Tag Archives: gingerbread
Vodafone launches updated entry-level Android – Smart II
Rating: We think this one is supplied by TCL/Alcatel
If anyone has spotted a niche in the market for a good, entry-level Android (Gingerbread) smartphone then it is very definitely Vodafone. (Or maybe, 3 – Ed). Anyway, Vodafone has decided to follow up the success of the original Vodafone Smart handset with the Vodafone Smart II. As you’d expect, the Smart II outperforms its predecessor in every way. It offers a bigger display; better camera; longer battery life; a more powerful processor ; and more memory than the original Smart handset. To give readers an idea of the price, this Android 2.3 handset should cost around £70 on a prepaid tariff. We’re pretty sure the original Vodafone Smart handset was supplied by Huawei (probably its U8160 model). Runours are that the new Smart II is supplied to Vodafone by TCL which owns the Alcatel handset brand. It previously supplied Vodafone with the 555 Blue. Continue reading
Posted in Mobile Devices, Vodafone, android
Tagged Alcatel, android, gingerbread, Huawei, Smart II, TCL
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Vodafone joins with Huawei to offer low cost Android
Rating: Ice Cream Sandwich for one hundred quid
We’re not quite sure exactly what barrier Vodafone UK and Huawei have broken through but the pair are offering what can only be described as a dirt cheap Android handset. It comes in the shape of the Ascend G 300. It’s actually possible to acquire this handset for £100 on PAYG (prepaid). Probably the most impressive part to this deal is that although the handset will ship with the Gingerbread release of the Android OS – the pair are promising that an upgrade to the ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) version of the Android OS will become available “later this Summer”. Continue reading
Posted in Mobile Devices, Vodafone, android
Tagged android, gingerbread, Huawei, ice cream sandwich, Odafone
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Motorola introduces two budget Androids
Rating: The MotoLuxe and the Defy Mini are actually already available in China
It appears that under Google’s new guidance, Motorola Mobility has decided to introduce to two entry-level handsets. The first one is called the Defy Mini and the other is the MotoLuxe. Both are Android Gingerbread (v 2.3) smartphones and both are already available in China. Expect them to srface in Europe in February (probably timed to coincide with MWC 2012).The Defy Mini’s official model name is the XT320 whilst the MotoLuxe is the XT615. It seems that both are intended to be budget Android handsets with the Defy Mini simply being a smaller version of Motorola’s ‘party-proof’ handset. The Motorola MOTOLUXE is meant to be a stylish, slim touchscreen device a bit like the Motorola RAZR, for example. Continue reading
Posted in Mobile Devices, Motorola, android
Tagged aloqa, android 2.3, Defy Mini, gingerbread, MotoLuxe, Motorola, MotoSwitch, XT320, XT615
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Lack of NFC support is hurting W7 Mango
Rating: Even Acer is now pushing Android handsets with NFC support
A smartphone vendor whose name is virtually synonymous with W7 Mango (especially now that HTC is so heavily associated with Android) has announced that starting with its latest handset, all of the forthcoming brand’s Android smartphones will be equipped with NFC technology. The company is Acer and the Android smartphone in question is the Liquid Express. However, this announcement puts heavy pressure for Microsoft to get its act together and introduce support for NFC in Windows Phone (WP7). Its important for Microsoft to rectify this omission because its other key supporter for Mango and onwards is Nokia. The very latest version of Symbian – Belle – supports NFC, so why doesn’t Windows Phone. Continue reading
Posted in Acer, Microsoft, NFC, WP7, android, nokia, t-mobile
Tagged 2.3, acer, Allen Burnes, android, Andy Lees, Apple Insider, BlackBerry, gingerbread, HTC, iOS, Liquid Express, nokia, symbian, t-mobile, The Verge
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The UK just isn’t ready for the micro SIM
Rating: GoMo couldn’t get one for love nor money
GoMo News was over the moon to receive a beautiful bit of kit to review – the latest Razr from Motorola which these days is a Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread device). There’s only one big snag with this particular handset – it employs the very latest micro SIM card. When you’ve got an ultra-slim device like the Razr, saving a bit of space by using a micro SIM instead of the traditional SIM makes a great deal of sense. The downside is that you have to try to source such a SIM in a retail market environment which is totally unprepared for such an eventuality. Continue reading
Posted in 3, Featured, Mobile Devices, Vodafone, android, orange
Tagged 3 UK, android, carphone warehouse, DEFY, gingerbread, micro SIM, Motorola, orange, Razr, Vodafone
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Google re-fixes Gingerbread for Nexus One & S
Rating: Better hurry up with the Prime before iPhone 5 arrives
It appears that Google has been forced to patch up a Gingerbread update it released for the Nexus One and Nexus S handsets only a few weeks back. The fix is being made available as an OTA (Over-The-Air) update for non-branded Google smartphones (one guy with an AT&T handset claims it doesn’t work). Google could probably have done without this messing about as it wrestles to bring out the much-rumoured Prime handset (see our previous story here). It’s expected to be built for Google by Samsung (not Motorola) and we even now have a model number for it – the GT-I9250. Meanwhile Apple has sent out invites for a media event on October 4th [2011] which absolutely everyone expects to showcase the iPhone 5. Continue reading
Posted in Apple, Mobile OS, android, google
Tagged android, Android Police, gingerbread, GT-I9250, ice cream sandwich, Mobilemag, Nexus, Prime, Samsung
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Could Coverity’s tech speed up Android releases?
Rating: Symbian has used it before
Don’t ask how but GoMo News ended up chatting with CERN’s Axel Naumann at a meal hosted by Coverity in a cheese restaurant in London’s Marylebone district. Naumann works for the European Organisation for Nuclear Research – better known as CERN. Of course – as we all know – Tim Berners-Lee was working at CERN when he accidentally the worldwide web. Anyway, Naumann was telling GoMo News about how he’d used Coverity’s Static Analysis tool to test 50 million lines of software code in Large Hadron Collider software and it helped CERN fix more than 40,000 defects. This got me thinking. Wouldn’t it be a neat trick to apply this tech to a mobile OS? Say bada, Aliyun or Android? Unfortunately Symbian beat me to it. The company had starting using Coverity’s tools back in 2008. Continue reading
Posted in Mobile OS, symbian
Tagged android, Axel Naumann, CERN, Coverity, gingerbread, symbian
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Samsung Galaxy Note is an IFA Berlin highlight
Rating: Half smartphone, half tablet & half notepad. It ain’t half good
One of the big hits from the IFA Berlin show has undoubtedly got to be the Samsung Galaxy Note. As the name implies, this is a smartphone pretending to be a hybrid of a handset, a tablet and a notepad. On paper this might even work because it boasts a 5.3 inch WXGA (1280 x 800) HD Super AMOLED screen. So we’re are talking high res is us. The really clever bit is that while the device is actually running a smartphone OS in the shape of Android O 2 .3 (Gingerbread), it also has a touch pen capability courtesy of S Pen (Advanced smart pen) support. What GoMo News noticed in particular about this device is the breadth of the marketing efforts behind it. Not only are there dedicated apps (Android & Samsung), but also pages on the Facebook social networking site and a standard web site dedicated entirely to the product here. Continue reading
Posted in Featured, Mobile Devices, Samsung, android, tablets
Tagged Advanced smart pen, android, Galazy, gingerbread, honeycomb, Note, pen, S Pen, Samsung, tablet
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Phones 4U gets Huawei Androids first
Rating: Pair refrain from actually calling them “cheap”
It’s obvious now why Orange was so tight lipped about where its customers could acquire the two new, own-branded Huawei Vision and Blaze smartphones (see our previous story here). The answer is UK distributor, Phones 4u. It’s clear that Huawei UK’s head honcho, Mark Mitchinson, has picked Phones4u because of its focus on the youth and value segments. The pair don’t manage to use the words “cheap Androids” – instead preferring to describe them as “the very best-specified Android smartphones in the market.” Sadly the pair say that, “Information on pricing and availability will be shared at a later date.” But there’s a hint that they should be available online pretty soon and certainly in plenty of time for Xmas. Mitchinson didn’t get where he is today without knowing when most smartphones get sold in the UK (Nov/Dec). Both phones will be running Android Gingerbread ( 2.3), incidentally. Continue reading
Posted in Mobile Devices, ZTE, android
Tagged 2.3, android, Blaze, gingerbread, Huawei, Mark Mitchinson, Phones 4 U, qualcomm, Scott Hooton, vision, ZTE
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Huawei moves into the mobile cloud
Rating:Android Vision phone connects to cloud
It seems that Huawei’s handset division has spotted the opportunity for a cloud computing based handset and has responded accordingly with a smartphone called the ‘Vision’. The company is hoping to start shipping this device next month [September 2011], although it has given no indication yet of any pricing. The move is obviously in response to launches made by other mobile industry players such as Apple with the iCloud for iPhone users which announced back in June. There are only suggestions that China’s answer to Google – Baidu, could be developing a mobile OS that enables smartphone users to perform a wide range of online activities through its web browser – including cloud computing, naturally. Continue reading
Posted in Huawei, android, mobile cloud
Tagged alibaba, Aliyun, android, Baidu, China daily, cloud computing, gingerbread, Huawei, Victor Xu, Yulong Technologies
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ZTE announces own brand handsets in UK
Rating: Tie up with Brightpoint will give us Skate first
Well, the hot news for up-coming major handset supplier, China’s ZTE, is that it has entirely abandoned its previous policy of selling handsets only through the mobile operators. From now on it will be able to sell (SIM-free) smartphones directly to consumers. Bye, bye to the old dual branding, then. The ZTE logo will be the only one on certain handsets. To achieve this, ZTE UK has done a deal with major global distributor, Brightpoint, so that it can gain access to Brightpoint’s online and retail sales channels. The first such handset to escape into the wild as a result of this deal will be the ZTE (Android 2.3/Gingerbread based) Skate. If you want full specs for the Skate pleazse vsit the GSM Arena site here. Continue reading
Posted in China, Featured, Mobile Devices, WP7, Windows Mobile, ZTE, android, twitter
Tagged 2.3, android, Brightpoint, gingerbread, Skate, WP7, Wu Sa, ZTE
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3 UK provides Gingerbread for HTC Desire HD
Rating: They could have mentioned it before
Obviously you’ve got to know the right questions to ask as this GoMo News hack was happily chatting to the guys at 3 UK only days ago and nobody mentioned that the HTC Desire HD update to Gingerbread/2.3 is now ready. Those who own a Desire HD connected to 3 UK should see a text message offering them an OTA (Over-the-air) upgrade to Android 2.3 any time now. if you haven’t seen it then it is possible to trigger an upgrade from the handset. It’s not currently clear whether this upgrade is available to HTC handset owners on other UK networks. Continue reading
As ZTE sells over 2m Blades, Froyo update imminent
Rating: Sending coals to Helsinki and Tokyo
Leading Chinese handset maker, ZTE, has announced that it has now sold more than two million ZTE Blade (Android Éclair) handsets – making it one of the top selling smartphones in the world. The company takes particular delight in the fact that this entry level Android phone has done well in Japan and Finland, the home markets for two major ZTE competitors (Nokia and Sony Ericsson). Talk about coals to Newcastle – this is smartphones to Helsinki and Tokyo. Nokia’s decision not to go with Android is looking worse and worse every day. Better still, there are strong indications that an update to Froyo (2.2) will be available this month (June) in Orange’s key markets. So if you own an Orange San Francisco, you can rejoice. Continue reading
Posted in Mobile Devices, ZTE, android
Tagged 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, android, Éclair, Blade, Froyo, gingerbread, Monte Carlo, San Francisco, Skate, ZTE
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O2′s progeny, HTC, moves into its Slough HQ
Rating: No mention of it ditching Windows in favour of Android
What a bitter irony. The company which help launch HTC onto the global map as a leading supplier of mobile handsets has seen its progeny move into its former offices to create a new European HQ in Slough, UK. Not a lot of people remember that it was BT Cellnet (now 02) which helped create HTC’s industry profile by commissioning the company to produce the first ever Windows based wireless PDA – the XDA. Now the Taiwanese company is bigger than both Nokia and RIM (or it certainly was in April see here). “HTC is on a hugely exciting journey, from humble beginnings to a global brand,” commented Peter Chou, HTC’s CEO. HTC now has operations in more than 50 territories. Continue reading
Posted in HTC, Mobile Devices, Windows Mobile, android
Tagged Florian Seiche, gingerbread, HTC, o2, Peter Chou, Slough
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