Google now shipping first wave of Nexus 7 pre-orders

If you were one of the many that jumped right into the Google Play Store to place your pre-order for the Nexus 7 upon announcement, you will be happy to know that the devices have finally started shipping. The first wave is expected to be fully shipped within the next business day or two, and then more to follow after that. We have seen some folks getting theirs in store already, but no need to worry to those who placed their pre-orders direct from Google, they are on the way and you should have them soon!

While you wait, be sure to check out our full Nexus 7 review, and hop into the forums and check out what is happening in there.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

MEIZU MX 4-Core unboxing and first impressions

While most of us are fussing over the new Samsung Galaxy S III or the HTC One series, MEIZU has released the MX 4-Core. As the name implies, the Android 4.0.3 handset features a quad-core processor – the same 1.4GHz Exynos Cortex A9 chipset found in the European version of the Samsung Galaxy S III. [...]]]>

Jelly Bean first impressions

Now that Jelly Bean, Android 4.1, has been released to developers and made available as a custom ROM, reports are coming in from all over the web on just how great it is. Naturally, I had to find out for myself. So how does Jelly Bean stack up? Even as a developer preview, compared to [...]]]>

Orange UK to get first Intel Medfield-based San Diego in June

Orange UK have announced this morning that they will be carrying the San Diego, the first European phone with Intel’s Medfield chipset, starting this June 6th. The device will launch as a pay as you go phone for £200 with £10 of credit, or on-contract starting at £15.50 per month for a two-year agreement. [...]]]>

Orange San Diego hands-on and first impressions

Intel arrives to the party on a carrier branded, middle of the road Android smartphone. But is it any good?

Down in jolly old London Town this morning, Orange UK threw a little breakfast soiree in a venue 31 floors up. The purpose? To officially unveil their latest own-brand Android smartphone, until now known as the Santa Clara. Traditionally, Orange has piggy-backed onto a device from the likes of ZTE, offering a budget device geared towards the low end of the market. They're also not usually the sort of devices that warrant gathering members of the press in the center of London at breakfast time. With their latest offering -- launching as the San Diego, so keeping to the city name tradition -- the carrier is going about things a little different. There is something to shout about -- Intel Inside.

More: Orange San Diego hands-on video and photo gallery

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Vote in the first annual TegraZone Player's Choice Awards and get a chance to win an ASUS TF300 prize pack!

NVIDIA is celebrating the one-year anniversary of the TegraZone in a big way. They're kicking off the first annual Player's Choice Awards, where you and I, the folks who play the killer Tegra games, get to vote for our favorites. Each of us get to vote for three different categories -- best graphics, best gameplay, and best overall fun -- and of course there's prizes to be won for both the players (hey, that's us!) and the developers themselves. 

It's going to work like this. You'll hit the TegraZone (We have links and a handy QR code at the end of this post), answer a few questions, and maybe win a slick ASUS Transformer Pad TF300. It's a hell of a machine, filled with Tegra 3 4-PLUS-1 quad-core goodness, and you'll lose yourself playing the amazing games TegraZone developers have come up with on it. Trust me. ASUS puts it very well:

Running latest Android™ 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the ASUS Transformer Pad is a value packed tablet that with multi-color style, and productivity with expandability when connected to the mobile dock. With a 1.2MP front and 8MP rear auto-focus camera with large F/2.2 aperture and exclusive office software, staying connected and productive has never been easier.

We have to agree. The Transformer Pad flat out rocks.

The contest runs for three weeks, and NVIDIA is hosting a special event at E3 to announce the winning apps on June 6. 

Did we mention there would be prizes? ASUS has partnered to give away Transformer Pad TF300's, complete with keyboard docks, Logitech wireless game controllers, and Jambox speakers. Boom. NVIDIA will be giving seven of the packages away to lucky voters, and ASUS has hooked us up with three of the prize packs to give away right here at AC as well. We'll be handing out one each week during the Player's Choice Award voting. 

So how can you win one? That's the easy part. Jump to the TegraZone (you can use the QR code to the left for a quick link) and fill out the voting questionnaire, then come back and hit up the Android contest forums to let us know you're interested. We'll have a new contest thread each week, and we'll pick a winner at random. The hardest part is figuring out just which game to vote for in each category. You don't want to miss out on this one folks!

Vote in the Player's Choice Awards at the TegraZone!

T Mobile added 187,000 subscribers in the first quarter

T Mobile today announced revenues of 2012 in the first quarter, added 187,000 net subscribers in the first three months of the year, compared to a loss of 99 000 a year ago. Money-Wise, TMoUS saw the increase in revenues from operations $7.2% to $ 1.27 billion, and average revenue per user spend a few bucks to $58. The great speech from T-Mobile this week at the CTIA, however, are the life after the acquisition of AT & T. And to this end, he ' s continues to upgrade its network with a modernization plan announced $ 4 billion which will open the way for LTE service in 2013.

Total clients are now 33.4 million, to a few hundreds of thousands of the end of 2011, but still 200 000 in Q1 2011.

More: T-Mobile

Gameloft unleashes first teaser video of Men In Black 3 for Android

Fresh from teasers for N.O.V.A. 3 and Asphalt 7 -- during the Samsung Galaxy S III keynote -- Gameloft have pushed out a teaser for their next big name title. Men In Black 3 will be coming to Android. The video doesn't mention any release date for the title, beyond coming soon. But, further digging around Gameloft's website reveals plans to release the game on May 25 to coincide with the movie release. In the meantime, hit the break and check out the teaser. 

More: Gameloft 

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International HTC One S gets first software update - v1.78 now rolling out

If you've got an unlocked international (non-carrier branded) HTC One S, it's time to start hitting that "Check for updates" button, as a new firmware version is being pushed out over-the-air. The update to v1.78 weighs in at just under 60MB, and remains based on Android 4.0.3. The only obvious change we're noticing so far is the removal of the three-dot menu software menu button in certain Google apps. YouTube, for example, used to show an ICS-style overflow button up to and down below before, and now the unsightly bottom bar has gone. It's also likely this latest OTA includes a fix for the Wifi disconnection bug that's been plaguing some One S owners since day one, though as it's an intermittent issue we haven't been able to confirm this just yet.

It's worth noting that today's update is for unbranded One S models only, so if you bought yours through a carrier, you may have to wait an extra few weeks for a network-approved version to be pushed out. But those running an unlocked, unbranded One S can head head to Settings > About phone > Software updates to grab the latest OTA. When you're done, be sure to keep us posted of any changes or fixes down in the comments.

Coming soon: N.O.V.A. 3 for Android, first teaser trailer out

Gameloft series producers announced that Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance (N.O.V.A.) for Android will soon get a new addition to the family. N.O.V.A. 2 is an action-adventure video game released for Android about a year ago and clearly inspired by Halo and other similar action games. And just recently, the much anticipated third installment has released its very first teaser trailer.

The N.O.V.A.  franchise has not given an official release date yet but its teaser sure did keep a lot of fans on their toes. Even though the video clip didn’t provide any details about the actual gameplay, it’s visuals are pretty amazing.

The images are said to be “actual game footage” and show Kal Wardin, the game’s lead character, crash-landing on Earth as he prepares to land in San Francisco. The game's storyline is hard to predict at this point, but if the same kick-ass graphics, excellent controls and the great multiplayer experience of N.O.V.A. 2 is retained, there’s no doubt it will be another hit.

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Samsung’s first TV commercial for Galaxy S III goes live

Did you miss Samsung’s first TV spot for the new Galaxy S III? No worries, because they just posted it on YouTube. Check out the video clip below and let us know what you think. Is Samsung going to sell a boat-load of phones?

LG reveals first Android smartphone with 2GB RAM

Today LG revealed the Optimus LTE2 which is the first smartphone to feature 2GB of RAM, double that of most high-end phones. LG obsesses with Samsung, the same way that Samsung obsesses with Apple, so it’s no surprise the Korean handset maker quietly announced a new smartphone in responses to Samsung’s Unpacked event.

Highlights of the Optimus LTE2 include a 4.7 inch True HD IPS display, dual-core 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 processor, 2 GB RAM, 2150 mAh battery, and support for LTE networks in Korea. The device is expected to go on sale in mid-May.

We don’t expect this exact model will ever come to the US, but it provides a good idea of where the high-end smartphones are headed. By the end of 2012, most flagship products will have quad-core processors, 2 GB RAM, and 2,000+ mAh batteries.

Thank you LG for making all our phones feel a little more inadequate.

First software update now rolling out for European HTC One X

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

The first official new software update is now rolling out for unbranded HTC One X retail units in Europe, bringing HTC's new flagship phone up to version 1.28.401.9. The 30MB update is being delivered over-the-air, so head to 'Settings > About > Software Updates' to grab the new version. Note that if your One X is network-branded, you'll likely have to wait a little longer for your carrier to approve this update before it's pushed out. And for what it's worth, the new software version is still based on Android 4.0.3 rather than the slightly newer 4.0.4 that's running on some Nexus devices.

So far we're only seeing a few minor changes on our One X -- the phone no longer incorrectly displays the on-screen menu key in certain Google apps, like YouTube, and automatic brightness levels seem to have been pared back somewhat, too. This version is also supposed to fix the battery life issues many One X owners have been reporting in the two weeks since the phone's launch. In addition, we're hearing that the bug which occasionally resulted in garbled text and icons in the notification bar has also been squished.

One X owners, be sure to shout out in the comments if you've noticed any other changes or fixes.

Ask AC: Take screenshots on the first processor and RAM HTC

Application of Kinghthawk321 in the Android forums,

OK, people, something I really don ' t know how to do is be a screen shot on my first processor or my Vivid. I appreciate any help in me up to speed on these techniques. Thank you very much.

You ' welcome and we re ' re happy, you asked! Android is an open platform which means that manufacturers can implement things but they like - including the ability to capture the screen. This means of course, that they all do this differently. The first processor and the RAM HTC have built utility in and it ' s fairly easy.

On the first, just press and hold the multitasking button. After about a second and a half, will capture the screen and save on the internal storage of the device. If yours isn't ' t do, make sure that it is enabled in the settings. Open the settings and choose ASUS custom parameter and it is the second element of the list.

Live from HTC, you press and hold the power button then press the home key. A screenshot will be saved to the device. It is fairly standard in all new HTC phones.

Of course, there are old how to use the Android SDK for the screenshot. After you install the SDK, the driver USB device (if you ' re using Windows) and the Java JDK, you can use the grouped MDD tool to capture the display. Thank goodness for the easy solution, right?

You have a question, you answer? (Preferably on Android, but we ' re flexible.) To Our Page of Contact has to get in touch!

Sony kicks off its ICS upgrades; Scandinavia up first

Here we go, boys and girls! Sony's kicked off its initial round of Ice Cream Sandwich updates today. First up are the Xperia Arc S, Xperia Neo V and Xperia Ray -- but only if you're in Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Finland and Norway. (Fine places to be even if you're not waiting on Ice Cream Sandwich.) The update will be pushing over the next four to six weeks.

You'll need a Mac or Windows machine to update (boooooo, lack of over-the-air upgrades!), and Sony says it'll have additional information on the next round of updates at a later time. For now, if you've got a Scandinavian Xperia -- here's the complete list of phones for this round of  updates -- hit the links below to get going.

More: ICS update instructions; source: Sony Mobile

Win a price Acer Iconia A510 pack or the first processor of ASUS of CA, NVIDIA and the games of phosphorus

What better way to kick off the launch of the ' s bound as one of the best games of year for Android? How about NVIDIAand games phosphorusCA come together to give a pair of Tegra 3 propelled beasts! Dark Meadow: The Pact is a breathtaking adventure and we ' re excited to help two of you guys or girls have the chance to discover by yourself. Prices-

• A first processor ASUS more correspondence keyboard dock and an AMEX $25 gift card.


• Gift card an Acer Iconia tab A510 and a $25 AMEX.

When prices are the two of the more available Android tablet, you ' re thought winning probably involves something difficult. You ' be wrong, he ' s as simple as jumping on the contest forums and abandonment of a line to let everyone knows that you ' a d love to have one of these beauties. We ' ll sort them and select a winner for each randomly this Saturday (April 28), 23: 59 Eastern and announce the winners the next day, here on the blog.

Good luck!

First look at HTC Media Link HD

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

HTC's new Media Link accessory -- a Wifi Direct device that lets you easily connect your phone to a big-screen TV -- has been seen in fits and starts over the past couple months. One of the shining features is that it's not just mirroring what's on your device. It's a multitasker, so you can stream a movie to your TV while doing something entirely different on your phone. New to us today at the HTC Frequencies event, though, was a demo showing a third-party application using an early version of the Media Link API, as powered by HTC Dev. 

The API's still in development and not quite ready for public consumption, but it seemed to work pretty well in our demo. Check the video after the break.

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