Off-Topic

Oct

Bug In Angry Birds Lets You Unlock All Locked Worlds

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Games, News, Off-Topic, Tips

Have you ever wanted to peek ahead to those locked worlds in Angry Birds that are unavailable before fully completing the previous ones? A bug (or an Easter egg) in the Android version of the game lets you do just that, a reddit user braaaiins found. I tried it just a few minutes ago with 100% success.

Of course, many would argue that you should be going in order and playing the way Rovio meant for you to play, and I'd agree with them. However, there will always be people who would also find this unlock useful (lost game progress, new phone, angrybirdyism, etc), so I'll just put this here, and you can quietly walk away.

Oct

Coming Soon To CyanogenMod: Drunk Mode

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Mods, News, Off-Topic

Remember when a new piece of code hit Gmail Labs called Mail Goggles - the one that made you do a few math problems before emailing somebody at pre-determined time-frames (such as late at night on the weekends)? Today, Brian was browsing the CyanogenMod (CM) Gerrit and noticed a new series of code - similar to Mail Goggles - has been added: Drunk Mode.

As I'm not a developer, I haven't the slightest idea how it works (and Brian is "in drunk mode" himself) - but I'd guess the "professional" in the description provides something of a hint. Also noteworthy: it has yet to be officially approved, although Cyanogen himself seems to be on-board with it, saying "This is hilarious and awesome, and I would take this feature..."

Now if only they could figure out something to prevent beer goggles....

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:

Source: MP4 Nation

Sep

Apple, Motorola, And HTC Land Top Spots In JD Power Smartphone Satisfaction

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Devices By Manufacturer, HTC, Motorola, News, Off-Topic, Samsung

A bit off topic as there's nothing directly Android-related here, but interesting nonetheless: JD Power & Associates has released their findings for the Q2 2010 Wireless Smartphone Satisfaction Study, and Apple, Motorola, and HTC have grabbed the top spots (respectively), all landing above the industry average of 764 points (out of 1000).

Coming in below average? RIM (Blackberry), Samsung, Palm, and in last place, Nokia (note: not all companies are shown, just the big dogs). The results are still fairly close, though - Apple (at #1) scored 800, while Nokia (last, #7) scored 711 - certainly not a lot of variation.

Sep

Mozilla's Stunning Seabird Mobile Phone Concept - This Is What Dreams Are Made Of [VIDEO]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in News, Off-Topic, Videos

Last Updated: August 13th, 2011

Folks, I wish I could have the pleasure of telling you that what you're about to see is available now or even that it will be available in the next couple of years. Unfortunately, at this stage, this Seabird mobile phone concept, designed by Billy May for Mozilla, is just a dream. A dream, so beautifully projected in this video that it made me feel both sadness and happiness, inspiration and despair, awe and... well, you'll know what I mean after you watch it.

Without further ado, allow me to introduce Seabird:

If you happen to have 3D glasses, Billy May put together a 3D version of this video, available here.

Sep

[Comic] The Difference Between Android And iPhone - This Pretty Much Sums It Up

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Off-Topic

Last Updated: September 26th, 2010

Found at the top of reddit's Android page today is this comic comparing the openness of Android to the closed ecosystem of Apple's iPhone and iOS. It warranted an immediate tweet, but since tweets are very short-lived, I decided to have it take a more permanent place on our site.

Here we go:

No editorial comments from me - I decided to reserve that role for you, our readers, in the space below.

Source: Icantdrawfeet

Sep

New AndroidPolice.com Feature: Instant QR Magic - Hover On Any Link In Any Post To Get The Corresponding QR Code [+Poll]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Apps/Games, Off-Topic, Tips

Admit it - QR codes are useful. And cool. They allow you to instantly get any bit of information, most frequently browser or Market urls, onto your phone - all you have to do is download the Barcode Scanner app from the Market (or any other QR reader) and scan the QR image.

Tutorial: Turn any url into a QR code from within your browser in just a few seconds.

But What About Chrome2Phone?

Chrome2Phone (or FoxToPhone) aims to make it even easier to pass information like this around but consider this:

Chrome2Phone functionality is only available on phones running Froyo, which means some phones will never receive it.

Aug

Amazon Gets Aggressive - Samsung Epic 4G For $200 With New Contract

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Epic 4G, News, Off-Topic

Looks like Amazon isn't going to wait a few weeks to drop the price on the Epic 4G: they're already offering it for $200, $50 less than the other big-name stores. The device won't ship until launch (August 31), but they're offering free two-day shipping - albeit, with a minor disclaimer:

The new Samsung Epic from Sprint is now available for pre-order and should begin shipping on August 31, 2010. Due to demand for this device, you may experience a slight shipping delay.

_{"See price in cart?" Oh Amazon, you're so sneaky.}

I suppose that's to be expected with such a major launch, but it's hard not to wonder if Sprint wouldn't be doing a little better right now if they could actually keep up with the demand for their hottest hardware.

Aug

Logitech Releases Commercials For Revue - "Creepy" Is An Understatement

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Google, Google TV, Logitech, Mods, Off-Topic, Revue

Logitech has released its first commercials for the Revue, the first Google TV box to hit the market. The commercials are so weird on so many levels - it looks like Logitech is going to be using a giant TV with legs as the mascot. Not creepy enough? The TV either displays a giant human eye or a giant human mouth. Like I said, freaking weird.

_{I'm not going to lie, I'd probably freak the hell out too.}

Luckily, that's the worst of them.

Oh, wait...

_{Pictured: breakfast at a typical American household.}

Maybe not.

On the plus side, we can clearly see what they're shooting for with Google TV (although we already had an idea): gaming, web browsing, video chatting, and so on.

Aug

Professionals Use Smartphones Even When They're At Home, Taking The Browns To The Super Bowl

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Off-Topic

Samsung just sent us one hell of a goofy press release... on a scale of 1-10, this thing rates a 'K'. At first I was reluctant to run with it for fear of being that creepy, awkward blog (hell, some of you got upset over the Android vs. iPhone sex partners thing, when that was obviously in good fun - but I digress). So, without a creeper 'stache in sight around the AP offices, here goes.

Samsung surveyed a number of "working Americans" and found that a whole slew of them (72%) don't hesitate to use their phone while using the toilet.