Samsung Galaxy Note 2 now available on Verizon Wireless

Hey, how about that -- it's Nov. 29, and that means Verizon Wireless' Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is now available to buy online and in stores. Verizon's Note 2 sells for $299 with a two-year service plan, and comes with a rather ridiculous home button bearing the carrier's logo.

Besides the cosmetic differences, this is the same Galaxy Note 2 we've been seeing since its debut atIFA -- it rocks a massive 5.5-inch non-PenTile HD SuperAMOLED screen, a Wacom-powered S Pen, 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos CPU and 2GB of RAM. And it's running on Verizon's 4G LTE network, of course.

If you're buying today, you may want to think about a sticker to cover up that unsightly home button. If you're still on the fence, check out our review of the international Galaxy Note 2.

Anyone picking up a Note 2 on Big Red today? Shout out in the comments!

Samsung Galaxy Advance due for Jelly Bean update in January

Despite the size of its Android smartphone portfolio, Samsung's doing a pretty good job keeping popular handsets up-to-date with OS upgrades. That's further evidenced by today's news that the humble Galaxy S Advance, a recent mid-range offering from the Korean manufacturer, will be getting its Jelly Bean update sometime in January 2013.

Roughly translated, a message posted on Samsung's German Facebook page reads --

Dear fans, more and more devices will now receive the update to Android Jelly Bean. Even the Galaxy S I9070 Advance will get this update in January, through Kies and over-the-air.

There's no word on which version of Jelly Bean will be heading to the Galaxy S Advance, but as theAndroid 4.2 source code hasn't been available for long, we'd imagine 4.1 will be what's on offer here.

Still, it's a substantial upgrade from the Gingerbread-based ROM that ships on the Advance.

Samsung is expected to push out Jelly Bean upgrades for the Galaxy S2 and original Galaxy Note, though no timetable has been offered for these updates. Equally, whether these updates make it to U.S. variants of these phones remains to be seen.

Android 102: Wireless file transfer

I use Linux for my PC operating system. That means I don't get any fancy Android File Transfer programs to use to copy files on and off of my devices, and setting up MTP support is a hassle -- not to mention the closed nature of the whole mess. I can use the command line and adb to copy files back and forth, and sometimes I do, but the easy way is to use an app that acts as a remote server and "browse" my files with Chromium or Firefox. They also work with Windows or Mac OS for those times when you don't want to look for a cable.

There are plenty of apps available that will work. Airdroid is a pretty popular one that also offers the ability to send and receive SMS message through your PC. It's also free, and free is always good. I like things a bit more lightweight and simple, so I use Wifi File Explorer Pro. It's not free ($0.99) and doesn't let you text from your PC. It's just the first one that was made available and I hate change. My point is, there's plenty of apps that will work, and they all work basically the same.

1. Grab the app from Google Play, install it, and run it.
2. The app will tell you a URL to put in your browser. You may need a code or need to scan a barcode to log in.
3. When the page loads, you see everything that's on your phone storage, and can transfer files both ways, or play music or video. 

The apps are actually running a tiny web server on your phone, so the result acts like a website. You will need to have both machines on the same Wifi, and in theory a cable is faster, but wireless file transfer is pretty darn easy.

Microsoft attacks Google with “Scroogled” campaign

While anti-Google ads from Microsoft are nothing new, their latest salvo fired against the company seems less like an advertisement for a search engine, and more like a political attack ad.

“Scroogled,” a portmanteau of “Google” and “screwed,” seems to be a major focus of Bing’sholiday advertising, and to be fair, it isn’t completely baseless. In May of this year, Google Shopping made a transition from using a search algorithm similar to how other Google searches work to a system where listed merchants pay to be included in the results, either on a pay-per-click or pay-per-transaction basis.

Ads or Answers?

Microsoft says that this practice isn’t fair, but Google sees it differently, saying that “ads are just more answers to users’ queries.” As with Microsoft’s criticisms, this isn’t as easy to write off as it may seem. Those who use Google Shopping are doing so because they are looking to buy something, and companies paying to make sure that they are seen first in search results isn’t that different from placing other ads.

Google has been relatively transparent on this matter, but this is where Microsoft is really playing its hand. By suggesting that customers are being “Scroogled,” they are also suggesting that Google is breaking its “Don’t be evil” policy. The most prominent text on Microsoft’s Scroogled website reads:

In the beginning, Google preached, “Don’t be evil”—but that changed on May 31, 2012. That’s when Google Shopping announced a new initiative. Simply put, all of their shopping results are now paid ads.
In their under-the-radar announcement, Google admits they’ve now built “a purely commercial model” that delivers listings ranked by “bid price.” Google Shopping is nothing more than a list of targeted ads that unsuspecting customers assume are search results. They call these “Product Listing Ads” a “truly great search.”
We say that when you limit choices and rank them by payment, consumers get Scroogled. For an honest search result, try Bing.

Who Is This Good For?

Microsoft is promising that Bing won’t “switch to pay-to-rank to allow some shopping search results to appear higher than others,” and that’s a good thing for consumers, but it raises a question. Are these types of ads, which seem to be increasingly prevalent, a good thing for consumers? Or will this just lead to an ultimately more confusing climate for regular people?

Future Google to provide search results even before you search for them

Delivering the right information even before you ask for it seems to be Google’s next big venture. According to MIT’s Technology Review editor Tom Simonite, Google is working to improve its mobile search by conducting studies that will enable the search giant to provide information you have never thought of searching for online. Tom Simonite revealed some questions he wouldn’t have gone to Google to answer such as how long the line is at the nearest grocery store or questions that appear during offline activities such as reading a book, cooking a meal etc.

Simonite, who was part of Google’s research writes that he was contacted on his mobile device eight randomly chosen times per day for three days by Google and was asked different study related questions. Google’s researchers asked questions like “What did you want to know recently?” and the research included around 150 people who were asked the same questions.

To explain what Google wants to deliver to its users in the future in a nutshell, Jon Wiley, the Lead user-experience designer for Google says, ”the perfect search engine will provide you with exactly what you need to know at exactly the right moment, potentially without you having to ask for it.”

While Wiley has not revealed any other significant information related to this project, he says that similar studies will be conducted in the future as well. The future Google Search will provide more sophisticated search results and will combine the information it has related to you such as location data and real time feeds to provide relevant results to your searches, including those that you haven’t thought of searching online. The first steps in that direction have already been achieved with Google Now on Android devices.

Gameloft’s World at Arms blends simulation, strategy and action, available for free from Google Play

It’s been almost three weeks since the last time we talked about a new Gameloft release for Android, which is like three years in mobile gaming time. Thankfully, the French video game developers are back in the spotlight and with a much cooler title than My Little Pony (not that I have something against “Bronies”).

World at Arms is a free to play “ground-breaking” social game and, you guessed it, you’ll be asked to defend the USA in a war against an evil alliance of highly trained forces known as the KRA (way to be politically correct, Gameloft).

Unfortunately, as most free Gameloft titles, World at Arms will require plenty of in-app purchases to ensure you stand a chance on the battlefield, though, according to some user reviews, the gameplay that you get without paying is pretty decent too.

Talking about user reviews, there seems to be a love-or-hate relationship between Android gamers and World at Arms, with the game scoring 5 stars in 100 Google Play reviews, but also one star in 12. The average is not bad (4.3), and considering most of the folks who are disappointed by the game complain about not being able to play it, you should definitely give it a chance.

The game itself doesn’t look too visually demanding at a first glance, but the graphics are quite complex as you advance in your war campaign of over 75 missions. Combining simulation treats with strategy elements, World at Arms has a very cohesive and immersive in-game experience, with a real eye for details.

Besides engaging in war actions, you’ll be asked to manage the United States economy by collecting resources, building, developing and upgrading bases, so you can imagine this is not just a “dumb” action game. Finally, you should know that you can get help from friends you can connect with via Facebook, Game Center or Gameloft Live, by borrowing their units to defeat tough enemies. Not too shabby for a free game, right? Then drop by Google Play and take it for a spin.

Galaxy S Advance Jelly Bean update scheduled for January, Samsung Germany reveals

Left: Galaxy S Advance, Right: Galaxy Ace 2

While regular Galaxy S versions will not be officially upgraded to Jelly Bean, there are some special Galaxy S-based handsets that will get to run Android 4.1.2 in the near future. One such device is the Galaxy S Advance, which is apparently set to receive its Jelly Bean taste early next year.

Samsung German has confirmed that the that the handset (model number GT-I9070) will receive the update in January, without providing any actual roll out dates for this Jelly Bean upgrade.

The smartphone maker did say in the short Facebook status update that German Galaxy S Advance owners will be able to update their devices via Kies or over-the-air (OTA), which is how you’d expect to receive such upgrades in the first place.

The Galaxy S Advance is currently running Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread, and it will jump directly to Jelly Bean, skipping Ice Cream Sandwich in the process. Among its highlights, we’ll mention its 4-inch touchscreen display with 800 x 480 resolution, 1GHz dual-core processor, 768MB of RAM, 8/16GB of storage and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.

In other words, the handset, which was launched in the first months of the year and which is known in certain parts of the world as the Galaxy S2 Lite, is more similar to the original Galaxy S than the Galaxy S2, although it does sport a better SoC and extra RAM when compared to the Galaxy S flagship. But Samsung will not update the original Galaxy S to Jelly Bean, will they?