April 28, 2009 by Tap
T-Mobile UK today issued a press release confirming that Android 1.5, a.k.a. Cupcake, will be coming to Google G1 users in May. This comes as the company confirms that it's set to reach 100 000 G1 units sold in the UK in just six months since launch. For those of you who haven't already read up on Android 1.5, here'a list of new features according to T-Mobile:
- New touch-screen keypad
- Full video record and playback in MPEG-4 & 3GP formats
- Direct uploading of video to YouTube
- Copy and paste within browser
- View Google Talk friends' status in Contacts, SMS, MMS, Google Mail, and Email applications
- Animated window transitions
- Accelerometer based application rotations
- Faster camera start-up and image capturing
- Direct upload of photo to Picasa
- Faster acquisition of GPS location
- More home screen widgets
- Stereo Bluetooth support of both A2DP & AVCRP profiles plus auto-pairing
- Faster browser with updated Webkit & Javascript engine
- In-page search function
- User interface refinements to key tools including
Google Mail,
Email,
Browser,
SMS & MMS,
Contacts, call logs and favourites,
Camera & gallery,
Calendar,
Applications management
More good news came in the form of T-Mobile's commitment to launch another Android phone later this year although there’s no word on exactly when or who the manufacturer will be.
Source: T-Mobile
March 25, 2009 by Tap
Rumours of HTC's Android Hero phone surfaced in the middle of February this year when HTC's supposed 2009 line-up was revealed on ppcgeeks. We haven't heard much about it since but it looks like the Hero has finally been picked up by Orange.
Orange France has already released the G1 as the HTC Dream (they couldn't use the G1 branding as T-Mobile has exclusive rights to that) and now, according to Mobinaute, they will be following that up with the HTC Hero. But that's not all - they reckon that the Hero will be followed by another Android smartphone a few weeks after that. Orange is definitely on a mission here and is keen to capitalise on what they see as the revenue potential of the Android Market.
Even more interesting, although this could be speculation, is that by the end of this year, Orange, in addition to HTC, plans to have Android phones from Motorola, LG, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. That last one especially comes as a welcome surprise as Sony Ericsson, although a member of the Open Handset Alliance, seems to have been very quiet on the Android front this year.
On the OS front, word is that Orange will be releasing the cupcake update for the HTC Dream by the end of April and a second "major update" a month later. Sounds mighty interesting.
Source: Mobinaute
March 10, 2009 by Tap
"Many sites have been re-hashing a loosely worded story posted by T3.com that stated that LG's KS360 QWERTY slider would be re-released with the Android OS this summer as LG's first Android powered device." So said Android Authority and I have to fess up and say that TAP was one of the many sites that helped to perpetuate this rumour last month.
Fortunately Android Authority's Michael Oryl got in contact with LG Mobile UK's Jeremy Newing, the company's head of Marketing (T3's original source), who confirmed that this was never the case. He had simply stated that LG "is considering a similar form factor for social networking focused Android phones in the future." Just goes to show, even a respected site like T3 can get things horribly wrong sometimes.
Source: T3 via Android Authority
February 20, 2009 by Tap
It seems that this year's MWC was a bit of a let down as far as Android was concerned with most manufacturers paying lip service but not actually delivering. Here's a quick roundup of who did what.
LG
According to T3, the rumour is that the KS360 will be relaunched using Android this year. Other than that, Marketing Manager Jeremy Newing confirmed that two other Android phones would be released later this year. No other details were available.
Huawei
Chinese handset maker Huawei Technologies was kind enough to show off a non-working mockup of a phone at it's MWC booth and confirmed that it was planning on releasing Android phones possibly in Q3 this year.
Samsung
They had already confirmed that they weren't going to demo anything at MWC but in a statement to Reuters, Won-Pyo Hong, head of product strategy, said that the firm would start selling more than three Android phones by the end of the year.
General Mobile
In the runnup to MWC General Mobile had confirmed that they would be launching their dual-SIM DSTL1 at the show. As it turns out, they were one of the few manufacturers to deliver. Check out the hands-on video on engadget.
Acer
At the end of last month there was speculation that Acer would be getting in on the Android act when they started to distribute invites to their 'smartphones launch' at MWC. Unfortunately this all proved to be unfounded although when engadget pressed an Acer rep for information he did make reference to two mysterious "Android secret models".
HTC
Of course the prize has to go to HTC who, together with Vodafone, revealed their next handset, the HTC Magic.