David Ruddock

David studies law at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. His phone is Motorola DROID BIONIC. David 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.

Follow @rdr0b11

Apr

[The Android Police Week In Review] The Biggest Android Stories Of The Week (4/15/12-4/22/12)

Posted by David Ruddock in Features, News, Week In Review

Welcome to the week in review - Android Police's weekly news roundup for all things Android and Android Police. Don't like reading? You can catch a lot of these topics on our weekly podcast, here, as well.

Hardware Reviews

The Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, despite an absolutely tragically bad name, is a pretty cheap good tablet for doing tablety things (whatever those are).
The HTC One S for T-Mobile will make you fall in love with Android all over again. Unless you're a heartless bastard.
The Sony Walkman Z-Series PMP is basically 156 grams of pure sad.
The Zeemote makes tablet gaming suck less.

Apr

Facebook For Android App Updated To v1.9, Brings Performance Improvements And New Features

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, News

Facebook for Android has been updated to version 1.9, bringing performance improvements (read: faster feed scrolling), a some new picture sharing and messaging features. You may not be able to get it quite yet on the device Play Store, but forcing the download from the web Play Store should do the trick, as usual. Here's the changelog:

-Improved performance and various bug fixes
-More messaging features like creating group messages and adding friends to existing group conversations
-Shortcuts to share photos and messages right from your home screen

I've already noticed smoother operation in the main feed when scrolling, and the new photo share button on the main feed page is pretty handy, too.

Apr

[The Android Police Podcast] Episode 6: I Was Hoping For The Crap Box

Posted by David Ruddock in Podcast

Welcome back to the Android Police Podcast, the only official semi-official audio source for all things Android. This week, we're talking about Samsung's trademarking addiction, Read It Later (Pocket), and dongles. Your favorite hosts Matthew Smith, Cameron Summerson, Bob Severns and myself are flying solo this week, but we'll have Eric Ravenscraft back on the show for the next episode.

Carrier 411

Verizon is going on an LTE blitzkrieg around the nation, giving lots of people moar gees in moar places.
T-Mobile has decided Carly would be much more appealing in pink leather pants.

Rumor Roundup

A crash log spills the [jelly] beans on the next version of Android, which we all pretty much know is called Jelly Bean, but hey, this looks legit.

Apr

[Lightning Review] Nocs NS200 Android Earbuds: Solid Hi-Fi Equipment, On The Cheap

Posted by David Ruddock in Other Reviews, Reviews

Lately, I've been listening to a lot of headphones as part of my hardware review routine. I've listened to expensive ones. Slightly less expensive ones. Hilariously cheap ones. You get the picture.

So when a Swedish headphone company by the name of Nocs got in touch with me, I was a bit surprised - because I didn't know they existed. And there's a good reason for that (sort of): Nocs has specialized in making solely Apple-friendly headphone products. Until now.

The NS200 earbuds represent Nocs' first Android-compatible headphones (basically, just minor changes to the 3-button controls), and are a variant of the company's standard NS200 iOS earbuds.

Apr

Google Wrests Controls Of GooglePlay.Com From Squatter

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Legal, News

After what was a pretty obvious application of the ICANN anti-squatting policy, it seems Google has now gained control of GooglePlay.com from an ad-serving Japanese squatter. Google filed a complaint under ICANN anti-squatting regulations, and after the case's short stint at the National Arbitration Forum (a non-court but legally binding decision-making body in the US), Google now shows as the registrant of GooglePlay.com.

A quick 'whois' of the domain yields the following:

Registrant Name: DNS Admin
Registrant Organization: Google Inc.
Registrant Street1: 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Registrant Street2:
Registrant City: Mountain View
Registrant State: California
Registrant Postal Code: 94043
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: 16506234000
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Email: dns-admin@google.com

While the page in question still loads, it shows that the domain has been seized (according to Google Translate), and a change in registrant information usually indicates that either the squatter has given up the domain freely, or a decision has been reached and the domain seized by ICANN, beginning the process of transfer of ownership.

Apr

Sony Walkman Z Review: A Few Great Ideas Wrapped In A Flawed And Outmoded Device

Posted by David Ruddock in Other Reviews, Reviews, Sony, Walkman Z

Last Updated: April 30th, 2012

Sony is a company going through major changes - it recently announced plans to lay off 10,000 plus of its workers (some of those through buyouts), has instated a new CEO, and just had one of its worst fiscal years ever. It also recently ended its Android smartphone partnership with Ericsson, and plans to now produce handsets under its own name. It's a difficult and uncertain time for Sony, and the Walkman Z, unfortunately, seems to be an excellent microcosm of the company's larger problems.

There comes an end to the life of every great consumer electronic. The portable CD player.

Apr

T-Mobile HTC One S Review: The Future Is Now

Posted by David Ruddock in HTC, One S (Ville), Phone Reviews, Reviews, T-Mobile

Last Updated: April 30th, 2012

An Android phone is like a Leatherman Tool. It does a lot of things - without a doubt, a triumph of function over form. Android is the world's most versatile mobile operating system, the most tweakable, the most adaptable, and the most fully-featured. It just does more than any other comparable product out there. But if Android is a Leatherman, the iPhone is the basic Swiss Army Knife - compact, simple, iconic, and good enough for the vast majority of people, even if it does do a little less.

Building on that analogy, Android users, even die-hard fans, actually look at their phones more like tools.

Apr

Introducing: The Android Police Week In Review - The Biggest Android Stories Of The Week, All In One Place

Posted by David Ruddock in Features, News, Week In Review

We know you don't always have time to read up on the latest Android stories every day - we can barely keep up ourselves at times. So, deep in the bowels of the Android Police test labs, we came up with a solution: bringing you all of the last week's important news in one convenient location. We call it the Android Police Week In Review - and you can also catch most of the news contained here in our weekly podcast (check it out, here).

You'll notice that this week's "week" in review stretches back a bit further than a week, and that's basically because it's our first one.

Apr

[The Android Police Podcast] Episode 5: A Frisky Partner's Midnight Moves

Posted by David Ruddock in Podcast

It's podcast time - this week Matt, Bob, Cameron, Artem, myself, and our newest presenter Liam Spradlin all talk about things that have at least some tangential relation to Android. In this week's episode, we talk Nook GlowTouch, EVO 4G LTE, and upgrade fees. Check out the covered content in the outline below, and scroll to the bottom of the page for Soundcloud and RSS subscription info to listen.

Carrier 411

AT&T is bringing LTE to more markets... eee. Just read this post (and this one, too).
Verizon has instituted a $30 handset upgrade fee, and this has made a lot of people with keyboards and internet access very upset.

Apr

Engadget Goes Hands-On With The NOOK Simple Touch With GlowLight - Shipping In May, Pre-Order Now

Posted by David Ruddock in Barnes & Noble, News, Nook, Videos

eReaders have long been plagued with the problem of being damn near useless in low-light scenarios, but thanks to the recently announced NOOK Simple Touch with GlowLight, those days are finally past us. Using a front-lit (as opposed to backlit, which doesn't really work with eInk) display, the new Simple Touch eReader allows you to enjoy the pleasure of eInk reading without having to worry about adequate ambient lighting.

This should be especially good news for those who enjoy reading in bed or during long flights. Check out the images and video of the new NOOK in action, and don't forget to hit up Engadget for the hands-on.