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
It's not Jelly Bean yet. Well, I mean it is. It's the older Jelly Bean. Not the newer Jelly Bean. I'm sure this isn't confusing. However, Verizon is getting ready to roll out an update to the Galaxy S III that will bump the phone from 4.1.1 to 4.1.2. Unfortunately this isn't the 4.2 upgrade most users were likely hoping for. Among the listed improvements are a better keyboard and the ability to take pictures while on a call.
We've been waiting on this for a couple weeks now and the White House has finally come through with its response to the cell phone unlock petition. The short version, for the tl;dr crowd is simple: "The White House agrees." Citing not just smartphones but tablets as well, the Executive branch of the U.S. government states, in no uncertain terms, that there should be no reason that carriers should block a customer from switching carriers once contractual obligations are fulfilled.
At this point in the smartphone wars, it's not enough to build an awesome handset. You need to market it. That's the trouble that the One X had last year and the One faces this year. Well, so far the One has opened with its initial shots of BoomSound®, Ultrapixels and Zoe. So, what is Samsung returning fire with? A small, blonde-haired boy named Jeremy.
It's been over four months since Google officially announced Android 4.2 and slightly less time since the initial round of new Nexus devices running it went up for order. Much like the gunshot that kicks off the 100-meter tortoise race, that launch signaled the silent contest to see which manufacturer could get out a non-Nexus update first. Today, we have our winner: ASUS, with a shiny new version of Jelly Bean for the Transformer Pad (TF300T).
Welcome to the Android Police Podcast, Episode 51.
[Editorial] Here's Why All The Google Glass Skeptics Are Wrong (And A Few Ways It Might Fail Anyway)
I'm going to be up front: I want Glass. I'm thoroughly intrigued with the idea, I love the possibility of having an always-available camera that sees whatever I see, and completely hands-free Google sounds like a perfectly natural progression of the things like Google Now and voice actions. In the world where personal digital assistants seem commonplace, why should we not expect those things to be always accessible and visible?
Last year, Apple won what was perhaps the largest legal victory in its war on Android when a court ruled that Samsung infringed its patents on a significant number of devices and owed the Cupertino company in excess of a billion dollars. Today, however, that same judge is vacating $450m from that total until a second damages trial with a new jury can commence.
Conversations With An Amiigo Founder: This Fitness Bracelet Is For Everyone, Whether You Lift Or Not
Last month, we covered the Amiigo which, frankly, looks kind of awesome if it works as advertised. For those who missed it, here's the gist: you put on a bracelet and a shoe clip and the two track your workout. The system then logs that data and feeds it into some fancy software that analyzes your sessions and tells you how much weight you're losing, how many calories you're burning, and what other exercises might be right for you.
Samsung seems to have gotten the hang of updating phones besides the major flagships. While it's still coming about nine months after the release of Jelly Bean and nearly six months after the release of the handset, the Galaxy Stellar will be upgraded to 4.1 "soon", according to these Verizon support docs. The OTA will bring the much-beloved Google Now as well as expandable notifications and all the other goodies of the newest tasty treat.
The President still hasn't weighed in on what he plans to do about the cell phone unlocking ban (he's been a little busy with that sequester business that's gonna cost some people their jobs), but FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is a little closer to the situation. Speaking to TechCrunch, the communications head said the organization plans to "look into" the issue and decide whether action should be taken and, if so, what action there is to take.
Oh, Rovio, Rovio. Whatfore art thou doing, Rovio? The last few games the company has produced have not managed to regain the same amount of public attention that Angry Birds did. In fact, Bad Piggies only stayed in the top 20 by revenue spots for 5 weeks in the U.S. (iOS), compared to 22 months for Angry Birds. Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that the developers have fallen back on their old failsafe: making games for kids' CGI movies. And hey, why not start with Nicolas Cage playing a paranoid caveman?
Sometimes, getting companies to admit what we all know is a huge game of cat and mouse. We all know, for example, that Motorola was still making phones before Google bought the company and still has to release some of those phones. We can also guess, based on the most recent Googorola announcements, that the hardware is good, but not really up to the standards we have come to expect from, say, the Nexus line. Well, in a stunning display of candor, Google's CFO agrees.
Speaking two (or more) languages is cool. Typing in two or more character sets is decidedly less cool. Bilingual speakers who know, say, English and Spanish can have an easy enough time typing since they share a (mostly) common Latin alphabet. However, English/Hindi speakers may have a harder time bouncing between scripts because they use entirely different character sets. Enter Google.
AccuWeather is one of the leading apps for getting more information than you could ever possibly need about the position of the sun, clouds, and the statistical likelihood that precipitation will fall from the sky. It has not, however, been the leader in Holo interfaces among weather apps (the Weather Channel beat it to the punch last week). Today, it catches up, though, with a brand spanking new UI.
There are a lot of security apps for Android that go a little ways into overkill territory. Whether you're talking about superfluous task managers or "virus scanners" that may provide some minimal protection while generating more fear than is warranted, Android has a persistent problem with companies applying a Windows-era mentality on a completely different OS. Secunia PSI, however, takes the cake for being one of the least effective apps on the Play Store.
Around a year and a half ago, Google removed access to paid apps from the Taiwanese Play Store after a complaint was issued claiming that the company violated a local law demanding a seven day return window. A surprisingly short court battle ensued and 8 months later Mountain View walked away with a $34k fine (you read that right), and a losing appeal. The company opted, at that point, to simply remain out of the Taiwanese market. Until now.
Adobe has kind of a scattershot mobile strategy. On the one hand, it released six apps back in 2011 for tablets that ranged from okay to awesome. On the other hand, it killed off five of them last year. The tablet versions cost $10 each. Pricey for an app, but Adobe knows how to bring it's A-game. Today, it's bringing it again with a phone version of Photoshop Touch. A distinct piece of software for $5.
Andy Rubin, you coy devil. I suppose we could ignore those rumors about Google retail stores if you ask nicely and bat your eyes at us. That's what the head of Android would like us to do, anyway, as he spoke at Mobile World Congress stating that "Google has no plans [for a retail store] and we have nothing to announce."
If you're colorblind, then I'm afraid you might have to sit this one out, but the rest of you might want to try out Color Sheep. The game is fairly straightforward: you're a sheep. Of course. A pack of hungry, multi-colored wolves are descending upon you. In order to avoid being consumed, you have to target them with your mouth lasers. You didn't know sheep have mouth lasers? Well, they do.
In the future, your car is going to be connected to the internet. This is a matter of when, not if. Volvo and BMW are already working on auto connectivity, and Verizon has partnered with just about everyone. Today, AT&T and GM announced that they're joining the fray by combining their strengths. Starting in 2014, cars from General Motors will have LTE radios .