This job never ceases to amaze me. Sometimes the weeks fly by. Sometimes they drag. Sometimes they're full of headaches. Sometimes the work perpetuates things. Sometimes I hit the weekend thankful for a couple days' respite.
The past week was a fun one, speaking as an editor. We cruised through our Nest series, the first of our new focus on, well, focus. We're still going to do all the news and reviews we've always done, but we're also going to take a more focused look at specific topics. And I picked Nest to start with because, well, I felt like it. (It's good to be the boss.) That and because I have one and Russell has one and it seemed like as good a place as any to start. Don't let the nattering naysayers in the comments fool you — we're not inventing the idea of a series here. If someone can't understand the idea of a story a two a day over several days on a single topic (again, amid the sea of Android news we typically cover anyway), that's their problem. Not mine.
And we've started our look at Android antivirus. And to be clear — and as we said at the outset, and I said individually as well — it's our position both collectively and individually that you probably don't need to use an antivirus app. But given that there are tens of millions of folks out there who have downloaded and use the damned things, we're going to talk about them some. Jerry's already tackled what to do if you think your phone has a virus. We've taken a quick look at some of the free (as in gratis, with no in-app purchases) Android antivirus apps. We'll look at the paid options later.
Again, we're not recommending any specific Android antivirus app. Nobody's giving us money to do this. But as an editor and publisher it'd be stupid to not dive in this stuff. And I think we're doing it the right way, for the folks who will actually learn something from it. If you're already well-versed in how to avoid doing something stupid and getting malware on your phone, you've got my permission to skip the series.
Coming up this week: Jerry and Ara are going to bless us with a beginner's guide to Google Play. Russell's going to help explain to us old folks what the hell Clash of Clans is and why our kids are obsessed with it.
It's a good week to be an editor at Android Central. And it's going to be another good week to be a reader.
A couple other quick thoughts on the week that was:
- The family got a new dog on Saturday. If ever there was a time I was glad I picked up an HTC RE camera at $99, this was it.
- I completely agree with Alex that this Sony Porpita thing making the rounds is a badly done fakery.
- Your weekly reminder of why I don't pay too much attention to leaks: Exhibit A, Exhibit B.
- The Google Now app integration thing is a big deal.
- Chromecast continues to be a big deal.
- Shen Ye's "Futurology" series is fascinating. I don't mind admitting a good bit of it is over my head. But it's just another reminder of how incredible it is to have these computers in our pockets.
That's it for this week: My Super Bowl pick: Seahawks by 13. Richard Sherman plants a big sloppy one on Roger Goddell when it's all over. Or kicks him in the shins and then retires. Either would be acceptable.
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