As expected, the annual Mobile World Congress has delivered an army of new Android devices. Really, though, we'd expect nothing less from the world's largest gathering of mobile-minded products and services. And with Android playing a dominant role in the smartphone landscape, it stands to reason that a majority of new phones and tablets would launch with the Google platform.

A number of standout devices made headlines this week, including the ZTE Grand Memo, Huawei Ascend P2, and the Sony Tablet Z.

LG got things started last week with the refreshed Optimus L series as well as new … Read more

Samsung is taking its cue from Apple for a new mobile app.

Dubbed Wallet, the app is basically Samsung's version of Apple's Passbook. As described on the app's API page for developers, the app "allows users to store and manage event tickets, boarding passes, membership cards, and coupons all in one place."

The app lets providers integrate their apps with Samsung Wallet so that mobile device users can add their electronic tickets and coupons. Those tickets display bar codes that can then be scanned at terminals. Demoing the app at Mobile World Congress today in … Read more

DoubleTwist, maker of the popular eponymous music player software, has teamed up with chip maker Qualcomm in an attempt to make wireless streaming easier for Android users. The fruit of their collaboration is dubbed MagicPlay, a new open-source wireless streaming platform that the two companies hope OEMs will integrate into present and future devices.

Built atop Qualcomm's already existing AllJoyn platform, DoubleTwist's MagicPlay can stream to wireless speakers, headphones, televisions, and other devices. Since MagicPlay is open-source, any number of devices or apps could potentially integrate its code and stream to hardware that has a Qualcomm chip and … Read more

If you own an Android tablet, or just a phone with a huge screen, watching YouTube videos while you perform other tasks can be superconvenient. Perhaps you're checking e-mail and watching videos from your favorite band, or maybe you're watching a scene from a play and following along in the script. This split-screen feature is available on the Samsung Galaxy Note II, but hasn't rolled out to many other handsets. Ready to add more multitasking power to your device?

First you'll need to install a copy of Floating YouTube Popup Video on your Android device, then … Read more

In the older version of Any.Do you had to schedule each task on your list individually. While this was effective in the sense that it set off notifications, it wasn't efficient. Luckily, the new Any.Do Moment feature creates a path between listing your tasks and getting things done by helping you plan out your day.

Before you get started, make sure you have the latest version of Any.Do installed on your device. You'll probably see an update, but if not, head to Google Play and grab the latest version.

Once you open Any.Do on … Read more

Did you ever want to leave a message for a Skype buddy who just wasn't there? Skype's new video-messaging feature, now in a beta of sorts, is the interactive way to do it.

Available today for users in the U.S., U.K., and other select countries (Skype isn't listing them all,) video messaging sends a recording to friends who may be offline or on another call.

Android, iOS, and Mac users don't have to do anything to play around with the prerelease feature, except to make sure they've got the most recent software update (… Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--At an invite-only press event in San Francisco, popular streaming music service Slacker Radio last night unveiled a completely revamped brand. The company's name remains, but Slacker's look and feel have been significantly simplified.

Of course, with the rebrand, Slacker's Web site and product designs have been updated with cleaner, more modern looks as well. Gone are the dark tones, textures, and gradients that crowded Slacker's interfaces in the past. Now, Slacker's multiplatform face is made up of brighter colors, clean lines, and lots of white space, which bring it more in line with … Read more

Hunting around the Windows store for your favorite apps can sometimes be a sad and demoralizing experience, particularly if you just dropped about a grand for that slick new Surface Pro from Microsoft.

Enter the startup BlueStacks on its multicolored digital steed prepared to liberate the Surface with its Android app player, shouting "Freedom!" at the top of its lungs a la Mel Gibson in "Braveheart."

Actually, you can just download a version of the BlueStacks App Player optimized for the Surface Pro that was just released today, but I do recommend at least donning a bit of blue war paint before clicking to make for a more memorable experience.… Read more

Adobe issued an emergency update to its Flash Player to fix two zero-day threats, the company announced yesterday. The updates affect all versions of Flash on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android.

The vulnerabilities currently are being exploited "in the wild," says Adobe's blog on the patches. According to the Kaspersky ThreatPost blog on the pair of zero-days, one attack targets "aerospace and other manufacturing companies" by tricking people into opening a Microsoft Word document with malicious Flash content embedded in it. The second zero-day targets Firefox and Safari on Mac OS X by tricking you … Read more