Sept
26

Top 4 hidden features in Google Maps for Android

This past week, Apple found out the hard way that the grass is always greener on the other side. After ditching Google Maps for a faulty, problematic Apple Maps app, Apple realized just how difficult it was to design a powerful mapping application like Google Maps. But most Google Maps users aren’t even using the app to its full potential. Writer JR Raphael took a look at some of the best hidden features of Google Maps for Android. Here is what he discovered in his ComputerWorld.com…

Sept
26

Samsung patches Galaxy S III data wipe vulnerability

How would you like it if all the data on your phone was suddenly erased by a hacker? That’s exactly what could happen to Samsung Galaxy S III owners who haven’t downloaded a recent patch. An exploit in the TouchWiz UI (which is installed on all Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets) apparently allowed anybody to gain remote access to a system and wipe all of the data on the device. At first, the issue was only suspected to affect the Samsung Galaxy S III, but since the problem is…

Sept
26

Google Play celebrates 25 billion downloads with 5-day 25 cent app sale

Google recently announced that its app store, Google Play, had passed 25 billion downloads. As a reward to its millions of Android users, Google is offering massive discounts on a number of different apps and games. How much of a discount? Well, apps that previously cost $1 or more will cost only 25 cents for the next 5 days. Here is the list of apps included in the promotion Angry Birds Space Premium Draw Something Asphalt 7: Heat Granny Smith NFL Kicker 13 Symphony of…

Sept
25

iPhone 5 sales figures disappoint, manufacturing flaws discovered

Apple has made product launches an art. In fact, Apple is so good at its product launches that, in the past, some users were willing to buy anything released by Apple without fully understanding how it was different from the previous versions of that device.   It looks like those days may be in the past. Despite Apple reporting recording epic presale figures from the iPhone 5, the final sales tally a few days after launch appears to be disappointing. To make matters worse, many…

Sept
25

Android Jelly Bean 4.1 Root Released

It didn’t take long for the Android community to root the new Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system. While the update still hasn’t rolled out to most phones yet, a member of the XDA-Developers forum named Bin4ry has released a small script which is able to root “nearly all” devices running Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean. Bin4ry is adding and tweaking the code on a regular basis, which means more devices are being added. So far, members of the XDA Developers forum have confirmed…

Sept
24

Jelly Bean update begins rolling out to Samsung Galaxy S III users in Poland

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean was released by Google several months ago, in June. However, we’re now nearing the end of September and less than 2% of Android devices are currently running the latest version of Android. Expect that number to rise sharply over the next few days, because it looks like Samsung is ready to release its Jelly Bean patch to Samsung Galaxy S III owners. According to early reports from here and here (among others), Polish Samsung Galaxy S III users have begun receiving the…

Sept
24

Android books app updated to compete with iOS 6

Through no fault of its own, Google Maps has been in the news a lot this past week. Many Apple users are complaining about the iOS 6 update and its deletion of Google Maps, an app which is vastly inferior to Apple Maps. Why? Well, the first problem is that Apple Maps claims to help you get to places but actually does nothing of the sort. In response to the Apple Maps fiasco, Google is taking its Maps app to more places in Android than ever before. A recent update to the Android app ‘Google…

Sept
23

Uh oh! Facebook might add automatic photo synching to its Android app

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my Facebook friends to see every picture I have on my Android phone. However, that’s exactly what an upcoming Facebook app upgrade might do.   Facebook is currently trialling a feature that would automatically upload photos from your Android phone into a special Facebook album. Fortunately, this feature isn’t as dangerous as it sounds: you still have to press ‘Sync’ to upload all photos to Facebook, and the app won’t…

Sept
22

Apple Maps is brutal, and Android users are gloating about it

iOS 6 was released yesterday, and despite all of the fanfare surrounding Apple’s latest upgrade to its mobile operating system, many users are unimpressed. Apple Maps is the feature that has drawn the most criticism thus far. A few months ago, Apple announced that it would no longer be carrying Google Maps on its mobile operating systems. After all, the two are major competitors over the mobile marketplace, and having Google Maps installed on every iPhone and iPad in the world was bad…

Sept
22

Root your Kindle Fire HD to get access to Google Play store

The Kindle Fire HD is only a few weeks old, but its Android operating system has already been rooted. According to an article by PCMag.com, the Kindle Fire HD was rooted using a similar exploit to the one used to root the Asus Transformer Prime. All Kindles run Android, although the open source operating system has been heavily modified from what you would see on a traditional Android tablet. Kindle users don’t have access to the Google Play store, for example, because Amazon wants to…