Google's stock Calender hits Play Store as stand-alone official release

Except which day of the month it is, because it's forever the 31st.

The Google Calender app from stock Jelly Bean, which will be familiar to anyone who owns a recent Nexus device or has ever tried Cyanogenmod 10, has today been released as a stand-alone application on the Play Store for Android devices running 4.0.3 and up. That in and of itself is not particularly noteworthy, as the Jelly Bean calendar has been on the Play Store for a while - what sets today's release apart is it being an official Google app, with all the support and updates that entails. A curious move, and one we certainly hope continues with other vanilla Android apps, as many won't have tried them. We're sure plenty of users will appreciate an alternative to, say, Samsung's S Planner.

Unfortunately for this editor, at least, Google's shiny new calendar commits the cardinal sin of having a static date (The 31st) perpetually on the icon, a puzzling choice considering the version included on devices to date has shied away from that particular piece of tacky design. Did this one slip past Matias Duarte?

Regardless, if you're keen for more megabytes of Google-endorsed goodness (And have a device with the requisite Android version), hit up the Play Store now.

Google Search update brings new UI, prematurely-posted features from last year

It's new! It's from Google!

Google Search is an integral part of Android smartphones. Indeed, it's Google's core product. For many devices, it's only a single dedicated button-press away. So it's a little odd that we've not seen a substantial update to so core an application for quite some time - until today, that is.

Our favourite search company have released a new version of its core app to market for Froyo (2.2.x) and above - Read their official report here, and download the app from the market here. Click on past the break for our report, and an interesting link back to August of last year..

[UPDATED GUIDE] New Superuser version breaks Chainfire 3D - guide updated to show you how to fix it!

Trust me, you want this on your Android handset

So a few of you may have noticed a certain "Tegra-only" game release on the Market in the last few days - the utterly epic Shadowgun. If you're like me your first thought would have been "I wonder if I can play that on my non-Tegra device with Chainfire 3D?" If you tried to get it you may have run into a problem Chainfire 3D appears to have completely stopped working. Motivated by the need to get it working again, so I could enjoy me some Shadowgun on my Galaxy S II, I spent some time troubleshooting the problem today. I can happily report that I seem to have cracked the problem, and another editor has verified my fix works (he is currently missing, presumed fragging mutants in Shadowgun on his SGSII).

If Chainfire 3D is no longer working, or possibly never worked for you, read on to find the solution!

[Hint: head to the bottom of the guide if you only need the Superuser fix]

Swype updates to 3.26 – and [How To] get it on your Galaxy S II

Ah, Swype. Some swear by it, others hate it with a passion. It’s been in the news lately, what with being acquired by Nuance for over 100 million US dollars and all  and today the beta program made the jump to version 3.26. If a run-down of new features and a how-to for the you-too sound like your bag, read on after the jump.