APK BRO™ - Download APK Android Apps: 01/28/16

Thursday, January 28, 2016

ParcelTrack is My New Favorite Package Tracker on Android

For a solid year, I was attached to AfterShip for all of my package tracking needs. Recently, after reaching out to its development team and hearing the developer tell me they had no plans to add account syncing between multiple devices, I gave up on it and went looking for a better option. You see, I change devices all of the time, often within a day. I can’t have a single phone doing all of my package tracking – I need syncing.

Earlier this week, I ran through a handful of options and even paid for many of their pro versions to get the full experience. Only one seems to be worth paying for and that app is ParcelTrack. This app, at least in my first few days with it, is awesome.

For one, ParcelTrack is feature packed with options like quick swipe gestures on entries for archiving or deleting, pull-to-refresh, auto carrier detection and auto detection when your clipboard has a copied tracking number, a delivery forecast, barcode scanning, a widget, and support with many of the major shipping carriers, including all of the big dogs in the US.

What makes this my app of choice is its other features, like synchronization between multiple devices, push notifications that aren’t incredibly late, a dedicated email address that you can forward tracking emails to, and a super slick and clean UI.

ParcelTrack does feature a premium set of features, many of which I just named. In order to unlock them all, it’ll cost you $1.99, but only on a single device. Their Google Play listing will tell you which ones are a part of that package. If you don’t need them, you can use it completely free.

Package tracking freaks, you need to check this one out if you haven’t already.

Play Link

Chrooma Keyboard is Like a Colorful, Feature-Filled Version of the Google Keyboard

Earlier today, a keyboard was dropped off in our inbox that has us pretty excited about a potential change away from the stock Google Keyboard. The keyboard is called Chrooma and it’s basically a form of the Google Keyboard we always wanted or at least kept hoping Google would build. In other words, it has a couple of features we wish Google would implement, along with a couple of really cool ideas that give your typing experience a boost of color.

If you are looking for flashy slideout menus and predictive emoji and themes and all of that jazz, similar to what you would find in Swiftkey, you won’t get that here. What you get with Chrooma is a very similar experience to the Google Keyboard. As someone who has found comfort in Google’s keyboard over all others, this is right up my alley.

Chrooma stands out to me because not only do I get that Google Keyboard experience that I like so much, but I also get a couple of really important settings to play with. For one, I can add a number row! Because that takes up a massive amount of screen real estate, Chrooma also built a scale, where you can drop down the size of your keyboard in 10% increments.

Where Chrooma really shines, though, is in its adaptive color management. Confused by that idea? Let me attempt to explain. Chrooma is using this smart color system, where it matches up the color of the keyboard to whatever app you are using. For example, in Hangouts, you get a green keyboard that matches up to the color of Hangouts. In Gmail, it’s shows up as red. In Keep, it’s yellow. Make sense? And it does this all automatically as you jump between each without a hiccup.

If you don’t like the adaptive color changing, that’s OK too. You can set a custom color for each app that you use or turn off the adaptive coloring altogether and go back to one of the standard Material Light or Dark themes.

Need another couple of reasons to try Chrooma? Night Mode and a palette style. In Night Mode, Chrooma recognizes “low illumination” and then adjusts the color of the keyboard to a darker shade so as to not blind you at night. With palette styling, Chrooma lays out a palette of colors on your keyboard, in case you need separation between lines and don’t want to look at so many solid colors all day. You can see both in action below.

How does it type, you are probably wondering? As I mentioned earlier, the whole experience reminds a lot of the Google keyboard, from the way it types out letters, gestures words, and looks. I’ve just begun testing it, but so far am pretty impressed.

Play Link ($1.49)

NVIDIA Hosting SHIELD Winter Game Sale, Save Up to 75% Off Select Games

For anyone using a SHIELD device, including a SHIELD Android TV or SHIELD Tablet, the holiday deals don’t appear to be over quite yet. Today, NVIDIA announced the SHIELD Winter Game Sale, available on both Google Play, as well as GeForce NOW.

To sum it up, select LEGO titles are 75% off through GeForce NOW (Marvel Super Heroes, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings), and on Google Play, you can save 50% on Hotline Miami titles, Titan Souls, OlliOlli, and Luftrausers.

The sale is live right now, ending January 31.

Here’s the complete list of what is currently on sale.

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes (GeForce NOW 75% off)
LEGO The Hobbit (GeForce NOW 75% off)
LEGO The Lord of the Rings (GeForce NOW 75% off)
Hotline Miami 1 (Android 50% off)
Hotline Miami 2 (Android 50% off)
Titan Souls (Android 50% off)
OlliOlli (Android 50% off)
Luftrausers (Android 50% off)

Moto Valentine’s Deals: Free Leather Watch Bands, Moto G Shells, and Discounts on Adler Designed Moto X

To celebrate Valentine’s Day, Motorola is handing out discounts on some of its most popular products. From today through February 16, you can buy the Moto G, Moto 360 (2nd gen), or Jonathan Adler designed Moto X Pure Edition and either receive freebies or discounts.

The three deals are as follows:

Buy Moto G (16GB) and get two free shells.
Moto X Pure Edition designed by Jonathan Adler is now $399 (drops from $474).
Order Moto 360 (2nd gen) with a metal band and get a leather band free.

You can shop all of the deals at Motorola’s online shop.

LG G Pay “White Card” Could be a Credit Card Like Coin

Reports of G Pay, LG’s mobile payments solution, surfaced in October of last year, but according to the latest intel, we could see the launch take place at MWC next month. G Pay will materialize into what LG is calling the White Card, a mobile credit card-sized payment tool. If you have ever heard of Coin, this is essentially what White Card will be. With it, users will securely load up all of their banking payment info, and then use White Card to pay at any merchant via a swipe, or even withdrawal money from ATMs.

Using a liquid crystal display, users will scroll through which payment form they would like to use at any given retailer. If you have a rewards card at a certain store, you can upload it and use that form of payment. White Card is reported to launch with support for credit card, debit cards, loyalty cards, and more.

When not in use, users can simply lock White Card, and given its size matching that of a regular credit card, the device can be stored inside of a wallet or purse.

As for US availability, not much is known. At this time, LG appears to be targeting consumers in South Korea, gaining card partners in that specific region. With announcement and launch reported to take place at MWC, we should know all of the details relatively soon.

If LG’s White Card makes it to the US, is this something you could see yourself using? Having personally attempted to use Coin, I can tell you that these platforms are often a complete pain in the rear, rather than a convenience. My fingers are crossed that LG has been able to solve many of the bugs associated with this type of payment solution.

Via: ETNews

Verizon Introduces 15% Service Discount to Military Members

Today, Verizon announced a new discount program that gives discounts on wireless service and accessory purchases to active, former, and retired members of the military.

According to Verizon, members of the military are eligible to receive a 15% discount on a postpaid monthly wireless service (so, not prepaid), plus there is no “minimum plan requirement.” Verizon says that they plan to automatically apply this discount to more than 100,000 eligible accounts that they have identified as current and former military men and women.

If these men and women also want to pick-up accessories for their Verizon products, there will be 25% discounts on “select” chargers, cases, and extended batteries, along with a 12% discount on some calling features, like International Travel to Mexico and Canada, HUM by Verizon, and Tech Coach.

To find out how you can get signed-up for the discounts, head over to this Verizon page.

Via: Verizon

Swiftkey Update Brings Android 6.0.1’s New Emoji, Like This One 🖕

Back in December, Swiftkey Beta received an update that included access to the new emoji introduced in Android 6.0.1. Today, the stable or “market” channel of Swiftkey received the update with access to them as well.

What else is in the update? Nothing that we know of. Swiftkey may have fixed some bugs, but this update is really all about emoji access.

What’s that, you aren’t seeing the middle finger emoji in the title, the new poop emoji, or champagne or burritos or flags? Yeah, well, that’s because you probably aren’t on Android 6.0.1. In order to see and use the new emoji, you have to be on a phone that is running Android 6.0.1. Since there are all of five phones that I can think of that are on the newest build, you can probably move along now.

🦄🦀

Via: Swiftkey

HTC One M10 Reported to Feature QHD AMOLED Display, 12 UltraPixel Camera With Laser Focus

According to the latest report, HTC will release its most advanced smartphone in 2016, claimed by one source who has spent time with a prototype. Stated by the source, the One M10 features a 5.1″ QHD display, which is reported to look like the AMOLED variety, and will also feature a 12 UltraPixel camera with assisted laser focus on its backside.

At 12 UltraPixels, users should not only have larger pixels to capture more light in low-light settings, but the resolution of photos will be greater, meaning added detail for all shots you take. Previously, HTC’s UltraPixel did not make a great first impression, as the 4MP resolution was not great enough to stand it up against the best of Samsung or LG. This change should help tackle that issue.

As for software, the One M10 is said to ship running Android 6.0.1, with Sense 8.0 UI on top. To go along with software enhancements, HTC is placing a fingerprint home button on the bottom frontside, just as we saw with the One A9. This matches previous reports stating that the One M10’s design would be taking a few design cues from the A9.

Internally, the report goes on to claim most of the same we have already heard or expected; the One M10 will have a Qualcomm-made Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM, possible microSD slot for expandable storage, and 32GB of onboard storage.

One missing feature, which will surely upset those hardcore HTC fans, is the lack of BoomSound speakers. For years, the audio was a highlight on One devices, but in 2016, HTC appears to be moving away from delivering heavy bass tones from dual front-facing speakers. This choice is probably attributed to HTC’s desire to create a slimmer, shorter device. And possibly, it could mean we shouldn’t expect a HTC “black bar” on the frontside.

The source claims that HTC will indeed not be showing off the One M10 at MWC next month, and instead, will hold a separate event later this year.

Are these specs painting the picture of a device you might want to own?

Via: Venture Beat

Question of the Day: Why Android?

Bringing them big questions today, eh? Yes, yes, we are.

In all semi-seriousness, it’s time to talk about it (again). I can’t remember the last time (or if ever) we talked about this subject, but I’d love to hear some specific (or general) thoughts on why you have chosen Android as your mobile operating system. This isn’t meant to be a “Down with Apple!” post; we’re genuinely curious in 2016 why you continue to stick with Android.

While Android has evolved over the years, iOS has as well, even adopting plenty of early Android features that once made this the easy operating system of choice for many of us. Is it about control, still? Is it the “openness” to everything (like apps talking to each other and a file manager)? Is it about choice? Is it because you just flat out love HTC or Samsung or Motorola or LG? Is it because you need the best Google app experiences (sans Hangouts of course)? Or maybe, you really just do despise all that is Apple?

Let’s hear it.

Motorola’s Next Phone Arrives in July, Will be “More Innovative, More Attractive”

So, here we have a fun little quote that we can run a couple of ways with. Lenovo chief Yuanqing Yang said in an interview to the Wall Street Journal that he still thinks that there is room for growth for smartphones in emerging markets, but that he also intends to leverage his Motorola ownership to penetrate the smartphone market in the US. He said that his company will release a phone this July to the US that will be “more innovative, more attractive.”

Oooh, a phone that is more innovative and more attractive. On one hand, because of the context surrounding it, that quote almost seems to be in reference to his previous comments about emerging-market growth. Obviously, the US is not an emerging market, but we have certainly seen a push for the types of phones typically introduced in emerging markets, being released in the US. Take the Moto G for example, or ASUS and BLU phones. Is Yang saying that they have a “more innovative, more attractive” lower-end phone for the US that will arrive in July?

Probably not.

He’s probably referencing the Moto line, which is their only flagship phone line going forward. So if he is talking about the Moto line and a phone that is coming out in July, what could be “more innovative, more attractive” than what is already on the market? Or that they have done previously? Well, they could use a fingerprint reader for one. Maybe they have more Moto app features lined up? An even better camera than what they put in this past year’s Moto X?

As for being more attractive, that’s all a matter of taste and opinion, but the Moto X line of phones has been one of the better looking for years now. Is Yang hinting at a new design language? Are we talking an even broader range of material choices in Moto Maker?

Look at that. A tiny, 4-word quote just got me to write over 300 words.

You tell us, what would you like to see in a “more innovative, more attractive” Moto phone for 2016?

Via: Wall Street Journal

Yahoo App Also Gets Update, Aims to Make Finding News Easier

Yahoo Mail isn’t the only Yahoo app to get a big update today. The Yahoo app is also getting a sizable update that is aimed at helping you “find, consume, and engage around the news, content and video you care about.” The update also wants to make it easier for you to join in on conversations surrounding news items and follow the latest in developer stories.

A bulk of these changes seem to be happening in Yahoo for the web, where you’ll be able to read multiple articles without having to open a bunch of individual tabs. You’ll see editors’ picks, relevant content, related stories by clicking a heart icon, and be able to click through to read more. It’s one of those situations where the more you read, the more tailored to you the experience becomes.

As for the conversation piece to all of this, Yahoo has made comments surface directly in-line, so it’s easier than ever to share your ~~trolling~~ thoughts with the world. Because, you know, we all asked for opinions about the Earth being flat to be shared even easier.

Grab the update today, Yahoo news fans.

Play Link

Via: Yahoo

You Can Now Customize Swipe Actions in Yahoo Mail, Use Actionable Notifications

An update for Yahoo Mail hit Google Play this morning, bringing an Inbox-like feature that will allow users to more quickly organize their email inbox. Upon loading it up, users will see the added ability to add custom actions for swiping gestures, such as archive, delete, move to, and others. This update goes hand-in-hand with a previous update that brought the swiping actions.

These custom actions make organization a breeze, given you no longer need to dive into each email to send them to their correct folder or place. If it’s trash, give it a swipe to the right. If you want to mark an email as read, give it a swipe to the left. All actions are customizable, so it’s left to the user what you would like Yahoo Mail to do.

In addition to swiping actions, newly expandable notifications from Yahoo Mail will also show customizable options, such as giving an email a star or immediately archiving it. Again, these actions are completely changeable depending on what you need them to perform.

If you rock Yahoo Mail, go grab the update.

Play Link

Via: Yahoo

RIP: Google My Tracks is Shutting Down April 30

Another Google app bites the dust. My Tracks, Google’s outdoor mapping and tracking app that has somewhere between 10M and 50M installs, is shutting down on April 30, so that Google can focus their mapping efforts elsewhere.

As you can imagine, this news hasn’t been taken well by My Tracks users. For an outdoor tracking app, it used to be one of the best, since it was able to track accurately without destroying your battery. In recent months, reviews haven’t been kind to My Tracks, likely because Google had dropped support. Today’s news only sort of reinforces that thought.

Here is the statement from Google on why it will be shut down:

After April 30, 2016, My Tracks will no longer be available. We apologize for the inconvenience this might cause My Tracks users. We’ve made the tough decision to invest our efforts into other, more wide-reaching, mapping projects. Below are some resources to help you manage or export your data and find other apps to continue tracking your activities.

If you were a My Tracks users and want to export your data, Google has a couple of options for you that can be found at the source link below.

Google is also providing applications that could be good alternatives, like Google Fit, Strava, Endomondo, Map My Run, Map My Hike, GPS Logger for Android, and GPX Viewer.

RIP, My Tracks.

Via: Google Support

T-Mobile Adds New Services to Binge On, Makes It Easier to Turn Off

T-Mobile announced that a handful of new services have joined their Binge On video streaming program, this morning, but in doing so, also attempted to provide more of the same narrative as they did during the embarrassing, combative outburst CEO John Legere paraded around earlier in the month in support of it. This time, though, they want you to know that their customers think it’s the greatest thing ever. Of course, that’s never been our problem with Binge On, but Legere refuses to acknowledge that and address any of the real concerns people have with it.

Outside of the customer survey information, they are also giving customers easier ways to turn Binge On on or off.

The new services joining Binge On are Amazon Video, Fox News, Univision NOW, and WWE Network. You’ll notice that YouTube is still not a part of the fun. Like with the rest of the partnered Binge On video services, you can now watch video from all four of those services without the streams counting against your data bucket. Of course, the video will be throttled to 480p.

As for the news surrounding T-Mobile’s customers showing support, this is what T-Mobile is sharing from a survey they took of Binge On users:

Customers with limited high-speed data who qualify for free Binge On streaming are watching more than twice as many hours per day from free services than before.
One major video service, included in the list of services that stream without eating up your data, is seeing a 79% jump in daily viewers.
Another major video service, not yet included in the Binge On list of free services, is seeing customers watch 33% more hours than before, thanks to Binge On optimization providing up to 3x more video from their data plan
Since launching Binge On, T-Mobile customers have streamed 34 petabytes for free. That’s 34 million gigabytes – the equivalent of more than 109 million episodes of Game of Thrones at DVD quality (480p)!
92% of T-Mobile customers surveyed said they’ll watch more video with Binge On, and 93% said they like the idea of having all video optimized to DVD quality so they can watch 3x more using the same amount of high-speed data. And, interestingly, 69% of customers with the old carriers said they’d expect to have to pay extra for Binge On.

So people are consuming more video than ever now that they have Binge On. Except, wasn’t John Legere worried about people not knowing about Binge On, and so that’s why they turned it on for all customers (including those on unlimited plans) by default, making it an opt-out service? Ugh, I don’t want to go down that road again. You guys know how I feel about Binge On and the way it was implemented.

All of that aside, T-Mobile is making it easier than ever to turn on or off. To do so via dialer, you “Just dial #BNG# (#264#) and hit send to check your settings, #BOF# (#263#) to turn it off and #BON# (#266#) to turn on Binge On.” If the dialer trick doesn’t seem to be working, T-Mobile has also added a shortcut to Binge On settings in your plan details box on the opening page of your My T-Mobile account. They also updated their My T-Mobile app to make it easier.

Tell us – are you watching more video than ever because of Binge On?

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Thursday, January 28, 2016

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