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Google has just posted updated factory images and driver binaries for the Nexus 7 (2013 and 2012), Nexus 4, Nexus 10, and Galaxy Nexus (yakju / takju variants) based on the new Android 4.3 bugfix builds JWR66Y and JSS15Q (2013 Nexus 7 only). The new builds follow OTA updates that have been rolling out over the last couple of days.
Big things are in the pipeline for the Android version of Chrome, and those big things are coming soon to the beta version. This is the biggest update I've seen on Chome for Android, so let's break down what's new in Chrome 30 Beta.
Motorola Skip, the NFC clip that lets you bypass your pattern / PIN lockscreen, was announced last week as an accessory exclusive for the Moto X. At the time, the Skip setup page linked to an app on the Play Store that wasn't yet publicly available, but that just changed. The Motorola Skip Setup app is required to get your Skip up and running. To set it up, install the app, turn on NFC on your phone, tap the skip against the back of your Moto X and follow the app's instructions. Easy.
Google announced a big update to Google Keep today, adding a much-needed feature to the nascent note app: time and location-based reminders, powered by Google Now. Nice! You can now select, at the bottom of a note while creating or editing it, to be reminded of that note at a certain time or place. I can already say this is going to get me using Keep a lot more. The reminders can be snoozed or adjusted in the notification bar when they appear, too, which is pretty awesome.
Kickstarter For New 3G-Connected Android Smartwatch That's Just Kind Of Terrible Going Strong Hours After Funding Begins
Kickstarter For New 3G-Connected Android Smartwatch That's Just Kind Of Terrible Going Strong Hours After Funding Begins
I really try to understand that innovation is a process of refining. Of failure and success. You have your good ideas, and your have your not-so-good ones. But the smartwatch market seems to not be learning... anything from the not so good ones. Meet the Omate TrueSmart, the latest darling of Kickstarter's seemingly insatiable smartwatch fetish.
Subscribers on Singapore's SingTel can now charge Google Play purchases directly to their mobile bill, making SingTel the first operator in that country to offer the feature. Google has updated its accepted payments support page to reflect this.
A small OTA update looks to be headed out to the Nexus 4 today, courtesy of an update document posted on T-Mobile's support page for the device. The build number is JWR66Y, which is obviously a very, very incremental bump from the previous build JWR66V. And the changelog matches up with such an assessment, as it includes but one item: "Security." That's nice and specific.
HTC Americas President Jason Mackenzie just tweeted the following.
Yep, we know - it's been a while since the last week in review post. But your weekly condensed Android Police solution is back, and better than ever. We're letting you, our readers, have a bigger say (in a way) about what makes it into the week in review. We're picking the 20 most popular posts published on Android Police in the last week and sticking them all into one big, categorized list for your convenience. How's that sound? Let's get started, it's the Week In Review 2.0!
Here's one we haven't done before for the weekend poll - wireless charging. As Qi wireless charging slowly becomes more and more popular, more handsets and tablets are supporting the standard. The big barrier to entry for many, though, are the charging pads that such devices require in order to take advantage of the feature. They aren't usually cheap if you choose to go with official OEM accessories, and even 3rd party solutions don't exactly come in at bargain-bin prices, and the few that do yield less than consistent results.
[Deal Alert] Wirefly Has The Verizon HTC One Up For Pre-Order: $149.99, New Subscribers And Upgrades
As of this morning, we finally know when the HTC One is launching on America's reddest network: August 22nd. But if you're not the kind of person who pays full price for anything, and obviously not on-contract smartphones, you probably know you're better off waiting for a deal on a new phone from a 3rd-party retailer. Wirefly to the rescue - they're already accepting pre-orders on the VZW HTC One, and they're charging a full 25% less than what Verizon's asking, at $149.99 for both new subscribers and upgrades.
I love the JBL Flip. The JBL Charge is the follow-up, of sorts, to that speaker, and addresses a few of the shortcomings its predecessor had. No more proprietary charging. Much longer battery life. A USB port for charging your various gadgets. It's also louder, and feels just as robust as the already-solid Flip.
This weekend's poll is easy - now that the dust has settled, the reviews have been published, and the bugs reported, did you buy the refreshed Nexus 7? I'm going to do my very best to accommodate you all in terms of poll answer choices, too, I promise.
According to Geek.com's Russell Holly, the successor to the Nexus 10 - which will be called the Nexus 10 - will be manufactured by ASUS, not Samsung. Holly bases his belief on information from "multiple sources" and an internal Best Buy inventory listing, a well-known Nexus retail partner. Here's that inventory listing, which has otherwise generic "placeholder" info (aka don't pay attention to the obviously-wrong release date).
Update: The service has now gone live in most countries. Pricing is 7.99GBP a month in the UK and 7.99 Euro a month elsewhere if you sign up before September 15th, along with the free 30 day trial. The price will increase if you sign up after that date (probably to 9.99 GBP / Euro a month). Thanks for confirmation, everyone!
A little bit of connecting the dots has revealed that Qualcomm is the reason behind the new Nexus 7's lack of factory image / driver binary support. This has long-time AOSP maintainer Jean-Baptiste Quéru pretty upset. Upset enough that he is "quitting AOSP."
Update: Looks like we were right.
On Friday, Google dropped a small bomb on Android users everywhere by introducing the Android Device Manager service. It's been a part of Google Apps for your Domain's device administration interface for quite some time now, though, so the product itself isn't new - it's just being newly introduced to regular ol' consumers like you and me.
When I first experienced the NVIDIA Shield's ability to stream games from a PC to the handheld unit wirelessly at CES back in January, I was floored. While it is remarkably similar to the Splashtop game streaming functionality NVIDIA demoed at CES 2012 (which never really came to fruition), Shield streaming feels like an even bigger step forward. This is basically NVIDIA's "look at what we can do" technology - it's what happens when they can have a high degree of control over the gaming experience. And it's pretty damn cool.