Liam Spradlin
Contributing since August, 2011
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1523articles
Page 73
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
T-Mobile has had quite a day today, first announcing their impending release of the Galaxy S II, then announcing the HTC Amaze 4G, formerly known around the rumor mill as the HTC Ruby.
Following on the heels of Sprint's Galaxy S II debut and AT&T's S II Announcement, T-Mobile has announced its planned release date and details surrounding its variant of the S II. The T-Mobile variant packs many of the same impressive specs as the original Galaxy S II, but replaces the original Exynos processor for a 1.5GHz Snapdragon, and gets a size upgrade.
Landing at number 16 in the Mobile Security App Shootout is XtraSEC Mobile Security, from developer wedjohn57. XtraSEC is dedicated specifically to loss and theft protection, providing a clean, no frills experience, an intuitive interface, and support for multiple devices.
Superuser, the preferred app to "hook into your phone's power," has at last been updated to version 3.0, bringing a huge overhaul both in terms of design and functionality.
The Motorola Backflip may be a slightly aged device, and not much news has come its way of late, but it seems that the time is finally here for Backflip users who have been patiently awaiting some CyanogenMod goodness. It's worth noting that CM has not yet released a stable build of CM7 for the Backflip, but the nightly updates should be able to hold ambitious users over until a stable release is available.
When we first reported on Motorola's alleged Xoom 2, very few - if any - details were certain. An anonymous tipster has been piling on the information since then, however, providing photos, (some) specs, and perhaps the most interesting detail of all - a second, smaller version of the Xoom 2, expected to be billed as an "e-reader replacement."
Bringing us familiar dialer features and fun design touches, GO Contacts EX is coming in at number four on our Hunt for the Best Dialer replacement for your Android phone. GO Contacts comes to us from the always awesome GO Dev Team, the developers behind other popular apps including GO launcher, GO keyboard, GO weather, and GO SMS (Note from the editor: If you haven't tried out GO SMS Pro, I highly recommend it.).
A new Motorola phone, codenamed "Edison" and headed for AT&T, has been in the rumor mill for a while now, but today it got in front of the camera when This Is My Next published a hands-on preview of the device.
uTorrent, one of the most popular BitTorrent clients in existence, has released a new alpha build that brings an awesome new functionality. Users can now drag and drop downloaded content to various devices (including Android phones and tablets) directly from the uTorrent interface.
OnLive officially launched an innovative cloud-based gaming service at the Eurogamer Expo in London yesterday, making on-demand gameplay available to users throughout the UK.
Until recently, Amazon's Appstore for Android has been the only game in town when it comes to (legally) obtaining paid apps for free. Getjar has changed that, however, by beginning the Getjar Gold Program which offers an entire catalogue of paid apps absolutely free and without ads. It would seem that Getjar's new program is a huge success, at least in the case of one development company.
Leap Wireless, purveyors of Cricket pre-paid cellular services, is set to expand its business to the entire nation beginning Sunday, September 25.
Kaspersky, a huge name in computer security, not only protects your home and office computers, but your Android device as well. Kaspersky Mobile Security, now in its 9th revision, is a robust app packing anti-virus, anti-malware, call blocking, and theft/loss protection into one lightweight package.
In addition to replacing your wallet, it looks like your Android device may eventually replace your key ring as well. Yale Locks and Hardware showed off their Real Living line of motorized locks this year at CEDIA Expo, promising that your NFC-enabled phone will soon be able to open your front door digitally.
Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Air are part of a platform that has proven revolutionary for web content and user experiences since its creation. That platform is about to get a major update, coming in "early October," which introduces Stage 3D, an architecture that promises hardware-accelerated rendering at 1000x the speed of Flash Player 10.
Amazon's Appstore for Android is well known for handing out paid apps for free, but normally users don't have a choice in which apps are offered up. Amazon is currently running a promotion that changes that, however, offering a $2.00 credit to anyone who follows @amazonappstore and allows Amazon to tweet a special message on their behalf.
Just as some were speculating that Google's invite-only signup system for their latest social networking venture would be its eventual downfall, the Google Mobile blog announced that Google+ is transitioning into beta, bringing open signups with it.
The release of Sprint's Galaxy S II variant before that of other U.S. carriers has left many customers itching for their chance to get one of the hottest Android phones on the market. Daily Steal's Mobile site is holding a sale for the next 22 hours (until midnight September 22), offering an unlocked GSM version of Samsung's latest phone for $499, about $100 less than Amazon's price.
Zynga, creators of the ever-popular Words With Friends, have just made Hanging With Friends available to Android users in the U.S. following its global release. The game is Zynga's twist on the children's game Hang Man, but it is not as gruesome as it sounds. The game features "cute characters in perilous situations," by which I mean adorable, doe-eyed cartoons hanging on to balloons suspended in mid-air over a pool of lava.
If you're a Nexus S 4G owner and you're wondering how to get your hands on Google Wallet and be the first nerd on the block to pay for espresso by tapping your phone, we've received a tip that a software update for the Nexus S 4G has begun rolling out (and will continue to do so over a 4 day period).