January, 2012 - Android Community

Monthly Archive: May 2013

HTC Sense 4.0 details emerge before Mobile World Congress

By Michael Crider
on 27 Jan, 2012

Like it or not, custom manufacturer skins are here to stay. That said some are better than others, and HTC's Sense UI has emerged as one of the more mature and usable options, even garnering its fair share of fans. HTC is expected to reveal the fourth version of Sense with new hardware at Mobile World Congress next month, but PocketNow allegedly got a look at the changes before prime time. They came away impressed, and noted some radical - and in many cases welcome - changes.

Rogers’ LG Optimus Pad is now free on contract

By Michael Crider
on 27 Jan, 2012

Free phones, even free smartphones, are nothing new in contract-laden world of wireless providers. But a free tablet? Now that's downright novel. Canadian cellular carrier Rogers just slashed the price down to nuthin, nil and nada for the LG Optimus Pad, the Honeycomb tablet first made available on Rogers in May of last year. If you buy the tablet ouutright it'll still cost you $549.99 CAD, or $499.99/$449.99 for a month-to-month or one-year contract, respectively.

Motorola XYBOARD WiFi tablets available for purchase

By Michael Crider
on 27 Jan, 2012

If you're anything like the writers and editors here at Android Community, you're in no hurry to be saddled with yet another monthly contract - even for the luxury of an LTE-enabled tablet. That was one of the the things that made the quite solid Motorola DROID XYBOARD tablets on Verizon much less desirable than they might otherwise have been. After a few weeks of pre-orders, Motorola has made both the XYBOARD 10.1 and XYBOARD 8.2 available for purchase on their website in WiFi-only forms. They're absent the DROID branding, which is an exclusive marketing tool for Verizon's partner hardware.

Sony XPERIA S to have anti-stain and fast charging features

By Sam Koutroulakis
on 26 Jan, 2012

We may have gone hands-on with the Sony XPERIA S at CES, but who would have known the device had a few hidden features? The XPERIA S will likely come with a stain-proof exterior. Stain-proof defined means the device will be dirt repellant, and UV Active. We assume the next generation of Samsung smartphones are considering a waterproof coating in their final design. Which would you prefer?

HTC pledges to follow a ‘Hero Device’ strategy for 2012

By Sam Koutroulakis
on 26 Jan, 2012

It always confuses me when manufacturers release half-baked devices to the public. A great combination of working hardware/software will not only helps sustain a companies good name, but also generate repeat customers. HTC followed a similar ideology years back, and is returning in 2012 with their "Hero Device" gameplan.

Samsung 2011 Q4 earnings: $42 billion in sales, $4.7bn profit, 40% was from mobile

By Cory Gunther
on 26 Jan, 2012

Another earnings call is going on as we speak. Samsung is busy adding up all their sales, counting their pennies (or million dollar bills) and are posting their reports for Q4 2011. With a strong year over year, and quarter of quarter we are seeing some impressive numbers. Many of which comes directly from their smartphone sales.

Google Music Manager update brings full library and puchased music downloads

By Cory Gunther
on 26 Jan, 2012

Yes! Finally Google has updated their new Music Manager for Google Music to allow users to download right from their cloud. Originally you could upload all your music but that was it. Now instead of downloading them one at a time we can retrieve the entire library right out of the air and download it to your device or computer -- including purchased tracks from the Android Market.

Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX only $230 from Wirefly [Deal]

By Cory Gunther
on 26 Jan, 2012

Just as Verizon announced, the new DROID RAZR MAXX went on sale today and can be yours for the low low price of $299. That will get you an impressive smartphone that is just like its older brother, but with a huge 3,300 mAh battery. Today Wirefly has decided to top Verizon and are offering the phone on launch day for $70 dollars less -- just $229.

Grand Theft Auto III updated with Transformer Prime support, video tweaks — we go hands-on

By Cory Gunther
on 26 Jan, 2012

Surely many of you have already seen or played Grand Theft Auto III. Be it back in the day on your Xbox or even recently on a few Android smartphones and tablets as of late. What you haven't seen is GTAIII on the NVIDIA quad-core powered ASUS Transformer Prime Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich tablet. We decided to give it a try so check it out below.

Google tells devs how to kick the Android menu button to the curb in ICS

By Michael Crider
on 26 Jan, 2012

Ice Cream Sandwich removes the ubiquitous Android Menu bottom from its comfy place below the screen and casts it adrift on the sea of interface, where it floats around the screen like Tom Hanks and a volleyball. This change has given grief to a lot of developers (not to mention users): Is the Menu section hiding out in the navigation bar? Slumming it up top near search buttons and titles? Fret not, devs: the latest post to the Android Developer Blog gives some guidance on exactly how to handle the new system.