Android

Baseball apps that score on opening day

Before "The Star-Spangled Banner" is sung, Navy jets go ceremonially zooming overhead, and the first cracked peanut shell hits the ground today, let's talk about the important stuff when it comes to the inaugural game of the 2011 Major League Baseball season: Baseball apps for your smartphone or tablet.

While baseball is surely the most romanticized of American professional sports, it's also by far the geekiest. After all, it was a certain set of baseball fans' and executives' reliance on and obsession with player performance numbers that gave birth to the curious science behind baseball statistics nicknamed "sabermetrics."

In some sports you can't look away or you'll miss a key play. Baseball moves at a bit more easygoing pace. "People say it's slow, but it's a thinking game," is how basketball coaching legend John Wooden once defended the sport.

With all that time between plays, and of course with OPS and VORP--that's "on-base percentage plus slugging" and "value over replacement player" to the uninitiated--to calculate (and pick the perfect roster of players for your fantasy team, obviously), it makes sense that the geekiest sport of them all offers so many ways to use technology to watch it.

Here are some of the best ways to watch, follow, or fantasize about America's pastime, and of course, keep score of games. … Read more

Verizon's spring plans confirm Android details

A newly leaked Verizon road map has landed online, shedding light on the carrier's releases over the next few months. Phandroid has posted a list of upcoming devices and their respective launch dates, and as one might expect, there is plenty of Android to go around.

Assuming these dates hold, the next Android phone to arrive should be the Casio Commando on April 7. As Android Central points out, it will likely be the C771 first unearthed in late 2010. Bowing that same day will be the 4G LTE-ready Samsung Charge. Expected to carry the Droid branding when it … Read more

How to: Use Amazon Cloud Player for Android

Amid rumors of Google and Apple launching their own cloud music service, Amazon.com quickly released the Amazon Cloud Player. The service lets you upload up to 5GB of music to the cloud for free, which can be accessed from any other computer or Android device.

Sadly, iOS and other mobile platforms were left out--Amazon did not release an app or Web compatibility for them.

With the Amazon MP3 app for Android, you can play, edit, or download music stored in the cloud. Music you purchase from the in-app store can be automatically backed-up onto your cloud and won't … Read more

How a Zune tablet could beat Apple and Android

Back on March 14, Microsoft confirmed plans to discontinue making its Zune player, a device that arrived a little too late to be a successful challenger to Apple's iPod, but nonetheless had plenty of fans. At least enough that Microsoft still sees value in the brand and platform.

According to a statement issued to CNET by a Microsoft representative, it's "absolutely committed to providing the best movies, music, and TV show experiences through Zune on Xbox, the PC, Windows Phone 7, and Zune devices."

It was that last part about Zune devices that got me. While on the surface it could be read as "Microsoft is not going to leave Zune player owners out in the cold," it also left me wondering if a Zune tablet might be in the works. And I'm not talking about tablets from other manufacturers running a Windows OS. I mean a Zune tablet.

But, like the Zune player, is it too late for Microsoft to get in and become a leader in the category instead of a footnote? I don't think so, but it'll have to act fast. Here's what it would take to make a solid entry in the category. … Read more

The 404 788: Where we buy you a virtual girlfriend (podcast)

Scott Stein fills in for Wilson, who is spending a sick day at home trawling WebMD on his iPad. Or maybe he's at a job interview for Grand Theft Auto V. Today's show discusses a phenomenon known as "Netflix hoarding," how to buy an online girlfriend using a new service called Cloud Girlfriend, and we suggest a few April Fools' Day pranks for nerds.

Episode 788 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Digital City 121: Hot laptops, Samsung 9 and Acer Iconia; plus, building a mini man cave

This week: We check out two of the hottest new laptops, the Samsung Series 9 and the Acer Iconia. Plus, Dan describes building his mini man cave, and we play some more tech trivia for chat room prizes

Bonus: You can download the show's theme song as a free MP3 here for a limited time!

Testing Android battery drain at different native resolutions

A few weeks ago I posted detailing the performance scores of several smartphones.

Of particular interest were the video battery results for the Android phones. Some commenters took issue with the fact that I used 720p video to drain the battery life of the Android phones, while the iPhone 4 was tested with video running at that device's native resolution.

Some thought this was an unfair battery drain, as the 720p video would have to be resized to fit a phone's native resolution, possibly taking away processing cycles, draining the battery more quickly. Commenters suggested that the video … Read more

Cellular South to offer HTC Merge in April with Amazon app store preinstalled

Cellular South announced today that it will be among the first carriers in the United States to offer the HTC Merge. Officially introduced back in late February, the Merge is HTC's first dual-mode CDMA/GSM handset to run Android.

Even without a full review, there's a lot to like about the Merge. It features HTC's Sense UI with Android 2.2, a full sliding QWERTY keyboard, a 3.8-inch touch screen, and a 5-megapixel camera capable of recording HD video. What's more, the HTC Merge will be the first device to launch with Amazon.com's new Android app store preloaded on the device.

Although the press release doesn't spell it out very clearly, the Merge also will offer the Android Market for apps and games. When reached for a comment, a representative of Cellular South told CNET that the carrier is giving customers access to both distribution models. … Read more

The 404 787: Where play the show from the Amazon Cloud Drive (podcast)

Today we're talking about Amazon's new locker storage service in the cloud that could signal an Amazon-branded tablet PC in the near future, an iOS app that lets you quickly erase regretful Internet activity, and Sylvester Stallone's eponymous clothing line.

Episode 787 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Firefox for Android reaches 'full' status

For Android devotees, Mozilla's issuance of Firefox for Android has been a long wait. Sure, the browser maker added it to the Android Market in beta form months ago and made the release candidate (RC) available last week.

However, today marks the first that the app is available in full, unfettered by qualifications that mark it a prerelease product prone to bugs and subjected to rigorous user testing.

In other words, the app is done.

I gave my hands-on impressions of the faster, better-designed RC version of Firefox 4 for Android (and Maemo) last week. My colleague Seth Rosenblatt … Read more