David Ruddock
David's phone is an HTC One X+. He is an avid writer, and enjoys imparting a legal perspective on Android news where it is relevant. He also doesn't usually write such boring sentences.

19
Dec
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Dropbox Buys Photo Locker Service Snapjoy, Continues Its Quest Of Cloudomination

Posted by in Applications, News

Hot on the heels of last week's announcement that it would be acquiring the music streaming company AudioGalaxy, Dropbox today was confirmed to have snapped up yet another cloud startup: photo locker service Snapjoy.

snap

As you may have noticed, Dropbox is really into the idea of you storing all your photos with them. That's why they offer you some free megabytes if you turn on the Instant Upload option on the smartphone app - clever, clever. The problem, though, is that Dropbox wasn't exactly designed from the ground up to be a photo viewing / organizing / sharing service. So, buying Snapjoy is probably meant to address that whole issue.

19
Dec
motorola-logo-big

Google To Sell Motorola's Set Top Box / Modem "Home" Division To Arris Group For $2.35 Billion

Posted by in Motorola, News

Telecom equipment manufacturer Arris Group has just announced that it will acquire the Home division of Motorola from Google, for a total of $2.35 billion in cash and stock. The sale of the division had been predicted from basically the day Google announced its purchase of Moto, and in recent weeks was all but confirmed.

As part of the deal, Google will gain a 15.7% share of Arris Group. The Motorola Home division encompasses products like set top boxes, broadband modems, landline phones, and (apparently) baby monitors.

While some have criticized Google's decision to sell off Moto's modem and TV manufacturing arm, it makes complete sense: even a wide expansion of Google Fiber wouldn't require a $2 billion+ set top box business, and I doubt Google has any interest in manufacturing modems for the likes of Comcast or Verizon.

19
Dec
pinch-me

Another One Bites The Dust: Apple's Pinch-To-Zoom Patent Deemed Invalid By USPTO

Posted by in Legal, News

It seems Apple isn't making many friends over at the patent examiner's office lately - yet another high-profile patent used by the company in litigation has been deemed wholly invalid on a preliminary basis.

The patent in question is often called the "pinch-to-zoom" patent, because that's basically what it patents - a pinch gesture to zoom in on content on a display. This patent had been used successfully by Apple during the first Samsung lawsuit, with numerous (all but two) Samsung devices found to infringe it. The claim (#8) involved in the suit, below (heavily redacted, reformatted):

determining whether the event object invokes a scroll or gesture operation by distinguishing between a single input point applied to the touch-sensitive display that is interpreted as the scroll operation and two or more input points applied to the touch-sensitive display that are interpreted as the gesture operation;

issuing at least one scroll or gesture call based on invoking the scroll or gesture operation;

responding to at least one scroll call, if issued, by scrolling a window having a view associated with the event object;

and responding to at least one gesture call, if issued, by scaling the view associated with the event object based on receiving the two or more input points in the form of the user input.

19
Dec
IMG_5197

RHA MA350 Earbuds Quick Review: Easy On Your Wallet And Your Ears

Posted by in Other Reviews

The MA350

The MA350 is an earbud produced by RHA, subsidiary of the UK firm Reid Heath Ltd., based in Glasgow. RHA currently manufacture only two models earbud, both of which use the same audio guts - one of them just has inline controls. The MA350's are the model without them. They retail for $40 (buy here). A small carrying pouch and three sets of eartips are included.

IMG_5211

The Sound

For $40, the RHA MA350's produce sound that is - I would argue - far more comparable to headphones of the $80-100 range. My primary point of comparison, therefore, were my trusty old Etymotic Research hf2's (equivalent to the hf5, which are $100 street price, $150 MSRP).

19
Dec
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Yelp For Android Updated To v3.7, Finally Adds Action Bar, And Something Called Yelp Talk

Posted by in Applications, News
Last Updated: December 22nd, 2012

The Yelp app for Android has been updated to version 3.7, and brings some much-needed action bar love to everyone's favorite restaurant and other place-finding service... thing. Except they sort of botched it a little bit - with a big, fat ugly gray bar at the bottom of the map and result list UI that decreases the amount of visible content. Lovely.

Screenshot_2012-12-19-12-00-40 Screenshot_2012-12-19-12-00-47 Screenshot_2012-12-19-12-00-54

On the upside, now you have a 3-dot menu button, and the standard action bar back button, too. This update adds support for Yelp Talk, as well, which is Yelp's local chat thing. My local chat buddies had all sorts of interesting things to say, so much that I think they deserve their very own jumbo screenshot:

Screenshot_2012-12-19-12-08-01

Look at all that intelligent discussion.

19
Dec
htc-one-x

HTC One XL Jelly Bean Rollout Beginning In Asia

Posted by in Jelly Bean 4.1, News, One XL (Evita)

The rollout of Android 4.1 to the One XL has begun in various Asian countries this morning, with confirmations specifically for the CID (carrier ID) associated with Singapore and Taiwan. The full firmware for the update is also available in RUU form over on XDA (direct link). Note that applying the update will only work if you have the correct CID - this won't work on any old One XL.

Screenshot_2012-12-19-11-38-39

The update brings Android 4.1.1, Sense 4+, along with power management improvement - the same changelog we've seen for every HTC device being upgraded to Android 4.1. We wouldn't expect a massive worldwide rollout immediately, given HTC's slow staggering of the 4.1 update for the normal One X, but be on the lookout for it in the coming weeks.

19
Dec
exynos-4-quad-processor-samsung-galaxy-s3-0

Samsung Acknowledges Exynos Kernel Exploit, Will Fix It "As Quickly As Possible"

Posted by in Android OS, News, Samsung

Say what you will about Samsung, but their catapulting into the number-one position among Android smartphone vendors hasn't made them feel "above" responding to various product foibles. Speaking to Android Central, a Samsung spokesperson confirmed that the company is aware of a fairly-serious kernel exploit affecting a number of its high-profile devices using the Exynos 4 chipset. This includes handsets like the Galaxy S III and Note II (in most forms), and tablets such as the Note 10.1 or Tab 7.7.

Here's the company's statement, which we have since received an identical copy of, as well:

Samsung is aware of the potential security issue related to the Exynos processor and plans to provide a software update to address it as quickly as possible.

18
Dec
gplay_logo_g

Editorial: 9 Months Later, Is The "Google Play" Brand Switch Actually Working For Android?

Posted by in Android OS, Apps/Games, Editorials

Earlier today, while distracted by a YouTube video doing some article research, I started watching Stephen Colbert's interview at Google with Eric Schmidt. It's pretty great, and you should definitely watch the whole hour - seeing Colbert out of character (and talking about that character) on video for so long is a rarity. He's a really smart guy, and hilarious, to boot.

But during that interview, early on, I caught something that really resonated with me. Let me show you, so you can see what I'm talking about (if the time code doesn't work for you, go to 8:10 into the interview).

18
Dec
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Google Play Books Updated - Expanded Support For Read Aloud, Pinch To Zoom, New Note Editing Features

Posted by in Applications, News

The Google Play Books update received an update this afternoon to version 2.7.25, expanding support for several features, as well implementing new functionality for others. Here's the changelog:

What's in this version:

You can now listen to most flowing text books using the "Read aloud" feature.
You can now pinch-zoom or double-tap-zoom in all books.
All text editing features are available for notes.
Personalized recommendations are shown at the end of your library and at the end of the books.
Numerous bug fixes and performance enhancements are included.

While this isn't exactly a massive overhaul, expanded support for things like pinch-to-zoom / double-tap zoom, read aloud mode, and note editing are objective improvements to the app.

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