Android Community |
- GT Racing: Hyundai Edition released in the Google Play store
- T-Mobile offering free copy of The Avengers to Galaxy S III owners
- NVIDIA launches two new games exclusively for Tegra 3 devices
- ASUS to unveil Padfone 2 on October 16
- Series 3 Android figurines going on sale September 24
- Facebook testing automatic photo uploads on Android
- AT&T Galaxy S III gets minor UI update, bug fixes
- Android UI head is only a third satisfied with Android
- Google Maps for Android updates with improved syncing
- AT&T launches 4G LTE in eight new cities
- T-Mobile announces John Legere as new CEO
- Samsung Galaxy Note will be American Airlines’ new toy
| GT Racing: Hyundai Edition released in the Google Play store Posted: 20 Sep 2012 11:14 AM PDT Gameloft has been a dominate figure in the Android gaming marketplace. One of its hit titles is GT Racing. The game developer today announced their latest title in the GT Racing series. GT Racing: Hyundai Edition features — you guessed it — two different Hyundai models that you can play around with.
The game features the Hyundai Genesis Coupé and the I-oniq concept car. The I-oniq is being featured in a video game for the first time ever. Players can take both of these rides for a spin on three tracks that are featured in the original GT Racing game (Monte Carlo, Scandinavia and Speed Ring). The game includes all the great features that you can find in the original GT Racing: The same awesome graphics and controls, as well the chance to compete against other racers using the GT Racing: Motor Academy leaderboards. The two games are seamlessly integrated into one another. While Gameloft’s Asphalt series might be a better game overall, you can’t beat the free price tag of the GT Racing series. GT Racing: Hyundai Edition is available now for free in the Google Play store.
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| T-Mobile offering free copy of The Avengers to Galaxy S III owners Posted: 20 Sep 2012 10:52 AM PDT Do you happen to have a Galaxy S III? Is it on T-Mobile USA’s network? If you answered yes to both questions, it looks like you’ll get the opportunity to download a free copy of The Avengers starting on September 25. T-Mobile and Samsung will be rolling out some updates to the Galaxy S III on the same day and are giving current and future S III owners a free copy of the Marvel movie.
The movie will be available as a download via the Samsung Media Hub and will be automatically pre-loaded on new Galaxy S III devices for future owners. The movie will be available for you to download on the same day that it comes out on Blu-ray, DVD, and video-on-demand. And if you’re wondering, the free download is in glorious HD. Sadly, the deal is only valid for T-Mobile USA users, so all other Galaxy S III owners are out of luck. Then again, if you really want to see The Avengers, you can just rent it from the Google Play store for only $1.99 ($2.99 for the HD version). T-Mobile customers will be able to wirelessly stream the movie to compatible televisions using the AllShare Cast feature and the AllShare Case Wireless Hub. The Hub is an accessory that will cost $99.99 and go on sale starting September 24. So if you don’t want to be stuck watching The Avengers on your tiny mobile display, you’ll be able to easily display it on the big screen in the living room. Device Info
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 [via SlashGear]
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| NVIDIA launches two new games exclusively for Tegra 3 devices Posted: 20 Sep 2012 10:25 AM PDT NVIDIA just announced two new Android games that are exclusive to Tegra 3 devices (like the Nexus 7 and Acer’s Iconia Tab A700): The Bard’s Tale and Fort Courage. Both games are adventure-based and feature stunning 3D graphics that take advantage of the Tegra 3 processor.
The Bard’s Tale will provide you with 20-30 hours of play time and features 50 enemy types with over 12 different bosses to defeat. You also have access to over 150 items like weapons, armor, instruments, tokens, artifacts, and loot. The game also comes with leaderboards and achievements, as well as access to the original classic The Bard’s Tale I: Tales of the Unknown and its two sequels for free. The game is available now in the Google Play store for $5.95. Fort Courage features over 80 hours of gameplay and essentially has you defending off several waves of enemies throughout the game. There’s not a lot of content compared to The Bard’s Tale, since there’s only 15 enemies and 3 bosses, as well as only a handful of weapons and armor, but there’s over 120 stages in the game, which will provide you with hours and hours of play time longer after you finish The Bard’s Tale. Fort Courage is free in the Google Play store.
NVIDIA has long been dedicated to gaming, especially mobile gaming on Tegra. The Tegra Zone is where you can browse tons of games to play on any Tegra-enabled device (there’s even a Tegra Zone app you can download from the Google Play store). You can also check out our Tegra hub right here on Android Community where you can keep on all things Tegra.
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| ASUS to unveil Padfone 2 on October 16 Posted: 20 Sep 2012 09:46 AM PDT Just a few days ago we heard about a new Padfone through a leak with benchmarks and all. Today, we saw this enticing invitation to join ASUS as they launch the Padfone 2 in Italy and Taiwan on October 16. Hopefully this time they’ll send it off to the US for us Americans to enjoy.
The invitation doesn’t say much more than what’s on the invite itself — what you see is what you get. It does gives a little sliver of the new Padfone 2 device, but other than that, it just tells us to “save the date” to what looks like will be a blissful event for those that have been waiting on a second-generation Padfone.
The Padfone 2 is rumored to come packing with a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor (the same CPU that’s in the LG Optimus G) and 2GB of RAM. Since the leaked benchmarks are mostly in Chinese, it’s hard to tell what other fun stuff it has, but Ice Cream Sandwich looks to be what’s running on the new device. We can obviously expect a sleeker design and faster hardware, possibly a 1080p HD screen as well. We can only wait and see what fun stuff ASUS has in store for us, which thankfully is only less than a month away. If you’ve been waiting a while for ASUS to pull off a second-gen Padfone, have your wallets at the ready and get in the pre-ordering mindset. Device Info
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[via PocketDroid]
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| Series 3 Android figurines going on sale September 24 Posted: 19 Sep 2012 05:17 PM PDT We love our Android collectible figurines here at Android Community, so you could say we’re pretty happy to hear that some new figurines are going on sale soon. If you’re looking to add content to your current Android shrine, take note that the new Series 3 collection will be going on sale starting next week on September 24.
We’ve been expecting Series 3 Android collectibles since the designs were leaked back in February, but now we can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that they’re finally coming in a couple of days. There will be a few different styles to choose from, including a clear model that has a smaller keychain-sized Android figurine inside (pictured above).
If you don't know much about these small collectible critters, they are essentially little Android vinyl figurines that have movable arms and heads. They are extremely popular within the Android community and most diehard Android users have one (or a few) being proudly displayed somewhere.
The collectibles officially go on sale at 11:00 AM Eastern time and will be available at the Dead Zebra shop (with shipments going out as early as September 26), but it’s likely they’ll sell out quickly, so be sure to bookmark that page and head back there when the clock strikes 11 come next Monday. Otherwise, you’ll be subjected to searching the web to find any toy stores who might have some in stock. [via DYZPlastic]
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| Facebook testing automatic photo uploads on Android Posted: 19 Sep 2012 04:35 PM PDT Facebook is now currently testing a new feature on Android called “Photo Sync“. It works by uploading photos that you take with your phone straight to your Facebook account. It’s been rolling out to only a select number of users, which is what Facebook likes to do when testing out potential new features.
Facebook’s new Photo Sync feature more or less works the same way that Google+‘s Instant Upload works, as well as Apple’s Photostream. With Photo Sync, whenever you take a picture on your Android device, the photo automatically uploads to your Facebook account, but will remain private inside a special “Synced from Phone” tab until you give it the go-ahead to publicly post it to your profile. No word yet on if this will be a permanent feature to be rolled out to all users or how long the feature will stay in its testing phase. To see if it works for you, go to your Timeline in the Facebook app, tap Photos, and then tap Sync (if it exists). If it doesn’t show up, you’re one of the unlucky ones. This feature will certainly help Facebook keep up on in the race of best photo features. Buying Instagram certainly helped, but Google is right up there with their acquisition of Snapseed. It’ll be interesting to see the three-way battle between Facebook, Google, and Apple on who comes up with the best photo feature next. [via The Verge]
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| AT&T Galaxy S III gets minor UI update, bug fixes Posted: 19 Sep 2012 04:06 PM PDT If you own a Samsung Galaxy S III on AT&T’s network, be on the lookout for an OTA update if you haven’t already received it. A lot of users are reporting it’s a small update — only 82MB — but it comes packing with a few user interface changes, as well as a handful of bug fixes.
Some of the user interface tweaks include the addition of a screen brightness adjuster in notifications, a new “VPN Client” app, keyboard improvements, added effects to the default camera app, and auto-scaling of widgets (not to the extent of Jelly Bean, though). AT&T doesn’t say what all has been improved and fixed, so you’ll have to do some exploring to find out what all changed. The Galaxy S III is Samsung‘s flagship smartphone and was released over three-and-a-half months ago. It’s already sold over 20 million units and is one of the best smartphones on the market right now. It’s certainly nice that Samsung and AT&T are keeping it fresh with updates, and we’re pretty excited for Jelly Bean to come aboard next month. If you’re having problems with the update (a handful of users are, apparently), you can head over to the dedicated thread on XDA Developers. If you’re safely up and running with the new update, let us know how it is in the comments! Device Info
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[via Phandroid]
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| Android UI head is only a third satisfied with Android Posted: 19 Sep 2012 03:20 PM PDT Android has come a long way from its inception almost four years ago. Google has made amazing progress with its mobile operating system and they wowed us with 4.1 Jelly Bean in June. However, Android still isn’t even close to where Google wants it to be. Senior Director of Android User Experience Matias Duarte even said it himself.
In response to a comment of criticism on Duarte’s Google+ page, the Google boss replied agreeing with the critic. “It’s true, we still have a lot of work to do. Personally I feel like I’ve gotten only about a third of the way to where I want to be with regards to consistency, responsiveness, and polish,” said Duarte. Jelly Bean was initially announced in late-June, and we particularly liked it, but there were obviously a few things that we would’ve done differently. With that said, we know where Duarte is coming from and we’re excited to see what Google comes up with during the remaining two-thirds of refinement. Of course, probably one of the most popular gripes of Android is its many versions still floating around on different devices. While very few phones and tablets are running Google latest version, a lot of users are still stuck on Gingerbread, Honeycomb, or Ice Cream Sandwich.
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| Google Maps for Android updates with improved syncing Posted: 19 Sep 2012 02:00 PM PDT Google has released an Android update for Google Maps today, which includes better syncing across multiple devices. The update comes on the same day that Apple released iOS 6, which has wiped Google Maps completely from its interface.
The update allow users to sync their Google Maps search results across their computers and mobile devices. To get it working, you just have to make sure you’re signed into Google Maps and that your web history is enabled. From there, Google takes care of the rest and automatically syncs your search history. "Typing on a phone is slow, and our goal is to reduce the amount of typing as much as possible," says vice president of engineering for Google Maps Brian McClendon. He’s certainly right, and this new syncing feature makes it a lot easier to search for locations that you’ve searched before on your computer. The update comes on the same day that Apple officially boots Google Maps off of iOS, so this could be Google’s way of fighting back or just a small message for what’s yet to come. McClendon says that Apple’s Maps app does not offer this syncing feature, since Apple doesn't have a giant search engine that can gather data about what you’ve searched. [via SlashGear]
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| AT&T launches 4G LTE in eight new cities Posted: 19 Sep 2012 01:29 PM PDT While AT&T might not have as big of a 4G network as Verizon, the carrier is working hard to get its faster speeds to more cities and hopefully catch up with Verizon’s 4G offering. AT&T announced throughout the past couple of days that 4G LTE service is now live in eight new cities.
With the growing number of 4G LTE phones, like the Samsung Galaxy S III and HTC’s One X, the demand for 4G service is constantly on the rise. Luckily, AT&T is working on meeting that demand for its users. Here’s a list of the eight cities that have received 4G LTE within the past couple of days: - Honolulu, HI While AT&T is still missing a majority of other big cities, like Denver, CO and Louisville, KY, this is certainly a start. They also have a huge list of cities that they plan on rolling 4G out to at some point. 2012 has been a big year for 4G implementation for AT&T. In July, they launched seven new cities and flipped the switch on twelve cities back in April. Verizon is dominating the 4G LTE race, but AT&T is slowly creeping up. It’ll only be a matter of time before both carriers cover most of the US with their respective 4G networks. From there, it’ll be a whole other race as both carriers aim to completely cover the entire country.
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| T-Mobile announces John Legere as new CEO Posted: 19 Sep 2012 12:42 PM PDT Deutsche Telekom, a European parent company of T-Mobile, announced today that T-Mobile’s new chief executive officer will be John Legere. Effective September 22, Legere will take the CEO seat and succeed Jim Alling, who served as interim CEO since June when long-time CEO Philip Humm stepped down.
Legere has served in the U.S. and global telecommunications and technology industry for over 30 years, and was previously the CEO of Global Crossing, a provider of internet protocol services. Legere also was Senior Vice President of Dell, where he oversaw the company's operations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region. Legere also worked at AT&T before Dell, where he served in multiple senior positions over the years. He was President of AT&T Asia and AT&T Solutions Outsourcing, as well as the head of global corporate strategy and business development. Legere began his career at New England Telephone in 1980. Legere will be in familiar territory when he takes the T-Mobile CEO helm in a couple of days. His previous company, Global Crossing, has seen some of its own hardships in the past, so Legere definitely has first-hand experience of what it’s like to be at a struggling company, so hopefully he’s the one that can turn T-Mobile around. [via TmoNews]
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| Samsung Galaxy Note will be American Airlines’ new toy Posted: 19 Sep 2012 12:04 PM PDT The Samsung Galaxy Note acts as a great miniature tablet — perfect for those who are constantly on the go but want a little more screen size out of their devices. American Airlines thinks so as well, so they’re going to be equipping all of their flight attendants with Galaxy Notes.
The airline is purchasing a whopping 17,000 Galaxy Notes to hand out to their entire fleet of flight attendants. They will be used for recording customer meal and beverage preferences, accessing customer information (like name, seat number, and loyalty program status) and identifying VIP customers or those who require special assistance. Essentially, American Airlines is looking to throw themselves into the 21st century with high-tech gadgets. The devices will also be used for transactions during flights, like purchasing certain meals or drinks. More uses for the Galaxy Notes aboard AA flights will arrive in the future, like accessing the flight manual and other physical media to cut down on environmental waste and reduce weight. But why the Galaxy Note? American Airline says the device was ultimately picked “because of its thin, portable design, easy to handle profile, SAFE security features, and 5.3-inch HD display that provide wide-screen readability and the functionality necessary to equip flight attendants with the ability to better know their customers and deliver the service they value.” Honestly, they should have just waited until the Galaxy Note II arrives. It’s only a month or so off and has some newer features and faster hardware that flight attendants could take advantage of. I’m sure American Airlines is just realizing this and are probably facepalming as I speak. Device Info
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