You can now search the “Skype” software on the Android Market and download it for free. Most users are able to install and run the software flawlessly, except that the 8MB size software does not support APP2SD at the moment and some Galaxy S series users commented that they couldn’t run the software properly on the Galaxy S. Expect a fix from the company soon?

Skype today announced the release of Skype for Android™, a client for mobile handsets, built for smartphones running Android OS version 2.1 or above. With this latest release, the majority of smart phone users globally will now be able to experience the benefits of Skype on the move using either a WiFi or mobile data connection (GPRS, EDGE, 3G). Skype for Android is downloadable for free from the Android Market or consumers can visit www.skype.com/m to find out more details about how to get the application.

Skype for Android enables users to:

Make free Skype-to-Skype calls over WiFi or mobile data connection (GPRS, EDGE, 3G)* to other Skype users anywhere in the world using Skype’s SILK codec for CD-like audio quality.
Make low rate Skype calls to landline or mobile phones
Send and receive instant messages to one or a group of friends on Skype
Synchronize contacts between Skype and the native address book and after synchronization place Skype calls directly from the native address book.
See when Skype contacts are online and available to call or chat
Easily import names and numbers to the Skype application from the native address book
Receive calls on their Skype online number
Mark Douglas, Product Manager of Android said: “The Skype experience is ubiquitous today. More and more people are using Skype to do things together when apart. With the addition of Android, we are pleased that Skype is now available on three of the most popular mobile platforms today: Android, iOS and Symbian”

[via Android Community]

The Captivate provides a premium viewing experience on its large 4-inch display powered by Samsung’s Super AMOLED touch screen technology. Super AMOLED technology yields thinner displays, delivering one of the thinnest, most responsive full-featured smartphones in the industry. In addition, the Samsung Captivate is designed with a six-axis sensor that combines the smartphone’s accelerometer and gyroscope to provide a smooth, fluid gaming experience when the user is tilting the device up or down or panning the phone to the left or right. The Captivate’s user interface also supports a series of advanced touch screen gestures capabilities including multi-touch pinch, long tap and zoom and vertical and horizontal swiping.

The Captivate keeps users connected with Samsung’s Social Hub, which is built around Messaging and Contacts, both of which initiate the sending and receiving of information, whether it is e-mail, instant messaging, social network updates or SMS messages. Additionally, calendar information from portal calendars, such as Google Calendar, and social networking services are displayed together in one calendar with two-way synchronization. The familiar text messaging experience is enhanced with group messaging and “reply all” functionality for up to 10 contacts, a threaded conversations format, a consolidated inbox, and enhanced multi-media display.

In addition, the Captivate features best-in-class entertainment features, including future access to Samsung Media Hub, a full library of video and literary content powered by some of the biggest names in entertainment. Samsung Mobile looks forward to sharing additional information about Media Hub in the near future and the Captivate will feature a pre-loaded app that can take users to download Media Hub in the future. The Captivate features Samsung’s All Share application, which enables inter-device connectivity through DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) technology, allowing users to send user-generated video content wirelessly to other DLNA-enabled devices, such as TV’s, monitors and laptops, allowing for a rich, interactive entertainment experience.

The Captivate is packed full of features that enhance users’ daily life, including a 5.0-megapixel camera/ camcorder with auto-focus and HD video recording (720p), MP3 player, 3.5-millimeter headphone jack and expandable memory for photos, videos and music, up to 16 GB. This combined with an on-board 16 GB of storage allows for up to 32 GB of capacity for music and video.

[via android community]

The Vibrant’s 4-inch Super AMOLED touch screen display gives customers a vivid, sharp color HD-like viewing experience, whether consumers choose to play a game, watch a movie or read an e-book while on the go. Featuring a slim and sleek design, the Vibrant is one of the most portable and accessible mobile entertainment devices available to U.S. consumers. The speedy Samsung 1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird Application Processor and six-axis sensor are optimized for media and gaming, which gives consumers a seamless, immersive experience while reading, watching and playing. The Vibrant is also the latest smartphone in T-Mobile’s lineup that can benefit from enhanced speeds in locations with T-Mobile’s super-fast HSPA+ network.

The Samsung Vibrant’s assets go beyond its impressive entertainment features. Running Android 2.1, the Samsung Vibrant offers a seven-paned home screen and access to Android Market™ to personalize the device with 65,000 applications, including applications for social networking, gaming, travel and more. Samsung’s Social Hub service helps consumers to easily keep in touch with family and friends through integrated contacts, calendars, social networking sites and group messaging, including the ability to “reply all” for up to 10 contacts. The Vibrant also supports six languages: English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Italian and Korean.

The Vibrant delivers advanced phone features such as GPS functionality with access to turn-by-turn navigation and Swype® text input for fast, accurate communication. It also features a 5-megapixel camera with digital zoom and autofocus, and a video camera for recording crystal-clear, high-definition (720p) videos and photos for playback on an HD television. With support for up to 32 GB of external memory, the Vibrant provides ample space for consumers’ entertainment favorites. Consumers can customize their Vibrant with two battery cover options in dark blue and lavender that will come packaged exclusively with the T-Mobile device.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Full list of Android 2.2 Highlights from Google

Home

New Home screen tips widget assists new users on how to configure the home screen with shortcuts and widgets and how to make use of multiple home screens.

The Phone, applications Launcher, and Browser now have dedicated shortcuts on the Home screen, making it easy to access them from any of the 5 home screen panels.

Exchange support

Improved security with the addition of numeric pin or alpha-numeric password options to unlock device. Exchange administrators can enforce password policy across devices.

Remote wipe: Exchange administrators can remotely reset the device to factory defaults to secure data in case device is lost or stolen.

Exchange Calendars are now supported in the Calendar application.

Auto-discovery: you just need to know your user-name and password to easily set up and sync an Exchange account (available for Exchange 2007 and higher).

Global Address Lists look-up is now available in the Email application, enabling users to auto-complete recipient names from the directory.

Camera and Gallery

Gallery allows you to peek into picture stacks using a zoom gesture.

Camera onscreen buttons provide easy access to a new UI for controling zoom, flash, white balance, geo-tagging, focus and exposure. Camcorder also provides an easy way to set video size/quality for MMS and YouTube.

With the LED flash now enabled for the Camcorder, videos can be shot at night or in low light settings.

Portable hotspot

Certain devices like the Nexus One can be turned into a portable Wi-Fi hotspot that can be shared with up to 8 devices.

You can use your Android-powered phone as a 3G connection for a Windows or Linux laptop by connecting their phone to the computer with a USB cable. The connection is then shared between the two devices.

Multiple keyboard languages

Multi-lingual users can add multiple languages to the keyboard and switch between multiple Latin-based input languages by swiping across the space bar. This changes the keys as well as the auto-suggest dictionary.

Improved performance

Performance of the browser has been enhanced using the V8 engine, which enables faster loading of JavaScript-heavy pages.

Dalvik Performance Boost: 2x-5x performance speedup for CPU-heavy code over Android 2.1 with Dalvik JIT.

The graph to the right shows the performance speedup from Android 2.1 to Android 2.2 using various benchmark tests. For example, LinPack is now more than 5 times faster.

Kernel Memory Management Boost: Improved memory reclaim by up to 20x, which results in faster app switching and smoother performance on memory-constrained devices.

Bluetooth

Voice dialing over Bluetooth
Ability to share contacts with other phones
Support for Bluetooth enabled car and desk docks
Improved compatibility matrix with car kits and headsets

Android Cloud to Device Messaging

Apps can utilize Android Cloud to Device Messaging to enable mobile alert, send to phone, and two-way push sync functionality.

Android Application Error Reports

New bug reporting feature for Android Market apps enables developers to receive crash and freeze reports from their users. The reports will be available when they log into their publisher account.

Apps on external storage

Applications can now request installation on the shared external storage (such as an SD card).

Camera and Camcorder

New preview API doubles the frame rate from ~10FPS to ~20FPS. Camera now supports portrait orientation, zoom controls, access to exposure data, and a thumbnail utility. A new camcorder profile enables apps to determine device hardware capablities.

Graphics

New APIs for OpenGL ES 2.0, working with YUV image format, and ETC1 for texture compression.

Data backup

Apps can participate in data backup and restore, to ensure that users maintain their data after performing a factory reset or when switching devices.

Device policy manager

New device policy management APIs allow developers to write “device administrator” applications that can control security features on the device, such as the minimum password strength, data wipe, and so on. Users can select the administrators that are enabled on their devices.

UI framework

New “car mode” and “night mode” controls and configurations allow applications to adjust their UI for these situations. A scale gesture detector API provides improved definition of multi-touch events. Applications can now customize the bottom strip of a TabWidget.

Other than the upcoming black edition, the Desire has also got rooted by Paul @ Modaco this week. The root hacking will allow you to install custom ROM, though, the rooting procedure for HTC Desire is not quite straight forward and you will have to bear your own risk of bricking the phone. Click here to read all the posts related to HTC Desire.

The A10 is planned to be available in mid-2010 (in next 2 months?), it will reach Europe and Asia-Pacific during its initial launch.

[via Android Community]

The first of which, is the one you can find on Android Community. This is the in-depth, detailed review that you’ve come to expect. We get to see plenty of pictures, too, and there’s even a video! Basically, the Incredible is definitely the best Android-based handset you can buy in America, and as you read the review, you’ll get that picture painted very clear for you.

As for the review you’ll find on SlashGear, you’ll get a closer look at the differences, and some similarities between the Incredible, DROID by Motorola, and the HTC Nexus One. They show you you’ll be getting, and losing, if you decide to pick up the Incredible instead of either of the other devices. Though, we’d have to say that if you don’t pick up the Incredible, you’re simply asking to kick yourself later. Check out both reviews, and be sure to check out the videos still being posted right here. We know what we’ll be doing for the rest of the night.

Click here to view the embedded video.

[via SlashGear; via Android Community]