While hope continues to be dashed that Sony Ericsson might actually produce a worthwhile Android handset, at least they have finally made good on their word to upgrade the aging Xperia X10 lineup to a newer (but not the latest) version of the operating system. Hey, Android 2.1 is better than nothing, and next in line to get it for the Xperia handsets are users on T-Mobile UK.
A tweet confirmed that those users with the big boy X10 and the Mini Pro should have Android 2.1 sometime next week.
T-Mobile UK customers with the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 family of devices rejoice, because T-Mobile is pushing through Android 2.1 to your mobile devices next week! It’s been a long wait, and now you’ll finally be able to enjoy Eclair in all its glory. Sure, it’s no Froyo, but it’s a drastic improvement still! I wouldn’t even want to think about how long it may take to get Froyo out, but be happy you’re not on Virgin Mobile UK, cause they still haven’t gotten any word on an Android 2.1 update yet at all.
We don’t have an official date, but when we know, we’ll spread the word!
In an act of all that is unknown and feared, Qualcomm has found a way to highly increase the performance of their next-generation mobile processors while highly decreasing the amount of power they consume. The chip – the MSM8960 – is using a 28nm process to help keep the juice consumption low while the 5x power increase over (we’ll assume, for now) the original Snapdragon chipset. That’s only referring to the CPU as it’s being fitted with dual cores. We’re not even counting the GPU, which sees a 4x increase in performance. Again, we don’t know what they’re comparing this to, so we’ll assume it’s the original Adreno 200 found in the original Snapdragon chipset. That would mean that the Adreno 205 could still be the GPU featured in this chipset, though their graphic states that the beefier GPU will be a part of the 28nm process line, which the current Adreno series isn’t.
Looking even further down the line, Qualcomm claims that their Adreno 3xx series GPU – bring introduced sometime between 2011 and 2013 – will bring us performance that rivals the Xbox 360 and the PS3 gaming consoles. My heart literally just skipped a bit after seeing that. (No, really, it did.) We’re not sure how realistic it’ll be to have that much juice in mobile phones or any mobile devices, but we’ll certainly be watching closely as the months and years trickle by and we’re greeted with devices holding so much power that we won’t know what to do with them. [via AnandTech]
It seems that Panasonic is tired of sitting by and watching other major electronics giants have all the Android fun. Reuters is reporting that Panasonic is planning on jumping into the smartphone market next year, and they are going to be using Android to do it. Osamu Waki, the company’s mobile communications unit head, had the following to say on the subject:
“We misjudged the speed at which smartphones would be taken up in the Japanese market,” Osamu Waki, head of the company’s mobile communications unit told a news conference. “With the rapid shift to Android, we want to catch up quickly.”
It’s always nice to see more manufacturers get involved with Android, especially big names like Panasonic. I have a feeling we’re gonna see some pretty impressive devices from them starting next year, so stay tuned for any leaks or rumors that may come out in the coming months.
In a post on the official Netflix blog, it was revealed that Netflix is headed to select Android devices beginning early next year. The post acknowledged that the company is desperate to bring Netflix to Android, but that platform and security issues have been holding them back until recently. From the post:
We are eager to launch on these devices and are disappointed that we haven’t been able to do so already. The hurdle has been the lack of a generic and complete platform security and content protection mechanism available for Android. The same security issues that have led to piracy concerns on the Android platform have made it difficult for us to secure a common Digital Rights Management (DRM) system on these devices.
That being said, it seems that Netflix has been able to achieve a secure solution on some Android devices, although we do not know which ones at this point. The post promises that they will continue to work with developers and manufacturers to bring Netflix to as many Android devices as possible. We’ll keep our eye out for any news regarding which devices may be included in this limited release of Netflix on Android, so stay tuned.
Was there a guy in your sixth-grade class who spent day after day drawing geometric shapes on graph paper, fascinated by the perfect symmetry that medium afforded him? Well, he’s made an app. It’s called Slice It!and it allows you to develop your own compulsive obsession for symmetry, even if you are otherwise healthy.
To be fair, Slice It! is an upgrade from sixth grade graph paper. The game will draw the shapes onto the iPhone/iPad touchscreen for you. What you get to do is only slightly less entertaining: you get to slice the shapes into equal-sized bits.
Simple enough, right? Slice It! draws a square, you bisect it. Slice It! draws a circle, you cut it into pizza slices.
ARM’s just announced the availability of their next generation Mali-T604 GPU that promises to deliver “visually rich user experiences not previously seen i consumer electronics devices.” Sounds great! So who’s getting it? ARM specifically points out that Samsung was the first eager beaver to step up as the first licensee of the chipset. Samsung’s Hummingbird in their current Galaxy devices is already ARM-based, so we can only assume that this step up will be crammed into a Galaxy lineup refresh that we expect to see sometime in late 2011. The chip includes support for OpenCL and DirectX and was designed specifically for general purpose GPU computing, says ARM.
The only question that remains: but can it play Crysis? We’ll have to wait until Samsung announces their plans for their new generation of devices that we’ll probably be hearing about in the middle of next year. Press release below.
ARM Heralds New Era In Embedded Graphics With Next-Generation Mali GPU
10 November 2010
Samsung first to gain access to new Mali graphics technology
SANTA CLARA, CA, USA – NOV.10, 2010 – ARM today introduced the ARM® Mali™-T604 Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) at the ARM Technology Conference 2010 in Santa Clara, bringing innovative and compelling visual computing to next generation consumer electronics devices. Delivering up to 5x performance improvement over current Mali graphics processors, the Mali-T604 provides industry-leading graphics performance with an energy-efficient profile. The Mali-T604 enables visually rich user experiences not previously seen in consumer electronics devices, scaling from smartphones to high-end digital entertainment systems. The Mali-T604 is currently available to license by lead partners. Samsung, who is already a licensee of the Mali graphic processor technology, will be the first ARM Partner who can gain access to the Mali-T604.
“Visual computing is driving the next generation of consumer electronics, as consumers and developers demand the highest levels of graphics performance”, said Lance Howarth, EVP and general manager, Media Processing Division, ARM. “The tri-pipe architecture in the Mali-T604 provides both market leading compute functionality and high-performance graphics without compromise, enabling unequalled user experiences in energy-efficient consumer electronic devices.”
The debut of the scalable, multicore Mali-T604 GPU raises the performance bar for visual computing in the consumer electronics space, including mobiles, tablets, DTVs and automotive infotainment. The innovative tri-pipe graphics architecture within the Mali-T604 GPU, addresses the ever-increasing computationally intensive demand inherent in next generation interactive user interfaces and gaming.
“Allegorithmic is excited by the announcement of Mali-T604 with its enhanced GPGPU capabilities which will make it possible for procedural content to be computed on the device, ” said Dr Sébastien Deguy, Founder and CEO, Allegorithmic. ” enabling higher-quality graphics, reduced memory bandwidth and footprint, and best of all, reduced energy consumption.”
ARM’s fourth-generation GPU is specifically designed to meet the needs of General Purpose computing on GPU (GPGPU) and extends API support to include full profile Khronos™ OpenCL™ and Microsoft® DirectX®. Support for GPGPU is becoming increasingly important for enhanced Augmented Reality applications and gesture recognition.
“Khronos congratulates ARM on the announcement of the Mali-T604 and its plan to support full profile OpenCL 1.1 on both ARMv7 CPUs and the GPU. The OpenCL 1.1 specification was announced by the Khronos organization in June 2010 and is a significant milestone in enabling GPU computing on embedded devices”, said Neil Trevett, President of the Khronos Group and Chair of the OpenCL Working Group.”Khronos is committed to the development and promotion of royalty-free, open standards that enable heterogeneous computing with portability across multiple vendors’ silicon solutions, growing the total market for applications that use GPU compute technology.”
The Mali-T604 brings innovative, patented techniques reducing memory bandwidth consumption, by up to 30%, substantially improving system level energy-efficiency. The Mali-T604 fully exploits ARM’s Cache Coherent Interconnect (CCI-400) to deliver a memory coherent system with the recently announced Cortex™-A15 MPCore™. Bringing the key resources together into an optimized coherent system enables higher performance and more efficient data sharing, maximizing throughput in ARM compute sub-systems.
About Mali Graphics Technology
The Mali GPU family scales from the smallest GPU in the world through to scalable multicore solutions for high frame-rate HD devices. It is widely adopted, currently having 31 licensees and ships in a growing range of consumer electronics devices. Building on the heritage of Mali-400 MP, the Mali-T604 is ARM’s fourth-generation GPU and is the first member of a new family of GPUs based on the Midgard architecture which all use a common software driver, minimising software upgrade costs for future implementations. The Mali-T604 delivers up to 5x performance improvement over previous Mali graphics processors and is specifically designed to meet the needs of General Purpose computing on GPU (GPGPU). Together with its comprehensive ecosystem of Partners, ARM is uniquely positioned to offer IP and tools which address the complete range of graphics development activities – from System-on-Chip integration and software development through to content creation and optimization.
There is no denying the fact that Samsung really stepped up their game this year. Even me, the disheartened former Behold 2 owner, sees that Samsung is not only on track to move some product, but they’re proving so with this year’s results. Before the ball drops in Times Square the company plans to get 20 million smart phones off the production line, half of which will come from the Galaxy S. So, you don’t have to be smarter than a fifth grader to see how high Samsung wants to fly.
Then, to top it off, Samsung has also hinted at the world seeing a 10-inch tablet. It’s a super huge mega rumor at this point, but you never say no to 10 inches. Ever.
Any bets on what kind of BlackBerry we’ll see next from Research In Motion?!
On the last RIM earnings call, Co-CEO Jim Balsillie said we’d see some "acceleration" from RIM towards the end of the calendar year. After what was an extremely quiet start of 2010 on the new BlackBerry front, over the last few months RIM has pushed out and/or announced a bunch of new devices onto the market. Along with BlackBerry 6, we saw the Pearl 3G and Bold 9650 get announced at WES. The Curve 3Gs followed suit as did the BlackBerry Torch. And now in what felt like rapid succession, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet got announced as did the BlackBerry Style and BlackBerry Bold 9780. With all of the above now announced and/or out on the market, our CrackBerry minds can’t help but wonder What’s Next??
accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity and ambient light sensors
The rendered picture of the device raises some doubts. But, knowing Samsung’s nack for the high spec’ed devices, rumored specs sound plausible for a Samsung flagship device in Q1 of 2011, which is when the Samsung i9200 would be released.
What do you think? Could the Samsung i9200 quite possibly be the next Galaxy S device? Or are the specs just too good to be true? Let us know in the comments!
If you’re like me, this time of year can be painful to the eyes when driving due to the sunrise and sunset getting closer together. When I go to work, the sun is right in my eyes, when I go home, the sun is in my eyes…frustrating.
Sundroid is an app for Android devices that will use your GPS or Wi-Fi connection to locate your sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonfall each day as well as twilight times, lunar calendar and home screen widget (last 3 included in Premium paid app) This can be useful to track when a good time to drive may be, or just knowing when the next full moon is helping you avoid strange people in the streets.
The Sundroid app is free in the Android Market, or $2 for the Premium version.
So, you are addicted to Angry Birds, but can’t get passed that one stubborn level. Well, there’s a clever way to hack your way past it, right to the next world stages. Reddit user braaaiins found this out by accident, and here’s how you do it:
Load up Angry Birds and go to the world select screen.
Centre a locked world on the screen.
Push back button all the way out of Angry Birds.
Load Angry Birds back up and when the “Play” button appears tap it like crazy *explicit deleted*.
Great success! You should be inside the locked worlds stage select screen.
To keep it unlocked just pass the first world.
Give it a shot if you want to cheat yourself to the next stage, we don’t mind cause we know you’ll return to get those bastard pigs you skipped eventually.
Rogers Wireless has announced that they plan on releasing the Samsung Galaxy Captivate next week! This was postponed from the original release to take place in September 2010 due to a manufacturing delay.
You can now pre-order the Galaxy Captivate here directly from Rogers. The device will be $149.99CAN with a 3 year contract, and likely $499CAN without a term.
You’ll be able to check online for your device upgrade eligibility if you are an existing customer at the launch next week as well. For more details, you can visit Rogers microsite here.
Opera Software has announced that the next version of its desktop web browser, Opera 11, will include support for hardware acceleration and browser extensions. The company also has plans to port its popular Opera Mobile browser to Android phones.
It’s the next version of Opera for the desktop that will see the most enhancements. The first Opera 11 alpha will be available soon, but the company already showcased the new extensions framework in a demo at its Up North Web event in Oslo, Norway. Opera’s new extensions framework is much like those pioneered by Chrome and Firefox, and later by Safari — using HTML, CSS and JavaScript to create lightweight add-ons.
When Safari jumped on the bandwagon and offered extensions earlier this year, Opera was the last browser that did not have a system in place for third-party add-ons. While Opera has long been a major source of browser innovation — it was the first browser to offer tabbed browsing, visual tab navigation, mouse gestures, SVG graphics and page zooming, all since copied by other browsers — add-ons were one place Opera trailed the browser pack. But not any more.
Opera’s extensions will be based on the W3C Widget specification (which defines a “widget” as a downloadable and locally stored web application) and, according to the company, it should be relatively easy to port existing Chrome and Safari extensions to Opera’s platform.
Also coming in Opera 11 is hardware acceleration. Hardware acceleration allows the browser to offload intensive tasks like image scaling, rendering complex text or displaying scripted animations to your PC’s graphics card. It has the benefit of freeing up the PC’s main processor and speeding up page load times.
Firefox, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome will all add varying degrees of hardware acceleration to their next versions, and with Opera joining in, that means only Apple’s Safari will be missing GPU capabilities.
Opera’s hardware acceleration won’t be limited to the desktop version of Opera either. The company has announced plans to build Opera Mobile for Android. The mobile version of Opera is a full-fledged web browser (unlike Opera Mini, which is available for the iPhone and countless other mobile devices) and will feature hardware acceleration and pinch-to-zoom support for Android.
Opera hasn’t set a date for the release of either Opera 11 or Opera Mobile for Android, though the company did say the latter will available within a month.
Rumor mills are spinning, as we have seen several postings about the possible drop of Android Gingerbread SDK next week!
The word on the street is that this version of Android OS will be the most radical change to the OS we’ve seen. Majority of speculation has also been that Gingerbread will be version 3.0, but in the view of snacks and baked goods, it’s likely it will be numbered at 2.3-2.5.
For any of the above to have any impact aside from sheer hearsay, we’ll eagerly await the official release from Google.
Google’s next giant revenue stream
Google has made its famous search algorithm into a $20 billion business, but for years, investors have asked, “What’s next?”
I had a great time at the BBQ, but ever since I left Austin it’s been the complete opposite. I’ve had to deal with a series of unfortunate events, starting with my luggage being lost and not yet found, and only having a bluetooth adapter to charge my Nexus One. This gave me a much-needed giggle, and hopefully it does the same for you.
If you are a little agitated with Samsung and T-Mobile because of the delayed OTA update for the Samsung Vibrant, you might rest a little easier as Samsung has stated on their Facebook page that more details regarding the OTA update will be coming next week.
T-Mobile and Samsung are hearing your questions regarding timing for the Vibrant software upgrade. We are continuing to work diligently to provide you with improvements in an effort to provide you with a high quality experience. We plan to have more information to share next week regarding timing on when these updates will be delivered to customers over-the-air. Thank you for your patience.
Hopefully soon after, they’ll be pushing out an OTA update to address some of the issues we’ve been having including a GPS fix. Samsung recently stated that an update for the Vibrant was available on their Kies program, but T-Mobile quickly urged people to wait for an official OTA update from them. It’s good to know that both T-Mobile and Samsung are aware of the deep frustration this issue is causing customers. Other than the GPS issue, what are some other issues you are experiencing with your Vibrant?
In an effort to reassure those owners of the Samsung Vibrant who feel a bit left out after the other three American Galaxy S phones received minor firmware updates addressing a wide range of issues, Samsung is tweeting new info about an update for the T-Mobile device. While they can’t get an update to Vibrant users next week they are promising more info on what many are hoping will be a patch to fix the buggy GPS plaguing the Vibrant, a fix the captivate has already received. We see no reason why the update shouldn’t be coming soon, but wackier things have happened.
Google recently introduced Priority Inbox, which tries to rank your emails based on importance so you waste less time reading things that may not be as important. This feature was also recently brought to Android (but only Android) in the form of update to the native Gmail application.
Well, Messagemind Inc is looking to take mobile email prioritization to the next level, and across multiple platforms. They are currently developing a system for enterprise users of MS Outlook and MS Exchange, but are looking to bring this to all mobile platforms by Q1 of 2011.
Messagemind’s platform breaks emails into five distinct categories – Very High, High, Medium, Low and Someday. The company also touts that their software recognizes the behavior of not just the individual, but users across entire organizations as well. From the press release.
Messagemind’s technology suite also provides ‘business intelligence’ in the form of performance metrics and knowledge network mapping. This allows enterprises to track the flow of critical information and identify opportunities – whether for new revenue creation or cost savings – otherwise buried within company email correspondence.
Verizon will be hosting their second annual Developer Community Conference next week, which begins on Tuesday at 9:30 PDT. The conference will feature sessions on marketing and merchandising opportunities, technology updates, network APIs and other developer enablers from a wide range of partners.
Also, it seems that V CAST on Android will also be discussed, and could have something to do with the story we brought you the other day about Verizon’s plans for a V CAST App Store.
Beginning tomorrow, developers can register to watch the conference online here. Continue after the break for the full presser.
I am pretty dang excited about attending my first Nokia World in London next week, even if it is costing me the last 4o hours of my vacation from my day job and a couple thousand dollars in travel costs. I love checking out new smartphones and since Nokia makes some of the best in the world there is plenty to get fired up about for a fan of Nokia devices. FoneArena put together a post that brings together all the latest rumored devices and I am pretty sure we are going to see at least a couple of these next week.
The post list the following rumored devices:
Nokia N9, first MeeGo device
Nokia E7, Symbian^3 slider smartphone that looks like a N8 with QWERTY keyboard
Nokia C7, Symbian^3 smartphone, mid-range device
Nokia C6-01, Symbian^3 version of C6 with 8 megapixel camera
One device I know I will for sure finally get a chance to try out is the Nokia N8. If they have them on sale in the UK, not likely, I may buy my own model there instead of waiting for the probable end of September availability of my pre-ordered NokiaUSA.com N8.
Geocaching tends to have quite a few electronic helpers, based on the fact that it’s an electronic sport. Letterboxing, however, the old fashioned analog version of geocaching, has usually been a pen-and-paper kind of activity. I recently reviewed BoxFinder, an app for letterboxing clues. I have since found a second one called Clue Tracker.
Clue Tracker will allow you to search for letterboxes through Atlas Quest or Letterboxing North America (LbNA), the two major letterboxing websites. You can search for boxes near your location, by address or zip code or by box name. Once you choose a letterbox to find, touch the map to show where the box is located or to get directions to the box. You can also save the letterbox by touching the backback. Once you save several letterboxes, you can display all of them on one map.
If you save a clue that is from Atlas Quest, Clue Tracker saves the clue text for offline use. If you save a clue from Letterboxing North America, whether the clue text is saved locally or not depends on how the person entered the clue on LbNA. The Clue Tracker authors do plan some improvements regarding this issue in the future, however, and will eventually allow offline clue reading for all clues. They also plan to add support for more than one set of saved letterboxes.
For saved letterboxes, there is also a Notes field for recording information about the boxes, or about your adventure in finding them. To get there from the Saved Letterboxes area, touch “Edit” and you’ll see the Notes field.
Touching LbNA or AQ on a clue screen will take you to Safari and out of the program, since it shows you the clue on the LbNA or Atlas Quest website. Fortunately, when you start up Clue Tracker again, it takes you right back to where you were, at the clue. This is a very nice feature. The app also allows you to log into your Letterboxing North America account to hide the boxes you’ve planted yourself and those you have already found.
Clue Tracker is simple to use, and does what it is supposed to do, but for a few of the letterboxes, it is only useful at home and in wifi hot spots for people with an iPod Touch. It is available in the iTunes store for $4.99.
Wired: Best for those with an iPhone, lets you view multiple clues on a map and gives directions to the clue start. Has a notes field.
Tired: Some of the clues won’t save within the app.
Note: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.
We’re about to close in on 24 months since the first Android phone has been introduced – the T-Mobile G1 – and I think we’re all in agreeance on one thing: the phone market is right where it needs to be. Android’s been itching to soar higher than just phones, however, with a slew of Android-based devices (that aren’t phones) headed our way soon. The obvious first choice for many of you will be tablets and MIDs. While that would make a lot of sense, we still haven’t seen anything to prove that Android will take off in those areas just yet (the Galaxy Tab looks good, but it hasn’t been launched yet).
Don’t forget that we have netbooks, televisions and set-top-boxes, personal media players, and military-grade hardware in the pipeline (and let’s not even mention Android-equipped appliances). With that, the ecosystem beyond phones is begging for “the next big thing” and we want to know what you think it’ll be and why?
Which of the current adaptations do you think will have a shot at matching the popularity of handsets and what non-existent adaptation do you want to see come to fruition? Let your voices come together in congregation below!
Also of note, we’ve added the Phandroid RSS feed to DIGG (thanks in advance!):
http://digg.com/phandroid
And we’re working on some more socially interactive ways of engaging with you favorite Android site so as always… stay tuned!
Was there a guy in your sixth-grade class who spent day after day drawing geometric shapes on graph paper, fascinated by the perfect symmetry that medium afforded him? Well, he’s made an app. It’s called 
Opera Software has announced that the next version of its desktop web browser, Opera 11, will include support for hardware acceleration and browser extensions. The company also has plans to port its popular Opera Mobile browser to Android phones.
If you are a little agitated with Samsung and T-Mobile because of the delayed OTA update for the Samsung Vibrant, you might rest a little easier as Samsung has stated on their Facebook page that more details regarding the OTA update will be coming next week.
I am pretty dang excited about attending my first Nokia World in London next week, even if it is costing me the last 4o hours of my vacation from my day job and a couple thousand dollars in travel costs. I love checking out new smartphones and since Nokia makes some of the best in the world there is plenty to get fired up about for a fan of Nokia devices. 
We’re about to close in on 24 months since the first Android phone has been introduced – the T-Mobile G1 – and I think we’re all in agreeance on one thing: the phone market is right where it needs to be. Android’s been itching to soar higher than just phones, however, with a slew of Android-based devices (that aren’t phones) headed our way soon. The obvious first choice for many of you will be tablets and MIDs. While that would make a lot of sense, we still haven’t seen anything to prove that Android will take off in those areas just yet (the Galaxy Tab looks good, but it hasn’t been launched yet).
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