News - 29/976 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

May

ASUS Currently Pushing Android 4.2.1 To The Transformer AiO

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Device Updates, News, Transformer AiO P1801

The ASUS Transformer AiO is a strange sort of beast – it's half desktop computer, half massive Android tablet. Here's the thing, though: it's surprisingly cool. I've been using one for the last week or so (review coming soon), and have been extremely surprised at the amount of utility I've found in this mix-n-match device, as well as how well thought-out it is. But I'm getting ahead of myself here – you'll have to wait for the review for the full skinny.

Up to this point, my main problem with the Android side is that it was running 4.1, and 4.2 would be perfect for the unit since it brings multiple user accounts (because this is a fantastic family machine).

May

Wall Street Journal: Samsung's June 20th Premiere Event Likely Includes The Galaxy S4 Mini

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in News, Samsung

Since Samsung is prone to have big, glitzy events for their flagship products, we had a feeling that "Premiere 2013" would include a few of their more sedate offerings. According to the the Wall Street Journal, at least one of those will probably be the Galaxy S4 Mini, which we previously saw in a pair of leaks detailing most of the details of the mid-range phone. The Journal reports that a "person with knowledge of the matter" told them the S4 Mini would be one of several new devices revealed at the event.

Samsung-Galaxy-S4-mini-09 Samsung-Galaxy-S4-mini-08 Samsung-Galaxy-S4-mini-07

The Galaxy S4 mini is shaping up to be a something of a misnomer, just like the S III Mini before it.

May

Spotify App Update Rolling Out, Finally Brings Landscape Support

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

One of the biggest peeves that, well, everyone had when the redesigned Spotify app hit the scene back in June of last year (yes, it's already been a year) was the lack of landscape support. Updates came and went, but we were all left wanting.

Here we are, one year later, and landscape support is here. It's finally real. For me, personally, there's just one problem: I canceled my Spotify premium membership yesterday and switched to Play Music All Access as my full-time streaming service. It's actually kind of mind boggling.

But I digress. This is a great addition, regardless of the timing.

May

Samsung Releases Kernel Source Code For Verizon Galaxy S4, Galaxy Tab 3 7.0, Galaxy Mega 5.8 Duos, And Galaxy Mega 6.3 GSM

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Galaxy Mega 6.3, Galaxy S4, Galaxy Tab 3, News, Samsung

It's that time again: the software engineers at Samsung are on an open-source bender, and they won't stop until every last Galaxy phone has been served. Today Samsung posted kernel files for some big (as in widely-used) devices, and some not-so-big (but still actually pretty big) devices. Verizon's version of the Galaxy S4, the vanilla Galaxy Tab 3 7.0, the Galaxy Mega 5.8 Duos, and the GSM version of the Galaxy Mega 6.3 all have kernel source code posted at Samsung's open source repository.

We've seen the kernels for various versions of the Galaxy S4 before, as well as the LTE version of the slightly more enormous Galaxy Mega 6.3.

May

LG Announces The White Nexus 4, Quashes All Rumors That The Company Is Working On The Nexus 5

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Nexus 4

We've been seeing images of a white version of the Nexus 4 for several months now (including some recently-leaked press shots), but LG just officially took the wraps off of it. This new N4 is virtually identical to the current edition in hardware specifications, as it features a 4.7-inch 1280x768 display, 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro, 2GB RAM, and of course Android 4.2; so no surprises there.

Oddly enough, the handset will start its journey in Hong Kong on May 29th, and will "roll out globally in select markets in Asia, North America, Europe, and the Middle East over the next several weeks." That's a step away from the norm, where Google usually releases new Nexus devices in the US Play Store first.

May

Popular Music App doubleTwist Going Holo In Next Update – Possibly Live May 28th [Update: Version 2.1 Is Out]

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

Last Updated: May 29th, 2013

It looks like the folks at doubleTwist are hard at work on a new version of their music playback/syncing app for Android, but we're not supposed to know that yet. Someone seems to have jumped the gun a little bit and posted the news on the doubleTwist blog. The post was locked down almost immediately, but not before we spotted it. The news? As the post says, the future is Holo(graphic).

Update: doubleTwist has been bumped to version 2.1 and the blog post is unlocked.

May

Facebook Patches Privacy Flaw In Pages Manager For Android

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in News

Over the weekend, Android Police received a tip about a serious privacy hole in Facebook Pages Manager for Android that made some privately uploaded photos public. Shortly after I made the details of the issue public, Facebook Security got in touch and let us know that its engineers were looking into the report and trying to get a fix up soon.

At 4:19pm PT today, I received a follow-up email from Facebook Security that confirmed a fix had been rolled out server-side, and no app update was necessary. The issue was introduced about a week prior, and the company promised to conduct a thorough internal review to investigate how it could have happened and how it could prevent similar issues in the future.

May

Google Enables Biking Navigation In Google Maps For Germany, France, Poland, Ireland, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in News

Bicycling enthusiasts in Europe (of which there are many) are getting a present from Google today with the addition of biking directions in Google Maps for six new countries. Cyclists in Germany, France, Poland, Ireland, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein can now pull down routes that take into account the available biking trails, paths, and lanes. This applies to mobile and desktop apps.

When biking directions are selected in Google Maps, it chooses routes that avoid busy streets, and sends riders down dedicated bike paths where available. Google worked with other organizations in a few countries to catalog all the bike paths, but several hundred kilometers of trails were added by users.

May

Lambda Labs Releasing Facial Recognition API For Google Glass This Week (Whether You're Ready For It Or Not)

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Glass, Google, News

Lambda Labs, a small start-up out of San Francisco, is set to drag us kicking and screaming into the dystopian sci-fi future we all knew was coming. Okay, that might be overstating the point, but the company has announced its intention to release a facial recognition API for Google Glass this week. Should this pan out, you'll always have to wonder if that fellow wearing Google Glass remembered your name, kid's age, and occupation because he has a good memory, or because the cloud told him.

The Lambda Labs facial recognition API has been in operation since last year, and is currently used by about 1,000 developers.

May

[New App] Camera 2 From The Makers Of Paper Camera Has Tons Of Effects, Live Multi-Preview, And A Killer UI

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

There are many, many camera apps out there with filters and effects to make your snapshots look like they were taken with a 30 year-old Polaroid. Fewer are the camera apps with cool, well-thought-out filters that make for fun images. Paper Camera definitely fell into the latter category, and the follow-up Camera 2 looks even cooler.