Rapid Reviews; introducing a new review format at AndroidNZ

The Tomahawk, the worlds fastest bike. A metaphor for the spirit of
rapid reviews, and no, I'm not referring at all to the obvious there...

Brief reviews are something I've wanted to do for a while here at AndroidNZ. Not because I don't like really going to town exploring a device and taking it to it's limits, but because sometimes devices deserve reviews, but don't necessarily deserve that  kind of review.

I'm talking here about devices whose time may already have passed, but which may have taken on a new relevance in light of some other context, or that perhaps escaped our attention in their prime but shouldn't have. Devices that have some really interesting aspects, some technology or idea that is simply too revolutionary not to write about, something so astonishing it makes the device assume a significance beyond it's market share in terms of how it defines the discussions we have about smartphones, tablets, and technology.

(or, if we drop the grandiosity a notch for a few moments, maybe just that end-of-life bargain that you shouldn't miss)

At any rate, we'll have the first of these reviews up shortly, covering none other than the humble Huawei MediaPad. If a nine month old Android tablet doesn't immediately seem like something worth spending print on to you, then I guess you'll just have read the review to see why we beg to differ. Without wanting to give everything away right now, let me just say that I prefer my MediaPad to my Nexus 7. If you did a double-take just now, let me assure you: that is exactly what I meant to say.

Catch you then.

[At Your Own Risk] How to Root your Huawei MediaPad or T-Mobile Springboard

The Huawei MediaPad, one of the most underrated 'Droids ever made

...and here is the second rapid-fire Root 'guide' for the day. Like the guide for the AT&T SIII this isn't really so much a guide, as a pointer to where to find the Root method, because the method itself is so simple. In fact, I can safely say the MediaPad is the easiest to Root Android device I've ever used. So, if you own a MediaPad, and the thought of Rooting your Android device has always seemed tempting, but just too scary and difficult to try, then this might be just the thing you need to get your first taste.

For reference the T-Mobile Springboard is to all intents and purposes the same device, this guide will also work just as well for those of you packing the carrier-branded version of the MediaPad.

Here is what you'll need:

• A well charged MediaPad
• A microSD card
• One of either of these custom ROMs - take a little look at their threads and decide which looks the best for you - Osimood or HWMod

Once you've got those together you're virtually there, just do the following:

• Use the Huawei "AllBackup" app to back up your apps and data to the external SD card, since installing the Rooted-ROM will wipe your device (if you don't have anything you particularly need to retain post-flash, or you've just unboxed your MediaPad you can just skip this step)
• Extract the zip file the ROM came in, you'll find a folder called "dload" 
• Copy that folder to the root directory of the SD card, insert the card into the MediaPad's card slot
• Restart the MediaPad and follow the onscreen instructions to install the ROM (Note:  If the update doesn't start automatically at restart, then restart again and additionally press and hold the Volume+ button)
• When it is finished it will prompt you to remove the SD card or press the power button to exit the update utility and reboot the device - use the remove SD card option (everytime I've been in set-up, even including when it came fresh out of the box, it has crashed during set-up, and if the card is still in that will cause it to re-do the ROM install)
• While the SD card is removed delete the dload folder before putting it back in the device, that way if you do happen to get a random restart on your MediaPad you don't re-flash the ROM and wipe everything again (!)

Congrats, your MediaPad is Rooted.

Yes, it really was that simple.

Honestly, you're finished. All done here.

Are you still here? 

Well, in that case let me recommend installing this custom kernel, which lets you do two great things for your MediaPad. Firstly, it allows you to overclock the MediaPad CPU cores to 1.5GHz, which gives performance a really nice bump (Sensation users, on the same SoC the MediaPad possesses, have demonstrated this is a very safe long term clock speed). It also fixes the difficult touch screen sensitivity of the MediaPad on its stock kernel, probably the most vexing fault on an otherwise excellent Android tablet.

[Notes: There is a more up to date version of the boot.img file out there, but it'll be a couple of days before I can get a download link for it - this version is perfectly functional though. Secondly here is the original thread at XDA, just be aware that the dev has now narrowed the kernels focus to CM9/AOSP builds for the MediaPad, so you shouldn't try and flash the downloads currently in the thread]

To install the kernel you're going to need to be able to use Fastboot, but that's a matter for another guide on another day (and hopefully another editor, if I can twist his arm hard enough). If you want to widen your Android-horizons in the meantime, why not make a start on some reading about Fastboot here, and here. You might even feel empowered enough to try it on your own!

Video Review: Tridea True Shield Screenshield

Sometimes a manufacturer's design decisions lead to difficulty producing certain 3rd party accessories, which can be frustrating to consumers. Examples of this are seen with the HTC One X and its non-removable battery (which makes it very difficult to increase battery life), the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (which featured slightly curved display, causing screenshields to bubble on the edges) and now the Samsung Galaxy S3, that has bevelled edges, once again causing most screenshields to bubble.

Up until a couple of weeks ago, I had been using screenshields that were cut short and only covered the touchscreen portion of the display - a bit annoying but something I learned to live with. That all changed when I was introduced to the Tridea True Shield, a full coverage 3D screen protector. Whatever the technology used may be, it works - pretty well for the most part!

The True Shield is a crystal clear protector that offers good clarity, protection and a nearly invisible design - although it is quite the fingerprint magnet, showing these off very well. I shouldn't use the term full coverage however, as there is still a slight gap between the edges and the protector, but this is almost negligible and most cases will cover this gap up.

At 12$, it is priced higher than other options, especially since you only receive 1 in the package. I've got the SGP Curved Crystal in for review, which is a direct competitor to the True Shield, so if you're interested in these types of protectors - stay tuned for that review before making your decision.

Check out the full review down below;

[How To] SIM Unlock your AT&T Galaxy S III

A different glamour shot of the Garnet Red S3, why not?

SIM unlocking. Bleh. If you've ever looked into doing this in the past, you'll know the kind of sordid and potentially scam-filled world you're getting into.

We're generally lucky in the Android realm, since usually a developer will at some point come along with a way to do this on your Rooted device without ever having to go near one of those probably-fake paid unlocking services. Sometimes though you pick up a device before that development is done, and have little option but to look into said paid services. Since I'm in New Zealand on the Telecom network here, the latter scenario applied to me.

[For reference to anyone here in NZ looking at getting a US variant for whatever reason, be aware that the AT&T SIII will only work really well on the Telecom XT network where data is concerned. It has 3G in the 850 and 2100MHz bands only, and the upshot of that is that outside main centres it is likely to drop off 3G coverage if you're on Vodafone, and 2Degrees customers will need to purchase National 3G Data Packs to operate at all and will suffer the same poor coverage. If you're still interested, you can pick up AT&T SIIIs via Ebay for about $800NZD all up.]

So, how to unlock my AT&T SIII?

[At Your Own Risk] How to Root your Samsung Galaxy S III (AT&T, US T-Mobile, US Sprint, US Cellular, Rogers, Bell, or Telus versions)

Introducing the blogs AT&T Garnet Red Galaxy SIII

This is the first of two rapid-fire Root guides we're going to push out today at the blog (the second being a brief guide for the Huawei MediaPad). I say brief because the methods for each device are so simple there really isn't much point in labouring a guide, we're just basically alerting you to the method that worked for us, since you may recall that you will never, ever, see a guide here at the blog that we haven't personally road-tested.

So, how did I come to have a US-variant SIII here in NZ?

Well, recently I had the opportunity (excuse?) to get my hands on one of the Garnet Red AT&T SIIIs, so I jumped at the chance to satisfy my gnawing curiosity about the how the S4-Krait based SIIIs would stand up to their international brethren (don't worry, a post about that is coming soon to help guide those of you in a position to choose between them). All of which is really only said to verify that I actually have one, and have personally used the Root method linked to below.

Before you rush to click the link to the Root method, you should familiarise yourself with our usual disclaimers at the beginning of this post. I say this not because we don't care if you have problems, it's just that our capacity to trouble shoot is limited, and you shouldn't have embarked on an adventure to Root your device unless you did your due diligence first and had some understanding of what you were up to. While we're in disclaimer mode. I should also be very clear that I only have an AT&T SIII, and have not tested the other models supported by this Root method (I see a number of Rogers users have used it without issues).

What you'll need to do is head to this thread at XDA, and download a Root Toolkit (or grab it here, or here). Simply install it and follow the very straightforward onscreen instructions, and you'll be Rooted in only a matter of minutes. For simplicities sake I'd recommend using the "allinone" option, which will also install CWM recovery and Busybox to your device.

Once you're done it is obviously advisable to head to the backup section of the Toolkit and make both Nandroid and EFS backups (you can even send those backups to your PC from within the Toolkit, just in case some mischief were to afflict your on-device storage, nice). If you have any issues with making a Nandroid backup from the Toolkit itself, simply boot into recovery and do it from there.

Lastly, you'll want to reset the flash counter (in case you're going to need to return to stock via Odin for warranty purposes). For that you just need to grab Triangle Away from Chainfire. Simples.

Finally, all that is left to do is make a donation to mskip, the developer of the Toolkit, and make a suitably gushing thank you post to his thread.

The Nexus 7 "Real-user" Review: Part 2 - User Interface and Entertainment - Media, Gaming, Browsing and Jelly Bean

Welcome to Part 2 of the Nexus 7 review. We'll be covering the abilities of the Nexus 7 when it comes to Music, Video, Browsing, Gaming and Other Media. If you missed Part 1 of the review you can find out about Murray's Initial impressions, Design/Build quality, synthetic benchmarks and performance in actual-use right here

If you want to know how the Nexus 7 performs when it comes to media consumption then keep reading after the break

Android blitzes iOS in Q2, Samsung rules...

IDC reports that Android has significantly increased its lead in smartphone OS share with a massive 68.1% of the Q2 ’12 market compared to its arch rival, Apple’s iOS, which lost share, posting a 16.9% figure for the second calendar quarter of 2012. In fact, Android was the only smartphone OS besides WinPhone to show any growth over Q1 and Android smartphones are currently outselling iPhones four to one.

Video Review: Speck FabShell for Samsung Galaxy S3

I test out a lot of cases. I get 2 or 3 packages weekly (sometimes more!) from different case manufacturers trying to promote a new product. For the most part, the majority of cases are very similar to another and don't 'think outside the box'. Whenever I find a case that does, I'm eager to try it out. Now, a lot of people don't care for a unique or exclusive case, they simply want something protective and reliable. I completely understand that, but as a reviewer, I see so much of the same stuff that I like something out of the ordinary occasionally.

The Speck FabShell does a good job at fitting into that space with its unique fabric backing. The case itself is pretty straightforward, featuring a TPU body that is backed with plastic for added durability and protection. What sets this case apart from others is the fact that the plastic is lined in fabric, which not only adds grip, but features a characteristic design.

I'm not a huge fan of the design options that Speck has released, but the case itself is not a let down. Offering great protection, the FabShell features nearly perfect ports and cutouts, falling short due to its lack of responsiveness with the power button. Other than that however, it is well made.

Check out the video review below for more information and my full thoughts: