HTC Droid Incredible 2: White With Chrome Rim, Contoured Back, Global 3G [RUMOR]

It seems we’ve hit the Verizon Wireless rumor motherload with info one of the hottest sequels you could imagine. Listen up folks, this stuff is hot off the presses from one of our trusted sources.

HTC Droid Incredible 2 with Global 3G

 

The first HTC Incredible has been one of the most successful Android Phones to date. It’s incredibly versatile and can be considered top of the line with nearly every target market – I found myself recommending it to men, women, teens and everyone in between. Now I’ll be recommending the HTC Incredible 2 (codenamed Vevo) to world travelers as the Incredible 2 comes with Global 3G Connectivity. This could be thanks to a new Qualcomm chip that supports both HSPA and CDMA.
But that’s not all… apparently the Droid Incredible 2 will be white with a white chrome rim and contoured back. Tell me that won’t make for a bad ass sequel to the original DINC!
We’ll keep you posted as we get more details and hopefully pictures to boot. These are still rumors as of now… but we have very good reason to believe their absolutely true and we’re eager to bring you evidence. Stay tuned!

Source: Phandroid

Motorola Confirms CLIQ XT, Adds Flipout, Charm, i1 to List of Devices Not Receiving Android Updates

Hate to be all bad news bears this morning, but the Cliq XT won’t be the only device from Motorola’s lineup not receiving an Android update. Their Android Software Upgrade list has been updated accordingly. I suppose the good news is that the Motorola FLIPOUT Charm, and i1 will be stuck at Android 2.1 as opposed to the Android 1.5 build the Cliq XT will run for the rest of its life.
How disappointing…but did anyone really expect anything different? With the rate that Motorola has been churning out newer Android handsets it might be an unrealistic demand to devote extra manpower to bringing older devices up to date. Sure, super popular, landmark handsets of yesteryear like the Droid lineup may still get updates, but you’re out of luck if you bought into one of Moto’s midrange or low-end offerings. Note that for the future.

Source: Phandroid

T-Mobile Providing Incentives to CLIQ XT Owners After Android 2.1 Update AxedT-Mobile Providing Incentives to CLIQ XT Owners After Android 2.1 Update Axed

Here is something interesting: T-Mobile is providing a special offer through their Customer Loyalty reps in order to prevent the loss of subscribers ticked off by Motorola’s abandoning of Android 2.1 for the CLIQ XT. The leaked document obtained by TMoNews calls the offer confidential and doesn’t provide any details on what it might be.
Our best guess is an early or discounted upgrade to an Android 2.1 device, but it really could be just about anything. If you are a CLIQ XT owner and get in touch with one of these Customer Loyalty reps, let us know what the deal (both literally and figuratively) is.

Source: Phandroid

In Company-Wide Memo CEO Admits Android, iOS Beating Out Nokia, Change is NeededIn Company-Wide Memo CEO Admits Android, iOS Beating Out Nokia, Change is Needed

Today Nokia CEO and former Microsoft exec Stephen Elop sent out a company-wide memo on the current state of the brand and its future. In the rather long memo (you can read a full version by following the source link at the bottom), Elop calls Nokia “years behind” Android and iOS, and points to the ecosystems those platforms have developed as the reason for their success. He pines that Nokia got too caught up in their own ventures and missed the boat, especially in newer markets.
He put it pretty simply:

“Our competitors aren’t taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem. This means we’re going to have to decide how we either build, catalyse or join an ecosystem.”

Those last three words up there have to get Android users that find themselves fans of Nokia’s hardware salivating a bit. But all recent rumors point to Windows Phone 7 as the ecosystem Nokia will most likely join. You will notice there is no mention of WP7 in the memo, which could be read as a sign that Elop doesn’t want to frame a new ally as a direct competitor. It could also be that WP7 was left out simply because it isn’t much of a competitor at this point.
Adding to the fire, the company is apparently killing off its first MeeGo device before it even launches, signaling some sort of significant change in their smartphone endeavors is on the horizon. Until Nokia comes clean this Friday at a press event detailing their future plans we won’t know for sure, but for the next couple days we can hope and dream of a world full of Nokia Androids.

Source: Phandroid

American Airlines Android App Ready for Takeoff

Attention frequent flyers, travelers of the skies, you now have another option for tracking and viewing flight information…if you are flying American Airlines, that is. Their Android app is now in the Market bringing some nifty features that make traveling a bit more convenient. Not only can you check your gate, seat, and flight status information, but you can also store a Mobile Boarding Pass for easy access. No more forgetting that important piece of paperwork.
Other cool functions include the ability to monitor your place in standby and upgrade waits and set a parking reminder so you don’t lose your car. As a bonus, the app includes a full-fledged Sudoku game to kill time while you wait for your flight. We’ve seen quite a few first-party airline apps, but none that has gone quite as all out. We don’t fly AA very often, but if you do you’ll want to check this out.

Source: Phandroid

HTC's 7-inch Android 2.3 tablet with new Sense UI still rumored for March

So far it seems like everyone but HTC has made an official tablet announcement in these early days of 2011. As such, we're reliant upon the rumor mills for every scrap of information we can get. So lean in close because the Chinese language Economic Daily has something to share. In a piece largely written about Pegatron, Economic Daily claims that HTC's 7-inch Android 2.3 tablet will ship in late Q1 (read: March, as we've heard earlier) with a new version of the HTC Sense UI. Our guess, is that HTC wants to get a tablet on the market now, rather than wait to customize Android 3.0 and have the Motorola Xoom and friends gobble up all the market share. The paper does mention two Android 3.0 tablets from HTC scheduled for 2011. Unfortunately, there's no word of the rumored "Flyer" brand name or whether those Honeycomb tablets will get the Sense treatment or not (we're guessing they will). Nevertheless, the Mobile World Congress event kicking off next week would be the perfect opportunity to make it all official, don't you think?

Source: Engadget

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play may be headed to Verizon

If you're looking for reasons not to jump on the Verizon iPhone bandwagon, here's a pretty compelling, albeit unconfirmed, one: the Xperia Play may be headed to Big Red as well. In comparing Sony Ericsson's thumb-friendly Android handset to the iPhone 4, Wirefly has listed VZW as the carrier for the Play. This is the first we've really heard of a US provider for the phone, though we'd hardly be surprised if Sony Ericsson opts to spam it out to all four major networks. It did as much in the UK, where every single operator will try to sell you one in April, and we don't see why that strategy should change on US soil. The Xperia Play will be announced in full this Sunday, February 13th, when we might just learn more about its global availability... if we're really polite and wear our PlayStation T-shirts, presumably.

Source: Engadget

Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo put through its paces on video

The rumored Xperia Neo still isn't official -- we think we're probably looking at MWC next week for that -- but there are enough floating around at this point so that they're getting tested pretty thoroughly (or, at least as thoroughly as you can test a pre-production device). The latest tidbit comes via a series of videos and stills that put the phone's 8.1 megapixel sensor through its paces; frankly, they look a little washed out, but it's really common for camera performance to improve by leaps and bounds through firmware updates right up until a phone's commercial release so we don't want to sound the alarm quite yet. My Android Life has also thrown together a quick video walkthrough of the UI, where you see that Sony Ericsson seems to be standardizing on the same experience first seen on the Xperia Arc and later on the Xperia Play -- highly widgetized with a Gingerbread core. All things considered, it seems the Arc's a higher-end device -- but if the price is right, this Neo could win some hearts as well. Follow the break for the UI walkthrough.

Source: Engadget

MetroPCS LTE Samsung Galaxy Indulge available this week, we go hands-on

As you may have gleaned from the small leak last night, Samsung's MetroPCS LTE phone isn't called the Forte as we may have previously thought, but the rest of the information we've been hearing about the phone for the last few weeks (thank you, FCC and Flickr!) was pretty dead on. Officially called the Galaxy Indulge, the 3.5-inch, Android 2.2 smartphone isn't quite as well spec'd as the rest of the Galaxy S line up -- most notably it doesn't have that stunning 4-inch AMOLED screen (TFT LCD here, folks) -- but it packs a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor, 3 megapixel camera, 1500mAH battery, and some fast LTE speeds. As for the latter, the slider will naturally be backwards compatible with MetroPCS' CDMA network and the carrier will be offering two monthly plans, both of which include unlimited talk and texting -- the $50 plan buys you 1GB of data and the $60 version all the gigabytes you can eat. Combine one of those with the $399 sans-contract-price of the phone itself and it's not a bad deal.

That said, compared to the other LTE or just general 4G phones we've seen of late, the Indulge feels rather cheap. Don't be fooled by its rather Epic 4G looks -- the .6-inch thick phone just feels overly plastic in hand (it makes those plastic squeaking noises) and the keyboard just can't compare to Epic's slightly raised keys. However, what it lacks in rigidity it makes up for in speed -- we consistently got 3.1Mbps down and 3.3Mbps in our Manhattan apartment and saw it loading sites and apps faster than our Droid 2 Global. On the software end, there aren't many surprises -- it runs Samsung's TouchWiz 3.0 and comes with a few of MetroPCS' preloaded apps, including an Iron Man 2 app that actually includes the whole movie. We're not sure you'd want to watch the entire thing on the low-contrast HVGA screen, but it's always an option if you decide to, you know, indulge. (Sorry, we had to!) The handset will be hitting shelves (or websites) later this week making it the first available LTE smartphone in the US -- but in the meantime, hit the break for the full press release and a short hands-on video.

MetroPCS Samsung Galaxy Indulge hands-on

Source: Engadget