The Android 6.0 Marshmallow Easter egg is another Flappy Bird-style game, with a twist
The Easter eggs Google hides in every new version of Android have gotten better and better over the years. It started out with a zombified Gingerbread painting in Android 2.3, and grew from static images to little interactive animations. Then Google got really creative with the Easter egg in Android 5.0 Lollipop. As a nod towards one of the most viral mobile games ever to be released, users who stumbled across the Easter egg quickly found themselves keeping the Android mascot alive in a Flappy Bird-style mini game.
Now that Android 6.0 Marshmallow has been officially released to the masses (well, to all owners of current Nexus devices, that is), we’re now getting a good look at what Google included this time around. For the most part, the Easter egg is the same Flappy Bird-like game that was found in Lollipop. But this time around, it’s your job to dodge certain death as you fly between giant Marshmallow mascots on a stick.
Related: Google’s Nat and Lo walk us through the history of Android Easter eggs
This time, though, your friends can join in on the fun. Before hitting the start button when you activate the Easter egg, you’ll see ‘+’ and ‘-‘ signs on the top of the screen. Hitting the + sign will allow you to add up to five additional players for a total of six. Each Android mascot is controlled separately, so you’ll need to have multiple friends playing at the same time, or you can use multiple fingers by yourself if you don’t have any friends nearby.
If you thought the Lollipop version of this mini game was difficult, try playing with other people. Seriously, this game is tough.
iMessage Activation Via Phone Number Now Working on Wind Mobile in Canada
A growing number of Wind Mobile customers in Canada this week have confirmed to MacRumors and on social media that iMessage activation via phone number is now working properly on iPhone. iMessage on Wind Mobile previously only worked when activated using an Apple ID.
MacRumors reader Brandon and several other iPhone users confirmed the change.
Finally Wind Mobile in Canada is suddenly using native iMessage. You used to have to only use your Apple ID for iMessage and FaceTime because it was unsupported on Wind’s network. Today, suddenly it started working. I have confirmed it with an Apple Genius, and I myself am a former Apple technician as well.
Apple released iOS 9.0.2 last week with a fix for an issue that prevented iMessage activation for some users, but it is more likely the change was made by Wind Mobile given that iPhones running previous software versions such as iOS 8.4 also now have iMessage activation by SMS.
Apple does not list Wind Mobile as a supported wireless carrier on its website. Canadian carriers that officially support the iPhone include the big three networks Bell, Rogers and Telus, prepaid carriers Fido, Koodo and Virgin Mobile and regional carriers Eastlink, MTS, SaskTel, TbayTel and Videotron.
Wind Mobile is a bargain carrier in Canada, offering affordable rate plans with unlimited talk, text and data for between $25 and $50 per month. Wind Mobile’s coverage area is mainly limited to larger cities, however, such as the Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver metro areas.
(Thanks, Brandon!)
Google Creative Lab’s new Meter wallpaper brings real-time stats to your device’s homescreen
The majority of the applications Google Creative Lab launches on Android aim to showcase just what can be done on our favorite operating system. Sure, there are fun (and creepy) applications like Lip Swap or Tunnel Vision, but the development team has also put out useful apps like Photowall for Chromecast. Now there’s a new application from the team that aims to be both fun and useful.
Meter is a new live wallpaper that essentially turns your device’s homescreen into a live dashboard, showing you real-time statistics from your Android device. There are three different wallpapers to choose from, and you can deselect any of them if you don’t want them displayed. Shown off in the first screenshot above, the handy notification wallpaper will show you just how many missed notifications you have. It doesn’t give you any information regarding which types of notifications you’ve missed, but it does display the number of missed alerts below the box.
Perhaps the most useful out of the three is the battery wallpaper, shown off in the second screenshot above. This displays your battery percentage as a big pink circle that diminishes as your battery level decreases. It also shows the battery percent below the circle. Last up is the Wi-Fi/Cellular wallpaper, which is in the third screenshot above. Although you can’t really see it from the image above, the triangle will fill up as your signal gets stronger and will deplete as your signal gets weaker.
See also: Google unveils Android Experiments – a showcase of inspiring projects on Android
One of the coolest parts of the live wallpaper is that it moves around thanks to your device’s accelerometer, so the shapes shift a tiny bit as you move your device. Additionally, it will switch between the three different wallpaper options as you wake/lock your device, so you won’t have to choose between the three if you don’t want to.
Meter is now available in the Play Store for free, so head to the link below for the download.
Latest Android distribution numbers show Lollipop running on 23.5% of all devices
Google has just sent out updated Android distribution numbers for the month of October, showing that Lollipop now runs on 23.5 percent of all active Android devices. This number has risen 2.5 percent from last month’s numbers, which can be found here.
As for the other versions, Android 4.4 KitKat is still installed on the most devices, sitting at 38.9 percent. KitKat saw only a .3-percent decrease from last month’s distribution numbers. Jelly Bean currently resides on 30.2 percent of all active Android devices, a decrease of 1.6 percent month-over-month.
Related: Android 6.0 Marshmallow factory images arrive for Nexus 5, 6, 7 (2013), 9 and Player
Ice Cream Sandwich saw a .3-percent decrease since last month, now sitting at only 3.4 percent. Gingerbread is still holding strong at 3.8 percent, down from 4.1 percent in the month of September. And yes, Android 2.2 Froyo is still installed on .2 percent of all active Android devices. We should see this ancient version of Android drop off the distribution chart sometime soon, as any version with less than .1 percent of installs are not shown.
Android 6.0 Marshmallow just started rolling out to current Nexus devices yesterday, so it obviously didn’t make the cut. While we wait for the new version make its way to more devices, it’s nice to see Android 5.0 Lollipop becoming more widely adopted throughout the Android ecosystem.
By the numbers: Lumia 950 / XL vs the Android competition
Android smartphones and the iPhone tend to lead the way in the mobile market but Microsoft hopes that Windows 10 can change this status quo and has today unveiled two new devices to hoping to do just that: Lumia 950 and the Lumia 950 XL.
The most advanced Windows smartphones ever produced, the Lumia 950 and the Lumia 950 XL may certainly make a stand in the market but how do they compare to the best that Android has to offer? For this comparison, we’re bringing out the big guns in the form of the Galaxy G6 Edge, Galaxy Note 5, Xperia Z5 Premium, the LG G4 and the Google Nexus 6P.
| Lumia 950 | Lumia 950 XL | Nexus 6P | Xperia Z5 Premium | Galaxy Note 5 | Galaxy S6 Edge | LG G4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display | 5.2-inch AMOLED QHD (2560×1440) 564 ppi |
5.7-inch AMOLED QHD (2560×1440) 518ppi |
5.7-inch AMOLED QHD (1440×2560) 518ppi |
5.5-inch LCD 4K (3840 X 2160) 801ppi |
5.7-inch AMOLED QHD (2560×1440) 518ppi |
5.1-inch AMOLED QHD (2560×1440) 577ppi |
5.5-inch LCD QHD (2560×1440) 538ppi |
| SoC | Snapdragon 808 | Snapdragon 810 | Snapdragon 810 | Snapdragon 810 | Exynos 7420 | Exynos 7420 | Snapdragon 808 |
| CPU | 2x 1.8GHz Cortex-A57 4x 1.44GHz Cortex-A53 |
4x 2GHz Cortex-A57 4x 1.5GHz Cortex-A53 |
4x 2GHz Cortex-A57 4x 1.55GHz Cortex-A53 |
4x 1.9GHz Cortex-A57 4x 1.5GHz Cortex-A53 |
4x 2.1GHz Cortex-A57 4x 1.5GHz Cortex-A53 |
4x 2.1GHz Cortex-A57 4x 1.5GHz Cortex-A53 |
2x 1.8GHz Cortex-A57 4x 1.4GHz Cortex-A53 |
| GPU | Adreno 518 | Adreno 430 | Adreno 430 | Adreno 430 | Mali-T760 MP8 | Mali-T760 MP8 | Adreno 418 |
| RAM | 3GB | 3GB | 3GB | 3GB | 4GB | 3GB | 3GB |
| Storage | 32GB | 32GB | 32/64/128GB | 32GB | 32/64/128GB | 32/64/128GB | 32GB |
| MicroSD | Yes, up to 200GB | Yes, up to 200GB | No | yes, up to 200GB | No | No | Yes, up to 128GB |
| Camera | 20MP rear 5MP front |
20MP rear 5MP front |
12MP rear 8MP front |
23MP rear 5MP front |
16MP rear 5MP front |
16MP rear 5MP front |
16MP rear 8MP front |
While many predicted that display technology would plateau at Full HD or QHD, this year has seen Samsung push the boat out with the curved QHD AMOLED display on the Edge range and Sony has trumped the competition with the introduction of the world’s first 4K smartphone display on the Xperia Z5.
The Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL are the first Windows powered smartphones to offer Quad HD resolution and with a pixel density of over 500 pixels per inch on each AMOLED panel, the displays can certainly challenge the best that Android has to offer. A key feature of the new devices is Glance Screen, which allows Microsoft to only turn the pixels it needs to display information at a glance as soon as you pull your phone out of your pocket.
Although Microsoft has previously insisted that the optimisation of the Windows core means Windows Phone doesn’t need quad-core devices, the company has included the latest Qualcomm chipsets inside its new devices. The smaller Lumia 950 comes with the hexa-core Snapdragon 808 found inside the Nexus 5X and the LG G4 while the Lumia 950 XL comes with an octa-core Snapdragon 810, as found in the Nexus 6P and Sony Xperia Z5 Premium.
With so much processing power, none of these smartphones are going to struggle in demanding scenarios but there’s a key reason Microsoft chose these processors for its new devices; when paired with the new DisplayDock, both smartphones turn into a fully fledged PC. Windows 10 comes with universal apps, which means when connected to the DisplayDock and sharing to a big display, the same Windows Phone apps become full-sized desktop PC apps.
Last year, Microsoft completed its acquisition of Nokia and with it, the company gained Nokia’s pedigree for making smartphone cameras. In the time since Nokia last made a flagship smartphone, Android cameras have improved dramatically and Microsoft’s latest smartphones certainly have a challenge ahead.
Galaxy Note 5 vs Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
The company says the handsets have a 20MP PureView camera with Carl ZEISS Optics, fifth-generation Optical Image Stabilisation and a three-LED flash that helps to prevent Red Eye and results in clear photos. In comparison, Samsung has its highly impressive 16MP OIS camera in the Galaxy Note 5 (and S6 Edge), LG has a 16MP camera with OIS, laser autofocus and a colour spectrum sensor and Sony has a new 23MP camera inside the Xperia Z5.
Google has taken a different approach in the Nexus 6P, packing it with a 12MP camera with much larger pixels (1.55µm pixel size) and laser autofocus, which produces outstanding quality images. Which camera is best on the market remains to be seen but there’s no doubt that any of these smartphone cameras will be good enough for whatever you throw at it.
| Lumia 950 | Lumia 950 XL | Nexus 6P | Xperia Z5 Premium | Galaxy Note 5 | Galaxy S6 Edge | LG G4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battery | 3000mAh Removable: Yes |
3340mAh Removable: Yes |
3450mAh Removable: No |
3,430mAh Removable: No |
3,000mAh Removable: No |
2,600mAh Removable: No |
3,000mAh Removable: Yes |
| Fast Charging? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Quick Charge 2.0 | Yes | Yes | Quick Charge 2.0 |
| Wireless Charging? | Yes | Yes | No | No | Qi and PMA | Qi and PMA | Qi (optional cases) |
| Biometrics | Windows Hello Facial Recognition |
Windows Hello Facial Recognition |
Fingerprint Scan | Fingerprint Scan | Fingerprint Scan | Fingerprint Scan | None |
| IP rating | No | No | No | IP68 | No | No | No |
| Dimensions | 145 x 73.2 x 8.2 mm | 151.9 x 78.4 x 8.1mm | 159.3 x 77.8 x 7.3mm | 154.4 x 75.8 x 7.8mm | 153.2 x 76.1 x 7.6mm | 142.1 x 70.1 x 7mm | 148.9 x 76.1 x 9.8 mm |
| Weight | 150g | 164g | 180g | 171g | 132g | 155g |
When it comes to additional features, each of these handsets has something that makes it truly unique; Samsung’s S-Pen sets the Galaxy Note 5 aside, while the unique dual-curved edge set the Galaxy S6 Edge apart. Sony remains committed to water and dust resistance, while LG have opted for a removable battery and expandable storage – which are missing from many flagships – to set the G4 aside. For the Nexus 6P, Google has aimed to combine premium specs with a super smooth experience and fast updates to set its flagship apart from the competition.
There’s no denying that fingerprint sensors are a key part of the experience and most of these flagships sport one, except for the LG G4 and the new Lumia. Instead, Microsoft’s new devices come with a feature called Windows Hello that promises military-grade security and lets you unlock your phone just by looking at it. Which is perfect for you depends on whether you want a physical fingerprint sensor or want your phone to unlock automatically, but there’s no denying that biometrics are having an increasingly-growing part to play in the way we interact with our smartphones.
A key difference between the new Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL and the best of Android comes down to the platform as Microsoft’s latest devices run on Windows 10, while the other devices run on, well, Android. Microsoft’s platform is similar to Windows Phone 8 (albeit with some major improvements) and for the most part, the simplified interface and ease-of-use certainly make the handsets an interesting alternative to Android. Although Windows doesn’t have all the apps of Android, it does have most of them and devices like the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL may help to reduce the gap further.
So what do you think of Microsoft’s new devices and would you buy either? Let us know your views in the comments below guys!
How to clear search history in the Google Play Store
The Google Play Store is the hub from which you will attain most of the things you use on your phone every day. That could mean just apps and games or you may even use it for movies, TV, books, and music. In either case, you’re bound to get quite a few searches piled up. For whatever reason, you may want to get rid of them and we’ll show you the two best methods to do so.
Method 1 – Through the Google Play Store app
The first method is directly through the Play Store app and this is the recommended way to clear out your Google Play Store search history. The steps are as follows:
- Open the Google Play Store app.
- Open up the app menu either by sliding from the left side of your phone screen or by pressing the three-line menu button in the top left.
- Click “Settings”
- In the “General” portion of the Settings, you’ll see the option to “Clear local search history”. Click that and then confirm your decision if prompted.
- Done!
This should clear search history in the Google Play Store and leave you with a fresh search bar to begin your search history anew. It’s nice and easy and shouldn’t take longer than a few seconds!
See also: How to toggle battery percentage and Quick Settings in Android 6.0
Method 2 – Through the application menu in Settings
There is a second method, although it does require a bit more work. In fact, we could probably just not write about it but that isn’t any fun. Here’s the second, more complicated way of doing this:
- Open your phone settings either through the notification shade (drop-down) or using the Settings app in your app drawer.
- Scroll down until you see the “Apps” option. On some devices and OEM skins, this may also be called Applications or Application Manager.
- Generally the next menu is divided by downloaded apps, apps on the SD card, running apps, and all apps. You’ll want the all apps section.
- Scroll down until you find the Google Play Store. Click on it.
- In Android 5.1.1 and under, you’ll see the option to “clear data”. Starting in Android 6.0 Marshmallow, you’ll need to click the Storage section of the app info where you’ll then be given the opportunity to clear data. Go ahead and clear data.
- Once data has been cleared, everything in the Google Play Store will be reset. Simply open the app and re-accept the Play Store Terms of Service.
- Done!
Again, this is not the recommended way of doing it but it is a method that you can use if you want to. We would still recommend the first method over the second method.
That’s it folks! It’s an easy process that’s tucked away right there in the front of the menu of the Play Store. The whole thing takes less than 30 seconds most of the time and you don’t need any special skills in order to do it!
Latest Google Translate update lets you translate languages from inside other apps
Google Translate is arguably one the most useful communication apps available on Android, but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for improvement. If you have something you need to translate to another language, you’d normally need to open the Translate app, type out whatever it is you need translating, copy the text, and paste it in your desired application. Now that method of translating text will soon be no more, thanks to an update that’s rolling out to Google Translate.
Users running Android 6.0 Marshmallow on their devices will be able to translate text in 90 different languages right from within your favorite apps, such as TripAdvisor, WhatsApp and LinkedIn. All you need to do to get this feature to work is have Translate installed on your device. You can then go into any app compatible with this new feature, highlight and select the text you want to translate, and that’s basically it. The text will be translated in a pop up window, and you can choose to replace your text with the translated text from there. For clarification on this new feature, check out the GIF attached below:
Google says that this feature is already enabled in apps that use Android text selection behavior. If a developer created a custom text selection behavior for their app, they can easily add the new feature if they’d like.
The update is now rolling out in the Play Store, but as noted before, you’ll need to be running Android 6.0 Marshmallow for the feature to work. Head to the link below to grab this new update!
HoloLens ‘Project XRay’ lets you blast robot armies with a ray gun fist
Microsoft took time during today’s Windows 10 Devices event to give the audience a more in-depth look at what its new HoloLens AR system is capable of. Minds were blown, jaws were dropped and more than a few digital robots were blown to smithereens during the 8-minute demo.
The game is called Project X-Ray. Microsoft developed it in-house as an experiment in “mixed-reality entertainment” and involves using the HoloLens controller as a ray gun to blast digital enemies which emerge from the room’s walls. Running around your living room while wearing a $3,000 headset (what Microsoft is reportedly planning to charge developers) probably isn’t the safest of indoor activities, but dang this game looks insanely fun regardless.
Source: Microsoft (YouTube)
‘Far Cry Primal’ will take humanity back to the stone age
What would happen if you took the large, open-world chaos that defines the Far Cry series, removed the guns, vehicles, modern weapons and political character motivations? You’d have Far Cry Primal — a survival epic staged in a re-imagined stone age. It’s a different, but intriguing idea. The player takes on the role of Takkar, a lone hunter trying to survive on his own in the savage land of Oros. Really, the trailer says it all.
It’s hard to imagine a better direction for a Far Cry game without guns. In addition to surviving the elements, Takkar will have to fight off packs of dire-wolves, hunt wooly mammoths, avoid deadly saber-toothed tigers and deal with the wrath of hostile, warring tribes. All the elements of the series are here, it just looks different. Still, it’ll be awhile before we get to play it: Ubisoft has slated the game for launch in Feburary of 2016. Check out the official page at the source link below for more details.
Source: Far Cry Primal
Neil deGrasse Tyson hosts an early Reddit video AMA
Reddit’s Ask Me Anything videos are getting off to a very good start. The social site has just posted its first batch of these moving AMAs, and one of these stars none other than Neil deGrasse Tyson, the Hayden Planetarium director known for making astrophysics accessible to everyone. As you might guess, the video format gives deGrasse Tyson the opportunity to answer with the kind of depth and expressiveness that you don’t get with a text reply. Among other things, he chooses the universe’s best art (spoiler: it’s not a painting) and explains why he doesn’t like mind-altering substances.
There are only two other video AMAs, one featuring FiveThirtyEight‘s Nate Silver and the other revolving around actress Hilary Duff. However, you can expect to see many more videos from Reddit (including documentaries and user-made content) in the future. As the simultaneous Upvoted launch suggests, Reddit is hoping to expand its horizons and generate money from more than just the ads next to your comments.
Via: The Verge
Source: Reddit (YouTube)
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