Eric Ravenscraft
Contributing since January, 2012
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1039articles
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About Eric Ravenscraft
Eric is a freelance writer and an OG 'round these parts. Since leaving Android Police, his work has been in Lifehacker, The New York Times, OneZero, PCMag, and a bunch of other places. Catch him on Twitter and YouTube as LordRavenscraft.
Latest Articles
Raul Julia. That's what this Virgin Mobile ad makes me think of. I'll explain that later. First, the facts. If you're a T-Mobile customer, Virgin Mobile wants your business. So much so that it's willing to give you a $100 credit if you port your number over before May 31st. Straightforward, right? Cool. Now, here: Have an octopus.
Don't let your eyes deceive you. That is not a Galaxy S III (or IV) you're seeing. No, that is a new phone from Samsung. Yes, it has a name. You know what else it has? A 4.7" 800x480 display powered by a 1.2GHz quad core processor. What's that? You want to know the name? No, you don't. You want to hear about the 5MP camera, or the 8 whole GB of internal storage!
Texting and driving is a pretty heinous crime. Bad enough that it's spawned entire ad campaigns devoted to educating the public on the dangers of such acts. Of this, you are no doubt aware. What you may be less aware of is the fact that figuring out where you're going is exactly as dangerous as sending someone a message that says "Doesn't the Peachoid look like a giant..."
As the launch of the Galaxy S IV fast approaches, the prices on last year's model (which is still less than a year old) is bound to drop. In fact, it's already begun with this deal on the unlocked international model currently going for [ebay id=360628561585 text="$379 on eBay Daily Deals"]. This model packs 16GB of internal storage, which makes it only $20 more expensive than the comparable Nexus 4.
If you like corny puns and tower defense, NAMCO is ready to harvest your money and time with Corn Quest. This tower defense game puts you in charge of an army of vegetable minions. You're the kernel—get it? GET IT?!—and it's up to you to save your stalks from the evil aliens. You do this with guns. Because vegetables have guns.
Today, Facebook announced the Facebook Home suite that we've been hearing so much about. Well, to be more accurate, we've been hearing that Facebook is going to build its own phone and fork Android and create its own special social OS and that it would be the end of Google and that civilization will crash around us and we'll all wear monkey pelts and "Like" statuses by hurling spears through our enemies. Or something. Well, as it turns out, the world didn't end, Android is still whole, and Zuckerberg even thinks the idea of forking an entire OS to make an app is silly.
Today, Google launched a couple new features for developers that will give them a lot more flexibility in storing data associated with apps. For starters, using what's called "app data folders," a developer can store important files in a user's Drive storage space. This is huge news as, up until this point, the main method for backing up data has been the Backup API, which is great for small things that are 1-2MB or so, but isn't really sufficient for larger files.
comScore just dropped some new U.S. market share numbers on us and if you like drama, you're going to love this one. According to the analytics company, for the three month period ending in February 2013, Android's share actually dropped 2%, while Apple's rose 3.9%. Before you panic, though, no, this isn't the end of the world.
Update: Pre-orders for the One have gone live on the AT&T website - you can get either the 32 or 64GB version, as long as you want Glacial Silver.
Today, Google rolled out an update to the YouTube app (v4.4.11) that will allow frequent users to get easier access to their favorite content producers with the 'My Subscriptions' feed. In the slide-out panel on the left side of your device, you can now tap on this section to get a list of all the most recent videos from your favorite directors in one place.
Today at an event in Menlo Park, California, Facebook took the wraps off a family of apps that are designed to make your handset more people-centric, collectively called Facebook Home. As expected, the main feature is a lock screen that allows you to see content without ever unlocking your device. Because content is loaded in the background, you can see your stuff without waiting.
There are a few things that will make me love a game. Good graphics, robots, explosions and an easy-to-use interface. Battle Orb delivers on at least three of these fronts with one of the coolest ideas for a game I've seen. Remember the droidekas from the Star Wars prequels? What's that? You've blocked them from your memory? Well, they were robots that could fold up into balls and roll around a ship's hallways. They were awesome. And in Battle Orb you are that, and it kind of rules. Sort of.
Samsung Announces WiFi Galaxy Camera Arriving Later This Month For $449
Samsung Announces WiFi Galaxy Camera Arriving Later This Month For $449
We first heard about a carrier-free, WiFi-only Galaxy Camera back in February. At the time we had no information on when it would come to market or how much it would cost, but today that's no longer the case! Samsung has officially announced that the smartphone-ified point-and-shoot will land on the company's website and authorized retailers "later this month" for $449.
Man, WebKit cannot catch a break today, can it? After Samsung announced that it would be teaming up with Mozilla to build their own mobile browser engine called Servo, Google says its planning to fork WebKit to create a new project called Blink. Unlike Servo, this one will still be based on WebKit, but this new fork actually seems to be aimed not at competing with whatever Samsung is putting out, but rather at gaining freedom from another browser: Safari.
You know what we just can't get enough of? Google Now cards. Today, the data giant updated its search app with a new real-time package tracking card (as opposed to the static "Your order has shipped" option before). In addition, regular old search results should be faster, which users on older devices are likely to love.
Man, there are a ton of social networks out there. It is friggin' hard to keep up with them. Obviously your first priority when you sign up for a new a service will be "Where can I get my Android Police fix?" Thankfully, we've put together a list of all the ways you can follow Android Police and our stable of writers and contributors all in one place. You are welcome, internet.
Back in December, we noticed that a bunch of countries had been added to the list of supported areas for Google Maps Navigation. That list was promptly updated to remove most of them, but now it looks like they're (almost) all back and available for use right now, including Bulgaria, Lithuania, Slovakia and more.
AT&T took the lid off a truckload of new LTE markets today. The list encompasses the four corners of the the United States including New York (Binghamton), Washington (Mount Vernon), Florida (Palm Coast, Lakeland-Winter Haven and a bunch of others) and California (Fresno), as well as a bunch of markets in between. Here's the full list:
The PowerA Moga Pro is a step up from the already adequate Moga controller. A little bit bigger, with a better grip and an included tablet stand make this iteration a worthy successor. Assuming you can make do with the limited selection of supported titles (or don't mind working with some key mappers to make it work yourself), that is.