Each revision of Android provides features you just cannot wait to get your hands They also come with fixes that make the phones function as they should have initially. Android 2.2 (Froyo) is no different, this OS provides many advancements, but really starts to hit the usability stuff that impacts the end user. Brent and I compared notes and have come up with a list of 10 items in Froyo that stand out.
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We have previously blogged about NitroDesk Touchdown. In that post, we introduced the fact that you are welcome to try-out unreleased beta versions of the software. They can be accessed through the NitroDesk Google Group for Beta Versions. I recently upgraded and found a much improved function: the ability to move my entire Touchdown database to the SD Card. While NitroDesk cautions you about this because you can muck stuff up if your SD Card is mounted to your PC and you attempt to access your Exchange email, it can nevertheless be a great asset. I chose to do this and freed up 68MB of memory on my device. Where I had previously been chronically short of memory, I am now able to re-load some of my favorite larger apps and games. I occasionally experience a momentary pause while it accesses data, but I am very happy to put up with that to get move than half my memory back. [click to continue…]
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The rooting community got a rooted version of Android 2.2 running on the Motorola Droid last week. Well there is a new update that addresses some of the issues with the first update including patches for overclocking the CPU as well as fixing Wi-Fi. Brent is the mad man of our team, I have no doubt he has upgraded or is in the process of upgrading again. I will be updating later today.
*Rooted users only. Still not rooted?
This is not in ROM Manager yet, but should be soon.
Download: BBFroyoV01.zip (alt link) (alt link2) (alt link3)
Instructions [click to continue…]
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Only a couple days after I gave my wife the HTC Incredible in favor of the Motorola Droid they finally rooted the Incredible. Â Keep in mind I gave her the Incredible for two reasons:
This root is in the early stages but it won’t be long until we get a reliable build of for the average user to install. Â I doubt I will root the Incredible since it s not my day-to-day phone but it will give you unrestricted access to your phone. Â And provides access to features not possible without root access.
[Source unrevoked]
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OK, you say, big deal. What is all the fuss about? The fuss is that the future of printing has arrived! Hewlett-Packard has announced a new line of printers designed to work directly with smartphones (and any other connected device) and cloud services without the need for a computer intermediary. The printers are designed to take print jobs that are e-mailed to them or uploaded to a cloud service they can access. Quite literally, if your device has Internet connectivity, it can print. From anywhere, to anywhere. Think about all the things you could do with your device if you could point to documents in the cloud and print them to anywhere you have permissions to. And, if you can e-mail something, you can also print it. From this point forward, all HP printers in the entire class of devices will each have it’s own unique e-mail address. You can e-mail a print job from anywhere. And if HP is offering this, you can bet that other printer manufacturers will jump on this band-wagon quick. I can hardly wait! [click to continue…]
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The US and UK have enjoyed Google Navigation for some time now. Â Finally, many more countries will get to rely on Google’s free turn-by-turn navigation. Â It appears many countries are having this feature activated. Â Canada and mainland Europe will not get direction from their Android 1.6 and above phones. Â Additionally voice search is coming to Canada and Germany. Â I personally live by these services so I am sure this will be good news to many.
List of confirmed new countries so far:Â France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium.
[Via Engadget]
[Source Google.de]
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The guys over at xda-developers can do no wrong. Â With a small hack you can get 720p video recording on your Google Nexus One. Â The hack increases the native video resolution but only on the Nexus One running Android 2.1 Â devices but they plan to bring this hack to Android 2.2 on the Nexus One. Â For full instructions and download links go to xda-developers
[Source XDA Developers]
[Via Android Community]
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We have done many posts on Freedom Pro Keyboards. While there are some issues with pairing to some Android devices I wanted to run step-by-step through the process with video to help with some of the most common mistakes. I will be testing the Motorola Droid Eris running Android 2.1 later but this video shows the process with the Motorola Droid.
Checkout the other video pairing instructions
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OK, folks. Here it is. The resolution of the last major reason that has kept me using the iPod/Touch platform: a player for audiobooks from Audible. While it has been in private beta for a few weeks now, Audible has quietly opened up a public beta. You have to join their Audible Google Group and then you can download the software. Sign-up is just logging in with your Google credentials, signing up for emails (or not, as you wish. There is an option to just get updates by going to the site). As it is not yet available in the Market, you will have to download it locally, make sure you have authorized “non-Market” apps, and install locally. Beyond that, it operates as you would expect, keeping in mind that it IS a beta and probably have more than a few bugs. [click to continue…]
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As usual, I got a phone call from a friend having a small issue with powering off his HTC Incredible. Â The issue was that after pressing and holding the power button, the all too familiar ‘menu’ failed to show up. Now, my first reaction was to add a widget to the desktop to power down the phone, but the built-in power control widget is for powering off phone features not powering off the phone. I started thinking about widgets I have used in the past like Quick Boot or Power Off, but each one that came to mind required root access. Now, I am stuck with a novice question stumping me. [click to continue…]
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