froyo

Huawei quietly introduced a sequel to its Android-powered Huawei Ascend, the Huawei Ascend 2 for Cricket.

The Ascend 2 updates its progenitor in almost every way. It's sleeker, slimmer, and lighter in the hand. Gone is the trackball, and the hardware navigation buttons give way to four touch-sensitive buttons below the 3.5-inch capacitive touch screen.

The camera also sees an upgrade, from 3.2 megapixels to 5 megapixels in the Ascend 2. Everything is powered by an 800Mhz processor.

We're a little disappointed that the Ascend 2 runs Android 2.2 Froyo instead of Android 2.3 … Read more

Consumers in the market for a new PC from Dell now have a chance to pick up the company's Streak 5 tablet for $99.

As part of a new promotion, Dell will kick in an unlocked Streak 5 for that $99 to any customer who spends at least $699 on a new PC. By itself, the Streak 5 normally sells for $99 with a two-year contract, while an unlocked version goes for $449 with its current discount factored in.

The Streak 5 offers a 5-inch WVGA display, placing it somewhere between most smartphones and tablets in terms of screen … Read more

Android 2.2 Froyo is far and away the most used version of the mobile operating system, a developer page has revealed.

According to data that Google compiled over the 14-day period ended March 15, Froyo was running on 61.3 percent of all the devices that accessed the Android Market. It was followed by Android 2.1 Eclair with 29.0 percent share. Android 1.6 Donut and Android 1.5 Cupcake accounted for 4.8 percent and 3.0 percent of the market, respectively. The recently released Android 3.0 Honeycomb nabbed just 0.2 percent market share.… Read more

Motorola has decided to pull back on plans to update its Charm (T-Mobile) and Flipout (AT&T) handsets with Android 2.2 Froyo.

Of course, that means that the smartphones, which were released with Android 2.1 back in the fall, will remain on Eclair indefinitely. The handsets join a growing list of Motorola phones being left behind on older versions of Android. Most recently, the company decided that the Cliq XT would stay on Android 1.5 and never see features such as Google Maps Navigation or live wallpapers.

Looking at the list of devices represented on Motorola'… Read more

Slowly but surely, the Samsung Galaxy S series phones are getting updated to Android 2.2 Froyo. First it was the Samsung Vibrant, then the Samsung Epic 4G, and now the Samsung Captivate.

AT&T said on its Facebook page that the update will be available starting tomorrow. A link to Samsung's Web site will be provided where you can find the update and instructions on how to install it.

The carrier also revealed that the HTC Aria will get Froyo as well, but did not provide a specific time frame for that update.

If you've been disgruntled by a dearth of widgets in Google Reader for Android, today's news might pacify you.

Google issued three new features and support for Russian translation today in its Reader app. Two of them are widgets. You can now mark a previous item as read, a feature first found on the mobile-optimized version of Reader online.

As for the widgets, one will display the number of unread items on your home screen and take you there when you select it. The other widget is a larger-size news ticker you can selectively filter. It, too, will … Read more

There are two stories that star the Samsung Galaxy Indulge.

In one (the romance-adventure), the intrepid Indulge is MetroPCS' first smartphone foray into 4G territory. What's more, the humble Android 2.2 Froyo handset goes on to become the world's first commercially available LTE smartphone. Cue the crescendo!

In the other (the dystopia,) the Indulge is a good-but-not-great Galaxy S phone that's costly even for a non-contract phone. At least, it isn't sensational when compared to its premium cousins like the Epic 4G.

Our anti-hero's 4G also doesn't appear to be as fast in … Read more

Dying to get your hands on the highly rated Motorola Atrix 4G? No, AT&T isn't doling out hidden-away handsets from a secret stash, but buyers with their hearts set on the dual-core, Android 2.2 Froyo device that powers a laptop-like accessory can start claiming their units prior to the March 6 sale date by preordering on AT&T's site.

Keep in mind that the Atrix is no bargain--the high-end smartphone sells for $199.99 with a two-year contract. A bundled package gives you the laptop dock as well for $299.99 with a tethering … Read more

INQ Mobile today took the wraps off two new Android smartphones, headed first for the U.K. market, that are designed for people who depend on Facebook.

The INQ Cloud Touch and INQ Cloud Q both heavily integrate the popular social network into their overall operation. Working closely with people at Facebook, INQ has outfitted the home screen with a visual feed that lets users quickly access updates, pictures, videos, and other Facebook content. The phones also provide quick links to various Facebook features, including chats, messages, wall postings, and notifications, according to London-based INQ.

Facebook Places is accessible directly from the homescreen, giving people the ability to use the feature to check in at stores, restaurants, clubs, and other spots. Facebook's Events feature is also available to let people schedule events and sync them with Google Calendar. And instead of requiring users to log onto each feature separately, the phones offer a single sign-on to access all of the Facebook features available, INQ said.

For entertainment, both phones provide the Spotify music player with all of its features available to subscribers.… Read more