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Dear Barnes & Noble: bless you, ladies and gentlemen, for making the Nook Color. Without it, the Android modding scene might be less vibrant than it is now. On that note, the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight (a Kindle-style e-ink reader, also running Android) has received another price drop. Now you can pick one up for a cool - not bad for a device that launched at the already-low price of $139.
A week or two after Chromecast hit the streets, we started to see all kinds of unofficial applications for Google's HDMI streamer, many of which came from CyanogenMod Team member and ClockworkMod creator Koushik "Koush" Dutta. Now he's worked around the developer whitelist for Chromecast, allowing his app to be used on any Android device and with any Chromecast. He's calling it AirCast, and it's available for a test download now.
If you sprang for an HTC One Developer Edition back when the phone was launched and have been patiently waiting for your Jelly Bean 4.2.2 update, you might as well stop waiting. But that's a good thing! According to a Twitter post from HTC's Global Sales President and Head of America Jason Mackenzie, the Developer Edition will skip right over the incremental 4.2.2 update and go straight to 4.3.
Mashable is sort of the middle ground for breaking stories and Internet memes: it includes metrics so that the most popular stuff gets to the top, but the formatting and content are friendly enough to appeal to a wider group of users than, say, Reddit. Now there's an official app available in the Play Store. Samsung seems to have secured an exclusive for the launch.
It took an annoyingly long time for ASUS' official case for the original Nexus 7 to become available, and even when it did, it wasn't all that great. For the 2013 version ASUS has created two cases: a travel case, which is made of a soft plastic material like the older "official" case, and a premium case, with a hard plastic outer shell, foldable cover/stand, and microfiber interior. This more functional case is now shipping from at least two Amazon vendors.
Update: The Nexus 10 32GB is sold out at the reduced price. That's all there is, there isn't any more.
When Samsung showed off its enormous new Galaxy Mega series earlier this year, we thought that it was only a matter of time before an American carrier decided to pick one up. It looks like AT&T is taking the bait if the latest post from the indefatigable evleaks can be believed. It shows the Galaxy Mega 6.3, the larger of the two phones, with AT&T branding and icons.
SEGA's Crazy Taxi was a very welcome addition to Android's gaming lineup last month, and no less so for a wide array of controls. The game came with standard on-screen controls, tilt steering, and support for HID and MOGA controllers. It was strange, then, that the game was incompatible with the controls on NVIDIA's SHIELD. Other SEGA games had already been updated for the launch. But today Crazy Taxi was updated to version 1.2, complete with SHIELD-friendly controls.
The HTC One X+ is the last phone of an era. It was a simpler time, back when new devices got more letters and an extra helping of punctuation rather than a simpler title that makes them harder to Google. Those of you who have a One X+ now have an official CyanogenMod ROM build to call your own, at least if you're using the international version. The first nightly has been posted to Get.CM.
The Geekbench benchmarking program is a staple on PCs, thanks to quick and varied tests for multiple hardware systems and an impressive database of results. The Geekbench 2 test has been gaining steam on Android as well - we've used it in a few reviews and comparisons. Version 3 has been released as a stand-alone app, but the small list of improvements hardly seems to justify it. It's a good thing that it only costs a dollar.
Update: The deal has ended, presumably because all the available units have sold out. I'd count on this deal (or a similar one) coming back in the near future, though, so don't fret if you missed out on today's.
We were told that Motorola's new flagship would be coming soon, and we have not been disappointed. According to a press release issued this morning, the Moto X will be available at AT&T retailers and in the online store on August 23rd. Customers can order a customized model from the Moto Maker website, or use special kiosks in stores to begin the color and text selection process.
The new Play Store is certainly snazzy, but a lot of the functionality of the older site has been missing ever since it got a fresh coat of digital paint. One of the most bemoaned omissions was contextual keyboard shortcuts, especially handy for touch typists whose fingers never leave the keys. (ThinkPad users, I'm looking at you.) Good news, everyone: as of late yesterday, they're back.
If you've been meaning to get into the Google TV game and want to do it on the cheap, consider this your chance. The Sony Internet Player is Woot.com's deal of the day, selling for just .99, half off of its original retail price. As always, Woot primary sales are valid for one day or until the stock runs out. Standard shipping is just five bucks.
Welcome to the latest entry in our Bonus Round series, wherein we tell you all about the new Android games of the day that we couldn't get to during our regular news rounds. Consider this a quick update for the dedicated gamers who can't wait for our bi-weekly roundups, and don't want to wade through a whole day's worth of news just to get their pixelated fix. Today we've got a mash-up of Scorched Earth and Words With Friends, an interesting 2.5D platformer, a rhythm-based endless runner, and yet another zen game. Without further ado:
Update: Motorola posted more concrete details on the Skip in an official blog post. It's made out of fabric, not metal, which implies that the clasp uses a couple of magnets. On the plus side, the Skip includes three "dots" - NFC stickers that can be paired in the same manner and bypass a lock screen or PIN. The Skip will be included free with Moto Maker purchases.
Talk about a blast from the past: the Sprint Galaxy S II, released way back in 2011, now has official CyanogenMod support. Most of the other international and regional versions of the GSII are already supported to some degree, but I'm sure there are more than a few Sprint customers who are happy to see the most popular custom ROM family come to their devices. There's one nightly of CM10.1 (Android 4.2) available at the time of writing.
Layar was one of the first apps to show the potential of augmented reality, and coincidentally, one of the first Android apps that made users stand up and say "Wow!" But four years later the shine has come off of AR, at least for the purposes that the original app served, like mapping and location discovery. So Layar has reinvented itself with a whole new app, look, and website.
Sprint Gets Exclusive Red HTC One Starting August 16th, Buy One Get One Free Promotion As Well
Exclusive Red HTC One Starting August 16th
The HTC One is an undeniably pretty phone. It looks good in the standard silver, and not half bad in black, either. But what about flaming, flamboyant red? Sprint seems to think that someone wants it, so they'll be offering the Ruby Red HTC One starting tomorrow, August 16th. The red version has already been released internationally.
The built-in weather reports in Android are still a bit basic, Google Now notwithstanding. That's probably why the Yahoo! Weather app has more than five million downloads: a combination of solid weather stats, multiple cities, and a variety of widgets have won it plenty of fans. Today the app gets a significant update, adding a handful of new features and synergistically bringing Yahoo's Flickr property front and center.