After a lengthy lockout, the NHL season is finally starting this weekend. If you’re a puck head like I am, you’re going to want to check out the NHL 2013 Live Wallpaper app. Whether you want to show support for your team or just give your devices a little hockey makeover, this app is for you.
The initial download is free. But if you want it to do anything more, you’re going to have to pay for add-ons within the app. We're not really keen on this sort of business model ourselves, but it is what it is. Here are the prices:
Live wallpaper only: $2.49 (1 team)
Score clock only: $1.49
Ringtone only: $0.99
All Access Pass (unlocks everything): $6.99
The live wallpapers have an optional interactive puck, Winter Classic Mode, arena ticker, game events and sounds. You can also customize the flag style and what kind of arena you would like to see, whether it be a 2013 version or an older version from last year.
So whether or not you root for the Rangers, Penguins, Capitals or Sabres, the app has content to help you show off your fandom.
The app picks just keep on coming. Straight from the Android Central writers to you, the best apps we're using for the previous week are listed here. We've got some productivity tools and a few fun games for you to enjoy on your own phone or tablet this weekend.
Stick around after the break and see if our picks are up to par this week.
A couple weeks after adding the feature to the Facebook Messenger app, voice messages are now a part of the main Facebook application. These aren't going to replace phone calls anytime soon -- and they're not really supposed to -- but they can be a fun little way to drop someone a note on Facebook, or to send voice messages when cellular calls aren't practical or available.
Perhaps even more surprising is that Facebook actually updated its changelog on the app with this latest version. Along with voice messaging, you should be able to open and view images a little faster, and share your friends stories to timelines, pages and groups.
I'm not a Sky TV subscriber, but this morning's news really make me wish that I was. According to a report from British broadsheet, The Telegraph, BSkyB is set to turn on local downloads of their content to mobile devices via the Sky Go app starting this week. It's been a somewhat turbulent relationship between Sky and Android users, with their apps not only late to the party, but notoriously incompatible with many popular devices at launch. Those sort of issues have been vastly improved upon in recent months, but now it seems that Sky is ready to take their service to the next level.
As you might expect, this kind of service doesn't come for free. The ability to download content to your mobile devices will require a "Sky Go Extra" subscription, which costs £5 per month. For many this will be £5 well spent, as the majority of British carriers impose pretty tight data caps, including the new LTE network from EE, so local downloads is an extremely enticing prospect. Downloads will be active for a month, but there is said to be no limit to how much customers can download -- that limitation lies with your device, not with Sky. Up to 4 users can download content per subscription, and it seems to cover Sky's entire collection, including their Sky Movies 007 channel which offers every one of the James Bond movies.
This move by Sky is sure to be a welcome one, and really takes the fight on the mobile front to the likes of Netflix, Google Play Movies, and Amazon's LOVEFiLM available on the Kindle Fire. Google may offer local storage of movies, but each incurs a rental price, whereas Sky Go will allow access to Sky Movies vast catalog plus the option to save it to your device. Netflix and LOVEFiLM while offering a pretty hefty selection of content, both still require a constant data connection to use. Competitors should take note, this is a huge move forwards from Sky TV.
We usually like to do our own demo videos of apps whenever possible. It's our job, for one, and it's always fun to see "the pros" occasionally suck at games on camera. But in the case of Super Hexagon, we're going to keep our shame bottle up deep inside, where it belongs. This game is that hard.
The idea is that you have to guide the triangle through the spaces of the incoming designs as they collapse in on the central hexagram. Cool 1980s-esque video game music helps keep up the pace (at least for those of us old enough to remember the sounds of an actual arcade). It's fun. It's addicting. And it's hard as hell. Literally. The three unlocked levels are "hard," "harder" and "hardest." Frankly, we're a little afraid to explore the other difficulties. Our pride has taken a beating here. But, still, we can't put it down. Another dollar well spent.
Opera Software has revealed its next generation browser, and you know we wouldn’t be talking about it here on Android Community if it didn’t have something to do with mobile devices. Introduced today over on Pocket-Lint, Opera Ice is a new mobile browser targeted at iOS and Android. Opera has seen the need for change in the mobile browser space, and plans to use Ice as a means of implementing that change.
For starters, one one of the most noteworthy features about the Webkit-based browser is that it does away with buttons, for the most part at least. Instead of pressing back and forward buttons to navigate web pages, users will instead have gesture controls at their disposal. We’ve seen gesture controls implemented partially in some other mobile browsers, but Opera wants to take it all the way with Ice.
So, how are you going to get to your favorite websites? Just like your smartphone and tablet, Ice will have something of a home screen, where icons that lead to “apps” (websites) are gathered. Clicking on one of the icons takes you that website, or that website’s app, if it has one compatible with Ice. Search is also getting a tune up in Ice, with Opera gathering a bunch of different engines in one place so that when you search for a term, you can see what kind of information you’re getting across a bunch of different services like Google, Bing, and Wikipedia.
By tapping a little icon that appears at the bottom of the screen when you’re viewing a webpage, you’ll be taken back to the home screen. The web page you were viewing will turn into an icon that you can then touch to resume viewing or drag to add to your collection of web page icons. It seems very intuitive in the video above, which was recorded by Opera CEO Lars Boilesen as he gave a demonstration to other employees during a meeting that took place shortly before Christmas.
There will be a desktop version of Ice launching in March, but for now, all sights are set on the February launch of the mobile version. Opera will have it on-hand at MWC 2013 in Barcelona, which just so happens to be an event that Android Community is attending. Therefore, expect to be hearing more about the mobile experience Opera Ice brings to the table before long.
This past week we’ve seen just about as much interest in one game as we’ve seen in every single other app on the market, and it isn’t even out yet: Temple Run 2. The original Temple Run was one of the most hotly anticipated games for Android back when it launched many moons after the iOS iteration, and here with the Apple-first release of Temple Run 2, history seems very much to be repeating itself – and not just figuratively.
We’ve gotten confirmation from the developers of this game that the projected date for delivery to the Google Play app store for Temple Run 2 is January 24th, a bit over a week after the iOS launch for iPhone 5 and the iPad series. What we’ve seen already on the iTunes app store is no less than a crush-all juggernaut barrage with Temple Run 2 smashing its way to first place atop all other free apps on the store – and not just games.
If Temple Run 2′s less-than-12-hour slip and slide to the top of the charts on the iTunes app store is any indication, we’ll be seeing the team at Imangi Studios jumping for joy all over again next week. This new version of Temple Run takes on the winning qualities of the original and pushes the envelope with higher quality aesthetics in both moving elements and the environments through which you’ll be running. Have a peek at a demonstration video of how this games looks on iOS for an idea of what we’ll be working with on Android on the 24th:
This view is from the aspect ratio of a wide display – likely a tablet of one kind or another. The other view is essentially the same with less of a view on the left or right, as seen in the collection of images in the gallery below. Again, while these images come from Temple Run 2 on the iPhone 5 (as given the once-over by SlashGear), the Android version will look essentially identical in the end.
So get pumped up and grab the game as quick as you can when the time is ripe, and don’t forget to hit up the Google+ Android Community to have a chat about it. Need an invite? Send us a shout-out on the Android Community Google+ hub or simply comment in the post you’re in now with your Google+ URL! We’ll make it happen!
While Samsung may have the high-end Android market on lock down between its Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II, the company obviously realizes that there all kinds of smartphone users out there. While some care most about technical specifications, there are others who care more about durability. Samsung’s original Galaxy Xcover was one such durable smartphone, and today we’re hearing rumors of a follow up, aptly named the Galaxy Xcover 2.
These rumors come from SamMobile, which is something akin to the Internet’s watchdog when it comes to Samsung leaks and news. The website has posted a nearly full list of specs for the phone, which include a 4-inch TFT screen at 800 x 480 resolution. The phone will also come equipped with a 1700 mAh battery, a 5MP rear-facing camera, and 4GB of internal storage with the option to expand on that thanks to the included microSD slot.
Naturally, expect the Xcover to be resistant to the elements just like its predecessor, with either Android 4.1 or Android 4.2 installed from the start. Sadly, SamMobile’s list is missing two of the most important details: what kind of CPU is running under the hood along with how much RAM is present. It looks like we’ll have to wait until Samsung pulls the veil off this phone to find out those details.
Luckily for us, SamMobile says this phone should be getting an announcement at MWC 2013, which is right around the corner. We’ll be there next month at Barcelona to watch everything go down, so if this phone is indeed getting a reveal, we’ll have that information for you right here at Android Community. Keep it tuned here for more!
Facebook has just delivered an update for its Android app, bringing it up to version 2.1. While the patch notes don’t contain too much information, they do reveal one major feature: voice messages. Once you’ve applied this update, you’ll be able to send short voice messages to your Facebook friends. This update, of course, comes on the heels of the announcement that Facebook would begin offering free calling over WiFi or mobile Internet for iOS users.
So, while it may not be full VOIP, voice messages are still a nice touch to have. While being able to send voice messages is easily the most exciting part of this update, messaging in general has been given something of an overhaul. Now you’re able to insert emoticons and images into your messages, whether those images are coming from an existing gallery or you want to take it right there on the spot. Not too shabby, and Facebook’s new search functions help streamline messaging even more.
Users can now do an image search that’s powered by Bing, and once you find the image you want to use, simply click on the thumbnail to have it appear in your message. It really couldn’t be much easier to insert images into Facebook messages, so kudos to the company for this increased functionality. Facebook, of course, recently announced a partnership with Bing for its new Graph Search feature, so it’s only fitting that we see Bing popping up in Facebook’s new image search.
After this update is applied, you’ll be able to share your friends’ posts to your own timeline or groups. Users can also look forward to faster speeds when opening and viewing photos, and faster speeds are always welcome among the constantly-connected crowd. You can snag the latest version of Facebook right now from the Google Play Store [download link], so get to downloading!
Fridays are normally slow news days, but not this one. Today we’re hearing a whopper of a story coming out of All Things D, as Judge Lucy Koh (the very same Judge that oversaw the case between Apple and Samsung) is ordering Apple CEO Tim Cook, Intel CEO Paul Otellini, and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt to give testimonies related to the companies’ non-poaching agreement. Allegedly, Apple, Intel, and Google all entered into an agreement that restricted each company from recruiting the others’ employees.
Koh needs this testimony because of an ongoing civil suit against the three. Former employees of the three companies are claiming that they experienced pay cuts while these agreements were in effect, and depending what Koh finds from the testimonies of each, she may grant the civil suit class action status. If that happens, the companies could lose a significant amount of money to paying out back wages.
It sounds like each company will be questioned for four hours, and obviously, Koh is going to keep the executives separate while they’re being questioned. It’s unclear when this questioning will go down, but regardless of the date, you can bet that none of these men are happy about the order. If the three had struck a non-poaching agreement and decreased wages as a result, they would all obviously want to keep it a secret.
However, the attorneys for the former employees at the middle of this civil case say they have some damning evidence against Intel, Google, and Apple, including emails exchanged by Schmidt and Steve Jobs. In these supposed emails, Jobs and Schmidt refer specifically to the agreement while communicating with Google’s recruitment department, so if those are proven to be legitimate, then it could mean bad things for these companies. Stay tuned, because we’re sure to hear more about this in the coming days and weeks.
It would appear that worries about the recently-discovered Exynos security hole are over for Verizon Galaxy Note II owners. An update is being sent out today that supposedly fixes the security flaw that had so many Samsung owners on edge, so Verizon Galaxy Note II owners can rest easy. Be sure to check your notification panel to see if there’s an update waiting for you, and if there is, install that bad boy to bolster your phone’s defenses against malware.
The update has a designation of LL4, and until Samsung says otherwise, it seems safe to assume that this is the long-awaited Exynos patch. For those who have forgotten, this Exynos security hole gives easy root access to the system’s memory, which means two important things. First, this Exynos security hole made it so users could root their devices with one click, but it also gave root access to everyone else, potentially allowing malicious apps to take control of phones where the flaw was present.
Though easy rooting was welcomed by some, the fact that the undesirables of the world had the same level of access was nerve racking for others. Of course, you shouldn’t stop downloading apps from only trusted sources just because this fix has been applied – that’s something you should be doing all the time anyway. The Verizon Note II isn’t the first Samsung phone to have this flaw fixed, as the Galaxy S III was receiving similar updates awhile back.
That security flaw was one of the only negatives to owning a Galaxy Note II. The 5.5-inch phablet is easily one of the best Android phones available at the moment, so long as you can get used to the larger-than-normal screen. Be sure to check out our Story Timeline below for more on the Exynos security hole, as well as our hands-on posts with the Note II!
Last year, Google introduced Handwrite, a new way of searching that had users writing their search terms on their touch screens. It’s definitely a neat idea, but as it turns out, it isn’t always easy to write on a tiny smartphone screen. Just as well, it would appear that Google didn’t pay as much attention to the more intricate languages as it should have. As a result, folks living in China and Japan ran into some problems using Handwrite, but thankfully, Google’s latest update is looking to squash some of these issues.
One of the features Google is focusing on with this update is recognition quality. There are characters in a number of languages that look the same, with Google giving the example of a lowercase “L,” the number “1,” and the capital “I.” Before, Google Handwrite had some trouble telling the difference, but now when you write a character and it registers as the wrong letter or number, you’ll be able to select the character you wanted to use from a drop down list. It may not be as desirable as having Handwrite correctly recognize the character you’ve written each and every time, but it’s still a relatively easy to use fix.
Just as well, while tablet screens give you enough real estate to write out full words, that can be difficult to pull of on smaller smartphone screens. This update makes it so Handwrite can recognize overlapping letters, meaning that screen space should no longer be an issue. That scribble you see in the screenshot above is actually the letters in the word “quiche,” and as we can see, Google has no problem interpreting that, even though it would look like nothing more than a jumbled mess to other humans.
Last but not least, Google has added support for multiple Chinese characters. Before, Chinese users had to write out characters one at a time, but moving forward, they’ll be able to write multiple characters on the screen at once. All in all, it doesn’t sound like too bad of an update, so if you’ve been struggling a bit with Handwrite but still really like the idea, then you might find that your troubles have been resolved now that this update has landed.
Well, what do we have here? New benchmark results for a pair of Samsung devices have appeared in AnTuTu‘s database, and quite a few folks are thinking that both are variants of the highly-anticipated Galaxy S IV. After the success of the Galaxy S III, it isn’t exactly a secret that Samsung is plotting another flagship release this year, but so far, we haven’t heard anything official from the company.
In any case, back to the AnTuTu benchmark listings – the model numbers associated with these two results are SHV-E300S and GT-I9500, which are apparently the Korean and International variants, respectively. The listings don’t tell us much, but they do show that the processor is clocked at 1.8GHz. That clock speed suggests an Exynos 5 Octa CPU for the Galaxy S IV, which probably won’t come as much of shock to most folks.
After all, if there’s one phone Samsung is going to use its new Exynos 5 Octa processor in, it’s the Galaxy S IV. The Galaxy S III sold tens of millions of units, so you can bet that Samsung will want to pack the S IV with the best equipment to get its fans fired up. We’ve been hearing similar rumors about the Galaxy Note III, so if these two devices are announced this year, it seems safe to assume that they’ll both come packing Exynos 5 Octa CPUs.
As for when Samsung will announce the Galaxy S IV, that’s currently up in the air. There’s a chance Samsung will announce the new device at MWC 2013 next month, as it did just that with the Galaxy S II. It seems far more likely, however, that Samsung will hold a special event of its own to announce the S IV, which is something it did for the S III. Whenever Samsung chooses to announce the Galaxy S IV, we should have an announcement coming up in the next few months, so stay tuned!
After a lengthy lockout, the NHL season is finally starting this weekend. If you’re a puck head like I am, you’re going to want to check out the NHL 2013 Live Wallpaper app. Whether you want to show support for your team or just give your devices a little hockey makeover, this app is for you.
