Vic Gundotra took to Google+ today to announce the registration date for this year’s Google I/O. The developer conference — which has been extended to a 3-day event — will be open for registration on March 27 at 7 a.m. PDT. Registration is first-come first-serve and this year’s ticket prices will have you running to your nearest pawn shop. Tickets have doubled in price from $450 to $900! This should trim down all the johns attending the event in hopes of scoring a free device, or simply trying to scalp their tickets on Ebay, but still… ouch!
An unhappy Motorola DROID X2 customer decided to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau over their locked bootloader policy and lackluster update practice. Motorola eventually responded to the complaint, passing the bootlocker blame onto the carriers and then informing the customer that the DROID X2 was not on their list of devices to receive Ice Cream Sandwich. This information is very disheartening to DROID X2 owners whose device is less than a year old. I find this to be unacceptable and completely goes against the pledge Motorola (and other manufacturers) made as part of the Google Update Alliance back in May of 2011. The alliance was formed to ensure timely updates would be provided to consumers for at least 18 months after the launch of a new device and this BBB response isn’t a good sign of Motorola’s commitment to that pledge.
Samsung Galaxy S II users in Europe, Korea, and other select markets around the globe are being treated to Ice Cream Sandwich thanks to an update that began rolling out last night. Unfortunately U.S. users will have to sit tight as it hasn’t landed in the states just yet. It’s great to see devices being updated and we welcome all new users to the exclusive Ice Cream Sandwich club. Samsung also announced they would be updating a slew of devices to a newer Gingerbread firmware:
Sony has unveiled their latest Xperia smartphone the Xperia Sola, a 3.7-inch dual-core device touting Sony’s latest “floating touch” navigation. This latest “innovation” allows users to navigate around a page (similar to a cursor) without actually touching the display. We’re not sure how this would come in handy unless your a clean freak or a ghost, but we assume it’s to avoid accidentally clicking on items while navigating. The Xperia Sola also features the usual Sony software along with:
Welcome to Monday’s Apps For Kids, a new Cult of Android feature where we take a look at kid-centric apps. Many of us are parents with kids who seem to know their way around our mobile devices better than we do. With the Google Play Store having over 400,000 apps, it can be quite a daunting task trying to find apps appropriate for our young tech enthusiasts. With Monday’s Apps For Kids, we hope to make that task easier by suggesting an array of topics and apps that have been kid tested and parent approved. So grab whatever crayon is lying around and get ready to write down a few apps worth checking out.
