If you’re a bit on the HARDCORE side of things when it comes to Android, you’ll be happy to hear that a power-user of Android forum Modaco has successfully “rooted” the HTC Desire – and published an exhaustive step-by-step guide on how to do it yourself.

The HTC Desire features the dreaded “perfected” bootloader, meaning rooting a Desire is not a simple task. It involves the long-winded “Goldcard” process, which is rather complex and not something we’d really advise – or even attempt ourselves.

Still, it gives us an opportunity to use the HTC Desire stock image, and it’s been a while:

The full guide on how to root your HTC Desire can be found over at Modaco, should you not be bothered about the possibility of bricking the brand new phone you fought so hard to secure – and are contractually obliged to continue paying for over the next 24 months whether it works or not.

No offence, Garmin-Asus, but we suspect we’ll be adding the A10 to our year-end round up of the phones that failed to make much of an impact on the European Android marketplace.

At least the renowned satnav company is innovating in the GPS area, with the A10 having been “optimized for pedestrian navigation” according to the company, although the idea of using a map that isn’t Google Maps these days shocks us TO THE VERY CORE. The A10 also features Garmin’s clever cityXplorer system, which works like this:

“The A10 also supports optional cityXplorer™ maps, which makes it possible to plan and use routes that include public transit options such as bus, tramway, metro and suburban rail systems”

That’s nice. Here’s the phone:

Elsewhere, you get a standard 3.2″ HVGA screen, a slightly above standard 1500mAh battery, a 5megapixel camera with image geo-tagging tools, plus Garmin claims to have enabled “multi-touch” features in its version of the Android WebKit browser – plus it’s fully Microsoft Exchange compatible.

Link via Engadget, which has the entire press release if you’re into that level of detail.

We don’t yet have any network details for this oddly-curvaceous new Android phone, but maker LG told the internet yesterday that it’ll be ready to ship to the UK during May. Looks a bit “Orange” to us. Here’s how LG’s mobile president Dr Skott Ahn described the Optimus:

“This is a device that was designed for regular people who want to jump into the smartphone experience but have been hesitant to do so because of the learning curve. By making LG Optimus more approachable, we hope more people will give smartphones a try”

Spec-wise the GT540 is indeed a bit on the “mainstream” side of things, offering a 3megapixel camera and Android 1.6, with the OS adapted to allow four home screens rather than 1.6′s standard three – plus LG supplies its own social networking tool which streams your Facebook, Twitter and, er, Bebo accounts all into the one unified widget.

LG’s so confident the phone will be a success it’s even gone so far as to register a custom domain name for it. That’s long-term commitment for you right there. Here’s the promotional video:

We’re going out on a limb here and saying LG is perhaps aiming this one at the ladies. Here’s the spec list, for the benefit of you MEN:

- Long-lasting 1500mAh battery
- Android 1.6 OS
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- Bluetooth 2.1 capability
- Assisted GPS
- 32GB of expandable microSD memory
- Automatic account synchronisation with all Google mobile services
- DivX and Xvid video compatibility
- 4 customisable home screen themes

Leading stats generator AdMob has just released its smartphone market share data for March 2010. The most obvious headline from the report is the DOMINATION of the Motorola DROID, thanks to its roaring success in North America – leading to DROID accounting for an astonishing 32% of all global Android traffic during March 2010. Wow.

Google’s Nexus One, meanwhile, accounted for a mere 2%, while the HTC Hero is in second place thanks to its European successes and wide availability. Here are a few more stats from the AdMob report:

Motorola Droid was the leading Android handset in March 2010 generating 32 percent of Android traffic, while the Google Nexus One drove only two percent of Android traffic.

At least 54 percent of Android traffic came from devices with a QWERTY keyboard.

Three devices – the iPhone 3GS (39 percent), second generation iPod touch (25 percent) and iPhone 3G (20 percent) – generated 84 percent of total iPhone OS traffic.

iPhone 3GS traffic share has increased from 30 percent in September 2009 to 39 percent in March 2010. The 1st Generation iPhone only generated 2 percent of iPhone OS requests in March 2010.

Total worldwide traffic in AdMob’s network increased 18 percent month-over-month.

The full data PDF has gone live over on AdMob’s Metrics Blog, if you want to read much, much more and see what other meat you can pick out of its bones.

AdMob always puts together such lovely graphs. This one shows global Android traffic sorted by handset type. You can read the full press release here (reproduced below), or get the bullet-point interpretation over at TechCrunch.

AdMob March 2010 Metrics Report Examines Growing Diversity of Android Devices

11 Devices Account for 96 Percent of Android OS Traffic in March 2010, Up From Two Devices in September 2009

SAN MATEO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–AdMob, one of the world’s largest mobile advertising networks, takes a closer look at Android Operating System (OS) traffic in its March 2010 AdMob Mobile Metrics Report. The report finds the diversity of devices in the Android ecosystem is increasing, driven by the launch of new devices from different manufacturers with various form factors, capabilities, and OS versions over the past seven months. In contrast, the iPhone OS runs on devices from a single manufacturer, a single form factor (until the launch of the iPad in April), and all devices have the ability to upgrade OS versions.

In March 2010, there were 34 Android devices from 12 manufacturers available to consumers.* In AdMob’s network in March 2010, 11 devices accounted for 96 percent of Android traffic, up from two devices in September 2009. The three primary versions of the Android OS all drove significant traffic in March 2010 – Android 1.5 (38 percent), Android 2.0/2.1 (35 percent) and Android 1.6 (26 percent). Motorola and HTC were the leading Android device manufacturers with 44 percent and 43 percent of respective traffic.

Read the full article »