Android OS - 3/164 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Apr

Barnes & Noble Nook Color, The Original Modder's Tablet, Gets CyanogenMod 10.1 Nightlies

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Android OS, Barnes & Noble, Jelly Bean 4.2

For a lot of Android users out there, the Nook Color was their first exposure to the platform, or at least their first exposure to the magic of root and custom ROMs. The tablet's unlocked bootloader (from the days before B&N caught wise and started protecting its loss-leader business model) made it easy to convert into a "full" Android device. The CyanogenMod family of ROMs was one of the first reliable alternatives to the base software, and despite the aging hardware, the latest update is now available for the Nook Color. CM 10.1 (Android Jelly Bean 4.2) is now ready in nightly form.

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

ASUS Starts 4.2.1 Rollout To MeMO Pad Smart 10 With Build V10.6.1.15, Posts US Download Link

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Device Updates, Jelly Bean 4.2, MeMO Pad Smart, News

Over the past few days, ASUS has begun rolling out a treat to MeMO Pad Smart 10 owners, distributing Android 4.2.1 in an update to build number V10.6.1.15. The update, which rings in at about 500MB, brings the MeMO to 4.2.1 from 4.1, delivering on ASUS' "Q2 2013" promises noted in our review.

Of course, the headlining feature with this update is 4.2's multi-user support, which we already saw on an ASUS slate back when the manufacturer brought 4.2 to the TF300T in the US, beating other OEMs to the update punch. Otherwise, users can likely expect the same performance and stability enhancements found in the TF300T's 4.2.1 build.

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

It's Time To Swagger: Android Open Kang Project ROM Reaches 1 Million Users, AOKPush App Created To Celebrate

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Android OS, Applications, News

Congratulations are in order for the Team Kang, the developers of the Android Open Kang Project. As of yesterday AOKP is only the third community-created ROM to run on 1,000,000 Android devices, behind CyanogenMod and MIUI. The team announced their milestone on the aokp.co blog, noting that with the upcoming release of the first Android 4.2 Milestone build, they'll be shaking up the release process a bit.

Instead of the rather slow numbered build releases, AOKP will be automatically built and distributed from the team's servers every four days. These nightly (quadra-nightly?) builds will be for those who want to live on the bleeding edge of the custom ROM.

Apr

AT&T Announces LG Escape Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) Update, Rollout Starts Today

Posted by David Ruddock in Device Updates, Escape 4G LTE, Jelly Bean 4.1, News

AT&T announced on its official blog that the LG Escape will be receiving an update to Android 4.1, and that said update should be headed to devices starting today. The first release of Jelly Bean includes things like expandable rich notifications, Google Now, and possibly some Project Butter smoothness enhancements (all LG handsets I've seen have them, at least).

AT&T's DriveMode app is also included in the update, so there'll be another piece of carrier bloat (arguably of the less than useless variety) in your app drawer.

AT&T Consumer Blog

Apr

MyGlass App Goes Live In The Play Store, Google Launches Glass Setup Page

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

It looks like Google is gearing up for the Glass Explorer program, launching the MyGlass companion app and a new Glass setup page, both accessible to the general public.

The companion app relies on Google's now-signature "Card UI," and the listing's screenshots show off some of the app's functionality, though Google reminds us "if you don't have Glass, then downloading this will be a waste of time. Sorry about that." The description goes on to comfort readers, however: "But if you swipe the screenshots to the right, you'll see there's a picture of a puppy in pajamas. So not a total waste of time after all."

Of course, users can still install the app, though it (obviously) won't be able to complete Glass setup properly without an actual Glass unit.

Apr

Animoca: Samsung's Galaxy Tab 2 Line And The Kindle Fire Family Are Still The Most Popular Android Tablets Worldwide

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Android OS, News, Tablets

A little less than a year ago, we saw a report that showed the Galaxy Tab was the most popular Android tablet, followed closely by the Kindle Fire. A lot has happened since then. The Nexus 7 has rolled out and set the new bar for what a small, cheap Android tablet should be. So, what's changed worldwide? Well, according to Animoca, not much.

According to the firm—which distributes games and entertainment apps—the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 is the top Android tablet with 11.8% of its network, followed closely by the 10.1 model of the same line. Following that is the Kindle Fire and the Kindle Fire HD which collectively make up another 12.4% of Animoca's users.

Apr

DROID Bionic Jelly Bean Update (Android 4.1.2) Announced On Verizon Site, Rollout Starts April 15th

Posted by David Ruddock in Bionic, Device Updates, Jelly Bean 4.1, News

Last Updated: April 26th, 2013

Verizon has just announced the Jelly Bean update for the Motorola DROID Bionic, bringing Android 4.1.2 to a handset many thought would never make it past Gingerbread. Motorola has been on an update spree the last few months, and the decision to bump the Bionic to Android 4.1 was made official by Motorola back in October 2012. The version number for the Jelly Bean update is 98.72.22, and it will begin rolling out in phases on April 15th.

The update brings Google Now, rich notifications, the stock Android keyboard, some Project Butter enhancements, and the standard bug fixes and improvements.

Apr

Google Play Music Goes Live In Austria, Australia, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, New Zealand, And Portugal

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Applications, News

About six months ago, Google expanded the portfolio of countries with access to Play Music for the first time since its launch in the US. Today, seven more countries were added to that list: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, New Zealand, and Portugal.

Google announced on Google+ that the aforementioned nations had been added to the list of supported countries for Play Music, which should be accessible at this URL, as well as via the Play Store on your Android device. The Play Music app should also now be available. What are you waiting for? Start uploading those 20,000 songs!