[App Review] Trade Me for Android

It's finally here, for better or worse.

After a lengthy period as an iOS exclusive, New Zealand’s popular auction site has finally seen fit to push a dedicated application to the Android Market. In a sense, this marks the coming of age of Android as a viable second platform in this country – Trade Me is the second most visited page in NZ, only losing top spot to Google itself. Yet it has only now released its own app for Froyo and above, despite the Android platform meriting a dedicated application quite some time ago (I would argue around the end of 2010, when local carriers finally began making an advertising push for Android devices). Many major NZ services such as banks have offered Android support for months if not over a year, notably including the news site Stuff.co.nz, which is owned by Fairfax media who also own Trade Me .

What’s to blame, here? Fragmentation? Real usage stats by useragent showing a lack of Android uptake? Lack of development support, or revenue for the project? Or was the mobile version of Trade Me’s website simply deemed ‘good enough’? While I don’t have the answers to the above, there is one pertinent question I intend to explore: Having waited so long, is the app worthwhile?

Download the app here, and read on for the full review.

Video Review: Rearth Ringke for Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Last month I had the pleasure of meeting up with the folks from Rearth here in Las Vegas at their CES Booth. After a quick chat thanking them for all the support they've shown me in the past year, they handed me one of their new Ringke Slim cases for the Galaxy Nexus. This is an ultralight, ultra-thin polycarbonate shell that snaps onto your device. The matte-black model I received looked and felt amazing once I pulled it out of the packaging, unfortunately the coating picks up dirt and oils easily, so over time this builds up.

Since it is such a slim case, protection is very minimal, so users who want to pick it up should be careful with their phones (you should be at all times, anyways!). The minimalistic design and approach to the product definitely shows.

Check out the full video review below;

Samsung Galaxy Note: ICS installation guide, detailed impressions with video walkthrough [At Your Own Risk]

Up until a few days ago I was really beginning to worry that Samsung wasn't on track with it's release schedule for bringing ICS to the Galaxy Note. I'd been watching leaked ICS ROMs come to the Galaxy S II with an alarming frequency for weeks and weeks, but nothing for the Note. Given Samsung seem to be as leaky as a sieve when it comes to keeping their firmwares in-house, this just made me think the Note might have been getting a bit neglected. Fortunately those fears have proven unfounded, as an ICS build for the Note leaked a couple of days ago. Naturally I flashed it ASAP, I mean, what's a self-respecting Android geek to do?

The video above is a walkthrough through some of the highlights and lowlights of this early build [Spoiler alert: it's nearly all highlights]. After the break I throw down a few more thoughts, and, possibly more importantly, lay out how you can flash this onto your own Note.

...and trust me, you'll want to.

The Transformer Prime 'Real-user' Review: Part 2 - "A tale of two concepts..."

Transformer Prime and dock, flash drive inserted in dock's USB port.

The Asus Transformer Prime is probably, as I write this, the quintessential Android media tablet. Besides the fact that it appears to be the only Android tablet running Ice Cream Sandwich that the public can actually get their hands on, it also has a hardware specification basically unequalled in Androidville, or anyplace else for that matter. Yet the Prime's dock most certainly adds another dimension entirely.

In Part One of this review, we explored the concept of the media tablet. Or perhaps, more accurately, we explored the difficulty in defining the role of the tablet. In this second part, we'll see that it's even more of an enigma than we might have expected, especially given the rapid evolution the category is undergoing.

At the conclusion of this review, we'll come back to this point and hopefully make some sense of the ever-morphing beast, but as a starting point it's helpful to recognise that there's the iPad - and there's the tablet - and they're not the same thing at all.

Video Review: SGP Ultra Hybrid for Samsung Galaxy Nexus

We're back and it guys! I've been pretty idle for the past week, but not for naught, as my time has been well spent trying out new accessories so I can report my findings back here. With that said, today I bring you the new Ultra Hybrid case from SGP - this is a one-piece hybrid style case, which through SGP's marvelous manufacturing process, manages to incorporate TPU and plastic into a single layer.

As I'm accustomed to with SGP, this is another very high quality case. By incorporating two materials into one, this allows for the case to be extremely thin, adding just a slight thickness to your phone's profile. The polycarbonate plate is covered in a smooth matte finish, while the TPU has a slight grippy texture to it. The ports and cutouts are spot on, so you'll have no issues with those. On the down side, due to the slimness of the Ultra Hybrid, drop protection is next to non-existent - so you're going to have to be careful when using this one.

Check out the full review below for more info;

Apple wins patent suit against Motorola in Germany

A regional court in Germany has ruled that Motorola's implementation of its "swipe to unlock" infringes on a patent owned by Apple, although how one can patent swiping on a touch screen beggars belief. Still, the Munich court has sided with Apple and ordered a permanent injunction against certain 'infringing' Motorola devices. Motorola has announced its intention to appeal and while Apple can enforce the injunction virtually immediately, it must put up a bond to do so, with the risk that should Motorola prevail on appeal, the bond would be paid to Motorola in compensation for loss of sales. However, such a bond would be trifling for Apple, considering its US$100 billion cash reserves.

Android eats into iPad sales in 2011

According to iSuppli, Apple's market-defining media tablet suffered a market share setback in 2011, dipping from the spectacular 87% share it held in 2010, down to 62% in 2011, a 29% drop year on year. This will probably come as a surprise to nobody since the iPad was the tablet market for all intents in 2010, Apple having reinvented the category much as it did with the iPhone.