Hasta La Gadget!

These five Nexus One smartphones may seem to have defects, but there’s actually nothing wrong with their AMOLED screens — the funky colors are an attempt to improve battery life by turning off unnecessary sub-pixel LEDs. Hooking up his handset to an industrial power meter, Android engineer Jeff Sharkey discovered a blood-red screen drew 42 percent less current than full color — the least of any combination by far — purportedly doubling the effective battery life of the phone. While you’re probably not going to be able to test the requisite software patch for yourself unless you’re mildly familiar with Google code, you’ll find a video of the crimson wonder after the break to fuel your dreams of a eyestrain-free astronomy cheat sheet… and Android bullfighting, of course.

Continue reading Nexus One sees red, nearly doubles battery life? (video)

Nexus One sees red, nearly doubles battery life? (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Jul 2010 20:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We knew at Computex that tablets were on track to completely take over the world, but now it’s official: a German internet provider has just revealed that it’ll soon be offering a branded tablet PC of its own. You heard right — a German ISP is making a tablet. The delightfully named SmartPad is a 7-inch, touchscreen-based slate that’ll eventually support Android 2.2 (v1.6 will be pre-installed), and there’s also inbuilt WiFi and an optional 3G module for those looking to “stay connected.” It seems as if the company is still hammering out the final specifications, but we are told to expect an SD card reader (2GB will be included), a USB socket, a 500MHz ARM11 processor, 256MB of RAM and a proprietary app store that’ll undoubtedly enrage you. According to the promotional video hosted just past the break, it should ship later this month for precisely nothing so long as you pick up a data plan to go alongside of it. ‘Course, getting one outside of Deutschland is another challenge entirely…

Continue reading 1&1’s 7-inch SmartPad is the most unlikely Android tablet you’ll ever see

1&1’s 7-inch SmartPad is the most unlikely Android tablet you’ll ever see originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Seriously, words cannot describe how incredibly entertained we are by this Mario Live wallpaper for Android 2.1 and above devices. All across the home and locked screen, our favorite Italian faux-plumber protagonist runs through randomly-generated levels across various themes like outside, underground, and castle. It’s very customizable, allowing you to change the level’s difficulty, see the alternate paths Mario’s AI has plotted, and rendering the background (all at a cost to CPUs and battery life, of course). Free download — donations suggested, of course — and if you’re looking for a way to stare at your phone even longer, well, look no further. Videos through which you can live vicariously are after the break.

Continue reading Mario live wallpaper for Android: better than a Tanooki Suit in the summer

Mario live wallpaper for Android: better than a Tanooki Suit in the summer originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We knew Google had the power to remotely remove Android apps — Microsoft and Apple have backdoors into their mobile operating systems, too — but it’s always a little disconcerting to see a kill switch used. Such is the case today, as we’ve just heard Google unleashed the hounds this week, siccing bits and bytes of remote deletion power on a pair of “practically useless” but still Terms of Service-infringing apps. Curiously enough, Google admits that most who’d downloaded these programs had deleted them already, and that this “exercise” of the remote application removal feature was merely a cleanup operation. Google says users will get a notification beamed to their phone if an app is removed, however — so as Big Brother as that all sounds, at least the company’s being nice and transparent about the whole matter, eh?

Update: To be clear, the developers of the offending apps had already removed them from the Android Market, so this was technically a cleanup. The only question is why Google would go out of its way to mop up an app that absolutely no one would miss.

[Thanks, Matt]

Google flexes biceps, flicks Android remote kill switch for the first time originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 04:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPad Scrabble playable on your iPhone? Pretty neat. Desktop Asteroids playable on your Android smartphone? Rather more action-packed — and a little less expensive to get into. Androideroids is a project of Grant Skinner and runs on Adobe’s Air platform. It’s an eight-player game hosted on a desktop, with each participant given a first-person smartphone view of the vast expanses of space and the hollow rocks scattered throughout it. Meanwhile, a desktop client displays an overhead perspective of the shenanigans, displaying everyone’s life and score. Players can either shoot asteroids or each other, tapping on the screen to thrust and fire while tilting to turn. Honestly the move to first-person doesn’t seem to have done anything to improve gameplay, but this is still one game of Asteroids we’d make room for in our games folder.

Continue reading Android + Asteroids + multiplayer = Androideroids (video)

Android + Asteroids + multiplayer = Androideroids (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Jun 2010 10:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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