Cyanogen reported to have declined Google’s buyout offer

Not everyone wants to be assimilated into the mothership and apparently Cyanogen, Inc. is of that same mind. Word is that Google's own Android top honcho Sundar Pichai approached the fledgling startup with an offer to save them from financial woes, to which the CyanogenMod makers simply said no.

That Google is eying Cyanogen, the company, is both surprising and somewhat worrying at the same time, with the biggest question being "why". There are various theories floating around and very few of them paint Google in a kind way. At the very best, we can think that the Android maker has been impressed by the genius behind the CyanogenMod ROM and wanted it for themselves. But given the ROMs goals are, to some extent, opposed to Google's proprietary hold over Android, the other theories are equally possible and frightening, such as Google trying to prevent the startup from snatching up Google's prospective partners in emerging markets or simply trying to silence the most popular and "divergent" Android ROM around.

This news, or rumor, also hints that Cyanogen, the company, might be in financial trouble. The startup was formed from the core developers of a not profitable open source community but it has so far manged to keep afloat only with two deals, one with OPPO on the N1 and one with OnePlus on the One. How long they can maintain the status quo is anyone's guess, but there is no doubt that Cyanogen, Inc. will need money in order to keep operating. There has been talk that it plans on putting price tags on CM themes as a source of income, but that could only go so far.

Interestingly, Cyanogen Inc.'s standing in the wider Android community isn't exactly clear cut. While they remain the core developers of CyanogenMod, the ROM is still an open source project. However, its move to incorporate themselves wasn't met with welcome arms all throughout, leaving some to leave the project and even make their own ROM. It will be interesting to see how Cyanogen will fare in the near future and how its own fate will affect the most popular Android ROM around. And hopefully it won't be as bad as what this news seems to be hinting at.

VIA: SlashGear

Dead Trigger 2 launches zombie-killing Ithaca Tour tourney

Dead Trigger 2 is almost a year old already on the Android platform and it has come up with an in-game tournament to liven up the gameplay of the millions of players it has on the mobile platform. It will of course be a zombie shooting tournament, and the game devs will be generous enough to put up 500k of in-game currency for each stop of the 5-city tourney.

The tournament has its own backstory cooked up by the game devs – you want to read up on that, check out the tournament-specific website here. That said, the short version is that there seems to be a lull in zombie activity (although they say it feels like a “calm before the storm” thing) within the game. The break will allow players to shore on their zombie-killing skills, hence the tournament.

The mechanics are pretty simple – you have to be at least Tech Level 5 within the game to enter, and plump up 1000 units of in-game cash as entry fee to the tournament. You will be given nothing but an Ithaca Shotgun and an M1 Garand to arm your player with, plus any other equipment you might want to take. Boosters and respawns will be unavailable within the tournament. You will get three attempts at the specified play area and your best score counts as your entry to the tournament.

The price, as we have mentioned, is 500,000 in in-game cash for the first prize an 250k for the second prize winner. The tournament starts in London at 1:00AM PDT and ends on October 5th. Of course, the tournament applies to people who have been playing the game for a while now. If you haven’t downloaded the game, check it out at the Google Play Store.

Story Timeline

• Dead Trigger 2 Arena update teased in new video


• Dead Trigger 2 "Arena of Death" update arrives in the Play Store


• Dead Trigger 2 adds hellish arena and alien weapons

Roku rolls out Screen Mirroring Beta feature for Android

Sharing content is now easier with Roku. The company recently announced the beta version of a screen mirroring featuring for some Android and Windows 8.1 devices. Now, it’s easier to mirror apps, videos, and websites to share with people around you. No need to install other software as any compatible device can mirror the things you want to display right from your phone or tablet to a TV. Of course, all these and more are possible via your Roku device, specifically the Roku HDMI Streaming Stick and the Roku 3.

Got photos or videos on your phone you want to show to family while at home? Enable screen mirroring on your tablet, smartphone, or PC and content will appear on the TV screen. If you’re in the office, you can easily share emails and presentations from your laptop or mobile device onto a TV.

Screen mirroring allows Roku users to connect their devices with their TVs in fun ways. It also runs the Play On Roku feature found on the Roku mobile app to send media content like music, videos, and photos to your TV. You can even use other apps like YouTube and Netflix to launch videos on your mobile device and then mirror straight to the TV. All these are possible through a Roku player.

This new feature is only available for select Android, Windows 8, and Windows Phone devices. For Android users, devices compatible are the following: HTC One (M8) by AT&T, Kindle Fire HDX, Google Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7, Samsung Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4 by AT&T, Galaxy S5 by AT&T, and Galaxy Note 3. Note that minimum requirement is Android 4.4.2 except for the Kindle Fire HDX which runs Fire OS 3.0

SOURCE: Roku

Story Timeline

• Roku app update enables streaming from smartphones to TVs


• Roku mobile app sports a brand new look


• Roku Streaming Stick takes on Google Chromecast

Very early Android L on the Galaxy S5: gorgeous but raw

Android L should be, if the rumors pan out, just a month away, but of course it will be coming much later to OEMs and their flagships. The folks at SamMobile, however, were able to get a hold of an alpha build for the Galaxy S5 and took it out for a test, and the results are both impressive and a tad disappointing.

Of all the Android OEMs, Samsung is the most notorious for diverging from the Android experience, especially in the visual department. With Android L, however, Google is bringing a new design language and is more intent on keeping custom skins in check this time around. So it is quite interesting to see how Samsung intends to marry Android L's Material Design with its own TouchWiz aesthetic.

Given that this is from a very early Android L build, it isn't surprising that there is an uneven mixture of the two design. For the most part, however, it seems that Samsung is behaving well and applying the principles of Material Design even in its own apps. Perhaps it helps that Samsung has already switched to a flatter, more minimalistic design since the Galaxy S5. It is definitely encouraging to see that Samsung's custom apps are slowly getting a Material Design facelift as well, and one can only hope that the trend continues and improves in future builds.

That said, not everything is compliant with Google's own practices. In particular, the total of lockscreen notifications have been limited to two, versus Google's four, supposedly because of Samsung's fancy yet unnecessary unlocking animation. The Settings app is also still a jungle and it is unlikely that Samsung will ever be fixing that.

SamMobile notes that the build was quite slow and buggy, unsurprising for an alpha quality version. That said, things are expected to speed up, considering Android L's ART runtime promises performance and speed improvements all around. Hopefully, that will also be the case for Samsung's version, especially considering that TouchWiz is also infamous for being bloated and slow.

SOURCE: SamMobile

Story Timeline

• Top five Samsung TouchWiz features you might be missing on Android


• Android L and Material Design: tactile, bold, dynamic


• Did Google confirm that Android L will be Lollipop?

GroupOn pays users to shop with new Snap app

It's probably the dream of every shopaholic (or come to think of it, every person) to get paid cash for shopping. And that is basically what the new app from group buying site GroupOn called Snap does. Whenever you buy any of the featured items, you get a cash rebate off them and also a chance to win free groceries for a year worth $13,000.

How it works is pretty simple. After you download the Snap app, you need to look through the products and offers before you go to any grocery or supermarket. You can even build a grocery list within the app so it would be easier to keep track of what you need to buy. Head on over to any store and buy the featured items. Take a picture of the receipt, upload it to the app and they will put money into your account. As soon as you've saved up to $20, you can already opt to cash out and they will send you a check for the necessary amount.

Products include grocery items like bread, personal care, cleaning supplies, diapers and other household products. Some brands like Country Crock, PF Chang's, Glad and Huggies have introductory cash back offers as well. You can also earn $1 cash back everytime a friend or loved one opens an account and redeems their first eligible offer through your referral through Facebook or email.

To entice more people to download the app, those who submit receipts until November 11 are eligible to join the sweepstakes where the price is a year worth of groceries with a value of $13,000. Unfortunately, this app and all the offers it entails is only available for US and Canada residents. So if you live in those two countries, download Snap from Google Play Store and start earning money while shopping.

SOURCE: GroupOn

Google Play Newsstand gets new look, material design

If you're a fan of curated news apps that look just like a magazine as you flip through all the relevant news just like you would a magazine, then the new look of Google Play Newsstand just might convince you to use it. The app, built-in for some devices and downloadable for others, has just updated with a new look and improved services to appeal to users to make it (one of) their news reader of choice.

If you're used to using Flipboard or Zite or Feedly to get your daily feed of news from your favorite sites, it should suit you to check out what Google has done with its Newsstand. It has adapted the material design that will eventually herald the upcoming Android L. But more than just the design, even the reading experience is enhanced with the update to the app. You don't need to zoom in and out anymore just to be able to read an article when you're on your mobile device. You can now see a list of articles from sites that you've marked and they're already resized, both text and pictures to fit the gadget you're using.

The material design has also made the app look better, with contextual headers, bigger images and smoother transitions from one story to another. Aside from subscribing to certain news sites, you can also now add even more cards for those topics that interest you, from something as general as vegetarian recipes, to something more obscure like Brony (look it up!). You can swipe left and right to look at topics, then swipe up and down to look at the news items on the topic you chose. You can also choose to use mini-cards to just browse through headlines before clicking on something that you want to look at in-depth.

There are over 2,000 free and paid publications on the app, but not all countries have access to the paid and full-length ones. Google Play Newsstand can be found in more than 40 countries and if you don't have it built-in to your device, you can download it from the Google Play Store.

SOURCE: Android

Story Timeline

• Google updates Drive and Newsstand with new widgets, better performance


• Google Currents app officially replaced by Newsstand


• Google adds four more countries to paid content on Newsstand

Samsung Galaxy Alpha gets the iFixit teardown treatment

So we’ve been a bit disappointed with the specs of Samsung’s new “premium feel” device, the Samsung Galaxy Alpha – a device which marks the first time the Korean gadget giant has been willing to ditch plastic for a more “fruity” metal design. Maybe Samsung was doing an “anything you can do, I can do too” with Apple, hence a spec line that doesn’t really stack up to flagship level. Popular teardown specialists iFixit give the new metal-bound phone the full treatment.

As we have mentioned many times before, the Galaxy Alpha was built to “feel” like a premium phone, and for all intents and purposes it has achieved that. The phone has a decent enough processor and RAM combo – the international version torn down by iFixit rocked an octa-core Exynos chip with presumably 2GB of RAM. The middling 720p display is where it was scaled down from the 1080p display of the flagship Samsung Galaxy S5, as well as the 1,860mAh battery. For comparison though, this battery is still better than the iPhone 6’s 1,810mAh power source.

The iFixit teardown shows that the Galaxy Alpha has inherited the Galaxy S5’s midframe sandwich design when it comes to internals, although Samsung seems to have done away with the IP67 waterproofing here as there are no waterproofing measures seen on the inside of the Galaxy Alpha. The new phone also has a very tedious “display first” entry into the main PCB elements, although iFixit was very clear that upon entry via the display, all parts were visibly modular and could be replaced easily – once you beat the display first.

The Galaxy Alpha gets a middling score of 5 for repairability – with the tedious “display first” entry contributing to the score. But there is some redeeming value in the modular design of the PCB elements, allowing for quick repair and replacement, but only once you gain entry to the main PCB area itself.

SOURCE: iFixit

Story Timeline

• Samsung Galaxy Alpha: a mediocre metal-bound oddity?


• How it's Made: Samsung Galaxy Alpha metal frame


• Galaxy Alpha smartphone lands on AT&T website