Russell is a Contributing Editor at Android Central. He's a former server admin who has been using Android since the HTC G1, and quite literally wrote the book on Android tablets. You can usually find him chasing the next tech trend, much to the pain of his wallet. Find him on Google+, Facebook, or Twitter
There's an increasing number of people with a smartphone, tablet, or laptop in their hands during TV time. Whether it's for social commentary on your network of choice, completing a task during the commercial breaks, or you just want your internet connection handy in case an argument breaks out about some tiny detail (try watching "Marvel's Agents of SHIELD" in a room full of nerds),...
We've been talking a lot about security on your Android device recently, and as the conversation continued it was clear there were questions that needed to be answered by a person a greater authority. Things like whether you need antivirus software for your phone, identifying malware, and being sure your devices are generally safe through daily use are topics that have become...
Companion apps for television and gaming can be a ton of fun There are two kinds of people when it comes to the living room — those who would prefer smartphones, tablets, and laptops didn't exist when the big screen is on, and those who can't put their tech down when watching TV or playing a game. While you're unlikely to bust your phone out in the middle of a theater, for a lot of...
TouchWiz is far from dead. In fact, it's Material Design that feels like the stranger. Samsung surprised everyone recently by rolling out the update to Android 5.0 through some of the notoriously difficult update channels, leaving many Galaxy S5 owners with a whole lot of new buttons to press and a couple of curious interface choices. While every upgrade to Android 5.0 is going to...
Moving Clash of Clans from iOS to Android is incredibly simple Anyone who has felt the heartbreak of losing hundreds of hours of gameplay on a mobile device because the phone broke or it was time to upgrade and the game data wouldn't transfer is immediately hesitant to go through that ordeal again. You probably know at least one person who has kept an older device around just to keep...
Keeping yourself safe requires a simple yet constant set of steps There's a fair bit of fear, uncertainty and doubt out there when it comes to viruses and malware for mobile devices. While it is absolutely true that there are very smart people out there who would do just about anything to gain access to your mobile device and harvest all of the juicy bits for their own malicious uses,...
Clash of Clans is popular because it's built to be simple enough for kids to play, with minimal yet consistent time requirements that leave you checking in on your village frequently. It's fun, if a little addictive, especially when you get friends together to join a clan and start wars as a group. While most elements of the game are fairly straighforward, there's a couple of things...
A top-down primer of one of Android's most popular games You've seen the commercials (especially if you watched the Super Bowl), you've scrolled past the Facebook ads, and you probably have at least one friend or child playing it right now. The animations offered in the commercials are cute, and being threatened by Liam Neeson is always a good time, but there's a lot more to Clash of...
Whether you're just 'in it for the commercials' or you're cheering on a team, you can watch from mobile if you have to We can't all be comfortably seated in the best spot in the living room with a huge plate of wings and a threatening glare toward anyone who dares to even think about touching the remote control this Sunday night. For reasons passing understanding, Super Bowl Sunday is...
Do any of us really need antivirus software on our Android phones and tablets? In a past life I worked basic tech support at both Best Buy's Geek Squad and Staples' Easy Tech programs. I have heard every possible explanation for why a computer might have been infected with something, and happily collected a paycheck while fixing the same things over and over again. Most of the time,...
Nest Thermostat is the smartest connected home gadget I own, but it's far from perfect "What do you think of that thing?" We're all used to being asked about the smartphone in our hands. Someone on the train on in a coffee shop notices something unique about your tech and leans over to see what it does that made you pick one up. It was strange at first to have the question asked of a...
As a standalone device, Nest is cool. The 'Works with Nest' program makes it invaluable In the first part of our Nest Thermostat series, I called this device the first connected home appliance everyone should want to own. Curiously, this statement had very little to do with the hardware itself (although I do still think it's one of the nicest looking thermostats out there today) or...
The mobile component of this connected thermostat is really what makes it futuristic OK, so it's just a thermostat. And while you will always have the option to walk right up to the pretty little dial on the wall and give it a spin when you want to change something, there's quite a bit of functionality baked into the Nest online services that ensures you basically never have to. As...
If you can do some basic wiring, you can hook up a Nest — but there still are some important instructions to follow One of the first things you will read when checking out user reviews of Nest Thermostat — something that is also repeated to some degree in professional commentary on the product — is what a pleasure the hardware is to install. Nest worked hard to make its thermostat...
Welcome to the first mainstream connected home appliance everyone should want to own Much in the same way that smartphones have come to enhance the way we communicate, the world of connected home tech is all about enhancing the way your living space communicates. There are a couple of really great examples of this technology (and heaps of truly terrible examples to match) but one of...
The folks behind the Big Android BBQ have spent the last year working on ways to bring a taste of their annual Texas-based event to different parts of the U.S., and in April the East Coast will get what's coming to them. The Big Android Meat and Greet is a one-day event that combines a developer event with a great party for Android folks to get together and enjoy. Since it's in Virginia...
Just as our fearless leader promised in his weekly missive, we're going to start taking a more focused approach for certain topics, and I have the honor of being the first to bring this to you. We're going to start off with the now Google-owned Nest Labs and their Nest Thermostat. Rather than post a single long post on the Nest Thermostat like we would a smartphone or tablet review, we'...
The folks at Cree dropped the first bulb in their new Connected line this week at Home Depot, and as we said in our hands on if you're looking for cheap bulbs to add to your connected home these are the way to go. Rather than bind themselves to a single kind of connecte hub, Cree Connected bulbs work with any ZigBee hub. You wouldn't know that by looking at the box, however, since the...
Meet YotaPhone's second attempt to make a dual-screen smartphone. YotaPhone 2 is AMOLED in the front, ePaper in the back, and has just enough software to make both sides completely unique without crossing the line into what we all too commonly refer to as bloatware. It's a worthy successor to the original YotaPhone in every way, but more than that it makes a compelling case for having...
This crazy two-faced phone actually works, and works well.