With the titans of the industry intruding on turf once hailed sacred to small timers like Foursquare and Vlingo, the two companies are forging a partnership that will help aim to continue their operations despite seeing some fierce competition. Facebook started to offer a new feature called Places that’s similar to what Foursquare offers while Google Voice Actions has taken a crack at Vlingo’s tried & true service. However, Vlingo is providing for some new features and enhancements to Foursquare for Android which essentially will allow users to do certain things with voice actions. Instead of manually having to check-in, you can simply say “Check in to Taco Bell” and the app will automatically do it for you. Other recognized functions are “Where are my friends” and “Who’s nearby?” This move could be possibly due to the increasing amount of share that Google is taking away from Vlingo with their Voice Actions service. On the other hand, it definitely strengthens the cause for both Vlingo and Foursquare to team with one another.

via Android Guys

IFA is all about Android tablets, right? Well it appears as though that is the case now that Samsung has officially removed the cover for their highly anticipated Android powered tablet, however, you can’t count out the other manufacturers at the show. Interestingly enough, Toshiba made their presence known after officially announcing their FOLIO 100 tablet which has a healthy sized 10.1” capacitive touchscreen running Android 2.2. The tablet doesn’t look like it’ll be skimping out on the hardware seeing that it features a resolution of 1024 x 600, NVIDIA Tegra 2 CPU, 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, 16GB of internal storage, support for Adobe Flash 10.1, mini-HDMI port, USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.1, and Wi-Fi. The latter of which should prove to be appealing since the Samsung Galaxy Tab unveiled at IFA appears to only offer 3G data connectivity and lacks Wi-Fi. In addition to sporting Wi-Fi, there will be a model packing 3G connectivity down the road, but it looks as though the Wi-Fi only model will be the only one available when it’s launched. Pricing seems to be reasonable at around $540 which makes it a good offering when you look closely down to its packed hardware.

source: Toshiba

Remember that low-end assault that Google had in store for Android, plotting with LG and Huawei? Well, one of its representatives just got announced by Huawei, the Chinese electronics conglomerate. Slated for release almost everywhere on the globe, the Huawei Ideos packs Android 2.2 out of the gate, and has a 2.8″ QVGA capacitive touchscreen.

While the phone is nothing fancy in terms of design and raw CPU power (528MHz), Huawei claims it has worked in close cooperation with Google on the Ideos, so as to insure the smoothest stock Froyo experience possible. The handset packs 512MB ROM/256MB RAM, and has a 3MP camera.

It is fairly chubby at 0.53″ (13.5mm), but will come in a variety of flashy colors for all the GSM and UMTS/HSDPA bands you can imagine. Thus the US might easily be seeing it on AT&T or T-Mobile, since it recently hit the FCC. It has Wi-Fi n, and doubles as a mobile hotspot for up to eight devices.

The magic number here appears to be 200 (pounds, euros, dollars), as from prices floating around it seems that the Ideos won’t probably jump over that threshold in any country, making it an extremely affordable off-contract Froyo handset. Huawei claims that, since it has been working closely with Google on the handset, it will be promptly OTA updated to the new Android versions when they roll out.

source: Pocket-Lint

Samsung announced its worst-kept secret that has been floating around since June – a 7″ tablet running Froyo, called the Galaxy Tab. All the Google services are onboard, with a few of Samsung’s own improvements, taking advantage of the big screen. The same snappy Hummingbird chipset that powers the Galaxy S and its US carrier versions, is planted inside the Galaxy Tab, and TouchWiz 3.0 with Samsung’s Social Hub is layered on top of Android 2.2’s UI.

The tablet is destined to be compared with the iPad, but it is a different animal altogether, due to its smaller 7″ capacitive LCD display with 1024×600 pixels WSVGA resolution, and the fact that it is running Android 2.2. It feels more like the missing link between a smartphone and large tablets, like the 9.7″ iPad. When we add the cell phone capabilities, complete with front camera for video calling, the built-in memory, expandable up to 64GB (for the 32GB version), and the fact that it is both Adobe Flash and HTML5 capable, it becomes a very enticing offering, ready to give the iPad a run for its money. It is a much lighter and thinner device at 0.47″ (11.98mm) thickness and 13.4 ounces (380 grams) weight. Not to forget it also has a 3MP camera with LED flash on the back.

Samsung has tailored the Galaxy Tab experience to take advantage of the large screen. The default Froyo calendar, for example, has undergone optimization for the fact that more things at once can be shown on a 7″ screen, than on a typical smartphone display. Numerous such improvements have taken place, and Samsung has thrown onto the tablet a few multimedia Hubs to make sure your time with the tablet is well spent. The Readers Hub gives you access to millions of books and thousands of magazines for reading on the go, and the upcoming Media Hub and Music Hub will be giving you the option to buy or rent tunes, movies and TV shows. Of course, video can also be sideloaded, given Samsung’s devices traditionally rich codec support, and the full HD video playback capabilities of the Hummingbird chipset. The 4000mAh battery is rated for 7 hours of movie playback.

To cap it off, the full Google services suite is present on the Galaxy Tab, unlike some half-baked solutions on other Android tablets or smartphones we’ve encountered. Google Maps Navigation beta makes it a 7″ voice-guided navigational device (in countries where turn-by-turn is supported), and the tablet has full access to Android Market and Samsung Apps, where we are positive applications will soon be proliferating for that exact same resolution.

Recently we had the chance to play with a Galaxy Tab prototype, so head over to our preview at phoneArena.com, complete with pictures and video samples from the 3MP camera. The Samsung GALAXY Tab will be available in Europe in mid September, and in other markets, including Korea, the US, and Asia, in the coming months. In a Q&A session Samsung officials have confirmed that there will be a variety of tablets coming from the company next year, including one running Android 3.x (Honeycomb). A full list of the Galaxy Tab specs can be found below, there is no official confirmation on the price range yet.
source: Samsung

Currently sitting with a 17% share of the global Android market, Sony Ericsson CEO Bert Nordberg said on Wednesday that the joint venture is aiming to be the market share leader. The executive didn’t give a market share target or a time frame relating to this quest, but the current leader has a 23% piece of the pie.

For Sony Ericsson to achieve this goal, the company will have to step things up in terms of manufacturing. Currently, all of the joint venture’s Android phones are powered by the 1.6 build of the operating system. Most top-end phones using Google’s open source OS are loaded with Android 2.1 or 2.2. Sony Ericsson is also going to have to revise their strategy for dealing with U.S. carriers. The current flagship Xperia X10 went months between its launch overseas and its recent release on AT&T. The result was that by the time the X10 was available in the U.S. as a subsidized handset, its specs had been surpassed by many other carrier branded models.

One way that Sony Ericsson could shake things up would be to offer an Android phone with capabilities to link with the Sony PlayStation gaming platform. Recent speculation centered around such a device powered by Android 3.0, that if produced, could help Sony Ericsson take a huge slice of market share away from the other Android phone manufacturers.
source: AndroidandMe

Just when we all thought we’ve seen enough regarding Samsung’s flagship set of Galaxy S smartphones, the Korean based manufacturer is holding a special event in New York to unveil some new things. First and foremost, it looks as though they will be showing off their long awaited Media Hub platform which is their centralized online store mobile store dedicated for movies and videos. Aside from that, the invitation sent out suggests that they will also be introducing their “latest Android-powered device.” It’s rather difficult to justify if it’s a smartphone or some other kind of device based on what’s said on the invitation, but the familiar “Samsung Galaxy S” words are plastered underneath – so it’s possible that it might be a smartphone. We’ll know for sure soon enough!
via Unwired View

Android users, we know you were feeling a bit left out. After all, as we reported, the highly addictive Angry Birds game has just landed on the Palm Pre and Pre Plus models running webOS 1.4.5, and had been on the iOS platform for some time. But this Friday, the birds, the pigs and the slingshots will be available for Android owners who want to beta test the game. If that includes you, sign up at this link. Rovio, the company behind the game, plans on sending out the beta to everyone who has signed up.
source: DroidLife

Now here is an interesting handset, Motorola. In the US, you dipped your toes in the insidious waters of toughened smartphones with the i1. Now, across the pond, you get yet another handset announced that is IP67 certified to come out unscathed from the battle with elements. A commendable achievement on a 3.7″ touchscreen handset running Android, we admit.

The Motorola Defy, as the name suggests, is not afraid to be dropped, scratched (Gorilla Glass), used in a sand storm, or submersed in water up to 3 feet (1 meter). Really not bad, considering it stays light at 4.16 ounces (118gr), and keeps a fairly slender 0.54 inches (13.8mm) profile with a capacitive touchscreen that carries 480×854 pixels of resolution.

The chipset is TI’s OMAP 3610 running at 800MHz, which should be enough for most purposes. Motorola still managed to slip in a 5MP camera with LED flash, so you won’t be missing moments out of those harsh environments you take the Defy to. It is not specified if the video capture is HD, but the frame rate is listed as 26-30fps, which should deliver smooth video, even if not 720p. The tough handset sports dual microphones for noise cancellation, which should make recorded videos clear sounding as well.

Every opening around the phone is cap protected, and there are screws tightening the case together to prevent those liquids from entering the innards. The folks at Motorola say that the possibility of upgrade to Froyo is being looked at, but there is no certainty so far what will follow. The Defy has the Swype text entry method preloaded as default.

It should be available in Europe at some point in the fourth quarter and, who knows, might make its way stateside as the rumored Jordan on T-Mobile.
source: Motorola

If you have wondered why Steve Jobs shuns Adobe Flash in Apple’s gadgets, it might not be just because of his capricious nature. We have been waiting for a while for Froyo to bring the full Flash experience to Android devices, but the end results are far from impressive. Over at GigaOM they have made a video trying to run various things on a Nexus One with Froyo, and found mobile Flash still not ready for prime time.

Given the resource hog that desktop Flash is, the mobile version has proved to be a daunting task for Adobe to scale down, and port over to mobile devices. Video playback on a lot of popular news and video websites was hit-and-miss, and basically the moral of the story is that the videos still have to be specifically optimized for mobile viewing, which kind of misses the whole purpose.

In our own experience with Adobe Flash 10.1 on Froyo we noticed actual improvement displaying interactive charts, like those of Google Finance, for example, which before were not exactly “interactive”, but Google recently optimized the site for mobile, so that might be it.

What about your experiences, has the Flash superhero come to the rescue on your Froyo device, or you also have some “Flashback” stories to tell?
source: GigaOM

Motorola confirmed the anticipated European version of the DROID 2 today, under the MILESTONE 2 title. It does 3G only at the 2100MHz band, so it is calling Europe home, and will be available there in the fourth quarter. It is basically a rebadged version of the Motorola DROID 2, thus the same 1GHz OMAP3 chipset running Froyo is present in the MILESTONE 2.

Of course, there is nowhere to hide from MOTOBLUR, as Motorola has decided to leave the UI on the European version, along with its resizable widgets. It can tether wireless internet to five devices at once, but it depends on the carrier whether the feature will be allowed.

The major difference is that the MILESTONE 2 will shoot 720p HD video when it ships, so hopes are up a firmware upgrade or a cooked ROM will unlock this feature for the DROID 2 as well, since the shooter is absolutely the same. Motorola will ship it with an 8GB microSD card, and the internal memory is listed as “up to 8GB”. Have a look at the promo video below, very Flash-y.

Dare to guess the difference in keyboards? MILESTONE 2 has the € sign up left.
source: Motorola