Smartphone Experts–Smartphone Fan

The most popular mobile browser in the world has finally made its way to Android. This version 5 seems to be light years ahead of the version 4 which has been available for quite some time.

This version now offers tabbed browsing, there is a bar at the bottom that shows you the number of tabs that you have open and when you click on it a mini view of the page appears. This browser for most will replace the stock browser.

Some of the other big new features:

* Speed Dial: Gives you one-touch access to 9 of your favorite sites.
* Password Manager
* Opera Link: Syncs your bookmarks (and Speed Dial) between your handset and your desktop (be it that you’re running Opera on your desktop, that is)

The only two problems I’ve found so far is the browser doesnt recognize my existing bookmarks and there’s no Flash integration. So if you have a Flash capable phone, I would play with this but stick to the stock browser.

See original here:
Opera Mini 5 Beta Now Available For Android

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.

Cooper did a piece on C-SPAN last week where he talked about spectrum and the politics of the industry. He also discussed the possibility that cellphones can cause cancer. The most interesting part of the interview came around the 30 minute mark where he stated:

“Depends when you ask me. I always have the latest cell phone, and I try every cell phone out, only because people like you keep asking me. Right now I’m using the Droid, because I want to get some experience with the Android operating system, and I, so far, have some favorable results.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

[via androidcentral]

Read the rest here:
Inventor of the cell phone gave up his iPhone for a Motorola Droid

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. There’s also a Layar that gives you all recommended bike routes. So far this feature hasn’t appear on Android yet but it should become available shortly.

Click here to view the embedded video.

[via google]

More here:
Google Maps Gets Biking Directions

DoubleTwist is a popular way to sync your music, videos and pictures to your Android device. It is now being included in some Android handset, the myTouch 3G Fender Edition by T-Mobile being the first. There is now an update to the software that has a few nice upgrades, podcast being one.

A few of the upgrades are:

* doubleTwist Podcasts – the world’s largest podcast search engine! Search, subscribe and sync podcasts to any device.
* Improved the speed of the sync planning phase and transfer of media items to device.
* Support for network drives that are mounted as a drive letter.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Head over to their site an check it out.

See the original post:
DoubleTwist for Windows releases major update, adds podcast support

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.

Click here to view the embedded video.

[via mp4nation]

View post:
ODROID Gets Android 2.1

The lone Android device on Vodafone has now been confirmed to get Android 2.1 by HTC. This low end Android device features HTC’s Sense UI and has the smallest screen on any Android device (and it is resistive).

In a statement released by HTC:

“Kindly note that now we understand that a phone running Android OS 2.1 is available that you are excited to get an update for your Tattoo. We are still working hard to Sense for building this new version but we expect to have the upgrade finished and ready to go soon. Please understand that it takes time to customize any Android release to Ensure You Have The Sense provides intuitive experience, and we hope you can be patient for just a little while longer.”

All these 2.1 announcements are good but I am ready to see them on the devices rather than just talk about it coming.

[via frandroid]