Friday Poll: What’s Your Favorite Material Design Google App Update So Far?

As you may have noticed, a whole lot of app updates have hit Google Play this past month, bringing Material Design aesthetics to all Android users, not just those lucky enough to already have Lollipop.

To list a couple of the more major updates, Gmail, Play Store, Play Music, and Maps got very updated looks, but then you have apps like Drive, Docs, Slides, and Wallet that not only received new looks, but new features as well. Each update was very important for that exact app.

Our question today is quite simple – which one has been your favorite so far?

If you still don’t have a few of these updated apks, follow the links to our previous write ups above where we provide the apk files when available.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Friday Poll: What’s Your Favorite Material Design Google App Update So Far? is a post from: Droid Life

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Asus ZenWatch Coming To The US November 9th, Starting With Best Buy Priced At $199.99

Word has hit the street that the Asus ZenWatch will launch in the US on November 9th. Two days from now shoppers reportedly will be able to pick one up from Best Buy for $199.99, with Play Store availability coming at some point after.

The ZenWatch is a peculiar Wear device. It's square, but unlike the LG G Watch or the Samsung Gear Live, it tries to look more like a traditional accessory than a tech gadget.

Asus ZenWatch Coming To The US November 9th, Starting With Best Buy Priced At $199.99 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Unannounced Motorola smartphone shows up in benchmark test with surprising specifications

According to a leaked Geekbench report, Motorola is in the process of testing a new, unannounced smartphone, which we believe to be the upcoming Moto E. If the results of the tests are anything to go by, the handset is expected to feature some unforeseen exceptional specifications.

As you can see in the screenshot below, the device is set to pack Snapdragon’s most-popular chipset, the MSM8916, otherwise known as the Snapdragon 410, and it looks like the second generation Moto E will be the first entry-level device to feature a Cortex 64-bit A53 1.4GHz quad-core CPU. This coupled with 1GB of RAM makes for an extremely impressive budget-friendly smartphone.

The benchmark shows the device running the latest developer build of Android 4.4.4 KitKat with support for LTE connectivity. We expect the device it to ship with the final version of Android 5.0 Lollipop onboard when it’s announced later this fall — so stay tuned for more information.

Source: PrimateLabs

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Verizon launches the Ellipsis 8: another low-end, self-branded tablet

Last fall, Verizon brought us the Ellipsis 7. This fall, Verizon brings us the Ellipsis 8. The carrier is still aiming at the low-end of things with the tablet. The 8-inch display’s resolution is 1280×800, giving it 189 pixels per inch. The processor, while not officially named, is quad-core clocked at 1.5GHz. The battery capacity is 5000mAh. It only comes in black with 16GB of storage.

The cost and capability of the Ellipsis 8 is what will sell it. Without signing a contract it costs $249; however, signing away two years brings that down to $149. The monthly access fee for More Everything accounts is $10. The Ellipsis 8 is available today online and in the company’s stores.

Source: Verizon

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Lollipop Land is a new game that mimics the fun Android 5.0 Easter Egg [DOWNLOAD]

It’s hands-down the coolest Easter Egg we’ve seen in an Android release: a Flappy Bird-like mini-game found buried inside Android 5.0 Lollipop. We showed it to you guys back in our Android 5.0 hands-on and loved the Lollipop theme throughout. Because not everyone can actually get their hands on Lollipop at the moment (not even most Nexus devices), one developer took it upon himself to pluck out the mini-grame and throw it on the Google Play Store where it can be enjoyed by all.

The game, aptly titled “Lollipop Land” features the same frustrating gameplay of the Easter Egg (or, Flappy Bird, rather), only it brings a few extra game features to the mix as well. First, there are now difficulty settings to choose from (hard, normal, easy, kid) so people of all ages can adjust the frustration to their liking. There’s 21 levels in all, with different characters chosen at random (like the Android 3.0 Honeycomb bee)

The developer has also integrated Google Play Services so players can log in with their Google+ account and compete with friends via leaderboards. The best part? There are no adds, permissions, or in-app purchases — just a fun, free casual game to be enjoyed by anyone with an Android device. Download link provided below.

Lollipop Land (Playboard) | Lollipop Land (Play Store)

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Android Game Of The Week: Major GUN

First person shooter titles have become fairly common on the Play Store now, and while most will still stand behind the notion that a mobile FPS title couldn’t possibly be near as good as any of them available for consoles and PC, there are some amazing games out there in the FPS genre that probably don’t get the attention they deserve. Major GUN is an FPS that is worth paying attention to, with its unique gameplay control style and “jump right into the action” attitude it’ll be a game you might find hard to put down. Compared to what you might know from most other FPS games, it might seem a tad bare as it harbors no in-depth campaign mode with a compelling story, and no high intensity multiplayer action to sap your time.

What it does have is plenty of shooting baddies with multitudes of different weapons that you can unlock, boosts to help your attack abilities and damage, mission and rank challenges, score leaderboards, and of course, the use of controls through the gyro sensors and accelrometer like you’re actually aiming the gun at your enemies yourself. With Major GUN, there is no virtual D-Pad, just move your screen around like you’re searching for something in the viewfinder of your camera to aim, and tap on the screen to shoot once you have what you need to kill in your sights.

There should now be 17 different guns to use after the recent update that just hit, and all of them have varied levels of powerful attacks and all can be upgraded. There are over 100 different scenery modules to blast your way through and shoot anything that walks,(except for the hostages, don’t shoot the hostages)and there are even bosses to test your skills as a marksman. If you like gun customizations, Major GUN will have plenty of skins for you to personalize your weapons with. The visuals take on a stylized cell shading design like what you’ll find in Borderlands and Borderlands 2, giving Major GUN some eye candy status. Major GUN is free, and if you’re feeling like an FPS kind of weekend check it out in the Play Store for the download.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Top Android Homescreen November 7th Edition: Oh Deer!

This week’s pick is a little different, perhaps not really a little different from some of our other homescreen choices but maybe just a little more quirky, and with a name like Oh Deer! who could really argue that? Oh Deer! was created by an individual who goes by the name Theberge43 on mycolorscreen.com where we found this homescreen design. The setup is close to the way it is on most of our picks, with some app requirements to complete the same look. If you like the look and design of this homescreen setup, be sure to visit the page for this creation on mycolorscreen, “zoom” the image, and hit the love button to show some appreciation for Theberge43’s hard work.

To get started, you’ll need of course, to pick up a third party home launcher, and in this case, Nova Prime would be the one. Although Apex Pro will probably work too as they’re both very similar. Once you have Nova Prime installed, set it as your default launcher and set your number of homescreens to two. You’ll also want to make sure that your homescreen grid is set to 12 x 7. Now you’ll need to download a couple of icon packs, and for the calendar widget shown in the image below you’ll need to grab Today-Calendar Widgets. The icons packs you’ll need are called Difft Icons, which are used on the homescreen in these two images, and Aurelia Icons which you can’t see, but they’re mentioned by the creator as being the icons used for the app drawer. Basically what that means is that the Aurelia Icons are the icon theme being used and applied from the Nova settings, while the Difft Icons are merely installed to the device and used as the icons for the created app shortcuts on the homescreen, so as to match the wallpaper for a nice clean look. Ah yes.. the wallpaper. You can grab that too, which Theberge43 has linked on the creation page for this homescreen at mycolorscreen.com. That’s it. Pretty simple and straight forward compared to our usual picks which are a tad more involved with a few more steps. Have a good weekend and happy themeing!

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