Android

Google announced today on its Google Commerce blog that it’s rolling out an update for the Google Wallet mobile apps that includes a new “Orders” feature for tracking online purchases. Google says the feature will let you stay on top of your online orders (including past purchases) as well as get notifications for status updates regarding deliveries. How will Google know what you’ve purchased? In order to track your recent online orders, the feature pulls receipts out of your Gmail account :

Once you activate Orders in Google Wallet, you’ll be able to see any receipts sent to your Gmail right in the Google Wallet app. We’ve also worked with primary package carriers in the US so that when your order status is updated, you’ll get notified of the update through Wallet. So whether your order is shipped, out for delivery, or delayed, you’ll never wonder about the status of your order.

The app also includes “products you’ve ordered, merchant contact information, and shipping details in the app” for your purchases and links to quickly contact retailers.

Google said the feature is rolling out to Android and iOS users in the US this week. You can activate Orders by tapping “Activate” under “Track your orders” or by tapping “Orders” in the app’s main menu.

According to a new report out of PandoDaily, Google has just acquired the Santa Clara-based Green Throttle Games. The report claims that Google has acquired the parts and labor of the company and that it plans to use it in its quest to develop a set-top box.

A Google spokesperson confirmed that a deal has been made between the two companies, but would not give specific information. The deal reportedly does consist of Matt Crowley and Karl Townsend, who worked on the first iteration of the Palm Pilot and are co-founders of Green Throttle Games.

Green Throttle Games launched in 2012 and set out to create a seamless gaming experience with Android devices. The company sold a custom ‘Atlas’ controller that worked with Android devices that had their Android Arena app installed. The controller would work with Android devices via BlueTooth. The technology never really took off and was criticized for being buggy and too far behind its competitors.

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In an extensive interview with Rolling Stone, Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen shared that it’s possible he will make the incredibly challenging iOS and Android game available for users again… but with a disclaimer.

As for the future of his flapper, he’s still turning down offers to purchase the game. Nguyen refuses to compromise his independence. But will Flappy Bird ever fly again? “I’m considering it,” Nguyen says. He’s not working on a new version, but if he ever releases one it will come with a “warning,” he says: “Please take a break.”
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Image via <a href="http://mashable.com/2014/03/10/jay-z-kanye-west-sxsw-samsung-concerts/" target="_blank">Mashable</a>

On the heels of its Galaxy S5 product announcement, Samsung will once again enlist JAY Z to make a publicity splash for its smartphones. According to Mashable, JAY Z and Kanye West are set to perform a one-night only concert on March 12th at SXSW with entry only permitted to fans with the Milk Music app installed on a Galaxy device. The imagery on the invitation hints that the duo will revisit their raucous Watch The Throne days.

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Hot on the heels of Samsung’s announcement of its new “Milk” streaming music service, Google has announced that it will be offering 60 days of free access to its Play Music All Access service to certain users, as well as anyone who owns a Chromebook.

Normally, the service runs $9.99 a month for the premium plan. Play Music All Access allows users to access a library of millions of on-demand tracks on any Android device. Prior to this offer, Google was offering 30 days of free usage, but the company has graciously doubled that for a limited time.

If you’ve been wanting to try Play Music All Access, keep an eye on your inbox for two free months of the service.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOIGUfAlMY0]

Samsung’s description of a nine-minute video as a ‘quick look’ at the Gear 2 and Gear Fit smartwatches may be about as accurate as its claim that they are everything users “loved” about the original Gear, but if you want to know everything the watches do and how to do it in full detail, this video is your friend.

The Galaxy S5 video (below the fold) is a little shorter, at a touch under eight minutes … 
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Today during a talk at a SXSW Interactive event, Google’s Android and Chrome chief Sundar Pichai apparently announced that a new Android SDK for developers interested in developing wearables will arrive in the next two weeks (via TheVerge). While Google isn’t announcing any specific products, Pichai made it clear that Google will be approaching Android on smart watches and wearables much like on smartphones. With the new SDK, Sundar said the company plans to “lay out a vision for developers as to how we’ll see this market working.” Pichai also hinted that the new Android SDK for wearables will incorporate wearables beyond simply smartwatches.

“We want to develop a set of common protocols by which they can work together,” Pichai said, “they need a mesh layer and they need a data layer by which they can all come together”… “when we say we say wearables, we are thinking much more broadly”

9to5Google first reported that Google was working on a smartwatch that would rely heavily on Google Now-like features. There have been unconfirmed reports recently that Google as well as some of its close partners like LG have been developing smart watches and wearables running Android. Google also picked up WIMM Labs late last year for its Android smartwatch/wearble platform and SDK and the most recent report claimed that a Nexus smartwatch announcement could come as soon as this month.
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Pebble announced today that it has updated its Pebble app for Android the smartwatch app store feature that it first rolled out for iOS users last month. The app now lets Android users browse and install apps and watch faces for Pebble:
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Samsung announced today that it’s launching a new free and ad-free music service called “Milk Music” that’s powered by Slacker and available to customers of select Galaxy devices. Samsung says the app, which is available now on available as a download on Google Play, is “fully customizable” and offers over 200 stations and a library of over 13 million songs.

“Milk Music introduces a fresh approach to music that reflects our innovation leadership and our focus on creating best-in-class consumer experiences,” said Gregory Lee, president and CEO of Samsung Telecommunications America and Samsung Electronics North America Headquarters. “We’re offering consumers amazing, rich music experiences built around what matters most to them and their lifestyle.”

The service is launching today in the US and available to those with a Galaxy S® 4, Galaxy S® III, Galaxy Note® 3, and Galaxy Note® II  as well as the upcoming Galaxy S 5.  Samsung added that it will soon offer “unique music programming from top selling and emerging artists available exclusively through Milk Music.”

While Samsung is promoting the service as completely free and free of ads, the Google Play page for the app says that the app will only be without ads and free for a for a limited time. It’s unclear if Samsung is referring to the ads or the service being free of charge, but it appears that it will either be implementing advertisements or a fee for the service in the future.

Here’s a list of features from Google Play:
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Motorola announced today on its blog that its releasing a new “College Collection” of customization options through Moto Maker that will allow those purchasing a Moto X to apply custom school colors and logos for a long list of schools in the US. It’s also offering a discount on the device for students. 
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New HP 8, with iPad Mini (right)

HP’s new tablet – simply called the HP 8 – not only bears more than a passing resemblance to the non-Retina version of Apple’s iPad mini, it appears to use an almost identical 7.85-inch IPS 1024×768 display.

It looks like a reasonable if unexciting buy for the money, with an Allwinner quad-core ARM chip, 1GB RAM, 16GB storage, a microSD slot (supporting up to 32GB cards) and running Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) … 
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Google has rolled out a massive update to its Text-to-Speech Android app that includes a variety of enhancements. The update, which began rolling out to devices yesterday evening, bumps the app to version 3.0. Most notably, this update improves the voice functionality and quality. While the voice was originally rather robotic and boring, this update makes it more fluent and realistic, much like Apple did with Siri in iOS 7. The updated voice is available in several languages and both male and female varieties, but each language and style runs about 200MB, so be sure you’re on WiFi when you download them. The voices are also now available in Portugese (Brazil), and Spanish (United States).

There are some issues with the new voices, however. Android Police notes that commands that contact the Google server for a reply, such as “what is 3+2”, still use the old robotic voice. Local questions, such as  “what is my next appointment”, do use the new voices, however.

The user interface has also been tweaked heavily. The voice management screen has been redesigned to show the size of each download, as well as detailed information about the voice.

The update is rolling out gradually on Google Play, so be sure to keep an eye on the Play Store for it to hit your device.

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The new line-up of Galaxy Tab Pro and Galaxy Note Pro tablets went up for sale in the United States last month, but only in WiFi variants. Today, however, the monstrous 12.2-inch Galaxy Note Pro has been made available from Verizon Wireless here in the states. The device went up on the carrier’s website this afternoon without any prior warning or even press release, but we’ll take what we can get.

As far as price goes, it isn’t cheap. With a two-year service agreement, the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 will cost you a whopping $750. Should you want to go the off-contract route, be prepared to spend $850 for the device. For these high price points, you get 32GB of internal storage. For comparisons sake, a 32GB iPad Air on Verizon would run $729 without a contract.

The big selling point of the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 is of course its 2560×1600 12.2-inch display. Other specs include 3GB of RAM and a Snapdragon 800 processor. Note that the processor is different from the WiFi-only model do to issues with the Exynos chip and LTE connectivity.

If you’re looking to drop $850 on Samsung’s latest tablet, head over to Verizon’s website now. If you’d rather get the WiFi only model, it’s available on Amazon for $750.

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Anyone who has friends that use iOS has probably heard of QuizUp. QuizUp is a simple trivia game that rocketed to the top of the iOS charts, but left many of us disappointed in the lack of an Android client. Today, however, the developers have finally released an Android version of the app to the Play Store.

The Android version of QuizUp is nearly identical to the iOS version. After you create an account, the home screen presents a variety of popular trivia categories. Categories range from sports to music to food and so much more. If you have great success in a certain topic, you become ranked higher, which can eventually lead to titles and badges. The game has great social integration, as well, allowing you to play with your Facebook, Google+ and Twitter friends, in addition to random opponents from around the world. The app also supports Google Play Services, which will share your activity to Google+.

Join over 10 million people who play and love QuizUp! Challenge your friends and connect with other players around the world in the largest real-time trivia game ever. Go head to head with over 200,000 questions in over 400 topics, ranging from your favorite TV shows and books to sports and music. New topics are added every week so QuizUp will surely test your knowledge while keeping you entertained for hours on end!

QuizUp is available for free on the Play Store now. You may notice that there are in-app purchases, but these are simply XP boosters. They don’t affect the actual gameplay at all and are not necessary at all.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WohB8WDYCZ0]

Really. In a bid to promote the G Flex as “the most human phone ever,” LG created the type of ad that is likely to make you want to head rapidly in the opposite direction the moment you catch sight of its phone …

Our review is slightly better.

via BGR
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Since its release, CyanogenMod developer Koushik Dutta has been at the forefront of expanding the Chromecas’s capabilities. He first released his AllCast app that allowed users to beam a variety of content to their Chromecast, and now, he’s updated his Mirror for Android app with a few big new features. In a post on Google+, Dutta announced that Mirror for Android has been updated with the ability to mirror your Android device’s screen to a Chromecast or a Chrome browser. Dutta has been teasing this feature for a while, but he finally released it tonight, albeit in a very early beta.

The feature works just as you expect. After installing the app and going through the set-up process, you have the option to mirror your entire Android device’s interface to your Chromecast, Chrome browser, or even Apple TV. Mirror also allows you to create a video recording of your Android screen.

Mirror lets you:

• Create a video recording of your Android
• Mirror your Android screen to Chromecast (Nexus 5 only)
• Mirror your Android Screen to Chrome (Nexus 5 only)
• Mirror your Android screen to an Apple TV

Of course, there are some bugs given that it is still in an early beta. Chromecast and Chrome mirroring is also only supported on the Nexus 5, as it’s the only device that has the required hardware video decoder for the app. You also must have root-access to your device and have the SuperUser app installed.

If you meet all of these qualifications, head over to Dutta’s Google+ page where you can sign-up for the beta and get access to the Mirror for Android app. Dutta hopes to release it, without root required, to the Play Store officially soon. Check out the video demo up above.

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Motorola this evening has released an update for its Touchless Control app that adds a few new features. Most notably, the update adds a new feature that allow you to ask your phone “What’s up?” to have your notifications read back to you. Simply say “Ok, Google Now, what’s up?” or “Ok, Google Now, read notifications” and the app will read your notifications back to you, allowing you to make the decision of whether they are important or not. Obviously, this is most useful while driving and can help you find out why your phone is buzzing without putting yourself or others at risk.

In addition to the “What’s up?” command, the update enhances end-of-speech detection for improved accuracy and faster responses and includes some bug fixes. The full change log is below: