When Google released its Google Now app we saw our first look at a card-based UI in an Android app. Touted as being able to show you "the right information at the right time", this new design for displaying information is elegant. It's a simple and to-the-point method that standardizes information onto a single "card", separated from other information. It should come as no surprise. We've been using cards for a very long time in our everyday lives. Libraries used to catalog all their books and media offerings on individual cards in something called a "card catalog". Your mother probably ...

In the States, yesterday was Memorial Day. It's a day we spend remembering men and women who have given of their lives, times, and talents to fight for our Freedom and Liberties. It's also a time where we honor our departed loved ones by visiting and decorating graves. In my family, it's an annual tradition to gather at Grandma's house, then trek to three cemeteries, cleaning headstones, placing flowers, remembering all the good times had together, and forging new memories as well. Memorial Day also represents a three-day weekend in which a great many people head to the hills with boats ...

Google introduced some very cool things at I/O 2013, primary among them was a renewed focus on services. In addition to talking a lot about new Google Play Services which will bring a whole new set of features and functionality to every Android handset and tablet from Froyo on up, we were also shown "Auto Awesome" and Hangouts (the replacement for Talk). Auto Awesome "Auto Awesome" is a set of utilities built in to the latest version of Google Plus -- the website, not the app. It can automatically select the best pictures from your vacation and organize them into a scrap book for you. It ...

Before any large event or conference there's always a lot of speculation about what's coming next. It may come as a surprise to many of you, but any software development project is never really "done". There is always a list of features that didn't make it in, known bugs that were deemed not to be "show stoppers", bugs that weren't identified prior to release, as well as other patches and updates that come with the normal development cycle. As such, there will always be updates to software, including operating systems like Android. There are always rumors about what's coming in the next ...

HTC seems like they want to be "number one" -- at least they want people to associate them with that level of prestige. Why else would they name their devices "One" and "First" when everyone else is rapidly iterating their model numbers? Recently the hardware maker teamed up with a social networking service to do something bold and creative: they released a smartphone that was "Facebook centric". When you turned on your phone you got Facebook first. Finally, the much rumored "Facebook phone" had arrived -- but they were bold enough not to call it that. And now, just a few months later, ...

The keynote of Google I/O 2013 has come and gone. This would have been the time when Google announced a new version of Android. Instead they went into great detail about new features that are coming to Google Play Services. To bring everyone up to speed, Google Play Services are a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) -- hooks that developers use to make apps do awesome things. While some may argue that APIs alone don't do much to help end users like you and I, others would say they provide a foundation upon which developers can write new applications and extend current apps ...

We've shown off the Paranoid Android Custom ROM before. This is the ROM that enables phone, phablet, and tablet mode regardless of whether you're using a phone, phablet, or tablet -- and you can change the way your device displays any app. Paranoid Android also includes a very functional Pie-shaped control and notification area that we've shown you as well. Recent builds of Paranoid Android include a Halo-styled notification system. When a new notification comes in, it's presented to you in a small circle that floats above whatever app you're in. Once you've seen it, it slides out of the ...

Smartphones, like it or not, are disposable goods. We buy them, we use them, we abuse them, then we toss them away when they no longer serve our purposes. The reasons for getting rid of or replacing our smartphones are many, but what would it take for manufacturers to "wow" us with a super long lasting smartphone? What is a "Long Lasting Smartphone"? Before we get too far into the question, what exactly is the question? What do we mean by a "super long lasting smartphone"? Does it mean the same thing to you as it does to me? Let's break down the various components of what an ideal "long ...