Android 4.4.4 changelog for Motorola DROID line (2013) gets posted

Over the weekend, an Android 4.4.4 soak test was launched with some Motorola handsets. Now, the company has posted the changelog for the Android 4.4.4 update regarding the DROID Ultra, MAXX, and Mini.

The core of the update, which is the latest version of Android that is available for now, improves stability and security. But Motorola has done its job by making improvements in other areas aside from what Google has added. The Camera app’s quality has been improved with better performance in low light conditions and more realistic flash color. The video component of the Camera app has gained a pause button while recording. Bluetooth connectivity is now more stable, too. Even Verizon’s apps have been updated and Isis mobile wallet has been added to increase the bloatware. Finally, the Motorola Alert app is compatible.

Did you receive the Android 4.4.4 update? Let us know how it is in the comments.

Source: Motorola

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Android Game News Weekly 07/14/14: Plague Inc., Leo’s Fortune, Lost Toys, Endless Skater

Plague Inc. Gets Planet Of The Apes Update

Plague Inc. is a game about strategy and infection simulation, where you have to try and spread a virus throughout the entire world. This is perfect because that’s exactly how the new Planet of The Apes movie develops, with the apes rising to power and taking over earth as a result of a virus that gets spread throughout mankind. Plague Inc.’s newest update partners with the movie studio and ties in some Planet of The Apes background, tasking you with infecting the whole planet like before, but this time the end goal is for the apes to take over and completely rise to power. Miniclip is appropriately calling this the simian flu update, and if you think you have what it takes to infect the world and bring out your inner ape, make sure to hit the update button from the Play Store link. Plague Inc. is free to download.

Beautiful Platformer Leo’s Fortune Comes To Android

Leo’s Fortune was a platformer that released first on iOS, and last week it finally got launched in the Play Store. Google demoed this game at Google I/O back in June, and to our surprise it actually didn’t take long for the game’s development studio to release it to Android gamers everywhere. We half expected this to release with the official launch of Android TV whenever that may be, but thankfully that isn’t the case. If you want to help the fuzzy little fur ball search for and get back all of his stolen gold, drop $4.99 and Leo’s Fortune can be yours.

Lost Toys Is A Stunning And Challenging 3D Puzzle Game

When it comes to puzzle games, titles of this magnitude are hard to ignore. Lost Toys takes stunningly real 3D graphics and a pairs them with goals of strategic thinking to work your way through each and every puzzle that the game has to offer. Lost Toys has you spin and rotate the different pieces of the discarded mixed up toys that are lost and forgotten from childhood, so that you might form them into the correct shape to complete the toy. There are 4 chapters and 32 levels total to complete, and two play modes with standard and unlimited so you can either play through the story or simply solve puzzles to your hearts content. Lost Toys can be picked up for $2.99 in the Play Store.

Transworld Endless Skater Lets Your Bring Out Your Inner Wood Pusher

It’s not Tony Hawk, but that’s just fine if you have been waiting for a decent skating game, for free mind you, to drop in the Play Store. Endless Skater is not your open world skate game which is a little disappointing, but for free it is actually pretty fun. The levels are endless, as you could probably tell, so pick your favorite out of the five real pro skaters and perform tons of tricks from the traditional kickflip to a 720 crossbone. String together multiple tricks for insane combos and rack up your score. You can upgrade your skaters stats to learn more tricks and better your performance. The main goal is to take your skater of choice and land them a photo spot for the cover of Transworld magazine. Can you take your skater to new heights? Transworld Endless Skater is free to play and does have some IAP, but they don’t seem to be too game impacting.

The post Android Game News Weekly 07/14/14: Plague Inc., Leo’s Fortune, Lost Toys, Endless Skater appeared first on AndroidHeadlines.com |.

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Motorola DROID Mini, Ultra and Maxx now getting Android 4.4.4

Android 4.4.4 has been making its way to devices across the world for almost a month, and now it’s time for the latest devices in the Motorola DROID lineup to join the party. The Motorola DROID Mini, Ultra and Maxx Android 4.4.4 change logs are now live in Verizon’s website.

These change logs going live usually means an update is ready to roll. You can expect your OTA update notifications to start popping up very soon, if they haven’t already. Changes across the whole portfolio will be few, as expected, but we do get some interesting additions.

Android 4.4.4 improvements

• Stability, framework and security improvements


• Bluetooth connectivity has been improved


• Improved camera picture quality


• Improved photos in fluorescent lighting


• Enhanced dynamic range


• Ability to pause video recording


• Offers pause/resume button on the viewfinder


• The latest versions of VZ Cloud and Visual Voicemail have been added.


• ISIS Wallet Mobile app has been added

This is not a huge update, but it does bring more than we expected. The original Android 4.4.4 update has less changes. Of course, this is because Verizon has added its small changes, as well. We may consider those bloatware, but they are here to stay.

Also, all three devices do get the same changes and improvements, so no need to worry about a thing. Software version 21.11.21 will be here soon, so stay tuned to your notification bar or go check for new updates. Don’t forget to let us know if the update has shown up for you! We would love to see how well it is working for you, or if it comes with any issues.

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New Verizon Survey Asks Important Questions About Bloatware

Verizon has been sending out surveys to their customers recently that revolve around bloatware. Thanks to Droid Life we now have a guide to how these questions could and SHOULD be answered if you receive this survey. Sometime during the last week, a reader of Droid Life shared a survey that was received that asked very important questions in regards to bloatware on his LG G2. Bloatware is any app that is pre-installed on your device, most of the time this comes in the form of unwanted apps. For example, you get your new LG phone from almost any carrier, but for the sake of this survey-Verizon. Bloatware can also be pre-installed by OEMs and this happens on almost every device but for the sake of this survey-LG.

The apps that come pre-installed are meant to be there to enhance the user experience by the standards of whoever added them to the device-either the carrier or the manufacturer. If the app isn’t there to enhance the user experience, it’s more than likely there because the company who added it to the device is getting paid to add them. Essentially this is a form of advertising, that you have no choice but to deal with, no pop-up blockers here. One of the reasons these apps have been called bloatware, is due to the fact that they are not essential to the overall performance of the device. Instead, they just take up space and are, for the most part, hard to delete. The average user of any Android device may not know how to disable them, and if they do, most likely find the process to be too much of a hassle. While there are workarounds, and ways to hide the apps from your app drawer, they’re still on your device, and carriers have even made some of these apps even harder to hide.

Since these apps are just taking up space that could be used for things users actually want, bloatware has been deemed “evil” by Droid Life, and we think many of you agree. Which is why, if you get this survey, you should take the opportunity to tell Verizon exactly how you feel, as an Android user, a Verizon customer, and as a person who is just fed up with bloatware. So below is a gallery, that shows the question of the survey that are the most important out of all 20 questions.

The post New Verizon Survey Asks Important Questions About Bloatware appeared first on AndroidHeadlines.com |.

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Radio Shack Is Giving Five Lucky People A Chance To Win An LG G3

Remember Radio Shack? You know.. “The Shack!”, yeah that place. It used to be the cool place to go for tech geeks to check out all things electronic. In the last decade or so they had started to sell mobile phones from major wireless carriers like Sprint, Verizon and AT&T. It’s ironic that I’m mentioning those three carriers because together with Radio Shack, they’re offering the chance for some lucky individuals to win some cool new phones. If you’re a lucky winner, you get to a pick a phone from the carrier of your choice. You don’t actually get to pick which phone you want but you do get the opportunity to pick which carrier it’s for. The phone that Radio Shack and those carriers are giving away? The brand new LG G3!

There are five LG G3 devices that Radio Shack is giving away, and you don’t have to do much for your chance to enter either. As with most contests like these you’ll have to be involved with social media, and by involved we simply mean have a Twitter account as that is where the contest takes place. You can probably guess the next step in this contest of sheer skill. That’s right, you’ll be tweeting stuff. Not a tweeter? Then you might want to become one for the short time that you have to enter the contest, which as one would have it, goes from now until Wednesday morning at 10 a.m.PST.

Get your tweets in before then and you’ll be entered for your chance to win one of the five LG G3′s they’re giving away and you get to pick your carrier. It’s a real downer about the lack of a T-mobile version but that’s life eh? For your entry to be valid you must tweet @RadioShack and include the hashtag #WinAG3. That is all there is to it and if lady luck is smiling on you by the time they pick the winners, then you’ll be outfitted with a sleek brand new device from LG. It should go without saying due to the carrier choices of the G3 that Radio Shack is giving away, but this contest is only open to U.S. residents. Tired of using whatever old device you have in your hands and in need of an upgrade? You know what to do.

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Calcoid Brings Sexy Back To The Android World Of Scientific Calculators

Calculators are an extremely functional piece of history, although by today’s standards most people might be more familiar with using one of their potentially many mobile devices and a paired application to get their calculator needs. Even scientific calculators have made their way into the digital spotlight and taken refuge among other apps on mobile platforms like Android. Is this the end of days for true scientific calculators in their physical form or will they forever live on with a small margin of the population that still has a need(and perhaps a need for nostalgia)for the physical piece of hardware that can help to navigate the ways of numbers.

Whatever your need is for a calculator these days whether it’s to help you ace a test or simply to add up your total at the grocery store, calculators have remained and to some degree always will remain a somewhat nerdy yet needed existence. They don’t look particularly attractive and certainly not “Sexy” like we might describe some of today’s more modern electronics that we can find sitting around our own homes, however that seems to be taking a turn in the other direction with a new calculator app from Americos Technologies. Calcoid, a new scientific calculator app for your Android device wants to bring sexy back to calculators in a big way. To bring it back though wouldn’t they have once had to have it in the first place? That’s a debate for another time.

Calcoid takes the otherwise boring and unchanged scientific calculator and adds in that fresh and clean Android Kit Kat-esque style with tons of colors. Admittedly you get the standard Calcoid signature color background with the free version of the app which is also supported by ads, or you can pick up the paid version, Calcoid Plus for $0.99 and get all the color backgrounds that are available for the one time fee, and completely ad free. All your scientific functions that you’d expect are here, like degrees and radians, logarithms, percentages, exponential, trigonometric functions, you name it. All with a sleek and stylish background color of your choice(unless you go free). If you’re in need of a new calculator and aren’t happy with the standard simple calculator that Android provides built in, give Calcoid a look and see if it fits your needs.

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Verizon And Motorola Begin Rolling Out Android 4.4.4 To The Droid Maxx, Droid Ultra, And Droid Mini

Motorola hasn't forgotten about those devices that aren't part of the "Moto" family. The Droid Maxx, Droid Ultra, and Droid Mini on Verizon are getting the Android 4.4.4 update starting today. Even the Moto X hasn't been given the go ahead yet.

The update (version 21.11.21) to will include a number of improvements over 4.4.2, which you can see below.

• Camera: Improved camera image quality including better consistency of exposure, more realistic flash coloring, improved photos in low light conditions using front camera.

Verizon And Motorola Begin Rolling Out Android 4.4.4 To The Droid Maxx, Droid Ultra, And Droid Mini was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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