Google ready to spend billions to make Google Play Music a success

Google is reportedly breaking out its massive checkbook in an effort to gain blanket rights to major labels’ music catalogs. Following unconfirmed reports that Google’s music offering was floundering and losing users each week, music industry insider Wayne Rosso says that the Internet giant is now holding negotiations with at least one major label in an effort to gain access to its entire catalog. According to Rosso, Google is willing to spend more than $1 billion for such access.

Read More

Install Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich With HTC Sense 4.0 On Nexus S

This is Sense 4.0, ICS 4.0.3. It is ported from the latest HTC Endeavour RUU leak. The Endeavour is a quad-core tegra 3 phone, with 720p display. So yes this rom will take some.

Read More

Motorola's First Intel-Powered Ice Cream Sandwich Revealed

Intel had a strong showing at the Consumer Electronics Show this year, and the fabless chip maker’s message was crystal clear: ARM. The firm’s chips have dominated the personal computing space for ages, and Intel plans to remain a key player as the smartphone and tablet markets continue to heat up. Likely to be among the first in a long line of Intel-powered smartphones we’ll see launch in the coming years, an image and details surrounding an upcoming Intel-powered Motorola smartphone have leaked online. Pocketnow.com published the image, which depicts a somewhat slender Android smartphone running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The handset is said to feature an updated version of MotoBlur as well as an impressive new camera. The report also states that the sleek Motorola smartphone is expected to debut at Mobile World Congress later this month, however a quick chat with one of our sources suggests that an MWC debut is unlikely and we’ll instead see this Android phone unveiled in the coming months.

Read More

Google launches Chrome browser for Android smartphones and tablets

Google on Tuesday announced the first beta release of its Chrome Web browser for Android-powered smartphones and tablets. The firm’s native Web browser is certainly among the better mobile Web browsers on the market, but with Chrome, Google is focused on aligning its mobile browsing experience more closely with its desktop browser. “Like the desktop version, Chrome for Android Beta is focused on speed and simplicity, but it also features seamless sign-in and sync so you can take your personalized web browsing experience with you wherever you go, across devices,” Sundar Pichai, Google’s SVP of Chrome and Apps, wrote in a post on the company’s blog. Chrome for Android is available immediately as a free download in the Android Market and it is compatible with smartphones and tablets running Android 4.0 or later. An introductory video from Google follows below.

Read More

Samsung Galaxy S Advance gets official: 1GHz dual-core CPU, Super AMOLED and Gingerbread

Samsung added a new star to its Galaxy universe today, with the release of the Galaxy Advance S. Powered by a 1GHz dual-core CPU, this handset boasts a four-inch, 480 x 800 Super AMOLED display, and packs up to 16GB of memory, along with 768MB of RAM. The device also supports HSPA connections at speeds of up to 14.4Mbps, and boasts a five megapixel rear-facing camera, along with a 1.3 megapixel shooter, up front. As far as software goes, the Advance S will ship with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, plus a full suite of Samsung's apps, available via its Hubs and ChatON services. No word yet on pricing, but the Korean manufacturer plans to roll out its latest smartphone on a gradual basis, beginning with Russia next month, followed by Europe, Africa, Middle East, Southeast and Southwest Asia, Latin America and China.

Read More

Toshiba to unveil affordable 7-inch tablet and world’s thinnest 10-inch tablet at CES

Toshiba’s tablets never took off like the company wanted, but according to Notebook Italia, Toshiba will soon launch an entry-level 7-inch Android tablet that will debut at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show. The black and blue slate features a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, a 1024 x 600-pixel display, a rear camera, a microUSB port and a microSD slot. A leaked image also reveals three capacitive buttons, leading us to believe it will not be running Android 3.2 Honeycomb or Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. With the recent success of the Kindle Fire, numerous low-priced tablets are slated to appear at this CES and Toshiba’s new 7-inch model will be among them. Additionally, according to Toshiba’s Japanese website, the company will be showcasing the “world’s thinnest and lightest 10.1-inch tablet” at CES next week. Toshiba introduced the AT200 tablet last fall, which measured at just 7.7mm thick, however the company never announced a release date.

Via

Read More

CES 2012: Lenovo S2 run Android, 5" screen, 1.2 GHz dual-core processor

Lenovo S2 is a 5″ Lenovo's phone/tablet, with the 5″ Lenovo has equipped is with a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, Android 2.3 Gingerbread and a fancy burnt orange color. Currently only for China we can hopefully expect the 5″ to head to other markets soon. Hopefully we’ll see Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich come to the phone/tablet hybrid too.

Making sure to hit the sizes of most tablets they also have the 7″ and 10″ versions on the floor — although we are still tracking down the latter. The Lenovo S2 7″ tablet specs are slightly improved to a more reasonable 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and a 1280 x 800 resolution display. Powered by Android 3.2 Honeycomb we expect an Android 4.0 update to follow shortly.

Read

Read More

Sony Ericsson Xperia Nozomi (aka Arc HD)

Xperia Nozomi run Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread, the front has a 4.3-inch LCD display at HD resolution – 1280 x 720 pixels, and the rumor is that this masterpiece holds a 1.5GHz dual-core Scorpion processor paired with the Adreno 220 GPU.

Read More

Sony Ericsson ‘Nozomi’ Android phone Images leaks

An image of an unannounced Android smartphone from Sony Ericsson code-named “Nozomi” has been published on a Chinese forum along with limited preliminary details. The smartphone reportedly features a 720p HD display and a dual-core processor, but additional specs remain a mystery. From the image, it looks like the phone features a display sized above 4 inches, and we can also see a unique lighting feature near the bottom of the device. The Nozomi is currently being tested by a carrier in Hong Kong according the forum user who posted the image, though a release could still be several months away. Earlier reports suggested that the Nozomi features a 4.3-inch 720p HD display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread.

Read More

ComScore report Android eat BlackBerry share, Samsung top vendor

ComScore released its latest U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share report on Friday that suggests Android’s market share is continuing to eat away at the popularity of RIM’s BlackBerry OS in the United States. The research firm found that Android’s market share between August and October was 46.3%, up 4.4 percentage points from the three-month period ended in July. RIM’s market share fell 4.5 points to 17.2% during the same period. Apple’s share grew 1 percentage point to 28.1% and Microsoft’s share fell 0.3 points to 5.4%. Samsung remains the most popular handset supplier in the United States with a 25.5% share of all phones, and its share did not change since comScore’s last report. LG has the second biggest grip on the market with a 20.6% share, although its share fell slightly. Motorola follows it with a 13.6% share and is followed by Apple (10.8%) and RIM (6.6%). ComScore also found that 90 million U.S. residents now own smartphones, up 10% from its last report, and that 10% of mobile subscribers now use an iPhone.

Read More

CyanogenMod 7 Hacked Onto Kindle Fire

XDA member JackpotClavin posted a couple of images showing the Gingerbread-based ROM booted up on his 7-inch Kindle tablet, he is not giving the code for download yet because there are still a lot of bugs to work out.

Read More

Android app: Cluzee is the Android Siri

If you are an Android user and have been wishing for something along the lines of Siri for your smartphone, Cluzee is looking like your alternative. Cluzee might lack the integration with some of the outside devices and services like Plex media and such that Siri offers. However, it will do the core voice functions Siri offers.

Read More

Microsoft releases Windows Phone 7 demo for iPhone and Android users

If you’ve been curious about Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7.5 Mango platform, you can now try it out directly on your iPhone or Android device without having to download or install anything. Microsoft launched an HTML5 website that simulates the Windows Phone 7.5 Mango interface, allowing you to take a test drive by simply navigating to the site via your mobile browser.

Read More

Nielsen Q3 data shows Android leading at 43%

 

Market research firm Nielsen has released its Q3 report for the US smartphone market, revealing that the Android mobile platform continues to dominate and grow, now reaching 42.8 percent share, up from 39 percent last quarter. Apple’s iOS platform comes in second place at 28.3 percent with more modest growth, but takes the lead among smartphone manufacturers.

Read More

Smartphones still at only 27% of global market share

Market research firm VisionMobile has released a report, revealing that the worldwide mobile phone market is still dominated by feature phones. Despite all the craze around the latest iPhone or Android device and the spike in smartphone shipments, their global penetration has only reached 27 percent. 

Read More

Google Catalogs now available on Android Tablets

Google has finally made its Google Catalogs service available today on its tablets running the Android operating system, months after arriving on, well, Apple’s iPad back in August. There are store catalogs from more than 125 brands, including Nordstrom, Williams-Sonoma, Nike and Sephora. The app itself, which is entirely free, is downloadable from the Android Market, and also offers more than 400 digital catalog issues that can be browsed by various categories. Could have come a bit earlier to Android tablets from Google themselves, instead of to the iPad first, but, oh well, it’s at least here.

Read More

Video HTC G1 run Android 4.0 ICS

Today XDA Recognized Developer jcarrz1 has developed a partially-working ICS port for the original HTC G1. While WiFi, Bluetooth, and screen rotation isn’t working, everything else seems to be functioning. If you have the original G1 and want to usher it into modern times with the latest version of Android.

Read More

Samsung Illusion for Verizon Wireless to launch November 23rd for $80

Verizon Wireless announced on Tuesday that it will soon offer the Samsung Illusion for $79.99 with a new two-year contract. The Illusion runs Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and is powered by a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor. It is equipped with a 3-megapixel camera, 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, a 2GB microSD card and support for sharing its 3G connection as a mobile hotspot. The rear casing and battery cover of the phone are made from 70% post-consumer material and 35% of the front-face is made from recycled materials, too. In addition, Verizon Wireless said 60% of the phone’s box is made from recycled paper. The Illusion will be available from Verizon Wireless’s website on November 23rd and it’ll land in Verizon Wireless stores in January of next year.

Read More

Microsoft Lync coming soon to Windows Phone, Android, BlackBerry, and iOS

Microsoft will soon launch Lync enterprise chat applications for iOS, Windows Phone, Android and BlackBerry devices. Australian tech enthusiast Gary Holden asked Microsoft’s official Australia Twitter account whether or not rumors were true that Lync would be released in the next four weeks, to which Microsoft Australia replied “Confirmed.” Lync provides an IM solution with integrated video, web conferencing and audio features, although it is unclear how many of those features will be carried over to the mobile application when it is released.

Read More

Samsung rolls out Android 3.2 to Galaxy Tab 10.1

Last week Samsung started to push an update for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 which brought Google Android 3.2 to the tablet. Unfortunately the software update also broke WiFi for some users, so Samsung pulled the update the same day.

Read More