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Apr

Deal Alert: Get A New 32GB Nexus 7 Plus Travel Case And Screen Protector For $229.99 From Adorama Through eBay

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Deals, Nexus 7

Still hunting for a bargain on the Nexus 7? Adorama might have what you're looking for. The purveyor of cameras and other gadgets is offering up a new 32GB Nexus 7 (Wi-Fi) with a travel case (in grey, blue or pink) for just $229.99. That's $20.00 less than the price of a new 32GB Nexus 7 from the Play Store, plus a travel case that's $19.99 (and only available in blue) in the same.

If you're not in the crowd who suspects Google may have a refreshed slab up its sleeve come May, or still want to experience the first seven-inch Nexus to hit the scene, hit the link below.

Apr

'Babel' Name Purportedly Makes An Appearance In Gmail, Might Be The Real Deal

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

From poorly-executed "leaks" to potential legitimate sightings, there's been a lot of hubbub about Google's supposed unified messaging service, likely called Babel. This isn't necessarily surprising. After all, if you asked most Android enthusiasts what feature they most wanted from the platform in its next iteration, you'd hear a lot about unified messaging. We've tried to stay clear of covering every flurry of Babel-related murmurings so far, but today we saw something new – Google+ user Patric Dhawaan posted a screenshot of what he says is a notification in Gmail, triggered when "pruning" his inbox.

At first, we were a bit suspicious of the screenshot.

Feb

Google Unveils The $1,300 Chromebook Pixel That Doesn't Run Photoshop, Steam, Or Much Else You Care About

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

Google just launched a $1,300 laptop. That's a pretty big deal. In fact, it's a pretty huge deal. In double fact, if our team wasn't about to get on a podcast (see you at 8PM EST!) I'd be sharing all manner of reasons why that's a monumental deal. Unfortunately for you, that will have to wait until tomorrow. For now, we can only talk about the device itself. So, what is it?

It's a high-end laptop with an incredibly dense display. 2560x1700 in a 12.85" screen for 239 ppi. Let me put that in layman's terms: holy mother of crap this screen is awesome.

Jan

CyanogenMod Gets Cease & Desist On 'Chronus' Name, Wants To Crowd-Source A New One [Updated]

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Development, News

Update: The CyanogenMod team has chosen a new name: cLock. According to the Google+ post, the new name was chosen by virtue of its simplicity.

In a post to Google+ titled "Pitfalls of being so big" earlier this evening, the CyanogenMod team informed followers that CM had been served with a C&D (Cease and Desist) request regarding their Chronus clock widget.

For those unfamiliar, Chronus is CyanogenMod's acclaimed lock screen (or home screen) clock widget, introduced last December, that displays the time in Android 4.2 fashion along with configurable calendar and weather information.

Specifically, the "entity" serving the C&D seems to have issue with the widget's name, which is similar to the entity's own "Cronus." CyanogenMod's post emphasizes that while the team does not agree with the C&D claim, they do not have the time or resources to fight it so, naturally, they're looking to crowd-source a new name for the clock.

Nov

Samsung Announces S Pen SDK 2.2.5 Update With Multi Window APIs, Bug Fixes

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Development, News, Samsung

In a continued quest to bring their handy functionality of the Note line's S Pen, Samsung has again updated the stylus' SDK, this time to 2.2.5 (a 0.0.5 bump over the previous update).

The update, which Samsung announced through its developer blog early this morning, brings one major feature – Multi Window and its related APIs. For those who haven't been keeping up with the Note line, Multi Window is a feature by which apps can share the screen by splitting it in half horizontally or vertically, sharing data through the clipboard or – in some cases – with simple drag-and-drop.

Oct

Apple Granted Another Slide-To-Unlock Patent That Covers More Than Just Predefined Paths

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Legal, News

Following up on last year's slide-to-unlock patent grab (which itself built on a patent granted in 2010), Apple has been granted another, yet more expansive slide-to-unlock patent, one which ditches the previous patents' emphasis on "predefined paths" in favor of more ambiguous language covering the movement of an unlock image to "an unlock region" on a device's display.

While US Patent 8,286,103 is largely similar to Apple's previous two slide-to-unlock, its language is considerably broader. The logic of the patent is not concerned with what path a user takes to unlock a device, nor where the user starts or stops that path, just that an unlock image is moved "from the first location to an unlock region."

Essentially, the language of the patent has been loosened to cover workaround solutions (presumably like the circle locks of Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean) and, ostensibly, to ensure that pretty much any method of unlocking a device through a continuous touch movement is protected.

Sep

[Weekend Poll] Would You Give Up A Front-Facing Camera To Have A Bezel-Less Phone?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Motorola, Polls

This is the latest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see What Effect Do You Think The Samsung v Apple Case Will Have On The Industry?

Rumor has it that Motorola will release a phone without a bezel by the end of the year, and we kinda-sorta buy it. The trend has certainly been moving that direction and bezels are becoming increasingly narrow, but we've never had a phone that truly had an edge-to-edge screen with no bezel at all. It simply hasn't been technologically feasible to eliminate it altogether for mass-produced devices.

The advantages would be obvious: first, you could pack a significantly larger screen into the same size package, and second, it would look super sleek.

Aug

Samsung Announces Galaxy Player 5.8 – Ample 5.8" Display, 2500mAh Battery Included

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Galaxy Player 5.8, News

True to a rumor we saw earlier this month about a possible addition to Samsung's Galaxy Player line, the Korean manufacturer has just unveiled – via Samsung Tomorrow – the ginormous Galaxy Player 5.8.

As the name would imply, the Galaxy Player 5.8 features a huge, large, ample, plentiful 5.8" LCD display that buyers can only hope will fit in their pocket. The downside here is that the display carries a resolution of just 960x540. To make up for that, however, the player houses an awesome 2500mAh battery pack for hours upon hours of media enjoyment. We aren't privy to the upcoming device's full spec sheet just yet, but here's what we do know: the Galaxy Player 5.8 will also come with either 16 or 32GB internal storage, a microSD slot, a front facing VGA camera, and Android 4.0 running with Touch Wiz on top.

Jul

[Weekend Poll] What Is Your Preferred Tablet Screen Size?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Polls, Tablets

This is the latest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see In A Perfect World, Who Would Manufacture The Next Nexus Phone?

Back in November - in the early days of true Android tablets - we ran a poll to see what you considered the ideal tablet screen size. The majority (47%) of you said roughly 10"; at the time, that was largely all there was to choose from, so an understandable result. Today, though, there are more high quality options available, and the Nexus 7 is likely the most popular Android tablet yet.

Since the game has changed, it's time to pose the question again: what screen size is right for you?

Mar

Samsung Reportedly Working On Eliminating Bezels In 2012 By Bringing Flexible Display Technology To Smartphones

Posted by Liam Spradlin in News, Samsung

You may remember way back in 2010 when Samsung first demonstrated a new flexible display technology, wowing onlookers and begging the question "what's the application?"

Well Richard Windsor, a senior technology analyst at Normura Group, has answered that question, indicating that Sammy plans to include foldable displays in future devices. Specifically, Normura's Asian analysts have indicated that the manufacturer is expected to use foldable display technology to entirely eliminate the appearance of side bezels around a smartphone screen. The analysts added the display would be unbreakable, would enhance "the exceptionally thin form factor," and will debut some time in 2012.