Cam Bunton, Editor at NewGeekGuide – Cam has been passionate about tech since his dad bought the family’s first Commodore AMIGA back in the late 80’s. He’s been in the tech industry (writing and making videos) since 2010, and joined NewGeekGuide as the resident video producer and product reviewer in 2015. He sometimes writes news and reviews for 9to5Mac too.
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Project Loon is undoubtedly one of Google’s most inventive and ambitious projects to date. Formerly part of the Google X group, now under the ‘X’ Alphabet sub-division, these airborne signal boosters will provide high speed LTE coverage to rural areas in a number of developing markets. Sri Lanka and Indonesia are set to be among the first regions to get these stratospheric floating towers. In a G+ post, the team showed off how they get the balloons off the ground…
Nextbit didn’t have an official presence at MWC this week. There was no press event, or new release, just a small meeting room at the back of one of the halls. Members of the press could go and meet the company’s chiefs and PR team to get their hands on the Robin, the manufacturer’s breakthrough product which utilizes the power of the cloud to keep storage space free on the device. I tried the Nextbit Robin for a few minutes, and fell in love, but I’m not entirely sure why…
Huawei and Leica have announced a strategic long-term partnership this morning with the aim to improve the smartphone manufacturer’s cameras, and give the well-known German camera maker a fresh presence in the mobile market.
Here at MWC in Barcelona this year, HTC decided to quietly launch a couple of new budget friendly devices. One of them is the new, low end Desire 530. Design-wise, it’s very similar to most previous Desire phones, although with a new colorful, speckled rear shell.
Samsung only announced the Galaxy S7 a few days ago, but already a number of case manufacturers have been keen to get our attention. It’s no exaggeration to say there are hundreds of case options already available for the latest S-series flagships…
Android Marshmallow didn’t come with many obvious user interface changes when it launched last year, but it did come with several baked-in core features. One of them was the ability to adopt a MicroSD card as internal storage. This lets you use an external card to store apps and app data. In my opinion, it’s one of the best features of Marshmallow, especially if you have a low to mid-range phone with limited storage, like the Moto X Play.
Samsung and LG, however, have decided it’s in everyone’s best interests if it isn’t in their latest flagships, the Galaxy S7 and LG G5, which both launched this week at MWC 2016…
Xiaomi has finally unveiled its next flagship phone at a press event this morning, and from the design alone, it would be easy to confuse the device with a Galaxy S7. The seamless glass front surface features a pill-shaped home button, a solid metal frame with sculpted edges, and even the glass back which curves towards the edges. But don’t let that copycat form factor put you off. With a starting price of around $306 USD (¥1999), this smartphone packs in an incredible array of high-end features…
We’re in Barcelona for MWC 2016, and the first company to show its hand here was Alcatel. Formerly Alcatel OneTouch, the manufacturer has come out with a new brand name, and a new focus on today’s trendy millennials who want a great phone without the usual expense.
The LG G5 is a huge departure from the company’s usual all-plastic affairs. And it’s finally here. What I love about this phone on first impressions is the way it feels in hand. The smooth metal finish combined with the rounded corners and edges help create a phone that looks and feels fantastic.
Compare that to last year’s G-series flagship’s right-angled corners and sharp design, and you’ll notice a stark contrast in approach…
Earlier this evening, Samsung finally took the wraps off its next generation Galaxy S-series smartphones. The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge take what was great about the previous year’s flagships, and improve areas which needed it. In some ways, even going back to features we’ve missed.
After months of rumors and speculation, Samsung finally announced its next flagship handsets at a crowded event here in Barcelona. Thousands of tech journalist watched on as Sammy took the wraps of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge which, in many ways, are the upgraded models we needed from the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge launched in 2015.
LG has officially unveiled its latest G-series flagship device, and at long last, has taken a completely different approach to design. There’s no more plastic flimsy shell, but that doesn’t mean we’ve lost any versatility. Thanks to an unusual, detachable metal bottom edge, you can still remove and replace the battery on the LG G5.
At MWC last year, I think it’s fair to say Alcatel OneTouch surprised us all with its last Idol series phones. The Idol 3 lineup boasted specifications that pushed way past its price-point. The 1080p 5.5-inch model specifically was easily one of the best value-for-money phones available in 2015.
Fast forward to this year, and the company has done it again. With the Idol 4 and 4S, Alcatel (notice, no more OneTouch) is ensuring it remains competitive in 2016, giving the big-names a run for their money…
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In a press release this morning, LG announced that it has partnered with renowned audio company, B&O Play to bring high quality sound performance to the LG G5. The Korean tech giant notes that it has been working with the audio firm to ensure that the G5 has “the best sound experience” available to smartphone users.
While the Galaxy S7 has received almost all the pre-release attention, LG’s own upcoming flagship has seen its fair-share of Internet time. Most recently, an online listing showed up on a Dubai selling site, seemingly showing the all-metal device in full. In those images, it appeared as if the bottom edge was detachable, corroborating previous rumors that LG would be building in an innovative way to house a replaceable battery.
With Samsung having pushed the Marshmallow update to the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge recently, it was never going to be long before the new software landed on the Note 5. Today, SamMobile reports that some Galaxy Note 5 users internationally have started seeing Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow become available to download and install.
Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 launch event is now just a few days away and we’re now at the point where there’s little we think we don’t know about the next flagships from Sammy. Perhaps the one thing that has confused us is what I/O technology it’ll be equipped with. Amazingly, it’s easily the most discussed thing currently in our NewGeekGuide staff group chat.
Google today announced a couple of new significant moves as it plans to refocus on development in southeast Asia. It will build its first engineering team dedicated to the area, in Singapore, and has promised to help train up to 100,000 developers in Indonesia within 4 years, in a bid to get more content out in the country, using its own national language(s).
A new patent has recently been granted to Google which conceptualizes real-time, online voting. The example used in its graphic portrays a made-up reality TV show called ‘Top American Singer’, and shows how you would only need to click on a contestant’s image to vote. No calling or texting a premium rate number required.
In the patent, it’s clear Google is imagining this would be used for things like reality shows where contestants get voted off. It would be ideal for shows like American Idol, although there is potential here that it could be used for more consequential events like a political leadership campaign.
As you’d expect from any Google Search based interface, the web page would also show news and content related to the campaign.
While it may not launch the concept as an official product, Google has long been experimenting with real-time election tracking. During the recent US political campaigns, Google’s search tool has been updating with poll results during debates.
In an age where everything appears to be heading towards being internet-based, it’s hard to imagine a future without online voting for the next state senator, US President or UK Prime Minister. Whether or not it’ll be as open and insecure as a simple Google vote is debatable. That would of course need to be a highly encrypted bespoke application, rather than a Google Search interface. But, for TV shows, the Google solution seems promising.
Vimeo, the popular alternative to YouTube, has just released a brand new update to its Android app. Within the update, the company has finally enabled a feature which should have been there a long time ago: Chromecast support. Anyone downloading the app, or updating, will now be able to beam content straight to their Chromecast-connected TV with just the press of an onscreen button.
A month after your bday, you receive a card. It serenades you with a 90s slow jam before you slam it shut, mortified. But you smile — because Grandma loves you. *And* because Chromecast has arrived.
Late is better than never, and Vimeo loves you a ton too, and now you can tap the Chromecast icon to seamlessly stream videos to your big screen. We appreciate your patience, pals!
Oh and we fixed some bugs and crashing issues, also.
You can download the app free from the Play Store, or if you have the app already installed, check for updates and you should see it available to download right away.
Bullitt Group has partnered with Cat in the UK to create the first Android smartphone with a built in thermal imaging camera. The embedded thermal camera from FLIR can detect heat and measure surface temperatures from distances of up to 100 feet. In the press release published today, the company also claims it’s the ‘world’s most waterproof smartphone’.
A smartphone has been announced in India which, unbelievably, costs the equivalent of just $3.66 USD. The Freedom 251 by Ringing Bell is an Android 5.1-powered smartphone with a 4-inch screen, and it’ll be available to order from tomorrow, Feb. 18. At this price, we’re pretty certain this is the cheapest smartphone available anywhere in the world.
Samsung has already shown off the new Edge panel for devices like the Galaxy S6 Edge and Edge+ which comes as part of the Android Marshmallow update. Today, it detailed some of the other, perhaps more important, additions coming to Galaxy phones with Android 6.0 which started rolling out two days ago.
