Android Apps News: While you were out – May 30 – June 5

Here we go after a slight lull in activity we have some of the most interesting stories gathered here especially for you, our loyal Androidites!

GTA 5 Cosplayers: Keep your phone at home during heists!

We had an idea after watching this man put on several types of masks and willingly speed through traffic cameras that maybe… theoretically, we could, in essence, do something worse with our plates taped up and a mask on our faces and our friendly neighborhood police officers would be helpless to do anything about it. In retrospect, technology evolves all the time and up until now that would not have been a problem except, now Law Enforcement is compelling Google to hand over information on Geolocation Data. Russell Brandon has the story…

Real Android desktop PCs: Android-x86 you got Owned!

In a world where the Android OS sits at the very tippy top of consumer computing systems we typically sigh in frustration when we pull our phones out and realize that we need to do a few things at once. Several handset models have been billed as “The Best Business Phone” out there however in practice this falls short by miles. Project Butter for Android was supposed to make the OS animations more fluid and less choppy with an emphasis on utilizing memory efficiently in order to display information without requiring much stress on the Graphics Processor Unit. What we encounter is problematic with opening and closing windows while using our fat fingers. IT was then we asked the question, “Why isn’t there Android on PC’s?” It makes sense. Android-x86 Devs you better be paying attention!  TheNextWeb delivers the answer to our plight…

Credit: TheNextWeb.com

Facebook is pulling a Microsoft…USING FORCE

Ok everyone I want to ask you a question… How many of you use Facebook on your phone as an app? do you find it extremely convenient? I’m willing to bet you were forced to use the app occasionally when you didn’t have your phone on you and you needed to check your page on a friends phone. You log in, do what you need to do, and you log out. That’s pretty easy right? Did you have to worry about charging his phone or that maybe his information might be disseminated across different services on his phone? That probably already happens but you figure it’s not coming from you. This is entirely correct. There should be no reason that you are using facebook on your phone unless you specifically want to utilize those things that come with a mobile edition. Using the browser edition makes so much sense. Especially when they offer a mobile edition of the website as well. Less background data, less privacy issues, and WAY LESS battery drain. Problem is, Mark Zuckerberg seems to have figured that out and according to BGR, “Facebook is about to make a major change to its mobile site, and potentially force you to install one extra app on your device.” They have more on the issue here…

Credit: WeekHacker.com

REAL Android Robots? No longer a clever buzzword!

For all of our tech enthusiasts out there… Do any of you remember ASIMO the first robot developed by Honda? It was a bulky thing that made its US debut February 14, 2002. Since then it’s gone through several iterations that improve upon its ability to interact with the world around it. From running–sorta–to walking, to grasping delicate objects we’ve come a long way since. SoftBank Robotics is now intent on providing consumer grade personal robots. It’s, “…designed to interact with human beings and enhance people’s lives by providing information on demand and entertaining children,” this is actually a good thing in our opinion , anything  to babysit the kids while we’re doing something that needs to be done, right? Best of all we won’t have to worry about the device doing inappropriate things to the kids while we’re not watching. The only problem is the cost. While the cost is a factor, if we could afford one then the next question begs to be asked. Why would we need them around if a tablet and a television could do the same? Lucy Black has a few compelling reasons why… 

Let’s sum up Android v. Apple as quickly as possible…

Androids and Apples, we should start using that as a comparison meme today. One of the largest case studies in Irony. A trusted computer company with roots as far back as Microsoft and a beloved CEO with a caustic personality who seemed destined for memorial. It also happened to fuel a few Hollywood biographical productions as well. That aside, let us focus on an unexpected turn of events back in 2010. Android, just a fledgling OS at the time rocketed past Apple by almost two-fold and continued to dominate up to present day. If we could chart this–battles and all–into only a few charts what might that look like? What might we say to future generations or say… the wayside alien? The Verge has you covered…

Credit: FitnessBin.com

The Mobile Payment Warzone: why winning isn’t important

“That’ll be $45.08/£31.06 please.”

You do something that this mum and pop shop hasn’t seen very often. You pull out your phone and smile really big in hopes to astound them to your technological savvy.

“Where do I…tap?” You ask.

The young woman seems bored and tells you flat-out,

“We only take Cash or Credit Cards.”

That’s happened to us on more than a few occasions, though to be fair, less so now. Paying with a card used to be special at one point as well. Today we have a status check in the fight for the right to help you spend your money. Apple, Android, and Samsung are starting to even up nicely. This could be a bad thing when you think about market share as each of these three companies are attempting to gain the most from usage of their payment services–however–the main point we need to make here is the winner really isn’t that important as long as market share is even. An even marketshare in the global payment sphere means that the technology is going to be adopted one way or another. Remember when NO ONE accepted your google wallet NFC payments? Yeah kiss those days goodbye. ARSTechnica has the Scoop…

Credit: Samsung Tomorrow

And That’s the week in Android

You’re Welcome!