The guys over at XDA-Developers (who else?) have finally gained permanent root access to the HTC EVO Shift 4G. This is a great advancement for the Shift. It’s kinda become an initiation rite for new Android devices. You haven’t made it as a device until someone’s rooted and overclocked you to twice your factory speed. Anyway, the process doesn’t look too hard, but it’s definitely not a one-click root type of thing. You need ADB and a good knowledge of how to use it. If you don’t know what ADB even is, this process is probably not for you.

As always, you root at your own risk, and rooting voids your warranty. You were warned. With that being said, you can head on over to the XDA thread if you’re feeling brave enough to try it out on your EVO Shift. We’re hearing that a custom recovery image is also on the way.

Big thanks to the guys over at DroidDog for the tip.

EVO Shift 4G Gets Permanent Root! originally appeared on AndroidGuys.

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rel="attachment wp-att-46464" href="http://androidspin.com/2011/01/20/video-evo-shift-4g-vs-samsung-epic-4g-speed-test/shift-vs-epic/"> class="alignnone size-full wp-image-46464" title="Shift vs Epic" src="http://androidspin.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Shift-vs-Epic.jpg" alt="" width="641" height="359" />

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Our friends over at Wirefly have pitted these two devices head to head using a new benchmarking application called Smartbench 2010. I can’t say the results were all that surprising. The productivity index on each was very close, 620 to 670 with the Epic narrowly beating out the href="http://androidspin.com/tag/HTC-EVO-Shift-4G/">EVO Shift 4G. The gaming index, though, was dominated by the href="http://androidspin.com/tag/Samsung-Epic-4G/">Epic 4G, easily doubling its gaming ability. Since the Epic 4G is running the 1Ghz Hummingbird processor with the extra GPU chip it should come as no surprise. I didn’t think it would more than double it though. Take a look at the results for yourself.

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View full post on AndroidSPIN

The Zboard, the Shift’s precursor, was massively flawed. Unfortunately though, SteelSeries seems to believe the Zboard’s problems all stem from the execution of the design, not the actual layout itself, and have released the Shift.

Some of the key problems have been addressed. Before, the action of the keys felt like each letter was laid out on the back of a bloated corpse. That’s been changed a little now, with shorter travel distance on the keys to give it a more responsive feel.

Unfortunately, though, there is still something of the dead about the action. Trying to use the Shift as a standard keyboard is a definite no-no.

Some keyboards, even the specific gaming keyboards, can be a joy to type on, with firm, reassuring actions, but there’s something rather spongy about the Shift.

SteelSeries has also added hotspots to the board layout. This means it takes more pressure to operate certain keys than others. The WSAD keys, for example, take 60g of force to get a reaction while Shift and the space bar take 70g. That 10g difference is very noticeable, particularly if you’re typing. Trying to get a capital letter or question mark in a sentence might well require you to change the way you type.

True, this is an MMO-specific keyboard, designed for MMO gamers to be able to purchase different board layouts for their game, or change every single key on the board to do something different. But then what I said about the Zboard remains true here.

The keyboard has remained the interface of choice on the PC, mainly because of its versatility. You can play the latest shooters, then in a trice switch to your messenger client and chat to a friend, then put the finishing touches to the screen play that’s bound to get picked up and make you millions in Hollywood. All without changing input devices.

The Shift, though, is asking you to alter that, asking you to have specific keyboard layouts for whatever it is you’re doing at any one time. If all you do is play MMOs and never use your keyboard for anything else then maybe this is the board for you. Maybe…

Related Links

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At CES, we stopped by the Nvidia booth, and got a chance at an exclusive meeting and hands on look at some of the new dual-core phones, the Motorola Atrix and the LG Optimus 2X. We wanted to find a way to show you all how amazingly the Motorola Atrix runs with it’s Tegra 2 CPU, and we thought, “how about a game?” So, we shot a quick demo video of Need for Speed Shift running in real-time. No flaming on my playing, folks… its just to show off gameplay.

NFS: Shift was amazing on the Atrix. Not only was it super responsive to the accelerometer, but the video rendering was incredible. It was quite an experience to check this out, so be sure to hit the break and check it out, and let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Also, be sure to check out our full hands on of the Atrix here.

Read More…

Demo: Need For Speed Shift on the Motorola Atrix with Nvidia Tegra 2 dual core CPU

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

We’ve shown off several driving games over the last month but Need For Speed Shift is based more around the traditional competitive street racing rather than wacky jumps or drifting and while it doesn’t focus on realism as strongly as its bigger console brother your wheels will be staying firmly on the ground with Shift.

When a big company like EA puts their weight behind a mobile product the potential can really jump out and indeed having twenty actual licensed vehicles from many manufactures, such as Subaru, Porsche, Aston Martin and BMW as well as nearly as many fantastic licensed music tracks including Prodigy’s Run with the Wolves, Shift’s off to an amazing start before it even gets onto the track. These licensed cars can even be upgraded, painted, unlocked and visually customized before you race them in one of the three unique world locations.

So the ‘back of the box’ has a lot of pretty impressive bullet points, but how does it all come together? Well to start off with the driving appears to work rather well and to quote another bullet point, is rather customizable. The default easy setting will take away all control but steering, yep you don’t even have to accelerate or break and this actually makes the game a tonne harder as all you need to do is follow the racing line and you’ll realize that you’ve just become an AI driver. Turning the difficulty to something sensible and you’ll tilt to steer, tap to break and shake the device like a loon to drift. Now the instructions say to drift you need only ‘quickly twitch the steering in the bend direction’ but getting any kind of drift is a nightmare, while this would normally be a minor point you advance in Shift by earning stars on specific events, a system that works really well until a drift event comes up. The problems here are are part of a larger issue in that the cars are really stuck to the track, stamping the break and turning at a high speed into a corner causes you to turn slowly until you drop enough speed. Dispite the claim of “physics-based accelerated 3D graphics” there seems to be very little physics being applied.

The 3D graphics are another story. Shift moves great while still showing off some great visuals. Only four cars can be on the track at once but both they and the tracks look great and Shift also includes in car dashboards for each car that aren’t just unique but also shift from right to left hand drive depending on the vehicle. It’s also worth mentioning that the tracks themselves, while flat, are well designed with tunnels that shine light down onto your car and streets with buildings and details overhead.

Shift has all the building blocks that would make a fantastic racer, but it walks an awkward line between an attempt at realism and arcade that doesn’t come off too well. Hopefully we won’t be waiting a year for a port of EA’s superior title Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit but even with the control problems, Shift is a steal if you can get it for it’s $1 sale price.

When you’re ready, head over to the Android Market and download this game by clicking or scanning the QR Code below.

Summary and Downloads:

View full post on AndroidSPIN

In the mobile and tech world we’re used to hearing time frames that are followed by delays. When the opposite happens, it’s a thing of beauty, and it appears a few potential Sprint EVO 4G Shift customers enjoyed a thing of beauty because they’re not “potential” owners any more. And they’ve got the receipts to prove it.

First off, Android Forums member “sarspants” snagged it for $149 at Radio Shack:

But that’s not the only place it popped up… Engadget readers reported the same from BestBuy and Sam’s Club.

If you’re eagerly awaiting the EVO 4G Shift, this is a friendly note that you may want to give your local Best Buy or Sam’s Club a call. And either way, you’ll probably want to head on over to our EVO Shift 4G Forums to follow the action with your friends.

View full post on Android Phone Fans

The tidal wave of 4G phones at CES is just beginning with Tuesday’s launch of the HTC EVO Shift 4G from Sprint.

View full post on Macworld

Well, well, what do we have here? Yesterday we told you about the official specs of the HTC EVO Shift 4G, but now it seems that some clear and detailed images of the phone have emerged. These shots have very much confirmed that this is the EVO 4G’s little brother, minus the front facing camera and a lower MP camera.

So far, we’ve had a few stories about a possible price tag of $150 and a supposed release date of around January 9. Given that this device now seems to be floating around in the wild, we should probably get a firmly established price and release date. With CES essentially beginning now, perhaps we’ll get that official announcement for you guys in the coming days. Stay tuned for more info as it becomes available, and hit up after the break for a few more photos.

Read More…

HTC EVO Shift 4G spotted in the wild

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

HTC is about to drop a new phone that we’ve been talking about for a while now. The Evo Shift is a slightly smaller version of the original Evo 4G, but with a QWERTY keyboard. If you’ve been following our site consistently, or following Android news in general, you’ve heard of the Evo Shift. It’ll be hitting Sprint’s sales avenues within the next week or two, and we’ve finally gotten a solid word on the actual tech specifications of the phone. When the Evo Shift lands, it’ll be sporting the following hardware:

The launch will be soon, and the price tag is expected to be about $149.99. Keep your eye out, and of course we’ll let you know as things become more official. This looks to be a great phone at a great price, so its launch should be a big deal.

Official Specs for Sprint’s Evo Shift Announced

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

Happy New Year everyone! This is our first post of 2011, and for those of you who are really interested in the HTC EVO Shift 4G, this one is for you. The latest 4G slider from Sprint now has a pre-order page on Amazon.com, and is currently priced at $199.99 with a new 2-year contract.

Now, you may recall a couple stories we featured last month where the price seemed pretty firmly set at $149.99. The first was an internal Best Buy document, although the authenticity of the photo was somewhat in question. However, the second instance of this price came from a RadioShack ad showing the same $149.99 price.

I am not entirely sure what the cause of this price difference is, but I find it hard to believe that a $50 price difference between retailers will last. Furthermore, when you actually try and continue through to pre-order from Amazon Wireless you are greeted with a lovely 404 page, so perhaps we’ll see a change in price before customers are actually able to buy the phone. Stay tuned.

HTC EVO Shift 4G pre-order page goes live on Amazon, priced at $200

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

A few days ago we started noticing that Best Buy was stocking items with the chosen name Sprint Evo Shift 4G on the accessory packaging, and it looks like Best Buy may be stocking up on accessories again bearing the same name. This may be a gear up for a January 9th 2011 launch date as leaked by RadioShack a couple days ago, but regardless, they are getting ready for it soon. Just need to wait it out a few days, and I’m sure we’ll hear an official date from Sprint and HTC.

Best Buy Stocking more HTC Evo Shift 4G accessories

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

What we’ve gathered about the HTC Evo Shift 4G is that it will be $149.99 on contract with Sprint, but now we’ve got a pretty solid release date. Radio Shack is advertising a January 9th release date for this device.

For Sprint customers who are interested in the HTC Evo Shift 4G, the only thing left to do is save your money and play the waiting game.

Hit the break to see the full Radio Shack advertisement.

Read More…

Radio Shack advertising Jan. 9th release of HTC Evo Shift 4G

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

Android Police got a hold of the above image which clearly shows the Sprint bound HTC EVO Shift 4G could be yours for $149.99, $549.99 sans two year agreement.

This QWERTY laden device is on track to make good on its rumored launch date, January 9th, and could be a great alternative to those of you that decided the Epic 4G just wasn’t the device you wanted, but really want to see what all the WiMax hubbub is all about.

[via Android Police | Seen on Into Mobile]

View full post on Android Phone Fans

Best By is starting to stock accessories for the new 4G smartphones from Sprint expected to be announced at CES 2011 in a few days. The name on the package shows that Sprint has decided to stick with the name Evo Shift 4G for the device, as seen above. Since Best Buy is stocking, the device should be available nation-wide within a couple weeks. The device should be priced at approximately $150 with a 2 year contract, and $549 without a contract.

We’ll see more at CES.

Sprint Picks Name as Evo Shift 4G Accessories Show at Best Buy

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

The HTC Knight, also known as the EVO Shift 4G and Speedy, has shown up in the Best Buy data transfer system as the HTC PG0610. This is the Android device with a slide-out keyboard  that is expected to be released on Sprint, as their version of the G2.

Details about the device haven’t exactly been figured out though — but if it’s showing up in Best Buy’s system, hopefully it won’t be too long before we see a release.

HTC Knight (aka EVO Shift 4G) shows up in Best Buy database as PG0610

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

Over at the SprintUsers forum, looks like member r0fl got their hands on the HTC Evo Shift 4G. We’ve seen all kinds of things on the Shift, and now we’ve got a good picture on it. While some blogs are reposting that there doesn’t seem to be a front facing camera, we’re seeing something here. If you look just below (to the left) of the ear speaker, you’ll see something that could be either a camera, or possible a proximity or light sensor. However, like the Evo, the sensor may be hidden, leaving this to only be the front facing camera.

This looks like the Sprint version of the G2 / Merge / Desire Z, so hopefully we’ll find out more as the days go on. Be sure to let us know what you think in the comments!

HTC Evo Shift 4G leaks in pictures, does it have front facing camera?

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

You may recall the news that recently came out regarding a certain filing for an HTC EVO Shift 4G trademark, and it looks like the handset maker and Sprint want to make it a brand. New rumors suggest the handset currently known as the HTC Knight will acquire the new EVO name and offer buyers a smaller alternative. This smaller version doesn’t pack less punch, with a slide-out QWERTY and bigger battery. No front-facing camera, though, so take that as you will.

A smart move on Sprint’s part. The EVO was one of their biggest phones in a long while, and the brand could certainly sell a few more units in the future.

[via Engadget]

View full post on Android Phone Fans

It appears as though HTC has gone the route of a series of branded phone lines to help users want their phones. We’ve got the Desire and the Desire HD, The Mytouch line, the HD2/7, and now it appears HTC is looking to grow the EVO into a line with their latest trademark submission requesting TM on the name EVO shift 4G.

One of the first scary things that comes to mind when I saw this sentence was the 2007 HTC Shift. Weird little gadget that didn’t get a lot of love, but if you bring it forward to today and hook it up with some modern love and some Android 2.3 or 3.0, and you could be looking at a really unique mid/tablet coming our way. While that thought is cool, it’s probably just a phone.

The submission has generated more than a little speculation regarding the device. Why shift? Will it have a keyboard, or a micro surround sound system? Will it have a gear shifter to toggle into 4G? While it could certainly go to any of the carriers currently claiming 4G, my guess is this is a Sprint phone.  Who knows. For right now, it seems this will be the next generation of the EVO.

HTC submits trademark for “EVO shift 4G” originally appeared on AndroidGuys.

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China’s shift away from cheap labor hard on all
Global manufacturers struggling with life-or-death pressures to control costs are finding that the legions of low-wage Chinese workers they rely on have limits.

Read more on AP via Yahoo! News

For all the good and bad that has come along with the Nexus One, a chief complaint has been Google’s method of distributing the handset and its (lack of) customer support. While a few carriers (mostly in Europe) have teamed up with Google to offer the N1 subsidized and in store, the large majority of customers have only been able to purchase the phone unsubsidized and online, with no chance to try it out hands-on. Along with having to shell out over $500 to get their hands on the Nexus, customers were met with virtually no support when the inevitable problems started arising.

Today, Andy Rubin has announced that this will soon change. While he stresses that the Nexus One was an innovative pioneer handset that has spurred the advancement of mobile technology, he also admits that Google’s new distribution model wasn’t so successful, so Google will be shifting the focus away from themselves as the sole channel for device sales (a move echoed by their rumored team-up with Verizon on an Android tablet).

Rubin states that the process will be two-fold. First: get the Nexus One into more retail outlets on subsidized deals with wireless carriers (but not Verizon or Sprint, lest you forget). Second: end sales of the N1 through the Google Store, instead shifting it towards a portal showcasing the latest Android phones from all manufacturers and carriers.

And now we all can say it: FINALLY. The almost immediate response to Google’s initial plans for shaking up handset distribution were met with trepidation, and after those worries turned into reality we were left wondering how long until Google quit being stubborn and let go of their dreams of unlocked, unsubsidized phones at a hefty price tag.

While it remains to be seen just how much life the N1 has left in it with phones like the Droid Incredible, EVO 4G, and HTC Desire causing mass fan-gasms worldwide, at least we know if and when Google does decide to release a Nexus Two, it will be under the same old distribution model we are all used to and just plain happy with.

[via Google]

View full post on Android Phone Fans

Back on St. Patty’s day we announced here on the blogs that Need for Speed Shift 3D for the BlackBerry Storm2 finally hit App World. This is one of the games that was demoed back at the BlackBerry Developer showing off RIM’s newly announced Open GL APIs. With the 3D version of the game now available for the Storm2, I gave it a download and walkthrough and also compared to the 2D version available for the BlackBerry Bold 9700 (does not support Open GL) as well as the version of Need for Speed Shift available for the iPhone in Apple’s App Store. Watch the video above to see how it unfolds and read on for some more details.

read more

CrackBerry.com‘s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Need for Speed Shift 3D for BlackBerry Storm2 Game Review (and comparison to Bold 9700 and iPhone)

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