Category: Android

Angry Birds 2 by all accounts has been a success for developer Rovio Entertainment and today on their blog they have confirmed it.  In the first week since its launch, the sequel game to the original Angry Birds has seen 20 million downloads.  In that time it has also become the number one download in the for iOS while on both iOS and Android the game has been the most downloaded game on both platforms.

As the number one iPhone or iPad download in more than 100 countries – and the most downloaded game on both iOS and Android platforms virtually worldwide – in its first week Angry Birds 2’s fans have raised their slingshots more than 1.4 billion times, blasting their way through more than 300 million eye-popping levels and gloriously maxing out the Destruct-O-Meter more than 350 million times over.

If you haven’t been keeping up, Angry Birds 2 is the sequel to the enormously popular Angry Birds and it a far different game than the original.  Yes you are still slinging birds to pop pigs but the game play and puzzles of each level are vastly different and certainly a worthy challenge.  Angry Birds 2 requires not only the strategy of popping the pigs but you also have to determine which bird to use to be the most effective.  As a fan of the game series, I’m addicted.  I’m up to level 70. 🙂

Angry Birds 2 – Free (In-App Purchases) – Download Now

Last week Samsung announced during their earnings call that they would be dropping the price on the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge to more accurately reflect the market and prop up sliding sales.  It seems that those prices may be coming to market already.  T-Mobile has updated their site to reflect a $100 drop in price on Galaxy S6 and Galaxy 6 Edge 32GB and 64GB models while the 128GB models have dropped a full $200.  These are for non-contract full purchase of the phones and if you do the math, the higher memory devices are a really good deal right now.

Android Wear is a great extension of the Android platform on your phone.  These devices, mostly smartwatches, can give you timely information on your wrist without ever having to touch your phone.  That’s the promise we were all sold and for the most part, it’s true.  The problem however is what you weren’t told when you picked up that Moto 360 or LG G watch:  All those notifications will kill your battery life.

Realistically, for most Android Wear devices, you are going to be pushing it to make it through the day on battery life and the more notifications you get, the more of a stretch it is going to be to make it through the end of the day.  Fortunately there is a quick and easy way to stop the notification overload on your wrist and the beauty is you can do it from your Android phone or from your Android Wear device.  In this How To I’ll show you how to quickly and easily block app notifications.

Yesterday HTC announced that starting today the HTC One M9 would start receiving the Lollipop 5.1 update via an OTA (Over-the-air) update starting today.  It looks like they have kept to their word.  Users across Europe, the Middle East and Africa have started receiving the update to their devices and all the benefits of the latest version of Android.  It’s good news for owners of the device as it brings them inline with the North America which has already seen the Lollipop rollout start.

Following weeks of rumors and speculation, Sony has announced today the new Xperia M5 Android phone.  The newest offering from Sony sports an impressive set of specifications including a 21MP rear camera and a 13MP front camera.  The 5″ display device will be powered by the 64-bit MediaTek Helio X10 Octa-core processor running at 2.0 GHz and will have 3GB of RAM which should make this phone quite snappy. It will also be running Android 5.0 (Lollipop) and interestingly, is waterproof.

While no firm release date was provided, we can expect to see the Xperia M5 hit select markets this month.

Just 72 hours after an impressive Virtual Reality launch, OnePlus has posted on their Google+ page that they have received 1 million reservations for their new “flagship killer” OnePlus 2.  While the OnePlus 2 and the Moto X and Moto G from Motorola have been all the talk this week, it is pretty clear that OnePlus has garnered their fair share of interest with their second phone and there are a few who already have their hands on the new phone.  So far the reviews have been pretty positive.

OnePlus has said that they will have more initial stock of the OnePlus 2 than they did of their first phone, the OnePlus One, simply because they know they will be able to sell them.  As I put in my article on why the OnePlus 2 has to be a success, the company doesn’t have the capital to go into mass production so they are using an invite system.  Clearly, it seems, things are going in the right direction.