Nokia X owners can now enjoy its first custom ROM based on the Android Open Source Project. Up until now, you could only root and sideload Google apps, including the Play Store, but now you can run a vanilla Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean altogether.

The build packs Qualcomm specific optimizations and is based on Code Aurora branch jb_rel_2.0.3. It comes from the XDA senior member dhacker29, who previously ported AOSP to the Moto G. Read more »

Dropbox had a lot of announcements to make yesterday, starting with a new service and two new apps. First is the Dropbox for Business service, which lets companies get a Dropbox account for all their employees, who can then manage their personal and business accounts from the same device and using the same account.

Dropbox for Business gives admins features like remote wipe, account transfer and sharing audit logs. One new feature arriving later is Project Harmony, which lets you see who is editing a file and chat with other users, similar to Google Drive. Read more »

After nearly two years of releasing on other platforms, including iOS, Telltale Games has ported over the first season of The Walking Dead to Android. The game is based on a comic series of the same name and features survival horror adventure gameplay.

One of the interesting things about the game is that there is very little actual movement of the character you have to do yourself and usually you just tap on the objects on screen to interact with them. The story is told through interactive cutscenes, which makes it feel like you’re watching a movie whose outcome you can determine. Read more »

Popular reading app Pocket has pushed a new update on iOS and Android that brings some useful new features, especially on Android. One of the features common on both platform is support for additional languages, as the app now also supports Chinese, Dutch, Korean, Polish and Portuguese.

The Android version also get a new fullscreen mode that supports the immersive mode on devices running KitKat, which means the app will now go truly fullscreen, hiding the controls and the navigation bar completely. Read more »

After just one short week on the market, Amazon’s set-top box dubbed Fire TV has overtaken Google’s Chromecast as the best-selling device on Amazon.com.

Although the actual metrics used to generate top-selling devices on Amazon are a mystery, it’s a particularly impressive feat given the extremely short time the device has been on market. Read more »

Not many people are familiar with Symon Whitehorn by name but most people know about the Ultrapixel tech he’s managing at HTC.

The company’s camera guru that stood for the Ultrapixel camera last year is in the spotlight once again, defending this year’s take on the 4 MP flagship camera in an in-depth interview with Vodafone UK. He still stands by the Ultrapixel technology and defends the 4 MP resolution as a more reliable choice in terms of speed. He went on to say that most people will be using their photos on their smartphones or social media and that HTC wanted to make those photos great. Read more »

The Samsung Galaxy Gear, the company’s original smartwatch that runs Android has received a major discount in the US.

The device now costs just $159.99 at Woot and comes in a myriad, including lime green, oatmeal beige, wild orange, mocha gray and rose gold. Read more »

Robert Downey, Jr. (aka Iron Man) is still a spokesperson for HTC and the company just came out with a one minute video ad of him talking up the new One (M8). He starts off by mentioning HTC won “best phone” at the MWC two years in a row.

However, there are no specifics of why the M8 is “somehow even better” than its predecessor. Read more »

The Samsung Galaxy S5 is bound to become one of the hottest selling handsets and so it must undergo heavy scrutiny. Battery life is an everyday worry, especially with bigger screens and faster chipsets.

The Galaxy S5 screen isn’t much bigger than that of its processor (5.1″ vs. 5″), but it is brighter. The Snapdragon 801 chipset should also offer a big performance boost over the Snapdragon 600 of last year. Read more »

Purported specs of Samsung SM-T800 tablet, which we saw pass through the FCC, with 10.5” AMOLED display emerged on the web. The Korean giant hasn’t released a slate with AMOLED display since the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 from 2011.

The Wi-Fi-only Samsung SM-T800 is reportedly powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC with a quad-core CPU (Snapdragon 801 is rumored as a likely candidate). Read more »

The performance of the 20.7MP camera of the Sony Xperia Z2 earned it serious accolades. The smartphone topped the prestigious, highly-contested DxOMark mobile photography rankings with an overall score of 79.

Sony’s latest smartphone flagship took the top spot away from the venerable Nokia 808 PureView and its 77 points. Read more »

WhatsApp now offers its own prepaid service through E-Plus in Germany, letting you use the popular messaging app for a fixed monthly amount. The offer also features unlimited usage of the app even if you don’t have any standing traffic left.

The package with the SIM card is on offer for €10 but features a starting balance of €10 itself making the SIM practically free. Otherwise a call or text will set you back €0.09 to all German carriers whilst 1 MB will cost €0.24. Read more »

The latest M release of the CyanogenMod 11 version is out and brings some improvements and fixes for several irritating bugs. Version M5 comes just on schedule, one month after the M4 hit devices.

The software is available for download but you’d need to check if your device is eligible. You can do that here. The US Galaxy S III (D2lte) and International Snapdragon 600-powered Galaxy S4 (Jflte) devices will not get the M5 release just yet because the CM team needs to iron out some issues with those devices ahead of the release. Read more »

Nokia finally started making Android phones but made sure the interface looks anything but Android. This includes a Windows Phone-like start screen and Nokia’s Fastlane feature from the Asha handsets.

Smartphone users are perhaps not familiar with it, so the company released a video demo of it running on the Nokia XL. Read more »

It’s no secret that app stores on all platforms have their fair share of fraudulent apps. Most of these apps will take your money and do nothing of what they say in the description or are free to install but end up doing damage in other ways, such as by selling your information or straight up installing malware.

The open nature of Android’s Play Store means it has been an easy target for scammers who don’t have to pass any security checks as one would have to on Apple’s App Store. This probably explains why there are so many antivirus apps on Android. But what happens when an antivirus app itself tries to scam you? Read more »