Skype has released an updated version of its mobile app for Android with two major updates. The first is that you can now use Skype on the Samsung Galaxy S as long as the phone is running Android 2.2 and up. The second is that you can now install the app to your SD card if you’re running Android 2.2 or later.

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This frees up several MB of space, as you can see from the screenshot above, taken right after moving the app to my SD card. It normally takes up closer to 8MB. Unfortunately once you actually start using the app, it will start using more disk space. Once I logged into my account and added some contacts, Skype used closer to 4MB.

While Skype says the new app should free up about 15MB of space for most users, I’m still disappointed that moving apps to the SD card doesn’t actually mean the whole app gets moved to the SD card. Most Android phone don’t provide a very large amount of space for installing apps, so every MB counts.

That said, the latest version of Skype seems to perform admirably, allowing users to make voice calls and send instant messages to other Skype users. You can also make cheap calls to international phone numbers using SkypeOut credit, and merge your Skype and phone contact lists.

Skype is available as a free download from the Android Market, or you can visit skype.com/m from your phone’s browser.

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Skyfire has released version 3.0.1 of its popular web browser for Google Android. As you might suspect from a point release, there aren’t a ton of huge differences between Skyfire 3.0 and Skyfire 3.0.1, but there are a few new features that should make the Skyfire experience a bit better — especially for users running Android 2.2 and up.

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For one thing, you can now move the app to your SD card, freeing up several megabytes of storage on your phone. This feature isn’t supported on Android 2.1 and earlier. Another Froyo-only feature is support for file uploads from within the browser.

All users should also benefit from the other two updates: Crash reporting capabilities and the ability to continue app downloads in the background and receive system tray notifications when they’re complete.

Skyfire 3.0.1 for Android is available as a free download from the Android Market.

Verizon has released the official Android 2.2 update for the Motorola Droid X smartphone. In order to grab the update, just fire up the Settings menu on your phone, go to About, and then select System Updates and follow the instructions.

Among other things, the software update includes:

• Adobe Flash Player 10.1, which comes preloaded
• Faster JavaScript performance
• Ability to rotate the display 270 degrees in either direction
• You can now customize Android Market to auto-update certain apps
• Improved 3G mobile hotspot

You can find more details including step by step directions for applying the update at the Verizon Wireless Droid X support page.

via Droid Life

If you have a Motorola handset running Google Android 1.6 and you’ve been wondering when you’re slated to receive a software update, the wait is over… well, the wait for a schedule is over anyway. The actual updates are just starting to roll out, with the phased rollout of Android 2.2 Froyo for the Motorola Droid in the US.

Motorola has released a schedule explaining which phones will be updated in what parts of the globe. There’s also a rough timeframe, with some updates coming in the summer, others scheduled for Q3 or Q4 of 2010, and others simply described as “under evaluation. Unfortunately, not every phone will get upgraded all the way to Android 2.2 Froyo — some stop at Android 2.1 Eclair. And tt looks like some phones will be updated in one market, but not another.

For instance, the Motorola Backflip should get Android 2.1 in Q3 2010 in the US. But it won’t receive the update at all in Europe or Latin America, and Motorola says the update is “under evaluation” in the Canadian and Asia-Pacific regions. Of course, there’s an active hacker community that will likely release unofficial updates for phones like this, bringing Android 2.1 and maybe even Android 2.2 goodness — but you’ll probably end up voiding your warranty if you install unofficial firmware.

In the US market, the Cliq and Cliq XT will also receive Android 2.1 later this year, and the Droid X should be upgraded to Android 2.2 later this summer. The Motorola Devour doesn’t get get any operating system upgrades at all.

You can find more details about Motorola upgrade plans fro Canada, Europe, Asia, and Latin America at the Motorola Support Forums.

via MobileCrunch

Two developments are rocking the world of Android geeks who happen to use the shiny new Droid X smartphone. First, a hacker figured out how to create a ClockworkMod recovery for the Droid X.

If you don’t know what that means, here’s the short version: The Droid X was first rooted shortly after it came out. That means users can gain root access to settings that would otherwise be unavailable — but not all settings. For instance, you couldn’t access the recovery partition. Now you can… sort of.

Apparently the hack “hijacks” portions of the boot process, allowing users to load custom ROMS, start a system recovery, or make some other changes. But it won’t let you replace the kernel or boot images… yet.

The second major development in the Droid X world? A system update that brings Google Android 2.2 to the Droid X has been leaked.

Verizon is expected to start pushing the Android 2.2 Froyo update soon, but if you don’t want to wait until the over the air update is available, you can download the update file and install it manually. Of course, there are always risks involved in going this route. This might not be the final version, it could harm your phone, and so on… but the update is available for download right now for the impatient types.

via Android Police

Google recently introduces the capability to push data from a desktop web browser to a phone running Android 2.2. In other words, you can visit a web site using Chrome, Firefox, or another desktop browser, and with a click of a button you can send that page to your phone, where it will automatically open in your mobile browser. No need to touch your phone.

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Android2Cloud is a tool that does the exact opposite. You can visit any web site using your Android phone and with a few clicks push that page to your desktop browser — assuming your desktop browser is Google Chrome.

In order to use Android2Cloud, you need to download the mobile app from the Android Market and install a Google Chrome extension on your desktop browser. Once that’s done you can visit any web site with your mobile browser, click the menu button and select “more” and then Share page.” Select Android2Cloud from the options, and a few seocnds later the web page should open in your desktop Chrome browser.

The first time you run the app you’ll need to configure it to work with your Google account so that it can send data through the cloud. But you only have to do that once.

You can also fire up the Android2Cloud app without opening your web browser, and manually enter a URL to send to your desktop browser. But most of the time it would be faster to just grab your mouse and keyboard and type the URL in your desktop browser. The key benefit of Android2Cloud is that you can use it to send pages you’ve already opened on your mobile device to your PC.

Android2Cloud is available as a free download from the Android Market. There’s also a $1 version which is donationware if you want to support the developer. Both versions have the same features.

via Lifehacker

The HTC Dream and Magic (also known as the G1 and MyTouch) were two of the first GoogleAndroid powered phones to hit the market. At almost two years old, these models don’t have the speediest processors, the largest amounts of memory, or any other superlative you can think of. But you know what? It turns out they’re powerful enough to handle the recently launched Android 2.2 operating system — or at least a hacked version of Android 2.2 Froyo.

The first release candidate of CyanogenMod 6.0 is now available for download. The modified ROM works on the HTC Dream and Magic. There’s also a version available for Google Nexus One phones. Although the Nexus One doesn’t need a hacked ROM to run Android 2.2, CyanogenMod tends to have extra goodies baked in, including enhancements for the music player, lock screen, text messaging, and other components.

The HTC Dream and Magic version doesn’t include all of the feature that you get with Froyo on newer devices. For instance, Adobe Flash Player 10.1 doesn’t seem to work… at least not yet.

You can find download links and a complete changelog at the CyanogenMod forums.

via Engadget

Google plans to roll out a web interface for the Android Market that will let you discover new apps, and install them to your phone by clicking a single button. In advance of that feature, Google added the ability to push actions to your Android device as part of Android 2.2 Froyo. And while Google isn’t actually using that feature yet, third-party app store AppBrain is.

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The company just launched a new tool called the Fast Web Installer. It works in conjunction with AppBrain App Market app on your mobile phone. Once you have Fast Web Installer installed on your Android 2.2 device phone, all you have to do is visit the AppBrain web site, click the install button next to any app, and it will automatically be downloaded to your phone. You don’t even have to pick up your phone once during the whole process.

Update: AppBrain reports that Fast Web Installer works on all versions of Android. You don’t need Froyo to push apps to your phone!

Removing apps still takes a little more work. You have to manually remove them from your phone using the official Android Market app, Android’s app manager (tucked away in the settings menu), or the AppBrain App market app. You can also use the AppBrain web site to send a message to your phone letting it know that you want to remove an app. But that requires you to then fire up the mobile AppBrain software, click the synchronize button, and then click the “perform installs” button.

I suppose it’s probably a good idea to jump through more hoops to remove an app than to install one, since you don’t want to accidentally delete an app that you’re using regularly. But as a reviewer who installs and uninstalls apps pretty frequently, I wouldn’t mind a way to remove apps from a desktop web browser.

It’s possible that AppBrain will become completely obsolete when Google finally gets around to rolling out its web-based Android Market. But at the rate at which these guys are innovating, I suspect they may continue to stay a few steps ahead of Google.

You can check out my hands-on video with AppBrain’s new Fast Web Installer after the break.

via Android Tapp

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