Liam Spradlin - 15/100 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Besides being an avid Android fan and blogger, Liam is a photographer with a degree in both Anthropology and Sociology. He can usually be found reading through blogs, taking photos, or studying ancient pottery. Liam has been known to leave on international trips at a moment's notice, and can't resist a new challenge.

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Jan

Dan Rosenberg Blesses Droid RAZR/MAXX Users With Root For The 'Unrootable' Jelly Bean 4.1 OTA

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Jelly Bean 4.1, News, RAZR / RAZR MAXX

Winning a $450 bounty and the hearts of Droid RAZR/MAXX users, Dan Rosenberg has found a successful root method for the phone's 4.1 JellyBean OTA, which began rolling out last Christmas Eve.

Some readers are likely familiar with Mr. Rosenberg's work, as he's rooted everything in sight from the Droid RAZR/MAXX HD to the RAZR M, all the way back to the LG Spectrum. As a security researcher, he's even given (and published) a helpful presentation on rooting and modding for the security conscious.

Not only can Droid RAZR/MAXX owners now root their Jelly Bean powered handsets, they can do it with ease – the process is as simple as connecting the phone and running a .bat file.

Jan

Samsung Revisits The Pebble Blue Galaxy SIII's 'Shortage', Stresses The Importance Of Keeping Promises

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Galaxy S III, News, Samsung

In a lengthy, somewhat intimate retrospective piece posted today to Samsung Tomorrow, the electronics giant revisits the launch of the Galaxy SIII. Readers likely remember a launch that almost came off without a hitch, but which was tarnished by a "shortage" of Pebble Blue colored units. Following the international delay, Samsung said there'd be no delay for the Pebble Blue SIII's in the States, and all seemed to be well. Still, the manufacturer was awfully quiet about the real reason behind the initial delay.

For customers and techies interested in the real story, Samsung's post tells all. According to Samsung, the pebble blue SIII's were packed and ready to go, but a "tough decision" was made to stop shipment, because "the SIII's fundamental design concept had not been perfectly reproduced on the battery cover, creating an aesthetic that was inconsistent with the planned product." In other words, something in manufacturing the blue SIII had caused uneven, unreliable finish.

Jan

[Roundup] The Very Best Games From 2012

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Games

To round out our coverage of the Play Store's very best offerings from 2012, we're back with our top picks for best new game. In the interest of saving readers time, energy, and money in their search for awesome new games, we've compiled a short list of only the most notable games from the past year.

Our picks are arranged in no particular order, and since there are far more than four new games worth talking about, so we've got plenty of runners up.

All of that being said, here are our picks for the very best of 2012.

Ingress

"The world around you is not what it seems" is the sentence that has drawn tons of Android users in to Niantic Labs' fascinating, closed-beta augmented reality game.

Jan

[Roundup] The Very Best Apps From 2012

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications

As promised, we've got another set of roundups for you this month. This time, though, we're not just looking at last month's best apps and games – we've got a short list of the very best apps and games from all of 2012.

To be sure, poring over all the apps we've covered in the past year was an arduous task. We've picked three entries for each category (in no particular order), but there were certainly more than four new apps worth talking about. To that end, we've also got plenty of runners-up. Without further ado, here's the cream of the 2012 crop.

Jan

ZX Spectrum/Commodore 64 Classic 'Lords Of Midnight' Comes To Android – 'The War Of The Solstice Has Begun'

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Games, News

Breathing new energy into Mike Singleton's 1984 classic the Lords of Midnight, Chris Wild has brought the game to Android. The game, for those unaware, is an epic adventure game – first enjoyed on the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 – that takes players (along with three other characters) on an adventure to destroy the Ice Crown and defeat Doomdark, with the option to recruit lords and troops to defeat Doomdark's minions. In the process, players will venture through enchantingly retro environments.

Besides being one of the first games of its kind, Lords featured a graphic technique called "landscaping" to create more convincing perspectives within the game's vivid 2D universe, a technique that's been updated for Android.

Jan

ASUS Aims For 'Emerging Markets' In January With The $149 Seven-Inch MeMO Pad, US Launch Set For April

Posted by Liam Spradlin in ASUS, MeMO Pad, News

ASUS, in a bid to sell to "several emerging markets," has just announced the MeMO Pad – a seven-inch tablet sporting ASUS' nearly-stock Android 4.1 Jelly Bean experience, a 1GHz VIA CPU (with Mali-400 GPU), a 1024x600 display, 1GB RAM, and up to 16GB internal storage with a refreshing microSD slot available for expansion.

Just like the Nexus 7, the MeMO pad just offers a front-facing camera, though it's a 1MP shooter with a back-illuminated sensor. On top of Android, it comes with ASUS' pre-installed apps, and 5GB of free ASUS WebStorage space (if you don't have enough cloud storage accounts already).

Jan

Flipboard Updated With Daydream Support For Android 4.2

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Flipboard's release last summer was hotly anticipated to say the least. A recent update to utilize the screen real estate of Android tablets bumped the app up another notch, and today's update (to version 1.9.18) puts the icing on the cake. As of today, Flipboard has Daydream functionality for Android 4.2.

Daydream, when it was first introduced, seemed kind of boring (okay, you can look at a lovely animated gradient while charging). The feature was, to put it mildly, more fluff than substance. That said, as a Flipboard user, my opinion of the feature has suddenly shifted. Playing with multicolored jelly beans (while delightful) can now be replaced with actual information.

Jan

Facebook Pages Manager For Android Finally Installable In US, UK, And Everywhere Else The Play Store Is Available

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

A few days ago, Facebook quietly released its Pages Manager app for Android to the Play Store. The app, which had been making iOS-toting page managers' lives easier for quite some time, was a welcome addition, save for one thing: it could only be installed in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, leaving US users in the dark.

It appears that's changed today. The Pages Manager app, in an update too small to warrant a change log, opened up to those in the US.

^{A refreshing sight for international page managers}

Facebook hasn't released an official announcement regarding Pages Manager, so we don't have official confirmation that the app has launched globally.

Jan

Scosche Announces the boomBOTTLE – A Weatherproof, Water Bottle-Sized Wireless Sound System For Your Bike

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, News

Describing it as "a wireless omnidirectional outdoor speaker," Scosche today unveiled the boomBOTTLE – a wireless speaker for your bike that's roughly the shape and size of an average water bottle.

Powered by Bluetooth, the boomBOTTLE fits in your bike's water bottle holster and promises "rich, deep" audio courtesy of dual 40mm drivers in each unit. The device also has an integrated passive subwoofer with a ported enclosure.

Jan

[CES 2013] The Rest Of Alcatel's CES Lineup – One Touch Evo 7/HD, Tab 7/HD, Tab 8 HD, And One Touch S'Pop, T'Pop, X'Pop

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, Jelly Bean 4.1, News

After revealing the "world's thinnest" smartphone earlier today with the One Touch Idol Ultra (at a svelte 6.45mm), Alcatel has let fly news about the rest of their planned CES 2013 lineup.

Alcatel's got more devices in line than you've got pockets, from a pair of 7" tablets (in standard and HD variants) to a bevy of "Pop" smartphones, all of them apparently aiming squarely for the budget market. Grab a snack, because we're going to take a peek at the full array.

One Touch Tablets

Evo 7 / HD

First up is the Evo 7 and its HD counterpart (despite how it sounds, neither tablet has anything to do with HTC). Both variants are described as Wi-Fi tablets that can be "easily upgraded" to 3G (or, in the Evo 7 HD's case, 4G) through their removable 3G/4G modules.