Dev: flashable Froyo for Nook Color 'nearly ready'

Developer "cicada" (known to some by his mild-mannered alter-ego, Pat King) recently chatted with Android Central about his Nookie Froyo ROM (run off an SD card on the Nook Color).  He promises that a flashable zip of Nookie Froyo will be here "very soon" and that, at this stage, he's merely "working through a couple of bugs."  While methods have surfaced to install Nookie on the internal memory via adb, a flashable zip would provide users with the luxury of a simple install via ClockworkMod Recovery.
When asked about the unique challenges of developing the first custom ROM for a device that's sold as an e-reader, cicada said that "shoe-horning an OS tailored specifically for cellphones onto a device without most of the cellphone bits definitely made things tough (and was likely Google's reasoning behind their famous 'android isn't ready for tablets' statement)."
Cicada wants Nookie Froyo to be a project for the dev community, "something developers can use as a solid base for making the really cool stuff."  He added that it's not much of a secret that CM7 is being worked on for the Nook Color, and that he's been part of "a two-way street" of development with Cyanogen's TeamDouche.
As for the continued potential of the Nook as a tablet?  Cicada states that the NC is "the perfect entry-level android tablet. It's cheap, it's nimble, and perfectly usable as a legitimate tablet, with only the minor fuss of freeing it from B&N's default software of course.  ;) "
Want to do it all for the Nookie?  Check out our Nookie Froyo how-to, along with tons of other goodies in our Nook Color forums. 

This post is from Androidcentral.com by Will Shanklin

Telus Desire HD release date and pricing leaked

New details of the TELUS version of the HTC Desire HD have emerged on Canadian site MobileSyrup, including pricing information and a possible release date. A leaked inventory screenshot shows the phone priced at C$499.99 without a contract, and due for release on Feb. 10.

The Desire HD runs the new version of HTC Sense on top of Android 2.2 Froyo, and is currently HTC's flagship phone in Europe and Asia. It's essentially a GSM 3G version of Sprint's EVO 4G, only with slightly more RAM. Find out more about the Desire HD on our device page.
This post is from Androidcentral.com by Alex Dobie

Honeycomb clock widget spruces up your home screen

Widgets are a great part of the Android OS, and clocks are a necessity in many peoples lives, and who wouldn't enjoy to have a futuristic styled clock, much like that found in Android 3.0 Honeycomb? This clock, which is a great replica of the one found in Honeycomb, offers users a very clean clock that takes a bit of getting used to in order to read properly.
Two versions of this clock widget are available, a free as well as a premium version, both of which allow direct access to the alarm application by simply tapping on the clock. The premium version will allow users to select between eight different colors, which is almost one for any color wallpaper that you are using at that time. For less than $1, the premium version is a must have for anyone looking for a great clock widget to keep their home screen clean and futuristic looking. Hit the break for more information as well as download links.

This post is from Androidcentral.com by  Jared DiPane

HTC Gratia coming to Europe this February

As HTC continues to expand its European lineup, the manufacturer has announced that the HTC Gratia will launch in the UK next month. The Gratia is a fairly basic smartphone, and appears to be a refresh of last year's HTC Legend. It has a slightly redesigned chassis, making it lighter, but features the same 600 MHz CPU and 384MB RAM as the Legend.
Based on the promotional stills shown on HTC's site, the Gratia seems to be running the old version of HTC Sense rather than the newer Sense 2.0 found on the Desire HD and Desire Z, which is a little disappointing. There's also some confusion over which version of Android the Gratia will ship with. Today's press release from HTC states Android 2.2, while the phone's spec page on HTC.com lists Android 2.1. We're more inclined to believe the former, as there wouldn't be much point in putting Eclair on a brand new phone in 2011, right?... Right? [HTC]

This post is from Androidcentral.com by  Alex Dobie

LG Optimus 2X, posing as a German Optimus Speed, gets a 20-minute hands-on

We're all greatly awaiting the arrival of the LG Optimus 2X, which is one of the first phones to rock a dual-core Tegra 2 processor. In the meantime, the official German LG blog has posted up a 20-minute hands-on video of the German version, the Optimus Speed. Our German's a little rusty, but the rough translation is something like "Holy crap this thing is awesome." Or at least that's what we figure is being said. (Actually, we're told it mentions that it'll be available in Germany in March or April, and that it has dual internal storage, much like the Droid Incredible.) Check out the video after the break. [LGBlog.de via Androider.de] Thanks, Jojo!

This post is from Androidcentral.com by Phil Nickinson

Samsung Gem appears once again, this time on the Samsung websiteT

We've had a few run ins with the Samsung Gem in the past. Looking destined for Verizon, then outted by Best Buy, which was later retracted. This time around though, Samsung is giving the little guy all the love by having posted the SCH-i100 Gem right up on their website. Of course, in doing so they also laid out all the specs for those who somehow might still be interested in this device.

• Android 2.1
• 3.2MP Camera
• 800MHz processor
• 850/1900MHz CDMA
• GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
• 3.2-inch touch display with WQVGA resolution

Also included is the Swype keyboard technology and Samsungs Social hub is baked right in. Neither availability dates or any carriers are associated to the device. It just appears that Samsung wanted to add yet another device to their website even if it never ends up on a carrier. [Samsung via PhoneScoop]

 This post is from Androidcentral.com by Chris Parsons

Nexus One Android 2.2.2 update pushing out -- Build FRG83G

 
Word on the street and in the Android Central Forums (same difference, really) is that the Nexus One is in the midst of an update to Android 2.2.2 -- build FRG83G. Nope, not Gingerbread yet. The new Froyo version is a scant 558kb, which Google says "contains important bug fixes."
We're checking it out right now. (Here's the manual download location for those who like that sort of thing.) In the meantime, everybody into the forums! Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

This post is from Androidcentral.com by Phil Nickinson

Nexus One update, dual core vs. battery life, Atrix support laptop printing? [from the forums]

 The weekend is upon us once again, finally. Lots of exciting stuff has gone down this week so be sure to click back and catch up on anything you may have missed. Especially the podcast, it was pretty awesome. Be sure to hit up the forums and check out what's happening. Hope you all have a great weekend!

• Android News Forums - Dual Core devices vs. your battery life
  
• Rumored Device Forums - Sub 4" Superphone, why not?
• Motorola Atrix 4G Forums - Laptop printing, think it's possible?
• Droid Incredible Forums - Web pages won't fully load, any fix?
• T-Mobile Vibrant Forums - Official Froyo thread, if it's Froyo..it's here
• Google Nexus One Forums - Android 2.2.2 update now pushing

If you're not already a member of the Android Central forums, you can register your account today.
This post is from Androidcentral.com by by Chris Parsons

Froyo for the Vibrant being updated through Samsung Mini Kies ... Good luck! (Updated with Samsung statement)

The good news -- the T-Mobile Vibrant indeed is getting its Froyo update. The bad news -- it looks like (thus far) you have to do it through Samsung's Mini Kies program. That's right, in this day and age of over-the-air updates, you have to plug your phone into a computer to update. Le sigh.

We've only been at it for an hour or so now, and Kies is still seeing our Vibrant as an "Unregistered device." Whatever that means.

You know that Froyo complacency a few of you have accused us of? It's rapidly going away. There's really no excuse for making an update this difficult. [via TMoNews]

 Anyone get this to work yet? We're all over it in this forum thread. Join us.

Update: Samsung just issued the following statement:

Samsung and T-Mobile are pleased to confirm to Samsung Vibrant customers that the Android 2.2 upgrade is now available. Please click here for an FAQ on how to download and install the upgrade.

This post is from Androidcentral.com by Phil Nickinson

Nexus S OTA 2.3.2 update rolling out now, your SMS relations will thank you

Embarrassing SMS misdirect bug on your Android device? Nexus S owners should start checking their phones now for an over-the-air update that's supposed to fix the problem. It's being rolled out gradually, so just be patient if it's not there yet. How will we know the problem's gone for good? We'll just assume so until we find out otherwise, in some unfortunate manner.
This post is from Engadget.com by Ross Miller 

Motorola Xoom priced at $800 at a minimum, according to Verizon leak

Wow, insider tipsters are getting efficient! Verizon appears to have only just added Minimum Advertised Pricing for the Motorola Xoom to its internal systems, but already it's been leaked out by more than one source. Android Central has the damning evidence, which lists an $800 levy for any prospective owners of the flagship Android Honeycomb device. It's accompanied by a listing of the HTC Thunderbolt at $250, with the logical conclusion being that the Moto tablet will come unsullied by subsidies while the HTC LTE handset will probably cost that much on a two-year deal. That makes plenty of sense to us -- the typical smartphone price is $200 and Verizon can point to the 4G goodness the Thunderbolt brings as justifying its $50 premium, whereas the Xoom's cost seems to be in line with the Galaxy Tab's pricing. Now, how about some launch dates, leaksters?

This post is from Engadget.com by Vlad Savov

Sony Reader app finally available for Android, only works with 2.2 and higher

Well, it's about time! We knew Sony was prepping some Reader apps to go along with its physical Pocket,
Daily, and Touch Edition e-readers, and while it may have missed that December release date, the Android version of the app is now available in the Market. The free app is pretty much what you'd expect -- you can log in with your username and it automatically syncs previously purchased books, and like the e-readers, it also supports ePub and PDF formats. In addition, you can easily highlight text and adjust font and brightness settings right from the page you're reading. We downloaded the app and found it to be pretty decent, however, the Store shortcut launches within the browser rather than in the app. Ready for the twisted part? Sony has confirmed for us that the app will only work with handsets that run Android 2.2 and higher, which is incredibly ironic considering most Sony Ericsson handsets are, you know, still stuck with 2.1. Of course, it looks like that PlayStation Phone will work just fine when it's finally released, but that's neither here nor there -- hit the gallery for a pile of screenshots of the app.

This post is from Engadget.com by Joanna Stern

Samsung Vibrant's Android 2.2 update now available, it seems

As promised, it seems that T-Mobile's version of the Vibrant is getting Froyo today after a brutally long wait. The good news is that you won't need to wait for a staggered rollout, apparently -- but the bad news is that currently you'll need to get it using Samsung's Kies Mini PC app, not over-the-air. Tethered updates are always less convenient than their OTA equivalents (though Samsung continues to be particularly fond of them), and in the case of Kies Mini, there's no Mac version, so you'll need to be near a Windows machine to make it happen. This hasn't been officially announced yet, though commenters over on TmoNews appear to be having luck -- so if you give it a go, let us know how you fare.

This post is from Engadget.com by Chris Ziegler

HTC profits leaping and bounding up, Peter Chou promises tablet and production expansion

HTC's fourth quarter of 2010 has gone exactly the same way as the first three: the company reports a 160 percent rise in profits (to $500 million) year-on-year and a 31 percent increase relative to Q3 2010. Total revenue for the final three months of last year rounded the $3.5 billion mark, having been a trifling $1.4 billion the year before. Company CEO Peter Chou sees no end to this dramatic growth, forecasting it'll remain in double digits through 2011, and he plans to match up to it by doubling monthly production capacity at HTC's Shanghai plant to two million handsets. If necessary, he says he'll even outsource manufacturing. Even more intriguing, however, is Chou's admission that HTC is strategizing an entry into the tablet realm: "It's a new market with many competitors, and we don't want to rush into it." Hardly a surprise, but good to have it from the horse's mouth.

 This post is from Engadget.com by Vlad Savov 

Toshiba launches Flashy tablet teaser site, still doesn't have a name for said tablet

Nope, Toshiba's recently announced Android 3.0 tablet doesn't have a name yet, but it does have its own Flash-based website. The site doesn't reveal anything all that new about the device -- we already knew it had a Tegra 2 processor, replaceable battery, and a 1280 x 800-resolution, 10.1-inch display -- however, it does provide a pretty nice tour of the tablet with a 360 view of the hardware. Speaking of that tour, Toshiba specifically points out that the tablet will in fact keep those "Quick-Key buttons," even though Google's Matias Duarte told us that they aren't required. You still have to wait until the spring to get this one in hand, but hit the source link to get a pretty nice virtual look at it right now.

Updated: Ah, it really is all about Flash, isn't Toshiba? Ina Fried over at AllThingsD noticed that if you try and load Toshiba's new tablet site on an iOS device the following message appears: "Such a shame... if you had a Toshiba Tablet you would enjoy the entire internet. Yep, Flash sites too." That's true Toshiba, but we don't have your tablet right now, do we?  

This post is from Engadget.com By Joanna Stern

Galaxy Tab gets 1.2GHz overclock, very scary warning

It's here, what looks to be the world's first attempt at overclocking a Samsung Galaxy Tab. User Bauxite at the always happening xda-developers forums has posted the way to boosting Samsung's hunk of burning Android up to 1.2GHz -- along with some seriously stern warnings:

THIS KERNEL MAY NOT WORK ON YOUR DEVICE, MIGHT DESTROY YOUR DEVICE, MIGHT PUNCH YOUR CHILDREN, I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE CAUSED BY THIS KERNEL, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK

Initial user reports are generally positive but, given the risk and the complexity here we think we'll be staying at the stock 1GHz speed. For now, anyway.
This post is from Engadget.com by  Tim Stevens

[AndroidApp] - Crazy Snowboard

Eye-popping 3D graphics - 30 missions - 13 different riders to unlock - 13 boards to unlock - 16 touch-activated in-air tricks to unlock - Smashable obstacles: zombies, snowmen, elves! - Intuitive controls - In-air trick system

 The gameplay review on Youtube, I don't know what did he say, but this game is really good!

[Review] - Motorola Cliq 2 (T-Mobile)

Motorola Cliq 2 (T-Mobile)

Google confirms 300,000 Android activations a day

Google today in its fourth-quarter earnings call confirmed Andy Rubin's statement in December that some 300,000 Android devices are being activated every day. That's 9 million or so a month, folks.
Google also said that searches from within Android ended the year up 10 times. ("10x actually is what was said.") "I think that this is the year that phones will play the big role in commerce, like I predicted," said Google Senior VP of Product Management Jonathan Rosenberg.
Other highlights from the Q&A:

• Rosenberg on tablets vs. smartphones: "They're both viable."
• Mobile search grew 4 times on mobile devices. "No doubt that this market absolutely is cranking."
• "Click to call ads are generating a lot of money every month."

 This post is from Androidcentral.com by Phil Nickinson

Concept phone with triple-displays, it's a flip with a twist

Let's get the obvious out of the way first. This phone is not real, it is a render and is simply a concept design by Kristian Ulrich Larsen. Now that that has been covered, let us now say -- this thing looks pretty awesome. The idea behind it is rather fitting and all too true of how we view today's devices as well:

The phone has 3 screens that can be transformed in different ways depending on what the user wants to do with it. Having 3 screens on a phone opens up a number of possibilities in dealing with the content on the device. Because people no longer only use their phone as a communication device. It's more and more used for the things, we usually use our laptops for, but with the limited screen real estate on phones, there are still boundaries for what you can do.

People are doing more with their devices and this concept is hopefully, a glimpse of things ahead. Maybe not exactly in this form but we sure wouldn't been complaining if this thing became reality. Video can be found after the break.

This post is from Androidcentral.com by Chris Parsons

Canadian Nexus S 'coming in March,' Mobilicity CEO says

Dave Dobbin, CEO of Canadian carrier Mobilicity, dropped by a sponsored forum member meet-up last night and revealed that the Nexus S, so far absent from Canada, will be launching there sometime in March. In addition to Mobilicity, Dobbin confirmed that Bell, TELUS and Rogers will also be carrying the phone.

“The Nexus S is going to everybody, so we’ll have it. It will be AWS band. And Bell, TELUS and Rogers will have it. I mean everybody will have the phone. So nothing special about it… it will be all over the place… so the Nexus S will I think will be available in March”.

In a video of the event, found after the jump, Dobbin also discusses the state of the Mobilicity network, as well as the carrier's handset refresh, due next month.

This post is from Androidcentral.com by Alex Dobie

Software US Cellular's Samsung Acclaim boosted to Android 2.2

It's not often that you see a Samsung device running stock Froyo through official channels, so feast your eyes on the update recently release for the Acclaim on US Cellular that takes your QWERTY slider from Android 2.1 up to 2.2. You can't do this one over-the-air, which is a pretty big pain in the rear -- but considering that you're getting an entirely new version of Android here, we think you'll probably want to cable up for the few minutes it takes to get this bad boy installed. Have fun and be safe!
This post is from Engadget.com by  Chris Ziegler

Future Dell Streak 7 owners do the fine-print math, figure tablet will cost $330 max on contract

We've never seen an official price for Dell's Streak 7 tablet, but we can now readily guess what it will be -- thanks to T-Mobile's website, which is now two for two. You see, the wireless carrier typically lets you pay for devices in monthly installments rather than one lump sum, and StreakSmart discovered the former number is already printed below. As we're sure you've already discerned, that means four easy payments of $82.50 will buy you the Tegra 2-toting 4G tablet -- assuming the figure is correct -- and now that we've perfected our QVC salesman voice, we'll let you decide whether or not that's a deal.
This post is from Engadget.com by Sean Hollister

T-Mobile confirms Galaxy S with 4G, Android-based Sidekick 4G are coming

Whoa, this is kind of out of the blue: on top of the Vibrant 4G that we've already had leaked ad nauseam (though he refers to it as a "Galaxy S 4G"), T-Mobile USA CEO Phiipp Humm mentioned at an event this morning that the company is preparing an HSPA+ Sidekick -- yes, a Sidekick -- albeit with Android slotted in place of the defunct Danger Hiptop operating system. For the record, T-Mobile hasn't had any Sidekicks in its lineup since the middle of last year, though it does own the Sidekick brand -- not Danger / Microsoft -- and would undoubtedly love to bring it back to relevance. Coincidentally, Mister Android himself, Andy Rubin, came from Danger -- so the Sidekick's starting to follow him around. Kind of like... you know, a sidekick. Both products are said to be "coming soon."

Update: After the break, spot a picture of what the Sidekick might look like, likely courtesy of HTC -- there's no mistaking that QWERTY keyboard layout.

This post is from Engadget.com by Chris Ziegler

HTC leaks suggest big, small, buttonless, and Brew MP-based phones are on the way

 
All things considered, HTC doesn't do the best job of protecting its roadmap; indeed, the slides that leaked a little over a year ago ended up doing a fabulous job of showing us what was in the pipe for 2010, so we wouldn't doubt the massive spread that PocketNow published today. Starting at the top, we've got a device that looks like a trackpad-less evolution of the original Desire (pictured above), another that looks like an Aria-sized Nexus One in black (complete with old-school trackball), and an additional version of a buttonless phone that's got generic HTC branding in place of the Verizon logo in a picture unearthed by Phandroid a few days ago (pictured after the break).

That's not all, though: there also seems to be a lower-end Android device with physical Send / End buttons and an optical trackpad underneath a smallish display accompanied by the usual four capacitive buttons. A device with a China Telecom logo on it is also in the mix, looking like a big-screened model that'll probably be ready to do battle with that 1.2GHz Droid X by a different name that just launched over there. Finally, there's a small, entry-level model that might succeed the Smart as HTC's Brew MP-powered flagbearer, though Android is obviously the thrust here. Specs and names are still a mystery across the board at this point, but as PocketNow says, we wouldn't be surprised to get details at MWC next month.

This post is from Engadget.com