Ron Amadeo

Ron loves everything related to technology, design, and Google. He always wants to talk about "the big picture" and what's next for Android, and he's not afraid to get knee-deep in an APK for some details. Expect a good eye for detail, lots of research, and some lamenting about how something isn't designed well enough.

Feb

New Android 4.2.2 Features: Toggle From Quick Settings, Better App Download Notifications, and Some New Sounds!

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Jelly Bean 4.2, News

Last Updated: February 20th, 2013

Android 4.2.2 is out, and while an OCD-fueled 4.2.2 edition of Getting To Know Android is on the way, we figured it would be a good idea to highlight the big user facing changes that came with this release. We already covered the new ADB Whitelist and posted the raw developer changelog, so this should be the last of the important stuff.

New Download Notifications

First up is the new notification for in-progress app downloads, which now shows the percentage and an estimated time remaining for your app downloads while they are happening. Or, if you want to be technical about it:

Calculate speed of in-progress downloads and estimate time remaining
until completion. Uses a moving average that is weighted 1:1 with
the most recent 500ms sample. Funnels timing data to notifications
through DownloadHandler.

Feb

Stock Android Isn't Perfect: Jelly Bean 4.2 Edition

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Features, Jelly Bean 4.2, Stock Android Isn't Perfect

Last Updated: February 7th, 2013

A few months ago I wrote "Stock Android Isn't Perfect," an article where I turned my usual harsh UX critique on stock Android, instead of just picking on TouchWiz and Sense all the time in my reviews. The article went over pretty well, and even got a few responses from Googlers! I didn't cover everything that was wrong with Android, though, and there have been a bunch of updates since the original article, so it's about time I wrote a sequel.

So we're officially making this a series now, and it'll serve two purposes: One, there's a new version of Android out, and more things to complain about; and two, to give credit where it's due, because, since I wrote that article, a lot of things have been fixed.

Jan

[CES 2013] Hands-On With The I'm Watch Color, A $400 Brick Of Failure That Straps To Your Wrist

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Accessories, News

I love the idea of wearable computers. When I heard I'm Spa was giving away the I'm Watch Color at CES, I ran over to their booth to grab one. The plan was to get it, review it, and maybe even use it after the review, even if it made me look a little geeky. I'm Spa has a new version of the OS, "I'm Droid 2.0," which is just a scaled down version of Android, so it should be very powerful and work well with my phone. It has a tiny app store for watch apps, and a pull down notification panel.

Jan

[CES 2013] Oh Look, An Oven That Runs Android (Hands-On Video)

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Accessories, News, Videos

I could probably count on one hand the amount of things at CES that are 1, new, and 2, run Android, so we are left with stuff like this.

This is an oven, an oven with an embedded 7-inch touch screen that runs Android. It's called the Dacor Discovery IQ Wall Oven. Here are some specs.

Samsung S5PV210 1GHz CPU
PowerVR SGX 540 GPU
512 MB DDR2 RAM
16 GB Storge
"Hard Drive Expansion: 32GB Max"
WiFi

The oven runs Android 4.0.3 (I can't believe I'm typing this) in tablet mode. Dacor has an app that will let you do oven things like adjust the temperature, set a timer, and show the time.

Jan

[CES 2013] The First Thing At CES I Actually Want: The TYLT Vu, A Wireless Qi Charger That Doesn't Suck

Posted by Ron Amadeo in News

Wireless charging is awesome, but wireless chargers blow. They are so finicky. I have a Nexus 4 and an LG wireless charger, so I know all about this first hand: Take your wireless charging phone, put it on your wireless charger, and it charges, right? Well, only sometimes. The charging coil in the phone and in the charger need to be lined up just right for the power flow to happen. Move the phone 1 mm off center and it stops charging, bump the table it's on and it stops charging, breathe on it funny, and it stops charging.

~~7YL7~~ TYLT solves this pretty simply with a charge they call the "TYLT Vu." It has multiple charging coils in the charger, so there really is nothing to line up with.

Jan

[CES 2013] Verizon Tops Themselves: Behold The Massive Verizon Galaxy Note 10.1 Carrier Logo

Posted by Ron Amadeo in News

Verizon has a thing for carrier branding. Lately though, they've really been going overboard, particularly on the Samsung Galaxy Note II, which had a Verizon logo on the home button. That easily won the award for most obnoxious carrier branding ever on a phone.

In Vegas though, Verizon has topped themselves. David and I were wandering around the "CES Digital Experience" pre-show event and we saw THIS:

This thing Is the Verizon Galaxy Note 10.1. Now you might look at that picture and think that's not a big deal, but keep in mind this isn't a phone, or a 7 inch tablet, this is a 10 inch tablet.

Jan

[CES 2013] LG's Press Conference: No New Phone, No New Tablet, No New Version Of Google TV; They Do Have A New GTV Launcher, Though

Posted by Ron Amadeo in LG, News

I went to LG's CES press conference, so I kind of feel obligated to write about it, even though nothing much happened. The biggest news out of the conference is that the translated "Google TV 3.0" press release we came across a few weeks ago is bogus. At the time we thought it meant a new version of GTV was coming, but it turns out it's just the same software that's been out since November, with a new launcher made by LG, which they referred to as their "3rd generation skin."

So what's new about the 3rd Gen skin? Almost nothing.

Jan

Android: A Look Back To 2012, And A Look Forward To 2013

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Editorials, News, Rumors

Last Updated: January 7th, 2013

Happy New Year! It's that time again; with the new year comes our new annual prediction post. I tackled this last year, and rather than do a bunch of crazy, pulled-from-thin-air predictions, I ended up with a link-filled research-fest for the year. It worked out pretty well, so that's what's on the docket for today. First though, I'll take a look and see just how many of last year's predictions and rumors came true, and provide some updates for the more important topics.

A Look Back To 2012

What a crazy year. 2012 brought us two versions of Jelly Bean: 4.1 and 4.2. We saw a complete transformation of Google Search with the Knowledge Graph, Google Now, voice output, and Google Goggles integration.

Dec

Apktool Updated To 1.5.1, Brings Android 4.2 Support, The Latest Smali/Baksmali, & Bugfixes

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Development, News

Apktool is a Windows/Mac/Linux utility for reverse engineering Android apps. It allows you to decode an app, change something, rebuild it, and pray it still runs. You're going to need something like this if you're into theming apps, hacking a feature onto someone else's app, finding security holes, or just want to hunt for info.

Apktool has been freshly updated to version 1.5.1, with the new headline feature being "Android 4.2 support." Here's the full changelog.

Android 4.2 support

Added -a / -aapt command on rebuild to specify location of aapt

Updated unit tests for 4.2 support

Closed file-handler when writing frameworks to file system.

Dec

[APK Teardown] Google Search - Reply To SMS With Voice, Post To Facebook & Twitter, An Android@Home Card, And More

Posted by Ron Amadeo in APK Teardown, Applications, Features, Jelly Bean 4.1, Jelly Bean 4.2

Ok - here's the deal. A Google Search update happened, which means it's teardown time. Normally I post about unreleased, work-in-progress stuff, but Google Now is so context dependent, that it's pretty much impossible for me to tell if something is implemented or not. The one thing I've learned from my months of using Now is that Google Now is in charge, and you're just along for the ride. So, for today's post, we're just going to shoot for "new things that didn't make it onto the 'What's New' list." If you can get them to show up, awesome. Send me a screenshot and I'll update.