Ten years ago the cellphone industry was as teeming with life as a coral reef. Weird, multi-colored Nokias and Samsungs flitted between fronds of seagrass while Sidekicks scuttled in and out of tiny sea caves. Blackberries lumbered through the coral like lions on the hunt, eviscerating all “serious” comers with better software. Apple had released […]
More iPhone 7 devices were unwrapped over the 2016 holidays compared with Google Pixel smartphones, according to new data released by analytics service Mixpanel. Specifically, in the first few days after Christmas, the number of unique iPhone 7’s increased by 12.7 percent, compared with an 8.5 percent increase for Google’s newest flagship. And when comparing iOS […]
It’s been a rocky few months for Cyanogen, the ambitious startup that aimed to build a better version of Android than Google. It has laid off staff, let go of its CEO and parted ways with another co-founder — now it is shutting down its services and nightly software builds on December 31. The news was announced […]
Barnes & Noble began outsourcing its Nook e-readers a few years ago after a partnership with Samsung and their latest $50 Nook 7 android tablet, announced last month, shows us how that has worked out for them. Their latest e-reader includes ADUPS, a firmware that sends user data back to the manufacturer or an interested […]
In November, Google announced plans to bring RCS, a next-generation upgrade to SMS, and something of an iMessage alternative for Android users, to customers with Android phones on Sprint. At the time, Google said that it planned to roll out RCS to other carrier partners in the months ahead. In just over a month since the […]
Google today announced Android Things, its new comprehensive IoT platform for building smart devices on top of Android APIs and Google’s own services. Android Things is now available as a developer preview. Essentially, this is Android for IoT. It combines Google’s earlier efforts around Brillo (which was also Android-based, but never saw any major uptake […]
Getting people to leave behind their iPhones and move to Android is something Google has focused on more heavily in recent months. For example, its new Pixel smartphones ship with a “Quick Switch” adapter that let you easily transfer data between your iPhone and your new Pixel phone. For everyone else, Google has just released a […]
Google first announced Android Wear 2.0 at its I/O developer conference in May, with a promise to roll it out to all users later this year. It has now delayed those release plans in favor of more developer previews; today it launched the fourth of these. Just like before, there is no way to get an over-the-air […]
With Trusted Contacts, Google is launching a new personal safety app for Android today that allows others to ping you for your location when they think you may have been in an accident or in danger. The idea here is that you define who these trusted contacts are and by doing so, you allow them to […]
Android 7.1.1 starts going live today as an over-the-air update — a roll out that will continue through the next several weeks to a select number of Google-approved devices, including the Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, Pixel, Pixel XL, Nexus Player, Pixel C and General Mobile 4G (Android One), along with devices […]