android

Dark truth about Ouya debut: Retail wins, Kickstarter loses

It should be a great day for Ouya, the tiny Android-powered gaming console that netted $8.5 million in Kickstarter funding and quickly sold out during its debut appearance at U.S. retailers Tuesday. But not all Ouya enthusiasts are smiling.

Some early adopters who donated to Ouya on Kickstarter months ago are still waiting for their console after being told they would get it before it hit retail. While some did receive their Ouya as promised (albeit perhaps a bit late), a "small subset" (according to Ouya's PR) did not.

Thousands of comments regarding Ouya on Kickstarter and other colloqui indicate that the number of people who didn't get their Ouya might be larger than a "small subset."

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Keep all of your log-ins secure with PasswordBox

A couple of months ago we reviewed the beta version of the surprisingly convenient online password manager from PasswordBox.com. On Tuesday, Dan Robichaud, CEO of PasswordBox, has just announced the official release of PasswordBox and introduced some new features as well as the mobile app releases for iOS and Android.

PasswordBox lets you perform one-click log-in to all of your favorite sites from previously stored accounts. Just download the client, which is available as an add-on/extension for IE, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. Create a PasswordBox.com account and Master Password and you're ready to go. You can … Read more

Disable autoplaying for videos in Instagram

No matter how you feel about Instagram adding video, I think we can all agree that being greeted with a random sound every time you launch the app and a video starts playing without you doing a thing is very annoying.

As previously touched on when video capabilities in Instagram first launched, you can disable the "feature" (more like curse) of autoplay with just a few quick taps. I have to hand it to the Instagram team for even putting the option in the app.

Launch Instagram and navigate to your profile page. From there, tap on the … Read more

BlackBerry launches Secure Work Space for Android, iPhones

BlackBerry officially launched a service late Monday that allows Apple and Android users to separate personal data and company information on the same device.

Managed through BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES), the long-anticipated Secure Work Space creates a container to keep corporate applications such as e-mail, calendar, contacts, and tasks separate from users' personal apps. The service is designed to prevent data leakage -- including copy and paste -- between the Secure Work Space elements and the rest of the device.

The module will also create a fully encrypted tunnel to the BES server, ensuring that all communications that originate … Read more

iOS and Android to get Xbox and Microsoft PC games?

Microsoft's Xbox and PC games may be coming to Apple's iPhone and Android devices sometime this year, according to a report by Nikkei via Reuters.

The tech giant is allegedly working on a licensing deal with Japanese mobile game maker KLab to bring its games to other smartphone platforms, according to Reuters. One of the first games said to be released is Age of Empires, which reportedly will be free and available on iOS and Android smartphones by the end of this year.

While Microsoft's Windows Phone has access to dozens of Xbox and PC games, both … Read more

Garmin readies Android-powered Monterra outdoor GPS

Today, Garmin pulled the wraps off of its new Monterra -- a handheld, outdoor GPS device that can survive in conditions and environments where few smartphones dare to tread.

At first glance, the newest model in Garmin's line of outdoor GPS devices looks remarkably similar to the existing Montana models -- which is good for reasons that we'll revisit later. The Monterra differs from the current Garmin product line in running on the Android mobile operating system. The advantage here is that users will be able to download outdoor-related apps to augment the device's functionality, such as … Read more

See which apps have access to your online profiles

There are 70 apps accessing my Facebook account. I did not know that before I had MyPermissions scan my account. With this free app for iPhone or for Android, you can keep track of the apps that have access to your various online profiles, including Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Dropbox, Instagram, Foursquare, and Flickr. The app doesn't do anything that you can't do directly on the permissions page of a given account, but it acts as a convenient dashboard to monitor and control which apps have access to your accounts.

To check the permissions of one of your … Read more

Six ways to share your exact location with family (and why)

Families outfitted with a fleet of smartphones have a lot of options for checking in that don't require exercising those texting thumbs or distracting a driver with a call just to find out exactly when he or she is coming home for dinner.

I've gathered a handful of Android applications designed to help smartphone users keep an eye on each others' whereabouts. Indeed, the first thing that comes to mind in this NSA age is whether or not this stuff is private. Rest assured, dear reader, I've got your interests at heart.

These are apps are opt-in … Read more

Photo-sharing site Imgur launches 'official' Android app

Photo-sharing site Imgur has officially taken its Android application out of beta.

The company updated the app on Sunday, saying that it's now "officially" available to the Android community. The application has been available in the Google Play store for quite some time, but was offered in beta status. The full-featured version 1.0 is the final build.

The app is Imgur's first major step into mobile. The company has previously succeeded by appealing to a relatively large number of users sharing photos online. Like its Web-based counterpart, the free Android app allows users to browse … Read more

Top 5 must-have Android tablet apps

Even the most die-hard Android fan has to admit that it has taken Android quite a while to catch up to Apple when it comes to quality tablet-optimized apps. You can't blame Google entirely, though. With the dramatic launch of their tablet-only Honeycomb OS, Google tried hard to rally Android developers around building great tablet apps. Why it took developers another year to answer that call for tablet apps is another whole story.

The good news is, Android tablet owners now have a fantastic assortment of apps to choose from. Apps that don't merely scale up the Android … Read more