Author: Stephen Tenerowicz

Well Android fans, it seems that we now know when the Xperia X10 will be available to Vodafone customers.  While we still don’t have an exact date, we now know that the handset will be launching sometime in April.  The  Vodafone site is now listing the Xperia X10 as “coming soon.”  Unfortunately we are going to have to wait a little bit on the price, but lets hope it won’t break the bank.  As this phone has been an object of lust for me for quite sometime, I am really hoping a US carrier picks this handset up soon.

Following the huge success of their popular application for the IPhone, the travel site TripIt has released an application for Android. The app is free and can be found in the Android Market, but requires users to sign up for a free account on TripIt.com to actually use it.  The app will provide Android users access to names of airlines, hotels, or other locations that are included with travel plans.  Personally, I think TripIt is a great site and can’t wait to get this on my phone as I am going to overseas very soon.  If you get a chance to use it let us know what you think.

Last last week, Google announced a new strategy for AdWords.  AdWords will now target users by the device and carrier they use, letting advertisers more directly reach consumers.   This means Android fans won’t be seeing any iPhone ads while surfing, but may see ads related to Android apps. I should also mention that ads that link to mobile downloads will only appear on devices that can actually utilize the download.  Furthermore, ads for apps that your phone will support, Google’s working to make it so that you’ll see a download link and not just the URL. Great. Targeted ads, can’t wait(extreme sarcasm).

Source: AdWords Blog

What you see above is being passed around as “Android 3.0 running on the upcoming HTC Supersonic”.  The image show a 3-D home screen with the app launcher featured in Android 2.1 with a tab.  While it would be great to see something like this as being the next step in Android, we must point out that everything you see is complete render.  Oh, and it’s nearly a year and a half old.

Shortly after the G1 was released, one of our readers decided he would take to creating a better G1 design, or perhaps what the G1 should look like.  He sent along a few different mockups, each with various improvements.  This looks to be a new variation on some old Photoshop work.

If you’re thinking of using your new Nexus One to curse out your ex with the speech-to-text function, you might want to think again.  Reuters has discovered that the voice recognition feature converts curse words into a string of # symbols when rendered into text.  Why? A spokesperson from Google says the feature is not at all about censoring users speech, but about making sure swear words don’t accidentally appear in an e-mail to grandma. The spokesperson said, “We filter potentially offensive or inappropriate results because we want to avoid situations whereby we might misrecognize a spoken query and return profanity when, in fact, the user said something completely innocent.”

Well folks,  AndroidGuys will admit it: we were wrong. Despite all the talk taking place in the forums and reports by other tech blogs, the Motorola Droid did not receive an OTA update.  Through Twitter, Motorola said today that it hasn’t pushed out an update for the Motorola Droid since the  Android 2.0.1 updated in December.  The question now remains: when is Android 2.1 going to be pushed out?

Source: Android Central

Great news for Motorola fans!  Motorola’s Asia Pacific Vice President Spiro Nikokoulos recently stated in an interview with CNET Asia that the company will be launching 20 to 30 Android phones across the globe in 2010.  The VP also said that not every phone would make it to every market, so there will probably be regional variants of many of the phones. We have already heard of the of the Shadow, the Devour, the Backflip, the Ruth, the Zeppelin and several others which may or may not be launching in China.  What other handsets could there be?  2010 is truly in the year of Android.

Source: CNET Asia

An Over-The-Air update was released to Motorola Droid owners last night. While the update won’t allow Droid owners  to experience all the goodness that is Android 2.1 just yet, it will allow users to update their Facebook pages.  Apparently, many Droid owners were experiencing a data corruption issue when updating their status on the Droid.  This OTA update sets out to fix this.   If you’ve been experiencing problems with Facebook on your Motorola Droid, this should do the trick. I should also note that it will not change the version number.   Next up: Android 2.1!

Source: UberGizmo

Well it took a while, but the Motorola Milestone has finally been rooted! Now all happy Milestone owners can enjoy loading custom ROMs on to their hot multi-touch handset. How about Android 2.1, HTC Sense, or Motoblur?  It’s all yours. However, as someone who previously bricked a G1, be careful and only follow trusted directions.

For those brave enough, take a trip over to our friends at xda-developers and grab some ROMS!

Source: Gadget Venue

T-Mobile USA sure seems to be getting 2010 started on the right foot. Both TmoNews and Boy Genius Report are reporting that the My Touch 2 will be launching on T-Mobile in 2010.  Code named the My Touch Slide, the device is to feature the newest version of HTC’s Sense UI, sport a 528MHz processor, and feature a QWERTY keyboard and 320×480 display. This would be potential successor to the My Touch 3G and will launch possibly  on May 17th.

Source: TmoNews via Boy Genius Report

Attention Canadians! You’ve heard the rumors, but now it’s official! Telus is getting the Motorola Milestone in early 2010.   Early as in January 26th. The Android device is the same 2.0 slider already announced for Europe.

Unfortunately, the bad news about this is that Telus customers will not be getting Google Navigation. However, if I was up for a new contract in Canada I would still be excited!

Source: AndroidAndMe