Brad Ganley - 7/11 - 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.

Oct

Re-Map The Buttons On EVO's HTC Sense To Make Them Do Your Bidding

Posted by Brad Ganley in Development, News

There is talk of rooting in this post. If you have no idea what that is or why you should do it, check out our primer: Rooting Explained And The Top Benefits

xda-developers forum member JsChiSurf has figured something out that I've been longing for since the day I went out and bought my shiny new HTC EVO 4G: how to change the buttons on the bottom of the HTC Sense homescreen. It never made sense (no pun intended) to me that the phone button be huge and in the center or that the "Add" button to even be wasting space on the launcher and, evidently, he shares that sentiment with me.

Oct

[Hump Day Lollerskates] Samsung Galaxy Tab Shipping With Porn Button In Romania

Posted by Brad Ganley in Galaxy Tab, News, Off-Topic

In a hilarious display of linguistic differences, the Romanian Samsung Galaxy Tab will ship with an app drawer that looks like this:

If this doesn't make you want a Galaxy Tab, I don't know what will.

In all seriousness, though, the Romanian word for "Start" is "Pornire" and, apparently, gets abbreviated as "Porn" quite regularly. I guess that makes sense, but it's still pretty entertaining in my book. I'm not sure how Samsung is going to feel about it in the long run but,for now, we can get some laughs at the language barrier's expense.

Here's a video of the Romanian Galaxy Tab's porn button in action, if you're interested:

Source: MP4 Nation

Oct

Chickenbrick Releases Cestos 2:Party Time, Beer Not Included

Posted by Brad Ganley in Game Reviews, Games, News, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Yesterday Chickenbrick Software, makers of Cestos, released Cestos 2:Party Time. This time around, Cestos will be taking advantage of the OpenFeint network to add an extra layer of awesome to the gameplay.

The game has been totally revamped from the ground up. It looks great and the gameplay is smooth.

They've added all new modes, new add-ons for your avatar, and new social options...that don't work yet

All in all, though, Cestos 2 is still fun, still eating away a large chunk of my time, and is definitely a worthy successor to Cestos. There are still some bugs, but we can't complain - it's only been out for a day.

Oct

Fring Introduces fringOut, Flips Skype The Bird

Posted by Brad Ganley in Applications, News

Today Fring announced their latest feature: fringOut. If that sounds suspiciously like Skype's offering, Skypeout, don't be shocked. They are essentially the same service. They posted this on their blog earlier today with a definite sense of smugness:

fringOut is easy to use & super-convenient. Because the rates are so darn good, you’ll be calling everyone from your mobile phone.
Here is a short list why folks are dumping PC calling and moving to fringOut’s mobile calling.

The rate are competitive ($0.01/minute vs. Skype's $0.023/minute) at a whopping 1.3 cents cheaper but, being a smartphone-only app, will this really hold water?

Oct

OpenFeint Unleashing 12 New Android Games Into The Android Market

Posted by Brad Ganley in Games, News

We just got word that the cross-platform social gaming network OpenFeint will be releasing the second round of games and delivering the best gaming experience Android has to offer. With their first few games taking the market by storm when they were released, this bodes very well for OpenFeint and the Android gaming community in general. OpenFeint has added a whole new level to cell phone gaming by adding achievements and leaderboards so you can show the world just how well you can fly those planes and slice that fruit.

Just to be clear, OpenFeint does not produce the games - they merely power the social aspect and help promotion, quite successfully at that.

Oct

Verizon's Samsung Fascinate Video Review

Posted by Brad Ganley in Fascinate, Phone Reviews, Reviews, Verizon Wireless, Videos

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Recently, I got ahold of Verizon's Samsung Fascinate and shot the following video review (and yes, I have a capacitive stylus - start getting jealous):

For a quick refresher, here, once again, are the specs of the Fascinate:

1GHz Hummingbird processor
Android 2.1 (Eclair)
5MP camera wih LED flash
4" Super Amoled capacitive multitouch (5 point) screen
2GB internal memory
Bluetooth 3.0 (with stereo output)
3.5mm Headphone Jack
Supports HD (720p) video recording

Here are those pictures I promised. They look pretty good:

One other thing I didn't really get to touch on in the video that I really wish I had shown you is the media playing on this phone.

Oct

Froyo Leak Available For Samsung Captivate Along With Numerous High-Fives

Posted by Brad Ganley in Captivate, Froyo 2.2, News

Over at XDA, user designgears got this leak from an anonymous source and, while we were initially skeptical of its authenticity, it does appear legit, according to the users who have flashed it. The instructions to install it are fairly simple for even inexperienced users:

Download the leaked file I897UCJI6-OCD-REV02-Low-designgears.exe (hit the source link at the end of this post).
Turn off your Captivate.
Launch the I897UCJI6-OCD-REV02-Low-designgears.exe file you just downloaded.
Hold down the volume buttons and plug in your Captivate.
Hit "Start" on the Odin program. Sit back and relax.

After that, you should be greeted by this in your "About Phone" menu:

The usual "not my bad if you break it" lingo comes in at this point but you were expecting that.

Oct

Samsung Pulls Update For Epic 4G, Community Begs To Differ

Posted by Brad Ganley in Epic 4G, News

Aw, snap! That update Sprint was supposed to deliver to the Epic 4g yesterday didn't happen due to "administrative issues" per this announcement from Sprint:

We learned this evening that there were administrative issues getting this software loaded to Google's servers. We don't yet have an expected time when this will be available but will update you as soon as possible. Please see the statement below that was sent by the Sprint Product Management team:

We were planning to release an update for your Samsung Epic 4G on 9/30. The file was delivered and on track for distribution but late this afternoon, we learned that an administrative issue prevented Google from releasing the update as we had planned. We are working to resolve the issue and will provide an update as soon as we understand the new delivery schedule.

Sep

Best Buy Launches Free Phone Fridays To Start Your Weekends Right

Posted by Brad Ganley in News

Yesterday, Best Buy announced a pretty cool new promotion for the moth of October: Free Phone Fridays. It's a pretty straightforward deal that offers buyers four phones (one on each carrier) that will be free every Friday.

They have promised that each week they will feature one high-end smartphone, the first of which will be the Samsung Fascinate. The other phones to be offered for free on October 1st will be the Sprint Blackberry Curve, HTC Aria on AT&T, and the Samsung Gravity 3 on T-Mobile.

Scott Anderson, the head of Best Buy Mobile's merchandising department, had this to say:

We are seeing an amazing amount of curiosity and demand for mobile phones right now, especially smart phones, and we want to give consumers another reason to visit Best Buy Mobile in October.

Sep

2.2.1 Update For Nexus One Breaks Universal Androot, Swype, And Other Aftermarket Keyboards

Posted by Brad Ganley in Android OS, News, Nexus One (Passion)

A few days ago, the code for the Nexus One's 2.2.1 update went AOSP (Android Open Source Project), meaning that the source code became available to developers. It was comprised mostly of bugfixes and other things that weren't major... oh, and it also patched the exploits that allowed Universal Androot to unlock your device. We had a short conversation about it on Twitter with Cyanogen (the conversation starts at the bottom and goes up):

As if breaking Universal Androot wasn't enough, apparently the new update also prevents existing installations of Swype and some other aftermarket keyboards from working. An easy solution exists though - just uninstall your existing keyboard and reinstall it.