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.

02
May
pctiny

[Updated] Paper Camera Moves Up to Version 3, Brings Front-Facing Camera Support, Social Integration And More

Posted by in Applications, News

Everyone's favorite novelty camera app that hasn't been bought for a billion dollars, Paper Camera, saw an update to version 3 today. Among the new features, the app has added support for the front-facing camera, the ability to share to a variety of sites, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The app also allows users to buy extra controls via an in-app purchase that add even more customization controls to the already impressive filters.

SC20120502-123545 SC20120502-123429 PaperCamera2012-05-02-12-37-39

The previous version of Paper Camera added support for video recording, so this rounds out a rather ample set of features. While it may not be enough to take Instagram down, this will certainly be worth it for users of the app.

01
May
Sprint

Sprint Signs Contract With WSCA That Nets The Carrier $2B Over Four Years

Posted by in News, Sprint

Sprint's money troubles are no secret to anyone. After losing out on the Lightsquared deal, not to mention the decreased revenue from the iPhone deal (which should pay off in the long run), Sprint has had trouble making ends meet in the short term. Thanks to a new deal signed with the Western States Contract Alliance (WSCA), Sprint will receive $2bn in revenue over the next four years in exchange for its wireless services. Big customer.

It's not enough to offset the absolute thrashing that Sprint's finances have taken recently. When the carrier is taking losses a billion dollars in one quarter, two billion over 16 of them seems like a drop in the bucket.

01
May
2012-05-01 11h37_14

Droid Does Campaign Decides To Trade In World Domination For A More Family-Friendly Image

Posted by in News, Verizon Wireless

There comes a time in every action hero's life where he gets tired of the explosions and the fighting and race horses duct taped to SCUD missiles, and longs for a simple life. Camping and going on road trips with the family, getting a nice office job, sending your daughter off to get kidnapped in Paris. Verizon's Droid Does campaign has hit a similar milestone. After very successfully selling a metric ton of Android devices with harsh, scary looking robot arms and not to mention evil, horror-esque iPhone taunts, the ad campaign is going for a less threatening and more heart-warming approach.

01
May
sprint_logo_thumb

Sprint Rolling Out A Fix (FD02) For That Pesky No Data Problem For Galaxy Nexus Users

Posted by in News, Sprint

Remember that problem Galaxy Nexus devices were having on Sprint where owners couldn't get any connection to any data network at all? Well, if you happened to be one of those owners, how could you forget? Worry not, though! Sprint just announced it will be rolling out a fix over "a 1-2 day period."

2012-05-01 11h48_12

You'll need to be connected to a WiFi network to do anything (though this shouldn't be new to you if you're affected by this problem). Hopefully this will be the end of the data issues for Galaxy Nexus owners on Sprint. If you've been among those affected, let us know in the comments if this fix works for you.

30
Apr
notifierprotiny

NotifierPro And SMS Flash Are Two Apps That Will Help You Text Without Interrupting Your Game

Posted by in Applications, News

We've got a two-fer for you gamers today. While Android has always excelled at managing notifications, the one area that's always been a little bit troublesome is when you're using full-screen apps, like games. When receiving a message, your phone might vibrate, but you'll get no info on what kind of message you just received. NotifierPro and SMS Flash are two apps that are designed to help with this.

np1 np2 np3

The first app, NotifierPro, provides a notification overlay that appears above whatever you're running. This includes full screen apps like games, as well as the notification shade itself. If you're looking for customizability, this is it.

30
Apr
avlwptiny

[Updated] Hands-On Video: This Official Avengers Live Wallpaper Will Only Distract You For A Minute From The Avengers' Imminent Launch

Posted by in Applications, News, Videos
Last Updated: May 1st, 2012

To our friends overseas: no spoilers! Depending on where you live in the world, you're either coming down from an Avengers high, or eagerly anticipating the end of your four-year wait for this movie. Either way, you could probably use a little more of Marvel's most famous superheroes of late in your life. So, here. Have an official live wallpaper.

The live wallpaper costs $0.99. We say this because, although you can download it for free here, the wallpaper requires an in-app purchase of 99 cents to unlock the heroes. So, unless you've been waiting for years to see that sweet Avengers logo and a burning car, this app just costs a buck.

30
Apr
2012-04-30 14h35_37

Meet KegDroid: An Android/Arduino-Powered Keg In The Shape Of Our Favorite Robot: Your Argument Is Invalid

Posted by in News

There comes a time in every person's life when he or she must decide what to do with the time they've been given on earth. Will it be used to benefit mankind, or to destroy it? Will it be to help or to harm? In Google engineer Paul Carff's case, he went for both. Thus, KegDroid was born. This gorgeous Android statue, with beer taps for hands, dispenses home brew at the touch of a screen.

The keg comes complete with flow control, so you can select what size drink you want and the bot will pour it automatically. It uses NFC tags to ensure that only approved users can get at your precious booze supply.

30
Apr
wm_DSCN0329

Galaxy Player 3.6 Review: Well, It Runs Android, So I Guess There's That

Posted by in Galaxy Player 3.6, Other Reviews, Reviews
Last Updated: May 1st, 2012

The iPod may be dead, baby, dead, but that hasn't stopped Samsung from trying to enter the PMP market. The company's latest iterations of its Player line, the Galaxy Player 3.6 and 4.2, has landed and, not to put anything indelicately, but we're left to wonder why Samsung chose to enter this market, or what the company hopes to accomplish. After using the device for a few days, we're sure it's not going to shake up the media player market.

Before we take a look at this device, though, it seems like it would be appropriate to answer the question "Why?" The most direct corollary to this device is the iPod Touch.

27
Apr
Sprint

Some Sprint Galaxy Nexus Owners Are Experiencing Data Connection Problems, Sprint/Samsung Working On A Fix

Posted by in News, Sprint

If you're on the Sprint network, and you're thinking about upgrading to the Galaxy Nexus, you might want to hold off for a bit. Some users in Sprint's forums are reporting that they are unable to connect to Sprint's 3G data network, instead only able to get data via WiFi. Ouch.

sprintnexusproblems

Said one user, who attached the above screenshot:

I've attached a screen shot from RF Signal Tracker.

It shows EVDO-A is available and a "Network State" of "CONNECTING"

Every now and then it will get a data connection and the network state changes to CONNECTED, but that will only last for a few seconds.  It doesn't matter if I'm in an area with 2bars or 5 bars, same results.  I've tried toggling all of the differnt options under Mobile Networks.

26
Apr
aosp

Key Android Engineer Weighs In On Manufacturer Contributions To AOSP And Update Rollouts - You Might Be Surprised Who's On Top

Posted by in News

If you follow AOSP code drops long enough, you're eventually going to hear about JBQ (as well as a ton more acronyms). Jean-Baptiste Queru, Technical Lead of the Android Open-Source Project took to Google+ today to talk about Android update rollouts, as well as to praise one of the manufacturers that he sees as leading the pack in aiding the AOSP: Sony.

It took Sony only about 5 months to ship this [Android 4.0 for the Sony Tablet S] after I released the code in the Android Open Source Project at the very end of last year. This is actually a very reasonable time, since under the hood Ice Cream Sandwich is quite different from Honeycomb (and upgrades from Gingerbread are likely to take longer as those differences are huge).

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