Author: AndroidGuys

The next time you find yourself feeling crafty, put your hands to work on a papercraft Android.  Check out the pictures below of one that was put together by a Mr. Guilherme Link-san.  Rather than keeping his cool Android all to himself, he decided to share his little project with the rest of us!

According to his blog (translated), this design marks the 8th version he’s worked up.  Each time he put one together, he found something he didn’t quite like.  He settled with the 8th version, and we have to agree.  This looks about as good as it will get.  Everything seems scaled correctly from our vantage.  Be sure to visit his blog and print out the images.  Guilherme recommends using Sulfites A4 paper, which is 120 grams per square meter, and also known as “Sulfite 40”.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group has let slip a few details of another Android-based handset from Acer. The device will be a touch screen smart phone with quadband GSM, 850 / 1900 bands (AT&T), and A-GPS.   Considering the source, we also know it will have Bluetooth.  As we head into next week’s Mobile World Congress, we expect to see plenty of Android handsets announced. Perhaps Acer will drop a few more details on this one.

Source: Engadget

Thanks to a recent acquisition, Android owners might be seeing the Skyfire web browser on their handset before too long.  Kolbysoft, the makers of the popular Steel browser, were just purchased by Skyfire for an undisclosed sum.  For those of you not in the know, Skyfire makes it possible to replicate a PC web browsing experience on your mobile device.  Up until now, Skyfire was only available for Symbian and Windows Mobile.

It’s being said that Kolbysoft was picked up because of their talent, which we presume means “ability to develop for Webkit”.  As you may know, Android’s native browser uses Webkit as the backbone.  Skyfire has relied on their own “Gecko” rendering engine to create the PC-like browsing experience.  Blending the two of these, we should expect to see Skyfire arrive on Android before long.

After more than a year of waiting, Garmin is set to show off their newly announced nuvifone A50 next week at Mobile World Congress.  As it turns out, the device is more GPS than phone.  Surprise!

The Android-powered A50 features a 3.5-inch,  HVGA capacitive touch screen, 4GB of built-in storage, Microsoft Exchange support, full GPS, and other navigation services built-in.  The touch only device also comes with an accelerometer, 3 megapixel camera, and the Android Market.  With a heavy dose of Garmin, it  includes an e-compass and their own cityXplorer maps, as well as real-time, location-relevant information like weather, traffic, fuel prices, safety cameras, and flight status.    Look for the A50 to arrive in Europe sometime in the first half of 2010.  Pricing and carriers have yet to be announced.

Apparently, Eric Clapton has awesome drawing power.  Thanks to heavy promotion, T-Mobile has moved over 17,000 myTouch 3G Fender Edition handsets.  After roughly 3 weeks, the first round of handsets has been sold through.  According to TmoNews, a second batch is on tap for release in April.  One has to wonder if T-Mobile plans to pull the commercials down for the time being. No word on how many more of these handsets are coming in April.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 has yet to be announced for release here in the US, but that won’t stop us from drooling over it. One of the cooler sounding features, face-recognition and tagging, has been demonstrated for all to see. In theory, the Xperia X10 can take your photos and compare them other pictures found on the handset. If it recognizes the subject as someone you’ve already tagged, the handset automatically tags the new one. From there, you can view all the images in groups under the Mediascape gallery.

Naturally, we’re expecting this to have little snags and imperfections. However, should this work as it’s demonstrated below, this could cut down on a lot of busy work.

Source: Androinica

A Boy Genius Report tipster has informed them that the T-Mobile Cliq is slated to pick Android 2.1 sometime in March.  There’s nothing concrete to support this, however BGR’s track record for Android rumors seems to be pretty solid so far.  This would be the first look at how MOTOBLUR operates on Android 2.1, so we’re definitely interested.  Those of you with a Cliq will likely attest that this will be a long time coming.

More on that is it develops.

It’s already publicly known that Motorola plans to roll out an update to the Droid which will see it pick up Android 2.1.  We’re waiting for the update to hit, literally any day now.
As we wait for the official word, we thought we’d recap what you Droid owners will be seeing.   

• Voice recognition for virtual keyboard. This is the feature that allows you to speak instead of typing.  Anywhere you want.
• Virtual/soft keyboard enhancements.
• 3D Gallery  – Same as Nexus One, designed by Cooliris
• Pinch to zoom/multi-touch for maps, browser, and gallery.
• News and weather widget
• Google Maps 4.0 with all the new stuff, like Buzz.
• Enhanced Music application. New tabs at the top for easier access an navigation to artists, songs, albums and playlists.
• Google Goggles

If you head to Motorola’s FAQ page, you’ll run into somewhat of a dead-end.  Right now, it just says “There is a release coming, check back soon.”  This is different from earlier, where it fleshed out all the details.  Does this mean there’s more to the update?  Did someone jump the gun and push out the news a little to early?

Any of you Verizon customers stoked about the update?  What is it that you are most looking forward to?

By Google’s own admission, everything associated with their google.com/phone site is an experiment.  Like most everything the company does, it starts out in beta and constantly evolves.  this past week has seen two changes to the way things are handled for potential and existing Nexus One owners.

The first, and possibly, most welcome enhancement was the opening up of an actual phone line for support.  those of you who already have a Nexus One can call 888-48-NEXUS (63987). daily from 7:00 am EST to 10:00 pm EST to speak with someone.  No more forum only support!

The other change made this week was lowering the equipment recovery fee (ETF) from $350 down to $150.   While T-Mobile imposes their own early termination fee (ETF), it has many scratching their heads as to why Google was charging so much on their side.  Whether related to recent FCC inquiries or by pure coincidence, customers are not looking at such a heavy dent in their pocket should they decide to cancel service.

Did any of you expect either of these changes?  So quickly?  What else would you like to see happen with their “experiment”?

Today sees the release of the new T-Mobile myTouch 3G.  But wait!  Didn’t this phone come out last year?  Yes, and no.  Today’s launch is an improved handset with new features and functions.  Pretty much everything that was rumored on this phone has come to fruition.  So what’s the deal with this one?  Notable differences between the original model:

• A built-in 3.5mm headset jack and updated music player
• Additional memory with 288 MB of RAM and an 8GB microSD card
• Swype, an innovative text input technology, providing a faster and more intuitive text input on the touch screen
• Preloaded applications, including Barcode Scanner, Music Player, myAccount and Visual Voicemail

Starting today, customers can buy the myTouch 3G for $149.99, providing they sign a 2-year agreement.  You can pick one up at a T-Mobile store near you or online at http://www.t-mobilemytouch.com.

Ask around and you’ll find that most Android enthusiasts are fans of what HTC did with Sense UI.  Rather than pumping out stock Android handsets void of any character, they poured all kinds of things into Android.  Not only did it refresh the interface, but it added features as well.  Sense is not just a skin on top of Android. So as the plain vanilla Android experience continues to evolve and get prettier, what happens to Sense?

Nick over at HTC Source happened upon a video this morning that shows Android 2.1 running with Sense on top of it.  The guy in this sideway video is running the latest release on his Hero.

Where Google’s WebOS-like cards give added function to the desktop experience, HTC gives it a slight boost.   Skip to around 6:50 into the clip below and you’ll see a pinch-to-zoom feature that pulls all 7 homescreens up with previews.  Tap the widget or screen and presto!  You’re there.  Yes, we know.  Swiping doesn’t take all that long to get from one end to the other.  It’s still nice to see HTC doing their part to push Android further.

Even though CES was a huge coming out party last month, next week’s Mobile World Congress looks to be even bigger.  This is the event to attend if you are a handset maker with half a decent product line.  Anyone who is anyone will be in Spain next week showing off their coming devices.  Among those big names… HTC.

We’re nearly certain that HTC will unveil the Legend handset next week.  The heir apparent to the Hero, it maintains the look and feel of one of their most popular handsets of 2009 while bringing some new to the table.

The Legend was spotted a couple of times this week, giving us a pretty good look at the front and back sides.  We’re fans of the back design as it’s not your typical flush battery cover; We like the character it adds.

As we wait for the official announcement, here’s a few rumored specs.

• 3.2-inch HVGA AMOLED Touch Screen
• 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 Processor
• 5 megapixel camera with LED flash
• Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, WiFi, Magnetic Compass
• Quadband GSM / EDGE plus dualband HSPA
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• 1300mAh battery

It gets harder and harder to stay on top of the Android phones coming down the pipeline.  Even on its own, HTC makes it difficult on us to keep out in front of the rumored handsets.  Today finds us adding another device to the list of potential Android smart phones.

The Scorpion is the latest to get the rumor treatment.  What’s special about this one?  For starters, it boasts a 1.5GHz processor on board.  Add Android 2.2 and WiMAX into the mix, and you have a recipe for one delicious phone. 

As to where this rumor got started.  AndroidSPIN was allegedly passed the build file for this upcoming handset with notes pertaining to the above specs and features.  As you look through the (easily created/duped) text, there are hints of them throughout.  As much as some of us would like to say this is faked, there are far more Android rumors that pan out than those that don’t.  We’re leaning in the direction of “this could be right”.

For what it’s worth, Qualcomm just unveiled the 1.5GHz processors last month.  We could be a long way off before seeing this arrive.  Also, neither Scorpion nor Olympian were among the names leaked in a previous Android build.

Source: MobileCrunch

Image Source: Flickr

Last month, Google kicked off an official YouTube page for the Nexus One.  Just this last week, however, they decided to take us on a tour of what goes on behind the device.  Over the course of 5 videos, Google has been giving viewers an inside look into everything that has gone into the concept, design, testing, and manufacturing of our favorite Superphone.  The last video is expected tomorrow, but you can watch the first 4 installments now.  The latest clip shows the handset as it is manufactured and prepped for shipping.

The Motorola handset we’ve recently been reporting on, the Zeppelin, will be arriving next month on T-Mobile.  A leaked T-Mobile roadmap that covers the next few months shows the Zeppelin launching March10th with the new name of Cliq XT.

Everything we’ve seen lately indicates the phone is virtually identical to the Cliq, save for the physical keyboard.  While it’s likely to arrive with Android 1.5 under the hood, Motorola probably readying the same 2.1 update they’ll be pushing out to the Cliq.  We don’t know of any prices yet, but we’re pretty sure it will be in the same $180-$200 ball park that most of T-Mobile’s lineup of Android phones – at least initially. We’ve seen pictures of this phone in both black and titanium, so it’s likely the Cliq and Cliq XT will share the same colors.

The rumored/expected specs include:

• 3.1- inch touch screen HVGA (480×320)
• 5 megapixel camera with autofocus
• Qualcomm MSM7201 528 MHz processor
• 512 MB flash ROM, 256 MB RAM
• WiFi 802.11 b/g, GPS, Bluetooth
• MOTOBLUR (Android 1.5)

In just a few short days, T-Mobile is expected to release the updated version of their myTouch 3G handset. Among the notable changes in design are a 3.5mm headphone jack and more memory.  A leaked internal screenshot for T-Mobile indicates a software enhancement will be joining the party too.

The folks over at TmoToday have a screenshot shows the myTouch 3G with 3.5mm headphone  jack (catchy title) will also offer the unique soft keyboard, Swype.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, Swype works by dragging your finger from letter to letter, rather than pecking them.  It’s rather unconventional, but we hear it’s pretty awesome.We’re not sure what kind of learning curve it has, however, it appears it could be a preferred way of typing.

It’s interesting to see something like this being bundled with a handset, but it does help differentiate it from other Android phones.  At least out of the box. Swype also comes preloaded on the Samsung Omnia II.

Fun Fact: Swype was founded by the same guy (Cliff Kushler) who invented T9 texting.

Thanks for the heads up, Jim!

Earlier this week, Google’s Android team kicked off their Developer Labs World Tour. Starting this Tuesday in London, the mobile rock stars are traversing the globe, speaking with developers, and let them play with new hardware. It’s a great way to have your questions answered by the guys behind the platform. While it’s too late to register for any of the events now, we’re sure some great nuggets will trickle out.

By the way, those of you who were able to register for one of the events, chances are pretty good you’ll be getting a free Nexus One!  Reto Meier passed out around 70 of them at the first one in London.

Here’s the schedule as they swing through your neck of the woods:

• Feb. 4, 2010    Austin, Texas, USA      5pm-9pm
• Feb. 8, 2010    Seattle, Washington, USA        2pm-6pm
• Feb. 8, 2010    Waterloo, Ontario, Canada      2pm-6pm
• Feb. 9, 2010    Washington D.C., USA            2pm-6pm
• Feb. 10, 2010  Mountain View, California, USA           2pm-6pm
• Feb. 11, 2010  Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA          2pm-6pm
• Feb. 12, 2010  New York, New York, USA  2pm-6pm
• Feb. 2, 2010    London, UK    9am-1pm
• Feb. 8, 2010    Paris, France    2pm-6pm
• Feb. 10, 2010  Berlin, Germany           2pm-6pm
• Feb. 12, 2010  Zurich, Switzerland      2pm-6pm
• Feb. 13, 2010  Madrid, Spain 10am-2pm
• Feb. 28, 2010  Singapore (w/ CodeAndroid)   TBD
• March 3, 2010 Taipei, Taiwan 12:30-4:30pm

March 5, 2010 Hong Kong      1pm-5pm

One of the more popular file sharing and syncing services, Dropbox, seems to be gearing up for an Android app announcement.  An email has been sent out to their users teasing, “Do you own a BlackBerry or Android phone? Don’t worry! We’ve got plenty more mobile magic coming soon!”

If you’re not familiar with Dropbox, the service gives users 2 GB of cloud storage that can be synchronized between multiple computers and platforms.  In the meanwhile, Android users have SugarSync, among other services to use.

Source: Androinica

So you made the plunge and now you’ve got yourself an Android handset.  Good for you!  So how do you take advantage of it?  You install great apps, of course.  One of our readers, James J Atkinson, put together a list of 25 Essential Android Apps for College Students which we find to be very well thought out and organized.  In fact, many of these apps could be used in other areas of life.

Each app was organized into one of three groups, Study Guides and Tools, Specific Courses, and Socialize.  There were two things we really liked about this list; The selection was comprised of many lesser-known developers and a short description accompanies each selection.

Do you see any of your faves among the list?  What else would you recommend?

Over the last few years, many phones have been thrown in a head-to-head matchup with Apple’s iPhone.  We’ve yet to see a device come along and dethrone the current king of smart phones.  At some point, something has to be considered better, right?

Along comes the Nexus One.

Will the new Android superphone be able to knock out the seemingly unbeatable iPhone 3GS?  Well, if you read the headline of this post coming in, you know it does. CNET released their latest “Prizefight” yesterday and it shows our beloved Android winning the battle.  Check out the video below!