Latest Articles
Brazilian readers have had access to Google's music store and cloud song storage for only a couple of months, but it looks like they now have access to the subscription music service as well. Brazil has been added to the list of countries with access to, uh, All Access, and at least one Google+ user has been given the promotional message on the Google Play Music Android app. Hop to it, music fans.
If you've been following the gaming news at all, you know that the biggest release of the week is the latest iteration of Ubisoft's sandbox shooter Far Cry. The fourth game moves the action to the Himalayan country of "I Can't Believe It's Not Tibet," and tasks you with leading a ragtag army of rebels against an oppressive and tyrannical dictator. (Seriously, still not Tibet.) Ubisoft can't make a big-budget game without releasing a mobile counterpart, so say hello to Far Cry 4 Arena Master.
Samsung tablets usually don't do much for me - if I'm not discouraged by the software, then the physical navigation buttons are a major turn-off. But I must admit that the Super AMOLED screens on the Tab S series turn my head every time I see them. If you've been hunting for one of your own, the 10.5" Galaxy Tab S is on sale in refurbished form over on eBay. It's going for 4.99, a full $165 off of the retail price.
Now that Amazon has consolidated most of its Android offerings into a single Play Store app, the company will need to keep it updated and relatively interesting to remain relevant to users. The first major update since the redesign does just that, making sure that the Amazon app is compatible with the new Android 5.0 devices and software builds. But wait, there's more! The updated app now includes support for Android Wear.
Update 9/26/14: Sold out.
If you're excited to try out YouTube's new music subscription service, you may not have long to wait. We've gotten several tips this morning from users who now have access to YouTube Music Key on the web, though that access doesn't seem to extend to the Android app just yet. Most users seem to be left out at the moment, so it's probably another one of Google's frustrating staged rollouts.
Into every life a little rain must fall. Across every software update a few bugs will crawl. The most glaring problem for new users of Android 5.0 on the Nexus 7 2013 is a bug that appears to be stopping video playback dead. You can see a few users reporting the issue here, and we've seen it on at least one Android Police staff member's tablet. The good news is that there appear to be a few ways that you can fix it. The bad news is that they don't seem to fix it for long.
Want a hot deal on a Nexus 9... which will hopefully last longer than that nigh-inexistent one from HTC? Then head over to Amazon right now. One of the online dealer's "lightning deals" is fifty bucks off of the base 16GB model, bringing the total price down to $349.99. If you're an Amazon Prime subscriber, you can enjoy free shipping as well.
The web browser version of Google Play Music isn't exactly full-featured - it pales in comparison even to built-in tools like Windows Media Player or iTunes. But now it has one more tool that's bringing it a little closer: a visualizer. A visualizer is an overlay that presets a visual accompaniment to a musical track. Some of them get pretty elaborate, some of them aren't much more than a graphic equalizer. Google Play Music's first visualizer is called "Particles."
There are a lot of good options in the mid-sized tablet range, and if you're a fan of Samsung's designs, the Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 is among the best. Right now you can grab a refurbished black model off of eBay for 9.99, a full $200 off of the retail price. Of course, it's not quite the latest model (that would be the Galaxy Tab S, with its AMOLED screen), so most retailers have it discounted, but it's still a fantastic deal.
There's not much that's new in News & Weather 2.1. This update is all about making the interface and animations consistent with other recently-Materialized apps. We've seen exactly three new things: one, the statusbar changes color to match the action bar on Lollipop, like an increasing number of Google apps. Two, the pull-to-refresh action uses the newfangled circular refresh animation instead of a horizontal bar. And three, the hamburger menu now animates into an arrow when the slide-out menu is activated. It's a proven crowd-pleaser.
Today is a really good day for giant robot enthusiasts on Android. In addition to the XCOM expansion Enemy Within, which features a ton of mechanized combat, Android gamers now have access to Strike Suit Zero, an indie PC game that's all about shooting robots in space. Unfortunately, you're only getting access to this game if you have a SHIELD Tablet. Sorry, giant robot fans: you're beholden to NVIDIA for your fix at the moment.
The truth is out there... and you can shoot it. XCOM: Enemy Unknown is one of the best turn-based strategy games in years, which is why we were thrilled to see it get a mobile re-release on Android (even if we did have a hefty wait behind iOS). You can now get the expansion pack to the original, Enemy Within, and surprisingly it's being released as a standalone game - that means that unlike the PC and console versions, you don't have to own the original to play it.
The advertising for the latest round of Android software and devices has been pretty catchy. Have you seen the "party" ad? Nice. Google just posted four more short 45-second spots to the official Android account on YouTube, so you can expect to see these pop up on American television over the next few weeks. All of them star the cartoony Androidify figures, presumably including at least some created by users of the official app.
If you've got a Moto X 2014 Pure Edition or a Moto G 2014, then you stopped reading this story at the headline and you're furiously tapping the "System updates" option in your Settings menu. For those of you who are still with us: those phones are getting an official over-the-air update to Android 5.0 today. Motorola announced the updates on its official blog. This comes shortly after soak tests (closed betas) for the update on both phones.
Can't two grown international mega-corporations just get along? Apparently not. Two months after NVIDIA filed suit against Samsung in Delaware, Samsung is suing NVIDIA right back. The South Korean manufacturer alleges that NVIDIA violated some of its technical patents, including data use and semiconductor buffering. Samsung then upped the ante by accusing NVIDIA of false advertising, saying that NVIDIA's claims that the SHIELD Tablet has the world's fastest mobile processor are demonstrably false.
Last week's update to the Motorola Connect support app showed off the "Keylink," an accessory we hadn't seen before. Based on the shots of the app, it looked like a simple Bluetooth gadget that lived on your keyring and made it easy to find your keys from your phone, or vice versa. Now it looks like Motorola has officially launched the Keylink: one of our readers spotted at least one T-Mobile retail store selling it for $24.99.
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.
Apple's proprietary iMessage system lets iPhone users send text messages to other iPhone users over a data network, avoiding SMS charges and making texting free, at least within Apple's ecosystem. It's an impressive run-around of the entrenched carrier system - the same basic idea, applied to an agnostic model, has made texting alternatives like WhatsApp fantastically popular. But users found that trying to leave Apple's walled garden was much harder after setting up iMessage with their personal phone numbers.
If you're impatiently waiting for a new Nexus device to be shipped to you and/or for Google or another manufacturer to send an Android 5.0 update your way, then you've probably read every word that Android Police has published on Lollipop. On the off-chance that you want to read even more, Google has just published an official Quick Start Guide for Android 5.0 on the Play Store. You can download it for free right now.