Artem Russakovskii - 18/126 - 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.

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Jun

Google Device Play Store Gets A Subtle Design Tweak Ahead Of I/O, No Longer Wastes Space With Dreadful Reflections

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Apps/Games, News

Ever since the current major iteration of the Android Play Store design rolled out, one aspect of it made me want to claw my eyes out and curl up in a fetal position - reflections. And we're not talking about small, harmless reflections. We're talking giant, tall, ugly ones, for the most part filled with gray pixel mud. They waste a ton of valuable space that can be taken up by another app, and in some cases several ones. Here, take a look:

Every time a reflection appeared in the Play Store, a kitten died somewhere. Considering that the design of Google Play overall wasn't so bad, I was appalled to see that they kept appearing month after month after month.

Jun

Here Is The Winner Of The Android Police Logo Design Contest (Bonus: 15 Runners-Up)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Contests / Giveaways

A few weeks ago, we launched a little design contest with the main goal of getting some creative juices flowing ahead of firing up a full site redesign. We wanted to see some directions we can take the new AP logo and in exchange partnered with NVIDIA to reward the winner with a brand new Tegra 3-powered Iconia A510 (see our review).

As usual, there were a lot of creative submissions, and it was very hard to pick just one. But, in the end, there is only one prize, and we're going to award it to what I think was one of the more clever takes on the AP logo.

Jun

ASUS Transformer Pad 300 Receiving OTA Update 9.4.3.30 With New Camera Firmware And Other Improvements

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in ASUS, News, Transformer Pad 300

Following last month's Transformer Pad 300 (TF300) OTA update to v9.4.3.29, ASUS is pushing out a new bug fixer v9.4.3.30 with a host of improvements, the most notable one of which is the upgraded camera firmware. I just completed the process on my tablet, and it only took a few minutes.

So what's new in .30? This question is answered by none other than... ASUS Finland, of course, which provided the upcoming changelog almost a week ago on the Facebook page in all its Engrish glory:

TF300T ICS v9.4.3.30
- SYSTEM – improve stability of Chrome browser
- SYSTEM – improve camera performance
- Pictures more colorful
- better audio- white balance(AWB) and auto-focus(AE)
- better continues-auto-focus (CAF)
- SYSTEM – fix the bug “wifi occasionally fail to connect after resume from suspend status”
- Appbackup – fix the bug “have to key-in password again after change screen orientation”

To force your device to check for this update, go to Settings > About > System Firmware Update and press Check Update.

Jun

62 Best New Android Apps And Live Wallpapers From The Last Month (5/22/12 - 6/16/12)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Best Apps/Games/LWPs Of The Week, News

Last Updated: June 19th, 2012

Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Market or were spotted by us in the previous 3 weeks or so.

This is the app roundup. The game roundup from this week can be found here.

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the AppBrain widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.

Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.

Featured App

Tasks N Todos - ToDo List Manager

Today's roundup is sponsored by Tasks N Todos, a TODO manager from Handy Apps, the developer of such well received apps as Easy Money and Tip N Split Tip Calculator.

Jun

45 Best New Android Games From The Last 3 Weeks (5/19/12 - 6/10/12)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Best Apps/Games/LWPs Of The Week, Games, News

Last Updated: June 17th, 2012

Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Market or were spotted by us in the previous 3 weeks or so.

This edition focuses only on new games. The app roundup is coming up soon.

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the AppBrain widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.

Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.

Featured App

Dragon & Dracula by HeroCraft

Today's roundup is sponsored by HeroCraft, a popular Android developer, and their new game Dragon & Dracula.

Jun

[1-Day Deal Alert] Fantastic Father's Day Amazon Gold Box Deals On SanDisk MicroSD, SD, CF Memory And SSD Drives

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Deals, News

Once in a while Amazon throws a sale we can't miss, and today's SanDisk memory blowout as part of the Gold Box deals is a perfect example of just that.

We have fast SanDisk MicroSD "Ultra" cards ranging from 16GB ($18.99) to 64GB ($59.99) at lowest prices ever for these cards according to all the price checks I've run. The 32GB MicroSD is in the sweet spot of $27.99. Remember, these are not Class 2 or Class 4 - they're high quality Class 6 and Class 10 cards rated for 30MB/s transfer speeds and Full HD video recording.

If MicroSD is not your cup of tea, you will also be able to pick up:

CF/CF-Pro cards from 8GB to 128GB,
regular SDHC/SDHC-Pro 8GB to 128GB SDXC UHS-I (that's a whole lot of space),
USB flash drives in 32GB or 64GB capacities,
and last but not least, 6Gbps "Extreme" SSDs ranging from 120GB ($99.99) all the way up to 480GB ($379.99), bearing a pretty spotless 4.8-star rating and looking absolutely fantastic.

Jun

Oracle Wants Some Karma Back, Sues Patent Troll Lodsys, Wants All Its Patents Invalidated

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in News

What an interesting turn of events - Oracle just sued a notorious patent troll Lodsys, seeking invalidation of four of Lodsys' patents. In fact, these are all the patents Lodsys owns - if Oracle wins, Lodsys will have nothing to threaten innocent developers with.

If you haven't been following the Lodsys drama for the past year+, let me step back for a brief history lesson. Lodsys LLC, a Texas patent troll shell corporation, has been harassing various developers since early 2011, including many with Android apps in the Play Store. The patents Lodsys used to threaten Android developers, large and small, are 7,222,078, to which everyone refers to as simply "078" and 7,620,565 ("565").

Jun

[Exclusive Photos] This Is The Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Exclusives, Galaxy S III, News, Samsung, Verizon Wireless

The news that one of the hottest phones of the year, the 4.8" Samsung Galaxy S III, is coming to five major U.S. carriers only just hit the wire a few minutes ago, and well, well, well, what do we have here?.. Why, it's the Galaxy S III on Verizon Wireless, in its blurry flesh.

Since Samsung didn't send out any carrier-specific device photos and just regurgitated the pictures of the international version we've all seen hundreds of times, we're at the mercy of the carriers to see just how they bastardize (or leave untouched) the outer shell of each variant.

May

Facebook For Android Updated To 1.9.4 With Performance Improvements And Bug Fixes

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Facebook's Android team pushed out an incremental update v1.9.4 today with "improved performance and various bug fixes." Just what those improvements and bug fixes are will remain a mystery - the only useful part of such changelogs is we know what they didn't do in this release.

So, what did those who updated think of increased performance?

Business as usual then - got it.

Facebook on my Epic Touch has never seemed particularly slow UI-wise, but pulling data takes uncomfortably long even on Wi-Fi. If the Facebook app ever got to Spotify's level of fast, I'm sure its rating would start quickly rising from the measly 3.6.

May

Better Than Magic - Stick Your Phone To A Wall, Treadmill, Or... Ceiling With PU Pads From The Makers Of Capta

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in News

UDS, the company that brought us Capta (which we loved) and now working on Vavo, has a limited quantity of pads made of what I called "magic alien goo" - a key ingredient used in its products. It's sort of a weird material made in part with polyurethane (PU), which is both sticky and not sticky at the same time - but in exactly the right ways.

I have been playing with a PU pad for the last month or so, and it's now become my trusty gym companion. Heck, I can bring it anywhere, slap it on pretty much any surface, and voila - an instant phone holder.