The Android Site

Something I noticed myself today, and it’s now being confirmed by other blogs. The shiny new Facebook application that brought improvement also brought one massive downside, it’s hell on your battery. In a nutshell, it’s simply bad coding. Facebook keeps your CPU running cycles in the background even when your screen is off and not using the phone. Flipz, the developer of Fresh ROM’s, has dug into the issue and quoted directly from the Android Developer’s site:

Device battery life will be significantly affected by the use of this API. Do not acquire WakeLocks unless you really need them, use the minimum levels possible, and be sure to release it as soon as you can.

If you hold a partial wakelock, the CPU will continue to run, irrespective of any timers and even after the user presses the power button.

Hopefully this issue will be fixed soon, but for now, I’m uninstalling. You can also sign out and close the app to save battery, but this is just ridiculous.

If you want to downgrade, you can grab the old version here. And also recommend uninstalling the new version and marking it as Defective. If Google even pays attention to that…

[via Android Police]

If you haven’t been under a rock for the past 24 hours, you may have noticed there’s a new version of Facebook for Android available. And it’s gotten a little better. Adding a few features that were sorely missing, such as Events and Friend Requests, as well as a few tweaks, such as moving notifications to a draw on the bottom. And the addition of a rather odd “photo reel” feature. While it’s still not the same experience as the full website, it should be enough to keep you in touch and get your social media fix, right?

If you haven’t already, open the Market and upgrade from your phone, or scan the QR code below. Let us know how you like the update in the comments, and heck even shout out what you really want to see in the Facebook for Android application.

[via like every other mobile phone blog]

The Facebook for Android application was updated today, adding inbox support and, according to market comments, apparently lots of errors for users across different handsets. Some of this may be due Facebook itself rather than the application. But I personally got an instant Force Close every time I tried to open the app. Until I uninstalled and reinstalled then everything worked just fine. The ability to read and send messages was a glaring omission from the previous version and I’m glad it’s fixed.

In other update news, Foursquare updated with a minor facelift and some small fixes. And Seesmic for Twitter adding the native retweet feature to their application.

[via Phandroid]

Last.fm, Yahoo Mail (for those that still use it), Digg, Gizmodo, Gawker, Mint, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Travel Channel, MTV and Amazon’s MP3 Store, QuickOffice, Telenav, as well as the normal array of Google apps, and much more are preloaded on the Moto CLIQ. A lot of these apps are already on the Android platform and I personally use some of them. But is this really more incentive to buy the Motorola CLIQ or an indication of the type of consumer market they are shooting for? And a return to the mid 90′s preinstall bloatware that many PC manufacturers got into. It doesn’t really impress me, since most of the apps that are new will be available to other phones in time. But don’t get me wrong, the CLIQ is a great handset, and probably my next Android purchase. And granted, many of these apps probably contribute to Motorola’s MOTOBLUR experience. I just don’t see a point to loading all these apps on the phone, taking up space. That’s the purpose of the Android market, let the consumer decide what they want to use. Or if you must, go the T-Mobile route and have an app package with recommended applications.

Does anyone desire the Motorola CLIQ more knowing it comes preloaded with these apps?

[Read] [via Phandroid]

Well it looks like we finally got that Facebook application that we’ve been waiting for. It’s fairly simple, if not lacking in features. Wall posts, profile views, post photos, and that’s about it. No chat, events or even messaging, but it does have notifications and enough features to keep the Facebook addict happy for now till we see an update. Although you may want to hit up x.facebook.com from your Android browser if you want a few more features and a more polished look.

There’s some speculation floating around that this may not be the official application from Facebook and I don’t see much merit to that, just my opinion. Phandroid is calling attention to the fact that the developer email address is Facebook.Android@gmail.com instead of something more official, but is that really far fetched that Facebook would use a Gmail address? Although the application is still not listed on Facebook’s mobile applications list, and the counterpart on Facebook shows the application as “not developed by Facebook”, but as it is pointed out by a commenter on that page, the applications for Palm and Blackberry say the same thing. Perhaps a simple announcement from Facebook would have saved me from having to write this paragraph.

Either way, most people probably don’t care. You can access Facebook, and it works, bottom line. The mere fact that it’s called “Facebook” is enough to show you that it’s probably not an impostor. You can bet the developers of “Babbler”, “Bloo”, “Fbook” all wanted that name.

The app is available in the Android Market now. Download it, try it out, leave a comment with your thoughts.

Edit: Just another quick note, a few users are reporting this crashes on the HTC Hero and those running custom ROMs such as Cyanogen. Let us know if you’re having trouble with the app.

Flyscreen is an application that came from non-smart phones, and is just now being worked for Android, and soon Blackberry devices. Like the Symbian version, it’s essentially a layer on top of your normal Android lock screen that gives you access to widgets and RSS feeds. Integrating Twitter, Facebook, or your favorite blog, and access to weather and news. And it’s not just a one-way information center, there’s also sharing options and integrated search. If it catches on, people are going to be spending a lot more time on their lock screen than just checking the time or battery life.

TechCruch is giving away 1,000 invites to try out the application before it’s released to the general public. Not sure if they’re all used up or not, but you can still head over to the FlyScreen site and check out all the features of this unique application. We have yet to try it ourselves (still waiting on an invite) but you can be sure we’ll put it through its paces.

[FlyScreen via TechCrunch]

The rumors are flying around like busy bees, and everyone seems convinced that an official Facebook application is on the way to Android very soon. AndroidAndMe first picked up the hints from some T-Mobile MyTouch marketing material. TechCrunch is convinced that Google and Facebook have been working together to make it happen. Despite last year’s news that Facebook just wasn’t interested. Has Android’s recent success changed their minds? With MySpace Mobile being the number 3 application in the Android Market right now, are they afraid of something?

Well readers, do you thing the official Facebook application is just over the horizon?

Many of you are already familiar with the popular Rosie that we’ve seen screenshots of hacked onto the T-Mobile G1, and now we’re finally getting the full details of it’s native device, the HTC Hero.

With its 3.2-inch HVGA display, the HTC Hero is optimized for Web, multimedia and other content, while maintaining a small size and weight that fits comfortably in your hand. It also boasts a broad variety of hardware features including AGPS, digital compass, gravity-sensor, 3.5mm stereo headset jack, a five mega-pixel autofocus camera and expandable MicroSD memory. HTC Hero also includes a dedicated Search button that goes beyond basic search, providing you with a more natural, contextual search experience that enables you to search through Twitter, locate people in your contact list, find emails in your inbox or search in any other area in Hero.

Full specs list:

• 112mm x 56.2mm x 14.35mm, 135g
• Qualcomm MSM7200A 528MHz processor
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, dual-band 7.2Mbps HSPA/WCDMA
• 512 ROM / 288 RAM
• 3.2″ HVGA capacitive touchscreen
• 5.0 megapixel camera with auto-focus
• Gravity sensor
• Digital compass
• WiFi 802.11b/g
• GPS
• Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR + A2DP
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• microSD
• 1350 mAh battery
• 420 minutes talktime / 750 hours standby (WCDMA)

More from HTC’s official press release:

HTC Sense™ DEBUTS on new HTC hero™

HTC Hero is the world’s first Android-based phone with a
customized user interface

HTC Sense to be integrated across a portfolio of
phones beginning with HTC Hero

LONDON – June 24, 2009 – HTC Corporation, a global designer of mobile phones, today debuted HTC Sense™, an intuitive and seamless experience that will be introduced across a portfolio of phones beginning with the new HTC Hero™. With its distinct design and powerful capabilities fully integrated with HTC Sense, Hero introduces a unique blend of form and function that takes Android to new heights.
HTC Sense is focused on putting people at the centre, by making your phone work in a more simple and natural way. This experience revolves around three fundamental principles that were designed by quietly observing and listening to how people live and communicate.
‘HTC Hero introduces a more natural way for reaching out to people and accessing your important information, not by following the status quo of today’s phones, but by following how you communicate and live your life,’ said Peter Chou, Chief Executive Officer, HTC Corporation. ”HTC Sense is a distinct experience created to make HTC phones more simple for people to use, leaving them saying, “it just makes sense.”’
HTC Hero
HTC Hero continues HTC’s leadership in cutting-edge design that focuses on introducing a variety of distinct devices to represent your own individuality. Boasting bevelled edges and an angled bottom, the HTC Hero is contoured to fit comfortably in your hand and against your face while you’re on a call. The HTC Hero is built to last, beginning with an anti-fingerprint screen coating for improved smudge-resistance and a longer-lasting, clearer display. The white HTC Hero includes an industry-first, Teflon coating, resulting in an improved, durable white surface that is soft to the touch.
With its 3.2-inch HVGA display, the HTC Hero is optimized for Web, multimedia and other content, while maintaining a small size and weight that fits comfortably in your hand. It also boasts a broad variety of hardware features including AGPS, digital compass, gravity-sensor, 3.5mm stereo headset jack, a five mega-pixel autofocus camera and expandable MicroSD memory. HTC Hero also includes a dedicated Search button that goes beyond basic search, providing you with a more natural, contextual search experience that enables you to search through Twitter, locate people in your contact list, find emails in your inbox or search in any other area in Hero.

HTC Sense
Built on a culture of innovation and a passion to enhance people’s lives, HTC shapes the mobile experience around the individual. Debuting on the HTC Hero and available on all new HTC devices moving forward, Sense delivers on three basic principles: Make it Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected.

Make It Mine
Make It Mine is about feeling your HTC phone was created for and by you. To do this, HTC encourages you to dictate and organize how you want to access the people and content in your life in a way that fits best for you. For some, this means adding glance-view widgets that push content like twitter feeds, weather and other content to the surface while others may want quick access to business-focused information like email, calendar and world-times. HTC is also introducing a new profile feature called ‘Scenes’ that enables you to create different customized content profiles around specific functions or times in your life.

Stay Close
Today, staying in touch with the people in your life means managing a variety of communication channels and applications ranging from phone calls, emails, texts, photos, status updates and more. HTC Sense takes a different approach by integrating these communication channels and applications into one single view, enabling you to stay closer to your important people. With HTC Sense, friends’ Facebook status updates and photos, along with their Flickr photos are included alongside their text messages, emails and call history in a single view.

Discover the Unexpected
Many of the most memorable moments in your life are experienced, not explained. HTC Sense is focused on providing a variety of these simple yet innovative experiences on your HTC phone that will sometimes bring you moments of joy and delight. It can be something as basic as turning the phone over to silence a ring or as simple as improving the smart dialler for making calls quicker. HTC Sense also includes ‘Perspectives’, a new way for viewing your content such as email, photos, Twitter, music and more in different ways.

Availability
The HTC Hero will be available to people across Europe in July and in Asia later in the summer. A distinct North American version will be available later in 2009.

T-Mobile UK and Orange UK have just announce they will carry this in Europe, but no word on carriers for North America yet, but we can be sure it won’t be Verizon or Sprint from the specs. And they should be very worried about that. Android is the future and this will be the phone that pushes Android into the mainstream.

[Official HTC Press Release]

First off, some delicious screenshots grabbed from xda-developers:

Ok, I would like to say, this is a beta version. Some things do not work. Do not ask how to install this, because I do not feel like answering questions when something goes wrong. If you’re thirsty for this, go hang out over at xda-developers and follow the threads. That said, let’s get to the juicy bits.

In addition to all the wonderful things that are packed with the G1 cupcake, this version (still 1.5) has some additional goodies that you won’t be seeing from T-Mobile or Rogers. These is pure HTC additions from what I can tell. This is also probably pretty close to what we’ll be seeing on the HTC Hero when it’s released, rumored to be locked in exclusively to Orange.

I’ll try to keep this short, since this isn’t meant to be an in-depth review.

Some key features:

• There is no “Rosie” included. No word on if it will come as part of the complete OS when the Hero ships. But this may be part of the Personalize section in the Settings that I could see, but nothing in it worked. (“Choose a lifestyle to set widget layout”)
• 5 Home screens.
• Much longer initial setup, including choosing language and setup of Exchange accounts and Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.
• The previous mentioned Social Network services are integrated in with your contacts for getting their updates and sharing items. It matches Facebook friends to your contacts and you can link pictures and birthdays. View Facebook status updates straight from you Android phonebook! I could not get the Twitter or Flickr to work.
• Contacts is now People. Visual makeover. Scrolling has that iPhone “bounce” effect. There’s a cool slider bar at the bottom to check messages, email, updates & events, FaceBook and Flickr photos, and of course call history.
• Text messaging: A bit of a visual makeover here. A nice Compose Message button at the top of your conversations list. And I’m really digging the fact that it uses the contact icon next to the message.
• Calendar: Another awesome visual makeover. Looks a lot better than the old version. There’s a screenshot floating around, you know the one that uses the iPhone icon, yeah, it’s there.
• Dialer is the one from the other HTC roms that we’ve seen coming from Haykuro with a couple of tweak, nothing major here.
• Lock screen shows the current open app behind it instead of wallpaper. You can also choose lockscreen wallpaper, but that feature was broken.
• HTC Footprints app is included and working fine for me. Geotag photos and save your favorite places.
• Music player makeover with album artwork and slick working “swipe to switch tracks” interface. I love this feature.
• The web browser: Ooh, the browser. Little tweaks to the location bar and loading bar, all these minor tweaks make the whole phone feel much more polished. The bookmarks are what people are gonna love. No more boring list of URLs, now you have small preview pages “Visual Bookmarks” ans it’s named, and you can swipe sideways to scroll through. Also the same when switching between browser windows. Very cool stuff here. Full-screen browsing. Zooming of any sort did not seem to work in this build.
• Option in the Settings to calibrate the G-Sensor.
• Option to auto-download firmware, prompt, or never download.

Well, that’s about all I have. It’s 7:00amEST and I’ve been up all night. I’m going to keep playing with this and maybe post more. At the very least more screenshots. Tell me what you want to see!

Update: Yes, I know this isn’t finished. And those of you that follow xda closely will know exactly what’s going on. I just report the news, I don’t make it. The kids just want to see what all the fuss is about.