28
Apr
unnamed

PowerAMP, my music player of choice, has just been updated with a number of new features and fixes, the most exciting of which to me are the addition of reconfigurable widgets and widget management. You can now tap the top right corner of a PowerAMP widget to go to a new management UI where you can customize and completely change it without the need to remove and recreate it from scratch. Neat, I've been waiting for it.

The other changes are less exciting - here's the full changelog of v2.0.9-build-528:

What's in this version:

- each widget type now have selectable predefined styles and can be further customized/saved/exported/imported/shared
- widgets can be re-configured by pressing top-right corner (2.2+)
- 4x4 and 2x2 are now resizable on phones, all widgets - on tablets (3.1+)
- Disable Route Output Button option
- Album Art/Use 24-bit RGB option
- Look and Feel/General/Notification Album Art option for old Androids
- Arabic (BLueBLaze, mohjif)/Vietnamese (alienyd, robot_boy_tn, thanhtai2009)
- few issues fixed

Grab the update in the Play Store and switch up your widget style for a change.

27
Apr
wm_IMG_5262

Oppo Find 5 is one of the sexiest Android phones in recent history - just take a look at some of the photos in our review published earlier this year. At $499.99 ($569.99 for the 32GB variant), it's also cheaper than most unlocked high-end modern devices, yet it manages to pack a quad-core 1.5GHz Krait, Adreno 320, 2GB of RAM, a 1080P 5" display, a 13MP camera, NFC, and a 2500mAh battery.

find5[5] find5

One of David's main complaints in the review of Find 5 was the software. As of today, this bullet can be crossed off if you're the adventurous kind not afraid to dabble in flashing custom ROMs.

26
Apr
image

As everyone is trying to guess whether the next big Android update is going to be Key Lime Pie or not, and whether the release will be Android 5.X or 4.X, we have yet to hear anything concrete. After getting a tip from an eagle-eyed reader (thanks, deepayan!) and digging deeper, I can definitively tell you that Google is currently working on Android 4.3, and it is still Jelly Bean.

4-26-2013 3-47-47 PM

  1. Specifically, the build I'm seeing floating around our server logs is Android 4.3 JWR23B, which indicates this is still Jelly Bean (the first letter of the build is always the same as the first letter of the Android version name).
25
Apr
google_play_thumb

A minor update to the new, cleaner Google Play Store v4.0 started rolling out earlier today. The new version is 4.0.27 which follows closely the previous version from April 19th - 4.0.26.

Ron and I tore down the apk but found only minor changes to translations and a small change to the manifest that removed android:excludeFromRecents="true" from one of the billing activities.

25
Apr
unnamed (5)

After a brief delay, it looks like AT&T's Digital Life service is finally ready for prime time. The service, which promises extensive home automation from temperature control to security monitoring to door lock control, will launch first in fifteen markets including Atlanta GA, Austin, Houston, and Dallas TX, Boulder and Denver CO, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Riverside CA, Miami FL, Philadelphia PA, Seattle WA, St Louis MI, and "select areas of the New York and New Jersey metropolitan area." By the end of the year, AT&T says it plans to expand the service to fifty markets.

So, what is Digital Life and why should you care?

24
Apr
roundup_icon_large
Last Updated: May 13th, 2013

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.

This is the app roundup. The game roundup from last week can be found here.

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the AppBrain widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.

Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.

Featured App

PassWallet - Password Manager

Today's roundup is brought to you by PassWallet (formerly Password Wallet) by HandyApps. Passwords are hard, thanks to the thousands of logins required for modern digital living.

19
Apr
google_play_thumb

An incremental update to the massively refreshed Google Play Store started rolling out yesterday evening. The new version is 4.0.26 while the previous version from April 9th was 4.0.25.

As expected, there are no major changes in this release, just minor bug fixes, as confirmed by Ron's quick teardown and comparison.

18
Apr
gameroundup_icon_large
Last Updated: May 13th, 2013

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.

This edition focuses only on new games. The app roundup is coming up soon.

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the AppBrain widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.

Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.

Featured App

Ice Rage by Herocraft

Today's roundup is presented by Ice Rage from HeroCraft. Somewhere between air hockey and foosball lies Ice Rage, a hockey-themed casual game with the publisher's typically high production standards.

17
Apr
2013-04-17_16h28_43
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.

16
Apr
HTC-One-X-Plus

Even though HTC is now focusing on its new baby (and possible savior) the HTC One, that doesn't mean the company has completely forgotten about the last generation. AT&T's HTC One X+ has just gotten an update to v1.19.502.1. Sadly, this is still Android 4.1.1, but it does fix a few nagging issues.

large large

The full change log is straight to the point. HTC is fixing bugs, and not much else:

  • AT&T Address Book Fixes
  • Bluetooth fixes
  • Wi-Fi fixes
  • Other minor bug fixes

One X+ owners can pull the update down manually, or wait for the OTA to show up on its own.

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