A living room entertainment experience while on the go

Samsung Epic™ 4G, a Galaxy S™ smartphone, is the second 4G capable handset from Sprint, a Galaxy S smartphone and Samsung Mobile’s first 4G Android™-powered device. It is part of a new breed of Samsung smartphones offering the very best in screen, speed and content quality for a premium user experience, offering a fully integrated multimedia, messaging and social networking experience at 4G speeds on Samsung’s industry-leading 4-inch Super AMOLED touch screen display. Powered by the Android 2.1 platform, Samsung Epic 4G’s user interface also supports a series of advanced touch screen gestures including multi-touch pinch, long tap and zoom and vertical and horizontal swiping. It also offers high-def like entertainment in the palm of your hand thanks to its HD-like video capabilities for a theater-like movie experience. In the coming months, Samsung Epic 4G will have access to the Samsung Media Hub, making it the first and only 4G handset to feature a video store with movies and TV available for purchase or rental and optimized for a handset screen for an HD-like entertainment experience. With 4G from Sprint, users will be able to get the fastest download of a full library of video and literary content powered by some of the biggest names in entertainment.

Productivity:

• 3G/4G capability
• Samsung 1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird Application Processor
• 4-inch Super AMOLED capacitive display with pinch-to-zoom
• Google full HTML browser – bandwidth and quality that rival that of netbooks
• Android 2.1, with access to more than 50,000 apps on Android Market™
• Simultaneous voice and data capability in 4G and Wi-Fi coverage areas, enabling Web surfing and more while talking
• Google™ mobile services including Google Search™, Google Maps™, Google Talk™, Gmail™, YouTube™ , and syncs with Google Calendar™
• Visual voicemail
• Messaging – personal and business email and text messaging, as well as IM through a downloadable Android Market app
• 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot capability – connects up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices
• 4G data speeds (WiMAX) – peak download speeds of more than 10 Mbps; peak upload speeds of 1 Mbps; average download speeds of 3-6 Mbps
• 3G data speeds (EVDO Rev A.) – peak download speeds of up to 3.1 Mbps; peak upload speeds of 1.8 Mbps; average download speeds of 600 kbps-1.4 Mbps

Entertainment:

• Dual camera: 5 MP camera/camcorder with autofocus, Power LED flash and 3x digital zoom for HD video (720p) recording for capture and playback on an HD television and front facing VGA camera for video chat and more
• Qik video application for video chat service and live video sharing
• High-quality video streaming and downloads at 3G and 4G data speeds
• Samsung’s exclusive AllShare service to wirelessly share stored music, pictures and HD video to other DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) certified™ home electronics, including HDTVs, monitors, digital cameras, printers and more.
• Samsung Social Hub integrates all of the user’s social networking services, messages, personal and business email, calendars and contacts, and can display calendar information from portal calendars, such as Google Calendar and social networking services together in one view with two-way synchronization
• Future access to the Samsung Media Hub, a full library of video and literary content powered by some of the biggest names in entertainment
• Media player with 3.5mm stereo headset jack
• Sprint applications including Sprint Football Live, Sprint Navigation Sprint TV®, and NASCAR Sprint Cup MobileSM
• Bluetooth® 2.1 with A2DP Stereo and EDR
• Built-in WiFi®: 802.11 b/g/n
• Digital compass, six-axis motion sensor, proximity sensor, light sensor, GPS
• Expandable memory: 16 GB microSD card included; supports up to 32 GB

Specifications:

• Dimensions: 4.9 inches 2.54 inches x 0.56 inches (124.8 mm x 64.6 mm x 14.2 mm) (LxWxT)
• Weight: 5.46 ounces (155 grams)
• Battery: Standard removable 1500mAh Lithium (Li-on) battery
• Memory: 1 GB ROM, 512 MB RAM

Features, services, and specifications subject to change.

Mark Elliott, Sprint                                         Brett White, MWW Group for Samsung,
415-684-7314                                                  604-232-1445
mark.j.elliott@sprint.com bwhite@mww.com

While we certainly haven’t forgotten about Haykuro, Cyanogen is the king of Android development when it comes to custom ROMs – and to continue that tradition, he’s planning to bringing Android 2.2 (Froyo) to a handful of devices before it’s officially pushed out.

While we’re hearing that Nexus One users have began to see the final Froyo build hitting their devices, they will still benefit from the CyanogenMod release. CyanogenMod is heavily optimized, and comes with small tweaks that can make a big difference. For example, one of the tweaks allows the trackball to have an assigned color when a particular notification comes your way (text message, email, etc.). Another tweak allows you to unlock the home screen by using just the trackball (so convenient). These small mods will obviously not be found in the official Froyo release, so Nexus One users can still benefit from CyanogenMod even if they have the official Froyo build.

Other devices that will see the Cyanogen Froyo update are the HTC Desire, Sprint HTC EVO 4G, T-Mobile G1 (yes, you read right), HTC Magic (MyTouch 3G), MyTouch 3G Slide, Sprint (CDMA) HTC Hero, and the Motorola Droid. This guy has some great ambitions, and is already hard at work getting the ROMs working for your pleasure. Sense users, if you’re ready for some Froyo in your life, expect to shed the devices’ sexy skin. It should be easy enough to give up when you’ve got so many features on board Froyo.

Let’s not forget the other amazing Android Developers out there, either. If you’re not quite into stock Android, there are countless ROMs to get your Sense on. Still, it’s hard to deny full Flash support, and a free mobile hotspot option. I think those two features alone may be enough to give up Sense.

Expect to see CyanogenMod 6 coming down the pipes sometime soon!

[Via: AndroidAndMe]

Awesome, there’s yet another iPad contender that we have no launch window for. The Viliv X10 (no, not that X10) is another Android tablet that boasts all kinds of features that bests the iPad. But, will that appeal to the masses, other than the nerds who are actually looking for great specs?

The X10 comes with a 10-inch 1366×768 capacitive touchscreen, an SD card reader, USB port,  HDMI port, front-facing camera, (expected) built-in accelerometer, 1080p video playback, and a battery that should serve up about 10 hours of usage. The is also said to really perform when it comes to intensive graphics consumption. The best thing about the tablet, in my opinion, is that by the time it’s released it will be running Android 2.2, and that means Flash support. There’s also a Windows 7 version of the tablet as well, but really, who cares about that?

While the tablet was displayed at Computex, we still have no idea when to expect its availability. This is really what’s somewhat irritating about these upcoming Android tablets. The only device we are expected to see in the near future is Dell’s Streak, and it’s really not much more than a slightly bigger smartphone. There have been tons and tons of Android tablets shown off at shows, but none have materialized yet. Let’s hope this changes with the X10.

If I were to make my dream tablet, the specs would read quite similar to the Viliv, but with the Pixel QI transflective screen that we’ve seen on Notion Ink’s Adam. I know it sounds crazy, but I’d definitely size down the screen as well. With a 10 inch screen, I wouldn’t mind an extra pound or two to hold a keyboard, that’s why I think a 7 inch tablet is perfect. Not too big, not too small, and definitely somewhere in between the screen size of a smartphone and netbook.

So what would be your perfect tablet if you had the chance to make one?

[Via: LaptopMag]

In a recent interview with Mercury News, Andy Rubin, Godfather of Android, talks about why Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is investing in the platform and where it is headed. The highlight of the interview is that the Android platform update cycle will go from multiple software updates a year, to just one major release per year.

When Rubin was asked why Google was investing in Android to begin with, the answer is simple. Advertising.  That’s where Google gets all its green. But Rubin explains that about five years ago, Google needed to make its mobile applications for specific phones, only to have a new device come out every three to six months. With Android, the company provides a base platform with Google products already baked in, virtually eliminating the need to develop mobile applications for specific cell phones. With Android as a free platform to manufacturers, Google services can be “distributed equally.”

In a little over a year and a half, Android has seen many releases of the platform, but that may change in the future. Rubin explains,

“We’ve gone through a lot of product iterations because we had to bring the product up to market spec. Quite honestly, the product when we launched it, it didn’t really feel like a 1.0, it felt like kind of an 0.8, but it was a window of opportunity and the market needed an entrant at the holiday season.So we launched it, and from our internal 0.8, we got to 1.0 pretty quickly, and we went through this iteration cycle. You’ve noticed, probably, that that’s slowed down a little bit. Our product cycle is now, basically twice a year, and it will probably end up being once a year when things start settling down, because a platform that’s moving — it’s hard for developers to keep up. I want developers to basically leverage the innovation. I don’t want developers to have to predict the innovation.”

Well said. When the G1 debuted, it was hardly a heavy contender in the smartphone market, but it did show a lot of potential. Android 1.0 had many holes and idiosyncrasies, and many of them have been addressed in the updates that followed. With

Android 2.2 (Froyo) coming down the pipes, the platform has grown up, and is a major contender that has really taken off and has (and will be) adopted by manufacturers to make great products with the platform, and not limited to just smartphones.  With only one major release of the Android platform a year, this would make it easier for manufacturers to implement Android into their products. By doing this, the platform’s fragmentation issues would wane, and the inconsistencies that a customer sees when looking at different Android devices would be less dramatic.

Android is above, or at least on, par with other major smartphone platform currently out there, so the slow down of software updates should be expected. With one update per year, Google can focus on bringing even more features to the platform, and allow manufacturers to update their own devices without having to worry if another update is right around the corner.

So what do you think about one Android update per year?

[Via: MercuryNews]

When Google (NSDQ: GOOG) introduced the Nexus One in January through its online store, it was hoping to revolutionize the way U.S. customers purchased phones. Unfortunately, it hasn’t quite worked out and Google has admitted its failure and is taking a more traditional approach to selling phones.

The vision was always great: you buy the handset you want from Google’s online store without a carrier being involved and you can take it to whichever network suits you. You’ll have to pay a lot for the device itself but there will be subsidized options if you want to sign a long-term contract. All four major carriers eventually jumped on board with the Nexus One but Verizon (NYSE: VZ) (which was prominently featured in the launch event) backed out in favor or its branded Droid Incredible and Sprint (NYSE: S) preferred its own EVO 4G.

Google seems to have gotten the hint.

While the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our expectations, the web store has not. It’s remained a niche channel for early adopters, but it’s clear that many customers like a hands-on experience before buying a phone, and they also want a wide range of service plans to chose from.

The company plans to start putting the N1 and its future devices in stores so consumers can actually touch the thing before buying it. It will also stop selling the handset directly from the website, which will instead be used to showcase the latest and greatest Android phones.

This is a smart strategic move after the blunder that was the web store. Sure, the vision of a carrier-agnostic, unbranded smartphone store for all is great but, like many things that come out of Google that aren’t related to search, it didn’t work in the real world. It’s not all its fault, as the four major U.S. carriers use different technologies and frequencies and this makes unlocked devices only appealing to the most hardcore phone fans. When you factor in Google’s “equipment recovery fee” on top of the early-termination fee from a carrier, the search giant just became an expensive middleman.

The company could have done a lot of things differently and I would have loved to see it throw some of its billions behind subsidizing the devices to a reasonable level (Joe Callsalot isn’t going to pay $500 for a phone, no matter how cool it is). But the real lesson in all this is that even if you’re flush with cash, you cannot go around the carriers if you want to be successful in the U.S. market.

[Via Google blog]

It’s basically a ritual now: Fresh feature debuts on new Android phone; hack-happy G1 owners see new feature, develop seething jealousy; said owners work tirelessly to steal new feature. Last week, Google Maps Navigation hit the Droid. Today, the G1.

Google Maps Navigation will be part of Android 2.0, and Android 2.0 is expected to come to most—if not all—Android handsets on the market eventually, so given how complicated this hack is (fairly!), and that it requires a rooted phone, it’d be prudent for most folks to just wait this out. That said, there’s no saying how long it’ll be until Eclair seeds out to older handsets, and there’s no guarantee that the G1—and old fart in its little corner of the universe—will ever get it. Anyhow, here’s what you need to do, from XDA:

Download here

Make sure you have CyanogenMod 4.2.3.1, by the way.

1) Unzip zip to desktop
2) Run Part 1.bat
3) When prompted to press any key, do so; the phone will reboot
4) When your phone is running again, run Part 2.bat
5) When prompted to press any key, the installation process is done.
6) Make sure GPS is enabled
7) Open Maps and press OK
Press Menu
9) Press Directions
10) Enter an end point
11) Click Go
12) Just under “Show on map”, click Navigate.
13) When prompted to install the voice codec, do so.

And there you have it: Free, not terrible turn-by-turn navigation for your G1, without Android 2.0. Early reports say it runs well; let us know how it goes for you in the comments.

Read the headline? It’s not just the “Moto Droid thing” only – the good ol’ G1 can also be used for turn-by-turn navigation provided by Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps, thanks to the ever active XDA development community. Of course, we’re not talking about the official ROM update, but something that requires a little effort, yet delivers great benefits.

We’re hearing once the process of upgrading/hacking the G1 is completed, Google Maps Navigation runs smoothly giving us hope if HTC does nothing about it, Google will. Are you reading this folks? Please make sure your old customers aren’t forgotten.

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

While the tech-loving world continues to debate the merits of the Droid following its launch on Friday, it’s pretty safe to say that the Android platform has seen a pretty hefty influx of users as of late. In the past two weeks alone, we’ve seen the aforementioned Droid, it’s cheaper, younger sibling, the Droid Eris, and the Sprint Moment all hit the shelves; if any of them sold even reasonably well, there’s a lot of new folk cracking open the Android Market for the first time right now.

Whether you’re an iPhone convert, an ex-Nokian, or just a stranger to smartphones as a whole, the Android Market can be a pretty daunting place. While Android might not have quite as many apps as the leading competition, it still has a bit over 10,000 – and that’s a hell of a lot for any newcomer to weed through.

For the sake of these nascent newbies, we’ve thrown together a list of a handful of apps we think are worth checking out right off the bat. Got a favorite of your own? Throw it into the comments below.

In no particular order:

Twidroid
What is it?: Twitter Client
Price: Free; “Pro” version available for around €3.39 (around $5)
Description: We’re seeing more and more Twitter clients hit the Android Market as of late, but Twidroid still seems to be the crowd favorite. The free version offers up all the basics (Tweeting, mentions, DM, search, image uploading, etc.), while the Pro version adds video, multi-accounts, and theming support.

Qik/Ustream/Bambuser/etc.
What is it? Video Streaming
Price: Free
Description: The plethora of video streaming applications on Android serves as a fantastic example of the strengths of Android’s open market. While such video streaming clients have been floating around in Apple’s moderation queue for over a year now (and are still only available on jailbroken iPhones), they were made available on Android almost immediately after launch. There are a ton of options available here – I’d recommend starting with Qik or Ustream.

Flyscreen
What is it? Lockscreen replacement
Price: Free
Description: You see that lockscreen each and every time you pull your phone out of your pocket – might as well put it to use, right? Flyscreen replaces the default lockscreen with a user-customizable canvas for widgets, with everything from Twitter to TMZ. It’s a wee bit buggy on the Droid, primarily because of its high resolution – but the Flyscreen guys have already confirmed that an update is on the way.

Nesoid
What is it? NES emulator
Price: $1.99, Lite version available
Description: It’s an NES emulator, and it works damn well – do we really need to say anything else? For obvious legal reasons, you’ll need to provide your own ROMs – but once that’s out of the way, it’ll handle just about any popular NES game you can throw at it. We’ve heard mixed reports as to how well this (primarily the Lite version) is working on Android 2.0, but I’m not seeing any issues with the paid version.

Meridian
What is it? Media player
Price: Free
Description: As we mentioned in our Smartphone Showdown, media playback (especially video) on the Android platform is rather lacking. We’ve yet to find any third-party applications that really pull it off well, but the Meridian player is about the best we’ve seen so far. It’ll play back MP3, OGG, MP4, and 3GPP files, and offers up basic playlist and gesture support. It’s pretty dang ugly, but it gets the job done.

Flixster:
What is it? Movie times/trailers/DVD info aggregator
Price: Free
Description: Flixster does one thing, and it does it well: Movies. It keeps you up to date on everything new in the movie world, be it for the box office or the rental store, complete with movie times (by way of GPS), community-driven user reviews, and trailers. Flixster is one of the most well-designed applications I’ve seen on the Android platform, and is one of very few I find myself using regularly.

Barcode Reader:
What is it? Its.. a barcode reader.
Price: Free
Description: Barcode reader is pretty much an Android must-have at this point. Lets say you’re perusing a book store and stumble across a book you’re interested in reading – but is it really worth what the nearest big chain book store wants for it? Scan the tag on the back into Barcode Reader, which will pass the details into Google Product Search for a price comparison. At worst, you’ll find out that you’re getting a deal; at best, you’ll save a ton. I’ve saved a few hundred bucks overall by way of Barcode-based comparison shopping.

TED
What is it? Tons of amazing content, crammed into one app.
Price: Free
Description: This one serves as our reader’s choice app, so to speak. I reached out to my Twitter posse for some insight on their favorite apps, and the TED application was a resoundingly popular result. The Android TED application brings together a huge number of lectures from the annual Technology, Entertainment, Design conference, with talks from the likes of Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Larry Page, and more. Next time you’ve got 10-15 minutes free, why not spend it gettin’ some smarts?

3Banana
What is it? Notes syncing
Price: Free
Description: Sign up for a free account, then punch your credentials into both the Android client and your browser. Bam, note syncing! It’s not a substitute for a full-fledged file syncing service like Dropbox, but 3banana is a drop-dead easy way to keep your notes/images synced between your Android handset and your computer.

Power Manager
What is it? Battery life assistant
Price: $0.99, Lite version available
Description: While it’s getting better over time, the Android platform isn’t exactly known for its killer battery efficiency. Android allows users to run apps in the background – and a running application gobbles up battery, whether it’s visible or not. Power manager helps to improve your device’s battery life through profiles. Running on the battery? Dim the screen. Battery down below 30%? Kill the WiFi and the Bluetooth. The free version comes with 4 profiles (Battery powered, low battery, A/C powered, USB powered), while the 99 cent pro version allows you to build you own.

Know any apps that Android users ought to check out on day one?

Via nugossips.com