Mark Frankel, VP of Qualcomm, has reaffirmed that the company has shipped its dual-core Snapdragon chipset to manufacturers, and the quickest of them could be bringing to market smartphones or tablets with it by Christmas, or even in Q4.

The majority of devices with the new system-on-a-chip that runs at clock speeds up to 1.5GHz, and allows for full 1080p HD video playback, however, should start flooding the retail space early next year. The 45nm QSD8672 Snapdragon has two cores – each can be utilized independently, and put to rest when not needed, thus improving battery life up to 30% compared to its single core brethren.

Qualcomm has traditionally strong ties with HTC, so whether Windows Phone 7 will try to differentiate itself from the competition with dual-core hardware, or it will be running on an Android handset, HTC will most likely be one of the first to out a phone with the new Snapdragon.
source: ComputerWorld via WMPoweruser

Bloomberg is reporting that Google and PayPal are currently trying to hammer out an agreement that will allow Android owners to use the transaction service to pay for apps purchased in the Android Market. PayPal could be a payment option for shoppers in the Market by the end of the year. Currently, payments are made using a credit card registered with Google’s Checkout service.

By giving developers an easier way to get paid, Google is hoping that it results in more applications being developed for its open source operating system. While the Android Market is now up to about 75,000 apps at last count, Apple’s App Store still owns a comfortable lead with more than 225,000 choices available. Although Google Checkout allows for a quick payment process, PayPal’s 87 million members dwarf the membership of the former, which might raise the number of app buyers.

Maribel Lopez, whose firm tracks the mobile industry, said, “It’s clear that PayPal has been making huge strides in mobile.” The head of Lopez Research continued to say, “From Google’s perspective, they just haven’t won the war on this. Why bother fighting it?” There is also the possibility that talks could break off without an agreement having been reached. Both PayPal and Google spokesmen declined to discuss the situation.
source: Bloomberg

Courtesy of a leaked firmware build for the expected Android 2.2-based Samsung tablet, a couple of more details about it receive unofficial confirmation.

First off, the Galaxy Tab will have the same Hummingbird chipset that is found in the Galaxy S, which includes the blazing PowerVR SGX540 graphics processing unit.

We are finally receiving the first confirmation on the resolution -  the 7” display will come with a 600×1024 pixels WSVGA res. It looks like an AMOLED display in the pictures, but we won’t know for sure until Samsung announces it. The tablet also functions as a phone, will have GPS, 3G and Wi-Fi b/g/n chips, as well as a 3.2MP camera plus a front-facing one for video calls.

On the software front, it should arrive with what we’ve come to expect from Samsung’s Android handsets lately – Swype text entry method, DivX playback out of the box, SRS in headset mode, as well as something called Reading Hub, which will probably be what it sounds like.

The Adobe Flash Player 10.1-enabled Froyo tablet has been spotted in internal documents for Vodaphone UK, Orange, O2, AT&T, T-Mobile US, and SK Telecom, and is expected to be unveiled at the IFA 2010 event next month.
source: SamsungHub

Google’s new Chrome to Phone extension adds a very important button to your Google Chrome browser. With this button and an Android phone running 2.2, you can send a link to your handset which will open the phone’s browser and find the story you were reading on your home PC or laptop.  If you used your desktop at home to find an address or to obtain driving directions, Google Chrome to Phone can send the info to your Android device and automatically open up your Google Maps app with all of the information you need to navigate to your destination. Even that Annoying Orange video that you have been viewing at home can be sent to your phone for viewing on your phone’s YouTube client. A phone number you have looked up on your computer at home can be sent to the phone and the dialer will open with the number already entered, ready for you to make the call.

To set up your computer and phone to use this new feature, first install the Chrome to Phone extension on your desktop or laptop from the Chrome Extensions gallery. Then head over to the Android Market with your Android 2.2 powered unit and download the Chrome to Phone app. That’s all you need to make going from the home to the road, a seamless experience.
source: Google

Although there are some handset owners who aren’t experiencing issues with their specific Samsung Galaxy S handset, there apparently seems to be a lot of people reporting about GPS issues. We’ve already reported that Samsung was mindful to hearing a lot of complaints regarding aGPS problems found on the recently launched Samsung Captivate and Vibrant. Owners complained that it would take a lengthy amount of time before the handset receives a lock on their location via aGPS. Samsung has already stated that they were in the process of looking into the issue and providing an update that will correct it. Now we’re being given some additional information regarding that fix after Samsung’s web product analyst, Carla Saavedra, promised that the fix would come some time in September. The update itself would apply to both the US and international variants of the Galaxy S, but there is no indication if they will all get it at the same time. Let’s cross our fingers and hope that it’ll land some time closer to the beginning of the month as opposed to the end – we’re sure there are some in dire need of it.
via Electronista

Capping an end to a busy week in handset releases, we cannot forget about the launch of the Dell Streak today which supplants both the HTC EVO 4G and HD2 as the handset with the largest display in the US market. The 5-inch monster can be picked up through AT&T for $300 with your signature on a 2-year agreement, however, some might stop in their tracks once they find that it’s still stuck on Android 1.6. Nonetheless, we’d imagine that its customized experience and humongous display would be more than suitable in attracting curious customers. On another note, even though AT&T’s version is still running Android 1.6, owners across the big pond can treat themselves to Android 2.1 thanks to a leaked update. If you’re sporting the Dell Streak and want to at least get into the mix with a newer build of the platform, then click on the source link which will provide directions to download and install the update.
source: MoDaCo Forums via Android Central

Sometimes you’ve got to root for the small guys, especially when they start out as a relatively small player and eventually develop to a powerhouse that’s able to muster up a following with their line of devices. For a period of time, the name HTC was hidden amongst the other names placed over their creations as they were commissioned to build devices for other manufacturers. However, the tide has changed now that we see the Taiwan based company become a prominent figure in the mobile industry thanks to their talented, ingenious, and dedicated staff.

HTC reached yet another milestone recently by making an appearance in the top ten list of the biggest cell phone makers. They’re actually ranked in eighth place thanks to the 139.1 percent increase in shipments they’ve seen versus the same time period last year. One of the major contributors to their appearance in eighth place has to be the strong sales received from their line of Android devices, and when you look at what they’ve unleashed in the past year, there is no arguing their quick ascent to prominence. However, their humble beginnings started off with a handful of Windows Mobile devices that reached a boiling point in the US when all four major carriers offered a variant of the HTC Touch Pro2.

When you look at their recent Android offerings, it perfectly showcases how Android has become such a huge part of their success – especially when they’ve created fantastic devices like the Nexus One, Legend, Desire, Droid Incredible, and the EVO 4G. Even though they are seeing some heavy competition from a variety of rivals, such as Motorola’s DROID devices and Samsung’s line of Galaxy S smartphones, there is no denying that they’ll still be able to combat them without worrying too much. Looking forward to the future, we can still expect to see strong development of Android smartphones from them, but we’ll hopefully see what they have in store with Windows Phone 7.
source: Gartner via Intomobile

Think of it what you will, but HTC is sending out invites en masse through the tech blogosphere for a mysterious event to be held September the 15th in London. Could it be the HTC Schubert/Mozart Windows Phone 7 device? The HTC Desire HD?

We hope it might also be the first official announcement of a dual-core Snapdragon smartphone from HTC. The last time they held an event in London, it was for the unveiling of the HTC Hero with Sense UI on Android, but we have the sneaking suspicion that in a month they will unveil something even more exciting. Any other guesses?
source: Pocket-Lint

We’ve all come to accept good ol’ Java for granted and free for our own perusal. We guess Google thought the same way about it, before Oracle filed a lawsuit late Thursday on broad Java-related charges against the free Android mobile OS.

Now, we know Java was invented by Sun that was later acquired by Oracle, along with all Java patents and coding. We also know that Android is loosely based on Linux, but includes various Java apps stacked on the core, and the renowned Dalvik virtual machine includes a JIT (just-in-time) Java compiler in Android 2.2, making it the fast beast it is.

Oracle put two and two together and decided there is bread (and circus) in those dusty Java patents in the basement, and did what every self-respecting US company would do – they sued. Oracle has hired David Boies, a lawyer whose career includes cases like United States vs. Microsoft (where Java was an issue as well), Bush vs. Gore and numerous other high-profile cases in and out of the tech industry.

On a separate Sun vs Microsoft case, the Redmond giant ultimately ended up paying $1bln compensation to Sun for infringing on its Java patents, so Google better watch out, there might be merit in Oracle’s case.
source: TheRegister

We have gotten used to the iFixit treatment of every new and worthy gadget, and would honestly miss it if one day a great phone appears, and we never see what’s inside. The hard working people there have disassembled a shiny new Motorola DROID 2, just to find out that the innards have mostly the same layout as on the original, save for the new elements like the 8GB NAND flash internal memory chip. Even the keyboard can supposedly be replaced with the old style, as the spacing and contacts on the back look identical.

An interesting take from the teardown is that the DROID 2 has the same 1390mAh battery that the first DROID had, however talk time in 3G mode is estimated to be nearly ten full hours instead of the 6.5 we had in the original. And that’s with the Texas Instruments OMAP 3630 CPU clocked at 1GHz, instead of the 600 MHz of its predecessor. The combination of Froyo optimized for a TI OMAP chipset, produced with the 45nm technology, has brought to the DROID 2 a whopping 49% increase in battery life!

It certainly looks like those claims for 30% increases in battery life when moving from the 65nm to the 45nm process, and then another 30% when dual-core chipsets of this kind hit from TI, Qualcomm and Samsung, is not vapor ware. If such talk times can be achieved on an Android handset, then the smartphone industry is certainly heading in the right direction with the new 45nm chipsets, like the ones we find on the Motorola DROID 2 and Samsung Galaxy S phones.

There was a mention in the iFixit writeup of the antenna position, which is cleverly just a gold wrap around the speaker at the bottom. We think that antenna position design decisions should be a must in phone disassembling articles from now on in light of certain events. Also, it is amazing how small the camera module actually is.
source: iFixit

Speaker and antenna	CDMA chip in yellow	5MP camera

The keyboard module	Frame	DROID 2 at pieces