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While these two devices are essentially unrelated in general, today they have one thing in common: they're both getting small OTA updates.
Back in December of 2011, Microsoft released the first version of Lync for Android, which brought real-time Exchange collaboration to mobile. Considering that version came before ICS and the Android Design Guidelines, it looks a little (read: very) outdated on modern smartphones. Thankfully, Microsoft just released Lync 2013, which brings a nice looking Holo-meets-Windows-Phone sort of UI along for the ride.
You're cruising the skies in a helicopter, when tragedy strikes. The chopper goes down and everyone dies. Literally, everyone. Except you. You awake in a new world. A world filled with the undead... and they're everywhere. There's nothing to do but run. For your life.
We first heard about Vavo through its Kickstarter campaign – which was successfully funded by roughly 200% – back in June of last year. The product has been available in the retail scene for a little while now, and I've actually had a pair of them (one white, one black) for the last few months. As such, I've had plenty of time to get a feel for VaVo's strengths, as well as its weaknesses.
Carriers across the country are gearing up for the next big thing to hit shelves, with T-Mobile offering the handset from May 1 and AT&T accepting pre-orders beginning on April 16th. As it turns out, U.S. Cellular will also begin taking pre-order on the 16th, though the regional carrier hasn't yet announced how much the device will cost. When I reached out for more info, I was told that "pricing will be available on 4/16."
Ouya Hitting The Retail Scene On June 4th For $99, Will Be Available From Amazon, Best Buy, And More
We've watched this project grow from a once-unfunded Kickstarter campaign to a highly-anticipated beast of a gaming console. If you've been kicking yourself over the last several months for not getting behind the Kickstarter campaign and are counting the days until you can grab this Android-powered box-o-fun from a retail shop, the day is drawing near. According to tonight's announcement from GDC, the device will hit shelves in virtual and physical stores across the country on June 4th.
If you've been waiting for an official means of recovering your Verizon or Sprint Galaxy Nexus should an emergency arise, Google's just fulfilled that need. The factory images for both devices – 4.2.2 (JDQ39) for the Verizon variant and 4.2.1 (GA02) for Sprint's – just hit the "Factory Images for Nexus Devices" download page.
Back in January, Tasker dev Crafty Apps showed off the app's upcoming redesign, which finally brings the Holo look to the table. Now, that update has left its beta stages and made its way into the Play Store. Yay for that!
According to the guys over at German site MobiFlip, Google and LG may have pulled a fast one on us by very subtly updating the Nexus 4's design. The changes appear to be quite minor (yet useful), with the addition of small "nipples" on the bottom of the phone's backside being the most notable. Why would Google add such a small difference, you ask? Because as it stands, the N4's back is completely flat, which essentially mutes (or drastically muffles) the speaker when the phone is laid down. It's incredibly frustrating, and as a result I've missed several texts and phone calls since getting the N4. This new design tweak looks to remedy that.
Look, the TiVo apps may not be the best on the market (their 2.5 star ratings speak pretty loudly), but that hasn't stopped the team from putting together a generous new update for both the phone and tablet apps that brings support for Android 4.2, along with a handful of other new features.
Back in early February when Sony started pushing Jelly Bean to the Xperia T and V, it promised the same update for the TX by "the end of March." Here we are, with four days left in the month, and Sony has made good on that promise. You hear that, all other manufacturers?
If you were to throw Evernote and Pinterest in a room together and give them enough time to breed, the end result would be Springpad 4.0. That's not to say anything bad about the new Springpad update, of course – both Evernote and Pinterest are fantastic apps. And their little bundle of joy got its father's usefulness (Evernote) and its mother's good looks (Pinterest). It's a win all around.
SEGA already made some waves in the Android world by announcing a port of the original Sonic the Hedgehog at GDC 2013 yesterday, but the company wasn't finished there. It just announced three more games coming to the platform later this year: Puzzle Pirates, House of the Dead: Overkill – The Lost Reels (!), and Godsrule. Excited? I know I am.
We've already seen two pretty major updates to Google apps today, with Translate's offline language packs and Movies getting info cards. Some smaller updates were also pushed out to a few other apps as well – namely Sound Search, Offers, and PrimeTime for Google TV. Since the latter's the most notable (in terms of what's in the update, that is), let's start there.
If QWERTYs are your thing, the Samsung's Galaxy Stratosphere II on Big Red is one of the only choices left on the market. And while it may be nothing to write home about in general, it is getting a nice bump up to Jelly Bean right now. Announced officially on the Verizon Blog just a bit ago, the update has started making its way out in phases and brings all sorts of fun goodies like voice search, enhanced notifications, Google Now, and lots more.
Looks like EA is doing a little spring cleaning trying to clear the back stock of some older games, because it just dropped the price of Plants vs. Zombies and NBA JAM to a buck each. And just for the record, those are two of my absolute favorite games on Android. Both are requisite installs in my book.
The original FieldRunners was easily one of the best tower defense games I've ever played. While I may be pretty awful at the genre as a whole, FR offered nice visuals, fluid and fun animations, and an overall good experience. I'm sure many of you share my sentiments on the title and have been actively waiting for its sequel to finally make its way to Android. Good news! It's coming next month.
If you've been looking forward to Trendy Entertainment fulfilling its promise to deliver Dungeon Defenders 2 into your hands, then a recently-released pre-alpha gameplay teaser should whet your appetite nicely. Unfortunately, it's a fairly short clip that doesn't show a whole lot in the way of gameplay, but it does give a good idea of what to expect, which includes some nice looking graphics and lots of pretty colors.
If you're a subscriber of SiriusXM and you love to customize what you hear, you should probably grab the latest update of the app, which now features MySXM. What's MySXM, you ask? It just so happens that we have collected a nice little Q&A from various places around Sirius' site that explains just that.
In an age where kids want to be digitally connected just like the rest of us, there are things every parent has to deal with. On one hand there are content and privacy concerns, and on the other it's the constant fighting and bickering about who's turn it is to use the computer.