Month: October 2012

Yesterday’s planned Google event in New York was cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy, but Google have still released information about these new devices. The information pretty much matches up with the rumours that have been swirling around the internet for the last month.

The Nexus 4 is a new phone manufactured by LG. It has a 4.7″ screen and comes with either 8GB or 16GB of storage. It will cost either £239 or £279 depending on how much storage you go for, which is very cheap when compared to other high-end Android smartphones. It also features wireless charging.

The Nexus 10 is a new tablet manufactured by Samsung. It has a 10″ screen and features an amazing 2560*1600 resolution, which is 300 pixels per inch – much higher than the new iPad’s 264 ppi. It will cost £319 or £389 depending on whether you choose the 16GB or 32GB storage option.

Both devices will run the latest version of Android, 4.2 (which will still be called Jelly Bean). This has new features such as Photo Sphere allowing for 360 degree panoramas, and a new keyboard which seems to be very similar to Swype. The Nexus 10 will allow for multiple users to have separate accounts on. Google Now has also been updated with extra functionality.

Check out this video from the Google Nexus team:

We’ve had to wait a while compared to our iOS owning friends, but Chrono Trigger is finally available for Android devices on the Google Play store. For £6.99 you can experience one of the greatest RPGs ever made on your Android phone or tablet.

Chrono Trigger was originally released on the SNES in 1995, and was a critical and commercial success. It frequently ranks highly on ‘best game ever’ lists, and has been remade for the PlayStation, Nintendo DS, Wii Virtual Console and iOS and Android. £6.99 might seem like a lot to pay for a game on your phone, but the depth of content available (the game has multiple endings depending on how you play and each playthrough can take on average 30 hours) makes this a very worthwhile purchase.

Check out the video below (it’s aimed at the Japanese market but you can get the gist of it):

There is a huge number of apps available for Android devices, some are free but some have to be paid for. The prices can change for these apps but it can be difficult to keep track. Thankfully, help is at hand in the form of the AppSales app. AppSales keeps track of the prices of a wide number of apps, and will send you notifications when discount apps are available.

It’s possible to change the settings so that you only see apps that are discounted by a certain amount, or only those that have been downloaded a certain number of times. I have mine setup to check every 4 hours and send me a notification if there are any cheap apps available. Sometimes there are some real bargains available that you might miss if you don’t frequently check the Play Store.

The only downside for me is that prices are displayed in US dollars, but clicking the link will take you to the Play Store which will display prices in the local currency, so it’s only a minor inconvenience. Overall I’d highly recommend this app, it might save you a lot of money!

Google have released a minor update to the Android operating system. Devices on Jelly Bean (4.1.1) should have already received the update over the air, or will get it very shortly. Nexus 7 and Galaxy Nexus users were the first to get the update, whilst Motorola have just pushed out the update for the Xoom. Nexus S users should also receive this update.

As this is only a minor update, there aren’t that many new features to shout about. The most notable change for Nexus 7 users is that they can now use landscape mode on their launcher. Notifications can now be expanded with one finger rather than two. Apart from that, the update mostly deals with bug fixes and making things smoother.

Take two franchises well known for pumping out shedloads of merchandise, put them together and what do you get? That’s right, Angry Birds Star Wars! The new game, which looks to be based on the same physics model as Angry Birds Space, seems to have merged the characters from Star Wars with the birds – so the red bird looks like Luke, the yellow bird is Han etc.

The game is due to be released on 8th November for iOS and Android devices and PCs. Unsurprisingly, there seems to be plenty of new merchandise on the way as well, with plush toys on the way as well as a pig based Death Star Jenga! Check out the teaser trailer below.

As before all handset releases, rumours have been swirling around about the next Nexus phone – what will be the specs? Who will be the manufacturer? According to the latest rumour, it seems like Google have changed their strategy, and that rather than having just one specific Nexus handset, it will allow all manufacturers to make their own Nexus model. In order to get the Nexus certification, they’ll have to meet whatever the minimum specs are – for instance, it looks like the next Nexus device will be required to have at least 64GB of storage.

Apparently custom overlays (such as TouchWiz or Sense) will be allowed, as long as there is an option to turn them off and switch to the stock version of Android.

For more details, check out the source of this information at Android and Me.