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December, 2011 Articles

Some Logitech Revue Units Affected With Corrupted Firmware Out of the Box

by Quentyn Kennemer on December 27th, 2011

If you thought things couldn’t get any worse in Logitech’s admittedly-failed Google TV experiment, guess again. As they’re trying to push as many Logitech Revue units out of the door as they can to make up for their losses this holiday season, consumers who purchase the Google TV box may not even be able to [...]

Motorola DROID RAZR Gets Clockwork Mod Recovery

by Quentyn Kennemer on December 27th, 2011

The biggest thing holding the DROID RAZR development community back was the lack of a custom recovery for the device. Without a recovery, you can’t flash custom ROMs. Well, that’s no longer an issue as a recovery has been worked up for this specific phone. It applies to all versions of the RAZR currently available [...]

Quad Core Meizu MX (Exynos 4412?) Said to be Here May 2012

by Quentyn Kennemer on December 27th, 2011

While many Android tablets are soon to be offered with quad-core configurations (including the already-available ASUS Transformer Prime), we’re still wondering if and when handsets will get over the dual-core hump. Meizu is the first to make public plans to release a quad-core device. It will be an upgraded version of their beautiful Meizu MX. [...]

Archos DECT-Enabled 35 Phone is a Smart Home Phone That Runs Android

by Quentyn Kennemer on December 27th, 2011

Archos looks set to offer a new DECT phone that will run Android 2.2. The device has a 3.5 inch display and has WiFi. Using its browser you’ll be able to visit websites and even download apps and games. With its front-facing camera video conferencing is also a possibility making this a smart home/office phone [...]

Today’s the Last Day to Take Advantage of Best Buy’s After Christmas Sale

by Quentyn Kennemer on December 27th, 2011

I’ve always said the best sales can be had AFTER Christmas day (New Years is one hot day in that department) and Best Buy believes so as well. Their after Christmas sale is set to wrap up today so it’s your last chance to get in on some of these great deals. Verizon’s Samsung Stratosphere [...]

Trebuchet Launcher Alpha for Android 4.0.3+ Alpha Now Available for Download

by Quentyn Kennemer on December 27th, 2011

The developer behind Trebuchet launcher (which will be in CyanogenMod 9) has updated his application with some new features and brought to the public an alpha version available for download. Trebuchet launcher is based on Ice Cream Sandwich’s launcher, as you might imagine, and it adds some very nice features that users have been clamoring [...]

Samsung Evaluating Feasibility of Getting Android 4.0 on the Galaxy S, Tab

by Quentyn Kennemer on December 27th, 2011

The folks at Samsung first denied original Galaxy Tab and Galaxy S users a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich and, as you might imagine, it created quite the uproar. It couldn’t be a hardware performance issue due to the Nexus S getting Ice Cream Sandwich with near identical performance hardware. No, it was a space [...]

Acer to Stick in Smartphone and Tablet Game, Will Limit Yearly Releases

by Quentyn Kennemer on December 27th, 2011

Rumors were apparently running rampant that Acer would quit the smartphone and tablet game cold turkey but it’s not true according to the company themselves. Acer states that they will continue to attempt to break into the fast-growing tablet and smartphone markets, though it won’t pursue the frequent release model that we’re seeing major manufacturers [...]

ASUS Not Phased By Hasbro Lawsuit – Continues Rolling Out Transformer Primes

by Chris Chavez on December 26th, 2011

Like water off a duck’s back, ASUS seems to be unphased by their legal troubles with Hasbro. Despite being slapped with a lawsuit — which has to do with ASUS taking advantage of Hasbro’s “Transformer” and “Prime” trademarks — it’s all business as usual for the Taiwanese company who expects to continue pumping out Transformer [...]

PowerAMP Celebrates New Version 2.0 Of Their Hit Music Player With Twitter Contest

by Chris Chavez on December 26th, 2011

Max MP is celebrating the release of PowerAMP 2.0 by throwing a contest on their brand spankin’ new Twitter account. If you haven’t heard of PowerAMP, it’s arguably the most popular and full featured music player in the Android Market. Offering full control of EQ settings, crossfading, stereo “eXpansion,” lyrics support, scrobbling and a wide [...]

HTC Evo View 4G and Mytouch 4G Slide Now Officially Unlockable From HTC

by Chris Chavez on December 26th, 2011

Two new HTC devices have found themselves a part of the official bootloader unlocked family of devices by way of HTC’s developer site, HTCDev.com. The Evo View 4G (Sprint’s version of the Flyer) along with the T-Mobile MyTouch Slide 4G were the newest additions to the list. The Evo View 4G more specifically, has been [...]

Kindle Fire Receives Early Build Of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich [Video]

by Chris Chavez on December 26th, 2011

You had to see this coming and many of you have actually been waiting for this moment. Android’s first successful “budget” tablet — the Kindle Fire — has finally gotten its taste of Ice Cream Sandwich thanks to the tireless Android modding community who dropped a pre-alpha AOSP ROM for the device early today. Just [...]

Leaked Pics Reveal Huawei Working On Ice Cream Sandwich Update For MediaPad (T-Mobile Springboard)

by Chris Chavez on December 26th, 2011

It’s funny how even the prospect of Ice Cream Sandwich has the ability to triple a device’s desirability and that’s exactly the case with the Huawei MediaPad. The device was recently leaked from a Chinese website running an official build of Android 4.0.1, which doesn’t surprise us at all seeing the company officially released a [...]

JXD S7100 Android Gaming Tablet/Handset Boasts Galaxy S II Specs For $140

by Chris Chavez on December 26th, 2011

We’ve seen quite a few Android gaming handsets make their way out of China and while the JXD S7100 doesn’t look much different, it’s what this handset has on the inside that really caught our eye. Boasting specs more along the lines of a Galaxy S II device, the JXD offers almost the same processor [...]

Crunchyroll Adds Google TV Support – Watch Your Favorite Anime Or Dramas On The Big Screen

by Chris Chavez on December 26th, 2011

When it comes to Google TV, one could say it’s more of a niche market than anything. So what happens when you combine one niche with another like Japanese anime? Pure magic. Well, if samurais and robot maids are your thing. Crunchyroll has finally added Google TV support to their popular anime viewing app, giving [...]

Pro Tip: Take Photos During Video Recording with the Galaxy Nexus

by Kevin Krause on December 26th, 2011

With Android 4.0′s updated camera software, the Galaxy Nexus has quite a few tricks up its sleeve for blossoming photographers. Time lapse video and sweeping panoramic views are just the tip of the ice berg. Here’s one feature that you will hopefully be as pleasantly surprised to discover as I was. While using the camera [...]

Age Of Defenders Discounted In The Market – Cross Platform, Multiplayer TD Fun For Android Tablets

by Chris Chavez on December 26th, 2011

The tablet-only, Age of Defenders, has been updated in the Android Market with fresh content and a newly reduced $.99 price tag. The sci-fi tower defense game focuses mainly on multiplayer and gives gamers the ability to battle other players, whether they’re on the iPad, Mac, Windows or Linux. How many times can you say [...]

HTC Super Tool Makes Easy Work of Unlocking a Range of Devices

by Kevin Krause on December 26th, 2011

In recent months HTC has made a push to play nice with the developer community that has grown up around the Android ecosystem. They have made available an official tool for unlocking the bootloaders of several of their devices, but for some the pace at which new handsets are added to the list is too [...]

Budget-priced Ice Cream Sandwich Tablet Ready for Pre-oreder in the US

by Kevin Krause on December 26th, 2011

Ainovo’s low-priced Novo 7, one of the first tablets to sport Ice Cream Sandwich, may finally be making its way to the United States. The slate was announced earlier this month for a release in China, at the time priced at an extremely reasonable $100. Throw on the $60 shipping fee that some sites were [...]

LG Announces Ice Cream Sandwich Updates to Begin Q2 2012

by Kevin Krause on December 26th, 2011

LG has provided an update on their Android 4.0 upgrade timeline via their Facebook page. For a selection of their 2011 smartphone lineup, an Ice Cream Sandwich treat will arrive starting in Q2 of next year. The first phones to receive the new version of Android will be the LG Optimus LTE, LG Prada 3.0, [...]