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44 'download' stories July 2011 - December 2014

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Android 5.0.2 factory image pops up for the Nexus 7 (2012), here’s how to install it

Stephen Hall Dec 19 2014 - 2:39 pm PT

It doesn’t look like the 2012 model of the Nexus 7 is ever going to get updated to 5.0.1, as today Google has updated its factory image download page with a previously unseen build of Android—version 5.0.2. Not much is known yet in regards to what the update packs, or whether or not all devices will be getting it at some point, but it’s likely this is just an additional build (LRX22G) Google is pushing to fix some bugs specific to the Nexus 7.

In this case, the update is for the “nakasi” Wi-Fi model of the Nexus 7 (2012). To get your hands on the update, head over to Google’s factory image download page. And if you’re not quite sure what to do with that factory image, we have a convenient guide written up just for you—although it’s best for those who aren’t as experienced to just wait for the OTA as it will surely be dropping relatively soon.

Videos preview upcoming Android 5.0.1 update for Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Note Edge, & S5 LTE-A

Jordan Kahn Dec 19 2014 - 8:59 am PT

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7f2N_Dj2mg]

Samsung focused blog SamMobile today posted the videos above and below showing off an upcoming Android 5.0.1 update for the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy Note Edge, and Galaxy S5 LTE-A.

The update is mostly bug fixes, according to the report, but it also has a few notable new features including slow and fast motion video recording functions.
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Lollipop 5.0.1 factory image for Nexus 9 (LTE) now available for download

Stephen Hall Dec 12 2014 - 3:13 pm PT

The latest build of Android, 5.0.1 Lollipop, has been rolling out to devices for about a week now, and the factory image page has been slowly but surely getting updated with more downloads. A couple days ago we saw the addition of factory image downloads for the Nexus 4 and 6, but today the page has been updated with a link for the LTE model of the Nexus 9.

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Developers: Official Android Wear watch face API now available

Stephen Hall Dec 10 2014 - 11:16 am PT

Following the announce of the next major version of Android Wear this morning, Google has today announced that the official API for Android Wear watch faces is available to developers. The company has also published a video to help give some guidelines to developers on how to take advantage of the API and help them get started.

We’re pleased to announce that the official Android Wear Watch Face API is now available for developers. Watch faces give users even more ways to express their personal style, while creating an opportunity for developers to customize the most prominent UI feature of the watches. Watch faces have been the most requested feature from users and developers alike, and we can’t wait to see what you build for them.

Google asks that developers have their watch faces transitioned to the new API by January 31st, 2015, after which point Google says they plan to completely remove support for watch faces that aren’t built with the API.

You can check out the official watch face API over at the Google Developers website. You’ll need Android Studio 1.0.0 or higher, an Android device with version 4.3 (API level 18) or higher, and an Android Wear watch with version 5.0 (API level 21) or higher to start building faces.

Android Lollipop for Nexus 7 (2012) now available as factory image leaks ahead of time

9to5 Staff Nov 11 2014 - 9:59 pm PT

While official Android Lollipop factory images for the all-new Nexus 9 and Nexus Player were made available earlier this month, users with other Nexus and Google Play Edition devices are still waiting on Google to seed the update. In the meantime, Nexus 7 (2012) owners are in luck, as an Android Lollipop factory image for the tablet has leaked ahead of its official release.
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Official Android 5.0 Lollipop SDK now available for download

Stephen Hall Oct 17 2014 - 9:40 am PT

Following the actual announcement of Android Lollipop earlier this week, Google has now released its official SDK to developers interested in writing apps for the new OS. The release comes following the Android L SDK preview that was released earlier this year at Google I/O (which was only for the Nexus 5 and 7).

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HBO’s Game of Thrones Ascent game arrives on Android

Jordan Kahn Jul 17 2014 - 6:43 am PT

Following a release for iPad back in March, HBO’s Game of Thrones Ascent game developed by Disruptor Beam & Kongregate is now available for Android. The game already racked up around 2,500,000 players on Facebook and the web before making its way to mobile devices, and it comes to the smartphones with new art, optimized imagery, and leaderboards.

With Game of Thrones Ascent, fans can immerse themselves beyond the books and show, living the life of a noble in Westeros, working with (or against) each other in a persistent, authentic game world. Taking part in thousands of story-driven quests, players delve deeply into the lore and develop their own lands and reputation among the Great Houses. Players explore an expansive world filled with deep political and social play involving diplomatic agreements, pacts, marriages, and betrothals. Through Alliance challenges, players work with hundreds of others to accomplish great tasks and rise to the top of the Power Rankings.

The developers update the game weekly and alongside new episodes of the TV show when it’s airing. That includes new quests, in-game items and more that follow the storyline of the show.

Game of Thrones Ascent is available for Android now as a free download on Google Play.

Google Play still tops App Store in downloads, slowly narrowing revenue gap

Jonathan Kizer Apr 16 2014 - 9:36 am PT

The Play Store continues to hold a growing advantage over Apple’s App Store in terms of sheer downloads, according to the most recent App Annie report (via TechCrunch). More importantly, Google’s mobile app store is slowly narrowing the revenue gap that exists between the two platforms. While Google passed Apple’s App Store in terms of downloads last year, a major gap remained in the revenue that both platforms generated for developers. While Android still lags behind iOS in this department, it seems that the two are slowly reaching parity. Last year’s indexed revenue for the Play Store was ranked at about 40; as the above chart shows, it’s climbed to be just above 50.

Google Play led the iOS App Store in downloads by approximately 45% in Q1 2014, up from 35% in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, the iOS App Store maintained its comfortable advantage in revenue, leading Google Play by 85%. However, Google Play continued to narrow this revenue gap. The gains for Google Play come as Android devices extended their lead in worldwide device installed base.

Google Play saw revenue growth in the United States, which helped it to close the gap. Additionally, Android saw strong download growth around the world. iOS continued its growth in the US, as well as in China — traditionally a stronghold for Android device, albeit devices without access to the Play Store. Apple’s platform also saw strong growth in Vietnam and South Africa, among other smaller countries.

The takeaway? Both ecosystems are strong, and getting stronger.

Dropbox launches new “Carousel” photo & video gallery app

Jordan Kahn Apr 9 2014 - 11:23 am PT

http://vimeo.com/91475918#at=0

Dropbox is introducing its latest product today, a photo and video management app called Carousel that integrates many of the features from the photo storage service Snapjoy acquired by Dropbox back in 2012.

The company unveiled the app at an event today in San Francisco as a gallery to store and share all of your photos and videos. The app is built for quick and easy sharing of one or multiple photos to phone contacts or email addresses (even if the recipient doesn’t have a Dropbox account), allowing you to get around the upload limitations usually associated with sharing photos. With everything backed up in full resolution directly to Dropbox, it essentially becomes a standalone app to manage just photos and videos that you want to store in Dropbox.

With Dropbox, we built a home for your photos and videos but never gave you a great way to experience them. We’d like you to meet Carousel, the newest member of the Dropbox family. It’s a gallery that houses your entire life’s memories. Even more, Carousel lets you share and relive these memories in private conversations with friends and family.

Carousel is now available as a free download on the App Store for iOS and the Play Store for Android.

[tweet https://twitter.com/carouselapp/status/453949761830154240]

The company also made some other product announcements today including news regarding versions of its Mailbox app for Android and Mac OS X.

Galaxy S5 apps leaked online ahead of phone’s April release, work on other devices

Mike Beasley Mar 13 2014 - 3:12 pm PT

Even though the phone won’t be released until next month, some of the Galaxy S5’s apps have been leaked online and can be installed on current Samsung devices, according to Android Police. The apps leaked include S Note, S Health, S Translator, the hardware managers for both the Galaxy Gear and the Gear Fit, Samsung Watch ON, and for all you math enthusiasts, the Calculator app.

The apps can be downloaded from the XDA thread where they were leaked, though it seems that some of them (specifically S Health) aren’t actually functional on older devices. Installing some of these packages will require a rooted phone so that old versions of the apps can be removed and replaced by the updated versions.

After 5 million downloads, popular game ‘Dots’ makes its way to Android

Jordan Kahn Aug 15 2013 - 6:13 am PT

After hitting 5 million downloads and over 1 billion games played since launching on iOS a little over 4 months ago, betaworks-backed game “Dots” is today making its way to Android users for the time. The simplistic puzzle game, which sees users “connect as many same-colored dots” as they can during a 60 second timeframe, will be available as a free download sometime later today.

The announcement also comes with a new “moves mode” that does away with the time restriction but introduces a 30 move limit, as well as new trophies and support for a number of new languages, including: German, Spanish, French, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Arabic.

Keep an eye on the Google Play store for the Dots game arriving any minute now.

Google investigating “Package File Invalid” error preventing Google Play updates/downloads

Jordan Kahn Aug 13 2013 - 12:46 pm PT

It seems an increasing number of users have been experiencing the old “Package File Invalid” error when attempting to update or download apps from Google Play. While it’s not the first time users have experienced the issue, it does appear that more and more users in recent days have been unable to workaround the issue in order to update and download apps. Good news if you’ve been having the problem, AndroidCentral points us to a Google support thread that confirms the company is investigating the errors:

We’ve received reports that some users are getting “Package File Invalid” while trying to download or update apps.

We’re currently investigating a permanent solution, and there are no workarounds at this time.

We’ll continue to update this page with developments, so check back soon.

Google Drive Android app updated with ‘scan’ for storing physical docs, improved UI, and more

Jordan Kahn May 22 2013 - 10:07 am PT

Google announced on its Google Drive blog today that it is rolling out an updated Google Drive app for Android that includes a couple notable new features.

The app’s UI has been overhauled and now displays your Drive files in a familiar grid style view:

You can swipe between files to see large previews that let you quickly review and discover the information you’re looking for. And if you want to keep some Drive files on your Android device, you’ll now be able to “download a copy” from the actions menu inside settings.

Another big update included in the latest version of Drive for Android is the ability to ‘scan’ and store physical documents as PDFs. The new scan option will allow users to snap photos of documents and save them within Drive as a PDF. Thanks to Optical Character Recognition, you’ll also be able to search for the scanned docs using keywords.

The update includes a number of other improvements as well including the ability to download a copy of your files in Drive your device’s local storage, improvements to editing features in Google Sheets, and much more:
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Chrome enters version 25 with speech-to-text API

Alex Allegro Feb 21 2013 - 5:32 pm PT

Chrome version 25 was released with a new Web Speech API that allows web developers to integrate speech-to-text dictation into their web applications.

The other feature of importance on the new version is the removal of “silent extensions.” Silent extensions are web-browser extensions that install without your knowledge. From now on, every web extension installation must be manually approved.

The updated version is available here, but Chrome’s auto-update feature may have already installed it for you.

Android 4.2.2 released to Nexus devices only

Alex Allegro Feb 12 2013 - 7:00 am PT

WeeManFoo, a user on the popular Internet board site Reddit, claimed his Galaxy Nexus received a OTA update of Android 4.2.2 this morning. Judging by the comments, it seems the update was only rolling out to GSM Galaxy Nexus’, but download links and a screenshot from a Google+ user seems to put the kibosh on the rumor. While there’s no word on what the update holds, because it’s an x.x.1 update, it’s probably a mix of bug fixes and minor improvements. More on what the update holds as information comes in. In the meantime, get downloading!

Flipboard for Android now unofficially available to all

Jordan Kahn May 9 2012 - 6:00 am PT

We already know Flipboard made its Android début last week with the introduction of Samsung’s new Galaxy S III, but today the app is available to everyone willing to download and install the APK themselves. XDA-developer forum user Valcho uploaded the .apk that he extracted from the Galaxy S III, which means you’re getting the actual app. It should also be easily installed through your device’s Web browser, so you will get to try it before its official release on Google Play. Go over to the XDA forums to grab it now.

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Samsung releases S Pen SDK 1.0 for Galaxy Note S Choice apps

Jordan Kahn Nov 28 2011 - 9:22 am PT

We originally got our first look at “S Choice” apps running on the new 5.3-inch Galaxy Note when Samsung showed off a selection of apps designed specifically for the device’s S Pen stylus at the launch event in London. While they already had a handful of apps including OmniSketch and Soonr Workplace up and running, the S Pen SDK (version 1.0) is now available for developers interested in creating their own applications optimized for S Pen.

Available from the Samsung Dev Tools portal here, the S Pen SDK allows you to create backgrounds for drawing with a ‘CanvasView’ feature, create panels for adjusting settings like line color an opacity with the ‘Pen Setting Popup’ feature, create panels for adjusting eraser widget with the ‘Eraser Setting Popup’ tool, and enable undo and redo. Screenshots after the break.

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New Android Market begins to get pushed to handsets featuring auto-update apps over Wi-Fi

Jake Smith Nov 1 2011 - 8:38 pm PT

The new Android Market version 3.3.11 has begun being pushed to Android handsets. The new update adds a ton of welcomed features, and what seems to be the most welcomed feature is the auto-updating of apps over Wi-Fi — which rids away of having to go back into the Market every time a new update is pushed. 3.3.11 also allows you to select the app being downloaded to automatically set an icon on your homescreen. Other tweaks include voice search inside of the market and a new app drawer.

While you’re waiting for the update to be pushed to your device, you can go ahead and give it a try by downloading it here. We must worn you, though, that the manual install doesn’t work well on tablets and has a few bugs on handsets. Let us know in the comments down south if you’re seeing the update. (via Android Police)

Head on past the break for a full gallery:

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Download the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 TouchWiz over-the-air update now

Jordan Kahn Aug 5 2011 - 9:04 am PT

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlLP3RXkmUQ&]

We brought you our 5-minute video walkthrough of the new TouchWiz UX update for Samsung’s Honeycomb-powered Galaxy Tab 10.1, and now the somewhat underwhelming 188mb firmware refresh is available as an over-the-air update.

Some of the more notable features include a new dock-like application launcher, the Swype for tablets app, and mobile printing. You may, however, want to wait this one out, as Samsung’s Gavin Kim confirms to the WSJ the OTA update will not be reversible:

Users, who will receive the over-the-air download for their WiFi devices beginning Friday, won’t be able to remove the Samsung features even if they desire to return to the standard Android platform, Mr. Kim said.

If you’re having trouble getting the update, make sure you’ve set up a Samsung account on your Galaxy Tab. Full list of features from the official press release below, if you’re interested.

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Google Maps for Android now features offline maps

Jake Smith Jul 7 2011 - 2:49 pm PT

Android users who downloaded the updated Maps application today got a nice surprise. Google Maps for Android now features offline viewing. To enable the new feature, simply navigate to the Labs section of the Maps application and enable the Download Map Area option. After this is enabled, each time you want to download maps for offline viewing you will need to visit a Place page, click the more button, and then select the option to store locally. Maps will then store a 10 mile radius, locally to your device.

Offline viewing is available for Android because of the way it displays the maps. Android uses a vector-based system for displaying map tiles, where the iPhone uses an image based. This means Android can pull maps using about 1/100th of the data the iPhone would. Maybe we’ll see a change to the iPhone’s Google Maps soon.

via TechCrunch