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.

19
Dec
vudutiny

VUDU Releases Android App, Gives All Those 'Digital Copies' You Keep Getting With Your Blu-Rays A Tablet-y Home

Posted by in Applications, News

Chances are, even if you haven't heard of Vudu (though that's a little hard at this point), you might just own some piece of content that can be used with the service. Vudu is a digital movie locker that allows users to rent or buy movies online and have them streamed to their computers, or a number of set top boxes and Blu-Ray players with internet connectivity. This is all pretty standard fare. The standout feature, though, is Ultraviolet support, which happens to be one of the preferred methods of offering 'digital copies' for Blu-Ray multipacks.

vuduapp1 vuduapp2

Once you sign in,  you'll have access to your entire library (if you have one), as well as the ability to shop around for anything you'd like to watch.

19
Dec
2012-12-19_17h29_28

Millenial Media: Samsung Ad Impressions Market Share Doubled In Last Year While HTC And Motorola Halved

Posted by in Android OS, News

If you needed any clearer indication that Samsung basically owns the Android world while HTC and Motorola are in trouble, maybe this will help. According to Millenial Media, a mobile advertising firm, ad impressions on its platform from Samsung handsets shot up from 23% to 46% in the last year. Meanwhile, HTC plummeted from 32% to 16%, while Moto dropped from 22% to 11%. This is a massive change.

2012-12-19_17h38_23

Now, before we go getting bent out of shape over this, let's clarify a couple things. First off, this is coming from ad impressions. What that means is that it has no tangible relationship to units sold or profits made by a company.

19
Dec
2012-12-19_13h45_54

Galaxy Note II Developer Edition (16GB) Shows Up On Samsung's Site, Proves Its Existence

Posted by in Galaxy Note II, News, Samsung

One of the biggest frustrations of dealing with Verizon, if you're someone who likes to tweak their phone, is that the carrier insists on locking the bootloaders on its phones that otherwise would not be locked. Samsung has offered Developer Editions of its phones in the past, including the Galaxy S III, largely to avoid that problem and appease the dev crowd. Today, that tradition continues with the Galaxy Note II which has now appeared on the company's site in a similar hacker-friendly model.

2012-12-19_14h20_53

Samsung hasn't announced pricing or availability for this model just yet, but if previous patterns hold, you can expect this to take a bit of a toll on your wallet, as it's going to be sold off-contract and unsubsidized.

19
Dec
2012-12-19_11h03_27

Snubbed By NORAD, Google Builds Its Own Santa Tracker, Personalized Message Builder, And Other Awesome Christmas Stuff

Posted by in Google, News

You've gotta hand it to the folks in Mountain View. When NORAD decides to pass Google over for Santa tracking data, the company isn't one to sit on its hands and let someone else handle Christmas. This isn't the first year that the data giant has kept you up to date on the comings and goings of everyone's favorite fat bearded man in a red suit, but this Santa tracker may just be the best yet.

santa dashboard santatracker

The desktop interface is alive and kicking, as it has been in Christmases past. This new iteration brings new and familiar features like Reindeer games for the kids to play, customized voice messages from Santa and, when the clock strikes 2AM PST on Christmas Eve, kids and parents alike will be able to follow His Jollyness around the world.

18
Dec
2012-12-18_17h23_14

My Fingers Are Threatening Legal Action Against Me After Trying Snapkeys Si, Another Failed 'Invisible' Keyboard

Posted by in Applications, News

Developers, repeat after me: invisible keyboards never work. Do you understand? Good. I hope we're clear on this. Because after trying to use the ridiculous "invisible" SnapKeys Si, which blocks more on-screen crap than any other input software I've ever seen, I'm ready to throw my beloved Nexus 7 through the next wall to look at me funny.

Here's the basic idea behind how SnapKeys Si works: Instead of being given a full QWERTY keyboard, you get a selection of twelve letters, divided among four colored blocks. If you want to type one of these letters, you just hit its block.

18
Dec
wunderlisttiny

Do You Wonder What's In A Wunderlist Update? It's A New UI, Smart To-Do Lists, Push Notifications And More

Posted by in Applications, News

While Astrid may be one of the leading to-do lists on Android, there is a considerable amount of innovation to be done in the world of keeping track of things that need doing. Apparently! Enter Wunderlist, an app that Matt liked well enough, but couldn't quite manage to make him keep coming back. Perhaps today's update will change his mind, though, as it brings a host of new features such as improvements to the UI, push notifications, Smart lists, and a better widget.

wunderlist1 wunderlist2 wunderlist3

The previous iteration of this app had a nice-looking wooden background but, that aside, it still used the old Gingerbread-style tabs to switch sections.

18
Dec
sprintlogothumb

Sprint Lights Up Six New LTE Markets, Including Indianapolis, Santa Rosa, And Hanover, PA

Posted by in News, Sprint

You know the drill by now. It's time for some new LTE market announcements! Woo! Party hard. The network rollouts today are coming to Pennsylvania, California, Indiana, Virginia and Puerto Rico. This comes on the heels of Sprint announcing its intention to purchase the remaining shares of Clearwire that it didn't already own.

Here's the list of new cities:

  • Indianapolis/Carmel, Ind.
  • Santa Rosa/Petaluma, Calif.
  • Vallejo/Fairfield, Calif.
  • Southern Puerto Rico (including Ponce, Coamo and Guayama)
  • York/Hanover, Pa.
  • Franklin County, Pa.
  • Page County, Va.
  • Enhanced 4G LTE coverage around Shenandoah County, Va.

Not a bad set of additions. There is still much to be seen in regards to Sprint's LTE network rollout, particularly over the next year.

18
Dec
play music logo

Google Finally Brings Scan And Match To Play Music, Doesn't Require Uploading Your Whole Friggin' Library Anymore

Posted by in Google, News

While Google's been working feverishly to build out its Play Store, bringing it to other countries and expanding its offerings, the company's music store has been lacking one crucial feature that its competitors have: library matching. Where Amazon and iTunes can scan your current collection and add the songs to your online storage, Google has, until recently, required users to upload every individual track manually. A long and tedious process. In mid-November, the scan and match feature came out for Europe, and today it arrives for US residents.

Where Google differs from Amazon and iTunes, however, is that this scanning and matching service will be entirely free.

18
Dec
2012-12-18_12h25_38

New Alleged Photos Surface Of Polaroid's Mirrorless Android Camera With Interchangeable Lenses

Posted by in News

Sure, Samsung is stealing the spotlight recently with its Galaxy Camera, but did you know that other companies are working on Android cameras? Companies that have been making picture-taking devices for longer than most of us have been alive, even! Take Polaroid's IM1836, for example. This thing has leaked before in a couple different variations, and today were getting a glimpse at a unit that might be a little closer to final production.

polaroidim1836

From what we can tell, it will come with a 3.5" touch screen (which is significantly smaller than the Galaxy Camera's 4.8" display), WiFi, a microSD card slot, a mirrorless sensor and interchangeable lenses.

17
Dec
2012-12-18_02h24_33

Samsung Announces The Galaxy Grand, A 5" 800x480 Phone That Looks A Whole Lot Like The Note II

Posted by in News, Samsung

Did you think that just because it was winter and all the major phone announcements had died down that Samsung was done releasing things? NOPE. Today, the Korean manufacturer released info on the brand new Galaxy Grand. Where "brand new" means "looks so much like the Note II that Samsung is probably suing itself for trade dress infringement." The phone will carry a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, a 5" 800x480 display, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of on board storage (expandable with a microSD card slot), a 2,100 mAh battery, and it ships with Jelly Bean (4.1.2)

갤럭시미니

Full specs in list form, for those who prefer it that way:

  • 1.2GHz dual-core processor
  • 5" 800x480 TFT LCD display
  • 1GB RAM
  • 8GB storage (expandable to 64GB via microSD
  • 2,100 mAh battery
  • HSPA+
  • Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean
  • Single- or dual-SIM models

On the spec sheet, it looks like a mid-range phone at best.

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