Of all the phones that were announced at CES this year the one that stood out to me is the Motorola Atrix. Not for the phone itself but the laptop style docking station that you can get with it. It seems this beast is set to release on AT&T soon. Get those SD Cards ready! At this is evident by the fact that the Atrix has passed through the FCC. if you don’t know why I am calling this thing a beast let me tell you. The Atriz boasts:
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Although Samsung has been throwing down the gauntlet with their phones, there has been a huge knock with the Android line. A lot of people are complaining that the Android updates are coming a bit to slow. At least some Android users are going to be a little happier. A article on unwiredview.com is saying that the Android 2.2 FROYO Update will begin tomorrow. One of our favorite features in Android 2.2 is the ability to install apps to the memory card. So you may want to upgrade or really upgrade. The FROYO update came out a while back so this is quite slow. In fact the rumors about the next version have already gone full speed. However, blaming Samsung may not be the right thing to do.
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We have not seen a lot from LauncherPro since the beginning of December, because Federico has been closeted with a major project: a complete and total rewrite of LauncherPro, to make it more efficient and quicker. We’ve received word that he’ll first be dropping an update on us this week (today or tomorrow?). The update will include fancy screen transitions, which we assume will be similar to those recently seen on ADW EX (aka ADWLauncher EX). He’ll then follow that up with an update that we wish was available from day one for Plus users: a Gmail widget. Yep, you read that right. LauncherPro Plus users should have a Gmail widget to enjoy some time next week.
**Update** A little birdy just told us that a new update to LauncherPro has gone live in the Android Market, bringing right along with it some fancy new screen transition animations in the same vein as ADW Launcher EX. There are four transitions effects to choose from currently, including Scale, Rotate, Flip, and Cube, with more to come in future updates.
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To get one thing straight right up front: this phone does not exist and is not coming to market. That being said, it is still a very cool concept called the Flip from designer Kristian Ulrich Larsen, demonstrating where we could go with multi-screen devices that can morph as your intended need changes. I have always dreamed of a device that I can easily place in a pocket, but unfold as a reader, or unfold more as a large-screen display. This concept really catches the vision of where we could go with all that. This particular design is running stock Android, pops out like a tent, collapses into a standard (if curved) slate, and even folds out like a little book. Each screen is said to be Super AMOLED hiding behind Gorilla Glass, with steel mesh acting as hinges — and there’s a full QWERTY keyboard somewhere in there too. Check out the artsy video from the creator after the break. [click to continue…]
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The HTC Gratia is an entry level android handset powered by a 600 MHz processor running Android 2.2. It is along the lines of a traditional handset with a 3.2 inch screen. The HTC 7 Pro has a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 3.6 inch screen, 8 GB Storage and is powered by Windows Phone 7. The HTC 7 Pro does have a QWERTY keyboard for those not ready to give up the physical keyboard. [click to continue…]
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The Skyfire Browser is gradually making it’s way onto additional platforms other than desktops, and frankly, it looks pretty good on the iPad. What is different than all the other browsers out there? Adobe Flash support. That mean a lot on an Apple platform, as you can’t have it installed. The way the browser works is that it grabs the Flash on it’s back-end servers and renders it to you in HTML5 format. Please be aware that this is only Flash video. Not games. Not Apps. No movies. But, after a pause (up to 15 seconds) you will get your Flash. On a big screen like the iPad, it plays inline. On the iPhone and Android, it opens a separate full screen, so that you can see the video. With the latest version 2.0, Skyfire has also integrated all your Social Networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, etc. so that you can have them all open at once and tab between them. Skyfire for iPad is $4.99 and is available in the App Store. Skyfire for Android is free and available in the Android Market. [click to continue…]
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Rod sent me a link the other day, pointing out that Verizon was offering a free replacement SMS Messaging app called V-Cast Messages for Android, much like Handcent or Chomp – to give folks a better messaging experience. Send messages by groups, by location, add attachments – it’s all there. Not the biggest difference in the world from the many options out there in the Android market, but it’s an option nonetheless and its priced right. However, it got me think about a couple of other interesting solutions to messaging that I have seen over the last few weeks. Check out the details after the break. [click to continue…]
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Of course, all the big players in eBooks have reader apps for Android: Kindle, B&N, and Kobo (Borders). But the one that was there first for Android is Aldiko. Available in both free and premium version from the Android Market, Aldiko is everything an eReader should be. The newest release also lets you purchase and download ebooks from Feedbooks, O’Reilly, and Smashwords, among others. Because this app is based on the ePub format, as well as the Adobe Digital DRM, you have a wide range of options available to you.
You can very easily side-load your own ebooks, including those purchased from the Sony Reader Store, B&N, Kobo, etc., because they all use the Adobe Digital DRM format. Kindle is the sole exception since they go their own way, but you already have the Kindle app on your device, right? And, if you have invested the time and effort in managing your ebooks through Calibre eBook Manager (like you know you should have), then when you connect your Android device to your computer via USB, you can sync directly to Aldiko from Calibre. It just doesn’t get any easier than that. Within the confines of your own home, Calibre will also let you grab ebooks wirelessly too, and dump them directly into Aldiko. If you read, you should have this app on your Android device. The screenshots below are from my rooted NOOKColor. It is a very nice reader! [click to continue…]
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Over the last several months, we have heard a lot of blather about Android ‘fragmentation’, but the Jan. 4 numbers from Android Developers show that this is really not the case. Approaching 90% of all Android devices are running 2.X versions, with nearly 52% running Android 2.2 (Froyo). From the graphics you can see that older versions are quickly dwindling. Granted, this may be as much from the fact that custom ROM versions are available for those platforms as anything else, but on what other platform would that be even possible? We are beginning to see Android 2.3 (Honeycomb) start to appear as well. I think that this data shows that Android is as lively as ever and continuing to migrate to the newer, more advanced OS versions. I can hardly wait for the next 6 months. [click to continue…]
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I cannot begin to count the number of friends I have introduced to swift key and most become devoted fans of SwiftKey after using it. If you are not familiar unlike Windows Phone and iPhone Android allows users to use alternate virtual keyboards. There are hundreds of keyboard options but SwiftKey has become my personal favorite. The process to change the virtual keyboard on Android is easy and fully documented in our earlier post.
SwiftKey is not something you instantly understand the value of rather you get more value as it learns your common phrases. SwiftKey does an amazing job predicting the next word you are going to type. The more you type the better SwiftKey gets. Download SwiftKey from the Android Market. [click to continue…]
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