Category: Android

Samsung Galaxy SII Getting ICS via Kies?

Wehay! Official Ice Cream Sandwich ROMs for the Samsung Galaxy SII are arriving, and through the Samsung Kies software too….. apparently. Android 4.0.1 and Android 4.0.3 have leaked out, although it looks like there’ll be certain markets and variants getting the new OS update first. This roll-out has …

Advent Vega gets a custom Ice Cream Sandwich ROM

First of all it is really good. Secondly a bit of history for the Advent Vega. When PC World released the Advent Vega a lot of people were excited about it. It had hardware very similar to the Motorola Xoom and it was much cheaper. Pretty soon after …

Siri for Android is here… Kinda

There’s a stack of voice-control apps in the Android Market. Stick “Voice Assistant” in and you’ll see Vlingo, Speaktoit, Skyvi, Alice and a whole load more. There are, however, several apps calling themselves “Siri”. Some show themselves as “Fake Siri” but one is actually by a developer calling …

Motorola Defy – £99 + £10 top-up on Orange PAYG!

In another ‘Xmas terrific deal’ shock, Orange have reduced the price of the original Motorola Defy to just £99-99. This seems to be out of stock on-line, and therefore in store only, but definitely worth checking out if you’re after a cheap Android handset. Leigh reviewed this handset back …

HTC offer up bootloader unlocking

HTC are now letting you unlock the bootloader of every phone they’ve launched since September 2011. There’s not a great deal to say here, but if you’ve tried it do let us know. The announcement was made on their development site where you can also find the tool …

One million Galaxy Notes sold

Is it too big? The jury is probably still out on that one. You can always check out our review of the Note to find out yourself, however a lot of people must like it because Samsung has shifted a million of them already. The phone / tablet …

Sony Ericsson XPERIA PLAY down in price

We’ve seen a number of deals in recent weeks on the XPERIA PLAY. Most of the stock on those sales has now gone, but if you missed it then don’t worry, here’s another great offer. A company called ChitterChatter (no, we’ve not heard of them either) is offering …

How to update your Nexus S to Ice Cream Sandwich

Further to our article about the Nexus S price reduction, I finally got my handset yesterday and immediately set about trying to update it to ICS. To cut a long story short, it’s not as easy as just going through the settings menu and requires a little manual tinkering, The …

Android and iOS Activations go through the roof at Christmas

Got an Android handset for Christmas ? You could be one of the 3.7 million people who activated their device on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. A staggering amount considering that there’s 700,000 per day during “normal weeks”. Andy Rubin has jumped onto Twitter to announced the stats …

News roundup from over Christmas

Over Christmas the last thing I want to do is read what is going on in the world. I like to eat, drink and buy stuff in the sales that I don’t really need (HTC Flyer). Today I’m back at work and thought I’d round up various articles from …

HTC Flyer at Dixons – Now even cheaper

It’s sale time, which means I’m staying as far away as possible. However, if you want to shop online and avoid the mad crowds, we’ve already selected a few treats over the last few days. One in particular is now even better – the 16GB HTC Flyer from …

FilmOn TV – Worth a try this Christmas

OK, imagine the scene. It’s Christmas Day and you are forced to watch some boring TV show at a relatives house. A new app from the guys at FilmOn.com is now available to let you watch a rather large selection of live TV channels. Available for iOS and …

Nexus S only £199 at Carphonewarehouse

Christmas has come slightly early for Android bargain hunters. Carphoneware are currently selling Samsung’s first Nexus device sim free for £199.95. For that you’ll get a handset with a 1Ghz hummingbird processor, 4″ Super AMOLED display, 16GB of inbuilt memory and, most importantly, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. …

HTC Flyer price drop at Dixons

Today, amongst a load of other price drops, you can get a cheap HTC Flyer at Dixons. They are offering the 16GB model and the 32GB 3G model for £199 and £249 respectively. HTC have not mentioned the Flyer in the official list of devices due to get …

Orange Motorola Defy deal, already gone!

Come on, with only hours to go you’re no doubt looking for deals and ideas for Christmas. Orange are dishing up the Motorola Defy, complete with 3.7″ screen, FM radio and Android 2.1, for a mere £99.99 with a £10 top-up. Well… They were… It looks to have …

Dropox Android app update

Grab the new Dropbox app for Android today and you’ll receive an improved gallery view, bug fixes, bulk uploads and single-tap access to all file and folder actions. You can now rename files and folders plus there’s offline access to files through the favourites function. They have also …

Galaxy S owners – No Ice Cream Sandwich for you

When we heard that Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) wasn’t coming to the Samsung Galaxy S we assumed that it was merely delayed. However, the word is that both the Galaxy S and 7″ Tab won’t get ICS due to hardware constraints. When we say “hardware constraints” we …

Hasbro launch legal action against Asus

We kinda thought this might happen when we first saw the Asus Transformer Prime. The Asus device, which “transforms” with a detachable keyboard, is the target of legal action from toy-maker Hasbro. They’re not keen on their Optimus Prime and Transformers merchandise getting confused with the Asus tablet. …

LG Optimus Black – Cheap deal

If you had the daily ebuyer mailshot this morning then you may have seen the in-car video camera. We’re not entirely sure why you’d like to film your journey to work, but….. Oh.. I remember now, the actual deal I’m supposed to be telling you about is this …

Scan Me – Barcode Yourself

So we have all seen the QR codes for links to websites or apps. They basically are a two dimensional barcode that can contain a hyperlink or other info. I have scanned them in the past to get a link to a website from a poster, to get …

HTC Watch dishing up 49p movies

We’re getting ready to plonk ourselves down in front of the Christmas TV and find something decent to watch. However, if the schedules are right, we’re in for a right load of old toilet. So, step forward HTC who are under-cutting the Android 99p film offer with their …

Happy Holidays from Android

The Android Google+ team last night posted a neat little seasons greeting video. Here it is. Cue lots of gratuitous footage of Nexus phones and what looks like Xoom tablets.

ClipFlip. Get paid for filming useful videos.

We came across ClipFlip today. It is an app you install on either your iPhone or on your Android phone. Once registered with ClipFlip and Paypal you basically just film something useful on your phone and upload it to the ClipFlip servers using the app. They then watch …

The Android growth continues – 700k activations per day

 At the end of June we told how 500,000 Android devices were getting activated every day. It was 200,000 more than the figure released 6 months earlier. Now, another 6 months on, there’s another increase of 200,000. If this rate continues, we should see around a million …

Orange Barcelona – Review

The guys over at Orange have kindly lent us an Orange Barcelona to review. The Orange Barcelona is a low priced Android handset in the candy bar format with a hardware keyboard and touch screen. Think Blackberry (or just look at the picture below). The spec highlights are …

HTC loses Apple patent case… But…

At first look this may seem pretty bad. HTC, according to the courts, are using an Apple patent and, if it’s not removed, handsets would have to be removed from sale all across America. Looking deeper into it and you be right in thinking that this is actually …

Classic retro gaming – Duke 3D free and ad-free for 2 days

Fancy spending a few hours playing a classic first-person shooter? Duke 3D is now available for free in the Market, and there’s no adverts either. It’s the ideal distraction from tense family festive meals or when you’re getting dragged around the shops. Just don’t start shouting “Got ya …

Samsung reveal Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade plans

 Well, it’s all good news, provided you’re not a Galaxy S owner. The plans for the Android 4.0 roll out have been detailed here. It looks like the Samsung Galaxy S isn’t on the initial batch of devices which are being scheduled for the update.. The ICS-upgradable …

Will a Google Nexus tablet make a difference?

Yesterday Eric Schmidt mentioned something about a tablet being worked on by Google. No exact details were mentioned about who Google would be making it or what it would be called. Yet still the web was awash with Google Nexus tablet articles. All of this speculation got me …

So what did Android Google+ have instore for us?

Hold onto your hats people. The same account we linked to yesterday finally announced what they had in store for us. They posted a strange unboxing video game that lets you control a ninja. Hmmm mind blown. Anyway here is the link so you can see what all …

WordPress Android app updated

The all new WordPress app has just landed in the Android Market and boy, theres been some work done here. Version 2 of the application features a much cleaner and simpler interface plus you can now resize images on the fly. Other features include…. – Use the Dashboard …

Google+ Android app updated. Now includes video chat.

In the Night Google+ updated their Android app. The update fixes a few bugs and also allows you to start a video hangout from within the messenger app on your Android device. Ideal if you are struggling to get your point across using text. This feature will make …

Xperia Play For A Bargain £149.99!

Last year at Mobile World Congress, Sony Ericsson brought the PSP and Android together into a single phone and called it the Xperia Play.  This large touch screen phone has a slide out Playstation keyboard control pad to get the best from your games. Due to the high …

Patent pain – BT take aim at Android

In what is fast becoming a strange game show, communications giant BT have become the next contestant to start legal proceedings against Google and the Android OS. Six patents are at the heart of the lawsuit, relating to Google+, eBooks, Docs, GMail and even the Doubleclick and AdWords …

Coolsmartphone Recommended Android App – File Expert

One of the things I like about Android is that you can install a file manager. Something where you can look at all of the files and folders on your phone and on your phones sd card. I like the weekly of scrolling through and deleting the orphan …

Sky+ App updated for iOS and Android. Goodies inside

Right, Sky TV. We like them. We’d rather pay less each month, but heck, that’s the way things are. Now, a new version of their Sky+ app is available and adds Series Link. It’s a feature that many have wanted to see for some time, plus there’s a …

Google planning something for Android today.

  The Google Android Google+ account yesterday announced something was going to happen today. The story ends there. Is it news worthy? Is it US only? Will it be US times again like the 10p apps thing last week. Will it just an update for the Galaxy Nexus? Will it …

Nexus S Ice Cream Sandwich roll-out begins

So, we knew it was coming and now it looks to be here. Google themselves announced the start of the Android 4.0 roll-out onto Nexus S devices via Twitter. The update will be coming out over the next month starting immediately but, if you’re the impatient type, there’s …