David Ruddock
Contributing since June, 2010
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3358articles
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About David Ruddock
David is the former Editor-in-Chief of Android Police and now the EIC of Esper.io. He's been an Android user since the early days - his first smartphone was a Google Nexus One! David graduated from the University of California, Davis where he received his bachelor's degree, and also attended the Pepperdine University School of Law.
Latest Articles
Phone insurance isn't an exciting topic. But it is a topic a lot of people have questions about, particularly when it comes to two things: who's the best, and is phone insurance actually a good investment? As you'll see, those questions don't really have an easy answer. But I'm going to break down a few of the US's most popular insurers, alternatives (like your homeowners policy), and explore whether phone insurance is even actually a good idea given your individual needs.
After dropping the Xperia Z1 for T-Mobile on us this morning, @evleaks has revealed another upcoming Android handset headed to a US carrier near you; namely, the Galaxy S4 Mini for Verizon.
Are you holding out for a stateside release of Sony's new flagship, the Xperia Z1? It appears hope may finally be on the horizon, at least if T-Mobile is an option for you. @evleaks just released a photo of what looks to be an Xperia Z1 headed to America's pinkest carrier, courtesy of a bit of T-Mobile branding along the bottom. Take a looksee.
Charging up phones, tablets, Bluetooth accessories, and external batteries can be a logistical nightmare. As someone who reviews phones (I had, no joke, 9 Android devices on my desk last week at one point), it's a problem that has driven me to the edge of sanity on multiple occasions. As such, I never travel far without a trusty USB wall charger and a portable power strip. The thing is, though, until recently, I wasn't exactly on top of charging my stuff, especially at home (aka work). My workspace was in disarray - microUSB cables strewn across the underside of my desk in a tangled web of watts, USB wall chargers for toys long forgotten in every drawer, and, constantly, at least one dead gadget I was too lazy or forgetful to hook up. Sounding familiar?Well, good news: here's a list of some of our favorite charging tools, many of which should help ease the pain and chaos of keeping 3 phones, 2 tablets, and a gaggle of other microUSB goodies juiced up (in no particular order).#1: BESTEK Wall charging power stationYes, the company name on the Amazon product page is both spelled wrong and keyword-loaded to the point of silliness, but hear the BESTEK wall charging station... thing out! Your wall outlets are kinda sucky. You know it, I know it, that power strip you bought at Staples 12 years ago that was not originally off-white knows it. Now, you could seriously tackle this problem and replace your wall outlets with these guys, but we're not all DIY electricians. And, speaking for myself, also maybe a tiny bit lazy.So why set up an entirely new outlet when you can just slap a heaping helping of awesome on top of your existing one? I don't know why, either. Time not spent getting behind a wall and messing with wiring is time spent doing something that doesn't involve getting behind a wall and messing with wiring. So, meet the BESTEK - $20 and you'll forget how you ever lived with two plugs and a dinky power strip.
Google's just posted up the release notes for the latest monthly Glass update - XE10 - and it brings a few significant new features. First among them is transit directions, which is pretty self-explanatory. Here's what that looks like, along with another new feature, avatars in messages and comments.
Welcome back to the Android Police Week In Review, where we round up the 20 most popular stories published on Android Police in the last week. Without further ado, here they are.
After reviewing the Galaxy Gear, my feelings about smartwatches are the same as ever: meh. But a lot of people really, really like the idea of smartwatches. And it seems more and people either own one, or have one on order. So that's this weekend's question, nice and easy: do you own a smartwatch?
Welcome back to another week of the Android Police Podcast. To catch us live on Hangouts On Air every Thursday at 5PM PST (subject to change as per the calendar widget below), just head over to androidpolice.com/podcast. For the unedited video show, click here.
Watches. A lot people used to wear them, because a watch had two great functional purposes: giving you the current time instantly, and providing a quick, easy, and almost universally recognized way to socially cue that you're becoming impatient / need to go / it's getting late. A lot of people actually still wear watches, but by and large, the reason has changed - it's mostly about fashion. For some people, maybe it was always about looks, but now more than ever the watch is, in any functional sense, obsolete. We carry smartphones, and those do a lot more than just give the time. Sure, a watch can make a good backup clock if your phone dies or you need to check the time more discreetly, but they're just not as important as they used to be.
Galaxy Note 3 Deep-Dive Review: Still Making Every Other Big Phone Look Bad
Galaxy Note 3 Deep-Dive Review: Still Making Every Other Big Phone Look Bad
You've been warned: the Galaxy Note II was probably my favorite smartphone of 2012, and it looks like its successor, the Note 3, is stealing my heart all over again. With big hardware improvements across the board, as well as substantial additions to software, the Note 3 feels like a true next-generation sort of phone. Samsung has rather effectively ruined every other large-screen device for me, and frankly, probably every other phone released this year.
Welcome back to another week of the Android Police Podcast. To catch us live on Hangouts On Air every Thursday at 5PM PST (subject to change as per the calendar widget below), just head over to androidpolice.com/podcast. For the unedited video show, click here.
Colors. People have opinions about them. Some people really like blue. Some like green. How about white, though? Because that's the new shade that by all accounts will grace the notification bar icons in the next version of Android, version 4.4, aka KitKat. Here they are:
Let me just start by saying that I like the DROID Maxx and DROID Mini. Why conclude a review before I begin it? Because so many people have already concluded that they cannot like these phones. Motorola's new devices have proven incredibly polarizing among enthusiasts, especially to Google and Android diehards who held on till the bitter end to a fantasy (and that is what it was) that the company would come to the rescue of marginalized power users. Spoiler alert: it hasn't. What Motorola is trying to do is much cooler than SD cards, removable batteries, unlocked bootloaders, and other things I frankly could not care much less about in my smartphone.
Update 2: Samsung has clarified the issue to Android Central, and it turns out it's actually not all that bad. Here's the gist: if you buy a Galaxy Note 3 (or other region-locked Samsung phone), it must be activated with a SIM in its home region. That means you can't import a Note 3 from Taiwan and then activate it in Europe, for example, and if you try to do that, it will lock itself. If that happens, you can go to a Samsung service center (if such a thing exists) and they will unlock the device for you, free of charge, so that you can then use it.
I'm here in Beijing for Oppo's launch event for the new N1 smartphone, and last night I had a chance to spend some time with the up-and-coming Chinese OEM's super-sized flagship, as well as learn a bit more about it from a couple of Oppo's engineers and PR team.
While nothing has been officially announced just yet, it seems all but certain that CyanogenMod will be coming to Oppo's new smartphone, the N1, as an officially supported alternative to the company's own custom software layer. I can indeed confirm that something CM-related is happening, because Steve Kondik is here in Beijing for the event (as am I!), which will be happening later tonight (more around very early morning in America).
I am generally of the view that when it comes to high-end smartphones, most such phones are now squarely in the "pretty good" category. While the internet moans and groans about SD cards, removable batteries, and heavy-handed UI modifications, these things are trivial to most people in the day-to-day operation of a device. But much in the same way some car enthusiasts refuse to relinquish the manual transmission, some smartphone enthusiasts will not let go of the microSD slot until it is pried from their cold, dead fingers. And that's fair enough, even if they are unquestionably a very small minority of the smartphone-buying public.
After a lonesome stint on the US Play Store (and various random retailers across the world) with only T-Mobile SIMs available, the LTE Nexus 7 is now available on the Play Store in nine countries: Australia, Canada, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, UK, Japan, South Korea, and the United States. Here's a URL that should work to get to the product listing.
As it's getting close to Nexus season, the rumors about Google's next phone are really starting to pile up. As are the leaks. And at this point, it can be really fun to hop on the speculation express to conclusion town. Dare I say, it's understandable. Even "Nexus 5" - a name that has been confirmed (even circumstantially) exactly zero times - seems to be such a concrete fact now that you'd have to be a moron not to believe that's what the next Nexus is going to be called, right? Is that probably a pretty good guess? Sure! More likely than not, even? I'd take that bet. But it goes to show that many Nexus rumors, such as the name of the product, have been subject to very little scrutiny. Because if no one knows the name, then no one has the right to tell another person that they're wrong about it and oh my god did you hear the Nexus 5 is going to have optical image stabilization? It's totally going to. And the case isn't glass anymore so it won't break and every phone comes with a KitKat bar.
Welcome back to the Android Police Week In Review, where we round up the 20 most popular stories published on Android Police in the last week. Without further ado, here they are.