28
May
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[Review] Hyperlight Brings Tilt-Controlled Madness to a Faster-Than-Light Level

Posted by in Applications, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews
Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

During the past couple months I've seen a growing trend in Android games that seek to emulate the style of Geometry Wars, a highly successful console and PC title. I've had the pleasure of playing both Tilt Arena and PewPew in the past, so why not throw one more into the mix?

Hyperlight brings another entry into the Geometry Wars-like genre, but with a specific control scheme: tilt controls accomplish everything in this game, and have a deeper purpose than just movement.

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hyperlight4 hyperlight1 hyperlight2

A Unique Control Scheme

Tilting your phone in all directions influences your movement, and moving past a certain threshold will kick your spaceship into faster-than-light (FTL) mode.

28
May
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13 Ways CyanogenMod 7 Makes My Android Phone Feel Future-Proof [Deep Review]

Posted by in Development, EVO 4G (Supersonic), News, Other Reviews, Phone Reviews, Reviews, Tips & Tutorials
Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

After spending almost a year with my EVO 4G in what was essentially rooted stock condition (Fresh ROM, based on stock Sense, minus bloatware), I finally got frustrated to the point that I was ready to make the jump to CyanogenMod and see just how much better the fully unlocked stock Android experience with CM improvements is.

The Sense ROM offered by Fresh, even in its supposedly optimized form, was starting to get quite slow and would sometimes start choking for no reasons whatsoever. Whenever I was installing apps, I could forget about getting any useful response out of the phone - I had to wait till it was done in order to avoid frustration.

28
May
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[Review] Motorola DROID X2: Even Raw Horsepower Can't Save This Phone From Mediocrity

Posted by in Droid X2, Motorola, Phone Reviews, Reviews, Verizon Wireless
Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Update: June 4, 2011 - I've taken an awful lot of flak for this review (and that's fine). I stand by the review because I can't honestly recommend this phone in good conscience. With that in mind, I realize that not everyone may share my opinions, and that's why I suggest potential purchasers go and take a look at it to see if they will notice the screen issues as much as I do.

Further, a lot of you seem to think I was using or inspecting the phone in a critical way; this was not the case. I noticed the screen and performance issues immediately and continuously under normal use conditions.

28
May
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[Weekend Poll] What Manufacturer Will Your Next Device Be From?

Posted by in Devices By Manufacturer, Polls
Last Updated: September 3rd, 2011

This is the latest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week’s, see I/O 2011 Aftermath & Recap: What Has You Most Excited?

In light of this week's bootloader lockdown bonanza, it makes sense to ask something related. We know that as an Android-centric blog, our readers are likely to be a bit more hack-'n-mod oriented, so we're interested to see: who will manufacture your next device?

The "why" isn't crucial, though you're certainly encouraged to share your reasoning via the comments. Really, we're just interested in seeing how much HTC's new open policy has helped it, and how much Motorola's locked-down style is hurting it.

28
May
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BeyondPod, One Of The Best Podcast Managers For Android, On Sale For $1.99 Now Through Monday (Normally $6.99)

Posted by in Applications, Deals, News

When it comes to podcasting applications on Android, there are certain ones that stand above the rest. Among those, BeyondPod Podcast Manager may be the top dog, and for this weekend only, you can score this awesome app for just $1.99 as opposed to the usual $6.99.

Note from Artem: I've been a fan of BeyondPod for over a year now and use it for managing, syncing, and listening to my podcasts exclusively. Listen? What Listen?

BeyondPod is packed full of features (so many, I just had to use bullet points. I do love bullet points):

  • Full Google Reader integration and sync
  • both audio and video supported, or just use it as an RSS reader
  • Complete podcast control: how many to download, when to download, and how many to store.

27
May
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Lodsys Patent Trolling Starting To Target Android App Devs - OK, Now It's Personal

Posted by in Android OS, Apps/Games, Editorials, News

You've all probably heard bits and pieces of news about a company called Lodsys in the last couple of weeks, (they've been "patent trolling" iOS app developers) even if you don't really keep up on all things fruit-related. If you're not familiar with the story, let me give you a quick rundown.

Lodsys is what we affectionately refer to as a "patent troll" - a company that buys up promising and often vague or [overly] broad patents in a hope of using them to threaten to sue the pants off people that they know might be infringing on them. Let me say that again - they find a patent, find out how many people might be infringing it, and then decide to buy it.

27
May
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[Deal Alert] LetsTalk.com Memorial Day Sale

Posted by in AT&T, Deals, News, Sprint, T-Mobile, Tips & Tutorials, Verizon Wireless
Last Updated: May 30th, 2011

Update Memorial Day: Well, Amazon prices didn't drop today. Our Amazon rep hasn't gotten back to us to confirm, but @AmazonWireless has tweeted that the "all 4G phones free" sale wasn't real, so I'm writing off the Amazon part of this sale as a hoax. :(

LetsTalk.com

Deals - we got 'em. While Amazon is having their own Memorial Day Android handset sale over at Amazon Wireless, LetsTalk.com wasn't about to be outdone. Here's the most relevant (not all-inclusive) deals, including the 20% off coupon code for Verizon phones (the code is: 7c7f3319) (prices that beat Amazon's are italicized, and we've provided Amazon's prices for comparison).

27
May
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Google Finally Updates Web Android Market With Screenshot Navigation And Rotation Capabilities

Posted by in Apps/Games, News
Last Updated: May 29th, 2011

Ever since the Android web Market was launched, one of my main gripes with its UI (let's not talk about content discovery here) was screenshot navigation. There were 2 basic problems - you could not click Next or Previous as those buttons did not exist, and the only way to close a screenshot close-up was by finding and clicking a tiny X button.

Most modern "lightbox"-style galleries already solved the aforementioned problems by adding easy navigation buttons and allowing you to click anywhere on the screen to dismiss the close-up. Today, Google quietly did just that, and then some.

Here are the 5 new features I just spotted that weren't there this morning:

  • the Next and Previous buttons finally allow easy navigation
  • clicking on the close-up of a screenshot is equivalent to pressing Next
  • left and right keyboard arrow keys are equivalent to Previous and Next (hooray!)
  • the X button is gone - you can now close any image close-up by clicking anywhere on the screen
  • in-line rotation buttons which let you turn those occasional sideways images the right way

Here, have a look:

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Visit your favorite app in the Market and check it out for yourself.

27
May
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Google Responds To PayPal Trade Secret Lawsuit - What Does It All Really Mean? An Explanation

Posted by in Android OS, Editorials, News

Disclaimer: I'm not an attorney. This is not legal advice.

The PayPal and Google lawsuit is just another one of Google's seemingly endless big-name legal tangles over the last couple of years. Why is Google litigation such a frequent topic?

At least in part, it's because Google has one of the most aggressive stances towards litigation of any member of the tech industry. Google's reputation for taking its battles to court has become almost notorious (well, except for the "Buzz" incident) - regardless of cost or, sometimes, likelihood of victory. Google's approach is one of the modern corporation - during the 1990's and 80's, when civil litigation was actually more prevalent, in-house counsels for major corporations often preferred to settle potentially high-dollar suits rather than risk wasting piles of cash on defending them, only to lose in the end.

27
May
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[Coming Unstuck] Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Special Edition Tablets Experiencing Screen Defects?

Posted by in Galaxy Tab 10.1, News

Remember the special edition Galaxy Tab 10.1 that was given to all Google I/O attendees this year? It looks like the celebrations of owning a limited edition device have come to a screeching halt, as some owners are experiencing a very specific hardware issue with the device - the front glass is starting to become detached. Earlier today Android Community posted about one particular incident, with hopes that it was a fluke - but in all actuality, it was just the tip of the iceberg. Ever since then, more and more reports have been surfacing  from users with the same issue.

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