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Rumor has it the Nexus smartphone line might be looking at retirement. True or not, we thought it a good excuse to take a look back at Google Nexus history.
Watch as we show you how to re-lock and re-image your Google Nexus device to factory-condition.
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Sprint Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S 4G users will start getting Jelly Bean today.
Following the source link below you will be able to grab the Jelly Bean factory images for the Samsung-made Google Nexus S, Samsung-made Google Galaxy Nexus and the Asus-made Google Nexus 7 tablet.
With the arrival of newly-signed carrier binaries, the Nexus S 4G now enjoys the same level of AOSP support as the original Nexus S.
Google Wallet is Google’s payment processing system. There’s an online version and an Android app that runs on certain phones with specific hardware and lets you use your smartphone like a credit card.
In the past we’ve described Google Wallet as “the coolest app that you can’t have” because it’s been limited to a very few phones on only a couple carriers.
What have been the problems?
First of all, your phone has to have an NFC chip and a “secure element”. Today, not many phones have the necessary hardware, and [...]
With the NFC-enabled Google Wallet app arriving on more devices, more phones coming with NFC, and batteries not getting any bigger, is is safe to upgrade your battery? Given the fact that batteries in these phones have a message on them that indicate they include NFC inside the battery itself, can you you simply swap your battery? Will doing so make Google Wallet stop working? How does all this magical NFC stuff work, anyway?
We’ll answer that, and more, in today’s episode of the Android Guy Weekly!
What is NFC?
NFC, or Near Field Communication, is [...]
As the past generation of Android smartphones ever-so-slowly starts receiving updates to bring them forward to Ice Cream Sandwich, we’ve heard plenty of promises from both manufacturers and carriers about which devices would end up making the Android 4.0 cut, and which would be left behind. Today we’ve got some updated info on the manufacturer side of things, with Samsung publishing a carrier-by-carrier breakdown of which models would be seeing ICS updates in the States.
Since we’ve already heard commentary about many of these models and their prospects for ICS [...]
We’ve been seeing leaked Ice Cream Sandwich ROMs for the Samsung Nexus S 4G on Sprint show up since late January, and before then we had custom user-generated ROMs that brought Android 4.0 to the smartphone. In mid-March, we heard that official updates for both the Nexus S and Nexus S 4G were due shortly, and just earlier this week we saw a new leaked 4.0.4 ROM arrive; it definitely looked like that update was right on the cusp of arriving. Today, Sprint finally flips the switch, announcing the arrival of the Nexus S 4G ICS update.
Today’s update marks the first new [...]
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is expected to hit Samsung-made Google Nexus S 4G devices on Sprint soon but if you just can’t wait until that OTA update notification hits your phone, you might just be lucky!
The folks over at BriefMobile have managed to grab what appears to be (claimed) the official Ice Cream Sandwich update which will be hitting devices soon over-the-air. The ROM contains Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich and the source link below has everything you need to get started (if you can’t wait for the official update or if you don’t already run some [...]
Google Wallet, the app, has had it’s ups and downs. Mostly downs. Using your phone’s built in NFC chip, Google hopes to turn it into your main payment mechanism — replacing your credit cards and reward cards all in one fell swoop!
Unfortunately it only works (officially) on two phones: the Sprint Nexus S and an unlocked GSM Galaxy Nexus (as long as it’s not on T-Mobile). Oh, and it’s only in the US. Needless to say, it’s not been widely adopted.
Why is that? Lots of phones have NFC chips in them, they could easily get the app and it [...]
Last year’s “pure Android” only saw Ice Cream Sandwich via custom ROMs which could be found luckily for both the S and the S 4G. However, if you were waiting for an official Google treat, you were so far out of luck.
According to recent reports, Google is preparing to officially update the Samsung-made Nexus S (and the Nexus S 4G on Sprint) to the latest iteration of Android really soon. Ice Cream Sandwich is expected to hit the phones “in the next few weeks” and, given that it’s still a rather capable device (and one made by Samsung, just [...]
Those of you who rock a Samsung-made Google Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S, Nexus S 4G or even a Motorola Xoom tablet and are CyanogenMod fans are now able to download CyanogenMod9 nightlies and have their fair share of both flashing and testing.
Of course, CyanogenMod nightlies are far from being the real deal but they can definitely be used if you can close your eyes to some of the bugs. Since you’re a CM9 fan you probably know the drill by now so head over to the source link below and choose the proper nightly from those that are available, all dated February 24.
Source: [...]
An Ice Cream Sandwich ROM for the Samsung-made Sprint Google Nexus S 4G has been leaked online and, according to reports, chances are that this is the final build the carrier will be rolling out over-the-air.
The build number, as you can see in the image above, is IMM26 and everything seems to be working just fine. If you don’t want to wait for the official update to hit your device over-the-air, the official way, you can head over to the source link and get to work (insert usual word of warning here). The files will be over at XDA Developers for three days and, while [...]
You might wait for Google to release an official Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich ROM for the Nexus S 4G or, if you are techy and adventurous, you can check out two customs ROMs already out there for the phone that will bring you all the ICS goodness.
There are currently two flavors: those who like an experience as close to stock as possible could check out the AOSP 4.0.3 ROM; if more customization, bells and whistles are your thing, there’s a MIUI ROM based on Android 4.0.3 with everything working but WiMAX. The official Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich ROM for the Google [...]
Whether you run Google Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on your Samsung Nexus S the official or community-way really doesn’t matter as last year’s “pure Android” does a great job. Face Unlock, however, is missing but there’s a way for you to enable it.
It doesn’t matter how well it works as a concept or whether if it’s more of a gimmick than something useful, you can now take advantage of the VGA front-facer of the Nexus S to enable the feature. It was left out of the code but thankfully the community proves once again that great things [...]
Google Wallet is an app that lets you pay for purchases using the NFC chip in your Android-powered smartphone on special “PayPass” credit card terminals — but it is only “officially” available on the Sprint Nexus S 4G.
Nexus S 4G
If you want to run Google Wallet on your Sprint Nexus S 4G, simply download the Google Wallet app from the Android Market and you’re all set!
If you want to run Google Wallet on another device you’ve got some work ahead of you.
In this video we’ll show you the app working on a GSM [...]
I often find myself wanting to grab a quick snack or soft-drink while I’m at work, but I don’t frequently carry cash. If I want that snack break I have to hop in my car and drive to a convenience store and use my card to buy my sweets. More often than not, I just head to the drinking fountain and fill my bottle with water rather than making the trip to get a soda.
Credit card equipped vending machines aren’t that common in the US, and generally speaking, we can’t buy our goodies with our phones like some in other countries can. That’s about to [...]
While we’re all waiting for the Galaxy Nexus to arrive and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to be released to the AOSP, the is another way that we can get ICS on our phones: ports from the ICS SDK.
In most cases the result is closer to something you’d expect from “Dr. Frankenstein” than a “plastic surgeon” in terms of elegance and full-functionality, but being able to run ICS on your own phone before it’s available to anyone else can be too hard to pass up!
Since the SDK was released, here are some of the more noteworthy phones that [...]
Based on some comments and feedback I received from previous editorial, I’m not the only one that thinks Samsung’s shiny plastic cases give them impression they’re “cheaper quality” than other phones with metal cases or battery covers.
To address the issue on his Nexus S, XDA-Developer AardvarkAdventure took it upon himself to remedy the “problem” — with sandpaper.
Using what we have to assume would void parts of your warranty, this crafty fellow was able to mimic a charcoal-colored brushed-aluminum finish on the battery [...]
With the recent announcement of Ice Cream Sandwich, pocketnow readers are asking themselves whether they should shell out the money for the new Galaxy Nexus, or if they should wait until the Nexus S gets it’s Android 4.0 update (which we’re sure it will).
Once the new Galaxy Nexus comes, it’s older sibling, the Nexus S, should see a price-drop. Theoretically you could pick yourself up a Nexus S after the new phone goes on sale and save a bunch of change… then simply wait for the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update to come to the Nexus S and get most of [...]
While the devs behind CyanogenMod have stated that they’re waiting until the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich source code is released before attempting to integrate the new operating system with their project, other devs are attempting the kludgy business of using the files from the recently-released Ice Cream Sandwich SDK to try and force the OS on a smartphone ahead of schedule. It looks like he still has a very long way to go, but one such intrepid soul has revealed his efforts so far in getting Ice Cream Sandwich onto a Nexus S 4G.
Probably the most annoying problem at [...]
We’ve already heard HTC analyzing the newest Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, in order to perfect an upgrade plan — and hopefully other manufacturers will do that too. Google comes to the rescue giving out some precious information about the update.
The second Google-phone, the Samsung Nexus S, will get its Ice Cream Sandwich treat (officially), according to Google’s Gabe Cohen. The latest version of Android “theoretically should work for any 2.3 device” is a statement that both Gabe Cohen and Matias Duarte seem to agree upon. In the light of this [...]
