Fancy a white Galaxy Nexus? The guys from Negri Electronics now have them in stock for $659, and they are shipping now upon order. That’s not quite as cheap as Amazon, who sells the Galaxy Nexus for $629.99, but they only have it available in the standard titanium and silver colors.

The international [...]]]>

Fancy a white Galaxy Nexus? The guys from Negri Electronics now have them in stock for $659, and they are shipping now upon order. That’s not quite as cheap as Amazon, who sells the Galaxy Nexus for $629.99, but they only have it available in the standard titanium and silver colors.

The international version of the Galaxy Nexus (i9250) comes unlocked (like all Nexus phones) and works on both AT&T’s and T-Mobile’s HSPA+ networks. We already know that Sprint will carry the Galaxy Nexus, but there is no official word from AT&T or T-Mobile.

Verizon’s LTE version is my daily phone and it’s easily the best Android device out there. As we saw this week there are many benefits of being on the latest version of Android, like Google’s new Chrome Browser.

I’ve never shopped with Negri Electronics before, but I know several of our readers got their Galaxy Nexii from them and had good experiences. If you don’t care about color, I’d suggest ordering from Amazon and saving a few bucks. For anyone thinking of switching to Verizon, Amazon still has the Galaxy Nexus on sale at $99 for new customers.

Update: As pointed out in the comments, Negri Electronics also has the Canadian version of the 16 GB Galaxy Nexus for $595.50. It has the same penta-band radio and should work on AT&T and T-Mobile, but I’m told it is the yakjuwx build instead of yakju.

Behold the white Galaxy Nexus.

As he mentioned during an interview last October, Andy Rubin’s dream is to see Android on every screen. A couple of years ago, that might have seemed like something impossible, but we are getting very close to such a world. With Samsung being one of the biggest players in Android, we are not surprised [...]]]>

As he mentioned during an interview last October, Andy Rubin’s dream is to see Android on every screen. A couple of years ago, that might have seemed like something impossible, but we are getting very close to such a world. With Samsung being one of the biggest players in Android, we are not surprised to see that they might be working on an Android camera.

Samsung has filed a trademark for a device called the “Samsung Galaxy Camera” via the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office). As always, we do not yet know if this is for a device, a service, an app, or if it will even become anything at all (We have seen multiple companies file for trademarks they’ve never used).

We have seen Polaroid make an attempt at a standalone Android camera as well. Granted, the device we saw at CES was not the best device in the world, but after speaking to Executive Vice President and COO Emanuel Vorona, he assured me that Polaroid’s commitment to Android is strong. He even mentioned that the final product would be much better than what we saw at CES, and he just rushed those so we could have something to see at the show.

We still do not know to what extent Samsung would take the Android OS into a camera. The Polaroid Android camera was essentially a camera with a phone in it (as opposed to a phone with a camera). It makes us wonder what Samsung’s possible product could be like. Will it also have phone capabilities? Would it work as a WiFi-only device? Will it even have the full capabilities of the operating system, or will it be limited to better fit its purpose?

These, among with other factors will have to be considered by Samsung. We sure hope that they can find a good balance and make a great device. And if Polaroid steps up its game well enough, we might be seeing great Android cameras in the near future.

Being able to edit your pictures with apps, directly from your camera, would be really fun. Not only that, but one could also easily share images through social networks, or upload them to the cloud without needing to connect it to a computer.

As already mentioned, we do not know if Samsung is actually working on something like this. It is simply speculation based on a trademark it has filed for. But let us know your opinions. Do you guys believe we need good Android cameras, or would you prefer phones with better cameras? Would all the photographers out there like to see Android on their DSLR cameras some day?

T-Mobile and Tony Hawk have a positive relationship like not many carriers and celebrities do. The pro skateboarder turned media superstar has always been a good friend of Magenta’s, and they’ve never been afraid to give him special treatment. At one point, they even made a Tony Hawk special edition Sidekick. But do they love [...]]]>

T-Mobile and Tony Hawk have a positive relationship like not many carriers and celebrities do. The pro skateboarder turned media superstar has always been a good friend of Magenta’s, and they’ve never been afraid to give him special treatment. At one point, they even made a Tony Hawk special edition Sidekick. But do they love him enough to give him an unreleased phone like a T-Mobile branded Galaxy Nexus?

Mr. Hawk posted a picture on Twitter today (from Instagram no less) that features a close up of a Galaxy Nexus with the text “I love T-Mobile.” How do we know it’s a Galaxy Nexus? For one, it’s the stock Android 4.0 data usage menu from in the settings. And if you compare what’s being displayed in the picture to the same thing on a Nexus S, it’s obvious whatever Tony has sports a bigger display than the Nexus S.

As to why Tony Hawk is posting a picture of a Galaxy Nexus and talking about his love for T-Mobile, we don’t really know. The international Galaxy Nexus works just fine with T-Mobile. He could just be bragging about his data, or the tethering app you can just barely see at the bottom of the Nexus’ display. But he could be talking about a free T-Mobile Galaxy Nexus he was lucky enough to score before it went to retail.

Mind you this is all speculation at this point, but we’re an Android blog, and that’s what Android blogs do. So what do you think, did Tony Hawk just accidentally spoil T-Mobile’s secret plans to sell the Galaxy Nexus? We know quite a few of our readers out there would love that, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed. But not for a Tony Hawk branded Nexus. Please, anything but that.

Tablet computers have become popular among professional sports athletes, but you have probably never seen one on the sidelines during an actual game. That will change soon because the Phoenix Suns, along with Verizon Wireless and Samsung Mobile, just announced that they integrate the LTE Galaxy Tab 10.1 across all company operations.

The National Football [...]]]>

Tablet computers have become popular among professional sports athletes, but you have probably never seen one on the sidelines during an actual game. That will change soon because the Phoenix Suns, along with Verizon Wireless and Samsung Mobile, just announced that they integrate the LTE Galaxy Tab 10.1 across all company operations.

The National Football League and Major League Baseball have strict rules that won’t allow tablets on the sidelines, but the National Basketball Association allows coaches to bring them on the court.

It’s sort of a mystery why we haven’t seen tablets during games, but the Suns will be changing that this season as the first NBA team to adopt a tablet on the court. Head coach Alvin Gentry and his staff will implement the Galaxy Tab 10.1 into all aspects of the team’s preparations on and off the court. Every player will receive their own tablet that will include a team playbook, video from practice sessions, scouting reports for upcoming opponents, and travel itineraries for road trips.

Think of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 as a one-stop shop for all the basketball information that a player would need.

Gentry said that tablets are the best way to display diagrams of plays that he wants to run during a game. ”If I say, ‘I’m going to run a play called four-pop, [assistant coach] Noel Gillispie can cue that right up for me,” Gentry told the Wall St. Journal.

The Phoenix Suns organization will use the Tab 10.1 for business development opportunities. This includes such actions as season ticketholder presentations and in-game promotional programs. The Suns will also integrate the Tab 10.1 into their TV and radio broadcast to interact with their digital fans through social media platforms.

Ryan Bidan, Samsung Mobile Vice President of Product Marketing, said, ”The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 hosts an impressive array of technology that will allow the Phoenix Suns to collaborate, share, interact and prepare for games in ways that were impossible before. Not only will the Phoenix Suns be untethered from the traditional hard copies of their playbook but the Tab 10.1 will also provide the Suns with a premium and truly mobile, multi-media experience over Verizon’s 4G LTE network.”

The question I’m wondering is, will this tablet have any affect on the team’s performance on the court? This season the NFL allowed two teams, the Baltimore Ravens and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, to use iPads as their official playbooks. We saw the Ravens come up just one game short of the Super Bowl, but they have been a strong team in the past.

Phoenix currently sits three games out of playoff contention in the NBA’s Western Conference, but they have the 5th oldest team in the league and they are still struggling to find their rhythm.

Gentry says today’s announcement “marks the beginning of a new era in the NBA.” Hopefully it also marks the start of a new era for the struggling Suns.

This week my inbox has been blowing up with invitations and meeting requests for events scheduled around Mobile World Congress, but one major company has been notably quiet. Today Sascha Segan of PCMag confirmed that Samsung Mobile will not be hosting a press conference at Mobile World Congress.

We already knew that Samsung would not [...]]]>

This week my inbox has been blowing up with invitations and meeting requests for events scheduled around Mobile World Congress, but one major company has been notably quiet. Today Sascha Segan of PCMag confirmed that Samsung Mobile will not be hosting a press conference at Mobile World Congress.

We already knew that Samsung would not be showing off the Galaxy S III, but a company spokesperson still said they were looking forward to “introducing and demonstrating exciting new mobile products at Mobile World Congress 2012.” I had speculated we might see a 2 GHz super tablet with 11.6 inch display, but that is seeming less likely now with no press event scheduled.

If the Galaxy S III is to be announced at a separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of this year, then the company could be holding their other big announcements for that same day. Last year at MWC 2011, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S II and Galaxy Tab 10.1 at their Unpacked event.

This year’s MWC show will definitely be noisy, so it will be hard to capture the attention of the media. We expect at least a half-dozen quad-core phones to be announced, along with a handful of tablets. Samsung is such a huge company that it almost makes sense they could start hosting their own annual event, similar to Google’s IO, NVIDIA’s GTC, or Qualcomm’s Uplinq.

Hopefully Samsung will have a few surprises to unveil (like the Galaxy S II Plus), but don’t expect any major announcements from them at Mobile World Congress.

While most consumers are still trying to figure out the differences between Froyo, Gingerbread or Ice Cream Sandwich, Android enthusiasts are praising the latest iteration of Android. Android 4.0 delivered a myriad of new functionalities to Android, including a shiny new user interface (UI). The Android development team at Google spent countless hours making Android’s [...]]]>

While most consumers are still trying to figure out the differences between Froyo, Gingerbread or Ice Cream Sandwich, Android enthusiasts are praising the latest iteration of Android. Android 4.0 delivered a myriad of new functionalities to Android, including a shiny new user interface (UI). The Android development team at Google spent countless hours making Android’s new UI “enchanting, beautiful and seductive.” With such a dramatically improved UI, manufacturers would certainly ditch their custom skins and bring back some unity to Android’s user experience – or would they?

There was certainly hope from many Android enthusiasts that the stock Android UI would be embraced by all. Unfortunately, early leaks and previews from Sony, Samsung and HTC have disappointed many since Android manufacturers seem to be chugging along on the same course as before, spending the majority of their time working on custom skins for Android rather than focusing solely on updating older phones to the latest version of Android. But is this really a bad thing?

If you read through the comments on this site you will notice a recurring theme: our readers are very outspoken about the virtues of the stock Android UI, claiming that “Google finally got it right” and asking “why would manufacturers mess around with perfection” while bullying (down voting) commenters who showed support for HTC Sense, TouchWiz or MotoBLUR (or whatever Motorola is calling it these days).

Personally, I’m a big fan of stock Android and will agree that Google has finally delivered a UI that’s better than most custom skins produced by OEMs. The problem is that Google’s new UI improvements for Android are merely a composite refinement of all the features Motorola, HTC and Samsung have had for quite some time. If you pick apart the new UI piece by piece you will notice that there’s really nothing new. Looking back over the past three years, you’ll see that Google’s UI improvements with every new version of Android include borrowed ideas that were introduced by others.

Below are a few examples of some of the features included in Android 4.0 which were originally pioneered in one or more custom skins produced by Android manufacturers.

Social Media Integration

Facebook and Twitter integration into the contacts application was first introduced by HTC and was adopted a few months later by Motorola in 2009. Both Motorola and HTC served up your contact’s latest status update or a notification of an impending birthday when you called or received a call from one of your contacts. Google introduced a more limited Facebook integration with Android 2.1.

Animated Widgets

When Android first launched, Google only had three widgets and developers had to wait until Android 1.5 before they were able to create their own. Fortunately, HTC jumped into the deep end with HTC Sense and delivered several dozen widgets which also featured animations. The HTC flip clock is probably the most recognizable and mimicked Android widget. Motorola, Samsung, LG and even Huawei introduced animated widgets to their custom versions of Android before Google got around to it with Honeycomb.

Re-sizable Widgets

While HTC kept adding more and more widgets to its Sense library (most of which were simply different sizes of the same widget), Motorola chose to take a different route with the introduction of the DROID X by introducing re-sizable widgets. Users could now choose how large or small they wanted a widget to be. The best part about Motorola’s widget resizing feature is that the widget layout changes depending on which size you choose. As with animated widgets, Google introduced re-sizable widgets in Honeycomb, but the functionality was not nearly as advanced as Motorola’s.

Advanced Lock-screen

With Sense, HTC has always been on the forefront of the customizable lock screen. Early iterations included music controls and details of missed phone calls and text messages. With HTC Sense 3.0, HTC took the customizable lock-screen to a whole new level by giving users a variety of different skins which displayed stock quotes, animated weather, pictures and social media updates from friends. Users were also given the option to choose four different applications which could be launched directly from the lock-screen. The Android team added new features to the lock-screen in Android 4.0 which allow users to launch the dialer or camera applications, but there is still no option to add any user customization.

When it comes to features, many of the custom Android skins produced by OEMs clearly have the Android team beat. But this shouldn’t be surprising to anyone. Motorola and Samsung have been in the mobile phone business for decades and one of HTC’s biggest accomplishments before Android came along was adding a custom UI on top of Windows Mobile which finally made the OS usable for everyday consumers.

My assumption is that there is fear among Android enthusiasts that manufacturers will simply take Android 4.0 and all its new features and cover it up with their own UI without adding any new functionality on top of it. While I can’t guarantee that every custom skin will look nicer than what the Android team has whipped up, the majority of new phones running Android 4.0 with a custom skin will have all the base features with additional features which give users more control and an enhanced experience.

The reason Android is successful isn’t because Google is doing all the work. The leading manufacturers take Google’s base code and add their own tweaks to differentiate their products from the competition while adding features which Google has not yet dreamed up. If everyone simply took Android 4.0 and loaded it onto their phones, the rapid pace of Android’s innovations would slow to a crawl which might lead to the platform’s demise.

I know there will always be a lot of supporters of stock Android, but I hope those of you who prefer your vanilla UI treatment can learn to appreciate custom skins a little more. Google has done an incredible job with the Android 4.0 UI, but lets not forget to give credit to the manufacturers who pioneered many of those same features months or even years before Google wrapped them into the Android fold.

The dust has finally settled after the big day and we’re finally ready to announce the results of the first annual Android Bowl. We asked you, over the course of a week, to log in and choose your preferred carrier and manufacturer.

To sweeten the pot, we paired with @NVIDIATegra to give away three Transformer [...]]]>

The dust has finally settled after the big day and we’re finally ready to announce the results of the first annual Android Bowl. We asked you, over the course of a week, to log in and choose your preferred carrier and manufacturer.

To sweeten the pot, we paired with @NVIDIATegra to give away three Transformer Prime tablets, along with the keyboard charging docks. The winners of those tablets have been announced already, but this post is about the data. Check out the chart that follows then join me down below for some play-by-play.

While the results weren’t exactly shocking, we had fun watching you guys pick teams and stir up trouble. Almost 1,800 of you showed up to play, leaving comments and sending out tweets for your favorite Android brands.

The carrier rankings were dominated by the big four American carriers, with no other single carrier even breaking 25 players. All of the other choices from our list added up to a 5th place showing, while some of you didn’t exactly fit into our categories (we currently have US, UK, CAN, and AUS).

Manufacturers were even less diverse, with most of the votes falling into just three brands, with Samsung clearly dominating. Is it the amount of products they launch? Or something more special?

One fun stat was that the players from team ASUS had the highest average rank, something I’d attribute to the Transformer Prime currently only being in the hands of an elite group of power nerds.

We had a blast and plan to be back next year with something even bigger and better. Of course if you don’t want to wait a year, you could just stay tuned for something else, as we’ve got a bunch of other giveaways coming up soon.

Samsung, have you learned nothing from the past couple years worth of advertising failures? You could have done so much with your Super Bowl ad, but you didn’t. You did nothing but brag about a stylus, and make fun of one of your main competitor’s customers. Samsung blew a monstrous opportunity yesterday to show off [...]]]>

Samsung, have you learned nothing from the past couple years worth of advertising failures? You could have done so much with your Super Bowl ad, but you didn’t. You did nothing but brag about a stylus, and make fun of one of your main competitor’s customers. Samsung blew a monstrous opportunity yesterday to show off why people all over the world love the Galaxy Note.

What they did

The first thirty seconds of Samsung’s Super Bowl ad are dedicated to showing people standing in line complaining. With one of the few product related dialogue lines during that thirty seconds being, “It’s the new Samsung Galaxy Note, It’s got a pen?!”

The next minute is dedicated to an old song from The Darkness, and who knows how many thousands of dollars worth of dancing and stunts. Oh, and some people are using the Note’s camera.

The end of the 90 second commercial shows the Note, with a coming soon sign right next to Best Buy’s logo.

If you had never heard of the Galaxy Note, what would you assume it is? A tablet with a stylus? That has a camera? Are either of those features compelling enough to drive the average consumer to investigate? Or will they be busy talking about how they used to have a Palm Pilot with a stylus?

It looks likes Samsung may have left consumers with more questions than answers. And nothing compelling enough to push them to find out more.

What they should have done

The Galaxy Note doesn’t just feature a stylus. The Note’s S Pen is paired with a Wacom brand digitizer. A brand recognized by millions upon millions of professionals in all sorts of media and art related industries. Samsung really should have shown that off.

They should have talked about how fluid using the S Pen is. And how it’s nothing like the styluses of yesteryear. They should have shown off how it’s pressure sensitive, all the different brush strokes you can use, and the different applications the S Pen works with.

Then, they should have mentioned how the large ultra crisp display is excellent for viewing and editing photos and video. A perfect compliment to the level of detail the S Pen is capable of.

Oh, and about that display. They need to make sure everyone knows about the rigorous testing done to make sure it was just the right size. Perfect for the Samsung exclusive technology built into the Note. Great for reading books and watching movies. Just big enough to give you a roomy tablet-like experience. Yet still small enough to use as a phone. Because you know, the Note is a phone after all.

Samsung could have done a lot with their Super Bowl ad. But they did practically nothing. Maybe next year?

There is no doubt that the Samsung Galaxy S devices are among the most popular in the Android ecosystem. It is about to be that time of the year when the next in the series is revealed, and an announcement should be coming anytime. It might not be during Mobile World Congress, but rumors [...]]]>

There is no doubt that the Samsung Galaxy S devices are among the most popular in the Android ecosystem. It is about to be that time of the year when the next in the series is revealed, and an announcement should be coming anytime. It might not be during Mobile World Congress, but rumors are already spreading. And today we have a flurry of rumored specs, as well as a possible announcement date for you.

According to ET News sources, the Galaxy S II successor will have a quad-core processor, LTE connectivity and Android 4.0. These rumored specs do not surprise us, though. These specs, along with a 12 MP rear-facing camera, a Super AMOLED HD display, and 2 GB of RAM are specifications that we are already expecting from this device.

What seems a bit more interesting is the Galaxy S III’s rumored thinness, which is suppossed to measure in at 7 mm. This is a bit thinner than the 8.49 mm Galaxy S II. This is to be expected, as well, since Samsung is known to boast the thinness of their devices. But it is surprising that manufacturers are able to fit such great specs into a 7 mm device. We certainly can’t wait to hear more details, and hope to see an announcement soon.

We were all bummed that we heard that this device would not be announced this month at Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona. But we might not have to wait that much more. Samsung has been recently sending invitations to an event that will be held in France.

Said event will take place on March 22nd. And while we have no idea what it could all be about, that is not stopping us from getting our hopes up. It just might be the Galaxy S III announcement or it could be something related to their many other products. However, popular French blog Frandroid was invited, making people believe that the announcement could very well be Android-related.

We will have to sit tight and wait to hear more about this. One thing we know for sure – Just like last year, and the year before that, the next Galaxy S smartphone will be among the creme de la creme of Android devices.

Sadly, it might be a while before we start seeing them hit stores. Hopefully we see it get to the US sooner than it did last year. Now, that was a pain. Are any of you saving your upgrades for this one?

Update: No Galaxy S III at French event

Most of us were praying to all our entities yesterday, in hopes that Samsung would announce the Galaxy S III at a French event they will be holding next March 22nd. Well, guys – luck is not in our side.

The guys from The Next Web have received word straight from Samsung, and the next successor to the Galaxy S family will not be making an appearance at this event, either. Instead, it will be focused on all current devices from Samsung. So let’s skip this one and wait to see when that announcement will show up.

Samsung just aired their first Super Bowl ad and now the video is online for everyone to see. Check out the 90 second clip below and let us know what you think in the comments below. Was this $10 million well spent? Did Samsung produce your favorite ad or did you prefer one of the [...]]]>

Samsung just aired their first Super Bowl ad and now the video is online for everyone to see. Check out the 90 second clip below and let us know what you think in the comments below. Was this $10 million well spent? Did Samsung produce your favorite ad or did you prefer one of the numerous car ads from Acura, Chevrolet, Fita, Kia, or another?

If you want to show your Android pride, make sure to vote for Samsung’s Super Bowl ad in the YouTube Adblitz, Twitter Ad Scrimmage, and Super Bowl Ad Meter.

Update: Samsung also just posted some behind the scenes videos of their ad where you can win the props.