Tag: Tablets

It seems like it’s hard to find a non-Nexus device that uses anything close to stock Android. Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony, Asus, Acer – everywhere you look there are customizations to a greater or lesser extent. Even Motorola, formerly Google’s own subsidiary, uses a custom launcher. Chinese manufacturer ZTE is looking to break that trend, however. The company is planning to launch new smartphones that use the Google Now Launcher (AKA the Google Experience Launcher) by default.

ZTE Chooses The Google Now Launcher (GEL) As The Default Homescreen For Upcoming Smartphones was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Tasker is right up there with our lord Matias Duarte in the amount of love it gets from the Android community. There’s really no other way to get anywhere close to the same kind of automation running on your device. The new v4.4 update adds even more functionality to this already robust app. Heck, you almost don’t have to touch the phone anymore. That doesn’t really sound as fun, though.

Massive v4.4 changelog incoming.

Huge Tasker v4.4 Update Fixes Some Bugs And Adds So, So Many Things was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Sony is beginning the rollout of a new firmware update for its current flagship, the Xperia Z2. The software (version number 17.1.2.A.0.314) doesn’t bump the underlying version of Android, which was already based on KitKat. Instead, Sony is cleaning up the rough edges.

Here’s the changelog for the 17.1.2.A.0.314 firmware.

As Sony is fond of pointing out, software updates happen at different times in different regions, so you might not be getting an update just yet.

Sony Xperia Z2 Gets An Update With Enhanced Call Quality, Improved Charging, And More was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Kyocera isn’t exactly a big name in modern Android smartphones, but it does make a lot of rugged devices that don’t get much press. It’s also big in materials science, which is where sapphire comes in. See, it seems like a safe bet that the next iPhone will have a sapphire glass display, and Kyocera happens to know a lot about manufacturing synthetic sapphire for watches and electrical components. So, they’re making sapphire screens for smartphones.

Kyocera Says It Will Make Sapphire Screens For Smartphones was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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An image of what looked to be a Shield-like controller at the FCC last month had rumors swirling about a successor to NVIDIA’s hybrid touchscreen-gamepad system. Well, it looks like that may have only been part of the picture because @evleaks has just dropped a shot of what is claimed to be the Shield tablet. Take a look.

This device is remarkably similar to NVIDIA’s Tegra Note reference hardware in regard to design language, so we’re clearly looking at something they’ve created.

Evleaks Drops Press Render Of Upcoming NVIDIA Shield Tablet was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Every major corporation has to fire people at some point. But Microsoft’s plan to eliminate 18,000 jobs this year is, to say the least, a big deal. The company announced its plans on a blog post titled “Starting to Evolve Our Organization and Culture,” written by new CEO Satya Nadella. Former Nokia employees will bear the brunt of this downsize, with 12,500 office and factory workers from the Finnish phone giant being laid off.

Microsoft Will Lay Off 18,000 Employees, Mostly From Nokia, Future Android-Powered Nokia X Phones Unlikely was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Google I/O was pretty amazing this year, right? We got the deets on Material design, a preview version of Android L, the formal release of Android Wear, the first manifestations of Android TV and Android Auto, and plenty of other bits and pieces. However, all of that content and all of those developer sessions can take forever to absorb, and professional developers just don’t have time for that. Now that all of the videos have been posted, I’ve combed through over every last one to narrow the list down to just the sessions that absolutely can’t be missed.

[For Developers] Google I/O 2014 Wrap-Up: The Must-See Sessions For Every Developer was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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So, you still don’t have Koush’s AllCast? If you happened to snag all those free Amazon Coins from a few weeks ago, you can officially get this incredibly useful casting app for exactly zero moneydollars. If you didn’t jump on the free coins bandwagon, however, you’ll have to suck it up and pay five moneys for the full version (via IAP). See, it pays to get free Amazon things from time to time, because then you can get more free Amazon things.

AllCast Is Now On The Amazon Appstore, Giving You Something To Use All Those Free Coins On was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Welcome to the latest entry in our Bonus Round series, wherein we tell you all about the new Android games of the day that we couldn’t get to during our regular news rounds. Consider this a quick update for the dedicated gamers who can’t wait for our bi-weekly roundups, and don’t want to wade through a whole day’s worth of news just to get their pixelated fix. Today we’ve got an incredibly detailed flight (and only flight) simulator, a 3D tactical RPG, and an endless skater.

[Bonus Round] F18 Carrier Landing II, Lionheart Tactics, And Transworld Endless Skater was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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The perennial trading card game from Wizards of the Coast made its Android debut last year, and it seems that the developers intend to give it regular updates, just like the PC version. Magic 2015 includes an expanded collection of cards that match the physical card game, though you’ll have to shell out quite a lot of cash for the full set – not unlike the real-world counterpart. Magic 2015 is a free download, but you’ll need at least 1.2GB of free space to hold it.

[New Game] Magic (The Gathering) 2015 Brings An Updated Roster And Online Multiplayer To The CCG Standard was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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