Android - page 84

Apple is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. No, wait. That was Stalinist Russia.

Whatever. The two are nearly identical in their abilities to keep secrets.

As an Apple observer myself, I’m keenly aware of the iron curtain of secrecy that prevents anyone from knowing what Apple is working on, what they’re planning and what their processes are for developing new technologies.

Rumors and speculation are always so easy to come by; unannounced facts are rare — even facts about the past.

That’s one of the great things about Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs. It gave rare insight into the inner workings of Apple, to some degree.

And that’s what’s so great about the current jury trial in Silicon Valley, where Apple is suing Samsung and Samsung is suing Apple. It’s forcing Apple to reveal countless facts and events that it doesn’t want to reveal.

The lawsuit appears to be far from over. But already, it’s clear that Samsung is “winning.” Why? Because it’s a contest between a company that cares deeply about its secrets — even small ones — and a company that doesn’t care as much. So the discovery and revelation is punishing Apple.

Here are the 8 secrets Apple has been forced to reveal in court in the past couple of weeks. 

In celebration of the Kennedy Space Center’s 50th birthday, Google Maps has teamed up with NASA to give curious children, enthusiasts, and space lovers alike, a virtual trip down the launch pad of space exploration. Compiled of 6,000 panoramic views of the facilities, the Street View of the Kennedy Space Center is the largest special collection of Street View imagery to date.

Perhaps you’ve heard the “great” news about how Verizon has to dish out $1.25 million to the FCC for violating the FCC’s “C Block rules,” requiring licensees of C Block spectrum to allow customers to freely use the devices and applications of their choosing. If you’re just hearing about it, let me give you the gist of things and then you’ll get to hear me rant.

The times sure are a-changin’, and we’re now in an age where political leaders are announcing running mates via mobile apps. Much like Barack Obama’s decision to announce VP running mate Joe Biden via text message, Mitt Romney has decided to announce his VP via a mobile app entitled “Mitt’s VP.”

By now, we should all know that texting while driving is a danger not only ourselves and our passengers, but to everyone we share the road with. With over 1 million new mobile users a week in the U.S., that makes for a scary number of possible distracted drivers. The temptation is there, especially in young drivers, but as AT&T has shown us, “It Can Wait.”

It appears the Gmail video chat and its peer-to-peer technology has run its course. It served many of us well, but with the introduction of the more modern and featured packed Google+ Hangouts, it’s time to move forward. Google today announced they would be upgrading Gmail video chat to utilize the power of Google’s network and deliver higher reliability and enhanced quality with the new Hangouts system.

Once a staple of any vacation, the postcard has since faded into obscurity due to the advent of technology and instant sharing. One company meshing the best of both worlds, Touchnote Ltd., has a popular app on both Android and iOS that allows users to turn photos into personalized postcards and have them sent for around a $1.49 per postcard. In celebration of the 2012 Olympic Games, both Touchnote and Samsung want users to have the luxury of sharing their amazing moments via a postcard without having to visit a local London gift shop. That’s why Samsung is sponsoring a promo that will allow users to send free Touchnote postcards up until August 31st.

This isn’t the smallest headset. In fact, Motorola’s Elite Sliver Bluetooth Headset ($130) is actually bulkier than many other personal BT headsets. Its trick, though, is to hide most of the bulk behind the user’s ear, leaving just a sliver — hence the name — of technology visbile.

But the Sliver isn’t just a one-trick pony; its case also doubles as a battery that will top off the Sliver when the headset is housed in the case (which actually does triple duty as a charger).

The 2012 Olympic Games are set to kick off in less than 2 hours, so we wanted to make sure you had some apps and links to ensure you don’t miss a single lap, dive, punch, or round-off. You’ll find a list of the top apps and a few websites to keep you on track and in the game. Feel free to check them out, or if you have any other suggestions, throw them up in the comments. Now let the games begin!

If you’ve ever searched for a wallpaper in the Google Play Store, chances are you were met by a never ending list of results. That’s because the word “Wallpaper” just happens to be the number one most frequent word in an Android app title. In fact, 26,900 Android app titles contain the word “Wallpaper” according to a list compiled by app discovery site App Brain. App Brain decided to create the list after a similar one consisting of the top most frequent words used in iOS app titles was released by Appsfire.

Okay, this probably isn’t what you were hoping for from the company that brought us titles such as Final Fantasy XIV and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, but Square Enix’s next mobile release is none other than SolaRola. If you haven’t heard of it, don’t worry — most of us haven’t. This cute mobile puzzler platformer was actually launched on Java back in 2007, and believe it or not, happens to be among a handful of games to secure a perfect 10 score and Platinum Award from Pocket Gamer.

Total Recall, the official game for the upcoming science-fiction thriller, is now available on Android and iOS. It’s a fast-paced first-person shooter that follow’s the movie’s storyline across eight missions, promising a wide variety of weapons for “non-stop, adrenaline-pumping action.”

Four new cities were treated to some AT&T 4G LTE goodness today, while other experienced increased coverage. Every carrier, other than Verizon, appears to enjoy switching on four markets at a time. Still, those living in the following cities will now feel better about being included in the world of 4G LTE:

Sprint may be a noob in the LTE market, but that isn’t going to stop them from bringing their LTE network to more cities across the U.S. Come Labor Day, you can expect four new cities to be basking in the increased speed of Sprint’s 4G LTE network. Announced today, Sprint will be lighting up the following cities very soon:

Okay, so I was being sarcastic about the clever name. Nevertheless, the joint venture announced by Redbox and Verizon back in February has finally given birth to an official name, and that name is Redbox Instant by Verizon. Together, Verizon and Redbox plan on bringing yet another video on-demand streaming and download service to the market. As long as Verizon doesn’t screw it up with pricing, the Redbox kiosk/streaming combo could be a real winner.

I’ve been a Viber user for sometime now, but I’ve always been frustrated with its lack of support for group messaging — something I believe every messaging app should do from day one. Thankfully, this is one of the features introduced in Viber’s latest update, available on Android and iOS today.

Let the games begin. Within minutes of the first Olympic athletes arriving in London for the summer games, Grindr — a geolocation-based dating app primarily geared towards gay men — crashed due to an onslaught of unprecedented demand. Technicians believe that the arrival of the Olympians created a wave of new customers signing up for the service that caused the servers to grind to a halt.

A mere ten days before the scheduled patent infringement trial between Samsung and Apple, US District Judge Lucky Koh rejected two more proposals from Samsung, maker of Android enabled smartphones. Judge Koh entered a supplemental claim construction order in which two disputed terms are now defined. Unfortunately for Samsung, who initially requested the order, the definition decision favors Apple, using the Cupertino-based tech company’s definition in the dispute.

We bumped into neophyte Australian headphones-maker Audiofly in January, during a press-only event at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, and gave two models in the four-model lineup a whirl. Their mid-level AF45 set sounded great for $50; but the next one I tried — the top-of-the-line AF78 ($200) — left me slack-jawed with disbelief; its sound knocked my socks off, even amid the cacophony of noisy journalists.

What makes the AF78 unusual is its speaker arrangement.

Many mid-to-high-end canalphones are powered by tiny armature speakers, while moving coil drivers are found pretty much everywhere except the very high end. Armatures are generally better at producing clean highs and mids, but can lack deep bass; moving coils, on the other hand, are generally not as good at reproducing the clarity of an armature. But the AF78 is part of an elite group of models  — like the Scosche IEM856m I reviewed last year — that employ both a moving coil speaker and a balanced armature in each ear, in an attempt to give the listener the best of both worlds. And it works spectacularly.

If you were (or still are) the proud owner of a Sega Dreamcast, then you may remember the classic title Jet Set Radio (Jet Grind Radio in North America). Jet Set Radio was hailed as a revolutionary game due to it being one of the first to make prolific use of a rendering technique called cel-shading (allowing for a “cartoon-like” appearance of 3D rendered objects). While these rendering techniques aren’t so revolutionizing today, Jet Set Radio remains a rollerblading, music loving classic, featuring wholesale amounts of spray paint.

If you’re itching for some more Batman action after the credits have rolled in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, then why not continue protecting Gotham City in Gameloft’s latest release for Android and iOS? As promised, Gameloft has released it’s newest game, The Dark Knight Rises, in conjunction with the blockbuster movie in theaters today.

Verizon’s Q2 earnings call took place today, and while the gist of the call went something like “we’re making tons of money, money money,” there were a few interested bullet point in regards to Android and smartphones in general.

The most expensive app I’ve ever purchased is now on sale for half the price. The SlingPlayer app has been discounted by 50% across all mobile platforms and can now be had for $14.99. This deal applies to both the tablet and phone apps and is well worth the price to have your full home cable service in the palm of your hands.

Verizon’s 4G LTE coverage map continues to look like a teenager with a bad case of acne, however, they are lighting up more cities per month than other carriers have all year. The next batch of markets to receive the Verizon 4G LTE treatment is just as large, with 33 new markets and 32 expanding markets set to go live tomorrow. There’s a reason you pay Big Red all that cash, and this is one of them.

I bet you didn’t consider this feature when deciding between an iPhone 4S and an Android device such as the Galaxy S III. The company behind the radiation measurement app Tawkon has released a semi-disturbing infograph (which can be found at the bottom of this post) detailing the SAR (a measure of the rate at which energy is absorbed by the body when exposed to a radio frequency(RF) electromagnetic field) score of various popular smartphones.