It’s official! The EVO 4G will be the first in a long line of phones to be updated to Android 2.2 Froyo, beginning August 3rd. The release will be rolled out in stages according to Sprint. However, they will provide a manual download link for those of you who cannot wait another moment. According to further reports, both the HTC Desire and the original Droid phones will be hit with the update later in the week.

The list of features and fixes is a long one, and owners couldn’t be more excited. Given the list I’ve been seeing, it’s no wonder you’re chomping at the bit to get Froyo onto your devices. The update boasts new preloaded widgets, flashlight mode for your LED flash, light-assisted 720p video with improvement to the quality of your video captures. Going by the image that Engadget has up on their site, you’ll see a heck of a lot of updates in other areas, as well.

Mail will see groups tabs and auto-saving when you press the back key. Additionally, your email will be saved as a draft automatically should you lose connection in the middle of composing a missive. You’ll enjoy a large composition area and the capability to send a Contact card via SMS.

There are a lot of enhanced features for the social media addict in you, as well. Your calendar will display birthdays and events from Facebook. The Gallery will now support the Facebook “Comments” function. And… you’ll be able to quickly link a contact to a Plurk or Twitter contact.

Are you planning to wait it out until the update is rolled to your phone, or will you be rushing to download manually?

EVO 4G First to Have Froyo – Coming Tuesday

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Samsung Mobile. All opinions are 100% mine.

The Samsung Galaxy S will be available soon in the AT&T network. I’ve been able to play with it for the past week or so. Despite moderate usage, I haven’t had to charge it since first turning it on. The battery astounded me, to be quite honest. I’ve been pretty happy with this phone. Despite a few negative remarks I’ve seen elsewhere about this phone, this is the best Android device I’ve tried to date. This will definitely be my default Android phone from now on.

It is extremely lightweight. It feels good in the hand, and the screen is large and gorgeous. The screen is super SUPER bright and vibrant. It’s so bright, in fact, that I had to turn the brightness down. The touch screen is extremely responsive. This means that the processor is fast, and everything is speedy out of the box. I feel this is quality hardware on a quality operating system.

In terms of resolution and capabilities, the camera on the Galaxy S is fantastic where HD video is concerned. If you didn’t already notice, I had uploaded a video review of an iPhone screen protector that I wasn’t happy with. That video was shot using this Galaxy S phone. For some reason, in a low-quality setting, I tend to get these “bars” on the video. I’m not sure if you detect that, but I did through the viewfinder. This is some small lines that appear in videos and photos. I’m not sure if this is a hardware or software issue, though. Hopefully Samsung will look into it.

This phone is running the TouchWiz interface, which is nice for helping you to quickly connect up your social networks. The out-of-the-box experience is honestly very good. For instance, swiping the screen in any direction will automatically open up the lock screen. Hello! That, my friends, is what intuitive is all about.

This is a fantastic Android device, no doubt about it… especially when it will only cost you $200 with a new contract. What I like beyond the price and screen is that Samsung paid attention to what a user might actually want when they turn their phone on for the first time. They added some very popular apps right into the phone, including Layer. Layer is so good that it will get a future video all of its own.

More than anything that impressed me, when I launched the Apps application, I saw a few of these default apps. Normally, apps pushed through a manufacturer’s site or service kind of suck, to put it bluntly. However, I was pretty impressed with many of the ones that I found within Samsung.

Again, my summary is that this is the best Android device I’ve used to date. There are a few negatives, but in my opinion they do not detract from the overall performance of the phone. Yes, there is a replaceable battery. However, in order to get the back of the phone off to GET to said battery you’ll need long fingernails or some type of very thin tool to pry it open.

As Apple pointed out, many other phones lose signal when using a “death grip.” It’s honestly not just the iPhone 4 that does this. The same thing happens with the Galaxy S, as shown in a video on YouTube.

Just about anything you would want in an Android device can be found in the Galaxy S. Are you thinking of grabbing one for yourself?

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Samsung Galaxy S Initial Impressions

One of the best posts on Lockergnome today dealt with the news that one of the major Spam outfits has finally been taken down. For those of you who are heavily involved in Malware removal like Kat is, this is very good news, indeed. Why not take a look around at what else has been happening in our neck of the woods today?

Lockergnome Posts

• Do not share your Twitter or Gmail password!
• The financial bailout lacks oversight.
• Where did network computing go wrong?
• One huge Spam outfit has been taken down!
• Are you an Email addict?

Geeks Posts

• Would you share your baby pictures?
• What would you do if you won the Lottery?
• What would be in the “ultimate” laptop?
• What alternatives are there for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007?
• What AntiVirus program do you use?

Geeks Blogs

• Have you checked out the new ‘online’ operating system?
• Is government control always a bad thing?
• What do you think of the Papermaster lawsuit?
• Have you checked out the new T-Mobile Android G1?
• Spelling appears to be a lost art form.

Is Spam ever Going Away?

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A few months ago, I talked about how you can download the Google Android emulator. I played around with it a little bit, and it was interesting. I’m not sure if it’s something I’d want to run on a mobile device. David wrote in to tell me why he likes Android.

• To use a baseball analogy, when Apple comes out with a product, they try to hit homeruns, but Google’s Android strategy is swinging for base hits. One good thing about the strategy is that over the next 2 years Google has many similar small announcements, it will become a greater threat to the iPhone.
• One feature that may help differentiate the new G1 Handset from the iPhone out of the gates is its physical QWERTY keyboard. According to Garner, iPhone adoption has been “slightly hampered” by the reluctance of some consumers to adapt to a touchscreen keyboard.
• Another key element that may work to Google’s favor exists in its ‘open’ approach to the Android operating system, which means developers can modify the operating system and develop third-party applications on the platform for free. The open nature of the software also means that Android can be quickly modified to run on many devices from the broad majority of mobile carriers.
• In contrast, Apple has chosen a closed iPhone platform where developers cannot modify or enhance the operating system, and third-party developers must pay a nominal fee to belong to a developer group and submit applications to Apple for approval on the App Store. The iPhone OS will also only run on Apple-branded devices. However, the ecosystem which apple has created with apps and the apps store is nothing compared to what google may offer.
• The key differences are that the Amazon store offers 100 percent unprotected DRM-free tracks, whereas the iTunes store only offers unprotected tracks from one of the major record labels, EMI. There’s still a catch, however, in that iPhone users can easily plug a pair of headphones into there handset to listen to purchased music, whereas G1 users will be unable to do the same without a USB adapter, given the HTC-developed handset lacks a traditional headphone jack.

As I said, my experience has been limited. I haven’t had my hands on an Android device. Yes, it’s open-source. But there’s nothing really revolutionary about it. I may have had issues with my iPhone… but I’m happy with it.

What are your thoughts on Google Android?

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What are Your Thoughts on Google Android?