| LifeProof nuud and fre waterproof cases unveiled for the Galaxy S 4 Sep 19th 2013, 18:10, by Robert Nelson If you happen to be a Galaxy S 4 user that wishes they had a Galaxy S4 Active instead, there will soon be a few new case options that will bring the same protection against water. The cases are from LifeProof and will include the nuud and fre models. These both offer protection against water, however one leaves the display open and the other has it protected by a scratch resistant cover. 
Up first is the LifeProof nuud, which as some may have guessed by the name — is the case that leaves the display open and uncovered. The LifeProof fre is the one with the scratch resistant cover over the display. Regardless of which option you choose, the water, dust and shock protection remains the same. The LifeProof cases are shock proof to military standard 810F-516 which means it can withstand drops from 6.6 feet (2m). These cases also have an Ingress Protection rating of IP-68 which goes to say that it should be able to withstand being submerged in up to 6.6 feet of water for up to one hour. Aside from offering protection against unexpected drops and water, the LifeProof cases also have what is touted as a “thin, low profile all-protective design.” Perhaps more important, these cases still allow for full access to all buttons, ports and other features. With that in mind, LifeProof also uses something called “CrystalClear double anti-reflective coated camera-grade glass” to help ensure your pictures will not be affected due to the camera lens being covered by the case. Basically, LifeProof appears to have made a case that protects your phone and still allows you to easily take advantage of the features. LifeProof will have the nuud and fre cases available for the Galaxy S 4 beginning in October. Both the nuud and fre will be $89.99 and available direct from LifeProof as well as with select retailers. And finally, if you happen to still be sporting a Galaxy S III, LifeProof also has you covered with a few case options. |  | Google to remove black bar in favor of new "App Launcher" soon Sep 19th 2013, 17:52, by Cory Gunther This morning we’re getting multiple reports that Google has changed up their usual black navigation bar on their homepage, and replaced it with a brand new Android-style app launcher. The horizontal black bar for navigation to Search, Images, Maps, Gmail, Play, YouTube and more have all been moved to an app launcher menu. Blending the lines between Android and desktop even more. 
The new square icon on the top right of Google’s main page resembles the app drawer launcher from Android, and now opens a similar drawer with a grid-style layout of the same navigation destinations for Gmail, Search, YouTube and more. Now all in a easy and convenient system similar to what we’ve all been using on smartphones for years. In case you didn’t notice, they actually look exactly the same to the related icons on Android. Right down to the recently updated YouTube icon and all. This design has been spotted as far back as March of this year, but rarely seen my more than a few eagle-eyed readers, but today TechCrunch has confirmed it’s finally ready to go live. 
In a recent Google+ post showing off the new design we got confirmation right from a Googler. Community Manager Justine Rivero dropped in and said, "Glad you noticed! We'll be rolling out this new feature in the next few weeks… stay tuned!" Obviously this isn’t Google Chrome OS merging itself with Android or anything, but it’s nice to see Google continuing to improve and refine our experience. With billions of Android devices in the wild it makes sense for our PC experience to be similar to mobile. Who’s seeing the new design and layout? VIA: TechCrunch | | White House moves to end the FCC ban on phone unlocking Sep 19th 2013, 17:27, by Cory Gunther Back in January of this year the Librarian of Congress declined to renew a copyright-law exemption that saw the legalization of cellphone unlocking. This isn’t rooting or bootloaders, but carrier unlocking smartphones to be used on other networks, or while abroad. You might remember the petitions that made the White House issue a statement, and now they’re at it again. 
Essentially this means if you buy a phone on AT&T, and later want to unlock it to work on T-Mobile, you’d have to get the carriers approval and permission. Otherwise this was now a crime and could be pursed in criminal court. Pretty ridiculous and the Library of Congress should have just renewed the darn exemption to begin with. We saw plenty of groups ban together to fight this new law, and the White House eventually came out and said that unlocking phones should be legal. Well, this week and nearly 8-9 months later the Obama Administration has asked the FCC to make some changes, and fix this little issue. Basically the Obama administration wants to decriminalize unlocking phones, which we’re all for, and have asked the FCC to make the necessary changes. They want the ban to be lifted, which was put back into place in January of this year and caused this whole mess. Currently as long as you’re in good standing with your carrier, if you simply ask nice they’ll usually allow this and issue an unlock code. However, it isn’t always as easy as it seems, and that is why many result to third party ways to unlock their devices. Hopefully we lean more details soon, so everyone can continue unlocking the devices they own, to use on the carrier they’d like. VIA: MacWorld | | Moves fitness tracker app arrives for Android Sep 19th 2013, 17:14, by Robert Nelson The Moves fitness tracker app originally launched for iOS back in January. Since then the app has been downloaded more than 2.5 million times, however as of today the app has come available for a new audience — Android users. Yes, the Moves app has arrived for Android by way of the Google Play Store and it is available for free with no registration required for use. 
For those not familiar with Moves. This is an activity tracking app. Perhaps more important for some, in addition to the app being available for free — it does not require any additional hardware. In fact, that appears to be one of the selling points for the app. And truth be told, Moves is incredibly easy to use. You just download it and it begins tracking your activity. Of course, while simple to set up and simple to get going with, Moves does provide some good information in terms of your daily activity. Granted, that does mean you will need to be carrying your smartphone at all times, but on the flip side the Moves app is able to track your walking, running and cycling activity.    Even further, Moves is able to sense when you are in transit (using GPS) and also identify locations such as your home, work and gym. Otherwise, the app then takes all this information and details it in a storyline format. Users will get daily notifications telling them how active (or inactive) they have been and from that point they can scroll back through the timeline for further details. Bottom line here, if you are looking for a way to keep track of your daily activity, but were looking to do it without adding any additional hardware (or expense), the Moves app may be one to consider. SOURCE: Moves, Google Play Store | | Zombie Gunship hits Android: death from above Sep 19th 2013, 16:55, by Cory Gunther The classic and extremely addicting iOS game Zombie Gunship has launched on Android this week, so get ready to kill some zombies. A few apocalypse survivors must man the gunner seat of a heavily-armed AC-130 as you rain fire from above and save the remaining humans from infection. 
This game was massive amounts of fun on the old iPod Touch, and will be even better on my Nexus 7. This isn’t your average zombie game that isn’t worth your time. The entire game is death from above, as you fly around and strategically take out waves after waves of enemies running towards the survivors. You’ll be blasting missiles and cannons out of an old AC-130 plane while protecting bunkers full of people needing rescue before the zombie apocalypse takes over. It’s actually a lot more fun than you’d think, and was quite addicting back in the day. Now that it’s available for Android we expect it to get popular all over again. With 3D vision, white and black hot modes for vision, and tons of weapons you’ll be blasting your way through hordes of zombies. Your plane comes equipped with a 25mm Gatling gun, a 40mm Bofors auto-cannon, and to get serious you can upgrade to a 105mm Howitzer cannon. The last one does some damage, so don’t accidentally kill civilians with your trigger finger. This game doesn’t have the best graphics in the world, but it doesn’t need to with the casual night-vision top-down style of gameplay, and it still is loads of fun. Get it now for Android for just a buck. VIA: Play Store | |
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