It may come as a surprise to some Nexus One owners that their device is already 802.11n capable from a hardware aspect, but the software doesn’t support it yet. Sort of like how the Motorola CLIQ has an FM radio receiver, but the Android 1.5 that it ships with doesn’t make use of it. Google has already hinted at all the new features coming with Android 2.2 coming as soon as next month, and we’ve seen evidence of some of it such as automatic application updating, but it’s a wait-n-see game till we get our hands on it. There is also a rumor of possible trackball color changing, such as the Blackberry Pearl did.
[via Electronista]
Samsung and Sprint announced the latest Android offering from both companies, the Samsung Moment. Available November 1st for $179.99 on a two year contract, undercutting Samsung’s latest offering from T-Mobile, the Behold 2, by $20. This is the device previously thought to be called the InstinctQ, but obviously they wanted to differentiate it from the Instinct lineup. Featuring a 3.2-inch AMOLED touch screen, slideout 4-row QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, 3.5MP camera with a flash, proximity sensor and accelerometer. But one of the most important specs is the 800Mhz processor, which makes this one of the best spec’d Android handsets to date. At least until the rumored 1Ghz HTC Dragon or the Sony Xperia X3 come onto the scene.
Anyone planning on passing on the HTC Hero to get the Samsung Moment?
[Read via BGR]
Today is a good day for Android fans on the Verizon network. First we got word that the Motorola Sholes aka the Motorola Tao got FCC approval. And now we see the HTC Desire (also known as the ADR6200) is FCC approved, and WiFi certified. There is still little known about the HTC Desire bound for Verizon Wireless. We don’t have the roadmaps leaks for HTC that we were so lucky to have last year, and the only other thing acknowledging the handset is the screenshot from an internal Verizon spreadsheet that you see below. And per usual with these FCC filing, the goodies like photos, and user manuals have been held back by request of HTC (and presumably Verizon) till long after the phone is released. We’ll keep you posted as soon as more details, photos and specs come out.
Verizon customers, are you excited for Android yet?
[via BGR]
The long awaited Motorola Sholes (A855), bound for Verizon has received the FCC’s stamp of approval, sporting EVDO Rev A, and a dose of WiFi as well. The reported release date is around the end of October, and these FCC reports are typically a month ahead of phone releases/announcements. Not many other juicy details from the FCC filing. The above shot is still just a render, and we’ve seen early prototypes, but have yet to see the final product. Also PhoneArena is reporting the Sholes name will be dropped and it will be called the Motorola Tao. The reported specs according to MotoFan.ru are:
- Dimensions 60.00 x 115.80 x 13.70 mm
- Weight 169g
- Battery Li-ion 1400mAh.
- Standby 450 hours, talk time 420 minutes
- Display 3.7-inch touch-sensitive with a resolution 480×854 pixels, displays 16 million colors. Physical screen size is 45.72 mm by 81.34 mm.
- 16 GB Memory (FLASH / RAM): 512MB/256MB memory card microSD / microSDHC up to 16 GB
- SMS, MMS, E-Mail Messaging: SMS, MMS, E-Mail
- Complete embedded HTML browser
- Camera: 5 MP autofocus
- Connectivity: USB2.0, 3.5mm audio jack, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR 1, Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11g)
- Supported audio formats: AMR-NB/WB, MP3, PCM / WAV, AAC, AAC +, eAAC +, WMA
- Supported video formats: MPEG-4, H263, H264, WMV
- GPS navigation
[Read FCC]
Here it is, the Archos 5 Internet Tablet. Powered by Android, it features Wi-Fi, a 800×480 screen and up to 500GB of onboard storage for music and videos. Of course it’s running a custom version of Android, more oriented toward a media player than a phone, but from what we can tell, it’s very well executed. Archos products have always had very intuitive interfaces.
The top of the line 500GB model will costing $420, a 160GB model will run you $310, both with the signature Archos hard drives. And there will be two SSD-based models. The 32GB for $370 and a modest 16GB for $294.
[via Electric Pig]
The videos and pics were floating around for a while as the Click, and now HTC has official announced their newest Android handset, know as the HTC Tattoo. You can think of it as the Hero’s younger brother with a bit of attitude. It’s a full-featured smart phone sporting the standard Android features and the acclaimed HTC Sense UI. And decent specs for a device aimed at the low end of the smart phone market:
- 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7225 processor
- 512MB/256MB ROM/RAM
- 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen LCD
- 900/2100MHz HSPA/UMTS
- GPS
- 802.11b/g Wifi
- Compass and accelerometer
- 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera
- And the much desired 3.5mm stereo headset jack
And per it’s namesake, customers will be able to design and purchase custom “tattooed” covers for the phone, or choose from popular choices. Just like the old Nokias with the snap-on faceplaces! Will the gimmick be enough to drive the average phone buyer to get this over a budget flip or slider phone? We’ll find out when the HTC Tattoo is rolled out in Europe next month, and to the rest of the world in the next few months. No word on carriers or pricing yet, but you can imagine this will be a lot less than the similar featured Hero.
What would you put on your HTC Tattoo? And how long before an Apple fanboy gets one adorned with the Apple logo?
[Press release]
This is the Sunno S880 a new smart phone headed to China around the middle of October. What makes is unique is that it will be running Android and Windows Mobile. It’s unclear if it’s a dual-boot configuration or simultaneous running of both OSes. Specs include a 806MHz processor, 8-MP camera, 3.6″ WVGA display, GPS navigation, Wi-Fi connectivity and 128MB or 256MB RAM. No word on if this will be coming to Europe or North America, but you can bet people will at least be talking about it.
[Read via Cloned In China]
Had enough Hero news today? Well here’s a change of pace. T-Mobile has release two new applications to the Android Market. Mobile Backup And Hotspot Connect. And they both do pretty much exactly what you would think.
Mobile Backup will sync your contacts to you my.t-mobile.com account, while disabling your Google Account sync. Maybe not for everyone, but if you’re going to a non-Google phone or don’t use your Google account much, I can see how this would be useful. Or you can do a one-time sync, and stick with the automatic Google syncing. The app seems to suffer from the same thing as T-Mobile My Account, where you need to turn off you wifi manually before using it.
And Hotspot Connect will locate the nearest T-Mobile Hotspot and automatically log you in when you arrive.
What we have here is the H7, from Chinese manufacturer Haier shown off at their booth at CommunicAsia 2009. Featuring a 2.8-inch touch-screen display, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth connectivity, FM radio, GPS, and a 2-MP camera with “onboard flashlight”. The picture above is just a non-working mockup, so no word on how it compares to HTC or Samsung handsets. The H7 is supposed to cost about $150 when it’s launched in France in September.
Anyone else notice a trend of new Android handsets looking nearly the same?
[via Cnet]
If you purchased a new G1 and you don’t want to be stuck with T-Mobile for 2 years, there are a couple of possible ways to bypass the initial activation so you can use the G1 on your AT&T or other carrier’s SIM card.
The first involves using a friend’s T-Mobile SIM card (via loveforbiz.com):
- Insert friends activated T-mobile SIM into G1 along with battery
- Power on and wait for setup screen
- Go through setup process to link any Gmail account
- Go to Settings > Wireless Controls > Wi-Fi Settings > Enable Wi-Fi
- Connect to nearby Wi-Fi network if one is available
- Optional: Stop the phone from syncing with Gmail account by going to Data Synchronization and unchecking Auto-sync, Gmail, Calendar, and Contacts
- Once done, take out friends SIM card and insert unactivated SIM that came with G1
The second method activates and unlocks your G1, assuming you have purchased an unlock code (via modmygphone.com):
- Purchase the unlock code for your G1.
- Put your carrier’s sim in the phone.
- Turn on your phone. It will ask you for the unlock code. Simply type in the unlock code.
- The phone will tell you to touch the Android after which you need to setup up a new Gmail account or sign in with an existing Gmail account. This is the activation process and it will of course fail since we aren’t using a T-Mobile SIM in our G1.
- After the activation fails, press Try Again and it will take you back to the screen where I needed to enter in my Gmail account and password. This time instead of providing the information, press the Menu button on the phone. A nice little pop up will appear for APN Settings. Select it.
- Now you have a list of carrier APNs showing and they are all T-mobile. Select one and you will see all the Settings for that APN. From here you can either press menu to add a new APN or edit the settings for the existing one you are viewing. I chose to edit the existing one since I wont need it. Here is the trick. You need to enter in your carriers APN Settings when you create a new APN or edit an existing one. If you don’t know your carrier’s APN settings, the folks at modmygphone have put together a nice list here.
- You have now entered in your carrier APN settings so hit the Menu button and select Save.
- Press the back button on your phone until you get back to the sign in or create gmail account. Follow the steps. This time assuming you have entered in the correct APN settings for your carrier instead of the “There is a problem communicating with the Google servers” error you will get a nice signed in screen. Congrats! Your Andriod phone is now unlocked and activated running on the network of your choice. You should be able to use all the phone’s features and be totally good to go!
It may come as a surprise to some Nexus One owners that their device is already 802.11n capable from a hardware aspect, but the software doesn’t support it yet. Sort of like how the Motorola CLIQ has an FM radio receiver, but the Android 1.5 that it ships with doesn’t make use of it. Google has already hinted at all the new features coming with Android 2.2 coming as soon as next month, and we’ve seen evidence of some of it such as automatic application updating, but it’s a wait-n-see game till we get our hands on it. There is also a rumor of possible trackball color changing, such as the Blackberry Pearl did.
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