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Nickelodeon has released no shortage of apps into the Play Store, but the kid-targeted network's latest offering is more of a one-stop shop. Inside the new Nick app, youngsters can find full episodes available for streaming, bite-sized games to occupy their time with, the ability to vote in polls, and other forms of original content. I grew up watching Nickelodeon, and if your kid is doing the same, this might just pique their interest.
Motorola's Spotlight Player, available only for the Moto X, serves you interactive films stuck somewhere between being as involving as a game and as passive as a movie. Motorola's first "Spotlight Story" came out late last year with the name Windy Day. The film, created by Ratatouille director Jan Pinkava, tasked players with moving their Moto Xs around to find items and trigger parts of the experience. Now another story is available by the name of Buggy Night (this time directed by animator Mark Oftedal), and it works much the same way.
It wasn't too long ago that I would have thought of a dual USB/MicroUSB flash drive as a dream accessory. Now the landscape has changed so quickly, I'm nearly embarrassed that I have yet to buy one. When we first heard about the Leef Bridge Dual-USB/MicroUSB flash drive, the idea was still novel enough that its quirky name wasn't off-putting. Since then the more traditional players have jumped into the ring, with SanDisk and Sony both coming out with their own drives. Now add Kingston's name to that list. Its DataTraveler microDuo is available in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB doses.
It's that time again. Another bundle of games has hit the web courtesy of the Humble Bundle folks, and as always, they're charging the sweet price of whatever-you-feel-like-paying. There are six games up for grabs this time around, with two requiring you to pay over the average.
HTC got KitKat out to the HTC One relatively quickly, doing a decent job of updating its Sense UI in the process. Now it's time to get the update out to the flagship's multiple variants. We still don't have news of an impending OTA, but HTC has now made open source kernel files for the HTC One Max available online.
We received a tip last week suggesting that Verizon Wireless planned to release the LG G Pad 8.3 with LTE (or the LGGPLTE for short, differentiating it from the LGGPGPE) on March 6th. Today, that leak's been confirmed. Verizon has announced that the tablet will launch on said day for $99.99 with a new two-year activation, with this price lasting for the first four days of availability. After that, it will go up to $199.99.
Roughly a year has gone by since XBMC 12 hit metaphorical store shelves, and the time has apparently been well-spent. The upcoming version introduces hardware decoding, so your device can actually utilize more of its power to push those pixels. The beta has has been streamlined enough to run on a Raspberry Pi, so you know you can expect a zippier experience on a more powerful gadget.
Sony's Socialife is an attractive app, but it has thus far only found its way into the hands of a limited number of users. This isn't an indictment of its quality. Rather, it speaks to the app's previous exclusivity. The news reader and social network aggregator has only been available for Xperia phones, tablets, and Sony VAIO PCs. Now it's open to any Android device running Jelly Bean or higher. Here it is running on a Nexus 5.
The Google+ Android app jumped to a new version last week, and shortly after, its Play Store page updated with a change log topped by one problematic item:
No one app is going to make an Android device immediately safe from any and all threats, but some can make it easier to remain ever vigilant. viaProtect may one day be such a app. This piece of software gives you a basic idea where the apps installed on your phone or tablet are sending your information. It doesn't go into specifics, but it will at least show you how much of your traffic is encrypted and some other security-related information.
Routers are complex and intimidating, but this Kickstarter project hopes to address both of these issues. The Soap smart router is an Android-based router with a touch display. Through a simple interface, owners can implement parental controls, set time limits, see what activity is taking place on a network, block ads, create black/lists, monitor network analytics, and look out for potential threads. The idea is that this will be a router that you don't need to be a techie to know how to use, and its promise has attracted enough funds to surpasses its $80k funding goal with 19 days to go.
Today Microsoft has released the Office 365 software development kit for Android. With it, the company wants to invite developers to access Office data inside their apps. The SDK provides APIs granting permission to call upon SharePoint lists and files, along with Exchange calendars, contacts, and mail. The preview is available for download straight from GitHub.
Microsoft has already dabbled around with expanding the Xbox Live experience to mobile devices, but if a recent report from The Verge is to be believed, the company may be about to ramp up its efforts significantly. Our good friend Sources, who is familiar with Microsoft's plans, claims that Microsoft is building a platform that would extend Xbox Live functionality to Android and iOS. Instead of using Google Play Games or Apple's Game Center to track achievements, find other players, and compete with one another, you would be able to use Xbox Live instead.
Streaming local media to Chromecast isn't that difficult of an endeavor these days. Sure, there isn't an official Google app that will slap those media files onto a TV for you, but between AllCast and Solid Explorer, there are options. There's also LocalCast, an app like AllCast whose singular purpose is to get media from your Android device to something with a bigger screen.
More and more developers these days are using the Play Store to get beta versions of software into the hands of willing users. The system works well, so it's nice to report that another well-known app is taking advantage of it. Yelp now has an Android Beta Testers Google+ community that, if you join, will grant you access to the latest features before everyone else.
Google doesn't provide an obvious user-facing way to get locally saved media files from your phone to your TV using Chromecast. It's a bit annoying, but whatever, we have options now. There's AllCast for starters, but if you would prefer not to have to deal with yet another app, Solid Explorer has added the ability to stream files directly from the file browser. All you need is the latest version and a separate plugin.
Searching for a restaurant that can satisfy everyone's culinary preferences isn't particularly easy on a smartphone's data connection. The process typically involves searching for a specific website, hoping there's a mobile version (nope), and searching around for a menu. Now Google's rolling out a feature in the US that should streamline things a bit. Just search Google for the menu and watch it appear as the top result.
The Play Store is filled with great games to cram onto your mobile device, but there's another Android marketplace you may have forgotten to check. Don't worry, I have your back. Amazon is currently offering eight free games as part of today's Game Pack. If you throw in the usual free app of the day, that actually makes nine games you can get just by hitting up Amazon before the day is up.
The IMDb app is an immensely useful piece of software to have installed on a mobile phone. I don't open it often, but once I'm in the mood to hit up the local theater, there's the app, just ready to serve me the latest trailers, movie showtimes, and ticket prices. The beta version of the app has reached 4.2, and it's tidying things up a bit. Options that were crowding up the Action Bar have now been moved into a slide-out navigation menu.
Swordigo first came to Android as a part of Humble Mobile Bundle 3, and while it's usually difficult to snag a game for a lower price than pay-what-you-want, this time you can. Developer Touch Foo has released the game into the Play Store as a free download. Swordigo is well-rated on the Apple App Store, and it looks like a pretty safe bet if you're in the mood for an attractive, action-packed platformer.