TalkAndroid Daily Dose for October 21, 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

How to setup Trusted Devices on Android Lollipop to automatically unlock your phone or tablet

Accessories

Pre-orders for Nexus 9 cover and keyboard folio hit Amazon

Apps

PPLNOTIFY sends Android notifications straight to your web browser on another device

Gmail 5.0 will make the stock Email app obsolete by including Exchange support

Google Play Music gets Material Design, benefits from Songza

Shots of Google Calendar material design overhaul surface

Nokia’s HERE Maps now available on all Android devices

Carriers

T-Mobile’s HTC One (M8) now receiving Eye Experience update

Google

Google adds USB Security Key support to make their 2-Step Verification more robust

Google publishes guide for switching from iOS to Android

Phones

T-Mobile’s HTC One (M8) now receiving Eye Experience update

Samsung launches Galaxy S5 Plus in the Netherlands with Snapdragon 805

Samsung teases Lollipop update for Galaxy Note 4

ZTE planning to announce new flagship on October 23rd

ROMs

TWRP custom recovery gets support for unlocked 2014 Moto X

Security

Google adds USB Security Key support to make their 2-Step Verification more robust

Smartwatches

LG G Watch gets update that brings new music features

Motorola seeding 4.4W.2 update to Moto 360 with loads of improvements

Tablets

Pre-orders for Nexus 9 cover and keyboard folio hit Amazon

You can now pre-order the Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact for a hefty $499.99

Updates

LG G Watch gets update that brings new music features

Motorola seeding 4.4W.2 update to Moto 360 with loads of improvements

T-Mobile’s HTC One (M8) now receiving Eye Experience update

Samsung teases Lollipop update for Galaxy Note 4

Miscellaneous

Samsung donating phones to help U.N. combat Ebola

Come comment on this article: TalkAndroid Daily Dose for October 21, 2014

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Google exec confirms Chromecast V2 and Backdrop API for developers is in the works

There’s no question Google’s Chromecast has been one of the company’s more successful projects. We’re sure a lot of that has to do with its ridiculously low $35 price tag, a near-impulse buy piece of technology for infusing your television with some smarts. After hitting the 1 million in sales mark back in March, it’s not much of a stretch to assume Google was already hard at work on a followup.

In an interview with GigaOM , Google’s VP of Product Management Mario Queiroz talked numbers, mentioning over 650 million casts have been beamed since launching last July, a number that was only 400 million 3 months ago. He also went on to talk about Backdrop, the Chromecast’s newest feature which allows your TV to display a limited amount of feeds. Things like weather, images from your Google+, etc.. While, again, limited at this point. Queiroz mentioned that they hope to one day launch some sort of API for developers to take advantage of and expand this useful feature. The prospect of social network feeds from Tumblr, Facebook, or Twitter could one day be a reality.

When asked whether the Nexus Player and the Android TV platform — which has Google Cast functionality baked in — would soon replace the Chromecast, Queiroz was quick to announce: “There will be a 2nd version of Chromecast in the future.” Of course, he declined on providing any sort of details but he did mention Google is working with developers to further extend the 1st/2nd screen experience, things that “haven’t been possible as of yet.”

You can watch the full interview in the video down below.

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Here’s A Look At Google Drive With Material Design

As many of you already know, Google’s new Material Design UI is on the way through the Android 5.0 Lollipop update. The new update is set to launch in coming weeks according to the company themselves. While we patiently wait, it doesn’t hurt to check out what the apps look like with this new design. The app in particular that we will talk about today is Google Drive. As of right now Google Drive’s new Material Design look is still under testing so anything can change but from the screenshots we have obtained, the new look is beautiful. The app now looks much easier and cleaner to use than the previous version of Google Drive.

When you open the app up everything will have that familiar Google Drive feel to it. Towards the top the app still has the Title and list view controls and the hamburger drawer off to the left that opens up with more tools for you to use. The only thing that makes these controls different are the iconography and a style that help bring the app into the Material Design era. In addition to the controls, you will also notice that the bar that sat at the bottom which gave you the power to upload or create apps is now gone. In place of the creating/adding documents bar, Google added a red FAB. Its simply just a circle with a plus sign on it that holds all the actions of creating new documents. This gives the app a more minimal and colorful look. Once you click on the button, a sheet pops up from the bottom giving you different create options such as Documents or Slides. A small note that was brought up by Android Police are the rounded corners on the sheet. When you take a look at Google’s specs they are unseen, so it is rather questionable on why the sheet holding all the actions comes out like that.

Other than the flattening out tiles and updating iconography for Material Design, the rest of the Google Drive app looks familiar, just with a more fresh interface. In the gallery below, you can take a look at everything we have talked about today about the newly revamped Google Drive app. Material Design has done wonders for many other apps giving them a fresh and exciting new look. Now we must go back to patiently waiting for the Android 5.0 Lollipop OTA to come out ways.

The post Here’s A Look At Google Drive With Material Design appeared first on AndroidHeadlines.com |.

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Moto 360 Charging Dock Now In Stock On The Play Store For $39.99

Google has slowly been adding replacement charging docks for the Android Wear devices to the Play Store. That's important in the case of watches like the Gear Live, which uses a special clip to charge the watch. It's less of an issue for the Qi-equipped Moto 360, but the official stand is in stock now anyway.

The listing for the dock appeared recently, but it wasn't available for purchase. That's changed now, and you can order it for $39.99.

Moto 360 Charging Dock Now In Stock On The Play Store For $39.99 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Verizon HTC One M8 Users Will Receive The Eye Experience Tomorrow

Well it looks like owners of the HTC One M8 on Verizon will be receiving an OTA firmware update tomorrow afternoon. Verizon’s VP of Product Management took to Twitter today tweeting out the following, “HTC One (M8) Verizon owners! We have a technical approval on Eye SW! OTA target for tomorrow at noon!” Essentially saying that the HTC One M8 will be getting HTC’s Eye Experience tomorrow around noon.

For those of you who aren’t aware of what HTC’s “Eye Experience” software is, lets take a minute to talk about it and what new features it will offer users. The Eye Experience, according to HTC, is focused on three key factors, sharing more, creating more, and experiencing more. Eye Experience actually offers some pretty cool and useful features, such as auto and voice selfies. What this means is that users will be able to take a selfie on their device by simply smiling at the camera, or by saying a certain hotword such as “chesse”. There is also a new enhanced video chatting feature included in the Eye Experience software that includes face tracking while in a video conference, whenever you move the camera will stay focused on your face.

There are a ton of other features included in the Eye Experience such as the ability to combine two peoples faces into one, the ability to take photo booth style pictures, and a “crop me in” feature that lets you crop your selfie into an existing image. All in all it is a great camera software update that lets HTC users do a lot more with their cameras than they could before. The Eye Experience will be coming to the HTC One M8, HTC One M7, HTC Desire Eye, and last but not least the HTC One E8. So if you own an HTC One M8 on Verizon then you should start checking for updates around noon tomorrow. The Eye Experience update will let you do a lot more with you camera and we can’t wait to see what people create using it. If you would like to learn a little more about the HTC Eye Experience and its features then click here to be taken to HTC’s page covering it.

The post Verizon HTC One M8 Users Will Receive The Eye Experience Tomorrow appeared first on AndroidHeadlines.com |.

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HTC One M8 receiving EYE Experience + Android 4.4.4 on T-Mobile, hits Verizon model tomorrow

After hitting unlocked and Developer edition HTC One M8 a few weeks ago, HTC is wasting no times in pushing out their EYE Experience + Android 4.4.4 update on carrier branded models. Today, the update began rolling out for the T-Mobile version of the device, with HTC’s VP of Product Management Mo Versi tweeting earlier today that the update would hit the Verizon model as early as tomorrow. He even gave a specific time for the update: 12 noon (so be on the look out).

We had a feeling since the update wasn’t a major firmware update (and had more to do with the updating the camera software), HTC would have as many hurdles to jump in order to push it out. Looks like our suspicions may have been right. For more info on what to expect from the new HTC EYE Experience camera, check out the video below where it comes pre-loaded on the upcoming HTC Desire EYE.

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Moto 360 now receiving Android Wear 4.4W.2 with new battery saving features, UI tweaks, and more

Motorola’s Director of Product Marketing Lally Narwal took to Motorola’s official blog to talk about a new software update rolling out to the Moto 360. It’s the 2nd update since the smartwatch launched back in September and where Android Wear 4.4.W.1 mainly address battery life concerns, the latest version — Android Wear 4.4W.2 — polishes things up a bit. Here’s everything you can look forward to when it hits your device starting today.

• Smart Battery Saving – When your battery hits 15%, your Moto 360 will turn off ambient mode, so you don’t have to remember to.


• Timely Time Checks – Moto 360 will synchronize the time with your phone more often to make sure it is up to the minute.


• User Interface Tweaks – We observed with consumers that there are many times where you want to use your Moto 360 as truly a classic watch—a beautiful way to see the time. A new gesture now lets you see the full watch face without permanently dismissing a notification. Just touch the top of a notification and swipe down. You’ll see the notification again when you have another high priority notification.


• Mood Lighting – Moto 360 will adjust to the lighting of the room while charging, so that it isn’t too bright or too dark.


• Readying the wires for Bluetooth – There are a couple of under-the-hood enhancements that will pave the way for connecting Bluetooth headsets to the watch.


• Bug Squashing – As usual, bugs are squashed to enhance the overall user experience.

Motorola says to make sure your watch has at least an 80% charge on it and connect to your phone via Bluetooth. Because it’s rolling out in phases, don’t freak if you don’t see the update just yet — it’ll get to ya.

[Motorola]

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