Phandroid Newsletter

Get weekly news recaps, access to exclusive contests and giveaways, invites to beta applications, promotions/coupons and more!

We respect your privacy. We'll never share your Email address and you can always unsubscribe.


December, 2011 Articles

Rumor: Galaxy S, Tab to Get “Value Pack” Instead of ICS

by Quentyn Kennemer on December 28th, 2011

Just yesterday Samsung gave us a glimmer of hope that their 2010 flagship devices – the Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab – could get Ice Cream Sandwich as they went back to reevaluate the feasibility of the task. With TouchWiz in the way, it certainly won’t seem as easy as we’d hope considering these devices [...]

How Satisfied Are You With Your ASUS Transformer Prime? [Poll, Forum Talk]

by Quentyn Kennemer on December 28th, 2011

The ASUS Transformer Prime is shipping in some parts of the world now and users have gotten their hands plenty wet with it. Over at AndroidForums.com folks are curious how satisfied you are with it if you did happen to purchase one. 75% of the 20 people who voted in the poll over there seem [...]

Pros and Cons of Installing Custom ROMs [Forum Talk]

by Quentyn Kennemer on December 28th, 2011

In this day and age it seems you can’t find a new phone without an eager group of developers ready to support it. Some people come to Android and may not have the slightest clue of what rooting and flashing custom ROMs/mods/kernels is. (I have two of them in my very own household.) If you [...]

Kankakee, IL Sees Early LTE Cluster Deployment from Sprint

by Quentyn Kennemer on December 28th, 2011

Sprint’s confident in their plans to get their LTE network to a majority of their customers by the end of 2013 and they keep rolling on with deployment. Today they’ve announced that new LTE clusters have been deployed in the Kankakee, IL area, just 60 miles south of Chicago. They’re planning on bringing their first [...]

Android Overload: Galaxy Nexus Receives MIUI ROM, Huawei Ascend II Coming To US Cellular This Week and More

by Chris Chavez on December 28th, 2011

Well, lookie here. You seem to have found yourself in the Android Overload tonight. This is your one stop, place to shop for all of the top news stories from throughout our day — the ones that didn’t make it onto our front page — giving you one last shot to soak in all things [...]

NeoDroid Brings Neo Geo Emulation To Your Android Device – Now Available In The Market

by Chris Chavez on December 28th, 2011

Fresh to the Android Market is the newly released NeoDroid bringing Neo Geo emulation to your smartphone. The emulator is actually based off another emulator called GnGeo and will play all those games that were WAY too expensive to buy as a kid. Emulators tend to fall into this gray area so to avoid any [...]

Andy Rubin Reveals Android Activations For December 24th and 25th

by Chris Chavez on December 28th, 2011

We told you guys earlier today about smartphone activations jumping 353% from the previous year but many were left wondering, “Just how many of those were Android devices?” Well, I found this report from Localytics who breaks it down by country and OS but if you’re looking for a specific number — our very own [...]

Samsung Galaxy S III Will Have 3D Functionality – To Be Unveiled At MWC 2012 [Rumor]

by Chris Chavez on December 28th, 2011

Alright, so we know Fridays’ “leaked” renders of the Samsung Galaxy S III turned out to be nothing more than fan-created concept art but now we’re hearing rumblings around the net that Samsung could be planning to introduce the device at MWC 2012. Okay, so that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given Samsung’s [...]

Sprint Giving Select Customers Early Upgrades – Hurry! Offer Ends December 31st

by Chris Chavez on December 28th, 2011

If you’re a Sprint customer, you may want to listen listen up. Seems old Yeller is throwing a silent (read: secret) promotion for certain eligible Premier customers by allowing them to upgrade early. I know, it sounds crazy but look at the above leaked pic for proof. Every phone appears to be up for grabs, [...]

LG Prada Phone 3.0 Now Available In Korea – Hitting Europe In January

by Chris Chavez on December 27th, 2011

No, the image you see above is not in black in white — it’s actually in full color. That’s LG’s newest smartphone, the “Prada Phone by LG.” First thing I’m sure you’ve noticed the device is its minimalist “Prada themed” black and white UI, a clear departure from the manufacturer’s pseudo TouchWiz found on devices [...]

Hacker Finds Major Security Flaw In GSM Networks – All Phones Vulnerable

by Chris Chavez on December 27th, 2011

A vulnerability was discovered in GSM networks — the same type of network T-Mobile and AT&T operate on — that could allow for a hacker or an otherwise nefarious character, to gain full remote control of any smartphone running on those types of networks (Sprint and Verizon are in the clear). The security flaw was [...]

Tablet Remote Lets You Control Your Tablet At Long Range Using Nothing But Your Smartphone

by Chris Chavez on December 27th, 2011

What some of my friends and non-tech savvy family don’t seem to understand about technology is it’s not just fun or geeky — but it’s also supposed to make your life easier. Thankfully, I came across Tablet Remote — which is free in the Android Market — and how it works is it allows you [...]

Gameloft Sale Offers All Games For 99 Cents – Plus, Enter To Win LG Nitro HD For AT&T

by Chris Chavez on December 27th, 2011

Christmas may be over but don’t tell Gameloft that. The mobile gaming company will be having a sale, starting Dec 29th, on all of their Android titles in the Market, offering them up for only 99 cents (my favorite word) each. That’s not such a bad deal seeing how some of these games can reach [...]

Intel’s Medfield SoC Benchmarked, Almost Ready for Prime Time

by Kevin Krause on December 27th, 2011

Intel’s first real system-on-a-chip for mobile devices, its Medfield processor, has been making the rounds lately as it inches closer and closer to a final release. The CPU was shown off to MIT’s Technology Review earlier in the month as the focal point of a reference tablet as well as a reference smartphone, and now details [...]

Update Rolling Out to the Original ASUS Eee Pad Transformer

by Kevin Krause on December 27th, 2011

With its followup a bit hard to come by after its December release, the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer is in the midst of yet another update. No, it isn’t an upgrade to Android 4.0. The new software instead aims to fix a number of minor bugs and further tweak the performance of the dual-core tablet. [...]

AirPlay No Longer Exclusive to Apple TV Thanks to Airtight

by Kevin Krause on December 27th, 2011

One advantage Apple TV holds over Google’s television platform is access to the wide array of media offered through iTunes. Thanks to a rogue developer that isn’t such a problem anymore. Airtight is an app for Google TV that brings the functionality of Apple AirPlay to the Android-based system and allows users to stream content [...]

Verizon Has Certified Pre-Owned Devices On Sale through Dec. 29th

by Kevin Krause on December 27th, 2011

Looking to score a deal on Verizon’s already discounted selection of certified pre-owned devices? You have until December 29th to do so. We’re reporting a little late on a 7-day sale that sees some good savings on used and refurbished items. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, for instance, is marked down $80 to $349.99 on [...]

Samsung Projected to Sell 150 Million Smartphones in 2012

by Kevin Krause on December 27th, 2011

Korea Economic Daily is raising their sales forecast for Samsung by 15 percent, bringing total projected handset sales to 374 million. Of those handsets, 150 million are expected to be smartphones. To put the figure into perspective, Samsung was projected to move 300 million units this year, a figure that was easily surpassed thanks to [...]

Smartphones Dominate Christmas with Activations Up 353% from December Norm

by Kevin Krause on December 27th, 2011

This Christmas the smartphone was the must-have gift and Flurry has the analytics data to back it up. According to their research, an average 1.5 million Android and iOS devices were activated daily between December 1st and 20th. For December 25th the number rose to an estimated 6.8 million, a 353 percent increase. The number [...]

Notion Ink Provides Alpha ICS Source For Its Consumers [Video]

by Quentyn Kennemer on December 27th, 2011

The folks at Notion Ink are keeping to their promise of bringing Ice Cream Sandwich to the Adam tablet and they want to show you just how far they’ve come. They’ve made a video showing their progress off but they’re giving the fearless a chance to build and flash the ROM and take a look [...]