Cult of Android - page 79

What did the fine folk on Google+ have to say about Apple’s iPhone 5 announcement? Well, you can see for yourselves by clicking HERE. Unfortunately our thumbnails don’t go beyond 640X400 on the site so I had to host it over on Google+ of course. As can be expected, initial impressions were not flattering, but then again, neither was Apple’s keynote *rimshot*. What about the rest of you, what are your impressions of Apple’s latest “innovation”?

Apple released the iPhone 5 today, and while it put the majority of us to sleep, we can’t help but think there HAS to be at least one feature of the iPhone 5 that you wish you had. Yes, I realize we already have over 90% of them already, but what about its PPI? There has to be something? I’ve put together a poll with a few of the possibilities, so put in your vote, and if there’s something else you can think of, throw it in the comments.

Man, oh man. At least now we know why Apple has been on such a legal crusade. They’ve got nothin’. I just finished watching the iPhone 5 unveiling and boy was it a bore fest. It’s as if Apple awoke from a cryogenic sleep and is finally embracing the year 2012. Almost nothing was innovating and the majority of new iPhone 5 features have been implemented in other mobile phones for years. Seriously Apple, is that it?

Google was blindsided when Apple won its lawsuit against Samsung, which was really a proxy war between Apple and Google, because if Apple can defeat Google’s Android OEMs, they’ll win the battle against Google.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV, David Lawee, VP for corporate development, says that Google hopes that they are over the hump in the thermonuclear war, and he also admits that Apple winning the lawsuit was a big wakeup call. Watch the clip below for the full details.

Samsung has begun shooting its next commercial, and like previous ads, this one will poke fun at Apple and its users — namely those who will be purchasing the new iPhone 5 this week. Unfazed by its recent court loss, the Korean company has erected a fake Apple store, complete with Macs and iOS devices, just so that it can mock every consumer using a rival device in a 30-second video.

Photos of the set, which is currently being constructed in Los Angeles, have begun making their way around the web, and they show the store in all its glory, with fake banners, and even fake Geniuses.

Flipboard started out as an iPad app, then an Android app. Now the two-year old news app is fast becoming the go-to app to beat on all platforms with its clever re-do of cluttered blog layouts into silky smooth print-like pages that just beg to be read on a mobile tablet.

Ubisoft has announced a brand new Rayman game that’s coming to Android and iOS on September 20. It’s called Rayman Jungle Run, and it looks absolutely awesome. Inspired by the treasure chest chase levels in Rayman Origins, it’s a fast-paced platformer in which you never stop running. Never.

It’s time to see what it’s like to live in the shoes cloven hooves of the egg stealing piggies responsible for making birds quite angry. Millions of adorable green swine have been mercilessly slaughtered for simply trying to feed their families. They’ve tried protecting themselves with hardhats, makeshift houses, and have even gone as far as to leave their gravity loving homes in favor of the cold darkness of space. No matter what they do or where they go, there always seems to be a giant slingshot waiting to blast an Angry Bird at their hide. That all ends this month, with the release of Bad Piggies for Android and iOS.

It’s no secret that many of us aren’t fans of the new shared data plans being offered by Verizon and AT&T. Worse are the tactics these carriers are using to all but force us into the new plans. Consumers aren’t the only one’s disappointed, as Sprint and T-Mobile both discourage the practice and prefer to stick with the assumption that users enjoy having unlimited data with no fear of overages. Why should anyone have to pay a premium to see their data capped and divvied up between their data hungry family?

The world’s first cross-platform MMO is still alive and kicking. Whether you’re just getting into it or have been around since its iOS debut back in April 2012, you’ll be happy to hear that today marks the beginning of Pocket Legends’ Double XP weekend!

The “bad piggies” have something diabolical planned, and whatever it is, it’s PIG, erm… BIG! They’ve started their social networking campaign and even “Haz a Facebook.” Now we’ve got a teaser video of what appears to be an incoming spin-off to the Angry Birds phenomenon. Perhaps it’s time for the pigs to finally have their day. We’re just going to have to wait and see, for now, here’s the teaser video.

Sony says they’re getting ready to ship two drool-inducing new toys. The first is a new addition to its compact NEX series, the NEX-5R, equipped with wifi, an ultra-quick (according to Sony), hybrid phase-detection/contrast detection autofocus system and — here’s where it gets really interesting — the ability to download specialized apps.

The second is Sony’s entry into the exploding action-cam market; the aptly named Action Cam is a really tiny, 3-ounce (with battery) video camera that comes with a variety of outdoor-enthusiast mounting options and the ability to use a smartphone’s screen as a viewfinder.

Looxcie today launched their own Facebook channel, along with an update to their free live-streaming app — called LooxcieLive that turns any Android or iOS device into a video broadcast camera that streams video straight to your Facebook feed.

Of course, Looxcie’s isn’t the first app to do this; Utsream did the same thing just a week or so ago with their own app, Broadcast for Friends (with the gag-me-cute acronym of BFF). The difference here is that Looxcie’s Facebook channel can also serve up live broadcasts from Looxcie’s own hardware — which may make first-person-perspective shooting easier than, say, duct-taping your smartphone to your forehead (snicker all you want, we’re sure it’s been done). And, of course, Looxcie is first out the gate — and the only  Ustream to the punch with an Android app.

Almost all of your friends probably own smartphones by now. If they don’t own an iPhone they probably have an Android phone, which is fine because it seems like everyone nowdays could use a personal computer in their pocket.

Smartphone adaption rates have been ridiculously high in the US and other companies over the past five-years. Flurry, a mobile application analytics company, decided they wanted to know just how fast iOS and Android devices are growing, so they compiled some data and found that the smartphone revolution is bigger than any other digital revolution in history.

By now we’ve all had chance to digest Apple’s landslide victory over Samsung last Friday, which saw the Cupertino company awarded just over $1 billion in damages. Both companies gave their own thoughts on the verdict with press releases shortly after it was announced, but the effects of this case will be felt by more than just Apple and Samsung.

As the creator of Android — the operating system that powers Samsung’s offending devices — you’d think that Google would have some concerns that the verdict will affect its own software. However, the company maintains that the claims involved “don’t relate to the core Android operating system.”

Discovering great headphones from a company that specializes in making bags was surprisng at first, when we reviewed Incase’s Sonic headphones late last year. A month later we were less stunned when we grunted in approval at their Capsule in-ear ‘phones during our budget(ish) canalphone shootout.

This time around we played with a new denim-clad version of the on-the-ear Incase Reflex headphones ($80) — which sit between the $150 over-the-ear Sonic and the canalphone Capsules — and came away with the impression that the Reflex may very well be the best bang-for-buck of the bunch.

It appears Apple’s arrogance is getting in the way of protecting its users from a long standing SMS exploit that could allow potential hackers to spoof a reply-to number, causing the recipient to think he/she is replying to a legitimate contact, when in reality, their information is being sent to the hackers designated address. As you can imagine, this is quite troublesome, yet Apple has brushed it away despite numerous pleas made by a well known iOS hacker (pod2g):

Small, wifi-enabled with the ability to print from tablets and smartphones, low-cost printing, equipped with a touchscreen, relatively inexpensive, fast…looks like a shopping list for the perfect printer, right? And that’s what Brother might have in their just-launched MFC-J4510DW, a sleek printer with Google Cloud Print connectivity and a price tag of $200 (though I’d love an explanation as to why Brother has stuck with alphabet-soup product names while its competitors have moved on to printers with names like “Artisan” and “Envy”).

Remember that great Humble Bundle For Android 3 we told you about last week? Well, it just got better! Four new games have been added to the list of bonus games customers will get for paying over the average (which is currently $6.33). That’s a total of 9 games for just over $6! Plus you get to feel good about helping out the Child’s Play Charity (no affiliation with Chucky) along with great developers who make these games. A win-win situation for everyone!

The first gameplay footage of Wild Blood, Gameloft’s first title built off of the Unreal Engine, has slashed its way to YouTube. This third-person hack-and-slash puts you inside the armor of the famed adulterer Sir Lancelot, who has betrayed his King by sleeping with his wife (big no, no).

T-Mobile isn’t exactly the carrier of choice these days. After their failed merger with AT&T, they seem to be lost in carrier limbo. Verizon and AT&T have the largest 4G LTE coverage, Sprint has the only true unlimited data plans, and all three of them offer the iPhone. So where does that leave T-Mobile? T-Mobile knows it has to do something, and it appears that something, is unlimited data for $20 a month.

Jawbone’s wireless Jambox speaker has been a fan favorite among mobile users for quite some time, and while everything about it rocks, users have been begging for more color choices. Those prayers haven’t fallen on deaf ears, as Jawbone has teased its next iteration of the Jambox: Jambox the Remix.

DJs have one more tool to add to their set thanks to Pioneer and its Rekordbox app for Android and iOS. Just like the desktop software, Recordbox for mobile allows users to manage music files, which can be played back on a Pioneer DJ Player. Many professional DJs have turned to Rekordbox for their music management needs and the mobile app extends this functionality by allowing users to:

You didn’t think Samsung was going to idly sit by and watch as Apple took home the award for crappiest commercials of 2012, did you? After Apple released its Genius commercials, which were anything but, Samsung went straight to the drawing board, which coincidentally happens to be the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 made its debut last week and has already found its innards spread across a table for all to see. That’s right, I’m talking about the customary iFixit teardown. That’s when a member of the iFixit team dissects a device to expose its parts and determine its level of repairability. You’ll be happy to know the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 scored an 8 out of 10 for ease of repair, completely shaming Apple’s new iPad, which barely scored a 2.