Samsung Galaxy Nexus officially announced : Android 4.0 , 4.65″ Super AMOLED HD display

Ahead of the Android 4.0 ie Ice Cream Sandwich launch event , details of the next Nexus phone ie the Samsung Galaxy Nexus have been given out by Samsung. What we have here is an absolute monster in terms of specs. The phone is powered by a 1.2Ghz dual core processor , 1GB of RAM. The display as expected is a 4.65″ SAMOLED HD panel which pump out an absolutely staggering 1280x720 resolution. Click through to get the lowdown on the entire spec sheet !

Network HSPA+ 21 850/900/1900/1700/2100; EDGE/GPRS (LTE will be available depending on region)
Processor 1.2GHz dual-core processor
Display: 4.65-inch 1280 x 720 HD Super AMOLED
OS:Android Ice Cream Sandwich
Cameras:Rear cam: 5-megapixel, Front cam: 1.3-megapixel for video call
Video: Playback and recording at 1080p (30fps, MPEG-4/h.263/h.264)
Connectivity:Bluetooth 3.0, USB, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, NFC
Sensors: Accelerometer, compass, gyro, light, proximity, barometer
Memory: 1GB ram + 16/32GB storage
Battery: 1750 mAh standard battery
Size: 135.5 x 67.94 x 8.94; 135g

The GALAXY Nexus will be available in the U.S., Europe, and Asia beginning in November and gradually rolled out to other global markets.

Duke Nukem making its way to Android handsets

Duke Nukem , the ever popular game is making its way to Android smartphones. The game is already available for the iPhone and iPod Touch and will soon be  playable on all devices which support Android 2.1 and above.

“Duke Nukem is a legend in his own time, and he’d be the first person to tell you that,” said Rob Carroll, Tapjoy’s Director of Publishing for Tapjoy. “MachineWorks NorthWest has done a great job of bringing the brash, trash-talking character and all his ass-kicking glory to the mobile environment, and we are thrilled to be working with AAA studios like MachineWorks to help bring games of this caliber to Android.”

According to the developer Duke Nukem 3D will be available very soon from any Android smartphone or tablet device running version 2.1 and up through the Android Market, or online at http://www.machineworksnorthwest.com.

[Via - Android Unite]

Opera Mini 6.5 and Opera Mobile 11.5 for Android brings Data Usage View and Bookmark import function

Opera browsers for Android has been updated. The Opera Mini 6.5 and the Opera Mobile 11.5 brings new features such as Data Usage view that keeps count of how much data you are spending and saving in total, or for a specific time frame. It also brings new features such as option to directly import bookmarks from Android system, Updated Opera Turbo in Opera Mobile, Inline video on Honeycomb for Opera Mobile and lots more.

Features of Opera Mini 6.5 and Opera Mobile 11.5 for Android

• View amount of data used with Data Usage view Option from the Help Menu
• Now import bookmark directly from the home screens and also import system bookmarks
• Updated Opera Turbo in Opera Mobile
• WebP images received from Opera Mini servers are now decoded in Opera Mobile
• Inline HTML5 video on Honeycomb in Opera Mobile

This also fixes Opera Mini issues in the Honeycomb tablets and stability and performance fixes for the both Opera Mini and Mobile. Download Opera Mini and Opera Mobile from the Android Market or by visiting m.opera.com from your device.

Skype v2.5 for Android brings video calling support for 14 more devices

Skype for Android has been updated to version 2.5.0.108 that brings 2-way video calling support to 14 more Android phones and tablets.The new version also supports video calling in some of the Android 2.2 (Froyo) devices. The Skype v2.1 brought the video calling support for 17 devices.

The compatible devices are Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, HTC Nexus One, HTC Shooter, Sony Ericsson Xperia Live with Walkman, Sony Ericsson Xperia neo V, LG Optimus Black, LG Optimus 3D, LG Optimus 2x, Motorola Photon, Motorola Droid 3, Motorola Bionic, Motorola Xoom, Motorola Atrix and Acer Iconia.

This version also has improved support for bluetooth headsets and number of bug fixes and performance enhancements video enhancements. Some of the other features include option to switch between portrait and landscape mode during video calls, and zoom in with a simple double tap on the screen, In-client advertising, conversations are now grouped around your contacts in recent view and option to edit and delete IM messages.

Download Skype for Android from the Android Market (2.1 and up) for free.

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Flickr launches official app for Android

Flickr has launched their official app for Android. This lets you take photos, enhance them with filters, and quickly send to Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and more. You can also capture the image from the app and upload it to Flickr or select images from your collection.

Features of Flickr for Android

• Share photos only with the people you want to with easy privacy settings.
• Full screen browsing and slideshows for your photos just by tapping it, your contacts photos or any of the public photos from the global Flickr community.
• Share the story behind your photo with titles, descriptions, comments and tags.
• Comment, Favorite or view the full details of the photos
• Keep your track of where you took your photo by keeping your location data automatically through geo-tagging.
• Select the custom photo size or upload the original photo
• Search for photos or people to add them as your friends

Download the Flickr app for Android from the Android Market (Android 2.1 and up) for free. This app is available only in select countries as of now.

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Amazon announced trio of Kindle e-readers

Amazon today announced a handful of new Kindle e-reader products, including the first ever Kindle with a colour display – the Kindle Fire.

Firstly, Amazon has lowered the barrier of entry once again with a new entry level Kindle. For $79, the WiFi-powered Kindle Button features a none-touch 6″ e-ink display. It will be the first Kindle without a built-in QWERTY keyboard. The new Kindle Button will be available from today.

Next up is the $99 Kindle Touch. Like the Kindle Button, the Kindle Touch will not have a QWERTY keyboard.  Instead text entry will rely on the infrared touchscreen similar to the technology used by Sony on their PRS e-readers.  WiFi is included as standard. A 3G version is priced at $149. Both versions will be available from November.

Finally, Android has announced that it will be making its entry to the tablet market with the Kindle Fire. Priced at $199, the Kindle Fire will feature a  7″ IPS display and dual core CPU. It will run on a fork of Android, and thus will be compatible with Android apps. The Kindle Fire will be compatible with a few Amazon services announced today, including the multimedia orientated Whispersync and Amazon Cloud Storage. It will ship from November.

The new Kindle devices are available for pre-order today.

Firefox 7 for Android now available, improves copy and paste

Mozilla has just released the latest version of its Firefox browser for Android. Firefox 7 is immediately available in the Android market bringing improved copy and paste functionality along with performance updates.

The changelog also includes built-in language detection on first run and new WebSockets APIs, which should allow web developers to build better web apps and sites.We know it’s not the huge overhaul that the version number change suggests, but that’s usually the case since Mozilla switched to the new rapid release schedule.

Still updates are always nice so, if you would like the experience the latest and greatest Mozilla browser on your droid hit that Android Market icon, or follows this link for the web version of the app repository. And don’t forget to drop us a line, mentioning if you like it, in the comment section below.

Source | Via

VLC for Android reaches Pre-Alpha stage [Download]

I am sure that almost everyone has heard about VLC media player, it is a cross-platform media player, which is now available for Windows, Linux, Mac, iPhone and now the application for Android has entered Pre-Alpha stage.

VLC supports almost every video format out there, you can play both video and audio files, VLC automatically detects and shows the media files present on your SDcard. It is already available on appstore for iOS, but was in development stage from a long time for Android, and now finally an alpha build is available for download, this build is not very stable and is buggy, also eats up lot of battery.

There are two version of VLC available right now, Neon and non-neon, the neon version can only be used in neon based processors, you can check that by finding a file called cpuinfo inside the folder proc, use root explorer to find this file, one the file is found, search for neon inside the file, if there is neon then your processor supports neon, if it is not there then you can download the non-neon version.

We will do a full review of the app once it officially launches.

Download Neon from here

Download non-neon from here

Facebook for Android v1.7 gets new sharing features and improvements

Facebook for Android has been updated to version 1.7 that brings in new privacy features while posting and new sharing options like tagging a friend on a post, photo or places. The Facebook for iPhone got these features recently in the latest update of version 3.5

Feature of Facebook for Android v1.7

• Privacy controls to select a particular group, friends or everyone while posting something
• Profile and Group Walls gets new design
• Now you can tag your friends, photos and places in posts
• Photo browsing has been improved with swiping
• Now you can pull to refresh the news feed
• Improved Messages and Notifications

This version also has some fixes for the crashes and the performance issues has been resolved. Download the Facebook for Android v1.7 from the Android Market for free.

Samsung brings ‘Pure Breeze’ launcher to Android

Samsung labs have just released a new launcher app for Android based phones. Called ‘Pure Breeze’ the app replaces the default homescreen and allows users to organize their apps, groups, and tasks, and create shortcuts.

The application also uses a concept called Kites where a customizable floating window allows one click access to all shortcuts and widgets.

The launcher is available in two flavors , lite and full. The lite version includes all the functionality but places limits on the number of applications that can be organized. A video of the launcher in action is embedded below. The full version of Pure Breeze can be bought in the Android market for $2.

[Via - Electronista]

Toshiba announces thinnest Android tablet AT200 at IFA

Many devices are being launched at the IFA, we just saw a parade of new Samsung devices, now it is the time for Toshiba to reveal their Android Honeycomb running tablet AT200. At 7.7 mm thin, this is the thinnest tablet running Android, thinner than Samsung’s Galaxy Tab by 1 mm.

Toshiba AT200 sports a 1.2 GHz dual core processor (TI Omap 4430), which is the same processor used in Droid 3, with 1 GB of RAM and a 10.1″ display. This will be one of the few non – Tegra 2 devices running Honeycomb, so the performance of this device is yet to be seen. We think this new device from Toshiba will be better and faster then it’s the older version, AT100 which was running on a dual core 1 GHz Tegra 2 processor.

From the look of this device it looks like it has a metallic back which may increase the weight, but it should not be much as the device is really thin. We look forward on checking out how well Honeycomb works on TI chipsets.

Source: Toshiba