Verizon Galaxy S II Cancelled???

The Samsung Galaxy S II has been one of the most highly anticipated of the year. Samsung released the first Galaxy series of phones across all carriers in slightly different form factors. It was assumed that the same process would be followed with the release of the GSII. We all know what happens when you assume something and it seems this has been proven true again.

Today the Wall Street Journal broke a story that confidential sources informed them that the GSII would NOT be releasing on Verizon. A Verizon spokeswoman named Brenda Raney came forward to confirm this news. Brenda had this to say,

“We have an extensive portfolio that offers customers a great variety of devices, including the Samsung Droid Charge,” said Brenda Raney, a Verizon Wireless spokeswoman. She declined to elaborate.

While the Droid Charge is not quite the GSII( I own one so I can back this up) she does have a point. Verizon has been releasing Android phones like Gangbusters (Droid Charge,Droid X2,Droid 3, LG Revolution, Etc) and with all reports pointing to the fact that Verizon will be finally getting a Nexus device in the form of the Prime maybe they felt the lineup was too crowded. Either way it seems that all of you out there sitting on your upgrade will have to jump on the Bionic( if that ever drops) or wait for the glut of phones coming to us this holiday season. Let us know what you think about it in the comments below.

JKeene AndroREV Writer

We are AndroREV, WE ARE!!!!!!

New HTC Sense 3.5 Leaked!!!

HTC Sense is one of the many custom Android overlays and many will agree its one of the most aesthetically pleasing and complete of any out there.  From the ease of use to the cohesiveness of the design Sense just works in ways that Touchwiz or Motoblur do not.  Today the new version 3.5 has leaked by XDA China and is proving quite a feast for the eyes.

First up the lockscreen looks to be the updated one from Sense 3.0 which is a good thing seeing how much you can customize it. Alot of the widgets have been updated such as the weather which now covers the whole screen. The homescreen is sporting a cleaner look with two buttons at the bottom, one for apps and one for the phone. The biggest news from this leak will affect many HTC phone owners. When Sense 3.0 released many were disappointed to find out that they would not receive the update due to a dualcore processor being required to run 3.0. HTC will be bringing a smile to many faces with the news that 3.5 will not have any hardware constrictions so the benefits from this update should trickle down to everyone. Screenshots are below, all you HTC users sounds off in the comments and let us know what you think!

Picture Source-XDA China

JKeene AndroREV Writer

We Are AndroREV, WE ARE!!!!!

Jkeene Reviews: Altered Beast ROM for Droid Charge

The last ROM review I took a look at the GummyCharged ROM, which had a very clean stock look to it. Lets head to the other end of the spectrum with DroidXcon's Altered Beast Alpha 5 ROM. This sexy ROM is about as far from the stock look as you can get!

Altered Beast is a EE4 based ROM that was actually the first ROM to drop for the Droid Charge. DroidX and Team Androphiles have been hard at work to bring the ROM up to Alpha status. Altered Beast is fully deodexed and debloated. It has been fully themed by DroidX and Gunnermike, everything from Androphile wallpaper, notification menu, dialer, keyboard, status bar and shutdown animation is custom. The list of visual mods added in is awesome, from the Dark Angel USB mod(pictures below) which just blows me away to the dark themed market. These additions go a long way to put this ROM above a lot out not just for the Droid Charge but for any Android phone available. Also bundled in with the ROM is a functional HULU app, Voodoo Control, Battery Mod, and alot of carbon fiber backgrounds!!

The ROM comes with a fully themed AOSP launcher with custom icons from DroidX himself. Some very nice screen transitions are thrown in not to mention the removal of just about all of the Samsung TouchWiz brown that reminds me of something that I can not repeat here. DroidXcon was nice enough to bundle imnut's awesome overclock kernel in with his Odin package so all your needs are taken care of. Not only will your Droid Charge be more stylish it will be lag free with the addition of this Voodoo kernel. I have not personally experienced any issues with this ROM on my phone. So look him up on the web kids and flash away. Trust me your Droid Charge has never looks so sexy!!

1. Altered Beast handled every game I threw at it, including Samurai II without a a hitch. Email worked just fine and apps such as Google+ and Tweetdeck gave me no problems. The camera however had more then one force close so I am giving AB a 4 out of 5.

2. AB comes with a themed AOSP launcher that was smooth but a little slow for me. Launcher Pro took are of this real quick and gave me a responsive home screen and very smooth and fast 3-D app drawer. Very nice, 4.5 out of 5.

3. Battery life on this ROM is nothing short of amazing. It should be noted that I am in a 3G only area. With everything like email and Tweetdeck set to push with normal daily use( a couple of phone calls, lots of Google+, and web browsing with some Stupid Zombies thrown in) I routinely got 11-13 hours out of my Charge. I have to give this a 5 out of 5!

4. As far as sound goes with headphones plugged in sound was great. Using the phone's speaker for Google Music and YouTube I noticed a reduction in volume. Under normal use this was not a problem however sitting in the breakroom with multiple conversations going on, I was unable to get Youtube movies to play loud enough. 3.5 out of 5

5. The stock browser on this phone was laggy for me and a little slow at rendering graphics intensive pages. Flash video worked just fine. This didn't make it unusable but was annoying at times. I replaced it with Dolphin and had no issues at all. Pages loaded quickly and flash video gave me no problems. 3.5 out of 5.

Overall the ROM scored a 20 out of 25 total.

Quadrant-1598 with speed at 1.1GHz

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The Galaxy S 2 series is landing!!!

Galaxy S 2's for all Carriers!!!

Everybody in the Android world is well aware that the Samsung Galaxy S 2 is one of the most hotly anticipated phones of the year. First released in Korea back in April, The GS2 sold 3 million units in 55 days and 5 million units in 85 days. Needless to say the United States release date for all carriers has been a big deal in the news. The first Galaxy S 2 series was a huge seller and was released on multiple carriers in different form factors. Slowly but surely information is trickling out about what shape this phone will take here depending on your carrier.


Different Shapes, Same theme

Speculation as to wither or not Samsung will release this phone in different form factors has been rampant. Here is what we know so far

T-Mobile Hercules

The T-Mobile Hercules has been leaked on roadmaps since May and it has finally been revealed to be their version of the Galaxy S 2. An image leaked yesterday confirmed not only this but that the Hercules will rock a 8MP camera and a brushed metal backing. The leak back in May confirmed 16GB of ROM, 1GB of RAM, and a Micro SD card slot. The Hercules will be sporting a Super AMOLED Plus screen with 4.5" of rumored real estate! It will have Android Gingerbread 2.3 and the latest. Processing power in the GS2 initially came from 1.2GHz Exynos chips however don't rule out Qualcomm being along for this party with a spec bump to 1.4 or 1.5 GHz. This is really shaping up to be a iphone Slayer but the best news is yet to come, a 42 Mbps HSPA+ Radio will be on board so you can take full advantage of the speed T-Mobiles 4G network as to offer!


Sprint Within

This phone was the first to leak into the wild and showed that Sammy would not be carrying the exact same shape through out the US lineup. The usual blurry cam pics have leaked and show a different shape from the initial GS2 release. Gone are the angular edges in favor of rounded corners and a textured back that will definitely help you grip this beast. The usual 8MP camera is on board as is Android 2.3.4 so as soon as you turn it on Google Talk Video chat will be a go!

Verizon Function

This phone has long been rumored to be the first of the Galaxy S 2 phones to be released. However a couple of leaked roadmap dates have come and gone with no phone yet. Talk of Big Red holding off on the phone due to Samsung's legal battle with Apple have started to circulate but no concrete proof has surfaced to say this is true. The other big question is will this phone be 4G LTE? All sources point to yes, and the Function will pack all of the other specs that make this phone so greatly anticipated.










AT&T Attain

This phone has already had images leaked including a report of the Attain having a slide out keyboard. This would be quite a feat for a phone know for being one of the thinnest out there. However the leaked pics were swiftly shown to be another mid grade Samsung slider destined for AT&T, not the Attain. So far no images have been proven to be the elusive Attain. However a phone did slide by the FCC last month on AT&T 4G bands with a NFC chip on board so a release could be very very close.

Even though none of these phones have been released yet the good news is no matter your carrier Samsung has once again made sure that you will have access to their latest and greatest!

Photos thanks to: BGR, TMO News