Box Notes arrives for devices running at least Android 4.4, does not require a standalone app

One of the world’s best cloud storage services is finally bringing its note-taking feature to Android. Box has announced today that an update including Box Notes is rolling out now. It operates with devices running at least Android 4.4 and it does not act as a separate application. Box Notes is built right into the Box app. In addition to bringing Box Notes to Android, Box has made it more useful by including checklists and support for additional languages. As expected, the Box Notes feature will allow users to collaborate on notes with editing tools and bullet/numbered formatting.

Hit the break for download links. And before you start using Box Notes, you may want to take a look at our list of the best note-taking apps available.

Play Store Download Link

Source: Box

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Motorola bounces back in Q2 2014 due to Moto G, Moto E success

It isn’t its flagship smartphone that is bringing Motorola success. Motorola has experienced a very successful second quarter in 2014 due to the success of its budget handsets. The Moto G was first up and featured quality specifications for a great price without a contract. The Moto E went even further down in both categories and allowed Motorola to capture a market that would otherwise be left for feature phones.

The company has bounced back in comparison to the first quarter of 2014 when it sold 6.5 million smartphones. It followed up with 8.6 million units sold in the second quarter, according to ABI Research. This massive increase is also a jump of more than double what was sold the same time in 2013. Right now, it is more important that Motorola focuses on this growth rather than looking at the competition. In the same time frame, Samsung sold 75 million smartphones and Apple sold 35.2 million. Clearly, that dwarfs Motorola’s sales. Those companies, though, were able to find success with their flagship handsets being they did not face the same relaunch that Motorola was tasked with.

The road ahead for Motorola does not seem easy at the moment, but new devices are on the way regardless. The company’s next two devices, the Moto X+1 and the Moto G2, are allegedly both arriving in September. At the same time, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4 is being announced at the start of the month and Apple will follow just a few days later with its latest iPhone. Even Motorola’s Moto 360 is receiving some doubt as a release date and price has yet to be announced. And, unsurprisingly, there are rumors of an Apple watch coming next month as well. So competition is fierce once again for Motorola to be launching new products.

The company’s acquisition by Lenovo is another factor that puts Motorola’s future at a very uncertain point. There are devices in the pipeline and one has to wonder when Lenovo will cut it short and provide a new direction. They already announced the Texas factory for Moto Maker would close, but Lenovo would not say if the actual program would end as a result. It could indeed live on at Lenovo’s North Carolina factory.

What do you think the future holds for Motorola? Let us know in the comments.

Via: PCWorld

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TalkAndroid Daily Dose for August 12, 2014

With hectic schedules, it can be hard to keep track of everything in your news feed. That’s why we created the TalkAndroid Daily Dose. This is where we recap the day’s hottest stories so you can get yourself up to speed in quick fashion. Happy reading!!

Guides

Best Android apps for taking notes [August 2014]

Apps

Madfinger Games working on virtual model builder called Monzo

TapPath attaches custom actions for tapping links one or more times

HTC will make proprietary software available to other Android devices

Google+ app gets ability to cast your stream to Chromecast

Glide update introduces new social features including Discover People tool

Google

Google opens Google Classroom platform today

Google announces Android distribution numbers for August

Phones

HTC Butterfly 2 could be heading towards an international release

Motorola Shamu shows up on GFX bench, could be Nexus 6

OnePlus nixes sexist contest the same day it launches

More images of Samsung Galaxy Alpha surface from Russian source

Virtual Reality

Samsung VR headset caught on film

Miscellaneous

Samsung feeling the pinch, will cut costs

Xiaomi apologizes for uploading Address data without permission

Come comment on this article: TalkAndroid Daily Dose for August 12, 2014

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Google announces Android distribution numbers for August

It’s that time of month again: Google revealed the current distribution of Android software on devices around the world. Unlike in the past, where Gingerbread was the king ahead of a lagging Jelly Bean, the latest OS has been sufficiently spreading the love to everyone. According to the pie graph, one out of every five devices is running KitKat, and a little over one half of devices is running Jelly Bean.

This change holds true to Google’s promise of Kitkat being spread to everything from flagship phones to entry-level devices. KitKat has been growing at a steady pace and is causing many to stop fretting over fragmentation like we’ve heard in years past.

Source: Android Developers

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TapPath attaches custom actions for tapping links one or more times

The process of sharing a link on Android has remained pretty much the same for quite some time. There are outside solutions, though, that improve the way in which users interact with links. TapPath introduces layers to the way in which a link is tapped. Users can assign a certain amount of taps to a particular application.

Right now, tapping a link once will send a user to the device’s browser in most cases. With TapPath, you can switch that to sharing the link to Twitter for example. And the same applies for taps beyond that. Two taps can result in adding the link to an app like Pocket to read later. The same things goes for a triple tap. To make sure everything runs smoothly, TapPath has a delay saying so it can recognize how many taps you actually meant to do.

Hit the break for the introductory video, gallery, and download links.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Play Store Download Link

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OnePlus removes ‘Ladies First’ contest amid backlash, looks for suggestions on getting women involved in tech

In an update to this morning’s post on a OnePlus contest gone awry, OnePlus has officially taken down their ‘Ladies First’ promotion, removing the contest post from their forums and all posts on social media. The contest quickly turned sh*t show after the internet blamed the contest of being sexist — not because of the subject matter, mind you — but because of the way it forum members had to “rate” women based on their appearance. This was all done for a chance at winning a OnePlus One, invites, and other cool prizes.

Even Cyanogen Inc., the Android developers responsible for the software that runs on the OnePlus One, attempted to distance themselves from the contest. Addressing claims of sexism, staff member and forum administrator Carl agreed the promo was “in bad taste.” Here’s the full statement, which has yet to be posted on any of their social media:

“Women make up half the world, and we want to help them be more involved in tech. We understand that our contest was in bad taste, and have therefore pulled it. All participants will be contacted for prizes.

We apologize and we will course correct for the future. At the same time, we would love to hear your feedback on how we can better get women involved in tech.”

Still, despite all the outrage across the interwebs, the contest still saw a few lovely young ladies participating with or without the contest, posting “selfies” of themselves beside OnePlus logos. In fact, another young woman — who seems to have understood better than most what the contest was really about — had no problem posing in her underwear in a separate thread (after the contest thread was taken down) at a 2nd attempt at snagging an invite from the forum’s mostly male members. Guess she never got the memo.

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iOS is losing enterprise marketshare, but Android still can’t beat it

Credit: laihiu/Flickr

While the Android platform is #1 in the consumer market (and the world), some would say you haven’t won unless you can take over enterprise. This is a market Android hasn’t been able to successfully penetrate without getting some classic fighting from the competition. Once BlackBerry’s territory, the enterprise market now belongs to Apple, a situation that is slowly changing.

Good Technology’s Q2 2014 reports show iOS on top, but their percentage in the enterprise market has dropped by 5% (down to 67%). On the other hand, Android’s influence in this niche market has grown by the same amount – 5% (up to 32%). Meanwhile, Windows Phone is staying at 1%.

BlackBerry does continue to be fairly important in enterprise, even if not for long. The forgotten platform is not included because BlackBerry devices use their own servers for email access, meaning Good Technology can’t access their numbers. Of course, it’s not like they matter much anymore.

Android’s slow entrance into business seems to be followed by a bad reputation that has preceded the platform since its genesis. The idea that our favorite mobile operating system is less secure no longer holds true, and the latest improvements have moved mountains to ensure Google’s devices are ready for the working businessman.

The announcement of Android for Work and Samsung Knox are important factors to consider next time a business is ready to offer some new devices to its workers. This is a topic we recently discussed in our “Apple vs Google in the enterprise” opinion piece.

Android is ready for enterprise, and it is only a matter of time before Google’s mobile OS takes over suited users. Last quarter’s results are only corroborating our predictions.

Via: The Next Web;

Source: Good Technology;



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Goat Simulator Is Ramming Its Way Onto Android In The Future

Had enough of these terrible Goat Simulator clones and knock offs invading your Android experience and ruining the overall image? Us too. Death to the impostors we say. Thankfully, it looks like the team behind the one and only Original Goat Simulator that was previously released onto Steam earlier this year for PC, Mac, and Linux computers, are bringing their awesome game to Android so you can experience the greatness of simulating a goat on the go. For anyone who has never seen Goat Simulator in action, the game is largely about one thing, taking your goat, which you play, and basically just doing all sorts of wild and crazy things with it like ramming it into cars and buildings, knocking people over and otherwise just causing havoc.

The game is full of bugs which has led to some rather funny antics and hilarious situations within the game, and the team at Coffee Stain Studios has acknowledged the bugs but has also said that they chose to leave them in for reasons being that it makes the game funnier and more enjoyable. Truly, we thank you Coffee Stain, because Goat Simulator is what it is in part due to the bugs. It wouldn’t be the same without them. Coffee Stain Studios outed the revelation this morning via Twitter, but they left out any details on release dates and pricing. We’d guess that it’ll cost anywhere between $4.99 and $9.99, as the Steam version of the game costs the latter.

While it most likely won’t get rid of the multitude of other games attempting to ride on the coattails of the original Goat Simulator, having the game officially ported to the platform will hopefully at least do well to put some of the rip-offs in a corner and cause them to disappear. Hopefully we’ll see this game hit the platform sooner than later, although it could very well be months and months before an actual release happens. With that said, it could also just as well show up in a couple of weeks, although we don’t expect that to happen given that no dates or prices were announced.

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Samsung’s upcoming VR headset pictured ahead of its official IFA reveal

Samsung is almost ready to put the final touches on this year’s IFA 2014 show where we expect the manufacturer to reveal a handful of new devices. As so often is the case with Samsung, it appears the OEM will cover all their bases, unveiling a wide range of products they hope will catch consumers’ eyes. While we’re already expecting Samsung Galaxy Note 4 to be in attendance, it seems Samsung will finally take the wraps off their upcoming VR headset. Codenamed Project Moonlight, the headset signals Samsung’s entrance into the virtual reality gaming arena, one we’ve seen manufacturers take interest in after Facebook purchased Oculus Rift for $2 billion back in March.

Today, The Verge has nabbed a photo of device — who’s official name could be the Samsung Gear VR — showing off a VR headset that closely resembles Google’s Cardboard in both form and function (only with less cardboard and more of Samsung’s trademark plastic). You can see a plastic case to attach a Galaxy smartphone to one end, while specially fitted adjustable lenses help the user focus on the content being displayed into each eye. Because the display is only one component of the unique gameplay the VR headset offers, Samsung’s control pad is also picture alongside the headset.

And there you have it. We expect to learn more during Samsung’s IFA even which will kick off simultaneously in both Berlin, and New York. Of course, Phandroid will be in attendance bringing you some hands-on/eyes-on with Project Moonlight and more, so stay tuned.

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HTC Brings Slideshow App Zoe To The Google Play Store

Over the past few years, it has been well documented that HTC hasn’t been having the best of luck in the smartphone world. They have turned those tides but are now looking at their software as a way to grow the company even more. The strategy that HTC plans on using is by making some of its apps available in the Play Store. By doing this, HTC will allow other phone manufacturers such as Samsung and LG to download and use their apps. HTC will not be the first to do this, as other companies like Google and Motorola have placed some of their system apps in the Play Store to easily update them. The app of choice that HTC plans to put in the Play Store will be there popular app Zoe.

If you don’t know what Zoe is, Zoe is a slideshow app that was first made available on the HTC One M7. Zoe lets you pick up to 16 pictures or video clips, lay a soundtrack on top of them, and turn the compilation into a video. The video then can be shared with your friends and family. Zoe, which was once an HTC exclusive, now will be available for the rest of the Android user base once the app makes it way to the Play Store. HTC doesn’t plan to stop with their slideshow app.

According to Re/code, “HTC has big ambitions for Zoe, envisioning it not just as the tool for creating these short videos, but also as the hub for viewing and sharing the content.” From the looks of things, HTC wants to turn Zoe into a competitor of Vine and Instagram. On the popularity scale, Zoe isn’t much of a hit — expect to HTC users, but HTC plans to partner with unnamed people in the sports and music world to push Zoe out there into the world. HTC’s software group, Creative Labs will be responsible for the move. Other projects are reportedly set to release but HTC declined to comment. Zoe isn’t the first to make its way into the Google Play Store. Earlier this year HTC has put other apps such as Blinkfeed in the Play Store. As HTC continues to make their software apps available for the Android Community, will you use any of them? Also, what do you think about HTC’s ambitions at creating the next big social network?

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Samsung Believed To Have An LTE Advanced Model Of The Galaxy Alpha On The Way

Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Alpha handset will surely be something to talk about when it releases and it’s already a device that some find alluring, but one detail that has yet to come up is the apparent discovery today that Samsung may have an LTE Cat 6(LTE Advanced)variant of the device set to launch as well. This would be similar to what Samsung did with the Galaxy S5 LTE A, so we can possibly expect a more powerful processor on the inside of the LTE Cat 6 model of the Galaxy Alpha, although that won’t be confirmed until we officially see and hear about the device from Samsung themselves. Hopefully this model will make it to more regions than just their hometown market of South Korea.

There isn’t really anything known about the Galaxy Alpha as of yet when it comes to official specs, but what’s rumored is that it will be carrying a 4.7-inch display(said to be the same type of screen used on the Galaxy S III)and most notably that it will be come with a metal body/frame for the phone which is something that customers have been asking for. There will be multiple variants or models of the Galaxy Alpha as we have learned since we first heard about the device being in existence. Model number SM-G850F is reportedly the LTE Cat 6 model, which is thought to possibly have the Snapdragon 805 inside. There are also rumors stating that the Galaxy Alpha will house different processors for different markets, which isn’t necessarily uncommon and Samsung wouldn’t be the first OEM to do this with a handset. This could mean we’ll see some models with a Qualcomm chip on the inside and at perhaps at least one housing Samsung’s own Exynos CPU.

Other rumored specs include the 12MP rear camera, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. Oddly enough, according to the leaked specs image that we saw just the other day there will be no microSD card slot, which would be a first for Samsung devices in quite a long time. We could end up seeing this device hit store shelves before the end of next month if the rumors about its launch time frame hold true, if that’s the case will you be a likely candidate for the device or are you waiting to see what Samsung has in store for the Galaxy Note 4?

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Sennheiser Joins With Niantic Labs For Limited Edition Ingress Momentum Headphones

Ingress has grown from a slightly different mobile game that required you to actually go out and move freely about the world through an Augmented Reality interface, to a globally recognized phenomenon that people from all walks of life have contributed to and play on a daily basis. Just when you think you might be able to peg someone down from the their looks or demeanor, you’d be wrong. Even if you’re not trying to size anyone up and guess what kind of person they might be, it just might have taken you by surprise the moment you notice that they play Ingress. That second scenario has happened to me on numerous occasions personally. The point is, Ingress is huge, and there’s a reason for that. It gets people out in the open and sets them up to interact with others, face to face, through a game to experience the world around them in an entirely new way.

For those who play Ingress and take it a little more seriously, you probably can agree with the fact that it’s certainly more enjoyable with headphones in, even if only partially, as it helps to really immerse you into the world of the game while still being able to interact with those and the environment around you. It adds an element that just amplifies the game experience as you can better here the sounds and the details of the game. It also kind of makes you feel like you’re really part of something that is in fact happening all around us, and that’s part of the fun. To help illustrate the importance of great quality audio while you play a game like ingress, Google’s Niantic Labs is partnering up with quality audio equipment company Sennheiser to produce a limited edition Ingress set of the Momentum Headphones.

The headphones will be coming out later this year and while Sennheisser hasn’t listed an exact date or what the cost will be when they launch, Sennheiser makes some pretty high grade audio so they won’t be dirt cheap. The regular Momentum headphones range anywhere from around $379.99 to $159.99 depending on the model(on-ear, or over-ear), so we’d wager that the limited edition Ingress pair might be around the same cost when released.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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The Verge Gets A Look At Samsung’s Gear VR Headset Prior To Its Unveiling

If you wanted to learn exactly what Samsung’s upcoming Gear VR headset looks like, thanks to The Verge apparently getting some hands on time with it we have now have a proper idea. We already had some idea of what the headset would look like in it’s final form but haven’t actually, until now, gotten to see the real deal even though this may not be the final product design. We know a good amount of details about the device already as well thanks to previous reports and leaks, like the fact that it will support Samsung handsets as opposed to taking a more open approach and allow for compatibility with non-samsung devices. Rumors had also stated that the Gear VR would possibly be making an appearance at Samsung’s upcoming event next month, which is the Unpacked 2014 Episode 2 they had recently sent out invitations for.

The rumors began with its official unveiling as people started to speculate that it could show up alongside the Galaxy Note 4, which was first rumored to be getting an unveiling at IFA, but now is expected to be getting unveiled at Samsung’s upcoming Unpacked event on September 3rd. Since the Note 4 now seems to be getting unveiled at Unpacked Ep. 2, immediately we started to speculate that we could also see the Gear VR, and according to The Verge that is when we get to see it officially shown off by Samsung for the first time.

The device looks fairly similar to the Oculus Rift which most of you have probably heard of at this point. There have been confirmations in the past that Samsung and Oculus would be working together, and it was found that the Oculus Rift has a Galaxy Note 3 display inside of the newer dev kits recently. As part of the partnership Oculus was said to be providing a helping hand for the software side of things for the Gear VR, so presumably that is the case but Samsung hasn’t yet confirmed that this unit has any Oculus tech in it. Whether this is a production ready final design is also still unknown, but we wouldn’t’ be surprised either way if Samsung decided to leave the design as is, or give it a more fashionable look by the time it hits the market.

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[Bonus Round] Unpossible, Manuganu 2, Gravity Duck, Talisman, And Doppler

Welcome to the latest entry in our Bonus Round series, wherein we tell you all about the new Android games of the day that we couldn't get to during our regular news rounds. Consider this a quick update for the dedicated gamers who can't wait for our bi-weekly roundups, and don't want to wade through a whole day's worth of news just to get their pixelated fix. Today we've got a neon-tinted twitch racer, a charming endless runner, a duck with better-than-average flight capabilities, a classic board game, and a super-frustrating multitouch experience.

[Bonus Round] Unpossible, Manuganu 2, Gravity Duck, Talisman, And Doppler was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Google Updates Platform Distribution Stats - KitKat Still Growing, Jelly Bean Still Shrinking, Gingerbread Gets Surprise 0.1% Bump

It's that time again! Google has updated the developer dashboard with new platform distribution numbers, showing the current state of Android version distribution among devices that have recently checked in to the Play Store.

As expected, KitKat has grown a bit more, up to 20.9% now (vs 17.9% last month), while Jelly Bean down from 56.5 to 54.2%. Still hanging above the 50% mark and encompassing 3 API levels, Jelly Bean is the new Gingerbread.

Google Updates Platform Distribution Stats - KitKat Still Growing, Jelly Bean Still Shrinking, Gingerbread Gets Surprise 0.1% Bump was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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