Latest Articles
Google Translate 3.0.6/3.0.7 Improves UI, Adds Phonetic Input For Hindi And Other Indian Subcontinent Languages [APK Download]
Google Translate 3.0.6/3.0.7 Improves UI, Adds Phonetic Input For Hindi And Other Indian Subcontinent Languages [APK Download]
Today's update to Google Translate probably won't affect most of our American readers, but if you live in or frequently travel to India, you're going to get a lot of use out of it. The update to version 3.0.6 adds spoken translation support for Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu, all widely spoken in different parts of the Indian subcontinent and other locations in Southeast Asia.
RoboForm is a popular password manager and form-filling service on the desktop, but its Android edition has felt a little behind the times as of late. That changes with the 4.05 update, which adds the ability to fill in tedious form info on any app on your phone or tablet. It's especially useful since the (paid) RoboForm Everywhere feature will sync all your information with the extension on your computer. No more hastily trying to remember the password for the HBO Go account you "borrowed."
The folks over at TeslaCoil have been hard at work. Just a week or so after testing a ton of small but significant changes in the 3.0 beta release of the popular Nova Launcher, they've expanded them to the full Play Store version. Check out our breakdown of some of the more significant additions for more details. But there's one more trick up its sleeve for the general release: the "OK Google" hotword.
One of the nicest things about CyanogenMod (from a cosmetic perspective, anyway) is support for hundreds and hundreds of community-baked themes on the Play Store and elsewhere. As opposed to a launcher theme or icon set, these themes are system-wide, and they can completely change the look of your phone or tablet in a few seconds. Custom ROMs often bake in a compatible theme system (see AOKP), and now the popular Paranoid Android family has done so as well.
Remember Flow, Amazon's augmented reality shopping aid that kinda sorta worked? Well now you don't have to, because the functionality has been rolled into the main Amazon shopping app. Now you can scan barcodes and even full products (at least some of the time) to compare their prices to everyone's favorite online megamart. And incidentally, you don't need a second app to do it.
The mid-range market continues to expand into larger and larger handsets, and Sony doesn't want to be left behind. To that end, they've announced the Xperia T3, a 5.3-inch Android phone with an awesome industrial design, but internals that will leave hardware buffs wanting more. The star of the show is an all-steel body that's admirably thin at just 7mm. It will be available globally in late July.
Do you want most of the HTC One's features in a device that's not quite as expensive? Then meet the One (E8), HTC's newest smartphone. Between the plastic (oops, sorry, "polycarbonate") body and a separate model with dual SIM card slots, it's clear that this handset is aimed at developing markets. The announcement post for the phone doesn't mention a specific date or price, but my money's on "soon" and "upper mid-range."
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.
Fun fact: because of the enormous expense of shooting on location, a surprising number of American television series are shot and produced in Canada. Often when you see "Chicago" or "New York" on the small screen, it's really Toronto or Vancouver standing in as a body double for an entire city. Supernatural's Winchester Brothers are almost always running around British Colombia, and the rolling Wild West frontier of Hell On Wheels is really Alberta. It's particularly cruel, then, that our northern neighbors have been unable to watch TV shows in the Google Play Store. Until now.
Chromebooks are normally a little outside of our wheelhouse here at Android Police, but we figured that enough of our international readers would want to hear this that it warranted a post. According to this unaccountably rhyming entry on Google's official Chrome blog, Chromebooks will be available in nine new countries in the next few weeks.
Of the Big Four American carriers, AT&T has the best selection of Android tablets available... which, admittedly, isn't saying much. Today their shallow ranks get bolstered by two new Samsung tablets, one in the original Galaxy Tab line (which is now the de facto budget option) and one in the new Pro series. The Galaxy Tab 4 10.1 and the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 will be available on the carrier starting this Friday, June 6th.
Update: If you were hoping for the Z2 Ultra, keep hoping. This is the Xperia T3.
As useful as the Google Experience Launcher (GEL) is, it's not exactly what you'd call "customizable." But intrepid modder Alexander Schulz has been working on that, making the GEL bend to his will through the magic of root and the Xposed Framework tool. The latest update to Xposed GEL Settings adds some really cool features. The most impressive is probably the dynamic home button: the home button on the virtual nav bar will switch to the app tray icon on the default home screen if that's the function you've selected. You can also change the Back button to a power button on the launcher. Neat!
Dell Announces Refreshed Venue 7 And Venue 8 Tablets With New Processors, Less RAM, And KitKat
Dell Announces Refreshed Venue 7 And Venue 8 Tablets With New Processors, Less RAM, And KitKat
Dell's Android-powered Venue tablets from last year were more than adequate, but failed to make a definitive impression on the crowded Android market despite reasonable specs and low prices. The Texas company is hoping that a quick refresh of the hardware on the 7-inch and 8-inch models will help move a few more units... and hopefully a few lucrative accessories as well. Updated versions of the Venue 7 and Venue 8 will run Android 4.4 out of the box.
Recently, Google's ambitious and public-spirited ventures are sounding less like the careful expansions of an international megacorp and more like the pet projects of Dr. Benton Quest. Self-driving cars, medical contact lenses, industrial robots - seriously, we're just waiting on a Walking Eye and Steve Ballmer in a villain costume at this point. The latest report from the Wall Street Journal (which tends to be spot-on when it comes to Google's plans) says the company is preparing a fleet of low-orbit satellites that will deliver Internet access.
We got a brief glimpse of the HP SlateBook back in April. We were a bit confused as to why the consumer PC giant would cram Android into a form factor almost exclusively dominated by Windows and OS X machines. Now the 14-inch, Android-powered laptop is official, and we're no less puzzled. HP made the announcement today, though the laptop won't go on sale until July 20th in the US. The starting price for the 16GB model will be $399.
Look into the eyes of Ira. He can see into your very being. His hypnotic gaze is scouring your soul, peeling away layers of intellect until only chaos and madness remains. He's like the most terrifying of Lovecraftian horrors, except he's bald and has a five o'clock shadow.
The Moto E is Motorola's bid to dominate the low-end and developing markets, but that doesn't mean it's not worthy of attention from developers. As always with new Android phones, Motorola has posted the kernel source code for developers (and anyone else who wants to mess with it) at their official GitHub page.
Let's face it: at this point, Google TV is a certified flop. For all its good points, its adoption was hampered by expensive hardware, limited apps, and a clunky interface. Google is hoping to revive their set-top plans with "Android TV," an as-yet unverified platform revealed by The Verge last month. Others found more details of Android code powering a Google set-top box in the Android 4.4.3 changelog. Now anonymous sources tell GigaOM that the device will get a formal introduction, if not a full rollout, at Google I/O in June.
Rumors are flying about Samsung's plans for the virtual reality headset market. Just a week after Engadget's last unconfirmed report on Samsung's VR device, there's a new post that sheds quite a lot more light on the subject. First of all, Samsung and Oculus VR (makers of the Oculus Rift and recently acquired by Facebook) are sharing technology to improve each other's products. And secondly, Samsung's device uses a dock for your phone, which then becomes the primary display for the device.