Phil Nickinson's blog

The one word you think of when you see those three letters. CAT. As in Caterpillar. As in construction equipment.

Rugged.

And that's translated nicely to the Cat 15 ruggedized Android smartphone. Available now for $349 after its unveiling a couple months ago at Mobile World Congress, it's billed as a durable smartphone for the active set, whether that's on the side of the mountain or atop a rather impressive piece of construction equipment.  

In fact, we watched this sucker hit the floor hard in Las Vegas. Hard. As in up all night gambling and you can't take it anymore hard. We've got hands-on video and more after the break.

It's that time of year, again, folks. We're live from the spring CTIA event in Las Vegas, where the mobile industry comes together to show off the nuts and bolts that makes all this stuff work.

We'll also get a little consumer-friendly fare, so stick around for that as well.

So sit back, relax. Re-live the past, and stick around for the future, and we bring you all the Android news from CTIA.

Three days just isn't enough to absorb all the info from Google I/O. In fact, it's physically impossible to get to every session, be it due to overlaps, overcrowding (only so many seats) or overexhaustion. It's a good problem to have, though, and Google handles it quite well.

In case you've been living under a rock, in addition to streaming a number of the key sessions live, Google also records them, so you can watch at your leisure. And that's what I've been doing since returning home from San Francisco, the better to get a grasp on all the new features and services announced. And if you've never seen one of these developer sessions before, you might be surprised just how entertaining and engaging they can be. This was my fourth Google I/O, and it still catches me a little off guard.

You can watch the developer sessions on YouTube.

Another surprise this year was the keynote address. Consolidated into a single address this year (as opposed keynotes the first two days at previous events), it went a whopping 3.5 hours. (Longer if you could the time spent waiting in line.) And it was time well-spent. There was so much information crammed into our brains in far less time than it took many of us to even get to San Francisco. But between all the new Google Play services, and the new Google Maps, and the improved Google+, and the Google Play game services -- and that's just the major Android stuff -- I could have gone another hour, easy. 

There's not a lot I can say about Larry Page's appearance -- his first such speech at Google I/O in the years I've attended -- that you can't get from watching the recording. (And I recommend you do.) But I will say this: I've always believed a good CEO should overreach a little. The more Apple-friendly pundits love to poke fun at some of the things Eric Schmidt has said over the years, and perhaps rightfully so. There's certainly a fine line between cheerleading, inspiring and downright crazy talk. And occasionally crossing that line opens you up to jokes and criticism, but I love the sort of head-first-into-the-wall mentality. It's what makes Google Google, it's what gets things done, and it's what moves us forward.

A few more thoughts on the week that was:

Strap in, folks. Some of the top brass from Google's Android team are about to take the stage here at Google I/O, and maybe we'll get answers to a few of the burning questions from this year's conference. Plus, it's a chance for developers to chat directly with the other folks who make the magic happen.

It kicks off at 8:20 p.m. on the east coast, and 5:20 here in the west. 

Join us for the liveblog after the break!

Full coverage of all Google's announcements, live from San Francisco!

OK, boys and girls. This is it. We're live from the Google I/O developer conference this week in San Francisco, for all the developer/services/apps/hardware/whatever Google can throw at us.

Kicking things off today is the week's only keynote, and it's a 3-hour whopper. We're all charged up and ready to go. The keynote starts at 9 a.m. PDT -- that's noon on the east coast and 5 p.m. in the UK.

So join us for the livestream, our photos and commentary, and basically the best Android coverage on the planet.

Hit the break for the whole kit and kaboodle.

A bit of good news tonight for those who have the AT&T HTC One. AT&T decided not to use HTC Backup -- which deftly does exactly what it says, backing up your phone via Dropbox -- in its version of the HTC One, which is a shame, because it works quite well. AT&T instead went a different route.

But tonight HTC has released the backup tool as a standalone app. You'll need to sign in with your HTC account, and it'll then back up and restore your phone through Dropbox instead of through Google, which previously was the only option. 

Repeat: If you don't have the AT&T HTC One, you don't need this.

And a quick note for those with the developer version (and quite possibly the developer version) of the HTC One: Having an AT&T SIM might let you install the app, but not let you run it, says ol' Jerry.

It's not a sexy issue, but kudos to the U.S. mobile operators for coming together against texting and driving

We'll get to those smiling faces up there in a minute. But, first, perhaps the timing could have been a little better. Tucked between a little overexposure of the NVIDIA Shield and the BlackBerry Live keynote -- and just a day before Google I/O kicks off -- the four major U.S. cell phone operators joined together to announce their support for the "It Can Wait" campaign, an initiative started by AT&T to keep drivers from texting while they're behind the wheel.

Sprint has had its own campaign, and it should be commended for that. But it's a combined effort that's needed, and, starting May 20, a combined effort is what we'll see. Millions of dollars in what essentially is advertising money is going into this. Sure, you'll see the brand names. Sprint. AT&T. Verizon. T-Mobile. And many others. But it's the message that's truly important.

No matter the phone, no matter the operating system -- and, really, no matter what sort of hands-free whiz-bang system you might have rigged up in your car, any time you take your eyes off the road, you're putting us all at risk. Everyone. You, driving the car. Your friends and family inside the car. Those of us in the cars around you. The kids playing on the street.

I'm as hypocritical as anyone. It's hard, I know. (And I work for a company that sells these whiz-bang hands-free devices. What the hell is my excuse, then?) And chances are you can glance down for a second, and nothing will happen.

Until it does.

The "It Can Wait" campaign focuses on texting, but the message, as is the name, is universal. Just a quick glimpse to see who that e-mail was from, even if you're not going to answer it. A peek at your favorite RSS feed, to make sure you didn't miss anything "important." A quick phone call -- hey, you're a good driver. No big deal.

That is my wife and our kids up there. Shannon, Mia and Isabella. I'm her husband. Their father. I owe it to them to avoid doing stupid things whenever possible. (Anyone who's been in a room with me for more than 5 minutes knows that's often easier said than done.) I owe it to them -- hell, I owe it to everyone around me -- to keep that damn phone in my pocket when I'm driving. And so do you. Looking at that picture above helps me remember that.

Let's not be naive, though. We're still going to see folks on their phones in the car. I'm still going to struggle with not stealing a quick glance. But not playing with your phone while you're behind the wheel is that important an issue. There's really no excuse for this sort of tragedy, given how easy it is to not pick up the phone in the car.

But I'm still working on it. I'll get better at it. And, most of all, I need to set that example for my kids. 

Thanks in advance, from myself, my wife and my children.

That's a big display, and a hinge that's a big point of failure — but the good news is it should last a while

Stating the obvious here, but you're going to be opening and closing NVIDIA Shield a lot. You don't have a choice. To use it, you've got to flip open that 5-inch display, exposing the controls underneath and giving you a screen to work with. And that opening-and-closing mechanism also was one area NVIDIA focused on since we first saw a prototype in January. The hinge has been made more robust, NVIDIA told us at its headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif.

But just how many times can you open and shut this thing before it gives out?

More: Hands-on with new NVIDIA Shield

The fight against texting and driving has done something nearly unheard of in this mobile industry -- the four major U.S. carriers are joining forces to take part in the "It Can Wait" campaign. The new initiative begins May 20 with a co-branded advertising campaign in which you'll hear the real stories of folks whose lives have been affected by texting and driving. It'll kick off with the story of Xzavier Davis-Bilbo, AT&T says, who in 2010, at just 5 years old, was paralyzed from the waist down after being struck by a car driven by a young woman who was texting while driving.

In March, a study commissioned by AT&T found that 49 percent of commuters reported having texted while driving, compared to 43 percent of teenagers in a companion study.

You'll also see the "It Can Wait" campaign in various retailers nationwide.

More: AT&T

It's coming this June for $349, and we've got your first look at the refined NVIDIA Shield with stock Android

Easily two of the more exciting announcements to come out of CES 2013 this past January were the Tegra 4 mobile processor and graphics platform from NVIDIA, and its "Project Shield" handheld Android gaming controller. Combining some of the most powerful mobile processing graphics available with a traditional gaming controller -- and a 5-inch, 720p display for good measure -- we finally had the potential for some real console-style gaming on Android.

The big question, of course, would be the price. Today, that's been answered. Shield -- having dropped its "project" designation -- will retail for $349, a bit lower than what many of us here had expected. But "we're not selling Shield at a loss," NVIDIA told us from its headquarters in Santa Clara.

However the math works out, what you get is a highly capable mobile gaming system that in fact can best consoles in some areas.

We got a new look at NVIDIA Shield, with its refined hardware and expanded gaming roster.