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
Thumbstar Games, whose previous work appears to be an Android version of that game they played in Hackers, has launched its new shooter/tower defense game for Android, Meltdown on Mars. The game is reminiscent of Gun Bros., with some tower defense elements adding an extra layer of strategy to the game.
Oh, Google. You know just how to get our attention. If you're not planting giant statues on your front lawn, you're giving your guests tasty treats with a wink. At Google's theme park MWC booth, the company has set up bowls of jelly beans that are, according to sources close to the matter, "delicious." What we're really after, though, is details on Google's next OS version of the same name. Could this mean we're going to hear about it?
[Rumor] Possible Galaxy S III Leaked Specs Strain Credulity: 1.5GHz Quad-Core Exynos Processor And 1080p Display
Possible Galaxy S III Leaked Specs Strain Credulity
Grab your salt-shakers, people, this one's a doozy. According to BGR, their "trusted sources", whom we heard from a while back, have leaked a few extra details regarding the alleged HD screen and quad-core processor. Apparently the rumored quad-core processor will be a Samsung Exynos, clocked to 1.5GHz, tucked underneath an astonishing 4.8" 1080p display.
Call it momentum, a robot invasion, or a force of nature, the one thing you can't say about Android's proliferation is that it's insignificant. Andy Rubin took the opportunity during MWC to let slip some new Android activation figures. Chief among them, Android is now activating more than 850,000 devices daily, and Google has activated a lifetime total of 300 million devices.
Back at CES, ASUS lit a bit of a wildfire by announcing a new iteration of the Transformer Prime with the model number TF700T. ASUS insisted that this new Prime would not replace the old Prime. To further drive that point home, the Taiwanese company has rebranded the TF700T as the Transformer Pad Infinity and placed it on the top rung of its rather varied tablet ladder.
ASUS continues its domination of the Android tablet market with the introduction of the Transformer Pad 300 Series. While the naming scheme for ASUS' tablets may be reaching near-Samsung levels of confusing, the new mid-range tablets look to be a great way to get yourself a 10" tablet without breaking the bank.
ASUS has barely been able to contain its excitement for its Padfone device(s?). Finally, though, we get some more details about what the phone/tablet set will be packing. The former is sporting a a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 (it's unclear what model at this time) and 1GB of RAM, underneath a 4.3" 960x540 Super AMOLED screen. Much like Motorola's line of lapdocks, the SoC of the phone will power the tablet while docked.
When Panasonic announced the original ELUGA for the European smartphone market, we were a little underwhelmed. Today the ELUGA gets a new, awkwardly-capitalized older brother, the ELUGA power. True to its name, the device is considerably more powerful than its predecessor. Which is good, because this series needs all the help it can get.
Heads up! Daily Steals is knocking $100 off an unlocked Samsung Galaxy Note GSM handset. It looks like the bands won't work with T-Mobile's "4G" network, but if you're on AT&T in the states, or you're looking to score a Note for your local GSM carrier elsewhere in the world, today's your lucky day.
Android typically makes its bread and butter on phones, with a side order of tablets. Palm-sized media players aren't usually on the menu, save for Samsung's own offerings. Today, the company announced a refresh for its handheld phone-less device. The notPod may not be the most in-demand category of devices, but if Samsung's taught us anything this week, it's that the company isn't one to turn down a niche market.
[MWC 2012] Samsung Announces The Galaxy Note 10.1, Partners With Adobe To Make The S Pen Truly Amazing
Samsung Announces The Galaxy Note 10.1
I bet you thought that when Samsung announced the Galaxy Tab 10.1 2, that the company was finished unveiling 10.1" tablets for the week. Not so! Today Samsung announced the Galaxy Note 10.1, a full-size tablet packed with the Galaxy Note's trademark S Pen. Oh, and did we mention that the tablet comes pre-loaded with Adobe Photoshop Touch and Adobe Ideas? Yeah. It's actually pretty cool.
If you've downloaded anything Temple Run-related from the Android Market, you've been scammed. We do our best to keep you informed, but this app in particular seems to spark a lot of fakes. Thankfully, Imangi Studios, the developer behind Temple Run, announced on their Facebook page that the app isn't out yet, but when it is the company will announce it at least a week in advance.
You may not think of Fashion Week as the best place to announce a new phone, but Acer sure does. The company just showed off its CloudMobile phone—not to be confused with its AcerCloud service—in Milan. Packing a 4.3", 720p display, a dual-core 1.5 GHz processor, NFC and Ice Cream Sandwich, the device actually doesn't look too bad on paper.
To say that DLC is a growing problem would be an understatement. Of the last five games I've reviewed for this site, all of them have had some form of in-app purchases to expand the game or unlock content. Sometimes it's awful, sometimes it's not so bad, but all of them guarantee you only get most of a game. A new service called Pocket Change, however, wants to let game developers charge on a per-play basis. This is beyond scummy.
Crowd Favorite To-Do List Astrid Gets A Big Update: Interface Overhaul, Tablet UI, Subtasks And More
Astrid has been one of the most popular To-Do list apps for Android for years. Today it's getting a facelift and a few extra features. Most notably, Astrid now has a spiffy tablet UI. Making use of the Fragments API, Astrid lays out your Lists panel, your individual tasks, and details on each individual task for easy access. Like so:
While Motorola tablets may not exactly be flying off the shelves, that hasn't stopped Motorola from trying everything they can to sell them. Occasionally they're even a pretty good deal! For example, right now you can get the 8.2" Xyboard with a free portfolio case (normally $39) and HD dock (normally $49) for $399. If 10.1" tablets are more your style, you can get the same deal on the larger model for $499. Both tablets are WiFi-only with 16GB of onboard storage.
As the Mobile World Congress approaches, it's about that time for companies to start spreading the word about what they'll be showing off this year. Google is taking the "We'll let our past work speak for itself" approach to building hype. "For a taste of what's in store," Google says on Twitter, "check out this video from last year:"
Over on Motorola’s support forum, the company is recruiting 1000 customers to test and provide feedback on a Gingerbread software upgrade for the CLIQ 2. This usually heralds the coming of a software update available to the unwashed masses. While customers who buy devices like the CLIQ 2 may not be the same folks who are eager for the latest and the greatest software updates, Gingerbread will be arriving about 14 months after it was announced, and 13 months after the phone was released.
The folks over at Droid-life have unearthed an internal Verizon document pointing to some device workshops for two as-of-yet unknown devices. The LG Cayman (like the islands, but way smaller), and the DROID Fighter. No word yet on which manufacturer is producing the latter.
Well, that didn't take long. Not hours after ASUS released a tool to unlock the Transformer Prime's bootloader, we get word that ClockworkMod Recovery is available for the quad-core tablet. According to the source link, the team has been working on CWM for the Prime for a while but without an unlocked bootloader, they couldn't test it. Now that the device is wide open, it's time to get your custom recovery on.