Android-focused site Ausdroid has got hands on with Australia’s first 4G phone, the HTC Velocity. Sure there’s been 4G hotspots and USB dongles before that run on Telstra’s 4G network, but this is the first phone. With all the other componentry inside a phone it was difficult to tell what speeds would be possible.

The answer is 32.82Mbps down and 11.2Mbps up. The post is correctly disclaimed with ‘your mileage may vary’, but still, it’s an impressive number. Why you would need mobile data that fast is another question. Naturally as more people move from 3G to 4G, the network congestion will increase and speeds will inevitably slow. This may be one instance where being an early adopter yields good benefits.

The only bad thing about this result is that it was done on a new device that will ship without Ice Cream Sandwich.

Update
Trevor Long just posted a photo on twitter with an even better result – 39.85 Mbps down and 11.88 Mbps. Clearly he was a little closer to the tower with a 39ms ping vs 127ms.

As Microsoft continues its efforts to gain market share in the smartphone war, they have just announced a new competition for local developers. Australians who develop applications for Windows Phone will have the chance to win either a Nokia Lumia 710 or the flagship Nokia WP7 phone, the Nokia Lumia 800.

To qualify, you have to publish 3 or 4 apps between Jan 1^st 2012 and 12 midnight EST Mar 30^th, 2012. This offer is limited to the first 50 developers and only 1 phone per developer.

It’ll be interesting to see the quality of apps that arise as a result of this promotion. While Microsoft continues its efforts to increase the number of apps available in the Marketplace, it’s important not to lower the quality of apps, just to hit a theoretical number. Your applications will still need to pass through standard certification to be published.

Dave Glover is a Developer Consultant, Technical and Business Development at Microsoft Australia and has published the full information. Dave Glover’s blog.

Via WPDownunder and WPCentral.

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is the flagship phone for Android right now, being the only device shipping with 4.0 on-board.

Hardware

Screen
The device features one of the largest screen sizes we’ve seen on a smartphone, supporting a Super AMOLED 4.65” display running a massive 1280×720 resolution. This screen is clearly made for content consumption, ideal for watching movies on a plane or train. There is one problem with a screen size that large, it takes a lot of battery to power it.

While the phone sounds huge in size, when you get it in your hand, its actually surprisingly manageable. This is likely due to it’s weight, only a measly 135 grams. The whole device is thin as well, with only the slightest tapering out at the bottom its dimensions are 67.94mm wide, 135.5mm tall,  and 8.94mm thick (or thin).

Cameras
The rear camera is 5 megapixel with an LED flash, pretty standard right now. The Galaxy Nexus does also have with continuous auto focus, making it great for shooting objects that are varying distance from your shooting position. Despite being able to fire off photos with almost no shutter lag, you will still need to keep the phone still as blurry photos are still very possible.

The camera can also record 1080p video, which looks gorgeous, particularly when played back on the 4.65” HD display. Naturally with smaller optics, you want good lighting and a stable hand to get the best out of it.

The front facing camera is a 1.3 megapixel standard camera, nothing ground breaking there. It would be great to see some innovation here, its a feature that’s moved from optional, to a requirement, so lets get some more quality up front. Then the photos might actually be useable for more than a postage stamp sized profile photo.

Storage
There’s only one size available, it’s 16GB and isn’t expandable. For most people this won’t be an issue, but enthusiasts with a large number of apps or media collection, this may create a problem.

Performance
Supporting a 1.2Ghz dual-core processor and 1GB RAM, it’s unlikely you’ll come across a phone with higher specs. Paired with Android 4.0, the speed of the device is impressive, although competitors achieve similar speeds with lower specs. The power really comes when delivering intensive 3D games at 1280×720 while running background processes. 

NFC
Also known as Android Beam, near field communication is in the Galaxy Nexus, but there’s not really anyone to test it with. Sharing files, applications will become easier, but will needs a wide proliferation of devices to support this before it is feasible. Some early adopters may have MasterCard PayPass or Visa Paywave setup, but right now, it’s early. There’s always a chicken and egg argument when it comes to new technology like this, so for the negligible cost of including an NFC chip and writing software around it, it’s a welcome inclusion for the future.

Networks
With pretty standard HSPA+/3G/EDGE/GPRS support, the Galaxy Nexus unfortunately can’t take advantage of Telstra’s shiny new high-speed 4G network. There’s also no support for Telstra’s HD voice calling, missing the critical WB-AMR (Wideband Adaptive Multi-Rate) support. The Galaxy Nexus does support Telstra’s HD voice calling, one of the few devices that do.

More info at – http://www.google.com.au/nexus/#/tech-specs

Gallery

Software

Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) has been long awaited by Android fans since it was shown off by Google back in October. There’s no carrier or manufacturer skin here, the Galaxy Nexus ships with a pure Google experience. To be honest, there’s really no need for any of them to customise it, Android 4.0 is a solid release. Let’s take a look at what’s new.

Folders
Applications can now be sorted into folders, this works much the same as iOS. Folders can also be docked to one of four positions on the favourites tray. With only 5 home screens available in the default ICS rom, folders will help you load up with a decent catalogue of apps.

Built-in apps
The device ships with a folder of Google apps, these include Maps, Gmail, Calendar, Google+, Music, Market, Talk, YouTube, Navigation and Messenger. This demonstrates the strength of the Google properties, with coverage of almost all core features. Despite these being included out of the box, there is always room for third party apps to innovate and improve on the default offering.

Multi-tasking
With capacitive hardware buttons gone, all operations are now done with software buttons. One of the buttons you quickly become familiar with is the app switching or multi-tasking button. The right-most button of the three displays a really beautiful list of previously run applications. Depending on the app, some of these may be still running, or alternatively paused until your switch back to it. By comparison to both iOS and WP7, this app switcher is the best in the industry right now.

Face unlock
One of the showcase features when ICS was detailed, Face unlock is a gimmick. The biggest problem here is the time taken for the phone to do the analysis and then unlock. The reality is that entering a pin code or swipe gesture is faster. With a task that will be done multiple times per day, fast always wins.

Updates
As a platform, Android 4.0 was supposed to solve the long-running, heavily criticised fragmentation issue, however it seems the issue still remains. The Telstra review unit is still running 4.0.1, despite 4.0.3 being available from Google. It may only contain some additional API changes and bug fixes, but I want the latest release, without delay from carriers.

Panorama stitching
There is a lot of solutions for on-device panorama creation, well thanks for playing, but Google has it under control now. To create a panorama, it’s a simple as firing up the camera app, switch to panorama mode and film left to right, just as if you were shooting video. After a bit of processing, you’ll have your nice landscape panorama. While occasional stitching errors can occur, this is a decent implementation. Like any other photos or videos shot with the phone, your panorama can be shared to your favourite social network right from the app.

Issues

HD app support
With all the extra pixels to play with, you’d expect to see a lot more content fitting on the display. The problem is that most apps are simply scaled up, meaning that you’ll still only see the same number of tweets, Facebook posts or news items. Naturally apps created by Google do support the HD resolution, so the browser, mail and others look fantastic. Over time, some application developers will update their apps to take advantage of the larger screen, but this will take time.

Battery life
Powering a 4.65” display doesn’t come cheap, add to that the power drain of running multiple apps and you start to get an idea of what the battery life is like on the Galaxy Nexus. The short answer is, you’ll struggle to get through a day. The problem exists in most smart phones these days, the more we can do with these pocket computers, the more we use them, the more battery we burn through.

The good news here is that the battery is replaceable, just peel off that flimsy plastic back and insert an extended battery (not included).

Browser
While the techAU website displays fine on most browsers (including older Android browsers) the Android 4.0 browser has a strange issue where the content text in posts was only half the width of the available space. This is by no means an extensive test of websites, but is interesting that it would render a page differently than any other browser, mobile or desktop.

Screen rotation lag
When rotating the device, particularly in the camera / photo apps the delay in response is severe. A pretty basic function, something you’ll likely do multiple times a day, can take a number of seconds to respond. With a dual-core processor, this just shouldn’t happen, there’s really no excuse for it.

Low Audio levels
It seems the speaker in the Galaxy Nexus could have done with some extra dbs. From the music player to incoming calls, the phone on maximum volume isn’t very loud.

Pricing

The Galaxy Nexus I reviewed was from Telstra, which offers the phone from $69pm month +handset repayment on a two year plan. With a phone that begs to be used for media creation and consumption, having good network performance is important. Try uploading a 1080p video on anything else and you’ll want to cry. One thing I was impressed with, was the speed at which multiple applications would download and install simultaneously.

Overall

The Galaxy Nexus is the best Android phone available today. If you’re in the market for an Android phone, this should be your first option. Take a look at the issues section, if none of these really concern you then your set, get the Galaxy Nexus. There is no perfect device, but the Galaxy Nexus is by far the best Android device I’ve used. If your needs dictate that you need something smaller, then wait, Android 4.0 should now be a requirement for your Android purchase.

The Galaxy Nexus stacks up well against competitors and I’d be happy to carry one in my pocket. As for Android, before version 4.0 it was hard for me to recommend Android, but with this release, all the important pieces to a smartphone ecosystem are in place and finally with some design consistency.

More information at http://www.google.com.au/nexus/#/index or buy it from Telstra.

It goes without saying that Dropbox is highly regarded as a cloud storage solution. What’s more, when Dropbox is combined with everyone’s favourite open source Operating system, Android, keeping your treasured files with you on-the-go truly becomes a reality. Therefore, when new builds are thrown out onto the web, I simply can’t help but take a peek and get my hands on the latest offering from the team with the little, blue box.

Coincidentally, speaking of updates, the latest Dropbox Beta build, 1.3.0.6, is now available directly from the Dropbox website for Android users to behold. Let’s take a quick peek at what’s available in 1.3.0.6…

Straight out-of-the-box (so to speak), you will notice that Beta Build 1.3.0.6 has a new, clean interface for users to explore. Tabs that run horizontally at the top of your display allow you to cycle easily between your Home folder, Uploads manager and Favourites (which I will mention in furehter detail below). The new UI certainly has an ICS-esque feel to it, teasing those of us who haven’t upgraded from Gingerbread. In fact, Dropbox made note of the fact that this build has been “optimised” for Ice Cream Sandwich.

In addition to a nice, new look, Beta Build 1.3.0.6 has also received several new features, that allow Dropbox users to take advantage of a more streamlined workflow. These include, but are not limited to:

• The ability to “bulk” upload files to your Dropbox folder;
• The ability to rename files and folders, and;
• The addition of Favourites. Favourites are files you wish to save offline, for easy access — anytime.

Although these new features are welcome ones, it is a shame not to see “bulk download” integration thrown into this release. Having said that, this is not a final release, and we may be lucky enough to have a late Christmas present thrown our way — I’ll keep my fingers crossed if you will.

Have you downloaded a copy of the Beta Build? If so, what is your first impression? What do you think could be improved for the next release? Throw me some comments, dear readers…

This morning Telstra has officially confirmed the Samsung Galaxy Nexus will be coming to their network. One of the fastest phones is set to be on the fastest network in Australia from tomorrow (select stores). The phones go on-sale at Telstra’s flagship stores in Melbourne and Sydney tomorrow, as well as selling direct via their online store.

This is the first Android 4.0 (Ice cream sandwich) device to be launched in Australia and on Telstra. The Galaxy Nexus will also be sold on Optus and Vodafone.

Pricing is fairly standard for smart phones today, ranging from $69pm for the small 1.5GB plan up to $129pm for the 3GB XL plan. No real shockers here.

More at Telstra via TechGeek

With an official Xbox companion app now available, those fears (and other apps) can disappear. The My Xbox app allows Xbox owners to message friends, customize your avatar, check achievements and get beacon notifications. Beacons arrived as part of the latest Xbox 360 Dashboard update (still rolling out), these allow you to set notifications when friends are playing games or participating in activities that you’re interested in.

Basically it works like this. You set a Beacon for a Forza 4, you then go about your housework until your the My Xbox app buzzes in your pocket with a notification that friend is now playing Forza 4 and wants to race against you. You ditch the vacuum cleaner for the next 3 hours on the couch. This is technology helping our disconnected worlds become connected, for gaming, as in the example, but potentially to watch movies, TV shows, listen to music or even video conference.

All this sounds great, and sure the app looks great and is buttery smooth, but lets take a second to consider the future of the app and Xbox. With an internet connected device like the Xbox 360, wake-on-LAN should be on option. This means being able to wake up and shut down your Xbox using your phone. What if you could also control the Xbox interface using gestures on your phone. When using your phone for entertainment and potentially some gaming, this would replace or be a complimentary control.

Of course there is already the ability for games information to transfer from the Xbox to your WP7 device, but this requires an awkward QR-code scanning process (Kinectimals as an example). With a true Wi-Fi connection between the Xbox and your phone, this transition should be much more seamless.

Samsung is in dire need of some advice regarding patents, it seems. Another play in the ongoing patent struggle between Samsung and Apple has resulted in Apple giving Samsung some ‘workarounds’ in order to finally appease Apple’s demands. While this may seem like a good idea, it almost seems like Apple is just deliberately trolling Samsung for a laugh – though it is entirely possible what they’re asking for could result in a change in Samsung’s design choices.

The first set of recommendations relate specifically to the Galaxy S2 smartphone, including having a front surface that isn’t black, non-rectangular in shape or without rounded corners, non-horizontal speaker slots and no front bezel at all. Most of these suggestions describe most modern smartphones, so it would be interesting to see if Apple goes after other major manufacturers if they were to win this battle, like HTC.

The Verge noted that Apple also listed alternative options for Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, namely:

• overall shape that isn’t rectangular, or doesn’t have rounded corners
• thick frames around the screen
• front surface that isn’t flat
• profiles that aren’t thin
• cluttered appearance

Apple believes the changes that Samsung made with its 10.1N version of the Galaxy Tab weren’t enough, and recently asked a German court to ban the new version. We’ll see if Samsung takes any further notice of Apple’s suggestions, and whether Samsung can ever finally get a break.

More @ The Verge

Telstra have now added the ability to purchase Browsing Packs or Data Blocks for your mobile plan. Prices start at $5/m for an additional 30Mb, but things start to get interesting at $10/m for an additional 1GB of data. The options go like this..

If you’re a data hungry demon, then the top end of $69/m for an extra 12GB is actually a pretty good deal all things considered. There is one condition for purchasing these Browsing Packs, that is, you need to have a mobile on an eligible post-paid plan.

More information @ Telstra

Over the past 24hours there have been a lot of posts about Microsoft’s Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Craig Mundie, claiming that “Microsoft has had a similar capability in Windows Phone for more than a year… All that is already there, fully functionality for years.”

With Siri, Apple managed to humanise the synthesized voice with comedic responses. With more functionality like setting alarms and geo-fenced reminders, scheduling meetings and more, Tellme is really not the same thing. WP7 voice functionality still feels like last generation voice commands, regardless of how Microsoft try and sell it.

The problem isn’t with marketing as the video suggests, but rather the lack of a response to Siri. Tellme was probably on-par with Apple’s voice controls like “Play Artist xyz” in iOS4, but with Siri, Apple takes it to the next level. Microsoft needs to respond by releasing an update and not only match the functionality of Siri, but surpass it to draw attention and be a point of difference for potential smart phone buyers.

Also its worth keeping in mind that Siri is still in beta. While we are yet to see an update, when it arrives, it’s likely to add even more voice controlled functionality. Make no mistake, the race is on to be the first to deliver an OS-wide voice command API that 3rd party applications can integrate with. When that happens, it will be a game changer.

The video below graphically demonstrates the difference between the two voice systems, you be the judge.

Update
More than 500,000 people have now watched this video, you’re an opinionated lot. Below is a video responding to some of the comments.

In one of the coolest uses of technology, VIPER SmartStart from Directed Electronics allows your to unlock and start your car’s engine remotely. Using either iPhone, Android or Blackberry, the VIPER app communicates with your car to lock and unlock your doors, pop the boot, sound a panic alarm and even start your engine !

Just to show off, the guys at Directed Electronics recently set a world record by starting a vehicle remotely from 16,000kms away ! Why you would ever want to do that is beyond me, but hey if it impresses your friends, good for you.

To get this magic to work we clearly need hardware in the car to communicate with the vehicle electronic systems and your smart phone app. This is done with the purchase and installation of a SmartStart DSM250i module into the vehicle. Unfortunately there’s a yearly subscription to pull off this futuristic functionality.

The Viper SmartStart module will be available in early November 2011, available from selected retail outlets for A$399 plus installation. Subscriptions start at $69 per year up to $129 for the GPS tracking, so as usual, being on the bleeding edge of technology comes at a premium. Still this is kind of awesome, if you get a Christmas bonus, you may want to consider the VIPER StartSmart and impress your friends.

More info @ vipersecurity.com.au