David Ruddock
Contributing since June, 2010
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3358articles
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About David Ruddock
David is the former Editor-in-Chief of Android Police and now the EIC of Esper.io. He's been an Android user since the early days - his first smartphone was a Google Nexus One! David graduated from the University of California, Davis where he received his bachelor's degree, and also attended the Pepperdine University School of Law.
Latest Articles
Welcome back to another week of the Android Police Podcast. To catch us live on Hangouts On Air every Thursday at 5:30PM PST (subject to change as per the calendar widget below), just head over to androidpolice.com/podcast. For the unedited video show, click here (warning: this video is uncut). As always, we'll take your questions at 530-HELLO-AP and also at our email address: podcast at androidpolice dot com.
In an upcoming update to the Google Wallet app for Android, Google will let you send money to anyone in your contacts list with a valid phone number. The new feature was announced on Google's Commerce Blog, and for now is US-only, which we have since confirmed with Google.
Welcome back to another week of the Android Police Podcast. To catch us live on Hangouts On Air every Thursday at 5:30PM PST (subject to change as per the calendar widget below), just head over to androidpolice.com/podcast. For the unedited video show, click here (warning: this video is uncut). As always, we'll take your questions at 530-HELLO-AP and also at our email address: podcast at androidpolice dot com.
If you're on Android 6.0 and use the share menu regularly, you may have encountered a rather annoying issue with Android's Direct Share feature. The issue arises when the share dialog pops open and the direct share contacts don't load immediately. Instead, the UI loads, you go to tap what you want, and suddenly the direct share contacts appear and all the app share links get pushed down out of view. See the animations below for the Android 6.0 and 6.0.1 behaviors side by side - the broken version is on the left.
The Nexus 5X was, frankly, overpriced from day one. The 32GB 5X was a scant $70 less than a 32GB 6P, the latter being a substantially better device in most ways. As such, the Nexus 5X was predictably the only one of the two to get a Black Friday / Cyber Monday price cut. Google dropped the price of the 5X by $80, bringing the 16GB to $299 and the 32GB to $349.Now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday have ended, you'd expect that the 5X would have returned to its original price point, but no: Google has maintained a $50 discount on the device with no end date specified. That means the 16GB version is $329 and the 32GB is $379. $30 more than you would have paid during the better sale, but not a particularly huge difference.The Google Store does still make this sound like a temporary offer, saying the device is "$50 off," suggesting the offer will end or be adjusted at some point. Edit: The Google Store states this price is good through December 30th, 2015. Though it's possible this will simply end up being the permanent retail price of the 5X, we just don't know. Given that the relatively low cost differential between the 5X and 6P has been often-cited since the handsets were announced, it wouldn't surprise us if this "discount" ends up being permanent.You can also find the 5X for the same price on both Amazon and B&H, if you prefer to purchase from those stores. The only missing variant is on Amazon, which does not have the Mint color in 32GB. All other versions are available on all three sites.Buy links:
Google has finally published the official Android Phone and Contacts apps on the Play Store this morning, though predictably only devices that have these system apps preinstalled can actually install them.
Android 6.0.1's headline feature is a new set of emoji, but did you know it also adds a handy new camera launch mode to older Nexus devices? The Nexus 5X and 6P have had the double-tap power camera launch shortcut since they went on sale (and dropped a twist-to-launch gesture), but now the feature has trickled down to older Nexus models. Specifically, the Nexus 5, 6, 7 (2013) and 9 now all support it as of Android 6.0.1.
Android 6.0.1 factory images are now available for the Nexus 5, 5X, 6, 6P, 7 (and 7 w/ mobile data), 9 (and 9 LTE), and Player - you can find them here. Included in the new update are many, many emoji characters, and there's a good breakdown on just which ones are new over at Ars Technica.