RCMix3D - Entertainment & Technology News: February 2012

February 16, 2012

Acer updates the Iconia Tab A200 with Ice Cream Sandwich

By: Asim on 5:41 PM

Last month when Acer released the Iconia Tab A200, they promised that it will get the Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade in February. And staying true to that promise, the ICS update has now started rolling out to the device.

In case you are not quite aware of the A200, it is Acer’s latest tablet and comes with a 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 resolution display, Tegra 2 processor, 1GB RAM, 8/16GB internal memory, dual cameras, stereo speakers and a microSD card slot. It’s available for $329.99 and $349.99 for the 8GB and 16GB model respectively.
It’s nice to see Acer updating the A200 so quickly to the latest version of Android. Too bad you can’t say the same about some of the others.
Source

Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX battery trial is over, meet our new champion [TEST]

By: Asim on 5:37 PM

With a 3300 mAh battery out of the box, the Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX has almost twice the capacity, compared to any of its direct competitors, so, naturally, the expectations for the smartphone’s battery performance ran quite high.

Well, here are the results from the RAZR MAXX run in our battery test, people. Prepare to be impressed!
As always, we will begin with the device’s talk time numbers. Here, the Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX achieved the mind blowing 20 hours and 24 minutes. This is almost 8 hours more than the second closest competitor we’ve tested this far, which means that Motorola’s latest creation is entirely in a league of its own in this category.

The smartphone topped the web browsing rankings as well, though in a less assertive fashion. With 7 hours and 23 minutes of Wi-Fi browsing, the Droid RAZR MAXX bested the HTC Radar by mere 6 minutes. The predominant white backgrounds of the web pages proved to be a challenge for the Super AMOLED screen of the handset. Still, with 3300 mAh on tap, the device found its way to the top of the chart.
You can reasonably expect the web browsing time to decrease, should the handset run on Verizon’s speedy LTE network. It is still however, better than everything we’ve tested this far.

The phone’s video playback is also quite impressive. With a result of 14 hours and 17 minutes, the Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX gives you almost 5 hours more than the second best device we’ve tried this far – the iPhone 4S. This is enough video playback time to keep you entertained during an round trip flight between New York and Los Angeles.

And now it is time for the most important score in our battery test – the endurance rating. With a result of 61 hours, the Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX simply blew all competition out of the water. The device’s score means that you will need to recharge it every 61 hours if you use it for an hour each of phone calls, web browsing, and video playback a day.

In case the battery performance is the deal breaker for you in a smartphone, look no further. The Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX sits alone on top of all rankings. Most importantly, it must be pointed out that the device’s pocketability and ergonomics have barely suffered, despite the presence of a battery this big.

Android 5.0 Jelly Bean tipped for Q2 2012

By: Asim on 3:22 PM

Android 5.0 Jelly Bean may arrive as early as Q2 2012, supply chain sources claim, with Google apparently integrating Chrome OS functionality for dual-boot tablets and netbooks. Those aren’t the search giant’s only dual-OS ambitions, however; insiders tell DigiTimes that Google is pushing Android 5.0 and Windows 8 hybrids to its manufacturing partners, for notebooks, netbooks and tablets that offer the best of both platforms.

Although Google is yet to comment significantly on whether Ice Cream Sandwich has met its expectations in the market, it’s clear that Android 4.0 is yet to gain a significant foothold. According to Google’s own stats, as of February 1 2012 only 1-percent of devices were running ICS, with the majority still on Android 2.3.x Gingerbread.
The dual-booting Android 5.0 Jelly Bean and Windows 8 machines will be able to hot-swap between the two platforms, the sources indicate, rather than demanding a reboot each time. That would give users the opportunity to use Android for its web-centric functionality and speed, while switching to Windows would offer the various legacy and business apps many users still demand. Update: It’s worth remembering that Microsoft’s Windows 8 hardware requirements apparently block second OS installation on ARM-based PCs by users, thanks to a locked Secure Boot system, though it’s unclear whether OEMs are permitted to do so before the hardware leaves the factory. [Thanks Richard!]
Google is supposedly seeing Android 5.0 as a second chance at the notebook and netbook markets, Chrome OS failing to grab attention as expected, though the tipsters warn that the response to Ice Cream Sandwich has left some partners “conservative” about the new platform.
Part of Google’s challenge is encouraging timely OS updates among vendors. Motorola revealed its timescale for upgrading US Android devices yesterday, with most not expected to see Ice Cream Sandwich until Q3 2012 or later.

Source

Grace Audio Mondo Wi-fi internet radio revealed and detailed

By: Asim on 1:40 AM

This week we’re taking a look at a brand new entry into the strange side of internet-connected devices with Grace Audio’s Mondo Wi-fi internet radio. This device has a lovely 3.5-inch color display with which you can select from the pre-set applications built in to the device to bring internet radio to your ears from your living room, your office, or wherever else you’ve got Wi-fi. This unit is also connected to over 18,000 free radio stations via the web including such popular choices as iHeartRadio, the BBC, and NPR.

This device has Pandora, Dar.fm, and SiriusXM built in alongside hits like Live365 VIP and Pandora radio. You’ve also got a WeatherBug app so you’ll always know the weather outside your window! This unit has the option of a rechargeable battery (sold separately) or a wall plug and comes with its own remote control – there are also custom apps for both iPhone and Android for controlling the radio from your pocket! The whole unit weighs in at 6 pounds and sits at 3.5 x 9.75 x 5.75 inches so you can toss it in your backpack.

You can also plug the whole speaker in to your MP3 or CD player through its standard RCA to mini cable jack for audio from anywhere. Though this unit has been around for some time (dating back to CES 2011 for some features), it’s just now becoming available for purchase. This beast is available straight from Grace Digital Audio for $179.99 in either white or black.

HTC One X and One S coming to MWC

By: Asim on 1:38 AM

Official branding for HTC‘s Mobile World Congress smartphone line-up has emerged, suggesting that the quadcore device codenamed Edge/Endeavor will launch as the HTC One X, while the dualcore Ville will be the HTC One S. Insiders confirmed the impending One X branding to Pocketnow for HTC’s flagship, fitting with information SlashGear has heard independently about the mid-tier Ville’s launch name.

HTC is expected to stylize the name of the devices in their branding, with the “X” and “S” as superscript above the “One”. Specifications for the phones are believed to be unchanged from previous leaks, meaning a Tegra 3 chipset for the One X along with a 4.7-inch 720p display, while the One S will have a dual-core Qualcomm 1.5GHz processor and a smaller 4.3-inch qHD display.
Meanwhile, HTC is also expected to reveal a third handset at MWC this month, along with a new tablet. We’ve heard the smartphone – also Android based – is codenamed the HTC Primo and will have more of a business/enterprise focus than either the One X or the One S, though no hardware details are known. As for the tablet, that was tipped earlier today amid talk of a Spotify-rivaling streaming music service.
We’ll be at HTC’s launch event in Barcelona later this month, bringing back all the details as the company announces them. All eyes are on HTC to see if the firm’s new “hero device” strategy can rescue them from the poor results of recent quarters.

Source

HTC promises Android 4.0 ICS updates early access preview tomorrow

By: Asim on 1:36 AM

The folks at HTC have announced an “early access preview” of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for two of its current hero devices: the Sensation and the Sensation XE. These Android smartphones will have a very limited release of the Ice Cream Sandwich update across Europe only as HTC prepares the update for worldwide availability. This preview will be released to only a few hundred users who will be encouraged to play with, enjoy, and get used to the ICS experience with HTC’s own user interface Sense.

This preview program will be expanded to other devices in the near future as well, each of them also being updated to the newest Android, version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. We’ll likely be starting to see hands-on previews of the software working on the two Sensation models inside the next 48 hours. As HTC noted to us today:

“HTC is doing something new and pretty cool in the coming days: we’ll be releasing an “early access preview” of our ICS upgrade for the Sensation and Sensation XE. This will be limited in scope (just a few hundred users and only in Europe) because we’re still scaling up back-end resources for general availability worldwide, and our hope is people will play with it and enjoy getting used to the ICS experience with Sense. We’ll be doing similar previews for other devices in the future, too.” – HTC

We’ve not yet seen a full official preview of Android 4.0 on an HTC Sense-carrying smartphone, so it’s an exciting prospect for HTC users worldwide. Have a peek at our timeline below to see other HTC Sense with ICS updates as they will be appearing at Mobile World Congress 2012. Tasty treats galore!

Source

Galaxy Note 10.1 to be Samsung's star device at MWC?

By: Asim on 12:31 AM

While Samsung announced that it won't be having a press conference at the MWC, the company said it will still have exciting new gadgets to show us at the industry's largest event. And now we might have learned the name of their star device for the show - Galaxy Note 10.1
The leak comes from an official Samsung invitation sent out to developers for the Samsung Developer Day at MWC, so it's a pretty certain deal. The invitation lists the latest technology, which will be available at the said developer event and mentions Galaxy Note 10.1.

The Samsung Developer Day invitation

There's also this casting call for an upcoming Samsung commercial, which seeks a teen student to operate the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. If those are both typos, then that's one helluva coincidence.

The casting ad

There are no specs of the Galaxy Note 10.1 mentioned, but the name gives away some of the most important stuff. The 10.1" member of the newly created Note lineup should offer S Pen support, just like the original Galaxy Note. We've been hearing rumors about a larger slate with S Pen support for a while now and it looks like MWC is where it will make its public debut.
We'll be keeping an ear on the ground for more information about the rumored slate and we'll make sure to keep you updated if something new comes up.
Via

Tegra 3-powered LG X3 impressive benchmark scores leak

By: Asim on 12:22 AM

fter the Optimus 3D 2 the other day we now got some extra info on the other hot droid, which LG will unveil at the MWC. We stumbled upon the benchmark results of the LG X3 - the quad-core beast with an impressive 4.7" HD screen we first saw in January.
According to the author of the leak, the specs we heard last time around were spot on. This means the LG X3 will be built around the Tegra 3 chipset, featuring four Cortex-A9 CPU cores, running at 1.4GHz. A 2000 mAh battery will make sure that there's always enough power to keep the X3 going, while the impressive AH-IPS screen will fill in at the front.
The LG X3 is said to have 16GB of expandable thought the microSD card slot internal memory, an 8 MP main camera and a 1.3 MP front-facing snapper. As it to be expected, the LG X3 will run the latest version of Android, 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich, out of the box.
With specs like that it's no wonder the LG X3 puts the Samsung Galaxy Nexus to shame in the performance department. The quad-core LG monster achieves more than twice the score of the Android ICS flagship at Quadrant with the results distribution staying consistent over the different categories.

The LG X3 will certainly be a handset worth keeping an eye on and it might be a huge step towards improving the LG position in the smartphone game.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Source

HTC rumoured to be creating a music streaming service, possibly will come pre-loaded on upcoming smartphones and tablets

By: Asim on 6:55 PM

HTC recently invested $300 million to have a deep interest in Beats Audio. This partnership resulted in having Beats integrated into their mobile phones – none yet available in Canada, but will be coming soon. New rumours have surfaced that have HTC is going to take music one step further by creating a music streaming service, similar to Spotify (not available in Canada). According to GigaOm their sources state that the new, currently unnamed, music service could be announced later this month at Mobile World Congress. Backing this venture along with HTC is Interscope Geffen A&M Chairman Jimmy Iovine, who’s also a partner in Beats Audio, and can apparently help push other record labels into signing up. In addition, this new service will be the default music client and come pre-loaded on their upcoming smartphones and tablets. No word on pricing or any other details of how the music service operates.
Audio with Beats. Possibly PlayStation certified handsets. Quad-core processors. Seems like MWC will be a good time for HTC.
Source: GigaOm

Gigabyte GSmart G1355 is a dual-SIM droid with a 4.3 screen

By: Asim on 4:08 PM

Gigabyte has a new affordable droid on the way - the Gigabyte GSmart G1355 - and it has two tricks up its sleeve. The G1355 is a dual-SIM droid with a 4.3" WVGA screen making it a rare beast - most dual-SIM droids have small screens.
Now, the GSmart G1355 isn't a high-end device by any means, despite what the large screen might lead you to believe. It runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread on an outdated Qualcomm MSM7227T chipset (800MHz CPU, 512MB RAM, Adreno 200 GPU).

Gigabyte GSmart G1355 official photos
The rest of the specs include a 5MP auto-focus camera with LED flash, microSD card slot and Wi-Fi b/g/n. The Gigabyte GSmart G1355 measures 11.5mm thick, which is quite decent, but it weighs nearly 170g, which is chunky even for a phone with a 4.3" screen.
Specs are pretty close to the ZTE Skate (also known as Orange Monte Carlo) with the advantage of the second SIM card slot, of course.
Anyway, the GSmart G1355 will launch at the end of this month, which means it will most likely be present at the MWC. There's no pricing info yet.

Google updates Google+ app for iOS, adds Instant Upload and What’s Hot stream

By: Asim on 3:39 PM

The Google+ app for iOS has always been (understandably) behind the curve compared to its Android counterpart, with some of the features appearing a bit later. The latest feature to trickle down from the Android app is Instant Upload.

As some of you may know, Instant Upload uploads the pictures you take with the camera on your phone and uploads it to a private folder in your Google+ account. It’s actually a neat way to back up your images on an Android phone with with Photo Stream in iCloud, iOS users might not be in any real need of this feature.
The app now asks you whether you want to use your Wi-Fi network only or your 3G network to upload your images, or you can disable it altogether. The app needs to be running in the background to instantly upload the images as you capture them but it can also backup new images all at once every time you launch the app.
The other new feature is the inclusion of the What’s Hot stream and a new feature where you can just shake your iPhone to send feedback to Google. Finally, there are also some bug fixes and performance updates included in the latest version.
You can update the app through App Store on your iOS device or download it from here.

[New App] My Battery Drain Analyser Tracks Battery Usage By The Hour, Lets You Obsess Over Lost Juice Just A Little Bit More

By: Asim on 3:37 PM

If we could take a universal count across all platforms asking users what more they want out of their devices, we would probably hear better battery life pretty frequently. As something that many users (myself included) obsess over, we're always looking for ways to get more juice from our devices and find out what processes are keeping us from the illustrious all-day charge. Enter a new app that should somewhat help on the war against bad battery life: My Battery Drain Analyser.
My Battery Drain Analyzer (or BatteryDrain as it shows in the app tray) keeps an eye on your battery, tracking how much it drops (percentage-wise) hour-over-hour. It sleeps in the background most of the time, only waking when the battery drops by one percent in order to record the current battery state at the time. After the battery drops two percent, the app begins calculating the battery drain.
While the app is still quite simple in nature, one thing that I absolutely love about it is the fact that the dev chose to embrace the ICS style guide. This means that the app is completely ICS-ready, which includes the swiping between pages (yes, it even works in Gingerbread). Thus, not only is it functional and informative, but it looks good in doing so.
The app is completely free, so hit the widget below to give it a shot.

Download My Battery Drain Analyser from the Android Market

Angry Birds conquers Facebook as its latest platform

By: Asim on 11:47 PM

Yep, the game which is literally available on almost any device on the planet, be it mobile or not, is now available on Facebook, too. The only surprise here is what took Rovio so long?

As it turns out, the Facebook version of the game is much more sophisticated and feature-rich than its Google+ cousin, which was launched back in the summer of last year. Angry Birds on Facebook runs on Adobe Flash 11 and supports 3D graphics, which put your computer through its paces rendering the cool lighting, smoke and explosion effects the game boasts.
What’s more, Rovio have thrown a new feature in their Angry Birds Facebook port called “Power-up”. In case you didn’t figure it out yet, “Power-up” is a synonym of cheating and there are four of them you can use: Sling Scope, King Sling, Super Seeds and Birdquake.
Naturally, those power-ups cost money. After all, this isn’t a charity case, but don’t fret, as 20 power-ups cost just one dollar. Here, take a look at all the four different power-ups in action:

Sling Scope

So, what do you think? Will you be playing Angry Birds on Facebook and do you consider paying for those cool perks, or Angry Birds is so 2009 for you?
Source | Via

Quadrant benchmark updated, now properly tests multi-core phones

By: Asim on 11:42 PM

Quadrant is a highly popular benchmarking tool that tests CPU, I/O and 3D graphics capabilities on your Android device.

The new version features much-needed support for multi-core processors, as well as full Android Ice Cream Sandwich support. There’s also a redesigned GUI in addition to multiple bug fixes.
Note that the results are calculated differently than on previous 1.x versions, and developer Aurora Softworks have yet to update their results browser to reflect the new scoring system. As such, you may see a score that may be different than what your phone has gotten in the past.
Source | Via

Gameloft reduces most Android games to $0.99 for Valentine’s day

By: Asim on 9:16 PM

Gameloft has launched a new promo for its games on Android to celebrate Valentine’s day. Most of the titles from the popular game publisher will be reduced to $0.99 today, which is an incredibly tempting price, considering their quality.

All you need to do to take advantage of the promotion is just visit the Android Market and start downloading. You can find the full list of discounted games over here.
The sale will only last for a day so there’s not much time to lose. Even if you have something planned for tonight with your loved ones, the apps will still be there waiting for you tomorrow if you download today.
Via

Upcoming BlackBerry 10 OS screenshots leak

By: Asim on 6:31 PM

CrackBerry.com has acquired an internal email from RIM, which shows off the UI of their next generation OS, the BlackBerry 10. The hardware in the pictures below might be current the current 9860 but the OS is all new.

In this picture we can see the new homescreen, which is quite a bit different from the one we saw before. You can see large widgets on the screen that remind you of the live tiles in Windows Phone. And they are not static either and you can see information like weather, call information, album art and current location on a map on the respective widgets. There is also a new bar at the bottom that vaguely reminds us a bit of Nokia's Belle OS.

Moving on, we have the application drawer here. Looking at the screenshot it's hard to say which direction it scrolls in. We can't find the usual tabs at the top of the drawer as in the current OS 7 either, so maybe RIM has gone for a single, long list. We can see new icons, as well as a folder that you can use to put icons in. It's unclear how you invoke this application drawer from the homescreen.

Finally, we have an image of the in-call screen, showing a large picture of the caller on top and large touch buttons, including one for video calls, below.
Overall, the new BlackBerry 10 is looking quite promising. Unfortunately, there will be quite a wait before we could actually get our hands on it.
Source

Google’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility approved by Department of Justice

By: Asim on 6:29 PM

Earlier today the EU approved the Google’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility. Now, the United States Department of Justice has just announced they too have given the green light.
When the two companies announced this proposed deal in August of last year, Google specifically stated that “Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies”. In addition, while most mobile manufacturers who use the Android platform all had the same canned corporate response and “welcomed” the news, most we’re concerned. However, Google’s Eric Schmidt says Motorola acquisition won’t “screw up” Android… “We won’t play favorites”.
Now we’ll see it all unfold…
Source: Reuters

HTC phones to get the PlayStation Suite in 2012, report claims

By: Asim on 6:28 PM

HTC will be one of the first companies outside of Sony to receive PlayStation certification for its mobile devices, according to Pocket-lint. The announcement is expected later this year and devices with PlayStation certification could possibly debut at this month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Sony announced that its PlayStation certification program would launch on non-Sony devices at last year’s launch of the PlayStation Vita in Japan. The program gives smartphone and tablet owners access to many classic PSOne games and to Sony’s gaming network. It is suggested that HTC devices with the PlayStation Suite will begin hitting the market in the second half of 2012.
Read

Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos surfaces, costs €260

By: Asim on 6:08 PM

Samsung keeps extending its Duos lineup and today we learned the popular Galaxy Ace is the next smartphone to grow an extra radio. The Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos went official for the Indian market.
You should keep in mind that the Duos part here doesn't mean a second SIM slot as it does on most other Samsung devices. Instead, the Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos will come with GSM and CDMA support, making it a truly global phone. You can still have two subscription plans with this one, but only if your country has both CDMA and GSM carriers.
The Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos will be mostly identical to the original Galaxy Ace, but it will get a larger battery to make up for the second radio. Instead of the 1350 mAh unit found in the original Galaxy Ace, the Galaxy Ace Duos will have a 1650 mAh Li-Ion battery. It's unclear if the new battery will be compatible with the original smartphone, though.
The Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos will retail for INR16,900, which translates to about €260 or $340. We don't know if Samsung has any plans of bringing the smartphone to Europe or America, but we should learn more about the company's plans soon enough.
Source

Motorola might show an Intel-powered droid at the MWC

By: Asim on 4:12 PM

We've already seen the first phone powered by Intel's Medfield mobile x86 chipset and now rendered images of Motorola droid phone bring their promise of their own Medfield phone closer to reality.
Motorola announced they will be making an Intel-powered phones at CES and now rumor has it that we’ll see the first of those showcased at the next major tech event, the Mobile World Congress.

We don't know much about the phone aside that it will be running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (that will make it Moto's first phone with ICS out of the box) and that it will have interface customizations by Motorola.
The phone will reportedly have an instant-on feature (something along the lines of HTC's Fast Boot) and its camera will be capable of 15fps burst capture.
The screen has a 16:9 aspect ratio, so 720p resolution is more than likely (it's the native resolution for ICS). Whether it will be a Super AMOLED (like the Motorola RAZR and Galaxy Nexus have) is anyone's guess.
The chipset will most likely be the single-core Intel Atom Z2460, which is the only chipset in the Medfield family right now.
We'll be attending the MWC and we'll make sure to swing by Motorola's booth to learn more about this droid. If the rumors pan out, of course, there's no official word from Moto that they'll be showing this device or that it even exists.
Source | Via

Download Fake iPhone 4S Android App, Turn your Android Smartphone into an iPhone 4S

By: Asim on 3:51 PM

Fancy to see your Android Phone look like iPhone 4S? Fake iPhone 4S Android App exactly does that. Once installed, the app turns your android home screen into iOS home screen. Tapping on app icon will launch it but the only things annoys is apps those are not Android counterparts, tapping on them will open sponsored ad. The advertising revenue helps support the future development of this app, so please bear this in mind

We hope to see a paid version of the app without ad support. The author also promised to turn it into a full Android Launcher app.

Trick your friends into thinking you have the new iPhone 4S! This app is a full-screen working replica of the iPhone 4 home screen. It even replaces your phone’s status bar, so there’s no hint of Android underneath. You should be able to give a convincing iPhone impression just by flipping through the Springboard screens, and opening up an app or two to show people that “it really works”. If you really want to amaze them, use this on a phone with a 3D gallery app, and click the “Photos” icon. The status bar will stay hidden, so there won’t be the slightest hint you’re using Android. The app works best on the Samsung Galaxy S II, or any Android phone with a Super AMOLED+ display.

Google To Make “Big Announcements” About GTV On February 13th

By: Asim on 3:48 PM

Though some would have you believe Google TV has long been a dead horse, it seems Mountain View hasn’t given up hope just yet: just about a month after a handful of CES announcements, the company put up a Facebook message promising the following:

There’s obviously no way to discern for sure what these “big announcements” might be, but as The Verge says, it’s possible they could entail the yearly GTV update or (more excitingly) a Google-branded device (Nexus TV, anyone?). Either way, we’ll be keeping you updated on the news – good or bad – as it comes in, so keep it locked right here on AP!
Source: Google’s FB page via The Verge

PowerAMP Updated To 2.0.5-build-480, Bringing Multichannel FLAC, Notification Controls For Android 3.0+, ICS Fixes, And More

By: Asim on 3:43 PM

PowerAMP, one of the most popular and versatile music player apps available for Android, got updated today to Version 2.0.5-build-480 today, bringing a handful of handy improvements to an already stellar application.
Perhaps the most notable among these are ICS-related fixes, ICS lock screen controls (which strangely don't show up on ASUS' Transformer Prime), and notification bar controls for Android 3.0+ (which don't blend well with the Prime's ICS aesthetic), providing further practical and functional integration with Android Tablets and Ice Cream Sandwich-powered devices.

The update also brings support for multichannel FLAC playback, album art search based on title or filename, DSP features under the app's equalizer curve, and several other miscellaneous enhancements.

If you haven't already, click through the market link below to see the full list of new features, grab the update, and keep listening to your favorite tunes in style.

Download Poweramp Music Player from the Android Market

HTC Sense 4.0 screenshots leak through Endeavor RUU

By: Asim on 3:25 PM

The folks at Android Central managed to get their hands on a RUU (ROM Update Utility) for the HTC Endeavor and extracted dozens of screenshots for the upcoming version of HTC's Android skin, Sense 4.0, which will be running on top of Ice Cream Sandwich.

Although we have seen Sense 4.0 once before in a video, these screenshots give a clearer view of the interface. What you see below are screenshots of some of the built-in themes in preview mode, where you can see how the homescreen, lockscreen and application screen will look like once the theme has been applied.

We can see that the lockscreen is almost identical to the present versions of Sense although you can change the look of the lock ring and the application icon background with different themes. We noticed that the font for the large clock strangely is not Roboto, even though the rest of the OS is using it.

The homescreen looks a bit different, due to the presence of a new dock at the bottom of the screen that houses shortcuts to applications, which is more functional that the current dock in HTC phones.
We think the new Sense 4.0 does look very nice. The lack of overly glossy surfaces also makes it look more mature and sophisticated. If at all we must have a custom skin running atop our Android devices, Sense 4.0 would probably be our first choice. And since it is unlikely that HTC will ever sell an Android phone without its custom skin, it's important for the skin to be good, which it seems it is. We just hope it won't take too much of a toll on the performance of the phone.
For more screenshots, you can check out the source link below. Also check out the video if you need a more in-depth but blurrier look at Sense 4.0.