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Nov

Nexus 4 Bumper Cases Show Up On The Play Store For $19.99, Will Be 'Coming Soon'

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News, Nexus 4

The Nexus 4 launches tomorrow on the Play Store and it's sure to be a great day for Android fans everywhere. Of course, this will also be the first time that a Nexus device will have glass on both sides of the handset and traditional cases that cover the rear would make all that sleek engineering pointless. Fortunately, Google has you covered (I'm so sorry). A neat-looking bumper case has just shown up on the Play Store and will protect your $300+ investment for an extra $20.

The case actually looks pretty dang slick and fits in with the design of the Nexus 4 rather well.

Nov

Google Brings Play Music To France, Germany, Italy, Spain And The UK Right On Time

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Applications, Google, News

Just as planned, Google just unleashed Play Music upon select European countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK.

We've known that Google would bring Music to Europe since last month, when the Mountain View giant also announced a new alliance with Warner Music Group, meaning that Play Music was finally partnered with "all of the major record labels globally."

Readers may remember that this rollout also heralds the introduction of music matching for Google Play Music users. Music Matching, for those unaware, is a service by which Google peeks at the music users upload to their account (up to 20,000 songs free), and checks the files against its own servers, automatically adding matched tracks to the user's library without the need for lengthy uploads.

Nov

ASUS And Google Are Offering Money Back If You Bought A Nexus 7 Recently In The US Or Europe

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in ASUS, Google, News, Nexus 7

It always stings when you buy a device just before the price drops. If you happened to pick up a Nexus 7 directly from ASUS or Google, though, you may be in for some good news. Two separate partial refund systems are in place to compensate you. If you're in Europe and you purchased the slate directly from ASUS prior to October 29th, 2012, you can register for a €30 (or ₤25 for UK owners) voucher that's good for use in the company's online store. The offer doesn't seem to specify which versions qualify, so it may be all of them.

Nov

Nexus 10 Review: Good, Because Pixels And Other Reasons

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Nexus 10, Tablet Reviews

Last Updated: December 16th, 2012

Over the past couple of years, Android tablets haven't really lived up to their full potential. We've seen multiple "game changers" or "iPad killers" come and go - yet the landscape has remained the same; that is, not very good. Further proving this, the best selling Android tablet of all time isn't an Android tablet at all - it's a Kindle. The Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD have been selling like hotcakes, but that really has nothing to do with Android - it's all about Amazon services. Until the Nexus 7, a "true" Android tablet had yet to really make a splash in the market.

Nov

Google Shopper Updated, Brings New UI, Available Sales, GoodGuide Product Rankings, And More

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

If you happen to be the type of person who buys things, then we have good news. In fact, you may even think it's great.

Google Shopper just got updated.

A little anticlimactic? Fine. It's still good news, though. Especially for those who like to spend money. Which is basically everyone.

So, what does this new update bring? All kinds of stuff. How do I know this, you ask? Because I looked at the changelog. And you can too!

What's in this version:

* New UI with faster navigation and bigger images.
* Discover sales and special offers in your area from the new sales screen.

Nov

Google Publishes Sprint Galaxy Nexus Factory Image For The First Time (Android 4.1.1)

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Development, Galaxy Nexus, Google, Jelly Bean 4.1, News, Sprint

After Google's release of "experimental" binaries for Sprint's Galaxy Nexus variant, Jean-Baptiste Queru (Chief Android Release Engineer) confirmed that the binaries represented not full AOSP support, but the "taking down [of] many hurdles that were preventing [AOSP support]," citing bugs in the network stack as one of the issues yet to be addressed.

Less than one month later, it would appear that those issues have been sorted, as Google today published the toroplus' factory image for the first time. The image, for those who are wondering, carries Android 4.1.1 (build FH05).

So what does this mean? For one thing, it means that four months after Verizon's Galaxy Nexus started getting with the program, Sprint's Galaxy Nexus has caught up.

Nov

Happy Fifth Birthday, Android: An Exploration Of Android's Five Year Journey To The Top

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Android OS, Features

Hi, Android! Sorry your present is a little late, it took a while to wrap it. Five years ago yesterday, Google's then-CEO Eric Schmidt joined other members of the newly-formed Open Handset Alliance to announce the Android operating system. Back then, we were still nearly a year away from an actual Gphone (and yes, people really called it that) and Sprint and T-Mobile were the only US carriers even interested. Now, Android is installed on over 400 million devices, nearly every carrier in the world wants a piece of the action, and the platform as a whole is the single largest mobile OS ever.

Nov

Federal Judge Dismisses Apple's Wisconsin Lawsuit Against Motorola With Prejudice

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Google, Legal, Motorola, News

Google announced in a statement today that Wisconsin Judge Barbara Crabb has dismissed Apple's lawsuit against Motorola Mobility claiming the Google-owned Moto's practices related to standards-essential patent licensing were unfair.

The lawsuit was set to go to trial in US District Court in Madison, Wisconsin this afternoon but was, according to Google, dismissed with prejudice by Judge Crabb this morning. Readers may remember that a similar Apple vs Motorola trial was canceled in Illinois by Judge Richard Posner earlier this year.

For those just tuning in, the case was centered around the licensing of some of Motorola Mobility's patents (which Google bought along with the company in May).

Nov

[Weekend Poll] Will You Use The Google Wallet Physical Card?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Polls

This is the latest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see Do You Prefer The Classic 10" Tablet Layout, Or The New Hybrid UI?

As we know by now, Google Wallet has been facing a lot of resistance. Major US carriers are blocking it while competition is getting intense. Google's fighting back, though, and word has it that new partnerships may be in the works. More importantly, Google is primed to introduce a physical Google Wallet card.

You read that right: the service that was introduced as a way to ditch your cards and cash in favor of just your phone is now resorting to using a card.

Nov

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Android VP Of Engineering Hiroshi Lockheimer Opens Up About 4.2's New Security System

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, News

We knew that Android 4.2 would see the introduction of new security features both on your device and in the Play Store, but Computerworld got a chance to speak with Android's VP of Engineering, Hiroshi Lockheimer, about the platform's beefed up security measures, specifically Android's new real-time app scanning utility.

The scanner builds on the functionality of the Play Store's existing security features by bringing app-scanning security to the frontend, scanning incoming apps from third party sources (including apps like Amazon's App Store).

The service is of course "opt-in" – when you first install a third party app on your device, you'll see a friendly popup asking if you'd like Google to check on all your incoming apps for "harmful behavior." The decision to include this feature, according to Lockheimer, came down to the idea that "security [is] a universal thing.