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The YouTube app was supposed to get an offline playback mode some time ago, but like the subscription music service, it hasn't materialized yet. That's not stopping Google from teasing it, though. Right in the Play Store you'll find a few screenshots with a navigation menu listing for offline videos.
Plenty of phones tied to carriers get left behind in the update game, but the Moto X has kept up surprisingly well. The AT&T variant is currently sitting at 4.4.2, but AT&T has started pushing 4.4.4 updates to a soak testing group. If all goes as planned, it could roll out to everyone soon.
Perhaps you noticed that AT&T started selling the low-cost HTC Desire 610 late last month for just $0.99 on-contract and $200 without. That was apparently only the first step in HTC's attempted conquest on the mid-range device market in the US. The 610 is now on sale direct from HTC and the Desire 816 is launching on August 12th (tomorrow) on Virgin Mobile and direct from HTC.
It's been a few months since Google accidentally left the Stars bookmark management extension visible in the Chrome App Store. We had been hearing about the development of Stars for some time before that, so its appearance was not entirely surprising. However, Mountain View removed the listing and didn't mention Stars at I/O this year. Now Florian Kiersch has gotten a look at the updated version of Stars. It's clear Google is still making improvements to the service, but it's definitely not done yet.
Wires are totally for dopes, right? You're not a dope, are you? Of course not, but a lot of Bluetooth earbuds are rather spendy. That's why the current deal on MEElec Air-Fi Metro2 is of note. These earbuds usually go for $100, but they're on sale through StackSocial for $59.99.
You'll finally be able to hitch your wagon to the Sprint Spark LTE network in tablet fashion come this Friday. That's when Sprint plans to launch its first tablet with support for tri-band LTE. The device in question is the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 7.0, and other than the LTE radio, it looks to be the same device you can get now sans mobile data.
A long time ago in a galaxy far away, a wise old man once said, "let go your conscious self and act on instinct." Little did we know at the time Obi-wan was not just talking about using The Force, but about playing the game Duet. This title just came to Android as part of the Humble Mobile Bundle 6 last week, and a few days later it arrived in the Play Store. It has quite a reputation on iOS for being challenging and highly addictive. I set out to learn if those things were true.
Samsung has successfully clamped down on leaks in the last few years. The flagship Galaxy S5 was successfully kept under wraps until the announcement, although that device wasn't much of a surprise as far as specs or design go. The Galaxy Note 4 is expected to show its face at Unpacked in a few weeks, but what have we here? It looks like the Note 4 in a series of leaked pics.
Again we are overflowing with Android Wear apps—both the kind built entirely for Wear, and other apps that have embraced Google's approach to smart watches. So naturally, here we are to bring you the best selections that have popped up in the last week. Strap on your watch and get ready to check out some apps. Alternatively, if you don't have an Android Wear watch, please draw a watch on your wrist with a marker and follow along.
Wearable Widgets rolled out support for Android Wear pretty quickly after the first devices hit the streets, and now there's another big update to the app. In addition to mirroring widgets from the phone, the new version can set any widget as your watch face. There are a few drawbacks, but it's a neat option.
LG responded to concerns over corrosion of the G Watch charging pins by making a few tweaks with the KMV78Y update. Now the same build is rolling out to the Samsung Gear live, which as far as I'm aware, doesn't have the same charging pin issues. How curious.
T-Mobile is really taking a run at this whole kinder, gentler carrier thing. Among its many initiatives is the Samsung Galaxy Avant, a modestly specced phone that you can unlock (to use on other carriers) with the newly released SIM unlock app. It might come to more phones later, but it's a step in the right direction anyway.
Perhaps you recall back in 2012 when Google caught some flack for its 10-device limit on Play Music access with only four deauthorizations per year. It was forced to backpedal and allow users to deauthorize unlimited devices, and all was well with the world. Well, until now. It looks like Google has started enforcing a limit of four deauthorizations per year once again. Support docs and the Play Music settings list the limit. That means even regular users could suddenly find themselves unable to use All Access or get to their own stored tunes.
Maybe you've seen those wacky videos of people controlling things with voice actions on Android Wear. We've posted a few of them, and Tockle is one of the pieces that makes it possible. This app has been in beta for a few weeks now, but today is the v1.0 release. You should be able to grab the stable release from the Play Store right now.
Most veteran users of Android have probably run Handcent SMS at least once over the years. It's still a very popular third-party SMS app, but the design hasn't exactly kept up with the times. Today's update doesn't solve all its ills, but v6.0 does look worlds better than the old version.
For all the issues with the Duo Camera on HTC's flagship One M8, the selective focus thing is pretty fun to play with. With the newest update to the HTC Gallery app in the Play Store, M8 owners can share Duo Camera images to the web that anyone can use to change the focus. It's sort of like those Lytro camera embeds. We have one below you should try out.
The Android L release is the first time Google has offered a developer preview of an upcoming version of the platform, so no one knew how it would handle things. Would there be updates? Could we watch L evolve over time? It was unclear before, but now Google has posted new versions of the images for the Nexus 7 and Nexus 5.
The Nexus 5 isn't being retired just yet, so you can still have the latest and greatest Nexus for a few more months. It seems kind of silly to pay full price for it at this point, though. Luckily, the international LTE variant (D821) is on sale today for $329.99 with free shipping in the US. There's no tax unless you're in Missouri, where it's 8%.
The Play Store is really exploding with sales today. You could save quite a hefty sum if you jump on some of these deals now, so you might want to get your phone or tablet ready. Here comes an avalanche of sales.