After months of waiting it seems HTC’s Desire customers will have to go on living without the Android Gingerbread update. HTC has finally admitted defeat and announced that the HTC Desire will continue to run Froyo indefinitely. According to HTC UK’s Facebook page the HTC Desire simply doesn’t have the internal memory required to make Gingerbread and the Sense UI tango together without a loss of functionality.
The International Data Corporation (IDC) has unveiled a somewhat shocking press release stating that, according to their predictions, the Windows Phone 7 platform will take the #2 spot from iOS in world smartphone popularity sometime around 2015. Currently the IDC’s stats put Android at 38.9% of market share with iOS trailing with 18.2% and Windows Phone 7 with a measly 3.8%. You’ll note that Symbian is up there too, but many of their devices are feature phones (i.e. not smartphones) and Symbian is being replaced by WP7 on many upcoming Nokia devices in the near future.
The Motorola DROID 3 has been the subject of much rumor and speculation in recent months. As the expected successor to the Motorola DROID’s legacy, the DROID 3 is aimed to sell its fair share of units come its release date. When the original DROID was released, it was seen as Verizon’s only convincing answer to (at the time) AT&T’s exclusivity deal with the iPhone line. It was fast, responsive, sported a slider QWERTY keypad and ran on Android 2.0. Since then the DROID has been upgraded to run on Android 2.1 and finally 2.2.
The HTC Sensation is soon set to become HTC’s new flagship phone just about everywhere but the US. The Dual-core 1.2GHz handset boasts some impressive hardware specs, as well as the Android Gingerbread OS and new Sense 3.0 user interface (UI). It’s basically the very definition of the new generation of smartphones and should emerge as a solid competitor for Samsung’s much awaited Galaxy S II.
The HTC Salsa is set to be released soon and carry on the strong-chinned legacy of the HTC Hero and HTC Legend, although with somewhat less focus on the unique case design and more on social networking (the iconic chin has seen a definite decrease in size when compared previous models). Also noticeable is the lack of any trackball or touchpad at the base of the device, HTC opting to instead include a dedicated Facebook button that lights up at different times, but more on that later.
Adobe has released the latest update for their Android platform Flash player. Unfortunately this version doesn’t seem to be as big a change as 10.2 was compared to Flash 10.1. No real new features or redesigns this time, just some minor bug fixes and a general smoothing out of wrinkles.
The HTC Desire HD is the natural successor to HTC’s old flagship phone – the HTC Desire. The Desire HD is very similar to the Desire in many respects. However, the improvements implemented in the Desire HD are definitely noticeable such as the larger screen, brighter display and Android 2.2 (Froyo) operating system.
Android has announced their first update to the Android Honeycomb 3.0 platform and it’s called… Android Honeycomb 3.1. That’s right, no fancy names like Ice Cream Sandwich or Gingerbread here, possibly because Google is planning to supersede Honeycomb in the near future.
Google has just announced the next update to the Android dessert menu: Ice Cream Sandwich. Also known as Android 2.4, Ice Cream Sandwich is taking a slightly different angle than other Android updates have in the past. Rather than focusing purely on upgrading performance and adding new services, Google has said that they’re now focusing on unifying Android devices under one banner: Ice Cream Sandwich.
Google has finally started rolling out its Android 2.3.4 update for the Google Nexus S. The Android 2.3.4 update is important for one major reason; it will give users the option to talk with Video Chat. Google Talk is a video chat service that is very similar to FaceTime, a current and popular functionality of the iPhone operating system. Not only that, but Google Talk includes free instant messaging and audio chat between anyone with Android 2.3.4 and higher.
Hundreds of cell phone plans unpacked. All the facts. No surprises.