About Ryan Whitwam
Ryan is a tech/science writer, skeptic, lover of all things electronic, and Android fan. In his spare time he reads golden-age sci-fi and sleeps, but rarely at the same time. His wife tolerates him as few would. He's the author of a sci-fi novel called The Crooked City, which is available on Amazon and Google Play.
Latest Articles
Monday App And Game Sales: M&M Clash of Heroes, SidePlayer Pro, Great Little War Game, And More
As a discerning consumer of digital goods, you probably shop around for the best deals in Google Play. Well, we've pretty much done the work for you this time. Here are the apps and games on sale right now. You're welcome.
Thursday App And Game Sales: Tiny Thief, My Budget Book, Half Price Kairosoft Games, And More
Rushing to get some work finished up before the holidays? Well that's too bad â we've got some app and game sales you should pay attention to instead. Read on and spend a little money/time getting reacquainted with your phone.
Google Will Soon Show Email Images By Default In Gmail Without Compromising Your Security And Privacy
You probably see that "Display images below" button in Gmail all the time on both mobile and desktop. This is the default behavior because it makes it harder for spammers and advertisers to track you. However, Google says it has prepared a workaround that mitigates the security concern and will allow it to show those images by default.
How often do you find that words simply cannot convey what you need to say? Probably all the time, right? Just send an emoji instead with the new SwiftKey beta. As promised, this early version is available for download and includes over 500 emoji images. On the more conventional side, there is also an optional number row, finally.
Google Updates Zagat With A New Tablet UI, More Locations, Street View Integration, And More
People didn't always hate Zagat, but Google's new vision for the iconic restaurant review guide has not been widely accepted. The service became free, but Google also revamped it and limited the number of cities it tracked. The new update makes some tweaks to the app and expands the supported cities, but it's probably not going to do much to improve the app's 2.4 star rating.
Plants Vs. Zombies 2 Gets A Massive Update With Turbo Mode, A New World, Gigantic Zombies, And No More Stars Or Gates
Plants vs. Zombies 2 came out a few weeks ago with a lot of new gameplay mechanics and some in-app purchases. I didn't have a serious issue with most of the monetization in the game, but Pop Cap has just pushed an update that adds a ton of features and does away with a big chunk of the in-app purchase features.
Wednesday App And Game Sales: Neon Shadow, MoreQuicklyPanel, Aralon: Sword And Shadow, And More
We found some apps that you can have on the cheap. It doesn't matter where they came from... anyone asks, say they fell off a truck. Wanna see? Okay, but you're not a cop, are you? You know you have to tell us if you are.
Google rolled out the Android Device Manager a few months ago, but for whatever reason, there was no matching Android app. That changes today as Google has finally gotten around to releasing one. The app contains all the functionality from the website in a mobile-friendly package and it is, of course, free.
Googler: App Ops Was Never Meant For End Users, Used For Internal Testing And Debugging Only
App Ops showed up in Android 4.3 and made it possible to revoke permissions on a per-app basis. It wasn't exposed in the main system settings, but it was easy to access. Then Android 4.4 made it quite a bit harder to get to, and now it appears to be completely missing in 4.4.2. What gives? Well, Android engineer Dianne Hackborn has indicated App Ops was never meant to be a user-facing feature in the first place.
The Qualcomm Toq is a limited run device, but it seems there are enough floating around that Qualcomm isn't handling all the sales itself. The Toq debuted on the Qualcomm site last week, but now you can buy the device from Amazon with free Prime shipping for the same $349.99 price.
Androidify was a neat distraction when it came out a few years back, but it quickly fell by the wayside. Forgotten, it waited in the Play Store for its chance to shine again, and here we are. Google has updated Androidify with a new UI and some spiffy holiday duds.
Rovio's newest game is about what the Finnish developer knows best – birds. Though, they seem decidedly less angry this time in their little downhill race carts. Like it or not, this game is going to be huge.
Sprint Will Offer An Updated Samsung Galaxy S4 That Works With Its Spark Tri-Band LTE In The Coming Weeks
Sprint's Galaxy S4 is much like the GS4 on other US carriers. It has a Snapdragon 600, 2GB of RAM, and it doesn't have the necessary LTE bands to take advantage of Sprint Spark. That's Sprint's new enhanced tri-band LTE that it plans to deploy all over the country in the coming year. Don't worry, though – Sprint is going to sell a new version of the phone it released six whole months ago that supports Spark.
Shortly after Android 4.4 hit Nexus devices, a new beta of the popular Nova Launcher home screen added UI elements borrowed from the Google Experience Launcher. Now that version has hit the Play Store with some refinements and additional features. While the Google Now integration isn't possible with a third-party launcher, this is about as close as you'll get to the Kitkat look without going stock.
Google is already selling zip-up sleeves and some stylish cases for the Nexus 7, but now you can add the new folio case to the list. This is essentially a bumper case with a front flap that can fold back and be used as a stand. It actually looks pretty neat.
Sony Xperia Z Ultra Google Play Edition Appears Out Of Thin Air – $649 And Ships Free In 1-2 Days
Just when you thought Google couldn't drop any more Android news today, the Sony Xperia Z Ultra has appeared in the Play Store as a Google Play Edition device. This phone runs Android 4.4 KitKat on a big 6.4-inch screen and will cost you $649.
Badland is a game about adaptation – the rotund birds you control in this title are simple things that fly up and to the right at your direction, but they're always changing. Toss in a few power ups, and things get wild really fast. The game can change in an instant and you have to be ready for it. Just survive – that's all you need to do, but the assortment of unexpected dangers and physics puzzles make this game something to take a closer look at.
The Chromecast launched last summer with a lot of promise, but very limited app support. We've been limping along these last few months with only the occasional addition like Pandora and HBO Go to keep us going. Well, now the floodgates are beginning to open. Google just announced 10 new apps are launching with Chromecast support, and some of them are super-exciting.
Your deal hunting just got much prettier with the 2.0 update to the LivingSocial app. With this new version, the app has been redesigned from the ground up with a real Android aesthetic. It's got an action bar, cards, tabs – the works.
[New App] Microsoft Releases Socl App In The Play Store, Provides Easy Access To A Social Network You've Never Heard Of
Well, this is certainly the nail in Twitter's coffin – Microsoft's Socl has it's own Android app now. What? You've never heard of Socl? It's a social network based around sharing statuses, picture collages, and videos. There's also a strong Bing social search element. But seriously, it's not very popular.