Hasta La Gadget!

Fans of both Android and Slingbox streaming have had a long wait for a significant update to the SlingPlayer app, to put it mildly — the last major upgrade was to introduce Kindle Fire support at the start of the year. Imagine our delight when Sling Media posts a pair of low-key but significant updates for Android phone and tablet users alike. Smartphone owners get the most out of the upgrade with a new electronic program guide, a fresher overall look and better high-quality video for any phone using Android 4.0 and beyond. Tablet users do get a more optimized interface for the Nexus 7, however, and both form factors will let avid placeshifters remind themselves when a much-anticipated show goes live in the future. Neither of the updates is a complete revolution, but we would say they’re coming just in time.

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Tablets, HD, Mobile

SlingPlayer for Android gets a long-awaited update, adds reminders and better Android 4 video quality originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Oct 2012 16:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve heard a lot of chatter from Samsung about when they’re going to be bringing Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to their flagship Galaxy S III for US users to enjoy. The update has been slowly rolling out to various countries, including several in Europe, but now Samsung is telling us that the US will get Jelly Bean eventually, but still no final release date.

Samsung has put together a list on their support page that shows us which of their US smartphones are expected to receive the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update. The Galaxy S III shows up under all of the major US carriers as “Coming Soon!”. If Samsung wanted us to become even more frustrated and impatient, they couldn’t have done a better job.

Whether “coming soon” means sometime this week or later in this month is still up for questioning. All we really know is that there’s a rumor saying the update will arrive at some point this month, and while that sounds like it’s just around the corner, it means we could be waiting a few weeks. Hopefully it’s sooner rather than later.

The Galaxy S III is arguably Samsung’s most popular phone of all time. It sold over 20 million units in its first three months of availability. The phone sports a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display, and comes packing with a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor and 2GB of RAM. The device was initially released back in May and it still shows no signs of slowing down as we approach the holiday season.

[via AndroidGuys]

Samsung Galaxy S III Jelly Bean update “coming soon” to US is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you’re heading to your local AT&T quite soon and are planning on specifically hitting up the Android-only universe, you may very well be deciding between the HTC One X+ and the Samsung Galaxy S III as your two possible heroes. What we’re going to do here is a quick rundown of what it’ll mean for you to own one or the other – and that has to do with more than just specifications. Of course we’ll need to start with specifications one way or another, so let’s begin with the screen size: 4.7-inches vs 4.8-inches.

The HTC One X+ has the smaller of the two displays at 4.7-inches, but at that size with its 1280 x 720p Super LCD 2 panel, you get the higher of the two screen resolutions with 312 ppi. Samsung presents a 1280 x 720 HD Super AMOLED display over 4.8-inches, this bringing it up to 306 ppi in the end. Both devices are relatively light, with the One X+ coming in at 4.55 oz while the Galaxy S III weighs in at 4.7 oz. [Check our HTC One X+ hands-on right this minute!]

With the 5.31 x 2.75 x 0.35 inch body of the HTC One X+, you’ve essentially got just about as similar a size as you’re going to get on a different manufacturer with the Galaxy S III measuring in at 5.38 x 2.78 x 0.34 inches. The One X+ has appeared in black thus far while the Galaxy S III is available in blue, white, and garnet red – and again, all of these options either do now exist or will soon exist on AT&T in the USA. The HTC One X+ comes with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean right out of the box and the Galaxy S III currently works with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

The processors in these devices are rather different – though they may very well act rather similar in the end. The One X+ works with the NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor as its international iteration does while the Galaxy S III uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor. Have a peek at the battle between HTC One X and HTC One X (with different processors) to get an idea of what we’ll be dealing with here.

Both devices work with NFC, both have an 8 megapixel camera on the back, and the HTC One X+ works with an extra processor made specifically for image processing, just as the rest of the HTC One series has as well. With the HTC One X+ you’ll have Google’s own Voice Assistant and the new Google Now as revealed on the Galaxy Nexus with Jelly Bean – the Galaxy S III works with S-Voice for voice assistance.

Both devices work with a 2100mAh battery though the HTC’s version of it is not able to be removed from the device, while Samsung’s will be able to be switched out at will. The HTC device has 64GB of internal storage while the Galaxy S III on AT&T works with either 16 or 32GB of internal storage and has a microSD card slot for expansion up to an additional 64GB. The One X+ will work with Beats Audio and a built-in FM radio while the Galaxy S III has neither.

The HTC One X+ also works with Sense 4+, a new user interface from HTC, while Samsung works with TouchWiz. Both operating systems are rather interesting and fun to use, and both offer options for media consumption – music and video stores, that is. The pricing for the HTC One X+ has not yet been revealed, but the Galaxy S III will cost you either $199.99 or $249.99 on-contract depending on the internal storage size you want. Check em both out in your local AT&T retail location soon!

HTC One X+ vs Samsung Galaxy S III battle royale is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Jelly Bean continues its slow growth among Android devices, with Android 4.1 now to be found on 1.8-percent of active gadgets using Google’s platform according to the official stats. The new figures – comprising all Android devices accessing Google Play within a two week period up to October 1, 2012 – show that Gingerbread remains the dominant platform among Android phones and tablets, despite being several generations behind Google’s latest version.

A month ago, Jelly Bean was at 1.2-percent, while Ice Cream Sandwich, the previous version, was at 20.9-percent. ICS has now crept up to 23.7-percent, a minor increase, though it’s at the cost of Gingerbread and Honeycomb, rather than any of the older versions of Android.

In fact, with Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, and Froyo all unchanged from the last batch of stats, it seems those devices – and their users – are resolutely fixed on the OS they’re currently running. The only shuffling now is among more recent phones and tablets.

Google’s numbers stand in stark contrast to those of Apple, which saw 15-percent of iOS devices upgrade to iOS 6 within 24 hours of its release. Android fragmentation continues to be an issue in the mobile market, especially given manufacturers – such as HTC, with today’s AT&T One VX – release devices running old software out of the box.

[via Android Community]

Jelly Bean continues slow climb as Android OS balance shifts is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Tucked away at the bottom of HTC’s announcement of the One X+ is a pleasant piece of news that’s sure to make One X and One S owners happy. Android 4.1, alongside HTC’s Sense 4+ UI, is set to arrive on the devices at some point this month. As a disclaimer, this likely won’t apply to AT&T’s One X or T-Mobile’s One S, since the refresh will likely take additional time to make its way through carrier testing — HTC reps confirmed to us that the October timeframe is specifically for the global versions. Here’s to hoping this doesn’t mean we’ll have to wait until the 31st to get our hands on Jelly Bean.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, HTC

HTC: Jelly Bean rolling out to global One X and One S this month originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 04:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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