Brad Ganley - 10/11 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Brad Ganley

An Android power user, Brad consumes most of his free time with unhealthy amounts of cell phones and cell phone related things when he isn't playing with his son. Brad is also an avid movie-watcher and tea-drinker.

Sep

Wirefly And Amazon Cut Samsung Fascinate's Price In Half - $99.99, No Tax, And Free Shipping

Posted by Brad Ganley in Fascinate, News, Verizon Wireless

Looks like both Wirefly and Amazon Wireless are up to their old, price-slashing tricks again. This time their sights rested on the brand new Samsung Fascinate for Verizon Wireless.

The Deal

The new $99.99 deal, offered by both sites, is a 50% discount off carrier subsidized price of $199.99.

While the BOGO (buy-one-get-one-free) deal offered by Verizon itself technically averages out to about the same price, if you just need 1 Fascinate, Amazon Wireless or Wirefly are the way to go. With no gimmicks, mail in rebates, or TAXES (that's right, neither of the two charge you tax), you can get the Fascinate for about half the green you would part with at a Verizon store.

Sep

AMOLED Screens Are In Short Supply. The Incredible Is Feeling The Pain.

Posted by Brad Ganley in Incredible, News

Well, it looks like that shortage of AMOLED screens people have been talking about has finally started to affect more devices than just the Nexus One. This snapshot of a Verizon internal memo reveals that the Droid Incredible will, in fact, be making a change from AMOLED to S(uper)LCD:

Basically, this means that the quality of the Droid Incredible's screen is going to go down a little bit. While SLCD is still definitely high-end smartphone worthy (It's what the HTC Desire has in the U.S.), there will be a noticeable difference. The upside? You'll actually be able to get a Droid Incredible.

Sep

[Hands-On] Android Remote Notifier For Your Win/Linux/Mac Desktop: For When Your Phone Isn't Notify-y Enough

Posted by Brad Ganley in App Reviews, Applications, News, Reviews, Tips & Tutorials

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Most nights that I'm at home, my son is sound asleep in the next room. To avoid waking him up, I put my phone into silent mode faithfully every night at 9pm and, subsequently, miss a whole lot of calls and text messages. That's bad for two reasons:

I miss what could potentially be important information or, as in most cases, good times.
It makes me look like a jerk who never answers his phone and ignores his friends.

So I thought to myself "I'm on my computer all the time, I should make an app that puts my notification on my computer screen so I never miss this stuff." Turns out, somebody already made that app and it is as awesome as I had hoped.

Sep

Motorola CLIQ, CLIQ XT, And Backflip Now To Receive 2.1 Upgrade In Early Q4; Those Who Still Care Are Not Amused

Posted by Brad Ganley in Android OS, Backflip, CLIQ / DEXT (Morrison), CLIQ XT (Zeppelin), Eclair 2.1, Motorola

Motorola has, once again, updated its timeline for device upgrades and has changed the expected Android 2.1 update time for the CLIQ, CLIQ XT, and the Backflip to be late Q3 to early Q4 of this year.

This is supposedly good news, but haven't CLIQ/CLIQ XT/Backflip users already waited long enough? Motorola seems to be throwing salt in customers' wounds by pushing this upgrade back. Not only do the owners of these devices now have to wait longer for an update, but the update they are waiting for has already become antiquated.

While Motorola's flagship devices have been receiving updates all over the place to the CURRENT (2.2) version of Android, and the CLIQ, Backflip, and CLIQ XT aren't really what we would call "flaghship", their users seem to have been abandoned from day one with only hope keeping them warm.

Sep

Samsung Fascinate Buy-One-Get-One-Free Deal Now Available On VZW.com

Posted by Brad Ganley in Fascinate, News

The wait is over, folks! The buy one get one free deal for the Samsung Fascinate has just gone live on Verizon's website. We know you've been holding out for it and it doesn't get any better than paying for one and being handed two. It's time for you to replace your old crappy phone with two Super AMOLED Android powerhouses. Get on it!

source: Verizon Wireless

Sep

Samsung Intends To Dominate The Tablet Market That Doesn't Quite Exist Yet

Posted by Brad Ganley in Galaxy Tab, News, Samsung

As we all know, Samsung is very adamant about its famed Galaxy S's older brother, the Galaxy Tab. We're getting more details about it as days go by, but so far it appears that Samsung is planning on selling it exclusively through wireless carriers and has already secured several deals with Europe carriers.

What is very interesting is this quote they made in an article by the Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Yoon [Samsung's Product Executive] said Samsung expects to ship 10 million Galaxy Tabs and take a third of the global tablet market next year. Samsung is exploring the possibility of a tablet with a 10-inch or six-inch screen, and Mr.

Sep

[App Of The Week] Multicon - Reclaim Your Home Screen Real Estate

Posted by Brad Ganley in Applications

Even though I have 7 home screens on my EVO 4G, I still sometimes find myself cramped for space. I have a whole bunch of apps and shortcuts that I would like to have instant access to. Enter Multicon.

The function of Multicon is to make widgets that pack in a number of downsized icons in the space that would normally be occupied by only single ones. This enables you to pack a large number of app shortcuts onto a home screen that only fits 16 by default (on most handsets).

Multicon is especially useful for devices with larger screens, such as the 4.3" EVO 4G, Droid X and the 5" Dell Streak because it's much easier to click on icons several times smaller in size on those devices than on ones with smaller screens.

Sep

No Super AMOLED On The Samsung Galaxy Tab, But It Still Won't Suck

Posted by Brad Ganley in Galaxy Tab, News

Yeah, Samsung knows you WANTED a Super AMOLED display on that Galaxy Tab but, unfortunately, it looks like that won't happen. We just saw the video (below).

After I dried my eyes, Samsung's executives in the video reassured me that the Super TFT they opted for instead is still great looking and offers even better battery life than super AMOLED. They also said that the Super TFT was developed in parallel to the Super AMOLED (so it's not old news) and is the best TFT display that you can get. Does it look as good?

No. I'm not sure if it's the screen glare in this picture or what, but at this point, I'd rather have that Galaxy S than the Galaxy Tab.

Sep

First Look At Toshiba's Folio 100 Tablet

Posted by Brad Ganley in News, Tablets

Today we are getting a first look at the Toshiba Folio tablet, an Android based powerhouse that was announced at IFA 2010. The Folio looks like it will be another serious contender in what is, apparently, the fast growing market of Android tablets. Looking at its list of features, it should be nothing less than impressive. What features, you ask? How about these:

Android 2.2 (Froyo)
10.1" 1024x600 display
Bluetooth
Front facing camera
WiFi 802.11B/G/N
3G capable
Nvidia Tegra 2 processor (Yeah, that's dual-core)
Capacitive display with multitouch support
USB host input(!!!)
Price €399 WiFi / €499 WiFI & 3G

The tablet looks like it is shaping up to be an awesome device, but based on what we're seeing right now, it still has some hills to climb.

Sep

August Quantcast Numbers: Android Gaining Ground In Mobile Web Battlefield, Stealing Share From Every Other Platform

Posted by Brad Ganley in News

The mobile industry is a very competitive, complicated, fast changing world. The name of the game, though, is simple: get your product out there, get people using it, and do it fast. Quantcast, a company that specializes in the world of internet usage trends, recently released some information showing how well the players in the mobile OS and software game are doing. The information is intriguing, to say the least.

There are several things we can take away from this information, the number one being that Android is definitely stepping its game. In the past year, the number of mobile internet users toting Android devices has increased by 18.6%, bringing Android's consumption share to an impressive 25%.