I drew the short straw this week and got tasked with trying to summarise it all for you and provide links to everything you need to know about what occurred in the Android world... here goes...
Firstly, before we get into the guts of this weeks news, I'd like to mention that the blog is a month old today! It's been a fairly busy month for us, and I think we've made a pretty good start - I hope you'll all agree. Of course a site is nothing without a readership, so if you number amongst the thousand or so daily readers we have, or you've contributed to the 100,000 hits our YouTube channel has had since we started out; thank you. Of course you don't capture a readership without having something worthwhile to say either: to my editorial team, thank you too.
We've got lots of hot handsets coming our way in the month of November, so keep it locked here to get the real low-down on them from real-users.
Oh, and isn't it nice we can start the news this week without acknowledging a significant technology-related bereavement?
The Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich roundup:
Naturally the biggest news of the week, at least as far as Android fans is concerned, was the announcement of the latest version of the Android operating system - 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and the first handset to bear it - Samsung's Galaxy Nexus.
- We had a liveblog of the announcement event as it ran, but you can now also watch the event in it's entirety:
- ...and shortly after the announcement event the first advertisement for the Galaxy Nexus popped up on youtube
- There were lots of pieces on the net talking about what ICS brings to Android, but honestly it's hard to past el Goog's own summary here
- For myself one feature that really gets me excited is that USB device support has been confirmed for the Galaxy Nexus, including USB Gamepads
Device/Technology announcements
We've already aggregated the news on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus, however there were a actually a few other interesting devices announced this week (I guess it's tough to take any of the spotlight against an announcement like that). Here is a run down on some of the other device news that captured our attention:
- Samsung's Galaxy Note got a release date and price, and in a rare reversal of the norm it's actually coming sooner than we'd expected. Also of note - the handsets source code has already been released! Personally I'm hoping this will facilitate early Root for the Note, maybe I'll even be able to do it out of the box (please devs, make it so! kthnx). I'll be getting one ASAP to review for you all, but in the meantime whet your appetite with this little promo:
- Motorola did their best to capture some of the pre-Nexus announcement Android fervor by sneaking in first to announce the Android Razr. Obviously there is a lot of pressure surrounding the reinvigoration of one of the most iconic handset names in history, but I think Motorola's made a pretty compelling device. Phonearena had some nice liveblog cover of the announcement. If you're not in the mood to wade through it to get the vital specs, here they are:
- The slimmest smartphone ever at a staggeringly thin 7.1mm
- Despite that they somehow shoe-horned in a surprisingly capacious 1800mA battery
- 4.3inch qHD resolution screen (960x540, ~256dpi)
- 1.2Ghz dual core cortex A9 CPU with PowerVR SGX540 GPU
- 1GB of RAM
- 16GB of on board storage, expandable by micro SD card (they state up to 32GB, but I'll go out on a limb and say it'll take 64GB cards too
- 8mp autofocus camera with LED flash and 1080p video capture
- Bluetooth 4.0
- Surprisingly the Razr is coming to market extremely quickly - Clove have announced it will ship on November 1st - we'll have one within a few days of that date so keep your eyes peeled here for a mammoth real users review spanning a few weeks of day to day use
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| She's a looker ain't she? |
- ASUS wanted in on the announcement action, this week announcing the announcement date for the quad-core Transformer 2 tablet along with a teaser and a few select details - catch them here, while we wait for the announcement November 9th sate your gadget lusting a little with a wee write up I did explaining how the original Transformer is Android's best tablet
- They also informed us that the original Transformer will be getting ICS before christmas
Apps:
Like any other week we saw the usual plethora of Android app releases and updates - here are a few choice tidbits from the torrent of apps vying for your attention
- Angry Birds Seasons updated with more levels, and even a new orange bird this week with it's Ham'o'ween edition
- The amazing looking Shadowgun got a release date, coming first to Tegra devices on October 26th. While you wait for this one, check out some gameplay to see how a recent pre-release build is shaping up:
- Dungeon Defenders saw a pretty significant upgrade to Second Wave which brings some needed UI change, and more content
- Anita Paling, AndroidNZ editor and all around fitness guru, reviewed another sports tracker app this week - the excellent Endomondo. How did it stack up against a dedicated Garmin exercise unit? Read on to find out...
- ...and of course it would be remiss not to throw you link to our own app recommendations for the week just gone - if you missed the piece first time around here it is again.
Reviews
AndroidNZ Editor Gianpy gave us an excellent video review for the Sony Xperia Play right here.
Gear
Gianpy's had a busy week with the video camera, also bringing you this video review for the official desktop dock for the Samsung Nexus S.
Custom Rom/Modding Section
It's been a busy week in the world of Android hacks and modding, made all the more interesting as people scramble to find ways to try and get an early taste of ICS on their current handsets.
- Naturally we had our guides on how to get some ICS now - firstly with this great guide from Nick detailing how to get the Roboto font, wallpapers, lockscreens, icons, a ICS themed 3rd party launcher, and event he actual ICS music player
- That wasn't all Nick had to bring to the table this week - he also had this excellent guide on how to get the actual ICS gmail client on your rooted Honeycomb tablet right now
- The other Nik here at AndroidNZ also produced a guide on how to get updated versions of Swype on your Rooted device that has Swype as a system app, if you like Swype but it came bundled on your handset and you haven't been able to get the updates this is definitely required reading
Stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else:
If you've ever been in the situation where you want something from the US, either because it's only available there, or because it's far cheaper there, but haven't been able to because of shipping restrictions outside their shores, then this little guide is here to help.
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