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.

Oct

dan-rosenbergs-presentation-on-android-modding-for-the-security-practitioner-is-a-must-read

[Exclusive] Android 4.2 Alpha Teardown, Part 2: SELinux, VPN Lockdown, And Premium SMS Confirmation

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Android OS, APK Teardown, Exclusives, Features

We've got an LG Nexus system dump and endless desire to spoil every Googley surprise we can. Today's edition of the Android 4.2 Teardown could be alternatively subtitled "The Super-Serious Security Edition," because we're talking about the sort of stuff that should make your sysadmin jump for joy.

Please keep in mind this is just as forward-facing and time-ambiguous as all my other teardowns. This is a list of new stuff in the 4.2 dump, not a list of "confirmed for 4.2" features. Anything could be cut or not fully implemented by the time 4.2 rolls around; similarly to how bits of Android are currently multi-user aware, yet multi-user functionality isn't accessible.

Oct

[Exclusive] Android 4.2 Alpha Teardown, Part 1: Quick Settings - The Second Pulldown Panel [Video]

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Android OS, APK Teardown, Exclusives, Features

Welcome to the continuation of our Android 4.2 extravaganza. If you haven't guessed by now, we don't just have an unreleased version of Gmail; we have an entire LG Nexus system dump. Some LG Nexus prototypes are supposedly running 4.1.2, but the build we have is something different - something newer. It's an in-progress 4.2 build. Most apps in this build identify themselves as version "4.2-[###]" or "JellyBeanMR1" (4.1.2 is JellyBeanMR0). The source asked us to not release the dump, so we won't. Sorry.

What we can do is give you as much information as possible about it. This Android 4.2 build is really different, in that almost nothing works on a regular phone.

Oct

exclusive-upcoming-gmail-for-android-4-2-will-finally-have-pinch-to-zoom-swipeaway-deletearchive-video

[Exclusive] Download: The Unreleased Gmail 4.2 APK With Pinch-To-Zoom And More

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Development, Exclusives, News

Last Updated: October 15th, 2012

Ok, guys. Start your engines - here's the download and instructions you need to get the leaked Gmail 4.2 up and running on your device. Keep in mind that this is an unreleased version so some things may be buggy or broken, though I haven't run into any problems.

If you somehow don't know what I'm talking about, we have the next, unreleased version of Gmail, and we're finally allowed to share it with you. Gmail 4.2 finally has pinch-to-zoom, a nifty new swipe-to-archive/delete feature, and a bunch of other things. Just for fun I'll embed the video again:

Download

Note: This APK should work on Android 4.0+.

Oct

Getting To Know The Upcoming Gmail 4.2 - Revamped Attachments, Better Navigation, And More!

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Getting To Know Android, News

Last Updated: October 14th, 2012

If you haven't heard, we've got an unreleased copy of Gmail 4.2. Yesterday we showed you the major new features: pinch zoom and swipe to archive/delete, and today we've made a few more discoveries we thought you'd like to know about.

As usual, the old (well, current) version is on the left and the new, unreleased version is on the right.

Attachments have been totally revamped. For starters, attachments are now below your message, where they belong, instead of above, like in the current version. Here, in the right image, you can see the message text, but you'd have to scroll down to see it on the left.

Oct

Exclusive: Upcoming Gmail For Android 4.2 Will Finally Have Pinch-To-Zoom, Swipeaway Delete/Archive [Video]

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Applications, Exclusives, News

Last Updated: October 14th, 2012

Today, we are thrilled to share some exciting news about the next version of Gmail for Android. We may or may not be in possession of an unreleased version of Gmail, which may or may not have come from an LG Nexus system dump. One thing I am sure of is we definitely have video of it, which is just one short paragraph away.

Update: You can download the new Gmail here: [Exclusive] Download: The Unreleased Gmail 4.2 APK With Pinch-To-Zoom And More.

Let's get right to the good stuff. FINALLY, Gmail is going to have pinch zoom. It's easily the most wanted Gmail feature, with over 1600 stars on the Android bug tracker.

Oct

[APK Teardown] The Play Store Is Getting A Built-In Malware Scanner, Wish List Progress, And More

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Android OS, APK Teardown, News

A new app update means a new APK Teardown here at AP. Today's victim is the Google Play Store, which was just freshly updated to 3.9.16. We've got all sorts of stuff to talk about.

A Built-In Malware Scanner

Yes, it's hard to believe, but Google is working on a malware scanner for the Play Store. The string file doesn't lie:

    <string name="package_malware_title">App Check</string>
    <string name="package_malware_consent_text">"Allow Google to check all apps installed to this device for harmful behavior?
To learn more, go to Settings > Security."</string>
    <string name="package_malware_banner_warning">Installing this app may harm your device</string>
    <string name="package_malware_banner_blocked">Installation has been blocked</string>
    <string name="package_malware_recommendation_warning">Google recommends that you do not install this app.</string>
    <string name="package_malware_recommendation_blocked">To protect you, Google has blocked the installation of this app.</string>
    <string name="package_malware_app_name">App name: \"%s\"</string>
    <string name="package_malware_checkbox_label">I understand that this app may be dangerous.</string>
    <string name="package_malware_consent_title">Verify apps?</string>

Apparently, there are two parts to this.

Oct

Getting To Know Android 4.1.2 - A Location Settings Revamp, On-Demand 'Bug Reports,' Smoother Button Glows, And More

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Getting To Know Android, Jelly Bean 4.1

Hello and Welcome! Android 4.1.2 hit yesterday, and, in record time, we are pumping out a new version of everyone's favorite series. If you want to know about everything new in 4.1.2, you've come to the right place. To be perfectly honest, there isn't much to cover. 4.1.2 is just as minor as its 0.0.1 version bump would suggest. I've gone over all 164 system APKs (old and new) with a fine tooth comb, and this is all I could come up with.

First up, by now you've probably heard of the new, one finger notification expansion trick, and that the launcher has finally learned how to rotate.

Oct

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[APK Teardown] Google Wallet's Next Big Features: Person To Person Money Transfers, And Paypal-Style Money Storage

Posted by Ron Amadeo in APK Teardown, Applications, News

It's time to go APK spelunking again. Today's target is Google Wallet!

Remember this Google Wallet Q&A? The Wallet team took to YouTube and fielded user-submitted questions ranging from "When will Wallet work on my carrier?" to "When will Wallet work in my country?" with the answer to just about everything being "we're looking into it." One exception in the non-committal answer-fest was person to person transactions, with the Walleteers saying to "stay tuned" and hinting that an announcement would be coming soon.

Well, after digging though the Wallet APK, "soon" feels a whole lot closer. It turns out there is a ton of code and images for sending money from person to person, and it's been hanging around for some time.

Sep

What's Really New In Google Maps 6.12: A '3D' Button, An 'Experiments' Section, And More!

Posted by Ron Amadeo in APK Teardown, Features, News, What's Really New

Last Updated: October 8th, 2012

Hello and welcome to a new feature! I'm going to start calling this "What's Really New," the series where we do more than just post a change log with the canned screenshots when something important gets updated. We're going in-depth (as usual). We'll be ripping apart APKs, doing full side-by-side comparisons, and, hopefully, letting you know about all the cool new stuff before it comes out.

timeline

Previous experiments in this area have been a stunning success. We told you all about Google+ events before it was released, called Gift card support in the Play Store and, while we neglected to mention it, Google Maps Timeline was also dead-on.

Sep

Hands-On With LG's New Quad-Core Powerhouse, The Optimus G

Posted by Ron Amadeo in LG, Optimus G, Videos

Greetings from New York! LG showed off the Optimus G today, their new monster of a phone. If you haven’t heard, it’s the first phone with a 1.5Ghz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor. Qualcomm's dual-core chips can hold their own against the quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3, so this should be one of the fastest phones available. It’s also one of the first phones to have a next-gen Adreno 320 GPU, which, again, means it should be really fast.

I got to play around with one for a few minutes, and yes, the real world performance lives up to the specs. Everything is blazingly fast, and animations are buttery-smooth.