Cell Bytes

We’re met with another day of the week and no shortage of Android tablets in sight. This one’s from a company called Disgo and doesn’t offer much different from any of their competitors attacking the market in its price range of £180. A resistive WVGA touchscreen, 1GHz prcoessor, 256MB of RAM, 2GB of internal storage, WiFi N, microSD card slots, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and mini USB ports make up the usual bits.

It does offer something a bit more extra, however, in micro HDMI-out port. That alone might be worth the price of admission for some of you, but everything else is pretty standard. We’re sure there’s no Android market to be had with this so you’ll have to look to third party marketplaces to get the apps you want on it.

[via Reg]

Google’s making more progress on decoupling certain applications from Android’s core and putting them into the Android market. The most recent case before today was for Gmail, but today sees Car Home getting similar treatment. They’ve also updated the application to add new features, such as the ability to customize shortcuts and how they’re arranged on the screen. These shortcuts can launch applications, dial certain contacts, automatically navigate to a certain destination, and more.

Unfortuately, I could not find the app on my HTC EVO 4G. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is due to the fact that HTC provides their own “car home” experience, but it’d be nice to have a choice as I like the features in the updated version of Car Home a lot more. Anyway, go ahead and find it in the Android market now by searching “Car Home” or by scanning the QR code below. [Thanks, Str4vag!]

In case you didn’t catch it late last night in T-Mobile’s press release for their G2, Andy Rubin had some words to say for the successor to the first phone to carry his beloved operating system, Android, and had a quick fact to throw out to us: we’re nowsitting at 80,000 apps. It’s an increase of only 10,000 from the last time we caught word of any official number. In May, it was announced that the market was housing 50,000 apps. At this rate, it’s sounding like we’re approaching the roughly 10,000 apps per month AppBrain had predicted a while back (even if their numbers were unofficial and somehow inflated).

While we all know total number of apps doesn’t mean much these days (quality over quantity has long been a preference of mine), it’s still neat to see that corner of Android growing alongside everything else.

The HTC Desire has grabbed another OTA upgrade – which obviously isn’t Froyo since it’s already gotten Froyo, so there’s nothing to be disappointed by here! The version  number is 2.10.405.2 and brings the following changes:

• An Android OS update patch
• Enhanced multi-inbox Gmail support
• Improved Russia keyboard layout

Sounds good to me. Not groundbreaking, but it’s always nice to pull down an update knowing that your device hasn’t been completely abandoned (like owners of certain other devices out there from other manufacturers). [HTC via AC]

Yahoo beat everyone to the punch with their fantasy app for Android, HuddleHub is set to bring one of their own out soon with built-in ESPN and Yahoo support, but ESPN’s not going to sit by while their fantasy users are left in the dark. Their fantasy football app is now in the market (search ESPN or just scan the QR code below).

It comes with everything you’d expect out of a fully featured mobile fantasy experience these days, including the ability to add and drop players, look at stats and projections, news, game previews, matchups, and more. Unfortunately, those who don’t like to spend coin won’t be happy to learn that the app is $4.99 to download.

If that keeps you from downloading, be sure to keep an eye on HuddleHub as they’re looking to provide similar functionality for the low cost of free for both Yahoo and ESPN. If you can resist a value meal for the day, then be sure to go and download it now in the Android market.

[via Droid-Life]

It’s Friday, and just as promised, Angry Birds Lite has made its way into the Android market in beta form. As I sit here typing this, I can’t actually download and play the game as my phone’s charging port is a bit borked. Once I get back from Best Buy with a brand new EVO, however, I’ll be sure to take the long-awaited and much-anticipated game for a spin (and I may even throw it on video, for your pleasure). In the meantime, go try it out for yourself by searching for “Angry Birds” in the market!

[Update]: It appears some of you on Froyo-based ROMs might not be able to see the app in the market. As I’ve been able to confirm from three different sources (including my friend Andrew at Androinica), it’s not showing up for anyone running CyanogenMod6 (EVO, Sprint Hero, and the Nexus One). It is, however, showing up for 2.1 devices and for Nexus Ones running the official Android 2.2 build. Hopefully it’s just a small roadbump that’ll be resolved shortly.

If you can’t find it, be sure to leave a comment with your device, whether or not you have a custom ROM installed on it, and – if so – which ROM that is so we can pinpoint the issue.

[Thanks, Mike!]

We’ve known about the improvements to GMail in the latest version of the GAPPS package for a while now, but it’s found its way onto the net as an installable .apk file for anyone with an Android 2.2 phone to install – no root required (it actually surfaced at the time of our reporting, but no one thought to actually look inside the flashable .zip file). You can read about the new changes in our earlier report here, but check this link out for the new download.

[XDA via Good and EVO]

When it was discovered that Yahoo released their Fantasy Football app into the market yesterday, fans of one of their direct Fantasy competitors – ESPN – were left wondering why ESPN had yet to drive into town with an app for their own service. While we still don’t have any word on their efforts, HuddleHub is looking to fill that gap with an app that’ll give you full management over your fantasy football teams from both ESPN and Yahoo.

They’ve only given a date of September 2010 – and the iPhone version was released just a couple of days ago – so we hope that’ll be sooner rather than later (NFL kickoff begins September 9th, FYI). You can sign up to be notified of the release at their site. So when is NFL.com going to get on the ball with their own fantasy offering?

[via Droid-Life]

BulkSMS, a leading wireless application service provider offering bulk text messaging solutions, has published insight on how text messaging is being used commercially

– Promotional campaigns using text messaging aim at providing an immediate and interactive experience with a brand via a consumer’s mobile phone. Contests, voting line, customer satisfaction research, or in-store campaign is used to attract customers’ attention.

– Scheduling appointments – Text messaging is increasingly becoming the standard way of confirming appointments and sending out appointment reminders a day ahead of a scheduled appointment.

– Promoting properties – Estate agents use text messaging as a convenient way to communicate with prospective buyers by sending them information about a new property on the market.

Read full press release.

Something pretty cool is brewing up on the XDA scene. Forum user ‘pikipirs‘ has been working on his Wiimote compatibility (Wiimote Controller) app for quite some time, now, and he’s put the project in alpha status. What you get is a working bridge between your Nintendo Wii Remote (minus the nunchuck) and your phone (if it’s supported).

He demoed Donkey Kong Country running on a Google Nexus One. The setup seemed fairly straight forward, too, so it doesn’t look like you’ll need to do anything too weird to get this up and running. You can find the app in the market, but be sure to take a gander at the post on XDA to see if there are any issues with your device (after a quick skim, it looks like most Sense-enabled – and most HTC devices, for that matter – are not going to play nicely with it, right now).

Hopefully, compatibility and stability becomes a non-issue as the project goes through the rest of its Alpha stage, into beta, and finally with its first stable release. Be sure to search “Wiimote” on the market to see some other different apps available that provide this functionality, as well: choice has never been a bad thing. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see if I can get this thing working with my Wiimote and a T-Mobile G1.