Android - page 28

WhatsApp has long been warning us that using third-party clients is not permitted, and now it is permanently banning those who continue to do so.

Android-powered games consoles are almost always a big disappointment, but gaming giant NVIDIA is confident it can change that with the Shield console, a $199 set-top box that’s determined to bring you better games.

Becoming the most funded Kickstarter in history is certainly enough to boost confidence — and if you’re Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky it’s enough to get you to take some potshots at giant-sized rival, Apple.

With Cupertino’s March 9 Apple Watch event just one week away, Migicovsky has thrown out a few barbed comments about Apple’s eagerly-anticipated debut wearable. Describing the device as “definitely lacking,” Pebble’s founder noted how he’s just not that into smartwatches that are “relegated to being an accessory to your mobile phones.”

Oh, snap!

If you need a smartphone camera that can capture a steady image even when you’re not, you’ll want to choose Samsung’s new Galaxy S6 over the iPhone 6. At least, that’s what the South Korean company hopes to prove with the strange, shaking display table it brought to MWC.

Pebble gave its latest smartwatch project an extra bump this morning with the new Pebble Time Steel model, which pushed the project over the mark to become the most-funded Kickstarter project ever.

Pebble Time has raked in $13,617,054 so far, pushing it past the Coolest Cooler for the top spot. Pebble also has the third-most-successful Kickstarter project with its original Pebble Watch in 2012. The Pebble Time project still has 24 days left, so it will likely push far past the $15 million mark.

Here are the top 10 most-funded Kickstarters of all time:

Google’s efforts to counter the threat of the Apple Watch will begin with bringing Android Wear support to iPhone. Sources claim the search giant is now “preparing” an Android Wear app for iOS, and it could be announced at Google I/O in May.

Fancy pizza but can’t be bothered to find your phone? We’ve all been there, and it’s not a pretty place. But now you don’t have to fall asleep hungry wondering what you’re doing with your life, because Domino’s finally lets you order and track a pizza from your smartwatch.

This time last week, Pebble announced Pebble Time, its brand new smartwatch for 2015. And if you’ve already backed that thinking it would keep you going until a more extravagant successor to the Pebble Steel came along, you’re going to be pretty disappointed with today’s Pebble news.

Just one week after the company announced Pebble Time and raked in more than $12 million (and counting) in funding, it today revealed Pebble Time Steel, a high-end version of the device that’s made of metal, and boasts better battery life.

Of the smartphone stories which played out in 2014, two of the biggest were the triumph of Apple’s iPhone 6, which sold a massive 10 million+ units in its opening weekend alone, and the faltering of Samsung, which fell from the dominant position it had enjoyed since 2011.

Today, a new report from Gartner (paywall) breaks down both the 1.2 billion smartphone sales that took place worldwide last year, and also the sales from Q4 2014 — revealing how Apple leaped ahead in the smartphone category, while the South Korean tech giant Samsung started to lose its footing.

Make no mistake about it: this was the year everything changed.

After finally lifting the lid on its new Apple Pay competitor this morning, Google confirmed plans to take on carriers as well. The search giant will launch its own wireless service within the coming months, but it will serve only as a proof of concept to “show what’s possible.”

Google’s ready to take on Apple Pay with a new mobile payments platform called Android Pay. It will work over NFC, and it will come with an API that will allow third-party developers to integrate the service into their own Android apps.

Apple’s Touch ID sensor has been the best and most reliable fingerprint scanner since it made its debut in the iPhone 5s, but competing products announced at Mobile World Congress this week could give the Cupertino company some concern.

Not only has Samsung made huge improvements to its own fingerprint sensor for the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, but Qualcomm has delivered an even more impressive alternative called Sense ID that works through aluminum, stainless steel, and more.

Samsung’s love affair with cheap, tacky plastic is on hold for its stunning new Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge.

Unveiled today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the new handsets pull out all the stops in an effort to reverse Samsung’s declining smartphone sales and mount a new challenge against Apple’s most popular iPhones to date.

They sport all-new designs made out of premium materials, and vastly improved software that promises a better user experience. But they aren’t without their own compromises.

The One M9 isn’t the only exciting new product HTC has to show off in Barcelona today. The Taiwanese company also announced Vive, a new standalone virtual reality headset developed in partnership with Valve that wants to change the way you game — and more.

Samsung’s three-sided display may make the Galaxy S6 Edge a little different, but it won’t be the most unique smartphone at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week.

Monohm, a company based in Berkeley, California, that makes “heirloom electronics,” will announce a perfectly round smartphone called the Runcible that’s designed to look like a pocket watch.

Fancy a .app web address? You’re going to be buying it from Google. The search giant has splashed out just over $25 million on the entire .app web domain, which is around $19 million more than any other company has paid for a top-level domain so far.

iOS developers are constantly spitting on Android. But that’s not necessarily the way it should be. The developers behind iA Writer, one of the most beautiful distraction-free writing apps for iOS and Mac, have just ported their app to Android. And they seem really positive about Android so far.

When Apple’s Greg Joswiak first introduced the EarPods on stage at the iPhone 5 event in 2012, he said they “look unlike any headphone you’ve ever seen before.” Samsung won’t be able to say the same for its new earphones, however, because they are essentially EarPods clones.

It has taken a lot longer than we anticipated, but the South Korean company has finally gotten around to launching an EarPods ripoff of its own, and it’s expected to come bundled with the upcoming Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge.

BlackBerry’s smartphone business is imploding in a big way in the U.K., where the company is currently losing around 56,000 users every month to Android, iOS, and Windows Phone, new research shows.

Just two years ago, the Canadian company had around 8 million non-business users in the U.K., but that figure is expected to fall below 1 million by the end of this year.

Pebble’s brand new smartwatch is here, and it’s a huge improvement over its immensely popular predecessors. Pebble Time boasts a color display and a slimmer design, the same great battery life we’ve come to expect from Pebble watches, and a brand new operating system.

For the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, Samsung is ditching all of its tacky plastic in favor of an all-new design made entirely from premium materials — and already its efforts are paying off.

According to carrier partners that have been given a sneak peek at the next-generation devices ahead of their official debuts on March 1, the Galaxy S6 beats the iPhone 6 in terms of design.

Google is stepping up its game in the mobile payments space this year by striking a deal with AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile to pre-install Google Wallet on all Android phones.

The move comes after Apple Pay has started to take over the mobile payments space, despite launching less than six months ago. With the new pre-installed Google Wallet deal, Google will hopefully add more consumers to the feature that’s been around since 2011 but hasn’t grown as quickly as the company hoped.

YouTube Kids, the brand new app designed to make YouTube a safer and more enjoyable place for our little ones, is now available on Android and iOS.

In addition to a selection of curated videos ideal for young viewers, the apps make it easier for kids to find and navigate their way around suitable content, and they block out anything that’s not fit for small eyes.

As an iPhone owner, I’ve been curious about Android Wear, Google’s smartwatch platform, from the get-go. The problem is Android Wear requires an Android smartphone to work, leaving everyone out to dry.

That might be changing though. An independent developer has just released a tantalizing video, showing iOS sending notifications to an Android Wear smart watch.

Samsung has just released another teaser video of its upcoming flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S6. But will this be the iPhone-killer Samsung needs?