Archive for January 20th, 2011

HTC Thunderbolt out soon ?

For those of you with a good memory, you should still remember back to a few days ago (maybe more than a week now that I think of it and I’m too lazy to check and make sure) when the HTC Thunderbolt saw the light of day at the Verizon stand. Along with 3 other new generation Android smartphones rocking brand new CPUs and GPUs along with dozens of new features which really made this humble reviewer go “I want one as well”. Considering that I enjoyed HTCs previous work, the HTC Legend being my personal favorite with its beautiful made aluminum case. Those were the days, I hear someone say in the background.

As most of those devices didn’t really have any date set up back then, only vague estimates on when they will be hitting carriers, I couldn’t mark my calendar down to see for myself how much delay there was between the initial launch date and the date it actually came out. Other than the Motorola Bionic, which according to certain leaks, should be coming out in March, no other dates were really mentioned. This time around though the HTC Thunderbolt manages to steal the thunder – see what I did there, and give us an approximate of when it will be reaching us, mere mortal users.

As such apparently to a leaked imaged, training has already begun at Verizon Wireless regarding the HTC Thunderbolt. It’s being marketed as Verizon’s first 4G LTE Smartphone bringing a ton of new “firsts” with it. According to the image it will be running Android 2.2 Froyo, so any of you or were hoping that they will get to see 2.3 on it, I’m sorry guys, but don’t just rule any updates out because the device isn’t even launched yet. Another marketing point is the fact that it will be the first VZW device to share a 3G or 4G internet connection with up to eight Wi-Fi enabled devices using VZW mobile hotspot. It will also come with the support for voice calling along with data capabilities. This really means that you will be able to make calls while browsing the web at the same time.

Something which caught my eye was the fact that it will receive Skype after the launch, thus giving the users the ability to make video calls with the front or rear facing camera. Also the fact that HTC is making the only user interface I always enjoyed, it’s good to see that they will improve on it with the Thunderbolt as it will have the latest UI from HTC the Sense 2.0, allowing everyday users to customize their device any way they feel like it. Well aren’t those good marketing moves by VZW? Yes. If you really want to customize your device, root it.

All in all the news seems rather good from this direction, and I personally can’t wait for the HTC Thunderbolt to come out and see for ourselves if it acts just as well out here in the real world. Until next time, I’ll be busy drooling over the preview made at CES. Check it out!1

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January 20th, 2011 Catalin Mengheris

Posted in Android News

Android 2.2 OS for LG Ally

I was just thinking about how news was traveling around about Android 2.3 Gingerbread a few months ago and how everyone couldn’t really wait for it to come out. Yet something that a lot of users didn’t take into consideration was the manufacturer’s plans for their devices. To be a touch more specific on this aspect, when Android 2.3 Gingerbread came out, there were a lot of users who were still rocking the 2.1 version of the operating system and there were no plans for the 2.2 update any soon, yet a lot of people were already dreaming about running 2.3 on their devices.

Considering that I’ve worked a while as a news writer for a couple of gaming web pages, I have learned not to take any new announcement into consideration as a lot of time companies created this artificial hype connected to their products, only to see them end up failing in mid process. So when I first heard about Android 2.3 my first thought was more like – “so we will most likely see more updates on our devices” rather than 2.3 will be running on everything that is out.

So speaking of updates, the LG Ally from Verizon will see Android 2.2 Froyo come to its rescue. According to some leaked documents from Verizon, the device will see the update in the following few weeks. In case some of you LG Ally users might already be dreaming about 2.3, I must say that there isn’t any real good reason for the device to receive Gingerbread just yet, as the 2.2 version will bring quite a lot of improvements to your device as it is. Just to count a few features, Android 2.2 comes with some new widgets, a better Exchange integration, enhanced photo galleries, a faster browser thanks to the V8 Java Script Engine and all in all a speed boost because of the JIT compiler.

One element the LG Ally users can be happy about is the fact that the Samsung Fascinate hasn’t yet received the update on the US market. As such the Galaxy S line of devices from Samsung has received the much awaited update on every market except the one in the States, so feel free to gloat J.

For those of you who consider that even this isn’t enough and might think that they should receive the 2.3 update as well, the LG device doesn’t support NFC and the improved keyboard and overall speed increase would be welcome yet let’s not jump ahead of ourselves as this upcoming update will take care of a lot of issues as it is. Besides, just think that compared to Xperia X10 series users, you ARE getting Android 2.2 and LG never said anything about not having any plans at all for updating your devices. Until next time, keep those two groups of users in mind when complaining about not getting Gingerbread on your device.1

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January 20th, 2011 Catalin Mengheris

Posted in Android News
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2013-05-20 07:05:00