Liam Spradlin
Contributing since August, 2011
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1523articles
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About Liam Spradlin
Liam loves Android, design, user experience, and travel. He doesn't love ill-proportioned letter forms, advertisements made entirely of stock photography, and writing biographical snippets.
Latest Articles
If you're intrigued by the idea of wearable technology, but don't see the Pebble's appeal, or don't have the patience to wait for Google Glass or any of the other rumored wearable goodies coming from Apple, Samsung, or Google (depending on who you ask), Motorola's MOTOACTV, the fitness-tracking smartwatch, may be a good starting point.
It wouldn't be another month without our usual short-lists. We've already discussed our six favorite apps from March 2013, so it's time to take a look at the six best games we saw last month. As usual, the Play Store had plenty of new games to offer, from fast-paced shooters to classic remakes to chaotic puzzlers. If you like playing games on Android, chances are there was something for you last month. Since most readers don't have enough time to check out every worthy competitor in the store, we'll take a peek at the six games we think stood out most last month.
If you're like us, you have an obsession with new apps. When you try every new app you come across though, you're bound for disappointment. After all, not every app can be a paragon of functionality, style, and convenience. With that in mind, we go through the long list of new apps submitted to the Play Store every couple of weeks and bring you the best. Even that, though, can be a little too much to digest for some users. For that reason, we've got monthly roundups featuring just a handful of the very very best apps and games from the previous month. Like always, we've compiled a shortlist for users searching for something new. Without further ado, here are our six favorite apps from March 2013.
The Galaxy Note 10.1, Samsung's creativity-minded, advanced digitizer-packing slab from last year has been a lot of places – everywhere from the crazy life of James Franco to the music stands of the Brussels Philharmonic. If you've followed the 10.1's life so far, but haven't pulled the trigger to buy a unit for yourself, you're in luck – Woot.com has a deal on the tablet, offering up the 16GB variant, refurbished, for $329.99, while the tablet, new, usually sells for around $449.
[Update: It's Back] Deal Alert: Refurbished 32GB Nexus 7 Up For Grabs From eBay Daily Deals For $189
Update 4/9/13: The deal [ebay id=321104568954 text="is back today"].
Those on contract with the Now Network who've had their eye on HTC's latest flagship, the One, should listen up – Newegg is offering pre-orders for the One in both its Stealth Black and Glacial White color variants for $129.99 with next-day shipping.
Update: It looks like Facebook has killed the leak remotely. Users who installed it are now reporting that their feeds have gone dark. Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted.
From poorly-executed "leaks" to potential legitimate sightings, there's been a lot of hubbub about Google's supposed unified messaging service, likely called Babel. This isn't necessarily surprising. After all, if you asked most Android enthusiasts what feature they most wanted from the platform in its next iteration, you'd hear a lot about unified messaging. We've tried to stay clear of covering every flurry of Babel-related murmurings so far, but today we saw something new – Google+ user Patric Dhawaan posted a screenshot of what he says is a notification in Gmail, triggered when "pruning" his inbox.
As we all know, Facebook had an announcement earlier this week. The most pervasive social media outlet on the planet announced Facebook Home – a product that essentially amounts to a highly integrated launcher for your Android phone. It also announced the HTC First, a phone optimized for Home, offering a fully Facebook-ed experience.
Talkray, from the makers of the incredibly popular touch-talk app TiKL, is an ambitious app – it looks to be your one-stop shop for mobile communication on the go, communicating through text, pictures, videos, and voice all for free. Until now, though, the app has had a fatal flaw – its design. While not the worst design we've seen, Talkray had, shall we say, unfortunate looks. Inconsistent styles, gradients mixed with flat elements, and Gingerbread-style tabs abound.
Autodesk has a fantastic record of powerful, well-built apps. Continuing the pattern, the Pixlr Express makers today released SketchBook Ink, a (you guessed it) sketching and line work app specifically built for tablets 7" and above.
Well, it's that time again – time for the monthly update to Android's Platform Distribution Numbers. Each month, Google publishes the latest figures, letting developers know what versions of Android are currently dominating active devices.
Update: The update is now live in the Store – find it by hitting the widget at the end of the post.
When Jawbone's UP wristband was released in late 2011, I was excited. Then I was disappointed. The motion-tracking band seemed like a perfect step into wearable tech at the time, but its companion app wasn't available for Android. Whether and why Jawbone didn't see fit to invest resources in developing for Android was a mystery, but now – thankfully – it's immaterial. Just over a week ago, Jawbone released an official UP app to the Google Play Store, and I wanted to be first in line to try it out with Jawbone's updated 2012 wristband. Having used the band (which, by the way, is available from Jawbone for around $130) and app for about a week now, I've learned several things that will hopefully help those on the fence in making a decision about the device.
Yesterday, we finally decided to get to the bottom of Google Keep's new font, Roboto Slab. Shortly before that, however, we had an internal discussion about Keep's strange UI/UX. The app is beautiful – there's no denying that – but weird when considered alongside Google's other in-house apps. What's more, I'm of the opinion that the app isn't just a one-off in terms of design – I think that Keep, along with a few other hints, could give us some insight into what we'll see in the next version of Android (which we might see in May at Google I/O).
Google Keep, the app that Goog sprung as (almost) a surprise recently, is interesting. Its functionality is undoubtedly handy, and – if Google chooses to pursue the service in earnest – it could actually be a decent competitor to other note taking apps like Evernote.
Action Launcher is something special. The home screen replacement made its debut a short three months ago in December, and found its way into our hearts as one of (if not the) best app of the month. What makes Action Launcher a great replacement is that it's unique – AL is totally different from any Launcher we've yet seen, and it earns that distinction with a couple of signature features: first, all your apps are a quick slide away. Second, your home screen can have "covers," or folders that behave as the app on the "cover" when tapped, but which expand to a full selection when swiped.
Though you may not know it from looking at the version number, Todoist - the self-proclaimed "ultimate todo list," - got a sizeable upgrade today to 1.0.4. The update brings with it a bevy of new features, a handful of enhancements, and the promise of a new feature called Karma that's already implemented on seven out of the nine platforms Todoist supports.
As with any exciting new flagship device, it was only a matter of time before Samsung's recently-unveiled Galaxy S4 got the system dump treatment. Sharing the goodies this time (having already leaked S Voice, wallpapers, and ringtones) is SamMobile.com, who claims to have an "insider" that provided the leaked dump. According to SamMobile, the system dump is based on the S4's latest test firmware, affectionately called I9500XXUAMCH, built just a few days ago on March 23rd and based on Android 4.2.2 JDQ39.