This week on Android Authority On Air, we discussed our love for iOS 7 (kidding, sorta) and the latest Android news from the past week. Sit back, relax, and enjoy Father’s Day the Android Authority way.

The rainbow set is available right now for only $69. Normally, these full box sets sell out pretty fast, I wouldn’t wait around too long on these guys.

It’s that time again. Time for Android Authority and Cruzerlite to give you 20 chances to win $10 gift cards for Cruzerlite.com. Cruzerlite makes Android themed TPU cases for numerous popular Android devices. What’s TPU? TPU is more cut and tear resistant than rubber, it’s abrasion resistant, and has a high degree of transparency. This skin is more stiff than silicone skins, but remains flexible. Simply put, these cases are  bad ass, and you want one. Besides the case quality, what’s the best thing about Cruzerlite? Customization. You can choose from a variety of case themes and colors to fit your style.

If you’ve recently picked up a Samsung Galaxy S4 or an HTC One, why not protect your investment in style? Cruzerlite cases feature:

• Shock absorbsion
• Made from TPU material
• Sleek, lightweight design
• Cutouts for all ports and buttons
• Screen left exposed for full functionality
• Easy to apply and remove
• Anti-scratch material

The Contest

20 $10 gift codes for Cruzerlite.com. Each contestant may only enter and win once.

To enter, all you have to do is enter a comment below in the comments section and make sure your Disqus account has a valid email address. Let us know what device of yours needs a case from Cruzerlite.

The contest runs until June 13th, at 8:30PM ET.

We’ll announce the winners live on Android Authority On Air this Thursday at 9:30PM ET.

The $10 gift codes do not cover shipping.

This contest is only available to US residents.

But wait, there’s more

We know that not everyone has the best of luck when it comes to contests. We’ve asked Cruzerlite to give us another deal for our fans. You can snag this Cruzerlite Android APK Plushie from Amazon.com while supplies last for $8.99 (55% OFF) with FREE Prime shipping. Better hurry, supplies are limited.

Good luck Android fans!

This week on Android Authority On Air, we talked about one of the most important rumors to become official in a while, the Motorola X Phone. At All Things Digital, D11, Motorola officially announced the Moto X. The X is going to be a new direction for Motorola and we couldn’t be more excited. The Moto X phone will be the first smartphone fully assembled in the United States and be available sometime this summer.  Another major outing thanks to All Things Digital, the HTC One with a Nexus user experience. It will be available on the Play Store on June 26th and cost $600, which is $50 less than the Samsung Galaxy S4 with a similar Nexus user experience. The Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini also became official this week. It’s…not too exciting but, we talked about it anyways. To make fun of it. Last on the device news front this week is a rumored HTC 5.9″ device rockin’ a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor. Exciting.

On to Android app updates, Google really likes to use their new app roll out feature. This week Calendar received a hefty update and so did Google Music. If you’re a Google Apps user, you’re admins will be happy with Google’s new Google Admin app as well.

If you’re into rootin’ and ROMin’ you’ll be happy to know that CyanogenMod continues to  get even more stable with CM10.1 Release Candidate 3 and the AT&T SGS4 variant is now getting the nightly build treatment.

All this and more on Android Authority On Air.

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Android isn’t an one size fits all platform. Android allows for many choices from smartphone hardware, to smartphone software. Shopping for a smartphone can actually be a pretty daunting task. For most consumers, having such a large variety to choose from is enough customization to fit their needs. Others however, like to take their customization one step further by rooting and running custom firmware on their Android devices.

Recently, one of our colleagues in the mobile industry over at Mobile Syrup wrote that he was done hacking his smartphone. Daniel Bader wrote that he no longer needs the customization that ROMs such as CyanogenMod bring to the table. Daniel made some good points that major OEM user experiences have gotten better over the years. They offer a wide variety of software features that differ from one OEM to the next. OEM user interfaces themselves have even gotten much better. Take a look at HTC’s Sense UI. It’s gotten faster and much simpler as of late.

Call me old fashioned, but the thrill of the chase — that perfect Android experience — through a custom ROM is just no longer there.

I’m going to have to disagree with you, Daniel. I’m not done hacking my smartphone. In fact, over 5 million users have installed CyanogenMod and there’s plenty more installing other custom ROMs such as Paranoid Android or AOKP. The custom ROM scene on Android is thriving. More and more users every day are rooting their phones and running custom firmware for various reasons.

A nightly build isn’t stable software

Let’s take a look at Daniel’s example, the HTC One. HTC has finally hit a home run with Sense 5, in my opinion. It’s minimal, it’s fast, and it has just the right amount of features to not feel overly bloated. Sense 5 has a very nice laid out user experience that millions will enjoy. The HTC One is still a fairly new device, launching about a month ago. In fact, the HTC One just received official CyanogenMod 10.1 support via nightly builds on May 10th.

the HTC One benchmarks lower on CM10.1

You can’t compare firmware that was ran, tested, and tweaked for months internally with custom software built from the ground up (without full source mind you) that is only 17 days old. If you’ve been around the custom ROM scene for a while, you know that device stability and support grows as time goes on. A nightly build, especially during the first few weeks or months, is experimental software. It’s bleeding edge technology, showing that better things are to come as time progresses.  Official CM10.1 support doesn’t mean it’s instantly amazing (it should be dammit!) it means that a developer was able to get the hardware functioning and the CM code was able to be merged without breaking everything.

Over the next few weeks or even months (no ETAs!) these nightly builds will get more and more stable. Sometimes you’ll see increased frame rates, lag reduction, sometimes you’ll see better working hardware such as better camera support, maybe even better Bluetooth connectivity, WiFi or data connection. My point is, there’s still tons of work left  and developers are hard at work doing what they do best, squashing bugs.

Why do we do it?

Why do we sacrifice stability and OEM software features for instability and different software features? It boils down to choice and the lesser of two evils. As I said in the beginning, Android isn’t a once size fits all platform.  Not everyone likes Sense, even though it’s gotten much better. Not everyone likes Samsung’s TouchWiz UI experience.

Where do you fall in line?

If you fall into the second generalization, you’re left with choosing a lesser of two evils. Do you stay with software you don’t like, but generally works great?  Do you move to software that you do like, but has the slight chance of not running as good as your stock, out of the box experience? Those of us that love customization and love a stock feeling Android smartphone will deal with a few bugs here and there while we wait for our custom ROM to reach it’s full potential.

No one wants to be stuck with a device they don’t like.

If you want a stock experience, buy a Nexus device, right?

It’s not always that simple of an answer, sadly. Some people need more local storage and can’t rely on the cloud. Some people need microSD card support. Some people, such as myself, live in areas without any GSM service and can’t use the Nexus 4. Some people can’t change carriers for various reasons.

Just because you can’t own a Nexus device doesn’t mean you should be left out of the true Android experience. You can try to take matters into your own hands with custom ROMs. You can attempt to make your device feel like a Nexus. While the experience won’t be exactly the same, and you might have to deal with a bug or two along the way, you do what you have to do to make yourself happy with the hardware you have to run.

Lastly, I believe hardware manufacturers are starting to realize this. We Android users might love your hardware experience, but aren’t set on your packaged software. Samsung and Google are working together to sell a Google Edition, stock experience, Samsung Galaxy S4 in the near future. It’s also been reported that HTC is going to join in on the stock Android experience with their HTC One in the coming weeks. Maybe we’ll see similar initiatives from other major players such as LG and Sony in the future. Who knows. Until then, Android allows us to choose the hardware that works for us and if need be, run the software that works for us too.

Are you running a custom ROM on your smartphone or are you happy with what your hardware manufacturer gave you out of the box? Let me know in the comments.

Another Motorola X-Phone variant, model XT1060 has passed through the FCC recently. The XT1060 version sports CDMA frequencies, LTE Band 4, Band 13 and GSM capabilities. We know that the XT1060 is the Verizon Wireless variant because radio frequencies 850 MHz and  1900 MHz just happen to be used by Verizon Wireless for CDMA capabilities, LTE Band 13 is be used by Verizon, and they have future plans for Band 4. Like most current Verizon smartphones, you’ll be able to take the X-Phone overseas or use it here in the US on GSM networks due to ‘Global’ support. Sadly, FCC filings don’t reveal all too much when it comes to internal hardware specifications, leaving much to the unknown.

While we don’t know a lot about the X-Phone, as we’ve seen some conflicting reports, it is rumored to be a mid-range phone that’s affordable to the masses. Whether that’s true or not is yet to be seen. What we do know is that the X-Phone is said to run stock Android, thanks in part to a Google’s Motorola acquisition.  We’ve also seen evidence of this time and time again, such as the image above from Tinhte.vn and other leaks.

Besides Verizon, we’ve seen Sprint and AT&T variants pass through the FCC. This would be new territory for Motorola, launching a major device across multiple carriers. When do we think we’ll see the X-Phone? I was told sometime next month by an anonymous source. Who knows?

This week on Android Authority On Air we covered the latest and great Android ecosystem rumors to hit the web since Google IO last week. Will we see Android 4.3 announced and a few new devices come June 10th? We’re not sure but, a white Nexus 4 has been spotted again and a new, Google branded media player pass through the FCC.

During IO13, a few Google apps were updated with the new “Holo Card” user interface and the new 3-dash menu indicator for slide out menus. Since IO, a handful of Google apps have been updated to reflect this new gorgeous design. So far we have Play Music, Magazines, Books, Shopping, Drive, YouTube, and Google Earth all reflecting these new design guidelines. Rumors point to a new Maps and new Gmail in the near future.

On the device front, the big news this week is a reported, imminent release of a completely stock HTC One. We don’t know the price, carriers, or availability; we only know it’s pretty damn awesome. The current Sense based HTC One has sold 5 million units thus far and its’ competitor, the Samsung Galaxy S4 has sold 10 million. #IfIHadGlass contest winners have started to receive their purchase links this week. Another X-Phone variant passed through the FCC. If you’re still rockin’ last years Samsung Galaxy S3, current leaks will make you happy.

In breaking carrier news, Verizon announced a new partnership at CTIA 2013. It’s pretty dam exciting… The severe lack of news coming out of CTIA this year continues to prove that CTIA is a dying conference.

And last but not least for patents Apple seeks to add the Galaxy S4 and Google Now to their current Samsung lawsuit. Yeah, we laughed too.

As always, if you missed the show, you can watch or listen below. Have a safe and fun Memorial Day weekend!

During Reto Meier’s “Android Protips 3: Making Apps Work Like Magic” session at Google at IO13, Google did what they do best, tease their fans with upcoming Android release juicy nuggets. His session teaches developers how to use advanced Android techniques to build good apps. Apps so good, users will think they’re magical. Besides learning the tricks of the trade, at about 25 minutes in, there’s an Android wearing an magicians cap, eating a piece of Key Lime Pie. Oh, Google. We love it when you tease us like this.

The trolling didn’t stop there either. Later on during the session, Google showcased a crude game (Is that some sort of Cthulhu?). The boss attributes include Chrome, Jelly Bean, and Key Lime Pie.

Rumor has it that we’ll see Android 4.3 launch on June 10th, along with a white Nexus 4. Will the next version of Android be Jelly Bean or Key Lime Pie? We’re not entirely sure. To be honest, names and numbers really don’t matter as long as we’re getting new features. Android 4.3 is rumored to bring Bluetooth Low Energy support (BLE) and additional graphics enhancements. Until then, check out the video below to see the above teasers for yourself.

And now that Christmas in May (at least for us Android geeks) is over, we give you a very special Android Authority On Air show: The Google IO 2013 recap. First of all, Google IO is a developer conference. We’re saw things focused towards developers and a few brag-worthy stats such as 900 Million Android activations (from 400 million last year), 48 billion app installs from the Play Store, and Chrome being the world’s most popular browser with 750 million users.

The Android focus of IO was extremely exciting and amazing. You’re going to say how is this so? Google didn’t unveil a new version of Android? Google showed us that they are in control of Android. They showed us that they are running the show, no matter your carrier or who makes your phone, it’s ultimately Google that has your back, and will give you new services and Android updates in the background. How do they do this? With Google Play Services.

Besides all the new bells and whistles for developers, we discussed some of the heavy hitters of IO this year such as an expanded Google+ Sign-in, Google Cloud Messaging, Play Services, Game Services, a Galaxy S4 Google Edition, Hangouts, Google Play Music All Access, Maps, Google+, Google TV, and more.

Miss the show? Watch or listen below.

According to the FCC, a new Google branded media device is making the rounds. The new Google product “functions as a media player” and includes an external power source (AC adapter , so we know this new product isn’t a tablet or smartphone). What exactly do we know? Well, we don’t know much besides the product name: H840 DEVICE and the model number: H2G2-42 (which is a nice hat tip towards you Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fans).

Earlier this year, sources informed me of a Google TV successor product that was currently in testing. The product was said to be the future of Google TV and that Google TV was itself moving to a stock Android experience with Google TV being a software addon. After Google IO13, we’re now sure that this is direction that Google TV and Android are heading. Was the device in testing months ago the H840 DEVICE? Who knows?  The H840 DEVICE could however be the very first of these products to come onto the market with the new platform direction.

Additionally, Droid Life was recently informed of a product in the works, code named ‘Wolfie’. They were told this device would be focused on gaming. We know that Google is pushing their Google Play Game Services platform hard and that Google still hasn’t effectively taken over the living, yet. I’ve said in the past that an Android game console / Android TV device (think Nexus Q and Google TV hybrid) would be a winner.

We don’t know exactly when this device will show up. However, there are rumors that June 10th could be a big day for Google, releasing Android 4.3 and a white Nexus 4. June 10th also just happens to be Apple’s WWDC 2013 event. Releasing the next iteration of Android, a new Nexus 4 and an Android media player on the same day of Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference would definitely steal some thunder from Apple.