David Ruddock - 71/147 - 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.

Follow @rdr0b11

Aug

Breaking: Jury In Apple v. Samsung Reaches Verdict - Apple Winning On Multiple Devices And Counts

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

Breaking live from TheVerge, who are in the courtroom, we're hearing that the jury in Apple v. Samsung has rendered a verdict. Now, this is complicated - there were around 700 questions for the jury to answer on the instructions they were provided, so there are a lot of issues to go through here.

Apple's Claims

Samsung has been found to infringe on many of the accused devices for all three of Apple's asserted software patents. These patents can result in injunctive relief (decided at a later date), but are relatively small in terms of monetary implications. These include things like Apple's patents for scroll bounce back.

Aug

[The Android Police Podcast] Episode 24: My Dad's Better Than Your Dad

Posted by David Ruddock in Podcast

The Android Police Podcast: for those times when listening to 5 guys yammer about technology is more appealing than reading. This week, we're talking Galaxy Note 10.1, with special guest Ron Amadeo. I also get really frustrated at the idea of an Android-powered camera.

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
Special guest: Ron Amadeo

THE OUTINE

Carrier 411

T-Mobile unveils its new unlimited data plan that's really unlimited, as opposed the old unlimited data plans that really weren't unlimited, but are still called unlimited.

Aug

[Lightning Review] Soundfreaq Sound Kick Portable Bluetooth Speaker: An Amazing, No-Frills Product In A World Full Of Pretenders

Posted by David Ruddock in Accessories, Other Reviews

Last Updated: November 11th, 2012

I am sort of becoming the Bluetooth speaker guy here at Android Police, and the more such products I review, the more I find I'm not impressed with a lot of the current market leaders. Most of all, I'm unimpressed with their price-to-performance ratio. So often, Bluetooth speakers overpromise with buzzwords like "amazing clarity," "deep bass," and "rich sound" (how the hell is sound rich?). I get tired of it, especially since most of these promises are meaningless, recycled advertising drivel that belongs on a late-night infomercial. You have to separate reality from marketing-speak. Luckily, today, I haven't had to.

Aug

[Updated x2] T-Mobile Is Canceling The Galaxy Note

Posted by David Ruddock in Galaxy Note, News, Rumors, T-Mobile

Last Updated: August 28th, 2012

After disappearing from T-Mobile's own website and appearing as backordered on others, a matter we posted on just a bit earlier today, we've heard from a very reliable industry source that T-Mobile is putting the Galaxy Note on "EOL" (end of life). We have every reason to believe this person (though they spoke on condition of anonymity), and today's events make it pretty obvious that's what's going on. The EOL date is estimated around November 1st, though that remains subject to change based on how quickly T-Mobile's remaining inventory is depleted.

Update: T-Mobile responded to our inquiry with: "The Samsung Galaxy Note is currently out of stock online via www.T-Mobile.com; however the device is still available for purchase at select T-Mobile retail stores."

This is pretty much what we expected to hear back - T-Mobile does need to clear remaining stock after all, so it makes sense for the Note to still be available at retail stores.

Aug

Amazon Is Having A Press Conference On September 6th, Probably New Kindles

Posted by David Ruddock in Amazon, News

We just received an invite from Amazon to a press conference in Los Angeles 2 weeks from now, and it's sounding like it could finally be time for the company to unveil some new iterations of its Kindle line. No details were provided as to the content of the event, but really, what else would it be?

We've heard rumblings for some time that the new Kindle Fire is on its way, and this seems like as good a time as any to announce it. It'll also mark roughly a year since the launch of the original Kindle Fire last September, so even the timeline makes sense.

Aug

Head Of Google Wallet Says Negotiations With Other Carriers Are Underway, Hopes To Announce New Partnerships "Soon"

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, News

This morning, Google had a Wallet developer Q&A session on the Google Developers blog, featuring Robin Dua, the product manager for Wallet.

Dua hinted that person to person payments could be headed to Wallet soon, so be on the lookout for that. He also emphasized Wallet's focus on getting small businesses on board with the company's loyalty reward and offer platforms.

More interestingly, when asked in a viewer question why Wallet was only supported on a limited number of carriers, Dua responded that Google was in active negotiations with "a number" of carriers, and that he "hope[d] to have some new partnerships to announce soon." While clearly implying that there is a possibility of failure, the fact that Dua spoke to such negotiations at all is encouraging.

Aug

[Update: HTC Denial] Rumor: HTC May Drop Beats Integration On Handsets, To The Displeasure Of No One But Dr. Dre

Posted by David Ruddock in HTC, News, Rumors

Update: HTC has officially denied the veracity of this rumor, and stated that it has no plans to discontinue use of Beats Audio in its handsets.

Original Article: I don't like Beats. You probably don't like Beats. In fact, it's really, really easy to not like Beats. According to news site MyDrivers.com, HTC might not like Beats anymore, either.

After ditching bundled Beats earbuds in April, and then selling 50% of its stake in the headphone and, uh, sound enhancement company, industry sources (yeah, yeah, we know how that goes) are saying that HTC is going to drop Beats Audio from its handset lineup entirely.

Aug

Taiwan's Central Bank Wants The Government To Help HTC Out - That Doesn't Mean They're On The Brink Of Collapse

Posted by David Ruddock in HTC, News

According to a Taiwanese newspaper, as reported by Fox Business, HTC was the subject of a recent plea by the head of the country's central bank. He urged the Taiwanese government to offer some sort of financial assistance to HTC, whose stock has dropped over 80% from its peak in Spring of 2011. While HTC is still profitable, the bank's governor points not only to HTC's dramatically waning share figures, but the impact of its slowed growth on Taiwan's net exports, which have fallen 11% year over year.

Unfortunately, it makes sense (no pun intended). HTC had an absolute flop of a handset cycle starting in early 2011, and things just went downhill from there.

Aug

LG Announces International Availability Of The Optimus Vu, In All Of Its Gigantic, Freaky Glory

Posted by David Ruddock in LG, News, Optimus Vu

After an exclusive stint in South Korea and Japan, LG's Optimus Vu is about to take various other parts of the world by storm. Select countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America will be seeing the Vu hit store shelves in September, and I imagine it's going to be pretty hard to miss. It's big. That's the joke.

LG's press release says the Vu "blurs the line" between phones and tablets for a "truly unique experience." I'll certainly buy that. Having used it in early prototype form myself back at MWC, I was baffled at how LG could go about justifying a smartphone like this, and I don't mean one with a 5" screen, but one that has a 4:3 display aspect ratio to go with it.

Aug

[The Android Police Week In Review] The Biggest Android Stories Of The Week (8/12/12-8/19/12)

Posted by David Ruddock in News, Week In Review

Time for the Android Police Week In Review, and a review-worthy week it is. Be sure to catch our podcast, too. You'll find many of these words there, spoken by us!

Product Reviews

The Tablet Claw: It's not very good. Alternatively: my first thought upon seeing it.

Carrier 411

Sprint is giving away ZTE Optiks to people who buy new phones. We'd probably just say no, thank you. They'll also give you a $100 AMEX gift card.
Verizon is bringing LTE to 34 new markets and expanding in a boatload of others, and I've probably typed this headline in one form or another several dozen times at this point.