November, 2010 - Android Community

Darth Vader is Android spokesman in Japan…umm..k

By Shane McGlaun
on 26 Nov, 2010

Star Wars has already tied up with Android in the past with R2-D2 on one of the Droid smartphones. That was a cool mash up of my childhood heroes and tech. A strange one has surfaced now in Japan.

Leak hints at Galaxy S 2 hardware

By Shane McGlaun
on 26 Nov, 2010

Geeks are able to find out details of coming hardware a lot of the time by pouring through software updates that hit models already on the market. Often the software will have lines of code that are specifically for each handset and these can give insights to coming models.

Woow Digital Android tablet coming soon

By Shane McGlaun
on 26 Nov, 2010

Android tablets are coming to the market in force with new offerings coming all the time and a bunch more on the way. A new tablet running Android from a company called Woow Digital has surfaced and the thing may be one of the better tablets running Android to break cover so far.

NEC Smartia tablet is consumer version of Cloud Communicator [Video]

By Chris Davies
on 26 Nov, 2010

NEC's Cloud Communicator tablet has jumped over to the company's consumer division, rebranded as the NEC Smartia and set to go on sale in Japan from December 6. The specifications for the 7-inch slate are unchanged, so you get an 800 x 480 resistive touchscreen, 600MHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor and Android 2.1, all for 42,800 yen ($510) from NEC's comically-named BIGLOBE ISP. There's also GPS, WiFi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and a 3-megapixel webcam. NEC also thrown on their own app store, Andronavi. NEC apparently has a 1GHz update in the works, complete with Android 2.2 and 3.0 updates, but there's no timescale for their release. [youtube VWbSLfTrV_U] [via NetbookNews]

Advent Vega hack adds Android Market, Gmail, Street View & more

By Chris Davies
on 25 Nov, 2010

A custom ROM for the Advent Vega Tegra 2 tablet has been released, adding in Android Market support along with Car Home, Calendar, Contacts, Genie (News and Weather), Gmail, Maps with Street View, Market, Talk, Voice Search and YouTube. The handiwork of MoDaCo's Paul O'Brien, there's also an optional "performance pack" which promises to speed up the tablet. PC World has said that they expect more Vega stock by the end of this week, though the tablet is still currently unavailable.

Samsung Stealth V SCH-i510 outed by DLNA

By Chris Davies
on 25 Nov, 2010

A new Android handset has been outed by the DLNA, the Samsung Stealth V SCH-i510, complete with Android 2.2 Froyo. Hardware details on the Stealth V are scant, but the approval listing [pdf link] does confirm that it has a 4.3-inch WVGA AMOLED display and an 8-megapixel camera. There's also WiFi b/g/n and a microSD card slot. Verizon's Galaxy S handset, the Fascinate, is the SCH-i500, so it's not too great a leap to presume that this is the successor to that device. [via GSMArena]

Android-Themed Bar Opens in Japan

By Dylan Bailey
on 25 Nov, 2010

We have seen many examples of just how dedicated some Android fans can be. However, a fully themed bar complete with treats that resemble software releases is definitely a first, and of course - it's in Japan.

Notion Ink starts mystery countdown ending December 9th, its meaning is unknown

By Dylan Bailey
on 25 Nov, 2010

The Notion Ink Adam tablet has been a hit ever since we first saw it at CES last year, some even say it's the only Android tablet in which they show any interest in purchasing. Here we are almost a year later, and sure we've had information coming from the company on a regular basis, but we still haven't heard any word of a release date or even had the chance to test one out and see the progress for ourselves.

Sharp IS03 sees 450,000 Japanese pre-orders

By Chris Davies
on 25 Nov, 2010

Sharp's IS03 has reportedly set new pre-order records for Android devices in Japan, with over 250,000 bought online ahead of the smartphone's launch on KDDI. Meanwhile, in-store pre-orders are believed to be in the region of 200,000. The online pre-orders alone make the IS03 five times more popular than the Samsung Galaxy S or Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 in Japan. The figures come courtesy of market research analyst Kei Shimada. The IS03 is notable for its Retina Display-matching 960 x 640 resolution display and a 9.6-megapixel camera. [via Twitter]

Google Nexus S running Android 2.3 Gingerbread caught in wild

By Chris Davies
on 25 Nov, 2010

New photos of Google's Nexus S and Android 2.3 Gingerbread have leaked, this time over at xda-developers. The shots are pretty blurry and heavily cropped, but there's also a list of tentative specifications including 720p HD video capture and a 4-inch screen that they suggest might be Super AMOLED 2. Recent speculation has tipped a December 6 reveal for Gingerbread, though it's unclear when the Samsung-made Nexus S might arrive.