When Google announced Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at Google I/O, the Android website was only updated with some of the key feature in the update. But now, Google has released the complete change log detailing all 141 new feature.

While we have seen some of this stuff before, there is a lot more that we haven’t. Read more »

XBMC is a popular media center application for the desktop known for its 10-foot UI and the ability to customize using plugins and skins. Now the developers have announced on their blog that they are working on a full-fledged version of the application for Android.

In the blog post, the developers mention that the app has been designed for Android-based devices such as set-top boxes, televisions, tablets and smartphones. Read more »

Welcome to the age of the quad-core Android behemoths! As it happens, there are currently just four of them in existence and we have all of them in our office ready to flex some multi-core muscle.

The smartphones in question, as most of you probably know, are the Samsung Galaxy S III, HTC One X, Meizu MX 4-core and the LG Optimus 4X HD. They all have some serious processing power from Samsung and Nvidia at their hearts, using the Exynos 4 quad and Tegra 3 chipsets. But which one is the best? That’s what we are going to find out soon, but until the complete shootout is ready we thought we might give you a teaser and give you an idea of what to expect. Read more »

We have some great news for all the Samsung Galaxy S III users in the United States, who find the TouchWiz interface a tad too colorful. CyanogenMod 9 nightly builds are now available for all US versions of Samsung’s flagship smartphone, but the Verizon Wireless flavored one.

The current crop of nightly builds are not one hundred percent stable, but are deemed fit for use on a daily basis. Read more »

After the release of some initial details of what the Jelly Bean-powered CyanogenMod 10 is going to be about, we can now finally see it in action.

CyanogenMod’s Ricardo Cerquiera has decided to show an early alpha version running on the LG Optimus 4X HD. Not only that, but it runs quite decently, too. Read more »

For a moment today it appeared the Nexus 7 tablet stock has hit the UK, as both Adorama and Ebuyer were on the verge of sending the first units to customers.

It seems that the two vendors jumped the gun a bit early, though, as they have since changed the order status back to pre-order, and it’s likely to stay that way for a while. Read more »

So HTC is definitely not out of the tablet race just yet. Shortly after a spokesperson from the Taiwanese company confirmed HTC’s intent of bringing a new slate to the UK soon, we now have the first actual proof of its existence.

The tablet is apparently going to be called the HTC Vertex and it’s going to be powered by a quad-core Tegra 3 chipset. The screen of the Android ICS-running slate is of yet unknown size, but we know it’s going to have a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. Read more »

Facebook has issued a new update to the Facebook app for Android, which adds some minor new features. First of all, you can now take self portraits using the front facing camera from within the app itself. You will notice a tiny button will appear in the bottom left/top left of the screen within the camera view.

Next, there are some new messaging features, which let you switch between conversations, include friends of friends, share bigger photos and see who is available online. Read more »

Samsung is getting really good in advertising its products. Cool TV ads, promotional booths around the world, awesome announcement events, etc.

Nowadays the effort is mostly focused on the Galaxy S III and, naturally, so is the Samsung’s newest video. Featuring David Beckham and flirting with the S III official Olympics phone status, it may be its best commercial up to date. Read more »

Just as planned, today Rovio released their new game on the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store. Called Amazing Alex, the new physics puzzle game’s gameplay is a notable departure from Angry Birds.

This time around you are prompted to design elaborate chain reactions to get certain tasks accomplished. There are 100 challenging levels across four locations, with more promised to come in the future. Read more »

There’s more to the Google Nexus 7 than meets the eye. Quirky unboxings aside, it turns out the Nexus 7 is also sporting a magnetic sensor.

That’s right, the Nexus 7 supports smart covers. A lucky early owner of the tablet decided to go for a hunt of the magnetic sensor, in spite of the risk of ruining his tablet. Read more »

Google has a tradition of doing unboxing videos of each of their Nexus devices. The videos aren’t made by Google themselves, merely sponsored, with Patrick Boivin being the real mastermind behind them.

In each of these videos the theme has been a bunch of toy ninjas unboxing the phone, shot in stop motion animation. But for this video, Boivin managed to rope in GSP, the mixed martial artist and the current Welterweight Champion of the UFC, Georges St-Pierre, who takes part as Dr. Paul. Read more »

Google’s first tablet – the Nexus 7 – is just about to become available in the USA. The slate is available on the Office Depot website and the seller promises to bring it to your doorstep in 3-5 business days.

There’s a chance that this might be an error or a simple publicity stunt by the retailer, as other stores still list the Nexus 7 as unavailable and Google’s own page says shipping soon. Still five days from now would be July 16, which aligns nicely with the mid-July release promised at the Galaxy Nexus 7 announcement event. Read more »

When Google unveiled Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, few would have predicted that one of the first devices to get it would be the Kindle Fire and yet today the Amazon got its own beta port thanks to the always helpful XDA-developers coders.

Despite being only the first beta that we’ve seen, the Kindle Fire Jelly Bean ROM does quite well supporting all of the slate’s hardware, except for the HD codecs decoder for YouTube and Netflix videos. You would also need to use ADB to enable the wireless connectivity, but that’s still a small price to pay for getting to experience Android 4.1 before all those other tablets. Read more »

Yesterday an interesting project launched on Kickstarter. An Android-based gaming console called Ouya promised to change the gaming world for good. The $99 console aimed to deliver cheap, high quality games to everyone by being completely open to developers, hackers and users.

Yet, what Ouya managed to achieve was probably beyond its creators’ wildest dreams. The developers were hoping to gather $950,000 to begin production, but the Kickstarter project generated a whopping $2 million on the first day alone. Read more »