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The HTC One M9 hasn't been selling particularly well. Certainly not up to HTC's expectations, at least. To encourage a few more people to pull the trigger, HTC is offering some free Google Play credit. Specifically, $100 of it.
Asus was one of the first Android tablet OEMs to distinguish itself with devices like the original Transformer, and it followed that up with two 7-inch Nexus tablets. While Asus is no longer the Nexus tablet maker of choice at Mountain View, it's still doing some interesting things with Android slates. After a run of heavily budget-oriented tablets, Asus is launching a somewhat more premium offering, the ZenPad S 8.0. As the name implies, this is an 8-inch Android tablet with a very similar vibe to the Zenfone 2. Depending on how you look at it, that can be either good and bad.
The Android public issue tracker is a place for users to report possible bugs to Google's engineers, but just because something is reported doesn't mean it'll get fixed right away. Many users have been experiencing a battery draining bug in Lollipop caused by the device's radio remaining active for too long, but only now is Google doing something about it. The fix is expected to roll out in Android 6.0.
Have you heard? Samsung has announced new phones. In case you have not heard, here's an ad in your notification shade. It looks like this has happened to at least a few people thanks to the Samsung Push Service. In a separate incident, I myself have been served an ad by the bundled Peel remote app. Is nothing sacred anymore, Samsung?
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Speculation is rampant about the future of Google's incredibly ambitious Project Ara modular phone after news broke a few days ago that the planned 2015 test run in Puerto Rico had been cancelled. Now the Project Ara Twitter accounted has shared a tidbit of news that might offer a partial explanation of the delay. The electropermanent magnets that were supposed to hold the hardware modules in place don't pass drop tests.
Lenovo's ZUK smartphone brand got off to a great start in China when the recently announced Z1 managed over 2 million pre-orders in a week, but surprisingly, they aren't stopping in China. An international version of the Z1 is planned, and it's going to run Cyanogen OS (lens flair optional).
The internet does not thrive on peace and understanding. It's a place where a small issue can quickly become the flash point for a mob armed with pitchforks and torches, ready to storm the castle and kill the monster. Today's monster was Pushbullet, that wonderful terrible app that connects your devices steals your data for nefarious purposes. Put the pitchforks down, though. The un-deletable photos were a bug, and it's fixed now.
Google added support for WiFi communication to Android Wear in the 5.1 update a few months ago, but not all watches had the necessary hardware. The pricey LG G Watch R was among those lacking proper support. LG said it planned to rectify that in an update over the summer, and indeed it has in the new Wear update.
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Cerberus is one of the more full-featured device security apps available on Android. It has more features than Android Device Manager, and more importantly it existed years before Google's solution. The developer has occasionally offered free lifetime licenses for the app, but now users are seeing that their "lifetime" licenses are set to expire in a few days. What gives?
One of Google's big innovations in Android Marshmallow is Now On-Tap, a contextual search service that uses the content on your screen to perform searches and find relevant information. It's only going to work on Android 6.0, but Microsoft has just updated the Bing app with a similar feature called Snapshots that will work on any device.
As he tends to do, HTC VP Mo Versi has Tweeted details of a pending update for the M9. This time it's the Verizon version of the device, and it's getting Android 5.1 tomorrow. But it's more than just Android 5.1. This OTA also adds some LTE bands for roaming and patches Stagefright too.
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For having technically retired, @evleaks still leaks a lot of stuff. Case in point, he's just posted a few more promo pics of the BlackBerry Venice, an Android-powered phone from the once-dominant Canadian smartphone maker. We've also got a supposed release window too—November on all major U.S. carriers.
Just days after releasing a new gameplay teaser, Pac-Man 256 From Hipster Whale has hit the Play Store. This officially licensed take on Pac-Man is part classic arcade eating simulator and part endless runner, plus a delightful homage to the level 256 glitch of the original. It's free-to-play, but the in-app purchases actually seem very fair once you figure it all out.
Android TV is a thing these days, but Google TV is dead as a door nail. Taking this into account, Amazon has decided to stop supporting Instant Video streaming to Google TV devices. The service will stop working on September 14th, at which point any remaining users of Google TV will have an excuse to stop using it.
Pocket Casts is one of the finest podcast apps around largely because it's always been quick to take advantage of new Android features. In the latest update, the developers are already using the Nearby API to make podcast discovery easier. Just fire up the Nearby feature, and you can see what those around you are listening to.
The Android Auto app is getting an update to v1.2, and there are some notable changes this time, mostly revolving around the home screen. Google has posted a changelog in the Play Store, but it only tells part of the story.
Opera Max has been out for a while, and it's been helpful to those who find themselves running low on data each billing cycle. This app uses Opera's servers to compress web content and save bandwidth, but it can only do so much. The big consumer of data is video served over https, and Opera Max couldn't do anything about that until now. The latest version, however, adds support for automatic YouTube and Netflix compression.
Humble Bundle has been moving quite a few Android titles through the mobile bundles, but now you've got a chance to get some cool mobile games as part of the main bundle. The new PC and Android Bundle 13 is live and it includes seven games, three of which are new to Android.
Fossil has been talking about getting into wearable technology for some time, and now it is finally giving us a peek at what it's been working on with Intel. At Intel Developer Forum (IDF) today, Fossil had three Intel-powered wearable devices on hand, one of which was an Android Wear smartwatch. It looks like the offspring of a union between a Watch Urbane and a Moto 360.
Google has been branching out into new areas recently with the acquisition of Nest and Dropcam, but now it has partnered with TP-Link to make something new—a WiFi router called the OnHub. I know, you've already got a router, but this one looks pretty great as far as routers go. It will automatically adjust channels and bandwidth to suit your usage, it remembers your devices, it's got a speaker/Bluetooth, and there's a mobile app to manage it all.At it's most basic, this is a router capable of 802.11 b/g/n/ac at 2.4 and 5GHz. There's a circular array of 13 antennas to ensure a good signal, and the router's software scans every five minutes to find the least congested wireless channel. It remembers your favorite devices and how much data they tend to use, so it can allocate more bandwidth to them. A new app called "Google On" can be used to control the router from your phone or tablet as well.