Eric Ravenscraft
Contributing since January, 2012
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1039articles
Page 51
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
When an app comes out that not-so-subtly takes inspiration from major motion pictures, we're tempted to look the other way. The exception, of course, is if they're good. Dojo Madness is one of those exceptions. You play as a ninja raccoon that must defend his dojo from evil wolves, gorillas, and turtles. Also, you shoot blue laser balls.
[Deal Alert] Archos 101 G9 Turbo Dual-Core 1.5Ghz Tablet On Sale For $279.99 On Woot
Archos 101 G9 Turbo Dual-Core 1.5Ghz Tablet On Sale For $279.99 On Woot
While the world waits with bated breath for whatever tablet Samsung or ASUS comes out with next, Archos is busy gobbling up the budget tablet market. Woot's here to help with a deal on the Archos 101 G9 Turbo Extra Super Ultimate XT MX S. The 8GB model, sporting a speedy 1.5Ghz dual-core processor is on sale right now for $279.
Yes, we were excited too, but it looks like owners of Verizon's LTE Xoom still have to wait a bit for ICS. The tablet is about to receive a software update (HLK75H) "soon". Verizon's support page doesn't specify when. There's not much to the update, though. Your tablet will now support dual International Mobile Subscriber Identities (IMSI), as well as a bugfix for restoring data connectivity after exiting Airplane Mode.
Google+ For Android Gets An Update, Brings Major Performance Improvements To The Stream, Adds What's Hot Section And More
Google+ For Android Gets An Update
Google just dropped an update to its social networking app for mobile. Unlike some other apps, Google's brought a ton of new features that are actually useful. The Stream is now faster, doesn't immediately jump to the top of the feed when the app automatically refreshes, and shortens entries so you can see more of them at once.
Every tablet and phone out there has its own dock, stand, and range of accessories. Few are quite as nice, however, as the R1 tablet stand from Satechi. At $50, this universal tablet stand is an investment. Unless you know you'll be using tablets for a while, you might want to skip this one. If you know you're in it for the long-haul, though, this stand will last.
Google Docs on Android is, to put it politely, crap. While the app was recently updated with a nice tablet interface for viewing documents, editing them has always been kind of a pain, and ugly to boot. Microsoft is stepping up to save the day with their simple, elegant OneNote app for Android. Because screw your expectations.
Meet Andru. He's an Android. Like all Androids, he's adorable. He sits on your desk and makes you smile at his cute little expressionless face while you toil away on those TPS reports. This little 'droid is a hard worker, too. When you need him to, he transforms into a USB wall charger and provides precious juice to all your gadgets.
Chances are you're one of the everyone-on-the-planet who's played Words With Friends. Did you know there's other, shall we say, homages to classic board games available for your Android phone? For example, here we have Pictionary Draw Something, a turn-based, doodle-guessing game that you can play with friends wherever they are.
It never fails. You're walking along, reading your emails, not looking where you're going, and then boom! You trip over the cat and land nose-first into his empty food bowl. Transparent Screen aims to prevent this type of misstep by letting you see through your camera while you're walking. Unfortunately, it can't fix your cat's passive aggressive behavior, but we're sure an app like that is in the works.
When last we checked—mere minutes ago—ICS 4.0.4 source code hadn't been released to the public. Which is why we were surprised to learn that 4.0.4 was available unofficially for the Nexus S 4G. Today, the mysterious Android version that's forcing me to resist a "page not found" joke is showing up in a few forums, this time for the Galaxy Nexus.
Nullsoft, creator of WinAmp, a favorite media player for over 10 million Android users, is adding its premium track directly to the Android Market. Users have previously been able to download the Pro version via an in-app purchase, but now the Pro license is also available directly from the Android Market. So, what do you get for your $5? Here's a look at the feature list:
We can't wait for the Droid 4. In the world of smartphones, the QWERTY sliders are a rare and exotic breed these days. Catching a glimpse of a machine with powerful specs and a keyboard-shaped secret gets our mouths watering. So a thirteen minute video will naturally trigger some flood warnings. Wirefly goes hands-on with the Droid 4 in the first video review overview of the latest in the Droid series.
You're a robot scout in space. Your name is iDaTank. You're relaxing, enjoying a nice day of whatever it is robots do on their One Fine Day off, when suddenly you get a transmission! There's a sequence of unidentified signals out in space! Since you're a robot, you are concerned with such things. So, the adventure begins to track down the source of the signal. And it had been such a fine day...
Don't worry. Just because we used the words "ping" and "social" in the same headline doesn't mean we're talking about that other social network. No, this is Seesmic Ping. From the developer who brought you the original Seesmic, Seemic Ping lets users post to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn with one update. You can even do it from the past!
Aviary, one of the web's most popular free image editors, has built a new nest in the Android market. The software, made by the company of the same name, is a powerful (for free software, anyway) photo editor that comes packed with effects, filters, and tools for sprucing up images. The Android version comes with some effects built in, with the option to shell out some cash for more.
Motorola Atrix 2 owners on AT&T are receiving an OTA update to v55.13.25, by AT&T reckoning. In Android versions, that would be 2.3.6, so sorry - no Ice Cream Sandwich for you, yet. Before your hopes are completely dashed, though, here are the full release notes:
Meet Yello, a fish that was probably named by a two-year-old because the child thought he looked vaguely yellowish and he doesn't really know how to spell. He also doesn't quite understand how fish breathe, because he's rather sadistically yanked Yello from his bowl for "a walk." It's up to you to save Yello... by yanking on his tail and flinging him into piles of things until he eventually lands in his bowl.
Let this be a lesson to all major tech companies: if you have a ton of users and you want to enter a new market, you'd better charge some kind of arbitrary fee, lest you end up in trouble with the French judicial system. Google is feeling that sting this week, as a French court ordered the company to pay €500,000 in damages to Maps competitor Bottin Cartographs as well as a €15,000 fine.
Paper Camera, a crowd favorite for novelty photo shoots, is preparing for an update that will bring video recording and Android Beam support, along with a few other tweaks. We got the chance to go behind the scenes and give you, our lovely, smart, beautiful readers a preview of the new features.
You guys remember Rhapsody, right? The music streaming service that was sitting in the back seat next to Rdio, MOG, and GrooveShark back when Spotify was stealing all the U.S. spotlight? Rhapsody was the one desperately trying to wash the stink of Real Player off its clothes. Well, it's back with another update to its mobile app, and this time it's bringing with it a sweet new tablet interface.