Android phones

This is my next reports HTC has changed its mind and will bring Android 2.3 Gingerbread to the Desire after all. HTC’s UK office posted on their Facebook page two hours ago:

Contrary to what we said earlier, we are going to bring Gingerbread to HTC Desire

Just a day ago, HTC argued via Facebook that the Desire wouldn’t be getting Gingerbread because they “can’t shovel Sense on it as well” due to constrained RAM. Interesting how they fixed that limitation just 24 hours later. HTC also announced last month it would unlock all of its phones’ bootloaders.

HTC London Meetup in April of 2011: You know, Apple fans aren’t the only ones lining up for product launches

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T-Mobile’s G2 with Google, a successor to the wildly popular G1, an inaugural Android smartphone, has been discontinued after short eight months on the market. TmoNews spotted a change in T-Mobile’s inventory system which lists the device as “discontinued” – that is, no longer available for replenishment – since June 6. Released in October of 2010, the G2 featured stock Android experience, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and HSPA+ modem enabling T-Mobile USA to market the phone as 4G-capable.

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With an IDC-estimated 10.8 million units shipped during the first quarter of this year, Samsung files as the world’s fourth-largest smartphone vendor, behind Nokia, Apple and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion. However, the rising popularity of Samsung’s feature phones and dumb handsets powered by their own operating system called Bada has helped the Korean phone maker capture the #2 slot in terms of all handset units shipped globally.

Samsung was outdone only by Nokia in the first quarter. According to IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, Samsung shipped 70 million handset units during the first quarter of this year versus the 108.5 million Nokia phones. With 18.7 million iPhones Apple came in fourth, behind LG Electronics which shipped 24.5 million handsets. That was last quarter…

The global handset landscape is going to alter rapidly by the June quarter’s end, predicts Japanese research firm Nomura. Their analyst was quoted as saying that “Nokia looks set to relinquish its smartphone crown (in unit terms) to Samsung and Apple”. This means, their analyst argues, that Nokia will be #3, with Samsung and Apple taking the #1 and #2 slots, respectively. Mind you, Nokia has been the world’s top handset maker since 1996…

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At a Sprint press conference which took place half an hour ago, Motorola pledged to launch more than ten new wireless gizmos this year, including the flagship Motorola Photon 3G and Motorola Triumph smartphones. The Photon 4G files as Motorola’s first 4G device and the Triumph is their first Virgin Mobile USA device.

The Photon 4G, pictured above and available this summer, sports a dual-core 1GHz Tegra 2 chip from Nvidia, a 4.3-inch qHD display, dual cameras and a kickstand. The device runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, features international GSM capabilities and has the Motorola webtop application that lets you access desktop-class applications while hooked up with a Motorola accessory dock. Go past the break for the Triumph info and official specs.

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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtXZXhTpywY?rel=0]

Motorola’s upcoming handsets are leaking all over the web. The latest? How about three guided tour videos showing off the various features of the upcoming Droid 3 smartphone? The Droid brand has done very well reviving Motorola’s ailing phone business while putting Android on the map and Motorola Mobility recently refreshed the brand with the Droid X2 launch on the Verizon Network. With the third incarnation of the smartphone that started the Android craze Motorola is hoping to woe consumers with more oomph, a continuation of the strategy which has served them well thus far. Check out two more Droid 3 videos below the fold…

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ48ZKAU2jw&w=670&h=411]

Just as Verizon Wireless announced Thursday launch of Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play handset in the US, the New Zealand branch of the big red carrier tweeted Monday that the entire shipment headed to that country had been stolen.

Regret to advise the Xperia Play launch will be delayed. Major security breach. The shipment of phones has been stolen.

Turned out that was just a clumsy marketing gimmick that had cleverly exploited the whole Sony-versus-hackers brouhaha in an effort to drum up publicity ahead of the Xperia Play launch in New Zealand. To make the whole thing appear realistic, the carrier even released security footage, allegedly from the Vodafone store, seen above. They were “investigating” the theft, per this tweet:

Our fraud team are investigating the stolen Xperia Play phones and have released footage of the break-in. Can you help?

Needless to say, it opened a can of whoop ass…

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The Droid saga continues as Motorola Mobility issues a press release announcing the Droid X2 launch on the Verizon Wireless network next Thursday, May 26, 2011. The Droid X2 is “double the power, double the does”, Motorola wrote. The phone looks nearly identical from the outside to its predecessor, sporting a large 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen display.

The innards have been improved with an eight-megapixel camera with HD video capture, a dual-core 1GHz processor. It will come with Android 2.2 pre-installed, to be updated to Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The handset will retail for $199.99 after a new two-year service agreement. The carrier will be accepting pre-orders beginning tomorrow, May 19, 2011. Catch the full press release below the fold.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HrQbjPjbBA&w=670&h=411]

So how do you stand out in the crowded Android space? I know – let’s put a bunch of cats in a television commercial, Sprint’s marketing people must have said when pitching creative concepts for the Nexus S 4G campaign to their bosses. The resulting advert is cutesy and a bit mischievous, but not bad at all. Plus, you gotta love the closing line:

It’s the first phone that’s Google to the core with Sprint’s lightning fast 4G speed. It’s powerful enough to do just about anything, including filling the internet with more cats.

The cats theme runs throughout the campaign and on the Nexus S mini-site.

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Television maker Vizio wasn’t kidding when they announced Android smartphones and tablets at CES 2011 in January. According to Wireless Goodness,  their first Android-powered smartphone has received a blessing from the Federal Communications Commission. The device carries the VPHN1044G label, but they plan to sell it under the more user-friendly Vizio Phone moniker.

It’s a four-inch (854-by-480 pixels) Android superphone that comes with your regular perks, including a 1GHz processor, HDMI video output, microSD cards support and more. The FCC filing reveals support for the 850 and 1900 MHz bands, suggesting a launch on AT&T’s 3G network in the US.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9RdNSpzPKc&w=670&h=411]

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ2oFpzzjqg&w=670&h=411]

Even though Samsung’s Galaxy S II packs in an impressive 1.2GHz dual-core processor, for some folks that simply isn’t enough oomph. No problem, the most popular Android phone can be easily overclocked to a whooping 1.5 GHz, as shown in the above video by coolbho3000 over at the XDA Developers Forum. Just how fast is 1.5GHz compared to 1.2GHz, you ask.

Well, the Quadrant benchmark shows up to sixty frames per second, which is a rather notable performance jump over the factory 1.2GHz clock frequency setting. The posted notes you will need appropriate Windows USB drivers and the latest version of the odin3 tool to deband the handset. REad on…

From there, in just a few simple steps you can bump up the clock frequency to 1.5GHz. Proceed by downloading the overclocked kernel (a tar file) and reboot the phone into download mode using adb reboot download. Flash the kernel using odin3 by placing the tar file in the PDA section and pressing Start, after which the phone will reboot automatically. Finally, use SuperOneClick to root your phone if you haven’t already, fire up SetCPU and enjoy the 1.504GHz heaven.

According to PocketNow, Samsung is gearing up for the US release of AT&T-compatible Google Nexus S. The pearly white model is labeled with the model number GT-I9020A instead of SGH-Ixx7, indicating that the handset will be sold directly through the carrier. The publication nevertheless noted:

It’s still unclear if this will be available directly from AT&T — like the Sprint Nexus S 4G — or strictly from third party retailers, as is the case with the T-Mobile-flavored Nexus.

A version of the Nexus S designed to work with AT&T’s 3G network was first uncloaked this January in an FCC certification document. The Android-driven handset supports AT&T’s 850/1900MHz WCDMA bands, in addition to Bluetooth, single-band 802.11 b/g/n WiFi. It also supports the 13.56MHz band required for the RFID functionality.

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