Rooting your Android device will prevent you from seeing movies rented from the Android Market

Earlier this month, we reported that some Android device holders will be able to rent movies in the Android Market. Right now, only those owning a MotorolaXOOM with Android 3.1 have access to the service, but soon those with a device powered by Android 2.2 or higher will have the opportunity to pay $1.99 to $3.99 to rent a movie for up to 30 days with a 24 hour viewing clock that counts down once you start watching the movie. Well, that is, unless you have rooted your Android phone or tablet.

Those with the Android 3.1 flavored Motorola XOOM who have rooted their tablet are seeing an error message that reads, " "Failed to fetch license for [movie title] (error 49)" when trying to rent a movie from the application. In a response to a question about the error message, Google says that, "rooted devices are currently unsupported due to requirements related to copyright protection." What doesn't seem to make sense is that Google blames the movie studios for creating this policy while other rental services like Netflix and iTunes will work on rooted devices.

Turning Your Palm Into an Invisible Phone

Phones have gone from brick-sized to palm-sized, but a new breakthrough turns people's actual palms into phones.

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Researchers from the Hasso Plattner Institute in Postdam, Germany are working on a system that allows iPhone users to perform certain actions on their phone without even having the device in hand. In place of the phone, the person controls the device using their finger and the palm of their hand.

The key to the breakthrough is a depth-sensitive camera, similar to Microsoft's Kinect peripheral camera for its Xbox 360, which views a user's palm while they are tapping and sliding their finger. The system analyzes the data and wirelessly transmits instruction to the iPhone.

The prototype "serves as a shortcut that frees users from the necessity to retrieve the actually physical device," said Patrick Baudisch, a professor at the institute.

Researchers say this technology can, for example, help someone who is washing dishes. When their phone rings, rather than drying their hands off, the person could simply use a finger on their palm to silence the ring, or answer the call.

The camera will be the biggest obstacle for Baudisch and his team. Currently, a camera is mounted on a tripod that views the person's hand gestures and sends signals back to the iPhone itself. Baudisch and his team are working on a way to eliminate the tripod before the system hits the market.

The easiest solution would be to include glasses that allow the person's hand to be videotaped. Drawbacks for this include people who wear prescription glasses, or those who simply don't want to use eyewear to control their phone.

Although the complete absence of a device is a breakthrough, other phone makers have attempted to develop see-through devices in the past. In 2009, LG unveiled the GD9000, a mobile phone with a transparent keypad, while Aston Martinreleased the CPT002, which features a transparent touch screen with a platinum frame, containing the nuts and bolts of the device.

Developers are looking at new ways users can interact with their phones, and many see voice commands as the next logical step. Google already includes voice commands on its Android devices, while rumors have suggested the next version of Apple's iOS could include voice command ability as well.

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HTC Flyer Unboxing

Regarded as one of the premier titans in the smartphone industry, it’s almost hard to imagine not seeing HTC joining the foray that’s easily surrounding the highly competitive tablet market right now, but chiming in at the nick of time, the HTC Flyer is finally here giving the Taiwan based company their offering. Although it can be seen as a late venture, especially when you factor in the wealth of tablets out there now, the Flyer is trying to differentiate itself from the pack by attempting to bring back an accessory once perceived to be a must-have with touchscreens – the stylus.

Being a 7” tablet and all, we’re presented with a much more compact looking white packaging that’s relatively light with branding around its sides, but of course, an accurate sized image of the tablet is tastefully displayed right in front for all to see – thus giving the consumer a good idea of what to expect with its size. Flipping it over to its back,useful information such as its highlights and specifications are displayed to really place emphasis on what’s so great with it. However, opening up the box, we don’t find anything out of the ordinary that we’d commonly expect nowadays – like its usual set of documentation, wall charger, and microUSB cable.


For starters, the first thing to come to mind holding the HTC Flyer Wi-Fi is that it bears a resemblance to devices like the HTC Desire HD and Inspire 4G – mainly because of its unibody aluminum construction. Obviously, the high quality materials in use with it surely supplement its overall solid construction, however, it does make the tablet slightly on the heavy side. Regardless, we’re quite pleased thus far with it, and even more when most other 7-inch tablets we’ve seen are made out of plastic more than anything.


Even though the HTC Flyer is packing a single core 1.5GHz Snapdragon processor, as opposed to the dual-core tablets we’ve been seeing of late, it still manages to run smoothly in the short time of us handling it. Some of its other features include a 7” display with a resolution of 1,024 x 600, 1GB RAM, 5-megapixel rear camera, 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, aGPS, Bluetooth 3.0, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, microUSB port, and a microSD card slot. Despite not offering the tablet-optimized experience with Android 3.0 Honeycomb, the HTC Flyer is able to spruce things up with its latest version of Sense running on top of Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Moreover, it differentiates itself from most other tablets with its HTC Scribe technology – one that intricately makes use of an optional stylus.

Of course, we’ll be checking out what the HTC Flyer has to offer, but considering that it’s coming out of the gate with Gingerbread on board, as opposed to Honeycomb, we’ll see if its customized interface combined with Scribe technology can really still give us a decent table experience. Expect our in-depth review soon!

Apple denies Amazon's claims that “app store” term is generic

In a yet another twist to the lawsuit which has turned to be as close to a linguistic dispute as it gets, Apple denies Amazon’s claims that “app store” is a generic term. The exact statement? “Apple denies that, based on their common meaning, the words ‘app store’ together denote a store for apps,” the company commented in a filing for the federal court in Oakland, California. Thus, in Cupertino’s view, Amazon is infringing on the trademark for the term it coined.

Amazon uses the terms as one word, namely “appstore,” but Apple is reasoning that it’s not commonly accepted by business to denote a store for apps and that’s the exact reason for the lawsuit. The online retailer chose to use that exact term when rolling out its market for applications back in March. Cupertino replied with a lawsuit instantly and is now looking for a court order which would prevent Amazon from using the “appstore” for its application market.

The term “app store” has been trademarked by Apple, but other companies such as Microsoft have also stepped up against such a trademark referring to the generic nature of the whole term. What’s your stance on the matter? Feel free to share your opinion in the comments below.

Motorola Droid 3 confirmed to have a 4-inch screen, dual-core processor and 8-megapixel camera

We know the Motorola Droid 3 will be launched at some point this year. And while we don’t have all the details, we do have some preliminary information which sounds promising to say the least. Thanks to the TechnoBuffalo guys, some of the earlier information we got are now almost confirmed — that’s “almost” until we get the official press release.

Here’s what we know thus far about the Droid 3 – it will rock:

• 8-megapixel camera on the back
• 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera (for video calls)
• Dual-core processor – NVIDIA Tegra 2 or TI’s OMAP4430
• 4-inch qHD (540×960 pixels) touchscreen
• 5-row keyboard with dedicated row for numbers
• No LTE

Aside from the lack of LTE connectivity support, the Droid 3 may easily emerge as the best Android device with QWERTY keyboard. Needless to say – I want one! 

Verizon's LTE is OUT again

Whether you own the HTC ThunderBolt or the Samsung DROID Charge, you might be stuck using Verizon's 3G network for the time being. Reported outages of Verizon's LTE network have been received from Washington D.C. to as west as Phoenix, Arizona. So if you have been trying every trick in the book to get back that 4G speed that you have become accustomed to, you might as well sit back and wait for the problem to be resolved. After all, the last time Big Red's LTE service went out, it was back up and running fairly quickly.

If we can find one good thing to say about Verizon's 4G outage, at least it doesn't affect all of those new Motorola DROID X2 owners who bought the phone when it launched online yesterday. If you have been having problems with your 4G service with Verizon, let us know by dropping some words in the comment box below.

AT&T Sued for Overcharging on Data

AT&T is facing a lawsuit claiming the carrier overcharges customers for data, in a legal entanglement that could impact its plans to merge with T-Mobile.

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In a four-month study -- paid for by the law firm Thornton, Davis & Fein -- independent researchers found that AT&T overcharged iPhone and iPad users by anywhere from 3.5- up to 100-kilobytes of data, per 50-kilobytes.

Even phones that removed all data-grabbing apps still rung up charges, sometimes even on the wrong billing cycle.

"We were stunned to discover that AT&T billed for a phone which was left untouched for 10 days, incurring 35 data transactions totaling almost 3,000-kilobytes during that period," said Barry Davis of Thornton, Davis and Fein.

In response to the lawsuit, AT&T insists the company is billing customers correctly.

"We properly bill for all data that our customers send and receive, including data activity that runs in the background on smartphones and other powerful data devices," said Kelly Starling, an AT&T spokeswoman.

Since over 20 million Americans own iPhones and iPads, this class-action lawsuit could prove costly for AT&T. Besides the obvious financial ramifications of a settlement, the wireless carrier could suffer in more subtle ways too, if, for example, it was directed to charge less for its services as a result of the suit.

With a $39 billion merger with T-Mobile awaiting FCC approval, AT&T is walking on eggshells as it tries to convince detractors that the deal would benefit customers. Though the company has a powerful lobby, which this week met with venture capitalists and business people, AT&T must ultimately bow to the government's verdict on its proposal.

Testifying before Congress, AT&T made the case that its acquisition of T-Mobile will alleviate the spectrum crunch and bring 4G service to more consumers around the U.S. Although the merger would consolidate AT&T and Verizon's power into 80 percent of the wireless market, AT&T insisted smaller wireless carriers would keep cellular competition alive.

AT&T denies this charge, but today's lawsuit adds scrutiny for the wireless giant. Allegations that its current and past billing behavior has been anything but aboveboard could intensify attention on the company, since regulators are focusing on whether its future billing will be fair to consumers.

The FCC's jury is still out -- judging from its request for citizens' online input on the matter, the commission is willing to hear all sides of the story before making a decision. Rival Sprint is appealing loudly to Congress and even to individual states, saying the merger would give AT&T free license to charge customers as it pleased and create a virtual duopoly with Verizon.

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