Gadgetory

hello again ladies and gentlemen it's Friday which means it's time for another episode of Google Play weekly this week we're going to talk more about the pebble app the triumphant return of femur and the triumphant demise of flappy bird without further ado let's get started the continuous back and forth between couche and google / chromecast functionality has been nothing short of enjoyable to watch it appears now that couch can now mirror android devices using the chromecast he released a video which we're showing you right now that shows him mirroring his android device to his television the app is called mirror and for the time being root access is required because it needs higher level permissions to use although couche has stated that he's working on making it work without root as well details are scarce so things like an official release date or when it will come without root is currently unknown however you can get access to this application by joining the clockworkmod community joining the mirror beta and then you can download it from there so if you have root access and you're curious check the written companion in the video description and we'll have a link to the instructions last week we talked about the pebble appstore and why it was released on beta this week we found out why a pebble engineer went on record with a blog post over at pebbles official blog to kind of clear up the rumors and explain in detail why iOS got an official release while Android remained in beta the answer according to the engineer is the pebble app requires a lot of resources to run including Bluetooth and internet access and that it takes some time to get it right on Android he goes on to explain that because there are thousands of Android devices and at least 27 versions of jelly bean alone that the developers have to optimize the app a number of different ways in order for everyone to get a good experience in other words fragmentation is to blame which makes sense because fragmentation is androids biggest problem there is still no release date or an official release but hey they are working on it the increasingly popular themer application was pulled from the play store this week after apple cried foul about one of their applications and then it came back the theme in question called 7 actually did look a lot like iOS 7 so we can see why Apple complained about it we don't agree but we can see why following the complaint the app was pulled from the Google Play Store which as you can imagine caused a lot of understandable anger at Apple since then themer has rectified the issue and the app has been allowed to come back to the Google Play Store we imagine the offending theme probably been removed and everything else runs as its supposed to frankly I'm cool with it because who really wants their Android device to look like iOS 7 anyway it's by far the worst looking iOS this next piece of news is among the happiest news I've been able to bring you all here and that is flappy bird is dead even though the developer was making more every day than the average person makes in nearly two years he decided that enough was enough early reports indicated that he was just tired of the pressure and later reports confirmed that the game upset his quote unquote simple life the developer whose name is dong apparently wants to creep back into the shadows with a mountain of cash as promised the game is no longer available but unfortunately it has spawned a number of copycats one of which currently holds a top 5 spot in Google play's top new games and it's called clumsy bird so even though the official fad is over the essence of flappy bird will be around pretty much indefinitely thankfully the copycats haven't garnered the same amount of success or attention as the original our last bit of news actually took place late last week in a move that made total sense google has renamed the Google Experience launcher at the Google now launcher along with the name change came a fuller launcher experience when you first activate the launcher it will now import your home screen settings from your old launcher and it simply acts more like a full-blown launcher rather than something that was pulled off of another phone this lends credibility to the rumor that the launcher will be made available to the masses sooner than later our own robert triggs took a second glance at it and reported that the experience is not altogether unlike the first one there are setup steps now but the launcher pretty much acts like it did before simply with fewer bugs this means the same strengths and weaknesses apply for the time being if you want to install it check the written companion but we'll have a link to the instructions this one wants to see some trending applications as usual if you want to check any of these applications out you can find the links in the written companion which is in the video description slam dunk 2 is a new game where you slide your finger across the screen to toss the basket ball into the basket it's a simple game so if you're into more hardcore gaming you may not like this title but if you're more into casual gaming this will probably be more your speed the entire game is online multiplayer so you're always facing other people it comes complete with achievements and unlockable content and we have our official review linked at the end of this video plants vs. zombies 2 got an update this last week that added new content there is a new power up called snowball power that freezes zombies and the more exciting news is they brought back dr. zomboss in a new level that's themed after ancient Egypt if you haven't picked up this game yet we recommend you give it a shot it is free the time pin is a genius little application that probably provides more security to your phone than any lock screen we've seen in a long time here's how it works time pin will change your lock screen pin based on what time it is so at 730am the code will be 0 7 30 at seven-thirty 1am the panel 2 07 31 thus it's always changing and it's always different there are also options available to make it more difficult to guess like putting the numbers in reverse order and adding more numbers if you use a lock screen pin you should definitely check this one out next up is a potentially helpful application if you have diabetes called the aad ii diabetes goal tracker the premise for this app is simple it helps diabetics keep track of all the things they need to do to remain healthy with diabetes this includes medication eating habits exercise and a whole lot more you can share goals and see the goals of others if you have diabetes is worth looking into this to see if it can help you path is an up-and-coming social network it allows for posting sharing and checking in like all of the other popular networks and the Android app has recently been updated to include video supports you can now take up to 30 seconds of video on any device running Android 4.0 and up and post them to your path profile the app is already well-regarded and the network is getting more popular so it can't hurt to check it out right well that about does it for this week once again I'm Joe Hindy the android authority app guy don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and if you like this video give us a thumbs up and let us know that we're doing a good job if you want to follow android authority myself or the rest of the youtube team you can find our links in the video description below if you're hanging out for a minute we have a couple of awesome videos for you to watch right over there finally don't forget to check out the written companion which is in the video description thank you again for watching and have a wonderful day