android Archive

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Steam Releases Mobile App

By
Andy Yen
– Posted on January 26, 2012Posted in: Mobile, Video Games

Well, well well, Steam. Look who’s decided to join the mobile apps party.

I suppose it was only a matter of time before Valve jumped into mobile. Right now the features list looks pretty basic, offering only friend status updates, chatting, and access to the Steam store. While good for impulse buys or checking up on deals, I was actually hoping for at least an achievement viewer. There’s nothing I like doing more when I’m away from my computer than wistfully reflecting on all of my gaming accomplishments.

Obviously, the mobile app’s functionality will only grow from here. After all, Steam itself started off as a pretty basic client, too. It’ll be interesting to see if Steam expands its tendrils into the mobile gaming distribution arena, given that both Android and iOS already have exclusive channels for that. Perhaps Steam will become more of a content curator? There’s certainly a lot of trash to wade through in those marketplaces.

Though the app is still in an invite-only beta mode right now, you can still download it and poke around the offline mode. If you’ve used the iOS Gmail app, the Steam app UI looks very similar.

Download on iOS and Android

 

 

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3.5 Inch Phone Screens

By
Andy Yen
– Posted on November 25, 2011Posted in: Technology

We may or may not ever hear Apple confirm this, but you can bet your festively plump heiney that one of the reasons the 3.5 inch screen of the iPhone was decided upon was the ease of which you could use it with one hand. Turns out that it’s a lot more difficult to do that on a 4.3 inch Android device.

Maybe bigger isn’t always better.

via 3.5 Inches – Dustin Curtis.

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The Hidden Cost Of Owning An Android

By
Andy Yen
– Posted on November 13, 2011Posted in: Technology

Michael Degusta made an interesting chart detailing Android OS software upgrade support for 18 popular devices released over the past couple of years.

The results are disturbing if you expected a pattern of support:

  • 7 of the 18 Android phones never ran a current version of the OS.
  • 12 of 18 only ran a current version of the OS for a matter of weeks or less.
  • 10 of 18 were at least two major versions behind well within their two year contract period.
  • 11 of 18 stopped getting any support updates less than a year after release.
  • 13 of 18 stopped getting any support updates before they even stopped selling the device or very shortly thereafter.
  • 15 of 18 don’t run Gingerbread, which shipped in December 2010.

In a few weeks, when Ice Cream Sandwich comes out, every device on here will be another major version behind.
At least 16 of 18 will almost certainly never get Ice Cream Sandwich.

Could you imagine if Apple forced you to buy a new phone every time they updated iOS? People would riot. The only Android phone i would even consider buying is whatever Google has anointed it’s “official” Nexus device. At least then you’ll get the theoretical “maximum” amount of software updates.

Future OS upgrades are something people rarely think about when shopping for a new phone, but it’s a very real problem with Android. Of course, if you don’t care about getting new features or security updates on your $200 on contract device, then feel free to keep ignoring the issue.

Nevermind that it  would make you the technological equivalent of people who don’t like more cash.

via the understatement: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support.

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