As we told you before, Amazon has come out with its own version of the Apple TV or Roku. It’s called the Fire TV and it’s an Android-powered black box that allows you to stream content from various sources including Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus and Netflix.

But is it any good? Well, our own Chris Ullrich decided to take it for a spin and made his initial report over at his personal site. As with other times he’s done this in the past, we’re still not sure why he doesn’t just write his review, or whatever, here.

Whatever, he’s the boss. Anyway, check out his thoughts and if you end up getting a Fire TV for yourself, let us know what you think of it in the comments.

That whole “getting back on track” thing we were harping about a couple weeks ago? Yeah, that didn’t work out so well. We’re trying, believe us.

But sometimes, things don’t work out as planned. Until, of course, they do. That’s right, here’s a brand new episode of The Flickcast for your listening pleasure.

As usual, this week Chris and Joe take on some new topics and some old ones. Some of these include new trailers for The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, X-Men: Days of Future Past, more casting news from the world of movies and TV, The Walking Dead finale, the awesomeness of Magnum, P.I. and a whole lot more.

Just listen. You’ll enjoy it.

This week’s picks include Chris’ pick of the HBO series Game of Thrones and Joe’s pick of the bittorrent software BitTorrent Sync for Mac, PC, iOS and Android.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship, or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook, Google+ or via email.

Podcast: Download

I’m one of those “weirdos” who still wears a watch even though Iv’e got a perfectly good cell phone in my pocket to tell me the time. What can I say, I still like watches and I don’t mind having to look and see where the little hand and the big hand are to see if I’m late for an appointment.

However, I am very interested in all of the wearable tech, including watches, that seems to be heading our way. And that goes double for what Google announced this week. It’s a new SDK called Android Wear and damn if it doesn’t look pretty cool.

It’s basically Google Now and provides you with information as you need it or as it happens in a card-style format. The company is starting with watches, but you can imagine other products not far behind.

Here’s some other highlights of Android Wear:

• Straight answers to spoken questions. Just say “Ok Google” to ask questions, like how many calories are in an avocado, what time your flight leaves, and the score of the game. Or say “Ok Google” to get stuff done, like calling a taxi, sending a text, making a restaurant reservation or setting an alarm.

• The ability to better monitor your health and fitness. Hit your exercise goals with reminders and fitness summaries from Android Wear. Your favorite fitness apps can give you real-time speed, distance and time information on your wrist for your run, cycle or walk.

• Your key to a multiscreen world. Android Wear lets you access and control other devices from your wrist. Just say “Ok Google” to fire up a music playlist on your phone, or cast your favorite movie to your TV.

Google is already working with manufacturers Asus, HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung, along with chip makers Broadcom, Imagination, Intel, Mediatek, and Qualcomm. Fossil may make the first watches available later this year.

To see Android Wear in action, check out the videos after the break.

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If you’re an Android and Samsung fan, this is a great day for you. Why? Well, Samsung has just announced its brand new flagship Android-powered smartphone: the Galaxy S5. And yes, it looks pretty cool.

The new hotness features a 5.1-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, a 2.5GHz quad-core processor, a 16-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, 3GB of RAM, a 2,800 mAh battery and Android 4.4 KitKat. But wait, there’s more.

The Galaxy S5 also features a water-resistant case and a fingerprint scanner similar to the one Apple uses in its iPhone 5s. It comes in four colors including charcoal black, shimmery white, electric blue and copper gold.

Here are the full specs:

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Even though the new XBox and PS4 get most of the attention there days, we can’t forget that there’s other platforms out there that also have cool games. Android is one of those plafrorms and the cool game in question today is Injustice: Gods Among Us.

Following is all you need to know from the official Warner Bros. Interactive press release. Also, don’t forget to check out the game trailer after the break.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment today announced that its popular Injustice: Gods Among Us mobile game is now available on Google Play™ and is coming soon to the Amazon Appstore for Android. Already available from the App Store on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, this free-to-play title has already garnered more than 16 million installs to date and a player rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Fans who also own the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360® games and entertainment system versions will be able to unlock content in the console versions that is available in the mobile game, and vice versa, by registering for a Warner Bros. ID (WBID) account and playing the game.

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As with most new smartphones, and other highly anticipated devices these days, it’s hard to keep them a total secret before they come out. Inevitably, photos, specs or in the case of the Motorola Moto X smartphone today, a video will leak out.

The video in question is from Rogers Wireless which highlights the upcoming Motorola Moto X and confirms many of the new features the device will have at launch. Among said features are hands-free searches, notifications showing up as information on screen rather than through a notification light, gestures to launch the camera, and more.

The video also confirms that the device will be able to work hands-free, with features being activated simply by talking to it. In the video a woman speaks the command “OK, Google Now” with the phone fully asleep and it wakes and then performs a search. The clip also highlights other Google Now features, like setting an alarm or getting directions.

All in all, this looks like a pretty great device. Can’t wait to get our hands on one to check it out in more detail.

In the meantime, check out the video after the break. Look for the Motorola Moto X to arrive in the coming months.

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People seem rather divided over the look of Apple’s new iOS 7. But love it or hate it, iOS 7 is here to stay. That’s great for iPhone and iPad users excited for the new OS, but what about people using Android smartphones?

Fortunately, Android users who do want the iOS 7 experience are in luck because an intrepid Android developer has decided to copy it and create a theme for Android called “jbOS 7.” The theme, who’s full name is “Jelly Bean OS 7,” is compatible with handsets running Android 4.0 and later.

Once installed, the theme mimics the look and feel of many aspects of the iOS 7 interface including the lock screen, home screens, some apps and the new app icons. The photo above gives you an idea of how that looks.

There’s also a handy video as well, which we’ve included after the break. For more on “jbOS 7″ or to get the files needed to install the theme, head on over to the developer’s website.

In truth, we’re not entirely sure why someone using Android would want to do this, but heck, who are we to judge? People do love to modify their Android devices. Maybe the iOS 7 theme will actually catch on?

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If you want the latest news about updates and improvements to Google services, you won’t find a much better source than Vic Gundotra. As Senior VP of Engineering for Google, he’s privy to pretty much everything that happens at the company. And he likes to share.

So, when he touts a new update for Google+, we listen. In fact, that’s just what he did this morning. According to his post, the update introduces a new navigation drawer that is “more consistent with other Google apps.” In addition, notifications will now sync across devices so you no longer have to see the same notifications from device to device if you’ve already dismissed them.

You also get a new notifications tray with a bell icon that lets you know if there’s something for you to see as well as unread and read trays. So, some nice improvements. This update should start being availbe today for Android and the web with iOS update to follow.

Here’s what the changelog says about the update:

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Even though Google is pretty much the king of maps and traffic avoidance these days, it would seem the company wants to do it even better. So, with that in mind, today Google announced they are buying Waze, the GPS social traffic app that updates routes and drive information in real-time as users post updates.

The app has voice navigation, shows community-contributed road alerts, learns from your frequently traveled routes, and can even find the cheapest gas station near you, all based on community interaction with other users. With over 10 million downloads via the Google Play store and at least as many in iTunes, Waze has quite a large user base. With this, Google is hoping to further improve the ability for its Maps app to help drivers avoid those pesky long commute times.

According to the company, they are “excited” about the prospect of “enhancing Google Maps with some of the traffic update features” already used by Waze. They are hoping to “outsmart traffic together.”

Let’s hope they can. We, like everyone else in the world, hates traffic.

It’s almost time for E3 in Los Angeles, so expect quite a bit of gaming news to hit the Internets over the next week or so. Kicking things off today is a brand new trailer for the next installment of Gameloft’s Modern Combat series.

This one, known as Modern Combat 5, brings us another FPS that allows players to take on one of two major stories. You are either a player trying to preserve Democracy or a player trying to crush it.

Either way, the game, much like the previous installments, looks pretty damn cool. Sure, it also looks quite a bit like other games from a much larger publisher (*cough Activision *cough) but that doesn’t mean this game won’t be fun too. There’s room for more than one or two big gaming publishers in the world.

Check out the trailer after the break. Look for Modern Combat 5 to arrive later this year for iOS and Android.

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