Author Archives: Sergey Povzner

Google Maps now automatically routes you around the traffic

By Sergey Povzner | Published: March 9, 2011
Google Maps for Android just got better: Navigation mode now uses real-time traffic information to automatically route you around the traffic. No update to the Google Maps app is required, as the change has been made on the server side. In the blog post announcing this change, Roy Williams says that “before today, Navigation would choose whichever […]
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How to manually update Nexus One to Gingerbread 2.3.3 (FRG83G to GRI40)

By Sergey Povzner | Published: March 1, 2011
While the official Gingerbread 2.3.3 release continues to roll out to Nexus One phones, impatient Nexus One owners can upgrade manually without waiting for the over-the-air update. The update procedure was described in details for the Froyo update and remains the same with the obvious exception of the update file downloaded in step 2. Make sure that you […]
Posted in Android, How To, Mobile | 1 Comment

Gingerbread 2.3.3 released for Nexus One and Nexus S

By Sergey Povzner | Published: March 1, 2011
The 2-month wait for the official Gingerbread update for Nexus One is over. Google’s Nexus twitter account announced that Gingerbread 2.3.3 OTA update started to roll out last week and will complete in a few weeks. In the meantime impatient Nexus One owners can install this update manually. This release brings the number of Gingerbread powered […]
Posted in Android, Mobile, News | 2 Comments

Using Android home screen shortcuts for direct dialing, navigation, bookmarks and more

By Sergey Povzner | Published: February 17, 2011
One of the best features of Android is customization, which among many things allows to control how the home screen behaves and looks using widgets, shortcuts and 3rd party launchers such as ADW.Launcher and LauncherPro. Let’s take a closer look at home screen shortcuts, which are accessible via long press on the home screen and selecting […]
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Nokia to develop smartphones running Windows Phone 7

By Sergey Povzner | Published: February 10, 2011
[Update] The reports were correct: statements from Nokia and Microsoft. Intensifying rumors suggest that Nokia may announce on Friday a partnership with Microsoft and will begin shipping phones running Windows Phone 7 operating system. This would mark a dramatic change of direction for Nokia and the partnership with Microsoft would put future of Nokia’s MeeGo platform […]
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News: Android becomes world’s leading smart phone platform

By Sergey Povzner | Published: February 4, 2011
According to the analysis by Canalys, 33.3 million Android-based smart phones were shipped in Q4 2010, making Android the world’s leading smart phone platform (by number of shipments). Google’s Android had a phenomenal 615% year-over-year growth and passed both Nokia’s Symbian (31 million shipments) and Apple’s iOS (16.2 million).
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News: Android Market webstore, Honeycomb tablet demo, in-app billing

By Sergey Povzner | Published: February 4, 2011
Google held a press event this week to launch the web-based Android Market and demonstrate the new features of the upcoming Android 3.0 Honeycomb release. Below is the summary of the announcements: Android Market web site is now live at market.android.com. This is a welcome (and long-awaited) improvement of the Android Market which allows searching Android apps […]
Posted in Android, Honeycomb, Mobile, News | Leave a comment

News: Nexus S random reboot issue, check in using Google Maps, 90% of Android devices are 2.1+

By Sergey Povzner | Published: February 4, 2011
Notable news: Android Google Maps updated to 5.1, adds check in system to the Latitude. Some Nexus S users are suffering from random reboots. The issue has been acknowledged by Google, but the fix is not yet available. Google Voice number porting is now available to all users. 90% of Android devices are now at version 2.1 or above. In preparation […]
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[Updated] Google Voice number porting is now available to all users

By Sergey Povzner | Published: January 20, 2011
[Update] Number porting is now available to all existing Google Voice users [/Update] Google has quietly enabled ability to port existing mobile numbers to Google Voice. Currently, it is available to selected Google Voice users only. The inability to port existing numbers has been the main reason preventing more widespread adoption of Google Voice. Google […]
Posted in Android, Mobile, News | 1 Comment

Swype beta open to all Android users

By Sergey Povzner | Published: January 14, 2011
Swype is an innovative and efficient text entry method and is an alternative to a regular software keyboards of Android phones. Instead of tapping one letter at a time, Swype lets you enter one word at a time by continuously moving your finger over letters of the word and lifting your finger up at the end of the word. […]
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News: Google Maps with 3D, Android Market changes, free Gmail calling through 2011

By Sergey Povzner | Published: January 7, 2011
Recent news in the Android world: Google Maps 5.0 for Android is released with 3D maps and offline caching. Android Market update: client UI redesign, device targeting based on screen sizes and densities, increased the maximum size for .apk files to 50MB. Bad news: user friendly 24-hour refund window has been reduced to fart app’s developer […]
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Nexus S with Android 2.3 Gingerbread in stores Dec 16

By Sergey Povzner | Published: December 6, 2010
Google announced today that Samsung Nexus S will be the first phone to get Android 2.3 Gingerbread when it goes on sale December 16 at US Best Buy stores. It will be available for $529 unlocked or $199 with 2-year T-Mobile contract. Similarly to Nexus One, Nexus S is a developer phone with an unlocked bootloader (for […]
Posted in Android, Mobile | 3 Comments

Android 2.3 Gingerbread announced, SDK released

By Sergey Povzner | Published: December 6, 2010
Today is a busy day for Android users and developers. Android 2.3 was officially announced with lots of new features. Android 2.3 SDK is released. Samsung Nexus S is announced as the first phone to be sold with Gingerbread on December 16 at Best Buy (unlocked or with a T-Mobile service plan). For users, the […]
Posted in Android, Mobile | 1 Comment

News: Google Docs editing on Android/iPhone, Google Voice app finally approved for iPhone, Galaxy S owners keep waiting for 2.2 update

By Sergey Povzner | Published: November 19, 2010
News: Editing of Google Docs is now available on Android (2.2+), iPhone and iPad (iOS 3.0+). Editing Google Spreadsheets in the mobile browser has been available for a while now. Apple approved official Google Voice app for iOS. Finally, a ridiculous 1.5 year App Store ban of a very useful application has ended. Google Voice […]
Posted in Android, iPhone, Mobile, News | 1 Comment

Full version of Angry Birds now available for Android

By Sergey Povzner | Published: October 15, 2010
The title says it all: full version of insanely addictive Angry Birds game with 150 levels is now available on Android Market. It works on most Android 1.6+ devices (those that support Open GL ES 2.0, which means all newer Android phones). Number of levels to increase to 200 in few weeks. For Android it […]
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Speed up your Android: free up internal phone storage

By Sergey Povzner | Published: September 30, 2010
If your Android phone seems to be running slower than it used to, check how much available internal storage it has left. If it has less than 30% left, freeing up some space will speed up the phone. That is because flash memory which is used for internal storage gets significantly slower as it gets […]
Posted in Android, FroYo, How To, Mobile, Tips | 14 Comments

How to move almost all Android apps to SD card (no root required)

By Sergey Povzner | Published: September 24, 2010
[Update - May 2013] To see whether this procedure may work on your phone, check out the new post [Follow up] List of phones that work with “How to move almost all apps to SD card” procedure and comments to this post. Please note that this procedure does NOT work on the best selling Samsung Galaxy S3. [/Update] [Update […]
Posted in Android, Apps, CyanogenMod, FroYo, Gingerbread, How To | 1265 Comments

News: Android walking navigation, Verizon cripples Samsung Fascinate, Apple relaxes dev tools restrictions

By Sergey Povzner | Published: September 10, 2010
News: Android Google Maps application is updated with walking step-by-step navigation. User interface of the Maps app has been slightly updated and now Layers, Places and My Location icons are always visible in the main view. Samsung Fascinate goes on sale with Verizon. An otherwise excellent version of the Samsung’s Galaxy S line has been […]
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Angry Birds game arrives to Android (beta)

By Sergey Povzner | Published: September 7, 2010
Warning: stop reading this and navigate away if you are an addictive person and/or have important things to do in your life in the next few days. Angry Birds, which is a smash hit game on iPhone OS, arrived as a public beta to Android last Friday. According to the developers, the game sold 6.5 […]
Posted in Android, Apps | 3 Comments

News: CyanogenMod 6.0 arrives, Gmail Priority Inbox, Sprint Epic 4G released, Android LVL tips

By Sergey Povzner | Published: September 3, 2010
News: CyanogenMod-6.0, first stable Android 2.2 based CyanogenMod distribution, is released for the following phones: Nexus One, Motorola Droid, HTC EVO, HTC Desire, HTC Incredible, HTC Hero (GSM/CDMA), HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1), HTC Magic, HTC Aria, MT3G Slide. Find a version for your phone here. CyanogenMod is a free, community built distribution of Android 2.2 (Froyo) which greatly extends the capabilities of your phone. List […]
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