Android

Rugged Galaxy S4 variant crops up once again in Croatia Following yesterday's first photo appearance, today brings us a very quick video encounter with the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active. The ruggedized S4 variant, which sports physical buttons and a 1080p HD display, was captured in Croatia by an informant for MobileTechReview. The video mentions that it's powered by a Snapdragon S4 Plus CPU, however this is contradicted by earlier screenshots, which reveal a quad-core part at up to 1.9GHz with an Adreno 320 GPU. The S4 Plus line consists of dual-core Krait parts at up to 1.7GHz, so our money is still on a Snapdragon 600 being inside this thing. An 8 megapixel rear camera is also mentioned in the video, though this has yet to be confirmed. The video is relatively short, but we can clearly see the latest version of Samsung's TouchWiz UI, and the "Active" seems just as snappy as its more mainstream sibling. The footage appears to have been captured in the same demo station setting as yesterday's still images. There's little doubt now that the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active is indeed a real device. We imagine it'll only be a matter of time before it's officially announced by the Korean manufacturer. Source: YouTube; via: PhoneArena

The T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S3 LTE finally has a release date next to it, after it was initially pegged to be available at the end of March or beginning of April. According to TmoNews, which got its hands on some official T-Mobile information, the device will be available on May 29 in all channels. T-Mobile will replace the current Samsung Galaxy S3 supply with the new variant. Gotta Be Mobile has even spotted the device on the T-Mobile website, and managed to go all the way through to checkout, with a T-Mobile sales representative saying that the device is already available. The phone doesn’t appear in the phone lineup on the site at the moment, but you can get to it by searching, as you can see in the screenshot below. Clicking Learn More will only send you back to the main T-Mobile phone shop page. What you do find out from the site is the price, which is $69.99 + $20 per month for 24 months, a total of $549.99 (if it doesn’t change before the official release). TmoNews‘ report also includes some information about another Samsung device coming soon to T-Mobile, the Samsung Galaxy Exhibit, or SGH-T599, which is T-Mobile’s version of the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini. It will be available earlier than the T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S3 LTE, on May 29, and has a 1 GHz dual core CPU, 5 megapixel camera, as well as a WVGA. The Samsung Galaxy Exhibit runs Android Jelly Bean 4.1 out of the box. Do you plan on getting T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S3 LTE? Let us know in a comment.

Two cases with distinct styling and different levels of protection We're here at CTIA 2013 in Las Vegas, and although the show hasn't officially kicked off yet we had the opportunity to play with two of Otterbox's latest cases for the HTC One. At the middle and high tier of protection from Otterbox, the "Commuter" and "Defender" cases for the One are stylish but extremely functional options. The Commuter is the thinner of the two, with a two piece design that's primarily a rubber wrap-around case with a hard plastic shell that clips onto it. It doesn't add a considerable amount of bulk to the device but does add a serious amount of protection. If the Commuter isn't enough, the Defender will likely cover your device from anything you throw at it. A larger affair, the Defender has an integrated screen protector in the case, as well as extra shock protection. The end result is a case that is a touch thicker than the Commuter but considerably more rugged. Both cases keep every function and button of the phone unobstructed -- as you would hope -- including the power button IR blaster and all microphone ports. Stick around after the break for a gallery of the two cases wrapped around an HTC One, with the thinner Commuter first then followed by the thicker and more durable Defender. More: Android Central @ CTIA 2013 read more

Both the Flickr website and Android application have been given a complete redesign today, offering a beautiful new UI and 1TB of free storage for all your photos.

We’re here in Vegas for CTIA 2013, where the latest and greatest in mobile devices and accessories are shown off to the masses. Things officially get kicked off tomorrow but here at ShowStoppers tonight we ran into Otterbox and quickly got a glance at their new cases for the GALAXY S 4. With it being the hottest new phone, and everyone loving Otterbox we figured a few pictures were in order. If you’re familiar with Otterbox, their Defender and Commuter cases are their two biggest sellers, for any device. The Defender is always their massive bulky case, built to handle and defend against nearly any situation. Then their commuter is always priced a little lower, well built, and still extremely durable. Well we have both below. With newer sleek phones like the GALAXY S 4, Otterbox has been able to really improve their designs. This time around the Defender, which is usually extremely bulky, is quite thin given it protects both the front and the back, and even has a built-in screen protector. Below is both models with the Commuter in blue, and Defender in Purple. As usual both cases are using a two piece or more design, with a bumper of silicon on either the outside edge (Defender) or the inside (Commuter) to really protect against shock and drops, with the harder polycarbonate around the device for those other impacts. They aren’t the best looking cases around, but they’ll protect that shiny new GALAXY S 4 and its 5-inch 1080p display. Both of these cases have recently went up for sale from Otterbox, especially since the GS4 is available today from all carriers but Verizon. You can get the Commuter for $34.95, and as usual the Defender comes in a bit more at $49. They come in about 10 different colors to suite any personal style. Check out the pictures below. Story Timeline OtterBox DROID Incredible 4G LTE and HTC One series cases hands-on OtterBox Samsung Galaxy Note hands-on OtterBox launches new cases for DROID RAZR HD, DROID RAZR MAXX HD, and Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 Belkin, Case-Mate and Otterbox announce GALAXY S 4 cases

While Google Hangouts has a few flaws, there are countless things it does right. Besides group messaging, video calling is probably one of the most compelling features of Google’s new messaging app. We’ve taken video calls out for a spin a few times and it’s worked flawlessly in nearly every situation. The only time the service did not work was when we tried a video call with a friend who owns an iPhone on AT&T. We could take a jab at Apple, but the issue lies with AT&T’s policies regarding video calling on its 3G and 4G network. As of now, Apple, Samsung and Blackberry are the only companies which have approved pre-installed applications which can operate on AT&T’s Mobile Share or Tiered plans. But things are about to change. Starting in mid-June, those same applications will also be able to make video calls on unlimited LTE plans with all pre-loaded video chat apps gaining access to AT&T’s network by the end of this year. It’s nice to see AT&T change its stance on video calling, but we’re sure you’d agree that they’re a little late to the game. Show Press Release For video chat apps that come pre-loaded on devices, we currently give all OS and device makers the ability for those apps to work over cellular for our customers who are on Mobile Share or Tiered plans. Apple, Samsung and Blackberry have chosen to enable this for their pre-loaded video chat apps. And by mid-June, we’ll have enabled those apps over cellular for our unlimited plan customers who have LTE devices from those three manufacturers. Throughout the second half of this year, we plan to enable pre-loaded video chat apps over cellular for all our customers, regardless of data plan or device; that work is expected to be complete by yearend. Today, all of our customers can use any mobile video chat app that they download from the Internet, such as Skype.

Entertainment media company, and creators of the Angry Birds series, Rovio, have launched their game publishing initiative Rovio Stars. The program accepts third-party games from developers and gives them the tools needed to promote their game. Starting out, Rovio will release Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage from Nitrome Ltd. first, followed by Tiny Thief by 5 Ants. Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage will be available on iOS and Tiny Thief will start on both Android and iOS. Small game developers can utilize Rovio’s established platform to gain traction in the early stages of development. Rovio offers services like marketing and PR, post-production services and suggestions for fine-tuning your game. Rovio claims roughly 1.7 billion downloads and hundreds of millions of active users, so there is certainly an audience for prospective developers wanting to build a following. Source: Rovio

Made you look! Ok, so we’re not actually talking about the highly anticipated 5.0 build of Android. But we are talking about Google I/O. Rather than the fully fledged software build we’ve all be dying to get our sweaty hands on, throughout the event were easter eggs that served only to whet our appetites. Above you will see a screenshot from an RPG where the action list shows a few familiar names as well as, you guessed it, Key Lime Pie. And below, you will see another shot from the Day 2 of Google I/O which shows our dearest Android friend snacking on good ol’ Key-Lime Pie. Yeah, we know; it’s a huge tease. We can keep dreaming… Source: Phandroid

Fresh off of the purchase of Tumblr, Yahoo announced some changes to Flickr in a press event in New York today. Changes include a redesign, a free terabyte of storage and a new Android app. Starting with the redesign, Flickr’s white space is scrapped for a larger photo grid. The background and content are more streamlined and users have a cover photo, replacing the top portion of the profile. And now on to the massive amount of storage Yahoo will be offering. Users will now be able to store and share their photos with over 1TB of free storage space, with the option for paid storage accounts. “No internet company has ever offered you a terabyte,” Adam Cahan, SVP of mobile and emerging products at Yahoo said at the event. “if you took a photo every day, it’d take 61.5 years to fill a terabyte.” Cahan says they want users to be able to utilize the Flickr app to “upload once and send it to any device, any screen, any friend, any follower, any service.” The Flickr Android app will be catching up to the iOS version, which was updated last December. Updates for the Android app includes interface changes, sharing features and an enhanced photo stream. You can check out some of the updates to Flickr on Google Play. Source: Yahoo Blog

During Reto Meier’s “Android Protips 3: Making Apps Work Like Magic” session at Google at IO13, Google did what they do best, tease their fans with upcoming Android release juicy nuggets. His session teaches developers how to use advanced Android techniques to build good apps. Apps so good, users will think they’re magical. Besides learning the tricks of the trade, at about 25 minutes in, there’s an Android wearing an magicians cap, eating a piece of Key Lime Pie. Oh, Google. We love it when you tease us like this. The trolling didn’t stop there either. Later on during the session, Google showcased a crude game (Is that some sort of Cthulhu?). The boss attributes include Chrome, Jelly Bean, and Key Lime Pie. Rumor has it that we’ll see Android 4.3 launch on June 10th, along with a white Nexus 4. Will the next version of Android be Jelly Bean or Key Lime Pie? We’re not entirely sure. To be honest, names and numbers really don’t matter as long as we’re getting new features. Android 4.3 is rumored to bring Bluetooth Low Energy support (BLE) and additional graphics enhancements. Until then, check out the video below to see the above teasers for yourself.