Reality Bites
The red supergiant star Betelgeuse is getting ready to go supernova, and when it does Earth will have a front-row seat. The explosion will be so bright that Earth will briefly seem to have two suns in the sky. More »
Wendy’s/Arby’s Group Inc. says it is considering selling its struggling Arby’s fast-food business.
South Korea says it has accepted a North Korean offer to hold high-level defence talks.
George Hotz hacked Sony’s PS3, and then told everyone how to do it. That pissed Sony off, and the company is taking him to court. Rival Microsoft is ready to play nice, though. With a gift. More »
You might not know Greg Bell by name but you’ve certainly been affected by his work. The man who directed Logitech’s amusingly creepy Lonely TV viral ads has returned with a series of videos meant to promote Android. The premise is, of course, absurd: middle manager, trapped beneath a fallen vending machine, continues to work because his Android powered smartphone allows him to be productive even without the full use of his hands. In a bit of video magic, the handset with a 32-day battery is the
Nexus S running Gingerbread… but only when shot from the front. Otherwise it’s a Nexus One when shot from the back, presumably because this was filmed before the S’ launch. Regardless, the result is a series of clever videos encapsulating an everyman’s transformation into nerd superhero, El Vendor — we dare you to not click all five.
Continue reading Android turns average man into El Vendor! (video)
Android turns average man into El Vendor! (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Jan 2011 03:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We’ve heard of apps getting 187’d from the iTunes App Store ad nauseum, but Google’s Android Marketplace? That’s pretty novel. In what is probably the most high profile bait-and-switch since the mobile platform’s launch, Kongregate found its eponymous software pulled on the very same day it came out. As CEO Jim Greer tells Joystiq, the app was pulled due to the “claim you can’t use their app store to distribute another app store.” Which is all well and good until you realize that what Kongregate the app does is simply serve as a portal for Kongregrate the mobile site — Greer says it’s the same experience as visiting m.kongregate.com to play its free Flash games — with the option for offline mode. “It’s all essentially cached content delivered in a browser,” he said, “which to me is just bizarre that that would be considered an ‘app store,'” he said.
The Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement says, “you may not use the Market to distribute or make available any Product whose primary purpose is to facilitate the distribution of Products outside of the Market,” with Product defined broadly as “Software, content and digital materials created for Devices in accordance with the Android SDK and distributed via the Market.” When we talked to Google, the company pointed out the same clause and said, “Applications in violation of our policies (like Kongregate) are removed from Android Market.”
Greer adds that a number of people in Google had seen it previously and liked the app (not the ones who ultimately pulled it), and he hopes this is all some grand misunderstanding. We’ll see, but in the meantime, the app is still available for side loading care of Kongregate’s website. Nothing like a backup plan, eh?
Kongregate app pulled from Android Marketplace, CEO hopes it’s just a misunderstanding originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Jan 2011 22:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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ANDROID
An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor away
Submitted by: Unknown
The story of the Trojan Horse must be a favorite among video game console manufacturers, because software updates these days often come with more than bargained for — today, Microsoft issued a mandatory Xbox 360 update, reportedly for a single bugfix, but which seems to have coincidentally halted scores of pirates and hackers from playing Call of Duty: Black Ops and Modern Warfare 2 on the console. Members of the Xbox-Scene forums noted the update was taking suspiciously long to download, discovered that backup copies of these games ceased to work, and presently believe that Microsoft included a patch for these two games to enable an anti-piracy feature that specifically targets burned copies. What does the mandatory update do for you if you’re not part of the hacking scene? It merely enables the console to automatically boot a pre-inserted game when you power it on, a feature that was accidentally disabled in November.
[Thanks, Brian]
Xbox 360 mandatory update restores boot to disc, detains Call of Duty pirates for a tad originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Jan 2011 20:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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An energy consultant is warning Canadian consumers to brace for higher gasoline prices in February or March.
Although the Android Market offers thousands upon thousands of applications to choose from, sometimes you’ll want to break free and install applications that aren’t available on the Market. Read on to learn how.
Manufacturers are constantly popping out new Android phones, and it can all be a bit overwhelming when it comes time to buy a new phone. Here’s how to avoid getting overwhelmed and narrow down your buying decisions. More »
ANOTHER APP
Excellent!
Submitted by: Unknown
Buying a Samsung Galaxy S sounded like a fantastic decision when Android 2.1 was hot stuff, but now that Gingerbread‘s out of the oven, Fascinate, Captivate, Vibrant and Epic 4G owners are starting to get a little tired of being stuck behind the curve. And while we can think of at least one fairly nasty reason why Samsung might be delaying, we’ve been hearing all sorts of conspiracy theories, ranging from holding back Froyo to sell more dedicated Gingerbread phones to making the cellular carriers foot the bill for Android updates for every handset sold or else not get the update at all.
Well, it seems that last rumor’s gained a little traction, because Samsung’s taken it upon itself to squash the story flat. The company gave Phone Scoop the following statement: “No. Samsung is not charging carriers for Froyo updates to Galaxy S. We hope to have more detail on status shortly. Promise!” At this rate, we’re wondering if Samsung should just skip Froyo and just start rolling out some Gingerbread men instead.
Samsung says it isn’t charging carriers for Android updates, promises Galaxy S status report originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Jan 2011 22:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The lynchpin for all discussions of open web standards, HTML5, has been spruced up with a dedicated logo from its parent organization, the W3C. We’d wax poetic about it, but that job has already been done:
“It stands strong and true, resilient and universal as the markup you write. It shines as bright and as bold as the forward-thinking, dedicated web developers you are. It’s the standard’s standard, a pennant for progress. And it certainly doesn’t use tables for layout.”
[Thanks, Matt]
Continue reading HTML5 gets a brave new logo for this brave new world
HTML5 gets a brave new logo for this brave new world originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Jan 2011 21:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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