Mobile Miscellany: week of December 26, 2011

This week may not have been incredibly packed with news in the mobile world, but it was still easy to miss a few stories here and there. Here's some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of wireless for the week of December 26, 2011:

Continue reading Mobile Miscellany: week of December 26, 2011

Mobile Miscellany: week of December 26, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Dec 2011 09:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BattlePaint is an addictive geometric shooter game

battlepaint
In BattlePaint, you play a cube. In fact, you're not even a cube -- just a square. But boy, are you fast! And you can shoot in all directions. That's important, because there are baddies coming in from all over the place.

The "baddies" are swarms of other squares, in all sorts of pretty colors. They track you all over the screen, and you run around very quickly and just shoot, shoot, and shoot some more. If that doesn't sound very emotionally deep, it's because it isn't. But it's fun!

After you shoot a baddy, it splashes paint as it disappears. You need to skate across this blob of paint and "eat it up" to get points. This game is fast. It clocked in at around 60-70 FPS on my system, and was loads of fun to play. It does tend to insult you when you die, though, but don't be offended -- I don't think it's personal.

BattlePaint is an addictive geometric shooter game originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/09/battlepaint-is-an-addictive-geometric-shooter-game/

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Libra for Android helps you track your weight using The Hacker's Diet system

libra
I'm getting fat; that's what you see on the screenshot to the right -- my gradual move from chubby to portly. But never mind the numbers, look at the pretty graph!

If you've ever read The Hacker's Diet, this graph should be instantly recognizable. Each point shows the weight for a given day, while the trend line lets you see if you're gaining or losing weight.

When I use my "main" PC, I have a homebrew solution for creating and maintaining this graph. But I've had to find a temporary solution for Android, and Libra is it.

It's a beautifully simple app, very true to the spirit of The Hacker's Diet. You can create a shortcut on your homescreen that brings you right into the data entry screen, so you just tap the shortcut every morning, feed in your weight for the day and hit OK, and then you get to see your progress (or lack thereof) on the graph.

The app remembers the previous day's weigh-in, which makes it easy to enter today's weight (as they're usually not too different). The graph is zoomable and scrollable, and most importantly, you can export the data to CSV so you're not locked into the app.

If you ever need to track your weight using an Android device for any period of time, Libra is one excellent solution.

Libra for Android helps you track your weight using The Hacker's Diet system originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/31/libra-for-android-helps-you-track-your-weight-using-the-hackers/

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The Perfect Cutlery For Your Post-Holiday Guilt [Utensils]

You knew all that over-indulging during the holidays would cost you. But even if it helps you shed the pounds, is anyone really going to pay $140 for this set of weight lifting cutlery? More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/G-1HYFXfeSw/the-perfect-cutlery-for-your-post+holiday-guilt

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Verizon: LTE is hard, y'all

Android Central

Since CES 2010, Verizon has been hard at work launching 4G LTE products and expanding their 4G coverage, but it's hit a few bumps in the road as of late. The month of December was particularly bad for Verizon and its customers who have taken on 4G devices expecting the same rock solid coverage they've always had with Verizon 3G service. Verizon Wireless's VP of network engineering, Mike Haberman, took the time to break things down for GigaOm (and the rest of us via a press release) and explain a little of what has been happening behind the scenes at Verizon to cause the recent issues.

Starting with the December 7th outage caused by a failure of its back-up communications database, Haberman then noted December 21st downtime that was caused by a portion of their IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) — which replaces the old signaling architectures used in 2G and 3G networks. Finally, the most recent failure on December 28th was caused by was caused by two IMS elements not communicating properly.

In all cases, the IP Multimedia Subsystem was the root cause but once fixed the same issues never occurred again. In other words, they were presumably isolated bugs in the system which are bound to be a part of expanding a nationwide network of this nature. "Being the pioneers, we're going to experience some growing pains," Haberman said.

Haberman isn't hiding from the issues and notes "These issues we've been experiencing are certainly regrettable but they were unforeseeable." and highlighted Verizon's goal which "is to ensure that our 4G networks meets the same high standard that our 3G network does, we’re not there yet, but we’ll get there."

So does Verizon deserve some slack here? That's a matter of personal opinion. Reality is, launching a new nationwide network with bleeding edge technology is hard and there's bound to be some bugs that are destined to wreak havoc. In these cases, the errors found within the system caused issues for many users but in Verizon's defense, you can't really place a "beta" tag on a network so to speak. However, you can stop introducing ridiculous fees and messing with upgrade policies that upset customers when some are already upset with their services.

Sources: VerizonGigaOm

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/9ZAyKdjw4FQ/story01.htm

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Sakroots Artist Circle E-Reader Case

Sakroots is the name for a line of accessories from The Sak handbag company.  Shown here is the Artist Circle E-Reader Case for Kindle, Kindle Touch, and the Nook Simple Touch.  These fabric cases are made of coated canvas, trimmed with polyurethane, and lined with polyester.  The case closes with a zipper, and all hardware [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/12/29/sakroots-artist-circle-e-reader-case/

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ComScore: Android up, RIM down, water wet

Stop us (oh, oh, oh stop us) if you've heard this one before, but in the world of cellphone market share: nothing's changed -- or at least almost nothing. The quarterly data from ComScore say you all still love Android and iOS only slightly more than you used to. Of the 91.4 million smartphones in the US, Google gained the 3.1 percent of the market that RIM lost, and is now inching toward controlling half the nation's phones with 46.9 percent, whilst Apple swallowed the modest gains that Microsoft and Symbian lost. Samsung remains top manufacturer in a report where the only surprise is that 72.6 percent of users send text messages, so what do the other 27.4 percent do when they've been delayed or way-laid?

[Thanks, Wilson]

Continue reading ComScore: Android up, RIM down, water wet

ComScore: Android up, RIM down, water wet originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Dec 2011 07:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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