Posted: 12 Feb 2012 04:40 PM PST  The official YouTube app for Google TV will be seeing a big update over the next few days, says Google TV product manager Jurek Foryciarz . The update will make the app work "faster with smoother navigation", and also bring a handful of new features designed to make the app work better with the GTV remote. While everyone with the slightly anemic first-generation device hardware will certainly appreciate faster and smoother, the new features look really nice as well. The new "Discover" tab will allow you to browse YouTube channels by category, making new channels and content easier to find and preview. That's half the fun of YouTube, especially on your big screen. The channel pages themselves have been overhauled as well, making it easier to navigate through playlists and subscribe right from the channel page. Specific functions for the Google TV remote have been added that allow scrolling through things like related videos, and the information screen where you can thumbs up (or down) a video and comment without leaving the page. As a user who watches a lot of YouTube, this all looks really great. Could this be part of the "big announcements" that coming up for Google TV? That's a possibility, even though we all want to hear hardware news the software is just as important. Maybe even more so when we're talking a set-top box, where entertainment and content is the focus. We've been hearing about a big push for Google TV from the folks in Mountain View for about a year now, and it looks like they may be starting. Bring it, I say. Hit the break to see some more previews of the upcoming update, which will be available in the GTV Market soon. Source: Google TV blog; via +GoogleTV read more
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Posted: 12 Feb 2012 01:22 PM PST  And that' sbeen the big question since Google announced Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich -- what will HTC (and the other manufacturers) do with their custom user interfaces. ICS easily is the sexiest "stock" UI Google's come up with (by far). How will HTC and Motorola and Samsung and everyone else customize it? We've gotten a glimpse of what HTC likely has in store for us in that leaked video of the HTC Ville, and now we're getting an even better look thanks to the RUU. Packaged within it are nearly two dozen screen shots that show a Sense that looks familiar, yet refined. Looks like we've got a bunch of different lock screen options, with the ring and quick links that we've come to know and love so much, and the Sense dock has more of the traditional Android look and feel that we've come to know. How that all works together, we're not quire sure. It's almost some sort of hybrid, with HTC's widgets throughout. Or perhaps what we're seeing is just a massive serires of themes. (Update: Now that I think about it some more, maybe toss out that whole "hybrid" thing. What you see after the break may well just be example images of what you see in Sense 4.0.) You get a good look at the Sense phone book, favorite contacts, photo gallery, lock screen reminders and stocks backgrounds -- in both portrait and landscape. And it also looks like Beats and NFC are a go, too, from what we've seen in the ROM. We've got a plethora of screen shots after the break. Peep 'em. We've got some wallpapers from the leaked RUU available in the Android Central forums, too! read more 
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Posted: 12 Feb 2012 12:13 PM PST  We got the rumour earlier in the week about Google's next plans in the home entertainment space. But a posting on the official Google TV Facebook page has promised "big announcements" coming for the platform on Monday. At this point there really is nothing at all to go on, but one thing seems sure: Google is definitely keeping up their end in continuing to push the platform forwards. Interesting is that whatever's coming tomorrow was teased on Facebook and not on the Google TV Google+ Page. Google's not prone to annoucing something before it's announced, so let's all try to manage expectations here a little bit. Perhaps we'll see some sort of new Google TV hardware -- maybe even that rumored next-generation LG set? -- or maybe just a new service. Stay, erm, tuned. 
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Posted: 12 Feb 2012 07:50 AM PST  Hell of a week, eh? We saw the rise of Chrome for Android, and Google Wallet hit a couple of potholes -- but nothing we're really worried about -- but some of the coolest news out of Mountain View actually has nothing to do with Android. But before we get into the best news of the past week, here's a spoiler of our Motorola Droid 4 review, coming up this week: If you're looking for a keyboard slider, you can not do better than this one. Period. Flips table, walks out, end of story. More to come on that this week. And so without further ado, here's the way I see things: read more
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Posted: 12 Feb 2012 07:18 AM PST  Mojang's Minecraft Pocket Edition got itself its first major update which has finally brought with it the long awaited survival mode. Survival mode also gets day and night modes, with night bringing about the appearance of monsters. Besides survival mode, there's a selection of new blocks to choose from most notably doors and and fences. We also get the addition of flying into the creative mode, mobs with sheep and zombies being the first of these, and new tools serving different purposes such as digging and shearing. This update will make a lot of Minecraft P.E players very happy. If you've still to try out this cult favourite hit the download links after the break. read more
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Posted: 12 Feb 2012 06:59 AM PST  The announcement a couple of weeks back that T-Mobile UK would begin to offer truly unlimited data on their "Full Monty" plan was big news. Since then though there have been murmourings from across the UK that the data speeds were heavily capped down to 1Mb/S. T-Mobile have responded to this with a press release that states there is no such cap on this plan or on any of their prepaid or contract plans. The key line in the release reads: "We can confirm that we do not have a 1Mb/S maximum data download speed in place for The Full Monty plan - nor for any of our other pay monthly or pay as you go price plans - and we are confident that our average data speeds are as good, if not better, than anyone else in the industry."So there we have it folks. Whether they were or were not capping data speeds, they shouldn't be doing it any longer. Feel free to enjoy your T-Mo data as it was intended. Sources: CoolSmartPhone, Tracy & Matt 
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Posted: 12 Feb 2012 12:53 AM PST If you tuned into Saturday Night Live, you may have caught them poking some fun at Verizon Wireless and their 4G LTE commercials. When you watch the skit, it really makes no sense what they are trying to convey in the message but for those who dig sarcasm -- that's kind of the point. Carriers have gone a little crazy with their commercials these days seemingly conveying very little real information in them and instead, opting to just toss out fancy names and brag about coverage they may or may not have. It's a pretty hilarious clip, so enjoy if you missed it. 
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Posted: 11 Feb 2012 05:01 PM PST  The never ending hunt for awesome Android apps can really take its toll on not only your battery, but also your brain. Lucky for you we take the time each week to bring you some of our favorites so you can check them out as well, so let's hit the break and check out what we got in store for this week. read more
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Monday, February 13, 2012
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