Android is the undisputed leader in smartphones but has seen criticism when it comes to tablets as many of the apps for those are nothing more than a blown up phone versions.

With its new update to the Play store Google tries to remedy that somewhat by making the Designed for Tablets view the default one – it lists apps that should be tablet-optimized. Read more »

Antutu benchmark scores for the freshly announced MediaTek MT6592 octa-core chipset have emerged, showcasing its top-shelf performance. The MT6592 SoC with 1.7GHz CPU cores posted a result of 29415, while its sibling with 2GHz cores, came out with a truly impressive 32606.

The abovementioned scores put the 2GHz CPU version of the chipset at the very top of the Antutu performance chart, besting every high-end Android device we’ve tested this far. Read more »

Google launched a Play Newsstand application which aims to take over most reading duties on the user’s Android device. The app places Google Play Magazines and Google Currents under the same roof.

At a quick glance, Google Play Newsstand appears to offer similar functionality to the one from its biggest rival, Apple’s own Newsstand for iOS. Read more »

Dropbox has updated its Android application and the latest version comes with a host of new features.

One of the most useful features among the new ones is the new notification feed, which gives you access to your recent activity just by tapping on the bell icon located in the app menu. Read more »

According to several tweets published by Nintendo software engineer Nando Monterazo, the company is hard at work creating an Android tablet with a focus on education. Judging from his writings, the Android slate is going to be used by kids, who will get access to various educational games.

Those games, naturally, will have classic Nintendo characters in them. However, Monterazo points out that old-school Nintendo games won’t be coming to the upcoming tablet. NES, Super Nintendo, and Game Boy games will not be available for the unnamed Nintendo tablet, as “educational games only” will be the focus. Read more »

Samsung is offering a $50 Play Store credit for all the current and new owners of Galaxy Note 3 in the US. The promotion should help maintain the strong performance of the company’s phablet flagship during the holiday season.

All the Galaxy Note 3 owners, who purchase their device on or before January 6, will be eligible to claim the offer. Read more »

Samsung has already sold 800,000 units of its Galaxy Gear smartwatch in just about two months. The gadget is one of the most expensive smartwatches in the market with the device retailing at $299 or €299.

Now, however, the Galaxy Gear is up for grabs with discounted price tag on eBay in Germany for €229 with worldwide shipping. Read more »

Humble Bundle has released a new bundle for Android and it includes some great games. Among the standard list of games is the third person shooter EPOCH known for its intuitive cover shooting mechanism and superb visuals thanks to the Unreal Engine 3. Then there is rymdkapsel, which we reviewed a while back on iOS, that is an amazing little tower defense game.

Other games part of the standard bundle are Spell Tower, which is a popular and addictive word game and Swordigo, a side scrolling 3D hack and slash action game making its debut on Android. Read more »

The official Nexus wireless charger is now available in the Google Play Store in the United States. The gadget is priced at $49.99 plus shipping and local taxes.

The Qi wireless charger is compatible with the Nexus 5, the Nexus 7, as well as the Nexus 4. Read more »

With the holiday shopping season about to kick off in full frenzy, the ASUS Nexus 7 (2013) got treated to a price reduction from a duo of major retailers. Newegg and Amazon are now offering the 32GB version of the slate with a serious discount.

The retail giants have the Nexus 7 with 32GB of built-in memory for $239 – only $10 more than the 16GB version of the tablet. Read more »

The Galaxy Ace 3 comes in as the most recent member of Samsung’s budget Ace lineup, bringing dual-SIM connectivity and a 4-inch screen to the entry level.

Our dual-SIM variant of the Galaxy Ace 3 features a 1,500 mAh battery, which is the same capacity as its non dual-SIM predecessor, the Galaxy Ace 2. Let’s see if the updated Jelly Bean build is able to compensate for the extra power required by the additional SIM card. Read more »

Verizon is preparing for Black Friday, which is just in 10 days, on November 29, Friday. The biggest US carrier has a number of deals in line. For starters the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 have been slashed on that day from $149.99 to $99.99 on a two-year deal.

Tablets and Motorola DROIDs are also on the menu but as you might expect Verizon is requiring a contract with almost everything. Check inside for the full list. Read more »

Smartwatches may still be in their infancy, but that hasn’t stopped Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch from selling an impressive 800,000 units in just two months.

To help boost sales the Galaxy Gear has also had its first custom ROM appear. Based off of Nova launcher, it features Bluetooth tethering, live wallpaper support, and video recording up to 60 seconds – all without needing to be paired to a smartphone. Read more »

According to data from public Android source code, Google is working on new camera API. Support for camera RAW is apparently also coming our way, meaning that Nokia smartphones will not be alone in carrying the feature.

The public source code revealing the juicy details dates a month before the release of Android 4.4 KitKat. Read more »

Amazon released a firmware update for the Kindle Fire HD and the Kindle Fire HDX. Version 3.1 of the company’s custom Android OS brings a host of improvements to Amazon’s family of tablets.

One of the most notable features which the firmware update brings on board is the ability to wirelessly stream video content from the tablet to another screen. Read more »