All About Android 16
Episode 16 |
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Recorded: July 11, 2011 Published: July 11, 2011 Duration: 1:26:11 |
Contents |
All About Android 16: Battery Savings: Your Mileage May Vary
The Nortel patent sale, Eileen's Samsung Galaxy S II, battery saving apps, general tips on saving juice, and more.
Guests
- Phil Nickinson
- Matt Macari
News
- Nortel patent ramifications -- as requested by our viewers/listeners
- US and Canadian courts have signed off on the $4.5 billion Nortel mobile patent sale which results in Rockstar Bidco group, comprised of Apple, Microsoft, RIM, Ericsson, EMC and Sony having complete control over around 6,000 mobile patents. The six companies effectively banded together during the June auction to prevent Google from winning, which potentially has far reaching consequences to the Android platform.
- Joining us to pick apart the implications of this deal is Matt Macari, a Patent Attorney and patent blogger at LitigatingApple.com. Thank you SO much for joining us today!
- Six companies getting together to disallow Google from winning the auction just sounds fishy to me. And US regulators are evaluating the deal to see if everything is kosher. Do you see any chance that the deal is changed or not allowed to finalize?
- How could this affect Android as a platform?
- Could the cost of Android phones go up as a result?
- Could the operability of Android phones be required to change in some way?
- If Google is so filthy rich, and this was such an important auction, why would they choose not to do whatever it takes to win the auction? Could this be seen as Google not being fully committed to Android?
- Google is not patent rich, so we can expect a lot of lawsuits. How does Google fight back?"
- New today: Courts approve Nortel patent sale to Apple/RIM group
- Google loss in Nortel patent bids undermines Android, analyst says
- Kent Walker, Google’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel: “This outcome is disappointing for anyone who believes that open innovation benefits users and promotes creativity and competition. We will keep working to reduce the current flood of patent litigation that hurts both innovators and consumers.”
- googles-rivals-accused-of-colluding-against-android
- antitrust-officials-probing-sale-of-patents-to-googles-rivals
"Have you heard about "free" games which try to trick your kids into using in app purchasing to continue to play the game. Check out "Bug Village" which is unfortunately one of the "Featured" on the Android Market right now.
My understanding is "Bug Village" times out and forces you to wait 15 minutes before you can continue building your colony, unless you pony up some money buy virtual ""coins"" which allow you to continue the game sooner. My 5 year old son, who can't quite read yet, was prompted by this game to purchase ""coins"" this afternoon. Of course he just wanted to click buttons until his game continued, and he ended up purchasing 10 coins for $2.99, and there is no refund period for in app purchases!
Apparently I am lucky, as some searching revealed that one 5 year old racked up $450 of in app "coin" purchases on this game in about 10 minutes!!!
It appears that neither the "in app" nor the market purchase processes allow you the option to require password verification before completing purchases. This is a horrible oversight by Google that needs to be addressed right away. Anything you can do to help bring this problem to their attention would be appreciated.
Brian Hanifin"
- Some commenters in Android Market concur:
"Nice game, but be advised, young children can easily make in-app purchases. My 3 yr old unknowingly bought $20 worth of acorns thru my Google acct." Richard
"Game is ok. But my 7year old made a purchase accidently.of $65. I still want my money back. Dont get this game." Richie
Hardware
- Eileen's new Samsung Galaxy S II - initial review
- This is an unlocked Euro version, bought for $600 on Amazon.com. Using my iPhone sim card to get 3G
- Samsung's Galaxy S II becomes company's quickest selling phone: three million in 55 days
- Short reads: Upcoming releases
- IDC: Nook Color Leading E-Reader Sales For First Time Ever, As Tablets Lag
- IDC released a new report with some interesting takeaways: First, Nook Color leads E-Reader sales for the first time ever, ousting the Kindle. Secondly, tablet sales are slipping overall having declined 28% from the previous quarter, but that didn't stop Android tablets from growing to 34%, up 8%.
- Related: $140 Google eBooks reader, iriver Story HD, hits stores July 17
"hey guys
Jason's little comment about old man eyes reminded me to write in to you guys about a problem android has had for the longest time: why is there no system wide font size setting?! There are plenty of people complaining about this on android's help page, yet Google has done nothing! Even a setting that only controls the font size of of system menus would be better than nothing, since most apps have built in font size settings now. So, is there a app that does that? Or are there ROMs that has this feature? And since I'm switching phones soon, should I just get the biggest screen with the lowest resolution phone I can find (Infuse)? I do plan to root if that helps.
As many suggestions as possible would be great.
thanks
Sam in Canada"
"I have definitely seen this type of customization on various ROMs.
This app is for root users and allows you to change the font, the size of the font, AND the screen density to make everything larger if you wish."
- Font Changer (root)
Apps
- Google Maps 5.7 for Android brings Transit Navigation beta, updated access to directions
- “Download map area” added to Labs in Google Maps for Android
- Scrabble for Android - Free, available now
"AAA crew,
My Android phone is our family's primary phone --- we dumped our landline over a year ago. Looking at my phone records, 90% of the incoming calls are from toll-free numbers, and there are a lot. Do you guys know of a good, inexpensive app that will let me dump calls from these telemarketers based on a wildcarded phone number match? I've searched a lot without much success.
Thanks! You guys are awesome, and I love the show. Long live TWiT!
Kyle"
- Answers below
- Google Voice (mark numbers as spam)
- Droid Block
- Mr. Number
- Call Control
Android Arena!
- Last Week's Poll
- This week's face-off: Battery Saving Apps
- Ron - BatteryFu
- Eileen - Green Power, FREE; premium version is $1.69 - has no ads, a widget, power from home screen and night mode
- Jason - Juice Defender Ultimate ($7.13, free version AND plus version ($2.84) available too)
- The settings Jason used for Juice Defender Ultimate
Sponsors
Netflix
- ad times: :21-:35 and 54:44-57:10
Audible
- ad times: :35-:43 and 33:22-35:42
Production Information
- Edited by: Jason
- Notes:
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