Android World: Android Central

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Android Central

HTC One, J Butterfly and DNA now have an S Off method
Apps of the Week: You Don't Know Jack, Dashlane Password Manager, reClock and more!
How to manage labels and folders in the new Gmail
Live action Galaxy S4 Zoom images seem to confirm leaked renders

HTC One, J Butterfly and DNA now have an S Off method

Posted: 08 Jun 2013 03:41 PM PDT

HTC One S Off

With great power comes great responsibility -- S Off is a reality for the HTC One, Droid DNA, and J Butterfly

If you're the proud owner of an HTC One, J Butterfly or Droid DNA, and like to hack things a little bit, here's some news for you -- S Off has been achieved for the handsets.

The methods (yes, there are two of them) are pretty straightforward, using either a Linux-only utility or by manually running a few commands via ADB or right from the phone itself. Be warned -- having S Off makes it easier to seriously break your phone, so make sure you have a reason to do it before you get started.

Speaking of a reason to do it, many folks wonder just why you need S Off now that HTC let's us all flash boot images with an unlocked bootloader. There's one big reason -- SuperCID. CID stands for Carrier ID, and it's the determining factor of which RUU you can run to update your phone software. With SuperCID (as seen above -- 11111111) you can flash any RUU to your phone, including the developer edition and upcoming Google edition versions, providing there is support for the radio. This means when the unlocked world version gets updated to 4.2.2 and the RUU is "uncovered", folks with S Off won't have to wait for AT&T or Three to approve the update and push it out. There is also some speculation that this may allow the AWS bands on the developer edition to get unlocked for use on T-Mobile's 3G. Never say never.

In any case, if you're aware of the risks, understand what you can do afterwards and know what you shouldn't do at all, hit the links below to get started.

Source: XDA; revone for the HTC One method, revone for the J Butterfly / DNA, Moonshine method

Thanks everyone who sent this in!

Apps of the Week: You Don't Know Jack, Dashlane Password Manager, reClock and more!

Posted: 08 Jun 2013 01:57 PM PDT

Apps of the Week

Games, tools and widgets -- we've got them all here

Welcome back to yet another edition of our Apps of the Week post, where we highlight apps from the Android Central writers. Now these aren't always the newest or most popular apps, but they're the ones that have worked well enough for us to stay installed for the last week -- and that's saying something.

From games and casual apps to tools and widgets, we cover all the bases. Stick around with us after the break and see how this week stacks up.

How to manage labels and folders in the new Gmail

Posted: 08 Jun 2013 12:35 PM PDT

New Gmail Labels and Folders

The buttons changed places, but the core functionality has remained the same

The latest update to a new version of Gmail has reminded many of us of the frustration related to managing folders and labels in the app, but we're here to help clear up some of the confusion. Google has made the executive decision to put the folder switching icon in the top action bar, but nest the label switching button behind the overflow menu key. This decision had to be made because of the elimination of the bottom action bar, but it still hasn't made it any easier to explain the difference between switching folders and switching labels on an email (or set of emails). Let's break it down really quick.

From the single email view (for sake of simplicity), tapping the top action bar button that looks like an open manila folder will pop up a familiar interface for switching that given email to a new folder. Those who have created new specialized folders (aka labels) will see a list of options where they can then send that email. Tapping any of these folders will completely remove the email from your inbox (or any other folder it was previously in) and place it in that new folder, effectively archiving it.

This differs from simply adding labels to an email, which is now handled with a tap on the menu button and another tap on "Change labels". A similar interface will pop up, giving you a list of available labels with checkboxes next to each. Adding labels by checking the appropriate boxes does not remove the email from your inbox, but rather just labels it in addition to the inbox label. It's a subtle but important distinction that will keep you from losing emails to random folders you've created.

This can be a tough one to wrap your head around, even without the new Gmail update changing the button placement. Stick around with us after the break for a quick video walkthrough of how to manage your labels and folders in the new Gmail interface.

Live action Galaxy S4 Zoom images seem to confirm leaked renders

Posted: 08 Jun 2013 04:36 AM PDT

S4 Zoom

'Zoom' looks even more like a Galaxy Camera in the flesh

The Samsung Galaxy S4 'Zoom' variant is looking yet more likely with the emergence of fresh, live action shots of the device this morning. The images come from German-based blog TechTastic and show a device almost identical to yesterday's leaked render. That is to say we're looking at a cross between a Galaxy S4 and a Galaxy Camera -- right down to what looks like a tripod mount on the base of the device.

Today's images also highlight the device's thickness. The S4 Zoom isn't going to be anywhere near as pocketable as the average smartphone -- after all, the moving components for that 10X optical zoom have to go somewhere -- though it is significantly more compact than the Galaxy Camera. There's been no confirmation of internal specs just yet, but rumors indicate hardware similar to that of the Galaxy S4 Mini -- a dual-core 1.6GHz CPU, qHD SuperAMOLED display and Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. Behind that 10X optical zoom lens is said to sit a 16-megapixel sensor.

It's likely we'll see the S4 Zoom in the flesh for the first time at Samsung's "Premiere 2013" event in London on June 20.