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Remember when Google published an independent WebView app on the Play Store so that it could update the functionality without waiting for an over-the-air OS update? Today we're seeing the fruit of that particular labor. The tool, which makes it easy for apps to display web content without opening a browser, has been updated specifically to support the Nexus 9 (and any other Tegra-based devices with NVIDIA's K1 GPU architecture) with improved performance. At least that's what the changelog says, and we're in no mood to argue.
Just last weekend we heard some rather convincing (but unconfirmed) rumors that the reason the Moto X Play was conspicuously absent from Motorola's US store was that Verizon's long-standing relationship with the manufacturer would result in an exclusive phone. Today we've been sent some photos that look like the real deal: a mid-range phone that mostly matches the Moto X Play, but with Verizon and DROID branding. Say hello to the Motorola XT1565, presumably coming to market as the DROID Maxx 2.
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.
Hey, you! Did you know there's a gigantic ball of burning plasma in the sky that's literally giving away free energy right this second? It's true, there is! Unless it's night time where you live. Then you have to wait for free energy. Unless you have the foresight to store it away during the day with, say, a big honkin' battery. A battery not unlike these huge portable ones from ZeroLemon, those folks who make improbably huge battery replacements for every Samsung and LG phone. They're on sale today over at Newegg.
Are you looking for a full-featured fitness tracker on the cheap? Then Amazon has Microsoft's branded Band for off today. That brings the price down to $150, pretty reasonable for a tracker with a full-color screen and a heart monitor built in. (The price from Microsoft's store is already a bit discounted, down to $180.) It comes with free shipping, and Amazon Prime members can get two-day shipping for gratis as well. All three models of the Band, large, medium, and small, get the same discount.
We've seen what might be leaked photos of the 5.2-inch, LG-made successor to the Nexus 5, now we've got photos that are claimed to be the Huawei phone that's coming at the same time. Google+ user Tiessen Fu posted three photos of a previously unseen phone with both "Nexus" and "Huawei" labels on the back.
A couple of weeks ago we spotted LG's new G Pad II 8.0, at that point announced exclusively for the company's home market of South Korea. The hardware is underwhelming at best: despite some interesting features like a full-sized USB port and a stylus, many were put off by the pokey Snapdragon 210 processor and 1.5GB of RAM. Fortunately, it looks like LG isn't going to go for the lowest common denominator with all its forthcoming tablets. The G Pad II 10.1, announced today, has a little more oomph to its hardware.
Floatify has been around for a little over a year now. It's an app that presents an alternate way to display notifications, specifically the Heads Up (AKA Peeking) notifications that were hidden in Android 4.4 and fleshed out in 5.0. The app has been continuously updated even as Lollipop has become public, and now it's a full-fledged alternative to most of Android's built-in notification systems. The latest update is something really special - we kind of wish Google would steal some of developer Jawomo's ideas.
Want to see something new in Chrome for Android? Aside from essentially unlimited websites, of course. If so, and if you're using Android 5.0, 5.1, or the 6.0 preview, then download either the Beta or Dev version of the browser. Then go into the Settings menu and disable "merge tabs and apps." Now, go back to the main browser window, open the hamburger menu, and tap "new tab." Wey-hey, you've got a new interface to check out.
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 collection of cute mini-games, a minimalist first-person shooter, a punishingly difficult puzzle game, a platformer-slash-match three title, a builder game that's all about the Benjamins, and a tie-in for League of Legends. Without further ado:
There's a new version of the YouTube Android app available! Well, slightly new - the version on my phone before today was 10.31, and now it's been bumped all the way up to 10.33! Woo! Anyway, new in this version is a spiffy new update to the seek bar (that little timeline and nub at the bottom of the screen you use to skip past the boring bits). It used to look like this:
Do you want an Amazon Fire Phone? If you do, I'll bet you want it at a discount - even with a free year of Amazon's Prime shipping/video/music service, it's a hard sell at two hundred bucks. It's a good thing, then, that the Fire Phone is so often on sale. The latest discount comes courtesy of an eBay seller, who's getting rid of the phones for as little as $140. That includes free shipping and free access to Prime, bringing the effective price down to $40 for a contract-free phone. Not bad.
When the economical and long-lasting Moto X Play was announced specifically without US availability, it raised a few eyebrows here at Android Police. Some of us speculated that Motorola's tight relationship with Verizon, which goes all the way back to an exclusive on the original QWERTY-packing DROID, might have something to do with it. According to a report from Phandroid, that may indeed be the case. The site is reporting that the American carrier will sell a customized version of the Moto X Play as a sequel to its 2013 flagship, the DROID Maxx.
Another week, another free music album on Google Play. This time it's something a little more contemplative: a classical instrumental album from Yo-Yo Ma, probably the best-known concert cellist on the planet. You can grab The Sound of Yo-Yo Ma, which incidentally is exclusive to Google Play Music, for free right now. The deal is available in the United States and probably a few other places, though we can't be sure exactly where it is and isn't valid.
64GB? Kid's stuff. 128GB? Paltry. Real smartphone spec-hounds will settle for nothing less than 256GB of local onboard storage (which, incidentally, is more than many laptops these days). At least they'd settle for nothing less if any of those phones were actually available. There will be one soon, in at least one location: the ASUS Zenfone 2 Deluxe Special Edition. It's coming to Brazil sometime in the future for an unspecified price, though "quite a lot" would be a safe bet. The model was shown off on the official ASUS Brazil blog.
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- We've been told by a reliable source that the "victara" nightly builds for the Moto X 2014 are now compatible with the Verizon version, which was recently added to the Sunshine bootloader unlock tool.
The CyanogenMod ROM development team continues to add to its ever-expanding range of officially-supported devices. Today we get a little-known variant from a huge manufacturer and a huge phone from a little-known manufacturer (outside of China, anyway): the dual-SIM version of HTC's 2014 flagship One M8, and Xiaomi's Mi4, respectively. Both are available as nightly builds on CyanogenMod's download repository.
Google continues to tweak Android 6.0's visual interface with the latest Developer Preview, in ways both big and small. The default Google launcher has been seeing subtle changes since the M Preview was introduced, and the latest one is... interesting. The Preview 3 version of the app drawer includes a little "pop" effect when scrolling, highlighting the first app that begins with each successive letter in the alphabet. It's a little hard to describe verbally - check out the video below from YouTube user Zaid Salem.
Since The Pre-Sequel was a considerable disappointment (and 2K and NVIDIA seem to be taking their sweet time porting it to SHIELD hardware in any case), Tales from the Borderlands is the only game in town for the massively popular shooter IP. That's OK, because TellTale is doing a fantastic job with the odd mix of sci-fi and comedy that the series is known for. The fourth episode in the adventure game story, "Escape Plan Bravo," went live for the Play Store version of Tales from the Borderlands today.
AMC, the American cable channel that's home to shows like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead, has more apps than you might think. There's AMC Extras, a bunch of DVD-style content to promote various shows, AMC Tablet, which is basically a companion app for said shows, specialized apps for half a dozen other shows, and even a Christmas movie app. Now they've launched one that's just for watching new episodes... which makes sense, considering that's what most people want to do with their content in the first place.
Remember when we poked fun at MVNO Ting for using an old Android Police mockup for advertising the phone? Then they spotted our story any someone at Ting decided to take our ball and run with it? That was fun. It turns out those Ting folks are pretty swell, and to prove it, they'd like to give one of you a Nexus 6 for free, gratis, and nothing. We've got a 32GB blue Nexus 6, a $499 USD value, just waiting for a new home with an Android Police reader.