Eric Ravenscraft
Contributing since January, 2012
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1039articles
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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.
Latest Articles
When the first Galaxy Note launched, everyone was reasonably skeptical. Was the world ready for such a large phone? Turns out, yep. So now, it would be expected for more carriers to want in on the action. Cue Sprint, stage left. One curious XDA member started poking around in some Sprint documents and found reference to one "SPH-L900." We know SPH is a designation Sprint uses for its Samsung phones (Galaxy Nexus is SPH-L700, Galaxy S III is SPH-L710, etc.), but the L900 is brand new. The specs, however, match those of the Galaxy Note II.
Today, something happened that has not happened in an age: I actually got excited while watching a Motorola event. Don't get me wrong, the devices were still middling at best (though the RAZR M does seem kind of snazzy). What happened wasn't that Motorola announces some earth-shattering devices. No, this was more important: Motorola got its groove back. Or, perhaps more accurately, Motorola started syncing its old groove up with Google's current one. (That's how grooves work, right?)
Today, a software update began rolling out for the Galaxy Note in Germany. The primary changes are cosmetic, it seems, to bring the phone more in line with the look and feel of the Galaxy Note II. The menu interface has been updated to be more consistent, and Samsung has also added a brand new Gallery that looks fantastic.
Today, Motorola just floored users with an unprecedented offer: if you bought a phone from Motorola that launched in 2011, most of you will receive an upgrade to Jelly Bean. If, however, you're using a phone that Motorola decides will have a degraded experience, you will receive $100 in credit towards an upgrade. This may mark the first time that a manufacturer has broadly promised compensation for a lack of updates for all of its devices.
Sprint Galaxy Nexus And Nexus S 4G Variants Could Receive Jelly Bean Update As Soon As September 6th
Sprint Galaxy Nexus And Nexus S 4G Variants Could Receive Jelly Bean Update Soon
CDMA-based Nexuses (Nexii?) tend to get the short end of the stick when it comes to timely updates. The promise of the Nexus is that you'll always have the latest Android experience just the way Google imagines it. While the international version of the Galaxy Nexus has had Jelly Bean for a while, Sprint's been left in the cold. Until, tomorrow, September 6th, if Android Central's source is correct.
We're getting closer and closer to Gameloft's newest release title, Wild Blood. We've seen teasers and trailers for the game leading up to this point. Finally, though, we've gotten something resembling a release date and you're in it. Wild Blood will land on the Play Store "in September," so you can expect it anytime between the end of the month and right now!
Today, Spotify's Android app received an update that should please audiophiles the world over (where available): if you're using the mobile app on Ice Cream Sandwich or above, you can now access an equalizer from the Settings menu. The features is actually called "Audio Effects" in 4.0, but on Jelly Bean it's been changed to the more readily-recognizable "Equalizer" moniker.
Everyone's favorite Twitter tipster has just dropped some interesting (and disappointing) images on us. For those of you hoping for bezel-free display on a Motorola phone, you may be in for a bit of a wait if this is all Motorola is planning on releasing today. The image shows us two Verizon-bound Motorola devices and, well... they look about the same as most other Motorola devices. The two devices appear to be images of the very-very-soon-to-be-announced RAZR M and RAZR HD.
As football season gets underway, the annual tech upgrades start. What new toys do you have for getting sucked in to your favorite not-soccer sport? Well, one of the nicest ones this year might be NFL Game Rewind. The app, which requires an existing subscription to the streaming service of the same name, will allow viewers to watch games in their entirety after they air. No live shows, but they're available via On Demand. As a bonus, they'll even get access to special features like Coaches Films and All-22, a feature that allows a sports fan to see all 22 players position on the field simultaneously, not just following the ball. It's pretty impressive.
Hey, did you guys know there's an election coming soon? I know, it's been a pretty low-profile thing, but it's true. Of course, we want to be a well-informed electorate, right? One source of information that should probably be watched to achieve that goal is the White House. Today, the administration of the most powerful office in the country revealed a newly-designed app that will allow mobile users to watch live presidential events, search its stable of blog posts, videos, and press releases, and in a forward-thinking move, makes all this content available on tablets.
Chances are, most of you only ever hear about Epix in an article discussing streaming rights (like this one). Epix is an online streaming video service a la Netflix that you can only get access to if you have a cable bundle that includes the site. Or, you know, if you have Netflix. For now anyway. The real value of Epix is the stable of movie rights it brings to the table, and now the joint venture is sharing its media library with Amazon Instant Video for all of the online retail giant's Prime customers.
This little piggy had some great success. This little piggy had none. This little piggy, however, has us wondering what's going on all the way home. Rovio announced today that, in a few weeks, we'll be seeing a sequel to Angry Birds arrive on the Play Store. Instead of being built from the ground up this time (or, rather, being bought from the ground up), this one will feature the mild-mannered pigs that you've spent so much time destroying. Now you'll get the chance to empathize with them!
When we last heard about the Samsung Galaxy Stellar, a mid-range device coming to Verizon, Aaron was left wondering why this device was alleged to cost more than the Galaxy Nexus on contract. Well, now we have the answer: it doesn't! The 4" LTE device will be free with a 2-year contract, though that's after a $50 mail-in rebate.
Good news for you independent bloggers out there! WordPress just issued a small update to its mobile app. The biggest change is that you can now add featured images to a post. Featured images, of course, are treated differently in WordPress entries than in-line images and are often used as thumbnails, so it's been a bit of a problem that the app hasn't made it easy to add them until now.
OfficeSuite Pro Update v6.5 Brings The Ability To Print Via Google Cloud, Spell-Check, Convert-To-PDF And More
OfficeSuite Pro Update v6.5 Brings The Ability To Print Via Google Cloud
OfficeSuite Pro is one of the more powerful collections of productivity software for Android (and Cameron's personal favorite). Today it's getting just a bit better by adding several new features, including the ability to print via Google Cloud Print, convert text documents to PDF files, spell-check, and compatibility with SkyDrive.
No, it's not an Evo. Don't let your eyes deceive you. What you're looking at are leaked pictures of an in-development HTC device. We don't know much about this one just yet. The phone lacks any carrier-specific branding, though the red accents are pretty typical of Verizon color schemes, such as the Droid Incredible.
The slew of deals coming out today just isn't stopping. Besides Google's coordinated End of Summer Sale, BeyondPod, an extremely popular podcast manager, is offering its full version unlock key for $1.99, down from the normal $6.99. A handy price drop after Listen was abruptly pulled from the Play Store. The key works for both the regular and tablet-oriented versions. This app is one of the more powerful podcast managers and is able to run on a wide selection of devices, including many Google TV boxes.
It's never easy to be a questionably-legal music streaming service on the internet. Grooveshark has had trouble with submitting an Android app in the past. A couple days ago, we thought the company had ironed out its problems with Google's ToS when it reappeared on the Play Store. Not so, it seems, as the app has now been pulled yet again.
Today's a good day for mobile gamers to open up their wallets. Max Payne, which David rated as having the highest possible nostalgia-to-dollars ratio, is 67% off today in the Play Store, clocking in at $0.99. Not bad. Looking for a better deal? How about Crystal Defenders? Developed by Square Enix (you know, the Final Fantasy guys), the game is normally $7.25, but for right now it's only $1.26, for a massive 83% off. Given the quality of Square Enix games, this is a fantastic deal.
It's not just European markets that are getting some Amazon-related goodies today. The Appstore has been updated to version 4.0 (technically, version 4.0.634.0, but who's counting right?) and brings with it an improved UI, the ability to remove items from the My Apps section and, perhaps most importantly to Artem, a fix for a major battery drain bug. All good news!