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newVideoPlayer(”/androidtour.flv”, 350, 660,”");Earlier today Google released the Android 0.9 SDK r1 Beta, boasting of a pile of API updates and a visual refresh that moves it one solid step closer to actually, you know, showing up on a phone. A long changelog and a few screenshots are great, but we’ve fired up the SDK’s emulator for a guided tour of Android’s salient features.

0:02: Main menu is contained in a drawer that slides from the bottom of the screen
0:08: Multiple home screens can be flipped with touch gestures, a la the iPhone
0:20: Icons can be dragged from the main menu to build customized home screens. Dragging to the menu drawer trashes the home screen shortcut
0:38: Dialer screen, followed by the call behavior. Calls can continue in the background, and all functions that don’t require data transfer can work concurrently (This is currently a software regulation, as 3g networks should theoretically allow for simultaneous voice and data usage).
0:53: Ongoing calls and other notifications can be accessed by dragging the taskbar down.
1:20: Browser displays Gizmodo. Rendering is quite good, page navigation is a fairly intuitive rehash of current touch-control schemes. It’s not terrible good at guessing column widths during double-tap zooming, but seems very usable. Preview magnification feature is useful for smaller screens or text-heavy pages.
2:22: “Tabbed” browsing feature lays out a grid of pages, with previews
2:45: Google Maps app. As you can see, this is among the more polished apps, and will feel familiar to anyone who has used Google Maps on the desktop or mobile devices.
3:30: Google Maps Street View.
4:00: Home screen include widgets (Google Search, a clock and a picture frame are the only ones for now) that can be dragged around the home screen(s).
4:23: The music apps relies on a panel of icons (a recurring theme in Android)
4:30: Message composition is unremarkable, but there is no sign of an on-screen keyboard at the moment. This could be a customization catered the the first round of Android phones, at least one of which will have a slide-out keyboard.
5:12: The camera naturally doesn’t work in the emulator, but there are currently very few options in its menus.
5:50: Wallpaper switching. This is one of the few areas where Android excels aesthetically. Wallpaper scrolls as home screens are switched, but at a slower rate that the icons. This creates a convincing illusion of depth.
6:11: The home screen can also be modified via the system menu, where you can choose to add applications, widgets and shortcuts, as well as change the wallpaper.

It’s hard to pass judgement on Android in the condition it’s in. What’s there is impressive, but there are so many glaring omissions, at least from a consumer standpoint. There is a fantastic system for managing ongoing calls and system messages (via the pull-down taskbar) but no apps to take advantage of it. Email and IM would suit such a configuration beautifully, but neither is included in this release. And seriously, where is the calendar? The organizer? A video app? Youtube support?

Sure, these things could be left to the developer community, but Google already has messaging, email, video and calendar services, so it’s reasonable to expect that they be included by default in Android. Before a public release, Android should at least posses a feature set comparable to your average candy bar phone, courtesy of Google, so that the eager open-source development community can devote their effort to creating new, innovative apps and modifications for the OS.

Objections aside, the progress is promising. In terms of usability, Android is much easier to navigate and customize than virtually all other mobile solutions. With a few more apps, Android will be a clear choice over Windows Mobile, skinned or not. You can download the SDK and play with the emulator yourself, if you want. Just a word of warning, though — explaining to your family or significant other that you’re testing an emulated prerelease of an upcoming mobile OS is about as hard as it sounds. [Google Android, Android on Giz]

Original post by John Herrman

Over at PhoneArena they’ve got a bunch of pics that show the upcoming new Motorola RAZR phone, the VE20. Through the blur you can see the phone is mirrored, features the classic laser-cut keypad and has a touch-sensitive pad on the outer shell like the V9m. The cell has a 2-megapixel cam, a QVGA main display which is “very crisp” and will apparently be the first phone to allow you listen to as well as watch NFL broadcasts through the NFL Mobile Live application. It’s due to be a Sprint exclusive, out August 17th. [PhoneArena]

Original post by Kit Eaton

Phones with built-in fingerprint scanners for locking down your data have been around for years, and normally we wouldn’t care about a China-only handset from Lenovo, but it’s not every day you see a phone that packs call recording capabilities out of the box. There are apps for recording for Symbian and Win-Mo phones, and it’s something we’ve been wanting for the iPhone, even though numerous state and federal laws probably stand in the way. Guys, come on, we’d only use it for recording phone interviews for our notes. Trust us.

Press release:

Lenovo Launches Its First Commercial Mobile Phone with Fingerprint Using Atrua’s Fingerprint Solution

Lenovo Mobile Selects Atrua’s Made-For-Mobile Fingerprint Solution to Protect Its P960 Phone

CAMPBELL, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Atrua Technologies announced today that Lenovo Mobile (www.lenovomobile.com), one of China’s leading makers of mobile devices, selected Atrua’s made-for-mobile fingerprint solution for Lenovo’s recently launched P960 mobile phone – Lenovo’s first commercial mobile phone to incorporate fingerprint biometrics.

Lenovo, a leader in the adoption of fingerprint sensors, selected Atrua’s solution for its superior fingerprint recognition accuracy and compatibility with the mobile phone. “We evaluated a number of potential fingerprint solutions for this project, and found that Atrua delivered the superior combination of features and performance for mobile phones,” stated Paul Wu, General Manager of Lenovo Mobile’s Product Department.

Atrua’s made-for-mobile fingerprint touch control utilizes the company’s own unique adaptive capacitance and neural matching technology, developed from the outset for mobile applications. The technology accurately recognizes fingerprints while consuming only a fraction of the power to image a fingerprint as compared with competing solutions that derive from technology developed primarily for PC applications. Atrua’s fingerprint solution also consumes less memory and processor resource and takes up less area on the phone than competing offerings. “Because of the Atrua sensor’s small size, we were able to fit it conveniently on the edge of the P960,” said Mr. Wu.

With fingerprint recognition now common in laptop PCs, the capability has been increasingly finding its way into mobile phones. Atrua’s fingerprint touch controls deliver all the benefits of fingerprint sensors found in laptops, and more. Studies have shown that mobile phones are frequently lost or stolen and many users are concerned about compromising the private and valuable data on their phones. Since typing passwords is even more cumbersome on phones than it is on PCs, the convenience of never having to re-type passwords is all-the-more appealing to phone users. In addition, Lenovo’s P960 has an innovative “VIP recording” feature that automatically records calls from designated numbers. The fingerprint biometric technology is used in the P960 to protect sensitive data such as VIP recordings, text messages, call history, and address book information.

“We are pleased to see a recognized leader in fingerprint for laptops adopt our technology for their mobile phone and we are delighted to have the opportunity to support such a leading global manufacturer in their ongoing effort to bring greater levels of security and convenience to users of mobile devices,” commented Anthony Gioeli, CEO of Atrua.

About Lenovo Mobile

Lenovo Mobile Communication Technology Ltd. (“Lenovo Mobile”), established in 2002, is a well known player in the Chinese mobile phone industry, specializing in the research, development, production and marketing of mobile phones. Lenovo Mobile is dedicated to providing “stylish, simple, innovative and high-quality” products and value-added services that provide personalized solutions to satisfy individual needs and enhance the joy of mobile communication. Relying on its independent research and development and powerful sales channels, Lenovo Mobile has become a fundamental influence in the Chinese handset industry. For more information, see www.lenovomobile.com.

Original post by John Mahoney

I have done a number of iPhone case reviews in my day, and every time I do I find myself wondering—who uses these things anyway? As far as day to day usage is concerned, it seems that most of these cases do nothing more than add unnecessary bulk. And, as OObject has pointed out with their list of the 12 worst iPhone case designs, there are plenty of cases out there that downright defile an otherwise beautiful piece of technology. Still, I can understand why people would want to protect their investment or make the phone easier to carry. So, my question to you is: do you use a cellphone case?

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Original post by Sean Fallon

Sorry to get everyone’s hope up—the rumor that VZW’s visual voicemail was to be gratis apparently only referred to the app download. To actually use the service, it’ll cost you $2.99/month per line, plus data and airtime charges, to hold up to 40 messages for 40 days. It’s only available for LG Voyager owners at the moment, but more phones are surely to follow. Read on for full details.

VISUAL VOICE MAIL FROM VERIZON WIRELESS GIVES CUSTOMERS A NEW WAY TO MANAGE THEIR MESSAGES

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – The company with the nation’s most reliable wireless voice and data network today introduced Visual Voice Mail, a new application that lets customers manage their voice mail on their phones. Available today on the Voyager™ by LG, Visual Voice Mail provides an easy-to-use display screen with one-touch access to listen to voice mail messages. Customers can also delete, reply and forward their voice mail messages without having to listen to prior messages or voice instructions, making Visual Voice Mail ideal for busy professionals who want a more effective way to manage and respond to messages.

Visual Voice Mail allows customers to see a list of all of their voice mail messages with important information, such as date and time of receipt, as well as message duration, in order to prioritize and efficiently manage their voice mail messages directly from their phones. When a caller leaves a new voice mail message, the Visual Voice Mail application pops up, alerting the customer that a new voice mail message has been received. From the phone display, customers can select from a number of options, including call back, reply, forward, add to contacts, and archive message (to internal or external memory).

Customers can store up to 40 messages for 40 days – double the storage capacity and nearly double the retention time of Basic Voice Mail. In addition, customers can create up to 10 greetings, as well as up to 20 distribution lists and 50 distribution members to receive messages.

“Verizon Wireless recognizes that voice mail plays a large role in how customers conduct business and manage the balance between their personal and professional lives,” said Mike Willsey, executive director for marketing, Verizon Wireless. “With Visual Voice Mail, we’re able to offer customers more options to help them better prioritize voice mail messages from family, friends, colleagues, and business partners in a more timely and effective manner.”

Technology Providers

Verizon Wireless’ Visual Voice Mail service is powered by Alcatel-Lucent and Comverse. Alcatel-Lucent, a leading provider of messaging solutions worldwide, is deploying the Alcatel-Lucent 5150 Messaging Applications Broker (MAB) which provides enhanced notification and content delivery services for voice, text and video messages through an intuitive visual interface. Visual Voice Mail eliminates the need to dial-in and listen to messages in sequential order, making it easier for customers to manage messages. Alcatel-Lucent is also providing network integration services for Visual Voice Mail.

Comverse is a pioneer and market leader in Visual Voice Mail services, which are deployed over its InSight Next-Generation Voicemail Platform. Visual Voice Mail improves the customer experience with solutions for today’s diverse lifestyles and different technologies. New messages are delivered to the handset for one-click access, and message details are displayed at a glance.

Availability and Pricing

Verizon Wireless customers can find the Visual Voice Mail application on the Messaging menu under option 6 on their Voyager by LG phones. Visual Voice Mail is available for $2.99 monthly access, per line, plus airtime or megabyte charges and messaging fees, depending on a customer’s plan. Customers should take their Voyager by LG phones to any Verizon Wireless Communications Store to receive the free software update. Verizon Wireless expects to offer Visual Voice Mail on additional devices in the coming months.

For more information about Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com.

About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s most reliable wireless voice and data network, serving 68.7 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 70,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). For more information, go to: www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

Original post by John Mahoney

From September, T-Mobile customers will be able to get hold of Sony Ericsson’s TM506 cellphone: which is also T-Mobile’s first HSDPA handset. The two-megabyte flip-phone is a pretty standard tri-band GSM, with dual-band UMTS/HSDPA for 3G connectivity, Bluetooth 2.0 and a 2-megapixel camera. Doesn’t look like you can do video calling, but video messaging is enabled and it has aGPS on-board. It’ll be available from September 3, for an as-yet-unknown price, in a green and black color scheme. [BGR and IntoMobile]

Original post by Kit Eaton

The way I see it, the laptop bathroom question requires… nay, demands further investigation. You may have never thought about it before, but the relationship between the bathroom and gadgets brings up a whole mess of questions about habits and etiquette that simply must be explored. I mean, who needs magazines when you have a web capable device sitting in your pocket? That having been said, I have to ask: Do you use your cellphone on the toilet?

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Original post by Sean Fallon

If you try to get out of your cellphone contract without paying one of those blasted (and newly illegal in California) early termination fees, you’re going to need a meticulously planned and researched counterargument for everything they throw at you. It’s not a small undertaking, and you’ll meet hostile resistance every step of the way. But it is possible.

Ely Rosentock made the above video laying out every argument they’ll use against you and every counterargument you should use to refute it. It’s essentially a guide to refuting their script, and it’s awesome. He discusses Verizon specifically, but it should apply to all the carriers. So, contractually-trapped friends, go forth and break free! Let us know how it goes. [Crastinate via Consumerist]

Original post by Adam Frucci

Windows Mobile and S60 users get an update to Google Maps this week that includes public transit stops as well as user star ratings for local businesses. The free upgrade shows not just where stops are for particular transit lines but also allows you to incorporate them into building your route. Blackberry users have had this functionality for a few weeks now and it’s likely a feature that will be updated for most other mobile operating systems in the next few weeks. [Google Mobile Blog]

Original post by Matt Hickey

The iPhone Arm keeps one hand free while using you’re the iPhone, or any other mobile device, really. It’s compatible with Jason’s favorite iPhone web app, and compliments it perfectly. It also supports Apple’s recently announced iPhone 3G videoconferencing kit, which it should be launching soon after. [Break via digg]

Original post by matt buchanan