TheUnlockr News: 01.19.11 (Motorola Atrix Release Date, Starbucks App, Kongregate App, HTC Thunderbolt Release Info, and Samsung’s Galaxy S Evolution)

So first up is the Motorola Atrix 4G device headed to AT&T sometime in “quarter 1”. In case you missed it, it is probably one of the most anticipated Android phones to get announced at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month.

The phone features:

• a dual core Tegra processor
• a 4 inch display
• 1GB of RAM
• a 5MP rear facing camera and VGA front facing one
• running on Android 2.2
• and has a docking station that turns it into a laptop computer of sorts

Now the news that has come out this week about this device, is that Android Central seems to have gotten some more information on a possible release date. An anonymous tipster has sent in a leaked internal AT&T screen that shows such a device launching on March 1st. Further corroborating this info, according to Android Central, is a forums member on their site that mentioned the same date a day earlier. So with that, you AT&T Android fans can mark your calendars with this possible date.

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Next up, Kongregate, a flash games division of Gamestop that was bought by Gamestop last summer, has launched the Kongregate Arcade for Android. This “app”, if we want to call it that, is basically an Android Market that only displays Kongregate’s flash games. So you download the Kongregate Arcade app and then use it to download any of the 300 free flash games currently available. This is probably a smart idea for Kongregate as it allows them to only have to promote one app (the Arcade itself) for it to be found in the flooded Android Market. Then each individual game is only competing for discoverability with their own other games, sneaky, right? Either way, you can go check out the Arcade and it’s games for yourself by downloading it right now from the Market. Remember though that since they are Flash games, you need Adobe Flash on your phone.

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This next story is a tiny bit of news that myself, and I’m sure a lot of developers, might be interested in as we tend to solely function on Starbucks coffee. Starbucks has announced that they are extending a trial they had begun not too long ago for their Starbucks Card mobile app. The app allows you to basically use your mobile phone to pay for your latte. The phone app is attached to a Starbucks Card account and whenever you purchase anything from Starbucks you just show the barista the barcode that is on your phone’s screen, they scan it, and viola coffee paid for and deducted from your Starbucks Card balance.

At the moment, this app is only available for iPhones, iPod Touches, and certain Blackberry devices. Head to your prospective app store for the app.

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Up next, Samsung has sent out a teaser of sorts. It is an invitation to an event they will have at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on the 13th of February. The flier simply shows the Samsung Galaxy S and then next to it a sillouette of a phone that says “Evolution is Fate” on top of it. Now, we can guess from this that it’s some type of successor to the Samsung Galaxy S (duh) and that the evolution they are referring to is 4G data that all the carriers are talking about lately. So I think it’s pretty safe to say that this announcement will be a 4G successor to the Galaxy S and probably for multiple carriers.

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Last but not least, the HTC Thunderbolt. This was another device announced at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month. And as with the Motorola Atrix 4G, this device wasn’t given a release date. Apparently though, some Verizon training information on the device has been making it’s way around the internet in the form of a screenshot. Why do you care? Well generally it’s a rule that a if a carrier is training their employees on a new device, then it’s release is pretty imminent. This device may not have the amazing specs seen in some of the other devices announced at CES, in fact, it’s basically Verizon’s answer to the HTC Evo 4G that Sprint launched a while ago, but the one feature it does have that everyone is curious about is it’s support for Verizon’s LTE 4G network. Everyone is curious as to how fast that network is when trying to access it through a phone, instead of a USB modem. Guess we won’t have too long to wait, will we?

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