Smartphone Experts–Smartphone Fan

After yesterday’s mildly-dubious Motorola Shadow leak, the handset has shown up in the wild again, this time courtesy of HowardForums.  We described the Shadow as Motorola’s version of the HTC EVO 4G, only without the WiMAX, and that continues to look roughly true; like the EVO 4G the Motorola handset has both microUSB and mini HDMI connections, but it has a 4.1-inch display and a 720MHz OMAP3630 processor.

There’s also 8GB of onboard memory and a microSD card slot, together with an 8-megapixel camera.  According to HowardForums member wnrussell, who took the above photo, the Shadow feels lighter in the hand than the Motorola DROID, likely a side-effect of losing the slide-out keyboard mechanism.  Previous rumors had tipped the Shadow as hitting the market in June or July 2010, on the Verizon network.

No matter what the product is I think it’s safe to say we love to see a nice unboxing. And the pot is even sweeter when the device is turned on for a short demo. Noah from phonedog received the upcoming Garmin-Asus android phone from-Mobile. And he was nice enough to share the unboxing with all of us.

This is a great unboxing, you get the see the device and all the accessories one at a time. Then there is a quick look at the custom UI that this phone introduces to Android. The Garminifone is expected to be a navigating powerhouse. For now its stuck on Android 1.6, it has a 3.5 inch screen which is quickly becoming too small for today’s standards.

Click here to view the embedded video.

There are some nice accessories included with this device that may make up for some of its short comings. It has a few things that can get you by when traveling. There is an international-ready power adapter and a cigarette lighter charger. A dock is also included, these things don’t usually come with phones so they will save you a few dollars.

Seems like this is the week for Android 2.1, doesn’t it? Sure enough, after Verizon Wireless started letting out the Android 2.1 update for the Droid ERIS, here we are with another wireless carrier offering it up for another device. This time around it’s Sprint, and the Samsung Moment is the handset getting all the attention.

Unlike Verizon, though, Sprint is offering up the download courtesy of their Moment support page. This means that it’s going to completely wipe your device once you get it downloaded, so be sure to back-up everything that you want to keep. There’s instructions you can find right here, courtesy of a PDF file. It’s not an OTA update, meaning you won’t be told there’s a download waiting for you, so if you want 2.1 and you’ve got a Moment, just head on over to the site and start your download. And, as soon as you do, let us know what you think of it, okay?

This Android phone quietly snuck by all of us. We first seen this device at CES and hasn’t really heard much about it since then. It’s not a bad looking device and it has a nice screen similar to that found on the nexus one. This Android device will be available in China and it has some impressive specs to boot.

this phone has a 3.7-inch AMOLED, a leather case, a noise-isolation hands free kit, a magnetic dock adapter, 3.2-megapixel camera and a custom version of Android. It also includes Chinese social networking service integration, music store, video apps, and an impressive Chinese turn-by-turn navigation suite. It is missing autofocus and flash for the camera but it’s still a pretty decent handset. I wouldn’t mind playing with one for a few days.

[via engadget]

iSyncr is another solution for syncing your Android device with your iTunes account. This app comes in both PC and MAC compatible versions. For a small fee of $2.99 you can purchase either of these and turn your Android device into an iPod (but better). There is also a lite version of both apps but they are limited to only one playlist amount other restrictions. And if you want to take it a step further, there is an iSync Widget that allows you to rate songs right for your phone. The widgets costs $1.99 and only works with the PC version of the app, MAC support is coming soon.

Market Descriptions:

iSyncr for Mac

Leopard or Snow Leopard Only (10.5+) – Want to stop carrying both your phone and your iPod? Keep your music fresh with smart playlists? Download iSyncr to sync your Android phone with iTunes. iSyncr is even smart enough to keep your iTunes “Top 25 Most Played” playlist in sync.

iSyncr for PC

Windows iTunes Only – Want to stop carrying both your phone and your iPod? Keep your music fresh with smart playlists? Download iSyncr to sync your Android phone with iTunes. iSyncr is even smart enough to keep your iTunes “Top 25 Most Played” playlist in sync. Please visit our website to read the FAQ.
Mac version out now.

iSyncr Ratings Widget

Wish you could sync your iTunes ratings with your phone? Now you can, with the iSyncr Ratings Widget. Just use this widget and iSyncr for PC!

Support for iSyncr for Mac is coming.

Only a 2?4 widget right now, more layouts to come.

Requires the latest version of iSyncr for PC.

The best part about this update is it’s available for 1.6 and up phones. I know there are a few of you still stuck on 1.5 but this does reach more users then some of the newer apps that are only compatible with 2.0 and up devices. With that being said, it’s good to see that Google is making a concerned effort to make their Android apps as good as possible. They are even keeping their mobile sites updated for Android devices.

Goggles have been one of the most popular and fun apps available for Android since it were released. It’s now gotten a whole lot better. Goggles can read English, French, Italian, German and Spanish and can translate too many more languages. This update also improves barcode recognition, it now recognizes more products and logos, has an improved user interface and it can now use photos in your gallery to perform a visual search.

TagWhat has just announced the release of their new augmented reality app. This app is social conscious, it allows you to tag certain locations and leave notes about it for your friends. It also allows you to have followers kind of like Twitter does. Once you Tag a location you can include direct action links to email, phone, SMS, photos, URL’s, cross-posting to Twitter, Facebook. This app will also give you directions to your friends aged location so you can go meet up with them. This app has a lot of potential, its currently in beta, qr code is located after the jump with a few videos.

Market Description:

Tagwhat is the world’s only create and share your own augmented reality network. Get your free account today at www.tagwhat.com and join the Tagwhat AR revolution via on-line maps and mobile. Now in private beta only. Share your world.

We haven’t heard any information about this phone in a long time. If you all remember this phone is rumored to be the Google branded Nexus Two. Recently a device from Motorola, the Motorola MB810, passed through the Wi-Fi Alliance. Apparently this device has the codename Shadow which will likely be changed by the time it’s released.

Some rumored specs include, 4.3 inch capacitive touch screen display, full QWERTY keyboard, 8MP autofocus camera, and Android 2.2 and it has Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n. there has been a few reports that this device may land on Verizon, my guess is it will be a GSM device sold by Google and will be the second in the Nexus series of superphones. Only time will tell, these next few weeks should be very exciting for Android lovers that need a powerful device with a keyboard.

Not too long ago Twitter announced that they were working on an official app for Android. At that time no one knew when it was expected to hit the market. Well, today is the day, we didn’t have to wait long for this app to hit Android. You can download and get started on it now.

For a first attempt, this app is quite polished. It looks really good and that’s kind of shocking, it came out so fast I expected it to be through together and ugly but that’s not the case. There’s a widget included and you can even tweet right from the gallery. This makes sharing pictures a breeze. This is just the beginning, this app like Android itself is open source so the developer community has a chance to make this app even better. Scan the qr code below and try it out.

[via slashgear]