Will Shanklin - 7/12 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Will Shanklin

Will's typical, run-of-the-mill story is that of 'classically-trained actor turned Android smartphone and tablet writer.' If you catch him quoting Shakespeare, it's not because he misses it, but because he desperately wants his Masters in drama to count towards something.

Sir William dwelleth in the fair haven
Chicago; with his fair maid'n Jess and his
trusty cur, Ziggy.

Mar

Verizon Suing The Pants Off Of SMS Scammers

Posted by Will Shanklin in News, Verizon Wireless

Have you ever been annoyed by SMS spam that attempts to convince you to pay for new Paris Hilton ringtones or something else you probably don't want? It appears that Verizon Wireless has too, as they have filed a federal lawsuit outlining a fraudulent SMS scheme that targeted its customers.

Among the violations that the scammers allegedly performed on Verizon customers:

misappropriating approved short codes for unapproved “shadow” campaigns that did not comply with Verizon Wireless’ consumer protection and disclosure policies
blocking certain IP addresses from accessing the websites associated with these shadow campaigns
re-directing visitors to shell websites, preventing Verizon Wireless and its auditors from finding the shadow campaign websites in the normal course of monitoring Premium SMS campaigns for compliance

Customers who think they might have been on the receiving end of this scheme and think they might be entitled to a refund can visit www.premiumsmsrefunds.com to get the full scoop.

Mar

Love For Android! Portions Of $100 Million Fund Set Aside To Help Indie Devs Port From iOS To Android

Posted by Will Shanklin in Applications, News

If you are an indie developer who has had success with iOS apps, your prospects of porting your work to Android may have just improved. Social gaming platform OpenFeint and Chinese game operator The9 have committed unknown portions of a staggering $100 million fund to help move things along. The two companies will review games based on quality, downloads, and the strength of the game developer to determine who the lucky beneficiaries will be.

It was reported elsewhere that an entire $100 million was being allocated exclusively for porting from iOS to Android, but that was a misinterpretation: the $100 million Fund9 also supports "mobile app, game engine, and platform technology developers around the world." It is currently unknown exactly what portion of this will be devoted to Android development, but we certainly welcome any of it as good news.

Mar

Support For Dinosaurs: OG Droid Set To Receive Update FRG83G To Fix SMS Bug

Posted by Will Shanklin in Droid (Sholes), News

It appears that a major glitch like the recent SMS bug can help spur on support even for an ancient (in Android years at least) phone. The original Motorola Droid will start receiving an OTA update today, sporting several crucial messaging-related bug fixes. Update FRG83G brings the Droid's Froyo version up to 2.2.2.

Released over 16 months ago, the OG Droid has actually been fairly well-maintained by Moto, launching with Android 2.0 'Eclair,' and now running an updated build of Froyo. In addition to several property space exploits (like rageagainstthecage) that were patched with 2.2.2, the SMS-related changes to this update include:

Sporadic issues with unintended recipient list corrected for text, picture, video and audio multimedia messages
Correct message populates when messaging application is opened and quickly accessed

While this may not be the Gingerbread update some have been hoping for, there is always CM7 for that, right?

Mar

Cars.com App Wheels Into The Android Market

Posted by Will Shanklin in Applications, News

Say you are shopping for a new car and the dealership that you were sure was going to have the perfect one for you turned up with only lemons? You want to hit up another dealership, but you don't know where to start. Now you can pull out your Android phone, open the new Cars.com app and find the ideal auto for you. Are you Dealing with a car salesman who swears the one you like is the last on the lot? Open up the cars.com app, check the dealer's inventory, and - BAM! - call him on his bluff.

After Cars.com's iPhone app was downloaded over 871,000 times, the website, which has been around for nearly 13 years, has now issued an equivalent Android app into the Market.

Mar

Droid X2 Is Looking A Lot Like The Droid X - Available "This Week?"

Posted by Will Shanklin in News, Rumors

In an internal memo leaked from SCK (the Radio Shack subsidiary that sets up wireless kiosks at Sam's Club) it appears that the Droid X2 is on its way very soon, and it may not be much of an upgrade over the original. The note to employees says that kiosks can expect to see the Droid X2 (which showed up at the FCC recently) "this week."

So surely Motorola's sequel is an exciting upgrade over the original, right? Well, according to the memo, it will sport a 2GB SD card and sell for the same price as last year's version. As the current model now ships with a 2GB SD card as well (unlike the memo, which has the old information of it shipping with a 16GB card) that leaves us to figure out the rest of the changes.

Mar

Razor-thin 8.9" Galaxy Tab Teased Again By Samsung

Posted by Will Shanklin in News, Rumors

We know Samsung will be unveiling a new tablet at CTIA later this month, and all signs point to their showcasing an 8.9" Galaxy Tab. The same number, 78910, which was displayed in a promo last week, has appeared again on a new image posted on the manufacturer's Facebook page. It will almost certainly be measured at 8.9" because Samsung debuted the first major Android tab at 7" (the original Galaxy Tab), and has announced a 10.1" model (the Galaxy Tab 10.1) - leaving 8.9" as the likely proportion of the upcoming slate.

Asking us again "What's your Tab life?", the visual shows an extreme closeup of a tablet with a cross-hatched texture that looks quite thin.

Mar

Prepare To Groan: Verizon Exec Says HTC Thunderbolt To Arrive "By The End Of The Second Quarter"

Posted by Will Shanklin in HTC, News, Thunderbolt (Mecha), Verizon Wireless

Yesterday, we heard that yet another (unconfirmed) HTC Thunderbolt "release date" was a big dud, but today, we have some even more disappointing news for eager LTE customers: Verizon chief technology officer Tony Melone said that customers will have 4G phones in their hands "by the end of the second quarter." Yes, that would mean by the end of June - probably not anytime soon. While Melone intended to highlight their pursuit of excellence in this interview, I think most of us can already hear the collective groan from Verizon customers who have been anticipating the upcoming HTC Thunderbolt.

This from Melone:

I guess our expectations change, but we had said first half of this year at CES, quite frankly, we think that exceeded people’s expectations.

Mar

Apple Envy Begone! Pocket Legends Is More Profitable On Android Than On iOS

Posted by Will Shanklin in Applications, Games, News

Calling all Android fanboys: we have some news that might make you puff your chest out a little bit more than usual today. Spacetime Studios, developer of the popular cross-platform game Pocket Legends, says that they make more money from Android than they do from iOS.

The studio claims that daily activity on Android is double that of iOS - in fact, they say the online RPG is downloaded about 9,000 times a day on Android, compared to 3,000-4,000 times per day on iOS. Android users play the game about three times more than Apple's gamers (which is a major statistic considering the majority of their profit comes from in-app purchases).

Mar

Want A Google Voice Home Phone Line? Teltub Will Do It For $5/Month With gHome

Posted by Will Shanklin in News

With cell phones being so completely immersed in our daily lives that many of us can hardly remember a time when we didn't use them, home phone lines have increasingly gone the way of the dodo. With monthly cellular bills that frequently top $100, having another expense for something that is deemed largely unnecessary just doesn't compute. Innovative communications company Teltub is attempting to bring back the home phone line by using Google Voice to give users home VoIP service for a mere $5 per month.

The service, which launched in January, requires a Google Voice number, an internet connection, and a VoIP adapter (no computer or phone line of any kind required). The adapter can be purchased separately and setup using gHome's tutorial, or you can pay $50 extra to have them provide it for you.

Mar

Opera Gets Into The Android Web Apps Game With Opera Mobile Store

Posted by Will Shanklin in Applications, News

Opera Software, makers of the popular browsers for desktops and mobile devices, today unveiled a mobile storefront for web apps called the Opera Mobile Store. The store, which racked up 15 million users during its February beta release, is available now on Android (as well as several other mobile operating systems).

Applications will be purchased, installed, and run via Opera's mobile browsers (Opera Mini or Opera Mobile). Opera's store is powered by web app company Appia, whose storefront commerce system will be used for payments. An Opera Publisher Portal, a platform for developers to create and dispense their apps, was released simultaneously.