Tip Us

Android Police
Prev
Posts in the last
24 Hours
sorted by
Hottest
Next
Articles Tagged:

DRM

...

Netflix is suddenly reappearing on the Play Store for some previously banished modified devices

Ryne Hager

This May, Netflix started blocking rooted and unlocked devices from downloading the company's app on Google Play. It was an unfortunate restriction that locked out many people and stirred up a lot of anger. Over the last week, some of us at AP have started noticing the app reappearing, even though our devices still don't pass SafetyNet/Google Play device certification.

Read More
...

Netflix confirms it is blocking rooted/unlocked devices, app itself is still working (for now)

Corbin Davenport

Earlier today, Netflix started showing up as 'incompatible' on the Play Store for rooted and unlocked Android devices. However, the app itself continued to work fine, leading some (including myself) to think it could have been an accident. However, Netflix has now confirmed to us that blocking modified devices from downloading the app was intentional.

Read More
...

Unlocking The Bootloader On Sony's Xperia Z3 And Z3 Compact Causes Poor Low-Light Camera Performance Thanks To DRM [Update: Sony Updates Policy Text]

Ryan Whitwam

You know those scary warnings that show up whenever you unlock the bootloader on a phone? "We can't be held responsible... blah blah... reduced functionality... blah... fiery death... blah blah blah." Sometimes they aren't kidding. Users who have unlocked the new Xperia Z3 Compact have found that low-light camera performance drops considerably. It turns out to be because of DRM in Sony's image signal processing.

xperia-z3-compact-black-1240x840-2f1d546fc795ff2d1295547982a23cb4

Read More
...

[Deal Alert] O'Reilly Knocks 50% Off All eBooks And Videos In Honor Of Day Against DRM

Cody Toombs

When it comes to publishers, few names stand out in the technical world like O'Reilly. With literally thousands of books and videos, there are topics ranging from Programming to Business, and Fitness to Photography. Not only does O'Reilly print under its own name, but it also owns several other brands including: Wiley, Packt Publishing, No Starch Press, and more. Almost every developer probably has a small stack of books with the trademark line-drawn animals on the covers.

In honor of Day Against DRM, O'Reilly has cut the price of everything in its entirely library by half. The discount applies to both books and videos, and it even includes brand new releases.

Read More
...

Android Humble Bundle 5 Adds Three More Games To Sweeten The (Already Great) Deal

Ryan Whitwam

What's better than getting a bargain on cool Android games? Contributing to charity in the process, obviously. The Android Humble Bundle is currently in its fifth incarnation, and invites gamers to choose their own price to support developers and charities like Child's Play and the EFF. The current deal already includes six DRM-free titles, but the good folks behind the Humble Bundle have brought back three games from Humble Bundle 4 for a total of 9 games.

hb

The returning games are Sword & Sworcery, Crayon Physics Deluxe, and Splice. This bundle already included Beat Hazard Ultra, Dynamite Jack, Solar 2, NightSky HD, Super Hexagon, and Dungeon Defenders.

Read More
...

Jelly Bean App Encryption Breaks Thousands Of Apps In The Play Store - Google Disables DRM For Now

Jeremiah Rice

Piracy is a major issue for Android, and even more so for Android developers, which is why Jelly Bean introduced App Encryption. But this may be a case of the cure being worse than the disease: hundreds of developers of paid apps have chimed in on a Google Code thread, claiming that the encryption (or more accurately, the location of installed and encrypted apps from the Google Play Store) makes their apps entirely unusable, as account information and other stored data is removed after a device reboot. As a result, Google has apparently disabled the security feature for the Play Store on Jelly Bean devices.

Read More
...

[Update] Google Appears To Have Backpedaled On Music Deauthorizations, Now Allowing More Than Four Devices To Be Removed

Eric Ravenscraft

Well, that didn't take long. Earlier today, we reported that Google was limiting the number of devices that can be deauthorized from your Google Music account. The official limit on Google Music devices was 10 active devices, with the proviso that up to 4 devices could be removed from your account every year. As of this moment, the Google Music help page still echoes this, but Google might be back pedaling. We're hearing reports that some users are able to deauthorize devices after being told just this morning that they'd reached their limit. Cameron, who had already reached his limit this morning, tried it out and lookie here:

sorrrrrydeauth camdevicespost

Earlier this morning (left), and around 3:30 EST (right)

While it's unclear how Google's stance on this has changed (we've reached out to Google for comment), it does seem very clear that some customers are now able to deauthorize devices that, just hours ago, they could not.

Read More
...

Google Music Now Only Allows You To Deauthorize Four Devices Per Year

Eric Ravenscraft

The problem with any account-based music streaming service, from a corporate standpoint, is that end users are a shared password away from getting access to free media. Really, who hasn't shared their Netflix account once or twice? In an effort to prevent this kind of abuse, Google Music (likely at the request of the music labels) has instituted a cap on the number of devices you are allowed to deauthorize: Four. Per year. It gets worse, though.

sorrrrrydeauth

For the uninitiated, here's how it works: you are allowed a maximum of ten devices that can be associated with a single Google Music account.

Read More

The Best Of AP

64
[Update: Night Mode, more screenshots] Here's our first look at WhatsApp's dark mode
25
[Update: RAW in Night Sight] Google Camera update brings Time Lapse mode to existing Pixels [APK Download]
82
[Update: Replacing Auto app mode] Assistant Driving Mode comes to Android this summer, making Auto on the phone obsolete
583
[Update x3: Official Huawei/Honor statement] Future Huawei phones reportedly won't have access to Google services, including the Play Store
...

Amazon Appstore Doubles Down: Farm Frenzy And Newsweek Mobile Both Free Today

David Ruddock

That's right, Amazon's offering not one, but two free apps on the Amazon Appstore this morning! You can pick up the popular HeroCraft title Farm Frenzy along with the official Newsweek Mobile app from Amazon free of charge.

com.herocraft.game.farmfrenzy-2.10.17-AD-A02._SL320_V184102971_ newsweek_resize._SL356_V168510278_

I don't know about you - but I can't tell which is which.

Newsweek Mobile offers Amazon's "Test Drive" in-browser emulation, so you can try it from your browser before making the 15 second commitment to put it on your phone. Anyways, load up the Amazon Appstore (if you can) and grab these freebies while the getting is good.

Update: We've gotten in touch with Herocraft, the developer of Farm Frenzy, about extra permissions that their game uses (such as access to contacts).

Read More
...

Gameloft Turns To Amazon To Distribute Games On Android

Brad Ganley

In a recent interview with Reuters, Gameloft stated that they will be focusing their attention on the Amazon App Store to distribute their games on the Android platform. The company's games are already insanely popular on Android (and iOS, for that matter), despite being actively opposed to Google's Android Market. Their Android offerings have thus far only been available on their website, so their move to a Market isn't so surprising.

Their reasoning for choosing the Amazon App Store? Consumers are already comfortable making payments through Amazon, and it provides a better ecosystem for game distribution. More importantly, though is that Gameloft sees Google's DRM to be wildly inadequate.

Read More

What's Hot