November 2011 Archives

Nov

Tip: Is Your Android Market App Loading Slowly, Especially On Wi-Fi? Give This Fix A Try

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Applications, Tips

The intrepid folks over at XDA are always tinkering away to try and make using your Android device a better experience. And a few weeks ago, one of them (namely, temasek) found that the Android Market has some issues trying to resolve DNS servers when your device is connected over Wi-Fi. This can cause the Market to load slowly, and it's definitely something I've experienced on my own phone.

The solution? A popular app called Set DNS (note: root is required), which forces your phone or tablet to use a particular name server when connecting to the web, may speed up load times over Wi-Fi.

Nov

Did Sprint's October 31st Network Updates Turn Out To Be Real? We're Seeing Massive Improvements In 3G Speeds In Some Areas - How About You?

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in EVO 3D (Shooter), News, Sprint

Over the past week, I've been in contact with Sprint about the demise of their network's data speeds, especially in the 3G department. As many of you were also in the same boat, we saw quite a bit of interest and started collecting information on the situation, which resulted in this knowledge dump on Sunday - read it if you haven't yet done so.

Among the tidbits of info Sprint techs let out, one was especially interesting - a round of tower upgrades that were supposed to be completed on October 31st. We were skeptical. Many of you were as well.

Nov

Motorola XOOM 2 Ad Confirms Honeycomb And Pre-Christmas Launch, Will Likely Retail For $400

Posted by David Ruddock in Droid XYBOARD / XOOM 2, Motorola, News, Tablets

A page from a catalog of the popular UK mobile retailer Carphone Warehouse was recently leaked, and it clearly states the Motorola XOOM 2 will be available in the UK in time for Christmas.

The catalog was intended for the Irish market, and thus the price has been listed in Euros as €399. Generally, prices in Euros and GBP for consumer electronics aren't reflective of exchange rates when attempting to determine a comparable price in the US - we're fairly certain the XOOM 2 will retail for $400 here in the US of A. And as Motorola is an American company (and we've apparently seen the XOOM 2 in Verizon's internal product system), we can probably expect it will launch here a little earlier than in foreign markets.

Nov

[Deal Alert] Toshiba Thrive 16GB For $330 From eBay Daily Deals

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Deals, News, Thrive / Regza / Antares / AT100

With quad-core devices on the horizon, the current crop of Honeycomb-powered tablets may seem like old hat -- unless you can score one for a reasonable price, that is. Thus is the case for the Toshiba Thrive, which landed itself a place on eBay's Daily Deals site today. For a modest $330 you can grab the Thrive and its ports-o-plenty, along with 16GB of storage, a 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of RAM, and Android 3.1.

This is by far the best price that we've seen on the Thrive -- no less than $75 cheaper than the previously posted deal.

Nov

Duke Nukem 3D Lands In The Android Market, Brings Back 1996 With Style

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Games, News

For the past two weeks, we've been chomping at the bit for some good, old fashioned 1991-style ass-kicking-action. The kind of retro goodness that takes you back to the days of old while simultaneously filling your blood-lust as you saving the Earth's women from being alien-abducted for purposes of breeding. Yeah, I'm talking about none other than Duke Nukem 3D.

The official port of DN3D landed in the Market earlier today, ready to rock your world on all "newer multi-touch devices." It's optimized for phones and tablets, boasts intuitive touch controls, and installs to SD by default. The $0.99 pricetag will get you Episode 1, but if that's not enough action for you, episodes 2 and 3 are both available via in-app purchasing.

Nov

[New Game Review] Cosmonauts Makes Fighting Galactic Evil Fun, Social, And Kind Of Cute

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Game Reviews, Games

Superplay games made its first entry into the Android Market recently with Cosmonauts, a cartoony outer space “turn-based combat” game which spoofs cold-war drama by pitting you against a galactic superpower aiming to conquer space itself.

At A Glance

Cosmonauts is an amusing game that’s easy to pick up and play at any time. It offers familiar three-stars-per-level gameplay, but also allows for combat against real players. If you want to play with a friend, Cosmonauts offers a pass-and-play option, meaning you and your opponent share a device. Alternately, you can choose to be paired up with a random opponent for online gameplay.