WhatsApp, one of the most popular messaging services on mobile, has long had plans to step up its assault against the likes of Skype and Viber with a free voice calling feature that was initially promised for the second quarter of 2014. Now the company’s CEO has confirmed that the launch is planned for early 2015 instead.
Hugo Barra, the man who once ran Google’s Android division, seems to have more of an interest in the smartphones its rivals are making these days. Speaking at WSJD Live, Barra called Apple’s new iPhone 6 “the most beautiful smartphone ever built” — but he doesn’t think its design language is totally unique.
Samsung could be understood for questioning the brand loyalty of its South Korean fans: iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have reportedly racked up a massive 100,000 preorders since going on sale in the country Friday. That’s more than three times the number of South Korean preorders for Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4.
Just like one of The Avengers — where bickering superheroes team up to fight a far more oppressive evil — Apple and Android fans on reddit have united forces to boycott what they see as the unethical blocking of NFC payment systems by a number of different retailers, affecting users of both Apple Pay and Google Wallet.
The reason for this blocking of the NFC service is that the retailers in question — including Gap, Old Navy, 7-Eleven, Sears, Kmart and others — are part of an organization called Merchant Customer Exchange, which uses its own payment system called CurrentC.
Nest has acquired Revolv, the Colarado-based startup which allowed users to control their smart home devices from a single interface using their smartphone.
No price has yet been announced for the purchase, which follows Nest’s $555 million Dropcam purchase back in June, and Nest’s own acquisition by Google for a massive $3.2 billion earlier this year.
If you haven’t already picked up Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series on Android and iOS, you’re missing out on some of the best console games ever brought to mobile. But now’s your chance to get them super cheap, which GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas all reduced to celebrate the latter’s 10th anniversary.
Unlike every other major smartphone company, Apple launches new flagship iPhones just once a year, meaning that whenever a customer buys a new iPhone around release time they can rest safe in the knowledge that their device is going to remain current for a whole twelve months.
Seeing the kind of success Apple has had with this model, Song Mobile has reportedly gone back to the Xerox machine drawing board, and decided to scrap their own twice-yearly policy of refreshing its flagship Xperia phone in favor an Apple-style annual overhaul.
During its earnings call yesterday Amazon gave some clues about just how spectacularly its Fire Phone business is tanking — making it seem one of the worst tech ideas since the RMS Titanic shipped without lifeboats.
How bad are we talking? At the end of its disappointing third-quarter the company still has a massive $83 million worth of unsold inventory sitting around.
It’s now taking a $170 million charge “primarily related to Fire phone inventory valuation and supplier commitment costs.”
Have you ever wished for an app that lets you know exactly who you’ll be sitting next to on a flight — right down to perusing your would-be neighbor’s Facebook profile to see what you have in common?
A new social check-in feature for airline app Quicket lets you choose a seat on an airplane, then immediately check who you’ll be paired with, complete with an optional link to their social media page.
Yes, it’s possibly the year’s creepiest app feature, and one that’s not even trying to hide its reason for existing. Check out this excerpt from its press release:
One of the easiest ways Google could compete with Apple Watch is to make its Android Wear devices compatible with iOS. Some say it’ll never happen, but according to Android Wear product manager Jeff Chang, support for other platforms is something the search giant is “very interested in.”
Pebble has finally begun teasing its next smartwatch ahead of an official unveiling next year, and according to Pebble evangelist Myriam Joire, it’s going to deliver “more everything.” It won’t only be prettier than its predecessors, but thinner, too — and it’ll offer a whole new level of customization.
Spotify is finally allowing music lovers to share their subscriptions with their family and friends with a new Spotify Family plan. Prices starts at just $14.99 a month for up to two, while the top tier $29.99 a month plan allows one subscription to be shared with up to five people.
Having previously taken a crack at the smartwatch market with its now-discontinued SPOT technology, Microsoft is looking to get back into the wearables space according to a report from Forbes, citing anonymous sources.
The watch will apparently be launched in the next few weeks and will work across a variety of platforms, which makes perfect sense since Windows Phone is a distant third compared to Android and iPhone handsets.
Its timing is an effort to capture the potentially-lucrative holiday market.
Apple’s latest iPhones have been shipping for a few weeks now, but many have been waiting for Google to show its hand before deciding what will be their new smartphone for the next two years. So how does the new Nexus 6 compare to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, and more importantly, which is most worthy of your hard-earned cash?
Our in-depth comparison below will help you decide.
With Apple and Google announcing new tablets this week, shopping for a new slate just got a lot more interesting. But how do you choose between the Nexus 9 and Apple’s new iPads? They all have the latest and greatest software and specifications, but they’re vasty different in a few key areas.
Our in-depth comparison below will help you choose which device is right for you.
Nobody would ever call Amazon’s Fire Phone a hit, but even the company’s most loyal shoppers are apparently avoiding the phone like the plague.
A new report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners says that while the Amazon Prime subscription service continues to attract new members, the Fire Phone “has achieved virtually zero market share.”
As Apple’s preparing for its second big event in as many months, Google just quietly unleashed an arsenal of new products to push it past Cupertino, including the first real Android TV that will have you ready to ditch your Chromecast, and your Apple TV — at least for a day.
Google’s first Android TV set-box, the Nexus Player, is a four-inch hockey puck shaped device that not only plays all your favorite movies and TV shows like on Apple TV and Amazon’s Fire TV, it also plays games.
Google’s long-awaited flagship smartphone, the Nexus 6, has finally been announced, and it’s a 5.9-inch gorgeous monster.
Nexus 6 will be the first device to ship with the new Android operating system Lollipop, so that you know you’re getting the the purest Android experience on the new phablet that’s so big, even the iPhone 6 Plus just got size envy.
Although we’ve yet to see a truly mass-market wearable device sweep the world, most people working in high tech believe that devices like smartwatches represent the next big frontier.
With that in mind, Samsung has debuted a potentially transformative creation at the ongoing InterBattery 2014 exhibition being held in Seoul, Korea: a rollable, flexible battery.
Although not too many details are known yet about the exact materials and structural design advances used to create it, it is reported that the battery can function even when bent in half, or rolled up into the shape of a paper cup.
Others have tried and failed to knock Snapchat off its perch, and now Microsoft is throwing its hat into the ring with a new service that uses Skype as its backbone. It’s called Skype Qik, and it allows users on Android, iOS, and Windows Phone to send self-destructing videos up to 42 seconds long.
Lenovo’s new Sisley handset may not feature the protruding camera and unsightly antenna bands that were criticized in some corners about the iPhone, but don’t let it be said that this is entirely an iPhone 6 carbon copy without the compromises.
Having had its hardware capabilities revealed, it’s clear exactly where the sacrifices have been made: and they’re entirely related to the specs.
Read on to find out why this is no iPhone beater.
In an effort to make the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus as thin and as light as possible, Apple made some sacrifices. Battery life — particularly on the smaller iPhone 6 — isn’t as good as it could have been, and the rear-facing iSight camera on both devices sticks right out. Could the Cupertino company have done a better job?
Lenovo seems to think so. Leaked pictures of its upcoming Sisley handset show a device that looks almost identical to the iPhone 6 — without the protruding camera and with slightly less unsightly antenna bands.
A Dropbox bug has left a number of users with missing files that may never be recovered. The issue, which affected those who enabled the Selective Sync feature, is now fixed — but Dropbox has conceded that it may not be able to rescue everything that has been lost.
Smartphones made of metal are far fancier than their plastic counterparts, but like other metallic objects, they will bend with enough force. No, “Bendgate” is not exclusive to the iPhone 6 Plus; Samsung’s new Galaxy Note 4 — its first phablet to sport a metal chassis — will bend just as easily if you’re not careful with it.
Things are looking far from rosy in Samsung-land. According to a Re/code report on Tuesday, the company’s third-quarter earnings are set to fall below market expectations — thanks to falling TV prices, decreased display shipments, and more competition than ever in the smartphone sector.
Although Samsung smartphones actually increased in number in terms of shipments, the operating margin was lower as the result of higher marketing costs, less demand for high-end phones, and a lower average selling price for handsets.