Try to escape from the police in Highway Madness game

While most of the games that you play on your mobile devices allow you to become a hero, there are times when the latent criminal element in you just wants to play a bad guy. A new Android game lets you become a robber trying to escape from the police (and the traffic as well) and it's a great bit of make-believe criminal fun.

Highway Madness is a fun new game from UnderDogs studio, the makers of Mega Snakes and Ladders and Parking Evolution 3 among others. The endless runner 3D car chase game will let you practice your police-evading skills and your smartphone-tilting prowess as you try to drive as fast as you can. You have 50 distance levels to go through, 23 achievements to...uhm...achieve, 3 fun vehicles to choose from and a number of super powerups to help you become faster, stealthier and a world-class criminal escape artist.

The game can be played in immersive mode which means messages and other notifications will not be able to distract you from your goal of getting away with the "biggest robbery in town". The developer claims that it is intuitive and easy to understand, but difficult to actually master. The graphics aren't that sophisticated as other car chase mobile games as it uses "Generic app with HD optimized graphics".

It also has global leaderboards for those who want to see how they compare to other players around the world. You can download Highway Madness for free from the Google Play Store, and it offers in-app purchases as well.

CyanogenMod 11.0 M10 gets new bug reporting system

The last time we talked about CyanogenMod was in June when CyanogenMod 11 M7 launched. This week the latest version of CyanogenMod has launched bringing the software to version M10. The developers behind the software say that this new version was a bit late to market thanks to the holiday at the beginning of the month.

Amongst the changes made to this latest version of the software is a new tool added called the CM Bug Tracker application. When a crash happens with a device running CyanogenMod 11 users will now get the option to upload a snippet of the log to developers. The tool will also upload the stack trace that goes along with the log.

A new field was also added to the take a bug report option in Developer settings. A scrubbed copy of that bug report can be sent via the send action users are shown. Data uploaded to the developers when a crash or bug is reported includes what device users are on, build, kernel, and Android runtime the user was running when the submission was made.

Other changes with the latest version of the software includes the addition of the Galaxy S5 for Sprint. The Galaxy Note 3 was also split out into GSM (hlte), Sprint (hltespr), and Verizon (hltevzw). ANT+ support for various hardware was added along with a number of other software updates and fixes.

SOURCE: CyanogenMod.org

Verizon rolls out VoLTE and Advanced Calling 1.0

We’ve been waiting for the VoLTE and Advanced Calling services from Verizon. The new network offering, which was announced in 2013 and detailed last May, is now available for Verizon subscribers to enjoy. However, not every one subscribed to Verizon can enjoy HD calling as the feature requires LTE connectivity. Obviously, only phones with LTE are supported over the VoLTE network.

The Advanced Calling 1.0 by Verizon officially rolled out yesterday. It’s a suite of features that include HD Video calls and Video Calling for Voice over LTE (VoLTE). At present, only the LG G2 and Samsung Galaxy S5 are supported but more smartphones are expected to be included in the lineup in the next few weeks.

Current line subscribers and owners of the Galaxy S5 and LG G2 by Verizon will get the Advanced Calling 1.0 as a free add-on on top of the paid service. It’s free so no extra charges should be incurred. It will be treated as any regular voice calls.

Verizon’s Advanced Calling 1.0 allows 1-way or 2-way video calls, regular voice and data services, and HD Voice calls. With this service, supported devices can also participate in 6-way conference calls without the use of any app on the phone. Verizon takes voice calling to a new level but as already mentioned, only a couple of devices are supported for now.

LG G2 and Samsung Galaxy S5 owners can opt-in to the service by simply updating their phones to the latest firmware. Verizon released the updates only last week for the two Android phones. Click on the “Get Advanced Calling 1.0″ button at Verizon’s Advanced Calling 1.0 page, enable the VoLTE Call option on phone, and voila, you are ready to take and make HD Voice calls.

VIA: Droid Life

SOURCE: Verizon

Making and sharing your own Google Map is getting easier thanks to the newly rebranded and relaunche

Making and sharing your own Google Map is getting easier thanks to the newly rebranded and relaunched "My Maps" tool. There's also a new Android app so you can make and manage your maps on the go.

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AntiSquad Tactics: unleash your inner spy/mercenary/assassin

When you were younger, you probably dreamed of going on a super secret special mission for the CIA or a black ops team for the government. With the advent of all kinds of tactic games, both on consoles and mobile devices, you can actually virtually fulfil those kinds of dreams. AntiSquad Tactics is one of the newest games on Android that sends you on a mission to become the spy or mercenary or assassin that you always knew you could be.

The app is a turn-based game with cartoony, comic-like graphics where you can use all your tactical strategies to help your character or team fulfill the mission you were hired for. The game has more than 30 missions in different environments plus dozens of abilities and weapons to choose from. You may be asked to either infiltrate an organisation, escape from a dangerous mission, eliminate some characters or groups, assault a fortress and many other kinds of missions.

In order to better understand where your “good guys” are coming from, a video comic has been added to introduce the game. If your aim is to just shoot the bad guys and not understand any of that back story stuff, you can also do so on several modes. The visuals remind you a bit of those classic 80s action movies that made superstars of the likes of Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Steven Steagal, et al.

AntiSquad Tactics is available for free from the Google Play Store. However, there are several in-app purchases so don’t forget to turn off that option if you don’t want to “accidentally” spend on virtual weapons and the likes or if someone else will be playing the game on your Android device.

Chrome for Android puts answers inside search suggestions

Google's search optimizations and features are all about giving you answers to questions as fast as possible, sometimes even before you finish asking them. Such might be the rationale behind a somewhat hidden feature in the Chrome for Android browser that puts the answers you might want, right in the browser's suggestion box.

Normally, you'd get answers after you've clicked or tapped on a specific query. With this "Answers in Suggest" feature, however, some answers will appear right in the Omnibox even while you're still typing. For those unfamiliar with browser lingo, the "omnibox" is the input box that functions both as an area for entering or display a web address as well as the place where you type out search terms for directly jumping into Google (or your search engine of choice, depending on the browser).

The feature isn't enabled by default, so you will have to dig in through Chrome's special settings to get it. You will have to type in "chrome://flags" (without the quotes) in the Omnibar to get to those advanced, and sometimes experimental, browser settings. Look for the "Answers in Suggest" (you might want to use the Find in page feature) and set it to Enabled.

Answers in Suggest doesn't seem to be available yet for everyone, whether you're on Chrome stable of beta versions, and not all searches have answers (not in the philosophical sense). It seems to be limited to queries that would normally have a Google Search card answer. This feature is definitely something handy to have when you need to look up something really quick, so hopefully it will roll out to the general public soon.

VIA: AusDroid

Story Timeline

• Chrome for Android adds closed tab undo, Chromecast support


• Chrome for Android brings back the Doodles on new tabs


• Chrome Browser v37 now has Google's material design

Toshiba outs thinner, smaller 20MP CMOS image sensor

Japan-based electronics outfit Toshiba might have just launched a new CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) image sensor that could be the main element for the camera units of future high-end smartphones and phablets. Don’t be bummed out by the generic sounding naming convention, but the T4KA7 delivers 20-megapixel resolution at an optical height of 1/2.4 inch.

This new sensor boasts an improved frame rate of full-resolution capture – at 22fps for a full resolution 5384x3752 image – Toshiba says that this represents an 83% improvement in performance from their last 20MP sensor. The sensor is mostly targeted at high-end flagship-level devices that leverage on thin form factors.

One of the main selling points of the new sensor is that it has a digital zoom capability that gives no discernable deterioration at full zoom. That’s something that most camera units right now can’t boast of. It’s exciting to think that next generation camera units could have this ability – imagine zooming to your target without image distortion. Wow.

The T4KA7 also launches together with 2 lower megapixel sensors – the 13MP T4K82, which allows 240fps capture at 1080p resolution, and the 8MP T4KA3, which is targeted at mid-range smartphones. We hope that more flagship devices would take advantage of these sensors soon.

SOURCE: TOSHIBA

Story Timeline

• Toshiba TransferJet wireless transfer USB sticks now out in the wild


• Toshiba dual-camera module makes it easier to erase unwanted objects in photos


• Toshiba Chromebook now available in the US and UK