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A different kind of gift: Xbox One, GTA V [DEALS]

It's the holiday season, so everyone needs a much deserved break from routine. Speaking of breaking from routine, why not be a bit naughty (hopefully Santa's not watching) and bring you something exciting and yet totally unrelated to Android? And what else could be as exciting and yet so not Android than a brand new game console AND a free game? Introducing Android Community's Xbox One and GTA V Giveaway!



A free gaming console? What's not to like? Well, unless you're rooting for Sony's PlayStation 4, then you probably can't let this opportunity pass. And even if you're not any kind of gamer, that doesn't mean you can't make use of an Xbox One in your home. After all, gaming consoles have evolved beyond a solitary gaming use and have become quite the home entertainment hub.


And to spice things up even more, a free copy of Grand Theft Auto V is thrown in. Now, we're not condoning or advertising the type of violence in GTA V, but who can resist a massive open world where you can release some tension by causing a ruckus? That and GTA V is hailed to be one of the top games of the year.




And you're getting all of these for free. That is, if you get to be "The One". Same rules and procedures apply. Just click on the huge ENTER NOW button to get the ball rolling in this Xbox One + Grand Theft Auto V Giveaway.


Android Community Deals is brought to you in cooperation with StackSocial. Generated revenue helps fund this site. Deals are curated by StackSocial and are not representative of the opinions of the Android Community staff.


OnePlus and Cyanogen go head-to-head in India

When in a span of a month, you see Cyanogen make an exclusive agreement with Indian retailer Micromax, and then you see OnePlus break their exclusive “invite only” purchasing process to launch a new purchasing avenue for the Indian market, you know there was something big brewing. To put quite shortly, it looks like OP has been wronged, but because of a court decision – it looks like it won’t be able to continue selling the OnePlus One phone in India.



If you have a strong stomach for legal documents, you can check out the court decision in the documents via this link. But the “tl;dr” version of it is this – that OnePlus had a non-exclusive deal with Cyanogen to ship their phone globally using the CyanogenMod software, and that in return Cyanogen will not work with other OEMs to bundle their software for a period of time.


oneplusone_01


At some point in this process, Cyanogen had tried to end this contract via email (!!!) which is a really jerk move to pull off, whether breaking a romantic relationship or a corporate deal. In that sense, OnePlus has been wronged, but the Indian court is withholding its word on that aspect in light of a lawsuit that OnePlus will presumably bring before a court in California pretty soon.


CM_micromax


Recently though, Cyanogen made an exclusive deal with Indian manufacturers Micromax to bundle the CyanogenMod OS for their phones in India – which disallows Cyanogen to have their software carried by another OEM in the Indian market. That creates a problem for OnePlus, who just recently launched the OnePlus One flagship smartphone in India. In the end, the court decided to uphold the Micromax deal, disallowing OnePlus to sell to the Indian market – with the caveat that OnePlus can sell whatever stock is “lying in the market.” That means that OnePlus can only sell whatever units it has shipped to India at this point, and none beyond that.


This is a sad commentary of our times, when a major marketing deal could be broken with a few emails, when it should have been handled by lawyers so that none of these dangawful lawsuits would ever see the light of day. But, that’s the way it is. Watch out for the OnePlus lawsuit that is sure to come from this.


VIA: XDA





Project ARA announces small update, Spiral 2 progressing well

A little December update from our modular phone developing friends at Project ARA – which basically says that the Spiral 2 prototype, scheduled to be shown at the Project Ara Developers Conference in January, is moving along really well. We really hope 2015 will be a big year for modular phones.



Project ARA head honcho Paul Eremenko announced via the Google Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) Google+ page that they have just received the first 3 demo units of the Spiral 2 prototype. What’s more, Eremenko confirms that the processor was able to connect to the display module after a fashion. Good news.


project_ara_pcb


The Spiral 2 prototype is mainly headlined by the Toshiba UniPro switch and ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits). These allow the connection between module elements, especially the processor to the other modules.


Project-Ara-Spiral-1


Speaking of the processor, Eremenko mentioned that they are working with Marvell for a PXA1928 processor module and with NVIDIA for a Tegra K1 module. That is very exciting news my friends. Hopefully we will be seeing more progress as Project ARA plans to move into the Spiral 3 prototype early next year.


SOURCE: Google ATAP

IMAGE: SlashGear





Pics and Video: How Android 5.0.1 translates to Sense 6

During the time of Android 4.x, HTC was notorious for being slow in integrating Android updates to their own proprietary Sense UI. Not these days, it seems. It wasn’t too long after Google rolled out their first Android Lollipop patch (5.0.1) that we saw the build roll out to the HTC One (both M7 and M8) devices. Let’s see what it looks like.



If you already know about what the 5.0.1 patch brought, then those bug fixes would already be enough for HTC users to be thankful about. But there are lots more to the new Sense 6.0 based on Android 5.0.1 (LRX22C). There are new Google apps included in the build for office type files (Docs, Slides, Sheets), but these apps are also downloadable via the Google Play Store.


sense6_501_gapps


HTC has also made its notification area closer to stock Lollipop, which is prettier in our opinion. All notifications and quick settings are now on the same page, and notifications are also available on the Sense lock screen.


sense6_501_notif1 sense6_501_notif2 sense6_501_notif3 sense6_501_notif4


There’s also a re-design of the multi-tasking element of Sense, closer to Material Design.


sense6_501_multi1 sense6_501_multi2


Lastly, there is a new feature for Sense 6 called the “Easy Mode”. It will make more sense if we let the video explain to you how this looks like. Also in another video, new Accessibility features like “High Contrast”, “Color Inversion”, and “Color Correction” are explained.






SOURCE: LlabTooFer





VIDEO: Android 5.0.1 on Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Note Edge, Galaxy S5

Samsung has been busy porting Lollipop goodness to its flagship and top tier phones, but with Google already patching Android 5.0 to 5.0.1, we expect some of these top devices to skip the initial Lollipop update and go directly to the first patch.



In these videos, you will see Android 5.0.1 being tested on the Samsung Galaxy S5-LTE, the Galaxy Note 4, and its quirky cousin the Galaxy Note Edge. The builds are by no means complete, but you can take a look at where Samsung is headed.




The 5.0.1 update is not a major one, but it does bring some new features like slow and fast motion video recording and a gamut of needed bug fixes. In these videos, you will see that there is still some work to be done by Samsung – some features appear on some builds but not on the others.




Samsung has not released its Android Lollipop builds yet, but from the look and feel of these videos, we should expect them to be launched by January 2015, just a couple of weeks away now.




SOURCE: Sam Mobile





Evernote brings Context for premium and business users

If you're a heavy Evernote user and rely on it for note writing and saving articles from the web relevant to your work or interests, then the newest augmented intelligence feature from the service should be extremely useful to you. Context will help connect you to things that will help you finish your research, paper. proposal, blog post, or whatever it is you're doing currently on the app.



The feature is actually pretty simple and easy to use, but in the long run, will become a necessity, especially if you're working on a complex project. As you're doing writing or researching on your Evernote, you will see at the bottom of your screen information that is related to what you're doing. But where do these information come from? They can be from notes you've created in the past, things that have been shared by your co-worker or friend on Evernote itself, or reliable news sources that have been vetted by the app.


Some of these news sources include Wall Street Journal, Tech Crunch, Fast Company Inc. magazines, etc. You can click on the note to read it or save it for reference later on. You can also share it with other people through the recently released Work Chat feature. But if you're worried that these 3rd party sites are getting your data, Evernote assures users that they do not share any information about you to the publishers involved in the Context feature.


However, this pretty neat feature will only be available for Premium users and Evernote Business subscribers only. If you're a Wall Street Journal subscriber, you get a special free Evernote Premium subscription for a year. If you want to upgrade to premium from your free service, you need to shell out around $5 per month or $45/year. And if you are a heavy user, then that price isn't hefty at all.


SOURCE: Evernote





Android Community Weekly Digest: Dec. 21, 2014

Holidays are fast approaching, and so is the end of 2014. But while most are preparing their shopping lists and wish lists, the tech industry is already gearing up for next year's big event: CES and MWC. This week has also seen the rise of some new devices, while a couple of apps have been gifted with some pretty interesting changes. Welcome to the latest edition of Android Community's Weekly Digest, covering the period from December 15 to December 21, 2014.


CES, MWC 2015 Warm up


It will just be two weeks before CES 2015 and a month or so before MWC 2015, so naturally the mobile world is awash with rumors, leaks, and expectations of things and devices to come. Hitting the rumor mill are Samsung and Sony. Samsung's next flagship, unsurprisingly expected to be called the Galaxy S6, is said to combine the "best" of both worlds of the S series and the Edge's eccentric, well, edge. The Galaxy S6 might bear that curved display of the Galaxy Note Edge, but the major difference will be that it will feature that on both sides, instead of being limited to the right.


While word of the Sonyx Xperia Z4 is still scarce, the mini and giant siblings are already making their way to the news. In true Sony fashion, the Xperia Z4 Compact is expected to be pretty much an incremental upgrade over this year's model. The biggest change will be the CPU architecture, jumping to the 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 810. The handy 4.7-inch screen happily also now rests on a 1080p resolution. This year's Xperia Z3 family came with a small tablet, but word is that next year's lineup will have a phablet instead. Coming back into the roster is an Ultra, the Xperia Z4 Ultra, with a massive 6.44-inch screen and an equally massive UHD resolution. Snapdragon 810, 3 GB of RAM, and a massive 4,000 mAh battery rounds up this early sneak peek.


Android Lollipop Rollout


Slowly but surely, Android 5.0 Lollipop makes its way to devices, particularly Google Play Edition devices. The oldest GPE devices still on Google's shelves finally gets its Lollipop, with the update rolling out to the Samsung Galaxy S 4 GPE this week. The LG G3 also continues to get updated, but still in Europe unfortunately. Samsung's devices are still a no go, but it seems that a beta update for the Galaxy Note 3 might have accidentally rolled out in Vietnam. In the meantime, after being left out of the early party, the Nexus 5 finally receives the Android 5.0.1. maintenance update. And speaking of that maintenance release, word is that Samsung will update the Galaxy Note 4 and Edge directly to Android 5.0.1.


Looking to the future, HTC has hinted that Android Lollipop will hit the HTC One M7 and M8 next month, hopefully without the same delays that their GPE counterparts received.


Devices


We've seen a couple of new devices revealed this week, primarily coming from Asia and particularly in India. Huawei puts out the Honor T1 with an aluminimum unibody design in India but also reveals the large Honor 6 Plus in China. BLU Studio launches a ridiculously large smartphone in the form of the 7-inch Studio 7.0. Micromax finally reveals its first YU branded smartphone, the painfully named YUreka, the first and only Cyanogen OS smartphone in India.


As for the recent drama unfolding in India, Xiaomi gets a slight reprieve with the High Court allowing it to sell only its devices utilizing Qualcomm chips. Unfortunately, OnePlus isn't so lucky, with the court banning its smartphone because of Micromax's exclusive claim over the Cyanogen name in the country.


Games


The holiday break will be a perfect time to sit back and enjoy some entertainment, and the new roster of games this week might help you with that. Beloved RPG Baldur's Gate II lands on Android in its Enhanced Edition version. Blizzard finally unleashes its Hearthstone Heroes of Warcraft card game, but sadly on tablets only for now. Telltale Games brings a more story-centric Borderlands title to the platform and Gameloft ramps up the action in the latest Brothers in Arms 3. But if you're in the mood for some mindless Hollywood glitz, you might want to check out Lindsay Lohan's Price of Fame.


Be sure to head over to our Gaming tag portal for more new games and updates.


Updates


A couple of apps have gotten a much needed refresh this week. BBM catches up with the times, adding stickers to its feature list. Viber also catches up with rivals by introducing games to its offering, limited only to some countries. Pebble opens its arms to Android Wear notifications, expanding the smartwatch's capabilities exponentially. Todoist also goes on your wrist, with some rather interesting features. And after what feels like years of silence, Instagram finally gets an update with five new filters.


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