Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc Reviews

CNET
"The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc offers a stunning wide-screen display and an excellent camera. It's the ideal Androi

id smart phone for media lovers."

Engadget
"Nonetheless, spec sheets tell only half the story and we're here for the full disclosure -- what's the Arc like to use on a daily basis, how are its talents harnessed by Sony Ericsson's tweaked UI, and, most importantly, do people think better of us for carrying such a stylish phone?"

T3
"The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc has all the specs and features you'd expect from a smartphone - the latest Android OS and a smashing good camera. Add to that those looks and you're onto a winner."

The limited edition white Nexus 4 8GB (with bumper)

Well, that didn’t take long. Then again, I guess there was never much supply to begin with. In either case, the white Nexus 4 (8GB) is now officially “no longer available for sale” through the Google Play Store.

True to its name, Google was always upfront about it’s “limited” status, and even though it’s possible it could return sans bumper, there’s a good chance this will be the last we’ll see of the white model in this storage configuration.

Dell Venue Android Smartphone 2013

[notification type="info"]Dell Venue Android Smartphone 2013. [/notification]

• Design


• Customer Ratings

Style and Substance

Slim. Lightweight. Curved glass. Venue’s ellipse shape was designed to not only look good in your hand, but feel good as well. We added high-quality Corning Gorilla® Glass for extra strength. In addition, the back of the phone is created from a single unbroken surface with a micro pattern that hides fingerprints, smudging and scratches.

Fun Mobile Features

Acer has no interest in rewriting Android

 

It’s no secret that while many of us out there REALLY don’t like custom Android skins, most (if not all) of the major prominent Android manufacturers continue to churn out devices with skins featuring pretty colors and flashy features— that is, unless you’re Acer of course. The manufacturer recently took some time to highlight why it takes the Android platform and decides to add few sprinkles, rather than go all out with a “unique” experience for its various devices. As highlighted in an interview with TechRadar, Acer’s global smartphone division president S T Liew asserts that:

“Android actually does a great job at serving up the right user experience and it allows people to migrate from one Android phone to another with relative ease. With each phone we assess its main features and we enhance those experiences with small UIs, such as the camera app or the note taking capabilities and multi-tasking tools on the Acer Liquid S1.”

So in essence, Acer believes that the core platform is fine as it is. Naturally there’s always room for improvement, especially with Android’s openness— so Acer decides to put touch on some of the lesser-tier items like the camera apps or implementing cool and unique widgets to differentiate itself from the likes of say, Samsung (which often is in Apple’s doghouse and all). And naturally, this is win-win for both the manufacturing giant and consumers at the same time. The end effects are not only prompt updates for its devices— which results in happy device owners, but also allows Acer to save a buck or two by not having to spend extraordinary resources trying to rewrite the Android code and all. Sounds like some pretty fair and welcome thinking to us.

source: TechRadar

AT&T updating GoPhone prepaid plans

AT&T updating GoPhone prepaid plans, GoPhone devices to get LTE access June 21st

 

 

Are you one of AT&T’s GoPhone prepaid customers? If so, we’ve got good news; in an effort to stay competitive (we hope) AT&T is revising their GoPhone prepaid plans for customers, making them much more affordable and including more data in the cheaper packages. More for less, how can you beat that? How about throwing in LTE access, too?

In a pretty bold move, AT&T will allow their prepaid customers to access their LTE network starting June 21st. This marks AT&T as one of the first carriers to allow prepaid phones to run on any LTE network, and considering AT&T is only one of two carriers who has a sizable LTE footprint, that’s a pretty big deal. Hit the break for the revised pricing, and let us know in the comments if any of you are considering switching to AT&T’s prepaid service after this news.

• $60 a month for 2 GB of data, unlimited nationwide calling, and unlimited messaging — now double the data at a lower monthly price. Additional data is available for $10 per 1 GB.


• $40 a month for 200 MB of data, 500 minutes of nationwide calling, and unlimited messaging. Additional data is available for $5 per 100 MB.


• $25 a month for 250 minutes of nationwide calling and unlimited messaging, with an optional data package of 50 MB for an additional $5 a month.


• All GoPhone monthly plans include international texts from the U.S. to Mexico, Canada and 100 other countries.

LG l4 II

LG announces budget-friendly Optimus L4 II with IPS display

LG announced today a new budget-friendly Android handset called the Optimus L4 II (also known as the E440), which we’ve been catching glimpses of as early as May. The modest device packs a single-core 1GHz MediaTek processor, 512MB or RAM, 4GB of internal storage (expandable via a MicroSD slot). On the outside they’ve attached a 3.8-inch HVGA IPS display with a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels.

An interesting feature of this handset is the standard LG front-and-center home button, which features a built-in LED that changes color based on the different types of notifications. Hit the break for a couple more images of the device in white.

The phone is currently available in black and white variations in Russia and Ukraine for 5,490 RUB, or about $172.

New Nexus 7 may support Verizon

New Nexus 7 may support Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile LTE bands

 

 

The rumors for the unannounced new Nexus 7 just keep flooding in. This time, we have an FCC filing that shows the new version of our favorite 7 inch tablet will sport LTE bands for Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. And no, that doesn’t mean there will be three different models for each carrier; this is one model of Nexus 7 that has all of the radios built in for (potential) carrier hopping. Well, except for Sprint. Sorry Sprint guys.

The filing shows LTE bands 2, 4, 5, 13, and 17, which covers all of the major US carriers. All of them use some band 4, especially T-Mobile, and Verizon and AT&T use band 13 and 17 respectively. Of course, there’s still that tricky issue of not having LTE coverage, and the filing shows that this Nexus has bands for AT&T’s HSPA+ network. So, essentially, the device may be built for AT&T’s network, but will “support” other networks as well. Take it with a grain of salt, but keep your ears open.

Motorola X phone

pecs leak for the highly anticipated Motorola X phone, featuring HD screen, 2GB of RAM and dual-core processor

Unsurprisingly, infamous twitter user @evleaks has been gracious enough to list the specs of the new Motorola X phone, and its looking to be a solid mid-to-high end device. The Google-owned company has put together a phone running Android 4.2.2 Jellybean powered by 2GB of RAM, a dual-core 1.7GHz MSM8960 Pro processor, and comes with 16GB of internal storage. For those of you worried that a dual-core processor won’t satisfy your needs, it should be noted that in benchmarks the device out-performed the Samsung Galaxy S 4 and the HTC One. On the outside they’ve put a generous 10-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. The display has a 1196 x 720, 720p resolution and its safe to assume it will be of the standard IPS variety.

As reported before, the phone will also feature a boatload of sensors, and could possibly utilize the cool edible vitamin password that Motorola/Google’s Regina Dugan showed us earlier this year. Other sensors include one that detects when the phone has been taken out of the pocket, and another that can detect how fast you are going in a moving car, prompting your phone to act differently for safety purposes.

If past rumors are correct, we could be seeing this phone sometime in October, though only time will tell. Let us know in the comments if this is the X phone you’ve been waiting for, and if not, what you would have like to have seen from Motorola and Google’s much-anticipated outing.

ZTE U988S With 1.8GHz Tegra 4i Processor

ZTE U988S With 1.8GHz Tegra 4i Processor and Android 4.2.2 Gets Benchmarked

Ever since Nvidia debuted the Tegra 4 platform earlier this year we haven’t seen hide nor hair of an announcement of a device running on it, besides the Nvidia Shield and hints of other devices that is. According to news posts a few days ago we weren’t expected to see it in a phone until quarter one of next year. However it looks like ZTE is going to change that if the current AuTuTu Benchmark database is correct.

According to the database the ZTE U988S was tested running Android 4.2.2. with a Tegra 4i processor running at 1.8GHz. It was benchmarked in China and came out with a score of 29,784. The phone will have a 5.7 inch 720p display, 2GB of RAM, an 8MP rear/2MP front camera, as well as the other staple amenities. That will include Bluetooth, a MicroSD slot, GPS and microUSB.

We’re not sure if this will make a debut anywhere but China at this point as it hasn’t even been officially announced by ZTE. We’ll let you know when they do. Stay tuned!

How To Setup Eclipse and Netbeans

How To Setup Eclipse and Netbeans For Developing Google Android Apps

 

To develop Android applications, the user can employ Netbeans or Eclipse for assistance. Each Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is free and easy to maneuver. However, Eclipse is an older application that Netbeans.

Netbeans

Netbeans is deemed more desirable for building web applications. To begin building a web application in Netbeans, it requires one step. This step involves downloading the Netbeans IDE 5.0 application. Its competitor’s process involves 6 steps in comparison.

Netbeans contains a JSP debugger and remote debugger, a Java Enterprise Edition verifier, a choice of JSP, JSF or Struts frameworks, a deployment description editor, a HTTP monitor, multiple database connections, XML editor and validation, debug and monitor SQL commands, and no manual creation or modification of deployment descriptors required.

To develop Google Android Applications for Netbeans, the user must implement the following steps.

1) Install the Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Download the application from the website and install it.

2) Install the Android plug in for Netbeans. The plug in is named nbandroid.

Within the Netbeans Update Center, the user will find the Netbeans plug in.

First go to the Menu bar, find the Tools menu. Within the tools menu, the user will find a list of Netbeans plug ins. Select the Netbeans plug in the user desires. In this particular case, select the Android Plug in. Within the Settings options, select Add. When prompted, enter this URL: http://kenai.com/downloads/nbandroid/updates.xml

The user can begin the installation process, when this step is completed. Once the Android plug is installed, then the user should add the Android Platform to Netbeans.

Within the Menu option, select the Tools option. Once this is completed, enter Java Platforms. Then select the Add Platform button. The Google Android Platform should be in this selection. The next window will prompt the user to enter a new platform name. Enter the user name. Follow the instructions until the process is complete.

Eclipse

In order to build a web application in Eclipse, the user must Download Eclipse IDE 3.1, Apache Tomcat, Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF), Eclipse Graphical Editing Framework (GEF), Java EMF Model (JEM) from Visual Editor Project (VEP), and Web Tools Project (WTP).

After the Software Development Kit (SDK) installation, locate and install the Android plug in for the Eclipse. The installation process is as follows:

From the Menu, select the Help feature. Within the Help feature select Software Updates. A command window will appear. Select the window, for Add site. Enter the following URL when prompted: https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/

Next select the Updates and Add On menu. The URL will appear. When the URL appears, click on the URL. Then select the Developer Tools option and begin the installation process. Follow the steps to install the plug in.

If the user needs the Europa version, the steps are as follows. Start the Eclipse application. Within the Menu, select the Help option. Then select the Software Updates and Find and Install. Select the New Remote Site. Choose and insert a name for the plug in . Enter the location of the plug in and proceed.

https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/

When this step is complete, the site should appear in the Add On list. Select the Android Developer Tools and the Android Editor. Follow the instructions to install the plug in. Include this URL when prompted: https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/.

Once the Eclipse plug in is installed, then restart the IDE. Indicate the location of the Software Development Kit (SDK) within the system.

Select the Menu. Then select Preferences under the Window option. Choose the Android. Select Browse to locate the Software Development Kit (SDK) directory in the computer.

The user may now create Android applications in the Eclipse IDE.