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The OnHub router has quickly become an interesting novelty in the sometimes stoic home networking segment thanks to its forward-looking hardware and user-focused software. And Google isn't letting up on the latter: the router is already receiving its first software update, about three months after the launch of the TP Link-branded OnHub and just a week after the announcement of the ASUS version.
Crossy Road is often presented as a prime example of what's wrong with casual games, because it's a free-to-play game that's based on a classic (Frogger) and lacks any kind of sophistication. But Crossy Road does a lot of things right, too: it has an interesting if not unique visual style, it's accessible to any kind of gamer, and best of all, its free-to-play model is entirely reasonable, asking for only one dollar at a time and never forcing players to buy currency or tokens for random rewards. It's a good little game, is what I'm saying here.
Good news, Sprint customers: you now get a free year of Amazon Prime! Maybe. If you activate a "qualifying" Samsung phone for a new line of service or a renewed line, Sprint will foot the bill for Amazon's premium shipping option for a year. The promotion starts today, and those qualifying phones are limited to the Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, and the Galaxy Note 5. So basically it's just for Samsung's 2015 flagship quadruplets - you can't just run out and buy an ancient Galaxy S II for ten bucks and get $100 worth of freebies.
The tireless developers at Team Win released their custom Android recovery for the Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X last week, but at the time it didn't support decryption. This makes working with the stock software (which Google encrypts by default, gleefully thumbing their noses at the NSA and FBI in a show of customer protection) somewhat tricky. But ROM flashers and phone modders can now use the latest version of TWRP on the Nexus 6P with the encrypted stock software, or any other ROM that uses the feature. The latest version is 2.8.7.1.
We've pointed out before that Android has a lot of somewhat questionable birthdays, but November 5th is arguably the birth of the platform. On this day in 2007 the Open Handset Alliance was formally announced, uniting Google, HTC, Samsung, LG, Sony, Motorola, and dozens of software companies, chip manufactures, and mobile carriers, in the cause of promoting Android. It was presented as an open-source alternative to then-dominant mobile operating systems like Microsoft's Windows Mobile, RIM's BlackBerry, Nokia's Symbian, and - at least at the time - the looming specter of the iPhone.
India is big. Really big, and really complicated. I don't think it's possible for an American white guy like me to wrap his head around a place where every region has languages, dialects, and cultures that are found nowhere else on the planet, yet are still ostensibly united into a single country. That being the case, having a single keyboard to support India as a whole, where many of its residents rely on their regional language and actually speak English better than (or instead of) Hindi, seems a little odd.
Motorola, the last American phone company that wasn't Apple (at least before they got bought by Google and then shuffled over to Lenovo), now has an American store front. Well, technically at least: it has exactly one retail store, which Motorola's PR team is calling an "experimental boutique." If you're in the Chicago area, where Motorola's US headquarters is located, you can check it out on Saturday. The store will open for full business a week later at 108 North State Street.
If you've been drooling over Kwikset's Bluetooth-powered, Android-compatible power door locks, but you've been wary of the high entry price, today is the day to bust out your wallet. Best Buy is offering refurbished versions of the Kevo smart lock for 9.99. While that doesn't quite make it into impulse buy territory, it's a generous $60 off the regular price of the refurbished version and $70 off of a new retail unit. You can get free shipping (store pickup is not available), but the price is only good for today.
Before today, if you liked a message on Twitter and wanted others to see it, you could retweet it. And if you liked a tweet and wanted to keep it all to yourself, you could "favorite" it by tapping the little star icon, which would fill in and save it as a quasi-bookmark in your account. Today Twitter announced a change to its social platform that will rock the very foundations of the Internet: the star is now a heart. Oh, and it's called a "like" now.
You might know Activision Blizzard as the mega-publisher behind huge franchises like World of Warcraft and Call of Duty. And you might know King as the mobile publisher behind Candy Crush Saga, the Bejeweled clone that's inexplicably become one of the most popular casual games on the planet. In a few months the two companies will be one and the same: Activision Blizzard has announced its intention to acquire King for a staggering $5.9 billion.
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous 2 weeks or so.
Screw Google On Tap and UI tuner, the best new feature in Android 6.0 is clearly Doze, the new portion of the OS dedicated to extending a phone's battery life when you're not using it. That said, this is Android, so of course people are going to start tweaking it just as soon as they can. There are already two apps that do just that. The bad news: they both require root permissions, so you'll need to have modified your farm-fresh Android 6.0 build already to use them. The good news: both of them might be worth the hassle of rooting all on their own.
The Moto X series has been known for being a good deal when compared to other flagship phones. If you're OK with buying last year's model (which is still more than serviceable, and is scheduled to get a Marshmallow update at some point), Amazon is selling it for just 9.99 today. This is the American GSM version, so it should work on AT&T, T-Mobile, and similar MVNOs. It's a new phone featuring the stock 16GB of storage. The price is only valid for the next 16 hours (ending at 5 AM Eastern US time), so get an order in quickly if you want one.
Due to a smaller installer base, the specialized version of the Play Store that comes on Android TV gets a lot less attention that the version on phones and tablets. Even so, we keep an eye on all the various flavors of Android - check the sign over the door - so we're happy to report that the Android TV version has received a notable update. The latest release (5.10.30-leanback) makes some big changes to the user interface, chopping off some of the less necessary corners to focus on the core experience.
Google likes to tinker with the UI of the mobile version of Chrome's user interface in the Dev and Beta versions of the app. Not every change we spot in these versions makes it into the standard, stable version of Chrome, but the changes to the New Tab page that we saw back in August seem to have made their way to the front. We're getting tips and reports from dozens of Chrome users that the UI change, which swaps out six website thumbnails for eight site icons instead, is now live.
T-Mobile users with the latest devices (and sometimes with the latest software updates) appreciate the inclusion of Wi-Fi calling for those areas where the network doesn't reach or can't penetrate indoors. Of course, the fact that Wi-Fi calling is available is a good reason to abstain from flashing custom ROMs, even on multi-carrier devices like the latest batch of Nexus phones. Apparently that won't be a problem for much longer, at least if you're a fan of the CyanogenMod ROM.
Compared to the early days of Android and iOS, it's amazing how good virtual keyboards have become... but that doesn't mean there's no room for improvement. Long email and street addresses in particular are a pain to type in, especially outside of the browser where saved user information isn't available. If you're tired of typing out your thirty-character company email address, Texpand can help: it allows you to create customized shortcodes for longer strings of text and use them in any text field.
If you've been modding your Android devices for any amount of time, you're probably familiar with Chainfire, developer of the extremely popular SuperSU root permissions manager and various other mods and apps. His latest work attempts to solve an annoyance that has bothered Android power users for years, but has become particularly annoying since the introduction of Android 5.0. Chainfire's new experimental method for rooting Android phones, tablets, and other gadgets does so without modifying any of the files on the /system portion of the device's storage, instead using a modified boot image.
There have been fewer and fewer new Google apps as the company expands into every conceivable web and mobile market, but they still manage to surprise us every now and then. The latest Google app is called Who's Down, and it's a strangely specific social tool. Basically it's an all-purpose "available" button. Slide the toggle from on to off, and anyone you've connected with can tell that you're available for... whatever. You can select specific activities you'd like to take part in, see which friends are also "down," and chat with them in an integrated message service.
The Galaxy View is big. Really, really big - the 18.4-inch device seems to be intended as a tabletop computer rather than a conventional portable tablet. Samsung's custom version of Android will make good use of the extra space, but even the tablet apps on the Play Store probably aren't well-formatted for a screen the size of a small PC monitor. To make sure users are getting a good experience on their Galaxy View, CNN has made an app especially for the tablet... probably with a little encouragement (read: payment) from Samsung.