While we sit and wait patiently for the US release of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus our friends across the pond have been enjoying it for almost a week now. As it goes for most beta testers – er, I mean early adopters — a nasty bug was found by way of the device muting itself and then becoming unresponsive — all this after dipping into 2G.
It was weird and Google both acknowledged it and said they were on top of it. Today, we have a more specific, yet still vague time frame on when to expect this update. According to The Verge Google said today, “We’re currently rolling out a fix for the volume issue which will reach everyone in the coming week.”
All we can say now is keep F5′ing that system update in your Settings. Could come any day now. Meanwhile, us “yanks” will continue giving you guys glaring stares.
A huge win for Samsung today coming out of “the land down undah” with an Australian court reversing a ban on the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1′s across the country. You may remember last month, Apple was actually granted an injunction against Samsung that put a temporary ban on the sale of Galaxy Tab 10.1′s in Australia. It wasn’t looking so hot for ‘ol Sammy who would have missed out on the busy holiday shopping season but now, this news could be seen as an early Christmas gift for the Korean manufacturer.
The battle may be over but the war continues with Samsung firing back at Apple having filed preliminary sales in junctions to block the sale of the iPhone 4S in 4 countries including Australia. Apple still has a knock out under their belt with the successful move to block Galaxy Tab sales in Germany. I think you know which side we’re on. We’re rootin’ for ya, Samsung!
Just in time for the holidays, a newly leaked Acer video is making the rounds around the net showing off the upcoming 10-inch Iconia Tab A200. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen their new Android tablet with the device making its way past the FCC and receiving Bluetooth certification a few weeks ago. The A200, looks to be little more than a refresh of the A500 with largely the same specs on the inside — Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, 1GB RAM — meaning you might want to look elsewhere for a powerhouse tablet. Don’t get us wrong, that’s not bad at all. If they can drop the price to around the sub $300 range and make a solid product, I think it will do well for those that don’t feel the need to drop $500 on a quad-core tab from those other guys.
The (almost creepy) promo video shows off some of the features of the A200 giving us a clear look at the device’s form factor and some of its features like a full sized USB port. I have to say, I like the direction Acer is going with their tablet line. Connectivity and wide array of ports should be the norm and not the exception when talking about an Android tablet. No word yet on a release but judging from the video, we should see retailers stocking the tablet in time for the holidays. Enjoy.
I wont even lie to you, after finishing Thanksgiving dinner, I was out and about on Black Friday looking to scoop up some holiday deals. And like every year before it, I wasn’t the only one with Black Friday shoppers out in droves and breaking sales records. But that wasn’t the only record broken on Black Friday. Apparently, more people than ever were using their smartphones equipped with the ShopSavvy “mobile shopping assistant” app to help check prices and score the best deals. ShopSavvy posted some of their data collected from their 10 million user base and found…
ShopSavvy says:
* Delivered 8 Million scanned offers on Black Friday
* Helped users buy approximately $150M in products based on their scans on Black Friday
* Sold $11 million worth of products via its mobile platform on Black Friday
* Saw top product category scans were consumer electronics and toys
In addition, ShopSavvy saw significant growth across the board, with:
* 3 times more scans than Black Friday 2010
* 535% increase on Black Friday over normal shopping traffic
* Over 200% increase on Thanksgiving Day over normal holiday traffic
* 2000% increase in scans of video games
If those numbers tell you one thing it’s that one, you’re lucky if you stayed in doors this Black Friday and two, if you were out shopping and you weren’t using an app like ShopSavvy to cross reference prices… you were doing it wrong. As a deal hunter myself, I can tell you my life has been made a whole lot easier ever since this app hit the market. If you haven’t had a chance to use to use it, ShopSavvy is completely free and you can download it right now in the Android Market.
Another potential release date for the ASUS Transformer Prime has presented itself, once again leaked from Gamestop who has updated their computer systems to show a new December 19th launch for the quad-core tablet. Having been a Gamestop manager in a former life, if there’s one thing I know about their expected launch dates, it’s that they are very tentative and they will attach a date to just about anything that’s been officially announced.
A tablet who’s launch date is shrouded in mystery, there has been about as much speculation on the release as the elusive Galaxy Nexus We know for a fact that it will launch in December but it’s always nice to have a date to call off work. Word on the street is ASUS is planning to officially announce the date come December 1st so we’ll have to wait and see.
The Galaxy Tab 10.1N, Samsung’s answer to a judge’s ruling that banned the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (without the N) in Germany, will now have its own day in court. Samsung may have hoped that Apple would find no complaint with the release of the cosmetically modified tablet, but nothing gets past the watch of Cupertino’s lawyers, apparently.
Just a few days after Samsung and Apple will meet in court for an appeal of the original verdict they will come together to debate whether or not the Galaxy Tab 10.1N ventures far enough away from original copy-cat claims to actually avoid falling under the scope of the initial decision. The ruling in the 10.1N case hinges on the verdict o the appeal, stirring some rather murky legal waters. Regardless of in whose favor the gavel falls, the set of court cases will go along way in determining how far-reaching the initial ban actually is.
Futuremark, a name familiar with most connoisseurs of high-end PC hardware, is looking to make a splash in the mobile market with the announcement that their popular 3DMark series will soon find its way to Android. 3DMark for Android is being designed with an emphasis on providing results relevant to folks interested in gaming on their devices, and cull its results from physics tests, rendering speeds, and CPU analysis. The in-development benchmark software will use real-tim graphics based on the OpenGL API with results compared to other smartphones, tablets, and even Windows 8 PCs.
3DMark, which should become available in 2012, looks to set the bar for smartphone and tablet benchmarks. Futuremark CEO Jukka Makinen says the software will provide a “professional grade benchmark that can be trusted by manufacturers, suppliers and vendors to provide the definitive measure of gaming performance on Android while showcasing the very best in real-time graphics and effects.”
If you haven’t been having much luck for our Holidroid Contest here at Phandroid (don’t worry, there’s still plenty more chances), you guys might want to jump on this deal before your local Target or Walmart stores shut their doors for the night. Apparently, some users over at Slickdeals have been enjoying some Kindle Fires they were able to pick up for only $123 at some Target locations.
Moral dilemma aside, with a golden tongue and enough evidence at your disposal, you can even find other electronics retailers like Staples or the aforementioned Walmart who are willing to match this incredible deal. Users have been reporting that the deal has been extended through today, so get to downloading the evidence to your Android phone via the source link below and good luck!
As sick as most of you are of hearing about the Galaxy Nexus and not being able to get your hands on one, in light of the current situation, I am still very much enjoying reading/watching/hearing every bit of Galaxy Nexus news and make it a point to pass along that information with my less tech savvy friends and family. Like this fun Galaxy Nexus video from the boys at Google.
Would be nice if these nice commercials would make their way to actual live television say, between football plays and such but maybe Verizon has something more planned for the Galaxy Nexus once it’s released this December 8th(?). So while you guys at Verizon (and soon, AT&T and T-Mobile) are flossin’ your shiny new Nex, us at Sprint, will be waiting with no clear launch in sight.
Seems Google is getting in on the Cyber Monday madness with a sale of their own for music lovers. Entire hit albums from artists like Florence and the Machine, Coldplay, Rhianna, Lady Gaga and more are on sale right now in the Android Market for only $2. There’s no better time than right now to update that aging music collection of yours with the hottest artists on the planet. Now, if you’ll excuse me — I have a Justin Bieber Christmas album to download…
