Author: Phil Nickinson

A Skype PR rep confirmed to SkatterTech today that an Android app is coming to the Android Market, never mind that it’s currently exclusive to Verizon. In an e-mail, the rep wrote:

"We will be bringing a direct to consumer app to the Android marketplace later this year. This application will be available for all consumers globally to download regardless of carriers. (i.e. similar to how we offer the iPhone app today)."

None too soon, and it might get even better, as this Skype "consumer app" (as opposed to …?) may feature video chat — though the rep backed off that claim, apparently. Either way, it’s another reason to avoid last-minute surprise fees from other video chat apps that you thought were going to be free. [SkatterTech] Thanks, Jeremy.

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Android 2.2 Froyo features

• Video walkthough
• Benchmarking Android 2.2 (Froyo) and the JIT against Android 2.1 (Eclair)
• Google Android developer explains more about Dalvik and the JIT in Froyo
• Froyo Feature: A better Android Market
• Froyo Feature: Android 2.2 screen rotation
• Froyo Feature: vcf contact cards now integrated into Android 2.2
• Froyo Feature: 3D gallery and camera changes in Android 2.2
• Froyo Feature: Easily switch between your eight-most recent applications
• Froyo Feature: A better stock Android keyboard
• Froyo Feature: Bluetooth voice dialing
• Froyo Feature: 802.11n WiFi support
• Froyo Feature: How to use the Google Chrome to Phone Extension
• Froyo Feature: New security lock options
• Froyo Feature: USB and wireless hotspot tethering
• Froyo feature: USB Mass Storage tweaks

• How to update Android 2.2 Froyo to your Nexus One, the manual way
• Running a modded Nexus One? Here’s the easiest way to get Froyo
• Now that we have Froyo, it’s time to feed Flash to Android 2.2
• Yes, the version of Froyo we’re using isn’t final, but you knew that, right?
• Why carriers need time to upgrade their Android versions [#io2010]

Evo 4G news

• Sprint Evo 4G hardware hands-on
• Sprint Evo 4G software walkthrough
• How to turn off Sense on the Evo 4G and return the stock Android home screens
• Video: Multitouch on the Sprint Evo 4G
• Sprint Evo 4G sized up alongside the Palm Pre
• Evo 4G’s front-facing camera shoots images in reverse
• Sling Player, Android, Evo 4G – ’nuff said
• HTC EVO 4G rooted before its official release
• Win a free Evo 4G from Android Central! [contest]

Other hardware news

• Motorola Droid Shadow
• And here’s another picture of the Motorola Droid Shadow
• Hands-on with the LG Ally [#io2010]
• T-Mobile is making the myTouch 3G Slide the center of its universe
• T-Mobile Garminfone coming June 9 for $199 after rebate
• Dell Streak gets official announcement & specs
• Shots of space – from the HTC Incredible

Other software news

• Fring nearly as excited about the Evo 4G as you, launches video calling
• Vlingo speech app now available in the Market
• Android Quick App – Adobe Reader
• Android Quick App: Pixel Zombies Live Wallpaper

Google/Android news

• Google snags Palm webOS UI guru Matias Duarte to work on Android

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[YouTube link]

And here’s a look at the LG Optimus — aka the GT540 — which we previously toyed with at CES in January. Nothing’s really changed since then. Same 3-inch HVGA touchscreen (no keyboard on this one), same Android 1.6, same 3.1-megapixel camera. We know LG’s capable of making some above-average devices — we’ve just yet to see any here in the states.

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Finally, for those of us waiting patiently for Sirius XM to bring satellite radio to Android, our day has come. The same satellite radio you’ve come to know and love in your car (it’s a life-saver) and on your desktop is now available on your Android phone.

For those of you new to satellite radio, it’s a subscription server that has channel after channel of music as well as sports, entertainment, family and heath, comedy, news, pure talk radio, religion — just about anything and everything you could think of.

The app itself is easy to use and hangs out in your notification tray, so you can access it easily while you’re off doing other things. About our only complaint is that it doesn’t work in landscape mode, and the app itself is named "Online," which makes it tricky to find in your app drawer at first.

The Sirius XM app itself is free (download the app directly from Sirius here), but the service itself has a monthly fee (there are a number of packages available), though you can try it for 30 days free. More at SiriusXM.com, and more screen shots after the break. Thanks, Jay!

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The power widget you see here isn’t really new in Android 2.2, but it’s been tweaked for Froyo. The screen brightness selector now includes an auto brightness setting (using the ambient light sensor) in addition to the three static settings (low, medium and high). It’s a nice little addition for those of us who prefer to let the phone determine the screen brightness.

(Thanks, Philip! Find a cool new feature in Froyo and want to tell the world about it? E-mail us here and we’ll make you famous!)

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Time to get the pitchforks out, people. We slept on it in hopes it was all a nightmare, but the ugly rumor that began yesterday (first by Android Guys and later confirmed by Engadget) is true: Video chat on Qik on the Evo 4G is going to cost an extra $4.99 a month, payable by Paypal.

It’s more than a little suspect that this wasn’t mentioned — ever — during Sprint’s Evo 4G launch party in New York, nor did any of the Qik folks there drop the bomb, and here we are just a week from launch. The good news is that there’s already one free alternative in Fring, and Skype may be bringing video chat as well in the form of a "consumer app" (outside the bounds of its exclusivity with Verizon) later this year. [Android Guys, Engadget]

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[YouTube link]

It’s a brave new world with the addition of video chat on the Sprint HTC Evo 4G. And what better way to break in Fring’s new free video calling service than with one of our deepest darkest competitors dear friends in this Android world. In the video above, we chat it up with Taylor from Android and Me — both of us on the Evo 4G. It wasn’t the smoothest connection in the world — though I was on WiFi and Taylor’s in a 4G town — but it’s video calling, and we’re glad to see it.

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[YouTube link]

Not sure which one of these we wan to see released more — the Evo 4G, or Sling Player. Regardless, here they are together. That’s right, Sling Player on the Evo 4G. It’s still in private beta and said to be "coming soon," so you’ll have to make do with this teaser for now. Go ahead and watch it again. It’ll last longer. Thanks, George!

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Notice anything unusual in this picture? (Besides the obvious, of course — I didn’t do a thing with my hair today.) That’s right, the front-facing 1.3MP camera on the Sprint HTC Evo 4G records things backward, at the moment. (Our pal Andrew from Androinica broke the news in a much cooler test.)

As to if and when it’ll be fixed, we caught up with HTC, which told us the following: "We are looking into whether this is strictly a software issue, if, and how soon it can be corrected." Let’s hope it’s sooner rather than later. I’m not getting any prettier up there.

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[YouTube link]

The folks at Fring are screaming from the rooftops today about their latest update, which brings video calling to the popular VOIP-chat (and now video) service. Using the new Evo 4G (you might have seen us write about it a little lately) and its front-facing camera, you can call your friends, and each have video of the other. Of course, if your friends are anything like ours, you might just want to stick to voice. Full presser after the break.

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You mean you can get fired (in this case, it was an intern whose stint ended all of a week early) if you find an unreleased phone and take a picture of it, which your "friend" sends to a tech blog? Go figure. Discuss. [via Gizmodo]

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Looks like the Facebook Android app is having a bit of a conniption fit today. Could just be network problems, or maybe it’s unhappy that my privacy settings quit grabbing their ankles today. Anybody else having issues? (Thanks, @vizzle07 and @hmdearras)

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Along with Android 2.2 comes a new version of the Android Market. While we still wish something could be done in regards to content (the Wild West still is in effect), Google’s begun to at least clean up the interface a bit. Comments are now in their own tab — no more scrolling down to see just one or two.

You also can see here the "Allow automatic updating" checkbox — hit it and the app will update on its own, in the background. No muss, no fuss.

(Thanks Russ! Find a cool new feature in Froyo and want to tell the world about it? E-mail us here and we’ll make you famous!)

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[YouTube link]

Here’s a look at the LG Eve — aka the GW620 — which was announced last fall and later released in the U.K. but is nary to be seen here in the states. Specs include a 3-inch HVGA touchscreen and horizontal sliding QWERTY keyboard. It also sports a 5-megapixel camera and FM radio, all powered Android 1.5 with by a Qualcomm MSM7200a processor running at 528MHz. It’s by no means a top-of-the-line Android phone at this point, but the keyboard felt pretty usable. So it has that going for it, which is nice.

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Just look at that. Somebody’s Android’s gone and exploded all over this poster, spilling the heart and brain for all to see (and putting it in a convenient T-shirt and poster form and making it available for purchase). One thing’s missing, though: The speed-demon Just-in-Time compiler. Maybe that’ll be in Exploded Andy 2.2. [Exploded Andy via Gizmodo]

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[YouTube link]

Another welcome feature uncovered by many of you in Android 2.2 is the ability to work in apps through 270 degrees of rotation. That is, if you turn the phone to the landscape position to the left, it’ll rotate. And it’ll rotate to the right now, as well.

But, wait, there’s more. The car app has gotten smarter. So when you’re using the car dock and need to pull up a contact, you don’t have to turn the phone back to portrait (or worse, tilt your head) just to find whom you’re looking for. We’d prefer that the home screen rotate, too, but custom Froyo ROMs will take care of that soon enough.

(Thanks, Mike B! Though try to turn your caps lock off, m’kay? 🙂 Find a cool new feature in Froyo and want to tell the world about it? E-mail us here and we’ll make you famous!)

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One of the pictures you see here represents the online future of print journalism in a sleek, easy-to-access open Google web app format. The other comes in a 500-megabyte (that’s half a gigabyte, people) download on a tightly locked-down device.

Above is Sports Illustrated editor Terry McDonell at Google I/O, showing us the new HTML5-optimized version of last week’s issue. And we expressed our excitement for it at the time. And we’re even more excited about it now that we’ve seen Wired magazine come out with its gianormous 500MB file size for its first iPad issue.

Judging from the screen shots at TiPB (we haven’t gotten a chance to actually use the app yet), the Wired app indeed looks like a beautifully designed translation from print to online (an endeavor I know a thing or two about). But the mere act of having to download the app (Will each update be the full 500MB? We hope not.) doesn’t sound so futuristic to us. No, Google’s SI web app beats the pants off this one.

Don’t believe us? Check out McDonell’s segment from Google I/O after the break. Just like the Wired app, there’s no Flash. (Erm, except for the YouTube video on our site, but that’s changing.) And there’s noo 500MB download. Just pure web goodness.

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The good news, for those of you hankering for Garmin’s special blend of navigation software, is that the Garminfone will be available June 9 on T-Mobile. What we’re still scratching our heads over, however, is the $200 price tag — and that’s after the $50 mail-in rebate card that you won’t get for a month or so after you sign away two years of your smartphone life. Anyhoo, you’ll get the same level of Android 1.6 coolness that we saw back with the Nuvifone A50 at Mobile World Congress, so check out our video of that if you’re still on the fence. [T-Mobile]

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