Android

Looks like OnePlus is giving you a chance to buy its $299 phone without an invite for a limited time. You might want to hurry because this (disputed) best low cost Android phone always sells out quick and unexpectedly.
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There’s a new title-holder in the world’s slimmest smartphone race – and it’s just 4.75mm thick

Ben Lovejoy Dec 10 2014 - 5:28 am PT

Just when you wondered how much slimmer smartphones could get, Chinese brand Vivo has set a new record with the X5Max at just 4.75mm thick, beating the 5mm thin iPhone 6 clone Gionee Slim 5.5. Astonishingly, it has achieved this while still managing – just – to fit in a standard 3.5mm headphone socket. It does, though, the now-standard cheat of allowing the camera to protrude by 2mm.

It’s also no slouch in the specs department, with a 64-bit octacore Snapdragon 615 processor, 5.5-inch 1080p display, 13MP main camera, 5MP front camera, 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage – with a clever dual-SIM tray that allows you to substitute a microSD card of up to 128GB for one of the SIMs …
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Google begins notifying users of $19 million settlement with FTC over in-app purchases

Mike Beasley Dec 9 2014 - 9:55 pm PT

Google has started notifying users of its Play Store about a $19 million settlement it reached with the FTC in September. The company is being required to pay out refunds for in-app purchases made by children on their parents’ credit cards after one of Apple’s lawyers brought the case to the FTC’s attention.

Users will have until December 2nd, 2015 to log into their Play Store accounts and mark any in-app purchases that were made by a minor in order to qualify for a refund. The total refund isn’t limited to $19 million, as that number serves only as a minimum required by the FTC.

Wikipedia for Android Beta gets Material UI overhaul, support for Android Lollipop

Stephen Hall Dec 9 2014 - 12:49 pm PT

Update 1/15/15: The non-Beta version of the app was updated today with the same features that came to the beta version last month.

Wikipedia is definitely one the more used Android apps, and today the app’s beta channel has been updated with a plethora of new features. Most notable of them is the fact that today’s release packs a Material design revamp (including a new drawer and overflow menu), and support for Android 5.0 Lollipop. Other features, like the return of the search bar and other layout improvements, are just a couple of the more than a dozen changes made in this version.

The new version also features improvements to search order, Wikidata descriptions under page’s titles in search, and swipe to refresh on pages and on the “Nearby” tab. You’ll also notice, at the bottom of an article you’re reading, that this new version adds a new section called “Read more” where you’ll find various related articles. Finally, rounding out the more obvious changes, there’s now an option in the “More” section for disabling image loading (helpful if you are strapped for data).

As noted on the app’s Play Store listing, here’s the complete list of changes:

– Material design icons and 5.0 support

– Search bar is back

– Search order improvements

– Wikidata descriptions in search results, similar pages, under pages titles

– Swipe to refresh on pages and for Nearby

– Collapsed infoboxes

– Better tablets layouts

– Read more section

– Allow disabling images

– Basic syntax highlighting of templates while editing

– Hide IPA

– ToC drawer always on

– Similar pages, page issues, reference info display changes

– Display MathML images

– Remove pinch-zoom

You can get Wikipedia Beta for free on the Play Store.

Project Ara marketplace in the works will be like Google Play for hardware modules (Updated)

Stephen Hall Dec 9 2014 - 11:45 am PT

Project Ara is still slowly but surely making its way toward being a commercial product, and today one of the mysteries of the device–how people will buy and sell various interchangeable hardware modules–has been answered. Globant, a company focused on delivering “innovative software” has announced that they’ve partnered with Google’s Advanced Technology & Projects (ATAP) group on the development of a marketplace made specifically for Project Ara.

HTC’s budget Desire 620 handset coming to the UK in ‘early 2015’

Stephen Hall Dec 9 2014 - 11:04 am PT

We’ve known about the Desire 620 for a while now, but now HTC has announced that the budget handset—previously only officially available in Taiwan—will be available in the European market as early as January of next year (via Pocket-Lint).

Lamborghini unveils luxurious Tauri 88 gold and leather smartphone for $6,000

9to5 Staff Dec 9 2014 - 10:56 am PT

If you can afford to spend upwards of $200,000 on a brand new Lamborghini, then chances are you are doing quite well for yourself. If that is the case, then look no further than the luxury car maker’s new Tauri 88 smartphone in gold and leather. For just $6,000, you are getting an Android-based smartphone with some impressive specifications under the hood. You can’t miss this deal.
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Google search in Chrome for Android gets 100-150 milliseconds faster thanks to reactive prefetch

Stephen Hall Dec 9 2014 - 10:47 am PT

Google has today announced that a new feature called reactive prefetch has been rolled out to mobile search, making searches somewhere in the realm of 100 to 150 milliseconds faster—a notable improvement if you’re on a fast enough internet connection. Sadly, the feature is limited to those using the Chrome app for Android at the current time because, according to Ilya Grigorik, “it is the only browser that supports (a) dynamically inserted prefetch hints, and (b) reliably allows prefetch requests to persist across navigations.”

This is a powerful pattern and one that you can use to accelerate your site as well. The key insight is that we are not speculatively prefetching resources and do not incur unnecessary downloads. Instead, we wait for the user to click the link and tell us exactly where they are headed, and once we know that, we tell the browser which other resources it should fetch in parallel – aka, reactive prefetch!

How does the feature work? Unlike other prefetch methods, reactive prefetch will wait for the user to click a link so that Google knows exactly where they intend to go, at which point the search engine will tell the browser to fetch certain parts of the page in parallel—namely, resources that Google has determined are likely to slow page load times. This is possible due to Google search crawlers getting an idea, for every page on the web, what parts should be “hinted” at to prefetch reactively.

You may or may not notice the improvement, but it’s rolling out to mobile search for Chrome on Android today.

Blackphone announces major 1.1 update to PrivatOS, new privacy-focused app store

Stephen Hall Dec 9 2014 - 9:28 am PT

Blackphone, the Android-powered smartphone that aims to be the most secure handset in the world, has announced a slew of new features for an upcoming revamp of its PrivatOS operating system. Most notable is the addition of “Spaces,” which will provide users an easy way to separate apps and secure accounts & data between multiple “environments.” Blackphone has also announced the launch of what it claims is the world’s very first privacy-focused app marketplace…

New Samsung Galaxy Note 4 variant with Snapdragon 810 reportedly in testing

Stephen Hall Dec 9 2014 - 8:48 am PT

The Galaxy Note 4, Samsung’s current flagship phablet, is already available in two variations: one with a Samsung Exynos 7 processor (SM-N910C), and one with a Snapdragon 805 (SM-N910S). The difference between them is almost negligible, but a rumor this morning out of the fairly-reliable-for-Samsung-rumors SamMobile suggests that Samsung is testing another variation of the Note 4, this time with Snapdragon’s upcoming 810 system-on-a-chip.

Marques Brownlee picks his smartphones of the year (and we agree…mostly)

Seth Weintraub Dec 9 2014 - 12:58 am PT

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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6pPIG3EvAs]

One of my favorite Youtubers (along with Dom and Detroit Borg), @MKBHD did his year end Smartphone of the year roundup and can say I agree with almost every choice he made here. Almost.

Some small gripes however: He didn’t ding Samsung enough for its overlay in the ‘Big Phone’ category (IMO), I might have given LG more props for their camera and One Plus One shouldn’t have beat the Moto G 2014 as best budget. You can get 2 Moto Gs for the price of a One Plus – if you can even find one! That’s not to say the OnePlus isn’t a great budget phone and running Cyanogen mod almost makes it more of a game changer than the Sharp Aquos Crystal.

One other thing: I’m OK with the HTC One M8 as phone of the year as long as it is the GPE. Otherwise Moto X gets the nod

Like I said, I’m almost completely in agreement!

Spoilers below:

Deal alert: Amazon Gold Box is Moto G 2014 5-inch w/ Lollipop upgrade for $150 unlocked

Seth Weintraub Dec 9 2014 - 12:30 am PT

From 9to5Toys.com:

Amazon’s Gold Box Deal of the Day is the Moto G 2014 edition 5-inch 720P smartphone for $149.99 shipped. That’s $30 off on this phone that receives quick Android updates to Lollipop and beyond and is unlocked for use on T-Mobile or AT&T in US or available for international shipping. It is available in Black or White and available with US or Global GSM variants. Other features

5″ 720p HD display
Front-ported stereo speakers
Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor with 1.2GHz quad-core CPU
Android 4.4, KitKat with guaranteed upgrade
All-day 2,070 mAh battery, Corning Gorilla Glass 3, water-resistant splash guard
US Compatibility: All GSM Networks including AT&T and (2G) T-Mobile
Optimized to work with 3G (UMTS/HSPA+) networks when roaming outside the US
Box contents: Motorola Moto G (2nd generation), wall charger, quick guides

This phone gets incredible reviews (4.6/5 stars) from over 500 Amazon reviewers. With your savings, you can get a Plantronics Bluetooth headset for $25 (50% off) shipped and/or nice cases which start at $2.

Kindle for Android updated w/ Amazon X-Ray, flashcard support, more

Chance Miller Dec 8 2014 - 8:12 pm PT

Amazon this evening has released a relatively major update to its Kindle app on Android. The update bumps the app to version 4.8 and packs a handful of notable new features, some of which have been available on the iOS side of things for over two years now.

Google scrapped the Nexus 6’s fingerprint scanner just a few months before it launched

9to5 Staff Dec 8 2014 - 8:02 pm PT

Many details surrounding the Nexus 6 were leaked in the months leading up to the smartphone’s launch in late October, although one oft-rumored tech specification that proved to be absent was a fingerprint scanner akin to Touch ID on the iPhone. The initial reports calling for a fingerprint scanner weren’t necessarily wrong, however, based on new evidence uncovered in Android’s open source code.

Ars Technica reports that Google was prepared to include fingerprint scanner support for both the Nexus 6 and Android Lollipop, although a commit message filed through Android Open Source Project (AOSP) in late August called for removal of that support on “Shamu,” the internal codename for what ultimately became the Nexus 6. The commit simply read “shamu: remove fingerprint support.”

Nexus 6 now available from US Cellular in Blue & White, 32 GB & 64 GB

Stephen Hall Dec 8 2014 - 1:52 pm PT

The Nexus 6, which is still fairly hard to find in-stock, is now available from US Cellular. Interestingly, while most carriers are offering only the Midnight Blue model at the current time, US Cellular currently has listed—and in-stock–both the white and blue varieties of the device in both 32 GB and 64 GB capacities.

Both Motorola and Google Play are currently sold out of the device, so the only way to order one at all at the current time is via a carrier. The carriers that are currently carrying the device are T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, and US Cellular—and with today’s addition, the only one missing is Verizon.

You can get the Nexus 6 from US Cellular or $199.99 on a two-year contract, or you can pay $33 monthly for the phone with a $0 down payment. Or if you use US Cellular but looking to get an unlocked Nexus 6, be sure to check the Play Store every Wednesday for more stock to be added.

Version 1.0 of VLC for Android exits beta, fixes lots of Lollipop bugs

Stephen Hall Dec 8 2014 - 1:16 pm PT

VLC (Video LAN Client) has long been one of the choice media players for Android users, but—while every release has been basically stable—the company hasn’t been in any rush to push the app out of beta and on to version 1.0. Today, that finally happened, and the update packs a bunch of other goodies including fixes for ARM V8 processors and Android 5.0 Lollipop.

According to the app’s Play Store listing, version 1.0 includes the following:

This release fixes ARMv8 processors, Android 5.0 crashes and minor improvements. The 0.9.x series is major release with hardware decoding and a new interface available in dark or white colors. It integrates DVD iso and menu support, an equalizer, playlist management, Widi screens support and updated SD cards detection. Hardware acceleration is now enabled by default on 4.3+ and has better subtitles support. Software decoding has been accelerated too.

As mentioned by Android Police, it doesn’t appear that the 1.0 release includes previously announced Chromecast support. The app, which has always been known for how many video and audio formats it can play, is basically the Android go-to solution if you have some kind of media that you aren’t sure how to get working. It’s available on the Play Store right now for free.

Google Play Services 6.5 now available from Android SDK Manager

9to5 Staff Dec 8 2014 - 12:46 pm PT

The latest version of Google Play Services for Android is now available to developers through Android SDK Manager. Google Play Services 6.5 features several new developer features for its Maps, Fit, and other APIs. Moreover, there is a new “lite mode” that allows developers to include a static map image in locations that would normally make it impractical or impossible to manipulate the map.
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Smart Lock keeps your Chromebook unlocked using your Android Lollipop phone

Stephen Hall Dec 8 2014 - 11:45 am PT

3 Comments

A new feature called Smart Lock has now made its way to Chromebooks, allowing users to keep their Chrome OS-running laptops unlocked by simply keeping their Lollipop Android phone in relative vicinity. The feature was first introduced earlier this year at Google I/O 2014, and has been part of Lollipop since the OS started rolling out last month. But only just now, about 6 months after it was shown off, is the feature rolling out to Chromebooks (via ComputerWorld) running the Dev Channel of Chrome OS.

Google releases Android Studio 1.0 as official development environment

9to5 Staff Dec 8 2014 - 11:30 am PT

Google on Monday released Android Studio 1.0, the first stable version of its Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for building and managing apps. The tool, available for Windows, Mac and Linux, was under development for the past two years and is intended to replace Eclipse as the official Android IDE for developers.
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Samsung’s $200 ‘Gear VR’ headset for Note 4 now available online

Jordan Kahn Dec 8 2014 - 8:29 am PT

After announcing its Oculus-powered Gear VR earlier this year, Samsung’s new virtual reality experience for its Note 4 smartphone is now available to order through its website and other retailers in the US.
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Qualcomm: Next year’s Snapdragon 810 is ‘on track,’ devices to launch in first half 2015

Stephen Hall Dec 8 2014 - 8:04 am PT

A report from Korea last week claimed that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 chip, which is almost surely going to power the next generation of Android smartphones, was facing some production issues that might cause some delay in the production of devices like the LG G4, Xperia Z4, and others. Although Qualcomm won’t comment on rumors that the chip is facing issues with overheating and GPU errors and the like, they do say that the chip is apparently still “on track” and that devices sporting the chip are still going to be available in the first half of 2015…

Yahoo will unveil a suite of dev tools for mobile apps at its first Dev Con Feb. 19

Jordan Kahn Dec 8 2014 - 6:59 am PT

Yahoo announced today that it will be hosting its first ever developer conference, The Yahoo Mobile Developer Conference, early next year in February. Yahoo confirmed it plans to use the event to unveil a new suite of developer tools for mobile apps that will “help developers better understand their users and improve, grow and monetize their apps.”
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YouTube for Android updated to version 6 with Material Design and new search filters (Update)

Mike Beasley Dec 5 2014 - 5:45 pm PT

YouTube for Android has finally been updated with a Material Design interface for devices running Lollipop. The entire app has been redesigned, from the “What to Watch” screen to individual channel and video pages.

Aside from the new design, the updated app also includes many new filter options for searches, allowing users to find videos that meet specific criteria. For example, you can now search only for videos that are available in HD, or have closed captioning enabled. You can also search for live streams.

Google removes several piracy-based apps from the Play Store

Chance Miller Dec 5 2014 - 1:18 pm PT

TorrentFreak is reporting that Google has removed several Pirate Bay apps from the Play Store today after strong pressure from copyright holders. Google sent an email to a handful of developers, informing them that their apps were being removed from the Play Store. The email explains why the apps were removed, citing violation of the intellectual property portion of the Google Play Store Content Policy.

“REASON FOR REMOVAL: Violation of the intellectual property and impersonation or deceptive behavior provisions of the Content Policy. Please refer to the IP infringement and impersonation policy help article for more information.”

The apps removed include The Pirate Bay Proxy, The Pirate Bay Premium, The Pirate Bay Mirror, and PirateApp…