Android UK News, Reviews and Allsorts

HTC Sense android 2.2 leaked and fully functional!

Togsy — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:55:12 +0000

Htc has been stating that they will be introducing their HTC Sensed-up version of Android 2.2 ever since it was revealed at the Google IO back in May. HTC Sense is the custom layer that they add to their Android phones, which improves on the already existing features of Android.

Htc Desire owners have been eagerly awaiting the new update with its delicious new performance boost through the Just-in-Time (JIT) compiler and the awesome Mobile Hotspot features.

A leaked Froyo Sense build for the Htc Droid Incredible has been discovered and been made available to the public thanks to the wonderful guys at XDA . Unlike many previous leaked ROMS this Froyo build is fully functional with all the new HTC additions such as HTC Flashlight, Radio widget, 3G mobile hotspot widget and much more, check it all out here.

Although this is currently only available for our friends across the pond, it still hugely important for all Android fans throughout the globe. This build will undoubtedly be ported onto other phones such as the the Desire and Nexus as all three phones share almost identical hardware. All I can say is that even though the Hero has just been given a delicious Éclair, I am getting hungry for some Froyo.

Some reports are already coming through that the official release of Android 2.2 is not far away including one from the HTC Benelux director so heres hoping today is the day!

Mobile Roadie brings simple DIY to app making

Android UK — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:45:07 +0000

If you have wished to find a really simple way to make your own apps? Hold off those Java courses, because Mobile Roadie has stepped in like a proverbial genie to grant your wish. Its available right now, and its really easy to make your own apps that will work on the Iphone and very excitingly work on Android too!

Since its launch in 2009, Mobile Roadie customers have already launched over 500 apps into the market. For those customers that have rolled out Mobile Roadie apps, the efforts are already starting to pay dividends. Since it launched it has streamed over 21 million songs, 1.8 million videos to date and there have been over 1.6 million Itunes songs purchased (worth a whopping $100,000) as a result of Mobile Roadie apps.

The really wonderful thing about it is that it is fully android-ready so we can look forward to seeing a bevvy of great new mobile apps come through. Mobile Roadie have a UK based sales team and hopefully we will soon be seeing some UK companies jump on board. Here is one of their promotional videos from the site which gives you a good understanding of how the app works.

Mobile Roadie has rapidly gained traction in the USA and has got some of the leading names already signed up over in the states including the famed Wynn Hotel and Taylor Swift. But its not just for the big companies, anyone (even with no technical knowledge) will be able to build their own application in around 30 minutes- so its a very powerful platform. Video, Mobile Blogging, Rss feeds, images and social features can all be added really easily to create a very powerful and popular app.

From today, Mobile Roadie will be launching a Pro version that will give even more control to its clients and allow them to push the limits on what their apps can do. Prices start from around £499.00 and have a monthly fee to keep your app on iphone and android markets.

If you are looking to find out more- check out the Mobile Roadie website.

Here are some apps that have been made with Mobile Roadie and are available to download from Market now!

Orange HTC Hero 2.1 update is hitting next week

Togsy — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:18:31 +0000

There have been several reports on the Interwebs that some folks were receiving the first of two updates yesterday, the one that prepares the phone for the main update, and now it seems the final 2.1 build could be rolling out early next week. Orange, in a statement earlier, said that testing took longer than expected:

“We apologise for the delay in Orange Hero customers receiving their Éclair update. Testing the update across European markets took longer than anticipated. However, we hope to receive final approval by the end of the week and Orange handsets should start updating from next week.”

There has been a great deal of frustration among Hero owners as to when Éclair(2.1) would land, and as it turns out its 7months after its original release on the Nexus One. We can only hope nothing like this happens again with future updates such as Froyo, if it ever gets that far.

I have an Orange HTC Hero but can not confirm the first update because my phone has been rooted with Sense 2.1 for several months, but how about you guys, have any of you Orange Hero owners received an update, and what is your reaction to this whole saga?

UK goes Android crazy- Sales up by 350%

Togsy — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 07:15:00 +0000

Wow- what a difference a year makes! – GFK is reporting that Android’s share of the UK market has increased from 3% in Q1 2010, to 13.2% in Q2 2010. That’s 350% in half a year and that is outstanding performance, even for a OS that we already knew was rapidly growing.

Globally we have seen Android increasing from 60,000 activations a day in January to 160,000 in June, and the Market up from 20,000 apps to 70,000 in a similar time-frame, which is concrete proof that android is working!

GFK is also reporting that advanced operating systems account for 66.6% of the contract market. This increase in Android adoption is likely due to the backing by companies like Htc, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and equally importantly the support of all major Network Providers (Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone, 3, O2).

Overall it’s hard to see when it will stop growing and with Gingerbread right round the corner with a promised complete UI redesign we can’t see this growth stopping any time soon. The question is, when do you guys think it will reach the magic 50%, leave a comment below and start pondering!

Acer Streams into Media Phone market

Android UK — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 07:13:15 +0000

Looks like Star Pc manufacturer, Acer is finally bringing its top game to Android by releasing the forthcoming Stream.

This phone looks set to be one of the forerunners of the upcoming Android Media Phone revolution. This is a real monster under the hood, which has a focus on being a portable entertainment hub that will hopefully take the market by storm.

Nothing but the latest in handset technology has been crammed into this device- Wifi N, bluetooth 3.0, HD Video recording and Divx playback, its all here.When it comes to sharing video, you can either use the built in HDMI slot to connect to your HD Tv, or share it wirelessly via DLNA. It even sports Dolby digital!

Priced at £399 or 30 quid a month on an expansys deal it looks like it will be another great contender in the Android phone marketplace- hopefully we will find out more in August!

Click here to visit Acer’s awesome site and view the phone in 3d!

For more information and for Pre-orders visit the eXpansys site

Best Android apps: Dropbox

Togsy — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:40:47 +0000

This is a new section that we are adding to our site and our new forums where we will be reviewing apps and games on a regular basis and we hope you enjoy and share your opinions.

Head over to the Apps forum to check it out over there and start discussing this great app called Dropbox, but here is our review below:

App Details:

“The Dropbox app syncs your files between your computers and your mobile device. Now you can browse the files in your Dropbox folder from anywhere! Share links to files with your friends, save photos and video from your camera to your computers, and open files using your favourite Android apps”

Why its great

Dropbox is a great little app that allows you to simply drag and drop files into a folder on your computer and have them sync straight to your phone. This makes transferring new pictures or documents to your phone a lot easier, no more emailing it to yourself or having to put in on the SD card.

What makes this even better is that if you share something to your dropbox app on your android phone, it will sync to the desktop immediately.

Setup

It is very easy to use and all it requires is a download on your computer and the Android App and you are ready to transfer files from one to another at lightening pace, so give it a try.

Official Rating:

4.5/5

I have to say that I had never used it before until about a week ago and am now wondering how I managed without it.

Price:

FREE

QR Code:

Similar Apps:

Droidbox, Awesome Drop, Dropbox(unofficial)

HTC find super solution for screen, Nexus One to continue

Android UK — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:54:37 +0000

Looks like the people at HTC, have not just been sitting around hoping that the AMOLED screen shortage will go away. They have been working on finding a solution to get their awesome HTC Desire and HTC Wildfire handsets into more hands.

Enter Super LCD or SLCD for short,which is the latest version of the LCD standard which includes technology from Android rival Sony.

The Super LCD standard offers some key benefits for HTC in the form of giving them the ability to ramp up production to cater to the soaring demand for the handsets as well as some other clear benefits as Peter Chou, HTC’s CEO also points out:

“The SLCD displays provide consumers with a comparable visual experience to HTC’s current 3.7 inch displays with some additional benefits including battery performance.”

I am looking forward to seeing an improvement in the battery which will help users no end. HTC have confirmed that it will be coming to its HTC Desire and other handsets including a “Global Google Nexus One” so looks like the nexus will be around for a while to come.

Big News: We have a Forum and Device list!

Togsy — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 20:03:19 +0000

Anyone who has a sharp eye for detail will have noticed that over the past week or so two new items have been added to AndroidBloke along the top row of pages. Both of these items required a great deal of work and we are now proud to present to you our very own UK Android Forum and our Android Device List.

The Device List

This is a list of nearly all of the Android Phones that you can buy in the UK.

While it does not cover every phone, we are working on updating the list frequently to allow for the best possible user experience. This list was built with the intention of helping you decide what Android Phone is right for you by listing some current choices. To help you even further we have added extra useful information such as a detailed description, and what’s more, a list of the possible tariffs so you need look no further. Take a look at the example of the Htc Desire to the right.

We know that what’s great on paper doesn’t always mean great in practice, so as well as the description of the device, over the coming weeks we will be adding our own reviews of the devices to allow you to see what the phone is like and ask us questions about the specific device. We hope you will enjoy this great new feature.

The Forum!!!

This is the biggest news that we have had in a long time, and we feel that it is a great addition to our site and we hope you feel the same way.

We want this to be the place where you guys can chat with other Androidphiles (yes I think I just made that up) and talk about anything Android-based that you want. As you can see from the shot above there are at the moment 6 different catagories:

News and talk – this is where you talk about the latest and greatest news of Android
Android Lounge – Just chat Android
Apps and Games – Here you talk about apps you would like to see, or about you favourite apps
Android Devices – where you can chat about specific devices
All things rooted – for info about rooting you phone
Help – ICAE (In Case of Android Emergency)

At the moment it is not huge and we feel a lot more can be done to make it better, but that’s where you come in. The more time you spend on it helping and chatting with each other, the better a community it becomes. We are hoping to build on this and enhance it in many new ways.

Don’t be afraid to post, because you have to get the ball rolling, we have already started by asking questions and posting some thought-provoking ideas, but we can’t do it without your help.

So register( we won’t pass details onto anyone else) and start posting, because we will be announcing a great competition for our Forum members coming very very soon.

We hope you will enjoy our two great new features and please leave us some feedback and we look forward to hearing from you!

Mobilize your work computer from anywhere with logmein

Android UK — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:36:00 +0000

Logmein Ignition for Android Review

As part of our “Android goes to work” series, we have been focusing on how professionals use their Android phones to boost their productivity in the workplace. The problem is that most of us (at least in London) spend a lot of time outside the office working, whether at client meetings or even working from home to get an extra couple of hours catchup.

Logmein.com has always been one of the top players when it comes to remote access to your computer (Mac and PC). With solutions that cater to remote access, network management and remote support, it was a matter of time before their customers would ask for

The one drawback has always been that in order to access the computers out of the office, I had to either wait till I was home or potentially borrow a clients computer to access mine. ( not very secure!) This is why I am very excited to see that Logmein are now extending into mobile and especially to the Android platform.

Initial Testing

As I already had a logmein account installed on my computer, getting it set up was really easy. I just put in my standard credentials into the app, and bang I was greeted by my familiar windows 7 login screen. With one click, my username and password were entered and I was straight into my desktop. Using the app on 3g or on wifi on the Nexus one is brilliant. Everything pops up really quickly and its a breeze to throw yourself round your familiar desktop on the small screen. I was able to copy files and view documents on the mobile screen really quickly. Partner this up with Android dropbox application and you can send files remotely to your phone to download to a local computer via usb. This is thereally a totally new level of power and control that really creates productive, efficient and functional portable working environments.

How it works

Once you are in the app you are presented with a basic screen, with a few simple icons to help you. They do a great job in keeping the interface uncluttered and just focus on the bare essentials, which is what a mobile app should do.

You are presented with a a set of 6 icons along the bottom:

A keyboard- giving you access to shift, ctrl alt, windows and your standard function keys
second gives you shortcut access to ctrl+alt+del and alt-tab
third is mouse button- allowing you to switch from right click to left click for tapping
next two are zoom buttons a
finally the setting buttons

All about control

The implementation of the remote control of he mouse is quite clever. Instead of clicking on a point in the screen as you would with a traditional touch screen, the mouse pointer stays in the centre of the screen and you use your finger to move the desktop around in the background.

In addition you can use following controls:

pinch to zoom in/out
finger swipe to pan around screen
single tapping is the same as single clicking your mouse
double taps are ( you guessed it) double clicks
2 finger taps are right clicks
double tap and slide to drag items
2 finger scroll acts like a scroll wheel

Despite this being a first release, already this is an app that has the potential to generate a huge amount of value for both the corporate and personal user. Although coming in at around £19.00 it might over stretch the personal budget, its bang on mark for the corporate market. I can personally see IT people, developers or even sales men becoming self reliant when on the road, no longer having to rely on having someone at the office to get things done.

This one firmly for the must have books! It is currently available for purchase from the android market for all handsets with Android 1.5 and later.

Download it by scanning qr code below or following the helpful walkthrough.

Here is a brief video about logmein.com for android

Android Goes to Work Part 1

Android UK — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 07:57:10 +0000

Right now I am sitting on a commuter train going into London and have been stunned by one thing:for the first time, I am not one of the only people with an Android phone. In fact I am not nearly the only one as within the space of 3m there are not less than 5 Htc Desires and a HTC Magic. Could android have finally got its foot in the door when it comes enterprise mobile?

Clearly we are approaching a stage where similarly to the Iphone, Android is finally being taken into the work place. The long term bedrock that the blackberry is the only phone for business appears to be crumbling away with each day that passes.

In my opinion Android for consumers was merely the springroll starter for the meal, quite tasty but not that satisfying- once more widespread use of it happens in the work place that’s really where the meal really starts.

So Who’s taking it up?

Luckily through this blog and through my personal networks, I have been fortunate to meet some really interesting people who class themselves as early adopters and have been using Android within the work place. David, a creative professional in London has been using it for a few months now since the Google nexus One came out.

I have always been keeping and eye on Android since it was announced, when i saw that Google were bringing out a phone to rival the iphone – I felt the time was right to make the leap.

Since he used Gmail at work anyway to archive correspondence and keep track of project correspondence, having offline access and great gmail integration was the winner for him– especially on the commute which would otherwise be down time.

David is not alone, Claire who works for an Architectural practice in North London has also moved to Android. She worked for a company which was windows mobile only, meaning that access to office network was mandated using Microsoft’s legacy mobile system.

When you saw people with iphones and blackberrys, doing far more with their phones, we jumped at the opportunity to move to another platform that could give us more.

The Blackberry option, can be quite expensive especially for a small practice like ours, and unless you pay for the full Blackberry Enterprise server, your experience can be very limiting. Moving to Android and Google Apps has saved us a lot and boosted our productivity outside the office.

The two case studies above are but a small sample of the people I have spoken to moving to android since its launch two years ago. From my discussions with individuals from sales management to CEO level, I have gleaned some really wonderful insights into using a smart phone at work which I hope will be useful to you.

Over the next week, I will be able to delve more deeply into what and how they use it. However its clear that we are already seeing the trend where many and Android phone is going to be sitting in a suit pocket or briefcase this Monday morning.

I know there are a lot more stories out there, so if you would like to share how or why you use Android in your work, I would be really interested to hear it. Feel free to comment, send me a tweet or even let me know via Contact Androidbloke above.