Chance currently writes for both NewGeekGuide and 9to5Mac, in addition to 9to5Toys. He has previously written for several other online publications. He uses a Nexus 5, iPhone 5s, iPad Air, Hackintosh, and Macbook Air.
A pair of interesting developments concerning the upcoming OnePlus 2 smartphone have emerged recently. First off, three variants of the device have been spotted on the Bluetooth SIG website. The variants all have been certified with hardware build 2.2 and software build 2.01 for Bluetooth 4.1.
Update: The coupon code is now expired.
Earlier today, Motorola and Google dropped the price of the Moto 360 smartwatch down to the bargain price of $150 and now Motorola is offering the device for an even lower $120 with free shipping. The deal applies to the Cognac, Black, and Stone models.
Acer via Amazon is offering the 7-inch Iconia One tablet for $49.99. The device is refurbished and ships directly from Acer. Normally, the Iconia One runs $129.99, making this an impressive 62% off deal.
Adam Savage of MythBusters fame gave an interesting interview with Google X’s Astro Teller back in October and you can now view the full video thanks to Tested. In the 25-minute video interview, which can be seen above, the two talk about a variety topics, ranging from Astro Teller’s childhood to Google’s self-driving cars. Another interesting topic discussed are the smart contact lenses the company is developing, as well as its goal to bring internet connectivity to everywhere.
Adam Savage welcomes Astro Teller to The Talking Room! Astro is Google’s ‘Captain of Moonshots’, directing the Google X lab where self-driving cars, smart contact lenses, and other futuristic projects are conceived and made real. Adam sat down with Astro at the Tested Live Show this past October to chat about the benefits of thinking big and failing quickly.
You can view the full video interview above.
CyanogenMod today announced that it is pushing the final snapshot releases of both CM11.0 and 12.0 live. In a blog post, the company notes that both the CM11.0 and CM12.0 have seen improvements in stability and security, but not much else as focus has shifted to CM12.1.
The company defended its release of another CM11.0 build, which is based on Android 4.4 KitKat, by saying that many users have been slow to update to CM12.0 for whatever reason. Nightly builds for CM11 and CM12 will be slowly phased out as development further shifts to CM12.1, which is based on Android 5.1.
Why another CM11 build? Rather surprisingly, many users have been slow to upgrade to L – whether due to the lack of a snapshot release or adverse reaction to the Material design, we don’t know. The meager stats that we have show that there is a rather large contingency of users who are sticking to CM11 as their release channel of choice, so we felt compelled to give a release showcasing all the work that went into that branch to make it ship ready.
More details can be found in the blog post on the CyanogenMod website.
Google’s self-driving car initiative could hit the market as early as 2020, but until then Google is continuing to test its cars around Mountain View. Today, Google announced a new program that will see its self-driving cars become a little more interesting to look at. The new program, called Paint the Town, is touted by Google as being a “moving art experiment” and transforms the company’s self-driving cars into moving pieces of public art.
Following similar actions by Amazon and eBay, Google today announced that it is removing all goods with Confederate flag symbols from its Shopping service and Ad network. The move comes following a tragic shooting in South Carolina last week that took the li
After introducing a new free tier of Play Music radio this morning, Google is now rolling out an update to the Play Music Android app to add support for the feature. As we reported this morning, Google’s new free streaming radio feature is supported by ads and they are now present in the Android app with this update.
From 9to5toys.com:
Groupon is offering the highly praised Moto E smartphone bundled with a Bluetooth speaker and 1200 Tracfone minutes for $99.99. Using the coupon code GOODS5 drops the price even further to $95. On Amazon, the Moto E, Bluetooth speaker, and Tracfone service would cost you $238 in total.
The Moto E has been praised for offering a great Android experience for such an affordable price, so this deal makes it even more enticing for first time Android users or first time smartphone users in general. It’d also make a great burner phone if you’re in need of one of those.
The Moto E includes a 4.3-inch touchscreen with 3G connectivity. Unfortunately it runs Android 4.4 KitKat, but includes WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, and a 1.2GHz dual-core processor. It’s not great, but for the price and bundle it’s hard to beat.
You also get 1200 Tracfone minutes included in the bundle, as well as 1.2GB of data service and 1200 text messages. The Tracfone service is good for a year.
Buy the bundle on Groupon now. The coupon code GOODS5 drops the price to $95.
The long running antitrust case faced by Google in Europe appears to possibly have an end in sight at long last. Earlier this year, it was revealed that the European Commission was preparing to file antitrust charges against the company, some five years after the investigation started. Now, Bloomberg reports that Google has been told by the European Commission to expect large fines as part of the probe.
Earlier today we shared our full review of the ASUS ZenFone 2 and noted that it was a great budget offering, although it comes with an excessive amount of bloatware installed. XDA users have now discovered, however, how to unlock the device’s bootloader.
Speaking in an interview with CNBC, DuckDuckGo CEO Gabe Weinberg said that the company’s traffic has grown 600 percent over the past two years. A variety of factors likely played a role in this explosion of growth, but it is mainly attributable to the NSA’s surveillance program, which was revealed two years ago. It has been reported in the past that the NSA tapped into Google servers and accessed the data of millions of users.
Plex today announced an update for its Android app that brings with it several improvements and new features. The update, which bumps the app to version 4.4.0.069 is available on the Play Store now. One much welcomed change for mobile users is that there is now a “jump to letter” feature to make scrolling much faster within the library.
According to a new report from Reuters, BlackBerry is considering releasing a smartphone with Android installed, as opposed to its own BlackBerry 10 operating system. The reasoning for the switch to Android is to allow BlackBerry to focus on software and device management. When asked about the report, BlackBerry said that it does not comment on “rumors and speculation” and is still committed to BlackBerry 10.
Google CEO Larry Page today announced in a post on Google+ a new company called Sidewalk Labs. The company, according to Page, will focus on improving city life for everyone. Sidewalk Labs will be led by Dan Doctoroff, former CEO of Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor of Economic Development and Rebuilding for the City of New York.
Update: It looks like there’s going to be an Android Wear app too.
Android Police today has shared a handful of images of what are believed show the 4.0 update that is coming to soon to Google’s Hangouts app on Android. The images show a refreshed interface that Google seemingly hopes will silence the complaints regarding the app’s current interface and design.
Google today has launched a survey in which it hopes to gather more information about its Google Voice service. The survey is available to all Voice users by simply logging into your account. You can also access the survey via this support thread. Google says that the survey should not take more than 10 minutes to complete and by completing it, you are entered to win a free Chromecast.
Career website Glassdoor today has released its annual breakdown of the top 50 CEOs, as voted on by employees. This year, Google CEO Larry Page was voted as the chief executive officer of the year with a 97 percent employee approval rating. Last year, Page was 10th on the list, with LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner taking the top spot. Weiner this year fell to 12th overall with an approval rating of 93 percent.
Google announced in a blog post this evening a new feature called iOS Account Wipe. This feature allows Google Apps admins to easily delete an employee’s corporate account and data from their iPhone or iPad without affecting their personal data, such as photos or music.
Prior to today, Google offered a Remote Wipe functionality, but it erased the entire device, including the employee’s personal data. Remote Wipe will still be available, however, and will simply live alongside iOS Account Wipe.
Google also revealed that it is launching enhanced functionality for Android Mobile Application Management:
These new features can help admins get their employees up and running on Android for Work faster (with auto-install into an employee’s Work Profile) and stay productive (by preventing employees from uninstalling certain apps)—while at the same time keeping data protected (with widget control).
As part of iOS 9, Apple today has announced a new app called Move to iOS that makes the transition from Android to iPhone more seamless for the user. While the app went unannounced during the WWDC keynote, it is listed on the iOS 9 feature page on Apple’s website.
comScore today has released its latest data regarding smartphone market share. The analytics firm says that 188.6 million people owned a smartphone during a three-month period ending in April. That equates to 76.9 percent of the mobile market being made up of smartphones at this point. Apple, according to the data, further strengthened its lead. The company saw a 1.8 percent increase in market share this time around, going from 41.3 percent in January to 43.1 percent in April.
Google has been facing legal heat in Europe for several users over how it handles and collects user data as well as its monopoly-like actions, but today the company finally admitted that it has made some mistakes. Google’s European chief executive Matt Brittin stated today to Politico that Google has failed to make its intentions well-known in Europe.
While Sony has yet to officially announce a second generation SmartBand fitness tracker, it briefly released a companion Android app this evening for the device before quickly taking it down. The app, no longer available in the Play Store, was simply titled SmartBand 2 and gave a handful of features we can expect to find in Sony’s upcoming wearable (via Xperia Blog).
Yesterday evening a report emerged that claimed Samsung would release a Galaxy S6 Plus later this year that’s essentially a larger Galaxy S6 Edge. Now, YouTuber MKBHD has shared what appears to be the first image of the Galaxy S6 Plus and as expected, it’s a larger Galaxy S6 Edge.
