Help a TV head escape the Twisty Planets

What is a cute TV-headed creature doing just going around planets in the galaxy? Well, no one really knows and it is not important to know Qub's back story. What is important is for you to figure out how to help him escape the Twisty Planets, an award-winning 3D moving platform puzzle game that is now available on Android.

The aforementioned Qub is a small TV-like creature that seems to need to escape all the moving planets it's jumping around in. You need to help it find portals to make its escape, but the moving and twisting planets are out to stop you or make you fall into the netherworld. There are over 100 twisty levels and 5 galaxies that you can explore.

The 3D graphics in Twisty Planets is pretty amazing. You can jump from one platform to another, twist and reconfigure the moving planets, and gather stars every level. And you need to do this while maintaining your balance to not fall off into space and then move on to the next galaxy. There are of course rewards, easter eggs and hidden objects to help you along the way.

The touch controls on your gadget are not that complicated and they are very intuitive. There are also leadeboards and social sharing, in case you feel like bragging about your high scores to the world. You can get Twisty Planets for free from the Google Play Store. But there are in-app purchases available so better be careful with your one-click pay settings.

printWifi lets your device print wirelessly and securely

Have you ever had a situation where you needed desperately to print a document from either your smartphone or tablet but you are not able to send it to the connected computer or you don't have the printer driver available? A new Kickstarter project wants to solve that problem by giving you a device that will wirelessly and securely print from your gadget to the printer available.

printWifi and printUSB can act as a bridge between your mobile device and printer so you don't need to email documents to the computer attached to the printer or even search for printer drivers that will let you do so. You don't even need to have network access to be able to print legal documents, papers and projects for school, tickets of the concert you're watching, boarding pass for your travels, and a whole bunch of other things that need to be printed.

The process for printing is pretty easy and simple as well (well, at least based on what they're telling us). First, you need to connect your smartphone or tablet to the printWifi or printUSB device. If you can't use wifi connection, then you can connect the device through printUSB. Then you open the document on the printView app without having to send the document through email. And voila, now you can print.

With 50 days to go on their Kickstarter project, they have already reached their goal of $10,000, but you can still back them up if you feel like being one of the earliest owners of this device. Their estimated delivery date is by February 2015.

SOURCE: Kickstarter

Amazon Fire TV Stick vs Chromecast – XDA TV

There is no doubt that Amazon is a huge player in many markets, and they want to be a huge player in the mobile market as well. From the Kindle hardware and app to the new Amazon Fire TV, Amazon is big enough to play with Google in its own sandbox. But can it outlast Google in its own game?

In this episode of XDA TV, XDA TV Producer TK compares the new Amazon Fire Stick to Google’s Chromecast. Recently TK reviewed Amazon’s newest Fire TV device. How does this compare to the Chromecast? Check out this video to find out!

Be sure to check out other great XDA TV Videos

• TK’s Amazon Fire TV Stick Full Review


• Unofficial CM12 for Android One, Disabling Encryption on Nexus 6 – XDA TV


• DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ Review – XDA TV


• Bump! Workaround for the LG G3 Locked Bootloader – XDA TV


• TWRP for Nexus 6 and 9 Available, Unofficial CM12 Alpha for HTC Explorer! – XDA TV

The post Amazon Fire TV Stick vs Chromecast – XDA TV appeared first on xda-developers.

Moto 360 leather, metal bands now available individually

Smartwatches have become the accessory du jour for gadget fans the past few years or so. But one criticism (well, if you're the fashionable type at least) about the wearable is that the variant designs are limited and you get stuck with the same watch strap once you buy your smartwatch. Moto 360 is now offering separate watch bands that will give you a bit of limited variety for your smartwatch.

You can now buy two kinds of Moto 360 bands to interchange with your existing smartwatch, depending on your mood or your fashion style. For the more "hipster" or "rock star"-ish look, you can go for the leather bands which are made from hand-treated materials from Horween, a prestigious tannery. There are different shades available: black, stone, cognac. They come with a stainless steel buckle.

For a more classic and formal look, you can get the metal bands for the Moto 360. They are made from solid stainless steel and come with a butterfly clasp for its contemporary tri-link design. It comes in black and silver variants. They are both of normal width so if you're looking for thin straps, you'll have to wait a little longer.

While the variety of straps is very much welcome, you can't just change this yourself, like you would change the strap of your normal watch. Motorola suggests that you visit a local jeweler in order to assist you. The leather band is available for $29.99 while the metal bands can be bought for $79.99. Both are available on the Motorola online store.

SOURCE: Motorola

Zombiens invade Rooster Teeth in new action/stratey game

In the event of an alien invasion, or in this case a zombie alien one, it sometimes helps to have a sense of humor. Well, at least in this mobile game it does. Video production house Rooster Teeth is getting their game face on as they are digitally immortalized in this fun and funny game called, what else, Rooster Teeth vs Zombiens.

Rooster Teeth has been known in the gaming community for creating awesome machinima (films made from video game engines) and this time they teamed up with game studio Team Chaos to create this game with characters based on actual people and zombiens based on actual zombie-alien hybrids, if they were real. The action/strategy game has one very simple (but random) story: protect their studio versus these invaders.

You have 8 different Rooster Teeth peeps to team up with and there are 6 playable characters to choose from, all with unique voice over scripts. You have to make use of 25 different kinds of weapons in order to defeat the invading hybrids. To prolong your life, you can have 10 different traps that will randomly sprout up, hopefully, when you need them. In fact, a lot about this game is completely random, from the weapons, to the zombiens attacking, to which supporting cast members show up, sometimes, just to spout out words of wisdom. And since it's random, they claim that "no two games are ever the same".

If you feel like working with smart alecks while trying to avoid becoming cannon fodder for zombiens, you can download Rooster Teeth vs Zombiens from the Google Play Store for $4.54. There are also several in-app purchases so be careful with your settings for one-click payment.

Twitter to use smartphone apps info to improve your profile

The newest update to the Twitter Android app is something that not everyone will probably welcome, especially those that are very protective of their mobile privacy. The social media giant announced that they are now looking at the apps you have installed on your smartphone to know more about your behaviour when using your device.

But before you start a petition to boycott Twitter or to file privacy violation claims against them, you need to know two things about this new "feature": you can opt out of it and it will only look at installed apps on your smartphone, not how you use the app itself. If you've already been updated to the latest version of the Twitter app, you can adjust the settings on "Tailor Twitter based on my apps". They also emphasize that they are just looking at the data provided by Google on what apps are already installed on your smartphone, not how many times you use it or what information you've stored there.

So why is Twitter doing this in the first place? In the FAQ section, they state three reasons. One is to improve on their suggestions on who you should follow, which you've been seeing on your timeline for some time now (and which is sometimes laughably innacurate). Another is to suggest tweets and accounts on your timeline which their algorithm thinks you'll find interesting. Third is to show you "more relevant promoted content", which in other words means, they need to make more money to sell more ads that are relevant to you.

Just like Facebook, Twitter is a free service that we use, so our complaints sometimes seems pointless since we're not actually paying them to be able to use their product. But still, there is an unspoken (and sometimes explicit) understanding of a reasonable expectation of privacy between the social network and users. Now whether you see this update as a way to improve what they show you on your timeline or a gross invasion of privacy, actually depends on how you look at free social networks in general.

VIA: Re/Code

SOURCE: Twitter

Chainfire updates SuperSU, CF-Auto-Root, How-to SU

It's an early holiday for root developers and users as Chainfire let out a massive release of all his root-related goodies. He has pushed a major update to the SuperSU app on Google Play Store, jumping from version 2.01 to 2.35 and has updated his How-to SU guide for root app developers. He also gives a bit of insight into the journey from KitKat to Lollipop, as well as an announcement that might ruffle a few feathers.

SELinux, the very security feature that hardens Android also presents a stumbling block for root modders. There has been a lot of changes to Android's security system and features during the development of Android L, as it was then called, and Chainfire was wise not to settle down on any single solution, since those solutions turned out to be futile later on. The good news is that everything now is working pretty much as they should and both users and developers can lean on the hard work that Chainfire has put into learning ways to root our favorite mobile platform.

On the end user side of things, the SuperSU app has a slightly new look. This one just barely adheres to the Material Design style now becoming en vogue. Why not go all out? For one, SuperSU has to support devices running on even older Android 2.x versions. Material Design would not only look out of place, but it will also add another set of layouts and design that Chainfire is just not interested in maintaining right now. There will, however, be visual changes along the way, and those interested in the app's aesthetics might want to keep an eye out for it, or maybe even chime in.

The app also now has in-app purchases. No, this doesn't mean that the free SuperSU app will no longer have access to Pro versions (which you could just enable with a checkbox before). The IAP is there simply as a donation option. Some users apparently like to donate to Chainfire regularly, in which case the one-time SuperSU Pro purchase won't be enough. They also don't like using PayPal, apparently, and asked for such an option. Chainfire does expect some fallout for introducing IAPs, but this is probably one of those cases where users wouldn't mind a completely optional way to help fund a developer's efforts.

Download: SuperSU from Google Play Store

SOURCE: +Chainfire