Samsung Intercept Gets Android ‘Froyo’ 2.2 Today

Unless you’ve got a phone pushed out by Google themselves such as the Nexus One or Nexus S it’s almost inevitable that you’re going to be waiting quite some time to get updated to the latest versions of Android. As of late, however, hardware manufacturers have seemingly kicked things into high gear with many different smartphones getting updated to at least Android ‘Froyo’ 2.2.

In fact, just today it was made known that the Samsung Intercept Froyo update is getting pushed out over the air. If you’ve been paying attention you’ll know that we told you know too long ago that the update was scheduled for today and right on cue it’s begun. Something to make note, however, is that seeing how this is an over the air update it may take quite some time before the roll out hits your phone.

HTC Thunderbolt and EVO 4G finally getting Android Gingerbread update?

The HTC Thunderbolt and EVO 4G smartphones could get upgraded to the Android 2.3 “Gingerbread” operating system by no later than the end of June, according to a TalkAndroidreader who sent in a message allegedly from an HTC representative.

Despite bountiful company resources, both device manufacturers like HTC and wireless carriers have been dragging their feet when it comes to upgrading their devices to the latest OS, which has been available for nearly six months.

Meanwhile, the hacker community has managed to push unofficial Gingerbread upgrades to the majority of smart phones running older versions of Android natively. The only device that officially runs Gingerbread at the moment is Samsung’s Nexus S, which was made in partnership with Google to run a pure version of the OS without any carrier alterations.

Justifiably, Android phone owners are pissed off that the updates aren’t coming any faster.

Unlike older versions of the iPhone, most Android phones have sufficient hardware requirements to support timely OS updates. However, upgrading to Gingerbread isn’t good for the bottom line of either the carriers or hardware manufacturers, who would rather you buy newer devices featuring Gingerbread instead of getting the update for free.

Layar 5.0 App for Android Released

Augmented Reality App developer Layar has released a new version of its app for Apple iOS and Google Android platforms. The new Layar 5.0 app brings a couple of new features with animation capabilities and most importantly the ability to share content over Facebook and Twitter. The Android and iOS devices owners can download the app fromhere or the respective app stores.

Augmented Reality is a new technology that integrates graphics and computer generated environments into real-world through mobile phones or other imaging interface. Recently, the advent of Augmented Reality on mobile phones has been tapped with several mobile augmented reality applications. Layar is like an augmented reality browser that integrates location-relevant data and shows them on a live imagery being captured using mobile camera.

The Layar app shows chosen location-relevant information in form of 'layers' and they are classified by categories like architecture, restaurant, art, beauty, city tours, education, etc. Layar CEO Raimo Van der Klein said that Layar 5.0 comes the ability for more interactivity within layers with animation capabilities. Layers are no longer limited to static content; icons and 3D models can now come alive with animation, adding a new layer of engagement to augmented reality.

The new Layar 5.0 app brings the capability of sharing the viewed layers, 3D models and achievements with other contacts on Facebook and Twitter. New features and refined interface of Augmented Reality browser app is available only to Android and iOS platforms only at this moment. Symbian platform users (Nokia C7, C6-01, E7, N8 and E97) are promised to get the same set of updated features in next update.