Android 4.3.1 update reportedly comes to Nexus 7 LTE tablets, nobody else
Update said to add restricted profiles
Google is said to be rolling out Android 4.3.1 to owners of the new Nexus 7 LTE, but the update remains exclusive to the cellular version of the tablet.
This over-the-air update, said to be only 9.42MB in size, isn't being widely publicized by the search engine giant.
Its silent update status and small footprint make the features of this minor update harder to track down.
We asked Google for the official Android 4.3.1 release notes and will update this story when we hear back.
Android 4.3.1 features so far
So far, users are reporting that Android 4.3.1 includes some new features that are not LTE-specific and therefore may roll out to additional Google-powered devices.
It's said to include a way of creating restricted profiles for friends, family members or the general public if the device is being used in a kiosk setting.
Google Keep is also supposedly taking a bigger role in Android 4.3.1, too. It shows up as a default program along with the update, putting Google's note-taking app in the hand of more users.
This incremental Jelly Bean update is just a stepping stone to Android 4.4 KitKat, which is expected to be unwrapped this month along with the rumored Nexus 5 smartphone.
The best free games on Android for phone and tablet
As Android phones and tablets have increased in popularity, the number of apps available for the platform has rocketed.
And that means more free Android games. There’s a lot of junk out there but, fortunately, there are gems among the junk.
We’ve worked our way through a whole load of Android games to reveal the ones you should download to your phone.
So without delay, here is our pick of the 80 best free Android games available.
1. Angry Birds
The amazingly popular iOS game moved to Android a while ago, earning over two million downloads during its first weekend of availability.
The Android version is free, unlike the Apple release, with maker Rovio opting to stick a few adverts on it rather than charge an upfront fee. The result is a massive and very challenging physics puzzler that’s incredibly polished and professional. For free. It defies all the laws of modern retail.
Angry Birds for Android was first available to download from app store GetJar but is now available through Google Play.
2. Bebbled
Bebbled is your standard gem-shuffling thing, only presented in a professional style you wouldn’t be surprised to see running on something featuring a Nintendo badge with an asking price of £19.99.
You only drop gems on other gems to nuke larger groups of the same colour, but with ever-tightening demands for score combos and scenes that require you to rotate your phone to flip the play field on its head, Bebbledsoon morphs into an incredibly complex challenge.
3. Red Stone
There’s an awful lot of square-shuffling games on Android and Red Stoneis one of the best. And one of the hardest. You start off with a big fat ‘King’ square that’s four times of the normal ‘pawn’ squares, then set about shuffling things so the fat King can get through to an exit at the top of the screen.
It’s hard to accurately describe a puzzle game in the written word, but seriously, it’s a good game.
4. Newton
Released in beta form, Newton is a maths/physics challenge that has you lining up shots at a target – but having to contend with the laws of nature, in the form of pushers, pullers, benders (no laughing), mirrors and traps, all deflecting your shot from its target.
The developer is still adding levels to it at the moment, so one day Newtonmight be finished and might cost money. But for now it’s free and a great indie creation.
5. Angry Birds Star Wars
The Angry physics phenomenon took a turn for the weird late in 2012, with Rovio acquiring the rights to blend Star Wars characters with its popular Angry Birds play mechanics. Angry Birds Star Wars is actually pretty nice, with players using Star Wars weaponry to smash down scenery alongside the usual destructive physics action. Not the car crash IP clash we were expecting.
6. Drop
Some might call Drop a game, others might classify it as a tech demo that illustrates the accuracy of the Android platform’s accelerometer, thanks to how playing it simply involves tilting your phone while making a little bouncy ball falls between gaps in the platforms. Either way it’ll amuse you for a while and inform you of the accuracy of your accelerometer – a win-win situation.
7. Frozen Bubble
Another key theme of the independent Android gaming scene is (ports of) clones of popular titles. Like Frozen Bubble, which is based around the ancient and many-times-copied concept of firing gems up a screen to make little groups of similarly coloured clusters. That’s what you do. You’ve probably done it a million times before, so if it’s your thing get this downloaded.
8. Replica Island
Replica Island is an extremely polished platform game that pulls off the shock result of being very playable on an Android trackball. The heavy momentum of the character means you’re only switching direction with the ball or d-pad, letting you whizz about the levels with ease. Then there’s jumping, bottom-bouncing, collecting and all the other usual platform formalities.
9. Gem Miner
In Gem Miner you are a sort of mole character that likes to dig things out of the ground. But that’s not important. The game itself has you micro-managing the raw materials you find, upgrading your digging powers and buying bigger and better tools and maps. Looks great, plays well on Android’s limited button array. Go on, suck the very life out of the planet.
10. ConnecToo
Another coloured-square-based puzzle game, only ConnecToo has you joining them up. Link red to red, then blue to blue – then see if you’ve left a pathway through to link yellow to yellow. You probably haven’t, so delete it all and try again.
A brilliantly simple concept. ConnecToo used to be a paid-for game, but was recently switched to an ad-supported model – meaning it now costs you £0.00.
11. Titres
Once you’re successfully rewired your brain’s 25 years of playing Tetris in a certain way with certain buttons and got used to tapping the screen to rotate your blocks, it’s… Tetris.
It hinges on how much you enjoy placing things with your phone’s trackball or pad. If you’re good at it, it’s a superb Tetris clone. Let’s hope it doesn’t get sued out of existence.
UPDATE: While Titres seems to have been removed from Google Play, there’s now an official Tetris app available to download.
12. Trap!
Not the best-looking game you’ll ever play, with its shabby brown backgrounds and rudimentary text making it look like something you’d find running on a PC in the year 1985. But Trap! is good.
You draw lines to box in moving spheres, gaining points for cordoning off chunks of the screen. That sounds rubbish, so please invest two minutes of your time having a go on it so you don’t think we’re talking nonsense.
13. Jewels
Coloured gems again, and this time your job is to switch pairs to make larger groups which then disappear. That might also sound quite familiar. The good thing about Jewels is its size and presentation, managing to look professional while packing in more levels than should really be given away for free.
14. OpenSudoku
We had to put one Sudoku game in here, so we’ll go with OpenSudoku - which lives up to its open tag thanks to letting users install packs of new puzzles generated by Sudoku makers. It’s entirely possible you could use this to play new Sudoku puzzles for the rest of your life, if that’s not too terrifying a thought.
15. Abduction!
Abduction! is a sweet little platform jumping game, presented in a similarly quirky and hand-drawn style as the super-fashionable Doodle Jump. You can’t argue with cute cows and penguins with parachutes, or a game that’s easy to play with one hand thanks to its super accessible accelerometer controls.
16. The Great Land Grab
A cross between a map tool and Foursquare, The Great Land Grab sorts your local area into small rectangular packets of land – which you take ownership of by travelling through them in real-time and buying them up.
Then someone else nicks them off you the next day, a bit like real-worldRisk. A great idea, as long as you don’t mind nuking your battery by leaving your phone sitting there on the train with its GPS radio on.
17. Brain Genius Deluxe
Our basic legal training tells us it’s better to use the word “homage” than to label something a “rip-off”, so we’ll recommend this as a simple “homage” to the famed Nintendo Brain Training franchise.
Clearly Brain Genius Deluxe is not going to be as slick, but there’s enough content in here to keep you “brain training” (yes, it even uses that phrase) until your battery dies. The presentation’s painfully slow, but then again that might be the game teaching you patience.
18. Coloroid
Coloroid is aery, very simple and has the look of the aftermath of an explosion in a Tetris factory, but it works. All you do is expand coloured areas, trying to fill them in with colours in as few moves as possible – like using Photoshop’s fill tool at a competitive level.
19. Cestos
Cestos is sort of a futuristic recreation of curling, where players chuck marbles at each other to try and smash everyone else’s balls/gems down the drain and out of the zone. The best part is this all happens online against real humans, so as long as there’s a few other bored people out there at the same time you’ll have a real, devious, cheating, quitting person to play against. Great.
20. Air Control
One of the other common themes on the Android gaming scene is clones of games based around pretending to be an air traffic controller, where you guide planes to landing strips with a swish of your finger. There are loads of them, all pretty much the same thing – we’ve chosen Air Control as it’s an ad-supported release, so is technically free.
21. GalaxIR
GalaxIR is a futuristic strategy game with an abstract look, where players micro-manage an attacking alien fleet. Pick a planet, pick an attack point, then hope your troops have the balls to carry it off. There’s not much structure to the game as yet, but that’s what you get when you’re on the bleeding-edge of free, independent Android gaming development.
22. Graviturn
Graviturn is an accelerometer based maze game, where the aim is to roll a red ball out of a maze by tilting your phone around. Seems embarrassingly easy at first, until increasing numbers of green balls appear on screen. If any green balls roll off the screen you die and have to try again. It’s abstract. It’s good.
23. Alchemy Classic
There are a few variants on Alchemy out there, each offering a similarly weird experience. In Alchemy Classic you match up elements to create their (vaguely) scientific offspring, so dumping water onto earth makes a swamp, and so on. It’s a brain teaser thing and best played by those who enjoy spending many hours in the company of the process of elimination.
24. ActionPotato
In ActionPotato you control three pots. Pressing on the pots makes them jump up into the air, where they harvest potatoes. See how many you can get in a row. That’s the gist of it. And don’t collect the rotten potatoes, else you die. That really is it. The Google Play stats say this is on well over 1,000,000 downloads, so it’s doing something right.
25. Scrambled Net
Scrambled Net is based around the age-old concept of lining up pipes and tubes, but has been jazzed up with images of computer terminals, high score tracking and animations. Still looks like something you’d have played on a Nokia during the last decade, but it’s free – and looking rubbish hardly stopped Snake from taking off, did it?
26. Dropwords
Dropwords is laid out like your standard Android block-based puzzle game, the difference here is we’re not dealing with gems – you make blocks disappear by spelling out words from the jumbled heap of letters. There’s not an enormous amount of point to it, but you can at least submit your scores and best words to the server, where an AI version of Susie Dent will pass her approval.
27. Barrr
What you do in Barrr is man-manage a bar world, pointing men at the beers, games or tattoo parlour, then taking their money off them once they’re drunk and happy like a good capitalist. And make sure they go to the toilet. Things, as things do in games, soon start speeding up and it gets rather insane and difficult.
28. Tetronimo
The name gives it away – this is a Tetris clone. Or rather it’s a game that uses the same sort of block-shifting rules as Tetris, only with a very nice and user friendly touchscreen area beneath the block pit to make it easy to play. We’re having trouble locating this on Google Play at time of writing – either a glitch or the inevitable legal troubles.
UPDATE: Tetronimo seems to have been removed from Google Play, but there’s now an official Tetris app available to download.
29. Wordfeud
Wordfeud is a superb little clone of Scrabble, with a big, clear screen and online play options that actually work. The game’s been offered for free with some hefty advertising over it thanks to the developer being based in Norway – which only received paid-for app sales support recently. A paid version may arrive soon, but Wordfeud remains free right now.
30. Friction Mobile
Friction Mobile is a very odd concept that makes no sense in still images. You fire a ball into the screen, then try to hit that ball with other balls until it explodes. The catch is you’re not allowed to bounce balls backwards into your own face. Because then you die. Sounds rubbish, but works well. It’s free, so give it a no-obligation, no-commitment whirl.
31. Geared
Geared is a weird little thing finally converted over to Android from iPhone. It’s an embarrassingly simple concept – players slot different sized cogs into place on the screen, with the aim being to power one gear from another. Then, as is video game tradition, it gets harder and harder. Plus there are 150 levels of it all.
32. Meganoid
A stunning little retro game, Meganoid plays and looks like something that ought to be running on a Nintendo emulator. But it isn’t. It’s new and on Android. It’s a speed-based challenge, using on-screen or accelerometer controls to jump and bounce through ever-hardening levels. Developer Orange Pixel is aggressively supporting it, too, with constant map packs, characters and more regularly appearing for download.
33. Cordy
A standard and traditional platform game. Cordy is a speed-based affair, with players running, jumping and collecting their way through its pretty green levels, using an electrical cable to jump, swing over obstacles and grab energy. Uses on-screen buttons so can be a bit tough to play, but comes with 12 free levels to get you going.
34. Angry Birds Rio
Yet more Angry Birds for fans of the simplistic trial and error physics game.Angry Birds Rio is another chapter-based effort as well, with developer Rovio leaving tempting empty slots on the menu screen for periodic updates of new levels. More of the same, but with a prettier, 3D look to it this time thanks to a vague association with animated movie Rio.
35. Grave Defense Holidays
As with Angry Birds, the maker of this superb tower defence game has spun out a separate version it fills with seasonal levels. Recently updated with an Easter map, this free version of the game also includes Valentine, Christmas and St Patrick’s Day themed maps. Currently calls itself Grave Defense Easter. Easily one of the best examples of the tactical genre.
36. Words with Friends Free
The popular iPhone Scrabble-alike is now on Android, with an ad-supported version up on Google Play for free. Words with Friends Free should actually be called Words for People Without Any Friends, as once installed it lets users play with complete strangers online – or pick specific people from your contacts list. It’s turn-based, so several ongoing games can be strung out for days.
37. PewPew
Very similar in style and concept to Xbox and Xbox 360 retro classicGeometry Wars. In fact, one might legally be able to get away with calling it a right old rip-off. Android PewPew is a rock-hard 2D shooting game packed with alternate game modes. It’s a bit rough around the edges and requires a powerful phone to run smoothly, but when it does it’s a fantastic thing.
38. Angry Birds Friends
It’s Angry Birds business as usual; only with Angry Birds Friends you get a social-themed makeover that adds challenges, Facebook integration galore and scoreboard tools to make the simple physics game more of a multiplayer experience.
The good thing is the way you can access the same account and see your progress on mobile and through Facebook on desktop, the bad is the looming presence of in-app purchases, with “bird coins” required to be earned or bought to progress quicker.
39. Beats, Advanced Rhythm Game
A standard rhythm action, button pressing music game for Android. Beatsmanages to outdo the official music games by including a Download Song tab, where it’s possible to install new song files created by users. It’s very hard and very fast. Just like they should be. Runs perfectly on an HTC Desire, too, so there’s no blaming glitches for not doing very well.
40. Pinball Deluxe
Pinball Deluxe is an actually decent pinball sim for Android, and it’s free. At the moment it comes with four tables – Wild West, Carnival, Space Frontier and Diving for Treasure. Ball movement is convincing, and although a bit of the magic is lost thanks to having to use on-screen buttons, it’s a smooth enough experience. It’s ad-supported. Don’t press those. You don’t get a bonus.
41. Winter Walk
Winter Walk is madness. You play the part of a gentleman, out for an evening walk. From time to time the wind picks up, so you have to hold on to his hat to stop it blowing away.
While this is happening, the chap’s internal monologue appears on screen, giving you an entertaining and distracting read in the process, too. Very simple, but a perfect little high score challenge game for the touchscreen era.
42. Colosseum Heroes
Publisher Gamevil takes a break from churning out the role-playing games to give dumb action a go here. Colosseum Heroes is a 2D slasher, where you simply try to survive for as long as possible, building up your armour and weaponry to make yourself tougher and meaner.
Technically this is a “freemium” game paid for with in-app purchases, but if you’re prepared to spend a while building up your character’s skills manually, there’s no need to pay out.
43. Stardash Free
Developer Orange Pixel has a knack of creating excellent retro titles, withStardash a fine example.
Designed to look like a Game Boy game from before many of you younger readers were born, Stardash is clearly a bit of a Mario homage – but it’s done exceptionally well and is endlessly replayable. If you like it, and you probably will, there’s an alternate paid version that removes the adverts.
44. Scramble With Friends Free
Zynga’s latest puzzler Scramble With Friends Free is technically a free game, but in order to get the most out of it and play as it’s meant to be played you’ll need to use the in-app purchasing system to buy “tokens” to let you access games quicker. Which leaves a slightly bad T-A-S-T-E in the M-O-U-T-H, but at least it’s free and perfectly playable at a slow pace if you’re just curious.
45. Dead on Arrival
Dead on Arrival is a very impressive looking 3D survival horror game, which dumps you in a hospital infested with zombies. You then try to not get eaten by buying new weapons, boarding up doors to keep the brain-eaters at bay and using wall-mounted weaponry to quicken the zombie mincing process. As with many of today’s Android titles, there’s the option to pay for stuff within the game to unlock features and remove ads – but you don’t have to.
46. Stick Cricket
Stick Cricket is a fantastically simple little game that reduces cricket to its core values – you just smash every ball as hard as you can. There’s no worrying about field positioning, just a bat and a ball coming at you very quickly. Initially it seems impossible to do anything other than make a complete mess of things and having your little man smashed upside-down, but it soon clicks.
47. Draw Something Free
Draw Something Free is the new phenomenon that’s taking the world by storm (at the time of writing, at least). It’s basically a mobile version of Pictionary, where you’re given a choice of three words of varying difficulty, then tasked with drawing them so someone can tell what it is. Syncs with Facebook, too, for easy cross-platform play. If you like the free trial, there’s a paid accompaniment with more content.
48. Fragger
The popular web-based Flash game Fragger is now on Android. It’s pretty much a clone of Angry Birds, mind, offering simple physics-based challenges based around chucking grenades all over the place to make stuff blow up. It comes with some rather intrusive ads, but that’s the price you (don’t) pay for sticking with the free version.
49. The Sims FreePlay
Global mega-corporation EA has gone literally mad, giving away its Android version of The Sims for nothing in the form of The Sims FreePlay. In return for sitting through some full-screen adverts every now and again, players get a decent mobile version of The Sims, complete with pets, plants, lifestyle points and all the usual mundane activities that make the series popular. It’s not perfect, but does fit in most Sims core features.
50. Super Bit Dash
About as far away from The Sims as you can get. Super Bit Dash is a retro-style 2D platform game, with controls as simple as its pixel art design. The game runs at a constant pace, so all the player has to do is jump and super-special-jump at the right time in order to avoid smashing into the scenery. Obviously it’s a lot harder than that makes it sound.
51. Chrono&Cash Free
Chrono&Cash Free is very hard and sweet little one-screen platform game, where players jump about collecting bags of cash while avoiding enemies. And that’s all there is to it, aside from some mini challenges to boost your score multiplier and online sharing of your scores to goad friends into trying to beat you. Looks cool, is a tiny download and a great laugh to play.
52. Autumn Walk
A weird little gem, Autumn Walk sees players controlling a man and his dog as they stroll through a Victorian park landscape. The challenge here is dog management, with the hound either running ahead or hanging back – both precarious scenarios that could cause the lead to snap. It’s basically a high score challenge, to see how long you can stand the weird experience. Worth it for the awesome comic dialogue that accompanies your stroll.
53. Meganoid 2
Meganoid 2 is an insanely difficult 2D scrolling platform game, once again presented in developer Orange Pixel’s awesome pixel art style. The levels are rather short, with the challenge here being to simply play them again and again and again so you can get through them without death. Might drive you mad. Might be your favourite game of the year. Close call.
54. Pitfall
Developer Activision has updated one of its oldest and most fondly remembered classics, turning the ancient platform game into a posh, 3D infinite running thing. Pitfall uses swipe and tilt controls like the famous Temple Run, including power-ups, vehicles and changing camera angles to add a bit of variety to the look and feel of it all.
55. Bad Piggies
A shock move from developer Rovio, in that this one isn’t a simple take on the Angry Birds style. Bad Piggies is a clever building game, which dumps you at the beginning of a big map with a pile of component parts. You then build a flying machine using the given elements, then try to fly it to the end of the level. A really nice, original little idea from the physics game specialists.
56. Pocket Planes
Pocket Planes puts you in charge of an airline. You potter about the world looking for paying jobs, whether that’s passenger or freight routes, then send off your planes to do the little delivery tasks. As things progress the complexity increases, until you’re eventually flying customised jumbos with hundreds of passengers around major international cities.
It works in real time in the background, so you can minimise it and do other things while all your birds are finding their way home, then pop back in when the game notifies you that something’s arrived and needs attention.
57. Neon Blitz
Neon Blitz is a kind of a posh tracing game, where you use your finger to draw over the shapes on the screen. You’re rated on accuracy, with scores compared against the world on its global leader board. There are power-ups and stuff like that, but it’s all about having a jazzy, bright experience, that works perfectly on a touchscreen.
58. Agent Dash
Agent Dash is another take on the infinite runner genre that’s come to dominate the smartphone gaming landscape, only with a comedy spy angle. As well as swiping to dodge objects, Agent Dash incorporates weaponry and spy gadgets, making it more of an interactive and action-based experience than most of its “Step Right” peers.
59. Whale Trail Frenzy
Whale Trail Frenzy is an updated version of the iOS original, with the developer heaping in more levels for the Android release of its bonkers flying game. You just fly a little whale around the sky (for reasons never explained), collecting things, avoiding bad clouds, building up a multiplier and generally being wowed by its unique and gorgeous style. A really sweet experience.
60. Radiant Defense
Radiant Defense is a fantastic tower defence game, given a dazzling modern look. You do all the usual tower defence stuff like building up your weapon strengths and deciding how best to stop the endless marching enemy, with some “super weapons” to unlock and hundreds upon hundreds of waves to beat. And it all looks astonishingly pretty on a big screened device.
In this age of austerity and scrimping, we’ve all long since sold our last set of dominoes and melted down our Monopoly counters for scrap.
So where’s a frugal gamer to go for fun that won’t break the bank? Why, straight to the TechRadar top 10 free Android games of course…
61. Temple Run 2
The original Temple Run made staring at a man’s bottom on public transport a wholly acceptable pastime, and this sequel augments the endless-running fun with slicker graphics, more power-ups, obstacles and achievements – plus a bigger monkey hot on your heels.
62. CSR Racing
The best cars require in-app purchases, but there’s plenty of free fun to be had with this fast and furious racer. Console-quality graphics show off the mean machines (from Audi, BMW, Bentley and others), and gameplay blends strategy as well as speed.
63. Mini Golf MatchUp
Putting (putt-ing, geddit?) the crazy into crazy golf, the five courses in Mini Golf MatchUp take in dinosaurs, sharks and pirates across 70 holes, with realistic physics to temper the unreal environments. Facebook integration is par for the course, while in-game chat keeps things swinging.
64. SongPop Free
A bit like Never Mind The Buzzcocks‘ intro round, SongPop Free is the handy alternative to carrying Phill Jupitus and someone you’ve never heard of in your pocket. Guess song clips from loads of genres, then challenge your friends to do better.
65. Dead Trigger
That zombie shooter Dead Trigger is set in the dystopian future of 2012 is testament to its lasting appeal. Frantic first-person missions set in realistic 3D environments are sure to get your heart racing (unless you’re a zombie), even on smaller screens.
66. Cut the Rope Full Free
Cute critter Om-Nom in Cut the Rope is the Daniel Day-Lewis of puzzle games, with a BAFTA amid his haul of gaming awards. The simple premise (cut the ropes to release Om-Nom’s lunch) sustains 350 well-pitched levels, packed with character and cartoonish charm.
67. Lexulous
Scrabble by another name (its second, after “Scrabulous” proved a tad too copyright-infringing), Lexulous has all the social gaming options you’d expect, but beats its many rivals with its antisocial options: three AI opponents ranging from the simple to the sesquipedalian.
68. Pac-Man + Tournaments
Fed up of 3D, HD, 360-degree action? This authentic recreation of a arcade classic Pac-Man is the kind of good, clean pill-munching fun they enjoyed in the 1970s. A tournament mode offers regularly updated mazes, but the retro original is hard to beat.
69. Scrabble
Yes, the proper Scrabble, not some copyright-infringing clone that’ll be pulled by the time you read these words. EA bought the license, tidied it up and stuck it out on Android, where it’s a remarkably advert and in-app purchase free experience.
It’s been beefed up with a few new modes, but stuff like the ability to sync with Facebook and play multiple matches is actually exactly what you need. A classic that’s not been ruined. Hooray.
70. Blip Blup
Blip Blup is the kind of original little idea we love stumbling across. It’s a sort of geometry-based puzzle game that has you pressing squares on the screen to fill in areas of colour.
Your light beams are limited in the directions they can travel, so, once you’re through the troublingly simple tutorial levels, it soon becomes insanely tough and will soon have you scratching through your skull’s skin and bone until you actually itch your BRAIN in confusion.
71. Doodle Jump
Doodle Jump is ancient, but there’s a reason it’s down here at the newer end of the Triple-A Android freebies list. It’s recently been reworked, updated for today’s higher resolution displays and, better still, been stuck up on Google Play for free. If you haven’t played it, or played it four years ago on iOS, give it another spin. It’s a timeless bit of upwards bouncing action.
72. Super Stickman Golf 2
Super Stickman Golf 2 is one of the recent big-hitters of Android, with the superb 2D puzzle golf game doing insane business. It’s free, albeit propped up by in-app purchases, with heaps upon piles of golf courses to whack yourself around, challenging your knowledge of physics and angles as much as your sporting abilities.
Looks great and even manages to head online to offer turn-based multiplayer against friends or randoms.
73. Real Racing 3
Extremely controversial thanks to its use of in-app purchases to buy your way to better cars, quicker play time and much more, there’s one reason you really ought to give Real Racing 3 a go – it’s the best looking 3D racer on Android by a mile.
If you want something that gives both, all four, or even the full eight of your phone’s cores a full workout, this is the one. And you don’t have to pay for anything, as long as you don’t mind staring at timers and waiting a lot.
74. Gunslugs
Another awesome little 2D pixel art classic from developer OrangePixel,Gunslugs is your standard sort of action platformer given a gorgeous old fashioned retro look.
It’s been optimised for play on Sony’s old-but-popular Xperia Play buttoned Android model, plus the Moga controller and Green Throttle systems will also let you experience it with proper, physical buttons. A random level generator makes it different every time, too.
75. Nun Attack: Run & Gun
Frima Studios’ popular battling nun series has been transformed into the modern trend that is the “runner” game in Nun Attack: Run & Gun where your favourite of the four available nuns smash though levels, equip weaponry and, inevitably, earn the gold coins that can be used to unlock extra features. Or you can pay real money to buy coins. Real nuns wouldn’t approve of that.
76. Guardian Cross
Famed developer Square Enix has created this highly regarded fantasy card battle RPG, with, so it claims, some input from developers involved in building the legendary Final Fantasy series. But it’s not like those games.
Guardian Cross is all about collecting a powerful deck of card characters, which are then used to battle both in-game fights and real human friends online. There’s a bit of mindless grinding and waiting if you want to avoid in-app purchases, but none are compulsory purchases.
77. Flatout: Stuntman
Supposedly a spin-off from the home console racing titles, Flatout: Stuntman takes one of the more shocking elements from the driving games – the crash dummy physics of drivers thrown from their cars – and turns it into a whole game.
The idea is you have a crash, trying to ensure as much damage is caused to your little ragdoll character. Possibly the sort of tasteless thing that might trigger a ‘Ban All Games’ campaign, but… fun. And free. So your wallet won’t get hurt.
78. Pocket League Story 2
Mobile developer Kairosoft went down the “freemium” route with this sequel to its superb man-managing football business sim, so Pocket League Story 2 is playable for free if you don’t mind suffering a little more than those who pay for upgrades. It’s still a great little game, in which you take charge of managing the ground, scouting for players, coaching matches, building facilities and much more.
79. GYRO
GYRO is exactly the sort of thing we like – a clever new idea that makes the most out of today’s touchable devices. It’s a bit abstract. You are the circle thing in the middle, and you rotate yourself to absorb the incoming spheres, matching the balls with the right coloured segment.
Shields and score multipliers then fire in, and, inevitably, it all gets quicker and harder. Perfect even on older phones and tablets of modest performance.
80. Galaxy on Fire 2 HD
Galaxy on Fire 2 HD is one of the most visually impressive 3D shooters to be found on Android, Galaxy on Fire 2 also chucks in some trading and exploration play to add a little more depth to the combat, making it into something similar to having your own little portable Eve Online. You also get to play as a lead character called Keith, which is quite an exciting rarity.
Android 4.4 KitKat release date, news and rumors
Everything we've heard about the next version of Android
So now we can start to look forward to the Android 4.4 KitKat release date. But when? We'll take a guess at late October or early November 2013 for now - which is when we were previously expecting to see Android 5.0 break cover.
A release date tipped to Ausdroid - and one which the site says it's taking with a large grain of salt - is October 14.
Android 4.3 came with a few minor upgrades including better multi-user customisation, support for Bluetooth smart technology and an updated keyboard. As a minor release, Android 4.3 didn't even get its own desert-themed name, sharing the Jelly Bean moniker with Android 4.1 and 4.2.
So with a brand new code name, we can expect Android 4.4 to bring some bigger changes, but all Google is saying at this stage is: "It's our goal with Android KitKat to make an amazing Android experience available for everybody."
From this, we can assume that Google wants to get Android onto less powerful devices, something we were previously hearing about Android 5.0 when it was claimed that the new OS would be optimised to run on devices with as little as 512MB of RAM.
We also learned from Android Central back in February 2013 that Google is working with the Linux 3.8 kernel. One improvement that this kernel brings is lowered RAM usage, which fits with Google's goal of bringing Android to more devices.
The source who tipped Ausdroid with the October 14 release date also leaked some supposed details of the new OS, confirming that it would be available for "older phones", adding that it would also bring gallery visualization tweaks, new animation APIs, new notification widgets and the ability to change the Android default blue to other colors.
Leaked screenshots sent to 9to5Google, as well as other sites, show what might be a sneak peak at the Android 4.4 phone and messaging apps. The screenshots show a cleaner design and a lighter colour, plus a status bar that changes colour according to the colour scheme selected.
However, Android Police appears to have received the same screenshots, and having taken a close look at them, it reckons that they're actually either full-screen mockups or a custom ROM.
An image that Android Police is more positive about is one of a Korean keyboard that was posted to Google Play. In a small change, that shot shows that the status bar icons have changed from blue to gray. Those images on Google Play have since been replaced with Jelly Bean screenshots.
A screenshot unearthed by Myce suggests that Android 4.4 may indeed come with themes as the icons in the notification area for the image that the site found on the Chromium bug tracker (shown below) are blue. Myce adds: "we found references to theming in the log file but are unsure if it will really become a feature." Android Community reckons the screenshot was taken on a Nexus 4 running KitKat.
Android 5.0 release date, news and rumors
Here's what we know about Android 5.0 so far
Google's showing no signs of slowing its pace of Android development, with Android 4.0 appearing on the Galaxy Nexus late in 2011, followed by the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean release that arrived powering the super Nexus 7 in July of 2012.
Two more flavors of Jelly Bean were to follow: Android 4.2 was released on 13 November 2012, and then Android 4.3 arrived on 24 July 2013.
Throughout the Jelly Bean reign, we've been gathering rumors of the next major Android update, Android 5.0. The word was that this release was being developed under the dessert-related codename of Key Lime Pie but then on 3 September 2013, Google announced that Android 4.4 KitKat would precede Android 5, so the Key Lime Pie name looks to have been ditched.
We're still expecting an Android 5 release, of course, but with different features, a new code name and a later release date than we were originally anticipating.
The dessert-themed moniker that we assume will begin with L is anyone's guess at this stage. Android 5.0 Lemon Cheesecake or Android 5.0 Lemon Meringue Pie, anyone?
As we wait on official news of that code name, as well as the Android 5.0 release date and features, we can start to pull together the latest rumors from around the web.
Android 5.0 release date
Until Android 4.4 was announced we had expected the Android 5.0 release date to be some time in October 2013. We now expect to see Android 4.4 KitKat launch during that month. In the face of that point release, we think it's now likely that we'll see Android 5.0 shown in mid-2014, quite possibly at Google IO, Google's annual two-day developer conference in San Francisco.
But on 13 May 2013, we got our confirmation that there would be no serving of Android 5 at Google IO from Sundar Pichai, Google's new head of Android. Pichai told Wired that 2013's IO is "not a time when we have much in the way of launches of new products or a new operating system". Boo! "Both on Android and Chrome, we're going to focus this IO on all the kinds of things we're doing for developers so that they can write better things," he added.
Android 5.0 phones
Rumors of a new Nexus handset started trickling in during the third quarter of 2012, as we reported on 1 October 2012. There was talk that this phone would be sporting Android 5.0 but the handset, which turned out to be the Google Nexus 4, arrived running Android Jelly Bean.
While the Nexus 4 didn't appear with Android 5.0, speculation that we reported on 21 January 2013 suggested that the Motorola X was the Android 5.0-toting handset that would be revealed at Google IO. The Moto X wasn't on show at IO and instead appeared in August 2013, running Android 4.2.2.
We also heard whispers that a new Nexus phone, most likely the Google Nexus 5, might be blessed with Android 5.0 and on 18 March 2013,supposed images of the Nexus 5 surfaced, with the handset apparently being manufactured by LG. If the accompanying specs, leaked along with the photo by the anonymous source, are true, then the Nexus 5 will feature a 5.2-inch, 1920 x 1080 OLED display, 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and 3GB of RAM.
If rumors that we covered on 30 May are correct, then HTC will be bringing us an Android 5.0-powered 'phablet' in the form of the HTC T6 (now looking as though it'll launch as the HTC One Max).
Featuring a 5.9-inch full-HD screen, the One Max will be squaring up against the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, which broke cover at IFA 2013. According to tipster evleaks, the One Max will feature a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. With a rumored release date of the end of 2013, though, it's going to arrive too early to come with Android 5.0 out of the box.
Android 5.0 tablets
The original Nexus 7 tablet was unveiled at Google IO 2012, so we thought it possible that we'd see a refreshed Nexus 7 2 at Google IO 2013. The speculation earlier in the year was that Google would team up with Asusfor this, as it did with the original Nexus 7. We expected an upgraded display on the new Nexus 7 tablet, while Digitimes reported that the 2nd generation Nexus 7 would have 3G service and range in price from $149 to $199.
The new Nexus 7 was a no-show at IO, but the Asus-built device was later launched by Google on 24 July 2013, albeit running Android 4.3 rather than 5.
Samsung's Android 5.0 upgrades
Although Samsung is yet to officially confirm its Android 5.0 schedule, a SamMobile source is claiming to know which phones and tablets will be getting the upgrade. According to the source, the devices set to receive the upgrade are the Galaxy S4, Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy Note 8.0and Galaxy Note 10.1. Do note that this claim was made before Google announced Android 4.4, so if it was ever correct, it's probably a lot less correct now.
Android 5.0 features
For 24 hours, it seemed as though the first kinda, sorta confirmed feature for Android 5.0 was a Google Now widget, which briefly appeared in a screenshot on the company's support forum before being taken down. As it was so hurriedly pulled, many people assumed it was slated for the big five-o and accidentally revealed early.
As it happened, the following day, on 13 February 2013, the Google Now widget rolled out to Jelly Bean.
On 28 February 2013, we learned from Android Central that Google is working with the Linux 3.8 kernel, which gave rise to the notion that this kernel might power Android 5. One improvement that the 3.8 kernel brings is lowered RAM usage, which would mean a snappier phone with better multitasking.
On 13 June 2013, VR-Zone also claimed that Android 5.0 will be optimised to run on devices with as little as 512MB of RAM.
We're now expecting that Linux 3.8 kernel to show up in Android 4.4, given that Google's stated aim with KitKat is "to make an amazing Android experience available for everybody".
Android Geeks reported that Google Babble would debut on Android 5.0. Babble was the code name for Google's cross-platform service and app with the aim of unifying its various chat services which include Talk, Hangout, Voice, Messenger, Chat for Google Drive and Chat on Google+.
A screenshot that we were sent from a Google employee on 8 April confirmed that not only was this unified chat service on the way, but that it was called Google Babel not Babble. The service was to come with a bunch of new emoticons and Google+ built-in so you can jump from Babel chat to hangout. A leaked Google memo on 10 April provided a few more juicy details including talk of a new UI and synced conversations between mobile and desktop.
On 10 May, we discovered that Babel would launch as Google Hangouts, and on 15 May we saw it come to life for devices running Android 2.3 and up. So much for it debuting on Android 5.
Following an 18 April tear-down of the Google Glass app MyGlass by Android Police, it looked as though there may be an iOS Games Center-like service coming to Android 5.0.
Android Police found references in the code to functionality that doesn't exist in Glass, which suggested that developers accidentally shipped the full suite of Google Play Services with the Android application package.
The files in the package contained references to real-time and turn-based multiplayer, in-game chat, achievements, leaderboards, invitations and game lobbies.
As expected, we found out more about Google Play Games at Google I/O, but it's not an Android 5.0 feature after all as it has been made available already.
Android 5.0 interface
While this is pure speculation, we're wondering whether Android 5.0 might bring with it a brighter interface, moving away from the Holo Dark themethat came with Android 4.0.
Google Now brought with it a clearer look with cleaner fonts, and screenshots of Google Play 4.0 show Google's app market taking on similar design cues. Is this a hint at a brighter, airier look for Key Lime Pie?
On 6 August 2013, we learned that Google had applied to patent a rather cool piece of functionality whereby an Android user would be able to launch different apps by drawing different patterns on the lock screen.
If this feature makes it into Android 5, we could be able to launch the camera app by drawing one pattern and Twitter by drawing another.
Our Android 5.0 wishlist
While we wait on more Key Lime Pie features to be revealed and scour the web for more Android 5.0 news, TechRadar writer Gary Cutlack has been thinking about what we want to see in Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie. Hopefully the new mobile OS will feature some of these things...
1. Performance Profiles
It's bit of a fuss managing your mobile before bed time. Switching off the sound, turning off data, activating airplane mode and so on, so what Android 5.0 really needs is a simple way of managing performance, and therefore power use, automatically.
We've been given a taste of this with Blocking Mode in Samsung's Jelly Bean update on the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Note 2 but we'd like to see the functionality expanded.
Something like a Gaming mode for max power delivery, an Overnight low-power state for slumbering on minimal power and maybe a Reading mode for no bothersome data connections and a super-low backlight.
Some hardware makers put their own little automated tools in, such as the excellent Smart Actions found within Motorola's RAZR interface, but it'd be great to see Google give us a simple way to manage states.
Another little power strip style widget for phone performance profiles would be an easy way to do it.
2. Better multiple device support
Google already does quite a good job of supporting serious Android nerds who own several phones and tablets, but there are some holes in its coverage that are rather frustrating.
Take the Videos app which manages your film downloads through the Play Store. Start watching a film on one Android device and you're limited to resuming your film session on that same unit, making it impossible to switch from phone to tablet mid-film.
You can switch between phone and web site players to resume watching, but surely Google ought to understand its fans often have a couple of phones and tabs on the go and fix this for Android Key Lime Pie?
3. Enhanced social network support
Android doesn't really do much for social network users out of the box, with most of the fancy social widgets and features coming from the hardware makers through their own custom skins.
Sony integrates Facebook brilliantly in its phones, and even LG makes a great social network aggregator widget that incorporates Facebook and Twitter - so why are there no cool aggregator apps as part of the standard Android setup?
Yes, Google does a great job of pushing Google+, but, no offence, there are many other more widely used networks that ought to be a little better "baked in" to Android.
4. Line-drawing keyboard options
Another area where the manufacturers have taken a big leap ahead of Google is in integrating clever alternate text entry options in their keyboards. HTC and Sony both offer their own takes on the Swype style of line-drawing text input, which is a nice option to have for getting your words onto a telephone. Get it into Android 5.0 and give us the choice.
UPDATE: Google heard us and this feature appeared in Android 4.2
5. A video chat app
How odd is it that Google's put a front-facing camera on the Nexus 7 and most hardware manufacturers do the same on their phones and tablets, yet most ship without any form of common video chat app?
You have to download Skype and hope it works, or find some other downloadable app solution. Why isn't there a Google Live See My Face Chat app of some sort as part of Android? Is it because we're too ugly? Is that what you're saying, Google?
6. Multi-select in the contacts
The Android contacts section is pretty useful, but it could be managed a little better. What if you have the idea of emailing or texting a handful of your friends? The way that's currently done is by emailing one, then adding the rest individually. Some sort of checkbox system that let users scroll through names and create a mailing list on the fly through the contacts listing in Android Key Lime Pie would make this much easier.
7. Cross-device SMS sync
If you're a constant SIM swapper with more than one phone on the go, chances are you've lost track of your text messages at some point. Google stores these on the phone rather than the SIM card, so it'd be nice if our texts could be either backed up to the SIM, the SD card, or beamed up to the magical invisible cloud of data, for easy and consistent access across multiple devices.
8. A "Never Update" option
This would annoy developers so is unlikely to happen, but it'd be nice if we could refuse app updates permanently in Android 5.0, just in case we'd rather stick with a current version of a tool than be forced to upgrade.
Sure, you can set apps to manual update and then just ignore the update prompt forever, but it'd be nice to know we can keep a favoured version of an app without accidentally updating it. Some of us are still using the beta Times app, for example, which has given free access for a year.
9. App preview/freebie codes
Something Apple's been doing for ages and ages is using a promo code system to distribute free or review versions of apps. It even makes doing little competitions to drum up publicity for apps much easier, so why's there no similar scheme for Android?
It might encourage developers to stop going down the ad-covered/freemium route if they could charge for an app but still give it away to friends and fans through a promo code system.
10. Final whinges and requests...
It's be nice to be able to sort the Settings screen by alphabetical order, too, or by most commonly used or personal preference, as Android's so packed with a huge list of options these days it's a big old list to scroll through and pick out what you need.
Plus could we have a percentage count for the battery in the Notifications bar for Android 5.0? Just so we know a bit more info than the vague emptying battery icon..
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