Eric Ravenscraft - 62/103 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

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.

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Aug

[Leaked Deal] Sprint Giving Away Free ZTE Optik Tablet With Purchase Of Any Smartphone Starting August 12th

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News, Optik, Sprint

If you happen to be in the market for a new phone on Sprint in the near future, you might want to hold off for a couple days. TechnoBuffalo reports that the Now Network is getting ready to launch a promotion on August 12th—and continuing until September 30th—that will offer customers a free ZTE Optik tablet when they purchase any new smartphone. Yes, any new smartphone. Including the free Galaxy Nexus for new users ($99 for upgrading customers).

Of course, the ZTE Optik isn't exactly making headlines in the tablet world, though Liam thought it was decent for the price even when it wasn't free.

Aug

HTC Reiterates Via Facebook That Desire S, Thunderbolt, And Other Devices Will Receive ICS By August

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in HTC, News

Today on Facebook, HTC took to answering some user comments about ICS timelines for a few of its flagship devices. In particular, the manufacturer confirmed that both the Desire S and the Thunderbolt would be receiving updates to Android 4.0 before the end of this month. The latter in particular is good news, as rumors have been circulating that the Thunderbolt would not receive the upgrade after its similarly-specced sibling, the Desire HD had its frozen dessert plans cancelled.

Furthermore, HTC pointed out that all the devices the company has announced an Ice Cream Sandwich update for (read: these) will receive said upgrade by the end August.

Aug

[Deal Alert] Rocketfish SPX15 Portable Bluetooth Speaker Available For $40 ($60 Off) For One Day From Best Buy

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Deals, News

Yesterday, we featured a great deal on a stationary Bluetooth dock. Say you need something a bit more portable, though. What should you buy then? Heavens, can anyone save you from this crisis of audio need?! Well, yeah. And calm down. Here's a portable Bluetooth speaker from Best Buy. Today only, this Rocketfish SPX15 is available for $40, which is $60 off its normal MSRP and about $30 off its already-lower price on Amazon. Not bad.

According to reviews on Amazon and CNET, it's a decent little box. The built-in battery is rechargeable which is always a nice touch, and reports are that the sound quality is good.

Aug

Gameloft's (Other) First Unreal Engine Game, Wild Blood, Gets Teased On Video And It's Bloody Awesome

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Games, News, Videos

We saw a brief hint recently for Gameloft's upcoming game based on the Unreal Engine. A single still image showed a man holding a giant sword, covered in blood, as he stood alone in a field of his enemies' remains. Yeah. Awesome. Well, now Gameloft has unveiled a trailer for the game that teaser teased. Watch it. Now.

Yeah, this looks kinda big. And by that, I of course mean "really big." Gameloft is touting this as its "first Unreal game." I suppose that means Gameloft's other first Unreal Engine game is going to be pushed back to being released second.

Aug

Google Translate Gets Bumped To v2.5, Adds Live Updating And Image Translation

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Google Translate, the frequently-overlooked wonder app of the 3rd millennium, got some new features today. Chief among them is an amazing new image-based translation mechanism. The app now supports use of your camera to take a picture of the text you would like to translate. Once that's done, just "brush" over the word or phrase you need to read and Translate will do what it says on the tin: render that text in your preferred language. It's not quite WordLens' live view, but then, if you've ever used WordLens' pause feature, you know that slowing things down a bit might actually be helpful.

Aug

[New Game] Kingdoms & Lords Arrives On Android, Is Half-Sim, Half-Strategy, All Medieval Action

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Games, News

Apparently simventure is quickly becoming its own genre. Today's latest entry into this crossover category is Kingdoms & Lords from Gameloft, which has finally hit release after being announced back in June. Part of the game will take place in a simulated kingdom (spoilers, I know). You'll spend your time managing your economy "on a daily basis", as the description on the Play Store is quick to point out. Hopefully this won't be the Farmville-ian style where, if you cease to play for a few hours, your kingdom dies. After all, plants may need watering, but these peasants ought to be able to fend for themselves.

Aug

[Editorial] Hey Google, What Ever Happened To Movie Studio? (Or: It's Time To Start Caring About Content Creation Again)

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Editorials, News

Back in February of 2011, Eric Schmidt took the stage at MWC to announce Google's latest tablet-oriented app: Movie Studio. It was a rather exciting new addition to Google's first foray into the tablet world. This made it possible for tablet users to not just view content, but to create it as well. This was a big deal. At the time, Apple already had a year-long head start on tablets. Not only would Android need a lot of third-party app support, but first-party apps would be essential to the platform's success.

You may recall the Xoom didn't sell too well.

Part of the problem is that Movie Studio sucked.

Aug

Splashtop 2 HD Arrives In The Play Store, Is Free For A Limited Time

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Splashtop is one of the leading pieces of remote desktop software, not to mention app of choice for NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang when he wants to play Skyrim on his tablet. Now, Splashtop 2 HD has hit the Play Store, bringing pinch-to-zoom support, a new interface, and a very attractive price tag of free, for the time being.

As of right now, the app is free on the Play Store, however Splashtop says that this deal will only be available "for a limited time." Now, according the Play Store rules, a developer cannot convert a free app into a paid app, so it's unclear just how this will work once the developer ends the free period.

Aug

AIDE Is Out Of Beta, It's Releasing On Time, Will Charge Small One-Time Fee For Premium Features

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News

When we last left our heroes, AIDE was just released on the world, to the excited cries of developers who liked the idea of writing and testing their apps on the same device, but still probably couldn't replace their desktop development rig with a tablet. However, the app has been steadily making improvements and, as of the newest version (1.0.1), it's out of beta and will be moving to a freemium model.

The IDE will be available for free from the Play Store. However, if you'd like the option to publish commits to Git, publish an APK, or save files in larger projects (25+ Java files), the developers will ask for a one-time fee of $9.99.

Aug

You Want This Homemade Android Arcade Cabinet - No, That's Not A Question

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News

Arcade cabinet mods are certainly nothing new. Ever since the kids of the late 70s and early 80s grew up into the adults of the late 90s and early aughts, the internet has been filled with folks building wooden boxes around computers and joysticks. Today's example, though, uses an Android tablet and a Tatsunoko vs. Capcom fight stick for what might be one of the cheapest, easiest-to-replicate Arcade cabinets around.

Unfortunately, the creator of this particular mod hasn't included instructions on how to follow in his footsteps (yet), but the cabinet does appear to be fairly straightforward.