The Verizon Fascinate is the fourth member of the Galaxy S class of Android smartphone to be released in the United States. And like its cousins, it has its share of tweaks that make it stand out. Some of those tweaks are good. Others are causing those of us in Nerdom to shake our fists in frustration.

After the break, our initial impressions of the Samsung Fascinate on Verizon, including our hands-on video.

Posted originally at Android Central

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It looks like the official boot animation for the R2-D2 Droid 2 has hit the web. We broke the news a few weeks about the phone's Sept. 30 release date. As we move closer to the launch date, we're pretty sure more and more little surprises should start showing up. If you really want the little walking trash can on your phone right now, Droid Life has also uploaded the boot animation zip file here. 

Full video after the break to get those midichlorians pumping in your veins. Oh, and may the force be with you. [Droid Life]

Posted originally at Android Central

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It's that time, folks. The Verizon Samsung Fascinate is now available online for $199.99 after two-year contract and mail-in rebate. You're still going to have to wait a day before it's in stores (or for them to ship it to you, for that matter). But what's a few more hours, right? [Verizon] Thanks, Kyle!

Oh, yeah. And it's buy-one-get-one. But you already knew that, right?

Posted originally at Android Central

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The Verizon Samsung Fascinate is finally official, there's plenty of chatter -- good and bad -- going on in the forums. Here's what you should be paying attention to:

• By now we've all heard that Bing is the default search engine, and you can't even load Google. Or can you?
• And what about GPS? Will it struggle like on the Captivate and Vibrant? Find out here.
• And then there's the matter of program storage.
• Looking to buy it off contract? Check out the discussion on full retail price.

We'll see you in the forums!

Posted originally at Android Central

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Whoopsie. Looks like when Best Buy showed off the Verizon Samsung Gem in its buyer's guide, it did so a little prematurely. It's unknown whether the correction you see above means the phone's not happening, or if it's just postponed. Stay tuned, folks. Thanks, bxojr.

Posted originally at Android Central

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None of this could come as any surprise to any of you, seeing as how we've broken the launch info on the Verizon Samsung Fascinate several times over now. But here it is anyway, all official-like (mostly): One sale online tomorrow (Wednesday) for $199.99 after contract and $100 rebate, in stores Thursday. Exactly like we told you.

A couple other nuggets of note: The desktop dock is going for $29.99, the car dock for $39.99, and there's a "backup battery charging system" (a spare 1500mAh battery, charger and cable to charging it an your phone at the same time) for $39.99.

And about that "mostly official-like" line: We've got the entire press release after the break, but the source link has since died, so take that how you want. Or just bask in the knowledge that you're an Android Central reader and have known most of this for days now. [PR Newswire]

Update: And it's officially official again.

Posted originally at Android Central

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Accept no substitutes, folks: We brought you the first news that the Verizon Fascinate is coming Sept. 9. Hell, we followed it up with two more pieces of confirmation just a day later. We've brought you live pictures and benchmarks specs. We've brought you the listing in Verizon's inventory system. And we're the ones who brought you the wallpapers and ringtones in the form of a system dump. (And that's not even counting our official hands-on at the launch event in New York City.)

What's that, you say? You want more? How about even more confirmation of the Sept. 9 launch date, in the form of the screen shot above. It doesn't get more plain than that, now does it? Add to that a story at Phonedog that says the Sept. 9 date can be seen on that recent Fascinate commercial (for the life of us, we can't actually see it, though), and we think things are pretty well set. Thanks, Dallin!

Update: Our man Jared caught the Sept. 9 date on the commercial, too, on TV. So there you go.

Posted originally at Android Central

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Remember when we reported Amazon was selling the Captivate and Vibrant for insane discounts? Well, Amazon has many other Android phones available for purchase now at far below what you will find in any carrier store or website. You do have to be a new customer to the carrier to get the price, but this should make it easier than ever to jump your current carrier's ship for that new Android phone you have been craving. We've rounded 'em all up for you after the break. [Amazon]

Posted originally at Android Central

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If there's ever been any doubt that Verizon is the current king of Android, you can put it to rest now. The HTC PD42100 -- a horizontal slider dual CDMA/GSM "world phone" that we've seen once before -- has made its way through the Federal Communications Commission. In addition to being able to work overseas, it's sporting Wifi b/g/n a 4-inch display, and possibly one of the fastest processors ever crammed into a production phone. (We'll have to see on that, of course.) And then, of course, there is the keyboard. If anybody knows how to make a horizontal slider, it's HTC.

No word on pricing or availability just yet, but we're going to sit here waiting, not so patiently, for this guy.[FCC via Engadget]

Posted originally at Android Central

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A new device means new goodies, and this time we don't have to wait for the Samsung Fascinate to launch before we get a peek at it's innards.  We have the full system dump for you hackery types, as well as a bevy of new wallpapers and system sounds for the rest of us to enjoy:

• Full Fascinate system dump 
• Fascinate wallpapers
• Fascinate system sounds

Now all that's missing is a unit in our hands.  Big props to our mystery man for this Android treasure trove!  [Android Central Forums] 

Posted originally at Android Central

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