Android Police

Eric Ravenscraft-

Eric Ravenscraft

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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

The Droid 4 is the latest iteration in the venerable Droid series. Sporting Motorola's new trademark slightly octagon-ish shape, a 1.2Ghz dual-core processor, LTE, and an 8MP rear-shooter, this device brings the Droid series into the world of the future yet again. That future starts February 10th, if this leaked internal Verizon document is to be believed.

We all love LTE. We also all love not being broke, if we can avoid it. Sometimes our two great loves conflict with each other. MetroPCS wants to try and make this love triangle work with $40 unlimited plans for all LTE devices in its portfolio. There's a catch, though: you're only allowed 100 MB of "multimedia streaming access."

Augmented reality has spent years in the "great idea, not quite there yet" bin, right next to motion controlled TVs and self-driving cars. Of course, what's the best way to improve a fledgling technology? Stick a trigger on it and let people shoot things with it. The Xappr is here to bring that essential step to the evolution of AR technology.

Samsung has confirmed to TechRadar that the Galaxy S III will not be announced at Mobile World Congress. This lines up with what we've heard, and refutes earlier rumors that Samsung would be announcing the device in Barcelona next month. A rumor that Samsung never commented on until now.

In the information age, discovery is a profitable trade. Google even built its fortune on discovering new and relevant info. As everyone and their mother begins sharing everything about their lives online, startups and large corporations alike have a new source of data to pull from. Enter Likes!, an app that uses things your friends and family have liked on Facebook to help you discover restaurants, movies, events, and more.

If you're in love with the Galaxy Nexus, but also have an affinity for hockey, maple syrup, and carriers not named Bell, Virgin Mobile, or Telus, then you've been left out in the cold. Don't worry, though. The winter of your discontent is about to come to an end. The Galaxy Nexus will be landing on Canadian carrier WIND on February 3rd. If you opt for the carrier's WINDtab+ program, you can grab the nexus for just $249. Choosing to participate in the regular WINDtab program will bump the price tag up to $499, and those looking to buy the phone outright will need a cool $599.

We don't tend to associate words like "scanning," "PDFs" and "documents" with fun. After playing with Handy Scanner, though... well, we still don't. Sorry. That headline was a lie. Scanning documents is, however, a breeze with this freemium app. Breezy enough that you won't want to go Office Space on your scanner, and that's fun.

Better late than never! Steam announced a brand new app today for Android that allows users to chat with their friends, participate in Steam's thriving online community groups, and buy games from the Steam Library. Anyone who's missed out on one of Steam's legendary sales knows how valuable the ability to watch and buy while away can be.

Some unofficial builds have been floating around for a while, but tonight, it looks like Nexus S 4G owners are about to get some allegedly official ICS update action. Over on the XDA forums, user mrxkills has uploaded all the files necessary to get your Sprint Google Experience device updated to 4.0.4.

Google's not one to shy away from engaging its developers. Between the Android developers blog, Google Groups, and a myriad of other contact methods, Google is pretty open about talking with developers. If you're looking to get a bit more social, you can now add the official Android developers page to your circles Google+.

Did you think that the Galaxy S II was the follow-up to the widely-popular Galaxy S line of phones from Samsung? Think again! Samsung just announced the Galaxy S Advance, a dual-core, mid-range device sporting an HSPA+ radio and shipping with Gingerbread. The new phone also sports a curved display, which is quickly becoming a hallmark of Samsung phones.

Are you one of literally dozens of users who believe that your 4.5" smartphone is too small, that 7" tablets are too big, and that styluses never got the shot they deserve on a modern smartphone? Then mark February 19th on your calendars, friends. The Galaxy Note from Samsung is landing that very day (pre-orders start on February 5th).

Leave it to the New York Times to stuff a zinger like this in a three-page piece on the future of the publishing industry; it looks like Barnes & Noble is set to announce a new Nook device come this Spring. This will be B&N's fifth Nook device, following the Nook Tablet.

The official sign-up page for the Sprint Galaxy Nexus has gone public on the Google Nexus site (see second bullet), as tipped by an Android Central forum reader DaEXfactoR. Outside of this random Google+ mention from Jan 17th, this seems to be the only reference to the sign-up page on the web, so chances are you haven't seen it yet.

Yesterday Steam launched its brand new app for Android. Unfortunately, the app is still in closed beta and many users are waiting with bated breath for their invites to show up. If you're among the unwashed masses waiting for your golden ticket, we’ve got you covered. Don’t worry, though. You're not missing out on too much.

Touchscreen recoveries are all the rage these days. From TeamWin's TWRP, to unofficial variants of everyone's favorite, ClockworkMod Recovery. This morning, though, Koush himself took to Google+ to tease his very own blend of touchscreen controls for the recovery running on millions of devices.

Assuming the Google/Motorola merger goes through, Google might want to rethink that whole hands-off approach to managing its new hardware company. According to Motorola's press release, the company saw a net loss of about $80 million, after $3.4 billion in revenue. It's not the worst loss in the world, but shareholders are never happy when they see red.

We can't say we didn't see this coming. Google just announced on the Android Developer blog that the Menu button is well and truly dead, in case you hadn't gotten the memo. The post has relevant information on how to update your apps to accommodate the new changes without breaking support for devices running software older than Honeycomb (which are the overwhelming majority at the moment).

If there's one thing that the desktop world has that Android desperately needs, it's multiple user support. A shared Windows machine or a Mac both support multiple user profiles on a single device. While this isn't that big of a deal on phones, tablet users might find it unsettling passing around a shared device tied directly to their all-knowing Google account. Enter SwitchMe, an app to help alleviate the uncertainty. This root app allows users to boot into multiple profiles within a single ROM.

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