APK BRO™ - Download APK Android Apps: 08/26/15

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Motorola Says Moto 360 Update With Interactive Watch Faces is Now Rolling Out

This morning, Motorola posted new release notes for the latest Android Wear update to hit the Moto 360. This is the update that includes interactive watch faces (examples), device to device sharing, Google Translate, and more. According to the changelog, Motorola also tossed in a new “Weather Microapp” that shows current weather and a four-day forecast.

In order to update, you will need to have more than an 80% charge on you watch. To check for it, head into Settings>About>System updates. If you are prompted to update, simply swipe left on the System update notification, touch “Open,” and select “yes” when it asks if you are ready to install.

The update rolls out as build LCA44B.

Anyone see it yet?

Interactive Watch Faces	Interactive watch faces make it easier to stay connected. With just a tap on your watch face, you can change its design, reveal more information, or even launch a specific app. You can download interactive watch faces from Play Store. To set up, touch and hold on the current watch face, then scroll left/right to select the one you just downloaded. You can also select it from the Android Wear phone app.
Together Watch Face	Two Android Wear users can stay close throughout the day by turning their entire watch face into a space for sharing. Once you’ve paired your watch face with a partner’s, you’ll be able to share things like photos and emojis, and more. To set up, touch and hold on the current watch face, then scroll left/right to find the Together watch face. You can also select it from the Android Wear phone app.
Google Translate for Wear	Translate a conversation into any of the 44 available languages, then flip your wrist to show the translation to someone else. When they respond in their own language, flip your wrist back, and you’ll see in a translation of what they’ve just said. The watch must be connected to a phone with internet access via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
Weather Microapp	Shows current weather conditions and four-day forecast for your current location. To open the weather microapp, swipe left on the watch face, then scroll down and tap Weather.
Privacy improvement for notifications	Your notifications won’t show in full screen until the watch is oriented in a way that only you can see it. This feature prevents others from reading an incoming notification when your watch screen is pointed away from you.
Bug Fixes	A variety of system optimizations to improve performance and stability.

Via: Motorola

Cheers RussB!

This is Probably What the New Nest (3rd Gen) Looks Like

Well, that picture above is of the box that it may or may not come in, from what I’ve been told. In fact, that box could just be the box that Nest is sending to testers to house the new Nest Thermostat. Below, you will find what is more than likely an image of the brand new Nest Learning Thermostat (3rd gen).

Why do I say that? Take a look closely at the comparison of the picture labeled “new” to the picture labeled “old.” See the difference? Yep, the display. The brand new Nest, which we are pretty damn sure cruised through the FCC last week under FCCID ZQAT30, has a bigger display than its 2nd gen brother.

Outside of that, well, it’s anyone’s guess as to what Nest packed inside there. My guess is that it’ll ship with newer software and have improve sensors. But I think the big deal here is the display. Who doesn’t love a brand new, big ol’ display?

As we learn more, we’ll do our best to pass it all along.

Google Apps Users to See Better Sync Between Calendar and Gmail

Thanks to upcoming updates, Google Apps users (essentially Google for business) will now begin to see better sync of information between Gmail and Google Calendar.

Once updated, when a user receives an email containing information such as flight, movie, and hotel confirmations, the information will automatically be loaded into your Google Calendar as an event. That means no more copy and pasting information yourself from one app to the other. Google Calendar will even automatically update information for you if it happens to change.

This feature will be turned on by default, but can be disabled if you so choose in the settings. To notify users of this change, Google explains, “Once the first event from Gmail is added, a one-time email notification will also be sent to the user from Google Calendar, explaining the settings and sharing details for events from Gmail.” So don’t worry, it won’t surprise you too much.

If you use Google Apps, be on the lookout for this exciting update.

Via: Google Apps Updates

Deal: 128GB SanDisk MicroSD Cards are Just $59

Still own a phone that has a microSD card slot and are in need of some storage? You might want to consider the deal running over at Amazon for the next few days that features a SanDisk 128GB microSD card for just $59.99. These cards typically retail for around $100, so you are looking at a solid 40% discount.

The card comes with an adapter, 48MB/s read speeds, and Prime shipping, for those who are members.

The deal is live until August 29.

Amazon Link

The Droid Life Show: Episode 90

Episode 90! While not 100, it still feels like a big enough number that is worthy of a celebration. So, we are kicking off this week’s show on a Wednesday, and with special guest Ron. That’s right, it’s a 3-person team for today’s Droid Life Show.

As for topics, we’ll be talking Galaxy Note 5 impressions after a week or so with the phone (I think we all have one at this point), upcoming Android Wear devices like the new Moto 360, DROID MAXX 2, the HTC iPhone clone, and much more. It will be a feature-packed hour long episode, that’s for sure.

We will kick the show off live at 2:00PM Pacific (5:00PM Eastern). We have a live video embedded below, along with an IRC chat, so you can kick it with us during the show.

If you miss us live, feel free to subscribe to us by following one of the links below.

Subscribe | iTunes | Stitcher| Show Page

Video: S Pen Features on the Galaxy Note 5

The S Pen featured on the Galaxy Note 5, when not stuck upside down in your device, features a few minor tweaks over last year’s S Pen on the Galaxy Note 4. First, it has an awesome clicker mechanism built-in, giving it a more pen-like feel while in-hand. Even though it truly serves zero functionality besides sounding and feeling good, and helping you remove it from the phone, it does offer a “cool” attribute.

As for the software side, the additions to the S Pen feature list are the ability to write notes down when your display is off, customizable app shortcuts on Air Command, and a Scrolling Screenshot function. For Screen Off Memo, when you remove the S Pen while the device’s display is off, you can write down notes, numbers, or an address, and then save that to Action Memos inside of the S Note application. This is a helpful feature for those people who always find themselves in a rush when taking notes.

The Scrolling Screenshot function allows you to take elongated screenshots of a webpage. To use this in a browser app, bring out the S Pen, select Screen Write, then a screenshot flash will occur. In the bottom left of the display, the text “Screen Capture” will appear. When you select it, the device will screenshot an additional section of the page, with the ability for you to screenshot an entire page if you so choose. As an example, this is what that looks like when completed. To enlarge, open the image in a separate tab.

Other features include everything we had on previous iterations of the software. This includes Smart Select, Screen Write, and application shortcuts. These shortcuts can be customized to whatever applications you would like.

With Smart Select, users can select a portion of whatever is shown on the display, allowing you to draw on top of it, share it to S Note, send it through an app, or save it to your on-device Scrapbook. For Screen Write, the device snaps an entire screenshot, then allows you to draw on it or share it. This is extremely handy when you have Google Maps open, with the ability for the user to hand draw directions to a specific location.

All of these features, and the correct way to insert the S Pen into the Galaxy Note 5, are highlighted in the video below.

Facebook M is a Personal Assistant That Lives in Facebook Messenger

This morning, Facebook’s David Marcus (VP of messaging products) announced that their have started to test a new service within Messenger called Facebook M. M is a “personal digital assistant inside of Messenger” that helps you complete tasks or find information.

In describing the new service, Marcus said that M is powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and actual humans, and that it completes tasks “on your behalf,” can purchase items deliver gifts to friends and family, book restaurants, make travel arrangements or appointments, and “way more.” According to Wired, M is interacted with similarly to how you would have a conversation with another human in Messenger, but that “the service will make suggestions based only on your answers to questions it asks you and previous conversations you and M have had.” So you are getting a mix of AI and also some human interaction or help.

For now, Facebook M is being tested with a few hundred people in the San Francisco area, but the goal is to roll it out to everyone.

Sound interesting? I actually kind of like the idea of a messaging platform having a built-in assistant that doesn’t require you to leave the app. Hangouts does some of this stuff automatically, like share your location when someone asks, and Google Now on Tap will as well (whenever that launches). But I certainly see this as an area that could become quite useful down the road.

Via: Facebook | Wired

NVIDIA SHIELD Now Available on the Google Store for $199

This seems like something that should have happened from day 1, but the NVIDIA SHIELD gaming system that NVIDIA doesn’t want to call a gaming system, is now available on the Google Store. It’s priced at $199, just like it is everywhere else.

As a recap, the NVIDIA SHIELD runs Android TV and can act as the media hub for your living room. It plays 4K content from places like YouTube and Netflix, is a gaming beast with its Tegra X1 chipset, 256-core GPU, and controller built for gamers.

To see Tim’s impressions of the SHIELD, be sure to hit up this post.

Google Store Link

Verizon Attempts to Make It Easier for You to Activate Unlocked Phones

You know how much of a pain it has been to activate a non-Verizon branded Nexus 6 on Verizon, even though the phone is completely unlocked at all times and fully works on Verizon’s airwaves? For a while, it was pretty tough. In fact, it took months before Verizon allowed the Nexus 6 from Google Play or other carriers to be activated on its network. Now, we’re talking activating, not SIM-swapping. There is a difference here.

Verizon, like with the Nexus 7 (2013), likes to use this “we are still testing the device and haven’t certified it yet” when telling people they can’t activate unlocked phones or other devices. Again, these phones all fully work and more than likely (like 99.999999999999999%) won’t do harm to their network, but they still must test. And since they are testing, they won’t just activate anything.

While that will still be the case going forward (the painfully slow certification process), Verizon is at least attempting to make the process easier, once a device gets everything all up in the certified arena. According to Verizon, the company is now “accepting and activating select non-Verizon smartphones like the Nexus 6. Other examples include iOS devices such as iPhone 6 and 6 Plus or iPad Air.” Outside of those, more could be added once they are certified.

A dedicated page has been setup on Verizon’s site that will tell you if your phone can be activated on their network. It’ll ask for your operating system and IMEI, before telling you which plans to choose from to get service up and running.

Of course, with unlocked phones that have supported Verizon CDMA and LTE bands, you can just swap in an already activated SIM card and get busy. That’s the “SIM-swapping” we talked about earlier. But with activation, this might be the solution, assuming your device is certified. Baby steps.

Side note: Holy sh*t, I never want to type “certified” ever again.

Verizon Link

Via: FierceWireless

YouTube Gaming, the Twitch Competitor, is Now Live

YouTube Gaming, Google’s answer to Twitch, is now available to download on Google Play. As a place for lovers of games to watch others play their favorite titles, YouTube Gaming brings gamers together, allowing folks to share tips on games through chat, watch livestreams, and so much more.

With over 25,000 titles watchable on the service, there is a huge chance some of your favorite personalities on YouTube are already using the service. In total, YouTube Gaming states the service boasts a community of 100 million users, including publishers and gamers.

For now, YouTube Gaming is only available to folks in the US and UK.

Go have some fun!

Play Link

Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 Pre-Order Now Live, Starts at $399

The Galaxy Tab S2, announced from Samsung in July, is now up for pre-order in the United States. Carriers are also getting in on the fun, as you can purchase the tablet with LTE radios inside, launching in-store through AT&T on September 4, and T-Mobile on September 3. US Cellular, Sprint, and Verizon are also confirmed to carry the device, but we have yet to learn the in-store launch date.

The Galaxy Tab S2 comes in four models, a 8.0″ and 9.7″, both sporting WiFi-only and LTE variants. For specs, the tablets feature Super AMOLED displays, octa-core processors, 3GB of RAM, 8MP rear-facing cameras, and decently sized batteries. More impressively, both tablets are extremely thin, with both models measuring in at just 5.6mm thick. For comparison the Galaxy S6, a rather thin device, is 6.8mm thick.

As for pricing, the 8.0″ WiFi-only model is $399, with the LTE model to be priced by carriers individually. At this moment, T-Mobile only has a financing option listed, $0 down (and $27.09 / 23 months + $26.92 for the 24th month). For the 9.7″ model, WiFi-only, it starts at $499.

The tablet is also available to order through retailers such as Amazon and Best Buy, who are hosting a special promotion to give buyers $100 or more off of their purchase when you trade-in an existing, qualifying tablet.

Need a new tablet?

Via: Samsung | AT&T | T-Mobile

RIP, Amazon Free App of the Day.

If you had made the Amazon Free App of the Day (FAOTD) a part of your daily routine, I’m sorry to break it to you, but that will have to change going forward. This morning, Amazon appears to have killed the daily promo in favor of something called “Underground.”

Underground, as far as we can tell, is a new location in Amazon’s Appstore that lists out “actually free” games and apps for you to download. Amazon says there are over $10,000 in apps, games, and in-app items that are “actually free.” I don’t know what “actually free” is in reference too or taking a shot at, but that appears to be the slogan for this new initiative.

The basic idea here is that Amazon doesn’t need to figure out a single app that should be free each day when they can put together bundles or lists that are likely available for a set period of time. That way, you can just check back regularly to see if anything has changed or if there are additional free apps you may want to grab.

This new “Underground” section lives inside the Amazon app, under the Apps section. In other words, it’s not a new app by any means. Once in there, you can download and install free apps like Goat Simulator, Cut the Rope 2, Jetpack Joyride, Star Wars Rebels: Recon Missions, and more.

Amazon Underground

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Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Motorola Says Moto 360 Update With Interactive Watch Faces is Now Rolling Out

Via: Motorola

Cheers RussB!

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