Monday, April 16, 2012

Android Central

Android Central

Samsung Galaxy Note my way: Chris Parsons

Posted: 15 Apr 2012 04:46 PM PDT

Samsung Galaxy Note

As much as some cried foul on the Samsung Galaxy Note because of its size and of course, the stylus it is in my opinion one of the best Android devices out there. I could have chose from any number of devices on the market, including the Samsung Galaxy Nexus but I chose the Galaxy Note, in fact -- I fell in love with it. And no, I really don't mind TouchWiz at all. If you're wanting to know how I have mine set up, jump on past the break for the full details.

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Android Central weekly photo contest winner: Vices

Posted: 15 Apr 2012 03:53 PM PDT

sushiguy732

This past week we asked to see your vices -- the things you do even though you know you shouldn't. We all have them, and we got to see a bunch of them in the contest thread. Our winner for the week is sushiguy732, who really likes his wine. He also likes his Samsung Fascinate, which he used to take this great picture. Nice work, sushiguy732. Be on the lookout for info about your prize!

Wine wasn't the only thing we overindulge in, and sushiguy wasn't the only one to submit a great photo. We've picked out or favorites (after the break) and you can see them all in the contest thread. We're kicking off another contest tomorrow, so keep those lenses clean!

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HTC One X and One S Wifi gotcha down? Give this a try

Posted: 15 Apr 2012 03:41 PM PDT

Android Central

Some folks are reporting that their shiny new HTC One X and One S phones are experiencing a rather irritating Wifi bug. The glitch in question results in the phones disconnecting from certain Wifi networks while idle, and being unable to reconnect until the phone is woken up.

Hopefully HTC will have a fix ready for customers soon -- we're hearing that it's no longer an issue in the recently-leaked One X 1.28 firmware -- but in the meantime there's a pretty easy work-around for both phones. Manually assigning your phone an IP address on your Wifi network, rather than using DHCP, seems to squish the issue. If you already know how to do that, then off you go, we'll wait. If not, we've got a full walkthrough after the break.

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Cogs [Android Game Review]

Posted: 15 Apr 2012 12:42 PM PDT

Oh, Cogs. If ever I've had my noodle baked more from an Android game, I cannot say. In terms of sheer mind-bendingness, complexity, and demanding that the player stretch their imagination in many multiple directions, you take the cake. This is all aided, of course, by your incredible 3D models, which are some of the most gorgeous I've seen in any Android game. But enough fawning; let's get into the meat of what makes Cogs great.

For starters, lets just talk about the graphics. Not only does Cogs feature some insanely beautiful 3D designs, it does so without sacrificing performance. Animations chug along, buttery smooth, and with all the turning gears and cogs and steampunk goodness floating around, that's quite a feat to see.

So what's the point of Cogs, anyway? Well, there's one cog that spins all by its lonesome. It's your job to move tiles with other cogs on them in such a fashion that you make a cog on the other side (or sides) turn as well. It kind of makes you feel like a watchmaker, and watching the chain of cogs either come to life or grind to a halt based on your moves is strangely enchanting.

You're ranked on three things: moves used, time, and completion. (The last one seems a bit silly, honestly. You get a medal just for finishing?) Whenever you start a new puzzle, you're shown the optimal time and moves to finish in. Once the level starts, the timer starts counting down, and as you dwell, the color will shift from gold to silver to bronze.

The move counter acts much in the same manner, but consider this: you don't need to move single tiles at a time. If you want to move a whole row, tap the farthest tile and it'll shift everything in the row over one space, but it'll still only count as one move! You've earn yourself many a-more precious medal that way, trust me.

The levels get increasingly more difficult (duh), but as soon as the second or third level you're tasked with not only making a golden cog spin, but you've got to cross to planes to do it. To get around the potential issues with turning a 3D model, Cogs introduces the two-finger swipe. Place two fingers, swipe around, and you can see any side of the box-with-a-propeller on it. It's a cool mechanic that is implemented rather well and keeps Cogs both challenging and feeling fresh the whole time.

And that, in a nutshell, is Cogs. It's a beautiful exercise in excellent game design, a mind-bending puzzler, and overall, an excellent game on Android. If you're the puzzle-loving type, Cogs should be in your library, no doubt.

Cogs is $2.99 in the Google Play Store. We've got download links after the break.

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From the Editor's Desk: The alternative Android dictionary

Posted: 15 Apr 2012 08:09 AM PDT

Alternative Android Dictionary

​One of our greatest features at Android Central is the Android Dictionary, an ever-evolving list of frequently used terms. But did you know there's a second, secret blogging dictionary? He's a peek inside:

  • Benchmarks: A great way to confuse folks over which phone is "better" while simultaneously generating page views. Winning!
  • [Brackets]: Used to explain a headline that's not particularly good. Often used to point out that something is supposed to be [funny] or [humor] -- and chances are it's neither.
  • BREAKING NEWS!!!: The kind of news that just happened!!! And is important!!! Really important!!! So important all capital letters and exclamation marks are probably warranted!!! Also a great way to sex up a story without having to write a good headline.
  • Coming soon: We actually have no friggin' idea when it's coming. But if we say "coming soon," it makes it look like we know when it's coming. We're mysterious like that.
  • Developing ...: Putting this at the end of a post makes it look like we're doing important investigative work when really we're finishing an Angry Birds level or two.
  • Exclusive: Someone sent us something. We saved it, watermarked it and put it on a webpage, then spent the rest of the day crowing about it in IRC. (Alt. definition: Actual hard work put into an original story.)
  • Fragmentation: A story to be written quarterly reminding people you really don't understand how Android works as a platform.
  • Imminent: Really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really soon. Maybe. (See Coming soon.)
  • Nexus: Better.
  • Official: Used in headlines to point out that a story is different than the endless miles of published crap that has no chance of ever coming true.
  • Patent stories: A great way to show that 99 percent of us are not and never should be a lawyer.
  • Reached out: A flouncy way of saying you took 15 seconds out of your otherwise busy reblogging day to send a single e-mail. And, no, you didn't wait for a response before publishing.
  • Rooted: Better.
  • Stock: Better.
  • Tip @techmeme: A great way to let the tech community know you successfully rewrote a press release. Good job!
  • Unboxing: Wherein we pretend to be surprised to find a phone, earbuds, cable, charger and documentation inside a box from a carrier or manufacturer. Usually recorded on video and presented in grand fashion. May include schoolgirl-like giggling.
  • Watermark: A site's logo placed on top of its images to remind folks that they're visiting the site that they're visiting. A watermark's size should in no way be used to determine a site's importance. (But if you were to do so, the formula is W [HxW] x [number of writers2] x [number of improperly labeled exclusives])

That's just a snippet of how things really work on the Internets. Hope you enjoyed this peek behind the curtain.

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Motorola Droid 2 v4.5.621 software update incoming

Posted: 15 Apr 2012 07:09 AM PDT

Droid 2

For those of you with a Motorola Droid 2 in your hands, get ready for an update that should be hitting devices soon. As posted on the Verizon site, the change log for the v4.5.621 software update has been posted and here's what you can expect:

Device Features

  • Device is enabled with the Wireless Alerting System. + A Google Security Patch has been added to improve security level.
  • Fixed issue where the device may power ON without user interaction.
  • Adjusted camera settings will be saved, even after the device is powered down.
  • Resolved possible device resets while playing music.
  • Reduced Out of Memory errors.

Email, Messaging & Data

  • Improved ability to access and receive Gmail messages when the Mobile Hotspot is turned on.
  • Addressed error that replicated thumbnails in message threads.

Applications & Widgets

  • WAV files can be played from Visual Voice Mail.
  • Purchased ringtones are now able to be downloaded, saved and used where appropriate.

SD_Shadow from the Android Central forums has noted a few things about the update as well, such as the fact that it appears to break root and possibly even break SBF functions. If you're looking for more discussion, head on into the forums. If you've already got the update, drop a note in the comments and let us know how it's working for you.

Source: Verizon; Via: Android Central Forums
Posted by at 5:58 AM

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