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A Mystery Motorola DROID-Looking Smartphone Appears

By Juventino Quinones
on 4 Dec, 2009

Sometimes the leaks and rumors fly really fast, we just had some leaked images of what appears to be the Motorola Sholes. And now, thanks to Android Community (AC) forum member TheJuan, we get a picture of another Motorola phone that looks a lot like the DROID, sans the hardware keyboard. Although the unknown Motorola smartphone on the above image is tipped to have the Android OS and a 3.8-inch touchscreen as well as an 8MP autofocus camera with LED flash. There isn't any hard evidence to support those claims, and very little is known about this unnamed Motorola handset. Since several AC forum members were not sure about this phone, they took it upon themselves to investigate. AC member samuraiBSD came back with the images below to compare one of the images from the back of the mystery Motorola device. As samuraiBSD put it: "Notice that the Motorola logo has something weird going on, and the design of the back looks overall very similar to the Omnia...too similar." [Thanks to TheJuan and samuraiBSD]

Facts surface about Cupcake elements in a new T-Mobile G1 update

By Staff Editor
on 16 Jan, 2009

All of you who have coincidentally become cupcake followers can finally have something to sink your teeth into. No the update has not been pushed out by Google, but there is some information regarding what will be included in future updates. More information included after the jump. Google does have the INTENTION to release and over the air update (OHA) that includes elements taken from the cupcake update. A senior G1 PDA Specialist, Dylan, has apparently made a few facts clear, these facts are listed below.

FACT - There WILL be a G1 update shortly as it was INTENDED to be by mid-January so the next target is now by the end of January.

FACT - T-Mobile will not just provide Cupcake elements to the G2 and leave the G1 behind.

FACT - The next update will be called RC31 and include Cupcake elements.

FACT - The mass of calls lately for Cupcake is registering and causing T-Mobile to double their efforts in getting the update out.

FACT - NO ONE has received RC31 as of today.

FACT - When the update is released it will be done in stages “Over The Air” but it will be by region not when you purchased the G1.

FACT - The memo I was privy to is NOT distributed to Support personnel.

FACT - T-Mobile Specialists & Support are LAST to know when an update happens and are notified AFTER it is released as was the case with RC29 & RC30.

FACT - T-Mobile does have a battery improvement program in motion.

FACT - T-Mobile’s plan for battery improvement will be one of OR a combination of efficiencies in an OTA update and an extended life battery replacement.

[Via GoogleAndBlog]

Android Community Week in Review – Week 1 2009

By Staff Editor
on 4 Jan, 2009

We started the week off with a hardware hack that allows users to use the T-Mobile G1 with an iPod dock and speakers. Though this hack is not pretty and only somewhat useful, it is very interesting and really gives the iPod the good old one two. Open source developers who prefer using Python to Java can now rejoice as Damon over at damonkohler.com has managed to get it running on his G1. As most projects are in the first stages this is still a little rough, but it does show great promise with future development. More photos of the OpenMoko FreeRunner running Android have surfaced. Nothing new or exciting to report here. ShopSavvy needs your help to win the Crunchies 2008 Best Mobile App award. Voting only takes a few seconds and two clicks of the mouse. Please help Big In Japan win the award for creating such an amazing application. Google has sent out an email to those registered as developers informing them that paid applications will indeed be available in mid January. So grab the free applications while you can. HTC has a firm belief that the cupcake update will become legitimately available through Google in time. HTC has no say while Google and T-Mobile are in full control of what is included in the update. Right now Google and T-Mobile are declining to comment on such a statement. The guys over at VentureBeat have managed to get Android running on the Eee PC 1000 netbook. Though there are still a few issues with the port, they say that the process was fairly easy. There were a few other discoveries made while digging through the source code. The RC29 firmware has made its way to the Internet and now users who upgraded to the RC30 firmware and lost root access can now regain it. The process is fairly easy to do and has been confirmed to work. As with all firmware updates we advise you to proceed with caution.

HTC is convinced that the cupcake update will legitimately make it to the T-mobile G1

By Staff Editor
on 31 Dec, 2008

HTC has reason to believe that the cupcake update (or at least most of it) will likely be making it to the T-Mobile G1 as a legitimate over-the-air update. Needless to say HTC is not a part of this update so they are not in charge of deciding what makes it in the update and what does not. HTC however believes that it is only a matter of time before T-Mobile makes this update a reality for everyone. As of right now HTC is still out of the loop on when and how things will proceed. It’s all up to Google and T-Mobile. Google has been quick to send out patches and updates to fix bugs, but we have yes to see any major changes since Android released. Right now it appears that T-Mobile, Google and HTC are not making comments on any rumors or speculation just yet. With the on-screen keyboard is such high demand, Google would be wise to deliver this update asap. [Via Engadget]

Video demo of new on-screen keyboard for T-Mobile G1

By Staff Editor
on 22 Dec, 2008

With the new Android “cupcake” update there are going to be a lot of additions including video recording. What we did not know was the cupcake branch of Android which reportedly was made available a software keyboard on Nokia's line of Internet Tablets. A video of the on-screen keyboard working on the T-Mobile G1 has popped up on YouTube and we just had to share. We cannot tell you how excited we are to see that there is a full-blown working on-screen keyboard on the T-Mobile G1. This means that you wont have to slide out the keyboard to message someone and say hi, or quickly search for the nearest burger joint. The video shows the black full QWERTY keyboard being used in the Google search bar at the Homs screen and throughout the native browser. From what we can see the keyboard is very responsive and easy to use. Laid out much like the keyboard on the iPhone it seems to work well with your fingertips. While we cant vouch for the authenticity of this video, it certainly makes up excited. For now this will remain an unconfirmed rumor. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4Nvy3iRffM[/youtube]

Steel mobile browser hits the Android Market, comes equipped with an on-screen keyboard

By Staff Editor
on 6 Dec, 2008

It seems as soon as the one new application hits the Android Market, the floodgates are opened and more quickly follow. Opera just recently launched their very famous Brower for Android and now we are seeing other companies release their browsers as well. Steel is the latest to give us more options when it comes to browsing the Internet on our T-Mobile G1. Kolbysoft’s Steel is based off WebKit just as the G1’s browser and iPhone’s Safari. Eventually Steel will have plenty of great features including multiple windows, downloads, configurations, clear application history and cache and an on-screen keyboard. Yes you read it right, an on-screen keyboard will be added. This come from behind browser is still in the early stages so don’t expect it to outshine Opera anytime soon, but definitely give it a spin. For those who cannot live without an on-screen keyboard, this just may be the browser for you as there has been no word on keyboards in other browsers at this time. We are certainly happy to see very useful applications come to the Android Market rather than another version of the tip calculator.

Android gets the first virtual keyboard; still needs some work

By Staff Editor
on 12 Nov, 2008

Everyone has been asking about a virtual keyboard since before we had the G1 in our hands. Developers over at DotPhone.org have finally got an application running on the G1 with a virtual keyboard. However this application is a bit hard to use and seems to still be in the beta stages. We have seen a few cases of the application working on the G1, but have since had no luck with it. It appears that the new firmware versions RC29 and RC30 do not allow the application to work, but the old version seem to on occasion. We tried version RC29 with no luck and then decided to upgrade to verify it was not that specific version. The onscreen keyboard is reported to have a weird layout, instead of being a QWERTY keyboard, the keys listed across the top being QWERTY, the layout only seems to list QWERT across the top. Either way this application is showing progress to say the least. It will not be long before we see a working virtual keyboard on Android. We want to know if any of our users have been able to get this application working, and if so which firmware version they have.