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March, 2011 Articles

NOOKcolor Getting Froyo, App Store and Flash Player in April

by Quentyn Kennemer on March 25th, 2011

HSN’s site has revealed new details about the NOOKcolor’s April upgrade. According to them, NOOKcolor owners will be able to buy applications from the NOOK Store including Angry Birds and Drawing Pad. We’re not sure about the full details of the store, but I’m sure that information will make its way to the surface before [...]

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Presales Start; Headed to UK March 30th

by Quentyn Kennemer on March 25th, 2011

The folks at AsusTek have announced the launch of their Eee Pad Transformer Android tablet/netbook hybrid. The device was introduced at this year’s CES and has since been joining its cousin – the Eee Pad Slider – in gaining consumer attention due to its unique ability to become just a tablet or a full-on netbook [...]

Vodafone Australia to Offer Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1v (Original); Gives Idea of Pricing With AU$729 Tag

by Quentyn Kennemer on March 25th, 2011

Vodafone Australia is the first carrier to announce their intentions of carrying the Samsung Galaxy Tab that was announced in Barcelona last month. It’s now going to be called the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1v to differentiate itself from the version that was introduced this past week at CTIA. The carrier has also already priced the [...]

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 to Get Android 2.3 Gingerbread [Official]

by Quentyn Kennemer on March 25th, 2011

While Sony Ericsson may have moved slow to get their first Android-based product upgraded to a modern version of the operating system, they look to zoom past Froyo and provide Android 2.3 to bring it in line with the crop of new products introduced in the past couple of months. (Such as the Xperia Arc [...]

Samsung Invests $15 Million in 3D Display Firm; Getting Into the 3D Tablet/Handset Game?

by Quentyn Kennemer on March 25th, 2011

News has come through the wire that Samsung Ventures has invested $15 million dollars in a company called MasterImage 3D. As you might have guessed, they create 3D mobile display technology that’s already being used in theaters and will soon be in phones from many known manufacturers. It’s an interesting move from Samsung, though not [...]

Things We Missed, You Shouldn’t [CTIA Edition]

by Kevin Krause on March 24th, 2011

CTIA passed by in a whirlwind, and amid all the announcements, hands-on looks at upcoming devices, and sunny Florida weather, some things managed to slip under our radar. Here is a wrap up of what me missed during all the shenanigans: The Motorola Atrix will land on T-Mobile UK in June. The Motorola XOOM Wi-Fi [...]

Official: BlackBerry PlayBook to Run Android Apps via ‘Optional App Player’

by Kevin Krause on March 24th, 2011

When the rumors began swirling that RIM was cooking up support for Android apps in their upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook (and possibly future smartphones), most thought the idea a bit too out there to be true. Well, read it and weep (or rejoice): Android app support has officially been announced for the PlayBook tablet, which is [...]

Google Withholding Honeycomb Source from Developers Out of Concern for User Experience

by Kevin Krause on March 24th, 2011

Android Honeycomb isn’t designed for smartphones. Andy Rubin and the Android Team have made that perfectly clear, but in case there was still any confusion, the man overseeing Google’s mobile OS has clarified why developers have yet to see the source code for the tablet-specific version of Android. While the Motorola XOOM is already available [...]

Android Market In-App Billing Launching Next Week, Ready for Developer Testing Now

by Kevin Krause on March 24th, 2011

It seems like forever since it was first talked about, but it was just announced through the Android Developers Blog that In-app Billing will launch next week. The feature is already up and running for testing in the Android Market developer console. Apps designed to take advantage of In-app Billing can be uploaded now, product [...]

Is Gingerbread Headed to the Motorola Droid X this Weekend? [RUMOR]

by Kevin Krause on March 24th, 2011

Don’t circle it on your calendar just yet, but a rumor has found its way to out good friends over at DroidLife claiming that not only is the Android 2.3 Gingerbread update ready to go for the Motorola Droid X, but that it could also begin rolling out to handsets as soon as this weekend. [...]

Square Enix Moves into Mobile Game Development with Launch of Hippos Lab

by Kevin Krause on March 24th, 2011

Details are scant at the moment, but the makers behind the highly acclaimed Final Fantasy series of games is looking towards mobile with the launch of Hippos Lab. The new game development studio will have a focus on “high quality original content” for smartphones. This hopefully means more than new ports of old Square games, [...]

XTR3D Aims to Bring a Kinect-Style Gesture Experience to Android

by Quentyn Kennemer on March 24th, 2011

We’ve seen stuff like this before, but never has it looked this interesting. A company called XTR3D has posted concept videos of a new gesture-based navigation and control system they’re working on that’ll allow users do what they need to do without having to touch their devices. In the first video, a pair of kids [...]

HTC Opening Up Scribe API to Third-Party Developers, Hopes for More Apps with Pen-Based Interactions

by Kevin Krause on March 24th, 2011

Even if the HTC Flyer comes off as a bit last-generation compared to the current rank of tablet heavyweights, it does offer one feature that few others have: a stylus used not for basic interaction and navigation, but rather for taking notes, doodling, and procuring and annotating screen grabs. For some, this may seem like [...]

Samsung Captivate Gets Direct AT&T Billing For Media Hub Purchases

by Rob Jackson on March 24th, 2011

Part of the reason making mobile purchases from your phone haven’t quite taken of yet is because, well… it’s a pain. You’ve got to fill in your credit card information, add this information, verify your e-mail address and whatever else. The promise of NFC is encouraging but its real-world integrations are currently limited. Samsung Captivate [...]

Steam May Be Coming to Android Soon [Rumor]

by Quentyn Kennemer on March 24th, 2011

Here’s an interesting rumor for you gamers out there. A member over at Valve’s forums has apparently spoken to the studio’s Gabe Newell and said the company head revealed some interesting information. One bit that stood out to us was that the company may be looking to bring an Android version of Steam to the [...]

HTC EVO 3D Gets Its First Promo Video

by Kevin Krause on March 24th, 2011

Sprint is wasting no time getting people pumped up for their freshly announce HTC EVO 3D, the glasses-free 3D successor to the original HTC EVO 4G featuring a pretty big step-up in specs across the board. Dual-core processor, qHD dsiplay, and 3D video and image capture is just a bit of what to expect.Check out [...]

AT&T Faces Steep Climb With T-Mobile Acquisition Says FCC Official

by Rob Jackson on March 24th, 2011

Everyone and their mother has an opinion about the AT&T acquisition of T-Mobile – including me. Some say it’s good, I say it’s bad. Some say it’ll go through, I say there’s a good chance it won’t. But now an FCC Official took a moment off the record to say there is “no way” the [...]

LG Says Google Won’t Allow Custom UIs on Honeycomb; Samsung Says “Huh?”

by Quentyn Kennemer on March 24th, 2011

At the Droidcon conference in Berlin this week, an LG spokesperson allegedly stated that Google is expressly disallowing the customization of Android 3.0 Honeycomb because they want the new platform to gain an identity of its own first. (I like that, by the way.) So we have a bit of a problem: either Samsung didn’t [...]

HTC Site Shows EVO 3D with GSM Radio

by Kevin Krause on March 24th, 2011

The HTC EVO 3D is a CDMA Android smartphone headed to Sprint, right? If you ask the HTC product site, that is not the only place we might be finding the handset featuring a glasses-free 3D display. The site has a product listing for the EVO 3D that sports quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE radio frequencies of 850/900/1800/1900 [...]

Motorola Looking to Introduce Their Own Web-Based Mobile Operating System?

by Quentyn Kennemer on March 24th, 2011

Manufacturers are often rumored to be working on their own operating systems for smartphones. HTC was frequently a part of that rumor mill. Sources forever said they were working on their own smartphone operating system, but we later found out that it was Brew – a feature phone operating system that provided more features than [...]