Android @ Home aims at automating the control of home appliances. Unlike the iOS approach, Android now allows you to control your appliances from your Android phone/tablet by introducing a new wireless standard. It allows your Android gadget to directly communicate with your fridge, TV, light bulbs, stereo system and what not. By the end of this year, Android @ Home compatible light bulbs will be available in the market that you’d be installing on your regular bulb-holders but will contain the built-in wireless module for communicating with your Android gadget! Crazy! Isn’t it?

Google @ Home Tungston Device

Google is also introducing the Google @ Home SDK which will open new horizon’s of innovation! Just imagine your chair shaking while you are playing NFS on your Galaxy S or your room flashing lights with the Quake game play! That’s not it, Google is introucing new type of stereo spekers that actually run Android and have a CPU built-in! They actually pull the music and directly play it independently over a wireless internet connection and are controlled directly via Google’s Android @ Home wireless standard! We’ll be having more on this soon so don’t forget to check back.

Desire HD & Incredible S

HTC has officially announced that they are rolling out the gingerbread update to HTC Desire HD and HTC Incredible S. For the Desire HD, this update brings 2.36.405.5 firmware and for Incredible S the gingerbread update firmware is 2.12.405.7. The update doesn’t seem to have started to roll as for now as we’ve got no confirmation from any user. Initially European phones will get the OTA only then we’d know if it is the bare bone Android 2.3 or some later version like 2.3.3 or 2.3.4. If it is really Android 2.3, many users getting mad over the gtalk voice/video calling will be dissappointed.

I guess, some OTA links will pop up over the interwebs soon but you have to wait for the OTA to knock your door as for now. We are hunting the details about the Android version number and the OTA links and will post them here once we have some. If you happen to have a Desire HD or Incredible S and get the OTA update, don’t forget to let us know.

[HTC]

Nexus One 2.3.4 Update Now Avilable

Android 2.3.4 is now rolling out to Nexus One owners as an OTA, some users have already got it and others must be in the queue. The most anticipated feature of 2.3.4, people are getting crazy about is the voice and video calling in gtalk but the bad news for the Nexus One owners is that the update is just a bug fixer for them as there’s no option to make voice or video calls in gtalk. I don’t know how many of you will get started on Google but adding video calling to a phone lacking a front cam does totally not make any sense, voice calling should have been there however. Well, now that you are not officially going to get what you wanted, you should get the feature yourself following our guide but you can enjoy the bug fixes for now which include improved battery life and fixed GPS problems.

If you still want the update, wait for the OTA or grab the following OTA link:

http://android.clients.google.com/packages/ota/passion/71d2f9ecd610.signed-passion-GRJ22-from-GRI40.71d2f9ec.zip

You can update your Nexus One to 2.3.4 manually by downloading the above file. Once done, rename it to update.zip, place it on your SD card’s root, boot in recovery and update.

Don’t forget to let us know about your thoughts on the controvertial update.

[XDA]

Iconia Tab Home Screen

Yesterday was the US release date for the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, but ASUS forgot to mention that the Transformer wasn’t actually going to be in stores, but rather available for pre-order.  Thanks ASUS.  Now, since I was so hyped up waiting to get my hands on the Transformer, and then suffering gadget geek disappointment when I couldn’t, I decided to do the next best thing.  I bought an Acer Iconia Tab a500 to see how that stacked up.  If the Transformer actually does hit stores within the next couple of weeks, I’ll pick up one of those too and compare them for you all.  Until that happens, we’ll have some fun with my new Iconia Tab together.  Overall I have to say I’m very pleased with my first real Honeycomb tablet, as previously I only had the rooted Nook Color running the Honeycomb Preview image to satisfy my Honeycomb sweet tooth.  There are things I really like about the Iconia Tab, and a few that could be a little better, but we’ll get to all that.  Let’s dive right in!

Acer Iconia Tab a500 Specs

Display: 10.1-inch WXGA TFT 262K LCD Capacitive Touchscreen, 1280×800 at 16:10 aspect ratio

Processor: NVIDIA Tegra 2 1GHz Dual Core

Cameras: Rear-facing 5 Megapixel with LED Flash; Front-facing 2 Megapixel

Memory: 1GB Ram; 16GB Internal Storage; (added 16GB Micro SD Card to mine as well)

Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n; bluetooth; GPS; Micro USB, Full-size USB, HDMI

Other: Flash 10.2 support (via Android Market) 3.5mm Headphone jack, accelerometer, gyroscope, DLNA support (can act as a media hub on a wireless network).

Battery: 3260 mAh x 2 Li-polymer. 8-10 hours*

*will be discussed in the Speed and Performance section

OS

Android 3.0.1 Honey Comb

The specs are the exact same as you’ll find on the Motorola Xoom, with a slight difference in storage.  The Iconia has 16GB where the Xoom has 32GB.  For a significant price difference, and more functionality, I’ll happily opt for the Acer over the Xoom.

Design

The form factor is very sleek, with nice rounded silver edges and corners, and the curves of the tab look very appealing and modern.  The aluminum back is very sturdy, and gives you a good feeling about the quality of the build.

Iconia Tab Back (w/camera on right)

It is slightly longer than the Xoom, measuring 10.2 x 7.0 inches, where the Xoom is 9.8 x 6.6.  It also weighs just a tad more than the Xoom at 1.7 pounds, compared to the 1.6 of the Xoom.  Despite that it feels lighter than the Xoom when I picked up the Motorola in the store.  That may just be better weight balance of the internal components.  Still, it’s not too heavy to hold for extended periods of time, though I wouldn’t want to hold it one-handed for a long while either.

The screen, like all touchscreens, does retain fingerprints.  The included cleaning cloth, though, does a really excellent job clearing them off.

Iconia Tab Front

The ports around the edges are well-placed.  Across the top you have the volume rocker and the screen-orientation lock switch and the Micro-SD slot.

Iconia Tab Top (w/ volume rocker and lock switch)

On the right-hand side are the charger jack, mini-usb slave, and USB host ports.

Iconia Tab Right

On the left side is the power button, 3.5mm headphone jack, and the HDMI port.

Iconia Tab Left (w/ power, headphone jack, HDMI)

On the bottom you have a docking port.  The dock is an $80 accessory which is very bulky and unsightly, but will get you a couple of extra hours of battery life and an IR sensor with remote.  I did not buy one.  I think i’ll wait until a smaller version comes out.

Iconia Bottom (w/ docking port)

Display

The 10.1-inch screen is very responsive, very vivid and very bright.  While reading reviews prior to buying the Tab, I noticed a couple reviewers had a complaint about the grid in the screen.  There is a grid in the screen that is part of the screen technology that Acer uses.  However, you absolutely can not see it when the device is on.  I used it in different lighting situations, with both dark and bright videos, games, apps, books, music covers, pictures and you can not see the grid.  Even when the tab is off, you can barely make out the grid unless you are in bright lights.  Perhaps in earlier models it was more apparent, but in the retail version you have nothing to worry about.  Look at the pics I took of the screen both on and off.  You can’t see it.  Otherwise, the screen is beautiful, the colors are rich and vibrant, and the responsiveness is fantastic.

Speed and Performance

I’ve used a variety of pre-honeycomb tablets such as the Galaxy tab, Velocity Micro Cruz, Color Nook, etc.  These all featured some version of Android running from 2.0-2.2, and none of them could hold a candle to the snappiness of the Iconia.  The Galaxy tab is pretty close, and runs very well, but of course it doesn’t pack the hardware the Iconia does.  The Tegra chip and the 1GB of ram are certainly noticeable factors when you use the tab.  Screen transitions are very smooth, load times are practically non-existent for most apps, videos, and web pages.  I do have a few complaints about some of the built-in apps, though.

There is one game “Hero of Sparta” that comes with the tab.  It could be pretty good, but I don’t have the patience to get through the loading screen.  There was a lengthy download process on the initial start (about 10 minutes over WiFi) for game content.  After that it was a load screen for another couple of minutes.  Once it was loaded the text on the menus was unreadable black boxes.  At random I picked one and was treated to a loading screen that was up for another 5 minutes before I force-closed the game.

My other complaint was the Google Books reader and how long it takes to load a book.  It’s absolutely ridiculous.  If my crappy little Kobo reader can load an entire book in a few seconds, why then does the Google reader take almost a full 2-3 minutes to load a book?

Those couple of things aside, I have no complaints.  Things happen very quickly.

As for Honeycomb itself, there are a couple of small bugs yet in the system, but I’ve actually been very happy with it.  For all the complaints I’ve read about Honeycomb from reviews, blogs, geeks, and enthusiasts (and I’ve read A LOT).  My experience thus far over the last day of pretty constant use has been very good.  I had one incident where the web browser just stopped working, and nothing short of a reboot would fix it.  The number of force closes I’ve had while using a vast multitude of apps and games I could count on one hand.  As I mentioned, though, this is my first real Honeycomb tablet, so I don’t have much else to compare it to.  The user experience on my Color Nook with the Honeycomb port was downright awful compared to this, though.  For the everyday user, I hereby pronounce Honeycomb stable for casual use.

Endurance-wise the battery life is very good.  I charged it to full before I ever turned it on.  After I turned it on I immediately connected the WiFi and started loading it up with apps that I wanted.  I cruised YouTube for about an hour testing videos of various quality, played some music on it, tried several different games, surfed the net, and I did this all night.  I would say I put it through very heavy use for about 6 hours, at the end of which I still have 73% battery life.  I then left it on all night and went to bed, woke up 8 hours later and it was still at 43% battery.  Another 3 hours of heavy use in the morning and it was down to 23%.  In short, I have yet to run the battery all the way down, so that’s very impressive.

Connectivity

I’m very happy with the connectivity options on the tab.  The WiFi is superb, and I’ve been able to use it with no problems on my home network, as well as on my mobile hot spot on the G2X, and the old MT3G Slide.  I successfully paired a bluetooth mouse and keyboard with it, on which I am actually typing this article.  It works wonderfully.  I also paired it with the HD radio in my car, and the tab does support A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) so if you like to stream your music via bluetooth to an HD radio, you can do that.

The USB port successfully recognized everything I plugged into it, which included a mouse, keyboard, flash drive, external portable hard drive, and USB speaker system.

The Apps

Acer has chosen to not include a whole bunch of useless junk on the tab.  Hooray!  But, as all companies do, they have included SOME useless junk.

The Games:

The Iconia Tab includes 3 HD games, and an app called “Games” which is a game hub for your games.  Pretty useless for most people, as the games we like we’ll probably add to a home screen.  The Included games are Need for Speed: Shift, Let’s Golf, and Hero of Sparta.

I told you a little bit about Need for Speed: Shift in my review of the G2X, and it’s the same game here.  Great little racer, and even better on the tab than on my G2X.

I’m not much of a golf fan, and as such Let’s Golf didn’t really hold much appeal for me.  The initial start-up takes a few minutes as there’s a lot of content to download first.  The game itself isn’t bad for a casual golf game, but it is very cartoony and a bit silly.  If that doesn’t bother you, you’ll certainly like to kill some time on the many courses available.  It’s no Golden Tee, though!

Finally, I told a little bit about my experience with Hero of Sparta.  I still haven’t been able to actually play the game, so I can’t tell you how good it is.  I can’t get the thing to go past the loading screen.  What I’ve seen of it online looks pretty good, and I’m a fan of running amok hacking down enemies with axes and swords, so it’s regrettable that I can’t play it.

update:

I’v since been able to get this one working, and it’s only a demo of the first level. Still, it’s a good offering that shows what mobile gaming has the potential to do.

Other Apps:

The usual suite of Google apps comes built-in as well, and they all work very well.  Google Maps has been updated very recently, and satellite images of my home look to have been taken within the last couple of weeks.

The YouTube App is stellar with the 3D leanback view.

YouTube Leanback

Google Books is the biggest disappointment for me, as I was very much looking forward to using it.  I read constantly, so the e-reader function was one that was really exciting.  It’s not all bad though.  Once your book is loaded, the reading experience is great!  The page-flipping animations are very classy, and the options available for font sizes and styles are more than any dedicated e-reader offers right now.  Of course, if you’re not satisfied with Google Books you have the other major bookseller apps available for Borders, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kobo.

Google Books

Google Books

Google Books

I added, of course Twitter (which you can follow me on), and Facebook (which I thus far refuse to use, but you never know).

My Social Home Screen (Gmail, Twitter, Facebook)

The browser is very much more desktop-like, and works very smoothly aside from the one time it just quit working.  The tabs are a very nice addition for Android, but I’m a little disappointed that the order of the tabs cannot be changed like on a PC.  You can’t slide them around and place them where you want them.  I’ve got a pic of the browser checking out one of my posts here on gggadgets.com, and a couple of tabs.  There’s also one of World of Warcraft patch 4.1, in which I’m looking forward to heading back into ZG and ZA to claim yet another Zandalari tiger, and a second War Bear Mount to go with my one from level 70 ZA timed runs.  Pwning trolls FTW!

The Browser visiting gggadgets.com

The Cameras

Since I’m not into wielding my tablet as a digital camera, the camera quality isn’t all that important to me.  Still, the cameras aren’t bad at all for casual shooting and video chat.  If you were expecting to pick up the Iconia and take breathtaking high-res photos to use in your promotional material, forget about it.  The camera quality isn’t bad, but it’s certainly not all that good either.  Check out my shots below for an idea of what to expect.

The Final Word

If you want a good Android Tablet and don’t want to give up the money for a Xoom or G-slate, and don’t want to wait any longer for a transformer then this is a great buy.  It’s speedy, it’s clean, it looks and feels good, and performs like a charm in 99% of cases.  Once it’s rooted, I’m sure it will even be that much better.  Even if you have no interest in rooting, the Iconia Tab is a great media device.  It will not replace your lap top, but if you want to get some productivity out of it, and  a lot of entertainment, you could do far worse for $450.

If you’re looking at the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer VS. the Iconia Tab, as I was, let me explain what my choice entailed.  First, I’ve been tablet bonkers for the last couple of years and kept holding out, and holding out, and I finally settled on the Transformer.  The Keyboard dock with the extra battery was what really sold me on it, but I was not happy that the only USB port was also on the keyboard dock.

The Iconia, on the other hand has the USB port on the tablet and that was a great selling point.  What eventually broke me was my level of patience.  I am a gadget geek, and all the shiny tablet goodness finally got to me when I tried to lay hands on a Transformer and there was no Transformer to be had!  In a nerd rage, I went for my second choice, which was the Acer, and I am certainly not disappointed.

I will also give the Transformer a try when it hits the stores, but I don’t regret my choice.  Once I got the bundle pack off Amazon of a small folding keyboard and mouse, both of them bluetooth, it really didn’t bother me that i hadn’t gotten the ASUS.

My needs were thus: Portability.  Ability to work on my gggadgets.com articles for you all from anywhere.  Gaming.  Browser-based connectivity to my home PC and network.  The Iconia offers all of these, and for a very affordable price.  Sure I don’t get the extra battery life that the Transformer’s keyboard dock provides, but I still get the keyboard, which is portable and pocket-sized and cost me less altogether than the Transformer+dock.

If you have more patience than I, and hold out for the Transformer I say more power to you.  I’m certain it will be a wonderful device as well, and absolutely worth the cost.  The Iconia, also, is a great little device and it really comes down to how patient you are, and what you want it for.

Don’t forget to follow us on twitter and get more awesome news and reviews right in your inbox!

Unfortunately we can’t read the texts in the video and the Sense UI 2.1 is all that makes us beleive that it is Gingerbread. We are pretty much hopeful for the release of this ROM which we could flash to our HD7s accompanied by a how-to guide so we are keeping an eye on this, don’t forget to follow us on twitter or subscribe via email to keep yourself updated.

[XDA.cn]

AT&T hasn’t been the most Android-friendly carrier out there, but thankfully they seem to have started adding some good ones to their line-up.  The Motorola Atrix 4G is one such device, and despite the high price tag, people seem to really like the phone and its laptop dock.  The appeal of the Atrix is its optional dock that turns it (more or less) into a netbook.  The Dock can also power the phone.

The Atrix is powered by the 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra processor, has a 4-inch display at 960×540, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of onboard storage, 32GB micro SD slot, 5 Megapixel rear camera and front VGA camera, and HSPA+ connectivity for AT&T’s 4G network.  It currently sells for $199.99 with a 2-year contract.  It was just announced that Amazon Wireless is offering the super phone for only $50 with a 2-year contract.  This deal is this weekend only, so don’t miss out on it if you’re interested in the Atrix.

In a press release today, Alltel wanted to talk up their new line-up, and they let everyone know that they will now be carrying the Motorola Milestone X.  This is also known as the Droid X on Verizon.  They started the year off with the LG Axis, and more recently started selling the Samsung Gem and the HTC Merge.  All of these phones are running on Android 2.1 or 2.2, which is still more than some carriers can say about their early devices which are still stuck on 1.6 in some cases.  Alltel is not offering any android tablets at this point, but since they also carried the HTC Wildfire and HTC Desire, it is possible that they might acquire the HTC Flyer, or one of Samsung’s newer tablets.  In a side-note, Alltel is the first to pre-load the Amazon app store on an android device.  Alltel is also accepting pre-orders for the HTC Merge, which will release May 28th for $124.99 with a 2-year contract.

From the pictures we can see that it is running on Android 2.2 Froyo, and features the same physical buttons running across the bottom of the screen.  You can also see an HDMI port and mini-usb connection.  Some folks may be disappointed that the newer model keeps the same unpopular form factor, though.  According to the Verizon roadmap released last week, it appears the Droid X2 may be out some time in May, which means it will likely be LTE Equipped.  A May release would put it around a year from the original device’s release date, as well.

[via Business Insider]

Samsung Galaxy S

The Samsung Galaxy news just keeps on rolling with a word now that the Galaxy S will be making the move to Android 2.3 Gingerbread in the near future.  The official word comes from Samsung’s Finnish website, by way of the network Three, and finally into our hot little hands here at gggadgets.com!  Three has tweeted that it expects an Android 2.3 Gingerbread update “within weeks” but they “cannot confirm a date”.

The popular handset is still stuck on 2.2 Froyo, though that’s better than many phones out there that are still languishing on 2.1.  Samsung’s Galaxy S, released last July certainly put Samsung on the charts as a very competitive smart phone creator, and the Galaxy line in particular has been one of the most popular.  Ahead of the game with its 1GHz processor (when  many phones were running at 800MHz) and the large 4-inch screen, the Galaxy S sold over 10 million units by the end of the year.   Impressive!  If you’d like to know about some more features of Android 2.3 Gingerbread, head over here and get the rundown!

[via T3]