This week as per usual has been pretty hectic in the world of Android. Unfortunately life has also been hectic in the world of this Editor, meaning this post has been delayed. On the bright side I can include some extra news that wouldn’t have made it into the article so be forewarned; there is fair bit of content.
As usual the week (and a bit) in Android News is ready and
waiting after the jump.
News
Device and Technology Announcements
Tablets:
Device and Technology Announcements
Tablets:
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| Lenovo's ThinkPad Tablet |
- Lenovo will be updating their ThinkPad Tablet to Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) in Q2 of 2012 which sounds like a long wait considering the device came out mid last year, Lenovo better hope owners won’t mind
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| Mmmm Asus Padfone.. |
- Asus have announced that the upcoming Padfone which is both a tablet and a phone will be revealed at MWC. This is one innovative device the crew here at AndroidNZ are looking forward to from MWC
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| The latest ICS test build |
- The test build leaks continue for the Samsung Galaxy SII with I9100XXLPB bringing performance and battery life improvements as well as a new 3D effect for TouchWiz
- Motorola have announced yet another model of the RAZR, this time it’s a “Developer Edition” that has an unlockable bootloader
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| The Galaxy S Advance |
- Samsung have announced yet another Galaxy S device, this one is called the “Galaxy S Advance” although how it is any more advanced is yet to be seen. It has pretty middling specs and doesn't even come with ICS.
- For those who were holding out for the Samsung Galaxy SIII to be unveiled at MWC, prepare to be disappointed. Rumours about the delay of the SGSIII have now been confirmed by Samsung who are saying it will still be released before the second half of the year
- More rumours are abound regarding the Samsung Galaxy SIII – this time claiming it will be shrunk to a depth of 7mm and will be released in May. If this is true I fear battery life will suffer greatly.
- Some curious benchmark results have shown up on the NenaMark database showing off an alleged Galaxy Nexus – with a revised PowerVR SGX544 GPU. If this turns out to be a sign of a newer model with better specs I have a feeling there will be a lot of peeved off early adopters.
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| Suspicious Nenamark2 result.. |
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| Samsung Norway's facebook |
- According to Samsung Norge (Norway) inhabitants of the fair country will be receiving ICS updates to their Galaxy SIIs and Notes before the end of Q1
- Google have stopped supporting AOSP builds of Android for the CDMA version of the Galaxy Nexus, potentially leaving many users left in the lurch. More details can be found in this google groups thread and clarifications over at AndroidCommunity
- A video of the upcoming handset the HTC Ville has been leaked, showing off the svelte form factor and Sense 4.0
- A range of HTC handsets have been affected by a WiFi vulnerability which now has a fix, details can be found over at TheVerge
- Possibly in response to HTC’s Beats deal, Samsung has now teamed up with Swedish headphone maker Jays to offer deals and bundles to customers starting in South Korea
Technology:
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| Preview of the Windows 8 Start Screen |
- According to ARM’s CEO, Microsoft may have an advantage over Android with their upcoming Windows 8 platform. Will this spell doom for Android tablets? Probably not but it’s definitely something worth thinking about.
- Corning and Samsung are teaming up for a new type of hardened glass for curved OLED displays
- Nenamark results for the upcoming Qualcomm MSM8960 chipset running the Adreno 225 GPU have shown up in their online database. Things are looking very positive with a frame rate of 54.9 at a resolution of 1024x600 and it’s likely performance will improve with further optimisation
On the Patent/Lawsuit Front:
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| iPad2 vs Galaxy Tab 10.1 |
- Once again Apple and Samsung are duking it out, this time Apple has hit Samsung pretty hard getting the Galaxy Tab 10.1 banned, although the modified Tab 10.1N and Galaxy Nexus have this time escaped unscathed
- Samsung’s attempt at fighting back against Apple may have backfired with EU regulators now investigating whether Samsung breached antitrust rules by suing Apple over infringing technology patents
App News
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| Supercurio's Voodoo LOUDER app |
- AndroidNZ’s App of the Week article has finally returned with the first article of 2012. If you’re curious to know what apps our editors have been enjoying then you definitely need to check it out
- Though reknowned in the world of PCs the Indy Humble Bundle was not offering anything for the Android enthusiast; at least not until now. The latest Humble Bundle is now for Android as well – you can check out the details here
- The free socially-enabled navigation app Waze has had an update; it now supports Yelp and Foursquare and has a new minimalist design to boot
- Facebook has released an updated Android app that promises to fix bugs and bring better memory management
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| Make a guy in a purple shirt punch the air! |
- Gameloft have released a companion app - Gameloft Live that lets you create avatars, socialise and launch Gameloft games. Sadly it doesn’t appear to be compatible with the Samsung Galaxy SII yet
- Reckless Racing 2 has just been released for Android with improved physics and controls, new tracks and new cars. You can get the lowdown over at DroidGamers
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| Google Docs for Tablet! |
- Google have released an updated version of Google Docs with better tablet support and an offline reading mode
- Samsung have now made Gameloft's Modern Combat 3 available for free on Samsung Apps if you're lucky enough to own a Galaxy SII handset
The Industry
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- Motorola have given an update on the progress of the proposed Google/Motorola Mobility merger and it seems everything is on track with a small risk of reprisal from the European Union
- According to well-known research/analysis company Canalys, Android has continued to lead in smartphones shipped globally with an incredible market share and continued rapid growth. You can check out the important stats in this article from ArtooDetoo
- In other news from Canalys and via TheVerge, for the first time ever more smartphones than traditional computers were shipped in 2011
- ARM have reported strong results for Q4 2011 with net profit of £33.1 million GBP mainly due to the vast array of mobile devices now using ARM licensed chips. Things may change over the next year with Intel bringing their x86 Medfield chipset to the match
- Samsung previously reported a massive success with the Galaxy SII in their home country of South Korea; now they’ve done it again selling over 700K Galaxy Notes since November 2011
- LG have apparently recorded a profit from their cellphone division in Q4 of 2011 which is fairly surprising considering their lack of quality handsets and poor history of providing updates
- Qualcomm’s Q1 2012 profit results have shown another record quarter with $4.7 billion USD revenue
- Symantec have had to retract claims of Android Malware after being questioned by Lookout Security but has yet to come up with a label for what is essentially Adware for Android
- HTC have announced that they expect to post much lower than expected revenue in Q1 2012, more details over at Reuters. In related news HTC have also announced a new “Studio” division that will report directly to CEO Peter Chou and hope to identify and overcome the shortcomings of the devices released in 2011
- According to NPD new smartphone buyers in the USA chose Android over iOS in Q4 2011
- Interesting Other Stuff
- Google have created a new page on Google+ for Android Developers they appear to post a lot of interested Android Development related stuff including upcoming Developer Labs in NZ
- Over on Forbes there is an interesting comparison of how often apps crash on iOS vs Android – the results are interesting although there is no clear ‘winner’ as such
- The results are in and things are not looking positive for ICS with statistics showing only 1% of Android devices are running the latest version of Android
- In case you don’t live in the US of A, The Super Bowl occurred over the weekend and is considered prime time for large corporates to advertise their wares. This year Samsung had a fairly upbeat song and dance advertising the Galaxy Note. Best Buy also had an interesting video about mobile’s biggest innovators
Reviews
- Gianpy continues his epic caseathon for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus; you can check out the review of the SGP Neo Hybrid here and his other review of the Case-Mate Pop! here
- Over at AndroidCentral they have a great comparison of the Cameras on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy SII although the results are not terribly surprising
- TalkAndroid have a brief review and video of the companion game to the movie Real Steel which is comprised of gigantic robot’s boxing. While the concept sounds pretty sweet it is unfortunately incompatible with many handsets including the Samsung Galaxy SII and Galaxy Note L
- ArtooDetoo's Transformer Prime review part 1 is now live as well so go check it out right away!
How To’s
- Ever wanted to create your own boot animation? Well now there’s a guide for it over on XDA. Be forewarned that this is at your own risk and requires root access on your device.
- Over at DroidGamers they have created a great guide for modifying GTA III Android to your heart’s content. This shouldn’t require root but a backup of the files you modify is usually a good idea
- If you’re keen on fiddling with your CPU Governor, Kernel Module or I/O Scheduler then check out this article over at XDA – it shows you how to do just that, provided you have root access of course
If you feel there’s anything important that we’ve missed,
let us know in the comments below.
Awesome post with amazing images. :)
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