Artem Russakovskii - 100/125 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Artem is a die-hard Android fan, passionate tech blogger, obsessive-compulsive editor, bug hunting programmer, and the founder of Android Police.
Most of the time, you will find Artem either hacking away at code or thinking of the next 15 blog posts.

Follow @ArtemR

Oct

AppBrain Now Lets You Easily Filter Adobe Air Based Android Apps

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Apps/Games, Games, News

With the release of Adobe Air on Android last week, many users were left wondering how exactly they could use the new 15+ MB clunker. A day after the release, however, the Market was booming with Air apps, ranging from the most basic demos to video calling to gems like this one.

Manual and therefore static by nature attempts, such as this app list by user webkitchen, were a good start but they were simply not sustainable. Seeing this, AppBrain.com, our favorite method to browse Android apps, yesterday released an automatic filter to aid us in this quest to weed out Air apps.

Oct

T-Mobile To Launch Samsung Galaxy Tab For $399 On Contract/$649 Off? Does It Stand A Chance Against The WiFi/WiFi+3G iPads? [Comparison]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Galaxy Tab, News, Samsung, T-Mobile

Earlier this week, BGR leaked a likely $399 on-contract price tag for the Sprint's version of the upcoming Galaxy Tab. Today, TmoNews dug up some slides showing T-Mobile's version of the tablet coming with the same $399 price tag (on a 2-year contract of course), albeit after a $50 rebate. The version that will free you from the carrier's firm grip will make you part with an additional $250 and cost a whopping $649.99.

Galaxy Tab Vs The iPad

Comparing this to the iPad, where $499 buys you a comparable WiFi-only 16GB version and $629 gets you the WiFi+3G one, the Tab fits kind of in the middle.

Oct

Verizon To Launch 4G LTE In 38 Major Metropolitan Areas, 60 Airports By The End Of 2010

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in News, Verizon Wireless

Excellent news for Verizon customers wondering just when exactly the largest carrier in the US is going to start gunning after Sprint 4G and other competition. In a press release published a few minutes ago from the CTIA conference, Verizon detailed plans for 4G LTE expansion that we can expect by the end of the year.

The press release outlines and lists all 38 major metropolitan areas and 60 airports that are set to receive LTE coverage (exact locations - thank you, Verizon, that is how press releases should be done!). A handy map that you can see below provides a quick overview of what's coming, at a glance.

Oct

The Bad News: Full Version Of Angry Birds For Android Delayed To Next Week. The Good News: You Have Your Life Back... For Now

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Games, News

If there is one game on Android that keeps me coming back to it, even after I already beat all the levels, it's Angry Birds. The beta version, limited to 15 levels, was released about a month ago and proved to be a completely undeniable success, reaching 250k downloads in only 4 days. The game is so addicting that beating your own high scores can become a full time job to some. My wife, who never-ever played games before, mobile or any others, is now so hooked on Angry Birds that she steals my phone the minute I get home.

Oct

[Deal Alert] T-Mobile G2 Drops To A Low Tax-Free $99.99 At Wirefly

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in G2 (Vision), HTC, News, T-Mobile

Wirefly, notorious for launching the best mobile deals on the web, did not disappoint us today, which, if you remember, is the official T-Mobile G2 launch date.

While the competition sells the G2 at $199.99 and even $149.99, Wirefly's $99.99 deal for new accounts completely knocks it out of the park.

Add free shipping and the absence of tax, and you get some serious savings left in your pocket. So serious that this deal is now our Deal of the Week (see the top of the sidebar).

Existing T-Mobile customers - your deal isn't as sweet but still better than T-Mobile's own - $199.99 with no tax added on.

Oct

Android WiFi Tether App For Rooted Users Constantly Disconnecting? Try These Solutions To Fix It

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Tips & Tutorials

Last Updated: December 23rd, 2010

The number 1 Android app for rooted phones out there is undoubtedly Android WiFi Tether, which is a free alternative to all those carrier-bundled WiFi hotspot apps. In fact, it is the primary reason I root every Android phone I own - 2 hours of commute on the train suddenly become extremely productive because of always-on laptop connectivity. I've excitedly written about the app before, especially after it added support for Infrastructure mode and WPA2 on the EVO 4G.

Problems

However, after a few months of using the WiFi Tether app, I started experiencing occasional issues maintaining connectivity. The symptoms were:

the WiFi AP (access point) would suddenly disappear from the list completely
the connection would drop unexpectedly
the AP would show up in the list but connectivity with it could not be established

Doesn't sound like fun, does it?

Oct

Official Yahoo Finance Application Now Available In The Android Market

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Take a look at what I found in the Android Market this morning when I was doing a casual sift through the swamp of garbage that the Market is today. It's the official Yahoo Finance app - an app that trails behind Google's own super popular Finance app by over a year. Of course, the more the merrier, and Yahoo is a huge player in the finance world with its Yahoo Finance site, so I downloaded it to take a look.

Yahoo! Finance

Official description: Yahoo! Finance, the Web's #1 Finance site, is now available on your Android phone.

Oct

[Updated] Google Starting To Flip The Switch On Purchasing Paid Android Market Apps In New Countries

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Apps/Games, Games, News

Last week, Google announced that over the next 2 weeks, support for purchasing paid apps was coming to 18 more countries: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, and Taiwan.

This morning, reports are trickling in that the switch has been indeed flipped, at least in some of these countries. So far, we've been able to confirm Sweden, Denmark, and India. Tightly coupled with today's rollout is a Market update that converts all application prices to buyers' native currencies.

In case you were wondering why the Danish and Swedish currencies are the same, I did some research and found out that "ca." means "approximately," and both Swedish and Danish currencies are shortened as "kr" - Swedish krona and Danish kroner or krone.

Oct

Android Market Now Shows Application Prices In Your Native Currency

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Apps/Games, Games, News

Today, Google flipped the switch on paid app purchases in more countries, such as India, Sweden, and Denmark, just as promised, and with that came another subtle, yet important, change. Instead of showing prices in developers' native currencies, all application prices are now converted on the fly into your own currency.

Here's what the Market looks like for me in the US now - notice the tilde (~) symbol next to converted prices:

Here is Sweden:

And here's Denmark:

Image credits: [1] [2]

Oct

[Breaking, Hands-On] Skype For Android Now Available For Download In The Market For All Phones! Still No Calling Over Mobile Data In The US

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

After months and months of waiting for a voice-enabled Skype to be out on Android and giving Verizon users an evil eye for that exclusive deal Skype signed with the largest US carrier, I am here to tell you that less than 2 hours ago, Skype officially hit the Market. This time, the long-awaited app is no longer restricted to Verizon, so download away (Android 2.1+ required)!

Update: the official Skype blog post is now live, including an intro video. It also acknowledges problems with Galaxy S phones.