When Samsung announced the Wave 3, M and Y devices at this year's IFA, one of the main features of these phones was the fact that they shipped with Bada 2.0 out of the box. Later on the manufacturer said that all Wave-phones will be getting the refresh in the last quarter of 2011.
Now, according to Samsung Spain, the Bada 2.0 update will land in the first quarter of next year, which is later than Q4 2011 but definitely earlier than "March or April" 2012, a date Samsung Italy was talking about. The 2.0 update to Bada should improve user experience and make the platform more secure but there will be no refresh going out to the Samsung Wave 525 and Wave 533.
There are a few ROMs and kernels out there for Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus already, but the one that clearly stood apart from the rest was AOKP by Roman of RootzWiki. Thus far, his build has been the most stable and speedy while still having all the bells and whistles. Through a ROM Control quicklink within the settings, rooted users can customize their phone with ease and reliability; no need to boot into recovery. And most importantly, this ROM has just reached its first “Milestone”. A milestone release aims at fixing all the current bugs, and offers an option for users that don’t feel like flashing another .ZIP through ClockworkMod every other day.
I have been using Roman’s AOKP build for a couple days now, and his latest release has scored me 9 hours and 18 minutes with 54% battery life to spare. With the poor network signal I get in my area – this is a vast improvement. Also new in this release is the ability to finally sync Facebook contacts. This feature isn’t currently available in the stock version, but could be in the next release. Also added were a few much needed modifications to the auto-brightness.
Though it was previously available in an earlier release, a Search navigation menu icon is also available to toggle in ROM Control – as is the Voice Search option when longpressed. It does clutter up the bottom once you’re used to the three menu buttons, but also adds back a much used feature by many making it an essential option. What features do you wish the Galaxy Nexus shipped with? Without Facebook sync it would have been monotonous entering in all of my contacts, so rooting was essential.
Talk about Samsung putting its foot in its mouth. After previously putting a lump of coal in the stockings of Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab owners, the company is since reconsidering the thought of not upgrading the devices to Android 4.0. Why you might ask? Well according to The Verge, the company will review the “viability of the upgrading those two devices in response to strong customer demand”. While Google mentioned previously that Android 4.0 can hypothetically work on any 2.3 device, Samsung famously said there’s not enough room on the Galaxy S and Tab’s RAM or ROM for both ICS and TouchWiz. That alone sparked much controversy and criticism on the part of Samsung because most feel while TouchWiz is a great UI skin, it should not be a reason to not update the popular devices especially as they are still popular worldwide. Moreover, Samsung has been quoted as saying it’ll “investigate ways to try and make it work”.
When there’s a will, there’s a way. Perhaps the company saw how HTC famously reversed their stance on upgrading certain devices to Android 2.3 just six months ago after immense criticism as well. We know the fine engineers at Samsung can work their magic and make everything work smoothly. After all, if they didn’t do it, we’re sure some crafty developers would port ICS to the Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab in no time. Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab owners, there’s now a glimmer of hope for you to see Android 4.0 someday. It may be faint hope, but it’s hope nonetheless.
Korea Economic Daily is raising their sales forecast for Samsung by 15 percent, bringing total projected handset sales to 374 million. Of those handsets, 150 million are expected to be smartphones. To put the figure into perspective, Samsung was projected to move 300 million units this year, a figure that was easily surpassed thanks to strong sales of their Android-based Galaxy S lineup. Samsung continues to close the gap with the world’s current leading handset manufacturer, Nokia. The Finnish handset maker is projected to sell around 399 million mobile phones.
Alright, so we know Fridays’ “leaked” renders of the Samsung Galaxy S III turned out to be nothing more than fan-created concept art but now we’re hearing rumblings around the net that Samsung could be planning to introduce the device at MWC 2012. Okay, so that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given Samsung’s yearly refreshes, but the kicker is that a Korean website is reporting not only will the GSIII be unveiled but that Samsung may incorporate 3D into the device. This would help give Samsung a leg up on the iPhone and also complete their 3D ecosystem adding functionality with their 3D televisions. And here you thought you’d seen the last of 3D smartphones.When it comes to specs, nothing has been confirmed but I’ll go ahead and play along. Rumors place the device at the “uber-high-end” bracket of Android devices with a Super AMOLED Plus HD display, quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, LTE connectivity and of course, running on Android’s latest Ice Cream Sandwich firmware (with TouchWiz). Still unclear is if the 3D functionality will be available on all Galaxy S III devices or if it will come as a variant (Galaxy S 3D). That being said, to keep costs down, if the 3D model becomes a variant, it could share specs more along the lines of what’s already offered with the Galaxy S II.
I wouldn’t take these rumors with more than a grain of salt but with MWC 2012 only a few more months away — we’ll find out soon enough firsthand with Phandroid reporting live from the event. Given the hate with 3D devices, would you guys be terribly upset to find out the Galaxy S III was a 3D capable device?
Well, lookie here. You seem to have found yourself in the Android Overload tonight. This is your one stop, place to shop for all of the top news stories from throughout our day — the ones that didn’t make it onto our front page — giving you one last shot to soak in all things Android/mobile related. If you find an interesting article, don’t be a stranger and leave those thoughts in the comments. Have a great night everyon
Earlier this month the software teams at Samsung sent out word that they would not be updating their Samsung Galaxy S and Samsung Galaxy Tab devices to the newest version of Google’s mobile operating system Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich – this week they realized that this was the wrong thing to say to the millions of users out there wanting the opposite news. What we’ve got this week is news via AJNews that Samsung is reconsidering their position that their own user interface TouchWiz is too difficult to parse to update to the newer system, saying that MAYBE they’ll do the work anyway. What does this mean to you, the Galaxy S user? It means you’ll perhaps have an update by the end of next year, if you’re lucky.
While the Galaxy S, the original Galaxy S that is, and the original Galaxy Tab have in common is that by today’s standards, they aren’t the most fantastic. Their specifications put them positively in the mid to low range of mobile handhelds and they’re not exactly the most wanted devices on the market by any standards. That said, Ice Cream Sandwich was and is made to work with no additional hardware requirements over Android 2.3 Gingerbread, so aside from TouchWiz, there really shouldn’t be an issue with these devices running the newest tasty treat.
Those of you rolling with a Galaxy S or Galaxy Tab today: are you still on the software you got out of the box, or have you hacked? If you’ve hacked, you’ve got the opportunity to update to Ice Cream Sandwich much sooner than the surely late next year timeline that Samsung will undoubtedly be announcing later this week. Meanwhile enjoy your still fully functional devices to the fullest, you’re in for a big treat if Ice Cream Sandwich ever drops for you!
LCD makers Samsung, Sharp and five other manufacturers have agreed to pay $553 million to settle a multi-state class action lawsuit accusing the companies of price fixing. The lawsuit alleged that the companies conspired to inflate prices for LCD displays used in TVs, notebook computers, and computer monitors between 1996 and 2006.
A probe into allegations of similar anti-competitive activities among LCD manufacturers took place back in December 2006, which led to the several companies and execs pleading guilty and paying more than $890 million in fines. This latest settlement is to address claims by consumers as well as by eight states, including Arkansas, California, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, New York, West Virgina, and Wisconsin.
The companies involved include Samsung, Sharp, Hitachi, Epson, Chi Mei, HannStar, and Chunghwa. In addition to the fine, they will be required to engage in antitrust compliance programs and cooperate with ongoing prosecution of other companies that may have participated.
After Samsung announced that the original Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab will not be getting Ice Cream Sandwich, one of their most popular phones that sold in the 100s of millions, we imagine they got 10s of millions of emails/calls regarding this. Well what ever it was, Samsung announced that they are re-evaluating their decision and will be looking into ways to make it work. While this is good news, if you own an international version you are all good, but here in the states, some are still waiting for a Gingerbread release, so don't hold your breath if you are tied to a carrier.
Samsung made a splash the other day when it announced that it had no plans to update the various original Galaxy S models and the Galaxy Tab to Ice Cream Sandwich. Users of the popular devices were less than pleased, especially when the company noted that one of the primary reasons that their phones wouldn’t be updated was the presence of the TouchWiz interface overlay. According to a MSN South Korean, the manufacturer is reevaluating its position on the matter after being inundated with complaints from angry Galaxy owners.
Samsung says that it will reconsider its options for Ice Cream Sandwich in regard to the Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab. It’s still claiming that getting the considerably larger ICS software onto the older devices will be difficult, the company will be investigating the viability of an official update. That might just precipitate a vanilla Android update, shod of TouchWiz – HTC pulled a similar move when they updated the HTC Desire to Gingerbread, going without SenseUI to fit it on the smartphone’s memory. That update also came after some significant customer outcry.
It should be noted that this isn’t in any way a confirmation of an update. But it is promising, especially considering that Samsung could ignore the complaints of its more technically inclined customers without too much brand damage. Most Android smartphone users are of a mind that if the only way to get an affordable smartphone is to sign up for a two year contract, then manufacturers and carriers have some responsibility to support their devices for at least two years. That brings in another depressing hurdle: in the United States at least, all four major carriers will have to approve and administer an update for their phones, which they may be less than motivated to do.
Now that the Galaxy Nexus is well and truly released in most markets, it’s time to start looking towards thenext pie in the sky superdevice to make Android fans drool. For many that device is the often-rumored and rarely seen Samsung Galaxy S III, the inevitable follow-up to some of the most widespread Android devices out there. According to ETNews, the manufacturer will be bringing its A game to Mobile World Congress in February, leading with the first Galaxy S III models.
The last details we heard on the mythical device pegged it as a bigger, faster version 0f the Galaxy S II, with a Nexus-matching 4.6-inch 720p Super AMOLED screen and a blazing 1.8Ghz dual-core processor. 2GB of RAM, double even the most powerful of current mobile devices, is paired with a 12MP camera, at least according to some alleged internal slides. With the possible exception of the RAM, this all seems like a natural update to the Galaxy line, though of course things may have changed since the details were supposedly leaked. There was a hubbub last Friday concerning some possible press shots, but those turned out to be some enthusiastic renderings for a contest.
The Galaxy S II was revealed at the same time last year at the 2011 Mobile World Congress, and considering Samsung’s breathless release table, that’s practically an eternity ago. With HTC and others poised to begin releasing quad-core phones soon, Samsung could use an updated flagship to keep buzz alive after the Galaxy Note. Quad-core Samsung Exynos chips are still a ways away, and may or may not be ready for the new hardware. The GSIII could be running Ice Cream Sandwich by then, if the speed of the current GSII update is any indication.
Android Community will be reporting for duty at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. We’ll keep you posted on any and all relevant announcements.
We all know Samsung had an amazing year in 2011 in terms of phone sales — especially smartphones. According to some recent reports from Korea Economics Daily those awesome sales numbers should be the same or better in 2012. They’ve projected a 15% increase slating Samsung to sell over 374 million phones in 2012.
That hug eye-popping number of 374 million includes 150+ by smartphones alone and that can only get bigger as time goes on. With Android growing at an increasingly rapid rate and Windows Phone doing its thing (whatever that is) Samsung should continue to grow. The Galaxy S was the best selling smartphone to date during its time and the Galaxy S II has continued right where the original left off.
Samsung was projected around 300 million for 2011 — a number they easily surpassed so we could also see them pass this new prediction for the upcoming year. Add in sales of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the upcoming and sure to be a huge success Galaxy S III we only see a bright future for Samsung — especially in the world of Android.
With Christmas all over and done with now, it's time to look onward to the new year. We have plenty of stuff lined up for the next little while to celebrate 2011 as we saw it but in the meantime -- join us in the Android Central forums. You'll find plenty of Android help and discussion to fill in the time while we wait to kick off 2012 with an Android bang.
Galaxy Nexus Forums - My Nexus is talking to me, anyone know how to shut it up?
HTC Thunderbolt Forums - Multiple alarm clock app, does one exist?
HTC Rezound Forums - Power button is too flat
Nexus S 4G Forums - ICS Notifications won't stop -- bug or feaure?
Samsung Stratosphere Forums - How to access the internal storage?
Finally, it's time to take the wraps off the Android Central Wallpaper Gallery! We've got your new home for free Android wallpapers. High-resolution wallpapers of just about everything you can think of, ready for downloading to your Android smartphone or tablet. And it's constantly growing with new Android wallpapers because it allows you, dear reader, to share your favorite Android wallpapers as well! Here are the big strokes:
Download high-resolution Android wallpapers directly to your smartphone or tablet.
E-mail Android wallpapers to your phone or tablet.
Scan a QR code for easy downloading
And our favorite part: Upload your own Android wallpapers to share with the world!
We've got full instructions and a video walkthrough after the break, or hit the links below to get started!
Free Android Wallpapers | Upload your own wallpapers
Youtube link for mobile viewing
Free Android wallpapers for your smartphone
Getting wallpapers on your phone
1. Browse through the Wallpaper Gallery's many categories to find the image you want. Or, use the search function. Within a category, previews of the wallpaper images will be listed. When you see one you like, click on it to go to that wallpaper's download page.
2. Make sure you are logged in, or if you are not yet a registered member of AndroidCentral.com, join now (it's easy and takes less than a minute). In addition to unlimited wallpaper downloads, you'll also be able to register for contests, get extra perks in the forums and otherwise strut your stuff as a member of the greatest Android community anywhere.
3. Once you are logged in, you have a few options for getting a wallpaper onto your phone:
Download Wallpaper! - This link allows you to download the wallpaper to your PC's desktop. From there, you can copy the wallpaper onto your phone or tablet, or then e-mail it to yourself.
Email This Wallpaper! - Allows for easy over-the-air installation. Simply specify the e-mail address you have on your phone, and click the "Email wallpaper!" link. You will receive an e-mail on your phone or tablet containing both a URL to the wallpaper and the wallpaper file itself, or you can specify to just receive the URL. By either clicking on the URL or opening the attached file, the wallpaper will open in your download to your Android devce. From there, open the image and set it as your wallpaper.
Use the QR code! - Each wallpaper has a unique QR code that you can scan. It'll immediately download the wallaper and is even easier than e-mailing it to yourself.
4. With the wallpaper now saved to your Android phone or tablet, you can set it to be your wallpaper at anytime by going into your Gallery app, hitting the menu button, then choosing "Set as" and "wallpaper."
How to submit wallpapers:
If you have a wallpaper that you've already created and want to share it with the rest of the world, you can add it to the Android Central Wallpaper Gallery by running it through our Wallpaper Maker Tool. This will upload it to the Android Central serversand allow you to give the wallpaper a title and select the category for it to appear in.
Take care in how you title and tag your wallpaper. The better you do it, the more people will find the wallpaper you've shared.
Also, the higher resolution the wallpaper, the better. Nobody likes a screen full of pixellated pictures.
Note that your wallpapers probably won't appear in the gallery immediately. But we'll get them approved just as soon as we can.
Supported devices:
Android Central's user-submitted Wallpaper Gallery should work with most high-resolution images and displays. But because of the various resolutions, you might have to crop a wallpaper a tad.
If you're really stuck, ask for help in the forums, or use our contact forum.
DMCA:
All of the wallpapers featured in this gallery have been submitted by members of AndroidCentral.com. If you are the rightful copyright holder to a wallpaper featured in this gallery and you do not wish for it to appear here, we will gladly remove the offending content once notified under the terms outlined under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
With Christmas all said and done for yet another year, it's time for those at Google to start looking at the number of devices that got activated over the Holidays. Luckily, Andy Rubin anticipated our wondering and has given up the goods:
UPDATE: There were 3.7M Android activations on 12/24 and 12/25. Congrats team-android!
Also, as noted on his Google+ account from previously -- "activations" means you go into a store, buy a device, put it on the network by subscribing to a wireless service. It does not count devices that have been resold. That's a pretty nice number -- congrats team Android indeed
If Google saw three ships on Christmas day, on Christmas day in the morning, it might just need them to store all the cash it’s going to make from a slew of new Android devices. Mobile analytics firm Flurry reports that combined activations for Android and iOS devices went from an average of 1.5 million a day (at least 700,000 Android smartphones, the rest divided among Android tablets, the iPhone, iPod and iPad) to almost 7 million on Christmas, making it easily the biggest day of the year for new smartphone and tablet users.
Naturally, app downloads followed device activations. On an average day, Flurry tabulates that about 108 million apps are downloaded across iOS and the various Android app stores every day. On Christmas, that figure jumped to 242 million, a growth of well over 100%. With nearly a quarter billion total app downloads, it’s easily the highest day of downloads ever across all mobile platforms.
If you’re cradling a new smartphone or tablet from a merry old elf, you’re probably looking for some sweet apps with which to fill it. Never fear, we’ve got you covered. Check out our picks for the very best Android tabletand smartphone apps from the last year, and keep an eye on Android Community every Friday evening for ourApp of the Week.
New Galaxy Nexus owners: this is what you waited for. As developer devices, the Nexus phones get pretty much all the desirable custom ROMs out there, and now you can download the popular MIUI ROM for Google’s favorite son. Different builds for the GSM and CDMA Galaxy Nexus are available over at XDA, both compiled from the official MIUI source code from popular ROM developer DroidVicious.
You might want to hold off on flashing it just yet, though – two crucial pieces of the puzzle are missing. In the Alpha 2 version, the soft keys (the virtual navigation buttons at the bottom of the Galaxy Nexus screen) don’t work, and require a separate patch file. The WiFi is currently marked as working for Verizon’s CDMA version, but not for the GSM version – your mileage may vary. While the familiar iPhone-inspired MIUI interface rides on top, Android 4.0.3 powers the phone, so you’ll get the latest software bells and whistles like access toCyanogenMod’s Trebuchet launcher.
We have been hearing rumors about Samsung’s third generation Galaxy S smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S III over the last few months, and now according to a recent report Samsung are expected to unveil the Galaxy S III in February.
The Samsung Galaxy S III is expected to be announced at Mobile World Congress 2012, which takes place next February, and we suspect it will be even more popular than the Galaxy S II.
We don’t as yet have any official specifications on the Samsung Galaxy S III, from what we heard before it may either come with a quad core 1.5GHz processor or Samsung’s new dual core 2GHz Exynos 5250 processor, 2GB of RAM and a 4.65 inch HD display with a 1280 x 720 resolution similar to the Galaxy Nexus.
We are looking forward to seeing what the official specifications will be on the Samsung Galaxy S III when it is announced next year, as soon as we get some more information we will let you guys know.
Samsung recently announced which of its Galaxy range of smartphones and tablets would be gettingupgraded to the latest version of Android, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
There were two devices left off the list, the original Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet and the original SamsungGalaxy S smartphone, and owners of these devices were less than happy to finf out that they wouldn’t be getting Android 4.0.
Now according to a recent report, Samsung is looking into the possibility of bringing Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to the two devices, although there has been no official word from Samsung on this as yet.
Hopefully Samsung will be able to bring Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to both the Samsung Galaxy S and the Samsung Galaxy Tab, as soon as we get some more information we will let you guy know
We recently heard that Google are working on their own Android tablet, which is expected to be part of their Nexus range, the news was revealed by Google’s Eric Schmidt.
Now Schmidt has revealed that we will probably see the new Google Nexus tablet launch within the next six months, and he has described the device as the ‘highest quality.
It will be interesting to see what the Google Nexus tablet is like, Google is obviously hoping that their newAndroid tablet will be able to take on the Apple iPad which is currently dominating the tablet market.
Though 3g is still popular across many countries, technologies such as WiMAX have outsmarted 3g in both performance and quality. This new technology has been implemented globally by many providers. 3g users are now switching to WiMAX for its advantages. If you are tired of 3g speeds? Check out 4g WiMAX at Clear Wireless Internet
