Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Google Android News Android Forums

Google Android News Android Forums

Ordering a Nexus 4 appears possible right now

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 04:25 PM PST

About 4 hours ago the Nexus 4 went on sale, and things appeared to be no different than two weeks ago. It was nothing but adding it to your cart with the inability to get anywhere further than seeing it in your cart. After about an hour Google announced, “Google Play is currently experiencing very high traffic, Nexus 4 is not sold out and will still be available for purchase.” At that point I walked away with disbelief, and few minutes ago I went back to my computer and I was able to purchase one on the first try. Thinking I was just lucky, I just tried again right now and I was able to get to the Google Wallet page again. Things seem to be calm at the moment so if you threw your computer down in frustration a few hours ago, go back and pick it back up and click add to cart. Your dreams could finally be answered. There’s one issue though as Google is now saying 6 to 7 weeks for delivery, which means you probably won’t see it in 2012. It’s possible that Google is kind of using this ordering system as a means to “pre-order” to appease everyone, and they really don’t know when they will fill it. Let us know if you landed one today.

 

The Samsung Galaxy Note II can create cool, trippy water art

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 01:32 PM PST

The Phablet push is not over yet, and Samasung is leading the pack with it’s latest 5.5-inch monster, the Galaxy Note II. Samsung’s latest ad for the device shows Steak Studio, a London based design consulting firm, creating a work of interactive water art that is controlled by Samsung’s latest and greatest phablet. The art display features 408 small fish tank pumps, that replicate whatever the user draws on the screen of the Galaxy Note II into ripples on a pool of water. This extremely cool project took 10 days to complete and is being called “liquid-pixels”, and really showcases not only what the Note II can be used for, but also Android devices in general.

Hit the break for the video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Meizu steps into the next generation of smartphones with the MX2

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 01:22 PM PST

The Chinese based smartphone company Meizu announced its new latest-gen smartphone; the MX2. Try to ignore its iClone-ish looks, this phone is something all on its own. Packing a monster 1.6GHz quad core MX5S processor, 2 gigabytes of RAM, up to 64GB in storage, 8MP back-illuminated camera, and a 4.4-inch edge-to-edge HD display. With these kinds of specs, this Android 4.1 device places itself up there with the likes of the HTC DROID DNA, Samsung Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note II, and the HTX One X+.

On the software side of things, the phone runs Meizu’s Flyme 2.0 skin on top of Android 4.1 Jellybean. The latest version of Flyme sports a complete re-skin of Android, a specialized camera app, as well as CABC brightness control for the display that can boost your battery life up to 50%. Other specs include retina-level 347 PPI pixel density, 10.2mm thick, 1800 mAh battery, and HSPA+ connectivity. No word on a launch date yet, but dont expect it to come stateside anytime soon.

Source: Meizu

Official AdBlock Plus app now available in the Play Store

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 09:33 AM PST

Blocking ads on your device is moral grey area, but it’s hard to argue that it has benefits. AdBlock Plus is one of the most popular ad blocking plugins for browsers available, and it works extremely well. And luckily for Android users, an official app has made its way onto Google’s Play Store.

Most ad blocking apps right now require root, but AdBlock Plus is a little different. It’s compatible with almost all browsers in the Play Store without root, but only over WiFi. If you want ad-blocking over 3G, you’ll have to root your device. There’s just a few listed limitations to keep in mind if you install this app:

  • Rooted: Blocks ads over Wi-Fi and 3G
  • Non-rooted with Android 3.1 or later: Blocks ads over Wi-Fi
  • Non-rooted with Android 3.0 or earlier: Some manual configuration is required. Please visit our website to learn how to setup your own proxy: https://adblockplus.org/en/android-config#proxy
  • Also, Android does not allow ads to be blocked on SSL encrypted websites.

There’s still a few features missing from the bigger version of ABP, like whitelisting, but it’s a new app. I’m sure that’ll come eventually. Anybody ready to get this installed and improve your mobile browsing? Hit the download link below.

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Play Store Download Link

 

Three flaws Google needs to fix to make stock Android even better

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 09:33 AM PST

Our favorite little green robot has made a lot of progress over the last four years. From humble (and ugly) beginnings with Android 1.0 to the smooth and sleek styles of Jelly Bean 4.2, we have seen some tremendous growth and progress of our favorite mobile operating system. Google has worked hard at ironing out the kinks and improving the user interface with some exciting new features. The result has been a much smoother, better, faster, prettier operating system, but it has surprisingly left some simple yet important features out in the cold. Here are three features (or lack thereof) that I believe are major oversights in Google's current OS.

T9 Dialer

Nowadays a smartphone is used for many different things, but one of its most basic functions is and always will be a phone. To make phone calls as simple and intuitive as possible should be a top priority for Google. The ability to dial a loved one by typing the letters of their name into the dialpad (instead of trying to remember their phone number) is one of the easiest ways to make a phone call. In Google's current system you have to open the dialer, tap the search icon, and then peck out your loved one's name on a keyboard. That is three steps! Two steps too many! Many manufacturers have added the T9 dialer to their custom skins and there are many good apps in the market that fill this void (like: Go Contacts EX, or exDialer), but we purchased a stock Android phone so we could have a pure Google experience and not junk up our phones with extra apps. It is a shame that we have to download an additional app to do what our stock dialer should already be doing. Google, you would be wise to include a T9 Dialer into your next update.

CM10′s T9 Dialer                                                       Stock Android’s Dialer

Group Messaging/Emailing

Another feature that Google really seemed to miss the mark on is how "Groups" works on your Android phone. At the time of this writing, it seems that having a "Group" of contacts does nothing but isolate them into a separate tab within the People app. That's it. There is no other functionality or benefit to creating a group. You can't send a group email, a group text, or really do anything with that group except to stare at it. In the Gmail desktop application I can type the name of one of my groups into the "To:" box and it automatically populates the email with all of my friend's email addresses that are in that particular group. It is such a useful feature! What a shame that we are not allowed to do the same with the Android Gmail app. Google needs to allow us to send group emails and group text messages using groups from our Google Contacts. (One workaround I have found for this problem is the ever-aging, and seemingly forsaken app called "Contacts GroupU", but again, I'd rather not have to install extra apps to give me the basic functionality that my phone should already have.  I hope a better integration of groups is a feature that Google is actively working on and will include in a future update.

Google’s Groups just lock people into a tab with no functionality

 

Quick Settings

The final major flaw with stock Android is the lack of "quick settings" within the notification panel. Quick settings act as shortcuts that allow you to quickly toggle on and off important and often accessed settings such as WiFi, bluetooth, gps, silent mode, etc. Currently the stock Android experience offers no easy way to quickly toggle these settings on or off. Instead you have to navigate to the settings app and dig through the many menus therein to find the toggle you are looking for. It is a slow and cumbersome process. Custom ROM developers like MIUI and CyanogenMod have alleviated this issue by adding Quick Setting toggles as a basic feature to their ROMS. Even Samsung's awful TouchWiz UI (no offense to TW fans) puts quick toggles in the notification panel. It is such a helpful and intuitive feature that it’s surprising Google has overlooked it all these years. To its credit, the Android team has recently made some progress in this area by adding a settings panel within Android 4.2's notification bar, but even then they don’t act as toggles, rather shortcuts that when clicked open up the settings app. Google needs to take a clue from other manufacturers and custom rom developers and make accessing often used settings a quick one step process.

Stock Android                                            CM10 adds quick settings

 

I love stock Android. I use it every day on my Galaxy Nexus, but if Google will tackle these three major flaws, I believe they will satisfy a large portion of their already happy users! Well, at least this user!

What features would you like to see added to Android? Is there anything else you think Google left out? Leave us a comment!

New Huawei MediaPad 10 Link surfaces on certification sites

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 09:31 AM PST

China’s Huawei appears to have some new versions of their MediaPad 10 FHD 10-inch tablet set to be released in the near future. According to NotebookItalia, at least three different model numbers have surfaced at the WiFi Alliance and Bluetooth SIG sites. The models – S10-201W, S10-201U and S10-202U – have all received WiFi certification. Details are still sketchy, but it appears the 201U and 202U versions probably contain antennas for 3G and 3G/4G connectivity.

Dubbed the MediaPad 10 Link, the devices do appear to possess the MediaPad 10 FHD’s 10.1-inch IPS LCD HD display. NotebookItalia compared images of the new device with the MediaPad 10 FHD and noted some very minor variations in the cases. The question remains as to whether the new devices are low-cost alternatives Huawei is trying to bring to market or the next evolution of the MediaPad 10 FHD. Perhaps we will find out during CES 2013.

source: NotebookItalia

Featured Android Game Review: Word Search Little Books [Brain & Puzzle]

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 07:51 AM PST

Oh boy do I remember playing word search when I was younger, so I was excited to find Word Search Little Books from SmartyPantsGaming. It’s been so long since I played, I forgot how much fun it was. I am sure there are other versions of this game in the Play Store, but Word Search Little Books gives you various topics to choose from like Animals, Food, Sports, Variety (4 versions), Cities, Comic Books, Harry Potter, Holidays, Movies, Music, Star Wars, TV Shows, United States, and Video Games. There are 17 books in all with 10 puzzles in each one.

Gameplay is as simple as pie. You just highlight the words with your finger, but if you own a Samsung Galaxy Note (I, II, or 10.1) you’re in for a real treat because you can use the S Pen to draw around the words just like paper books. Actually this game was originally for the Galaxy Note, but the developer modified it for all to use. Using your finger is fairly easy, but sometimes it’s hard to see if you’re finger is over the last letter or not before releasing it. This was only an issue when I first started playing, and I got the hang of it quickly.

The other thing I love about this game is that the puzzles don’t have a zillion words to solve. Each puzzle has about 15 or so words to find, which makes it easy to play casually. Best of all, the games are saved automatically so when you return, you can finish where you left off.

Word Search Little Books is free. For starters, 5 of the 17 books are unlocked, but for 99-cents you can get 4 keys to unlock any books you want. You also get one key for simply sharing the game with your friends and when you complete any of the unlocked books, one random book will get unlocked. They are also adding books regularly, which insures that the fun will never end. Check out their demo video below and hit one of the download links to get started. As always, let me know what you think.

Features

  • Play dozens of different word search puzzles
  • Choose from different word search puzzle book topics
  • Pick up where you left off on any puzzle
  • New word search puzzles being added routinely
  • Built for phones, tablets, and everything in-between
  • Use your Galaxy Note S-Pen!

* Pen support for Samsung Galaxy Note device with S-Pen stylus

 

Word_Search_Little_Books_01 Word_Search_Little_Books_02 Word_Search_Little_Books_03 Word_Search_Little_Books_04 Word_Search_Little_Books_05 Word_Search_Little_Books_Splash_Banner

 

Click here to view the embedded video.

 

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Play Store Download Link

Heads Up: The Nexus 4 will be available to order in the Play Store today at 12:00pm PST (U.S. only)

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 06:48 AM PST

Look what just hit the inbox! You read it right, the Nexus 4 will be back in stock at 12:00pm PST / 3:00pm EST today in the U.S. Last time Google didn’t even send an email out, but at least we knew the day. Any chance this will go smoother than 2 weeks ago? Just hit one of the links below this afternoon and get ready to refresh your pants off.

16GB version / 8GB version

Google+ integration with Play Store user reviews is now live

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 06:37 AM PST

We heard that this was coming so it shouldn’t be a shocker that it’s officially live. Starting today, in order to post a user review in the Google Play Store, you will have to sign into your Google+ profile. You can look at this as both good and bad. The good is that now people just can’t post any comment without being known, which is going to be great for developers. Each review will have the person’s full name as well as the profile picture if they have one. On the the flip side, this is just another area in which Google is trying to jam Google+ down everyone’s throats. If you’re wondering about older reviews, they will simply say “A Google User.” So what do you guys think? Better or worse? I am leaning towards better. I am already on Google+ anyway so it’s not a big deal for me, plus (no pun intended) it gives more credibility to the reviews.

 

Nexus 4 now receiving Android 4.2.1 update, fixes December bug while baseband remains unchanged

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 06:29 AM PST

In very similar Nexus news to what we found this morning, the Nexus 4 is now beginning to receive the 4.2.1 update as well. This update most notably fixes the infamous December bug. No other changes have been uncovered as of yet. The good news is that the baseband has remained unchanged so far thus still allowing LTE capabilities for the select few. This update will be come by way of over-the-air so obviously not everyone will get it at once, but it should only take a few days for it to roll out to all devices. Are you a lucky owner of the elusive Nexus 4 that has also received the update? Let us know of any other changes you may find.

 

source: XDA Forums
Posted by at 6:56 AM

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