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.

11
Dec
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Verizon's Galaxy Camera Will Go On Sale For $550 On Dec. 13th, Shared Data Plan For $5 Per Month Promo Price

Posted by in Galaxy Camera, News, Verizon Wireless

AT&T has already launched its version of the Galaxy Camera, so now it's Verizon's turn. Arriving in both white and black options, the nation's largest carrier will be offering the high tech point and shoot for $550 without a contract. This is a little bit steeper than AT&T's $500, but to make up for it, the carrier is allowing customers to add this device to their existing shared data plans for $5/month. Not a bad deal.

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When Liam reviewed it a while back, he decided it was a good camera, but didn't live up to the price. The even higher tag here might dissuade some customers, however, it's worth noting that if you're the target market for this kind of device and you land this promotional plan (that's only available for an unspecified limited time), you'll make up the extra $50 within the first year.

11
Dec
htconesv

HTC Announces One SV, A 4.3" Dual-Core Mid-Range Device That Completely Confuses The HTC One Brand

Posted by in HTC, News

Back when HTC announced that it wouldn't be making any more "cheap, cheap phones," a lot of us hoped that this would lead to a much more simplified handset lineup from the company. Especially after the reveal of the One Series, it looked like figuring out which device was better than the others would finally become simple. Now, to utterly ruin that hope, here is the HTC One SV! It's better than the One V, but not quite as good as the One VX in some ways, but also doesn't measure up to the One S in others, and frankly my head is spinning at this point.

11
Dec
huluplustiny

Hulu Plus App Update Brings A Special Section Just For Kids And Better Discovery Tools

Posted by in Applications, News

Today, the streaming service best known for completing the Netflix/YouTube trifecta, Hulu Plus, got an update to its mobile Android app. Among the new features are a special Hulu Kids section that showcases a bunch of ad-free content for the youngsters. Parents can even lock the app so that only child-friendly content can be viewed without a password (though this doesn't prevent them from accessing other apps on the device).

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In addition to the kids section, Hulu has also added new features for discovering more content. This largely seems to consist of additional sections on the main page of the app that you can slide through, so nothing unfamiliar, just more of it.

10
Dec
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Google Updates In-App Purchasing APIs, Makes Them Faster, Better, Harder, Stronger And Less Likely To Lose Transactions

Posted by in Google, News

Sure, "in-app purchases" becomes a bit of a dirty phrase when we're talking about games that abuse the privilege, but they're a critical element of any profitable app ecosystem, and today Google's making a bunch of IAP features easier and smoother for developers and, by extension, you. Here are some of the new improvements.

Easier Purchasing Implementation

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Previously, if you bought an item in an app, the purchase was handled via an "asynchronous notification through a background service." This meant that the app would call out to Google to announce a purchase, but then have to talk to a separate service in order to find out how it went.

10
Dec
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Some Enterprising XDA Users Get LTE Working On The Nexus 4 For AT&T In The U.S. - On One Band In Few Markets

Posted by in News, Nexus 4

Before you get too excited, let's start with the disclaimers. For starters, while yes, some users over on XDA managed to get LTE service working in very select AT&T markets, this probably won't work in your area. Also, this is not the intended use of your phone, so if you're not comfortable screwing with radios on your phone, you should probably skip the whole freaking out thing.

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So, here's how it goes. The Nexus 4 technically "doesn't" have support for LTE in that it does support certain bands due to the default hardware present in the Optimus G that this handset is based on, but it lacks the capability to utilize most major bands (there are 25 separate LTE bands).  If you're on AT&T and you're using LTE, chances are you're connected via band 17, which operates on the 700 MHz frequency.

10
Dec
play logo

Play Store Expands Carrier Billing To Australia, Partners With Payment Company Bango To Do So

Posted by in Google, News

One of the biggest problems with the Play Store is that, compared to certain other platforms, its international support for both products and payment systems is comparatively meager. This is, of course, one of the main reasons that earning revenue on Android seems harder for developers. Starting today, though, if you live in Australia and use Telstra, you have one more way to pay: carrier billing.

The rollout comes with special thanks to mobile payment platform Bango. This UK-based company specializes in connecting your wallet to the companies you want to give money to. This is particularly noteworthy since Bango is an international platform.

08
Dec
googlenowtiny

Google Now Heading To Chrome In The Future, 'Skeleton' Framework Already In Place

Posted by in Google, News

I hope you like Google Now, because it looks like this product is here to stay for a long time. As we speak, Chrome developers are working on bringing Popular Science's Innovation of the Year to the desktop, instead of keeping it trapped just on your phone or tablet. As it turns out, a "skeleton" framework is already in place for the search product to move in.

Google's not being shy about the existence of this product, but also isn't in a hurry to announce it, either:

Google confirmed that it's working on the project, but stopped short of committing to it.

07
Dec
musetiny

Samsung, The Last Thing We Need Is A Knock-Off iPod Shuffle, Please Stop Doing Things

Posted by in News, Samsung
Last Updated: December 13th, 2012

Hi, everyone. I'd like to introduce you to the Samsung Muse. This is a music player with no screen and a mere 4GB of storage that requires a phone with music on it in order to sync. It costs $50 and is going on sale in the U.S. soon. Why is this handy little thingy going to be made available here? Because screw you, that's why.

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'What is this device?' you ask? It's a music player. 4GB of storage for all the music you can handle so long as you can't handle that much music. Also, you need to have the music on your phone already.

07
Dec
taskertiny

Tasker's Developer Is Working On A UI Overhaul Too, Plus A Bunch Of Other Updates

Posted by in Applications, News
Last Updated: December 9th, 2012

A few days ago, we were treated to a lovely look at what Tasker, the highly-customizable Android automation app, could look like if it got a nice facelift. Unfortunately, this was done by the Android team and was not representative of any real work being done by the developer. As it turns out, though, the developer behind said application is working on a holo conversion. There are quite a few obstacles to deal with in the meantime:

I started working on a holo conversion about a week ago coincidentally, with half the goal being use of the holo conventions and half replacing under-the-hood deprecated APIs for dialogs etc.

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