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Verizon's Samsung Galaxy S4 Available Today, AT&T Shows Off Aurora Red Version Ahead Of June Launch

Jeremiah Rice — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:31:56 +0000

Attention, Verizon-shackled Samsung fans (like me): the Galaxy S4 is available today. Like, right now - you could probably drive down to the Verizon store and it would just be sitting there, waiting for you to fondle its 1080p screen. If you want to take it home, it'll cost you $199.99 with a new or extended two-year contract. Still clinging to that unlimited data like the last slice of pizza in the frat house? You can purchase the contract-free version for $649.99. Naturally, you can buy one online as well.

The Verizon GS4 comes in the standard ~~blue~~ black and white shades, but carrier rival AT&T has decided to glitz things up a bit with an Aurora Red version.

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Verizon's Samsung Galaxy S4 Available Today, AT&T Shows Off Aurora Red Version Ahead Of June Launch was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

[How-To] Root The Verizon Galaxy S4 With No Device Wipe Necessary

Ryan Whitwam — Thu, 23 May 2013 01:29:37 +0000

Give the community enough time and almost any device can be cracked open, no matter how determined a carrier or OEM is to keep it locked down. The Verizon Galaxy S4 has proven a tough nut to crack, but a new root method is much less convoluted than previous ones. Just flash a kernel, run some tools, flash again, and you're done! Well, it's a little more involved than that, but not much. Here's how you do it.

First up, grab the necessary tools:

Samsung Official USB Drivers - Link
ODIN v3.07 - Link
VRUAMD2 Pre-release Kernel - Link
VRUAMDK Stock Kernel - Link
Motochopper Root Exploit Tool – Link

ODIN is a tool used for flashing firmware and kernels on Samsung devices.

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[How-To] Root The Verizon Galaxy S4 With No Device Wipe Necessary was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Cricket's Samsung Galaxy S4 Is Coming June 7th For $600, Or $54.99 Plus Payments

Jeremiah Rice — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:14:33 +0000

Cricket Wireless wants you to know that they'll have the Samsung Galaxy S4, just like the big boys. They just don't have it yet. In a press release issued today, Cricket revealed its own special version of the Galaxy S4 (which is exactly like all the other LTE Galaxy S4 models), and it will be available to customers in-store, online, and at authorized resellers on June 7th. The cost for Cricket's unsubsidized phone is a wallet-searing $599.99, but those who are short on green can put $54.99 down and pay it off over a couple of years.

Cricket's S4 uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor, not Samsung's own Exynos octa-core, thanks to its LTE chipset requirement.

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Cricket's Samsung Galaxy S4 Is Coming June 7th For $600, Or $54.99 Plus Payments was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Chainfire Releases Modified CF-Auto-Root And SuperSU For Qualcomm Versions Of The Galaxy S4

Jeremiah Rice — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:28:00 +0000

In case you hadn't heard, Samsung is making a little extra effort to secure the Galaxy S4 via tougher software kernels, which aren't susceptible to some of the more common root methods from previous Galaxy models. But where there's a will, there's a way, and noted Android developer/modder Chainfire has found a way around the security on the stock kernel for the Galaxy S4 i9505 - that's the Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered LTE variant, and the model sold for AT&T and T-Mobile in the United States.

This root exploit works via a newly-modified version of the CF-Auto-Root tool and the popular SuperSU permission manager app.

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Chainfire Releases Modified CF-Auto-Root And SuperSU For Qualcomm Versions Of The Galaxy S4 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

[Deal Alert] AT&T's LG Optimus G Pro Is Just $99.99 (50% Off) At Fry's Brick And Mortar Stores

Jeremiah Rice — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:52:35 +0000

Just yesterday we featured a deal for the AT&T version of the enormous LG Optimus G Pro over at Amazon Wireless, but if you're willing to put in a bit of legwork (and you live in one of a few specific areas in the US) you can do even better. Fry's electronics stores have the Optimus G Pro available for just $99.99 with a new two-year contract. That's a full half off of AT&T's retail price for the subsidized phone. Unfortunately, the deal is only valid in retail stores - Fry's online store is only allowing the $600 off-contract purchase at the moment.

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[Deal Alert] AT&T's LG Optimus G Pro Is Just $99.99 (50% Off) At Fry's Brick And Mortar Stores was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

[Deal Alert] AT&T's LG Optimus G Pro On Sale At Amazon – $169.99 For New Accounts And Upgrades ($30 Off)

Ryan Whitwam — Wed, 22 May 2013 02:15:50 +0000

If you have a penchant for big phones, but find the Galaxy Note II entirely too pedestrian, the LG Optimus G Pro on AT&T might be just the thing. AT&T is asking $199.99 for this brand new device, but Amazon is already offering a deal (albeit a small one). The Optimus G Pro can currently be snatched online for $169.99 on a 2-year contract.

This new LTE-packing handset has a 5.5-inch 1080p screen, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage. Inside is a 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, the same super-chip found in the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4. Sadly, there are no fun color choices for this device – it's just black.

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[Deal Alert] AT&T's LG Optimus G Pro On Sale At Amazon – $169.99 For New Accounts And Upgrades ($30 Off) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Google+'s Best New Unadvertised Feature: Photo Search With Visual Recognition - Try It On Your Own Pictures And Be Amazed

Artem Russakovskii — Tue, 21 May 2013 21:33:09 +0000

Unless you've been living under a rock, you are probably aware of the recent improvements and updates to the Google+ experience, both on the web and in mobile apps. While Auto Awesome, Auto Enhance, Auto Highlight, Auto Backup, and other widely discussed features are certainly exciting, one subtle nicety managed to fly under our radar until a post by Google's +Tor Norbye pointed out just how awesome it is.

Visual Recognition

The feature I'm talking about is visual recognition in Google+ photo search.

Remember when +Vic Gundotra mentioned during the I/O 2013 keynote that Google+ will now attempt to guess what you're talking about and auto-tag posts based on, among other things, attached pictures?

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Google+'s Best New Unadvertised Feature: Photo Search With Visual Recognition - Try It On Your Own Pictures And Be Amazed was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Active Caught On Video With Slower Snapdragon CPU And 8MP Camera

Jeremiah Rice — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:06:08 +0000

The ruggedized Galaxy S4 Active is real. It's been spotted on camera before, not to mention in various less dramatic leaks. The folks at MobileTechReview got their hands on one, and it looks pretty close to finished, assuming that they don't already have a production model. In the video below, you can see the tougher red chassis (probably water and dust-resistant to some degree) and physical navigation buttons, as previously featured on Samsung's Rugby models.

What's new in the video is confirmation about the guts of the S4 Active. While the Bosnian-localized unit makes it hard to verify, the narrator mentions a Snapdragon S4 Plus processor, notably less powerful than either the standard Exynos 5 octa-core or Snapdragon 600 featured on the standard Galaxy S4.

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Samsung Galaxy S4 Active Caught On Video With Slower Snapdragon CPU And 8MP Camera was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

[Giveaway] Win One Of Two Galaxy S4 i9500s Or Two HTC Ones From BitDefender And Android Police

Cameron Summerson — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:47:00 +0000

Have you ever wondered just how private your data is? How protected your personal info is? For all you know, apps could be running off sharing your phone number, contact log, and device ID to third parties. Or even worse, they could be doing so over an unencrypted connection. I shudder at the very thought.

Fortunately, BitDefender has a new app called Clueful that aims to show users what their apps are really doing behind the scenes and how private their data is. It gives each device a Privacy Score based on the currently-installed apps, along with a simple breakdown of potential risks in three different categories: high, moderate, and low.

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[Giveaway] Win One Of Two Galaxy S4 i9500s Or Two HTC Ones From BitDefender And Android Police was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

[Update: Fixed] PSA: Don't Panic - Google+ v4.0 Is Currently Only Compatible With Android 2.2 - 2.3.7, But Google Is Working On A Fix

Artem Russakovskii — Mon, 20 May 2013 19:53:00 +0000

Hordes of excited Google+ users trying to get the new v4.0 update of their favorite Android app were puzzled this morning when their devices running Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean were suddenly listed as incompatible. Numerous "WAT?!"s were exclaimed and heart attacks had, but don't worry, Google isn't canning Google+.

As you can see, the reason your devices are incompatible is simple - the Google+ team set the app compatibility to just Froyo and Gingerbread. As we suspected, it's just a temporary glitch - a Google+ engineer and Vic Gundotra already confirmed that the company is aware of the problem caused by a faulty manifest and is working on a fix:

So sit tight, folks.

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[Update: Fixed] PSA: Don't Panic - Google+ v4.0 Is Currently Only Compatible With Android 2.2 - 2.3.7, But Google Is Working On A Fix was written by the awesome team at Android Police.