Android UK News, Reviews and Allsorts » Android Phones

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!

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

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!

Android vs iPhone: A young person’s view Part 1

Togsy — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 08:40:26 +0000

There are many perspectives on what teenagers want out of a phone, however there are very few that are written by anything other than 20 and 30 something year old men with degrees in consulting.

So the Million Dollar Question for a young person Google or Apple?

I wrote this article with the intent of providing the opinion of a typical UK young person giving a personal perspective from myself and my peers and the teenagers I know. For those of you out there who think I get it wrong, leave a comment below.

What we want

First off I must clarify that the needs and desires of teens differ hugely to those of adults. First of all, we tend to text more, but use less than adults when it comes to calling. This affects what phones we will choose and whether we (as teens) will even select a smartphone.

Yet many teens do possess smartphones. This is because our social connectivity does not just lie within texting each other, it is with the Internet, Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, Twitter, the list goes on. We are in the age of the internet and we need to be constantly connected, hence the recent Htc Wildfire which is aimed at the youth market.

The critical factor- Cash!!

Money is the fundamental factor in people choosing their phones and is even more important for us youths. No matter how pretty the iPhone 4 looks or how sweet that Nexus One with 2.2 is, with prices increasing as well as contract lengths it can be more difficult to get the ideal phone. Looking at the image below from Nielson you can see that iPhones are mainly owned by rich males, with Android being more middle classed and unisex phones.

An important factor that all smartphone manufacturers have to take into account is how much will people pay for a smartphone. The answer is measured in percentages of income which is why the majority of iPhone owners have a large incomes, and the generally more budget Android phones are more evenly spread around the lower income brackets. With the iPhone 4 starting at £500 it is easy to see why the majority of owners have large incomes, and for us teens it makes it very difficult to purchase these phones. Android offers many cheaper lower-end smartphones (HTC Wildfire, Backflip, Moto Charm etc) which are more appealing to us teens.

From what I have said in Part 1, Android takes the crown by offering cheaper phones which more devices aimed specifically at teens.

Check out part 2 for continuation on the story and a final summary of what makes each of them better than the other…

Motorola Milestone XT720 coming to the UK on Monday

Togsy — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:23:47 +0000

According to online retailer Clove the Motorola Milestone XT720 (launched in Asia as the Motoroi) is set to launch here in the UK on Monday 19th July, however there has not yet been an official announcement. This release seems likely as Motorola already have it up on their UK site with full specs details.

While maintaining a similar form factor to the Motorola Milestone (Droid in USA) it has a protruding bump on the right hand side of the device and lacks the physical slide out keyboard of its predecessor. Spec wise it is an all singing and dancing handset including HD Recording, xenon flash, HDMI plaback and the increasingly standard FM Radio. It also has one of the thinnest Android handsets and one of the longest battery performance of any Android handset.

A full list of specs from the Motorola Website are here:

Android 2.1
3.7 inch, 480 x 854 TFT display
1390 mAh battery – up to 540 mins talk time and Up to 320 hours standby time
550Mhz processor
HD video capture at 720p, video playback onto HDTV via HDMI cable
8MP, Digital Zoom with Xenon Flash
FM Radio
MircoSD card slot – expandable to 32gb
Weight: 160g
Thickness: 10.9 mm
360 Hours Standby time- Yes SERIOUSLY!

From the specs we can see that it is way more than the entry level Android phones that we have seen recently and but can its fairly hefty £380 price tag be justified by a 520MHz processor when we saw 1ghz processors 7 months ago with the Nexus One, Could its future be already limited by the 1gHz processor requirements for Gingerbread (Android’s next software update after Froyo)?

Nonetheless this device is very thin, only a millimetre thicker that the iPhone 4′s 9.3mm depth, and barely heavier than the 137g of the iPhone 4. Overall with stunning HD video capturing and a great high-res screen this looks like another winning device from Motorola and for Android despite the processor limitation, and watch out for a in depth review coming soon.

Here is promo video below

Via: Clove

Htc ACE could be the GSM version of Evo 4G

Togsy — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 06:05:27 +0000

There have been whispers that a device rumoured to be called the HTC Ace could be heading towards the UK according to the Omio mobile roadmap and there has already been a tonne of speculation as to what this could be. Many are hoping it to be either the GSM version of the Evo 4G or the Droid Incredible.

Both handsets are the flagships of the Android world over in the USA and many European users want to be able to share the love.Eric Lin, HTC’s global PR and online community manage (and also the person who explains why Htc takes so long to update its software) spoke in an interview with Pocketlink at Uplinq and gave us English folk some reassuring words. When asked if the HTC Evo was coming to the UK he responded:

“Currently there’s only been interest in this big screen thing here [in the US] from an American carrier…

“But I definitely think that because of all of the interest that people have had in the Evo, and how well it’s been selling, that you’ll definitely see European carriers be like ‘uh-oh, maybe we should get something like that’. But I don’t have anything [to announce] quite yet”

Normally we would not post a rumour unless there is considerable evidence to back it up however although nothing is set in stone, the words “quite yet” sure do seem to raise some expectations.

Pocketlink seem to believe from their interview that it is more likely to be the Droid Incredible that would be coming to the rest of the world however that seems unlikely as the popular HTC Desire has almost identical specs barring the 8gb of internal storage and 8mp camera.

The Evo 4G would be very welcome over here in the UK, although it would have to be modified due to the obvious lack of 4G in the UK yet and all I can say is that I can’t wait. What do you guys think? Leave a comment as to what phone you want the ACE to be.

VIA: Pocketlink

HTC official ETA for Android 2.2 for HTC Desire, Legend and Wildfire

Android UK — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 10:47:10 +0000

Whilst Google Nexus one owners have been celebrating the release of Android 2.2 to their handsets and all the goodness that it brings other handset owners have been asking me when they can join the party.

I am excited to say we have received official confirmation that HTC will be rolling out Android 2.2 updates to its HTC Desire, HTC Legend and HTC Wildfire handsets by end of Q3 2010. Here’s the official statement below:

We are working hard with our partners to update the HTC Sense experience on Froyo and distribute it to our customers as fast as possible. We expect to release updates for several of our 2010 models including Desire, Legend and Wildfire beginning in Q3.

If all goes to plan by September (if there are no slippages) hopefully all the above handsets will be rocking the Android 2.2 and any new “HTC sense” ( HTC’s own customized User interface in Android) updates that they will be able to push through. (hopefully this will include the awesome Application recommendation app that is included with the HTC Wildfire)

As a new feature on the Androidbloke website if you are looking to upgrade to Android try the Androidbloke Mobile deals comparison engine on the right if you want to find out what the best deals are in the market ( updated daily!)

Motorola to Debut Motoblur 1.5 with Motorola Flipout

Android UK — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 06:08:21 +0000

Motorola looks set to bring Motoblur to the latest generation of devices starting with the all new Motorola Flipout. The Flipout looks like a modern smartphone take on the Motorola v70 ( Twist), bundling a 5 Row qwerty keyboard and full twisting, rotational interface. The phone’s key feature is its compact size and very cool rotatable keyboard, which makes it both pocket and handbag friendly.

It comes with all the standard features we have come to know and love in android phones, such as gps, gravity sensor and compass . In addition, it also comes with a built in FM Radio receiver and a second noise cancelling microphone for improved call clarity ( Just like the Nexus One). Reading through the techlist, it also indicates that it will be “music enabled” which could indicate that Moto is bundling an own branded spotify or Thumbplay service which is handy that it is rocking a standard headphone socket.

Coming in choice of 5 colours, coupled with inbuilt facebook and android integration, I think this could be a winner with the younger market segment.

Release date is still to be confirmed, but hopefully it won’t be long now.

On the software front, the phone will be rocking the latest version of the Motoblur customization labelled 1.5 which is built on top of the awesome Android 2.1 Release. This means that Flipout owners will be able to take advantage of all the latest and greatest apps on the market, right from launch.

Additions to the Motoblur feature list include:

Customization options for Happenings and Messages widgets with the option to filter updates and messages
MOTOBLUR pre-loaded widgets can be moved and resized over seven home screen panels
Re-tweet capabilities on Twitter
Personal and corporate email pushed to the device
Battery Manager helps users manage FLIPOUT’s power consumption
Multitouch interface
MOTOBLUR™ widget calendar – sync corporate calendar, email, and contact list.
ADVANCED SPEECH RECOGNITION

Here is a video tour of the new Motoblur:

To find out more visit the Motorola UK Flipout product information page.

Here are some more pictures of the phone that illustrate the twisting functionality.