How does Sony's latest mid-range handset shape up?

From a handful of phones a few years ago, Sony Mobile now offers a vast portfolio of Android devices -- and it's quickly exhausting the alphabet with its letter-themed Xperia handsets. We've already covered the Xperia Z and Xperia ZL at the high end, now it's the turn of the Xperia SP, the company's mid-range offering for mid-2013.

With a dual-core Snapdragon S4 Pro chip, a 720p screen and 8-megapixel camera, the SP boasts specs that would've been considered bleeding edge less than twelve months ago. It's also much more hand-friendly than its larger siblings, with a comfortable, curved back panel. The SP also sees Sony resurrecting one of the quirkier features from its 2011 line-up -- the glowing "transparent element" that acts as a giant notification LED (and disco lights, if you're using the Walkman music app.)

Check out our full video walkthrough of the Sony Xperia SP after the break.

Back at CES, NVIDIA announced a cloud gaming solution called Grid, though it was mostly overshadowed by the Shield portable console. Luckily at E3 we got some time with one of the grid engineers, Chad Cooper, to talk about what Grid can do. Specifically, they were showing how the Android-powered Ouya game console could play big-boy games like Borderlands 2 thanks to their tech. 

AT&T and Sprint HTC One going for $79.99 up-front for new customers, $99.99 for upgrades

Amazon's one-day sale on the Sprint and AT&T HTC One has begun. For today only, HTC's latest handset is being sold at a reduced price of $79.99 if you're a new customer, or $99.99 for upgrades, which is a pretty good discount on our favorite Android phone of the moment.

If you're interested, check out the links below --

• AT&T Silver HTC One
• AT&T Black HTC One
• Sprint Silver HTC One
• Sprint Black HTC One

If Candy Crush is bleeding you dry, fear not - these tips can help you out 

Admit it: You're playing Candy Crush Saga. Or you know somebody who does. The Bejeweled clone has become a big of hit on iOS as well as Android, amassing more than 50 million total downloads on Google Play, with an average rating of 4.4 on some 1.2 million reviews.

Like the app or not, you can't deny those numbers.

And so Candy Crush has quickly become the latest and greatest timesuck, not to mention a money pit thanks to some devilishly good in-app purchases to get you through those tricky levels. Fortunately, our pals at iMore.com are damned wizards when it comes to Candy Crush Saga, offering up a number of tips and tricks that can keep the frustration at a minimum.

At E3 2013, we got some time with Ninja Theory, who's been working on their first mobile title called Fightback. These guys made the latest Devil May Cry game, which is part of a well-respected console action series, so it was pretty exciting to see what they'd be able to do on Android.

Fightback is straightforward (but gorgeous) beat-em-up where players have to tap and swipe their way through waves of 80s-era goons within a limited timeframe. If things get tight, you can always bust out the guns to clear a wave, but depending on your weapon and upgrades, you'll have to wait on your reload time to use them again. 

It's Friday and we're in a great mood this week, especially since the latest iteration of the Android Central App has surpassed 50,000 downloads in its first month of release, which is wildly exceeding our expectations!

As a way to say thanks, we're going to give away 20 Android Central T-shirts. Just leave a comment in this post, and we'll pick 20 winners at random. We'll leave comments open through 5 p.m. Sunday to make sure everybody gets a chance, and this one's open to everyone. (We'll post the winners here in this post after they've been chosen, and we'll contact them by e-mail as well.)

Thanks again, everybody! Check out the all-new Android Central app if you haven't already, and be sure to leave a review!

New Play Music settings could cut your streaming data usage in half

The launch of Google Play Music All Access last month reminded many of us just how much data the app uses for streaming and caching. There were a few things you could do to try and limit your usage, but in the end Google was likely going to stream as high quality of music it could, data caps be damned. Google listened to some of the complaints coming its way about the data usage, and has released an update that gives users better options to limit data usage by lowering the stream quality in Play Music.

Rather than allowing the app to offer as high of quality music as possible given the current connection, users now have three settings -- low, normal and high -- to cap the quality, and therefore data usage, of streaming. We've done a little semi-scientific testing on the new settings, and have found them to be quite effective.

So, let's put things to the test.

$200 on a two-year plan or $595 up-front, shipping June​ 18

Right on schedule, Samsung's rugged, water-resistant Galaxy S4 Activet is now available to pre-order from U.S. carrier AT&T. The Active packs similar specs to the regular Galaxy S4 -- Snapdragon 600 CPU, 2GB of RAM, 1080p screen -- with the added bonus of being able to withstand the elements. It's rated IP67 for dust resistance and water resistance up to 1 meter for 30 minutes.

The Galaxy S4 Active will set you back $199.99 on a two-year plan, or $594.99 outright. It's available in "urban grey" and "dive blue" colors, and will start shipping to pre-order customers from June 18, ahead of the June 21 date for general availability.

Anyone placing a pre-order today? Shout out in the comments!

More: AT&T

Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core CPU, 5MP rear camera and 4G LTE

Rumors of a second-generation, ASUS-built Nexus 7 tablet have been circulating for some time, so it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to see such a device passing by the FCC today.  The ASUS "K009" tablet is listed on the FCC's online repository, along with the "Nexus" name listed under "brand" in a certification document. The same document specifies a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro and 4,000mAh battery, a 5-megapixel rear camera and 4G LTE radios. (Additional FCC data points to T-Mobile and AT&T frequencies.)

The inclusion of LTE connectivity as well as a rear camera is interesting to see, considering the original Nexus 7 featured only a front-facing camera, and at launch was a Wifi-only product. We wouldn't speculate as to exactly when this new Nexus tablet might see a retail release, but FCC certification hopefully means it's not too far off.

Source: FCC, Engadget

Popular RSS reader Press rolled out an update on the Play Store today that added two new options for managing RSS feeds as well as new interface changes. Getting out in front of the planned Google Reader shutdown on July 1st, the latest update now supports both Feedbin and Feed Wrangler alongside the original Google Reader login option. Both of these options are paid ($2 per month for Feedbin, $19 per year for Feed Wrangler), but are a couple of the only viable options available as a Google Reader replacement at this point. Other leading options are Feedly, which Press indicates should be integrated before July 1st, and Fever, which is marked as "coming soon" to the app.

Press has also improved the interface, with better categorizing of feeds and some subtle changes to clean up the reading experience. The app is $2.99 in the Play Store and still stands as one of the best designed apps out there today. You can grab a download from the Play Store link above.