CyanogenMod 11 M5 Builds Now Hitting Select Devices

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For those of you running CyanogenMod 11 on your device, well their fifth “monthly” build is hitting their servers right now. For those that don’t know their M builds aren’t technically monthlies or milestones. But just a semi-stable build of CM 11 for each device. As far as stability goes, it’s right in the middle of stable and nightly. Which is the perfect combination for someone who likes being on the bleeding edge of technology but not enough time to flash a nightly everyday. Cyanogen Inc’s monthly builds are generally pretty stable and come out each month. Here’s the change log for this month’s release.

Trebuchet – Fix last icon from hotseat disappearing

Trebuchet – Fix custom home transition effect

Volume Panel – Increase opacity of transparency (previous level led to visibility concerns)

WhisperPush – Relocate to Privacy menu

WhisperPush – fix NPE on viewing identity if unregistered

Translations – Initial imports from CrowdIn (followup blog post next week)

MultiSim – Additional support patches (25+)

Privacy Guard – Additional AppOps permissions

Additional Right-to-left (RTL) layout mirroring support

Settings – Add ‘screen color’ support

Quickboot support (device specific)

Stylus – Fix eraser being disabled by palm rejection

NavBar – Allow toggle in runtime (needs kernel support)

Add ethernet icon support to status bar

Dialer – Open Source forward/backward/incoming look-up

What’s interesting is that the Galaxy S3 and Galaxy S4 were left out in this release, at least for now. I’m sure we’ll see their M5 releases real soon. But for now, you can head over to CyanogenMod’s download page and check out the new builds and find the one for your device. Please be sure you get the right device, because as most of you know there are several versions of each flagship, due to carriers, and regions. So be careful.

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Android How To: Enable Developer Options on the HTC One M8

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As usual with new devices, it’s time to show you how to do all kinds of things. Like enabling Developer options on the HTC One M8. Ever since Android 4.2 was released, Google decided to hide the developer options. Which is actually a good thing. Because some people that may not know what they are doing may go into Developer Options and mess around with stuff which is not smart. But the good thing is it’s hidden in the same place on just about every smartphone or tablet. Making it easy to enable them again.

To get into Developer Options, simply jump into the Settings. Then you’re going to scroll down to the bottom and tap on ‘About’, next tap on ‘Software Information’. Now you’ll need to tap on ‘More’, which will give you a new menu. Now just tap on the build number 9 times and you’ll enable Developer options. Just head back out to the main settings menu, and you should see ‘Developer Options’ just above the ‘About’ option. So now you are able to enable USB Debugging, and so much more. In fact, you can even record your screen, which is pretty awesome as well.

It’s pretty much the same process on every device, but some manufacturers like to put the build number in different spots, like HTC did here. Which isn’t a big deal, but that’s why we’re here, to help everyone out. This is just the start of our many tutorials for the HTC One M8. As we want to be sure you get as much out of your device as you possibly can. After all it is a $650 smartphone, and you want to use every bit of it, right? If you have any questions about the HTC One M8, be sure to let us know in the comments below.

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Android Headliner: The HTC One (M8) is a Design Refinement and That’s More Than Okay

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Right now, as I write this, there’s a pretty new HTC One (M8) sitting across from me on my desk. Despite the fact HTC gave their latest and greatest an awful name, they sure gave it some good looks. However, not everyone feels the same about the One, in fact a lot of you feel HTC have been just as lazy as Samsung with the design of their latest flagship. As Android users, we’ve become accustomed to massive changes, complete code overhauls and manufacturers changing their design language over and over again. That’s all changed now though, and even Google have kept the design of Android much the same since 2012’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. So, does it matter that HTC didn’t try to fix a formula that wasn’t broken?

Android users and pundits alike have long panned Apple for sticking to the same formula over and over, and over and over again. Now, Samsung and HTC are doing the same. We have to wonder whether or not this sort of thing really matters anymore, as the M8 is a joy to look at. It feels better in the hand, the curved backing makes for a comfortable heft doesn’t dig into your palm. The brushed aluminum look adds a whole new level of class to the device and the binning of those capacitive touch buttons makes the front of the device much cleaner. So too, does the placement of the front-facing camera and light sensor which now look as if they’re part of the design, not just there because they have to be.

In my eyes, there’s nothing wrong with refining a formula that worked well the first time. When the HTC One was first announced last year, the Taiwanese company changed their design language completely and drastically shifted towards a metal unibody design. That was a revolution that I feel HTC had to make in order to stand out from the Samsungs of the mobile market, but today HTC didn’t need another revolution in design. Instead, the company has gone on to prove that evolution can be better than revolution.

Changing things for the sake of it is just a bad idea, and for all of those out there that thing HTC, Samsung and Sony should try something drastically new, you need to realize it’s not as easy as that. The mobile industry has had its shake-up, there’s no need for HTC and co to throw well-established designs out of the window to try something new for the sake of it. Not to mention that HTC is a company that can’t really afford to take such a high-stake risk on something completely new and different.

Sure, the M8 is familiar and for those that want something different have plenty of other options out there, but compared to the majority of other smartphones on the market, the design is still unique enough to stand out and have people take notice. It’s not too often I gush about hardware design, I like to keep things simple and while the HTC One certainly seems like a busy design, it’s better-looking and cleaner than it was last year, and I don’t want to send my review unit back.

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Cyanogen Inc. Founder Koushik Dutta Gets Allcast Working On Amazon Fire TV

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Chromecast isn’t the only streaming device that’s getting Allcast support. Today Koushik Dutta announced that he was able to get Allcast working on the Amazon Fire TV streaming box. Amazon Fire TV launched earlier this week, and as opposed to running on a different software that isn’t quite android like the Chromecast does, it runs android just like Amazon’s Kindle Fire line of tablets. This has all sorts of benefits past the reasons why this is great for Koush’s Allcast app, but for now we’ll stick to what it means for Koush and the future of Allcast.

In the short of it, Koush points out that the Amazon Fire TV while having a more complex API to use, it has much more flexibility than that of the Chromecast APIs, and was immensely more familiar than the Chromecast since it just runs android. He also points out that Amazon Fire TV’s performance is better than that of the Apple TV, which should make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The most important note to mention is that the screen mirroring capbility, something that Koush has been working on for a little while now with the Chromecast HDMI streaming Dongle from Google, is also better on the Amazon Fire TV because of it’s more flexible API. This means that we could end up seeing a fully working screen mirror feature from Allcast to the Amazon Fire TV in the near future.

The APIs may be harder to work with, but it sounds like the payoff is a much greater reward in the long run. Alongside the short description of his first use experiences with the Amazon streaming box, there is a short little YouTube video that shows him opening the Allcast app on his Nexus 5, and then pairing it to the Amazon Fire TV to stream a movie. It looks like it works pretty flawlessly, which should end up being great news for any of you that are planning on picking up the Amazon Fire TV, especially if you have already have the Allcast app installed. If you’ll end up being a newcomer to both, Allcast will end up costing you a one time fee of $4.99, but from then on you can stream as much content as you wish without limits. You can try the app out for free first, but you’ll be limited to playing a short snippet of a video and then be prompted to upgrade.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Internal Apple Documents Express Concern Over Market Share War with Samsung and Android

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The Apple-Samsung patent war rages on, and at this point, it seems like it may never end. The latest development in the case brings something of note, however: it would appear that Apple was worried about the aggressive marketing of Android manufacturers like Samsung, and that the market was shifting away from devices like the iPhone. So say internal Apple documents Samsung’s lawyers presented during a cross-examination of Apple Vice President Phil Schiller, at least

These aren’t long-buried worries, either, as one of the documents presented was from a fiscal year 2014 meeting, while other snippets were taken from an email Schiller himself sent out after the 2013 Superbowl. It would appear that Apple’s worries about Android are still relatively fresh, which may explain why the company is pursuing this litigation against Samsung so vigorously. In that document from the FY 2014 meeting, one Apple salesperson pointed out the company’s competitors had “ drastically improved their hardware and in some cases their ecosystems.”

That same document pointed to sales trends favoring high-end phones with large screens and budget-priced devices that fell under the $300 mark – two categories which the iPhone doesn’t really fit into all that well. Schiller’s personal concerns centered on Samsung, and they seem to have been set off by the ad Samsung ran around the time of the 2013 Superbowl. “I watched the Samsung pre-superbowl ad that launched today,” Schiller wrote in an email from last year. “It’s pretty good and I can’t help but thinking ‘these guys are feeling it (like an athlete that can’t miss because they are in a zone), while we struggle to nail a compelling brief on iPhone.”

If there was any doubt before, these documents and emails will definitely lay it to rest: Samsung’s success had Apple at least a little on edge. What did Schiller have to say in response? Concerning the document from the FY 2014 meeting, he said he didn’t agree with much of what the document said, continuing on to claim that it doesn’t represent Apple policy. We’ll have to wait and see if Samsung’s lawyers have more of these interesting documents to present to the court, so keep it here at Android Headlines for more.

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Two More Apps Receive Official Chromecast Support, You Can Now Stream Music With Rhapsody And Napster

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More apps are being added to the list of officially supported apps for Chromecast. This time around we’re getting access to Rhapsody and Napster. You thought Napster was dead right? So did I. Nope. They were bought out by Rhapsody in 2011 apparently and still remain, although it is operated independently from Rahpsody. But enough about that, lets talk about the Chromecast support. Honestly in that regard, there’s not much to tell. You’ll now just be able to stream you favorite tunes right to your big screen or what ever you have your Chromecast plugged into, so you can listen to music all throughout your home with these two services. Both android apps are being updated today so you’ll be able to use either one with the Chromecast as soon as the app updates.

So now lets talk about what you get with Rhapsody and Napster as opposed to competing services like Play Music All Access and Spotify. You get access to Rhapsody’s library of over 32 million songs, without ads, and seamless streaming playback which you can send to you Chromecast. As of right now other services that have Chromecast support that compete with Rhapsody are Real Player Cloud, Google Play Music All Access, and Rdio. We would add in Songza and Pandora, but they’re not really similar to Rhapsody as they’re both just internet radio apps. Just like all other apps with Chromecast support, to cast to your Chromecast all you’ll have to do is open up the app and hit the cast screen button that hangs out in either the top or bottom right corners, and you’re done.

Rhapsody costs $9.99 a month just like Play Music All Access, and you get to start out by getting a 30-day free trial, after which you’ll end up paying the monthly fee. There is certainly no shortage of ways to stream music to your Chromecast, and the addition of these two new apps just adds more to the list of options. It is especially good news for those who might already be subscribers of the service and use a Chromecast dongle, and just might save any customers that may have considered switching services due to the lack of support. As of right now it doesn’t look like the app is updated, as the Cast Screen button doesn’t pop up in the Rhapsody app for me just yet. Sit tight if you were wanting to use this service as it will probably show up soon.

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Xiaomi Ranks In Top 10 Global Best Selling Smartphones List For February 2014

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The Woz may have been right when he said that Xiaomi was ready for the US market. The up and coming Chinese manufacturer of smartphones that run the android operating system, and the company behind the popular aftermarket android firmware called Miui, just recently released their newest addition to the lineup of phones they’re offering, the Redmi note. The key thing to pay attention to here is that Xiaomi has just landed themselves on the top 10 global best selling smartphones list done by Monthly Market pulse. Not only did they make the top 10 ranking, but they landed on the list twice, and all this with only selling devices in the Chinese market. Xiaomi devices are officially sold in China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong, so the fact that they could make it on the list with other bigger name brands that offer global accessibility of their devices, is quite an amazing feat.

Neither of the phones that actually made it to the list were the recently released Redmi note, but rather the older Xiaomi Redmi and the Xiaomi Mi3. The Mi3 brings up the rear of the list snatching up the number ten spot, while the Redmi actually comes in at number seven, ahead of not only another phone from its own brand, but the Samsung Galaxy S3, and the Samsung Galaxy S3 mini. Lets take a second to let this sink in for just a moment. The Xiaomi Redmi actually came in ahead of a top flagship Samsung device. No matter how you slice it, that’s impressive. Probably more so because the Galaxy S3 was virtually available everywhere on the planet, yet the Redmi was only available to a select few Chinese markets.

Xiaomi continues to wow us with what they have pumping out of their fledgling three year old company, which is all the more reason consumers and other bigger competing brands should take notice. Xiaomi has only been around a few years, and they’re shaking things up, in a big way. Now just to keep things clear, this list is only made up of the best selling phones for February of 2014. So that means the list can and probably will change for March once the list gets put out. With that said, we think the team at Xiaomi deserves a round of applause for their hard work, because they have consistently been putting out awesome devices at a fraction of the cost of other OEMs, and the devices are performing extremely well. Have you ever used a Xiaomi device before?

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