Big Green Robot: September 2010

Thursday, September 30, 2010

RadioShack launching the T-Mobile G2 on October 3rd ~ Latest Gadgets News

Monday, September 27, 2010

T-Mobile compares the G2 to the competition

T-Mobile compares the G2 to the competition: "

TmoNews G2 Comparison

TmoNews has posted another comparison from T-Mobile of their new G2 stacked against the latest-greatest of the mobile world to date. You can see the main differences from the chart, however, it appears as though they left out one of the most feature packed phones to come out, Yes, I mean the HTC Desire HD.

I can see why it was left out. It makes the G2 look a little under-dressed for the ball.

If you wanted an objective opinion, as posted here yesterday, Droidthing.com doesn’t show the G2 in their list to compare yet, but I’m sure they’re working on it.

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T-Mobile compares the G2 to the competition

T-Mobile G2 won't have free tethering, but may have WiFi calling

T-Mobile G2 won't have free tethering, but may have WiFi calling: "

We all want free tethering, and everyone who has ever used it wants UMA on the T-Mobile G2. It looks like we'll be getting half of what we're asking, as TmoNews has received some inside information (screenshot after the break) that the Froyo hotspot features have been disabled, but a new feature called WiFi calling is currently being tested on HTC's latest and greatest slider.

We're not surprised that the Froyo hotspot and tethering has been disabled, we said all along that we doubt we will ever see free tethering on a carrier-subsideized phone. I'm sure that's something that the ~~hackers~~ third-party Android developers will figure out in short order. The WiFi calling is a whole 'nother animal. TmoNews has an internal screen grab with some very interesting info (again, after the break), as well as the picture above that shows WiFi calling installed on a G2. I'm pretty sure that the WiFi calling is the pseudo-UMA from Kineto that we looked at last week, that lacks the seamless handoff to cellular that we're used to seeing from "normal" UMA. I'm also pretty confident that we won't be seeing the G2 launch with WiFi calling on board, it will come in a software update or be downloadable from T-Mobile.

To end this post full of if's and but's, there is some great news -- an internal T-Mobile document shows that WiFi calling will be available on any voice plan, with no additional account features needed. That screenshot is after the break. [TmoNews, here and here]

Posted originally at Android Central

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Droid 2 R2-D2 edition gets plugged into the hyperdrive and speeds up to 1.2 Ghz

Droid 2 R2-D2 edition gets plugged into the hyperdrive and speeds up to 1.2 Ghz: "

Four days from now in a galaxy near, near to us the Droid 2 R2-D2 Edition will be launching at midnight at a select group of Verizon Wireless locations. As befitting of a device that is this strong with the force (I hear its midi-chlorian count is over 10,000) Verizon is rolling out the red carpet and hosting parties for your favorite Astromech themed handset.

More on the festivities in a minute, but first a rumor that BGR dropped earlier today. A tipster told them that the R2-D2 Droid 2 is running at 1.2 Ghz versus the 1 Ghz of the standard Droid 2. We’ve seen reports previously that the Droid 2 World Edition would be cranked up to 1.2 Ghz so it is well within reason that Motorola would hit the gas for this special edition Droid 2 as well. Less likely, but possible would be that the R2-D2 edition is a painted Droid 2 WE. Keep in mind this isn’t a new processor, just a faster clock speed. We’ll find out the truth of the matter soon enough.

Returning to the launch details, the first news came from Verizon Insider outing the official launch date as September 30th with a list of 10 stores that would have midnight events featuring Star Wars characters and free t-shirts and posters for those that buy any Droid smartphone. You can find that list by hitting the “VIA” link at the bottom of the post.

BGR added a few details regarding the midnight launch at one store in Lewisville, Texas. Their event is starting at 11 p.m. on the 29th and will feature store employees dressed as Storm Troopers, a DJ, video gaming, and most notably they will be giving away 5 R2-D2 Droid 2′s. It is worth noting that this isn’t one of the stores from the earlier list so if you are really interested you should contact your local Verizon store even if they aren’t on the list to see if they have anything planned. If anyone knows their local store is hosting something give a shout out in comments.

This is a limited edition handset as we have known from the start and according to this tipster each store that stocks them will have just 200 and when those are gone that’s all she wrote. Early reports were that it would be available online only, so unless this is a total reversal you might be able to save yourself the trip and just pick it up online at midnight on the 30th.

The Venn Diagram of Star Wars fans and Android fans must have a pretty solid overlap and the Droid 2 is a good if not great handset, so what about it, anyone planning on picking up a new Astromech companion this week?

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Samsung selects Atmel maXTouch for Galaxy Tab Android tablet

Samsung selects Atmel maXTouch for Galaxy Tab Android tablet: "

When I got to go hands-on with the Galaxy Tab earlier this month, I found it had one of the most responsive touch screens I have ever used on a tablet. At the time no one could tell me what touch sensor was being used, but thanks to a new press release we have discovered Samsung chose the popular Atmel maXTouch solution.

As we discovered earlier this year not all touch screen sensors are created equal, but Atmel offers the best in the industry. We first saw Atmel sensors when HTC began using maXTouch for the Incredible and EVO and then Samsung also chose them for their Galaxy S lineup.

“The Atmel maXTouch solution offers higher performance, better accuracy, faster response times and lower power than competing solutions to provide a better user experience. Its true unlimited touch functionality and faster performance enable advanced features including rejection of unintended touches, multi-touch stretch/pinch and rotate gestures, and handwriting recognition on larger form factor screens.”

Atmel claims the Galaxy Tab is the first of many tablets to use this solution, so I expect we will see it inside whatever HTC and Motorola are working on. To see Atmel’s latest maXTouch videos, visit the Atmel YouTube Channel at www.atmel.com/youtube or follow Atmel on Twitter @atmelcorporatio.

Complete highlights of the single-chip touch solution include:

Unlimited touches

Low power consumption

Fast response — completely redraws screen every 4/1000 of a second (4ms) to eliminate recalibration issues

Excellent signal-to-noise ratio for superior precision — 3x better than competitive products

Superior performance for first-touch response — 3x better than competitive products

Unambiguous, unlimited touch support

Responsive user interface: > 250 Hz report rate for a single touch

Extremely low current consumption: < 1.8 mW in “touch-ready” state

Two touch adjacency of less than 10 mm on a 4.3″ touchscreen

Small footprint with few external components

Supports stylus, fingernails, and gloves

Grip and face suppression functionality: avoids false touches

Size and angle of touch supported

Screen sizes up to 10.2″ are supported by a single chip

Proximity channel support

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Just How Rugged is the Motorola Defy? Take a Look

Just How Rugged is the Motorola Defy? Take a Look: "

This image has no alt text

When this phone first broke its cover not too long ago, it was a center of attention due to claims of it being a device ready to take on any beating. Motorola later confirmed this, but we haven’t been able to see just how rugged this thing really is. Being the responsible retailers they are, Expansys decided to test the Motorola Defy’s ruggedness: no false advertisement for them! They first dropped the phone several times on concrete.

Nothing special there – most phones can take that kind of impact – but then they decided to put the phone in the worst situation it could find itself in: submerged in water. They did this while the phone was on and were able to use the device right after taking it out of the cup. While I’m sure a phone being dropped into water isn’t an every day occurrence for a lot of people, stuff happens and it’s nice to know that the Motorola Defy lives up to what Motorola said it’s going to be. Check out the video above.

[via EuroDroid]

Game-On: a look into OpenFeint’s push into Android and iOS gaming platform

Game-On: a look into OpenFeint’s push into Android and iOS gaming platform: "

Aurora Feint is a small operation in terms of its employee roster. But when put in the context of scale that it could have on gaming on the Android platform, Aurora Feint is a conglomerate.

Born out of a video game for iOS released in 2008, Aurora Feint has evolved into a company that powers social gaming platform OpenFeint. The company recently invited me to its California office to learn more about what its doing to making gaming on Android and iPhone a more social experience.

After some informal back and forth to convey what Android gamers want, and how OpenFeint is working to meet those needs, I discovered the following information:

Cross-platform is the future

“People just want to play games with their friends,” said Aurora Feint CEO Jason Citron. “It would be really ridiculous if you want to a play a game on your Asus PC but couldn’t play with [a friend] because he’s on a Mac.”

OpenFeint is actively working to make the interaction between Android and iOs users seamless. At the moment, OpenFeint acts as a link for people to connect. Friends can challenge each other to games that are available on both platforms, see how they perform, and track global or local leaderboards.

The Feint Spotlight app currently highlights apps running OpenFeint with photo thumbnails, video demos, and links to the Android Market. The iPhone version of the OpenFeint spotlight is an amazing app that really outpaces what’s currently available in Android. It’s disappointing to see how slick and feature rich that version is; however, the company promises to deliver parity between platforms in feature-by-feature updates.

Android will catch-up to the iPhone

Aurora Feint began working for Android because they “couldn’t ignore the growth numbers” (or the persistent nudging of a former Googler now working at the company) anymore,. Developers of popular iPhone games are starting to recognize the same and are actively working with the companies to port or build apps for Android. OpenFeint has an SDK and developer tools to make the process easier and they have been actively working on encouraging many of its independent developers to make the switch. They have already worked with some great recent games like Fruit Ninja, Flick Kick Field Goal, and Mini Squadron.

There are 8 games using OpenFeint on Android, and there are likely to be 50 games by the end of the year. Other games on the way include popular iOS titles on the way include Jet Car Stunts and Mega Jump. According to one engineer we spoke with, hundreds of developers in the OpenFeint developer console have checked the “Android” radio button to indicate that they plan to integrate the platform into their app.

The busiest period will be in Q1 2011. As the engineers explained, the holiday season is a busy time for developers, most of whom are independent or part-time operations, so they cannot devote the time necessary to build new apps. That will change next year.

Competition will be fierce

Aurora Feint shared with us the concept of an upcoming feature that I cannot wait to see implemented called “Play Time.” The gist of Play Time is that it’s Xbox Live for mobile games. Two people can play multiplayer games and have a live update of competition between users with on-screen updates and voice chat. So when we finally get a decent shooting, racing, or any other game that a multiplayer mode would enhance, Play Time would offer the chance to talk trash and track progress.

PlayTime will take only a day to implement into an app, and that is the potential draw of OpenFeint. There will be competition from official products like Apple’s GameCenter and the rumored Google social gaming platform that could come to Android. However, Aurora Feint doesn’t feel threatened.

“It validated what we’re doing,” a marketing manager said of the impending competition. “Other companies realized that they need to tap into social networks and our phone started blowing up from developers wanting to use our tools.”

CONCLUSION

I walked away from the meeting with OpenFeint pretty excited about what’s coming up. After discussing it with some of the other writers invited, I’m not the only one. The fact that they also have a hand in bringing over the last three Android games that I happened to purchase (Mini Squadron, Fruit Ninja, and Flick Kick Field Goal) proves that they are on the right track.

However, that track could be derailed by Apple and Google. Developers have to go where the people are, so an official platform like GameCenter is a major threat to OpenFeint. There’s still potential for it to succeed since they have the benefit of being cross-platform, something neither Apple nor Google are likely to offer. Maybe that whole “Open” thing will pay off after all.

AT&T Training on Galaxy Tab, a La Cart Pricing Revealed

AT&T Training on Galaxy Tab, a La Cart Pricing Revealed: "

We got a tip earlier this morning from an A&T source of ours who tells us that the carrier has been conducting training for the Galaxy Tab. According to them, they company aims to be first out of the gate with pricing and availability. We're also hearing some preliminary pricing on the a la cart data pricing. We'll go ahead and say it - they flat out stink.

Would you consider any of these?

$15/100mb for 1 day

$30/300mb for 7 days

$50/1gb for 30 days

I don't know about you guys, but I seriously hope these aren't final. Otherwise, we'll likely be looking elsewhere for our a la cart plans. The idea of a contract for a tablet simply doesn't appeal to me.

AT&T Training on Galaxy Tab, a La Cart Pricing Revealed originally appeared on AndroidGuys.

Cease app update notifications

Cease app update notifications: "

In Android 2.2, you have the option to allow applications to automatically update themselves. And that's a good thing.

But say you don't ever want to get a notification that updates are available. (Hey, to each his own.) If you really don't want to be bothered, there's a setting for that, too.

Go into the Android Market and enter the Downloads section. (On most phones you'll need to hit the menu button first. Once there, tap the menu button again, and then choose "Notifications." You'll get the little menu you see here.

And after that, no more update notifications. But don't come crying to us when you miss that latest Angry Birds update, m'kay?

Posted originally at Android Central

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T-Mobile to add Wi-Fi calling to select Android devices

T-Mobile to add Wi-Fi calling to select Android devices: "

This fall T-Mobile will add Wi-Fi calling to select Android devices, according to a leaked training document posted by TmoNews. The service operates similar to Skype on Verizon phones and will allow unlimited calling when connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot.

A tutorial will appear when the user first enables Wi-Fi on their device. Once connected, T-Mobile customers will be able to send and receive calls and messages over their local Wi-Fi network. The service is completely optional and customers will not have to make any changes to their existing calling plans.

There are limitations to the service however. Unlike previous T-Mobile phones which supported Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA), Wi-Fi calling will not offer any hand-off to the carrier’s mobile network. This means that if you make a call and leave the Wi-Fi coverage area, then the call will drop.

No list of compatible devices has been released, but Wi-Fi calling is expected to only appear on newer T-Mobile phones like the HTC G2, LG Optimus One, Motorola Defy, Samsung Vibrant, and I suspect the Galaxy Tab.

If you own an Android phone on another carrier, there is still hope for Wi-Fi calling because Skype should be coming to all carriers later this year.

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