Cell Bytes

Is the Motorola FlipOut coming to AT&T? At first we thought it was scrapped at the last minute, but then we heard otherwise. Now we at least have a an answer to the question of whether or not the phones actually ever existed as a full-on double rainbow AT&T branded version of the device has made its way to eBay for the meager price of $388.88. If you are dying to get your hands on the quirky square handset that might actually score you one for less than what AT&T might eventually sell the FlipOut for off-contract.

No word on how the handset came to be on eBay, but methinks a few units may have escaped into the wild. I even have my own in-the-wild sighting of the handset on American soil, though that is more akin to Bigfoot as I can’t confirm whether it exists or not. Any body out there willing to take the plunge? Be sure to let us know if you snag this up.

[via Engadget]

It’s no mystery that at least a fraction of the reason why OS updates are delayed for many devices boils down to the custom UIs manufacturers place on top of Android. The rest of the delay is made up of tailoring the new OS for each device and then adding in various carrier and OEM applications and tweaks. But love it or hate it, custom interfaces like HTC Sense and the artist formerly known as MotoBlur are here to stay. OK, so why not let users have the option of turning the custom skins on and off? While that is still a possibility for manufacturers to consider, Google CEO Eric Schmidt spoke out on the matter saying the company would never force partners to run a certain iteration of Android.

He went on to say that the whole notion was in contrast to the very foundation of open source, an aspect that Android boasts quite proudly. Schmidt said, “if we were to put those type of restrictions on an open source product, we’d be violating the principle of open source.” Now many would argue Google likes to pick and choose just how open Android really is with certain aspects like the inclusion of the Android Market or the ‘with Google’ tag being left up to the whim of the search giant, but fair enough. The actual code is freely available and the large developer and hacker community around Android is a testament to this.

We like to think of Android as open source in its ideals but capitalistic in its goals, which is just fine. Would certain people (me included) love to see the option of running stock Android on all devices (including the fantastic hardware HTC consistently puts out)? Absolutely, but there is always root and ROMs for that. Or the T-Mobile G2. But what do you all think? Should stock Android always be an option on the devices you choose? Let us know in the poll below.

View Poll

[via Engadget]

it’s been a couple of weeks since we heard about the Motorola XT720 heading to Canada’s smallish carrier Wind Mobile, and now that time has come: you can grab the device up now for $430. It comes packed with a 3.7-inch WVGA touchscreen, an 8-megapixel autofocus camera with xenon flash and HD video recording, Android 2.1, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, HDMI out, and a 768MHz processor. We reviewed the version of the phone for Cincinnati Bell Wireless here in the states not too long ago.

While the software may differ between the two version, be sure to check the review out for a decent idea on how this thing performs (we think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.) Head on over to Wind now if you like what you see. [via Into]

I said before to expect more and more games to head to Android as the platform continues to grow and as more iOS developers start to realize the untapped potential of the games section in the Android market. That momentum continues with the announcement of two new games coming to Android that were once only available for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad devices.

One such game is Mega Jump – which we’ll call a Papi Jump clone (we’ve got to give love to our Android faithful developers) – and will find its place in the Android market in the next couple of weeks. I’ve included footage of the iPhone version below to give you an idea of what to expect.

The other game – Jet Car Stunts – has also been available for iOS for quite some time and will be coming with OpenFeint support in tow (meaning you can go up against the scores of iOS users, not just Android users.) It’s a thrilling obstacle racer that sees the driver making insane jumps and maneuvering around an airborne track until they get to the finish line. The gameplay does look quite fun, but I can’t judge that without having played it. Unfortunately, it’ll probably be a while before we get a chance to see what it’s all about as we’ve only been given a broad launch date of “by the end of the year.”

What do you guys think of these games based on what you’ve seen here? [via TalkAndroid 1|2]

Wow. Thanks to everyone who showed up for Phandroid LIVE in Baltimore and thanks to our sponsor – Verizon Wireless. I know the Phandroid Team had an amazing time and judging from the feedback, our first ever Phandroid LIVE event was a huge success.

The event was from 6pm to 8pm and smack dab in the middle we had a live podcast which you can listen to at our BlogTalkRadio.com/phandroid or it’s embedded below:

Definitely one of our best podcasts so far and it was a blast to do with a live audience.

We had a ton of other stuff going on in addition to the podcast. Verizon folks were hanging out with us the entire time, showing off their latest Droids including the Droid X, Droid 2, Droid Incredible and Samsung Fascinate. Oh yeah, and they gave us FOUR phones to give a way – here is one of the lucky winners:

We also held out T-Shirt Design Contest, which you were also able to vote on here at Phandroid.com, and the winning T-Shirt which we’ll look into putting into production now:

It was noted that since you can’t connect a dot more than once, that the line should actually end in the middle, so we’ll make that change with possibly a few adjustments, but more or less this will be the first Official Phandroid T-Shirt!

Thanks to everyone who made this event such a huge success. It was great to meet all the other Phandroids in the Baltimore area, not to mention the folks who drove hundreds of miles to come hang out with us on a Tuesday night. For example, Jose came all the way from Hershey, PA and we had a number of other people cut out of work early or make a haul to hang out.

Check out the pictures from the event below… and we know, we know… we’re working on getting a nice gallery plugin so clicking through isn’t such an irritation:

We can’t wait to have another Phandroid LIVE event – stay tuned to Phandroid.com and we’ll let you know as soon as something is planned.

Almost forget- for those eagerly waiting an update to the Phandroid Application, including homescreen widgets and Android Forums support, it is on the way. Attendees got an early look at the UI along with an (almost) fully functioning news section.

Thanks again to everyone who was there for making Phandroid LIVE such a success  and we hope to see you again soon, at least on the interwebz if not in real life!

Simply releasing a Motorola Droid 2 with internals capable of global roaming probably wouldn’t have done much to differentiate the world device from the D2 currently on Verizon’s shelves, so good thing Big Red decided to give the phone a cosmetic makeover (at least in the color department). This is our first look at what will be the Droid 2 World Edition (or Droid 2 Global or Droid Pro or whatever it may end up being called) with its white casing and silver screen bezel as opposed to the blue and gunmetal of the first Droid 2. Rumor has it this one might replace the first iteration of the Droid 2 outright in VZW’s lineup.

Other than the new colors and roaming capabilities, looks like we will be getting the same exact phone. We more or less expected that, though some were holding out hope for some tweaks in the hardware here and there.

This will be the first world-roaming member of the Droid family and I must say the new look makes this a pretty tempting handset. Hit up the via link below for a couple more images.

[via DroidLife]

Updates! Get yer updates here! Everything must go, or that is how things are seeming today with the fourth announced update for an Android handset ready to roll out. First the Droid X got Android 2.2, then the Samsung Fascinate and Captivate each received their own minor update to clean up some bugs and throw in a few tweaks, and now the HTC EVO 4G is also all set to get it’s own small update to deal with some performance improvements and enhancements. Firmware version 3.29.651.5 brings fixes for calendar event editing bugs and adds in support for multiple GMail account syncing.

You can force the update by going to Settings > System updates > HTC software update. We sure wish carriers and manufacturers were always this update happy.

[via Android Community]

Those with a bone to pick regarding the handling of GPS support on the Samsung Captivate should get some relief in the coming weeks, as Samsung and AT&T have announced an over-the-air update for the handset that should corral the hit or miss location functionality plaguing the device. The update will also bring other enhancements such as improved media scanning time, the full version of Quickoffice, and Microsoft Exchange 2003 policy support will be addressed.

When the update is ready for you to receive you will get a notification on your device to download and install. Of course, this should take a couple weeks to completely roll out to every device. You can always try the old Settings>About Phone>System Updates trick to try to force the update.

While it is no guarantee, with the Fascinate receiving a similar update in the near future we expect the GPS issues on all versions of the Galaxy S will be dealt with shortly, even if we still have to wait a couple more months for Froyo.

I thought this day might never come, but just as I sit here so has Verizon begun to unload the Android 2.2 (Froyo) update for the Motorola Droid X, just as was promised yesterday. I will give you a second to collect yourselves as I’m sure you are now screaming and/or crying like a little girl.

OK, now that that’s out of the way, don’t worry about having to do a manual installation if the update doesn’t hit your phone immediately. This one can be force-downloaded simply by navigating to Settings > About > System Updates. About damn time, right? Once you have thoroughly put Froyo through its paces on the Droid X let us know what you think in the comments below!

[thanks to everyone who sent this in!]