Tag: ice cream sandwich

Nova Launcher & Prime for ICS 4.0 for the Win!

Nova Launcher has made it’s way out of the beta stage and into the Android Market. This Ice Cream Sandwich launcher is chock full of features you won’t find in the stock launcher, and comes highly recommended by our own Android Central forums Super Moderator Cyber Warrior. A look at the feature list and we see why:

Custom homescreen grid
Scrollable dock
Scroll effects
Infinite scrolling
Custom folder icons
Backup/Restore
Custom app icons

The paid version offers up even more, like gestures, dock swiping, and the ability to hide apps in your app drawer. 

If you found the stock Android launcher in ICS a bit lacking, you should really give Nova Launcher a look. It requires Android 4.0 and both free and a paid $4 version are available in the Market

via Android Central.

Apple at it again, calling for injunction against the Galaxy Nexus

Apple has once again called Samsung into court. This time it’s about the Galaxy Nexus and four patents that Apple says it infringes. The patents in question are:

U.S. Patent No. 5,946,647: a patent for data being used as a hyperlink
U.S. Patent No. 8,086,604: a unified search patent
U.S. Patent No. 8,046,721: a slide-to-unlock patent
U.S. Patent No. 8,074,172: a word completion patent 
Apple is requesting that the Samsung Galaxy Nexus be blocked from sale in the United States because it violates these patents.  Should the court find in favor of Apple, a ban against the Galaxy Nexus would be put in effect until the final court decision.  

Could it happen? Certainly. But if it does, it won’t go into effect any time soon, it would only affect stores inside the U.S. selling these products, and no jack-booted thugs from Cupertino will come pry your Nexus from your hands. We can’t be sure how the courts will act, but all of these are pretty shaky patents, and once again Apple is not going after Google directly — even though the Galaxy Nexus has a pure vanilla version of Android.  The only certainty here is that the patent system is broken and only serves the company willing to spend the most in the courts.

It’s time for Google to step in and put a stop to this bullshit. The first patent in question is the same one that was upheld against HTC in a move that shocked the tech community at large, essentially giving Apple the rights to the hyperlink — something invented over 20 years ago by numerous companies that aren’t Apple.

The other three are just as laughable, or would be if not for the fact that Apple was allowed to secure the patents at all. Every single one of them has existed as prior art long before Apple became relevant, yet a patent was granted each and every time. This is the core of the problem. You can’t blame Apple for trying, it’s cheaper to litigate away your competition than it is to out-innovate them.  And make no mistake — that’s exactly what’s going on here.  Apple wants Android to go away, and a look at any chart that shows market share will tell you why.  It’s a shitty way to get ahead, but it’s too easy not to try. It’s going to take a tech giant to change the way this all works, and we know nobody can count on Apple or Microsoft to do it, because this is their system, created the way they like it, and making them rich. If Apple is afraid to go after Google, Google needs to go after Apple instead of sitting on their laurels waiting to ride in and save the day at the last minute.

via Android Central.

Official Google Blog: Introducing Chrome for Android

Introducing Chrome for Android
In 2008, we launched Google Chrome to help make the web better. We’re excited that millions of people around the world use Chrome as their primary browser and we want to keep improving that experience. Today, were introducing Chrome for Android Beta, which brings many of the things you’ve come to love about Chrome to your Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich phone or tablet. Like the desktop version, Chrome for Android Beta is focused on speed and simplicity, but it also features seamless sign-in and sync so you can take your personalized web browsing experience with you wherever you go, across devices.

Speed:
With Chrome for Android, you can search, navigate and browse fast—Chrome fast. You can scroll through web pages as quickly as you can flick your finger. When searching, your top search results are loaded in the background as you type so pages appear instantly. And of course, both search and navigation can all be done quickly from the Chrome omnibox.

Simplicity:
Chrome for Android is designed from the ground up for mobile devices. We reimagined tabs so they fit just as naturally on a small-screen phone as they do on a larger screen tablet. You can flip or swipe between an unlimited number of tabs using intuitive gestures, as if you’re holding a deck of cards in the palm of your hands, each one a new window to the web.One of the biggest pains of mobile browsing is selecting the correct link out of several on a small-screen device. Link Preview does away with hunting and pecking for links on a web page by automatically zooming in on links to make selecting the precise one easier.A nd as with Chrome on desktop, we built Chrome for Android with privacy in mind from the beginning, including incognito mode for private browsing and fine-grained privacy options tap menu icon, ‘Settings,’ and then ‘Privacy’.

Sign in:
You can now bring your personalized Chrome experience with you to your Android phone or tablet. If you sign in to Chrome on your Android device, you can:View open tabs: Access the tabs you left open on your computer also signed into Chrome—picking up exactly where you left off.Get smarter suggestions: If you visit a site often on your computer, youll also get an autocomplete suggestion for it on your mobile device, so you can spend less time typing.

Sync bookmarks: Conveniently access your favorite sites no matter where you are or which device you’re using.

Chrome is now available in Beta from Android Market, in select countries and languages for phones and tablets with Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich. We’re eager to hear your feedback. Finally, we look forward to working closely with the developer community to create a better web on a platform that defines mobile.

Posted by Sundar Pichai, SVP, Chrome and AppsCross-posted from the Chrome blog and on the Mobile blog

via Official Google Blog: Introducing Chrome for Android.

How to: Unroot the Galaxy Nexus, Re-lock the Bootloader and Return to a Factory State

Unlocking the bootloader and rooting your Galaxy Nexus is really only half the battle. There may come a time when you need need to lock everything back up, including that bootloader. Thanks to the Android team, we have the factory images that can not only fix a bootlooping or soft-bricked device, but make it look like you just pulled it out of the box.  

Instructions:

1.  Download the Android 4.0.2 factory images to your PC. [Download]
2.  Unzip the file and its contents into your SDK/Tools folder (wherever your adb.exe and fastboot.exe files are).

*Make sure they are not in their own folder, but have all been extracted to Tools.

3.  From within your Tools folder, open a command prompt (SHIFT + right click – “open command prompt here”):
4.  Type the following commands, allowing each to finish before moving onto the next:

adb reboot bootloader
fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-toro-primekk15.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash radio radio-toro-i515.ek02.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash radio-cdma radio-cdma-toro-i515.ek05.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot -w update image-mysid-icl53f.zip
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot oem lock

5.  Reboot your phone by highlighting “Start” and pressing the lock switch.
6.  It really is as simple as that. Your phone is now back to a 100% stock, unrooted and locked state.

via Droid Life.

How to: Root the Galaxy Nexus 4G LTE, Flash a Custom Recovery and Make a Backup [Verizon]

Time to root your Galaxy Nexus now that @Koush has released official Clockworkmod Recovery for the LTE version. We have gone ahead and posted the manual instructions for you, because well, if you have a Nexus you should probably know most of these standard adb and fastboot commands. It’s not hard by any means, especially knowing that you all have the SDK set up after unlocking your bootloader. Should take all of 5 minutes, maybe less.

Ready?

Rooting and flashing a custom recovery:

*Unlock your bootloader first. [Instructions]

1.  Download ClockworkMod Recovery for the G-Nex. [Download]
2.  Place that file in your SDK/Tools folder (same place as your adb.exe).
3.  Download the superuser file aka the root file. [Download]
4.  Place that file in your SDK/Tools folder.
5.  Open a command prompt from within your Tools folder and type the following:

adb push su.zip /sdcard/

6. Then reboot into the bootloader:

adb reboot bootloader

7.  When the boot menu loads, flash the new recovery image:

fastboot flash recovery recovery-clockwork-5.5.0.4-toro.img

8.  When that finishes, use the volume keys to highlight “Recovery mode,” press power to select it.
9.   From recovery, scroll to “Install zip from sdcard.”
10.  Then “choose zip from sdcard.”
11.  Choose the “su.zip” file and install it.
12.  When that finishes, back out of recovery and reboot the system.
13.  Enjoy being rooted with a temporary recovery. (Permanent instructions below)

Afterwards, you will want to install ROM Manager from the market and have it re-flash recovery for you.

Make your first backup:

1.  Now that you are rooted and have a custom recovery, it’s time to make your first clean backup.
2.  In ROM Manager, flash Clockwork recovery again (it’s the first option up top).
3.  Then tap the option to reboot into recovery just below that.
4.  Once in recovery, scroll down to “backup and restore.”
5.  Choose “backup” and let your phone create a backup.
6.  When finished, back out of recovery and reboot the system.

If you want permanent Clockwork Recovery (via XDA):

1. Install Root Explorer from the market and delete /system/reboot-from-recovery.p – *Mount as R/W first*
2. Reboot into Fastboot Mode: Power off your device and (Power + Volume Up and Down)
3. Flash CWM (fastboot flash recovery recovery-clockwork-5.5.0.4-toro.img)
4. Reboot into OS (fastboot reboot)
5. You now have CWM recovery permanently installed

via Droid Life.

Video: How to Unlock the Bootloader on the Galaxy Nexus [Verizon]

If your Galaxy Nexus future includes custom ROMs and kernels, you should stop what you are doing and unlock the bootloader of the device first. With an unlocked bootloader, your phone is opened up for you to essentially do as you please. Not only that, but you get that sweet little unlock icon on the boot screen.

To help you with this process, we tossed together this quick video. For the full written instructions, you will want to check out this post.

via Droid Life.

Android 4.0.3 Announced: Better Social App Integration to Contacts, Camera Capabilities, and Polish

Say bye, bye to Android 4.0.2. In the coming weeks, the Android team will roll out the next version better known as Android 4.0.3. Through the new API that has also arrived, developers will have the ability to integrate their social apps into contacts like Google has done with G+ and Google Talk. You can imagine that this likely means Facebook and Twitter updates showing in you friends’ contact pages as well. In other goodies, apps will now be able to access more camera and calendar capabilities while additional polish was added to graphics, the database, spell-checking, etc.Social stream API in Contacts provider: Applications that use social stream data such as status updates and check-ins can now sync that data with each of the user’s contacts, providing items in a stream along with photos for each. This new API lets apps show users what the people they know are doing or saying, in addition to their photos and contact information.Calendar provider enhancements. Apps can now add color to events, for easier tracking, and new attendee types and states are now available.New camera capabilities. Apps can now check and manage video stabilization and use QVGA resolution profiles where needed.Accessibility refinements. Improved content access for screen readers and new status and error reporting for text-to-speech engines.Incremental improvements in graphics, database, spell-checking, Bluetooth, and more.

via Droid Life.

Galaxy Nexus for Verizon Wireless hands-on photos and preview

From TheVerge.com: By Dante D’Orazio on December 3, 2011 05:06 pm

We got our hands on a Verizon Wireless-bound Galaxy Nexus today, courtesy of the Samsung Experience store in New York City (thanks to Droid Life for tracking this one down). Unfortunately the price and release date are still nowhere to be found, though we were told that it may be coming in “the next few days.” The phone was identical to the GSM variant that’s been available for a few weeks in many ways, though it was thicker. Not terribly so — around a half millimeter, according to the official specs — but it’s noticeable, particularly if you’re coming from the GSM model as we were.

Other than the size difference, the LTE version has 32GB of internal storage and two pieces of Verizon-branded software: My Verizon Mobile and VZ Backup Assistant. As advertised, they can both be disabled from Android 4.0’s built-in app manager. Unfortunately, we couldn’t test the speeds that LTE offered the device (there’s no SIM card installed), though we did find an LTE toggle down in the network settings. Lastly, a quick peek behind the battery cover showed that things have been rearranged a bit — the SIM card slot is now on the left side. For more details on the LTE Galaxy Nexus, check out the gallery below and our product page!

KEY FACTS
We’ve confirmed that the model on display has 32GB of internal storage.
There are two Verizon apps installed: My Verizon Mobile and VZ Backup Assistant. Both can be disabled by the user.
We’ve heard rumors of Android 4.1 floating around on these units, but the one in the store is running 4.0.1, which is the same version that GSM users currently have.
The Verizon model is roughly half a millimeter thicker than the GSM one, and you can definitely see it when you’re holding the two side by side (in the profile view, that is). We don’t think it’ll bother users in the slightest, though — especially if you’ve never held the GSM model.
The coloration of the body is very slightly lighter than the GSM model’s, but the difference is pretty minor.
Behind the battery cover, the SIM card has moved from the top edge to the left side (looking at the back of the phone), perhaps to make room for LTE guts.

http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/3/2608598/galaxy-nexus-verizon-lte-hands-on

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