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Samsung Galaxy Mega owners have probably felt a little bit ignored while they've watched one Samsung phone after another getting updates. After all, they only made it to Android 4.2.2 at the end of November, a month after KitKat was announced. They can finally say that they're running the latest version of Android (if we pretend that 4.4.3 didn't just come out). Starting today, an update to Android 4.4.2 will begin rolling out to the Galaxy Mega on AT&T.
The latest version of the Play Store hit the scene a little over a week ago and introduced a tweak to the way permissions are displayed at install time, and it left some people feeling a little...uncertain. Gone is the ugly wall of poorly spaced, semi-specific permissions. The replacement is a short set of simplified categories, each with crisp-looking icons and buttons that reveal a brief description when tapped. Google filtered through roughly 145 permissions and narrowed them down to a dozen groups, plus one bucket for anything that remains. The list can be found here.
If you used to play around with CyanogenMod Nightlies, but switched to the more stable M-series releases, it has probably felt like forever since M6 hit the scene. Well, M7 is hot off the compilers, just in time to fill that insatiable need to flash your phone or tablet. Don't forget, the M-series has officially taken the place of Release Candidates and Stable builds, so this is considered the most reliable version of CyanogenMod available.
Aside from Windows Media Player, there is probably no single video player more widely installed on computers than VLC. It may not have the prettiest interface (or icon), but everybody eventually turns to that huge orange traffic cone, especially for file types that simply can't play in anything else. While VLC provides a mostly full compliment of features, there is one request that has gone unanswered for a while: Chromecast support. It looks like we finally have confirmation, it's happening!
Back in April, owners of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active were treated to the ultimate tease when an update to Android 4.4 KitKat began rolling out, only to be put on hold a few days later. The only explanation was a claim that AT&T and Samsung were "looking into potential improvements." It looks like the time has come -again- for the S4 Active to make the jump to KitKat.
Most people familiar with the Nexus program know that each new Android update usually brings with it a new set of driver "blobs" for each supported phone and tablet in the product line. Even though these proprietary binaries are usually the latest versions when they come out, Google still occasionally receives updates to the drivers even when it's not a good time to issue an OTA. As we've just witnessed from the long lead time on the 4.4.3 release, it can take quite a while before an update is rolled out. However, it looks like Google is moving to combat this issue by adding a public channel for "Preview" versions of those binaries.
Admit it, you love to save a few bucks if the opportunity comes along, especially if it requires almost no effort. That should make Amazon's latest promotion pretty attractive to most of our readers. All you have to do is install the Amazon 1Button App for Chrome, and the next time you spend $25 or more, you will receive an automatic $5 discount on the purchase price. How can you pass this up?
Ask anybody that spends time in the security circles and they'll tell you that every large software project is bound to have a few long-standing vulnerabilities in the code. Fortunately, there are usually a few people who are paid to close up those holes so you, the customer, don't find yourself the victim of nefarious evildoers someday. Like so many before it, the latest update to Android came with a boatload of changes, at least one of which fixes a potentially dangerous vulnerability that can be used for numerous attacks, including a way to acquire root.
Ever since the unexpected delay between XE12 and XE16, the Glass team has been in a near rapid-fire mode with the OTAs. There were a staggering 5 updates of XE16 in the month of April (6 if you count the 2-parter with XE 12.1) and 3 official versions of XE17 during the month of May. As it turns out, there may be a fourth, unreleased May update to Google's experimental wearable. Late last night, XDA Recognized Contributor TheManii posted a link to an update for XE17.3, provided to him by psymin. While there aren't many obvious changes, there's one very big one: "Notification Glance" is public!!!
Unless you blacked out all of the news from yesterday to avoid a deluge of stories about what has been happening in Cupertino, you probably caught wind that there's a brand new update to Android. Whether you're manually installing the latest OTA or going all out with the factory images, you might be interested to know what is actually different. Thanks to Al Sutton, we've got a brand new changelog compiled from the list of code commits submitted to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). It covers just the bug fixes, tweaks, and adjustments from 4.4.2 (KOT49H) through to 4.4.3 (KTU84L). With 7,454 total changes, this update is a monster!
Hey, do you remember the time when we posted about that really awesome password manager that could automatically log into most of your apps and websites with just one tap? Just like that other password manager, you could pay the annual subscription fee of $12 for unlimited storage, that's a decent option... But what if I told you that StackSocial is offering lifetime memberships to PasswordBox for just $9.99? I think you might have a hard time passing that up!
Over the years, Google has been shoring up security on Android in a bid to make the operating system more attractive to governments and businesses, and to reduce the threat of malware for regular users. Unfortunately, these changes often come at the expense of flexibility in our beloved platform. As we close in on the next major release of Android, due to be announced next month, SuperSU developer Chainfire has discovered a set of commits to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) that may seriously impact some of the functionality currently enjoyed by many root users. In a post on Google+, he describes how a set of recent changes to the SELinux implementation will completely cut off write access to system to anything but recovery.
Ask a few JRPG fans about their favorite games of all time and you're bound to hear some of them wax nostalgic for Dragon Quest VIII. After selling nearly 5 million copies worldwide, Square Enix is bringing the Playstation 2 hit to Android. Prepare to set out on the road with Yangus, Jessica, and Angelo on an epic quest to lift the curse that threatens your kingdom. However, in typical Square Enix style, your journey isn't going to be cheap.
Update Wednesday continues with yet another new apk. This time we're being treated to a regular version bump for Chrome Beta. The changelog isn't as dramatic as we've seen in previous updates to the browser, but it's hard to turn down improvements and bug fixes. The focus seems to be a little more on fine-tuning the experience as we should see smarter suggestions for text entry and improved text rendering on non-mobile optimized web sites. As a friendly bonus, Google's eclectic Doodles are coming back to the new tab page.
Hunting down good libraries can be a pretty tedious chore for developers. Sometimes we know what we want, but can't find the right keywords for a search. Other times we're already familiar with one option but want to find alternatives that might work better for our project. And sometimes, we just need a little inspiration. Take a look at The Android Arsenal, a large categorized directory of Android-oriented projects that can go a long way toward speeding up your development.
It's no secret that Bluetooth has been a problem child for Android, plagued with poor audio quality and connectivity issues. I've already covered a handful of common problems in a previous post, but another issue has been emerging in the last few months that threatens to virtually kill all Bluetooth operation on a device in the right conditions. The culprit is a nasty little oversight in the Bluetooth Low-Energy code added with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. Once a device has been within range of enough BLE devices, the entire Bluetooth service will begin crashing.
If you were tempted to pick up a refurbished Galaxy Note 10.1 during the deal we posted earlier this week, but the 16GB internal storage left you wanting, an even more enticing offer just appeared on eBay. For just $11 more, you can score a model with 32GB built-in!
Blackberry may be having a rough time of it with flagging sales performance and complications with a certain carrier partner, but that hasn't stopped the company from courting app developers. In an effort to bring in more talent from the much larger and flourishing Android ecosystem, the Blackberry 10.3 SDK has bumped the Android runtime support up from API Level 17 to API level 18 (a.k.a. Android 4.3 Jelly Bean). The update will also brings some additional features and enhance integration with the operating system.
Android fosters a wide and varied app ecosystem, enabling companies both large and small to produce compelling software. The ability to write an app and easily distribute it to most of the world has given rise to independent developers like Chris Lacy, the man behind Action Launcher, Tweet Lanes, and most recently, Link Bubble. Chris took some time to answer a few questions and tell us a little about his experiences developing apps for Android.
If you've got a printer in your home or office, there's a pretty good chance it's made by Epson. Since the announcement of KitKat's new printer support, you might have also been looking forward to being able to send a document straight from your Android device to your Epson printer. Good news: that dream is now a reality. The manufacturer just announced that it has released a plugin to enable native printing support on Android KitKat.