Android

Float your music to the clouds with MP3tunes

Music services geared toward untethered listening are enjoying increasing popularity thanks to the fact that cell phones are swiftly replacing standalone MP3 players for many people. MP3tunes is one of many solutions that has cropped up as a solution for on-the-go listening. The company offers a music cloud service that lets you upload up to 2GB of music for free and access it from any Internet-connected computer as well as a variety of handheld devices.

The first step to using MP3tunes is to download the teeny, tiny LockerSync uploader tool, which lets the service analyze your library and add it … Read more

HTC Desire HD rumored for October

Though demand is still high for HTC's Evo 4G, the rumor mill is already abuzz about HTC's next big Android phone.

According to a few recent leaks, the Taiwanese handset maker is working on a follow up to the HTC Desire dubbed the Desire HD. The phone is said to run Android 2.2 and have a 4.3-inch touch screen, an 8-megapixel camera capable of recording HD video, 4GB internal memory, as well as the increasingly popular 1GHz Snapdragon processor.

Also according to the leaks, the phone will support XviD video playback, SRS surround sound, and … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1270: MP3: the gateway drug (podcast)

On today's show, Buzz Out Loud gets you a tiny bit high ... using a sine wave. Could it be!? Also, we continue our long slog through the Story that Wouldn't End: the iPhone 4 antenna issue. Press conference tomorrow! Also, will the Droid X self-destruct if you try to mod it? Maybe, maybe not. But it seems like the phone world is all about picking your poison these days.

HP shelving its Android tablet?

Hewlett-Packard is working on a variety of tablet PCs, running a variety of operating systems. Among them, an Android device that was supposed to arrive at market in the fourth quarter of 2010. But no longer. Sources in position to know tell me that HP's Android slate has been delayed and won't ship before the end of the year as planned.

Why? That's not entirely clear, but evidently the tablet has been tabled--at least for the time being.

Perhaps HP has decided to focus its resources on the future WebOS slate PC that its new Palm unit … Read more

Vlingo's SuperDialer aims to be an Android 411

If you own an Android phone, you already know how to use Vlingo's SuperDialer, a beta feature that expands the app's vocally triggered "call" command to search not just your personal phone book, but also a wider directory of businesses.

Tap Vlingo's home screen widget and speak out the name of the business or category of business you'd like to call, for example "Call Little Star Pizza" or "call pizza." (Omitting the "call" command will trigger the default Google search, but not the SuperDialer's business listings.)

Vlingo … Read more

Dialed In 134: When cell phone names go wrong

Believe it or not, we have news to discuss this week that doesn't concern the iPhone 4. Android is back front and center with the Samsung Captivate and Vibrant, the first two Galaxy S models to go on sale. Bonnie gives us the scoop on both models and reports on the hot New York weather. Also in the podcast, Nicole tackles Android from the budget angle; Kent lists silly cell phone names; and, yes, we even talk about the latest controversy with Apple's handset.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) … Read more

Leaked Verizon catalog highlights Droid 2

Thanks to a leaked summer device catalog, we can confirm some of the rumored specs for the Droid 2 from Motorola and Verizon.

Listed as "coming soon," the Droid 2 is found to be sitting front and center on the inside of the catalog, next to the Droid X. Looking through the pages, we can see that the handset has an 8GB memory card preloaded and comes with a 1GHz processor and 5-megapixel camera. Other features include 512MB RAM, a more spacious slideout QWERTY keyboard, and 3G Mobile Hotspot capability.

It appears this Droid 2 will fall neatly … Read more

Access your music anywhere

Music services geared toward untethered listening are enjoying increasing popularity thanks to the fact that cell phones are replacing standalone MP3 players for many people. MP3tunes is one of many solutions that has cropped up as a solution for on-the-go listening. The company offers a music cloud service that lets you upload up to 2GB of music for free and access it from any Internet-connected computer as well as a variety of handheld devices.

The first step to using MP3tunes is to download the teeny, tiny LockerSync uploader tool, which lets the service analyze your library and add it to … Read more

Velocity Micro readies three Android tablets

So far, the anticipated wave of Android tablets competing against the Apple iPad has been little more than a trickle. The unfortunately named Dell Streak--though promising--has yet to show its face in the U.S., and the dated Android 1.5 OS on the Archos 5 and Archos 7 Home Tablet leaves plenty to be desired.

The recently announced Velocity Micro Cruz Tablet renews our hope for an agile, inexpensive Android alternative to Apple's runaway hit. Due out in September with a 7-inch capacitive touch screen and an affordable price of $299, the Cruz Tablet delivers a (mostly) complete Android OS 2.1 experience, including compatibility with Flash 10.1.

You also get 802.11n Wi-Fi, an SDHC memory card slot with an included 8GB card, 4GB of integrated memory, 800x480 native resolution, multitouch, accelerometer control, a front-facing camera, speaker, microphone, headphone jack, and plenty of media playback support (music, video, and e-books).

Unfortunately, the caveat with the Cruz Tablet is the same for all current Archos Android tablets, which is the inability to use Google's Android Marketplace app to browse, purchase, and download any of the thousands of apps made for Android. Like Archos, Velocity Micro offers their own integrated storefront for apps they've handpicked for the Cruz, but the pickings are presumably slim and the idea of limited access sorta goes against the whole ethos of Android.

Regardless, it's good to see another horse in the race, and Velocity Micro isn't stopping with just one tablet.… Read more

Android's Opera Mini browser gets session restore

Opera continues updating the "Mini" version of its mobile browser for Android phones with some noticeable tweaks and enhancements.

The Wednesday release of Opera Mini 5.1 for Android brings sundry features such as setting Opera Mini as the default browser, and seeing the entire screen when you switch to full-screen mode.

The best addition is that Opera Mini can save your session within an hour of starting it, if the browser accidentally closes while working in the background. This is a similar provision to the session restore in Opera Mini for the iPhone.

Opera Mini 5.1 … Read more