Tag Archive for ‘Android-2.2-Froyo’
2010 will be remembered by mobile gadget geeks as the year when two tablet computers slugged it out in the emerging tablet markets. The Apple iPad came out first and delighted even the harshest critics. But it had its shortcomings – no USB, no camera, no 3G video camera, no HDMI and no real multitasking OS.
Enter the Samsung Galaxy Tab, inheriting just about all the flagship features that made its Galaxy S smartphone the most popular Android handset todate but bringing it closer to tablet size without giving up on portable ease and pocketability. It’s the largest mobile phone in the market with a foot on the tablet genre.
Shaming the iPad
Better in many areas than the iPad, the Samsung Galaxy Tab enjoys a 1 GHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU with PowerVR SGX540 graphics accelerator and 512 MB RAM running the Android running the v2.2 Froyo. This puts it processing prowess at par with the Apple iPad. With a choice of 16GB or 32GB model, it has a microSD slot for up to 32GB to give it parity with the 64GB model of the iPad. Then there’s a 3.2 megapixel autofocus shooter with LED flash and D1 video recording at 30fps and a front-facing 1.3 camera for 2G videos calls the iPad does not have. Lastly, it has true multitasking support with the Android v2.2 Froyo OS.
Other Features
The Samsung Galaxy Tab is your quad band GSM with 3G/HSDPA/HSUPA handset with WiFi 802.11 b/g/n support, Bluetooth v3 with A2DP and microUSB v2.0. Its gorgeous display is a 7-inch TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen with multitouch and Swype, an accelerometer with 3-axis gyro sensor and a proximity sensor.
Other feature includes in-built GPS receiver with A-GPS and digital compass and a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack that’s also a TV-out jack. It comes bundled with Adobe Flash 10.1, Thinkfree Office and Google Search, Gmail, YouTube, Picasa and Google talk integration. The best part is that Samsung Galaxy Tab contracts are available right now!
Tags: 3.2-megapixel, 7-inch-TFT, Android-2.2-Froyo, ARM-Cortex, Google-Android, Samsung, Samsung-Galaxy-Tab, tablets, Wi-Fi
The first Android full-QWERTY slider from the Taiwanese leader in smartphones was the HTC Dream released back in June 2009. Now you have a successor in the HTC Desire Z. A closer look and it’s really the HTC Desire that just grew a sliding QWERTY keyboard from the outside. Inside, it’s another story, though close.
Familiar Features
Like the earlier Desire, the Z comes with the same 3.7-inch Super LCD capacitive touchscreen with 480 x 800 resolution and 16 million colors, plus accelerometer and proximity sensors and the multitouch input feature. It could have been AMOLED just like the first batch of HTC Desire handsets, but HTC has already shifted to S-LCD in the later batches as Samsung failed to deliver the needed quantities of the screens.
Then there’s the same 5-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, geo tagging and face detection. But the HTC Desire Z one-ups the Desire with 720p video recording courtesy of its higher Android v2.2 Froyo. But an upgrade on the older Éclair in the Desire should fix that.
Other Desirable Features
Powered by a Qualcomm MSM 7230 CPU clocked at 800 MHz, a bit less endowed than the 1GHz Snapdragon on the first Desire, the HTC Desire Z enjoys the same plethora of radio and data connectivity options, starting with a quad band GMS/GPRS/EDGE on 2G and a dual band UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA on 3G.
It comes with hotspot support from an upgraded WiFi 802.11 b/g/n with DLNA and local data connectivity like Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and microUSB v2.0. Other features include a stereo FM receiver with RDS, a 3.5mm audio jack, SatNav support with GPS, A-GPS and Digital Compass.
There’s a 1.5 GB onboard user memory with 512 MB RAM and up to 32GB microSD support. Its 1300 mAh Li-ion battery delivers 9.8 hours of call time on 2G, 6.6 hours on 3G with 430 hours on standby. Some very attractive HTC Desire Z contracts have already emerged and the handset is expected to hit shelves in late October.
Tags: 5-megapixel, Android-2.2-Froyo, Google-Android, HTC, HTC-Desire-Z, qualcomm, QWERTY, social-networking, Wi-Fi
Open source mobile platforms are taking a solid cue from the Android operating system. And with smart phones like the HTC Desire placing a new benchmark for the technology, it is hard to deny the fact that other handsets being released are simply following the example that has been set.
Understanding what makes this smart phone so special is not just looking at one simple facet of the device as both the hardware and software are equally impressive.
Android Operating System
On the software side, the Android operating system delivers a mobile phone experience unlike any other. It allows for the easy access of a wide variety of Google’s web features such as email, Maps, augmented reality, search, as well as access to file hosting and media sharing sites such as Picasa and YouTube.
The Android Market also provides users with a wide array of apps to choose from –apps that would allow users to customize battery usage, better screen brightness controls along with other practical add-ons.
Even better is the fact that the HTC Desire is upgradeable to the Android 2.2 Froyo. This version of the Android platform provides better performance thanks to better resource management capabilities (Google boasts of an outstanding speed boost of up to three times faster than version 2.1 Éclair). Naturally, the improved performance makes this the version of choice and you can expect future handsets like the HTC Desire HD to come pre-loaded with it.
Web browsing using the Android WebKit is also a lot faster with the new Java API.
Specs and More
In terms of hardware features, the HTC Desire is the first mobile phone to place the Android operating system on a Snapdragon CPU aside from the Google Nexus One. Speaking of the Google branded Android, the two phones are so similar to each other that choosing one over the other is a simple matter of wanting to have the Sense user interface or not.
While some Android purists might not like having a custom UI, HTC’s newly launched Sense UI features not only makes the custom interface look better, it also provides plenty of new security features not originally available in the OS such as remote device access.
Tags: 5-mega-pixel, AMOLED, Android-2.2-Froyo, Google-Android, HTC, HTC-Desire, Qualcomm-Snapdragon
The Google Online Store only sells one product: the Nexus One Android smart phone. Now, the store has been taken down and the Nexus One is no longer available through this specific channel.
When asked about the move, Google stated that the Nexus One has already achieved what Google wanted and expected of the handset. With many other Android devices already being released, it is hard to imagine that the Android community would insist that the handset stay available.
Either way, Vodafone UK is still offering the handset on certain contracts. Since it has not been announced how much stocks they have or how long they plan on offering the Nexus One, those who intend to own this Google branded smart phone ought to get one as soon as possible.
The Nexus One, despite not being a major selling handset, is actually an impressive piece of technology. The device comes with a 3.7 inch AMOLED capacitive touch screen display, providing users with both amazing visual quality as well as responsive and accurate touch controls. The 1GHz Qualcomm MSM7227 Snapdragon CPU gives the Nexus One all the necessary power and speed to handle any app and feature without skipping a beat.
The handset also comes with a 5 mega pixel camera, support for WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and all the usual smart phone features. Google has added in an upgraded version of the speech detection software –which gives the Nexus One speech to text features. Users can even use speech commands to initiate search queries as well.
This handset is loaded with Android 2.1 Éclair, and is compatible with the new Android 2.2 Froyo update. Froyo makes the Android OS run faster (both the UI and browser has been upgraded), and it will also be compatible with the newly launched Adobe Flash Player version 10.1.
Tags: 5-mega-pixel, AMOLED, Android-2.1-Eclair, Android-2.2-Froyo, Google, Google-Android, Google-Nexus-One, Qualcomm-Snapdragon, Vodafone
