Another week of Android happenings is behind us, but there’s one thing we’re still talking about ’round these parts: Android Community’s brand-new look! Hopefully you like it as much as we do – we’ve put a lot of work into making the site more readable and usable. But enough about us, let’s get to all the news you need to catch up on if you’ve spent the last week under a rock.
Plenty of new hardware was either announced or leaked this week: first of all, HTC’s One S finally got a release date on T-Mobile. You can pick one up on April 25th, and if you go to Costco you’ll get it for ten bucks off with a free $25 gift card. AT&T has started taking pre-orders for the HTC One X, but if you pre-order it from Radio Shack you’ll get a cool $50 off. In other HTC news, the “One J” (a modified One S) was spotted for Japanese carrier KDDI. We also saw glimpses of the Motorola DROID RAZR HD (AKA the DROID Fighter) via some sample camera shots.
Meizu finally announced the long-rumored MX Quad-core, surprisingly running a Samsung Exynos processor. Huawei’s super-skinny Ascend P1 is coming in May, as is the ASUS Padfone… but only for Europe at the moment. Acer released the Tegra 3-sporting Iconia Tab A510 for your purchasing pleasure, and a new leak indicates that the Samsung Galaxy Note is headed for T-Mobile sometime soon. The Galaxy Beam and its built-in pico projector were spotted in the FCC, complete with AT&T bands.
Of course a weekly wrap-up wouldn’t be complete without some Galaxy S III rumors. But this week we can put at least a few to rest: Samsung has officially announced “The Next Galaxy” press event for London on May 3rd. We’ll be there to cover it, naturally. The company teased us with Facebook glimpses and a countdown set for tomorrow. A few disguised/pre-production Galaxy S IIIs are finally making it out of Samsung – one posed for some photos, and one for a full walkthrough video.
There’s plenty to talk about on the software side of things. Acer’s Iconia Tab A500 and A100 tablets will be updated to ICS later this week, and while Samsung’s still mum on a date for the Galaxy Note’s ICS upgrade they were kind enough to show off some of the “premium suite” features. Unlocked Galaxy S II owners in the UK and the US can download their Android 4.0 updates via Kies. ASUS is taking reservations for the Transformer Prime dongle, which should alleviate those low GPS signals.
As far as apps go, Google Drive seems like a done deal. Leaks indicate that it’ll be launching this upcoming week, and the app itself was spotted on a developer phone. Google updated Chrome for Android with bookmark sync and a much-needed desktop mode. Spotify updated with a beta that integrates with Ice Cream Sandwich – it’s so fast and pretty we had to do a hands-on. Popular apps Draw Something and Temple Run added new features. Oh, and that patent war between Apple and Samsung may finally be drawing to a close: their two CEOs have agreed to start talking about settlements.
Here at Android Community we’ve had an unusually busy week. Just today we posted our review of ASUS’ brand-new Transformer Pad TF300. You can order one now, and if you’re in market for a 10-inch tablet, you should. We reviewed HTC’s One V, not to mention the Media Link streaming device and the official first-party cases for the One X. We’ve also got a secondhand review of T-Mobile’s One S via our sister site SlashGear. The LG Viper 4G LTE got a good look from our reviewer too, as did the new app Pocket (formerly Read It Later). Finally, we’ve got a little editorializing on the Galaxy S III’s most important feature.
That’s all she wrote, folks. Stay in school, don’t do drugs and always make a Nandroid backup.
