Cameron Summerson
Contributing since March, 2011
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3396articles
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About Cameron Summerson
Cameron is a self-made geek, Android enthusiast, horror movie fanatic, musician, and cyclist. When he's not pounding keys here at AP, you can find him spending time with his wife and kids, plucking away on the 6-string, spinning on the streets, or watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre on repeat.
Latest Articles
Signing a contractual agreement to stick with a carrier for two years so you can get a decent phone without breaking the bank is a downright sham. Thus, many users are bypassing that system altogether by choosing carrier-unlocked phones like the Nexus 4. Of course, the N4 is on hiatus at the moment, so that's kind of out of the question. Don't fret, though – your dreams of a contract-free life aren't lost. Other options are available. Like the international unlocked Galaxy S III on eBay Daily Deals, for example.
Note II owners on Big Red, an OTA update is coming your way. Don't get too excited, though – it's just a small security patch that fixes the dreaded Exynos bug. Thus, if it's anything like the Exynos patch for the Galaxy S III, you can also expect a new bootloader. That usually means bad news for the root community (especially when it's a Verizon phone we're talking about), and it's likely no different in this case.
Update: Well, it looks like the Nexus 7 dock isn't in stock after all. Whether the dock sold out at lightning speed or was never actually available (despite all appearances) is unclear, but B&H appears to have begun sending out a batch of "we regret to inform you" emails regarding the hotly anticipated accessory:
[Update: Winners] International Giveaway: Win One Of Ten Sets Of NFC Goodies From Tags For Droid And Android Police
International Giveaway: Win One Of Ten Sets Of NFC Goodies From Tags For Droid And Android Police
At this point, most of you are likely familiar with NFC, what it does, and all the neat things you can do with it. And when you start writing your own commands to NFC tags, the possibilities are nearly endless. You could, for example, have a tag that silences your phone, disables GPS, and sets the screen brightness to 'auto' at night. Or have one for the car that enables Bluetooth and GPS, disables Wi-Fi, and then launches your favorite media player or navigation. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
It seems that the Nexus Q, while still not officially re-available in the Play Store, is apparently anything but forgotten. The device – which is codenamed steelhead – just got its first official CyanogenMod 10.1 nightly build. Neat-o.
If you use AppFeed.net's service to monitor apps in the Play Store, then life just got easier for you: there's now an official AppFeed beta app available for you downloading pleasure. The app essentially takes the place of the site on your mobile – it allows you to view, add, or remove apps from your tracking list, as well as keep up with most recent updates.
If there's one thing to say about the team behind Dolphin browser, it's that they can't be discouraged. Despite the availability of Chrome and Chrome Beta for Android, Dolphin is still going strong – and things like today's update are likely the reason.
It's no secret Motorola has left a bad taste in customers' mouths over the last couple of years. Cancelled OS updates and broken promises have understandably left many owners vowing never to buy a Moto product again. Who can blame them, really – when purchasing a device, it's not unreasonable to expect good support moving forward. Unfortunately, that's just not something Motorola has been able to deliver on in the past.
If you're a fan of action games and nostalgic 8-bit throwbacks, then OrangePixel's new title Gunslugs should be right up your alley. Featuring the NES-style graphics that OP is known for, alongside non-stop bullet-blazing action, Gunslugs in an adrenaline-fueled homage to the 80s action heroes of old.
Samsung Releases Jelly Bean Kernel Source For The U.S. Galaxy Note 10.1 (N8013)
Samsung Releases Jelly Bean Kernel Source For The U.S. Galaxy Note 10.1
Hot on the heels of yesterday's Jelly Bean OTA for the U.S. variant of the Galaxy Note 10.1, Samsung has published the matching kernel source code to its Open Source Release Center. This will allow developers to push the device to its limits, add battery-saving tweaks, and more.
If you have a stock Note II on T-Mobile, it's time to hit the "check updates" button, because a fix for that nasty Exynos bug is on its way. If you're not familiar with said bug, it basically allowed any app to root and gain full access to any Exynos 4-powered system. And that's a bad thing.
A couple of small OTA updates - both of which are primarily bug-fixers - are making their way to the Flash and Epic 4G Touch on Sprint this morning.
Last week, Synology released a couple of new beta apps – DS Download and DS Video – for owners of its NAS boxes. Now it's added a third app, called DS Cloud, that allows Synology NAS owners to sync files to their Android device for offline viewing.
Did you know it's national "new mobile banking day?" Because I surely didn't. First, Simple brought its online-only banking setup to Android, and now Green Dot has announced its own bank, which was designed from the ground up specifically for smartphones. Intriguing, no?
A few days ago, Samsung starting pushing Android 4.1.1 to the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 and 7.0 here in the U.S. Almost immediately we heard a collective shriek from Note 10.1 owners, as they realized that their flagship device was still stuck on 4.0.x.
Simple, the online bank co-founded by Twitter engineer Alex Payne, has been a long time coming (to Android, anyway). The service was actually announced a couple of years ago, with the iOS app arriving about eight months ago. And now it's finally our turn.
If you're one of the few who dropped the coin and got a Samsung Galaxy Camera, good news: the Galaxy Camera toolkit is available now over at XDA. This comes from developer mskip, who is also responsible for the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 7, Nexus 4, and Nexus 10 toolkits, so you can rest assured that it is about as stable and secure as they come.
While Android 4.2 may have brought a number of enhancements, it also brought its fair share of issues to the platform. Among those, there has been a real problem with Bluetooth – especially when it comes to A2DP streaming audio. Basically, audio lags and cuts out constantly, making a streaming experience far more frustrating than enjoyable.
Back in September, Samsung announced a new ruggedized mid-ranger for AT&T: the Galaxy Rugby Pro. Now, that phone you probably don't remember is getting Jelly Bean. It's pretty weird.
Well, that was fast – the beta channel of Chrome for Android just became a thing four days ago, and the browser has already received its first update. Granted, it's just a bunch of bug fixes, but it's still something.