourite brands, his true talent lies in creating successful brands from conception – his last two brand identities – Nakama and Lightbox – have become global success stories.
Mr Peyton-Nicoll said: “I wish my Lightbox colleagues all the best. We had a great time developing the product and I am very proud to have played a major part in the development of what is now a globally-recognised digital brand.
“I’m now looking to the future and the exciting prospect of creating similar powerful brands, as cherished as Coca-Cola, Apple and Nike, for my new clients.”

Nibletz is the voice of #startups “everywhere else” check out these new stories

We’re on a sneaker strapped nationwide road trip, check it out and support us here

Samsung Posts First Galaxy S III Commercial

Samsung held an unpacked event May 3rd in London. If you were fortunate enough to be in the audience, like we were, then you got to see not only the Samsung Galaxy S III but the Samsung Galaxy S III commercial as well.

Samsung has taken a break from beating up Apple fan boys and gone after Apple in other ways with their advertising. The commercial for the Galaxy S III is very Apple-esque with a variety of people in all kinds of situations. There are several scenes of a wedding, new born baby and snuggling. Most Apple iPhone and iPad commercials feature some kind of snuggling.

The voice in the commercial is warm and inviting.

What’s supposed to be the final stab at Apple is the official tag line “designed for humans” somehow implying that iPhone customers/fanboys are a little less than human. In a lead up to the Galaxy S III release Samsung posted a teaser video that featured a flock of sheep, that were supposed to be Apple fans.

Samsung may not win any awards for this one but it’s heartfelt and shows off the phone in a great light.The built for humans slogan is a bit of a stretch, but hey there’s a war going on here.

The Samsung Galaxy S III will make it’s world wide debut in two weeks in Europe and Asia and later this summer in the US and Japan.

Check out the commercial below:

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition Has Already Sold 1 Million Copies Since Its May 9 Release

On May 9 one of the most anticipated Xbox Live Arcade games of all time hit the Marketplace: Minecraft. Minecraft has been a huge success on the PC since developers Mojang released the game on PC in 2011. After its huge PC success, and we mean huge, the game transfered to the mobile realm through Android and iOS apps. Now, Mojang has pushed Minecraft even farther by landing it on the Xbox 360 Marketplace where it has already sold a whopping 1 million copies.

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition debuted on May 9 for 1600 Microsoft Points, and easily sold 400,000 copies within 24 hours of the game’s release. Since then, players have recorded 4.2 million hours of mining coupled with 2.4 million hours of multiplayer play time. One of the biggest features that Minecraft for Xbox would be bringing was an extremely easy way to jump into game sessions with friends. The Xbox 360 version developer 4J Studios and creator Markus Persson could not have been more pleased, with Markus tweeting the following:

The PC version of Minecraft and all of its counterparts have shown no sign of slowing down, and almost everyone I know has plays, or at least has played Minecraft at one time or another. And with Mojang pushing updates and patches as frequently as possible, the fan base is only more likely to grow. Be sure to check out Minecraft for the Xbox 360, and let us know in the comments how you like the experience compared to the PC version. Until next time, happy mining.

Source: The Verge

Ur Daycare Locator Aims To Locate

Ur Daycare Locator aims to locate local daycare centers and schools for your child. The service has been tailored to give raw user-generated reviews and easy to use tools to help you make the best choice for you daycare needs. With only a few simple steps you will be able to find several daycare centers in your area or specified area and get directions to them via your favorite maps application or browser on your Android device. The app is now only available on Android, but will soon be available on iTunes for your iOS device as well.

Start screenAt the home screen you can easily access the Directory, Maps, Search, Favorites, Applications and more.

SearchThis is the simple search option that will help you find any publicly listed daycare center within up to 20 miles from your specified chosen or current location.

Results Results are nice and cleanly listed for your choosing pleasure.

Map Maps view give you a better idea of how far your commute to and from the daycare centers will be.

Get Directions With the option to open a daycare centers address directly from your favorite map app or browser, you’ll have no trouble at all getting navigation instructions or driving directions to your favorite daycare center.

Apply Ur Daycare Locator makes it even easier by providing an easy to fill out application form that can be sent directly to your chosen daycare center. You don’t have to print and deliver your applications anymore.

Favorite List The favorites list makes it easy for you to save and access the daycare centers contact info when you need it.

Conclusion

After using this app for a few weeks running through the different features while looking for the perfect daycare center to enroll my son at, I’ve found that Ur Daycare Locator has saved me a ton of time and allowed me to discover daycare centers that I didn’t even know were in my area. It is an important decision to pick where our children spend their time and who will be watching them. Let Ur Daycare Locator help you find the perfect daycare for your kid(s). Give the app a try on Android from the Google PLAY Store here Ur Daycare Locator for Android or if you’re an iOS user you’ll have to wait a bit. It will be available on iTunes soon.

Source: Ur Daycare Locator

Hands On With The LG Optimus 4X HD VIDEO

At CTIA 2012 last week in New Orleans we got some face time with LG’s new flagship phone the LG Optimus 4X HD. As you can see they have a great naming scheme going on.

The LG Optimus 4X HD has a great feature set. You’re looking at a 4.7″ 720 HD IPS display and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. LG has done just a tiny bit of tweaking to the UI so you won’t have too hard of a time getting used to it.

There’s an 8mp camera on the back. The camera also features a BSI sensor for better low light shots and of course an LED flash.

What people are really anxious about is the Nvidia Tegra 3 processor which operates with 4+ 1 cores for maximum performance. LG has also included a 2150mah battery to keep the LG 4X HD charged up for when you need it most.

The downside though, is that there’s been no formal date announced for the LG Optimus 4X HD in the United States. It seems that none of the currently available quad-core processors can play nice with American 4G/LTE. This is starting to be a huge drawback for American Android and mobile enthusiasts who’ve been waiting to get their hands on some quad-core technology.

LG will probably rebrand this phone for the United States. Hopefully they will hold the key on how to get a quad-core phone to work over here.

Just to make sure though, we asked the guy in the video who said there was no pricing or availability information available for the United States.

Check out the video:

Hands On With The LG Optimus Vu VIDEO

LG Optimus VU, LG, CTIA 2012, Nibletz, Thedroidguy, Samsung Galaxy Note

LG Optimus Vu (left) next to Samsung Galaxy Note

Last year at IFA in Berlin Samsung introduced an entirely new device with an entirely new form factored. The device, dubbed the Samsung Galaxy Note, was a cross-breed of tablet and phone. Many are calling the device category “phablet” or “phoneblet”.

Samsung is having great success with the Galaxy Note. They recently announced that they’ve sold 5 million of the devices to date.

It didn’t take LG long to develop a device to compete head to head with their South Korean rival. LG’s new 5 inch Optimus Vu looks to do just that.

The Optimus Vu features a 5.0 inch display with a 4:3 aspect ratio and a resolution of 1024×768. LG uses the IPS panel in the Optimus Vu that you can find in the LG Optimus LTE 2.

Like the Samsung device, LG’s Optimus Vu also features a stylus. Their stylus is a little more bulky, about the size of a #2 pencil. That may actually be a good thing as many have found the stylus that ships with the Galaxy Note to be a little too short and a little too thin. Samsung actually offers an accessory to make the stylus more of a pen size. Unlike the Galaxy Note though the LG Optimus Vu doesn’t have a place on board to store the digital pen, which may result in costly accessory purchases.

The LG Optimus Vu runs on top of a 1.5ghz dual core processor. It has 1gb of RAM and supports 4G/LTE (as does the Galaxy Note). It features an 8mp camera on the rear which shoots 1080p HD video.

The LG Optimus Vu is available now in Europe and Asia. The LG Spokesperson in the video below wouldn’t mention anything about a U.S. release.

AT&T Making A Move On Cricket Wireless?

Rumors are hot and heavy that after the failed AT&T T-Mobile merger, AT&T has it’s eyes set on prepaid wireless carrier Cricket.

Cricket, whose parent company is Leap Wireless, is a steadily growing prepaid carrier with stand alone stores in most major US cities. They also have distribution channels set up at most of the Best Buy’s in the continental United States as well as Walmart and other retailers.

Cricket prides itself on it’s portfolio of both Android smartphones, and smartphones with their proprietary Muve Music service that’s been a hit with their customers. The service allows them unlimited downloads of songs from their cloud based music store to their Cricket Muve Music enabled handsets. The songs can’t be taken off the phone but can be streamed via BlueTooth and of course 3.5mm headset jacks.

The AT&T/T-Mobile merger was all the talk at last years CTIA Mobile Life show in 2011. The announcement about the proposed merger came on Sunday, the eve before CTIA was to kick off. In fact CTIA that year, in Orlando, kicked off with a round table with all four CEOs and moderator Jim Cramer. T-Mobile CEO Phillip Humm backed out of that years appearance because of the merger announcement.

More after the break
Read More…

Cricket Holding Huge Mother’s Day Sale

If you’re out and about today and you still haven’t gotten your mom anything for Mother’s Day, you may want to check out your local Cricket Wireless store. What’s better than getting your mom a great Android powered smartphone that is pay as you go so you’re not stuck with a long term bill?

Cricket announced a last minute Mother’s Day Sale to reach all those last minute shoppers looking for the perfect technological gift for mom.

The sale includes a good mix of Android powered smartphones, phones with Cricket’s Muve Music and even the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Here are all the deals from the prepaid carrier:

ZTE Score (MSPR $149.99, $69.99 after instant discount and web discount) is a value priced, full featured Android smartphone that includes Wi-Fi capability, XT9 Trace for easy text entry, 3G Real Web Browsing and a 3.2MP camera/camcorder.
Huawei Ascend II (MSPR $179.99, $99.99 after instant discount and web discount) comes packed with a 3.5″ HVGA touch-screen, Wi-Fi capability, 3G Real Web Browsing, 600MHz processor, Android 2.3 Gingerbread and a 5MP camera/camcorder.
Samsung Vitality (MSPR $219.99, $129.99 after instant discount and web discount) fast 800 MHz processor, 3.5″ HVGA touch-screen and easy access to social networks is designed for an interactive experience. Samsung Vitality is loaded with a 3.2MP camera/camcorder, Wi-Fi capability, 3G Real Web Browsing.
Huawei Mercury (MSPR $249.99, $229.99 after instant web discount) offers a beautiful 4″ display and is powered by an ultrafast 1.4 GHz processor, features an 8.0MP rear camera, VGA front camera and an Android 2.3 OS. Named by PC Magazine as the best pre-paid smartphone in America

The Samsung Galaxy Tab™ 10.1 is available in Cricket company-owned stores (MSRP $499.99, $399.99 after instant rebate). Running on Android 3.1 Honeycomb OS, with a beautiful 10.1″ widescreen TFT (1280 x 800) display offering HD clarity, a super-fast dual core 1GHz processor, a 2MP front facing/ 3MP rear-facing camera, the Samsung Tab is perfect for watching movies, cruising the internet and sharing photos with family and friends.
The Crosswave Broadband Device, which is available in Cricket company-owned stores (MSRP $149.99, $24.99 after instant rebates and bundled with Samsung Galaxy Tab), creates an instant mobile hotspot and supports multiple Wi-Fi devices nationwide. Bundle the Crosswave with a Samsung Galaxy Tab and receive additional discounts worth up to $225.00 for a final Tablet + Crosswave all-in price of $424.98 (does not include monthly broadband service rate plan).

Head into your local Cricket store now or hit Cricket up on the web here