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Android's share menu is, to put it kindly, a mess. And four years ago, Google made it even worse, with the introduction of the dreaded "direct share" menu in Android Marshmallow. While nice in concept, the feature has turned out to be a huge annoyance in practice: every time you go to share something in Android, the share menu pops up, and then the direct share dialogue appears, displacing all the options and generally just getting in the way. It doesn't help that the menu rarely actually suggests anything useful, either, and has led almost everyone to loathe Android's share menu in its entirety. But, if you're on a Samsung or LG phone - or have root on most other devices - you can turn off the worst part of it.
Today marks the fifth anniversary of the original announcement of Wear OS (née Android Wear). The platform has iterated through several different generations of hardware, a change of name, and its software has evolved a lot through the years. With half a decade of experience now behind it, some of us here at Android Police decided to sit down and hash out our feelings for Wear OS in 2019.
We launched a Twitch channel last year as the new home of the Android Police Podcast. Since then, we've also launched a second weekly show, where we answer questions and discuss topics with live viewers. The Twitch channel is an affiliate, meaning you can support our live content with Twitch subscriptions - at no cost to yourself, if you have Amazon Prime.
Android Police has a fantastic community. The comments on our articles and YouTube videos are almost always filled with great discussions, and the live back-and-forth with viewers on our weekly Twitch shows is enjoyable. The amount of interaction we get on most of our posts is unparalleled for a site of our size, and we are very grateful for that. That being said, we want to address some negative things we've observed as that community has grown, and explain what we are going to do about them.
Mophie is well known for both the quality of its products and the hefty price tag attached to them, so we were interested when we heard that a handful of its employees had splintered off to start a new, eco-mindful power accessory company called Nimble. With consumer cost-cutting recyclable packaging and a focus on renewable materials, we were curious to see if Nimble could disrupt the battery and charger status quo — a highly competitive market. Unfortunately, Nimble's specs and prices just can't beat the competition. We reviewed both Nimble's extensive collection of batteries and its wireless charging accessories — a much more interesting subject now that Google has bequeathed the Pixels with Qi. Unfortunately, for all of us, we found Nimble's batteries to carry a premium in price that wasn't supported by product performance. Although in most cases we were impressed with the style and general build quality, as well as the concept of reduced environmental impact, these batteries and wireless chargers are a tough sell on appearance alone.Reviewed by Richard Gao and Ryne Hager.
Last year, Apple's iPhone X literally changed how the company's customers used their phones, dropping such steadfast design choices as the home button and fingerprint sensor in pursuit of that all-screen dream. Yesterday's announcement wasn't as shocking, but it did democratize 2017's changes with the new, more affordable iPhone XR. In its own way, Apple is set yet again to change how its customers use its phones by delivering most of its flagship features at a new, more palatable price.
This is a guest post from developer Carlos Lopez, also known as ShortFuse. He’s the developer of SuperOneClick and Fusion.
This is a guest post from developer Carlos Lopez, also known as ShortFuse. He’s the developer of SuperOneClick and Fusion.
Today, we're partnering with AT&T on an exciting giveaway: a chance to win an LG G5, UE Roll 2, and a Tile locator device. Want to win this rather tempting bundle (UE Roll 2 pictured below, by the way)? Just use the Gleam widget below to get started.
We love apps. We talk about them every day here at Android Police, we write biweekly roundups featuring all the cool new apps that are getting released, we choose our top 7 new apps every month, and once in a while we tackle a specific category of apps and show you some interesting choices in it. Apps are an intricate part of what we do here and how we use our devices in general, they're inextricable from our Android usage.
Last year, we put out a gift guide with all of our recommendations for the holiday season, but we made one mistake: we released it on December 20th, just five days before Christmas. What were we thinking? I honestly have no idea. This year, we decided to try to be a bit more helpful and put something out at least a couple of weeks ahead of time. You're welcome.Without further ado, here is the Android Police Holiday Gift Guide for two-thousand fourteen. This is the stuff you (and/or someone on your list) want. Let's go.
This is a big day for those of us in the US – it's a day of food, family, friends, and more food. It's the day we all get together and celebrate what we're thankful for (which, really, should be every day). It's also a day strongly associated with turkeys. In fact, turkeys are the Santa Claus of Thanksgiving... except they don't actually bring gifts. I mean, unless you count their glorious meaty bodies as "gifts," in which case they do. But I don't think that's really a voluntary decision, so it has nothing to do with goodwill towards men. Either way, we're glad those delicious birds are around for our consumption. Thanks for existing, tiny-headed-big-bodied birds!
Dear /r/android,
We here at Android Police love writing original content, scoping out and delivering news, and developing useful site tools and features. We also pride ourselves in taking time with our articles and maintaining high content quality.
So today TechCrunch apparently tried to send their reporter to the Googleplex and unwrap the wrapped sculpture that was sitting next to all the other Android related creations, all in the shape of existing Android version codenames - Cupcake, Donut, and Eclair.
We just got word that the long awaited Samsung Moment 2.1 update ROM was leaked and is available for your flashing pleasures. Android Police seems to be the first Android blog to break the news.
A day barely passed since the over-the-air (OTA) Android 2.1 update for the Motorola Droid was converted into a simple download installable without having to wait your turn in Verizon's rollout line, and we're already getting word on the 2.1 firmware getting rooted.
HTC likes professionally shot videos - they've released at least one for each new phone announced in the recent history.
In the land of Android, things are really happening today.
Last week, after the announcement of HTC EVO 4G at the CTIA conference, Sprint quickly dropped a bunch of developer documentation onto their Android dev site. Having dugg in a little deeper, we saw confirmation from the horse's mouth itself (Sprint) that the EVO 4G will be running on Froyo - the version of Android following Eclair (2.1).