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Mar

JayBird BlueBuds X Deep Dive Review: Ultraportable Perfection Comes At A Price

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Accessories, Other Reviews, Reviews

I have a confession to make: I'm obsessed with wireless portable audio gear. Bluetooth earbuds, headphones, and portable speakers excite me more than they probably should. And I'm OK with that. My wife, however, gives me "the look" every time a new gadget arrives, rolling her eyes so far up her skull she could have easily become a soap opera star or an extra on The Walking Dead. She doesn't get it - she's not a geek who loves to get to the bottom of every feature, spot every miniscule detail, and figure out if we have something special on our hands.

Mar

Gmail Update v4.3 Allows You To Reply, Archive, Or Delete Emails Right In The Notification Shade

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Google has finally added the feature that we've been wanting since Google first started adding functionality to notifications back in Ice Cream Sandwich: the ability to archive email directly from the notification shade. Now, when you get a new email, you can choose what to do with it immediately. This is extremely handy for the chronic email checkers who would like to be able to dismiss the clutter as it comes in, rather than let it pile up later

This is something that seems so obvious that when Ron reviewed Jelly Bean, the lack of buttons was a disappointment in an otherwise fantastic update.

Oct

Samsung's Galaxy Music Is A Low-End 3" Smartphone Running ICS With A Dedicated Music Button - Because Why Not?

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Galaxy Music, News

We can easily get caught up in the mad scramble for the latest and greatest, so it's easy to lose track of the fact that low-end smartphones also have a place in the world. For this one, we'll let you decide. Who wants a smartphone with a 3" (yes, that is three inches) 240x320 TFT display, a 3MP rear camera, an unspecified "powerful" processor and 512MB of RAM? Before you decide, I should also point out that this phone has a dedicated music button and, for some bizarre reason, the spec sheet lists a WVGA projector (9 lumens), though it seems incredibly likely that this is a mistake.

Sep

Google Play Services Can Now Be Installed Manually From The Play Store

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Applications, Google, News

Just after initially unveiling Google Play Services, Google has made the APK installable directly from the Play Store.

For those who missed the announcement, Google Play Services is an APK rolling out automatically to devices running Android 2.2+ that will allow Android apps to easily integrate with Google services like Google+. At present, the app (which is in version 1.0 "Asiago") includes components and relevant client APIs for OAuth 2.0 authentication, Google+ sign-in, and Google+ +1 buttons. Google assures users that "we anticipate more Google services to be continuously added, so be on the lookout for these updates."

The Google Play Services app began rolling out through the Play Store automatically, primarily in order to keep updates to the service independent of carrier or OEM updates.

Jan

Google Announces The Death Of The Menu Button, Long Live The Action Bar

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Android OS, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

We can't say we didn't see this coming. Google just announced on the Android Developer blog that the Menu button is well and truly dead, in case you hadn't gotten the memo. The post has relevant information on how to update your apps to accommodate the new changes without breaking support for devices running software older than Honeycomb (which are the overwhelming majority at the moment).

^{Left: Glorious new Action Bar. Right: Shameful old Menu.}

It's not a surprise, but it's certainly another nail in the Menu button's coffin. Google's pushing hard to give the stock software a distinct, beautiful experience.

Nov

[Updated] Galaxy Nexus Owners Experiencing Strange Volume/Muting Bug

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Galaxy Nexus, News

Update: Things have gone from "Looks like a weird software bug" to "Damn, this could well be a serious hardware issue". As some users had been suggesting, the problem does indeed link to use of 2G. However, it turns out that the issue can be replicated by the use of 2G even on another, proximate phone. As you can see in the video demonstration by kongzs7 below, the volume rocker keys' sensors are set off even when the phone is only at the bootloader.

This absolves Android 4.0 from blame, and suggests either an issue with the internal hardware, or possibly the firmware of the device, both significantly more problematic to sort out.

Jul

Quick Tip: Want To Search Using The Android Market App? Save Precious Seconds And Press The Search Button Right Away

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Apps/Games, Tips & Tutorials

The title pretty much says it all, but I'll explain this quick tip in a bit more detail. All too often I want to jump into the Market on my phone and search for an app I already have in mind. However, before the search box even appears, I am forced to wait for the featured app screen to finish loading, which on slow connections can take ages.

So, rather than wait for it, just jump straight into action by pressing the hardware Search button. No more waiting, and precious time is saved. Little by little, this habit can turn minutes into days of saved time, folks (if you search the Market as often as I do)!

Dec

Modder’s Column: How To Remap Your Android Phone’s Hardware Buttons Without Touching A Single Line Of Code

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Development, Editorials

So maybe you've recently upgraded your Android phone and haven't gotten used to the new device's button alignment yet... or maybe you never use that pesky Search key and want to turn it into the camera key your EVO 4G has always wanted... or maybe you just enjoy tinkering with your phone. If you're in one of those situations, what you may be lusting after is a way to remap your phone's hardware buttons (i.e. making the Search key take on the duties of the Home key, or vise versa).

Up until now, there haven't been any user-friendly methods of doing this, at least not any that can be so greatly customized.

Oct

[Hump Day Lollerskates] Samsung Galaxy Tab Shipping With Porn Button In Romania

Posted by Brad Ganley in Galaxy Tab, News, Off-Topic

In a hilarious display of linguistic differences, the Romanian Samsung Galaxy Tab will ship with an app drawer that looks like this:

If this doesn't make you want a Galaxy Tab, I don't know what will.

In all seriousness, though, the Romanian word for "Start" is "Pornire" and, apparently, gets abbreviated as "Porn" quite regularly. I guess that makes sense, but it's still pretty entertaining in my book. I'm not sure how Samsung is going to feel about it in the long run but,for now, we can get some laughs at the language barrier's expense.

Here's a video of the Romanian Galaxy Tab's porn button in action, if you're interested: