New Android 4.3 build now available for Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Play edition

Some devices get all the ROMs. Of course, for the Google Play Edition of the Galaxy S4, that's kind of the point. Late last month an early version of Android 4.3 was leaked for the phone right around the time of its Play Store debut, and now an even newer build labeled "JWR66V" has popped up. According to XDA Developers forum poster Jahon, it was build on July the 11th, and now it's been re-packaged into a ROM file flashable in the custom recovery of your choice. Details are scarce at the time being, as users are still testing to feel out the extent of the changes. Notably the Galaxy S4's wireless charging feature now works even when the phone is off, and battery life and charging rates seem to be improved. Google Wallet now works (if you're not rooted) as do some third-party apps like DashClock and IMDB. There are a few bugs with other apps and SIM unlocking, so it may not be ready as a "daily driver" just yet.

Even the most flash-happy ROM addicts may want to wait a bit before flashing a new 4.3 build.Google's event on Wednesday may reveal some new Nexus 7 hardware, and possibly the formal release of Android 4.3 as well, which should come to Nexus and Google Play devices without too much delay.

 Google is yet to announce its newest version of Android OS and will be doing so on July 24 in San Francisco. The Android 4.3 version with build JWR66V has been leaked and the latest Android OS brings battery improvements, supports wireless charging even when the device is powered off and few other under the hood enhancements.

The unofficial Android 4.3 OS also comes with few bugs like SIM unlock issues and abnormal functionality of a few applications, which include CNN, APEX launcher, GTA Vice City, XDA Premium app, BestBuy app, Titanium Backup, Nobex Radio and HBO Go.

Reassuring buyers and the Android community that Samsung and Google are working together to ensure that as soon a new version of Android is released, these GPE devices will have it. 

This is the second leaked build of Android 4.3 we have seen for this device, with this one showing a build date of July 11. What this leads us to believe is that once Google “okays” Android 4.3, the Galaxy S4 GPE will be ready to receive it. Previously, it was somewhat unclear whether the HTC One and Galaxy S4 GPE devices would be first in line to receive the newest versions of Android alongside Nexus devices, but this a pretty good sign.

Compared to the previous leak, the new build doesn’t bring anything new to the table instead of a few fixes – previous leak stopped the CPU from going into an idle state which caused a huge battery drain, this has been fixed in this new build. The new firmware is reportedly much snappier and smoother than the previous leak, as well.

Firmware Details:
Model: GT-I9505G
Country: United States of America
Version: Android 4.3
Changelist: 1081152
Build date: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 19:23:28 +0000
Product Code: XAR
PDA: I9505GUEUBMG8
CSC: I9505GXARBMG8
MODEM: I9505GUEUBMG8

While you can already flash this new ROM, your best bet would be waiting for Google to roll out Android 4.3, at which point Samsung will likely release the appropriate Galaxy S4 Google Play edition software update – because this isn’t a Nexus device, it’s up to Samsung to do it.

The new "Scanning always available" option under Wifi > Advanced, which lets the device use Google location services even when Wifi is off, is now explained as part of the setup process, too.

This tells us that once Google places their stamp of approval on Android 4.3, the Google Play Edition Galaxy S4 will primed to welcome it in. It wasn’t clear if the HTC One or the Galaxy S4 GPE would be standing next to other Android Nexus devices when the update rolled out, but now it looks like this will in fact be the case.

Google Play Music All Access and Books expand to new regions

Content stores can be pretty tough work, mostly because of all the licenses that need to be acquired for all of the different countries of the world. While Google Play has done well to get on par with iTunes as far as its app store, Google is still lagging a bit behind in terms of international support for other media like Books and Music. Google is finally taking the conquest of Europe more serious and has expanded the availability of its Play Books and All Access Music services to 13 new countries. The latest ones to get access to to the Books and Music part of the Google Play Store are Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Sweden. Users in those countries now have access to millions of books and songs in the newly redesigned Play Store, which was launched a few days ago. The newly added 13 countries now join Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Spain, Russia, United Kingdom and the United States to make a total of 27 countries that have access to the Google Play Store Books. Google Play Music is currently available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, United States, and United Kingdom, in addition to the aforementioned list of countries. That's about another 27 million people that can now get in on All Access. 

Folks down in Australia and New Zealand will be the first outside of the U.S. to get Google's latest subscription music service, Google Play Music All Access. An update to a Google Play support document today lists the two countries as having the new service available, with little else to go on. Presumably the appropriate deals have been made to offer the entire music collection available here in the U.S. to folks down under. All Access seems to be pretty well-received so it's great to see the service expand outside of the states. Hopefully this paves the way for additional countries to get the service in the coming months, as over a dozen countries currently have access to the basic user-upload Google Play Music features. 

Google is offering a special deal for early adopters – Australians who sign up by August 31 will pay just AU$9.99 per month (after a thirty-day trial period), and early bird New Zealanders will pay NZ$10.99 per month following the free thirty-day trial. Those who sign up after the end of August will pay AU$11.99 and NZ12.99 respectively. Google also reminds potential customers that they can upload up to 20,000 songs from their current collection, though the service's real claim to fame is the ability to stream, ad-free, unlimited amounts of music (or as much as your data connection can handle).

Gmail gets a full screen compose view

Google has just given in to the substantial number of Gmail users who’ve been pissed off at them ever since they went and changed how users go about composing emails, and I can already hear the “THANK GOD”s and “FREAKING FINALLY”s beginning to pour in. “After Gmail’s new compose rolled out to everyone in March, many of you sent us requests for features you’d like to see added. We listened carefully to your feedback and as as result, the new compose now offers a full-screen option,” says Google. Yep, Gmail’s new compose box now has a full-screen option.  But wait – it gets better. Google is also giving you the option to set full-screen compose as your default. Just check the “default to full screen” option in your “more options” menu. Google began testing the new compose box, which appears in the bottom right-hand corner of your window, way back in October of 2012. When they finally rolled it out to all users in March – well, let’s just say that some user were a little less than pleased. If you don’t yet see the full-screen option, be patient. Google says that it’ll be rolling out to all users over the next couple of days. Google redesigned its popular email client in March with few new additions and tweaks. One of the notable changes was the new compose, which was available in your inbox as a pop-up window. Now, Google has started to roll out a new full-screen compose window, which fills your entire display. The compose window can be switched to full-screen by clicking on the expand button in the top right or you can also set full-screen as your default by selecting default full-screen option in the more menu that can found in the bottom right.

HTC making a phablet addition to its One family

The HTC One Family 

HTC is reportedly working on a large display bearing smartphone that will supersede the Butterfly S smartphone. That device is dubbed as HTC One Max, a smartphone-tablet hybrid due for arrive sometime later this year. The HTC One Max is likely to feature design similar to that of the HTC One series. German site Mobile Geeks was tipped by a source to share information that HTC plans to launch and make it available in early September. HTC is the only handset maker yet to join the large screen phablet game after Sony Mobile. The HTC One Max is the said to be the phablet meant to trump all the large screen devices including the upcoming Galaxy Note III. HTC One Max is expected to feature 6-inch Super LCD 3 display with full 1080p HD resolution natively. Under the chassis, it will pack a quad-core 2.3 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 mobile processor. For running the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean update smoothly, the HTC handset might come packed with 2 GB RAM. HTC will offer the One Max in 32 GB and 64 GB on-board storage options that makes us doubt if there will be any memory card slot. HTC will pack the 3200 mAh battery just like the one Butterfly S smartphone. HTC One currently retailing for over Rs 40,000 in India while the HTC Butterfly nowadays costs about Rs 37,500 approximately. There is no way we can judge the exact price but we presume it might hit around Rs 45,000 markEarly September, of course, coincides with the IFA in Berlin, which means it’s going to be a fantastically busy time for the industry. We’re already expecting a number of other devices to launch in that same timeframe, and that could include what might be the One Max’s chief competition, theSamsung Galaxy Note III. Samsung’s been dominating the phablet space for years; even an excellent HTC phablet will have its work cut out for it.

In this non static world we have seen phone wars , smartphone wars , tablet war and now its turning up for phablet wars !

Google Play Store update

Google has pushed out a new visual update for the Play Store on the web and it is the most comprehensive UI overhaul so far. The store features a brand new interface throughout and also brings along some much needed speed improvement. Google updated the UI of the web portal for the Play Store this evening, and put the word out around 7:30PM EST On the homepage you can see they have gotten rid of the slideshow for apps on top and you simply start with recommended apps, games, movies, etc. tailored for you. If you want to see more, just click ‘See more’ on the side. The lists on the left have also been removed in the redesign. The homepage also tends to load content as you scroll down, as seen on the recent Play Store for Android update. Clicking on an app or any other link brings a quick loading animation and the page loads almost instantly, even on relatively slow connection, and significantly faster than the previous design. The new item page looks great, with details up top, screenshots in the middle and description below. Further down you’ll find the ratings and user reviews, along with similar items. You’ll notice that the compatibility list has been changed to a floating drop down list below the item name and that screenshots are now significantly bigger and higher resolution, although they do take much longer to load now. They also load in full resolution regardless of whether you want to click on them or not, which is a waste of bandwidth if you don’t end up opening them. There is a My Orders page hidden in the gear icon on the top right, where you will find a list of all items you have purchased from the Play Store, free or paid. The Settings page shows your devices and you can now choose to rename them or even hide them from appearing in the compatibility list in app pages. This is a boon if, like me, you have a million devices assigned to your account and want to get rid of old devices that are no longer in use. The latest Play Store update is definitely a step in the right direction and not just a visual enhancement over it’s predecessor but also functionally superior. Google's updated Play Store includes mention of Glass, implying that the company's headset will be managed through the store soon. Users who have linked Glass with their Google account have been seeing the device in the site's "compatible devices" list when viewing apps. The change is part of a visual overhaul of the Play Store that wasannounced at Google IO, bringing the web view in line with the company's Android app. Like the recently-updated Android storefront, the new design features Google Now-style cards, making everything look a little more organized.

USERS COULD DISCOVER AND INSTALL APPS STRAIGHT FROM GLASS

Bringing Glass support to the Play Store would streamline managing the device significantly. To install apps to Glass users are currently required to log into a Glass-specific portal on another device. Android and Me posted a screenshot revealing that a Play Store application is also on its way to the device, opening the door to on-device app installation for the first time. The screenshot shows a short message noting that "you have not opened the Google Play Store app recently on this device. Please open it and try again." Play Store support could also open the door to native apps on Glass. None of the apps released during Google's soft launch of the headset have been native APK files (the standard packaging format for Android applications). Instead, Glass currently only supports "Glassware" applications, which are fairly basic in their scope. A recent Glass update brought a full web browser and contact management support, but close examination revealed that full APK support could be on the way. Google employs a one-app strategy for Android — the same app runs on a 4-inch smartphone or a 10-inch tablet, with the layout expanding to fill the display. While it's not sure that we'll see regular apps on Glass's tiny display, Google could allow developers to code their apps to run across smartphones, tablets, and Glass. Even if native apps never happen, putting Glassware apps within the Play Store makes a lot of sense; giving users access to all of Google's apps, books, music, and videos in one location.

Whats exactly is changed

A Pretty Face

The new design is striking. It looks more like Android, but still feels at home on a larger screen. There are cards everywhere and the design is much cleaner overall. There are fewer tabs to cycle through, and lists are less scattered. Most of the things you'll care about are right in the middle. The web-based Play Store is also quite a bit faster in most places with this update. It makes use of AJAX (asynchronous JavaScript and XML) to make page loads faster. The Play Store doesn't have to completely reload the page each time you click something – it only loads the things that have changed. Check out Artem's rundown of what that means. The new home tab has various editor's picks and recommendations. There are also top charts and new release tabs. This is a bit less information-dense than the old UI, but it's probably better for discoverability. By simplifying the UI, it looks like Google might have ditched a lot of features we've all come to rely on. Is that worth having a prettier Play Store?

The My Apps List Is Almost Useless

In the last version of the Play Store, we had a handy My Apps page that broke down your apps by device. You could see what needed updating, and push it down to the device from the web. There were also remote uninstalls (a great feature). All of that is gone now, and that makes me sad. The My Apps page is now a single, giant scrolling list of all your apps. If you download all the things (and if you're reading this, you probably do) this feature is almost completely useless now. The page takes much longer to load if you have a ton of apps, and scrolling is sluggish. There's no option to see what's installed on each of your devices, and no update/uninstall options. Check out the old version below. Some of these features were actually fairly new, so it's odd Google would just kill them off. I can understand removing something if no one was using it, but removing the device-specific lists seems foolish. It makes the page a mess.

Wishlists Hit The Web

Yes, the wishlist is no longer restricted to devices. You can view and edit the wishlist through the web store. Every app listing has a wishlist button that can be used to add or remove an app from the list. Accessing the wishlist is a bit strange. The link is in the sidebar, but only on the main Play Store page. I don't know why it isn't always visible in that floating sidebar, but that's how Google is doing it. This is just a list, though. You can't bulk remove content from it. It only links you to the apps, which you then remove with the button. So it would be a good idea to not overload your wishlist. App Listings are Prettier, But Missing The Little Things The first thing you'll notice is that app listings are great looking now. The icon is larger, and it's toward the middle next to the install and wishlist buttons. Additionally, the big feature image from the top of the old UI is no longer on the Play Store page at all. Why? No clue. Permissions used to have their own tab in the Play Store, but that's gone now. The only way to see the permissions an app requests it to hit the Install button. You don't have to actually install, but that popup has the permission list. When you do install apps, the new UI shows the last used date for every device, which the old one didn't. See below for comparison. The lists of similar apps, and those from the same developer are now scrollable lists. That's better for discovery, and the style jives with the new interface. This is a good change – it puts more information in front of you rather than less. The 30-day installation graph is missing, though. That's totally bizarre. It took up almost no space and was extremely useful.

Screenshots Are Totally Different

The screenshots are bigger and contained in a slick AJAX-based scrollable list. If you click on one or start scrolling, the image viewer expands to fill the available browser space. If you change the size of your window, the size of the blown up shot changes to match it. That's kind of neat. One drawback to the new screenshot viewer is that the escape key no longer exits full screen mode. Now you have to home in on the button in the upper right. The images are no longer PNGs with this update. Google has transitioned all Play Store images to the WebP format, which should load faster. If your browser doesn't support WebP, the Play Store falls back to PNG, but images will take about 10x longer to load. Again, we've got a whole post on this WebP and overall AJAX situation, so check that out for all the details.

Review Filters Are Gone, Along With Pagination

The previous version of the Play Store had sorting and filtering options for user reviews, but that appears to be gone now. You cannot choose to only see reviews from a certain device, star rating, latest version, or any other criteria. This is especially annoying if you're trying to find other users with your device to see if they might be seeing the same bug you are. You can only see two reviews next to the score breakdown chart. Click the arrow to scroll over, and the reviews do the same window filling trick from the screenshots. The current list seems to be in reverse chronological order. You can click through the reviews one seemingly random batch at a time. The old version was paginated with 10 pages, which was probably more usable.

Search Is Surprisingly Limited

When you perform a search from the top bar, the results are displayed in a nice-looking page of cards. However, there is no pagination at all. You scroll down and when you hit the 48th result, it just stops in the middle of a line. There is no arrow to go on to the next page, no infinite scroll – it's just done. These are all the search results you get. Better luck next time, apparently. As with the reviews, all the filtering options are gone here too. You used to be able to sort by popularity or relevance, for example. There was also a drop down where you could limit your search to paid or free apps. It's very weird Google would take this functionality out, especially if we're going to be limited to 48 results.

The Odds And Ends

There are a few other small changes we've noticed in the Play Store, including the translation bar. This used to be down at the bottom and translated the UI and the reviews. That's going to be a pain point for folks that need to see things in a different language. Additionally, before this rollout the old market.android URLs would redirect, but now they just 404. All these changes, and we still didn't see new features people have been asking for. Where are paid app filters? In-app purchase menus? App gifting? Nope. None of that. It looks like the revamped Play Store is rocking a slightly tweaked version of Roboto, though. It seems to have fewer glyphs than the "proper" Roboto versions, but we're going to go into detail on that in a separate post. The new Google Play web interface is much more attractive, but a lot of features were pruned in the process of redesigning it. It's unclear if any of these will be coming back, but this may very well be the way things are going to work from now on.

Overall, it just leads to more scrolling, but that's not so terrible. Screenshot images have been made larger, and the navigation tools on the left have been made dynamic so the options will change when you go to the various sections of the store. Best of all, the wishlist feature that has been in theAndroid version of the store for a while now has finally made it to the web, at least partially. You can add items to your wishlist, but you can't remove items, and the only way to get to your wishlist is with a link on the main page of the store, so you have to back out to get at that. 

As we said, lots of changes, but maybe not all for the best. But, given how quickly Google iterates, we're sure that our various issues will be sorted out soon enough. 

Galaxy Note 8.0 Android 4.2.2 ROM leaks

Samsung announced the Galaxy Note 8.0, its smallest Note tablet, at Mobile World Congress earlier this year. The device comes with Android 4.1.2 pre-installed. An official 4.2.2 update has not been released yet. Nevertheless, an Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean ROM for Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 Wi-Fi has leaked online, giving owners of this tablet the opportunity to test out the latest flavor of Google’s mobile platform. In case you’ve forgotten about this device, Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 has an eight inch 1280×800 display and runs on a 1.6GHz quadcore processor. Samsung has slapped on TouchWiz Nature UX on top of Android 4.1.2, the device also supports S Pen functions. This leaked ROM is said to be official, furthermore the source claims that they felt that the tablet was a lot faster and even felt improvement in its battery life. It goes without saying that there are risks involved in manual flashing of With the cut throat competition of the biggest brightest and fastest OS The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 launched with Android 4.1 instead of 4.2 like the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 did, but if you want you can flash a leaked version of the official 4.2.2 update. While the update is not rich with new features it reportedly makes the tablet smoother and improves battery life. The bigger Note 10.1 (which launched with ICS) is still on Android 4.1, so the newer tablet will actually get ahead. Anyway, you can grab the RAR file you need for the update here, the file is about 1.2GB big. Note that this firmware is for the N5110, the Wi-Fi only version of the Note 8.0 and will not work on the 3G/4G-enabled N5100. You’ll need Odin 3.07 (it’s included in the file if you don’t have it already). Follow the installationinstructions here and keep in mind that the process will wipe your data, so make a backup first.

This is a tutorial that will teach you how to successfully update your Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 WiFi model with a leaked version of the Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean stock firmware. Note that this is not an official update released by Samsung, as it is a leaked build in its testing phase only.

The final version of the official Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean for your Galaxy Note 8.0 WiFi should be ready for a release by the end of next month. In order to make sure that you correctly update your device, you will first have to read the preparation guide below. Here’s what you need to know before continuing to the ‘how-to’ part of this post:

• use this guide only with the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 WiFi model number N5110.
• do not use this tutorial with any other Android devices, as you will end up bricking it.
• if you tablet is running a rooted firmware or any other customizations have been applied, then you will most likely lose all the data from your device.
• backup all the important files before starting the installation.
• installing this leaked XXCMG2 Jelly Bean 4.2.2 ROM will restore the warranty for your Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet.
• make sure that your computer has all the Samsung USB Drivers installed on it. Without these you cannot connect the tablet with your computer, that will prevent from installing any firmware updating files.
• make sure that Samsung KIES software is disabled completely before starting the update.
• disable all the antivirus programs from running on your device.
• this is a guide for advanced Android users.
• it is not recommended for you to use this guide in case you don’t know what you’re doing and you’ve never used ODIN nor flashed any official stock firmware for your tablet.
• we cannot be blamed in case you lose any data or you brick the device.
• make sure to read the entire tutorial and not to skip any steps that I have listed in this post.
• make sure that your tablet has enough power left before completely discharging during the installation.
• for any extra questions use the comments field at the end of the article.

Now that you know all of the above, I think that you need to continue to the next part of this post and learn how to successfully upgrade your tablet with a leaked Jelly Bean firmware.