Back to the Future: The Ride (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Jere and Guru discuss the issues of the week. Show Notes
- In Other News
- Expedia to take Bitcoin.
- U.S. Appeals Court rules that police must have a warrant to track your cell phone location, but this is by no means nationwide.
- Author and illustrator of Spot the Dog, Eric Hill, passes at age 86.
- P.F. Chang’s is bringing back manual credit card imprinting and dial up card readers plugged into phone lines while they investigate recent security breach.
- Comcast agrees to refund a woman for 13 years of service she paid for but did not receive.
- Vessyl…because what we all really need is a smart cup that knows what we’re drinking…
- Ford and Heinz to make car parts from tomatoes: Have you driven a tomato lately?
- Wirecutter decides the best USB car charger is a Scosche reVOLT dual charger that can put out 4.8A.
- Platform News
- Dear Google, don’t screw up Android.
- Google’s streamlining of Play Store permission now does not display a permission change if it is in the same category.
- Starbucks to offer Powermat wireless charging…despite the fact the most prevalent wireless charging standard is Qi.
- Google integrates calendar and Gmail in Google Now with Inferred Events…
- Google prepping Google Fit for release via Play Services update for the gathering of fitness data.
- Android comes to Chili’s as a replacement for menus…other restaurants following.
- App News
- Swiftkey goes free…paid purchasers to get theme pack as thank you. (Play Link)
- Facebook updated with ability to like offline…because if you don’t have internet…you might go into Facebook withdrawal…
- Google Maps surpasses 1 billion downloads…joins Gmail in the hall of automatic installations.
- Pushbullet and EvolveSMS join forces to allow users to use their phone SMS from their desktop.
- Official Universal Studios Florida app now available so Jere can now check how long the line for Back to the Future: The Ride is. Hint: It would require a time machine to find out. (Play Link)
- Amazon adds Whispersync for Voice, aka Audible Integration, into its Android Kindle app, a longstanding Fire feature. (Play Link)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 45:52 — 23.9MB)
Guru,
I just listened to the show. I bought a couple of those $50 Moto Gs as well, for my kids & I to use as “iPod Touch” like devices. You can simply go through the activation process but choose the “pay later” option and you won’t get bugged.
I disabled a bunch of the apps in there (including the “contacts” apps which power the dialer), and used Nova Launcher to hide those that couldn’t be disabled. Now, the kids can’t accidentally call 911. I turned off mobile data, too.
Keeping it in airplane mode and then turning on wifi will let them get great battery life, too.
They were 8GB models, with just over 5GB free, but the kids are 8 & 6 so they don’t have a bunch of mp3s to deal with. It is also the excuse to keep old, unused apps off their phones, too.
I picked up qi wireless adapters off podnutz.com/amazon (Go, Door!) for around $8 each, too. It stays plugged into the microUSB port & it is tucked inside the case. They charge sitting on the Nokia DT-900 chargers that AT&T was selling for $5/each (I bought 8 – if you buy more than 3 you get an extra 25% off, too).
No, they aren’t rooted because they can’t, yet… But I even disabled the Google Apps, too, so there isn’t much privacy/data issues either. Overall, the best $50 I’ve spent in quite a while. Plus, I don’t have to worry about my Nexus 5 falling out of my pocket while I’m on the lawn mower!
Thanks again for a great show!