Editorials - 6/20 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Aug

Editorial: Are Android-Powered Cameras, Cars, Fridges, And More A Misguided View Of The Future?

Posted by David Ruddock in Accessories, Android OS, Editorials

I know I'm starting off with a question here that most Android fans are going to have a knee-jerk reaction to - "absolutely not, the more Android-powered smart-stuff out there the better." After all, we want to live in a world where our refrigerators know what's inside them, where our laundry lets us know on our phones when it's done, and our cars' infotainment systems aren't so god-effing-awful (even the best ones really are terrible).

Eric Schmidt said he wants your fridge to run Android at CES back in January. Nikon is making an Android-powered camera (and Polaroid already has made one).

Aug

[Editorial] Hey Google, What Ever Happened To Movie Studio? (Or: It's Time To Start Caring About Content Creation Again)

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Editorials, News

Back in February of 2011, Eric Schmidt took the stage at MWC to announce Google's latest tablet-oriented app: Movie Studio. It was a rather exciting new addition to Google's first foray into the tablet world. This made it possible for tablet users to not just view content, but to create it as well. This was a big deal. At the time, Apple already had a year-long head start on tablets. Not only would Android need a lot of third-party app support, but first-party apps would be essential to the platform's success.

You may recall the Xoom didn't sell too well.

Part of the problem is that Movie Studio sucked.

Aug

[Editorial] The Ten Commandments Of Naming Phones And Tablets - Thou Shalt Not Epic 4G Touch

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Editorials

Manufacturers, you're awful at naming things. Sorry. It's true. In many cases, you've either muddied the brand of your flagship devices, or made it incredibly difficult for customers to know what they should be asking for when they walk into a store. This is probably not a good thing since you want customers to buy your stuff. More than that, though, you want them to love your stuff, so they'll buy more of it. Making it easier to say the name of the product will go a long way towards that goal.

Today, I'm going to help you with this problem.

Jul

[Editorial] Just How Bad Is App Piracy On Android Anyway? Hint: We're Asking The Wrong Question

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, Editorials

When crowd-favorite zombie shooter Dead Trigger decided to drop its price from $0.99 to free, citing concerns over piracy, the tech world renewed its interest in an age-old debate: how bad is piracy for developers? Of course, any lost sale is money out of a developer's pocket (though it's important to distinguish between downloads and lost sales). However, the question should and needs to be answered: just how bad is the piracy problem on Android?

Zombies Vs. Knights

Dead Trigger provides an interesting starting point. The developer, Madfinger, notes that its previous game Shadowgun experienced a rather high level of piracy when priced at $8.

Jul

Editorial: Samsung Has Given Up On Fighting Apple's Unified Search Patent - Where Do We Go From Here, Google?

Posted by David Ruddock in Editorials, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S III, HTC, Legal, Samsung

Update: It appears Samsung sent out the update removing universal search from international Galaxy S III's mistakenly. I'd say the point still stands for the United States, though.

On December 1, 2004, a patent was filed in the United States naming Apple as asignee (owner). Its title is "Universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system." This patent, which you can find here, has become Apple's most effective weapon in its fight to see Android dubbed an iOS "ripoff" by courts and consumers.

And effective it has been - Samsung just removed the local search feature from the international version of the Galaxy S III, having already removed it from the US versions on AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon.

Jul

Editorial: The In-App Purchase Conundrum, Or, How Dead Trigger Has Wrongly Become The Target Of A Witch Hunt

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Apps/Games, Editorials, Games

If there's one thing that sets people off upon purchasing or downloading an app (games in particular), it's opening it up and finding it has in-app purchases.

And this is, generally, a good instinct for consumers to have - hundreds, if not thousands of mobile games blatantly take advantage of people's willingness to nickel-and-dime themselves out of money they would have never otherwise spent buying a game in the first place. Basically, see 50% of Zynga's business model (the other 50% being stealing other developers' games).

Farmville

In fact, it was Zynga that sparked one of the most notable in-app purchase hate campaigns from users when it added consumable cheats (essentially) to Words With Friends that allowed players to gain advantages over their opponents for a fee.

Jul

Editorial: Why The $200 Nexus 7 Has Only 8GB Of Non-Expandable Storage, And It's Not Just About Cost

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, ASUS, Editorials, Nexus 7

The initial draft of this editorial went off on what was, frankly, a pretty stupid rant about piracy or something. I don't know - I wrote half of it at 1AM and upon receiving commentary from readers and colleagues, it was pretty clear this needed to be revised and heavily edited. So that's what I've done. Enjoy - and know that I always read and consider everyone's feedback, even when I disagree with it.

Over the last week, I've read seemingly countless complaints about the lack of local storage on the Nexus 7. "Why isn't there a 32GB version?" "Why isn't the 16GB version cheaper?

Jun

The Nexus Q: Massive Misstep Or Misunderstood Science Experiment?

Posted by David Ruddock in Editorials, Nexus Q (Steelhead)

When Google unveiled the Nexus Q at I/O on Wednesday, there were cheers. But not until the designers and creators of the hardware came on stage to explain what it was for a good 5 minutes. Hell, they even put together a fantastic video showing the process of manufacturing the Q (in the good 'ol US of A!). Seriously, if you haven't watched it - watch it. The production values are outstanding.

And Google topped it all off by giving everybody at I/O a Q to... do stuff with. But what?

The Q is fairly limited in its capabilities at the moment.

Jun

[Editorial] Google TV Is Bad, And Google Should Feel Bad

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Editorials, Google TV

Last Updated: July 2nd, 2012

Last night, I finally sold my Logitech Revue.

Why? Google's absolute silence on Google TV (GTV) during I/O keynotes represented, as I saw it, the last straw for the platform (at least in its current state). Of course, Google TV hasn't really seen much action since last fall, but after former Google CEO Eric Schmidt promised big, magical things for this summer, it seemed Mountain View might still have some GTV tricks up its sleeves. As it turns out, those sleeves were empty, and the company now seems to view its attempt to save us from cable boxes as a dead horse.

Jun

[Editorial] Welcome To Google+: Your Social Network Is Finally Ready, So What Are You Waiting On?

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Editorials, Google

Google I/O isn't even finished yet, and everyone's favorite search company has already shaken things up quite a bit. One of the biggest things Google announced was Google Events. Google said that this new feature would allow users to coordinate events and share them with others. What Google didn't say was that with the addition of this feature, Google+ is ready. Cooked until golden brown and ready to be served. And, guys? It's time to dig in.

By Your Powers Combined

Social networks will continue to evolve as long as people do, but today marked a subtle, yet important transition for Google: the day that the biggest majority of its key features finally became unified in a meaningful, social way.