Android users now have a simple and social way to help charity. Developed by Google, the new app known as One Today is official and is part of the search giant’s charity projects, as it encourages Android users to help nonprofit organizations: “Do a little. Change a lot.”

The idea behind the app is to let people donate $1 to charity. Every day, a different organization project is presented, from efforts to protect cheetahs and rhinos to training schools in imparting best practices of empathy in children. If the user happens to be interested in the project of the day, he or she can opt to donate $1 for the cause. All users are only restricted to a single buck per day, although they can invite their friends to contribute and then try to match the overall donated amount up to a certain limit.

Google also aims for transparency and to show every benefactor that their contribution is spent well and has made a difference. While the company has stated in the One Today FAQ page that it does not endorse any nonprofit projects included in the program, it has provided program policies and guidelines for all projects to comply with. Any user who believes a project is misleading or violating a policy can report it by sending feedback.

Are you feeling charitable? Head to the Play Store now and download One Today. Take note that the app is currently available through limited pilot in the U.S. Anyone interested must still visit the One Today website and request an invite in order to use the app. Alternately, check out Humble Bundle to get multiple games while at the same time support charity.

In less than a week, the official tie-in game to the Iron Man 3 movie will finally become available on Android. In anticipation of its release, developer Gameloft has uploaded another trailer video, showing off more features of the game.

Most of what we’ve seen in the first gameplay trailer is also showcased in the new trailer (embedded below). The game lets you control billionaire Tony Stark as the iconic Iron Man as he battles AIM, or Advanced Idea Mechanics, a terrorist organization in the Marvel Comics Universe. Unlike Gameloft’s previous Iron Man adventure game, Iron Man 3 is an endless runner. In other words, the game is basically Temple Run, albeit wearing a suit of armor that players continuously fly around while avoiding obstacles and blasting incoming enemy machineries.

But what the first video didn’t show is the fact that you can control Stark Industries as well. Contained in there are up to 18 suits that you can unlock. These armors include Iron Patriot, War Machine, Mark II, among others. Whether it will be free-to-play or not – pricing information is yet to be announced – players can expect in-app paid transactions for purchasing the armors and power-ups.

Iron Man 3 is slated to arrive on April 25 for smartphones and tablets on both iOS and Android platforms.

Move over Ant Smasher, a new insect game has arrived on Android. Developed by Thumbstar, Anthill is a great strategy game with an appealing visual design and interesting gameplay.

The objective of Anthill is simple: protect your base, or anthill, from incoming waves of enemy bugs. Performing such mission requires application of strategies commonly used in other games in the tower defense genre. What sets Anthill apart, however, is the unique use of pheromone trails that sets a path for ants to follow. There are also upgrades that eventually become available to improve the efficiency of the ants and therefore the overall survival chances of the colony. The graphics looks beautiful and the interface uses a simple and intuitive touch-and-slide control scheme.

Fans of Will Wright’s SimAnt might see some resemblance of the classic simulation game with AntHill. Both games are designed to emulate the behavior of ants in the real world. The main difference is that the new game tends to be more… explosive. While worker ants are present in the game and act in a more natural manner, there are also bomber ants and spitter ants, complete with deadly weapons, that function as your main defense against enemy ants and other insects.

Anthill is available on Android in two versions: Full and Lite. With the latter, you’ll be to play the game for free but with some limitations: fewer levels and campaigns, no Infinity Mode (which have you defend against endless waves of insects and reap high scores), fewer types of insect enemies, and presence of ads.

Download the game now. Trust me, it’s quite addictive.

Many early adopters of Google Glass area already enjoying the benefits of the futuristic device. It didn’t take long before some Glass Explorers started posting their own unboxing and hands-on videos online. On the other hand, some of these lucky “pioneers” might actually have something else in their mind. Rather than experience the future of wearable computing, they’re going for a profit by reselling the device for heaps of cash. Sure enough, while Glass should nominally cost $1,500 once publicly available, a listing was found on eBay, with bids getting as high as $95,300.

When asked by Forbes, the explorer “Ed from Philadelphia” listed Glass with a minimum bid of $5,000. At the time, he didn’t have the device, but could prove to the winning bidder that he would soon be getting one after winning Google’s #ifihadglass contest. The auction did not last long, though. He changed his mind and promptly removed his auction after learning about Google’s terms of service.

Taken directly from the Google Glass Terms of Sale (emphasis ours):

You must be 18 years or older, a resident of the United States, and authorized by Google as part of the Glass Explorer program in order to purchase or use Glass Explorer Edition. Unless otherwise authorized by Google, you may only purchase one Device, and you may not resell, loan, transfer, or give your Device to any other person. If you resell, loan, transfer, or give your device to any other person without Google’s authorization, Google reserves the right to deactivate the Device, and neither you nor the unauthorized person using the Device will be entitled to any refund, product support, or product warranty.

The clause above only applies to the Explorer edition of the Glass device, of course. However, it is stated in the Resale and Gifts section that commercially reselling any device is still prohibited, but gifting is allowed.

As further pointed out by Forbes, the strict prohibition of reselling Glass might not be upheld when the device goes on its official public release. The Explorer Edition is meant for developers and early adopters to experiment and report any issues while using the device. Being unable to resell at the moment means some “Glassholes” don’t get to boast on how much profit they made for exploiting such a must-have gadget.

The Google Play team posted on its blog an update on tablet app guidelines and screenshots. With the rising popularity of tablets, smaller form factors in particular, it’s just appropriate to give Android developers a better opportunity to showcase their apps to tablet owners. After all, if the developer stories are to be believed, there are a rising number of developers committed on making tablet-optimized apps and seeing huge investment returns.

One useful update is the ability to upload to the Google Play Developer Console multiple screenshots of apps that are running on 7- and 10-inch tablets. When users then check out the app on the Play Store with their tablet, the screenshot that is appropriate for their tablet’s screen size is shown, allowing users to fully confirm before downloading what optimizations have been made that make use of the larger screen real estate.

According to the blog, the tablet app quality checklist that was released last October has also been updated for additional tips and guidelines. Designed to educate developers the best means to create tablet apps that are appealing to users, the checklist now comes with more details on optimization technicalities. These tips and guidelines are also expected to appear in the Google Play Developer Console soon, as well as to guide users in discovering better tablet apps in Google Play.

In the meantime, Android users already have a great selection of apps that looks stunning and functions great on their tablets. Just check out these 13 must-have tablet apps.

Tethering functionality on Android devices is no doubt convenient for users. Unfortunately, some devices are subject to carrier branding and therefore modified to have the ability of creating their own local networks disabled. The functionality may be even unavailable when no SIM is present. With the Hotspot Control app, however, users can bypass said issues that prevent creating portable hotspots, allowing their devices to connect with each other.

Developed by Chainfire, the app comes with a straightforward interface to complete a simple task. To allow tethering, just turn on the Wi-Fi, input a name and password, and then enable the access point. A password is always present for security purposes and uses WPA2 AES + TKIP encryption. The app is friendly even to the average user since, in most cases, rooting is not required.

Take note that Hotspot Control is used for establishing local connections only. As per the description in the Play Store, the app is not created with the purpose of circumventing the carrier-implemented protection used to prevent sharing a mobile device’s Internet through tethering. Users have submitted reviews with varying results upon using the app. Depending on how carriers deactivated the tethering option, certain devices are not compatible with the app while some others are lucky enough to actually gain Internet access.

Hotspot Control works on devices running on Android 4.0.3 and up. It only requires a measly 80k storage space and can be downloaded for free. Also check out the issues, results, and suggestions that are further discussed at an XDA Developers forum thread.

The delay is likely due to the short exclusivity period that AT&T has earned, given its partnership with Facebook in releasing HTC First – the first smartphone to natively feature the new UI/launcher. But after interviewing Ami Vora, a Facebook product manager, MobileSyrup has found out that the rollout expansion will be swift and that the wait for a Canadian launch “won’t be too long — we’re talking days or weeks, certainly not months.”

Home is slated for an April 12 release in the U.S. Only the latest and upcoming high-end devices from Samsung and HTC are currently able to use Home when it arrives, but Facebook has pledged future support for more smartphones. Android tablets, in the meantime, are expected to receive support within several months.

Check out last week’s Friday Debate and find out what my fellow AA writers think about Facebook Home.

The release of the fourth iteration of Dungeon Hunter may finally be upon us as developer Gameloft has started hinting the game’s arrival through its Twitter account.

The tweet merely indicates that Dungeon Hunter 4 is coming but no exact release date is mentioned. Apart from that, the game is expected to have a new story and dungeons to explore. Loots have also been refreshed, as well as the crafting system. That’s about everything the tweet has to say. That, and Gameloft claims DH4 to come with the best elements of RPG and action.

On the other hand, the developer’s Google+ account has uploaded a new photo (shown at the top of this post) with the following announcement:

A new chapter in the iconic saga awaits, with a return to dungeon crawling, a new story, more RPG features, special FX, & much more!

Hopefully, Dungeon Hunter 4 goes back to being a premium game instead of freemium and making use of in-app purchases in order to be enjoyable to play. Just take EA’s Real Racing 3 as an example. Racing in that game is interrupted by repairs and tune-ups that require hours of waiting unless you spend real money to speed up the timer. What a bummer.

So few games are offered for free and yet boast exciting gameplay, stunning graphics, and amazing sound effects. Enter a new Android app called Space Sports. Not only does it introduce a couple of sports games that take place in the fictional ZaZA galaxy, you also get the chance of winning actual tickets to real sports!

You read that right. One of the games is Goaly Moaly, a challenge largely similar to soccer and poses players against space moles and goalkeeper Madu the Monster. If you become the champion of that game, you win a trip for two to the 2013 final of the UEFA Champions League at London this coming May 25.  All expenses paid!

More games will be available in Space Sports: basketball, car racing, baseball and football. As stated in the Play Store game description, future champions get to win two tickets to the real sports event (e.g., World Series, the NBA Finals, Monaco Grand Prix, and the Superbowl) corresponding to the one they won.

It’s also worth noting that the people behind the game have quite made a reputation in various industries. One of them is a former senior effects director at Sony Imageworks (Alice in Wonderland, Watchment, I am Legend, Spiderman 2 & 3). There’s also a former lead designer at Activision and EA Sports (Steven Spielberg’s Boom Blox, Call of Duty, Spiderman 1, 2 & 3, and Medal of Honor), as well as a former top animator/director at Dreamworks (Megamind, Kung Fu Panda 2, Skyforce 3D, and Shark Tale).

Head down to the source link to download the game, become a champion, and win those tickets!

Since we reported last week that Samsung Galaxy Note 2 has a lock screen bug, which lets users take a sneak peek of the home screen and cause limited potential harm, another blogger has discovered more exploits that are possible despite a lock screen protecting the phablet.

An Indian blogger named Ganesh first found the issue and wrote a detailed post about it. To summarize, any user simply needs to select an item listed in the information ticker. The device then prompts the user to enter the passcode to unlock the device. However, by tapping Emergency call button, the device displays the Emergency dialer window but with the Popup Browser open and fully usable. Ganesh claims that any attacker can visit webpages that has stored your personal data. Furthermore, through the browser, the attacker can also see what is in the clipboard.

Naturally, Note 2 users need not worry about this problem unless their device is stolen and has its lock screen’s information ticker enabled. The problem can also be avoided by selecting a full screen Internet browser as the default app for launching links.

On a lighter note, Samsung is well aware of the issue and is planning to release a security patch. A company rep told CNET in an email the following statement:

Samsung considers user privacy and the security of user data its top priority. We are aware of this issue and will release a fix at the earliest possibility.

In the meantime, users can download the Lookout Security & Antivirus app. Its latest update protects Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note 2, and Galaxy S3 Mini devices from the bug that bypasses their lock screens. It is especially useful for the S3 since its bug can actually disable the lock screen and thereby provide complete control over the device.