John Thompson - 3/22 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

John Thompson

John's been addicted to technology ever since he tinkered with his first custom built PC when he was 10 years old. He's also the proud owner of seven Amazon Kindles, but only because he destroyed the first six.

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Feb

Sony Xperia Z Up For Pre-Order On Three UK From £34 A Month On Contract, Available On February 28th

Posted by John Thompson in News, Three UK, Xperia Z

Sony's waterproof and dustproof flagship smartphone, the Xperia Z, is available to pre-order in the UK today from Three, although you'll have to wait until it's released on February 28th to get your hands on it yourself.

We first saw the 5-inch, 1080p phone last month at CES, and found ourselves impressed by its minimalist, elegant design. Water resistance comes at a price though, so you can expect to pay at least £34 a month if you want to take the phone home on a contract.

Three is offering two tariffs for the Xperia Z with unlimited data: the £34 Ultimate Internet 500 plan, which gives you 500 minutes and 5000 texts, and the £36 One Plan, which gives you 2000 minutes and the same amount of texts.

Jan

Temple Run 2 Review - Is It A Worthy Successor Or Will The Curse Of The Sequel Strike Again?

Posted by John Thompson in Games, Reviews

With over 50 million downloads and almost a million 5-star ratings, Temple Run has set the bar rather high for its successor, Temple Run 2.

As is the case with most successful games, the basic premise of Temple Run 2 is the same as the original: you're in possession of an idol that's been stolen from an ancient temple, which has angered a particularly murderous monkey who wants to get it back.

Gameplay

So what's changed? Well, the maps are more elaborate - this you can tell straight away as you zip-line your way into a brand new environment. However, the basic swipe controls remain the same as the original game.

Jan

HTC One SV Goes On Sale In The UK Sim-Free For £349.99

Posted by John Thompson in HTC, News

Following its unveiling last month, HTC's confusingly named One SV has made its way over to British shores, and is now available to purchase SIM-free from Clove for £349.99.

For your money, you'll be getting a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM and a 4.3-inch display to play your favorite games and watch a few movies on. Unfortunately, the display only has a resolution of 480x800, so it won't be the sharpest looking phone out there.

The One SV is also 4G capable, so if you've been looking forward to trying out the new EE network in the UK, you can do so without tying yourself down to a 24-month contract.

Dec

CyanogenMod 10.1 Nightlies Available For The Google Nexus S, Nexus S 4G, And Asus Transformer Pad 300

Posted by John Thompson in ASUS, Development, News, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju), Nexus S 4G (Crespo4g), Samsung, Transformer Pad 300

Another day, another round of nightly builds for the upcoming CyanogenMod 10.1. This time, the latest release of the custom ROM that brings Android 4.2 has been made available on a further 3 devices: the Google Nexus S, Nexus S 4G, and the ASUS Transformer Pad 300 (TF300T).

Definition: A "nightly" is a bleeding edge release that is built on a daily basis, usually at night after a full day's worth of new code has been committed.

It could oftentimes be unstable and not properly tested, lacking any changelogs, but eventually evolving into alphas, betas, release candidates, and finally stable releases.

Dec

Square Enix Releases Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy Dimensions, And Demon's Score THD On The Play Store

Posted by John Thompson in Games, News

If you're a Final Fantasy fan, you'll want to get yourself over to the Play Store as soon as possible, because Square Enix has just released Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy Dimensions for Android.

The titles don't come cheap; Final Fantasy II is priced at $7, whereas Dimensions will put you back $20, but considering how much similar games from Square on other platforms cost, it's not a terrible deal.

The two Final Fantasy titles don't require a top-of-the-range smartphone to run smoothly, but if you want to play Demon's Score THD, Square's third release on Android today, you'll need a device which has a Tegra 3 chip.

Dec

T-Mobile's 'Zero Down Sale' Begins Today, Offering A Selection Of 4G Devices With An Unlimited Data Plan For $0 Down Payment

Posted by John Thompson in Deals, Galaxy S III, One S (Ville), Optimus L9, T-Mobile

If you're a last minute Christmas shopper, and on the lookout for some tech deals to give to your loved ones, T-Mobile's 'zero down sale' may be the answer you've been looking for. Starting today, the network is offering a selection of 4G devices for $0 down payment with its Unlimited Value and Unlimited Nationwide 4G Data plan.

The offer lasts until December 31 and includes a number of Android devices, such as Samsung's Galaxy S III, the HTC One S, and the LG Optimus 9. The Nexus 4 was previously listed on the offer as well, but has since sold out on the store and is now unavailable.

Dec

CyanogenMod 10.1 Nightlies Arrive For Samsung's Galaxy S, S II, S III, Galaxy Tab 2 7.0/10.1 [Updated]

Posted by John Thompson in Development, Galaxy S, Galaxy S II, Galaxy S III, Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, News, Samsung

Update: More devices added - see the list below.

CyanogenMod 10.1 is continuing to bring Android 4.2 to more devices each day, and Samsung fans will be glad to know that nightly builds are now available for:

Galaxy S (galaxysmtd, galaxysbmtd)
Galaxy S II (i9100, i9100g)
Galaxy S III (i9300, d2tmo T-Mobile, d2att AT&T)
Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 and 10.1 (p5100, p5110, p3100, p3110)

Definition: A "nightly" is a bleeding edge release that is built on a daily basis, usually at night after a full day's worth of new code has been committed.

Dec

EE Continuing Its UK 4G Rollout, Bringing The Service To A Further 17 Towns And Cities By March 2013

Posted by John Thompson in Everything Everywhere (EE), News

EE is continuing its fast-paced rollout of 4G in the UK, promising to bring the service to 17 new towns and cities across the region by March next year.

14 locations in the UK, including London, Manchester, and Glasgow, have been enjoying the fast speeds provided by the network since its rollout earlier this year, and they will soon be joined by the likes of Coventry, Leicester, and Reading as the network's expansion continues.

EE has set itself the ambitious target of 98% coverage across the UK by the end of 2014, so if you can't see your town or city on the list just yet, don't worry too much.

Dec

Google Play Redeem Page Now Live In The UK, Gift Cards May Not Be Far Behind

Posted by John Thompson in News

People in the UK have long been able to purchase apps and other goodies from the Google Play store using traditional methods, but as of yet there hasn't been an option to buy gift cards for redemption online like you can with other stores.

Fortunately, it looks like that could soon be changing; the Google Play redeem page now allows you to enter a redemption code from a gift card, although you can't actually buy the cards in shops yet. This could be an indication that gift cards are on their way, but we can't confirm this or speculate about a time frame just yet.

Nov

[Updated] Final CyanogenMod 10 Stable Builds Being Released

Posted by John Thompson in Development, Jelly Bean 4.1, News

After numerous nightly and monthly builds, CyanogenMod 10 is finally ready for its stable release. The custom ROM is already available to download for the Samsung Galaxy S II LTE, LG Optimus Black, and the Samsung Galaxy S III (both Verizon and Sprint models).

The latest version of CyanogenMod includes a number of new features, such as an 'expandable desktop' mode, and a built-in, root-enabled file manager, as well as support for new devices.

If you can't see a stable build of CyanogenMod 10 for your device just yet, hang tight, as some builds have been failing. Hopefully, the issue will be addressed soon, but we aren't sure how long this might take.