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We've been hearing rumors of a "mini" version of the HTC One M8 almost since the flagship phone itself started leaking, and today we've seen some of the first concrete evidence that it's nearing completion. Perennial mobile Deepthroat Evleaks posted the renders/press photos below, showing the new device in three different colors. It preserves the style and materials of the current HTC One line.
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 gorgeous platformer, a humorous take on Puzzle Quest, a Flash mobile RPG, a spiritual descendant of Dig Dug, and the latest entry in the Dracula adventure series. Without further ado:
The latest round of back-and-forth in the endless IP battle between Apple and Samsung is over, and the former has come out on top. According to an 8-person jury in the federal court, various Samsung phones and tablets, including the Galaxy S II and III, Galaxy Note, and Galaxy Nexus, infringed on three Apple patents. The jury awarded Apple 9.6 million USD in damages.
Did your last phone cost too much? Do you hate, hate the fact that Google Search is included in Google's Android operating system? Does the sight of a pre-loaded Gmail app fill you with scorn? Then call the offices of Hagens Berman, a consumer rights class-action law firm. They want to sue the pants off of Google, Because it's easier to get the money out of someone's wallet that way.
While developers from a startling number of countries can post apps to the Google Play Store for users around the world to download, setting up the infrastructure for these developers to sell paid apps - and more importantly, to get paid for their apps - isn't quite so widespread. Today Google is opening up Google Wallet Merchant registration to eight more countries, allowing developers in those countries to get paid in their local currency.
Diner Dash was one of the first incarnations of the modern casual game: simple mechanics that are easy to learn and hard to master. Wikipedia says that publisher PlayFirst has seen over 550 million downloads of the game in its various versions, to say nothing of sequels and spin-offs. That's probably why Glu Mobile, one of the more visible mobile game publishers, has snatched up the company. Glu's stock priced jumped 8% this morning on the announcement.
The Galaxy S5 runs Android 4.4 out of the box, and most of the US and international versions of the Galaxy S4 have been given the KitKat update as well, but millions of owners of the Samsung Galaxy S III from 2012 are still sitting on an outdated version of Android. Sprint seems to be the first US carrier to alleviate that: this support page says the update for the S III is going out starting today.
T-Mobile Rakes In The Dough In Q1 2014 With 2.4 Million New Subscribers
T-Mobile is bringing in some serious cash and new subscribers.
Bucking the status quo of American wireless companies seems to be working for Legere and Company. For the first three months of 2014 T-Mobile added 2.4 million new wireless customers, according to the company's financial report published this morning. In the crucial post-paid segment (as opposed to the less reliable prepaid segment) T-Mobile added 1.3 million new subscribers.
SNK's Metal Slug series is one of the most beloved 2D side-scrolling shooters of all time, right up there with Contra. And fans of the originals were no doubt pleased when the twitchy, skillful, and delightfully pixelated games made their way to Android. So for the series' first foray into a new mobile title, it's only natural that SNK Playmore would make... a tower defense game.
Despite the behind-the-scenes drama with Google and Lenovo, Motorola has been on a roll when it comes to hardware. The Moto X, Moto G, and Verizon's 2013 DROIDs are all well-regarded, so naturally people are wondering what's coming next. We'll find out in a little less than two weeks: Motorola will show off its next smartphone in London on May 13th.
Attention, gamer: your PlayStation playmates can now goad you into multiplayer matches anytime, anywhere. Well, they can if you've got the latest version of the official PlayStation Android app. Last night's update added push notifications for the PSN game-centric social network, according to the official PlayStation blog.
Facebook's entry into the alternative SMS game has quickly reached its fifth release. This update doesn't contain a huge visual overhaul, but it does have some impressive new additions to the main chat window that will make it easier to send all your non-textual communications. The update should be live for everyone now - check the Play Store if you want it immediately, or just wait for the alert or auto-download.
Earlier this month Android Police reported on Android Silver, a possible upcoming push into premium hardware from Google and its partners. Android Silver would see Google selecting high-end Android phones with standardized software to promote both itself and through conventional retail channels. According to a new report from Amir Efrati at The Information, the Silver program is still well underway and aimed to take on the iPhone at the top of the phone market.
The Paranoid Android family of custom ROMs has a history of adding interesting custom user interface elements, but since re-starting with KitKat, the developers have been trying out some new ideas. One of the first new features for the revamped PA is called Hover, and it's basically a complete rethinking of the Halo idea. Hover is a short-lived visual overlay that temporarily replaces the notification bar with a richer and more useful version, including expandable alerts and floating windows.
Even after years on the market and innumerable would-be competitors, GoPro remains the standard for "action cameras." A big part of that is the excellent smartphone integration that GoPro's devices have maintained, and today the official Android app gets a little better in a lot of small ways. The most obvious is the new user interface, which is visible on Android 4.0 and above. The all-black UI keeps its focus on minimalism and utility, but gets rid of some of the gradients of the former interface.
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.
The changes that Google made to the way that Android uses external storage (read: MicroSD cards) in KitKat have been contentious to say the least. A few of the more widely-used file explorer apps have utilized a loophole in the Media Scanner service to restore at least some of the more widely-used functions for accessing and modifying files, and now the popular Solid Explorer has done the same.
The first notable update for the new Android version of Mailbox adds a spiffy, time-saving feature: action buttons in the app's email notifications. Users should now see a "Reply" button on the expanded Mailbox notification, as well as "Archive" and "Snooze" buttons, which are activated via swipes while in the app itself. These should help achieve the app's stated goal of making email organization faster and easier for time-strapped mobile users.
Defender of the Crown was an oddity when it debuted in 1986: a highly-polished game with impressive visual presentation (for the time), but one that didn't fit into any established genre. Civilization players of today might recognize a sort of proto-strategy in the slightly fantastic Medieval England setting, where you raise an army and conquer Britain in bits and pieces. But the actual gameplay requires real player interaction with the pre-rendered background, including various forms of fighting, jousting, and management.
If you've got a late-model Samsung "smart" camera, you should check out this nifty function. Samsung Home Monitor lets owners of the upcoming NX3000 camera (and presumably other models in the NX line) view video from the camera's lens remotely on their phones. It's a neat application of the hardware available.