David Ruddock - 70/143 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

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.

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Jul

Awesome: Amazon MP3 Now Matches Your Imported Music To Its Own Library And Gives You 256Kbps Versions, Plus A Lot More

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, News

I make no bones of the fact that Amazon's MP3 service is my favored music playback option on Android, and the service just got a big update to compete with its primary rival - Google Music. The general changelog is here, but it's a little difficult to parse, so I'll give you the gist.

Imported file matching to Amazon MP3 library. This is big. Any time you import music into Amazon Cloud Player, before the file is uploaded, Amazon scans the entirety of the eligible Amazon MP3 library and if it finds a match, just adds that file to your Cloud Player library.

Jul

[The Android Police Week In Review] The Biggest Android Stories Of The Week (7/22/12-7/29/12)

Posted by David Ruddock in News, Week In Review

It's time for yet another Android Police Week In Review - don't forget to check out these stories and a lot more [off-topic banter] in our weekly podcast, too!

Feature

A Complete Overview Of The Apple v. Samsung Trial

Weekend Poll

What's your preferred tablet screen size?

Product Reviews

The Meizu MX 4-Core: like sticking a V10 in a Ford Pinto.
The Solid Gray Polypropylene Backpack: so this is what a hermit crab feels like.
MEElectronic Air-Fi AF9 Bluetooth Earbuds

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Sprint LTE is coming to FOUR MORE MARKETS before Labor Day. Guys? Is this thing on?

Jul

[The Android Police Podcast] Episode 20: Willy Wonka And The Crack Factory

Posted by David Ruddock in Podcast

The Android Police Podcast apologizes for our non-liveness this week, but hey, you can hear to what we said anyway while no one was listening. This week we're talking Apple v. Samsung, Samuel L. Jackson's apartment building, and how much we hate Kansas City / want to move there.

Subscribe to the Android Police Podcast:

The Cast

Matthew Smith, Host
Bob Severns, Editor, A/V, button-presser
David Ruddock, Co-host
Cameron Summerson, Co-host
Eric Ravenscraft, Co-host

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Sprint LTE is coming to FOUR MORE MARKETS before Labor Day. Guys? Is this thing on?
Though they may not be adding enough.

Jul

A Complete Overview Of The Apple v. Samsung Trial: Things Aren't Looking Great For Android's Biggest Manufacturer

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Legal, News, Samsung

Last Updated: July 30th, 2012

With Samsung and Apple's California trial scheduled for Monday, more and more information is being unearthed about the parties' respective claims. Yesterday, though, AllThingsD parsed out a few pieces of evidence from an unedited version of Apple's filing (not publicly available) that look quite bad for Samsung. I'll just quote them as they appear, because they really don't need much context:

In February 2010, Google told Samsung that Samsung’s “P1” and “P3” tablets (Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Tab 10.1) were “too similar” to the iPad and demanded “distinguishable design vis-à-vis the iPad for the P3.”

In 2011, Samsung’s own Product Design Group noted that it is “regrettable” that the Galaxy S “looks similar” to older iPhone models.

Jul

Editorial: Samsung Has Given Up On Fighting Apple's Unified Search Patent - Where Do We Go From Here, Google?

Posted by David Ruddock in Editorials, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S III, HTC, Legal, Samsung

Update: It appears Samsung sent out the update removing universal search from international Galaxy S III's mistakenly. I'd say the point still stands for the United States, though.

On December 1, 2004, a patent was filed in the United States naming Apple as asignee (owner). Its title is "Universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system." This patent, which you can find here, has become Apple's most effective weapon in its fight to see Android dubbed an iOS "ripoff" by courts and consumers.

And effective it has been - Samsung just removed the local search feature from the international version of the Galaxy S III, having already removed it from the US versions on AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon.

Jul

Apple Wants $2.5 Billion From Samsung For Infringed Patents, Offers Half A Cent For Each Samsung Patent

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Legal, News, Samsung

Over at FOSSPatents, Florien Mueller has gotten his hands on a copy of a filing containing Apple's damages claim against Samsung in their much-publicized California lawsuit. The contents indicate that Apple is seeking $2 billion in unjust enrichment damages (the amount Samsung has wrongly profited infringing Apple's design patents), along with $500 million in lost profits. A smaller $25 million royalty for various technical patents like tap to zoom and overscroll bounce is included, but only in regard to a few products.

The design patents are the damages headliners because only design patents offer the option of seeking unjust enrichment as a remedy (there are various and good reasons for this).

Jul

[Update: Backordered 2-3 Weeks] The Nexus Q Is In Stock On The Play Store, Shipping In 3-5 Days

Posted by David Ruddock in Accessories, Google, News, Nexus Q (Steelhead)

Last Updated: July 25th, 2012

Update: Surprise, surprise - the Nexus Q has had its ship date pushed another 2-3 weeks. We're guessing it doesn't have to do much with unexpected demand.

Oh Nexus Q, I really do want to love you. Unfortunately, you're just not 300 dollars of loveable. The media sphere (which sounds like something out of Futurama) is now officially shipping in 3-5 days.

So, if you want one of these things, go 'n get it. Personally, I find it makes a really classy bookend.

Play Store

Jul

Meizu MX 4-Core Review: It's Like Sticking A V10 In A Ford Pinto

Posted by David Ruddock in Meizu, MX 4-Core, Phone Reviews, Reviews

The Meizu MX 4-Core is a truly interesting phone. And as an extention of that, Meizu itself is an interesting company. Founded by Jack Wong, it gained international notoriety when its M8 smartphone drew unwelcome comparisons to Apple's iPhone, particularly from Apple's lawyers, resulting in an early end to its production run.

Meizu claims to be fully vertically integrated - manufacturing, marketing, and selling its phones, a start-to-finish philosophy that results in decreased overhead and more control over its products (it should be noted that Meizu does not actually make all of the components in its phones, however). And the reason it has gone that route is probably obvious to everyone at this point: Mr.

Jul

[The Android Police Week In Review] The Biggest Android Stories Of The Week (7/15/12-7/22/12)

Posted by David Ruddock in News, Week In Review

Welcome back to the Android Police Week In Review, which is getting published slightly late this week because hey, the matinee screening of The Dark Knight Rises was cheaper. Don't forget, you can hear a lot of this over the course of an hour instead of 10 minutes in our podcast.

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