The Nexus One car dock has arrived, and we’ve mounted it in our venerable Honda Accord for a quick spin around the block, and for a few photos in the garage. (More on that in a bit.) Join us after the break as we see what all the hubbub’s about, and whether the Nexus One car dock is worth the $55 you’ll have to shell out for it.
Need more specs from the Verizon HTC Incredible after that teaser from the manual? We’ve got you covered. Nothing hugely different from what we saw before — the processor is a Qualcomm 8650 Snapdragon at 1GHz, there’s 8GB of storage space on board, the ROM’s listed a little different, but WiFi 802.11n speed’s still there. Anyhoo, another morsel to whet your appetite. Thanks, tipster!
We’ve spent a good part of the afternoon covering the announcement of the iPhone 4.0 software with our pals at TiPB, and we’re feeling pretty good about the Android platform, still. No killer features were announced, just a handful of what we’re calling feature completions.
So all in all, any Android killers in the mix? Not from the looks of it.
If you’ve been waiting for what seems like forever for an update to be released for the Samsung Moment, your time has come. We’ve already shown you Android 2.1 on the Moment (our poor example above is still waiting, as you can see), and now a leaked ROM is available. Looks like it’s going to take a little work to get it on there, but if you’ve been waiting this long … [SDX-Developers via Android Police] Thanks, Artem!
The HTC Incredible’s manual has made it into the hands of Phandroid, and there’s not much surprising inside. It appears to be, for all intents and purposes, pretty much the same as the HTC Desire we saw at Mobile World Congress in February. The design has changed, slightly — Verizon’s known for going a bit more blocky than what HTC originally produces — but otherwise you pretty much have the same phone. Here are the major specs:
There’s also HTC Sense, of course (see our video walkthough and full review of Sense), and this marks the first U.S. release of the new version of HTC’s custom UI. One thing of which there is no mention in the manual (we read all 200 pages) is a mobile hotspot. Maybe it’s just not listed, but we’re not holding our breath on that one. [Phandroid]
Looks like that rumored April 29 launch date (and possible April 25 announcement) for the HTC Incredible on Verizon is firming up quite nicely. Phone Arena scored this internal sheet from Best Buy Mobile, which clearly shows it launching three weeks from today. Now we just have to track down exactly what the darn thing’s made up of. [Phone Arena]
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Sorry, don’t actually have launch information just yet for the Verizon version of the Google Nexus One, but we do have another indicator that it should be here any time now. Above is another one of those Verizon CelleBrite units with the Nexus One clearly listed. We’ll give you more as soon as we can, but that’ll have to do it for now. Thanks, B!
Skyfire this afternoon shed a little light on where it’s headed in the future with Android. You’ll recall that the mobile browser company recently bought Kolbysoft — maker of the popular Steel browser for Android — and even more recently sought beta testers. Some 3,000 applications were received, and the lucky 30 testers have been notified. As for the future of Android — and Webkit, thanks to the purchase of Kolbysoft, Skyfire says:
We see Android as a fast-rising ecosystem, with a rich, totally open developer environment, a healthy app market and a healthy advertising and search ecosystem. The Android OS has a tremendous amount of interest from handset makers and carriers, and also has a strong need for making the explosion of video more network optimized (Skyfire’s wheelhouse).
The bigger picture is that Webkit based smartphone browsers are proliferating, and we are aligning in that technology direction. We see a lot of need to make these browsers better, and believe that our cloud platform can be the answer. We’re looking at other Webkit platforms beyond Android already, and will share more information when we feel it’s appropriate.
If you’re one of the lucky few how got in on the beta, congrats. We’re all looking for good stuff to come out of the Skyfire camp. [Skyfire]
Ready for some more device rumors? The latest comes from Engadget, which says June 13 is the likely Sprint Evo 4G launch date — don’t worry about it being a Sunday, that’s normal for Sprint — though a week earlier is in the running, too.
Another question they may be answering is how much extra access to Sprint’s WiMax network may cost, and it’s looking to be between $10 and $20. While nobody wants to pay extra for something, it’s nice to know that you won’t get stuck paying for 4G service if you’re not actually in a city that has it. Whether you’ll have to pay extra for the 8-device WiFi hotspot fun (we certainly hope not) remains to be seen. [Engadget]
Update: The Engadget guys are getting peppered with the same comments we are, and it looks like the fee will be for the hotspot only, and not 4G access. Fingers crossed.
It’s that time of week again, where we share with you our favorite Android applications. Join us after the break!
We mentioned it in an update farther down the page, but it bears repeating: the latest rumors — from anonymous sources — are pointing to the Verizon HTC Incredible launching the last week of April, possibly on the 25th or 29th. Also, it’s entirely possible that Verizon’s "New Devices Launching Soon" poster could be for the fabled Microsoft "Pink" phones. Either way, stay tuned, ’cause it’s gonna be a busy month. Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
In one of the grandest smartphone news events that nobody saw, Motorola today launched OCNN — the Ocho Cinco News Network — all Chad Johnson (we don’t care what he changed his name to) all the time. So when the million-follower Twitterer (hey, that’s what they said, never mind it’s only 826,000) is tweeting platitudes, what he had for breakfast, or how he’s planning on actually contributing to the Bengals this season, know that he’s doing it with the Motorola Devour, Motoblur and, under the hood, Android.
And so, we were one of the 113 people watching the live "news" conference. And we’re now contributing to the delusion of a so-so football player efforts of a start athlete to spread the value of social networking — and, by proxy, Android — and … and …
We’re sorry, folks. Really, we are. (Erm, and if you’re an 85 fan, go ahead and check it out, we suppose.)
How do you score some unofficial (and free) excitement for your phones? If you’re Verizon, you leak out an image like you see above. So something’s coming. Could be anything. Could be nothing. Could be the HTC Incredible. Or it might not be. Discuss. [BGR]
Update: Unidentified sources (don’tcha just love them?) at Android Forums and Android and Me are saying could could see the Incredible on or about April 25 … Or April 29. So just a few more weeks, folks. Maybe.
Update: And it’s now available for $55 plus shipping at google.com/phone. [via official Nexus One blog]
Original: One piece of the Nexus One puzzle that’s been missing for a bit has been the car dock, which we saw teased in the making-of videos back in early February. But now it has a proper place in Google’s Nexus One help articles. And from it we learn:
What’s still missing: Price and actual availability, though it sure looks like we could see it any day now. Keep your eyes peeled, people. [Google via Android and Me]
Sony Ericsson smartphones — Android or otherwise — generally come down to two things: above-average hardware hobbled by overreaching, underpowered software. And that trend continues with the Xperia X10. (See our previous hands-on with the X10.)
After the break, we take a look at the X10’s better half — the hardware. The X10 sports a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 4-inch TVT LCD touchscreen, 1GB of ROM/512MB of RAM, and an 8-megapixel camera. Oh, and one thing we didn’t bother with — testing multitouch — because the phone just won’t do it. Period. That’s not a deal-breaker, but … We’ll tackle the X10’s Achilles heel — the software — later.
The Nexus One crowd has had Android 2.1 from the get-go. The Motorola Droid just got it. Looks like the Samsung Moment could be any time now. And so we ask you the following question: What must-have feature is missing from Android 2.1?
And we’re gonna try (in vain) to cut this one off at the pass: Features like the 3D app drawer and five home screens are individual phone customizations — not features of Android 2.1. Doesn’t mean they can’t be on your wish list, though.
Let’s hear it, people!
That blurry little feller you see? Reportedly it’s the Samsung Moment 2 — SPH-M910, for those of you into such things. Not too much to go on, other than it has Android 2.1 and TouchWiz 3.0 — before you groan, that’s the same version as is on the Galaxy S. Also, there’s no Super AMOLED screen. For that matter, it’s not said whether it’s regular ol’ AMOLED, normal OLED, LED, unleaded or whatever.
Other bulleted specs you can glean simply by looking at it: It’s a Sprint device, it has a four-row QWERTY keyboard, and the three capacitive buttons on the original Moment have gained a search button (and it’s about time). No word on pricing, availability, or whether this is all just some blurry figment of our imagination. One more pic after the break. [WeRAndroid via BGR]
Hey, all you guys and gals out there with the Samsung Moment who have been patiently (or not — we do check our Twitter replies, you know) for your phone to get the latest version of Android: It looks like things are getting closer after missing that rumored March 26 date. Above (and after the break) are shots of Android 2.1 running on the Moment, straight from KansasCityJoe in our own forums. In his own words:
Just got it early this morning and it is not for general release yet. I just started playing with it, but it seems much faster/more responsive than 1.5.
It does not appear to have pinch-to-zoom on either the Gallery or the Browser. Same backgrounds/bloatware that 1.5 has. When you launch NFL Mobile Live, it tells you it will be replaced by "Sprint Football Live".
It actually, now, has VPN built in (PPTP, L2TP, L2TP/IPSec both PSK and Certificate-based). Bluetooth is vastly improved. There is no more cutting out. Your headset will re-pair without having to put the phone into discoverable mode after you reboot.
You slide-to-answer a phone call now. It has voice input ("an experimental feature using Google’s networked speech recognition") built it and it actually works! No more texting while driving! Extremely cool!
Email will now work with any certificate (not just signed).
The update erases everything on the device, and it’s probably a good idea just to reinstall everything from scratch. Some of the 1.5 apps I’m not finding in the Market for 2.1. And some versions of apps in the Market say they don’t work with 2.0 yet.
So, you’ve got the latest and greatest Android 2.1-update1, same as the Nexus One and, now, the Droid, though with a couple of caveats. Build number is listed as ECLAIR.DC23, Kernel version is 2.6.29 and the baseband is S:M900.8.05.DC23.
What does that mean, in English? An Android 2.1 upgrade and all its bells and whistles appears to be in the works. Hang on just a little longer, folks. More pics after the break. [Android Central Forums]
No, folks, we weren’t kidding when I said I was giving away my original Nexus One. And to prove it, we’re giving you a sneak peak at the first batch of contest entries. (And, no, there’s nothing wrong with it, and I don’t know about any super secret Nexus One that’s coming out.)
Oh, so now you want to enter? OK. Go here and read up on the particulars. You have until the end of the month to get your entry to me, and you guys and gals get to vote once come May. Check out the first batch after the break.