Monthly Archives: December 2012

Leaked images show new red and brown Galaxy Note 2 versions

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Android Central

It looks as though the Galaxy Note 2 is going to have some new color options for 2013 — at least brown and red as seen in a leaked image today. The official color names are "Ruby Wine" and "Amber Brown," but we think just "red" and "brown" will do. Our first reaction is to think that these may be carrier- or region-specific variants that get the new colors, but considering that the original two colors made it around the world at launch, we could see these hit the U.S. carriers as well.

This may remind you of a leaked image from a couple days ago which showed a Note 2 in svelte black casing, but AndroidSlash has updated its original story to say that the image appears to be a fan-made fake. For now, the best bet is that we'll see brown and red along with the current crop of colors. Anything more is a bonus.

Source: UnwiredView; AndroidSlash




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Editorial: Media ‘release windows’ are increasingly archaic, futile and hostile

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Editorial Media 'release windows' are increasingly archaic, futile and hostile

Last week’s Downton Abbey broadcast debacle, while not representative of the world’s most acute problems, unnervingly illustrated one of the many ways that media companies fail to understand markets, technology and day-to-day consumer realities. The hit show ended its third season on December 25th with an extreme plot development. The season was broadcast only to its British audience, while American viewers were waiting until 2013 to clap their eyes on the latest round of shows. Problem was, of course, that the entire non-UK audience had the whole third season spoiled by instant social buzz and UK-generated web reviews of the final dramatic denouement.

If technology does nothing else, it destroys boundaries of all sorts — between countries, time zones, populations, affiliations and cultural circumstances. Media companies that distribute their products as if those borders still held sway seem increasingly clueless and hostile to their ever more empowered audiences.

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Engadget

Android Community Reviews Rundown 2012

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This year Android saw huge product release numbers across the board. With millions and millions of smartphones sold worldwide, tablets starting to sell like crazy, and accessory makers finally truly embracing the platform. Here at Android Community we wanted to wrap up a quick post highlighting some of our top smartphone, tablet, and app reviews from 2012.

rundown

This year over the past 12 months we reviewed over 80 devices, and that doesn’t count the nearly 100 hands-on articles, pictures, and videos from events like CES, Mobile World Congress, CTIA, and individual product launch events like the Galaxy S III or RAZR HD. Regarding US devices, we reviewed nearly all smartphones released, tons of Android tablets, headphones, Bluetooth speakers, and tons and tons of game and app reviews.

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We’d like to express our extreme and over-pouring gratitude to the PR groups, manufacturers, developers, and every other person responsible for helping us work with the products and services we needed to show you, the readers. Being all about Android here, we don’t have a collection and breakdown of individual categories since it’s basically just smartphones, tablets, and apps. However if you want to know anything and everything about each and every Android device — not just phones and tablets — be sure to check out our in-depth and detailed device database by clicking here.

Now since we obviously can’t run through all of the reviews, we did want to take this moment to post the links to a few of the most important and most memorable devices for 2012. In no particular order we’re going to start off with the Nexus 7 Review, then the most successful device to date here’s our Galaxy S III (international) Review, and then the AT&T and T-Mobile GSIII Review. Then while we’re on Samsung the Galaxy Note II Review was hugely successful being a quad-core Jelly Bean powered 5.5-inch beast. Then we wanted to highlight the HTC One X Review, as it was the first quad-core Android smartphone. Follow that up with the LG Optimus G review, as it was Qualcomm’s first quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro smartphone in the US, don’t forget the LG Nexus 4 Review. We also wanted to highlight the Motorola RAZR HD Review, as well as the first of its kind HTC DROID DNA Review.

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Also, since NVIDIA and their Tegra 3 platform was such a success with the Nexus 7, Transformer Prime, HTC One X, and countless other devices we wanted to highlight their specific reviews. We want to thank NVIDIA for working so closely with us, and invite you all to check out our NVIDIA Tegra Portal. Here you can find our Tegra Phone Reviews, Tegra Tablet Reviews, as well as tons of reviews and hands-on videos of games from the NVIDIA TegraZone.

We had the opportunity to review a few bluetooth speakers and loved the SuperTooth Disco 2. For those looking for more in-depth reviews from a little of everything be sure and check out our sister site SlashGear. With CES 2013 just around the corner many manufacturers will be releasing their latest and greatest smartphones and tablets early next year. Again, we want to thank everyone that works with us day in and day out to make this possible, and we look forward to another awesome year of Android goodness. In closing, be prepared for even more reviews in 2013. Also, what would you guys, the readers, like to see done different from Android Community reviews? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Android Community

CM nightlies start the year with a new widget – ‘Chronus’

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Chronus

If you're running CyanogenMod nightlies on your Android device, you'll notice a little something new in this evening's builds. Aptly named Chronus, it's a widget that's a conglomeration of the clock, weather. and calendar, and it's fully customizable. The idea of more information in one widget isn't anything new, but this one looks like it is very well done. Hopefully the clock typography is one of the custom settings.

It will sit happily on either your home screen or lock screen, and display differently based on the size. On your phone, the lock screen widget is like the standard Android clock widget, meaning that you'll need to swipe down to see it all, but on the home screen you can set the size as you would expect. Tablets display the full size lock screen as they do with the standard Android clock.

This is why open-source wins. Google releases a bare-bones version with all the necessary information for folks to take it and create something great from it. For now, you'll need to run a CM nightly to have this one, but we expect someone to pull it out and publish on Google Play for all devices if possible. Be sure to grab tonight's build for your device and check it out.

Source: +David van Tonder




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New Year’s Eve Contest Extravaganza!

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Android Central Stocking Stuffers

Win one of 11 remaining Google Play Gift Cards – or a bonus Nexus 4!

We had the best of intentions, really. Thirty-one days in December, 31 days of contests. But — surprise, surprise — holidays and birthdays and sick days caught up with us. We've already given away some 20 Google Play Gift Cards worth $ 10 each. And now, with but hours to go before we here in the U.S. tip over into 2013, we're finally going to wrap this contest.

Those of you who made it a little further in your math studies than we did might note that we've got 11 Gift Cards to go. And since tonight is the party night of the year, let's just get it all done in one last major contest, shall we? 

First, a quick reminder that all 31 winners are also in the running for a free 16GB Nexus 4, courtesy of us. If you've won one of the daily contests, or win one of the final 11 Gift Cards, you're automatically in the running. 

But let's sweeten the pot, shall we? We're going to give away a second Nexus 4, and we're going to do it in this final contest.

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Velocity Micro unveils three new NoteMagix Ultrabooks for $800 and up

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Velocity Micro unveils three new NoteMagix Ultrabooks for $ 800 and up

Velocity Micro is refreshing its NoteMagix line of laptops with three 14-inch Ultrabooks: the U430, U450 and U470. These models aren’t the thinnest machines in their category — the aluminum design tips in at four pounds — but all three have enough room for a DVD drive. All three models also feature a 14-inch display with a resolution of 1,366 x 768 — and, notably, none of them come with bloatware. Other specs include a 1.3-MP webcam, integrated Intel HD 4000 Graphics and a rated battery life of six hours.

The $ 800 NoteMagix U430 is the entry-level model, with a Core i3 CPU, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive spinning at 5,400 RPM. The $ 900 U450 steps up to a Core i5 processor and a 120GB SSD, while the $ 1,100 U470 runs a Core i7 chip with 240GB of solid-state storage. The Ultrabooks are available now through Velocity Micro’s site — check out the source link for a closer look.

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Source: Velocity Micro

Engadget

Open webOS finds its way onto Nexus 7

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Android Central

Since going open source, HP's webOS platform has been ported to a handful of Android devices, including the Galaxy Nexus and the Nook Color. The most recent addition to this niche club is the ASUS-made Nexus 7. A dedicated gesture area, working keyboard, brightness adjuster, and Wi-Fi connectivity are all up and running.

Palm expatriates may by happy to see their old friend webOS again, especially if they have a a spare Nexus 7 kicking around to get the build running themselves once it's made publicly available, but as you can see in the video, things are still very much in an alpha state.

It's hard to say exactly where aspects of Open webOS will proliferate through the mobile ecosystem over the long run, but looking at experiments like this, it's hard not to think that Android might be one of those places. Any old webOS users here? Who would be willing to try to bring it to their Nexus 7? 

via webOS Central

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Engadget’s top posts for 2012

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STUB DNP Engadget's top posts for 2012

So, are sugar plum fairies dancing in your head yet? Us neither, so how about those always-popular year-end lists? It’s time to re-raise a toast to that tradition here at Engadget with a look at the top articles over the last 12 months as voted on by you, dear readers. If you’re drawing a blank about any such ballot-casting, you did it with each duly noted click — meaning that, Kumbaya-style, our list is also your list. Overall, 2012 was a red-letter year at Engadget as we unveiled a snappy fresh look (literally and visually), changed to a new commenting system, added the poshly accented Eurocast and generally kicked butt with more features, liveblogs and scoops than ever — all of which is reflected in (woot!) our largest all-time yearly readership. After a couple of years off, we’re re-booting the top yearly post tradition, so without further ado, here’s a list of the articles that brought the biggest page-view ruckus in 2012.

Top 20 most trafficked posts of 2012, in order:

1. Apple’s next-generation iPad liveblog
2. Apple’s next-generation iPhone liveblog
3. Apple’s 2012 WWDC liveblog
4. Apple’s iPad mini liveblog
5. Live from Amazon’s Santa Monica press conference
6. Live from Apple’s education event
7. Samsung’s Mobile Unpacked liveblog
8. Microsoft’s major announcement liveblog
9. Live from Microsoft’s Windows 8 press event at Mobile World Congress 2012
10. Google’s I/O keynote 2012 liveblog
11. Live from Microsoft’s ‘sneak peek’ at Windows Phone
12. Engadget Live: ‘Ask me anything’ Q&A with Nokia CEO Stephen Elop
13. Live from Microsoft’s E3 2012 keynote
14. The Windows Phone 8 event liveblog
15. Live from the HTC press conference at MWC 2012
16. Live from Blackberry Jam Americas 2012
17. Live from Samsung Unpacked at IFA 2012
18. Live from the Nokia press conference at MWC 2012
19. Nexus 7 review: the best $ 200 tablet you can buy
20. iPhone 5 review

15,514 - total number of posts for 2012
1,039 - number of hands-on posts
246 - number of Engadget reviews
48 - number of liveblogs
10 - number of Engadget shows

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Engadget

Motorola Jelly Bean updates will continue in Q1 2013

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Motorola has been pretty good about keeping users up to date in terms of which devices were being upgraded and when those updates could be expected to begin rolling out. Granted, that is not to say they have been the fastest to update, but more that they have offered a regularly updated “Software Upgrade News” page.

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That being the case, Motorola has recently updated that page and added a few new devices to the Jelly Bean update list. Those newly added devices include the Electrify M XT901 (with US Cellular) as well as the RAZR HD XT925 (in Canada), the RAZR M (in Australia) and the RAZR i XT890 (in Europe). These four devices are all set to begin the update process in the first quarter of 2013. Specific release dates were not given, which just means that we will begin looking towards the carrier for dates.

Otherwise, the previous status update arrived from Motorola earlier in the month when we learned that the Atrix HD was going to be updated. And well, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean has rolled-out for AT&T users. We have also recently seen Motorola and Verizon Wireless roll-out Jelly Bean for the RAZR M and RAZR HD (in November). We had also seen some reports in terms of an update for the RAZR MAXX and DROID RAZR (in December), however that was since pulled and the current status for those handsets is a generic sounding “will be upgraded to Jelly Bean.”

And while it would have been nicer to see more than these four new devices get an upcoming Jelly Bean update timeline, we suppose we can also look at the other side — we didn’t see any devices taken off the list. Finally, some other devices worth keeping an eye on include the PHOTON Q, Electrify 2, XT886, Droid 4 and Droid Bionic smartphones which are on the list for Jelly Bean, but similar to the RAZR MAXX and DROID RAZR, have yet to get any sort of timeframe.

[via unwired view]

Android Community

Best of 2012: 10 Apps Google+ Users Can’t Live Without

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2012-Fireworks

 

A few days ago we showed you the 2012 best apps on Google Play, at least according to Google. According to Google, these apps really make Android shine. They are some of the best apps available for your favorite Android tablet or smartphone.  While some have launched over the past year, others received updates that offered great utility, beauty and accessibility. Sure, these apps are great, but what about apps that you simply just cannot live without? Your daily drivers. I took to Google+ and asked users just that. The results aren’t too surprising. It seems Google’s “best” and what users can’t seem to go without produce quite a different list.

1: Google+. This makes sense, as we did ask on Google+. No surprises here, I only saw Facebook listed once.
Google+

2: Google Now. While technically, this is Google Search, everyone seems to love automated information at your fingertips.
Google Search / Google Now

3: SwiftKey. Will we see the same in 2013 or will Google’s own gesture typing be a thorn in SwiftKey’s side next year as Android 4.2 rolls out to more devices?
SwiftKey

4: Gmail. Android users use Gmail? Shocking!
Gmail

5: Evernote. This one made Google’s best of the best list. It’s a great note taking application and so much more.
Evernote

6: Google Play Music.  While not available everywhere, Play Music is a great service. In 2012, Play Music’s content grew leaps and bounds.
Google Play Music

7: Google Chrome. Many users still prefer the stock Android browser as it renders some web pages faster. However, the tab syncing ability makes Chrome shine.
Chrome

8: Spotify. If you’re not drinking the Google kool-aid, Spotify is a great alternative.
Spotify

9: Dropbox. The Dropbox application is top dog when it comes to file sharing. As Google fans, we hope in 2013 Drive gets some of these features.
Dropbox

10: Flipboard. Last, but not least, we have the social news reader which just came to Android this past year.
Flipboard

How’s this list stack up for your daily apps? Did any of your apps not make the cut? Let us know in the comments.

 

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