APK BRO™ - Download APK Android Apps: 09/14/15

Monday, September 14, 2015

Qualcomm Announces Quick Charge 3.0, Grab 80% Charge in 35 Minutes

So, you know how our favorite thing in the world right now seems to be Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0? You may remember how we told you that you could forget wireless charging because your next phone needed Turbo or Fast Charging instead. Well, we’re sorry to say that we were wrong and you don’t actually need Quick Charge 2.0. No, instead, you need Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0. That’s right, Qualcomm has already outdone it’s own brilliance with QC 2.0 and announced QC 3.0 that will be featured in its next line of Snapdragon processors, including the Snapdragon 820.

So what’s new in Quick Charge 3.0 that makes it better than Quick Charge 2.0? For one, it uses something called Intelligent Negotiation for Optimum Voltage (INOV), which is a “new algorithm developed by Qualcomm Technologies, designed to allow portable devices the ability to determine what power level to request at any point in time for optimum power transfer.” Not impressed by that language?

How does 0-80% charge in 35 minutes sound? Qualcomm also states that QC 3.0 is up to 38% more efficient than QC 2.0, but it also has “additional steps to help protect battery cycle life.” QC 3.0 helps improve fast charging by up to 27% and/or reduces power dissipation by up to 45% when compared to QC 2.0 as well.

Quick Charge 3.0 will be featured “as an option” on Snapdragon 820, 620, 618, 617, and 430 and will arrive in phones next year. So, 2016, your phone will have Quick Charge 3.0.

Other notes:

Quick Charge 3.0 also maintains forward and backward compatibility with previous versions of Quick Charge as well as with connectors, including USB Type-C, as well as the same ultra-fast charging speed, cable independence offering OEMs several options, and UL certification to help meet quality and safety standards.
Quick Charge 3.0 is implemented with minimal changes to current designs, offering OEMs a low cost option for fast battery charging. Operators and OEMs benefit from the established Quick Charge ecosystem with over 20 OEMs already supporting Quick Charge 2.0, and over 90 available accessories. The fast charging technology is mandated by several operators with active support from other operators and retailers.
Additional improvements offered by Quick Charge 3.0 include enhanced flexibility over Quick Charge 2.0, notably in terms of charging options. While Quick Charge 2.0 offers four charging voltages at 5V, 9V, 12V and 20V, Quick Charge 3.0 provides flexibility with 200mV increments from 3.6V to 20V. This allows the phone to request just enough voltage to reach the desired charge current, resulting in minimized losses, increased efficiency, and improved thermal performance.

Pretty damn good stuff, Qualcomm.

Via: Qualcomm

This Wallpaper Pack is Hot: Plastexo

Now that you have a new icon pack to consider, wouldn’t it be great if someone gave you a wallpaper pack to go with it? Oh, well, would you look at that. Here’s one!

This pack is called Plastexo, and it is indeed hot. It’s very minimal and flat, with some Material Design influence, but you get quite a wide range of options in it that aren’t just MD abstracts. There are 110 or so 3200×2560 wallpapers that include a variety of landscapes, Lollipop classics, and even some ultra minimal hex art.

The pack is entirely free, includes Muzei support, and is one of the most well-designed apps I have used in a while.

Play Link

This Icon Pack is Hot: Fresh by Stealthychief

Calling all folks in need of color. While browsing Google Play, I came across an icon pack from Stealthychief, a well known designer in the Android community. The pack is called Fresh, and honestly, it’s a darn good descriptor for what this pack offers to those who apply it. Coming from the stock TouchWiz icons on the Galaxy Note 5, Fresh is just what I needed to get me back into using Nova Launcher and custom icon packs. It’s a breath of fresh air.

The icons are filled with rich colors, offering a bit of a simplistic, almost cartoonish vibe to the overall feel of the icons. On Nova Launcher, I jacked up the size of the icons to 150%, making them big, bright, and beautiful. Thanks to their colorful nature, my home screen and app drawer have never looked so colorful and playful. Adjectives.

It’s hard to say exactly how many icons are available, but I found most of the ones I use on a daily basis were fully supported. Heck, there’s even a dedicated DL icon. Woot! The icon pack’s product page on Google Play has the developer stating “quality > quantity,” meaning you can expect all following updates bringing more icons to look great.

If you need a bit of color in your life, which we all do sometimes, head on over to Google Play and check out Fresh.

Play Link ($0.99)

Kylie, Kendall, Khloe, and Kim Release Android Apps That Expect You to Pay $2.99 Per Month

You didn’t have to tell us – we knew you were looking for the “dopest place” to get all of your Kardashian/Jenner sister news. That place happens to be through individual apps released today by Kylie and Kendall Jenner, and Kim and Khloe Kardashian.

Each sister has a brand new app on Android and iOS that will surely show you how to dress your 2 year old daughters up in $5,000 Givenchy outfits and find creepy 23-year old rappers to date your 15 year-olds. Well, not before you pay each’s $2.99 per month subscription fee. There will probably be dozens of other ways to help pad the Kardashian family wallets as well, outside of the $2.99 subscription, through paid partnerships for items such as likely-unsafe drugs that you won’t get full warning about until after the fact.

But hey, the company who made these apps also has one for Tyler, the Creator, in case that helps.

Again – free, but have monthly fees.

Play Links: Kylie | Kendall | Khloe | Kim

Tip: Check for Unclaimed Rewards in “My Account” on Google Play

How often do you slideout Google Play’s navigation drawer and enter the “My Account” section? I think I’ve done it all of once, probably when I wrote up this story. I may have done it another time or two to check on account history or to add a new payment method, but honestly, I forgot it even exists. That’s too bad really, because Google is adding “Rewards” in there for promos you may have waiting for you.

In the Google Play rewards section, I’m currently seeing a reminder for a free movie rental, likely because I bought a Chromecast or two at some point. Thanks, Google!

A couple of us are seeing this “Rewards” section, along with this reminder to grab a free rental, but I’d imagine Google will use this section for additional goodies that you need to redeem. Since it’s kind of tucked away in a place most of us rarely check, we wanted to make sure you were all aware of it.

Anyone else have any rewards to claim?

Cheers Scott!

Deal: Grab 6 Months of Pandora One for $24, Down from $30

Don’t use Spotify? Don’t use Google Play Music? Don’t use iTunes? That might mean you use Pandora, right? If you do, or if have always wanted to try out the the premium version of Pandora, called Pandora One, you can grab a 6-month subscription off of the DL Deals Store for just $24 – down from its usual price of $4.99/month, essentially netting you a free month of the service.

Pandora’s ability to play great music for you that you may not have heard before is its strong feature, in my opinion. I remember throwing Gojira on, and a whole radio station of great metal was played thereafter. With Pandora One, there are no advertisements, more daily skips (for songs you don’t like), and you can use the service on any supported platform.

If you need some more Pandora music in your life, check it out.

Features

Enjoy your radio free of ads
Get more daily “skips”
Listen for long periods of time without timeouts
Experience premium-quality audio at 192k bits per second
Utilize on any supported device
Customize the aesthetics of your Pandora web player

Deal Link

LG is Hosting a October 1 Event to Unveil Something, Maybe a Samsung Continuum

LG is sending out invites to press, this morning, to an event they are hosting on October 1 in New York City. Details or hints of what to expect at the event weren’t revealed, but rumors of an LG “V10” phone with a secondary ticker display have surfaced within recent weeks and could be the focus.

According to formerly retired leaker, @evleaks, the phone will sport a 5.7-inch QHD display, Snapdragon 808 processor, 16MP rear camera, 5MP front camera, microSD slot, 3GB RAM, 64GB storage, integrated fingerprint scanner, and some sort of odd auxiliary display. If you are thinking about Samsung’s Continuum at this point, you should be.

For those who don’t remember the Continuum, we’ll have to take you back to 2010, a time when Samsung thought people would be interested in a secondary display on their phones that could include things like notifications and stock information. It was a pretty horrible idea. Of course, it was before they figured out how to add secondary displays in a somewhat useful manner, like they have on the Note Edge and S6 Edge lines.

To see LG consider the move now is a bit surprising. Secondary displays haven’t proven to be any sort of a home run to this point. There are few use cases that add any sort of real value, even with Samsung’s latest implementation, so I’m not sure what LG is thinking.

The rest of the phone (pictured below) just sounds like a G4 with a slightly bigger display.

Eh, what do you think?

Via: CNET

Deal: New Unlocked Galaxy S6 (G920i) for Just $429.99

Looking for a good deal on a Galaxy S6? Currently over on eBay, you can pick up a brand new, factory unlocked Galaxy S6 (G920i model) 32GB for just $430, available in White Pearl, Black Sapphire, and Platinum Gold.

This is the international unlocked model of SM-G920i and works great on either AT&T or T-Mobile. It’s an unlocked GSM phone, so don’t expect it to work on Verizon or Sprint.

Considering this device launched in the $700 range a few months back, saving a few hundred on a device like this is solid.

Deal Link

Having Issues With Your SHIELD Pro (500GB Model) After 1.4 Update?

If you happen to be a consumer of everything NVIDIA, things may not be going too well. After a recall of nearly 90,000 SHIELD Tablets, it appears a few owners of the SHIELD Pro, the 500GB model of the SHIELD Android TV set-top box, are experiencing a severely crippling bug after installing the 1.4 update.

NVIDIA notes that less than 1% of SHIELD Pro owners have been diagnosed with having a hard drive issue that can worsen over time. You will know if your SHIELD is affected if you see the fastboot menu during the update process, which is not normal. For those affected, NVIDIA is asking you to replace your SHIELD unit, with them footing the bill.

Symptoms

Fastboot menu appears during Upgrade 1.4 (even if system recovers after a system reboot you should get a replacement).
Severe and persistent pixilation in all tiles of the top row of the Android TV home screen (text in tiles will be unreadable and does not become clear after a few seconds).

If you saw any of these issues when or after updating, you will need to contact NVIDIA immediately for a replacement. NVIDIA states they will work hard to get replacements out as soon as possible.

Again, less than 1% of owners are affected, but you never know. If your Pro model seems fine, it’s best not to worry. And for all SHIELD 16GB models, you have nothing to fear. This issue only affects the Pro model.

Via: GeForce Forums

It’s Official: Verizon Approves Android 5.1 Lollipop for Moto X (1st Gen)

Over the weekend, Motorola began a soak test of Android 5.1 Lollipop for the Moto X (1st gen) on Verizon. At the time, we told you that it could begin rolling out to non-soak testers within the week, assuming it was successful. Well, Verizon must be pleased with the Lollipop build, as they have approved the update for rollout.

The update is arriving as software version 222.21.39, which is different than the version we saw hit soak testers’ phones.

The official changelog documents are included below, but they mention new additions like UI improvements, Android security improvements (Stagefright patch), new interruption controls, changes to volume settings, and factory reset protection.

Because you are coming from Kit Kat, and I can’t even remember what Kit Kat looked like at this point, be sure to check out the video below of the Moto X (2nd gen) getting Lollipop for the first time. It’ll help you see what’s new and what has changed through the jump to Lollipop.

Via: Verizon

Moto Body Becomes Its Own App, Moto Connect Gets a Big Update

During Motorola’s presentation of the new Moto 360 (2nd gen) ahead of its IFA unveiling, the team behind the wearable stressed a new focus on health. That focus has become much clearer this morning now that Motorola has released a new Moto Body app to the Play store.

With a stand-alone Moto Body app (the previous version was baked into Moto Connect), Motorola is giving you more detailed health and fitness information. The new Moto Body app tracks fitness and health goals through a Moto 360, but then displays the information in its own app interface. It tracks things like calorie burn, heart rate, and steps on daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly levels. It’ll attempt to show you health trends and give you insights on improving yourself.

It looks like a decent health app at first glance, though this is a crowded space at this point, with Samsung’s S Health, Google Fit, and more fitness bands and companion apps available than anyone can keep track of.

On a related note, Motorola also pushed out an updated Moto Connect app that has an improved UI and is now ready for the new Moto 360.

The updates and apps are live on Google Play.

Play Links: Moto Body | Moto Connect

Probably Temporary: Verizon Unlimited Users Can Tether Out of the Box for Free With Moto X Pure

If you picked up a Moto X Pure Edition and are using it on Verizon with your unlimited data plan, feel free to flip on the phone’s WiFi Hotspot and see if tethering works. It’s working on my phone. It’s working for a handful of others over at XDA as well, plus a source told us it would work day 1 out of the box. And I’m talking about free WiFi Hotspot and tethering without a subscription check, not for users who pay the $29.99 per month that Verizon charges unlimited data users.

Great, right? Who knows how long it will last. So far, though, we have been able to turn it on and connect to a number of devices without a hiccup.

Temporary fun!

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Monday, September 14, 2015

Qualcomm Announces Quick Charge 3.0, Grab 80% Charge in 35 Minutes

Via: Qualcomm

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This Wallpaper Pack is Hot: Plastexo

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This Icon Pack is Hot: Fresh by Stealthychief

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Kylie, Kendall, Khloe, and Kim Release Android Apps That Expect You to Pay $2.99 Per Month

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Tip: Check for Unclaimed Rewards in “My Account” on Google Play

Cheers Scott!

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Deal: Grab 6 Months of Pandora One for $24, Down from $30

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LG is Hosting a October 1 Event to Unveil Something, Maybe a Samsung Continuum

Via: CNET

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Deal: New Unlocked Galaxy S6 (G920i) for Just $429.99

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Having Issues With Your SHIELD Pro (500GB Model) After 1.4 Update?

Via: GeForce Forums

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It’s Official: Verizon Approves Android 5.1 Lollipop for Moto X (1st Gen)

Via: Verizon

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Moto Body Becomes Its Own App, Moto Connect Gets a Big Update

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Probably Temporary: Verizon Unlimited Users Can Tether Out of the Box for Free With Moto X Pure

More: XDA

Cheers Jerry and C!

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