How many times has a new Android app update been issued for a major app, yet you find yourself without the ability to update on your phone or tablet? All of your friends are showing off the new features, and there you are stuck in times of old, refreshing and tapping frustratingly, hoping that you’ll receive the satisfaction that accompanies the “Update” button. What if there was a way around the wait, at least in most cases? There is, actually. 

Google mentioned during its unveiling of Hangouts that it would gradually rollout to Gmail over the coming weeks, but if you’d like to turn it on immediately, you can do that today. All you need to do is sign-in to your Gmail account, login to Google Talk in the left sidebar, click on the image associated with your Talk account, and then tap the “Try the new Hangouts” option that appears at the top of the list.

Bam! Enjoy.

*Note – This trick does not seem to be working in Google Apps accounts, online Gmail.

Via:  reddit

Cheers Leo!

Shortly after Google announced their new unified chat service called Hangouts, users discovered a handful of Easter Eggs embedded deep within. Actually, they aren’t deep at all and can be accessed with a simple command in a chat box on either Google+ or through the Chrome app (no mobile version support here). The whackiness of the Easter Eggs’ ranges from colorful ponies to KONAMI cheat codes, all of which are listed above thanks to Googler Moritz Tolxdorff. To tell you the truth, I thought there might be even more, but this is the entire list.

To flood your box with ponies, pitchforks, or a shy dino, type the commands listed into the text box of a Hangout.

Which is your favorite?

Via:  +Moritz Tolxdorff

The Samsung Galaxy S4 probably has too many features (not necessarily a bad thing). There are so many that our review couldn’t possibly cover them all, nor have we had a chance to use each individual addition to TouchWiz after having the phone for almost a month. It’s just not possible to use them all in every day life. With that said, some of these will come in handy from time to time, especially when it involves the camera. Who doesn’t love an animated GIF? 

I know that we have been quiet on the Pebble front since doing our review a couple of months back, but we were sort of waiting to see how the app ecosystem was coming along after the release of the SDK. To put it plainly, it’s booming. There are hundreds of apps, watchfaces, and games for you to download to your Pebble. The concept of the Pebble smartwatch that we first saw during its Kickstarter days is now becoming a reality. So to make sure that all Pebble backers and early adopters know how they can take advantage of this new 3rd party app and watchface experience, we thought it was time for a quick tutorial. 

When you pick-up your Samsung Galaxy S4 some time over the next few weeks (or month if on Verizon), we thought we should point out that the faux-metal band around the outside of the device is protected by a clear plastic sticker. It can be hard to see if you don’t know it’s there, so being the good samaritans that we are, wanted to make sure you knew about it. You could leave it if you’d like, I guess, but it’s not necessarily supposed to be there for the long haul. If you choose to remove it, you’ll find at least four pieces spread around the outside.

Update:  As Leif points out in the comments, there is also one around the camera, which you certainly want to remove.

Just lookin’ out. 

Lock screen widgets, one of our favorite features of Android 4.2, are indeed included on the Samsung Galaxy S4. Yes, that means all the DashClock you can handle on Sammy’s latest flagship device. Unfortunately, the process of getting them setup isn’t the easiest unless you know exactly what to look for. Out of the box, Samsung has actually disabled lock screen widgets in a sense, but with a couple of taps through Settings, you can get your device up and running them in no time.

In the video below, we take you on a detailed tour of Samsung’s take on lock screen widgets. It can be a bit finicky at times, to say the least, but once you get the hang of them, we think you’ll enjoy widgets at phone wake just as much as the rest of us who live and die with Nexus devices, do. 

I’ve now spent a full three days with the HTC One, so I’ve had just enough time to figure out and get used to all of the quirks that come with Sense 5.0. While it’s not a drastic change from previous versions in terms of big picture functionality, it is different enough that some of these tweaks may throw you for a loop the first time you see them. HTC certainly does things on a smartphone in their own way, something that is more evident in Sense 5.0 than ever before.