App Review: Poker King Texas Hold ‘Em

037Are you a poker fan and just can’t get enough of the game? You should check out Poker King developed by Geax Game Inc. Poker King is one of the top rated poker games for Windows 8 phones, Android and iOS.

This app was very well designed and very easy to use. The graphics are very easy on the eyes and well polished.  Playing Poker King is very smooth and you can choose to play in Sit-N-Go, Tournament,  or browse tables to play at.

One of the nice features while searching for a table to play at is the option to choose the fast option. If you regularly play poker on your phone then you know how frustrating it can be when another player is taking his sweet time trying to figure out their next move. When you choose a table with the fast speed, you will have a shorter time to make your move thus making the game a lot faster and enabling you to play more games in a shorter period of time.

Poker King’s game features: Continue reading “App Review: Poker King Texas Hold ‘Em”

Dropbox improves folder sharing for Android app users

dropbox mobile-shared-blogpost-image-v2I’m so happy to see this.

I’ve been stuck in situations using the Dropbox app where I’ve needed to create and share folders with people, and the experience hasn’t always been seamless. Often I’d just wait until I could get to a proper computer to finish the job, but now it looks like I wont have to do that anymore. Dropbox is cleaning up the quick actions on sharing and creating folders in their Android app. If you’re burning through a lot of cloud storage on DB like I am, this should be a welcome improvement to the service.

I especially appreciate the new folder settings page for controlling permissions and user options. Greatly appreciated.

Go hit the update on Google Play! It’s only available for Android users at this time, with word that iOS should get an update soon.

(via Dropbox Blog)

Opera looking for Android Beta Testers for Opera Max Data Saving Service

Opera_Max-phone1Welcome Opera! You’ve been kinda quiet lately!

Opera was the browser of choice for us hip kids during the Windows Mobile days. Back then, data compression was helpful because we often had slow Edge and baby 3G networks to browse on. Opera would squish that data down, and pages would load and render faster on those old phones. Nowadays, we have access to much faster 3G and 4G networks, but many of us have plans which include data caps, so data compression serves a different (yet equally useful) purpose, especially if you do a lot of browsing on your phone or cell network enabled tablet.

Opera Max is in open BETA now, and Opera is looking for testers using Android 4.0 or newer phones and tablets. Utilizing a Virtual Private Network, where Opera squishes data down for you before sending it out to your device, they claim they can shave a considerable chunk of data usage off your monthly tally. Especially as this set up will work for any non-encrypted data you receive, it’ll also help reduce data usage for a variety of apps and services you might use on your device. That’s right, not just data through your browser, but all data streaming to your phone.

It’s a little similar to how Blackberries used to handle network connections, sending through RIM servers before delivering to the handset. One of the tools which made BB so formidable during the early days of smartphone use. I’ve been a big fan of improving network efficiency, and this could be one way in which we end users can help reduce the load on cell towers.

If you’d like to try out the BETA, the full details are on the Opera Max site!

Experts Q&A 02: Android Boogaloo! We’re answering YOUR Android questions LIVE!

experts round table androidROUND 2!
If you missed it live last night, our SECOND Experts round table is now available on Youtube, and this time we’re chatting ALL things Android! Your questions answered by some of the best minds on the web! Tablets, phones, OS updates, Chromecast and more!

The Experts this week:
Andrew Kameke from Mobile Burn – @AndrewKam
Warren Bowman from BWOne – @BWOneDotCom
Enobong Etteh from Boored at Work – @BooredAtWork
Russell Holly from Geek.com – @RussellHolly
Tshaka Armstrong from Fox LA – @TshakaArmstrong

Links to specific questions after the jump!

Continue reading “Experts Q&A 02: Android Boogaloo! We’re answering YOUR Android questions LIVE!”

PlusUs unveils LifeLink cable for Apple and MicroUSB devices, smallest fold-able charge cable.

LifeLink in Hand PhotoLooks like ChargeCard has a little competition…

There’s just never a cable around when you need one, right? You use your phone to its fullest, and the battery will probably be dead by dinner time, if you’re lucky. LifeLink looks to help ease some of those usage issues. A small plastic card unfolds, allowing you to connect your phone to a computer, battery, or charger. If you’re losing your charge cables, forgetting to take them with you, or they’re becoming a rats nest of tangles in your bag, Lifelink could be a nice peace of mind solution to help insure you can recharge your phone on the go.

Available in Apple Lightning connector or MicroUSB flavors, they’re currently pre-order only, and should ship “early next year”. Grab one now for $19 during the pre-order period. The price jumps up to $24 when it goes full retail. A portion of every LifeLink sale will go towards a charitable cause of the customer’s choice. A very nice sentiment indeed.

Full PR after the jump.

Continue reading “PlusUs unveils LifeLink cable for Apple and MicroUSB devices, smallest fold-able charge cable.”

Want to use a Flash Drive on a phone or tablet? Sony launches drive with full sized and Micro USB connectors!

Sony-2-in-1-USB-open-1024x866This one’s pretty much for the Android users.

Did you know that most modern Android Phones support USB host to some degree? That means you can often connect low power USB devices to your phone or tablet, and the device will recognize them. Does your phone lack a MicroSD? You can probably augment your storage with a USB Flash Drive. Of course this often means have to keep track of an adapter cable, one that will convert your phone’s Micro USB port into a full sized USB port.

Sony’s new 2-in-1 drive offers up a potential solution for this issue. With a full sized USB 2 jack on one side and a Micro USB on the other. This should make sneaker-netting your files between computer and mobile device much easier. While Cloud Storage can help expand our gadget’s capabilities, sometimes it’s just faster and easier to go old school Plug & Play.

Sony says the device will work on most Android devices starting with Android 4.0.3 and newer. Prices start at $20 for an 8GB drive and scale up to $63 for 32GB. Drives should be available starting January 2014.

Full PR after the jump!

Continue reading “Want to use a Flash Drive on a phone or tablet? Sony launches drive with full sized and Micro USB connectors!”

Android Device Manager now a Standalone App: Locate Lost Phones, Reset Passcode, Remote Wipe Data

android device manager on google play app protection remote lock wipe screenshotBabysteps people…

I still find supremely frustrating that we don’t have a kill switch option on our phones. A self destruct setting. Something that would make our glowing rectangles FAR less attractive to thieves. In the meantime, services like this help move us in the right direction.

Android Device Manager was built into newer releases of the Android OS, but that didn’t help folks on OLDER versions of Android. Now you can grab it as a standalone app, and that makes me really happy. Again, we’re seeing Google side step manufacturers and carriers which aren’t updating older phones, and offering more of their OS services as standalone apss they can update and control. Wise move.

Android Device Manager allows you to track a lost phone, reset your password, and in the event you can not retrieve the device you can wipe it out to prevent your data falling in the wrong hands. We still don’t have a hard lock/brick setting, but at least we have better, officially supported tools to protect our Android phones and tablets.

Go get at folks. It’s compatible with Android 2.3 and newer models!
Data and device security is something we should all be on top of.

Android Device Manager on Google Play

Google adds Sony Z Ultra to Google Play Edition stock Android Portfolio

sony z ultra google play editionNo sooner do we post on the LG GPad 8.3 GPE, then we discover the Sony Z Ultra is also playing ball.

Yup, we now have a proper phablet offering for those who want a true-blue stock Android experience on a larger screened phone. Offering up a 6.4″ 1080p display, it’s also the first GPE device to rock Qualcomm’s screamer Snapdragon 800 quad core. 16GB of storage on board with a MicroSD card slot, and the Z Ultra is also water resistant. A nice little touch there, helping the survivability of a somewhat pricey gadget.

Speaking of price, you’ll drop $649 for a Z Ultra of your very own. Not a bad price at all for a proper phablet, and it looks like handsets should be shipping out in 1-2 days. Get at it folks!

Sony Z Ultra GPE on Google Play