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The Jelly Bean rollout for Galaxy device has been fast and furious as of late, with Samsung making the update available to nearly all of its current and former flagship devices. Today's the day for T-Mobile's version of the Galaxy S II – but the download is only available via Samsung's Kies software.
The first time I tried using ADB after updating my PCs to Windows was a very unpleasant experience. What worked so well on Windows 7 was apparently borked in Windows 8 thanks to the new driver verification system that disallows unsigned drivers from running without this mode being first disabled, which requires a reboot. Upon subsequent reboots, driver verification is re-enabled, making the entire process tedious and beyond frustrating. I've since resorted to using a portable version of Linux Mint install virtualized within Windows – a less than ideal setup, it is.
At this point, we've covered the benefits of having a portable charger/battery pack so much that you probably have all the reasons to buy one engrained in your memory. If you still haven't invested in one (or need to upgrade), however, tech.woot has a pretty solid deal on a couple of chargers from uNu.
HTC's newest flagship is doing its best to turn heads with innovative features and funky buzzword-branding. If you've been sipping the Kool-Aid and simply must have this up-and-coming powerhouse, Wirefly's got a pretty solid deal if you are (or plan on being) a Sprint customer: you can pre-order either the silver or black variants for $150.
Looks like it's time for another set of app sales to lead you into the weekend. This one's a pretty short list (for now), but that doesn't mean it's not a good one – we've got a unique Twitter client, a throwback game, an unlikely hero, an interesting puzzler, and a new way to watch videos. Here's how to order.
When it comes to getting various notifications while your device's display is off, a built-in LED is useful. However, it's far from perfect. Sure, you can customize each notification with something like Light Flow, but that doesn't let you know the message contents at a glance. And, of course, there are also devices that don't have an LED at all, like the Nexus 7 for example. If you're looking for more out of your notification experience, Knock²+ may be the answer.
Samsung has slowly been updating the majority of its ICS-running Galaxy devices to Jelly Bean (4.1.2) over the last several weeks, and U.S Cellular's Galaxy Axiom is the next in line. Announced just this morning, the update should be available directly from U.S. Cellular via OTA, as well as through Samsung's Kies Software.
If those of you on Big Blue have been jealous of The Now Network's Jelly Bean offerings to the LG Optimus G, today's your lucky day. AT&T just announced the official Android 4.1 (4.1.2 to be exact) update for its variant of the LG flagship, complete with Google Now, expandable notifications, and all the other goodies that one expects to come with the full OS update.
When it comes to insane, flashy, over-the-top launchers, two immediately come to mind: GO Launcher's Next and TSF Shell. They're both about as "cutting edge" as it gets, and have a price tag to match – Next is roughly $16, while TSF is closer to $17. Still, if you're a fan of the latter (or have been on the fence about picking it up), it just got a pretty sizable update that brings a new dock, "desktop menu buttons," and some other "amazing" new features:
Shadowgun: DeadZone Hits Version 2.0, Brings A Boatload Of New Stuff
Shadowgun: DeadZone Hits Version 2.0, Brings A Boatload Of New Stuff
Everyone's favorite mobile multiplayer FPS – Shadowgun: DeadZone – just got itself a pretty major update that brings several new features to the table. And by "several features" we actually mean "new guns, new maps, better friend support, and all sorts of other stuff." Here's a closer look at said stuff:
Avast! Mobile Security Updated, Brings Simplified Anti-Theft Setup And User Interface, Folder Scanning, And More
Avast! Mobile Security Updated, Brings Simplified Anti-Theft Setup
Thanks to its amazing anti-theft features – which are powered by what used to be Theft Aware – avast! has long been one of our favorite mobile security apps. That's not to say its malware prevention abilities aren't also a highlight of the application, because they are – in fact, it's an all around good package. And thanks to a new update that hit the Play Store just a bit ago, it's just got better.
Who's ready for the Facebook phone?! Honestly, it really doesn't matter either way – it's coming whether you want it to or not. And as much as people are trash-talking this upcoming device, one thing's still pretty certain: everyone is curious about it. What's it going to be like? How much Facebook are we talking about here? Should I be afraid? While we can't answer or quantify all of those, we can shed a little light as to what the UI should look like thanks to a new post by @evleaks over at 9to5Google.
At the beginning of March, ASUS became the first company to push Android 4.2 to a non-Nexus device when the update came to the TF300. At the time, the company promised 4.2 for the TF700 and MeMO Pad Smart sometime "in the second quarter." We're now three days into Q2, and ASUS has started pushing the update to the TF700 (Infinity). Talk about delivering on promises.
Update: Looks like Woodside won't be the only person of interest at D11. Chrome – and now Android – lead Sundar Pichai will also be joining the conference. He'll definitely be one to watch.
There are few things on Android more useful than good floating apps. Because, honestly, how often have you been looking at something and needed to jot down a quick note but didn't want to leave the foreground app? Or how about those times when a calculator is clutch, but so is seeing the numbers you need to calculate? We've seen various apps that answer these quandaries before, but now there's a place to get a handful of mini-apps all in one place. It's appropriately called Tiny Apps, and consists of some of the most useful tools one could have atop other windows: notes, recorder, paint, music player, and calculator.
It's no secret that we're big fans of automation – and thus, NFC tags – around these parts. Tapping your device on a small tag to automatically adjust settings to accommodate any given situation is not only convenient, but honestly, it's downright awesome.
LG Announces The Lucid 2 For Verizon, Available April 4th For Free (With A Two-Year Agreement)
LG Announces The Lucid 2 For Verizon
If you just can't decide which mid-range phone you must have, Verizon and LG are looking to make that quandary even more... quandary-ful with the Lucid 2. As the name suggests, this is the sequel to last year's "breakout" budget phone. And while the Lucid 2 may bump the specs, it's keeps the same low price tag: free.
Earlier this morning, we added SwiftKey Tilt to our 2013 April Fool's day post. At first blush, it just looks like another funny idea made specifically for April Fool's Day – little did we know that Tilt is actually a real feature. According to a comment left on the official SwiftKey Blog, you can enable Tilt by long-pressing on the word "tilt" in the suggested words area above the keyboard in the newest version of the app.
If all-day-and-maybe-all-night battery life is an important thing in your quest for a new smartphone, you'll have a hard time finding something that lasts longer than the Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX HD. The device's massive 3,300mAh battery should be enough to last you through the workday, the evening, a night out, and then some, while its 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 should keep everything humming along nicely on the 4.7" 720p display.
The Thunderbolt has had one weird life. It was VZW's first LTE phone. But it was less than stellar, and had lots of problems. Then HTC promised that it would get ICS, which got delayed again and again. And again. But it finally came out, and Tbolt owners were kinda happy about it for five minutes.