Liam Spradlin - 80/99 - 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.

Follow @LiamSpradlin

Nov

Ice Cream Sandwich Source Coming November 17th, Says Notion Ink CEO

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News, Rumors

Rohan Shravan, CEO of Notion Ink, updated a blog post yesterday with a rather nonchalant statement revealing that the source code behind Ice Cream Sandwich may be released November 17th. Yes, you read correctly – this Thursday may be the day.

Normally a remark like this wouldn't be taken at face value, but Shravan already has a track record with this sort of thing, having accurately predicted the release of Android Gingerbread last year. Shravan's claim seems even more plausible when considering the fact that the European Galaxy Nexus has been confirmed for launch on the 17th. You may also remember that Dan Morrill made it clear last month that Ice Cream Sandwich's source would not be released before the Galaxy Nexus.

Nov

[New Game] Space Conquest Combines Physics And Interstellar Combat With Great Aesthetics, Comes In A Hefty Package

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Games, News

Combining physics-based gameplay with outer space action/strategy combat, Space Conquest challenges the player to "save the solar system from complete annihilation."

The game provides players with a wide array of unlockable ships, each with their own arsenal. The game also allows for completely customizable fleets, each battling enemies with relatively sophisticated AI, against a backdrop of large swaths of stars and other outer space scenery. In contrast with the detailed, beautiful starscapes in Space Conquest, the ships themselves are comprised of neon, polygonal outlines, giving the game a unique visual style.

For just $0.99 in the Android Market, Space Conquest provides a visually stimulating experience while forming an intriguing hybrid between defense, action, and physics-based gaming styles at a bargain.

Nov

[Rumor] LG Poised To Debut Google TV At CES In January

Posted by Liam Spradlin in News, Rumors

Following a statement of distaste for Google TV (at least in its present form) from Logitech's CEO Guerrino De Luca, an intriguing rumor has sprung up that perhaps Korean manufacturer LG is set to try their hand at Google TV, debuting a GTV-enabled set at CES next January. Bloomberg cites "two people with knowledge of the project" as sources for this information, maintaining the informants' anonymity by request.

LG, as the world's second largest television manufacturer, could prove to be a hugely important ally for Google in bringing Google TV to a level of success that will ensure its continued competition with other companies seeking to be the ultimate solution in combining internet and television (ahem, Apple).

Nov

[New App Hands-On] ViBe Replaces Ringtones With Custom Vibration Patterns, Eliminates Need To Stealthily Peek At Your Phone During A Meeting

Posted by Liam Spradlin in App Reviews, Applications, News

My phone spends about two thirds of the day on silent or vibrate mode due to classes, meetings, or other events where it may be inappropriate to have a ringtone going off, so when I heard about ViBe, my interest was already piqued. The problem – until now – with keeping your phone in vibrate mode, is that there is no way to know who exactly is calling or texting without indiscreetly peeking at your screen, which can be almost as distracting as if you had the ringer turned on.

All of that changes today, however, with Base2Apps' introduction of ViBe, an awesome new app that allows the user to set custom vibration patterns for individual contacts.

Nov

Retail Droid RAZR Gets Working Root Method – Here's How It's Done

Posted by Liam Spradlin in News, RAZR / RAZR MAXX, Verizon Wireless

Undeterred by the fact that the 1-click root method available for other Motorola devices doesn't work for the retail version of Verizon's Droid RAZR, the Android community has once again liberated the latest addition to the Droid family. Droid Forums is crediting Pieman13 for the find, providing an easy 5-step guide to rooting your RAZR. Before we go any further, I should encourage those unfamiliar with rooting to check out our primer on the subject here. If your phone gets bricked, there aren't any unbricking methods just yet, so proceed with caution. Of course Android Police claims no responsibility for what might happen to your device.

Nov

[New Game] Space Station: Frontier (From The Maker Of Sentinel) Takes Tower Defense Into Outer Space

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Games, News

Origin8 Technologies Ltd., the developer behind Sentinel, has done it again, releasing Space Station: Frontier to the Android Market today. This time, the tower defense genre has been blasted into space, allowing the player to harvest energy, mine resources, and upgrade extensive networks of defense turrets and mechanisms surrounding their main station, all the while battling alien enemies.

Adding a touch of social integration, Space Station has OpenFeint compatibility, allowing for leaderboards and various unlockable achievements. For fans of the tower defense genre, Space Station looks like a great entry, bringing the high-quality graphics, gameplay, and overall awesomeness we’ve come to expect from Origin8.

Nov

[One-Day Only Deal Alert] Amazon Wireless Offering Droid RAZR For $111.11 In Celebration Of 11/11/11 (That’s Over $180 Off)

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Deals, RAZR / RAZR MAXX, Verizon Wireless

Last Updated: November 12th, 2011

The Droid RAZR, despite not being officially released until 11/11/11 at 11:11 am EST, has already been given an insane price cut by Amazon Wireless, available for preorder tonight and sale tomorrow at just $111.11, a discount of more than $180.00 if you sign up for a new two-year agreement. If you want to upgrade your current device, the RAZR is available for ~~$199.99~~ ~~$249.99~~ $229.99 (the price went up after this post was published and keeps changing by the minute), which is still a great deal.

Wondering why this deal is so awesome? Take a look at some of the RAZR’s impressive specs:

4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display
1.2GHz dual-core processor
1GB RAM
8MP rear shooter, front facing camera
16GB built-in storage, 16GB microSD card
Android 2.3.5
7.1mm thin, 127 grams
1800mAh battery
Made with Kevlar fiber
Gorilla Glass
Motorola Splash Guard
Webtop capable
4G LTE
Bluetooth 4.0

If you’ve been waiting for the RAZR’s official release but like to shop around, Amazon Wireless’ offering is a perfect opportunity to get a deep discount on the latest member of the Droid family.

Nov

Logitech Ditching Google TV, CEO Calls Revue Launch “A Mistake Of Implementation Of A Gigantic Nature”

Posted by Liam Spradlin in News, Revue

Guerrino De Luca, CEO of Logitech, while speaking at the company’s Analyst and Investor Day yesterday, plainly delivered a statement that many of us could have seen coming, calling Logitech’s 2010 launch of the Revue set top box “a mistake of implementation of a gigantic nature.” Further, De Luca made it clear that Logitech had “brought closure to the Logitech Revue saga,” and plans to let inventory run out this quarter, with no sequel in the works for the manufacturer’s first Google TV box.

De Luca confided that “operational miscues in EMEA” cost the company over $100M, and ascribed much of Logitech’s headache to executing “a full scale launch with a beta product,” implying that Google TV, as a product, was not – and perhaps is not – established or complete enough to make a launch on the scale of the Revue reasonable.

Nov

ARM Unveils New Mali-T658 GPU, Promising Ten Times Better Graphic Performance Over Current-Gen Chips

Posted by Liam Spradlin in News

With the Mali-T400 running on the Galaxy SII, and the Mali-604 still in production, ARM is still racing ahead, releasing details surrounding the Mali-T658 GPU today - yet another next-gen chip that will support up to eight cores.

The T-658 is poised to improve on ARM’s T-604, allowing up to ten times the graphic performance of the current-gen T-400 chip (and 4 times the computing power), as well as enabling nice compatibility with ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture, which allows the set to switch dynamically between chips to achieve stunning power efficiency and performance under strain.

While the T-658 sounds awesome, and manufacturers such as Samsung and LG have already shown interest, we aren’t likely to see it for a couple of years yet.

Nov

Big Blue Bubble Releases Burn The Rope Worlds - Offers 100 New Puzzles, 4 New Worlds, And Endless Burn

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Games, News

Following up on the popularity of Burn the Rope, the developers at Big Blue Bubble recently released Burn the Rope Worlds, a new game that improves on its predecessor by taking gameplay to a variety of new worlds, and introducing a few twists as well.

Players can now burn ropes through four new worlds, including Jungle, Mechanical, Fantasy and Space. Additionally, BTR Worlds brings a new mini game called "Endless Burn," which is essentially Burn the Rope's answer to the classic game Snake, the object being to collect as many bugs as possible without hitting a wall, your flame tail growing all the while.