13
May
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PSA: Removing Or Adding Sports Teams Or Stocks In Google Now Currently Causes It To Crash Endlessly

Posted by in Applications, Google, News, Tips & Tutorials

Listen up, Android users. If you're using Google Now, don't go to its Settings -> My Stuff and try to modify sports teams or stocks right now, as doing so completely borks the whole app. As soon as you go back to the main screen or click into Search, you will experience a force close. Repeated attempts to restart it will result in a crash as well:

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The only thing that works is clearing out Google Search's data in Settings -> Applications, after which you need to re-enroll into Google Now. Changing your Home or Work locations does not seem to trigger the issue - it's just sports teams and stocks.

30
Oct
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PSA: Google Clarifies Nexus 4 Support For HSPA+42, Updates Play Store Pages Accordingly

Posted by in AT&T, News, Nexus 4, T-Mobile

When the Nexus 4 was announced yesterday, there was a bit of confusion regarding its HSPA+ support for faster HSPA+42 speeds offered by companies like T-Mobile. The Device Play Store pages showed HSPA+21, but T-Mobile's press release claimed the faster HSPA+42, also known as DC-HSPA+ (dual-cell). Did that mean that T-Mobile customers needed to get a special variant of the Nexus? The answer is no, but the inaccuracy surely puzzled some.

Google just cleared up the confusion and updated the Device Play Store with the right data. Both the 8GB and 16GB pages now correctly mention HSPA+42:

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If you're a customer of T-Mobile, AT&T, or a myriad of related MVNOs, buy the new Nexus without fear when it becomes available November 13th.

14
May
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Goodbye, Amazon Appstore

Posted by in Applications

Today, I uninstalled the Amazon Appstore and bought all the FAOTD (free app of the day) apps I've been really using. Why did I do it? Because, mildly put, the Amazon Appstore app, which is required for all Amazon-installed apps to run and perform their license checks, has affected my battery life in very negative ways. Even if you never open it, it will keep running in the background, using up valuable CPU cycles, keeping the device awake when it should be sleeping.

Now, this may not happen to everyone - it's possible that a combination of events leads to this unacceptable behavior, or maybe it's having certain apps installed - I'm not sure.

22
Feb
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PSA: California's New App Privacy Policy Requirement Just Made Life Harder For Developers Everywhere, Here's What You Need To Know

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

Privacy is a good thing in the digital world - you'll get no argument from me. I don't like my data floating around in cyberspace without my consent, but I also realize that much of what makes the internet (and computing generally) so great is that I can use my own judgment to decide who I will and will not trust with my information.

Things like app permissions, which have been a part of the Android package installation process for quite some time, are nice, but let's face it: 95% of us don't read them. And if we do, we may not even be sure what those permissions really entail, or how the app will use those permissions to gather information, or even what kind of information will actually be collected.

23
Aug
Android Eating iPhone

Editorial: Convincing Your Non-Techie Friends To Go Android

Posted by in Editorials
Last Updated: August 2nd, 2012

I have always been a techie. As a child of the 80s I had an IBM PC with a 10 megabyte hard disk that had to remain completely immobile and level or risk scratching, I had a 300/1200 baud internal modem and I stayed up all night downloading a 64 kilobyte game that, at the time, was the coolest thing I had ever seen. My wife, on the other hand, thought anything with a screen needed rabbit ears to get good reception and that PC stood for popcorn.

Convincing her to get an iPhone was almost impossible. She thought $200 for the phone was money headed straight down the toilet.