Android Atlas Weekly Ep. 85: Google Wallet has a hole in it (Podcast)

Rumor Has It host Emily Dreyfuss joins us as we discuss Google Wallet getting hacked, Samsung's ubiquity, and the ongoing saga of Apple lawsuits.

Watch this: Android Atlas Ep. 85: Google Wallet has a hole in it

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NEWS:

-Latest Google Wallet hack picks your pocket

-Verizon SNL Ad

-Samsung Galaxy Note is a (gigantic) phone, not a tablet

-Samsung Note 10.1?

-Samsung unveils Galaxy Tab 2, Ice Cream Sandwich and all

-Revised Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 cleared for sale in Germany

-Magically remove unwanted moving object from your pictures with Remove by Scalado

-Plenty of new phones could land in Barcelona

-European Commission and U.S. Department of Justice bless Google Motorola merger

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On last weeks show you mention problems with fragmentation however you only mentioned the software issues such as; OS versions and Custom overlays. I being a Samsung Moment owner and user (rooted of course its the only way it works), knows that fragmentation on the hardware level is far greater problem with android. Ultimately the internal components of the individual phones hinder android developers. I know my phone is way out of date hardware wise, but how many others don’t have dual core processors, dedicated graphics chips, multi-touch screens, front facing camera or barometers. It makes it extremely difficult to create a game or app that every can phone run it.

Wait before you mention getting a new phone, I’m waiting on dual or quad core Sprint LTE phone.

Thanks for you time. – Roy

Great show, and welcome to the new co-hosts.

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I noticed in the last show that there was no mention of Google’s new privacy policy which is stirring up the Internet lately. Is this new policy going to affect any of Google services on Android? Are they going to be-able to use my Email contents, contacts, search history, etc… for ad-targeting or other issues I should be worried about?

Is there an ad-blocker for non-root devices? Such as a browser ad-blocking plugin? I personally use AdBlock Plus on my PC and it really makes the browser much faster. I know Android supports proxy servers, and I have been able to configure an ad-blocking proxy server which works fine, but it’s on my home wifi network, so it’s not that easy to use away from home.

An App the show hasn’t mentioned yet(or I missed an episode), which I would like to mention for anyone who reads news articles on their device is “”Google Currents”", it has a really slick magazine-like interface and CNet news is one of the included publications. Not sure if this is tablet-only, I only have an android tablet at the moment, no phone.

Great show, and look forward to hearing input from your new co-hosts in future episodes. – Kevin

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Justin, wrt your suggestion that Google Voice improve itself by allowing Wi-Fi calls (a suggestion I wholeheartedly agree with) there are some apps that allow you to do this … sort of.

Sipdroid and CSipSimple are two apps that act as SIP clients. If you have an existing SIP Account (e.g. Vonage Softphone or Sipgate) you can put your account info in and use the phone as a wifi phone. Gingerbread also allows you to receive internet calls to a configured SIP account but needs a GVoice Callback app ($3) to initiate calls over wifi – it basically mimics the Initiate Call function in the Google Voice website.

There are also apps (usually costing around $5) that try to mimic the call functionality in Gmail – the best of which seems to be GrooVe IP.The good thing here is that it doesn’t need a SIP account. So as long as Google continues to offer free calls for Gmail this would work.

As for why Google doesn’t offer this, I’m guessing it’s because of bandwidth, FCC rules around being a phone provider, or both. Look how long they’ve been promising number porting.

Love the show. -LD

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Love the show and just wanted to add my two cents. I’m a retail consultant at sprint and had a to solve this for a lot of customers who got the Nexus S 4G. Gingerbread and later vanilla android does not support Facebook sync. It was removed from the OS and it only supports twitter now. Probably a privacy policy thing from Facebook and or Google. It was also an awful experience for most users cuz facebook sucks on mobile. For real. Not to say you can’t sync, though. Several apps sync pictures and contacts, but other than that you can only sync with sense and I believe touchwiz. I don’t know about blur, but frankly I doubt anyone cares. Love the show, keep the android news coming! – Stephen Colbert

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I’ve noticed that Jaymar has a soft voice, which is not a problem in and of itself, but he compounds the problem by frequently maintaining a large distance between himself and the microphone. You should coach him to be aware of this and maintain a closer, more constant distance to the mic. I’ll set a comfortable listening volume for the show, then he will say something and I’ll barely hear him. Increasing the volume level for his mic probably wouldn’t work because there are times when he is close enough to the mic and then his voice would be too loud. – Marc

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I am a couple of episodes behind, but have recently been hearing Justin comment on the battery life of his Galaxy Nexus (GN). I also bought one on the day they were released and also have the extended (2100mA) battery.

The current released version of ICS on the GN is 4.0.2. Since that version was released Google has updated the code base on AOSP to 4.0.3 and fixed several problems. In order to get to 4.0.3 you currently have to root and rom the device. Fortunately, unlike Justin, I am not hesitant to do that. I am currently running IMOSYON’s LeanKernel and Codename Android’s ROM (links to rootzwiki versions). I’m actually on version’s 1.8 and 1.3.0, respectively, but I see that newer version’s are available. Might update after I finish this email.

When I first got the device I experienced battery life similar to Justin, i.e. <3 hours under heavy use and <6hours even if I wasn't really using phone. Using the rom and kernel mentioned above, however, I am averaging about 17 hours per charge. This is per a battery monitoring program that's been running for a week and thus represents my normal high/low usage, 4g/wifi, good signal/bad signal with fully automated sync'ing of gmail / facebook / twitter, etc. The primary difference in battery usage appears to be the kernel ability to almost completely quit using juice when the device is not being used. Battery usage charts show between 1 and 2% / hour discharge when the screen is shutdown and I'm not listening to Pandora or something. The kernel seems fast at even stock clocks but defaults to 1.3GHz rather than the 1.2GHz so you also get a very noticeable speed bump.

I know Justin isn't that excited about not using the default setup, but Google is almost certainly watching this kernel development and it clearly shows where this operating system can go…. – Bill

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SHOW DETAILS:
BLOG cnet.com/android-atlas
STREAM cnet.com/live/
TIME Wednesdays @ 10am PT
EMAIL androidatlas@cnet.com
TWITTER @androidatlas
JUSTIN @notmyrealname
JAYMAR @jaymarcabebe
EMILY @EmilyDreyfuss
PHONE 866-344-CNET (2638)