One day after Google released Android version 4.0.3, a lone XDA developer has already installed it on his Motorola Xoom WiFi tablet, making it the first tablet to run that Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade. Of course, being first is nothing new with the Xoom, as it was also the first slate to ship with Honeycomb back in February. However, being first does have its disadvantages, like a malfunctioning camera and a green overlay on the screen from time to time. If you don’t care about these early flaws, hit the source and get some Ice Cream Sandwich goodness for your Xoom’s sweet tooth.
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Ice Cream Sandwich graces Motorola Xoom
Prada 3.0 announced, Android smartphone for fashion lovers
The fashion brand Prada has announced their first Android smartphone on their own event in London. It’s manufactured by LG, but their logo is hardly visible on the case. The Prada 3.0 runs on Android 2.3, with a skin specially designed for this phone. It’s powered by a Texas Instruments OMAP4430 dual-core SOC, running at 1GHz. The screen is 4.3 inch, with a resolution of 800×480 pixels. Pictures can be taken with a 8 mega pixel camera which shoots videos in 1080P. It release is set for Q1 2012, prices are yet unknown. Is there a fashion house you would like to see a smartphone from? Let us know in the comments!
Onda Vi30W, Shanzai Android 4.0 ICS tablet in the wild?
A video has appeared on YouTube where Colonel Zap reviews a Chinese tablet, running Android 4.0 ICS. It is called the Onda Vi30W, and is supposed to be the first tablet running this OS. The Onda Vi30W runs on a Allwinner (yes, that’s the real name of the company) A10 processor which is supposed to be clocked at 1.5GHz, but only runs on 1GHz in the current firmware. The screen is an 8 inch capacitive model, with a resolution of (only) 800×600 pixels. It only has 512MB RAM, but its price of only 180USD (€140) make the shortcomings acceptable. Full video review by Colonel Zap after the break.
Meizu MX officially announced, the “Dream Phone” gets real
Meizu has officially announced the MX smartphone, after many rumors and leaks from various media. According to official specifications, most of the rumors were correct: the Meizu MX has a 4-inch screen, with a resolution of 960×640 pixels; it’s powered by a Samsung Exynos 4210 dual-core SOC, clocking in at 1.4GHz; there’s 1GB of RAM and a 16GB storage on-board. However, the phone uses a micro-sim, which may cause some trouble for users. Onboard is Meizu’s Flyme OS, which is a heavily modified version of Android Gingerbread. The Meizu MX will be released on January 1st, 2012 and will cost 2999CNY (€355 and 475USD). Are you getting one?
HTC Android devices get 5GB Dropbox space for free
HTC delivers their (new) Android phones with a 5GB Dropbox account, according to HTC’s Twitter account. That’s 3GB more than the standard free account. It’s unclear if this update also becomes available for older devices. Dropbox received this year 250 million USD from investors. With this money, Dropbox wants to take over other companies and enter into partnerships with companies like HTC. It’s quite noteworthy that HTC has signed for a partnership with Dropbox, because HTC bought an American company called Dashwire earlier this month. Dashwire also provides cloud services for music, videos and other files, which can be accessed from different devices.
webOS 3.0.4 released for HP Touchpad
Although production of the HP TouchPad has stopped (or supposedly), there are still improvements for it through firmware updates. Today, webOS 3.0.4 is released. Albeit the small numerical change, it does bring several significant features, like answering calls from paired non-webOS phones, a Camera app for pictures and video, support for Ogg Vorbis music files, and offline/online status for instant messaging. Also, HP notes that there is better stability and improved performance, with a “more robust Skype video calling”.
One question is: Did HP release this to stop people from using CyanogenMod’s Alpha build of their Android port? What do you think?
Pandigital Supernova is an e-book reader running Android
Pandigital Supernova is a 8-inch LCD tablet with a price of $230 USD. For that price, it comes with a Gingerbread Android OS, 1GHz A8 CPU, 4GB of storage supporting up to 32GB of additional storage via microSD, WiFi and Bluetooth. The Pandigital Supernova comes preloaded with certain apps, such as GetJar and Barns & Noble’s Nook app. Overall, this Android e-book reader does not seem all too interesting.
Google Android grows fast, now controlling 44% of smartphone market
The research firm ComScore has just released new numbers for the smartphone market. According to the latest report, Android is still the dominating smartphone OS, with 43.7 % market share, followed by Apple (27.3%) and RIM (19.7%). Worth of note is that in the last quarter, Google has grown Android’s market share by 5.6 percent points while Apple only grew with 0.3, all while RIM lost 5 points. As far as manufacturers go, Samsung remains strongest in new US subscriptions, accounting for 25.3% of the entire cake, followed by LG at 21% and Motorola at 14%.
HTC Explorer is yet another budget friendly Android smartphone
HTC Explorer is HTC’s try at creating a low-end Android phone. Compared to some of the new Android smartphones on the market today, the specs of the HTC Explorer are pretty low, for instance with a 3.2-inch 480 x 320 capacitive touchscreen, 600MHz CPU, 3 megapixel camera and 512MB of storage (extendable through microSD). Currently planned for Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East for early October, there’s still no word of a North American release. As for pricing, the HTC Explorer will like cost around €100 EUR.
Android Ice Cream Sandwich accidentally installed on unsuspecting eBayer’s phone (video)
The highly anticipated coming version of Android, dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich, is going to be officially released within the next two months. Now however, we have a detailed, two-minute video showing off the looks and features of Ice Cream Sandwich. An unsuspecting buyer bought a Google Nexus S on eBay, and to his surprise, found it was running on the unreleased Ice Cream Sandwich version (build IRK48 and kernel 3.0.1) of Android. This buyer then made a video of Ice Cream Sandwich, and then posted it online. Here’s where it gets freaky: shortly after publishing the video, his phone was remotely locked and wiped, most likely by someone from Google, something which also helps to prove the authenticity of the video. Watch the video below, where you’ll see a lot of changes to both apps, the UI and functionality.
