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A few weeks ago we told you about an upcoming update to the official app for discount retailer and occasional auction service eBay. It looks like the company is ready to roll out version 4.0, for both Android and iOS. Well, almost - though the company has officially announced the update, it seems they're dragging their heels in actually getting it to the Play Store. Our reliable readers have yet to upload an updated version to APK Mirror, so we're assuming that it simply isn't available at the moment.
Looking for something to control absolutely everything in your entertainment center, plus your RF-enabled refrigerator? Then unfortunately you're going to have to cough up some dough. But if you hurry and head over to Amazon, you can do it for considerably less: the retailer is selling the Logitech Harmony Ultimate Remote for 9.99. That's pretty insane for a remote, even one with customizable controls and a touchscreen, but it's actually $150 off of the retail price.
MicroSD cards are about to make a big impact on Android, so now's a good time to stock up on some high-capacity storage. How fortunate, then, that Amazon's Gold Box daily deal portal is once again selling them on the cheap. The brand of choice today is SanDisk, and Amazon isn't holding back: top-of-the-line cards are available at huge discounts, from 32GB all the way up to the new 200GB option. Toss that sucker into your phone and you'll have more flash storage than some of the old hard drive-based MP3 players from the 2000s.
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.
Wear Mini Launcher was one of the favorite tools in the opening months of Android Wear. Back when the platform's utility was somewhat limited, it was the best way to manually start a Wear app. Of course that utility has become somewhat redundant now that Wear has been updated with an integrated launcher. Even so, the gesture activation function still makes Wear Mini Launcher one of the easiest ways to quickly activate a Wear app without using voice control.
This feature has taken us a long time to confirm, readers - sorry about that. Testing it would have required us to call 9-1-1 for the sole purpose of testing out a neat new tool on a smartphone, and aside from being extremely illegal, none of us wanted to explain to a hard-working emergency dispatcher that we were using a vital service to write up a blog post. And on that note, please, please don't test out this feature on your own Android M preview build. We're only sharing a screenshot sent in to us by a reader which we assume was taken during an actual emergency.
Story time. I've been a technology blogger for almost exactly four years now, and one of my first video assignments was to compare AT&T's first crop of LTE Android phones, the Samsung Galaxy S2 Skyrocket and the HTC Vivid. At the time (November 2011) they were big deals. Throughout a 7-minute video, I kept calling the HTC Vivid the "HTC View," confusing it for a similarly-named but somewhat different device... a tablet on Sprint that came out earlier that year. No, I'm not going to link to it; if you're that eager to see me make an idiot out of myself on a poorly-shot video, you can Google it.
If you're in the market for a good deal on a mid-range tablet... well, Samsung's Galaxy Tab A series is actually not a very good choice. Between lackluster specs (especially that 1024x768 screen) and a relatively high retail price, it's a long way away from being any kind of deal. But when Samsung overprices its tablets it usually doesn't take very long for market forces to get retailers to drop the price a bit. Such is the case with one eBay merchant, now selling the 9.7-inch Galaxy Tab A for just 4.99. This deal is available in the US only.
Have you opened Google Wallet lately? Yeah, neither have I. But those users who have are seeing a not-so-subtle hint from Google that the service's successor, Android Pay, is almost here. Open the latest version of Wallet and you'll see a banner for Android Pay, which appears to be a server-side push (since there's no corresponding update to the APK). The link goes to a web-based FAQ about Android Pay, mostly outlining the transition from Wallet.
The original Hotline Miami is a love letter to top-down action game excess, marrying tight and lightning-fast controls to neon-soaked, pixelated 80s aesthetics. (Oh, and that movie Drive.) It's a game that everyone should try at least once, if only to prove that you can make a modern game with old-school aesthetics, but keep enough innovation to make the whole experience seem fresh. On Android Hotline Miami is exclusive to the SHIELD, SHIELD Tablet, and SHIELD TV, and so it is with the sequel, Wrong Number.
If you've been on the Internet this week, you've probably seen the marketing blitz for the new line of toys for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The crown jewel among innumerable action figures and LEGO sets is the miniature BB-8, a customized version of Sphero's ball toy with Star Wars paint and a "head" that bobs around and stays on top of the ball as it rolls along. Though the BB-8 is mechanically identical to a regular Sphero, you'll need a specialized Sphero app on Android or iOS to actually play with the thing.
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 game about killing adorable fuzzy creatures, an online mech-battler, a new Noodlecake platformer, an old-school strategy game, a jigsaw puzzler, and a ping pong twitch game. Without further ado:
At this point my choice of music service boils down to which one will let me store all my music in the cloud for the least amount of money... and actually work long enough to play it (lookin' at you, Google Play Music). So, Amazon Music and the Prime service it's associated with are looking more attractive these days. If you're one of the very few early adopters of Android Auto, you can now use the app with Google's vehicular electronics system.
August was light on new Android apps, but there's one new arrival that might change things in a big way: Amazon Underground. Aside from that, Google's new push towards streaming games and a new translator service from Microsoft make up the more interesting apps from the big publishers. That said, there are a few indie gems in both our primary lineup and the Honorable Mentions sections, so check them out below.
If you're a console gamer, you know that late summer is something of a dead zone for major game releases, as all the big studios gear up for blockbusters in October and November. Mobile gaming isn't following that trend at all: we had some fantastic releases in August, servicing every niche from casual to hardcore. We've got big franchise releases from Fallout and Pac-Man, and more interesting indie releases like Card Crawl. Pick your poison from our seven favorites below, along with honorable mentions.
Deal hunters, get an early start on this one. Amazon's US store has slashed the unlocked Nexus 6 price by another $150 (in addition to the $150 price cut a few months ago). That means a full $300 off of both models: the standard 32GB version is now $349.99, and the 64GB version is $399.99. This is a fantastic deal on an unlocked phone, and one that still keeps up with most of the 2015 flagships. Get your order in quickly, because at this price stock is going to disappear very soon.Remember, the US version of the Nexus 6 works with all four major carriers (including Sprint and Verizon), most GSM MVNO carriers, and Google's own Fi. Both the blue and white versions get the discount at both capacities, and shipping is free. Amazon Prime members get upgraded to two-day shipping as well. Note that carrier versions of the N6 are not discounted. Here are some handy direct links to all four variants:
Ah, the Nook Color. I have fond memories of Barnes & Noble's don't-call-it-a-tablet tablet, if only because that early hardware was a gateway drug to custom ROMs and root modifications. The Nook brand eventually crashed and burned against the twin onslaughts of cheap Android tablets and Amazon's unstoppable Kindle e-readers, but there are still at least a few B&N product managers who want to keep the hardware kicking, as evidenced by "Nook" versions of Samsung tablets. The latest to get the treatment is the new Galaxy Tab S2.
Door Kickers is a military-style, real-time, top-down, squad-focused tactical game. If all those hyphens mean nothing to you, imagine it as something like XCOM with a more straightforward interface and a severe lack of aliens. But the difference between more conventional tactical games and Door Kickers is what makes it exciting: the game's 2D interface boils the admittedly niche genre down into its purest elements of placement, timing, and sight lines. It's available for Android tablets (and only tablets) for $5.
Do you long for the simpler days of pen and paper? Do you need direct pen input to your tablet or phone for drawing or equations? Do you just want a really nifty folio case to make all the other board members jealous at the next meeting? In all three cases, Wacom has you covered. The famous graphics tablet company is branching further into mobile accessories with the Bamboo Paper, a folio that combines some impressive technology to let you write on standard paper and save your work digitally to Android or iOS.
Fans of Madfinger's over-the-top Dead Trigger series have been waiting for a follow-up for some time. Wait no longer, FPS enthusiasts: UNKILLED, the self-styled "best-looking zombie shooter ever made for mobile devices," is now available for wide download on the Play Store. You'll need an Android 4.1 or higher device, about 200MB of storage, and a strong tolerance for shooting things in the face in order to install it, but you won't need any money.