The HTC Tattoo currently runs the Cupcake Android 1.5 version of the OS, which seems positively dated next to Android 2.1, used in new Androids like the HTC Desire. HTC says that it’s currently working on making the latest edition of the Sense UI work on the HTC Tattoo, but that it won’t be too long before it’s ready to go.

Android 2.1 would be a superb addition to the budget HTC Tattoo, adding the new Leap function, which lets you view multiple home screens at once, and the social networking Friend Stream widget.

Android has been criticised of late, with slow updates causing a fragmentation between devices leading to many apps not working across all devices. Many of 2009’s top Androids – such as the HTC Hero and HTC Tattoo – are soon going to be made bang up-to-date with updates, which should hopefully calm these troubled Android waters.

via ElectricPig

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Registering on the Vodafone website will keep you up-to-date with the latest info on the devices, including that all-important heads-up when the HTC Legend and HTC Desire actually become available.

Vodafone is putting a big focus on Android phones this year, with this HTC duo and the Google Nexus One being the most anticipated Androids around. We’re still waiting for rock-solid release dates for the Desire and Legend, but this sign-up shows that we’re edging to that all-important release day, which Vodafone says will fall within April. Not too long to wait, then.

To sign up for updates on these devices, head over to the Coming Soon section of the Vodafone website.

YOU SHOULD READ – HTC Desire vs HTC Legend – which is right for you?

Swords and Sorcery EP
Swords and Sorcery EP is the oddest game we loved from GDC 2010. It’s a deliberately pixellated adventure that’s half retro, half arty. It won’t be released until Q2, so we’ve got a few months to wait, but Swords and Sorcery EP looks very special. Only fragments of the game were shown at GDC 2010, so we can’t really tell what the whole experience will be like, but its intoxicating music and environments have got us begging for more.

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge: Special Edition
Its title is long-winded, but we can forgive this renovated classic. LucasArts will release an updated version of the 1991 point and click adventure Monkey Island 2 this year. It’ll feature all-new graphics, voice acting and an iPhone-friendly interface. Its prequel The Secret of Monkey Island was released last year, to much acclaim, so we can’t wait to see what LucasArts has improved on with the sequel.

Faraway
Coming from the creator of the popular iPhone game Eliss, we have high hopes for Faraway. In it, you control a comet and have to use the gravitational pulls of celestial bodies to get it moving the way you want. It’s based around a physics engine, but it’s the start visual style of Faraway that you notice ahead of its physics. You aim is to use the comet to create constellations, using its path to draw them on the touchscreen.

Stranded 2: Mysteries of Time
The original Stranded, released in 2005, remains one of our favourite mobile games ever made, so we’re glad to see its sequel get an iPhone release. It’s an action adventure where you have to travel through time, battling dinos alongside gathering wood and hunting to keep yourself alive. Stranded 2: Mysteries of Time is set to arrive on the App Store in April. Our iPhone home screen could do with another chunky adventure. Bring it on!

Zombie Infection
Gameloft has produced some seriously pretty iPhone games, but now it’s putting its skills to making things look more gruesome than gorgeous. Zombie Infection is a 3D action game based on its over-the-top mobile game of the same name, released last year. Think Resident Evil but less serious and you’ve got the right idea. How will it compare to Capcom’s official Resident Evil iPhone game though? There will be blood, zombie fans.

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The Nokia N900 has the potential to be an iPod-killing device. It has loads of internal memory, a real 3.5mm headphone jack and a good media player built-in. Here’s how to take it to the next level.

Pick a codec – MP3 or eAAC+
If you buy your music online, you might not have to make this choice, but the Nokia N900 supports more audio codecs than most mobiles, so you need to pick one if you’re converting your CDs. Will you choose MP3, WMA or eAAC+? aAAC+ offers an excellent quality-to-file size ratio, but MP3s are so common and compatible with everything that they’re the best choice if you move your files to different devices. We’d recommend using the 192kbps VBR quality setting to get audiophile-quality files that won’t eat up your memory cards too quickly.

Ditch the bundled buds
The most important part of the audio equation with any mobile is the headphones you use. You might baulk at spending much cash on something so small, but we urge you to ditch the bundled buds as soon as possible. If you take public transport, the best earphones to buy are IEM noise isolating ones. The excellent Sennheiser CX300s are available for next to nothing these days and they offer thumping bass and good sound isolation. Willing to spend a bit more? The Sennheiser CX550 Style II (£69.99) and Denon AH-C360 (£44.99) earphones are well worth a look.

Crank-up the quality with a headphone amp
If you have a decent pair of headphones, you should seriously consider pairing them up with a headphone amp. These can cost hundreds of pounds and are often much bigger than a phone, but the Fiio E5 (£19.95) is both tiny and cheap. It plugs into the headphone jack of the Nokia N900 and is powered by its own rechargeable lithium battery. It’ll open up the sound of your tunes, and features a bass boost option if your earphones aren’t quite bassy enough for your tastes already.

Make sure your ID3 tags are up to date
Even great MP3 collections can be let down by rubbish tagging. MP3s contain information about who made the songs, what genre they’re in and when the songs were originally released, but unless you’re very organised with your collection there’s a good chance it’ll be like Swiss cheese – full of holes. Updating ID3 tags manually is a painful process, but there are pieces of software than can do all the work for you. PC/MAC application TuneUp automatically fills-in any gaps and adds album art too. There’s a free version to check out, and the unlimited edition costs $29.99.

Don’t scrimp with memory cards
Memory cards are dirt cheap nowadays, so if your music collection is bigger than the Nokia N900’s 32GB of internal memory, you shouldn’t go cheap on your memory card. For music, the memory card doesn’t need to be ultra-quick, but it is worth getting more storage than you’ll need. 16GB microSD cards can be had for around £30 is you shop around, and 8GB cards can be found for under £15.

YOU SHOULD READ – Nokia N900 – the top accessories

Got any more improvements you’d like to see? Let us know in the comments section.

Installing apps to SD
With Android 2.1, you’re left with only a few hundred megabytes of internal memory to install apps to as you can’t install to SD, which doesn’t leave you with enough when there are tens of thousands out there to check out. Let your internal memory get too low and you’ll start seeing more errors within apps too, so at present you have to be careful with your app downloading. Even the low-end iPhone has 8GB to play with, so this Android limitation seems silly to us.

Native divx/xvid support
Even budget Androids like the HTC Tattoo have screens big and bright enough to watch movies on comfortably, but you have to head on into the Android Market to find a media player that can hack the sort of videos you might download from the web. Plug the functionality into the standard media player and everyone’s happy. The divx players you can grab from the Android Market aren’t the most polished apps around, so a first-party solution would be a big bonus for Android.

Advanced home screen management
Some Androids have seven home screens, some five. Some have fancy transitions, some don’t. Why not let us choose how many home screens we want as standard? It could be an inoffensive option nestled within the settings menu, so that any Android newbies wouldn’t have to worry about it. Not everyone wants a phone cluttered with pages of icons, so the ability to cut them down – right down to one single home screen – would add something to the vanilla Android experience.

Multi touch
The HTC Desire bolted-on multi touch to Android, letting you use the handy pinch zoom move when browsing, but it’s not a standard feature within Android. Trying to implement it would probably cause problems when some hardware won’t support the feature, but there must be some way around this, right? Google’s done some amazing things in its time, and implementing multi touch shouldn’t be too taxing for Google’s best and brightest.

A better Android Market
The Android Market is packed with thousands of apps. Tens of thousands of apps. Actually finding anything good can be difficult though because the basic navigational tools at your disposal aren’t up to the task. Apps are split into sections and there’s a basic search tool but it’s more difficult than either the Apple App Store or the BlackBerry App World. Android is going to become increasingly popular as an OS in 2010, so it’s time its app store got a spruce up, don’t you think?

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F1 2010 Timing App – Championship Pass (£19.99)
This is the daddy of F1 apps. F1 2010 Timing App – Championship Pass shows you the position of each racer as the races are going on, letting you see the timing differences between drivers much more clearly than watching the race live. Each track is fully modelled, and you can zoom in and out, or change your angle of view, to get the perspective you’re after. It’s pricey, but if you’re an F1 obsessive it’s a must-have.
Best for – unbeatable live coverage

BMW Sauber F1 Team Racing 09 (£1.19)
Endorsed by the BMW team,  this iPhone game is designed for real F1 fanatics. It puts you in the driving seat of an F1 car and offers eight tracks from across the world. Fine-tune your car and take control of your pit team as they re-tire your car. It’s based on the 2009 F1 season, but makes up for it with plenty of authentic F1 features.
Best for – getting in the driving seat yourself

F1 News United Kingdom (Free)
Don’t want to spend any cash? F1 News United Kingdom pulls-in news feeds from all the top F1 news sources, including Formula1.com, autosport.com and f1fanatics.co.uk. You can pick which sites you want to follow, so you don’t have to find yourself buried under a mound of F1 news, probably reporting about the same few things. It downloads everything over the net, so you’ll need a web connection to get your news fix.
Best for – free news

F1 2010 (£1.79)
This app is great for keeping up with each step of the F1 season, and it costs a lot less than the F1 2010 Timing App. F1 2010 lets you see all the upcoming events of the season, the grid position of each driver and the current standings of each team. It also supports push notifications so will keep you up-do-date without leaving you to constantly load up the app.
Best for – easy day-by-day updates

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It’s set for an April or May launch in the US, but there are not details of a UK release as yet. We’re still waiting for the Google Nexus One, HTC Desire and HTC Legend to hit the shelves, so things are already busy enough on the Android front.

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Ten Kings of Leon hits feature, including Use Somebody and Sex on Fire. The underlying gameplay is the same as any other Tap Tap Revenge title – you tap along with symbols as they move down the screen, in time with the music.

This isn’t the first themed version of Tap Tap Revenge, with Nine Inch Nails and Lady Gaga versions already available on iTunes. Want to check out Tap Tap’s rhythm flavour before buying?  The vanilla Tap Tap Revenge 3 for iPhone is free to download and includes more than 100 songs.

Kings of Leon Revenge is available now for £2.99.

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A full photo unboxing of the iPhone 4G has appeared on website UMPC Fever. While its box looks a lot like an Apple product, we’re not so sure about the device itself. It’s larger and seemingly thinner than the current iPhone, with its curves more boxy. It almost looks like a hybrid iPhone-iPod Classic design.

The box also shows what the home screen looks like, given a touch of Android flavouring with a clock and a handful of preset shortcut links taking up the top part of the screen. Multiple colours are also shown – the standard black, lime green and an odd orange hue. Not quite the colours we’d normally expect from the design-obsessed Apple.

What do you think? Cheap chinese knock-off or the real deal? We’re going to opt for the former for now.

via UMPC Fever

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The Google Nexus One has been available for a while over in the US, but getting one imported can be painful — especially when you factor in the costly import taxes you’ll probably get stung with. But as of today, the Google Nexus One is available for UK registration at Vodafone.

Registration to get updates on the Google Nexus One has just opened. It’s not a full pre-order list just yet, and there’s no obligation involved, but signing up will mean that you’ll be the first in the queue in the UK to be informed when the Nexus One becomes available.

For more on the Google Nexus One, have a read of our full review.

YOU SHOULD READ — Google Nexus One Vodafone release date set for April?