Today, Google announced its highly anticipated Nexus 6 smartphone and as anticipated the Motorola-made device will ship with Android 5.0 Lollipop. The biggest Nexus phone yet, this purebred Android handset packs a massive 5.96-inch 1,440 x 2,560 display, a 2.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor, an Adreno 420 GPU, 3GB of RAM, a 3,220mAh battery, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing shooter.
A new report from App Annie revealed that application downloads from Google Play exceeded downloads from Apple’s App Store by around 60 percent compared to statistics from the same time period last year. Although the Play Store saw a fair share of growth, iOS downloads managed to earn more money during Q3 2014, with a gap of nearly 60 percent. It’s possible that these changes could be due to Google Play’s expansion into emerging markets where people typically don’t download paid apps.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mqvPHeNf2U&w=854&h=510]
Sundar likes sweets. Lollipops too? Tomorrow’s supposed to be the big day, but we can’t avoid some of the hidden gems lurking in this teaser.
We’re pulling for a dark horse like Lava Cake or Lady Finger, but those are less likely to happen. One particular editor has his money on Lima Bean, but that guy is just a crazy dreamer. Be sure to let us know what you think Google has planned for Android 5.0.
Met some sweet new friends today. #NationalDessertDay #Android http://t.co/KNxe1LjpgI
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) October 14, 2014
From the Cha Cha to the HTC First, the idea of a Facebook phone has been lingering for several years. Perhaps not giving up on the dream, the uber popular social media outlet is reportedly ready to take another shot at creating a smartphone and this time the company is looking for a new hardware partner. According to multiple Korean news outlets, Facebook frontman Mark Zuckerberg recently met with Samsung’s leadership to discuss a hardware partnership.
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but what about a fox? Better yet, what about a Firefox? Cheesy introductions aside, today Mozilla announced a new video streaming feature for Firefox’s Android web browser. This Chrome alternative can now push videos from your mobile device to your TV via Google’s Chromecast media stick or a Roku set-top box.
Today, Google announced some new support changes to its Google for Work services that are designed to improve how the company interacts with its customers when they need help with a product or service. After testing a chat support feature with a limited group of Google Apps administrators, Mountain View is now making this service option available to English language app admins globally.
Teenagers talk on the phone a lot, but you know what else they do? Talk to their phones. Google published a study today looking at that voice search habits of American smartphone users and to no one’s surprise, teens use the feature more than adults. According to Mountain View’s findings 55 percent of teens ranging from 13 to 18 years old use voice search every day.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 releases later this week, however some T-Mobile customers are receiving their orders early. This is pretty normal when it comes to online pre-orders for smartphones, but so far the Uncarrier’s subscribers appear to be the only folks getting the handset ahead of its official launch date.
Eric Schmidt has been busy pounding the pavement promoting his new book How Google Works, but today the Google chairman switched gears and made a stop in Berlin to visit the headquarters of Native Instruments, a major producer of hardware and software for digital music production. In front of an intimate group of company founders, scientists and economists, Schmidt touched on important topics like innovation, tech and the future of the internet.
Google is in the process of testing a new search result icon that helps people quickly identify websites that aren’t mobile-friendly. A few months back, the search giant started taking action against sites that weren’t properly optimized for smartphones and this new notification icon appears to be part of the company’s focus on mobile web browsing.
Google Sheets received a bit of an IQ boost today, with the release of a new Smart Autofill Add-on that predicts missing values for empty columns in a spreadsheet. Not to be confused with the application’s stock feature that fills in simple information such as dates and days of the weeks — Smart Autofill uses Google’s Prediction API tool to analyze existing spreadsheet data.
The Xperia Z3 may be coming to Verizon and T-Mobile, but sadly Sony has yet to announce plans to bring the Z3 Compact to any US carriers in the near future. However, if you’ve had your eyes on the company’s pint-size powerhouse, you can now buy it directly from Sony’s online store for $530.
Samsung recently revealed plans to sell mobile devices equipped with 60GHz WiFi tech capable of data transfers of up to 575MB per second. The company didn’t provide an exact release date for products supporting this type of technology, however it did say that it would also be applied to medical equipment and home automation systems.
Today, Sprint announced that it’s now offering a mobile-focused variant of Google Apps for Work that will feature cloud-based single sign-on powered by Ping Industries. This collaboration will help give the carrier’s enterprise customers the ability to sign on to all of their business applications with a single username and password while maintaining high security standards.
Today, Chinese phone maker OnePlus revealed a new set of earphones for its hard to purchase smartphone, but unlike its homegrown offering, this ear gear is a byproduct of a partnership with JBL. Listed as “coming soon” at the company’s online store the aptly named the JBL E1+ Earphones are premium branded buds that will eventually set someone back $40 whenever they go on sale.
Verizon won’t be the only US carrier offering the Xperia Z3, T-Mobile announced today that it will start selling Sony’s new flagship smartphone on October 29th. The magenta carrier will begin accepting pre-sales for the device on October 15th for no money down, with a monthly payment of $26.25 for two years. While the self-proclaimed Uncarrier didn’t get into shipping details, it disclosed that early bird customers will receive the device before its official release date.
If expressions like “Big Brother” and “The Man” make you feel uneasy, there’s a slight chance that you may have ponied up $629 for the security-focused Blackphone. But if your 4.7-inch Android PrivateOS handset isn’t quite big enough to meet your anonymous web browsing needs, Silent Circle co-founder Jon Callas is working on a solution.
Google’s rumored Nexus 9 tablet could be announced as soon as next week. According to Bright Side of News, the reigning internet search champ will unveil its new HTC-made slate on Wednesday, October 15th, along with its $400 asking price. While the tablet is expected to be announced this month, it reportedly won’t go on sale until November 3rd.
One of Android’s biggest selling points is the ability to customize your device as you see fit, but sadly several wireless carriers engage in the practice of shipping handsets with locked bootloaders. For example, the LG G3 is a fine device out of the box, but one of its disadvantages is that most carriers sell it locked down. Aware of this and the device’s popularity, the folks at Team Codefire have created “Bump!,” an easy to use software tool that lets you boot into a custom recovery setup.
Sprint formally announced plans to carry the Sharp AQUOS Crystal back in August and today the carrier has released the edge-to-edge display-toting handset on its in-house prepaid service, as well as Boost Mobile. Priced at $150, the AQUOS Crystal can be purchased at select retailers or directly from Boost’s website. In addition to an off contract option, Sprint will add the device to its postpaid roster on Friday, October 17th for no money down on a two year Easy Pay payment plan of $10 a month.
Google chairman Eric Schmidt and company advisor Jonathan Rosenberg have been on the road promoting their new book How Google Works and the duo recently spoke with Steven Levy and recapped several familiar events in Google’s illustrious history, however one morsel of newer information managed to standout.
Almost a year ago, Lenovo announced that Ashton Kutcher was one of its newest product engineers. At first, the move felt like another bogus celebrity title with a major company (remember when BlackBerry named Alicia Keys its creative director?), but the Dude, Where’s My Car? star actually has some tech cred. Invested in a large number of successful startups, Kutcher also studied biochemical engineering at the University of Iowa.
Yesterday, HTC confirmed plans to bring its new Eye Experience software to several of its One series handsets and it appears that M8 owners across Europe are now receiving the update. The new software is rolling out in the form of an Android 4.4.4 over-the-air push that moves the device to build version 3.28.401.6.
AT&T’s known for snagging exclusive devices and while the carrier’s latest efforts probably didn’t pay off too well, it’s still trying to land the next big thing. Today, Ma Bell announced that it will exclusively offer the recently announced HTC Desire EYE and that it will also sell the Taiwanese manufacturer’s new RE camera. AT&T’s press release was mum regarding pricing and launch dates, only saying that it will carry the Desire EYE later this holiday season and that the RE is expected to follow later this year.
