Latest Articles
Note: This is an adaptation of my Nexus 4 update/root post, so it has some duplicate content, but all the instructions and images are specific to the Galaxy Nexus.
Note: This is an adaptation of my Nexus 4 update/root post, so it has some duplicate content, but all the instructions and images are specific to the Nexus 7.
If you've already updated to Android 4.3, whether via an OTA or by flashing it manually, and rooted it, you're more than likely using Chainfire's SuperSU, which carefully works around the new restrictions Google put in place. Cody has a good write-up about why they did it and what's going on, so go read that if you're interested in the details.
Simultaneously with the Android 4.3 release, Google started rolling out an update to the Play Store with version 4.2.9, which follows closely behind 4.2.3 from last week's Nexus 4 system dump leak.
Android 4.3 was officially unveiled and released today to the Android Open Source Project. In a surprisingly timely fashion, Google also released both the factory images and OTAs to the Nexus 4, 7, 10, and the Galaxy Nexus.
Here are the wallpapers from the new Nexus 7 that is now available for pre-order and was shown off in full detail yesterday. From what I can tell, there is only one really new wallpaper compared to what came with the previous Nexuses, and it's the one that the new Nexus 7 comes with selected by default. I ran it through TinEye and Google's Reverse Image Search, and it's the only one that returned no existing hits.
Following the announcement of Android 4.3, the new Nexus 7, and the Chromecast, Google just started pushing the Android 4.3 open source code to AOSP (Android Open Source Project) under the tag android-4.3_r2.1. The push began several minutes ago and is expected to complete within a few hours. Additionally, factory images are already available for the Nexus 4, 7, 10, and the Galaxy Nexus.
The new Nexus 7, which has already been fully revealed and benchmarked earlier today, just popped up on BestBuy.com for pre-order in both 16 and 32 GB capacities. As expected, the refreshed 2013 N7 runs:
We have less than half a day left before the big Verizon triple-threat reveal of the new 2013 DROID family in New York City and San Francisco. The DROID Mini, DROID Ultra, and DROID MAXX should be worthy follow-ups to last year's DROID RAZR M, DROID RAZR HD, and DROID RAZR MAXX HD. In this post, I'm not going to talk about processor specs, RAM, or internal storage. Instead, I wanted to provide reliable information about these phones' batteries, along with the confirmations of wireless charging support built right into them. As a bonus, NFC and Wi-Fi details are also presented.
Yesterday, @evleaks scored several press images of the new Nexus 7, which is expected to be revealed by Google on July 24th. Not even a day later, we now have an exclusive gallery of more recent press shots that not only offer several more angles, but also showcase what I believe is the new default Android 4.3 Nexus wallpaper which replaces the Android 4.2 wallpaper seen in the previous pictures.
The leakiest and one of the most mysterious phones in recent history just got a little less mysterious as @evleaks dropped the first official press renders onto our sleepy heads late Friday night. The OS is close to stock (it's Android 4.2.2 for now, but we fully expect 4.3 soon after its release), the cameras are where they're supposed to be, the on-screen buttons make us happy, and overall, it's not such a bad-looker for a mid-spec, affordable device.
A mysterious video that starts with "Nothing can be perfect, things can be better" was just posted by the CyanogenMod team on YouTube. The 31-second animation teases... something.
Several hours ago, an Android 4.3 system dump was leaked for the Nexus 4. As it turns out, even though the bootloader and the radios weren't included, the system dump is totally bootable. I'm running it right now. If you want to try it out, it's easy to do so, but be prepared to have your bootloader unlocked and flash some zips via a custom recovery. If you don't know what any of this means, I suggest you get familiarized with Android flashing first.
A couple of hours ago, the Android 4.3 system dump was leaked for the Nexus 4, and while I was digging through it, I found that it contained an updated Play Store, version 4.2.3. The latest Play Store currently used by Google is 4.1.10.
For the past few hours, I've been observing a curious case of Jeff Williams on Google+. Jeff posted a screenshot of what he claimed was a Nexus 4 he bought from a Googler... with a build of Android 4.3 on it. The same build, JWR66N, that we saw leaked earlier on a Galaxy S4 GPE by SamMobile.
Remember the latest Facebook beta update v3.5? The one that brought photo saving and got rid of the legacy menu button, among other things. Looks like there's another change we didn't spot - one that's roughly 3 years overdue.
Google just updated the web Play Store with a completely new UI that was teased back at I/O 2013, and it immediately caused a whirlwind of mixed reactions. We have a separate post coming up on all the differences as well as the features that didn't make it into the redesign (there are, unfortunately, a lot - even more than went missing in Maps v7), but right now I want to commend Google and address one aspect that immediately stood out to me within the first few seconds - speed.
Google quietly brought Play Books today to four new countries: Austria, Belgium, Ireland, and Portugal. The aforementioned countries only had access to Google Play Apps and Music before, so I'm sure the book lovers among those of you who reside in the four territories are ecstatic.
This morning we were alerted to a possible Blackberry Messenger sighting in the Play Store, but upon closer inspection, it was immediately obvious that this app is beyond fake. The problem is it already has 100,000+ installs, it's been sitting in the Play Store since Friday, and Google hasn't done anything to remove the listing yet.
PSA: Google Puts Brakes On Wallet Promotion For Credit Card-Funded Transfers
Google's Wallet-powered peer-to-peer payment service launched to rival Paypal was announced on May 15th and came with an interesting promotion: waived
Google's Wallet-powered peer-to-peer payment service launched to rival Paypal was announced on May 15th and came with an interesting promotion: waived fees for transfers funded by credit cards. This promotion was recently (possibly today) adjusted quite drastically, and now only payments less than $250 aren't charged fees. Additionally, we now know that the promotional period ends on June 29th.