Smartphones

How to enable third-party app installation on most Android phones

With the arrival of Amazon's App Store, Android users have a new way to get their app and game fix. But while it is--overnight--the best known alternative app store, it's by no means the first. Third-party Android app stores such as AndAppStore, SlideMe, Handango, and GetJar and game developers such as Gameloft have been peddling their wares outside of the Android Market for some time now.

Additionally, smaller developers often offer alpha or beta versions of upcoming apps, while hackers and enthusiasts will sometimes make useful applets available to the Android community on forums and blogs. There are … Read more

Verizon's spring plans confirm Android details

A newly leaked Verizon road map has landed online, shedding light on the carrier's releases over the next few months. Phandroid has posted a list of upcoming devices and their respective launch dates, and as one might expect, there is plenty of Android to go around.

Assuming these dates hold, the next Android phone to arrive should be the Casio Commando on April 7. As Android Central points out, it will likely be the C771 first unearthed in late 2010. Bowing that same day will be the 4G LTE-ready Samsung Charge. Expected to carry the Droid branding when it … Read more

How to: Use Amazon Cloud Player for Android

Amid rumors of Google and Apple launching their own cloud music service, Amazon.com quickly released the Amazon Cloud Player. The service lets you upload up to 5GB of music to the cloud for free, which can be accessed from any other computer or Android device.

Sadly, iOS and other mobile platforms were left out--Amazon did not release an app or Web compatibility for them.

With the Amazon MP3 app for Android, you can play, edit, or download music stored in the cloud. Music you purchase from the in-app store can be automatically backed-up onto your cloud and won't … Read more

Hello, Moto?

What a difference a trade show makes. Though Motorola dominated CES back in January, it didn't even whimper at CTIA 2011 last week. Indeed, the company announced no new phones and its small booth was way at the back of the show floor. I had to look on the map to find it, actually, and once there I found just a small table showing its latest phones and tablets.

Moto's small CTIA presence was surprising, particularly for a company that had stormed into 2011 with a gallery of high-profile devices like the Atrix 4G, the Droid Bionic, and … Read more

The 404 788: Where we buy you a virtual girlfriend (podcast)

Scott Stein fills in for Wilson, who is spending a sick day at home trawling WebMD on his iPad. Or maybe he's at a job interview for Grand Theft Auto V. Today's show discusses a phenomenon known as "Netflix hoarding," how to buy an online girlfriend using a new service called Cloud Girlfriend, and we suggest a few April Fools' Day pranks for nerds.

Episode 788 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

'Tapout'-edition Huawei Ascend lands at MetroPCS

Those who find MetroPCS' plain-old Huawei Ascend too tame can now venture for a much hipper model. Tapout, a mixed-martial-arts and lifestyle brand teamed up with Huawei to create the Huawei Ascend Sanctioned by Tapout. (Yep, it's a mouthful.)

The special Tapout edition comes with two logoed covers (one black, one gray) and is preloaded with 10 virtual training center videos, over a dozen themed wallpapers, and a Tapout app.

The guts of the entry-level Android phone remain the same, with Android 2.2 Froyo beneath the hood, a 3.5-inch display, and a 3.2 megapixel camera.

The … Read more

Testing Android battery drain at different native resolutions

A few weeks ago I posted detailing the performance scores of several smartphones.

Of particular interest were the video battery results for the Android phones. Some commenters took issue with the fact that I used 720p video to drain the battery life of the Android phones, while the iPhone 4 was tested with video running at that device's native resolution.

Some thought this was an unfair battery drain, as the 720p video would have to be resized to fit a phone's native resolution, possibly taking away processing cycles, draining the battery more quickly. Commenters suggested that the video … Read more

Cellular South to offer HTC Merge in April with Amazon app store preinstalled

Cellular South announced today that it will be among the first carriers in the United States to offer the HTC Merge. Officially introduced back in late February, the Merge is HTC's first dual-mode CDMA/GSM handset to run Android.

Even without a full review, there's a lot to like about the Merge. It features HTC's Sense UI with Android 2.2, a full sliding QWERTY keyboard, a 3.8-inch touch screen, and a 5-megapixel camera capable of recording HD video. What's more, the HTC Merge will be the first device to launch with Amazon.com's new Android app store preloaded on the device.

Although the press release doesn't spell it out very clearly, the Merge also will offer the Android Market for apps and games. When reached for a comment, a representative of Cellular South told CNET that the carrier is giving customers access to both distribution models. … Read more

Can digicams survive in the smartphone age?

Point-and-shoot digital cameras have been struggling. According to NPD's Retail Tracking Service, in 2010, the highly penetrated devices declined 5 percent in units.

On March 16 at the Samsung Experience product showcase in New York, the digital camera market took a baby step toward addressing the Web-based photo-sharing capabilities of smartphones when Samsung formally introduced the Wi-Fi-equipped, social network-savvy SH100 that was first announced at CES. Within a week, though, digital cameras were back to feeling the heat.

At a CTIA Wireless expo event punctuated by the repeated wearing and removing of 3D glasses and market information from DisplaySearch and In-Stat, Sprint and HTC announced the EVO 3D. The handset marks a significant upgrade to the very successful EVO 4G, the first WiMax smartphone announced at last year's CTIA.

NPD recently cited the EVO 4G as the best-selling large-screen handset in 2010. The EVO's 3D auto stereoscopic display can accommodate the relatively rare 3D movies and the even more rare 3D Android games, but what partners HTC and Sprint talked up was the potential for the smartphone's dual lenses to capture 3D photos and videos, an area of high interest to consumers, according to NPD's 3D 360 Monitor.

There are some significant limitations imposed by the handset's parallax barrier display overlay enabling the 3D. For example, the effect disappears when the phone is in portrait mode. However, unlike other cameras that can generate 3D photos with a single lens, the EVO 3D can capture HD video in 3D. And while Sprint did not announce subsidized pricing for the handset, it is likely to come in closer to the $200 of the original EVO 4G than the $400 or more many retailers charge for the Fujifilm FinePix REAL 3D W1. According to NPD's 3D 360 Monitor, only 2 percent of consumers are aware of the existence of 3D digital cameras. … Read more

LG Optimus Big leaked image reveals 4.3-inch Nova touch screen

An image of the LG Optimus Big has leaked, along with some specs. As befits its charmingly blunt name, this smartphone is a whopper, sporting a 4.3-inch touch screen. That's it above, making the 3.5-inch display on the old iPhone 3GS feel all inadequate.

The Optimus Big Boy will also have a 1GHz single-core processor, Korean site XportsNews reports, rather than the dual-core processor that's now cropping up in handsets such as the Optimus 2X and Motorola Atrix.

Other specs are thin on the ground, but we'll chop our ears off and saute them with a little onion and garlic if the Optimus Big doesn't end up running Android.