Eric Ravenscraft - 11/103 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Eric Ravenscraft

Eric is a snarky technophile with a taste for the unusual. When he's not obsessing about Android, you can usually find him obsessing about movies, psychology, or the perfect energy drink. Eric weaves his own special blend of snark, satire, and comedy into all his articles.

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Mar

T-Mobile LTE Goes Live Today In Baltimore, Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Jose, and Washington, D.C.

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Carriers, News, T-Mobile

Today, at a media event in New York, T-Mobile announced that it's finally ready to join the big-boy world of LTE networks. The initial round of activations match up just about perfectly with the earlier leaks. Major cities include Houston, Las Vegas, Washington D.C. and more. The proper 4G network can be used with the new "Uncarrier" plans that just went live a couple days ago.

Here's the full list of launch cities:

Baltimore
Houston
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Phoenix
San Jose
Washington, D.C.

Of course, you'll need a device to go with that new network and data plan.

Mar

PUK Is A Fast-Paced Action Puzzle Game That-Wait, Holy Crap, What's Happening?!

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Games, News

I am going to show you a game. It costs about a buck on the Play Store and is very fun. However, once you begin playing it, you will have roughly five minutes until you either scream, demand a refund, or your head explodes. There are no other options. The game is called Puk. And it is insane.

The concept is simple. At the start of each level, you are given a set number of slingshot-able pucks (I get it!). You have to hit a number of large white circles on the play field with said pucks (...ohhh.

Mar

[The Android Police Podcast] Episode 54: Ninja Wesley Snipes Goes to Taco Bell

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News, Podcast

Welcome to the Android Police Podcast, Episode 54.

Don't forget - the Android Police Podcast's live broadcast is every Thursday at 5PM PST (www.androidpolice.com/podcast). The unedited video version of the podcast can be found here - and will likely include various verbal expletives, technical snafus, tangents, and probably a good 5-10 minutes of pre-podcast banter as we prepare. Watch at your own risk!

Mar

16GB Nexus 7 Is The First Device To Be Sold Through Google Play In India, Available Now For Rs. 15,999

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News, Nexus 7

The global rollout continues as Google adds yet another country to the list of places you can order a 16GB Nexus 7. The device showed up in the Play Store today for Rs. 15,999 (roughly $295 USD). No other variants of the tablet appear to be available, though. It's 16 geebees or bust. Currently the store says it will ship by April 5th, but you can order now.

Currently, the only content offerings from Google available on the Play Store are apps and books, but with the pace of advancement lately, it wouldn't surprise us if other services showed up before too long.

Mar

[Update: It's Live!] New Google+ App Brings Better Posts, Community Management, Location Sharing On Your Profile And More

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, Google, News

Today, Google announced a new update to the Google+ app that will be rolling out later today that brings a host of new features. For starters, the posts have been redesigned to look a little cleaner, provide more content up front, and are easier to interact with. For example, you can now swipe between photos in an album, and tapping content should take you directly to where you want to go. The current Google+ app has a problem with requiring the user to jump through several hoops to get to the meat of a post, so hopefully this makes things easier.

Mar

HTC Ditches 'Quietly Brilliant' Tagline For Something Louder, Doubles Marketing Budget With Extra Emphasis On Digital

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in HTC, News

It's no secret around these parts that we find HTC's advertising to be a little lackluster. Which is a shame because its hardware is not. For what it's worth, the company's CEO agrees and plans to ditch the "quietly brilliant" slogan for the One and instead shoot for the themes of "bold," "authentic," and "playful." Which, by a strange coincidence, also happen to be Peter Chou's list of the top three traits he's looking for in a woman on his OK Cupid profile*.

The "bold" theme, as HTC's media chief Ben Ho explained (any good marketing campaign has to be explained, you know), refers to how the company will market itself.

Mar

T-Mobile's New Contract-Free Plans Go Live, Unlimited Everything For $70/Month And No Commitment

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News, T-Mobile

The rumors were true and now T-Mobile has launched its new, simplified, contract-free plans. Starting at $50/month for unlimited talk and text with 500MB of high-speed data (throttled, but sans overage fees after that), the new services allow customers to forget about counting minutes and messages and focus solely on data. This could be good or bad news, depending on your usage, but perhaps the most important aspect of these new plans is that you can get them without a 2-year commitment.

You can select to get the new plans with or without a new device (which some carriers will allow you to do already), but if you do decide you want to buy a phone from T-Mobile, you'll have two tabs: 'Monthly Payments' or 'One Payment'.

Mar

BBC News App Updated To Work On 1080p Devices, Adds Widgets And A Bit More Holo

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

The BBC News reader on Android got an update today that should please the pixel poppers among the audience. The app has been optimized to take advantage of Super Mega Ultra dense displays like on the Xperia Z and Droid DNA (to say nothing of the upcoming HTC One and Galaxy S 4). A pile of bugs have been squashed in the new update as well.

Here's the full change log:

What's in this version:

This is a major update of our app, with improved performance and image quality.
The app is now optimised across different screen sizes and we've also fixed a number of bugs.

Mar

Galaxy S4 Mini Spotted, Rumored To Have 256ppi Display, Dual-Core Processor, Android 4.2.2

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Leaks, News, Rumors, Samsung

Well, that didn't take long. Just a week after Samsung announced its newest flagship phone, we get rumors of the Mini version of the same. As before, it's not just a smaller version of the phone, but a lower-specced version as well. In fact, in terms of the display, the rumored specs are much lower. 960x540 to the tune of 256ppi. In other words, exactly half the resolution (the GS4 packs 1920x1080) and a little more than half the ppi (441ppi).

Here are the rest of the alleged specs:

Super AMOLED qHD display (est. 4.3")
1.6GHz dual-core CPU
TW Nature UX 2.0
Android 4.2.2

So far, that's all she wrote.

Mar

The Seven Kingdoms Hang In The Balance In This Google Play Ad For Everything That Could Possibly Relate To Game Of Thrones

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

Last Updated: March 24th, 2013

There's a little over a week left until Game of Thrones season 3 arrives on HBO and Google wants to make sure you're entirely prepared. The trailer below depicts the machinations of a plot to overthrow enemies, mercilessly and without hesitation. We won't spoil it for you, so take a look at it and see if you can guess who's using the Play Store to take over Westeros (if not, the end will spoil it for you plenty).

While, unfortunately, the show itself is not on the Play Store, Google's quick to point out that you can get all kinds of peripheral or related content, including kick-ass soundtracks, ambitious literature, fantasy games, and movies about dragons.