Wondering where names like the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini pro or the all-time favorite, Sprint’s Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch come from? Well, here’s your answer.
Presenting the Android Phone Name Generator. It presents you with fantastically outlandish names for your Android device all at the touch of button, so you don’t have to come up with one yourself. Whether it is the Motorola Mesmerize Vibrant G2 Plus, Samsung Rezound Vivid One Prime 3D or the LG Fascinate Black Pro Prime 3D, you are sure to find one that suits your needs. Read more »
Microsoft has divulged some juicy details regarding the upcoming Windows Store for Windows 8. Like any application store, this will be a unified location to download apps on your Windows 8 device and will be your only source for downloading Metro-style apps.
First of all, the Store will open its doors to developers starting February, 2012. Developers can create an account by paying $49 and after that proceed to develop apps for the platform. Read more »
Every time an Android device skipped a frame someone somewhere blamed it on the lack of hardware acceleration. Ice Cream Sandwich was hailed as the first iteration of Android to bring hardware acceleration, even though Honeycomb has been doing it all along so did the older versions of Android, to some extent.
As you can see, there is a lot of misinformation regarding this particular topic and so to address this, Google’s Dianne Hackborn decided to write a lengthy post on Google+ and put the issue to rest once and for all. She touched upon multiple points and I’ll attempt to summarize the important ones below. Read more »
Google and Australian telecommunications company Telstra have joined forces to launch the world’s first store dedicated to Android. Called the Androidland, it’s not just a place to buy Android devices but also where you can experience all the different features in the OS and just enjoy yourself.
There is a lot to do in this Android-themed store, decked in the traditional Android green color. You can play Angry Birds on a giant touchscreen display, Androidify yourself or check out the world on a massive display using Google Earth. They have even gone as far as to have a gingerbread scent in the store and a grass scent where there is grass. And then of course, you have handsets from all the major manufacturers, which you can try out for yourself. Read more »
The mythical creature known as the Verizon Galaxy Nexus has been spotted in the wild and much to the surprise of its spotters was found running some Verizon apps. As you may know, the Nexus phones have been known to come with a stock ROM from Google with nothing but Google’s own applications installed. The Galaxy Nexus will be the first to break this tradition and have some bloatware courtesy of Verizon, tarnishing the name of the Nexus brand forever.
It’s not all bad news, however. If you may recall, Ice Cream Sandwich comes with the ability to disable unwanted applications from the Settings menu. Read more »
Ever since Google announced the Galaxy Nexus and along with it Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, those of us with a Nexus S have been salivating at the chance of getting it on our own devices. Unfortunately, Google did not give any official date as to when the update will be made available for download.
It seems now, however, that it won’t be too long now. A Google employee posted on Google+ that he got the Ice Cream Sandwich on his Nexus S and that ‘it’s looking great’. The update was later on deleted from the site but you can see a screenshot below. Read more »
Apple had filed for a preliminary injunction against Samsung in the US court to block the sales of the Galaxy devices. Unfortunately for Apple, the court has declined to grant the said injunction, which means Samsung can continue to sell their devices in the US. However, the legal war between the two companies is far from over and Apple could still swing this to their advantage.
As it happens, the reason Apple failed to get an injunction against Samsung is that Apple could not prove to the court that Samsung infringing on their patents could cost them irreparable damages. Read more »
Philips has not had much of a success in the mobile phone segment. Many people don’t even know that they exist in this segment and you can’t really blame them for that. Philips mobile phones so far have been mediocre at best and if you see one you wouldn’t even remember its name in T-minus 1 minute.
Now, however, they have launched a new Android smartphone that is likely to stay in your memory for a bit longer. Say hello to the Philips W920. Read more »
You may have heard or seen Nokia’s Live View app, an augmented reality software that shows you names and location of objects around you using the phone’s camera, GPS, compass and accelerometer. It’s similar to the Layar app found on iOS and Android.
The app has now been updated and brings performance enhancements, along with some bug fixes. Also in the list of changes is a new list view mode (seen below) other than the camera viewfinder mode and a tutorial to guide you through the Live View usage and feature set. Read more »
If you thought only the iPhone has over-heating battery issues then here’s something to take you out of your state of delusion. A Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket managed to get its battery so hot that it ended up melting the battery contacts.
As reported by the owners’s friend on xda-developers forum, he heard a sound, felt a burning sensation on his leg and as he pulled the phone out he could smell something burning. Read more »
The Nokia 710 is close to launch and so Nokia has released a new video for the device. The video is actually quite similar to that of the Lumia 800 and part of their ‘The Amazing Everyday’ campaign.
The video is very basic and instead of doing anything fancy chooses to talk about some of the salient features of the device, such as the interchangeable back covers, the integrated social networking services, Nokia Maps with the Nokia Drive feature for turn-by-turn voice navigation and the 5 megapixel camera. All of this is matched by snazzy music in the background. Read more »
As if we didn’t have enough benchmarks on Android to begin with, here comes another one. Futuremark, makers of the popular 3DMark benchmark for PCs, have announced that they will be making a version for Android.
According to the press release, it seems 3DMark for Android will be targeted mostly towards the Android tablets and will help gauge their gaming performance. Read more »
The MOTOACTV, the illegitimate child of the Sony Ericsson Bluetooth watch and the iPod nano, will soon be hitting British shelves this December. Motorola has announced that the MOTOACTV will be available in Sweatshop stores across the UK starting December 1 and it will be priced at £249.99 ($390).
In case you don’t know what the MOTOACTV is, it is a glorified wrist watch running Android. It works like a personal trainer during your workouts, keeping track of all your sessions, how much you ran, how many calories you burned, etc. using the built-in GPS and accelerometer. Read more »
One of the best places to use Siri in the new iPhone 4S is in your car while driving when you can’t be bothered to check the phone’s display every time you have to do something. Now a lot of people pair their phones with the Bluetooth system in their cars, which routes the audio through the audio system speakers and your voice is picked up by a microphone in the car. The question is, does Siri work well with such a system. Turns out it does.
Autoblog tested Siri with a handful of different cars that include couple of Mercedes Benz, a Chrysler 300, a Dodge Charger and a Nissan Maxima. Read more »
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