Android

Save the date, cell phone fans. Samsung sent out media invites this morning for a November 8 event in New York where it plans on announcing its new Android phone. Unfortunatley, the invite doesn't offer up very many clues as to the identity of the device, but I'm sure that won't stop people from talking. Of course, we'll be there live to cover it all, too, so be sure to tune in November 8 at 3 p.m. PT for the official unveiling.

Update: CNET's full, rated review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab is now available.

Sprint announced today that it will offer the Samsung Galaxy Tab starting November 14 for $399.99 with a two-year contract.

Customers will be able to choose from two 3G Tablet Mobile Broadband plans: a 2GB data plan with unlimited messaging for $29.99 per month or a 5GB data plan with unlimited messaging for $59.99 per month.

By contast, Verizon is offering the Galaxy Tab for $600 without contract and data plans starting at $20 per month for 1GB of data.

Sprint customers can … Read more

Adobe Systems, whose software has been derided by Apple CEO Steve Jobs as a relic from a bygone PC age, is showing signs that it's adapting to today's computing realities.

Plenty of Adobe applications remain industry staples--Photoshop for image editing and Flash Player for watching videos on the Web, for example. But computing is growing in new directions with smartphones, tablets, and Net-connected TVs. This week at its Max conference for developers and others using Adobe tools, though, new-era software will take center stage.

First is an extension to InDesign layout and publishing software that will endow the … Read more

Microsoft's tight design rules require all Windows Phone 7 devices to have a pretty nice camera on them; they must tout at least 5 megapixels and video capture to boot. Unfortunately, Redmond's new phone operating system has limitations that mean developers can't fully take advantage of the lenses.

Although Windows Phone 7 devices can record and upload video and pictures, application developers can't fully take advantage of those image sensors to do other fun things like video chat and augmented reality.

That means that not only will Windows Phone 7 not have as many apps as … Read more

After an agonizingly long four-month delay, T-Mobile Cliq owners at long last are able to grab Android 2.1 Eclair for their year-old phones.

Motorola and T-Mobile yesterday started actively seeking up to 2,000 users to test out the first, and likely last, update for the smartphone. Today, the handset maker followed up by launching a support page to help guide customers through the process.

Many Android users have taken for granted some of the things that Cliq owners will see. For example, they're just now getting speech-to-text, turn-by-turn navigation, voice search, resizable widgets, seven home screens, and … Read more

Steve Jobs attacks, a pre-rooted phone, and 5 reasons to wait for an Android Tablet, All that and more coming up on this week's edition of Android Atlas Weekly for Thursday, October 21st, 2010. Join Justin Eckhouse and guest host, Senior Associate Editor, Nicole Lee for all the Android news of the week.

A misguided rebuttal to Steve Jobs’ Android attack http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20019997-264.html

Revenue for Android beats iPhone on ad network http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20020016-94.html#ixzz130Pbd772… Read more

For the second time in as many months, Google has split one of its applications off from the Android platform. Following last September's updated Gmail client, Google has released YouTube as a standalone application.

Available for Android 2.2 handsets and above, the app adds new features such as in-page playback, which allows users to read comments while watching videos. Other options include rotate to full screen, personalized home screen, and shooting videos and uploading them directly from the application rather than opening a separate camera client.

As with pulling Maps and Gmail out of Android and releasing them … Read more

Taking a cue from LG, Lenovo has pulled back from releasing an Android 2.2 tablet. PC World reports that Rory Read, COO of the company's U.S. operations, feels Lenovo would be better served waiting until the tablet-friendly version of Android (Honeycomb) arrives next year. Initially expected by the end of 2010, this means the "LePad" will not arrive until around the summer of 2011.

Aside from the Samsung Galaxy Tab, I would not expect to see many Android tablets from some of the bigger players. As Google puts the finishing touches on Gingerbread, it's … Read more

Apple finally (round about the end of our show) gets around to its "one more thing": a knife-edge MacBook Air that inexplicably lacks anything resembling a modern processor. Plus, Mac OS X goes all iOS on us. Meanwhile, the Galaxy Tab gets a price tag that doesn't disappoint (shocker!) and Facebook deals with even more unintended consequences: painful personal memories. --Molly