Cranking out news for the geeks, music buffs and gossip junkies, my way. -Greg

Pirates of the Caribbean “Master of the Seas” is Disney’s new game on Android and iOS. What better way to spend your time gaming on Android then getting booty. Playing as a pirate you build a crew, plunder the enemy, buy land, and get booty. Taking social gaming with it you can have your friends become part of your crew.

Invite friends to join your crew, the bigger your crew the stronger you are!
Battle other pirates to gain rewards and increase your standing.
Buy cannons, weapons, amulets, and equipment to upgrade your ship.
Explore exotic islands, buy properties, and complete quests to earn gold and experience.

Best part of Disney’s new game, it’s free! So, head over to the Android Market or iTunes to grab the game today. –Greg

The SGP Neo Hyrbrid has to be one of the best aftermarket purchases I have ever made for any cellular device. I know that is a pretty strong statement considering I have had numerous cell phones and endless accessories to accompany them. I have not been so excited about my previous cases as I like the fact the new phones are slim, sleek, and light. Most cases change all of that simply by adding one. Cases range from cheap silicone jellies to the massive and heavy Otter-box. I’ve had them all and to be perfectly honest, they suck. Enter the Neo Hybrid case from SGP. It’s lightweight, durable, and almost adds nothing to the phones mass in anyway.

SGP Neo Hybrid Case not only protects the Galaxy S2 efficiently, but also perserves the original design of the Galaxy S2. The Body part of the case is high polymer coated Premium silicone case, and the Frame part is UV coated Polycarbonate frame

• Slim and form fitted to show the perfect shape of your device.
• Easy access to all control and ports.
• Available in 8 Colors.
• Ultra Crystal screen Protector included (1PC)

I have it for my Galaxy S2 for AT&T and it’s almost unnoticeable to everyone who has touched my phone. It’s design is a hybrid similar to most, it has the soft silicone with a more solid frame around it. Again, what makes it better is the fact that it can do all this with out losing the original size, shape, and weight of the phone itself. It protects the phone from everyday scratches and drops with out sacrificing the sleek design of the phone. This thing still fits in my pocket and doesn’t feel like I’m carrying a military issue phone in a crate. If you’re looking to protect you phone from the average abuse and still want your the original design of your phone, then the Neo Hybrid is perfect for you. Yes, they make it for the iPhone. -Greg

Google’s official blog announced today that they have acquired Motorola Mobility to the sum of 12.5 billion dollars. Google is quoted as saying “Supercharging Android”, which I think is a perfect way of putting it. Android will now have a long time proven mobile hardware company in its shop to work even closer with Android developers. BOOM goes the dynamite, as the headline will read to good old Steve Jobs. This will definitely be putting enormous pressure on Apple and likely become the slow demise of the iPhone and iPad as we currently know it. Good show Google, good show. –Greg

Credits:
Android Guys

My unbiased story of another users experience leaving the iPhone to Android. Originally an iPhone user he finally made the break of Apples tight grip of an OS to Android. First choice was the Samsung Captivate, a Galaxy S phone. I think it was the obvious choice for him as it was the best option of the 3 Android phones from AT&T at that time. Not to mention I was very happy with mine. First impressions as an owner was not the greatest as he quickly noticed some problems. No easy 1 button click to a silent mode and syncing email to exchange was problematic from the start. Soon he updated to Froyo 2.2 (found here) and quickly followed with using custom ROMs, via ROM Manager and Cognition. His happiness was only short lived with the Captivate and the new ROMs as he began to have the phone shut-off at random. This seemed to be strictly a hardware issue and was resolved with a trip to AT&T and getting a replacement. Since email was high priority use of his phone and the issues for email continued, He actually contemplated going back to his iPhone. Enter the htc Inspire, the latest Android phone from AT&T. Within 28 days of first purchasing the Samsung Captivate he had, upgraded to 2.2, used custom ROMs, replaced the phone and finally traded it back in for the htc Inspire. He has only had the Inspire for less than 24 hours as I write this, but has implied clearly that it has been a better purchase than the Captivate and may lie on the same playing field as the iPhone.

So to summarize the issues and ratings he has suggested; Captivate had problems with exchange and playing music stored on the phone. He rates the Captivate under the iPhone for these reasons and currently rates his new htc Inspire at the same level as the iPhone. He is as of now still currently happy to be away from Apple and I will update this once he has had the Inspire longer.

I tried to keep my own thoughts and opinions away from everything up to now, you honestly didn’t think I would leave my opinion completely out did you? Some things I would like to point out is obviously the no easy button for silence is user preference, working with anything custom is always prone to bugs, however he did point out that he had the email issue prior to touching the OS. I know of another Captivate user that seemed to be having problems with email as well. His wasn’t exchange, but actually Yahoo. Myself I get to much personal email to mess with my main Yahoo email, so I send only a very small amount to my Gmail account which I get on my phone. Another few that I’d like to point out is that the Captivate and Inspire have the same speed CPU. Captivate has 4 times the internal memory and a Super AMOLED screen. The Inspire has an 8megapixel camera with an LED flash as well as .3 inches more of a screen. Inspire is also a 4G phone, although it’s not wide spread yet. I think the biggest thing to point out is that the Inspire comes with Froyo. This is huge because it works and is made to work and will be less likely to have bugs unlike the Captivate which is sure to have many since Samsung doesn’t care. Having 2.2 can only be accomplished using custom ROMs’ or custom upgrades which although helps getting flash and hotspot ability, it also brings more bugs.  Overall I think the Captivate was a big shot that only has become a failure due to the lack of OS support and updating from Samsung. The biggest example of this is the GPS a feature that only works well if you have used a custom ROM. They have taken a great piece of hardware, shoved it out the door and never looked at it again.

With all the devices coming to the market at increasing speed, everyone’s phone is sure to be outdated by the time they get it home. So, I guess what should become a big part in the decision of you next phone isn’t as much the hardware, but more will the maker support the damn thing after you get it home and update the OS. Samsung obviously won’t. Will I trade in my Captivate for the Inspire or the upcoming Atrix? No, I’m still going to stand behind my Captivate and keep it as it still does what I want it too and works pretty well. -Greg

 You’ve heard “go big or go home”, well Motorola could use that as their new slogan. I had planned on waiting out my next 2 years on AT&T with my Captivate. I love it, don’t really have the problems (except that notoriously slow GPS problem) or complaints of some owners and have had it running Froyo for a while. I am more than satisfied and had planned on only looking to grab a tab after the frenzy that is about to be unleashed in 2011. I planned to let every major player get their tab out and fully tested and in the hands of the public before making my decision. However, Motorola has decided to tempt my patience with not only a tab, but also a phone.Motorola is looking to top Samsung in the Android Phone and Tab market, and help leave Apple’s iPhone and iPad in the dust.

I’ll start with their tab, Motorola’s XOOM:

• Android 3.0 (Honeycomb)
• 10.1″ screen
• 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 CPU
• 1280×800 resolution
• 1GB RAM
• 32GB internal
• front and rear facing camera
• records 720p video
• plays 1080p
• 32GB microSD
• HDMI & USB 2.0
• Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyroscope
• 3G/4G
• and of course Flash.

Safe to say it’s pretty well the top of its class. This out of all the tabs I read about from CES is the one that caught everyone’s eye and are sure to be purchasing. The Galaxy S and iPad (maybe even iPad 2) just can’t compete with this. Of course it’s only to be expected that the devices will continue to get better. So, I thought that once it had been out for a month or so, I’d grab one. Now somehow either in concentration for only Captivate and tab related posts or my laziness of scanning Android related blogs all together, I missed Motorola’s game killer of a phone the Atrix. Thanks to John for pointing out this mammoth of a phone and creating a stir in my head on what the heck do I do now? If you haven’t read much on this phone (as I hadn’t) then you might not understand the dilemma that I have now found myself in. So, let me enlighten you..

Motorola’s Atrix:

• Android 2.2 (Froyo)
• 4″ qHD display – 24-bit
• 2GHz NVIDIA Tegra dual core processor
• 1GB RAM
• 16GB internal
• microSDHC 32GB
• 5MP Camera w/ Flash
• VGA front facing camera
• Dual microphone
• 1930mAh battery for 9hrs of talk time
• Full version of Firefox
• 3G/4G
• and of course Flash

As if that’s not enough, this thing docks and I mean it docks. First, how about a multimedia dock that connects to your TV and lets you use a remote to playback everything you could think of. Next up, how about docking your phone into a laptop shell whichturns it into a full fledge laptop. You beginning to see where my problem is, do I buy the tab or upgrade my phone to the Atrix. I’m thinking the cost will be similar, XOOM I’m looking at around $600. For the Atrix I’m looking at $150-$200 for the phone and then another $150 for the laptop dock and maybe another $100 for the media dock. Really either way you go it’s going to be about $600, then the additional data plan. If it wasn’t for my new truck and upcoming honeymoon, I’d probably get both <insert huge grin>. Maybe your in the same dilemma, maybe you have an easy answer, maybe you just don’t care (loser). Well I leave you with the latest video from Motorola for the Atrix, enjoy. -Greg

Turning your Samsung Captivate into a mobile hotspot with Froyo (Android 2.2) couldn’t be any easier. Setting this up is easier than setting up your home network. Its minimal options make it both easy for the average joe and boring for the geeks. I had this setup with 2 iPhones connected to me in under a minute. The speeds were getting better than 250k down and 75k up. Considering that’s over 4 times the speed of dial up, I’d say it’s not to shabby. This of course was through AT&T’s lovely 3G network. 1 thing to note is I’m using the leaked I897UCJI6 version of Froyo from xda, which I’ve posted just recently. Lucky for me I was grandfathered into the unlimited data plan so I can suck it up for now. I’m very curious to see when the official Froyo build comes out if AT&T will have removed the Mobile AP feature altogether or add some nifty feature that tells AT&T to start running the meter. If that’s the case I will hang on to my leaked Froyo even after the official release.
Accessing and setting up the hotspot is pretty simple so I’m not going to narrate, but if you do have any questions let me know I’d be glad to help. -Greg

Thats right folks, you can get the new Samsung Captivate on the AT&T network for only $0.01 from Amazon.  This is with a new 2 year contract. Existing AT&T customers can get the Captivate for $99 with a 2 year contract. For whatever reason if you have the family plan its up to $149. If you are on the fence about getting an Android phone or the dreaded iPhone, now is the time to make the right decision and grab the Samsung Captivate. -Greg

Grab your Samsung Captivate now on Amazon.