Artem Russakovskii
 
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Artem is a die-hard Android fan, passionate tech blogger, obsessive-compulsive editor, bug hunting programmer, and the founder of Android Police. Most of the time, you will find Artem either hacking away at code or thinking of the next 15 blog posts. |
An incremental update to the massively refreshed Google Play Store started rolling out yesterday evening. The new version is 4.0.26 while the previous version from April 9th was 4.0.25.
And a few earlier ones:
As expected, there are no major changes in this release, just minor bug fixes, as confirmed by Ron's quick teardown and comparison.
The HTC One page just went live at t-mobile.com, so if you've been lusting after what David called the most important phone of 2013 (read his review to understand the reasoning behind such a bold statement), you can finally secure the Glacial Silver version online. It doesn't look like the Stealth Black variant is up yet if you were looking for one of those, but on the upside T-Mobile is throwing in a free car dock with the purchase. Not a bad deal.
With the new Simple Choice plans, the One will run you $99.99 out of pocket with extra $20/month for 24 months or $579.99 outright.
Earlier today, Google started pushing some new open source code to AOSP (Android Open Source Project) marked with 2 new tags: android-4.2.2_r1.1 and android-4.2.2_r1.2. The build number corresponding to the 4.2.2_r1.2 release is JDQ39E.
The dates you see here are commit dates, not dates the commits were made public (which is today, April 17th 2013)
After weeding out the changes from the commit logs, it looks like all of them are, as expected, very minor. We've seen these _r1.X releases before, and the last one didn't fix much at all.
Here are the aforementioned changes between 4.2.2's tags 4.2.2_r1 (JDQ39) and 4.2.2_r1.2 (JDQ39E).
Paradox Interactive, a well-known game publisher and developer, today posted up a promo video for the upcoming ship battling game Leviathan: Warships. If you watch only one video today, let it be this one. Kittens and puppies can wait till tomorrow. I haven't had this much fun watching trailers ever since the unfortunate fireworks accident at the nearby trailer park.
Paradox Interactive's previous Android project, Magicka, is sitting at 4.8/5.0 after over 100 reviews, so needless to say, I'm pretty excited about their next game. It sets sail April 30th on Android, PC, Mac, and iOS.
And now, for the main event.
Facebook Home has arrived, and whether we like it or not, it's here to stay. The 2.5/5.0 rating at the close of the day isn't exactly inspiring, but it's likely a knee-jerk reaction from Facebook haters, which I am confident will go up to somewhere in the 3.X range with further improvements. Cameron addressed the current state of Home pretty well earlier today, so now that the dust has settled, it's time for a fun video to finish off the work week, both for Facebook employees who worked on the product and us, its potential (but unlikely) users.
I'll be honest - I haven't liked a launch video this much in a while.
Following several recent leaks and the official announcement earlier today, Google started pushing out a completely redesigned, simpler, cleaner, and faster version of the Play Store for Android. The previous version was 3.10.14 while the new one is 4.0.25, and we have the download mirrors for you right here.
And a few earlier ones:
The new Play Store really does look a lot better, especially on tablets.
Yesterday, BorrowLenses, a site that rents gear to photo and video enthusiasts, posted up a rental page for Google Glass and a matching blog post. Those interested were invited to rent Glass on April 30th. The prices started at $105 for 3 days all the way to $499 for 4 weeks. With the developer version of Glass going for $1500, this didn't sound like such a bad idea if you were just looking to see how it worked without a huge commitment.
As we suspected, the whole thing was a hoax. Good one, BorrowLenses. You managed to convince quite a few sites around the web that the Glass offer was the real deal, so props for the original idea.
I still can't believe that Android Police has been around for three years now (we've just celebrated our third anniversary last week). It's been hell of a roller coaster of leaks, emotions, interesting news, editorials, contests, and... writers. You may not realize this, but in the past years, we've been through probably over 60 contributors, the strongest 11 of whom now comprise the core team.
But today is not the time for sob stories. That's not fun. What is fun, however, is figuring out just which one of the aforementioned 11 Android Police writers is your absolute favorite. Who makes you laugh?
April Fool's 2013 is here (at least in some time zones), and the Internet has already given birth to a few early pranks. We will spend the next two days second-guessing every piece of written content, getting rickrolled, and generally feeling the way members of bomb squads do on their missions.And we will hate love every minute of it.
So, let's take a look at the best Android, mobile, and Google-related jokes that hit the web this year.
*** This page will be continuously updated ***
Earlier today, the DROID DNA disappeared from VZW's site. This, combined with all the Verizon-bound HTC One rumors, prompted some in the Android community to wonder whether such a One variant is almost upon us - after all, why would Big Red take down one of its most powerful smartphones so suddenly? The vanishing act didn't last long, however, as the DNA just returned, seemingly alive and well:
It's unclear at this point whether the phone was briefly missing by mistake or Verizon put it back because people noticed, but we've reached out to the media relations team to find out and will update this space if they respond (which is unlikely to happen before Monday).
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