Category Archives: News

Official roll out of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to GSM Nexus S begins

By Sergey Povzner | Published: December 17, 2011
Just one day after Galaxy Nexus went on sale in the US, owners of GSM versions of Nexus S rejoice: Google has began the roll out of the Android 4.0. Users running stock Android 2.3.6 should receive OTA update within the coming month. Impatient owners can also install this update manually. Once upgraded, check out [...]
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Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0 released by Verizon in the US

By Sergey Povzner | Published: December 15, 2011
The wait is over and Galaxy Nexus is finally available in the US from Verizon Wireless. Galaxy Nexus can be purchased online or at Verizon Wireless, Best Buy, Costco and Radio Shack stores. Verizon’s price is $299 with a contract and $649 without a contract, but before rushing to the store, check the online deals such [...]
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CyanogenMod 7.1 is released

By Sergey Povzner | Published: October 10, 2011
The most popular Android custom ROM CyanogenMod has released today a new stable version CM 7.1. With almost 6 months since the last stable CM 7.0 release it’s been a long time coming, but it was worth the wait. The new release adds support to 24 more devices, which brings total number of supported devices to 68! [...]
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News: 7″ Amazon Fire, Microsoft and Samsung sign a deal, Cyanogenmod and Xperia, Google Voice, Google+, Skype, Hipmunk, Google Wallet and more

By Sergey Povzner | Published: September 30, 2011
It’s been a while since the last news update, so this roundup of the most interesting news from the past few weeks covers a lot: 7″ Android-based Amazon Fire tablet was unveiled and will start shipping in US for $199 on Nov 15 . The main selling point besides its low price will be access to the vast library [...]
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News: Google to acquire Motorola Mobility

By Sergey Povzner | Published: August 15, 2011
A big news for the Android ecosystem: Larry Page announced today a 12.5B acquisition of Motorola Mobility. This acquisition will have a significant impact on many aspects for the Android world: from its Nexus brand, carrier availability, and better OS integration with hardware to a better defense against recent patent attacks on Android. More reaction [...]
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Nexus S comes to AT&T on July 24

By Sergey Povzner | Published: July 21, 2011
A great news for potential Android phone buyers: on July 24 Best Buy will start selling Nexus S phone fully compatible with AT&T network for $99 with 2-year contract. AT&T joins T-Mobile and Sprint in supporting Nexus S, which leaves Verizon as the lone carrier without Nexus branded phone. Nexus S ships with the latest version of Android [...]
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News: Android Market update, live Google Maps traffic coverage in 13 European countries, 550000 daily Android activations

By Sergey Povzner | Published: July 18, 2011
Catching up with the last week’s news: Roll out of the major upgrade to Android Market for phones has began. User interface has been redesigned from scratch to improve discoverability of apps and games.  If you are in the US, this version adds ability to rent movies and buy books from Android Market. Android 2.2+  phone is required for the update. You [...]
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News: offline maps and transit navigation in Google Maps, Skype video calling, Google+ launch

By Sergey Povzner | Published: July 8, 2011
Recent news: Google Maps for Android was updated to version 5.7. New features include turn-by-turn transit navigation (beta), photo viewer for Place pages, and streamlined user interace for getting directions. Google Maps update also added a very useful add-on to the Labs: offline maps download. To enable the add-on, open Maps -> More -> Labs and [...]
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News: Android Google Talk audio and video calling now works over T-Mobile’s 3G network

By Sergey Povzner | Published: June 28, 2011
Ever since Google Talk added video and voice chat support for Android phones in April, T-Mobile has been blocking Google Talk calls over its 3G/4G network. Calls worked, of course, over Wi-Fi and cellular networks of other carriers, such as Verizon. This has changed today and both video and audio calling now works flawlessly over T-Mobile’s cellular network. Google Talk [...]
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News: Swype 3.0 released with Honeycomb support and resizable keyboard

By Sergey Povzner | Published: June 15, 2011
It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Swype. Despite it’s permanent beta status for Android phones that do not have Swype preinstalled, it is by far the best onscreen keyboard that I’ve tried. Swype is the reason I almost never miss physical keyboard. The secret to Swype’s success is that it is a [...]
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Google I/O 2011 recap: 18 months of Android updates, Music, Movies, Android@Home, Honeycomb 3.1 update, USB Host support and more

By Sergey Povzner | Published: May 25, 2011
The amount of Android news at Google I/O 2011 was impressive. Let’s recap the most important announcements from the conference. Alliance of hardware manufacturers and providers This is possibly the most important news for Android users: the alliance of hardware manufactures and providers announced that new devices will receive the latest Android platform upgrades for 18 months after the device is first [...]
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News: native Google Docs app for Android is released

By Sergey Povzner | Published: April 27, 2011
Over the last two years Google has added capability to edit Google documents and spreadsheets using Android and iOS mobile browsers. Today Google took the next step and released a native Google Docs app for Android 2.1+ devices. The native app makes it very easy to access documents, spreadsheets and presentations from different Google and [...]
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Sony Ericsson will allow to unlock the bootloader in Xperia smartphones

By Sergey Povzner | Published: March 29, 2011
Karl-Johan Dahlström of Sony Ericsson announced today that starting this spring unlocking the bootloader on Xperia phones in a “secure and legal way” will be allowed. It will be possible to unlock the boot loader for certain releases of our 2011 Xperia™ phones, such as Xperia™ arc, Xperia™ neo, Xperia™ pro and Xperia™ PLAY. This is [...]
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Old Google documents can now be upgraded to the latest version

By Sergey Povzner | Published: March 25, 2011
If you are an active user of Google Docs, you probably remember a major update a year ago with great new features such as real-time collaboration, advanced formatting tools (ruler, margins indentation, tab stops) and improved revision history. Later, another update brought ability to edit documents in the browser of mobile devices, such as Android, iPhone and iPad. However, [...]
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Google Maps now automatically routes you around the traffic

By Sergey Povzner | Published: March 9, 2011
Google Maps for Android just got better: Navigation mode now uses real-time traffic information to automatically route you around the traffic. No update to the Google Maps app is required, as the change has been made on the server side. In the blog post announcing this change, Roy Williams says that “before today, Navigation would choose whichever [...]
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Gingerbread 2.3.3 released for Nexus One and Nexus S

By Sergey Povzner | Published: March 1, 2011
The 2-month wait for the official Gingerbread update for Nexus One is over. Google’s Nexus twitter account announced that Gingerbread 2.3.3 OTA update started to roll out last week and will complete in a few weeks. In the meantime impatient Nexus One owners can install this update manually. This release brings the number of Gingerbread powered [...]
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Nokia to develop smartphones running Windows Phone 7

By Sergey Povzner | Published: February 10, 2011
[Update] The reports were correct: statements from Nokia and Microsoft. Intensifying rumors suggest that Nokia may announce on Friday a partnership with Microsoft and will begin shipping phones running Windows Phone 7 operating system. This would mark a dramatic change of direction for Nokia and the partnership with Microsoft would put future of Nokia’s MeeGo platform [...]
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News: Android becomes world’s leading smart phone platform

By Sergey Povzner | Published: February 4, 2011
According to the analysis by Canalys, 33.3 million Android-based smart phones were shipped in Q4 2010, making Android the world’s leading smart phone platform (by number of shipments). Google’s Android had a phenomenal 615% year-over-year growth and passed both Nokia’s Symbian (31 million shipments) and Apple’s iOS (16.2 million).
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News: Android Market webstore, Honeycomb tablet demo, in-app billing

By Sergey Povzner | Published: February 4, 2011
Google held a press event this week to launch the web-based Android Market and demonstrate the new features of the upcoming Android 3.0 Honeycomb release. Below is the summary of the announcements: Android Market web site is now live at market.android.com. This is a welcome (and long-awaited) improvement of the Android Market which allows searching Android apps [...]
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News: Nexus S random reboot issue, check in using Google Maps, 90% of Android devices are 2.1+

By Sergey Povzner | Published: February 4, 2011
Notable news: Android Google Maps updated to 5.1, adds check in system to the Latitude. Some Nexus S users are suffering from random reboots. The issue has been acknowledged by Google, but the fix is not yet available. Google Voice number porting is now available to all users. 90% of Android devices are now at version 2.1 or above. In preparation [...]
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