Android and Me |
- Carrier Coverage wins week 3 of #thenextinstall, 10 new apps try to knock it down
- Does this Droid RAZR make my butt look fat?
- CrApp of the Week: Samsung’s Pure Breeze is still a pure bust
- Hey Chicago, gdgt live returns to The Windy City on May 11th!
- New Samsung Galaxy S III leaks provide conflicting specs
- Dark Meadow preview and a chance to win a Transformer Prime!
- Verizon’s roadmap rumored to include Galaxy S III, RAZR HD, and “HTC Note”
- Samsung protesters tell Apple iSheep to “WAKE UP”
- Samsung confirms Exynos 4 Quad to appear in Galaxy S III
| Carrier Coverage wins week 3 of #thenextinstall, 10 new apps try to knock it down Posted: 26 Apr 2012 03:13 PM PDT  Can our community help discover the next great Android app? Welcome to a new experiment called #thenextinstall where we try to see if we can find an Android app in the rough, and boost its installs and exposure to new highs.  AfterFocus daily installs. Last week our community selected AfterFocus, which is a neat camera app used to create DSLR-style background blurred photos. After it was featured on our site, the daily installs spiked to a 30-day high, and total installs have passed 100,000. The developers listened to the feedback from new users, and they say a Pro version with more features is coming in May. This week the goal remains the same:
Browse over the new app suggestions and let us know if any of them make it onto your device. Week 3 Winner: Carrier Coverage Carrier Coverage daily installs Once again, this week's winner was an easy choice. Carrier Coverage was by far the most installed app last week among our community. The app attempt to answer the question ‘Which carrier is best for you?’, which is a pretty ambitious project. The app is quite young with less than 10,000 installs, but we like the concept and think it can be a winner. In order for the service to become successful, it will need more users and that’s where you come in. We reached out to the Carrier Coverage team to see if they could update us on the status of the app, and we got a pretty nice response from the founder Rob Jackson. If that name sounds familiar, he’s also the man that started Phandroid and AndroidForums. Rather than chop up his letter, I have included the full text below. Thanks for featuring us in your weekly article. I was excited to hear we got included. Week 4 ChallengersPhonotto Pitch: Tired of all the bells and whistles that come complete in today's phones? Phonotto is the smartest way to convert a cheap smartphone in a simple phone for seniors. Weatherwise Pitch: Simply put, your weather forecast is now entertaining. Animated personas and moving landscapes replace cliché clip art and overused icons in this imaginative app touting weather with personality. Photo Comics Pitch: To be a comics creator is easy! All you have to do is take photos with your camera and add awesome comic pictures. Ultimate Special FX Pitch: Make your shots awesome! Take shots and turn them into stunning movie clips with TechCat’s Ultime Fx studio in no time. Wave Control Pitch: Control your phone with a wave of the hand. Uses the proximity sensor on your phone to allow control of your music playback and calls by waving your hand over your phone. Kyte Phone Pitch: Kyte Phone turns any Android into a kids-friendly phone with full parental controls and GPS tracking. Phonedeck Pitch: The cloud dashboard for your Android phone. Discover a new way of managing your mobile phone right from your computer. Scalado Album Pitch: Experience your photo memories and enjoy. The Scalado Album is designed for making your everyday photo experience great. App Quarantine Pitch: The ultimate tool for root users to FREEZE unwanted apps on your droid! Suggested by: ramdroid Shot Control Pitch: A camera app designed to help serious photographers take better photographs. Shot Control allows photographers to better control, monitor, and manage the Android photography experience. What's next? How can I participate?If you want to play along, then join the league of app addicts.
Over the coming week, we will continue to monitor all the apps and see which generate the most buzz. We will be watching the installs, download clicks, review scores, coverage on other sites, and more to see which app comes out on top. Next week we will name the winning app, and then put it up against 10 new apps to repeat the process.
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| Does this Droid RAZR make my butt look fat? Posted: 26 Apr 2012 01:03 PM PDT  Motorola has a new series of videos on YouTube that focuses on people who switched to the Droid RAZR. Meryl tells us she decided to switch to Motorola because, “My Droid RAZR doesn’t make my butt look big.” Watch the video after the break.
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| CrApp of the Week: Samsung’s Pure Breeze is still a pure bust Posted: 26 Apr 2012 12:57 PM PDT  Last September, I took a look at Samsung’s home screen replacement called Pure Breeze Launcher. At the time, I went easy on them. It was pretty bad when it first came out, but I praised Samsung nonetheless for “thinking outside the box” (ugh). But that was then. And this is now. Pure Breeze Launcher has been tweaked, updated to work with Android 4 and boasts a “new modern user experience.” Too bad it still sucks. The theory behind Pure Breeze Launcher isn’t all that terrible. A minimal way to keep all your apps organized, giving you constant access to what you use the most. But the execution is so poor, I’m still scratching my head trying to figure out what the hell Samsung is really going for. If I had to describe Pure Breeze Launcher in one sentence? It’s like Samsung took Apple’s always-open-app-drawer approach, added the ability to make folders into an entire page and color coded it all. If I had to elaborate? Actually, one sentence is fine. There’s nothing to this launcher. Some frosted glass accents, crazy names for everything (the Kite?!) and a whole lot of bugs.
But hey! You can have wallpapers now! Samsung is kind enough to start you off with a wallaper of a guy wearing some Adidas jersey shorts and an athletic shirt (at least I think that’s the PC term for “wife-beater”) fishing off a pier. Now that’s art. Look, I really wanted to like Pure Breeze Launcher. I swear I did. The idea of the Kite, an endlessly scrollable area where you can throw apps and widgets and shortcuts sounds kinda cool. But it just doesn’t work. If fact, it drove me partially insane. Which is why I probably shouldn’t do this, but if you want, you can download the Lite version of Pure Breeze below. Just remember, I can’t be held responsible for any medical expenses incurred from trying to remove the memory of this thing from your brain.
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| Hey Chicago, gdgt live returns to The Windy City on May 11th! Posted: 26 Apr 2012 10:47 AM PDT  Back in March we partied with gdgt Live at SXSW and had a blast, but we know a lot of you were not able to make it out to Texas. That’s ok because the gdgt crew is traveling across the country and they have a bunch more tour dates already lined up. The next gdgt Live event takes place in Chicago on Friday, May 11th. We found that Chicago is the #2 city for Android nerds, so we are expecting a great turnout for this event. If you have never heard of gdgt Live, it’s free, all-ages, and open to the public. These shows provide a great opportunity to meet people from the companies you love, check out their latest products, and hang out with your peers. For this show they will have new gdgt t-shirts and new gdgt-branded iPhone cases from Speck for the first several hundred folks who join us, so make sure you get there early (Yo Speck, where’s the Android love?). Of course, they'll also have a whole bunch of gadgets to win — but only if you show up. I’ve never been to Chicago, but I’m thinking of attending. The only problem is I’ll be in New Orleans for CTIA on May 8-10th, so I don’t know if I can work out the travel to get there on time. If you do plan to attend, please leave a comment below so fellow Android fans will know you are coming. Please tell your friends and help spread the word on all your favorite social sites. The official Twitter hashtag is #gdgtChicago. Head over to the gdgt Live Chicago page for the current list of sponsors. Where: The Tribune Building, 435 N Michigan Ave, Chicago
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| New Samsung Galaxy S III leaks provide conflicting specs Posted: 26 Apr 2012 09:29 AM PDT  The Samsung Galaxy S III is easily the hottest upcoming Android device, and the leaks continue to flow out at an amazing pace. Part of me thinks all these leaks are controlled to keep generating buzz, but we keep sharing them and y’all keep eating them up. This week we saw a trio of leaks that provide several conflicting specs. Last night Samsung announced the 1.4 GHz Exynos 4 Quad, that is said to power the next Galaxy. We think there is a good chance that this will be the final processor found inside the Galaxy S III, but that could vary by region and carrier. Yesterday we saw a leaked benchmark result that said the Galaxy S III was using the Exynos 4212 processor. This chip features dual Cortex-A9 CPU cores running at 1.5 GHz. Another leaked service manual for the GT-i9300 (that we believe to be the Galaxy S III) said the device would use a 1.5 GHz quad-core CPU. The leaked benchmark said the device would feature a 4.7 inch display, while the leaked manual said it would be 4.8 inches, and other leaks have showed a 4.6 inch display. Camera specs have also been conflicted. One leak shows 8 megapixels and another shows 12 megapixels. All these leaks have proven is that there are multiple versions of the device in testing and each one features slightly different specs. There’s even a good chance that all these leaks are wrong, and the final specs will be something completely different. Samsung’s big unveil is scheduled for May 3rd, so hopefully all your questions will be answered soon.
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| Dark Meadow preview and a chance to win a Transformer Prime! Posted: 26 Apr 2012 09:04 AM PDT  Early this week I got a message from NVIDIA asking me to review their next flagship game for TegraZone. I’m a huge gaming fan, so I jumped at the opportunity to check out their latest title. To my surprise, I got an early copy of Dark Meadow: The Pact from Phosphor Game Studio. Read on for the full details and a chance to win an ASUS Transformer Prime. The TrailerThe DownloadMini PreviewI was asked to do a full review of Dark Meadow, but I’ve only had the game for 24 hours so consider this more of a preview. Having said that, Dark Meadow has started off as the best Android game I have ever played. Dark Meadow begins when you wake up in an abandoned hospital. Very little details about the story are provided at the start, and the chronicle slowly unfolds as you begin to explore and pick up clues. I don’t want to give away the adventure, but you soon realize that you are trapped in a nightmare and you must escape the hospital to wake up. Gameplay is a mix of exploring, mystery, and combat that features swipe gestures. Players are rewarded for closely examining every detail as they collect coins to upgrade their weapons and find clues that tell the story. When a battle occurs, players start with a cross bow for long-range combat and switch to a sword as melee attacks as the enemy draws near. If you face an enemy and lose all your life, you awaken in the maternity ward of the hospital. Check out the video above for a more detailed walkthrough of the game. As an experiment, I recorded my preview video using the Tegra 3-powered HTC One X, which is one of the devices that can play this game. For some reason the video abruptly cuts off, but I thought it was a good cliffhanger that would lead you to wanting more. Overall, Dark Meadow has been a joy to play and I can’t find any faults with it yet. It has the potential to score a perfect review when I’m finished playing it. I joked in the video that Dark Meadow is like a good book that you don’t want to put down, and now I’m finding myself wanting to go play more after I get this post up. Benefits of Tegra 3Initially, Dark Meadow: The Pact for Android is exclusive to Tegra 3 devices. The game was previously released on iOS, but Phosphor Games has made a number of improvements for the Tegra version. Dark Meadow Tegra 3 Enhancements include:
The Contest – Win a Transformer Prime!To celebrate the release of Dark Meadow, NVIDIA and Android and Me are giving away one ASUS Transformer Prime tablet and dock.
Right now Threads can only be created by users with 100+ points, but we are working to remove that restriction soon so that more people can enter.
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| Verizon’s roadmap rumored to include Galaxy S III, RAZR HD, and “HTC Note” Posted: 26 Apr 2012 08:02 AM PDT  Worried that Verizon might pass over the Samsung Galaxy S III? Jonathan Geller of BGR claims he has exclusively learned the details about Verizon’s flagship smartphone launches for the remainder of 2012. Read on for the full details. Samsung Galaxy S III First up is the Galaxy S III. There was some speculation that Verizon might turn the next Galaxy into a Droid phone or even pass on it (like they skipped the Galaxy S II), but BGR says that Big Red will carry the phone. No release date was provided, but Geller thinks it will arrive sometime this summer. Motorola RAZR HD Next we have the Motorola RAZR HD. This is the device we had been calling the Droid Fighter. We still don’t know the final product name, but this device will feature a look similar to the new RAZR. Upgrades include a 4.6 inch 720p HD display, 13 megapixel camera, and dual-core 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 processor. It will still pack a massive 3,300 mAh battery, and it should feature even longer battery life than the RAZR MAXX thanks to the Snapragon S4 chip with integrated LTE modem. HTC’s take on Galaxy Note Finally we hear that HTC could be working on their answer to Samsung’s Galaxy Note. This device is rumored to feature a 5 inch 1080p display, quad-core Snapdragon S4 processor with Adreno 320 GPU (maybe the APQ8064 or dual-core MSM8960 Pro), and use HTC’s Scribe pen that we saw in the Flyer tablet.
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| Samsung protesters tell Apple iSheep to “WAKE UP” Posted: 26 Apr 2012 05:20 AM PDT  We know Samsung has an unhealthy obsession with Apple, but this is getting a little weird. This week in Australia, Samsung hired a marketing agency called Tongue to conduct some kind of guerrilla marketing campaign where they sent a bus of protesters to an Apple store and taunted people with the message “WAKE UP.” Check out the video below and let us know what you think. They also created a website called Wake Up Australia that includes a countdown to the Galaxy S III launch. See if you can crack the code and figure out the next Galaxy launch date.
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| Samsung confirms Exynos 4 Quad to appear in Galaxy S III Posted: 25 Apr 2012 08:44 PM PDT  Here’s a surprising late night treat. Samsung Electronics just introduced the 1.4 GHz Exynos 4 Quad (Exynos 4412, quad-core A9) and said it is “scheduled to be first-adopted into Samsung's next Galaxy smartphone that will officially be announced in May.” Rumors and speculation had suggested that Samsung would use the quad-core Exynos 4412 in the Galaxy S III, but we were not expecting them to reveal the final specs until the Unpacked event on May 3rd. “The quad-core processor offers phenomenal multitasking abilities surpassing any single or dual application processor,” Said Taehoon Kim, VP of Samsung LSI marketing. “Given the diverse functionalities consumers are demanding from their mobile devices today, the Exynos 4 Quad meets those high-performance needs while keeping power consumption very low.” Samsung’s Exynos 4412 is built on their new 32nm High-k Metal Gate (HKMG) low-power process technology, which promises two-times the processing capability over the 45nm process based Exynos 4 Dual while consuming 20-percent less power. The new Exynos 4 Quad will use the same Mali-400 GPU found in the Exynos 4 Dual, but Samsung has increased the clock speeds from 266 MHz to over 400 MHz. Recent leaked benchmark scores show that the Exynos 4 Quad should offer the fastest graphics performance, besting NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4. All of this sounds awesome, but we still don’t know the final specs for the US version of the Galaxy S III. Some rumors have suggested that Samsung could still use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 since it features an integrated LTE modem. The Exynos 4 Quad does not feature an integrated modem, but Samsung has already produced modems that work with LTE networks (like the modem found in the Verizon Galaxy Nexus). We had been hoping that Samsung might shock the mobile industry and go with their even newer Exynos 5250 processor. It features dual-core A15 CPU cores instead of quad-core A9, which should give it twice the processing power, but it appears that Samsung will save that for their next smartphone. Samsung could have also felt the pressure from NVIDIA’s quad-core Tegra 3 and decided they needed to match the number of cores to keep up in the marketing battle. Overall, this is still an exciting announcement. Samsung’s next Galaxy should easily become the fastest Android phone when it is released and it could have the longest battery life depending on the capacity of the battery that they stuff in there. May 3rd can’t come soon enough.
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