Everything Android

[woodyear99]

To be honest one of the things I love about ereaders is well, not having to buy books :p
Reading magazines on this thing is REAL nice.

The screen does have more glare than a kindle, e-ink vs. IPS lcd, however for regular use indoors it has not been an issue. I also read that putting on an antiglare skin helps. I opted for an invisible shield instead.

[Arcmanov]

Endgadget gives us the skinny on Motorola's new Honeycomb tablet...




OMG...I think I officially found a replacement for the Galaxy Tab. 

[TriniXaeno]

Do want!

[woodyear99]

This is looking very interesting hehe....don't let the thumbnail below fool you, it isn't a laptop :p

[Arcmanov]

Oh don't worry...CES was all over this.

THIS device is the perfect convergence of laptop and smartphone.

I don't EVEN want to know the price for this, with the TV dock, and the desktop dock.

[Fkacn_tt]

laptop dock is 150 dock might be 50-75 not that bad for what you are getting.

[TriniXaeno]

yeah, this was very promising.

a glimpse of the future.

I can easily see those $3999.00 smart phones evolving into this.

effectively replacing the low end PC for most casual uses.

[Redfish]

Seems like the Android Market has a web store now........yet another reason for me to get and Android phone!!!!

Looks like it's in the testing stages but follow the link for the info.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/02/android-market-gets-a-web-store/

Google's Android Market now has a web client. Finally! And guess what else, it's already live. Hit the source link below to get exploring. It's very simple, really, you can browse the entire Market catalog on your desktop or however else you're accessing the web, you can purchase anything that takes your fancy, and then -- via the magic of over-the-air transfers -- it downloads and installs onto your Android handset. A neat phone management section will let you nickname your registered devices to make them more recognizable as well.

Google has also just announced that Android will soon support in-app purchases. Widespread developer interest has been cited as the major reason for doing it, so you've got those lovable coders to thank for the oncoming wave of micropayments you'll have to deal with in your Android apps. The in-app purchasing SDK is releasing to devs today and will be "live to users prior to the end of this quarter."

Update: Invalid request. Yep, that's the message we keep getting when we try and download an app. We're assuming Google's tweaking some things on its end -- stay tuned!

Usual flaming from the apple fanboys in the comments lol

[Arcmanov]

Yeah...I shall hopefully have my Streak before the month is out.

I am actually quite shocked at the market penetration of Android thus far.



...and oh yeah, F@#K Apple.

[woodyear99]

So I've been looking at Android phones, what do you think about the HTC Desire? I know it is pretty much a Nexus One though I personally prefer optical trackball vs the physical ones.

[Czar]

The Desire's ok, but it's old hat now. But perhaps you're not interested in the latest and greatest?

Dual core will be all the rage with LG being the first to market with their Optimus 2X, and nVidia just announce that their quad core Kal-El processor will be available in phones by end of the year (a bit aggressive imo, but we can still hope).

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4181/nvidias-project-kalel-quadcore-a9s-coming-to-smartphonestablets-this-year

[woodyear99]

Indeed but I doh really want to spend more than $500 usd on a phone these days. I'm sure the multicore phones will have a hefty price tag when they are first introduced. Aside from a smoother UI, are there applications on the horizon that will require multiple cores?

[Czar]

I don't feel that there will be a real push to "require" multi-core, per se, but application developers would be wise to multithread their apps to make use of the hardware. Games, in particular, will benefit from the extra power.

That said, there are lots of other options, so it's more about finding what suits you best. What are you looking for in a device? How will you use it? What options are must haves? Put together a short list of features and start narrowing down the choices. US$500 ought to get you a pretty decent phone. If you narrow it down to a few models, I can try to help decide which is the best bang for the buck.

[woodyear99]

This isn't an Android list per se but I was just using it to learn about all the phones from 2010 with the hopes that some may be on sale at this point.

http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/15-best-mobile-phones-in-the-world-today-645440?artc_pg=19

What do yall think of this list?

I'm still in the initial stages of looking but I need something with decent photo quality, half decent battery life and at least a 3.7 inch display.

[Arcmanov]

Finally got my Galaxy S today.

Currently flashing to Froyo 2.2.1.  


Let the good times roll.

[woodyear99]

Yeah I was looking at it but it was a bit too expensive at Bmobile over $4500 :s

[Preston786]

that is a weird a$$ list :S but it kinda good it just mixed up...badd

Why is the HTC Desire HD no.3 and the Desire no.1 when the HD is sooo much better

(from experience I've used both recently) and the Iphone4 .....shouldn't even be there

[woodyear99]

Lol yeah I know it mixed up, was just using it as a general guide to know what was big in 2010.

[Arcmanov]

Several hours and 3 firmware updates later, we have finally arrived at Android Froyo 2.2.1, rooted.

Those guys on the XDA Developers forums deserve a Nobel prize yes, because EVERYTHING I've been
able to accomplish thus far has come from there.  It's truly a treasure trove of help for Android n00bs
like myself.  Already, I've learned the ins and outs of Android firmware updating, as well as the do's
and don'ts.  I can confidently update/unlock/root any Galaxy S variant now.  

Having 'used' my brother's WP7 HTC Trophy, I can honestly say I wont be using ANY WP7-based phone soon.

What can I say about the I9000 that hasn't already been said.  The fact that TSTT sellout all theirs should say something.  I seem to have gotten an international, unlocked version though.  The only thing I miss from the N900 is the physical keyboard.  That's it.  The I9000 is superior in everything but on-board storage and that is easily remedied by a micro-SDHC card.  Maemo gave me a good run, but when it's directly compared to Android, it's been found wanting.

Some stuff that I found awesome:

- Homescreen transitions.
- Android market (the number of free apps is ASTOUNDING).
- That super-AMOLED screen...it's a beauty...even on the lowest setting.
- Voice recognition/dialing/search (something sorely lacking in Maemo).
- The fact that when I turn off wi-fi, GPRS automatically activates (yep, its the little things)
- 'Mobile AP' is now a part of the OS (as of 2.2 and beyond).  Something that
   could only be achieved via a buggy app on other OSes.
- MSN Talk (best implementation of MSN Messenger as an app)...and this one actually
  stays connected over GPRS' notoriously finicky bandwidth.
- 720p HD video recording.  * rubs hands gleefully *


Some stuff that I didn't like:

- No LED flash for camera, so low-light pics are pretty much out of the question.
- Cannot use a non-Samsung headset/headphones for phone calls.  WTF is that!!?
  Apparently, the port/jack is non-standard, so I'm stuck with the OEM Samsung wired headset.
  Thank God for stereo-bluetooth.  The wired headset however, sounds uncannily good.


Best $3000 I ever spent, even though it's about 4 mths old, but I'll be keeping it for a while,
once Google keeps them firmwares comin.


So now I patiently await a proper Gingerbread update.

[woodyear99]

Yeah I'm pretty much sold on Android, now it is just a question of which bess deal I can find hehe.