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Google's pre-order sales of the Nexus 6 on the US Play Store have been, to put it delicately, crap. By my estimate all four storage and color variants of the phone have been available for ordering for a grand total of about twenty minutes over the last two weeks, and Motorola hasn't fared much better selling them on its own site. If you're waiting for the retail release of the Nexus 6... prepare to be disappointed.
Between low prices, Nexus-style Android builds, and updates straight from Google, the Android One phones currently on sale in India seem like ideal tinker machines. Now those who want to play with custom ROMs, software modifications, or just want an easy way to root and backup their phones have an official Team Win Recovery Project build available to them. The custom recovery can be downloaded from the official TWRP page. TWRP isn't the first recovery created for Android One, but it's probably the most anticipated.
Welcome to the latest entry in our Bonus Round series, wherein we tell you all about the new Android games of the day that we couldn't get to during our regular news rounds. Consider this a quick update for the dedicated gamers who can't wait for our bi-weekly roundups, and don't want to wade through a whole day's worth of news just to get their pixelated fix. Today we've got a hard-boiled adventure game, a simian racer, and a colorful mix of Space Harrier and endless runners. Without further ado:
We've been hearing from a lot of companies hyping up their plans for Android 5.0 updates - at least one of them seems ready to start issuing it soon. But what of Samsung, the undisputed king of Android sales figures and, not least, one of the more (ahem) robust suppliers of add-on software and interfaces? Apparently the company is working swiftly on a Lollipop update. The folks at SamMobile, as is their wont, have already managed to snag what looks like an early build of Android 5.0 for the Galaxy S4. Last month the same site had a similar hands-on with Android L running on the S5.
Update: the developers of Primecast have confirmed to Android Police that they were "locked out" of the app's streaming functionality.
Motorola started selling a few new color and band versions of the Moto 360 smartwatch this week, with more to come. At the same time a company representative promised new watch faces for existing users via a forthcoming update to the Motorola Connect app. That update seems to be here: version 2.02.21. In addition to faces added from the Motorola design competition back in June, the new app allows you to pick and choose colors and design elements for the default Motorola faces.
Update: ...aaaaand it's gone.
Sony's back to its AOSP tricks, working to release some functional (if not exactly ideal) versions of the latest release of Android based on open-source code. This time they've quickly put together Android Open Source Project builds for the flagships of the last two years: the Xperia Z1, Z2, and Z3. You can see the bone-stock builds running in the video below.
Last week Amazon briefly showed off a few new options for the Moto 360, including the metal bands that the company has been teasing ever since the original announcement. Those disappeared from Amazon almost instantly, but now Motorola seems ready to sell at least some of them. After a quick announcement on the company blog, some of the new options are being sold now.
If you're as fed up with the Google Play Store's fumbling of the Nexus 6 launch as everyone else, you now have at least one alternative. Motorola has begun selling pre-orders on its website, at least to the United States. You can order the 32GB model and 64GB model at $649.99 and $699.99, respectively, in both white and blue. According to the site, "availability" of the pre-order is determined when you check out, so just seeing it on the site doesn't mean you'll be able to secure a pre-order.
Android Police presents a fictionalized account of the creation of the Verizon Ellipsis 8 tablet.
If you don't use any language with a non-Latin alphabet, you've probably seen at least one of Google's alternative language keyboards and promptly dismissed it. But for a huge portion of Android's userbase, those things are essential tools for daily interaction. Today almost every one of Google's customized input/keyboard apps has been given a major update: Google Hindi Input, Google Japanese Input, Google Korean Input, Google Pinyin Input, and Google Zhuyin Input.
The idea behind MONZO, a sort of simulator for Revell-branded plastic model kits, is actually pretty cool. You "open" a kit, read through a paginated, simplified version of the instructions, then "assemble" digital analogs of the real pieces from the kit. The 3D model of the, uh, model is extremely detailed, and the pan and zoom tools let you examine it minutely. If your phone or tablet has decent 3D capabilities, it's a surprisingly soothing experience.
According to Android Police's traffic data, less than 1% of the people who visit our site do so from Mexico. But that 1% is having a really good day today: in addition to getting news of the Moto Maxx (a non-Verizon version of the high-powered DROID Turbo) coming to Mexico, you'll soon be able to buy a Chromecast south of the border. I don't know what took Google so long, but you should be able to find one in Best Buy, Liverpool, or Linio retailers starting tomorrow.
42 Best New Android Apps And Live Wallpapers From The Last 2 Weeks (10/22/14 - 11/5/14)
A look at some new Android apps and live wallpapers.
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.
There's a surprising lack of options when it comes to Android audiobooks. Sure, there's Audible, but its metered subscription service isn't an ideal solution for a lot of people, and other services tend to be light on content. Audiobook enthusiasts now have another alternative: Barnes & Noble. NOOK (ALL CAPS) Audiobooks is available as a free download on any Android 4.0+ device, though I'm betting that only those in the US can actually buy books.
So, the brief previews of the Moto Maxx that made it look like a de-branded DROID Turbo turned out to be right on the money. Motorola just announced the device on its official blog, complete with a spec list that matches Verizon's DROID flagship spec for spec. This generic version of the phone has the same fantastic screen, processor, battery, and camera combo... but you're not going to get your hands on the Moto Maxx any time soon unless you live in Brazil or Mexico.
Look, we know most of you are probably more eager to see Lollipop software images for devices that you actually have instead of the ones that have just been released. But Google seems to be taking its sweet time with those, so in the meantime, we've got the software image and binary drivers for the Nexus Player. That's nice, right? Hello? Anyone reading this?
Everyone wants a piece of the digital streaming pie these days, and some companies seem to be a little too quick on the proprietary trigger. But Disney's solution, which often lets consumers pick between iTunes, Google Play, and their own Disney Movies Anywhere platform when redeeming digital copies, seems to be a pretty good one. Now the official Android app has arrived for easy integration on phones and tablets.
If you've taken enough photos to fill up the storage allotment on both Dropbox and Google Drive, and you happen to be an Amazon Prime subscriber, you might want to check out the somewhat nondescript Cloud Drive app. Starting today, Amazon Prime users get unlimited photo storage via the company's branded cloud storage solution. The default free level of generic storage, for Prime members and everyone else, is still the standard 5GB.