Hasta La Gadget!

Tired of wading through dissertations in hopes of grokking a hacked-up method of overclocking your Droid X and / or Droid 2? Clearly, you aren’t alone. Unstable Apps has just released a $0.99 gem that enables one-tap overclocking on the aforementioned phones, with DX/D2 Overclocker giving users the option to run at low voltage, stock voltage or two higher-than-recommended voltages. Of course, given just how simple it is to potentially ruin your handset, we’d highly encourage using common sense and rational judgment when pushing the proverbial envelope. You know, the kind of judgment that convinces you to sing Bell Biv DeVoe’s Poison in a karaoke bar full of your closest colleagues.

Droid X and Droid 2 gain overclocking app: painlessly push your CPU for just $1 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Oct 2010 00:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lack of Google’s official app store has been a thorn in the side of would-be Android tablet makers for a good long while, and it looks like the Tegra 2-powered Advent Vega will be no exception when it hits the high street tomorrow. Electricpig took the £249 device for a spin, chatting up Advent product manager Adam Lockyer the whole time, and discovered that while the 10-inch tablet will come with the 5,000-app-strong Archos AppsLib store, it won’t have Android Market at launch. “The plan is that when you get to January time, there’s a new release of Android and you’ll be able to get the marketplace on this product,” Lockyer said, suggesting that maybe — just maybe — the availability of Android Market itself might be one of the fragmentation issues Google intends to fix in Gingerbread. Wouldn’t that be nice? Video after the break.

[Thanks, Chak I.]

Continue reading Advent Vega tablet won’t come with Android Market, might get it as part of Gingerbread update (video)

Advent Vega tablet won’t come with Android Market, might get it as part of Gingerbread update (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 Oct 2010 13:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hardcore hobbyists have been controlling their Mindstorms NXT creations with all sorts of paraphernalia for years, but now Lego itself is stepping in to lend a hand. The new MINDroid app just splashed down in the Android Market, and it enables Android 2.1 (or greater) handsets to dictate Mindstorms NXT robots over Bluetooth. According to Lego, tilting / turning the phone can make the robot move forward, turn to the sides, and by pressing an action button on the phone’s screen, activate the ‘Action’ motor. Given that the download will cost you absolutely nothing, what are you waiting for? Your robot army awaits your commands.

Lego’s MINDroid Android app remotely controls Mindstorms NXT robots originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Oct 2010 12:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon’s always worked hard to make sure it’s in the digital goods business as well as its obviously successful physical one, but this might be one of its boldest steps yet: another app store for Android. We heard the rumor a couple weeks ago through TechCrunch, and The Wall Street Journal is now claiming to have proof, including an Amazon document explaining some of the terms to the developers. It’s apparently still unclear when the store will be launched or even what it’ll be called, and since so far it seems like Amazon is mainly talking to developers about this behind closed doors, some of the specifics might still be in the air. According to the WSJ, Amazon stipulates an app can’t be sold for less anywhere else (which was hinted at in the earlier leak), and there’s a stranger requirement that the app can’t be on offer anywhere else for more than two weeks before it’s given to Amazon. We’re guessing that’s an Android only stipulation — or else a bit of a high barrier for iOS ports — but that just brings up more to worry about: is Amazon building a store just a first in an onslaught? And is this indeed part of an Android tablet launch for Amazon?

Amazon app store for Android confirmed by WSJ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 17:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android may be climbing the charts when it comes to market share, and the Market may be quickly approaching the 100,000 apps mark, but the whole thing is hardly a global proposition. As of earlier this week, paid apps were able to be purchased in just 14 countries, submitted by developers of just nine nationalities. That changes now, with Google adding 20 countries to its list of approved submitters, meaning developers living in 29 nations are eligible to submit paid apps to the Market. Over the next two weeks the purchasing of those apps will be flipped on for users in 18 countries, 32 in all that will have the “buy” button enabled — music to the ears of Java app developers everywhere. Which flags are newly embracing app capitalism? We have the lists waiting for you below.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Google expands Android’s reach, accepting paid apps from 20 more countries, selling to 18 more

Google expands Android’s reach, accepting paid apps from 20 more countries, selling to 18 more originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Oct 2010 08:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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