Chris Burns

Author: Chris Burns

Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch Unboxing and Hands-on Video

By Chris Burns
on 12 Sep, 2011

While it's true that we did get to look at this device less than a couple weeks ago for a brief event set up for the release of all the Galaxy S II devices in the USA, we must also acknowledge the fact that before review units hit our hands, no software is final. Therefor let's have a look at the WiMAX version of Samsung's USA GSII effort, the Epic 4G Touch. This device takes the original international version of the Galaxy S II and bumps it up a few notches in several places, most noticeably in both its screen size and its user interface, Samsung's most user-friendly version of TouchWiz yet.

GameStop testing Android Gaming Tablet pre 2012 launch

By Chris Burns
on 12 Sep, 2011

Word on the street is that there's going to be a new gaming tablet… on the streets. GameStop company president Tony Bartel has commented this week about how they're currently in testing mode for an Android-based tablet that they've also already started working on a gaming controller for as well. This tablet will be, as Bartel calls it, a “GameStop certified gaming platform” and that it'll start with a few games and build up and up and up and explode all over the gaming industry similar to what we've seen (to a degree) with OnLive with HTC and other related groups.

PSA: There is no 3D Facebook Phone

By Chris Burns
on 11 Sep, 2011

Even though an HTC Status 3D would be the talk of the town, certainly, if it were real, and certainly not only for positive reasons, we've got to let you know that the September Best Buy BUYER'S GUIDE has a slightly less than factual bit to it. On the back cover of our beloved Best Buy mobile-intensive mini magazine, (the one you can get when you walk in the door, right over by all the smartphones,) there are three devices, (four, technically,) sitting one next to another: the "ThunderBolt by HTC", the "HTC EVO 3D" and the "HTC Status 3D" with new choice of either AT&T standard silver coloring or Best Buy's exclusive Mauve coloring. I asked, they giggled.

Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman teardown photos posted at FCC

By Chris Burns
on 10 Sep, 2011

Over the past year or so, Sony Ericsson has been bringing their A-game to the Android smartphone and oddities market, and with the combination of the forever-famous Walkman brand name, they've got a good chance of continuing to increase business built on the Google mobile OS platform. What's up today is an FCC listing of the Sony Ericsson media player known as Live with Walkman, a long name for an interestingly quite possibly awesome future mobile device running Android. Look like the originally announced bright white to you?

Samsung Galaxy S II AT&T Sign Up Page Live with Details

By Chris Burns
on 10 Sep, 2011

The team at AT&T are now officially ramping up their online attack for the Samsung Galaxy S II, posting this week their first sign-up page for email updates on the device, orange, black, and blue flying everywhere. Mostly orange though, of course, as AT&T has in recent months been pushing a massively orange-looking ad campaign to work in a rather aesthetically pleasing way with their heavily Blue and White globe logo. Look nice to you here? You betcha. It'd be rather tough to make this device look less than amazing, when you get down to it.

TouchPal Android keyboard alternative out of Beta, Free for Limited Time

By Chris Burns
on 10 Sep, 2011

If there's one thing you can count on for Android, it's an ever-increasing selection of 3rd-party keyboard alternatives. Today we've got word that developers at Cootek have upgraded their TouchPal keyboard out of Beta, available now for free on the Android Market. Know before we go any further that this is instantly going to be compared to SWYPE as it's got what that app made famous on the Android platform: moving your finger across the keypad, collecting letters for words as you go. With this comes predictive text and an amazingly intelligent engine connecting all elements for the potential to "type" text as fast as possible on mobile platforms. In addition to that, this app, unlike some similar keypads on the market right this moment, is free during this first release leading up to a paid version on October 31, 2011.

Samsung Pure Breeze Android Launcher app Review [Video]

By Chris Burns
on 9 Sep, 2011

If there's one thing that device manufacturers across the board are NOT known for, it's optional user interfaces. Instead it's nearly always a face over the top of Android that, if you're not too keen on hacking your device, you're sort of stuck with. Of course manufacturers don't want you to see it that way, promoting their devices alongside their user interfaces as added value - take TouchWiz for example on Samsung devices (video included below aside Pure Breeze video). TouchWiz is what Samsung places on the vast majority of their Android devices, namely their Galaxy S II line coming to the USA this month and the Infuse 4G which we're using for this hands-on look at what Samsung has silently released as a brand new Launcher - Pure Breeze!

Android Developers say Piracy a concern, iOS found more profitable for Paid Apps

By Chris Burns
on 8 Sep, 2011

There's a brand new study out right this very moment done up by Yankee Group and Skyhook which has found Apple users downloading paid apps on the average six times more than their Android counterparts. This same study, as published today, found that users in the USA downloaded approximately 40 apps a year per user, and that Android developers made and continue to make "much less" money from the sales of paid apps than their Apple iOS developer friends. A further study done on 75 Android developers showed "rampant piracy" of Android apps to be the reason why there's a gap between the two camps.

Sony Ericsson Nozomi tipped with 1.5GHz dual-core and 342 PPI display

By Chris Burns
on 8 Sep, 2011

It should go without saying that 342 PPI on a smartphone display is big, it's bad, it's amazing. One of the things that makes the iPhone such a blockbuster device (amongst many things, I'm sure) is the fact that it (the iPhone 4, that is) has a 326 PPI on its display. That's THICK and it makes brightness and sharpness tip and top. What we're to understand today is that Sony Ericsson will be punching that PPI (pixels per inch) directly in the nose with a device currently code-named Nozomi. Will this dual-core 1.5GHz device bring the beatdown, or will it come out much, much too late?

iBall Slide Android Tablet has Ports Galore and a $300 pricetag

By Chris Burns
on 8 Sep, 2011

If there's one sort of device that we've over this past year come to find we're in no shortage of, it's Android "tablets". I put quotation marks around that word because as Android evolves and groups like Samsung bring out devices that bridge the gap, the word "tablet" will be used less and less by publishers while "Android device" used in a general sense will become much more likely a term for news releases. What we've got here, before that wave covers us all, is an Android device which has a 7-inch display, runs Android 2.3.x Gingerbread, and has about as many ports as you could ask for along the side.