Posts Tagged ‘Input/Output’

Android Phone And Sprint

The year kicked off with some great conventions which showcased some of the best devices in the field and all the carriers were battling for the number one spot of being “Best in Show”. This was highly important especially as AT&T made the slow but steady shift towards the Android powered smartphones as it lost the exclusivity on iPhone 4 which is now available on Verizon Wireless as well. T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon were all keen on fighting for the top dog position, yet Sprint had a slow start if anything. Despite that, the carrier worked hard and we might expect some cool new devices to hit the market.

Sprint’s first big Android phone announcement was Kyocera Echo. This dual-screen Android smartphone on Sprint comes with an industry first – as the name says it, it comes with two displays. The device was first announced way back in February, but was the first real step in the right direction coming from the carrier. The Android phone and Sprint combo went on with a series of cool new announcements at CTIA a while back. This was again a nice showcase of what the carrier is bringing to the table.

Android Phone And Sprint

Android Phone And Sprint

Sprint managed to bag Samsung Nexus S a while back ( or Google Nexus S if that drives your fancy ) and CTIA brought an impressive lineup to the carrier. As such we had the first announcements regarding the HTC Evo View ( that’s the HTC Flyer Android tablet ), HTC Evo 3D and HTC Evo 4G. These new devices helped the carrier to gain some respect in my book. After the slow start at the beginning of the year, with no new announcements from them, this really helped the carrier along in the race between carriers in the US.

Android Phone And Sprint

Android Phone And Sprint

With such an impressive lineup incoming our way the Android Phone and Sprint combination looks promising not only for subscribers of the network but for those of you thinking about picking up any of these new devices from them. The Kyocera Echo, which is a Sprint exclusive, can be purchased for $199 on a 2 year contract, with pricing not yet known for the HTC attack. You can expect those devices to hit the market sometime this summer according to Sprint. Stay tuned for more !1

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May 6th, 2011 androidencyclopedia

Posted in Android Phone

Android Apps Market

The Android Apps Market is probably one of the biggest reasons for the success behind the Android platform as a whole. Despite tons of claims regarding the fact that it doesn’t measure up to the iPhone App market, the Android Market managed to grow substantially in the past few months crossing the 150 thousand apps mark just a while back. It is also probably one of the reasons for which you might even consider developing for Android instead of iOS as anyone developing applications for it can post them.

Android’s App Market is the place to head to if you are looking for applications for your Android smartphone or Android tablet. Considering the wide array of applications available for free and considering that even the paid apps rarely go over the $5 mark, I think it’s a great place to start looking for software to customize your device. A few months back the webpage was released and introduced a huge number of new features and the users finally had the opportunity to check out reviews for their apps as well as the detailed information on the fly from their PCs. The market itself evolved a lot recently and thanks to some solid improvements set up by some “private” Android Markets, it’s bound to improve even more.

Android Apps Market

Android Apps Market

For some of you who have been with us for a while now, I can point you towards the Vodafone Android Apps Market which was one of the best “custom” markets for Android applications out there. Besides a cool algorithm to put the most appreciated applications on top, you had the possibility of paying for apps via Vodafone itself. Of course this was limited to the Vodafone users and to some regions, but the number of great leaps forward it showed are slowly but surely moving over to Google’s Android Market itself.

Android Apps Market

Android Apps Market

As such we can look forward for in-app payment methods which will allow you to purchase application content directly from the developer as well as carrier based payments. Considering also the steady growth in applications developed for Android and the ever increasing number of developers migrating to Android, I can safely say that Google’s mobile OS is catching up on Apple’s iOS. Stay tuned for more as we will also do Android Market application reviews!1

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May 6th, 2011 androidencyclopedia

Posted in Android Apps

Android 2.1 Htc Hero

HTC’s Hero was probably one of the most appreciated devices in my view, mainly because represented some of the first steps the manufacturer was doing towards this new market. Nowadays, HTC is probably one of the largest Android smartphone manufacturer’s out there and this was showed by the build quality of their devices, the raw power their newest models pack and obviously the sleek and stylish design etiquette they have when approaching each new device.  HTC Hero has been around for quite a long period now, so I decided to give it a quick look, considering the great services it brought us the everyday user.

The reason I’m talking about the Android 2.1 update for HTC Hero, although it’s been almost a year since HTC first announced the release of the update, was mainly because of the most recent news on XDA Developers. There, a group of enthusiasts ( as they always are that and god bless their little hearts for that :P ) is working on developing a custom ROM based on Cyanogen Mod. This would bring Gingerbread to the old HTC Hero.

Android 2.1 Htc Hero

Android 2.1 Htc Hero

Android 2.1 for HTC Hero saw the light of day thanks to HTC last year in May if my memory is not acting up on me. This was received very well by both users and the press as this showed that HTC didn’t gave up on the Hero. A few months back I saw the first news of people working on a set of custom ROMs for the HTC Hero which would bring Android 2.3.2 Gingerbread to Hero. Bye bye Android 2.1 Éclair and say hello to Gingerbread. THIS is the thread that contains all what you would need to set your HTC Hero up with the Gingerbread goodness.

Android 2.1 Htc Hero

Android 2.1 Htc Hero

The thread contains not only how to set it up and what will take place exactly when setting up the device with Google’s latest version of Android OS. Note that there is always the risk of bricking your phone, so note that you always do this at your own risk, so make sure to pay attention and don’t start doing this unless you’re sure. But believe me, there are butterflies and there is cake once your Android 2.1 for HTC Hero turns slowly into Android 2.3 Gingerbread for the HTC Hero. Stay tuned for more!1

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May 5th, 2011 androidencyclopedia

Posted in Android 2.1, HTC Hero

Android 2.0 Os

After checking my visitor counters I noticed that there have been quite a large number of users streaming to the page. I was thinking that there probably are quite a few who don’t really know what they are getting themselves into, so I will be focusing a touch on some of these older elements to maybe give some newer users a way of seeing the evolution of the Android platform. So here it goes, let’s take a look at Android 2.0 OS.

Note that these features are directed to the user and not as much the developer, but I’m rather sure that developers know where to search for their features J. In any case, Android 2.0 OS brought a lot of improvements and really opened the way to the platform itself. Such new features where introduced to Android 2.0 like the contacts and accounts features which allowed for multiple accounts to be added to a smartphone for synchronization. You could also get access to the Quick Contact for Android which allowed you to find pertinent information on a user by simply tapping their contact photo.

Android 2.0 Os

Android 2.0 Os

The email saw improvements as well, as you would get a combined inbox for your multiple accounts all from one page, along with improvements to messaging as well. The camera for your device finally found proper support trough Android 2.0 OS, with features such as built-in flash, digital zoom, scene mode, color effects, white balance along with macro focus. The first improved keyboard for on screen typing came along with Android 2.0 as well, as you could get an improved layout along with proper multitouch support to ensure that all your key presses are recognized along with a smarter dictionary.

The browser received some major updates as well like the new user interface which allowed you to actually interact with the browser URL. You could also set up bookmarks with the web page’s thumbnails and the support for the double-tap zoom was firstly introduced here as well. The support for HTML5 was also properly introduced with Android 2.0 OS. The calendar is another part which saw improvements brought to it and the list would continue with small tweaks here and there, but I do want to keep this one short. Stay tuned for more!1

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May 4th, 2011 androidencyclopedia

Posted in Android OS

Motorola Droid ( Milestone ) upgrade to Android 2.2 Froyo

One of the most iconic Android smartphones on the market, Motorola Droid ( or Motorola Milestone ) has finally given an update. Although most news were pointing towards the manufacturer’s drop of the entire update process of the Motorola Milestone, it seems that after a long and arduous period of testing and tweaking they finally got it up running.

Android 2.2 update will bring improved web browsing thanks to the support of Adobe Flash Player 10.1, a better browser performance as well as a ton of new security options – device lock, remote wipe and so forth. The interface got a few modifications here and there are new shortcuts available as well as a number of home-screen related widgets. Apparently there’s an improved Wi-Fi performance as well as connectivity issues.

Motorola Droid ( Milestone ) upgrade to Android 2.2 Froyo

Motorola Droid ( Milestone ) upgrade to Android 2.2 Froyo

Applications downloaded from the Market can be now saved either on the device’s memory or on your SD card. The list is pretty long so I won’t bother you going all over it. In any case, it’s great to see that Motorola is deciding to update Motorola Milestone and those of you who aren’t already running custom ROMs with Android 2.3 Gingerbread or anything fancy like that, can get a good solid update from Motorola to the Android 2.2 Froyo version.

After the recent developments of Motorola Charm, it’s fun to see that the more known Motorola Milestone can now enjoy some Android 2.2 goodness. For those interested in updating your devices just feel free to head over to Motorola page and get started from there. Happy updating folks !1

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March 22nd, 2011 androidencyclopedia

Posted in Android OS
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2013-05-20 03:55:36