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May

LG Announcing New Device May 30 – Could This Be The Optimus G2?

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in LG, Optimus G, Optimus G Pro

As is the custom these days, another Android OEM has teased a phone with an event invitation. A year ago it wouldn't have been very interesting to speculate on what LG was up to, but the OEM has been returned to prominence after building the last Nexus device and delivering a competent flagship phone of its own in the Optimus G. This invitation summons press to an event in Macau, China at the end of the month, and it might be the Optimus G2.

The tagline on the invitation is “ImaGination Begins,” so we're definitely looking at an announcement in the G family of devices.

May

Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded Debuts On Android May 31 For $9.99, Reintroduces Larry With More Game Than Before

Posted by Bertel King, Jr. in Games, News

Leisure Suit Larry fans, get ready to once again return to Lefty's Bar. Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded, a remake of the original game in the series, is easing its way into the Play Store on May 31st. Replay Games has completed the HD makeover using the funds from its successful 2012 Kickstarter campaign, which exceeded their original $500,000 goal by over $150,000.

For those of you who have never met Larry Laffer before, he's a 40 year-old virgin "still untouched by human hands," as the game puts it. He stars in a series of point-and-click adventure games known for their raunchy humor, revealing puzzles, and occasionally topless women.

May

Samsung Begins Rolling Out Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean To Galaxy Note In Canada

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Bell, Carriers, Galaxy Note (GT-N7000), News, Rogers, Samsung, TELUS

Owners of the original Galaxy Note in the great white north are getting a little present today – a brand new (year old) version of Android is coming to their devices. Samsung has announced via Twitter that owners will be getting the update starting today on Bell, Telus, and Rogers.

GALAXY Note owners with @bell_mobility, @telus & @rogersbuzz get Jelly Bean via Samsung Kies starting today! twitter.com/SamsungMobileC…

— Samsung Mobile CAN (@SamsungMobileCA) May 6, 2013

The update is going out over Samsung's Kies program on all carriers, but it looks like OTA updates are occurring as well.

May

Google I/O Android App Updated For 2013 With A Ton Of New Features

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Applications, Apps/Games, News

As the start of Google I/O 2013 grows achingly close, Mountain View has seen fit to grace us with a pretty significant update of the official Google I/O app for this year's conference. For anyone attending the event, this app is going to be their golden ticket. The app should work on most Android form-factors (2.3 Gingerbread or higher), with a killer card-based UI that's consistent with Google's new design aesthetic. As for features, there's quite a lot going on:

NEW! Scan attendee badges via NFC
NEW! Schedule changes are immediately synchronized between devices
NEW! Lock screen widget for viewing your agenda on the go
NEW!

May

[New Game] Mosaique Is A Minimalist Puzzle Game With Simple Strategic Play

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Apps/Games, Games, News

Not all games need to rely on high-resolution textures, fancy lighting effects, and 3D open world play. No, sometimes you just want a clean little game with interesting puzzles to keep you occupied. Mosaique fits the bill with its unique take on mobile gaming. Rather than pile on endless levels, this title only has seven of them. Each time you play, the challenge is to make it through all seven as efficiently as possible. It only takes a few minutes to play a round, but you can put some real thought into it.

The game board in Mosaique is populated by some number of colored squares.

May

Google Finally Completely Redesigns The AOSP Site To Look About A Googol Times Better

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, Google, News

While the Google Developers site received its massive redesign quite a while ago, its sibling AOSP one at source.android.com has remained an ugly duckling. Until about an hour ago.

The difference is huge - it's like it went from Cupcake days to Jelly Bean in the blink of an eye. It would be nice if you could update Android the same way, wouldn't it?

Here are some images of the old (visible at archive.org) and new sites side-by-side (can you guess which one is which?):

Source: AOSP

May

[Download] Google Glass XE4 And XE5 System Dumps - Please Do Something Cool With These

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Glass, Google

Have you tried finding a Glass system dump? It's impossible. A Google search turns up the same thing, over and over again: Me, talking about system dumps or begging for one.

So, to rectify this great injustice of the Internet (and because people keep asking me, personally) we've decided to hit you up with the Glass system dump. The Explorer program seems to be all about hacking and experimentation, so hopefully Google adopts an open policy towards posting Glass code. Please don't yell at us. <3

You can grab the original 285.7MB version of the Glass software, XE4, from our list of mirrors:

And the brand new, updated, 298.9MB XE5 version from any of these fine bit shifters:

If you find anything neat, or get any of this to run on something that it isn't supposed to run on, let us know.

May

Apex Launcher Launches v2.0, Introduces Badge And DashClock Widget Notifications Via Apex Notifier

Posted by Bertel King, Jr. in Applications, News

Apex Launcher has bumped up to version 2.0, bringing in a host of new features to both the free and pro versions of the app. Free users who make the leap will find various improvements to the interface, updated translations, and the option to set the duration of vibrations. The pro version now allows users to place folders in the app drawer, but the star of the show is its integration with the new Apex Notifier.

Apex Notifier is not a standalone app, but an extension that works both with Apex Launcher and DashClock Widget. Apex Launcher Pro users who install Apex Notifier will see unread counts appear as badges atop various application icons, including:

Missed Calls
Unread SMS
Calendar Appointments
Gmail
HTC Mail
Samsung Email
K-9 Mail
Battery Level
Stock Email
Google Talk
Google Voice
Starbucks

You are free to tweak the size and color of notifications, and you get to have a say in which apps badges will appear on.

May

Ashley Madison Helps Cheaters Be Even More Sneaky (But Not Really) With A Branded Disposable Number VoIP App

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

For the unfamiliar, Ashley Madison is a dating site that enables couples in monogamous relationships to find partners for illicit affairs. That's the baseline we're starting from. The company's new app, however, takes this concept one step further by providing users with disposable phone numbers that can be used for calling and texting without your spouse finding out.

The BlackBook app doesn't include access to the social network itself, so it's purely used for correspondence. The irony, of course, being that the very act of having an Ashley Madison-branded app on your phone is more suspicious to a scorned lover than any of the dozens of other disposable phone number services would be.

May

[Hands-On | Update: G+ Works!] Google Glass ALREADY Updated To XE5, Brings G+ Notifications, Speed And Battery Improvements, And More

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Glass, Google

Wow. So when Glass was first making the rounds, we heard a few rumblings about a ridiculously fast update cycle; something like monthly updates. Sure enough, it seems like Google is delivering on that sort-of rumored promise:

Today, less than a month after the Glass unit left Google HQ, there's a new update: Version XE5. There's no public change log, but Phandroid says they emailed Google and got back the following list:

New features in XE5:

Change to sync policy: require power + wifi for background uploads

Crash reporting

Incoming G+ notifications (direct shares, comments, +mentions), including ability to comment and +1

Incoming Hangout notifications

Transcription of queries & messages is now wicked-fast

Long-press to search from anywhere in the UI (no longer just from off)

International number dialing + SMS

Hop animation on disallowed swipes in the UI

New On-Head Detection calibration flow

Show device Serial Number on Device Info card

More reliable estimation of battery charge remaining

New recipient-list mosaic