Yesterday a friend sent a message that always brings joy. “I’m quitting smoking starting Friday.” The conversation then turned to different ways to prevent relapse. His idea was to get a pack of mini cigars — cigarillos. They’d be for extreme situations, since you can’t possibly smoke them often (and you don’t inhale them). They’re also universally stale, so the taste would likely drive him further away. But then he revealed one aspect of smoking that I find so many smokers share: part of the addiction is keeping the hands busy. It would make sense, then, that a touchscreen phone could help keep hands busy when cigarette cravings appear.
Where is the damn clicker? It’s a line that nearly everyone has uttered multiple times. For some reason some people — perhaps most people, or at least it seems that way — are incapable of putting the remote control back in its proper place. Or, for that matter, any place in plain sight. We’ve reached a point as a society where it’s more acceptable to stare at a blank screen than it is to actually get up and change the channel.
It was only a matter of time before someone developed a way for our smartphones to control our TVs. Apple actually jumped out on this one, releasing an app that lets iPhone and iPad users control Apple TV units from their smartphones or tablets. But that’s one specific device. This new development for Android lets you use your smartphone to control everything on your TV.
While there’s been plenty of hype for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, it’s not the only Android tablet Samsung plans to release this year. In fact, they’ve recently released the follow-up to their 7-inch Galaxy Tab from last year. It’s a bit early, since it was supposed to hit shelves on November 13th, but right now you can grab the new Galaxy Tab 7-inch device. As with the 10.1, the 7-inch version ranks among the best Android tablets on the market. Even better, it doesn’t suffer from the same pricing pitfalls as its larger sibling.
It was only a matter of time before GameStop got into the tablet gaming market. They’re already taking iPad and iPod trade-ins, which signals a start to their platform expansion. There were also rumors that they’d release their own gaming-centric Android tablet. While that could still happen at some point, they’ve gotten a head start by offering a number of existing Android tablets — pre-loaded with seven games.
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How do you bury the competition? By taking one of their strongest services and improving on it. For the past year or so Google has been seeking its answer to the iTunes Store. We’ve heard various rumors, but we’ve also heard that Google has faced significant obstacles from the record companies. Frustrated that the record companies didn’t see things their way, Google went ahead and launched a comprehensive music locker service, Google Music. But now they’re back at the table with record companies, and it appears that they’re on the brink of something even bigger.
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If there’s anything I’ve learned in my almost-five years of tech blogging, it’s to never believe that we’ve exhausted the capabilities of any technology prematurely. There have been so many instances where it appeared that we’d found all the uses for one particular aspect, only to find out that there’s so much more we can do with it. I’m not sure anyone particularly thinks that we’ve exhausted touchscreen functions, but it does seem that we’ve reached a comfort level with them. But thanks to some work by folks at Carnegie Mellon, we might see touchscreen, and therefore smartphone, functionality take another step forward.
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It’s been a long, wild ride for Android. It’s hard to forget the Droid Does campaign that really got the platform moving in 2009. Since then Android has grown rapidly, eventually surpassing iOS’s US market share. Today we have a little treat that documents this history.
Even a week after its announcement, it sounds as thought the Kindle Fire buzz is still running strong. They have more than 250,000 pre-orders right now, and with a November 15th release date they’ll surely add to that number. The Fire will undoubtedly top any Android tablet launch to date by a significant margin — despite it not being your typical Android tablet. Which brings me to a question for those in the tablet market: Are you more apt to pick up the Fire or a more traditional Android tablet?
It’s smartphone contract time for me, so that means shopping around. The preference is to stay with my current carrier, Verizon, because 1) I’m grandfathered into unlimited data and 2) they get the best reception in my area. At the same time, my handset of choice is the Samsung Galaxy S II. While Verizon does have a few quality handsets — I have a few friends who swear by the Droid X2 — none of them made me want to plunk down $200 to $250. That is, until it became clear why Verizon was the only major carrier to not carry the Galaxy S II. Chances are by now you’ve seen that Verizon will get the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Now that’s a smartphone worth $300.
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Unlimited data is a thing of the past. AT&T started it, capping their services at 2GB in 2010. Verizon and T-Mobile followed about a year later, though both added higher-tier options for heavy data consumers. But the point remains: gone are the days where you could browse, download, and stream with abandon. That is, unless you’re on Sprint. Throughout this ordeal they’ve not only retained their unlimited data plans, but they’ve continually reassured customers that they will, indeed, stay unlimited. The latest comes from CTO Stephen Bye (via CNET). He stated the challenges of maintaining unlimited plans, but also said that Sprint is willing to face that challenge.
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