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The best thing you can do for Black Friday is nothing: those discounts aren't worth the indignity of getting clobbered by an octogenarian's purse while she hunts for a Frozen doll. But if you swing by this promotional page for Amazon's Appstore, you can pick up no less than 40 free apps and games, worth a combined $130 at full price. Amazon does these promotions on a regular basis. There's no reason not to get them all, but if you'd rather not clutter up your Amazon account, here are some notable picks:
Hey, Call of Duty fans: do you want to experience the fast-paced military shooter action, breathless multiplayer competition, and facepalm-worthy single-player campaigns of your favorite console franchise on your mobile device? Well too bad, here's Clash of Clans with some guns and tanks.
Consider devices like the HTC One, or any of Sony's recent Xperia flagships, or the Moto X with its wood and leather options. These are gadgets with decades of engineering inside of them, but which have nonetheless been painstakingly designed to look gorgeous on the outside. And nothing spoils that quite like a big honkin' FCC-required ID and safety label hiding on the metal finish. Manufacturers can try to make it blend into the phone's default color, or hide it behind a battery cover or on a bezel. But we know it's there, taunting us, like a zit on a teenager the night before the prom.
The Play Store usually gets accessories a few weeks (or more) behind the launch of any new devices. So it is with the Nexus 6: after showing up as "coming soon" about three weeks ago in the US store, the Stand Folio Case is now available for purchase, and should ship within two business days. The case can be yours for a hefty forty bucks, but it's made by the generally reliable Case-Mate, not some no-name accessory mill.
Lollipop users, you can now download the popular SuperSU tool from the Play Store. Not that you couldn't before, but version 2.35 is particularly notable: it works with a lot more of the usual root apps, after both SuperSU and the apps that use it were having trouble on Android 5.0. You can flash 2.35 via the usual ZIP in TWRP (and probably other custom recoveries), with updates coming via the Play Store after that.
Most of the deals we post from eBay are for refurbished devices. It's a great way to save money on a new gadget, but some people are understandably turned off at the idea of buying something that's been used before, no matter how gently or infrequently. This deal is for them: a brand new Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 can be had from Newegg's official eBay page for 9.99. That's a full $300 off of the original retail price from back in March, and $150 off of the current price on Amazon.
We take a lot of jabs at Verizon here at Android Police, and not without good cause. But we can't deny that the company's current Connection Day promotion, in conjunction with an Amazon partnership, is offering some sweet free stuff. Right now Amazon is giving away a bunch of paid apps and music via its Appstore and Amazon Music portals, compliments of Big Red. You can add them to your Amazon library whether or not you use Verizon for home or wireless services.
Chrome users love to try out new features in the beta version of the Android browser, and fans of Opera's long-running software have been able to do the same since March. Now you can try out the new goodies in the pipeline early for the Opera Mini browser as well: the company just published a beta app on the Play Store. And what's more, the very first release of the beta version is making it count with a fresh new user interface.
Valiant Hearts isn't your usual war game. You won't be blasting through thousands of bad guys like BJ Blazkowitz, you won't be commanding an entire army like an over-the-top Command & Conquer general. Valiant Hearts is incredibly story focused, as it considers itself more of a playable comic book than a video game. It's also about World War I, which hasn't exactly been a popular subject for video games.
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous 2 weeks or so.
Samsung seems to have a big target on its back that is particularly attractive to lawyers. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, a media company focusing on photography and management is suing Samsung over its use of the "Milk" trademark for its proprietary music service. The New York- and Los Angeles-based agency alleges that Samsung knowingly and willingly violated its trademark when designing the new service.
The OnePlus One isn't quite the hot item it used to be, and if there are any prospective buyers in India, they might have been swayed by the handful of flagship phones that have launched from more conventional manufacturers in the months since the device's release. Even so, if you want a One on the subcontinent, you won't have too much longer to wait. Maybe. According to this promotional page and some information from the OnePlus forum, Amazon will start selling the One in December. It has an Indian exclusive on the phone.
The Fire TV Stick is a slimmed-down version of the Fire TV streaming device, and Amazon's answer to the Chromecast. It's also sold out until January 15th on Amazon.com, no doubt due to the massive amount of Amazon Prime users who have taken advantage of the 50% off promotion. But if you're hunting for one for yourself or for a present, Best Buy has it in stock right now, and at a significant discount.
The Federal Communications Commission has been taking some quite visible actions to keep American carriers in line. Chairman Tom Wheeler took Verizon to task about its plans to throttle unlimited data users, which it then scrapped. The FCC assisted the Federal Trade Commission in its case against AT&T for throttling "unlimited" customers. Today the FCC announced that T-Mobile will report more accurate data speeds to customers who are being actively slowed down.
Crescent Moon is a solid publisher of Android games, offering titles from a variety of developers across nearly every genre. Today it's the latest company to partner with Humble, offering an impressive collection of Android games in a DRM-free format with a "pay what you want" structure. Four of the games included in today's bundle can't be had on the Play Store, at least at the moment. Right now you can pay $8 to get all ten titles, and more are on the way.
Update: The app has been removed from the Play Store. Good job, Google/Sony/users who flagged the app.
Since Android's rise to the top of the mobile landscape, Samsung has been the clear market leader, at least in terms of sales. But the thrones of the mighty are shaking, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ cites anonymous sources, presumably within Samsung itself, that say the Galaxy S5's international sales have fallen 40% below the company's expectations. approximately 12 million phones were sold in the first three months after release, compared to 16 million for the Galaxy S4 last year.
[Lollipop Bug] Zut Alors: Setting Android 5.0 Language To Canadian French Can Cause SystemUI Crashes
Our readers in Quebec may want to temper their excitement for any upcoming Lollipop updates. According to this lengthy thread on Google's Android issue tracker, a number of French-speaking users are seeing system-breaking bugs. When setting an Android 5.0 device's language to Canadian French, it will periodically experience a SystemUI crash, usually when plugged in to charge or sync. The problem only seems to be affecting those who select "Français (Canada)," not "Français (France)."
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous 2 weeks or so.
Until now, Amazon's Kindle and Fire devices have lacked one important feature that sets them far behind their Android counterparts: porn. Wait, that's not true, there's tons of porn on Amazon, you can hardly look on the bookstore without seeing self-published Harlequin-style short stories. But if you want to browse a bunch of sites on the less savory side of the Internet on your Kindle Fire without leaving a trail, you're out of luck.