Eric Ravenscraft
Contributing since January, 2012
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About Eric Ravenscraft
Eric is a freelance writer and an OG 'round these parts. Since leaving Android Police, his work has been in Lifehacker, The New York Times, OneZero, PCMag, and a bunch of other places. Catch him on Twitter and YouTube as LordRavenscraft.
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Welcome to the Android Police Podcast, Episode 46.
Innovation is great. You know what it does? It solves problems. Not problems like 'What is beauty?' because that would fall within the purview of your conundrums of philosophy. Innovation solves practical problems. For instance, "How am I going to stop this big mean 5" 1080p display from tearing my battery and hand a structurally superfluous new behind?" The answer, according to HTC? Use a mini phone.
At this point, you've probably heard that starting tomorrow, it will become illegal to unlock your smartphone to use it on another carrier. You certainly should have heard so since the decision was made three months ago. That being said, there are still quite a few questions that folks want to have answered. Chief among them, 'How does this affect me?' Well, I'm glad you asked, dear reader.
Do you like physics games? I sure do. Puddle THD happens to be a great game in this category if you happen to have a Tegra 3 device. The puzzle-centric fluid simulator is typically available on the Play Store for $5, but today the app has gone on sale for a measly $0.99 to celebrate its first whole year on the market. Not bad!
Hope you like the idea of a smartwatch, because startups are not giving up on them. To wit, one of the most popular manifestations of the concept is the Pebble which began as a Kickstarter project that aimed to raise $100k. Instead, the company raised million. Yes, a hundred times a hundred thousand. That investment seems to be paying off a bit, though, as today an Android app landed in the Play Store just prior to the first round of units arriving on customers' arms.
Remember when developers got their pre-release Ouya kits and started showing them off? In those videos, the controllers looked kinda crummy. Thankfully, the company said those were absolutely not indicative of the final design that will go out to consumers. Turns out, they really weren't! The company has detailed some changes and they sound pretty good.
Well, it's a start. While the Skype app for Android still has a bizarre and uncomfortable habit of forcing landscape mode, today's update at least allows users to use the portrait orientation if they're making a call. That's nice. Especially since the positioning of front-facing cameras on devices like the Nexus 7 make landscape video chats extremely awkward. Now if only we could get this for the rest of the interface, that would be great.
Amiigo Fitness Bracelet For Android Tracks Your Workout Automatically, Lets You Tell Your Friends How Much You Lift
Amiigo Fitness Bracelet For Android Tracks Your Workout Automatically, Lets You Tell Your Friends How Much You Lift
One of the neatest things that the mobile revolution has brought about is an increase in intelligent fitness apps and accessories. Everything from belt clips that can tell how far you've run to zombie-augmented 5K training. The Amiigo bracelet and shoe clip combo may be one of the coolest projects, though. The company behind it promises that, between the two pieces, the system can track any workout you do. If it performs as advertised, this could be amazing.
The Developer Economics 2013 report—a sort of State of the Union on app development—is out and it's packed with helpful tidbits, both for armchair analysts and programmers trying to make some sense out of this crazy software world. One of the most interesting observations the survey showed is there is still demand for a third platform. And right now they're getting it in a surprising place: on Blackberries.
Remember back when Google showed off what Tasker could look like if it updated to support the new ICS guidelines and we all drooled? Then the dev behind it said that there's already a UI overhaul in the works and we started squirming in our seats? Well, today's the day we all freak out, because today the developer released a beta of Tasker 4.0b4 that shows off a completely redesigned interface.
Round and round and round she goes. Where she stops nob-holy mother of crap! That car just exploded! Okay, alright. Maybe I can understand a little bit of why folks like NASCAR. And in solidarity with my fellow southerners who adore the sport, allow me to share this with you: NASCAR Mobile '13.
You know what we like here at Android Police? Solid information. Earlier today, we reported on an alleged render of the HTC M7 that looked a little 'close-but-not-quite'. For starters, that image is not exactly the M7. But a helpful tipster decided to help us clarify some things today, by providing real images of something that more than likely is the M7.
Ah, after CES we were beginning to wonder when we'd get our next flurry of conflicting rumors. Today's comes in the form of what is being called an official render of the HTC M7. Trouble is, it's not. For starters, PocketNow claims that they're not made by anyone within the company, however according to someone who 'has access' to a photo of the handset, the front looks about right. Allow me to reiterate that point: the claim here is someone has allegedly seen an alleged photo that allegedly looks similar to this image, but only the front half:
On this site, you'll read a lot of Android news (which is why we put it in our name). You will also hear a lot of tech news. You will maybe hear a tiny bit of movie news. Today, though, you're getting a triple-whammy of all three. The Sundance Film Festival, which actually began yesterday, has released the 2013 version of its mobile app to help you keep track of everything going on at the event.
Facebook App Updated To v.2.1, Brings Voice Messaging, Better Sharing, And Faster Photos
Facebook App Updated To v.2.1, Brings Voice Messaging, Better Sharing, And Faster Photos
It's nice to finally have Facebook pay at least a little attention to its mobile apps for a change. Today, the social networking giant is rolling out an incremental update that brings a couple of new features. Of course, there's the big one: remember that new voice messaging thing that Messenger got? Now the regular app has it, too.
Dang it, I've already used up all my "G" adjectives for the day. The internet is not gonna leave me be, though, as the LG Optimus G 4G gets a good ol' grice grop to $49 on Gamazon Gireless. Gee, what a deal. The previous best offer we'd seen for this beast of a phone was $99, also via Amazon. $49 is a downright bargain for this flagship handset.
Just yesterday, an LG rep let us know that, among other things, the "G" branding would continue to be representative of the company's top-tier hardware. Today, we get a glimpse at what the next great handset could look like. This leaked slide shows off the LG Optimus G Pro with a gorgeous 5" 1080p display, a gargantuan 3,000 mAh battery, a gratuitous Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, and a glorious 13-megapixel rear camera.
Larry Page On Apple's Thermonuclear War: 'How Well Is That Working?', Also Facebook Is 'Doing A Really Bad Job On Their Products'
Larry Page On Apple's Thermonuclear War: 'How Well Is That Working?', Also Facebook Is 'Doing A Really Bad Job On Their Products'
It's hard to argue that Google hasn't been a significantly different company under Larry Page's leadership. If nothing else, it has certainly become more directly competitive. Mountain View has generally (though not always ) preferred to be passive in its approach to other companies, allowing the product to speak for itself (whether for good or ill), rather than outright antagonize others. Apparently all that reservation was just saving up for when Page would take the helm and let the zingers fly. In a Wired interview, the CEO had this to say on the subject of Apple:
AT&T has a problem on its hands. It's big, but is it big enough? If you're a CEO of a major corporation the answer to that question is always "no." However, the carrier has difficulty expanding on the home front. An overwhelming majority of U.S. citizens have phones with one carrier or another, so there's very little wiggle room to grab new customers. And gaining in market share when you (and all your competitors!) are dead set on locking people into two-year contracts is very difficult. In short, growth isn't much of an option outside acquisitions, and those haven't gone so well.