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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We often read of programmers finding ways to get their favorite old game titles running on modern devices. Whether it be playing Mario on an Android Wear watch, or building emulators to run other classic games, it’s been done. The most recent attempt involves Counter-Strike 1.6; a graphically demanding multiplayer.
Android N is on its way, and as each new Developer Preview is released, we get a clearer picture of what Google has in mind for its next (and future) versions of Android. One major, albeit fairly inconspicuous drive is one towards a mobile-based VR platform, but one that everyone can access. Within Android N, we finally see some actual evidence that — at its inner most core — going forward the smartphone platform is going to be built for Virtual Reality.
Just under two weeks ago, we attended Huawei’s launch event for the P9 and P9 Plus. Unusually, the company didn’t use the event to show off the entire P9 range which will eventually make it to market this year. While we’re fairly certain there will be a ‘Lite’ version of the P9 (and maybe a Max too), Huawei kept quiet on those. Fortunately, it seems retailers are planning for their arrival anyway. Romanian retail site, Cel.ro had the P9 Lite listed in three different colors and priced at 1209 Romanian Leu, or around $305.
With four of this year’s big-name smartphone makers having already announced — and some launched — their most important smartphones for 2016, our attention can turn to the rest. For the past few years, the Moto G has undoubtedly been Motorola’s (now Lenovo’s) most important device range. With competitive specs, a low price and — most importantly — stock Android software, the G has long been a recipe for success. And this year, the range could be getting a serious feature upgrade: A fingerprint sensor.
2015 was an incredible year for Huawei. No Chinese OEM made as big a dent on the western smartphone market as the Nexus 6P makers did. There’s no denying that it released some fantastic hardware last year, including one of the best Android Wear smartwatches. The year culminated in the launch of the first Chinese-made Nexus phone. With all that success, there’s a lot riding on this year and, arguably, its first flagship of 2016: The P9.
Just a few weeks after the first preview arrived, the 2nd dev preview of Android N has landed. So that you get the first time user experience, I flashed my device and set it up as new. The changes from dev preview 1 are immediately visible, even in the initial setup process.
Google announced in a blog post this morning that it has expanded its the popular Google Maps traffic alerts feature to India. This means that any smartphone user based in India will get real-time notifications during navigation if traffic conditions change for the worse, and before a journey is set to begin, so that they can choose the quickest route more easily.
Motorola’s Moto X line has consistently been a lineup of devices which enabled users to express their individuality. Ever since the first version was released with the Moto Maker tool, customers could make the phone look how they wanted it to. At the time, it was initially just a few different colors of plastic, with wooden backs added later on.
Fast forward a couple of years, and we now have multiple plastic colors, multiple wood options and a handful of leather backs. Recently, Motorola teamed up with designer, Jonathan Adler to offer limited patterns, and has now partnered with legendary graffiti artist, Futura, on an even more limited run.
When the first developer preview of Android N was released a few weeks ago, one of the features we noticed first was the ability to adjust screen DPI. In essence, this display scaling feature allows users to change the size of icons and text across the entire user interface.
While they don’t run Android N yet, the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge also have a similar feature baked in to their software. Until recently, the only way to access the option was to install Nova Launcher and add a quick-action ‘DisplayScalingActivity’ widget. Thanks to the most recent software update though (as noted by SamMobile), it’s now part of the display settings options.
Just over a week ago we brought you news that BlackBerry was starting up a beta program for PRIV owners who wanted early access to the Android Marshmallow update. The idea is simple: Get a wide base of users testing and sending diagnostics, in return, they get the latest software and BlackBerry gets to identify and iron out any bugs before the public rollout. Right on schedule, the first batch of beta testers will get access to the OS from today, before a wider beta rollout begins.
Fenix is undoubtedly one of the best Twitter clients available for Android right now, so, when the developers MVilla released a new app, dubbed Quote, we had to check it out…
After months of leaks, HTC finally announced its latest flagship smartphone this morning, and it’s pretty much exactly what we expected. It’s an all-metal, solid unibody phone with specs that look to match today’s best smartphones. What’s more, it could have the best audio and camera experience available of any phone on the market right now. But, how does it compare to Samsung and LG’s best phones? Let’s find out…
As is customary for T-Mobile in 2016, for the latest product launch, the company sent its product guru, Des Smith to unbox HTC’s newest smartphone. Having unboxed the Galaxy S7 underwater, and the LG G5 in an off-road racing car, the only way was up for Des with the HTC 10.
After months of leaks — some from the usual suspects, others from HTC themselves — the latest One-series flagship is here, except, there’s no ‘One’ in the name. The HTC 10 has been officially announced, and it looks to compete directly spec-wise with the best phones around, and packs its high-end components in to a hefty, solid piece of aluminum.
When the LG G5 launched at MWC in February, the Korean tech giant also unveiled a series of ‘friends’, or modules. These clip-on modules were designed to offer a unique experience of one kind or another. Whether you wanted a more traditional camera experience, better audio or VR, LG had the answer. One of the most promising ‘friends’ was the Hi-Fi Plus DAC unit, built through collaboration with B&O. It offered much better quality audio.
If you’re in the US, however, it looks as though you might not even get the opportunity to order one…
LG has said that it expects to announce its best financial results in nearly two years when it unveils its final earnings results for Q1 2016. Thanks to the drop in television panel prices and strong appliance sales, LG will see a 66% year-on-year rise in profits. Its mobile division, however, is struggling to make money.
HTC will finally unveil its next metal-bodied flagship during an online event tomorrow, but, a couple of last minute leaks have seemingly confirmed past speculation. Perhaps most revealing is a video on YouKu (China’s version of YouTube).
When Google Fiber first launched in Kansas City, it did so with the promise of free internet, as long as customers paid for their installation. While subscribers could opt to pay $25 per month for 12 months to cover the $300 installation fee, internet usage was completely free. There was one caveat however: Download speeds were limited to just 5Mbps. Now, Google has replaced this Basic Tier with a 100Mbps plan and rebranded its two other tiers.
Having been on the market for a month, the analysts over at Counterpoint Technology Market Research crunched some numbers, and found that the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are outselling their predecessors fairly comfortably, despite the increasingly harsh competitive market.
HTC has been publishing its own revealing teasers for the upcoming flagship smartphone over the past few weeks. The HTC 10 is going to have ‘the best BoomSound yet‘, a ‘compelling camera‘, and a shiny, polished chamfer on the back according to the manufacture’s past tweets. Now Qualcomm has joined in with the pre-launch games…
Months after early pre-release versions of the software allegedly appeared on some Galaxy Note 4 units, the official Android Marshmallow rollout has started.
Yesterday, we brought you hands-on coverage of Huawei’s latest flagship smartphone from the launch event in London. Lighting wasn’t fantastic, but our initial thoughts were general positive towards the Chinese manufacturer’s latest high-end, elegant, glass and metal device. Now, we have the retail packaging, and couldn’t resist shooting an unboxing.
In a blog post this morning, Google has announced that it plans to provide seed funding to the Center for Resource Solutions (CRS), with the aim to begin rollout of effective energy certification programs across Asia, starting in Taiwan.
While its fans eagerly wait for the next ‘flagship killer’, OnePlus has been quietly working on making sure those with the first generation model aren’t left behind. Android Marshmallow for the OnePlus One has been in testing, and is now in its final stages. A public software rollout is on the very near horizon…
