Smartphone Experts–Smartphone Fan

The upcoming Streak from Dell, we all know it as the Mini 5, has a few services  from Amazon preinstalled. One of which is a Kindle app.  Amazon’s MP3 store is expected since that’s already on several Android devices. On a promo picture for the Streak is has “Kindle Book Reader Applications” listed as well as a few other apps. Could Dell’s Streak  usher in Amazon’s digital book reader to Android? There’s already a Kindle app for Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry platforms for mobile e-book reading.

The XDAndroid project, for Windows Mobile devices with (W)VGA displays, has progressed to a fully usable port of Android to a Touch Pro 2. Past ports haven’t been as successful as this one, there were too many bugs and the build was not user friendly. That’s now a thing of the past and maybe now all WinMo phones with a WVGA display will be able to load Android and use it like it was the native OS on the device. This hack has working calls, SMS and data. Click the links below if you want to try them out on your phone. Android on HTC Windows Phones: • Touch Pro2 (GSM) • Touch Pro2 (CDMA – must take SIM card out) (thanks MrPippy) • Touch Diamond2/Pure • Touch HD • Touch Pro/Fuze (GSM) • Touch Pro (CDMA) • Touch Diamond (GSM) • Touch Diamond (CDMA) Click here to view the embedded video.

Most of us don’t know who Martin Cooper is, he was the first person to make a call on a handheld cell phone prototype in 1973 and he is named on the patent “radio telephone system” filed that same year. Android now has some strong endorsers in the inventor of Linux and now the inventor of cellphones.

Google is really beefing up their Maps service. The recent addition of layars which added Buzz is not the end of Google adding features to this extremely popular online Map. Now there are biking directions included in Google Maps. When you select biking directions the look of the Map changes and highlight roads/streets without vehicles, with bike lines, and other streets recommended for cyclists.

In case you aren’t familiar with the ODROID , the manufacturer, Hardkernel, describes it as an “Entertainment Device” with a focus on gaming. The Developer Edition is shipping with a Samsung Cortex-A8 processor clocked at 833MHz with NEON multimedia accelerator, 512 MB of DDR2 RAM, and 720p video output via HDMI, but only a 320 x 480 3.5 inch screen, a vanilla install of Android 1.5. Well, the 1.5 will be replaced soon by Android 2.1 There is a test build of Android 2.1 that has made its way to the Odroid gaming device. Here’s a short video of it in action after the update

The guys over at Engadget has gotten some leaked information on the upcoming Motorola i1. The camera will not be the previously suspected 3MP but a 5MP and Opera Mini has been tapped as the i1’s default browser. If this is true this will be the second Android device not to include one of Google’s core Android apps. Surprisingly enough, like the first, this is also a Motorola Blur device. Anyone getting suspicious yet? Maybe Motorola and Google are having a behind the scenes disagreement. But, once again MotoBlur is not a “Google Experience” phone so it can be modified to the carriers liking.