We haven’t talked about the HTC Flyer much on this site, but are starting to think it’s time we do since the wifi-only model is headed to Best Buy any day now.  As many of you know, the Flyer is HTC’s 7″ Gingerbread (not Honeycomb) tablet that runs a custom version of Sense for big screens and has “Scribe Technology” which allows you to draw, highlight or write on almost any screen at any time.  It has front and back cameras, a 1.5GHz single-core processor and truthfully, is no slouch.  At least that’s what HTC will have you believe as they try to sell you on it through this new 6-minute video.  And I’ve got to admit, they’ve done a pretty nice job of it.    

Well after some not-so-fun news about warranty replacements, we actually do have good news about HTC Thunderbolt and its sales as compared to the i*hone 4 at Verizon.  Research firm BTIG put in calls to 150 different Big Red stores throughout 22 major cities and received news on the two that may surprise many of you.  According to this report, 61% of stores said the devices were selling at about the same rate, with 28% saying that the TBolt was outselling our fruit foe.

And to add to this report, I’ll toss out the fact that the local Portland store that I visit for all my device needs, was adamant at the TBolt launch day as being far busier than the i*hone’s.  It is a pretty lovely phone even if it has battery issues.

Via:  BGR, BTIG Research

A couple of days ago, I received the screenshot you are seeing above which has a giant bullet in the middle referring to CLNR (certified like-new replacement) changes that will go live on March 31st.  I seriously thought nothing of it, and then today, a report came out with the dirty details of these CLNR changes.  Let’s just say that you not being thrilled with these changes is the understatement of the year.  

JRummy and Kejar dropped Liberty ROM 2.0 on us this morning for those of you that have not upgraded to Gingerbread or are willing to flash an SBF back to 2.3.340.  This new version includes a revamped theme by @davekover, new wallpapers, a tad bit of Blur for stability issues, and a crazy new Toolbox.  The previous versions of Liberty were top notch, so you can bet this will be too.

In order to get it right now though, you’ll have to donate $5 by purchasing the Liberty Toolbox Pro which will then download version 2.0 automatically.  If you aren’t down to drop $5, then just wait a couple of days for it to go fully-public.   

There is an app in the Android Market called Walk and Text, which allows you to use your camera to see in front of you while texting so that you don’t say, walk right into something.  The app runs about $1.54 if you’d like to purchase it, but for the cheap ones in the crowd, I’d suggest that you avoid running out to your favorite shady pirated app site to grab it.  Why exactly?  Well because someone (possibly, but not likely affiliated) took it upon themselves to set you up in one of the most hilarious fashions I’ve seen in a long time.  

You know we’re getting close to a final build of the new CyanogenMod 7 when the original DROID is starting to see release candidates.  RC3 for CM7 was released just a few days ago without the OG, so since it has been included in this latest mass drop, you should probably go grab it.  The Incredible also has an RC4, but the jump from RC3 to 4 isn’t going to mean much to you and really just includes bug fixes.

All CM7 DROID builds can be found here.  Rest of the devices here.

If coming from another CM7 build, you might not need to wipe data and cache, but it never hurts.  Flash in Clockwork like you would any other ROM.

Cheers Matt!

A report out of BusinessWeek has caused quite the stir in the mobile world today, and has to do with a subject that Android enthusiasts talk quite a bit about, and that’s fragmentation.  According a variety of “sources” from within the industry, Google has really started to enforce “non-fragmentation clauses”, giving the Android team the final say on how much can be tweaked on their stock code.  They may even be playing favorites with certain manufacturers that are willing to quickly abide by the rules they’ve set, which essentially means that a “common denominator”  must be reached, before the green light on customization will be given.  So what does all that really mean?

A couple of things.  The first is about fragmentation, which we all know is a problem with this “open” platform.  It sounds to me like Google is telling manufacturers that they need to be up-to-date or they won’t get preferential treatment any longer.  Companies like Samsung and LG seem to be at the front of this story (are actually named), and we all know their track record with updating handsets.  While we all love an open approach, we also understand that it’s not necessarily proper of these companies to release a new handset every 6 months, while ignoring any they’ve launched prior.  If Google wants to start forcing these companies to update their handsets and potentially put an end to fragmentation, you won’t see me complaining.

The second thing has to do with the “common denominator” which we’re guessing comes back to fragmentation again.  That common denominator is likely just Google saying, “You need to start with the newest Android build because you won’t be ready to update in 6 months with a skin on top of it.”  It could also mean that they don’t want garbage like Bing replacing their suite of apps, but that’s an entirely different argument.

And how should we feel about all of this?  Well, the arguments for Android continuing to be truly “open” are hard to find these days, so you really just need to ask yourself if you care.  It’ll likely always be considered fairly open, or at least more open than the competition, but for this to succeed in the long run, we can’t have Android running amok which BW states.  Forcing device manufacturers to finally stay current on their handsets is something we’ve wanted since the beginning, so are you happy that we might finally have it?

Via:  BusinessWeek

Cheers PJ and Robert!