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Aaron Gingrich

Aaron is a geek who has always had a passion for technology. When not working or writing, he can be found spending time with his family, playing a game, or watching a movie.

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Mar

[Weekend Poll] What Do You Primarily Use Your Tablet For?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in News

This is the latest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see Is Google Play A Smart Rebranding Or A Bad Miscalculation?

Two years after Steve Jobs famously started the tablet race with the original iPad, they remain a controversial subject. There are those who use and enjoy them on a daily basis - some of whom consider it a necessity, others a luxury. And then there are those who consider them useless to some degree or another, not worth virtually any realistic cost.

This week's particular poll is oriented towards those who fall into the former category, and now own a tablet.

Mar

NVIDIA and BioWare Release Mass Effect 3 LWP For Tegra Devices: It's Not Fancy, But If You Like Mass Effect, You'll Probably Love It Anyway

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, News

Those who know me or follow me on Google+ know that I love Mass Effect. Actually, that may be a bit of an understatement; I've had 4 characters that played every single mission and side-mission in both the first and second game, and I just finished the trilogy a few days ago. And now, I have a new way to show my love: with a new Mass Effect 3 live wallpaper (LWP) from NVIDIA and BioWare.

What makes this particular wallpaper "live"? Two things: the reapers falling down from the sky (those meteor-looking things you see in the shots above), and the scrolling - no matter your system scroll speed, it moves a little slower and more rubber-bandy.

Mar

[Updated: Here Are The Winners!] Book Giveaway #15: Win One Of Ten Copies Of "Android Apps With App Inventor," Easily Build Apps Like A Pro, Profit

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Contests / Giveaways, Development

Last Updated: March 22nd, 2012

Those of you from the early days of Android may remember App Inventor - a Google project that allowed people to create apps for Android by dragging and dropping bits of code - no programming experience required. More recently, Google transferred the App Inventor to MIT, where it was open sourced. But the App Inventor (AI) is still a bit tricky to just open and jump right in to - a proper guide through the AI would allow someone to utilize its full potential, and create more complex apps in less time.

Luckily, our friends at InformIT have such a guide - and we've got 10 copies to give away.

Mar

HTC Goes Even More Officially Official With ICS Update List On Their Blog, Reminds Us Which 16 Devices Will Get It

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in HTC, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

At this point, the list of HTC devices that will receive ICS isn't new - they initially announced most of them via Facebook on February 9, and expanded the list a little (again via Facebook) just over a week later. Now, the company has posted the list on the HTC Blog. While there are no surprises to be found, at least they're going super official with the announcement - and putting things in nice list form:

Here’s the scoop. The following HTC devices are confirmed to get a tasty treat of Ice Cream Sandwich:

DROID Incredible 2 by HTC

HTC Amaze 4G

HTC Desire S

HTC Desire HD

HTC EVO 3D

HTC EVO Design 4G

HTC Incredible S

HTC Sensation

HTC Sensation XL

HTC Sensation 4G

HTC Sensation XE

HTC Raider

HTC Rezound

HTC Rhyme

HTC Thunderbolt

HTC Vivid

The company provides no real guide for timing aside from the Sensation devices, whose update will be rolling out over to carriers over the next few weeks.

Mar

Official NCAA March Madness App Released For Android With Impressive Features In Tow - But Some Device/OS Restrictions

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, News

March Madness officially begins tomorrow (March 13), and before all is said and done on April 2, a whopping 67 games will have been played. It's tough to keep up with the sheer number of games going on, but it just got a whole lot easier thanks to the fresh-on-the-market official app, NCAA March Madness Live.

The app is free, and offers an impressive list of features:

- Live game radio of all 67 games
- Live social chatter for teams in every game
- Fill out your official NCAA Bracket Challenge bracket right from your Android
- Track the entire bracket live throughout the tournament
- Get alerts for upsets, overtimes, crunch time (close games), and your favorite teams
- Post directly to Facebook and Twitter
- Use My Channels to see where each game is on all four networks – TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV

You can also upgrade the package in-app for $3.99, which allows you to:

- Watch the NCAA Basketball Selection Show live on Sunday, March 11
- Watch LIVE streaming of all 67 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament games
- Watch a live stream of team practices for the Final Four®
- Watch highlights of all 67 games; highlights available right after each game
- Take it with you: Buy it once and use the March Madness Live account you create to login and watch on your computer.

Mar

[Weekend Poll] Is "Google Play" A Smart Rebranding Or Bad Miscalculation?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Polls

Last Updated: March 18th, 2012

This is the latest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see How Much Built In Storage Do You Need In A Tablet?

Earlier this week, Google revealed a sweeping revamp to their content offerings when they rebranded them as, collectively, Google Play. Though David argued that the rebranding was as a whole a good thing, the general consensus from those who have an opinion (and are voicing it via social media and public forums) is pretty negative. "Play" makes a lot more sense from a general marketing and sales standpoint (it removes "Android" from the equation, which makes it easier for people to understand that the services are not exclusive to the OS).

Mar

SetCPU Updated To 2.3, Brings Major UI Overhaul, Many Related Improvements

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Development, News

To any hardcore modder, overclocking (or underclocking) your CPU is one of the best ways to get the most from your device. While some popular ROMs now have the ability to control your CPU baked in, many don't - and in the earlier days, virtually none did. Enter SetCPU - the de facto standard.

The app has long been a favorite, picking up 100,000-500,000 downloads at $1.99 and over 17,000 ratings for an average of 4.5 stars. There's good reason for that: it offers a huge range of ways to tweak your CPU, including profiles, clock speed, voltage settings, and more.

Mar

GO Weather Widget Released, Brings Beautiful, Simple Weather To Your GO Launcher EX Home Screen

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, News

The GO team is, by now, pretty well known - and for good reason. They offer an unbelievable number of ways to overhaul your phone - such as GO SMS Pro, GO Contacts, and GO Keyboard - not to mention dozens of themes for all of their apps. But they are perhaps most well known for GO Launcher EX, and the tons of widgets (and more!) Now, they've released a new one to go with the Launcher: GO Weather Widget.

Three widget sizes are offered (as shown in the left image above): 4x2, 4x1, and 1x1.

Mar

[Weekend Poll] How Much Built-In Storage Do You Need In A Tablet?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Polls, Tablets

When Asus chose to release the Transformer Prime only in 32GB ($499) and 64GB ($599) models, I couldn't help but scratch my head over the lack of a $399 16GB model. Presumably it was because either the 16GB original Transformer didn't sell nearly as well as the 32GB version, or because the company was trying to market the TP as a more upmarket device. Whatever the case, it's had me thinking (especially in light of all the new tablets that were announced during MWC): how much storage is enough for the average person?

Specifically, if you were going to buy a tablet, what size option would you choose?

Mar

[Update: Live!] Poweramp Has A Good Year, Goes $1.99 For 48 Hours To Celebrate

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Deals, News

The official press release said "This sale will begin Friday at 12PM EST," but they actually meant 12 PM CST.

To say that Poweramp is a major fan favorite music player is to put it mildly; the app has over 10 million downloads, and with over 146,500 ratings, checks in at an impressive 4.5 stars (out of 5). That's probably thanks in part to an impressive feature list:

Key Features:
- plays mp3, mp4/m4a (including alac), ogg, wma*, flac, wav, ape, wv, tta, mpc, aiff (* some wma pro files may require NEON support)
- 10 band optimized graphical equalizer for all supported formats, presets, custom presets
- separate Bass and Treble adjustment
- stereo eXpansion, mono mixing, balance
- crossfade
- gapless
- replay gain
- plays songs from folders and from own library
- dynamic queue
- lyrics support, including lyrics search via musiXmatch plugin
- embed and standalone .cue files support
- support for m3u, m3u8, pls, wpl playlists
- OpenGL based cover art animation
- downloads missing album art
- 4 configurable widget types
- configurable lock screen with optional Direct Unlock
- headset support, automatic Resume on headset and/or BT connection (can be disabled in settings)
- scrobbling
- tag editor
- visual themes, including support for external/3rd party skins
- fast library scan
- high level of customization via settings

In celebration of their success, the developers are dropping the price for 48 hours (from Friday at 12PM CST to Sunday at 12PM CST), from $4.99 to $2.49 - and they "might drop that to $1.99 if [they] get enough people excited for this sale." What are you waiting for?