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Most of the AOSP-based custom launchers operate in roughly the same way, but Action Launcher has always been different. Right from the beginning it offered cool ways to manage your apps and widgets, and it only got better over time. That app was based on the Jelly Bean-era Android launcher, and it was time for an update, according to developer Chris Lacy. Action Launcher 3 is a complete rewrite of Action Launcher that brings with it new features, but also drops a few (at least for now). Let's take a look at the new Action Launcher.
Amazon's main shopping app has between 50 and 100 million downloads, but it's not showing up in the Play Store anymore. The listing remains if you have the direct link, but you won't see it in search results. Oddly, there's a new Amazon app called Amazon Shopping. It's the same exact app but guess what it doesn't have—the Appstore. It looks like Google may have laid down the law. [See updates at the bottom]
Verizon is rolling out an update to the Droid Turbo, and before you get excited, it's not Lollipop. While the Moto X on Verizon has already hit v5.0, Big Red has more control over what happens with the Droid phones. What this update does include is Verizon's VoLTE implementation known as Advanced Calling 1.0.
How hard can it be to draw symbols on a screen? That doesn't sound like a very challenging game. Oh, but it is in the case of Impossible Draw. This game invites you to take a trip down an endless glowing tunnel full of symbols to match. Fail to mimic the signs before you, and its game over.
If you are the proud owner of a white or red Nexus 5, cradle your baby extra close tonight. It's now an endangered species. Google has removed the red and white options from the Play Store. leaving only the black N5 for those who like the Nexus experience, but hate big phones.
If you fire up a game on Android with Play Games integration, you may notice something new. The level cap for those at the top of the XP heap has been raised to 25, and the icon border is blue. It used to be 20 with a pink border around the icon. That means you may be a whole five imaginary points better than your friends now.
The new version of Android Wear is rolling out, and with it comes the official watch face API. Developers have been making custom watch faces for months using a workaround, but now the party is over. All watch faces need to be updated with the official API by January 31st, 2015 or they will be removed from the Play Store.
Remember when Android Wear launched and Google said the custom watch face API would be out soon? Well, it's finally here, but there are a ton of other features coming along with it like improved access to settings, retrieving cards, and battery stats. Let's cut to the chase, you want to know when you can get it, right? It's all rolling out over the next week.
Sometimes crowd funding campaigns get a little carried away making promises in an effort to attract contributors. As problematic as these projects are, they aren't usually complete nonsense. The Dragonfly Futurefön, on the other hand, looks impossible. For $400 you get a phone that docks to a computer running Windows for a dual-screen mobile computing experience. Sound crazy? Well it already has over half a million dollars on Indiegogo. Yeah, I'm worried for humanity too.
Republic Wireless announced a few weeks ago that it would be selling the new Moto X for a reasonably discounted price of $399. Today that deal is getting a little sweeter with an extra $50 off. This deal is only good for 24 hours, and it starts right now.
There's been much talk about how Android 5.0 will finally do some good for mediocre Android cameras. The new camera APIs allow apps to get RAW images off the sensor and process them into JPEGs, but where are all the apps to take advantage of it? There's L Camera, which is still in testing on GitHub, but Camera FV-5 has become the first app in the Play Store to support the new Lollipop camera features.
Gift cards are a little impersonal, aren't they? Digital gift cards even more so. Amazon's new Surprise! app can at least make them somewhat thoughtful with some nifty digital cards and customizations. This is not a substitute for love, though.
Sometimes you just want to kick back and play a nice dual-stick shooter. Oh, there are plenty of them out there, but Inferno from Radiangames has been one of the finest examples available. Now the predictably named sequel, Inferno 2 has arrived on Android. Get your thumbs ready.
There aren't many premium Android tablets worth your money, but Sony has some solid hardware and the software isn't bad either. You don't even have to settle for one of those clunky 10.1-inch monsters. The Z3 Tablet Compact is an 8-inch tablet with great specs, and the price is getting pretty attractive at Amazon ($430 from about $500).
It's been a long and winding road to find the truth behind the recent announcement that Cyanogen Inc. had signed an exclusive deal with Micromax in India. OnePlus made waves when it said that meant there would be no CM updates for the OnePlus One sold in India, but Cyanogen Inc. made a blog post saying all global devices would get updates, and all was well. Except it isn't. A new post on the Cyanogen blog expands on the situation. Specifically, it states plainly that Indian phones won't get updates.
Are you all shopped out after the last week? Well, don't stop now, there are app deals to be had. Just a few pixels south of here are some sales, and you know you want to look. Go ahead. Check it out.
Wireless charging is undeniably convenient, but fast it is not. With wired charging getting even faster thanks to Qualcomm-based Quick Charge technology, sometimes it just makes more sense to plug your device in. Maybe that's about to change, though. Freescale Semiconductor says it has a new wireless charging chip that can triple current limits on power transfer.
Update 12/7/14: The deal is back today.
It can help to have a visual aid when trying to get something done, but what sort of style? Most to-do apps use lists, of course. DropTask is a little different—it lets you create flow charts of nested circles to represent the different tasks you have to get done.