Hasta La Gadget!

It’s like a Cruz Tablet, but with a T301 thrown into the mix. All jesting aside, we’d wager that the vast majority of simpletons wouldn’t spot the differences between the existing Cruz Tablet and the T301 at a glance, and honestly, we wish Velocity Micro would’ve done a little work to remedy that. For whatever reason, the 7-inch slate is shipping with Android 2.0, and while the 800 x 600 capacitive touchpanel sounds lovely indeed, it’s hard to get riled up for such a stale operating system. For those unconcerned with the luxuries present in Eclair and Froyo, there’s an 802.11n WiFi radio, built-in Kindle app and a user replaceable Li-Ion battery that could last up to ten hours on a good day… or so the company says. Without question, the highlight here is the price — at just $249.99, it’s definitely creeping down into LCD e-reader territory, with a lot of bells and whistles to boot. She’s shipping today if you’re so inclined.

Velocity Micro’s 7-inch Cruz T301 Android 2.0 tablet surfaces on Amazon, shipping now for $250 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Dec 2010 15:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Laptoping  |  Amazon  | Email this | Comments

Hold on to your hats, people, there’s a wind of awesomeness coming through. The Nexus S is no longer the only Gingerbread game in town, courtesy of supercurio over on the xda-developers forum, who has ported the hot new phone’s Android 2.3 install over to its Samsung forefather, the Galaxy S. The port is described as being unmodified from the Nexus S original, although quite a few basic functions like voice, WiFi, and GPS (insert joke about Galaxy S GPS woes) aren’t yet operational. All the same, we agree with supercurio that it’s looking “super smooth” and look forward to seeing him and the rest of the xda crew polish this stock Android baby off in short order.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy S receives Gingerbread port right from the Nexus S source (video)

Samsung Galaxy S receives Gingerbread port right from the Nexus S source (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Dec 2010 07:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  xda-developers  | Email this | Comments

Getting sick of cheap Android tablets and e-readers? Boy, we hope not, because E FUN’s Next3 is just one of many being announced in time for CES 2011. As you may have gleaned from the headline, the Nextbook Next3 runs Android 2.1 and has the usual array of specs for its $230 price — a resistive, 800 x 600-resolution 8.4-inch display, a 600MHz Rockchip processor, WiFi 802.11 b/g, 2GB of onboard storage, and an SD card slot. From the looks of the pictures in the gallery and the short press release after the break, it seems to be positioned as more of an e-reader than a tablet — you know, with its integrated Borders eBook Store and all — but you should be able to surf the web and watch some videos on it. No word on what apps are preloaded, but naturally there’s no Market access. We’re going to call a spade a spade here and say this thing looks a heck of a lot like the Pandigital Novel and Velocity Micro Cruz Reader, but we’ll be checking it out in Vegas in a few weeks to get a confirmation on that. Don’t let that stop you from ordering one today, though — it’s only $200 at HSN right now.

Continue reading E FUN Next3 Android 2.1 tablet available for $230, real fun sold separately

E FUN Next3 Android 2.1 tablet available for $230, real fun sold separately originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 21:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Nextbook, HSN  | Email this | Comments

Along with Rage HD, Infinity Blade has been one of the titles to really solidify iOS’ position as the leader in mobile gaming right now, but that’s not to say Android isn’t in hot pursuit: besides this Zeus we have on the horizon, Gingerbread improves gaming support on the API level — and now we’re seeing our first Unreal Engine 3-based title make the leap. Dungeon Defenders: First Wave, which just launched on iOS, is coming to Android 2.1 and above on December 23rd bringing with it an online, multiplayer tower defense gaming experience. Of course, one problem these guys have now is that Android hardware is all over the map, so they actually need to publish a long list of minimum requirements — just like PC titles — and in this case you need 512MB of RAM, an 800MHz or better SOC with support for OpenGL ES 2.0, and at least 400MB of free storage. Apart from the myTouch 4G (which has some occasional “stability issues”), most recent mid- to high-end handsets seem to be ready to roll, including “all Tegra 2 based devices” like the Optimus 2X that was just announced. Follow the break for some video action and the full press release.

Continue reading Dungeon Defenders: First Wave brings Unreal Engine to Android this month

Dungeon Defenders: First Wave brings Unreal Engine to Android this month originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 12:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Two video chats enter the ring, only one comes out. In this corner it’s ooVoo Mobile, a portable version of the (somewhat) popular desktop video chat application that will let up to six users simultaneously swap bitrate over 3G, 4G, or WiFi — but only if you have an HTC Evo or Samsung Epic. In the other corner it’s Yahoo! Messenger, with version 1.3 adding video calls and similarly limited device support, though this time it’s the myTouch 4G and the Evo getting the nod. So, Android owners, which of these is going to reign supreme? Or, are you going to tap out and stay cozy with Qik? Hit the Android Market now and place your bets.

Update: We’re told that Paltalk has also recently released an Android app to the Marketplace, giving you yet another way to say “hey.”

Continue reading Yahoo! Messenger and ooVoo Mobile do video chat on Android, but only for a lucky few

Yahoo! Messenger and ooVoo Mobile do video chat on Android, but only for a lucky few originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 09:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Android Community  |  Droid Life  | Email this | Comments