Artem Russakovskii - 50/125 - 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.

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Jul

Here Is The Winner (And Runner-Ups) Of The Creative XOOM/Otterbox Defender Design Contest

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Contests / Giveaways, XOOM

A bit over a week ago, we decided to do something different compared to our regular giveaways and launched a creative contest with the Otterbox Defender case for the XOOM tablet as the grand prize. In order to win, all you had to do was produce the best combination of a XOOM and a reference to Android Police in one picture.

Now that the contest is over and we've sorted through all the entries, I'm ready to announce the winner, unanimously selected by the Android Police team.

#1 - The Winner

Nicholas Smith, your Otterbox Defender case will be in the mail once we get in touch with you.

Jul

Geek Overload: CyanogenMod 7 Now Has The Option To Show Exact Signal Strength (In dBm) Instead Of Signal Bars

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, News

The unstoppable CyanogenMod, Android's most popular custom ROM, is gaining yet another cool feature as of today, which is kind of reminiscent of the exact battery percentage mod that has become one of my favorites.

Starting with tonight's nightlies and future stable releases, those green signal bars ("can you hear me now?") can be replaced with the exact signal strength measurement, in dBm (decibel-milliwatt is an electrical power unit in decibels (dB), referenced to 1 milliwatt (mW)).

Definition: A "nightly" is a bleeding edge release that is built on a daily basis, usually at night after a full day's worth of new code has been committed.

Jul

And The Three Winners Of The Android Police Book Giveaway #5 Are...

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Contests / Giveaways, Development

The 5th Android Police book giveaway is now over, and we've picked the winners. A copy of Developing Android Applications with Adobe AIR will be shipped to each of the following readers, selected by O'Reilly and Android Police, who answered this question:

Why do you think developers should build their apps with Adobe AIR instead of using a conventional approach?

Jeff:

I've long thought AIR made sense as a mobile development platform due to its ease of development and cross-platform potential. I'd actually hoped the original iPhone devkit would be AIR, but that would have wrestled away more control than Apple is willing to give.

Jul

Still Waiting For The OTA? Don't Be - Update Your Sprint Nexus S 4G To Official Android 2.3.5 Manually (Build GRJ90)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in News, Nexus S 4G (Crespo4g), Samsung, Sprint

After 2 weeks of delays, the much anticipated Nexus S 4G update (Sprint only for now, sorry AT&T/T-Mo) to Android 2.3.5 (GRJ90) started rolling out earlier today. If you haven't gotten yours yet but want to apply it immediately to enjoy that nice boost to 4G speeds, among other things, then proceed to our instructions below - you'll be rocking the official 2.3.5 build in no time.

Instructions

Note: Make sure you're running stock Android 2.3.4, build GRJ22 (the update will likely fail if you're rooted).

Download the update file GRJ90-from-GRJ22 and rename it to update.zip (make sure it's named update.zip and not update.zip.zip if you're using Windows and have it set to hide file extensions).

Jul

[Neat] Android Web Market Now Shows Handy Charts Of App Install Histories

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Apps/Games, News

In a quiet update to the web Market, Google today rolled out these handy charts showing on each app page a 30-day history of installs. The charts can help gauge relative popularity of a given app throughout the last 30 days of its existence, but are relatively basic and not very practical.

Still, we'll take any addition to the Market that doesn't make it worse. I suppose it's actually kind of fun to see what effects new releases, updates, and promotional campaigns have on applications - for example, take a look at the chart of SwiftKey X, which recently went through a major revamp.

Jul

Tip: How To Enable Writing To Read-Only Partitions (Remount R/W) In Total Commander For Android

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Tips & Tutorials

If you've visited Android Police over the past weekend, you've probably already seen my enthusiastic review of Total Commander for Android, which for me is replacing both ASTRO and Root Explorer going forward as the top Android file manager. Ad-free, $0, root support, dual panes, plugin support, and other advanced functions, which you can read about in the review, make Total Commander an easy choice for both novice and advanced users.

However, one task that is not immediately achievable (or so I thought) with Total Commander is something that sits right at the core of Root Explorer - writing to read-only partitions, such as /system.

Jul

Marvel Entertainment Enters Android With The Official Captain America 3D Action Game [Bonus: Live Wallpaper Too]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Games, News

Timed with the release of its newest blockbuster movie, Captain America: The First Avenger, Marvel Entertainment is also pushing on the mobile front with the introduction of a surprisingly well done action game and, separately, a live wallpaper.

The live wallpaper, which displays the infamous unbreakable shield which deflects bullets left and right, is free in the Market (see the widget towards the bottom).

The game, naturally, features Captain America on a mission to stop Red Skull and mow down all the HYDRA soldiers in his sight along the way. You can expect 24 levels full of 3D graphics, mid-air takedowns, combos, and long-range shield attacks, accompanied by an original soundtrack, script, and comic panels.

Jul

[Total Nerdgasm] Total Commander For Android Is Very Real And Functional, With Root Support And Plugins - No Ads And Free Forever

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in App Reviews, Applications, News, Reviews

Last Updated: November 4th, 2011

When we found Medieval Software's new app called Dual File Manager XT yesterday, we jumped on it right away due to its 2-pane support. Ever since the '90s, 2-pane "orthodox" file managers like the Midnight, Norton, Volkov, and most recently Total Commander have been an absolute necessity on any computer I use.

In fact, once I install a Windows OS nowadays, Total Commander is the first program that follows. Those who try 2-pane file managers can't (or rather shouldn't want to) go back to the conventional Explorer-style layouts - the level of productivity they bring is unparalleled.

Total Commander for Android

But let's come back to Android - after we posted the Dual File Manager XT, 2 people (Wr3ck and Martin) brought to my attention the fact that Christian Ghisler, the developer behind my favorite Total Commander, has been actually working on an Android port for quite a while now.

Jul

[Book Giveaway #6] Want To Develop Android Apps? We're Giving Away "Android Application Development For Dummies" To Three Lucky Readers

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Contests / Giveaways, Development

Last Updated: August 4th, 2011

In the 6th weekly giveaway of Android books, Android Police has partnered with yet another great publishing company that I'm sure everyone has heard of before - For Dummies. Don't worry, O'Reilly and informIT fans, we'll continue giving out their books as well, switching between all 3 companies as we go along.

Android Application Development For Dummies

Today, we're giving away Android Application Development For Dummies, published in December 2010, and, as usual, we're asking for nothing but a minute of your time in return.

As you may have picked up from the title, this book is geared at those just looking to get into Android development.

Jul

Developers Can Now Upload Multiple APKs Per Android Market App Listing

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Apps/Games, News

As announced back at Google I/O, Android developers now have the ability to upload multiple APKs (individual package files) under the same listing in the Android Market. When you download an application that has multiple APKs associated with it, the Market will intelligently pick the APK that is most compatible with your device.

This gives developers an alternate method of supporting a wide variety of devices (say, phones and tablets) without stuffing complicated logic and graphical assets into a single APK. If used right, the new technique, which is completely transparent to end users, will result in smaller app sizes and eliminate the need for separate Market listings (case in point: Qik).