With a swarm of developers from around the world converging on San Francisco’s Moscone Center tomorrow for Google I/O, Twitter wants them to keep the company’s real-time social platform at the top of mind. This afternoon it announced that its developer tools for integrating Twitter into Android apps have been open-sourced, with the projects now hosted publicly on Github.
Thanks to Best Buy’s pre-order listings for the LG G4 going up early, we were already aware of the phone’s May 28th pre-order date and June 4th launch on Verizon, and earlier today the company made it official along with a previously unannounced LG tablet. A couple details have changed, however.
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Continuing with Microsoft’s new mission under CEO Satya Nadella to make its productivity software available everywhere that potential customers are, the company officially released its Office Lens document scanner app for Android today to the Google Play Store.
Microsoft ran a public preview of Office Lens for Android from April 2nd up until today through the Google+ communities method, which they say had over 130,000 testers, and Android was the only place where they tested it with users before launch. Here’s how the company describes the functionality of Office Lens in its announcement:
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After a “beta test” earlier this month, Xiaomi today announced on its Facebook page that its Mi.com online store will officially launch in the US on June 1st at 7pm PDT and in Europe (UK, Germany, France) on June 2nd at 1pm CEST.
Before Xiaomi introduced its store to the US and Europe on May 19th, Hugo Barra in a Q&A session at a Xiaomi press event in San Francisco said that the company’s tablets and smartphones would not be coming to the US later this year, but was considering bringing Mi.com and some of its accessories stateside. That of course happened, although this time it seems that the store will stay live indefinitely or at least have more than the “very limited quantities” from last time.
Developing…
Gartner today released the results of a report on worldwide smartphone marketshare in Q1 2015 (first three months) which most notably found that Android’s hold on the smartphone OS market dropped 1.9% while Apple’s iOS saw it’s third consecutive quarter of gains. The research firm attributed Android’s loss largely to Apple’s newfound success in China – where Android saw a 4% decline over its share of that market last year – on the back of the larger-screened iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, as well as increased differentiation and ecosystem lock-in through offerings like Apple Pay and Apple Watch.
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It appears that Google is rolling out a neat new update to its instant search suggestions on mobile, first spotted by The Next Web. While in the past, Google search would simply load results for what it thought you were searching for to the whole page, now answers to some short questions may find themselves placed directly inside autocomplete suggestions.
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Google’s App Indexing technology isn’t exactly the most exciting thing to discuss, but so long as the majority of the company’s revenue still comes from search (it does), it is imperative that they figure out how to make their main business work on mobile where the eyeballs are going. So the company announced that today App Indexing is coming to iOS apps, starting with Chrome and Google Search.
We recently heard from Motorola Senior Director of Software Development David Schuster that the company was working on testing and rolling out Android 5.1 Lollipop to the Moto X (2nd gen) and Moto E LTE, and sure enough it appears that U.S. Cellular customers should see the update hit their devices pretty soon.
According to an Android software page on U.S. Cellular’s website, the build number for Lollipop on the 2nd generation Moto X is LPE23.32-21 while for the Moto E LTE it is LPI23.29-15. Since this is an over-the-air update you’ll need to be connected to WiFi to download the software update. To check if the update is available for your device yet, open the Settings app, select About Phone, and then System Updates. If it’s rolled out to you then you’ll see information about the update and be able to begin the installation process from this screen.
We’re always looking for ways to shake up the tech industry. And we think it’s time for change. Find out more June 1. pic.twitter.com/odrsSko6dB
— OnePlus (@oneplus) May 26, 2015
Thanks to a tweet sent by OnePlus, we have reason to believe that something special will be unveiled next Monday, June 1st. Nobody is really quite sure what to expect, with someone here at NewGeekGuide even suggesting that the placement of ‘time’ in the tweet might be a subtle suggestion of a new watch, but it seems more likely that it’s the OnePlus 2.
We recently reported here on the appearance of a mysterious device from OnePlus appearing in GeekBench test results. That device looked to be running Android 5.1 with an 8 core processor clocked at 1.55GHz. The unit had a model number of A2001, while the original OnePlus One has a model number of A0001.
OnePlus long ago confirmed that they were working on the OnePlus 2 and that it was slated for “sometime in 2015,” with a more specific Q3 timeframe pegged by reports at Bloomberg. June is the last month in Q2 so maybe they’ll announce June pre-orders with a July or August launch?
What do you think they’re announcement could be? Is it the OnePlus 2 or something else completely?
Earlier this month Google released two new Chrome extensions—Color Enhancer and Animation Policy—aimed at making it easier for those with disabilities to interact with the web, and today it’s taking its accessibility efforts much further. The company this morning took the wraps off Impact Challenge: Disabilities, a $20 million grant program from Google.org, the charitable arm of Google tasked with supporting nonprofits changing the world for the better through the donation of grants, technology, and the knowledge of Googlers looking to give back.
Memorial Day in the United States is a time for remembering and celebrating, relaxing and unwinding, and an extra day off from work to spend with friends and family. Google wants to make sure you don’t have to waste any of it flipping through TV channels to find something that’s on to watch, which is why the company has partnered up with Comedy Central to offer 12 episodes of 12 different Comedy Central original shows absolutely free on Google Play.
Our face when discovering 12 free episodes in this @ComedyCentral collection. https://t.co/18xUTQ308V pic.twitter.com/mawQvX7nG1
— Google Play (@GooglePlay) May 25, 2015
Some of the shows are more recent, like Key & Peele, while others are more of Comedy Central classics, like Strangers with Candy from the 90’s. My personal favorites from the selection are Key & Peele and Tosh.0, but maybe Reno 911! is your sort of thing. One episode from each show is free and then you can pay for the season it’s from to see more. The sale page is here.
Pre-orders of LG’s new flagship Android smartphone, the LG G4, have gone live for several major carriers in the United States, and now it’s U.S. Cellular’s turn. Through a tweet sent out on Saturday from U.S. Cellular’s official Twitter account, the carrier confirmed that pre-orders of the G4 on the regional carrier will begin May 29th in-store and online.
@_Stewartwhaley On May 29th the pre-sale begins in stores and online. ^AH
— UScellular (@UScellular) May 23, 2015
The G4 has shipping dates of early June for all of the big four, via information gathered from Best Buy pre-order pages and tweets. So while this tweet doesn’t provide a hard date from when the phone can be purchased outright it’s easy to assume that U.S. Cellular’s variant will also have wide availability starting around the first week of the month. And if you do pre-order a G4 from U.S. Cellular (or elsewhere), LG will throw in a couple accessories for free if you visit this official promo site within two-weeks of receiving your device.
If you’re unsure about whether or not the G4 is for you, be sure to check out our review and comparison with the Samsung Galaxy S6.
Huawei is a rising Chinese mobile device manufacturer who’s name isn’t exactly easy for those of us in English-speaking countries to pronounce. Considering that we’re still hearing rumbles of the company’s desire to grab hold of consumer mindshare here in the United States, it’s about time for them to clear these simple pronunciation issues – which is exactly what they’re beginning to do.
The company released a short bit to its UK YouTube account today of a group of individuals performing “vocal warmups,” led by Gordon Friend, a coach from the “Future Facing Association of Pundits” (yes, “FFAPs” just like it sounds). The short then turns to learning how to properly pronounce the names of different Arsenal F.C. football players as they’re brought into the room. Because you’re probably pronouncing those incorrectly, too.
The ending of video is pretty anti-climactic, though, with the group quickly moving on to learning how to pronounce Huawei. It’s “Wah-way,” in case you were wondering.
Launched in September 2008, Google’s Chrome browser is now dominant in its share of the desktop web browser market, with approximately 1 in 4 Internet users interfacing with the web using the browser. What many Chrome users probably don’t know, however, is that it’s actually based off the open source Chromium browser, also developed by Google. Up until today Chrome for Android differed from its desktop counterpart in that it’s codebase wasn’t open source – meaning, the code for the app wasn’t publicly available for other developers to view, modify, and build upon. That changed today.
Pre-orders for the LG G4 have just gone live on Best Buy’s website for the AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint variants. Along with guaranteeing you’ll get the phone the day it launches on your carrier, the big-box store is even throwing in a $100 gift card to sweeten the deal.
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Following rumors and then a confirmation of the device’s existence last week from Samsung’s @SamsungTMRW Twitter account (the tweet has since been pulled), a new Facebook photo posted by Samsung Mobile Korea all but confirms the impending launch of an Iron Man-themed Galaxy S6 Edge.
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Following speculation since March of weaker-than-hoped-for sales by HTC of its flagship One M9 smartphone, rumors are spreading that the Taiwanese company has just cut component orders for the phone by ~30%.
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Moto G (1st gen) users, your time has come – to update to Android Lollipop, that is. And we’re talking about 5.0.2 here, but that’s better than nothing, right? The release notes went up on Motorola’s website today and many individuals in the /r/MotoG subreddit have been reporting over the past few hours that they’re starting to receive the update.
Some might remember that it was as far back as February when Motorola promised the update was coming for first-gen users “really soon.” Better late than never. Let us know if you spot the update yourself.
Have you ever seen a product or service in a YouTube video ad and wished it were easier to learn more or purchase it? Me neither, but Google believes its new TrueView for shopping ad format will result in stronger results for advertisers looking to drive increased interest and sales.
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Gartner today released the results of a report finding that Chromebooks in 2015 have continued to see double-digit year-over-year growth for Google with education still as the primary market for browser-based computers. 7.3 million Chromebook units are expected to be sold in 2015, a 27 percent increase over 2014, while 72 percent of those sales are expected to be from the education sector.
In the above chart breaking down Chromebook sales for 2014 by region and segment, you can see education held the lion’s share in all the major markets Google sells to, with consumer sales coming in second, and sales to the business segment trailing far behind – save for in Asia Pacific, where those latter two are reversed.
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Pre-orders for the Alcatel Idol 3, which opened up on April 21st through Amazon and Alcatel’s official website, are now set to beginning shipping tomorrow, May 21st (the same day the company begins selling the device in the US). The Idol 3 is a budget Android smartphone packing a 5.5-inch 1080p display, 16GB of internal storage, 2GB of RAM and a 1.7GHz processor, and runs Android 5.0.2 Lollipop out of the box. The phone will cost you $279.99 unlocked with no contract, but only sells unlocked in the US anyway so no option of carrier subsidies if you want this one.
In our review we called Alcatel’s OneTouch Idol 3 a “solid budget smartphone for 2015.” Click over to read the full written review, or check out the video review below.
“Adblockers,” browser tools which work to hide ads from the web browsing experience, are a controversial topic of discussion among those in the media industry. And for good reason, as the media industry as a whole is in the midst of a large shift from creating content for – and earning a vast majority of revenue from – the print and desktop mediums, where large boxy ads have long reigned king. But when we talk about adblockers, the one tool we’re all probably referring to, the one which has become synonymous with the term, is Adblock Plus (ABP), and the company behind it has released a dedicated browser for Android…
Update: According to a post in the /r/Android subreddit, customers who have purchased a 32GB Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge from T-Mobile in the past 14-60 days also have some special opportunities through the end of today. If you purchased your device less than 14 days ago, you can visit tmobile.com/promotions and enter the promo code MEMGS6 along with the phone number associated with your line and account PIN number to receive a free upgrade to the 64GB model upon approval. Those who purchased their device more than 14 days ago but less than 60 can go through the same process to receive a $50 rebate. This is the last day of the promotion so get on it!
Memorial Day is coming up this weekend and T-Mobile is celebrating the occasion with a sale on Samsung’s in-demand Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge flagship phones. Starting May 23rd and going through the 25th, the third largest carrier is offering the 64GB variants of both smartphones for the same price as their respective 32GB models.
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Researchers at Google have today launched a wacky new experimental Chrome extension that lets you share the URL of your current browser tab with nearby Chrome users only using sound. It’s called ‘Tone’ and to use it, both you and receiver of the link you would like to send need to be in earshot of one another, be using Chrome with the Tone extension installed, and have computers with decent speakers and microphones…
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