Android | Stuff-Review

Supposed Sony Nexus X images leak

October 15, 2012 at 11:23 am

One upcoming Nexus smartphone is a sure thing, the LG Nexus 4, but could Google have partnered with more hardware vendors for multiple Nexus devices this time round? There have been persistent rumors that this could be true, and here we have a purported leak of a Nexus device made by Sony.

The blurry photos you see here were posted on Picasa and titled Sony Nexus X. We’re seeing a device styled much like Sony’s Xperia line but with on-screen navigation buttons and Google’s logo joining Sony’s on the back, but based on the quality of the photos this could very well be a fake. So what do you think?
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Asus 4.7-inch Padfone 2 demoed in video with new slimmer tablet dock

News

October 14, 2012 at 3:25 pm

ASUS is a pretty innovative hardware company. It pretty much rules in the motherboard space and fed the netbook craze by pumping out new models practically every week. So, when we first saw the original Padfone we were impressed but not surprised. The Padfone was the ultimate all in one device, a 4.3-inch smartphone that could slide into a tablet dock to take on slate form which could then dock with a keyboard to become a notebook.

Unfortunately, the Padfone hardly found its way to the international market after being unveiled early this year, but fortunately, you may (hopefully) soon be able to pick up its successor. ASUS has a launch event scheduled in Milan on October 16th, which you can watch live, for the unveiling of the Padfone 2.

The second iteration of the Padfone will have a larger 4.7-inch 720p display, run on a quad-core SoC with LTE connectivity and sport a 13-megapixel rear camera. More importantly, the Padfone 2 tablet dock is now much slimmer and lighter than its predecessor, which admittedly was quite chunky — we’re sure to the dismay of owners of the original Padfone smartphone/dock who’ll find their devices incompatible with the newer version, but that’s life in the fast-moving tech world.
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Upcoming Google Nexus 4 smartphone by LG poses for camera in leaked pics

News

October 11, 2012 at 2:21 pm

Whether it’s going to be called the Nexus 4, Nexus G or Optimus Nexus it’s now pretty much a sure thing that LG is going to be Google’s next Nexus hardware partner. We’ve already seen hazy photos of the rumored device making the rounds but now the folks over at the Belarusian Onliner got their hands on a pre-production LG Nexus and just published a bunch of beauty shots of the LG Nexus. They’ve even done us the favor of doing a side-by-side comparison with the iPhone 5.

The LG Nexus 4 device going by the model number E960 (a.k.a. Mako) will feature a 4.7-inch display with a 1280 x 768 resolution and run on a 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 SoC and 2GB of RAM. The device Onliner got hold of came with a relatively paltry 8GB of internal storage and an 8-megapixel rear camera, though we’re hoping that at least the former will get a bump up in the production model.

Meet the Nexus Q: An Android powered social streaming media player

News

June 27, 2012 at 12:41 pm

Google had more hardware surprises in-store during its Google I/O 2012 opening keynote. Besides the Nexus 7 tablet, Google is also releasing the Nexus Q.

The Nexus Q is black spherical Android powered mini-computer, which Google calls the first social streaming medial player. Inside is an OMAP 4460 SoC, the same one that powers the Galaxy Nexus (full review right here), dual-band Wi-Fi, ethernet, NFC and Bluetooth.

It has a built-in audiophile-grade 25 watt amplifier together with optical and digital audio output and a micro-HDMI socket. It’s able to stream music, movies and TV series from the cloud with plenty of social interaction and discovery features.

The Nexus Q is available for pre-order starting today for $299 directly from the Google Play Store, though it’s US only for now, and will start shipping in July.

7-inch Google Nexus 7 tablet announced: quad-core Tegra 3 with 12-core GPU, 720p resolution for $199

News

June 27, 2012 at 12:24 pm

No surprises here. Google has officially unveiled the first Nexus tablet, a 7-inch slate made by ASUS and called the Nexus 7. It will of course launch with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean on-board.

The device comes with a quad-core Tegra 3 SoC with a 12-core GPU, 1.2-megapixel front camera and 1280 x 800 resolution IPS LCD display. The asking price is $199 for the 8GB model and $249 to up that to 16GB. You can order it today directly from Google Play and shipping in mid-July together with the launch of Android Jelly Bean.

It weighs just 340 grams and comes fully loaded with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, gyroscope and an accelerometer. Battery life is a decent 9 hours of video play.

The Nexus 7 is a direct stab against Amazon’s Kindle Fire, with Google putting content at the forefront of the experience. Oh and it will ship with the Android Chrome browser as standard.

Google is also putting its faith in the Nexus 7 as a portable gaming device, with that 12-core GPU, gyroscope and accelerometer proving a rich gaming experience.

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean official, here’s what’s new

News

June 27, 2012 at 11:49 am

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean has just been announced on the stage of the opening keynote of Google I/O 2012.

You can watch the Google I/O 2012 keynote and the introduction of Android 4.1 Jellybean live right here

News

June 26, 2012 at 1:57 pm

Mark your calendars, or even better set your automatic reminders. Google’s I/O 2012 developer event kicks-off on Wednesday 27th of June with the usual opening keynote. That’s where the search giant shows us what’s new and exciting in the Android world.

This year, the day one keynote will probably see the introduction of Android 4.1 Jellybean and a budget 7-inch Nexus Tablet.

We’re sure you won’t want to miss this event, and you can view the entire thing live right here.
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Android 4.1 Jelly Bean mascot takes its place on Google’s Mountain View lawn

News

June 26, 2012 at 1:25 pm

Well it can’t get any more official than this. We’ve been hearing and we’ve speculating on Android Jelly Bean (or Jellybean) since last year and with its official unveiling just a day away a new sculpture has taken its place on the lawn in front of Building 44 at Google’s Mountain View campus.

The pot of giant spilled jelly beans that you see above was spotted this morning taking it’s place next to the infamous Cupcake (Android 1.5), Donut (1.5), Eclair (2.0/2.1), Froyo (2.2), Gingerbread (2.3), Honeycomb (3.x) and finally Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) mascots.
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Google Nexus 7 Android 4.1 Jelly Bean tablet confirmed by ASUS representative for June

News

June 11, 2012 at 11:50 am

We’ve been hearing about a Google Nexus tablet since the beginning of the year, with ASUS apparently being the manufacturer of the economical 7-inch slab that could be appropriately named, Nexus 7.

Well we now apparently have confirmation of the partnership between ASUS and Google from the mouth of a representative of the former at Computex in Taipei. The Nexus 7 tablet is expected to be ready for shipment by the end of June, happily coinciding with Google I/O running June 27-29 in San Fransisco, and the perfect platform to announce the next version of Android.

This will be the first tablet to carry the Nexus name, following the Nexus One, Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus smartphones, and you can be sure it will be carrying a stock version of Android. In fact it’s been rumored to become the carrier of the next big version of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (you can read more here about Android’s naming convention).
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Motorola Droid RAZR HD leaked with 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 and 720p display

News

June 10, 2012 at 2:29 pm

The upcoming Motorola Droid RAZR HD hasn’t really been kept a secret. The Verizon-bound handset has received several earlier leaks but this latest one is the most comprehensive yet.

The successor to the extremely popular Droid RAZR and Droid RAZR MAXX maintains some of its siblings’ looks, as you can see from the leaked photos above. The back cover has the familiar Kevlar pattern, though it now extends across the back of the device. Gone is the hump of the previous generation and the rear camera is now centered at the top of the device.

Motorola had touted the thinness of the original Droid RAZR when it was released, though later traded some of it for an extended 3,300 mAh in the RAZR MAXX. We loved the full day battery and so did many of you. Well, as you can see from the images, Motorola isn’t making the same mistake again, and the Droid RAZR HD seems to slide between the RAZR and the RAZR MAXX in terms of thinness. Thus we can assume that inside we still might find a beefy battery.
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An Italian confronts the Galaxy S III: first unboxing and hands-on video

News

May 16, 2012 at 12:06 pm

The Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone is said to hit retail stores on May 29th in Europe, but that didn’t stop an Italian blog from getting hold of a boxed unit now, and you know what this means, video action!

The video, which you’ll find embedded below, includes an unboxing of the most anticipated smartphone, well at least for this month, the 4.8-inch Android 4.0 Galaxy S III (SGS3). There’s also a pretty nice size comparison between the SGS3 and the Galaxy Note, Galaxy Nexus (which we’ve reviewed in great length here), Galaxy S II and the HTC One X and One S.
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How to: turn on the Nexus One without the power button

Guides

May 12, 2012 at 4:53 am

I’ve had the Nexus One ever since it was released and although I’ve moved on to several other smartphones, it has remained my backup device. Unfortunately the Nexus One suffers from a serious hardware fault, the power button will, after a while, require more force to operate and will finally give up, leaving you with no obvious way to unlock or power on your device.

You can surely send it back to be repaired, but after the first fix, my Nexus One suffered from the same fault after a few weeks.

Well there is actually life after the power switch, as long as you know a couple of tricks and first and foremost, how do you actually turn on the smartphone without the power button.

The ultimate unboxing video: ASUS PadFone 3-in-1

News

May 12, 2012 at 3:22 am

It’s exciting enough to take one new device out of the loneliness of its factory box and into the world, but how about three? And then how about if those three devices can morph into each other, giving you a smartphone, a tablet and a laptop.

This is the ASUS PadFone, a 3-in-1 device that go from a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED qHD 960×540 smartphone to a 10.1-inch 1280×800 tablet and then dock with a keyboard to take laptop form. The PadFone is a dual-core Snapdragon S4 device running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich that was unveiled early this year at Mobile World Congress. It also has an 8-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and a variety of other connectivity options, with nothing to be jealous of other high-end smartphones.
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Flipboard for Android app has leaked, here’s how to get the APK now

News

May 9, 2012 at 12:02 pm

With Instagram on their belts, Android users are slowly, but surely, getting up to speed with their iOS counterparts. Now another iOS exclusive, Flipboard, was demoed running on the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S III.

The app, which pulls together news, your Facebook feed and tweets and presents them in a magazine-style layout, was supposed to be a Galaxy S III exclusive. So the rest of the Android crowd would otherwise have to wait. Well, leave it to the endearing Android developers to leave no wall ubroken. The app has been ripped from a Galaxy S III and the APK file has been posted on xda-developers for all Android users to enjoy.