Android Archives - Page 6 of 12

Flipboard For Android Branches Out From GSIII And Enters Beta

Flipboard, the ever-popular iOS newsreader, was supposed to be coming to Android via the Galaxy S III. Not a stupid decision on the developers of Flipboard’s part, as the device locked in 9 million preorders. However, the Android community made sure that the Flipboard for Android application was successfully leaked and made available to everyone. And it worked surprisingly well.

The reason Flipboard decided to release their app on one major device was to make sure that it ran perfectly because apps like Flipboard bank on gorgeous visuals. But Flipboard did fine on most people’s phones, and after an OTA update the devs rolled out it ran even better, and I’ve actually been using it on a few of my devices since. Now that the GSIII has (sort of) launched across the globe, Flipboard is even closer to making their app officially available to all Android devices. They are going to publish a very strict beta that will allow users to find any remaining bugs, report them, and help Flipboard get everything nice and polished.

Android fragmentation makes it hard for developers to make sure their apps work the way they are supposed to on all devices, so it’s not uncommon that we see betas, public or private, to help them make sure things are running smoothly. In this case, Flipboard has made a lot of right decisions by keeping users in check with a “beta” tag, and not pushing an “official release” until they know they are ready for one. The Flipboard APK is all over the interwebs right now, but you can grab the official download here (directly from the Flipboard team) if you don’t already have it.

Google-Asus Nexus Tablet Shows Up On Benchmark Result Site

A lot of evidence points to Google working with Asus to bring us the first Nexus tablet. We first heard the idea a few months back, with news that it would be a 7-inch tablet that would finally put the Kindle Fire to bed. Asus has done a stellar job with Android tablets in the past, so it makes sense for Google to choose them as the official hardware manufacturer for the first Nexus tablet. With a 7-inch screen, the Nexus tablet would not be in direct competition with the iPad, which is clearly dominating the tablet market as of right now, so it is smart for Google to put a slightly different spin on things.

The Nexus tablet was rumored to come withe the next version of Android, JellyBean (or whatever Google actually calls it), and RightWare’s Benchmark site has given us even more insight on things. A device called the Google Asus Nexus 7 showed up with results on the site, leading us to believe that this was Google and Asus’s 7-inch Nexus tablet. The device is running JRN51B, which could very well be JellyBean right before our eyes. This falls right in line with Ice Cream Sandwich’s versions, and it would make sense that we start seeing more of this device because of the proposed July release date. Is this sure evidence of a 7-inch Nexus tablet? Not completely, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction.

Source: Android Central

Seattle Startup Doxo Launches One Click Bill Payment For Mobile

Doxo, the Seattle based all in one digital file cabinet and e-payment startup has launched a new one click payment method for bill paying and to top it off, it’s available on mobile as well.

Although Crunchbase has Doxo formed in 2008, the company launched the Doxo platform in mid 2011. Their all in one service allows users to manage all types of bills from one simple easy to use platform. Now you don’t have to bookmark 5 different credit card sites, all your utility sites and your car note. Everything is managed by logging into Doxo.

Doxo and their all in one digital file cabinet and e-pay system is backed by the king of all e-commerce, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, through his investment arm. In addition to their consumer customers, Doxo has attracted government clients in Washington including: Benton County, Chelan County, Clallam County, Clark County, Franklin County, Island County, Lincoln County, Pend Oreille County, Spokane County, Stevens County, Thurston County, Walla Walla County, Clallam County Public Utilities, Mukilteo Water and Sewer District, Lake Stevens Utility District.

Doxo launched an iOS app last summer and just recently updated it. They also just released an Android app available in the Google Play store, both mobile apps allow consumer users to pay their bills using a one-click method on their mobile phones.

More after the break
Read More…

GameStop Will Begin Selling Android Tablets At 1600 Locations Across The Nation

We’ve been hearing a lot lately about GameStop’s next moves into mobile gaming. It’d be stupid for them, as a company, to not recognize the huge amount of users who are doing their mobile gaming on their smartphones, tablets, and of course, the iPod Touch. This market has grown exponentially as of lately, easily passing the likes of the Nintendo DS and Playstation’s PSP and Vita systems. Tablets are also popular platforms for mobile gaming, whether they be Android or iPads, and GameStop has been on the move to start stocking and selling these products as soon as they can.

After starting to take trade-ins for things like iPods and iPads, GameStop has announced that they are planning to start selling pre-loaded Android tablets in over 1600 stores across the country. These tablets are the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, the Acer Iconia A100, and the Asus Transformer. All of these devices are very noteworthy for performance, and if I had to recommend someone an Android tablet, it would very likely be one of these three. Evidently GameStop agrees because they have decided to sell them, preloaded with games free of charge, to any customers who would like to take advantage of mobile gaming on a bigger screen.

Source: Pocket Gamer

Samsung Galaxy S III Launches Globally, Pebble Blue Version Still Battling Availability Woes

Samsung’s Galaxy S III is easily one of the most hyped phones of the year, and today it has finally become available for purchase (kind of). In 28 countries across the globe (the US not being one of them) the GSIII is can be purchased and put on a mobile carrier, with the sales starting from an official Samsung store in Westfield Stratford City. However, the device can only be sold from this outlet to customers who preordered the device.

The device should be available to more people in the coming days, as more outlets will begin stocking and selling the device. In the UK, there is also a delay of the Pebble Blue version of the phone, with many of the major carriers not expecting the stock of those devices to arrive until June 5th, well after the initial release of the device. Most UK carriers have the Pebble Blue GSIII listed as “out of stock”, with the white version still being available to purchase.

Along with the device itself, Samsung is also launching what they call their all-in-one music service that will be integrated with Galaxy line handsets. The free version allows users to purchase and stream their music, while the paid version will allow unlimited streaming of content and users will be able to upload their own music as well. We will be sure to keep you updated on the launch of the GSIII and when it will be available to everyone, including those of us in the US.

Source: Samsung Korea

Facebook Preparing For Mobile Hardware Battle?

Reports are coming hot and heavy this Memorial Day weekend, that Facebook is reinvigorating it’s “Facebook Phone”. Business Insider and the New York Times are staying on top of the story.

According to SAI (sourced to the New York Times) Mark Zuckerberg is personally vetting engineers to join the Facebook team. According to reports he has several iPhone engineers and even an iPad engineer making the shift from Cupertino to Menlo Park.

Zuckerberg has been apparently asking all kinds of tough questions of his new Facebook Phonre recruits, including what chips are in the iPhone.

Potential investors were reportedly concerned about Facebook’s mobile presence when Zuckerberg took Facebook on their pre-IPOD road show.

There is no time frame for the reported release of the Facebook Phone. The device has been rumored for the past three years.

Last year Facebook endorsed two HTC Android devices, the HTC Salsa and the HTC Cha Cha. Both devices featured deep Facebook integration including a dedicated Facebook button on the front of both phones. Despite the social network having over 800 million members, the HTC Salsa and HTC Cha Cha were just marginal selling phones.

The HTC Cha Cha debuted in the US on AT&T. Despite having heavy Facebook integration and even being the sponsor phone for a reunited Blink 182 tour, the Status didn’t even last a quarter.

So why do they think they’ll have better success? Well one piece of the puzzle is an app store. Facebook already had some heavy hitters developing apps for the Facebook platform. Zynga was even able to grow large enough to go public based on the success of their Facebook social games.

Zynga and Facebook have been working hand in hand together now for years. Zynga may be waiting for the offices Facebook phone before releasing mobile versions of their blockbuster hits FarmVille and CityVille.

Facebook’s mobile apps are consistently top five in all other app stores. They just recently release the Facebook camera app which provides deep integration with Facebook, and the ability to post up to 30 photos at a time to Facebook. The Facebook camera may explain the reasoning behind the purchase of Instagram and Light Box

Bye Bye Cisco Cius Android Tablet

If you haven’t heard of the Cisco Cius Android tablet you are not alone. That may be the reason that Cisco has decided to stop manufacturing the hybrid business phone tablet device.

The Cisco Cius was not marketed to direct consumer channels. Instead Cisco was hoping to make the device a must have for enterprise customers.

PC World’s Tony Bradley suggests that it’s this direct to enterprise philosophy that ultimately resulted in the devices death. More and more companies are supporting the BYOD (bring your own device) mantra and with employees bringing their own iPads or Samsung Galaxy Tabs to work, there’s no room for a $750 enterprise Android tablet that can’t even access the Google Play Store.

Cisco’s OJ Winge reiterated that sentiment in a Cisco blog post “These stats underscore a major shift in the way people are working, in the office, at home and on-the-go, a shift that will continue to gain momentum.”

This isn’t the first innovative Cisco product to disappear from the company’s line up, last year they discontinued the Flip camera which was very popular with consumers.

Source: PC World

Samsung Galaxy S III Could Be Hitting T-Mobile Next Month With Galaxy Note Following Soon After

The Samsung Galaxy S III has been one of the most anticipated phones of the year, and the Galaxy Note was one of Samsung’s most successful devices as of late. While the GSIII hasn’t launched yet (and will internationally on May 29 and in the US this summer), the Galaxy Note has been on AT&T for a while now. Lucky for T-Mobile users, both of these devices could be heading to their beloved carrier in the coming months. Our friends at TmoNews have gotten some insight on when these devices could potentially be hitting the network.

Samsung Galaxy S III 16GB Metallic Blue – June 20th
Samsung Galaxy S III 32GB Metallic Blue – June
Samsung Galaxy S III 16GB Ceramic White – July 11th
Samsung Galaxy Note – July 11th

These dates go hand in hand with what we’ve heard for the timeline of the GSIII launch here in the US, although it doesn’t make sense that they launch the white version in 16 GB only and so long after the Metallic Blue version, especially because of the production issues Samsung has been having with the blue version. However, Samsung told us summer was when these devices would be hitting, and if T-Mobile is getting these devices in June/July other carriers most likely will not be too far behind. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on the GSIII launch in the US.

Source: TmoNews

Israeli Startup: Drippler A Must Have App For All Android Users VIDEO INTERVIEW

We got to talk to the team behind the must have Android app called Drippler. Drippler has already seen 1.5 million downloads in the Google Play Store and has a 4.8 rating.

Drippler is a unique mobile app that provides all kinds of information about your Android phone. Once you download the free app from the Google Play Store it detects which Android phone or tablet that you have. From there it aggregates all the information about your phone.

Drippler finds information from manufacturer websites, blogs, app review sites, tech sites and forums and consolidates it into one easy readable stream for you. Now you’ll never be behind when a firmware update comes out or a new app comes out that works better on your device. You can cut through the clutter of the 8 million Android blogs out there (ok there’s not really 800 Android blogs out there, but there’s a lot).

Drippler blends a unique mix of all the relevant information about the phone or tablet that you have the app installed on. If you have multiple Android devices, Drippler will show you just the information for the device you have the app on. So say you have a Samsung Galaxy S II and an Asus Transformer Prime. Drippler on your Galaxy S II will give you Galaxy S II information and Drippler on your Asus Transformer Prime will given you info on that particular tablet.

Check out our interview with the founder below:

Linkage:

Download Drippler from the Google Play Store here:

See more of our coverage from TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012

Nibletz is on a nationwide sneaker-strapped startup road show, find out more here

Jury Finally Reaches A Unanimous Verdict On Google Vs Oracle Case

Good news for Google and Android fans everywhere, the jury of the Google vs Oracle case has finally made a decision. The verdict, which was actually unanimous, was that Google is not infringing on Oracle’s patents, and that they are perfectly fine to use their API’s in Android’s coding. Oracle began the lawsuit in 2010 when they acquired Sun Microsystems, and Google had been using Java in Android before the deal happened. Google defended themselves by saying they weren’t aware of the patents they were allegedly infringing on, and that their operating system was also free to license.

Oracle didn’t believe this to be true obviously, but the jury decided they did today. After asking a technical question about the legal definition of certain phrases within the patents themselves, the jury was again in deliberations and decided on a verdict 30 minutes later. Google made the following statement about the win: “Today’s jury verdict that Android does not infringe Oracle’s patents was a victory not just for Google but the entire Android ecosystem.” This is definitely a big step for Google in the many patent woes they have encountered with Android, but sadly, not everything has been cleared up for Android. Apple and Samsung are still going at it, and patents continue to be a problem for one of the world’s largest mobile OS’s.

Source: CNET

Android Developers Introduces An Amazing App Analytics Tool You’ll Really Appreciate

Earlier this month we told you about Appreciate, your personal Android app store. With the Appreciate app you get recommended apps based on the apps you have on you already have on your #Android phone and apps based on what your friends like as well.

Israeli startup Triapodi has already had tremendous success with Appreciate, because of their “Appreciate Relevance Engine”.

Now they’ve opened up something very exciting for developers. Appreciate, for all intents and purposes, has opened up their backend for developers to see and organized it in an easy to understand and visually appealing UI that they call Appreciate STATS.

If you’re among the hundreds of thousands of people who have already downloaded Appreciate, you’ll agree it is a must-have free app that cuts through the clutter of the Google Play Android Market to help users get the most out of their mobile experience by delivering apps perfectly tailored to individual interests. Appreciate is also the only comprehensive Social App Market for Android, empowering users to locate others within the Appreciate community, and to discover and install apps that are being used by people with common interests.

If you’re a developer, marketer or simply an observer of the Android world, making sense of the marketplace is often a crapshoot. Appreciate STATS, available for public use starting on or about May 21, 2012, provides exclusive, powerful insights into the Android consumer and individual apps based on the real usage of hundreds of thousands of Appreciate users. Appreciate STATS goes far beyond rankings based on the mere number of downloads to deliver detailed, segmented information about the usage of the most popular apps and the efficiency of individual app pages.

Appreciate has opened up an unheard of amount of data for developers.
You can see the most popular apps, demographic data, apps that are like the most popular apps, engagement, even “Android Market Funnel” that gives developers a break down based on sex.

Appreciate also gives great data about devices as well. Like Millennial Media’s Mobile Mix report, Appreciate provides real data on handsets based on the handsets that download the Appreciate personal app store app and the handsets that then in turn download apps. This can be very valuable to a developer because they developer will know which handsets they need to develop for.

The stats dashboard offers developers data filters as well:

Geography: North America, Europe and Asia
Gender
Age Group: 13-20,20-25,25-30,30-40 and 40+
Category: Multimedia, Lifestyle, Sports,Social, Health,Books,Tools, Travel,Shopping

As you can see Appreciate has opened up a treasure trove of data for developers. Data, that until now was absent from their arsenal.

Check it out today at stats.appreciate.mobi oh and did we mention it’s free?

HTC Adds A Timeline To Their List Of Android 4.0 Device Updates, Due To Roll Out This Summer

Many of the popular Android manufacturers have been starting to release the lists of devices that they plan to update to the latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich. HTC started the year off by telling us what devices they would be updating, but never actually giving us any dates. Motorola and Samsung have recently released the list of devices they plan to update as well, however only Motorola has given us an ETA, although it was just in the different quarters of the year, mostly Q2.

HTC has now given us even more information on the times they will be updating their devices, with a broad but still informing timeline they have released on their website. There’s really no surprises, and nothing has really changed from what they told us earlier in the year. Most of the devices that would be expected to receive ICS are on the list, and are going to receive it sometime this summer. HTC has almost 20 devices who have made the cut for the new OS, and only the DROID Incredible 2 has something a little different than the others with a “to be determined (by the end of August)” next to its name. This is probably a non-issue, but no other device has anything like it so we’ll be sure to keep our eyes out for any changes.

Here’s the list of devices that HTC has promised updates for and when they will be getting the update:

DROID Incredible 2 by HTC	To be determined (by the end of August)
HTC Amaze 4G	May-June
HTC Desire S	June-July
HTC Desire HD	July-August
HTC EVO 3D	June-July
HTC EVO 4G+	May-June
HTC EVO Design 4G	June-July
HTC Incredible S	June-July
HTC Sensation	March-June
HTC Sensation 4G	March-June
HTC Sensation XE	March-June
HTC Sensation XL	April-Jun
HTC Rezound	June-July
HTC Rhyme	June-July
HTC Thunderbolt	July-August
HTC Velocity 4G	March-June
HTC Vivid	March-June

Unlocked Samsung Galaxy S III Available For Pre-Order In US

If you absolutely can’t wait to get ahold of the brand new Samsung Galaxy S III, and you don’t mind paying full retail we’ve got great news for you. Thanks to the wonderful folks at Amazon you can now preorder the unlocked version of the Samsung Galaxy S III in the United States.

There are no definite launch dates set for the US carriers. We’re supposed to hear about US carriers at a Samsung event in the US in the coming weeks. However, there is a release date for the unlocked version via Amazon and that date is just a week or so away on June 1.

The unlocked version will be of the GSM variety and work on T-Mobile and AT&T as previous unlocked flagship Samsung Android devices always have.

The preorder will only set you back $799 so go on you know you want to! Hit the link below.

Preorder Link

Source: Phandroid

Now Your Android Phone Can Tell You When You Can Play Diablo III

Our gaming editor, Damien Rane, is having the hardest time getting a review of Diablo III published, and of course it’s no fault of his own. Like millions of other American gamers Rane was out at midnight on the night of Diablo III’srelease and home ready to play, but couldn’t.

Most Diablo fans as well as WoW fans are very familiar with the scenario. Blizzard, the company behind both titles, sells millions and millions of units but never seems to upgrade their server farm. You would think with the popularity of their two franchise titles they would be able to support their custom base on opening night.

What’s more disturbing is that while WoW is an MMORPG, Diablo III, is for the most part a single player game. There’s no real need for the player to be connected to the server throughout the entire game, aside from DRM. But they’re game to do what they want with it.

So what’sthe problem?

Any frequent Blizzard game player knows about “error 37” which basically equates to the Blizzard servers being down. On Diablo IIIs release night Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus were abuzz with pissed off customers who bought Diablo III and took to social networks to report they couldn’t play the game because Blizzards battlement servers were down.

There’s good news now though, at least for Android users. Android developer Eluamous has released an Android app and widget that will let you know when the servers are ready two go. No longer will you have to waste your precious time, checking to see if the battle net servers are ready.

The app is getting rave reviews in the Google Play Store. The develop has also made similar apps for other games including World of Warcraft (WoW).

The best part is that the app is free. So download it and get back to playing.

Download link Here

Source: WebProNews