1) Website- I see a lot of developers that have a single blog page for all their apps. Look at the format of google play and match your website as close as you can to what google play has. Why? Customers are use to a certain format and like things that look familiar . Think like a customer when building a website and put the same effort as you were in programming your apps.

2)Social Networking-Make a twitter and facebook account. Any app release you have or updates post them.You can even interact with customers and get feedback directly from them. Use this as a tool to learn from real people and adjust your game or app based on feedback.

3)Make Niche Apps- There is no way indie developers can match the power of big companies. Rather than try to take on gameloft or EA focus on niche apps. Small apps like car locators or how to cook books. Small apps like these have been know to get more downloads vs making a game going against a bigger company. Small focused apps or simple games with great graphics can draw people to your app.

4)Post in Forums- Post your game or app in several forums. Be careful as many forums are not really indie friendly. Most forums have a section where you can post games or apps away from where regular forum users cant see. Also you might run into jealous developers who have nothing better to do then degrade your game. Post in several forums to bring in users but remember this is only a small part of your marketing efforts. This forums is very developer friendly though.

5)Rate Me Button- In your apps your should have a rate me button and a googleplay button that points to only your apps in google play. You can also have a button to your website to give the customer a more personal touch.

6) Paid vs. Free- I would suggest you make 4 to 5 free apps before making a paid app. Most customers do not want to pay and only enjoy free apps.

Honestly the attacking of the game by game developers could be attributed that some developers spend one or two years making a game and not have the same success. Obviously there are a lot of consumers that love and support the game. You can find ton's of video's online of people playing and having fun with the game. Could it be that the designer of flappybird understands what people enjoy and developers just don't get it?

Android and Apple have been going toe to toe over the past two years to see who will the mobile empire king. Last year we saw Android finally show sign's of overtaking Apple due to a surge in the 3rd and 4th fiscal quater. Now it seems Android won't let go of the top spot with its stock price $1,123 and Apple stock price at only $508 per share.

    Many speculate that Apple users are tired of having to buy the lastest hardware to run games and apps. Also Apple users are tired of constant nagging updates which seem to be coming more and more often. While Android is fragmented , the newer devices are more equally powered. This is a big change from the days where the quality of Android devices were too wide spread.

Google will feature thier new tech at the CES show this year. Google wants to be a step ahead of Apple and is partenering with car companies to do so. Once again Google has stepped up and found a niche where no one else has bothered to look.

For years now users have been wondering when Google will bring Android to the PC arena. Well now that time has arrived with the HP Slate Pro PC. The HP Slate Pro PC will come with Kingsoft Office, Skype, Evernote, HP’s Classroom Manager, 50GB of storage from Box for life, and Citrix Receiver for remote controlling other Window PCs.
So what type of processor is powering this beast? NVIDIA’s quad-core Tegra 4 processor, an HD webcam, WiFi N, and Bluetooth 4.0. The best feature is the price which is a super low $399 at launch. The future looks very bright for Android developers as more and more devices are being made for the OS.

Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElfSWyt4Jl8

In my peer group, breaking up with someone via text still inspires words like coward and jerk. In my parents day, dumping your former honey over the phone was the absolute worst. Yet, as we get further and further into the digital dating age, phone breakups are starting to sound better to me — a real voice, even minus the face, seems refreshing in a world of Twitter, Facebook, email and text.

If your last romance ended in a face-to-face conversation, count yourself blessed. We found a sad survey on the mobile social network MocoSpace that discovered that out of 20,000 people they talked to, 57 percent do their dumping over the phone, with 47 percent texting the dumpee.

Even though I think a breakup text is coldhearted, my 21 year old brother totally disagrees. Since so many of his conversations take place over text, email, IM, and online networks, getting dumped/hitched/asked out over a text seems like an everyday occurrence. Is this just a gender thing? I am involved in those means of communication too, but a text breakup seems to be the worst.

What do you think?

She’s the T-Mobile Girl, a.k.a. Carly Foulkes, and last time you saw her she was dressed in pink and using a cheerful approach to sell the carrier’s services. The darker image in the new ad spots–dubbed the “alter ego” campaign—are part of T-Mobile’s effort to rebrand itself as more “edgy” and in the process attract more customers.

T-Mobile wants to make a point about 4G speeds. In a hotly contested battle, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile are wooing new customers with the promise of data speeds around 5-20Mbps or higher. Yet, claiming to offer 4G and delivering that speed are different things. No carrier has consistently provided super-fast speeds in every town, especially if you connect in a busy area or far from the tower. We know this to be true from the hotly contested debates on our forums.

But, as to marketing specifically, how do you think T-Mobile is doing? Do you like the new look, or would you rather Carly went back to her spring pink dress?

May 23rd sounds a lot better than indefinitely!

Thanks to Inside Sprint Now for a little hope.

Move over Apple’s iTunes store. There is a new and improved Google Market coming to town and it is called Google Play. Google Play is taking the accessibility of  books, music, apps and movies to a whole new level. With everything being cloud based you will not have to worry about where you are in a book, game or movie again. Just pick right back up to where you were no matter which of your devices you want to use. Storage will no longer be an  issue either since everything will be stored in the Google cloud.

Google Play will allow  the storage of  20,000 songs not purchased through the service. Which may seem like a disadvantage to Apple’s 25,000 but when you take into consideration that Google isn’t charging you a $25 fee every year?? That sounds like a bargain to me!

Google is also introducing their “7 Days to Play” promotion by discounting various apps, books, music and movies in celebration of the launch of  the Google Play Store. It is my understanding that this will eventually take the place of the Android Market. Gameloft has an offering of N.O.V.A. 2: Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance & Asphalt 6: Adrenaline in honor of Google Play. So make sure to check the Android Market and see what you can find on sale everyday!

What do you think? Are you looking forward to Google Play?

Google Play Advertisement

On November 10, 2011 Sprint announced the Samsung Epic 4g would be updated to Gingerbread S:D700.0.5S.EI22 over the course of the next ten days.  Sprint’s intent of slowing updating everyone to the EI22 ROM is to be able to monitor the process in the event they have to pull the update due to technical problems. Already users are reporting WiFi, GPS, and keyboard bugs which Sprint or Samsung has yet to acknowledge.

For those of us who are too anxious to wait on the OTA now have several methods available (a few of these methods have fixes already available).

IMPORTANT:  Please make sure that you make backups of all your information before doing any upgrades, while some methods like the update.zip is rather safe, it doesn’t hurt to make a copy of what is important to you. For those who have clockworkmod 2.X (green one), you should upgrade to the latest clockworkmod 3.X (purple) as old clockworkmod backups will not be compatible.

1) First method is to do a manual update.

a) Go to this link and download the file gTen has provided.
b) Rename the file to update.zip (make sure it’s not renamed update.zip.zip)
c) Place the file on the Root of your SD Card
d) shut down your phone and boot into recovery by holding voldown+camera+power
e) Choose to flash update.zip

 Notes:
1 This method will not give you Root
2 If you already rooted the above method will not work
3 This is NOT a custom ROM it is the manual way to upgrade.

2) Second Method Rooting EI22 after OTA or Google update (credits: XDA member metalblaster)

a) Video Provided by qbking77
b) first you need to install the OTA either through the OTA method or through the Google link method.
c) Next you need to go to the ACS forums and Download the ACS recovery 1.0.0.5.tar.md5 file, You will need this file as well

1 confirm you have gingerbread EI22.
2 download the 2 files above (you can use CWM purple version as well if you don’t want the acs Recovery.)
3 Put the su-3.0-efgh-signed.zip file onto your sdcard and turn off the phone.
4 Boot into Download mode by holding the 1 key on the keyboard and the power key
5 open odin and connect the phone to the computer, one of the ID:com boxes will light up to confirm it is connected.
6 put the ACSrecovery.tar.md5 file into the PDA area of odin, make sure everything is uncheck except Auto-reboot and hit start.
7 if done correctly your phone should reboot directly into ACS recovery mode.
8 once in recovery flash the Su-***** .zip file then reboot the phone.
9 If CWM does not stick due to the added script Samsung embedded in the phone kernel you should see below. There are thus far, 2 possible options, Option 1 will give you the Keyboard fix with a relatively Stock experience and Option 2 will give you a Deodexed Rom, nubernal, the keyboard fix and the GPS fix.

***UPDATE***

Apparently Samsung included a script that reflashes the stock recovery upon boot, so if you install a custom recovery (ACS or CWM) it will overwrite it upon boot.

d) (Option 1) Fix so that Clockwork Sticks

i) First Odin Mkasik’s EI22 Keyboard fix Kernel (PDA – Only check Auto Reboot) Then Odin Purple Clockwork.

e) (Option 2) override the built in Samsung issue and make CWM as well as add the nubernal.

i) Follow the steps up until you get into ACS recovery or CWM and flash the .zip in this post rather than the Su.zip file.
ii) This will completely fix your GPS and CWM problems as well as deodex the EI22 version you have.

As an IT Security Professional and a Certified Ethical Hacker (C|EH) one thing I have noticed is malware is on the rise. The complexity and the growth of malware have more than just tripled in the last six months. What we have witnessed and will be witnessing is a change in the threat landscape. Clever new ways have cropped up to compromise new devices of which, fake antivirus are on the rise and password stealing malware are showing a sudden surge in the level of activity. Their ability to adapt to avoid detection is one aspect that needs to be taken into consideration.

Smartphone malware is hardly a new concept, but the tools being used by hackers to crack smartphones are new and more clever than ever. As apps developed for phones become more platform neutral (able to operate on android, windows 7 etc and able to run HTML, XML, Flash etc), there is increased likelihood that web-based worms will rise up and start to be more of an issue as the hosts which they can spread to become more numerous.

The SpyEye hacker application is but one example. SpyEye seeks to intercept bank issued SMS codes (for the purposes of online banking) and redirect them to the hacker without the knowledge of the phone’s owner. SpyEye which is often installed unknowingly by a user when they download other apps. Quite often it sits dormant, waiting for the right flags to be triggered before engaging. Infosecland.com recently reported that:

“SpyEye is known to be one of the more powerful data-sniffing Trojans ever developed, and the release of the source code means the likelihood that there will be a dramatic increase in its application is a very real scenario”

McAfee Q2 2011 Threats Report Shows Significant Growth for Malware on Mobile Platforms

Report Shows Record Growth for Malware and Rootkits; Major Hacktivist Activity

SANTA CLARA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–McAfee today released the McAfee Threats Report: Second Quarter 2011, showing that the amount of malware targeted at Android devices jumped 76 percent since last quarter, to become the most attacked mobile operating system. 2011 has also resulted in the busiest ever first half-year in malware history, including a first-ever appearance of Mac fake AV and a significant uptick in rootkits, suggesting that McAfee’s comprehensive malware “zoo” collection will reach a record 75 million samples by the year’s end.

“This year we’ve seen record-breaking numbers of malware, especially on mobile devices, where the uptick is in direct correlation to popularity”

“This year we’ve seen record-breaking numbers of malware, especially on mobile devices, where the uptick is in direct correlation to popularity,” said Vincent Weafer, senior vice president of McAfee Labs. “Overall attacks are becoming more stealth and more sophisticated, suggesting that we could see attacks that remain unnoticed for longer periods of time. High-profile hacktivist groups have also changed the landscape by drawing a line between attacks for personal gain and attacks meant to send a message.”

The report also details specific activity shaping the way cybercriminals operate, such as cybercrime “pricebooks” that determine the going rate for large email address lists, and acts of hacktivism and cyberwar.

2011 On Track to Reach Record “Malware Zoo”

With an approximate 12 million unique samples for the first half of 2011, a 22 percent increase over 2010, this has been the busiest first half-year in malware history. With the addition of Q2’s numbers, the grand total of total malware samples in McAfee’s database has reached approximately 65 million, and McAfee researchers estimate that this “Malware Zoo” will reach at least 75 million samples by the year’s end.

Android Nabs Top Spot for Most Mobile Malware

With the vast amount of personal and business data now found on user’s mobile phones, mobile malware is steadily increasing, often mimicking the same code as PC-based threats. In the second quarter of 2011, Android OS-based malware surpassed Symbian OS for the most popular target for mobile malware developers. While Symbian OS and Java ME remain the most targeted to date, the rapid rise in Android malware in Q2 indicates that the platform could become an increasing target for cybercriminals – affecting everything from calendar apps, to comedy apps to SMS messages to a fake Angry Birds updates.

Fake Anti-Virus for Apple, Rootkits and Stealth Malware Reach New Terrain

There are more Mac users than ever before, and as organizations increasingly adopt Macs for business use, Apple now has become more a target for malware authors. Though historically the Apple platform has been unaffected by fake anti-virus (fake AV) software, activity in Q2 indicates that it is now being affected. Although this type of fake AV is the first of its kind, McAfee Labs does expect fake AV in general will drop off over time.

Another malware category that is demonstrating recent steady growth is stealth malware. The tactic of hiding malware in a rootkit is used by cybercriminals to make malware stealthier and more persistent, and has seen this type of attack gain in prominence over the past year, with high-profile attacks such as Stuxnet. Stealth malware has increased more rapidly in the last six months than in any previous period, up almost 38 percent over 2010.

Acts of Hacktivism and Cyberwar Make Their Mark

Acts of hacktivism, primarily from the groups Anonymous and LulzSec, were among some of the most prominent cyber news generators for Q2. The report details hacktivist activity from Q2, with at least 20 global attacks reported in Q2 alone, and with the majority allegedly at the hands of LulzSec. The report also outlines acts of cyberwar that occurred in Q2, including attacks on United States’ Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and an attack on South Korea’s National Agricultural Cooperative Federation.

Email “Black Market” for Spammers

Though spam is still at historic low levels, due in part to the Rustock takedown, McAfee Labs still expects to see a sharp rise in activity over the coming months. A common method for cybercriminals to increase their volume of spam activity is to purchase a bulk list of emails in order to flood as much spam as possible to a widespread group of people. Whether it’s a botnet or a rental service, prices vary for such enterprises, often by location. For instance, in the United States, the going rate for 1 million emails is $25, whereas in England 1.5 million emails are worth $100.

For more information on trends related to hacktivism, cyberwar, web threats and malware, please download a full copy of the McAfee Threats Report: Second Quarter 2011 at http://www.mcafee.com/us/resources/reports/rp-quarterly-threat-q2-2011.pdf

With the holiday season approaching fast, lots of people are looking for their next phone upgrade, either for themselves or for their family or friends. We’ve had some announcements of phones coming out, or ones that have been released recently. There’s a variety of operating systems to choose from, along with carriers. Let’s start a discussion about each aspect of a phone upgrade.

First off, the carrier. Who are you with now? Have you been happy with them? Have you considered switching, and if so, to who? There’s been lots of changes going on with carriers too, ranging from data rates, to caps, to 4G technologies. We have At&t trying to merge/buy T-Mobile USA. We’ve had Sprint announce their plans to roll out LTE instead of their WiMax network for 4G (rumor is that it won’t start until 2013 though). We have some carriers that set a hard cap on data usage, while others throttle your speed once you reach a limit. For voice and 3G, we have CDMA/EVDO vs GSM/HSPA.

For the operating systems, the big ones are obvious…Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 7. There’s also Blackberry and still some WebOS devices out there (although its being discontinued). So with all of those choices, which is your preference? Would you consider using one of the other ones? What features do you like most about them? Which do you like least?

Now for the phones. We have Nokia announcing their new Windows Phone 7 devices, but there’s talk that they won’t come to the US until 2012. We have the new Samsung Galaxy S II line coming to most carriers. Verizon has the Motorola Droid RAZR coming out. Then there’s the next developer phone, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which is coming to Verizon. The GSM version has penta-band 3G/HSPA though, so it’ll work across all carriers, you might just have to buy it from overseas right now. There’s also the new iPhone 4S. Blackberry has their Bold line and Torch lines.

So with all those choices out there, talk about what your plans are. We’re interested to see what everyone is doing.

In my years of writing I have yet to see a day that makes me go WOW! Did that just happen. But today while opening the Internet became reality.

Steve Jobs effective immediately is no longer CEO. He resigned today for unknown reasons, although with his medical situations of late it would appear that that may be the primary reason. With a personal letter to Apple Board asking to execute the succession plan and announce Tim Cook as CEO.  They quickly voted him Chairman of the Board, however, so he can still help direct how the company operates without the heavy burden and long hours of being CEO.

Click here for the new brief from MSN.

Here is the resignation letter he gave to the board:

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

How do you think this will help or hurt the company? Do you think this will impact their idea’s marketing and overall devices? Let me know below PPCGeeks.

[UPDATE]

Tim Cook (new CEO of Apple) has released the following email to Apple employees assuring them that nothing is going to chage:

“Team:

I am looking forward to the amazing opportunity of serving as CEO of the most innovative company in the world. Joining Apple was the best decision I’ve ever made and it’s been the privilege of a lifetime to work for Apple and Steve for over 13 years. I share Steve’s optimism for Apple’s bright future.

Steve has been an incredible leader and mentor to me, as well as to the entire executive team and our amazing employees. We are really looking forward to Steve’s ongoing guidance and inspiration as our Chairman.

I want you to be confident that Apple is not going to change. I cherish and celebrate Apple’s unique principles and values. Steve built a company and culture that is unlike any other in the world and we are going to stay true to that—it is in our DNA. We are going to continue to make the best products in the world that delight our customers and make our employees incredibly proud of what they do.

I love Apple and I am looking forward to diving into my new role. All of the incredible support from the Board, the executive team and many of you has been inspiring. I am confident our best years lie ahead of us and that together we will continue to make Apple the magical place that it is.

Tim“

When someone turns to me and tells me they have a splitting headache, I normally kindly say “I’m sorry about that” and continue with what I was doing previously.  It’s not that I don’t sympathize with this person, but I can’t empathize.  I don’t ever get headaches.  I don’t know what they feel like.

All of this was true before until a few days ago.

I was casually browsing the forums and opened a thread comparing the Evo3D with the Galaxy S2.

My first mistake.

I begin reading and was not at all surprised to see gTen opining on the subject, and we all know what his opinion was (let’s just say Samsung should hire this guy as their own personal PR guy)

Well that was good and all, after all the SGS2 is an amazing device with incredible specs, and although I personally would prefer the Sensation because of the superior resolution and the GPU being able to process more than one texture compression format thus eliminating the need to root my phone and install workaround drivers from Chainfire, it still packs a mean punch and thus far has outbenched its snapdragon/adreno220 nemesis in almost every test they can dream up.  So It’s a worthy argument.

Then the subject of 3D came up.  This was the beginning of the end for my precious brain.

So of course it went back and forth, but soon the thread turned into an all out street fighting brawl between gTen and BlackDynamite.

From there it was an epic battle of galactic proportion with each warrior using all the tricks in the book, from massive multi-quotes per thread to classic semantic and argument techniques.  With each passing post I felt my cranium throbbing more and more, but could not turn my eyes away from the madness.

Pretty soon I heard an unsavory pop and knew that my brain had indeed exploded.

The battle yet continues, although I’m not sure for how much longer.

I’ll say this though, next time someone tells me they have a splitting headache, I’ll think back on this thread and truly be able to empathize with them and perhaps offer them an Advil.

I know I need one…

If you too care to view the chronicles of this epic battle, or if you are just plain masochistic, then take a look at the thread HERE and when the 3D talks start you’ll know you’re in for a world of pain.

Have a nice day 

So Many of us have beaten our heads against the Windows Phone 7 locked environment. We can only change the background color from black to white, and tile colors from basically preset colors by Microsoft. All the while Android phones can basically customize anything and everything. Would Windows Phone 7 be better or worse with Themes? Think about predefined task bars, overlays, dialers, colors, and pictures.

Tell us PPCG Windows Phone 7 admirers and users, what do you think of that? Would it make WP7 better or worse?

Looks like HTC and AT&T are at it again with the exclusive phones. Reminding us a lot of now year-old disastrous KIN and KIN 2 Social Phones released by Microsoft and Sharp in June 2010, The HTC Status is a phone designed to be aimed at the average user of  Facebook and their addiction to – you guessed it – Status Updates. The phone – though very reminding of the feature phone – is actually a fully featured Android 2.3 device with Sense – remarkably in the opposite direction of specifications –  a 800 Mhz processor and 512MB of RAM – a tiny 2.6″ HVGA-L screen and direct buttons – both on the sceen and on the keyboard – for easy Facebook use. Don’t hesitate to tell HTC and AT&T your thoughts on that new Status Page of theirs for the HTC Status

Is this phone TOO Facebook oriented – or will the kids love us? You tell us, Press Release is below.

Today, HTC launched a new page on Facebook, all about the HTC Status, coming exclusively to AT&T this summer. You know those priceless moments with your friends on Facebook—that quick pic, inside joke, or perfectly timed post? The first device with a Facebook share button, the HTC Status ensures those moments happen more often, keeping you at the center of your social circle. The HTC Status lets you share just about anything with just one touch, including music, photos, location and status updates. HTC Status also features a chat widget that allows you to, at a glance, see when your friends are online. You can start a live instant chat and juggle between as many private conversations as you want, all straight from the device.

“HTC Status brings a Facebook experience to people who want to share their experiences with their friends faster and easier than ever before,” said Jason Mackenzie, President, HTC Americas. “With a dedicated Facebook share button combined with the hallmark HTC Sense experience, HTC Status makes it easy for people to stay connected to the things that are important to them.”

Dedicated Facebook share button

• One touch to share- Press the Facebook share button from your home screen to instantly post on your wall.
• Snap, shoot, share- Take a picture or shoot a video and share it instantly with a press of the Facebook share button. You can even post pictures automatically as you’re taking them..
• Quick-on-the-draw check-in- Just long press the Facebook share button to check in your location with Facebook Places.
• Be first with the news- See something cool on the web? Share your latest find with a quick press of the Facebook share button.
• Post to your wall – or a friend’s wall – From the home screen, a quick tap of the Facebook HTC share button makes sharing anything on your mind quick and easy.
• Share what you’re listening to- The Facebook share button glows when you’re listening to music, to let you know you can share. Let your friends in on the music you love with the push of a button.

Lock screen shortcuts

Instead of a barrier, the HTC shortcut lock screen just became a launch pad to what you want to do now! Open your favorite apps by just dragging their shortcut icons into the lock screen ring.

See what’s happening before you pick up

Every time you get or make a call, you see your friend’s profile picture and latest status update right on the call screen. If it’s their birthday that week, you’ll see that, too.

Special effects for photos and videos

Anyone can be an artist. Use camera effects to make your photos and videos look like they’ve been taken through special lenses and filters—like Sepia for an old-fashioned look, or Aqua for a touch of cool. Apply effects right in the viewfinder, or apply them afterwards in the Gallery.

Front and back cameras

Take a spontaneous self-portrait or a quick cheek-to-cheek pic with your best pal on the VGA front-facing camera—or just double-check your hair with the Mirror app. With the 5.0 MP main camera with LED flash, you can capture every moment, with pictures or high-quality video.

A smarter ringer

The “Quiet ring on pickup” setting reduces the ring volume when you pick the phone up. The “Pocket mode” setting increases ring volume when your phone is in a pocket or bag, and then returns the volume to a reasonable level when you take it out.

Tech Specs

• Platform: Android 2.3 + HTC Sense
• Display: 2.6-inch touch screen with 480 x 320 resolution
• Network: Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMTS/HSDPA 850/1900
• Memory: 512 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM
• Processor: MSM7227, 800 MHz
• Battery: Rechargeable lithium-ion battery, 1250 mAh
• Camera resolution: 5 MP main camera with autofocus, VGA  front-facing camera

Please check out the HTC Status Facebook page and the AT&T Facebook page for more information on the device as we get closer to retail availability. Both places will be a one-stop for all news and announcements related to HTC Status. Please let me know if you have any questions.

The PPCGP, All the Mobile News You’ll Ever Need!

Season 2, Episode 25

Be sure to follow us on twitter!

Host: Laos101 AKA Joshua Sherman

Guests: Our Newsies! Hoodracer, and News Manager Jason Fieldz

Topics:
Data data data – how much data are YOU using?

Verizon claims it will expand 4G network even more – Sprint lagging behind (2.5 million sq mile rumor)

Lightsquared pushing out 4G – Sprint too?!

Sprint and AT&T bickering over T-Mobile Buyout

Verizon’s Tiered Data is here! Get your unlimited plans while they last!

PPCG user ptfdmedic has started up a thread on helping autistic children with used Android devices.

“What Android 4 Autism will be doing is taking used (donated) Android devices, preferably Epic or EVO (due to the larger screen) and turning them into communication and learning tools for Autistic children. I’m working on securing software donations as well for pre-installation purposes.”

This project looks to be very promising and I know we’d all like to see the devices we love to hack so much going to such benevolent use after we get bored with them.  Just to think that we could potentially make a huge difference by just donating our old devices is pretty amazing.  A little more about this project:

“We are a community that lives on the bleeding edge. I’m asking that if and when you upgrade your phone that you consider Android 4 Autism when deciding what to do with your old device. Bad ESN’s don’t matter as WiFi/Bluetooth would be the only needed connections. PLEASE consider this if and when you decide to upgrade. I’ll have more information available when I go live. I just wanted to plant the bug in your ear. Your old phone could change someone’s life.”

There you have it.  You can visit the thread here and we will work with ptfdmedic to ensure he gets help with code as well as development space and testers as needed.  This is something truly worth our collective effort and I am proud to be able to help in this endeavor.  This is one of those times where really important things come in to light and give us an opportunity to actually help change a life for the best.

Stay tuned for updates on this amazing project.

We give a special thanks again to our friends at Seidio for letting us review another case of theirs. This time were here reviewing the Seidio Innocase II Surface Case for the HTC Incredible. I can honestly say I don’t think anyone will be disappointed in this case. Those who are in need of a case that offers more protection with minimal sacrifice in thickness and weight gain should love this case as much as I do. With it, you are in charge of how much protection you need and when you need it thanks to the unique design and protection layers available.

My first impression after applying the first layer of the case was it is very thin. It does not add a lot of thickness to the phone unlike many other cases out there. The first layer snaps on to the phone in a two piece arrangement, rather than the standard one piece arrangement most cases use. As a result, it feels much more sturdy. It is designed from a hard and flexible material, with a unique soft-touch rubberized texture that gives me a better grip when holding the phone.

Let’s talk about the Ultimate Screen Guard. It’s crystal clear, easy to apply and actually the easiest and most stress free protector I’ve ever tried to apply to any phone. I work in a phone store so that is wonderful for me to find something so simple. The protector does have cut outs for the optical mouse pad and speaker for the ear. It covers the whole front of the phone unlike other protectors who only cover the main screen area and there is not one single bubble in it. I am thrilled that the installation went so well, and of course having a clean screen using the microfiber cloth provided was a big help.

The second layer of protection is the rubberized and hard plastic skeleton like shell that makes it much more durable for days you expect to be rougher on your device. This shell covers the first layer of the case and adds just a small amount of thickness to the phone. If you are one of those who drops your device on roads while working, running etc. this layer of protection will suit your needs just fine.

The third layer of protection is the holster. I chose not to use it but that’s for you to decide. I do like it but don’t have a need for it. There are many workers out there who would disagree and love to have the holster. This holster is very sturdy and I can’t imagine anyone breaking it by a hard drop. The spring clip is very easy to use and doesn’t scratch any parts of the case as it lies over it. There is a felt lining on the inside of the holster which protects the phone even more because you are putting the phones screen face in. Another great feature is the clip also has a strip of rubber on it to prevent the holster from scratching your case.

Overall this case is definitely my favorite so far. I don’t see a need to use each layer of protection on a daily basis but they are all great to have. The first layer with the screen protector is just like the average silicon cases most of us have tried before except the Seidio Innocase is much more durable and easy to apply. As you can tell in the images above, the cases aren’t really adding much thickness to the phone. Still, my favorite part is that the screen protector was a breeze installing! When I go jogging I will take those extra layers of protection with me and the holster also so I don’t have to worry about dropping it again. With the Seidio Innocase II on my Incredible it looks brand new! Who wouldn’t want one?

As times change, so does how we listen to music, especially portable music. From cassettes we went to CDs, then even the MiniDisc (anyone remember those things?), then to mp3 players. Now with smartphones becoming more mainstream for the casual user, streaming internet radio is becoming more popular. Right now, two of the most popular services are probably Slacker Radio and Pandora. In this editorial, we will compare both services, and you will get the input of 2 people from the site, myself (mindfrost82), and Courtney1985.

I’ll give you a little background information first. I currently use Slacker and actually pay for their Plus service (which I’ll explain more later). I’ve paid for their service for almost a year now. Back when I had Windows Mobile a couple years ago, I tried both Slacker and Pandora, but I haven’t really used Pandora in a while. Courtney only really used Slacker back when she had a Blackberry and has used Pandora over the past 6 months.

There also used to be a free service called Last.FM. The service is still around, but they recently forced people to buy a subscription for mobile listening. The nice thing with Last.FM was that it featured a “Scrobble” service, which meant that if you listened to mp3s on your mobile device, Last.FM would automatically track those songs and send them to their servers and tag them as favorites for you. I believe this is the only service that offered that feature. Since they’re no longer offering a free mobile plan, we won’t really be comparing them in this article.

First I’ll talk about Slacker. Slacker supports just about every mobile device you can think of. Android, iOS, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone 7, WebOS, and even have their own portable player, the G2. Its also integrated into some Sony devices.

For free, Slacker will play some ads between your songs. You’re also limited to 6 skips per hour. You can listen for unlimited hours though. While you can “Like” as many artists as you want, you’re limited to the number of songs you can request/like if you create a custom station. You’re also limited in your “Fine Tuning” options.

For their Plus service, you pay $4.99/month or $47.88/year. You get no ads, unlimited skipping, full song lyrics, unlimited song requests/likes, and mobile station caching. For me, the mobile station caching is definitely worth the money if you listen to it a lot. What this does is gives you the ability to have your phone sync and download up to 25 stations to your memory card/storage so that you can listen to them without being connected to the internet. This feature is only available on certain devices (I think iOS, Android, and Blackberry). I have an iPod that I use in my truck, so unless I use wireless tether with my phone, it doesn’t have internet access unless I’m around WiFi. With the station caching, I can have it download playlists overnight and use it in my truck without the internet. This also helps save battery life and bandwidth.

For the desktop, you can listen to it through their website, or there is a Windows app you can download, which is just a fancy wraparound for the website, but it works. I don’t believe its officially supported, but I’ve been using it for a week so far without any issues.

As far as music selection goes, I haven’t really had any problems finding songs I like. Some new songs haven’t been on there, but that’s because they’re not even out on CD yet. Their track lists go pretty deep for me. If you listen to a pre-programmed station, they tend to play more mainstream songs, but you can also customize your own station. You can do this with a free basic subscription, but you’ll be able to fine tune it more with a paid subscription. You can tune things like auto-discovery (which determines how often is plays your “liked” songs/artists) or even by how new the songs are or how mainstream they are. For me, it does a pretty good job at the auto-discovery and has played songs that are similar to the ones I liked. With my fine-tuned settings, it also doesn’t go deep into the albums and tends to play more mainstream songs, which I like.

Now we’ll talk about Pandora. Similar to Slacker, it supports most of the major smartphone platforms, but there’s no support for Windows Phone 7 yet.

For the free subscription, you can skip 6 songs per hour per station, or you can skip 12 songs per day, across all stations. Also, with their free subscription, you can only listen to 40 hours of music per month. There’s also a one-hour time-out limit.

They also offer a Pandora One paid subscription, which is $36/year. For this, you get more skips (you don’t have the daily skip limit, but the hourly one still applies), no advertisements, a five hour time-out limit, custom skins, the Pandora One desktop application and higher quality audio when playing through your desktop.

Courtney’s Opinions – I’m a huge music fan and love to stream music all day long on most days. As you mentioned, I have used Pandora much more than Slacker but your opinions definitely make me consider purchasing a subscription. The caching feature alone just may be worth it. With Pandora, I’m not aware of this feature but I don’t know if it’s available on the paid version, my guess would be no.

In the recent months of using Pandora I have enjoyed the Android and PC version mainly because of the accessibility of creating my own stations and “liking” songs that interest me. I can’t say why I chose Pandora over Slacker because they are very similar. I’ve never even considered paying for a subscription of Pandora because the few ads I see never really bother me. I enjoy all types of music so I don’t skip songs that often either. I do see where this could be annoying if you were a new user and skipped 6 songs and then had to listen to something you didn’t like. I would enjoy it more if I could cache my songs to my SD card, that would make me even happier.

I have recently noticed something that I’m not sure anyone else has noticed. I had about 7 channels created, some rock, some R&B, etc. After my 6 months of use a few of the channels began playing the same songs, mixtures of all genres. I’m guessing this is because after so long of listening to each channel and “liking” so many of the same artists/songs on each one, all the channels end up playing the same things. I ended up deleting all but a couple channels and I’m currently waiting to see if they end up playing the same songs or not. Either way, it’s strange right? Like I said, I’m not sure if this has happened to anyone else, but it’s mind boggling. It doesn’t stop me from enjoying Pandora though. I actually have it blasting away right now!

For those of you that use one of these services, which one do you use and do you pay for their premium subscriptions? If you use something else, what is it?

We want to hear your opinions. For someone interested in one of these services, how would you persuade them to use your favorite?