Category: Articles

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HTC BlinkFeed app arrives at Google Play ahead of new One phone

htc blinkfeed google play screenshotOh HTC. You just can’t time anything for your new flagship phone’s release can you?

Ahead of the announcement for their all new flagship M8 HTC One, what I’m loving calling the worst kept secret of 2014, HTC has taken the wraps off of their new BlinkFeed app.

This is a fantastic play by HTC and something I’ve been literally begging more manufacturers to do. Companies like HTC, LG, and Samsung deliver a TON of features and apps on a phone. Unlike a Nexus which is a fairly bare experience. However those individual manufacturer apps don’t get updated very often as they’re baked into the ROM supplied by said manufacturer. If the tiniest app gets updated at HTC HQ, you have to wait for a FULL OS UPDATE to get the benefits of that updated app. It’s one big lump sum.

Or at least it was until now. HTC is separating out BlinkFeed, and hosting it on Google Play. Now whenever a team at HTC but a little polish on this app, it can be pushed directly to One owners without waiting for a massive ROM download.

Android is still somewhat hamstrung by the carrier approval process, in that there’s still a significant lead time between when Google releases an OS update, the manufacturers customize it, and that update is approved and distributed by carriers. Google has been making a lot of progress in splicing out individual Android services and posting them as standalone apps. A user might not always get the latest Android OS, but all of their services can be up to date. Now HTC is following in those footsteps, and that makes me happy.

HTC BlinkFeed on Google Play (2014 One only)

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Long Term Review: The LG G Flex on AT&T!

This thing is a beast. An absolute monster.

We’ve played with a few large screened phones here, most recently the Lumia 1520, and while I’m still not a huge fan of the phablet, LG has shown they can refine their phone experience and bring a few new tricks to the table. Let’s take a look at their G Flex on AT&T!

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March Madness Anywhere You Want With the U-Verse App!

image (1)Here’s the dilemma. You’re a college basketball fiend, but you still have to occasionally leave the glow of your awesome TV to do things like go to work, or socialize with the non-college-basketball-fiend friends of yours. Sure you could just track your bracket via some website, but what’s the fun in that? If you’re an AT&T U-Verse subscriber, you could just watch every single game from anywhere you can utilize a data connection…

uverse busI had the opportunity to jump on the U-Verse Bus to try out the service, and aside from a few hiccups in areas of LA where no carrier gets good service, it worked fairly well. A fun example of how we could stream the first day games on the go. I say fun, but it was actually torturous, as my precious Buckeyes were upset in the very first round. My billion dollar bracket hopes down the drain from the very first game.

imageWe had the service hooked up to the Bus’ TV via a Samsung Galaxy Tab, and throughout most of LA and the Valley, we were watching live college hoops in full HD. We’d catch moments of Netflix style down-sampling, but on the whole it was pleasantly stable, and we had full access to all of the info services found on the traditional TV app. We could fire up the bracket to see wins and losses, or while watching a game get expanded coverage pop-up video style.

So while my team is already out of the race, if you’re still going strong on your bracket, the U-Verse app is a handy way to keep up in real time. Full press release below.

Continue reading “March Madness Anywhere You Want With the U-Verse App!”

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Amazon settles eBook Antitrust Lawsuits with credits for customers

amazon ebook anti-trust emailIf you’re an Amazon Kindle customer, chances are pretty good you got an email from them today about your eBook purchasing history, with a nice little surprise.

In December 2013, a federal court approved legal settlements by publishers Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Penguin in antitrust lawsuits filed by State Attorneys General and Class Plaintiffs about the price of eBooks. Those settlements resulted in credits for qualifying Kindle books purchased between April 1, 2010 and May 21, 2012.

Depending on how many eBooks you’ve purchased, you’ll be issued credits for future Amazon eBook purchases, but that credit is only good for 90 days.

You can catch more info, and if you have any credits waiting for you, on Amazon’s settlement page.

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Qualcomm Toq update improves fitness tracking and notifications

qualcomm toq activity tracker update smartwatchToq owners should see a new update for the smartwatch and companion app. I normally wouldn’t write up a .1 update, but Qualcomm is quickly refining the Toq experience.

Toq software update 1.4 brings a couple new watch faces while polishing up the notifications and activity tracker. You can now see the last five text messages in the watch’s history. Also the fitness tracking has been expanded with better charts for visualizing your progress. You can also set goals for yourself in the Android app, and the watch will show you your progress.

The whole Toq experience is getting cleaner while providing more functionality, and now we’re just waiting out more 3rd party app support. We’ve already seen Toq added to the list of supported watches by Augmented SmartWatch Pro, which adds even more notification customization and support for Fitbit and Withings.

Nice little bit of progress for Qualcomm’s smartwatch tech test bed.  Continue reading “Qualcomm Toq update improves fitness tracking and notifications”

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T-Mobile tries their hand at a Galaxy S5 Unboxing Video

galaxy s5 unboxing video t-mobileFirst Samsung delivers a full hands on video of the Galaxy S5, now T-Mobile is delivering my least favorite flavor of Geek Porn.

The Unboxing Video.

In true unboxing form, over a third of the video is just a pair of disembodied hands holding Samsung’s packaging. If you really needed to hear someone read the specs off the side of the box, and eventually hold the phone in their hands, while also showing you the cable and charger, then this is the video for you!

I have to admit a bit of disappointment though as you’d think that a company like T-Mobile would be able to produce a higher quality video, at least something better than 720p shot on a potato…

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AT&T Begins Pre-Orders for Galaxy S5 and Gear Smartwatch March 21st

glam_gear-2-fit-galaxy-s5-blackSamsung’s newest Galaxy phone is one of the first out of the gate this year, and AT&T is on top of pre-orders!

Starting tomorrow, March 21st you can snag a spot in line for what’s sure to be one of the hottest phones of the year. The GS5 features a 5.1″ 1080p display, Qualcomm 800 series chipset, a new 16MP camera, a larger 2800mAh battery, and a few new tricks like a fingerprint scanner and a heart rate monitor.

The 16GB model will set you back $199 on a two year agreement, or you can drop $650 to buy it out right.

We also have official pricing from AT&T on the family of Gear smartwatches. The Gear 2 will drop for $299, the Gear Neo and Gear Fit  $199.  Those shopping a Gear alongside the purchase of a Galaxy S5 will also receive $50 off their smartwatch.

AT&T expects the GS5 and various Gears to start shipping in early April. Hit the full press release below!

Continue reading “AT&T Begins Pre-Orders for Galaxy S5 and Gear Smartwatch March 21st”

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‘Free to Play: The Movie’ – An Intimate Look at Professional Gaming and E Sports

free to play the movie documentary valve film posterIt’s the dream of every gamer, to not only be paid for playing a video game, but at some point be considered the best in the world.

The industry has embraced various tournaments featuring games like Madden NFL Football and Street Fighter, with prize pools ranging from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Free to Play, from Valve Films, follows the individual members of competitive DOTA 2 teams, as they compete for a $1 million grand prize during a 2011 tournament.

Competitive gaming has already earned a fair amount of respect in many Asian countries, and its popularity is on the rise throughout Europe. Free to Play peels back some of the internal pressures players face, conflicts with family, work/life balance, schooling and social expectations. These players are held up as the vanguards of a generational shift, often with parents who don’t quite understand what the stakes are. The film posits that soon we’ll look back at these earlier tournaments, and take competitive gaming for granted.

It’s not too far fetched an idea either. The video gaming industry now regularly unseats Hollywood in generating revenue, and we’re into our third generation of people living on this planet that don’t know a world without electronic entertainment. Just as physical sports like football generate incredible revenue, while we’re ostensibly watching grown men play a school yard game, there exists the potential for e-sports competitors to make a similar mark on fans.

While I’m not terrifically familiar with the game play of DOTA 2 (described in the film as a blend of Chess and Soccer) it’s easy to get drawn into the drama of what these players face. They carry the expectations of their fellow team members, their fans, and often their home countries.

The million dollar grand prize is important, but maybe not as valuable to some as defeating their rivals.

Valve has released the film for free to stream, and in a variety of languages. Embedded below is the USA (English) version.

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