Bootloaders in general had a tough day today – or should I say the security departments behind them. Dan Rosenberg went ahead and published “Loki,” his tool for helping developers flash custom kernels and recoveries on the Galaxy S4 variants of Verizon and AT&T. It’s not a full bootloader unlock tool (“bootloader itself is untouched”) like we saw with a handful of Motorola devices, but it is a positive sign for the dev crowd. There isn’t a tool that can be used to do anything at this time – you’ll instead have to wait for your favorite ROM dev to use Loki in their next release. 

Today, Google’s Chrome Beta for Android received a most impressive update through the Play store. Included is the addition of Google Translate, allowing users to instantly translate full webpages to their native tongue, as well as options for controlling and limiting bandwidth consumption through the browser’s settings. 

With the Verizon version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 (quick overview) now in hand, along with its step-brother on AT&T, we decided to take a look at the software each is running to see if there are any major differences. Since Samsung is now releasing one phone in one size on all carriers, with identical specs (at least in the U.S.), we don’t have to worry about comparing hardware. These devices are identical in physical form outside of a logo here or there. But software can certainly differ from one carrier to the next – we have seen that with the Note 2 and even Galaxy S3.

So what’s different? Let’s look. 

In need of some new apps and games? There is a pretty impressive list of titles up for grabs on Google Play, including some major names like World of Goo, Fieldrunners 2, Fangz HD and even the new Alien vs. Predators game. Most are on sale for just $1, so you can’t really beat that. We have them listed below, so go grab them and have some fun. 

Yeah we know, we already unboxed the AT&T version of the Samsung Galaxy S4, but we couldn’t help ourselves. This is the Verizon version! Finally in hand! Available today! We also wanted to show it up against the AT&T and Sprint versions, though they are identical other than color and branding (or lack thereof). Really, this was just an excuse to show off a new toy and join in on the fun that early adopters have been experiencing for two days thanks to early arriving pre-order shipments.

Who jumped on this phone? 

If you were at all disappointed to find out that the “Nexus experience” Samsung Galaxy S4 that was introduced at I/O with an unlockable bootloader, would only work on AT&T and T-Mobile networks, then maybe this news will brighten your mood. Posted to Samsung’s official online shop is a listing for the “Developer Edition” of Verizon’s version of the Galaxy S4 (AT&T version listed too).

The current listing is of the Black Mist model, with 16GB of storage, and all of the other specs featured in this year’s Galaxy flagship. No price is given, but with Verizon asking $650 at full retail for their non-developer edition, I’d guess this will drop in at that same price. That also means that it likely won’t be available with a subsidy (discounted price). 

Heard of Mailbox? It’s an iOS app that was such a massive success as an email replacement at launch, that Dropbox bought it within a couple of months of its existence. Today, the company launched an iPad version of its popular app, but that’s not what Android users care about. In a sitdown with Read Write, Mailbox’s founder Gentry Underwood said that a presence on Android is next on their list of things to do. He wouldn’t specify a time frame, only that it’s on their radar now that the iPad app is out. 

Since the majority of us are probably using Chrome, at least according to this poll, we feel it quite justified to talk about the world’s most popular web browser. Today, Google enabled “rich notifications” for Chrome. Think of these as little info cards that pop up in the bottom right hand corner of your screen. They are clean and elegant, heavily resembling that of Google Now’s UI.