Another point to Sprint for now supporting rooted Android devices. Sprint sent out a new policy for their customer support for handling Rooted Android devices that can still allow warranty service to be active even when rooted. Most carriers will tell you that your rooted device is not supported anymore and that your warranty is gone but now Sprint has taken action to be different and improve their customer support.

The new policy states that the representative should make sure that the user is aware of the risks involved in rooting their devices such as irreparable damages, inoperablity of the device and data customization loss that can be incurred. This being said they will still open a ticket documenting the issues and try to resolve the issues. In some cases if the issue cannot be fixed they are now authorized to actually exchange the device.

Sprints Policy Handling Rooted Devices(ASC):

1. Educate the user on the risks involved in rooting their device
   • rooting can cause irreparable damage to the device
   • rooting can result in an inoperable device
   • rooting may result in all customer data and customizations being lost
2. Open an eTicket and document the specific issues with the device. Also note that the device is suspected of being rooted.
3. Attempt to resolve the issue by reloading the device software
4. If the issue cannot be resolved, exchange the device per standard Advanced Exchange procedures. NOTE: Refer to AE Transactions M&P for more information.

While Sprint may or may not replace the device if damage is caused by rooting it they are making an attempt to help even those that root and mod. Sprint has proven to be loyal to its customers and has proven to be a favorite carrier for Android devices. This could cause an increase in the molding community supporting Sprint devices along with building a better relationship between Sprint and their customers.

Over the past few months we have seen Samsung file trademarks for three new Galaxy names to increase brand focus for their Galaxy series. The most recent three names registered by Samsung are the Galaxy Metrix, Galaxy Legend and Galaxy Velvet. Just because Samsung has registered the names does not mean they will ever use them although there is a good chance we could see at least one of the names used on a new device this year.

While Samsung has registered many names after the release of a device the three this time have not been seen or heard of before. They resemble models that other manufacturers have released although now have the addition of the Galaxy trademark to make them a Samsung branded name. Who knows maybe these will be carrier specific names for the Galaxy S III, only time will tell.

UPDATE: We still aren’t sure what these domain names have been registered for although we do know they have nothing to do with the Galaxy SIII.  As we find more information on these registered names we will be sure to let you know.

Samsung Galaxy Metrix Confirmed
The Galaxy Metrix has been confirmed as a 4G LTE Android handset.  This is a lower end device that will come with the outdated Android 2.3 Gingerbread and no hardware that seems worth mentioning.  I will say that if your looking for a hardware keyboard that you may actually look at this one.  Also U.S. Cellular will get this device meaning it would be the first of the year for the carrier.  This could be your only option in that case.  Price looks to be around $179.

Still No word on the Galaxy Legend

Still No word on the Galaxy Velvet

We will keep an eye on these brands and let you know if anything come up although its been a while now so I wouldn’t hold my breath.  Sometimes companies grab the names because they are debating on using them and could have possibly bought them simply because Legend and Velvet were two other names they were considering for the Galaxy Metrix 4G.

While we have seen Google’s Android OS grow rapidly with 850,000 activated devices daily and over 50% of the market share does Google make much from it? All reports currently show that Google still makes more from iOS than its own Android OS. The reports that we have dove into show that Google makes not only more but almost four times more from iOS than Android.

Where does Google make their money with iOS you might be thinking? Well since Google is a search company and not a software company they are profiting from iPhone and iPad from ad revenue.

“seeing a huge positive revenue impact from mobile, which has grown 2.5 times in the last 12 months to a run rate of over $2.5bn.” Notice how he used the word, “mobile?”

Asymco has charted out revenue difference based on operating system and it seems 2010 was crazy for iOS and very slow for Android:

While they may be in competition Google does not have ill thoughts toward Apple’s iOS. Since it looks as though iOS is easily Google’s largest revenue generator for mobile income we can assume they will continue to offer iOS search capabilities.

ARM has announced their first chip that has four A15 cores called the ARM Cortex A15 Hard Macro. This release comes from the need to keep up with the Android need to have weekly new technologies to stay the market leader. ARM promises that their Cortex A15 Hard Macro chip is easily installed and has a low cost.

The ARM Cortex A15 quad core chipset runs at 2GHz with the power consumption staying the same as their A9 Hard Macro running at 20,000 DMIPS. This means much better performance without sacrificing battery life. We have not been aware of a release date for the new chip nor the devices we might see it in but will keep you updated as we find out.

ARM’s Press Release on the new Chip:

Power-optimized implementation of quad-core hard macro on leading 28nm process

CAMBRIDGE, UK – April 17, 2012- ARM today announced the availability of a high performance, power-optimized quad-core hard macro implementation of its flagship ARM® Cortex™-A15 MPCore™ processor.

The ARM Cortex-A15 MP4 hard macro is designed to run at 2GHz and delivers performance in excess of 20,000DMIPS, while maintaining the power efficiency of the Cortex-A9 hard macro. The Cortex-A15 hard macro development is the result of the unique synergy arising from the combination of ARM Cortex processor IP, Artisan® physical IP, CoreLink™ systems IP and ARM integration capabilities, and utilizes the TSMC 28HPM process.

The low leakage implementation, featuring integrated NEON™ SIMD technology and floating point (VFP), delivers an extremely competitive balance of performance and power and is ideal for wide array of high-performance computing applications for such as notebooks through to power-efficient, extreme performance-orientated network and enterprise devices.

The hard macro was developed using ARM Artisan 12-track libraries and the recently announced Processor Optimization Pack™ (POP) solution for the Cortex-A15 on TSMC 28nm HPM process. This follows the recent announcement of a broad suite of POPs for all Cortex-A series processors (see ARM Expands Processor Optimization Pack Solutions for TSMC 40nm and 28nm Process Variants, 16th April 2012)

Full configuration and implementation details will be presented at the Cool Chipsconference (18-20 April) in Yokohama, Japan. Further information is contained in anaccompanying blog.

“For SoC designers looking to make a trade-off between the flexibility offered by the traditional RTL-based SoC development strategy and a rapid time to market, with ensured, benchmarked power, performance and area, an ARM hard macro implementation is an ideal, cost-effective solution,” said Jim Nicholas, vice president of Marketing, processor division, ARM. “This new Cortex-A15 hard macro is an important addition to our portfolio and will enable a wider array of partners to leverage the outstanding capabilities of the Cortex-A15 processor.”