Latest Gadgets, Tablets and Smartphones
Google Android smartphones are now able to play original Playstation games thanks to a new emulator that has been launched called PSX4Droid.
The new Android Playstation Emulator works best with high end smartphones such as the Droid, Nexus One and other more recent devices that have a 1GHz Snapdragon processor. The downside is that the emulator, on some games, is pushing smartphones quite hard and the Droid looks to struggle a little whilst running Need for Speed. [Read more…]
Barnes & Noble [BKS] has announced NOOK for Android is now available. The new NOOK reader allows you to read eBooks purchased from the B&N store which now contains over 1 million eBooks.
The application it’s self is free to download and the only thing you actually need to pay for is books that you want to read. If you already have paid for books on a NOOK reader for example, you can just log in with your account and sync them across.
The new Android app is also the first eReader software to feature Barnes & Noble’s new NOOK-centric branding, leveraging the strength of the company’s NOOK brand across its entire eReading offering. NOOK for Android will soon be followed by an updated NOOK for iPhone®, NOOK for iPad¢, and others in the coming months. The new eReader software branding aligns with the company’s current NOOK offering NOOK 3G and NOOK Wi-Fi® eBook Readers, and the recently announced NOOKstudy¢ online study platform and software solution for higher education.
We hear that Lenovo is also going to be making a tablet computer. The new style of tablet will of course follow along with what the iPad, HP Slate and others look like in that it will drop the old style keyboard and run a more appropriate operating system.
The Lenovo model has been code-named LePad and will run the Google [GOOG] Android operating system. Unfortunately there are no official pictures of what it will look like and we don’t know when the company plan on launching it either.
It is unclear also if the code-name of LePad will be used as the final product name. Names aside though, Lenovo need to act quickly as Apple [AAPL] are getting a huge headstart over all other companies who have yet made a worthy competitor. [Read more…]
Every couple of weeks, Google [GOOG] publish details on the distribution of Android on smartphones and tablets. A couple of weeks ago Android 2.2 started showing up on the chart with 1.8% share. In the last 2 weeks the new installs of the 2.2 froyo update have now moved to 3.3%.
Android 2.1 hasn’t suffered here though as distribution shows that it has moved from a 53.1% share up to a 55.5% share over the last two weeks.
The drops have occurred on the Android 1.5 and 1.6 builds where the 23.5% share 1.6 had two weeks ago is now 22.1% and Android 1.5 has dropped from 21.3% down to 18.9%. [Read more…]
By mixing a LEGO NXT kit and a Droid smartphone, the 7x7x7 Rubiks cube has been solved in 38 minutes and 53 seconds. That might seem slow, but when compared to a traditional 3x3x3 cube there’s far more combinations and moves needed.
The whole kit was built by David Gilday who managed to port the cube solving robot software on to an Android device. [Read more…]
Yesterday, we saw a few reports that the Motorola DROID X had problems in some cases with it’s screen. The problems caused flickering and banding across the screen on some devices.
Verizon [VZ] and Motorola [MOT] have both confirmed that there has been problems on a few of the DROID X devices. The numbers revealed indicated that one-tenth of one percent of the devices have the problem.
If your Motorola Droid X has the flickering screen problem, or problems with banding across the screen then Verizon recommend you contact either Verizon or Motorola to work things out. [Read more…]
Droid-Life has managed to get hold of a picture of the Motorola DROID 2. The image (larger below), came from a reader who managed to spend some time with the DROID 2 over the weekend.
There’s a number of things we don’t currently know about the DROID 2 as we have only seen a few leaks so far. These revolve around the hardware of the phone, the Android OS version running on the phone as well as pricing and official release date details.
The image and the testing of it does answer a few of the questions though which now reveal that the Droid 2 runs Android 2.2 Froyo. We also hear it has a 1GHz processor inside and a combination of these makes it run very fast. [Read more…]
The ASUS Eee Pad EP101TC was originally built to run a new operating system from Microsoft [MSFT] called Windows 7 Embedded Compact. Instead, ASUS are now believed to be switching to Google Android 3.0 when it launches.
It is expected that the Eee PC will arrive at CES in 2011 along with the new Android operating system from Google [GOOG].
Right now, the only technical specs we know for the machine show that it has a 10 inch touchscreen, measures 12.2mm thick and weighs 675g. [Read more…]
More leaked shots of the Motorola DROID 2 have been spotted. The new pictures come from a packaging facility and show what look to be a number of images being printed for the packaging.
The rumoured launch date of August 23 is still believed to be correct at the moment although Engadget hope that this moves closer due to all the leaks that are coming out over the last few weeks.
New features on the DROID 2 include an improved keyboard, an 8GB microSD card, and from what we understand, more memory on board. [Read more…]
Some users (a small amount) have reported problems with the DROID X smartphone that launched recently. The problems revolve around the screen that in a few cases shows flickering and problems with dead pixels on the lower section of the screen. Videos below show the types of screen issues some users are facing.
It doesn’t look to be a widespread problem at the moment as only a few reports have come in of this behaviour.
Some users on forums have indicated that they already have had their DROID X replaced. If you are getting the problems described here then it would be wise to take it back for a return. You’d be kind of crazy not to as it makes the screen almost impossible to use. [Read more…]
You can now get Android 2.2 FroYo for your HTC Desire although it’s not officially launched just yet.
The new software has been uploaded and has been made available to those who want to go the less official route and use unofficial roms on their smartphone.
“unrevoked3 is a tool to flash a custom recovery image to your Android phone,” explains the site where you can get the all-powerful application. “A custom recovery image allows you to perform advanced tasks on the system partition, such as flashing custom ROMs and taking a full backup of your phone (a ‘nandroid backup).”
HTC DROID Incredible users should be starting to get an OTA (over the air) update that started rolling-out this weekend. The new update was first mentioned early in July and as expected, has arrived.
The OTA update for the Incredible brings 720p video recording to the Android smartphone. Several bug fixes are also included along with Skype, MyVerizon and update widgets. We also hear the DROID red eye boot animation is also included.
The update is rolling out in stages and started with a few users over the weekend and should be ramping up for the next few days till all handsets have the update. [Read more…]
