Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Apr

AppAnnie: Play Store Downloads Reach Nearly 90% Of App Store Levels, iOS Still Bringing In 2.6x Revenue

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Android OS, Google, News

Last Updated: April 19th, 2013

Back in January, we learned that if you want to be a developer and avoid leaving money on the table, you need to be on both Android and iOS. One or the other isn't going to cut it. However, according to AppAnnie, if you have to choose just one platform, Android is still struggling to prove it's the one you should go with.

According to the report, Play Store downloads are nearing App Store levels, reaching close to 90% as much as the iOS store. Unfortunately, equal exposure isn't quite translating to equal revenue. As it turns out, Apple's platform is still bringing in about 2.6 times as much revenue as Google's counterpart.

Apr

Google Pushes New Android 4.2.2 Code To AOSP (JDQ39E, 4.2.2_r1.2) - Here Is The Developer Changelog

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Android OS, Development, Jelly Bean 4.2, News, Nexus 4

Earlier today, Google started pushing some new open source code to AOSP (Android Open Source Project) marked with 2 new tags: android-4.2.2_r1.1 and android-4.2.2_r1.2. The build number corresponding to the 4.2.2_r1.2 release is JDQ39E.

^{The dates you see here are commit dates, not dates the commits were made public (which is today, April 17th 2013)}

What's New?

After weeding out the changes from the commit logs, it looks like all of them are, as expected, very minor. We've seen these _r1.X releases before, and the last one didn't fix much at all.

Here are the aforementioned changes between 4.2.2's tags 4.2.2_r1 (JDQ39) and 4.2.2_r1.2 (JDQ39E).

Apr

Pocket Celebrates Its Name's One Year Anniversary With 'Send To Friend' And More In Version 4.5

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Pocket, in an update to celebrate the one year anniversary of Read It Later's rebrand, has introduced (among other things) Send to Friend, a new feature that allows for quick, easy sharing of content with friends. Users can accept shared content directly from the Pocket app, using the app's new Inbox. Those sharing can also highlight quotes or add their own comments before sharing, sending them along for friends to read.

What's great about Pocket's Send to Friend is that users can share content with anyone via email without ever leaving the app. While a relatively small feature, it makes the Pocket experience all the more seamless.

Apr

CyanogenMod 10.1 Released For The LG Optimus 4X HD, Starting With Nightly Builds

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in LG, News, Optimus 4X HD

Just a week or so after the CyanogenMod ROM team expanded its support for LG's Optimus G flagship, another high-end smartphone has been added to the mix. The Optimus 4X HD (also known as the P880) just showed up on the official CyanogenMod servers, in a 10.1 (Android 4.2) build no less. Right now there are only two builds posted, but that should increase fairly quickly, and the Tegra 3 internals mean that the CyanogenMod developers will be on familiar ground.

Definition: A "nightly" is a bleeding edge release that is built on a daily basis, usually at night after a full day's worth of new code has been committed.

Apr

Paradox Interactive's 'Leviathan: Warships' Trailer Packs More Puns Than You Can Handle In One Of The Best Promos In A Long While

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Games, News, Videos

Paradox Interactive, a well-known game publisher and developer, today posted up a promo video for the upcoming ship battling game Leviathan: Warships. If you watch only one video today, let it be this one. Kittens and puppies can wait till tomorrow. I haven't had this much fun watching trailers ever since the unfortunate fireworks accident at the nearby trailer park.

Paradox Interactive's previous Android project, Magicka, is sitting at 4.8/5.0 after over 100 reviews, so needless to say, I'm pretty excited about their next game. It sets sail April 30th on Android, PC, Mac, and iOS.

And now, for the main event.

Apr

WordPress App Updated With Holo UI, A Few New Features

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

WordPress is a clutch tool for most bloggers, as its easy-to-use, versatile interface provides essentially everything one needs to get content on the internet. For the longest time, however, the associated app hasn't been the greatest thing to use (read: it kinda sucked); today, however, it has been updated to v2.3 which brings a new Holo UI, along with a few new features.

What's in this version:

It's the big UI update!
* Action Bar added for easy access to common actions.
* Use the Menu Drawer to quickly navigate to other areas of the app. Just tap the arrow in the Action Bar or swipe to reveal the menu.

Apr

Sprint's Note II Getting A Small OTA Update To Build L900VPAMC2, Brings A Home Screen Security Update, Other Stuff

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Galaxy Note II, News, Sprint

Howdy, Sprintsters! If you're a Note II owner, it's time to head into Settings > About Phone > System updates again, as The Now Network is pushing another OTA to the massive handset. It's a small one, with only a couple of fixes in tow:

Build: L900VPAMC2

- Waking a device with the home key incorrectly brings up the Recently Use applications screen

- Home Screen security updates

Exciting, no? At least you'll have a safer home screen and won't have to deal with seeing recent apps when you turn the device on with the home button post-update, though. So that's something.

Apr

[Update: Winners!] International Book Giveaway: Win One Of Ten Copies Of 'Android Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide' From Android Police And informIT

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Contests / Giveaways

Last Updated: April 28th, 2013

Any developer (or writer, musician, athlete, parent, human being...) worth their salt is constantly trying to improve their skills. The best way to do that is not only through doing something constantly (read: practice) but also through research, reading, and studying new material. That's why school is a thing that we do.

This contest is now over.

The final results are listed below. If you've won, you will be contacted in the near future. Congratulations!

Everyone else - keep participating and stay tuned to Android Police so that you don't miss our upcoming giveaway announcements. You can follow AP on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and RSS.

Apr

Amazon Appstore Prepares For A Global Push: Availability Coming To 195 Countries Including In-App Purchases [Update: Full List]

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Amazon, Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD, News

At the moment, the Amazon Appstore is available in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Japan. But that's hardly enough for Amazon's global ambitions. In a press release, the company announced plans to widen the Appstore to "nearly 200 countries" across North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. A specific timeframe was also absent, but prospective developers can manage their international distribution on the Mobile App Distribution Portal.

Important markets like India, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and South Korea were highlighted. With 195 countries in its marketplace, Amazon should be handily beating Google Play (currently sitting at 134 countries which can buy apps on the Play Store) even if it takes them the rest of the year to fully realize their goal.

Apr

[Deal Alert] ZeroLemon's Massive 9300mAh Galaxy Note II Extended Battery Is Bigger, Longer, And On Sale For $40

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Galaxy Note II, News, Samsung

Just last week we featured the battery-cover-busting ZeroLemon 7000mAh extended battery for the Galaxy S III. If that's not enough for you and your globe trotting, electricity eschewing lifestyle, the company also offers an even more expansive 9300mAh battery for the Samsung Galaxy Note II. In case you're wondering, yes, it's perfectly normal to imagine Also Sprach Zarathustra playing in the background right now. Amazon's got the battery for a mere $39.99 (US price) at the moment.

At 9300 milliamp hours, the extended battery is exactly three times as capacious as the standard battery. Naturally this requires an extended housing, provided by ZeroLemon in the form of a TPU plastic battery back (it's the slightly grippy, rubbery material that a lot of cases are made from).