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Gargantuan Android phones are everywhere. But a lot of people just want something smaller. The Incredible 4G is one of the few phones that isn’t the size of a dinner plate, but it also raises a question: Does an Android OS even make sense on smaller screens anymore? More »

It is official – the HTC Desire HD will not be on the receiving end of the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system update, after there were whispers of such a possibility happening just last week. How do we know that it is official? Well, HTC themselves have removed the HTC Desire HD from the official list of devices that was scheduled to be in line for the Ice Cream Sandwich treatment. According to HTC’s official statement, “After extensive testing, we’ve determined that the current version of HTC Sense with Android provides customers with the best experience on the HTC Desire HD. When we consider new versions of software, we weigh a number of factors, but ultimately the customer experience on the product is the deciding factor. We apologize for any confusion this change may have caused our customers.”

Basically, the only recourse you have left for the HTC Desire HD if you want to have Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich running on it would be to go through an unofficial route – and that would more often than not require you to root your device.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Ice Cream Sandwich update for the HTC Desire HD cancelled?, HTC Incredible S to get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich?,

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

Continue reading Refresh Roundup: week of July 16th, 2012

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablet PCs, Software

Refresh Roundup: week of July 16th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Jul 2012 21:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The world of smartphone accessories is an interesting one, where many manufacturers zoom in on a particular make and model and start churning them out by the hundreds of thousands, be it cases or screen protectors as well as speaker add-ons. Of course, some third party manufacturers are even more daring, deciding to come up with a case for a yet unreleased device – as this had already happened with the iPhone 5 (or next generation iPhone, depending on how you want to call it). Seidio is much more conservative with their latest device release, announcing the Seidio Desktop Charging Cradle that caters for a range of HTC devices such as the HTC EVO 4G LTE, HTC One X, and HTC One S.

This would mean only the fairly recent and more powerful handsets from HTC are the ones being catered to here – if you are using a mid-range or entry level HTC device, then you can forget about it. Seidio hopes that the design philosophy of timeless and elegant products will be captured by the Desktop Charging Cradle, touting it to be an ideal accessory for the desk of the business professional. Is it really? Only those who have bought and used it are able to tell.

Sporting a unique design which enables one to synchronize and juice up your HTC smartphone simultaneously, it ensures your HTC device will always remain powered up at all times.

David Chang, CEO of Seidio, said, “This charging cradle is the final accessory to round out the full-line of products we [Seidio] offer for the HTC devices. Our goal is to provide our consumers with a complete system solution for their mobile device. The Desktop Charging Cradle works seamlessly with Seidio’s HTC cases and, of course, the smartphone itself.”

What makes the David Chang, CEO of Seidio so different from the other somewhat similar products on the market? For starters, it functions with or without a Seidio ACTIVE or SURFACE case, so you need not worry about removing a protective case while you dock the device, all thanks to a tiny albeit sturdy connector piece. The dock will also be able to hold your smartphone in a horizontal position to deliver a perfect viewing angle whenever you want to enjoy movies, pictures and other multimedia formats.

It comes in an all-black cradle with a smooth, matte finish, in addition to Seidio’s signature soft-touch coating. The external layer will ensure the cradle remains clean, resisting fingerprints, dirt and grime, while a discreet power LED light will be located on the back of the unit. You can pick up the Seidio Desktop Charging Cradle for $29.95 a pop.

Press Release

[ Seidio announces Desktop Charging Cradle for HTC devices copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

We’re rather big fans of the Nexus 7 here at Engadget HQ — it’s just hard not to like a $200 tablet with a Tegra 3 SoC and 7-inch glass-bonded IPS display running pure Jelly Bean. Of the few missing features, there’s one we’re bemoaning more than the lack of rear camera, and that’s the absence of any kind of HDMI or MHL video output. So far, watching movies with the Nexus 7’s been relegated to using a Nexus Q and streaming content from Google Play or YouTube.

Enter Wi-Fi Media, an app available for free on Google Play that lets most Android devices like the Nexus 7 play movies, music and stills on any screen via any Cavium PureVu-compatible streamer, such as HTC’s $90 Media Link HD. We tested Wi-Fi Media with our Nexus 7 and Media Link HD and found it to work pretty much as advertised except for some caveats. First the app doesn’t mirror your screen — you’re limited to playing content stored on the tablet or on the network via DLNA, which means no YouTube, Netflix or games. Second, the app doesn’t handle some common file types — like AVI, for example.

While it supports watching movies, listening to music and looking at pictures, keep in mind that Wi-Fi Media is not a particularly polished app. In addition to playing local and remote DLNA content, you’re able to login to Facebook and Picasa and stream images directly from these accounts, but that’s pretty much it in terms of functionality. There’s also no way to configure the Media Link HD, so you’ll need a sanctioned HTC handset to setup the multimedia streamer before using it with a Nexus 7. Want to know more? Peek at our screenshot gallery below and hit the break for our hands-on video.

Update: Since there’s some confusion in the comments, we’d like to clarify that the Media Link HD is not a DLNA device. It normally only works with select HTC phones like the One X, One S and EVO 4G LTE. WiFi-Media’s primary purpose is to connect with a Media Link HD — the app also just happens to support DLNA.

[Thanks, Matt]

Continue reading Wi-Fi Media lets your Nexus 7 play movies on any screen via HTC’s Media Link HD (hands-on video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Tablet PCs, Software

Wi-Fi Media lets your Nexus 7 play movies on any screen via HTC’s Media Link HD (hands-on video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Jul 2012 19:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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