Good news for Android fans, as Maxis is said to be announcing the brand new Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone very soon. This news was confirmed by Maxis itself. However, a specific launch date was not mentioned by Maxis.
Meanwhile, Samsung Singapore has confirmed that the smartphone will be available there sometime in June with a retail price of RM 2440 (SGD 998). We believe that is also another indication on when the new Samsung Galaxy S II is going to arrive here and most importantly, how much it is going to cost, which hopefully won’t be that far off.
The Galaxy S II had a marvellous launch in South Korea where it hit 1 million units’ sales during its launch week, and has over 3 million pre-orders from carriers worldwide.
It seemed that Maxis has started selling the new HTC Wildfire S smartphone starting on the 31st of May, at a very affordable price of RM 1,099. This makes the Wildfire S the cheapest Gingerbread smartphone on our shores.
The screen size of the Wildfire S is identical with the original Wildfire at 3.2-inches but the screen resolution has been improved to a better 320×480 pixels, double the outgoing model. Of course, let’s not expect fancy Super LCD or Super AMOLED screen technology as this is a budget entry Android smartphone. However, good news is that the screen is strengthened with Gorilla Glass.
Powering the Wildfire S is a 600MHz Qualcomm processor with 512MB of RAM and 512 of internal storage. The device has a MicroSD expansion that can support up to 32GB of storage. Imaging comes in the form of a 5MP rear camera with LED flash but regrettably there’s no HD video recording support.
Other than that, you get the whole gamut of features that are standard in any contemporary smartphone including Bluetooth 3.0, 7.2Mbps HSDPA (HSUPA at 384Kbps) and GPS. At 1230mAh, the Wildfire’s battery capacity is smaller than what we would like, but that will have to do for now.
The HTC Wildfire S will be available in ‘Bloom Pink’, ‘Silver White’ and ‘Dark Gray’ at all HTC authorized resellers or from Maxis.
Google search has just got into a whole lot more awesome than they ever did, because now you can search for flight schedule and information just like searching for bus or train info!
By simply typing “flights from / to” a destination in the search bar, it displays specific flight routes or all routes from a particular airport, all of the airlines serving the locales along with flight numbers, and travel dates / times.
The ITA travel search software which the DOJ finally allowed Google to purchase last month isn’t powering the feature, although Google stated on its blog that the flight schedule search is a “small step” in an overall effort to make finding flight information simpler.
Currently the service only supports ten languages, and Google will be increasing that number no doubt.
Bad news for Android users, as SEGA has made yet another official complaint to the mighty Google regarding the Android emulators for SEGA’s consoles games. Two emulators were nixed late last month, and now that Google has since revoked yongzh’s developer privileges, just like PSX4Droid comrade-in-arms ZodTTD. Yong Zhang (yongzh) is the developer for video game console emulators Nesoid, Snesoid, Gensoid, N64oid, Ataroid, Gearoid and Gameboid.
He has already migrated a number of emulators to third-party app store SlideME, where they’ll be free for a while, allowing existing customers to get updates without paying a second time, and likely helping a number of new individuals to mooch off his troubles.
Google announced their NFC-based mobile payment program last week, and shortly after, someone already has the gut to sue Google regarding this. Who is it? Well, it’s PayPal.
Bloomberg reports that PayPal is suing Google and two of its executives, claiming that the search giant has misappropriated trade secrets from its mobile payment business. The company claims that Osama Bedier, a former PayPal exec now employed by Google, has stolen confidential information from PayPal and is now leading Google’s efforts to “bring point of sale technologies and services to retailers on its behalf.”
“Bedier and Google have misappropriated PayPal trade secrets by disclosing them within Google and to major retailers,” Bloomberg cites PayPal’s suit as saying.
Also named in the suit is Stephanie Tilenius, who also left her position at PayPal to go and work for Google. Tilenius supposedly breached her contract by recruiting Bedier and Bedier is thought to have hired away PayPal employees too.
And for all this spitting around, Google only has this to say:
“Silicon Valley was built on the ability of individuals to use their knowledge and expertise to seek better employment opportunities, an idea recognized by both California law and public policy,” Google spokesman Aaron Zamost is quoted as saying. “We respect trade secrets, and will defend ourselves against these claims.”
All these while, Xperia Play fans that wanted to play their ported PSP games on the Android ‘mobile console’ couldn’t have a white one to show off to their Apple-fan friends, but now they can. The white color Sony Ericsson Xperia Play has finally and officially landed on Europe after some hiccups. Of course, it’s still exclusive for O2 at the moment.
Earlier this month, the UK carrier had promised to deliver the Play in June due to some issues on Android compatibility, but evidently things have gone better than expected, as we now see “in stock” signage next to both the black and white models of Sony Ericsson’s gaming phone. Pricing is identical for both color variants, starting at “free” when attached to the rather pricey “£34 per month” two-year contracts and peaking at £430 ($702) on pre-pay deals. That shouldn’t be a problem if you’re earning pounds.
Well, probably to compensate the delay, O2 also throws in a matching multimedia dock plus three bonus games to sweeten the deal. Damn, how I wish there’s one over here.
Google has updated their Google Map for Android, and it’s now going into version 5.5. So Androidfags, what’s new this time around?
Well, check-ins and ratings have now been added to the Places page, giving you one extra point of access; you also now have the option of changing your home or work address within your Latitude Location History, in case you ever move or just like to roam from place to place. Last but not least, Google Maps 5.5 for Android also offers reorganized transit station pages that now list of upcoming departures, transit lines serving that particular station, and links to other stops nearby.
The list of improvements might not be staggering, but it’s still impressive that Google pushed it out less than a month after 5.4. The new update is available as a free download in the Android Market.
Yes, here it is, the NFC payment system from Google, the Google Wallet mobile payment service, is finally official. Those retailers and financial partners that will be participating in Google Wallet system is Subway, Macy’s, Walgreens, Toys ‘R Us, First Data, Citibank and MasterCard — plus Sprint on the carrier side.
Google Wallet will be fully compatible with the PayPass MasterCard feature from MasterCard, so this service will be a much welcome one indeed since it’s already well-established and widely available.
Trials are beginning immediately in New York and San Francisco, with a full release planned for this summer. Initially, the Sprint Nexus S 4G will be the only compatible phone, but support for more phones is promised “over time,” and Google even suggested that phones without built-in NFC could simply use an NFC sticker (the Google Wallet app itself will work on non-NFC phones as well). You’ll also have to use either a Citi MasterCard or Google Prepaid Card with the service, although the latter can obviously be top-up from any other card easily.
There’s also another feature announced by Google and that is Google Offers, which will send you an “offer of the day” to your inbox every single day, which is of course only valid for Google Wallet. You’ll be able to both redeem offers and receive loyalty rewards from retailers with just a tap of your NFC-enabled phone.
All these will be available in the US only for now, but Google is apparently working on international expansion.
Minecraft has been gaining momentum lately and becoming quite popular, but not as popular as the raging birdies which are available in almost any platform. But if you want to be the first among your peer to look cool and playing Minecraft, then you’ll have to get yourself a Sony Ericson Xperia Play.
The block-building game where cubed avatars hide from creepers and create virtual CPUs will land on the so-called PlayStation Phone before coming to other Android devices and iOS later this year.
The Play version will have customized controls that take advantage of the gamepad and button layout found on the Sony Ericsson handheld (too bad other Android phones, no point hacking), though when exactly it will launch or how much it will cost is still unknown.
There are very little details about Minecraft invading the mobile platform, but rest assure more information will be made known, as the developer Mojang will be holding an event at E3 to announce this.
There have been some unhappy fans that are making some noise ever since HTC started locking the bootloader and encrypting their new Android phones. The phones affected are Thunderbolt, Incredible S, Sensation 4G, and EVO 3D. Basically, the newer phones all have locked bootloader with encrypted keys. However, HTC CEO Peter Chou has officially dissolved the issue at their Facebook fanpage, and assures that future devices will be open.
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