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903 'update' stories May 2011 - July 2015
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PSA: Android M Developer Preview 3 has been delayed a bit

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jul 31 2015 - 7:54 am PT
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According to a post by an Android Developer Advocate on Google+, the Mountain View company has had to delay Android M Developer Preview 3 just a bit to make sure it’s closer to being a “near final’ build. Google never promised a release date, so most probably won’t be too disappointed, but the company says it just needs a “little more time.”

As per Wojtek Kaliciński:

A quick update on M Developer Preview 3.
We want this to be a near final release to test your apps on, but we need a little more time to get it out to you.
Please be patient and refrain from posting speculations about the release date. We will announce the Preview 3 availability in this community and on +Android Developers as soon as it’s ready.

We’ll of course let you know as soon as the new Developer Preview is out, and we’ll quickly be digging through it to find the latest additions and fixes. The first two previews went without any kind of Google Now on Tap support, so that’s likely part of what the company is scrambling to put together right now.

Hangouts 4.0 leaks again, but you can start conversations from Android Wear right now

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jul 30 2015 - 10:49 am PT
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We saw leaked screenshots of both the upcoming Hangouts Android app and its Android Wear counterpart, and now the app has leaked again (via Phandroid). Everything looks basically the same, and there’s not much new to see in this leak. And while Phandroid seems to claim that their version of the app is somehow special, the currently-available build of Hangouts now lets users send messages from Android Wear…
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Xbox Music’s ‘Groove’ name-change hits Android in redesigned app

Avatar for Cam Bunton Jul 29 2015 - 1:37 pm PT
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Xbox Music changed its name to Groove at the beginning of this month, and today, the rebranding has made its way to the music app on Android’s Play Store. It’s free to download, and is available right now.

Along with the new look and name, the app has had a couple of new features added. More devices can now download tracks for offline listening thanks to newly added compatibility. Music stored in your OneDrive folders will automatically show as music in the new Groove app. What’s more, you won’t need a paid subscription to make use of the app, although you will need one to access the entire streaming catalogue ad-free.

As per the Play Store listing:
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StubHub Android app adds Uber integration for requesting rides to events

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jul 29 2015 - 12:57 pm PT
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StubHub is rolling out an updated version of its Android app today that adds integration with Uber for requesting rides to events.

With the udpated app, users can now request a vehicle directly from within the app when purchasing event tickets or setup a reminder to do so for an upcoming event. Once you’ve booked a ride with Uber, StubHub automatically provides the location of the event venue to the driver:

After completing a ticket purchase on StubHub, fans will now be able to set a reminder to arrange transportation through Uber when the event is imminent. Users who purchase tickets within two hours of the event will be able to order an Uber directly from the order confirmation page.

The Uber integration is available for users in the updated Android StubHub app on Google Play alongside a few other fixes and improvements. The Uber feature, however, is available only for users in the UK, US, and Canada.

Google Translate app instant visual translation adds 20 languages

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jul 29 2015 - 7:04 am PT
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If you travel internationally, you’re well aware that Google Translate’s visual translation features — which originated as the Word Lens app — are invaluable. Today, Google announced that the app has added support for 20 new languages, bringing the total up to 27.

Today, we’re updating the Google Translate app again—expanding instant visual translation to 20 more languages (for a total of 27!), and making real-time voice translations a lot faster and smoother—so even more people can experience the world in their language.

The app originally supported English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

As of today, you can now translate to and from Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Filipino, Finnish, Hungarian, Indonesian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Swedish, Turkish and Ukrainian. You can also do one-way translations from English to Hindi and Thai.

T-Mobile pushes minor battery improvements to its Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jul 27 2015 - 8:15 am PT
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T-Mobile has today released minor updates for the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge this morning, including some improvements for battery life. Both phones received Android 5.1.1 fairly recently, and now, the “Uncarrier” is releasing a couple of bug fixers. The S6 update notes battery improvements and “various bug fixes and device improvements” for the Galaxy S6, and the S6 Edge adds a “cocktailbar error fix”…
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Lava Pixel V1 is the latest Android One handset for India, sadly lacks 4G support

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jul 27 2015 - 6:09 am PT
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When Google launched the Android One program, its goal was to bring reliably-updated devices at affordable prices to developing countries. We’ve seen the program make its way to nine countries, most recently Pakistan and Myanmar, and now it’s bringing a new device to India. It’s called the Lava Pixel V1, and it has some decent specs and a modest price tag…
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Fallout Shelter is coming to Android on August 13th

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jul 24 2015 - 12:30 pm PT
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Fallout Shelter, a mobile game companion to the much-anticipated Fallout 4, was brought to iOS last month with no word on when it would be arriving on Android. Today, the company behind the game, Bethesda, has come out on Twitter to announce that it should be hitting Android devices in less than a month — on August 13th.

The game was met with mixed reviews despite the hype, so Android users anticipating the game became much less excited with iOS players commented on its repetitive gameplay and stability issues. That said, Fallout 4 is definitely one of the most eagerly-awaited games of the year, and until it hits in November, players will have to take Shelter for what it is.

Google launches improved voicemail transcriptions for Google Voice and Project Fi

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jul 23 2015 - 4:04 pm PT
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Google has announced today that its voicemail transcription service is getting a much-needed update. Hoping to leave behind the days of hilariously bad voicemail transcriptions, Google asked some users for access to their voicemail. Now, the fruit coming thanks to those kind souls who trusted the company with their precious information has been officially announced.

Here’s the word:

So, we asked users if they would kindly share some of their voicemails for research and system improvements. Thanks to those who participated, we are happy to announce an improved voicemail system in Google Voice and Project Fi that delivers more accurate transcriptions. Using a (deep breath) long short-term memory deep recurrent neural network (whew!), we cut our transcription errors by 49%.

According to Google, errors have been cut by 49% post-update. And, good news for those who might not even see this post nor Google’s announcement, you don’t have to do anything at all to reap the benefits of these changes. Just keep using Google Voice and Project Fi as you always have, and you should notice that your voicemail transcriptions are suddenly less horrid.

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Yahoo News Digest app now available for Android tablets

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jul 23 2015 - 11:12 am PT
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Yahoo’s News Digest app that delivers the best from Yahoo News to readers twice a day is now available for Android tablets. The app was previously only available for Android smartphones and iOS devices.

The popular app offers summaries of top stories from Yahoo News with two daily updates, once in the morning and again at night. Content is a mix of human curated stories from Yahoo’s editors and picks via its algorithms from various sources around the web:

Each story is created from multiple sources to present the essential bits and pieces of information, known as “atoms”. Atoms are key quotes, images, videos, maps, infographs, and Wikipedia excerpts among others. These atomic units provide a unique context to the news. Our stories are both algorithmically and hand curated to ensure high quality, and come with a textual summary.

The updated Yahoo News Digest app for Android with support for tabtlets is available on Google Play now.

Pebble Time gets backlight, font, and vibration settings, updated Android app

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jul 22 2015 - 6:01 pm PT
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Pebble has announced today an update to the firmware of the company’s smartwatch, bringing several features that the community has oft-requested. Most notably, the new firmware brings settings for adjusting font size, backlight, and vibration. Pebble also released an updated version of the Pebble Time’s Android app counterpart, bumping it to version 3.2.0, which brings a new search bar, preserved notification preferences, and other minor changes…
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Amazon Shopping v5.7 for Android brings ability to sign up with a phone number

Avatar for Tom Maxwell Jul 22 2015 - 10:35 am PT
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As more and more Internet usage shifts towards mobile, particularly to smartphones, app developers are recognizing the phone number as an ideal identifier for new users. Snapchat, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger are just three examples of hugely popular apps which support signing up using your phone number in lieu of an email address, and which can also use the contact list to build up a network of connections within their apps. Now Amazon is jumping into the fold.

In the newest version of Amazon Shopping for Android, the company’s main mobile experience through which customers can purchase items and track orders, the onboarding flow for new customers has been updated to support signing up using just a name, phone number, and password. New customers who’d prefer to use an email address can click “Use your email instead.” The update hasn’t fully propagated in the Play Store just yet, but can be downloaded right now through APKMirror (click here). For that to work you need to visit Settings > Security on your device and toggle on “Unknown sources.”

This shift to phone number-based identification for apps makes total sense. Phone numbers are a native feature on smartphones – I like to call them an “atomic unit.” SMS and phone calls work right out of the box, whereas with email you have to launch an email app and then sign up and/or authenticate with a third-party provider, just to begin receiving messages. At the very least, by allowing onboarding with phone numbers, app developers make the onboarding process much faster, tremendously reducing the friction and bounce rate (users who download an app but leave before signing up). That’s what Amazon has done here.

Android Lollipop 5.1 for Sony Xperia Z3 and Z2 now rolling out

Avatar for Cam Bunton Jul 22 2015 - 8:06 am PT
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Sony confirmed in a blog post that its Android 5.1 update for the Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z2 device family is rolling out now. Devices including the Xperia Z3, Z3 Compact, Z3 Tablet Compact, Xperia Z2, and Z2 Tablet are part of this current wave of software releases.

As always, if you have a carrier device you may have to wait a few weeks or months for your network operator to give its approval to the software. If you have the unlocked model, however, you could see the update any day now. Be sure to keep checking for updates in your settings menu if you haven’t already received a notification to download the OTA.

Included in the Android 5.1 Lollipop update are the following new features:

  • Increased customisation options – so you have even more control over the way volume, silent modes and your alerts function
  • Brand new LinkedIn integration – be more productive with intuitive contact synchronisation in your Calendar
  • Camera improvements – with faster, more accurate Superior Auto Mode focus for great images, regardless of conditions
  • Enhanced enterprise support – with our latest Xperia in Business features for work
  • SmartWear integration – selfie snapping made that bit easier, with SmartWatch 3 as a remote shutter button

Older Xperia products will be getting the update “over the coming weeks”, according to Sony. Devices like the Z1, Z1 Compact and Xperia Z Ultra will be first in line before the T2 Ultra, Xperia C3 and original Xperia Z are updated a little while later.

Maps for Android updated w/ “Your timeline” feature to track your location history, more

Avatar for Chance Miller Jul 21 2015 - 6:04 pm PT
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Google today has started rolling out an update to its Maps application on Android that brings about several new features and changes. Most notably, version 9.12 of the app adds a new interface called “Your timeline.” On this screen, which is accessible via the slide-out navigation drawer, you can see all of the places to which you’ve been, in a comprehensive timeline-like interface.


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PSA: AT&T suspends 5.1 Lollipop update for first gen Moto X

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jul 21 2015 - 8:33 am PT
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For reasons unknown, AT&T has just suspended the rollout of Android 5.1 to the first generation Moto X. Motorola announced the update last month, and it first began rolling out to AT&T Moto X (2013) owners on July 7th.

Here’s what AT&T says on its support website:

UPDATE SUSPENDED

Effective July 20, 2015, the Android 5.1 (Lollipop) software update for the Moto X (XT1058) has been temporarily suspended. We apologize for any inconvenience and are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.

As mentioned, it’s not yet clear why AT&T has pulled the update for now. The company does say that it is working to resolve the issue as soon as it can, and the rollout should continue soon.

Leaked 3rd gen Moto G dummy unit confirms IPX7 certification, 2470 mAh battery, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jul 20 2015 - 9:15 pm PT
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As Motorola’s July 28th event draws near, more and more leaked images and renders of the upcoming Motorola handset refreshes continue to hit the Internet. This time we’re getting a look at leaked images (via MobileSyrup) of what is assumably a 3rd gen Moto G display dummy unit, and there just so happens to be a sticker affixed that confirms some previously rumored specifications of the device…
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Adobe Lightroom for Android updated to 1.2 with interface overhaul, faster, more intuitive edit tools, more

Avatar for Cam Bunton Jul 20 2015 - 9:56 am PT
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Today, Adobe released the latest version of its mobile Lightroom app for Android. Version 1.2 comes loaded with a handful of new features and a number of bug fixes and performance improvements. It’s available to download right now, and is the latest in a long run of awesome, recently updated Creative Cloud apps for mobile.


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PSA: Microsoft’s ‘Hyperlapse Mobile’ is now out of beta

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jul 17 2015 - 1:47 pm PT
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We told you in May about a new app from Microsoft called “Hyperlapse Mobile” (not to be confused with Instagram’s Hyperlapse), but it was at the time only available to an exclusive set of beta testers. Now, the app is publicly available to any and all that might want to give it a try, and — aside from its horrendous icon — I’m decently impressed.

Not much has changed since it was first introduced, and it’s still a little on the buggy side according to reviews, but overall users — myself included, briefly — are satisfied with the app’s resulting video footage.  You can import existing video into the app, choose between multiple speeds, create selfie hyperlapses, and more.

You can get Microsoft Hyperlapse Mobile right now on the Play Store for free.

 

VLC beta updated to 1.5.0 w/ better Material looks, USB auto-detection, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jul 17 2015 - 10:00 am PT
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VLC pushed a major cross-platform release in February, and at that point the company’s Android app finally left beta for the first time. VLC for Android has definitely been getting a lot of attention since then, though, and version 1.5 — which packs some notable improvements — was released today.
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Google announces enhanced snooze functionality for Inbox by Gmail

Avatar for Chance Miller Jul 16 2015 - 4:50 pm PT
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Google today announced a useful new feature that is now available in its Inbox email app. Starting today, when users “snooze” an email that has dates and times, they will be presented with a one-tap option to snooze to a specific time further in the future. For instance, you can snooze an event confirmation email until the day of the event. Another possible instance is snoozing a shipment confirmation email until the day of the package’s arrival.


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The more-efficient Snapdragon 810 v2.1 is already shipping aboard the HTC One M9

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jul 15 2015 - 1:51 pm PT
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OnePlus came out not long ago to say that the upcoming OnePlus 2 will sport the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor. This obviously caused a bit of concern in the community considering the system-on-a-chip’s mixed history with heat problems, but the company reassured us that it was going with some kind of updated “version 2.1” of the chip that didn’t have as many problems — and they said they were optimizing it themselves, too.

The company touted this as some kind of selling point for the device over the year’s other Snapdragon 810 handsets, most notably the HTC One M9 and the LG G Flex 2. AnandTech even tested the v2.1 chip to make sure that the company’s claims were legitimate, and it turned out they were. But what the company didn’t say was that v2.1 is already (today!) being built into other handsets. And that includes the HTC One M9…
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Google’s default Clock app gets new ‘more neutral’ color scheme

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jul 15 2015 - 11:17 am PT
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It wasn’t that long ago that Google opened up its Clock app to be downloaded on just about any Android device, and now a very minor update released today has refreshed the app’s color scheme. While the previous version sported a pink-and-blue look that was reminiscent of cotton candy, the app now looks a lot more like a patriotic red, white, and blue.

Those who weren’t avid users of the previous version might not notice the difference, because in the grand scheme of things it’s definitely not a huge change. But if you were a fan of the light-hearted and unique colors of the app, you might be disappointed that Google has now gone with something more “neutral” in version 4.0.2. The update also packs a few bug fixes.

You can get the latest version of the Clock app over at APKMirror right now, or you should see it rolling out via the Play Store any minute now.

Pushbullet for Android gains full-fledged SMS conversations on desktop

Avatar for Cam Bunton Jul 15 2015 - 7:16 am PT
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Pushbullet has to be one of the most widely adopted apps for Android. It lets you share links, notifications, images, and more across your smartphone and virtually any other device. Today, the company announced that it has added a new SMS UI to its desktop presence. With today’s update, you can now you can see entire conversations on your computer.
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