Aaron Gingrich - 7/72 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

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.

Follow @angingrich

Jul

ZTE Flash Details Leaked: Packs LTE And Today's Flagship Specs, Coming To Sprint In October

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Flash, News, ZTE

As we've seen occasionally in the past, ZTE is capable of producing a genuinely impressive budget phone. It looks like they're coming up to bat again, because some purported specs for an upcoming phone have leaked, and they certainly look impressive:

Android 4.0 (could be bumped up to 4.1 by release)
4.5" HD IPS Display (1280x720) with Gorilla Glass
LTE
1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 CPU (MSM8960)
12.6MP rear shooter, 1MP front
NFC
8GB storage + microSDXC
1GB RAM
Bluetooth 4.0
.38" (9.6mm) thick
Custom ZTE UI pictured

The specs largely match today's flagships, such as the US variants of the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S III - right down to using the exact same CPU.

Jul

[Deal Alert] Acer Iconia Tab A700 On Sale For Just $430, Full HD Screen And Tegra 3 In Tow

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Deals, Iconia A700

The Acer Iconia A700 may offer mediocre performance when compared to the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity (TF700), but it's also normally $50 cheaper than the TF700 - to those on a budget, that may be a worthy sacrifice. Perhaps doubly so now that it's on sale for just $430 on Amazon (compared to $500 for the TF700) - certainly an impressively low price for a 10" 1920x1200 tablet powered by a Tegra 3 CPU.

A reminder of the specs:

Display: 10.1" 1920x1200 TFT HD display
CPU: 1.3GHz quad-core Tegra 3 processor
RAM: 1GB DDR2
Storage: 32GB built-in storage, microSD card slot
Cameras: 5MP rear shooter, front-facing camera
Ports: microHDMI, microSD, microUSB
Battery: 9800mAh
OS: Android 4.0.3
Dimensions and weight: 6.9" x 10.2" x 0.4", 1.47lbs.

Jul

[Weekend Poll] In A Perfect World, Who Would Manufacture The Next Nexus Phone?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Polls

This is the latest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see Will You Buy Magazines From The Play Store?

Google usually releases a new Nexus phone in Q4, and we're already firmly into Q3 - which means the rumors should start heating up any day now. In fact, given just how little we've heard on the subject (presumably because everyone is too busy gushing over the Nexus 7), we should probably (hopefully) be hearing something any day now.

Our question to you is, if you could pick the manufacturer of the next Nexus phone, who would you choose?

Jul

[Quick Review] BBP Mobiband Bluetooth Headphones: A Budget Product With A Mid-Range Price

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Accessories, Other Reviews

Bluetooth may be a mature technology, but it's far from perfect. It follows, then, that headphones that use the standard would share the same imperfections in addition to their own. Such is the case with the Mobiband Bluetooth Headphones made by BBP; while they're certainly not bad, they're not good, either. Unfortunately, the performance simply doesn't justify the $60 price tag of the headphones. In fact, mediocrity is the theme across the board, which is unfortunate if not entirely surprising.

Take a look at Amazon and it becomes immediately obvious that BBP is a company that has made its name selling generic accessories and is now trying to move into new markets.

Jul

[Updated: Here Are The Winners!] Book Giveaway: Take Your Apps To The Next Level With Android Wireless Application Development Volume 2

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Contests / Giveaways, Development

Last Updated: July 29th, 2012

It seems like most books on developing for Android are geared towards beginners and those who are accustomed to developing for other platforms or using other languages, while fewer help you put that extra layer of polish and shine on your app. With hundreds of thousands of apps already on the market for you to compete with, that's exactly what you need: something to kick your app up a notch or two.

This contest is now over. Here are our winners, selected at random:

Cassi
Grant Shearer
Corneliu
Brandon White
Aditya
Kiran
eugene downing
Luke
Misty Fowler
Wam31

Congratulations, guys - all of you will be contacted for your information in the near future!

Jul

[Weekend Poll] Will You Buy Magazines From The Play Store?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in News, Polls

This is the latest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see Do You Intend To Buy A Nexus 7?

We're picking up on the sub-series of polls on your use of the Play store from a few weeks ago, but with a new twist: magazines. Prior to I/O 2012, pretty much nobody used the Play store for movies and music (though Google hopes that will change with slightly more full shelves and the Nexus 7), but what about the new magazines section of the store?

It's not exactly a secret that magazine and newspaper subscriptions have been in decline for years, which begs the question...

Jul

[Weekend Poll] Do You Intend To Buy A Nexus 7?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Nexus 7, Polls

This is the latest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see Are You Happy With The Improvements Made In Jelly Bean?

Now that the real, thorough reviews have landed, you've hopefully had a chance to read thorough some of them and get an intimate look at the Nexus 7. To summarize David's review:

The scary thing about the Nexus 7 is that I can't think of a good reason not to go out and buy one. Seriously - if you're on the fence, just do it.

In fact, just about any review you look at will say the same.

Jul

The Great Android Police Storage Benchmark: 11 Modern Devices Compared In 13 Tests

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Devices By Manufacturer, Features, News

A week ago, I posted a head-to-head comparison/buyer's guide of the Asus Transformer Pad (TF300), Transformer Prime (TF201), and Transformer Pad Infinity (TF700). The most upvoted comment: how is the internal storage performance? So I sat down to benchmark 6 devices.... and with the help of the team, ended up benchmarking 11:

HTC One S (S4)
HTC One X (T3)
Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx
Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Android 4.1 - Jelly Bean)
Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Android 4.0.4 - Ice Cream Sandwich)
Samsung Galaxy S III (S4)
Asus Transformer Pad (TF300)
Asus Transformer Prime (TF201)
Asus Transformer Pad Infinity (TF700)
Nexus 7 (Android 4.1 - Jelly Bean)
Toshiba Excite 7.7

The Tests

At Mekerz86's suggestion, we used both RL Benchmark and AndroBench, both available for free on the Play Store.

Jul

Android Platform Distribution Updated: 10.9% On Android 4.0, 22.7% Still On 2.2 And Below

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, News

Last Updated: August 1st, 2012

Depending on how ~~fanboyish you want to be~~ you want to look at it, things are either getting better by the day, or still dismal as can be. First, the charts:

Obviously, the good news is that in the past month, Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0+) has moved up from 7.1% to 10.9% - and considering there are hundreds of millions of devices running Android, that seemingly meager 3.8% is actually quite a few devices.

And then there's the bad news. First, the fact that ICS is the latest (and by far the best) version of Android and yet we're happy to see it on just under 11% of devices is sad; it's even worse that it's literally 8.5 months old.

Jul

[Weekend Poll] Are You Happy With The Improvements Made In Jelly Bean?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Jelly Bean 4.1, Polls

Last Updated: July 7th, 2012

This is the latest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see Do You Regularly Rent Moves Through Google Play?

Jelly Bean isn't a huge evolution of Android like previous updates have been, but that's understandable given just how polished the OS has become. Still, as the company showed us on day 1 of I/O, things certainly have moved forward in quite a few ways (Ron provided a deeper look at some of them in his first Getting To Know Android 4.1 post). Probably the 2 biggest changes: massive optimizations and tweaks to make things very fast and smooth, and the addition of Google Now.