Googlebot, the giant webcrawler that Google uses to scan webpages and update its index, is ditching its iPhone disguise to become an Android.
Rather ironically, the tool has been masquerading as an Apple device running iOS 8.3 for years, but it will soon become a Nexus 5X running Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow to become more efficient.
Two-factor authentication is super secure, but incredibly annoying when you’re in a hurry. LastPass, one of the front-runners in password managers on desktop and mobile, might have the solution with a new mobile app that will simplify the login process to LastPass, which can then manage your many web accounts with ease.
Instead of entering a passcode to get into LastPass, you can have its new mobile Authenticator app send a simple verify button that will let you sign in with one tap. Here’s a quick video to see how it works.
The latest Google Transparency Report shows that since January 23, 77 percent of all requests to its servers have used encrypted connections.
The numbers on the new report are current as of February 27, and the company says it’s “working hard” to achieve full encryption across all of its services.
Your Android apps are going to get an iOS-style makeover soon, thanks to new design guidelines from Google.
Mostly concerned with the bottom of Android apps, Google is looking to have its developers place a bar across the bottom of their apps that will let users navigate between different sections of the app, just like iOS currently does.
Google Inbox’s awesome Smart Reply feature, which was launched on mobile back in November, is now available on the web.
The feature is already being used for 10 percent of all replies on Android and iOS — and it’s just as good in your browser.
Samsung is already developing a Galaxy S7 mini that will go head-to-head with Apple’s upcoming iPhone SE, according to a new report — and it won’t be a disappointing version of its latest flagship like previous iterations of the Galaxy S mini series have been.
Instead, the new device is expected to pack exactly the same processor — and exactly the same punch — as its bigger brother.
Google, Facebook, Snapchat, WhatsApp and other tech giants are reportedly working on their own increased privacy measures, as Apple continues to win over the general public during its encryption standoff with the FBI.
Building a smartphone that beats the Galaxy S6 has likely been Samsung’s biggest challenge so far. How do you improve upon an already stellar design and one of the best smartphone cameras on the market? You build the Galaxy S7.
With its curved glass back, larger battery, Dual Pixel camera and even more powerful internals, the Galaxy S7 is the smartphone to beat in 2016.
Eric Schmidt has been outspoken about his belief that Apple’s smartphones are nothing but a Samsung Galaxy clone, that user data is safer with Google than Apple, and that (slightly oddly) jumping ship from iOS to Android is not dissimilar to switching from PC to Mac.
So why wouldn’t Alphabet chairman and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt use an iPhone to document his recent trip to South Korea? Makes perfect sense to us!
Nintendo’s first ever smartphone game will finally land on iOS and Android this month — and we now know when and where it will be making its world debut.
Called Miitomo — and described by its creators as a “smart-device app that sparks one-of-a-kind conversations between you and your friends” — the game will first be available to download in Japan on March 17.
Google’s mobile Chrome web browser gets a new update today, which — according to the Chrome team — has “more than a barge full of performance and stability fixes.”
We’re not sure how many software fixes a barge would hold, but we feel confident in saying it’s a whole lot.
Google I/O doesn’t kick off for another two months, but Google won’t wait that long to drop its next-generation Android N upgrade.
Its first developer preview is out today for Nexus devices, and it comes packing a number of features swiped from iPad Pro and iOS, including split-screen multitasking, picture-in-picture mode, and bundled app notifications.
It turns out that Tim Cook’s old high school in Robertsdale, Alabama, isn’t quite as fond of the MacBook is he is.
Robertsdale High, from which Apple’s CEO graduated in 1978, has swapped the company’s notebooks it was giving to every student for significantly more affordable Chromebooks built by Lenovo.
As the iPhone’s biggest rivals, Samsung’s latest Galaxy smartphones have to be good enough to convince consumers that they’re a better buy. None do that better than the new Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge.
According to the overwhelmingly positive reviews published today, the duo have a number of big advantages over the iPhone 6s. Here are 7 of them.
Your fingerprint is supposed to be the most secure method of locking your smartphone, but that’s not the case if your device can be easily fooled. Researchers have been able to hack those from Samsung and Huawei using only an inkjet printer and conductive ink.
Samsung’s new Galaxy S7 edge isn’t officially out until later this week, but according to some early out-of-the-box speed test comparisons it’s doesn’t fare too well against the six-month-old iPhone 6s Plus — despite having twice the RAM of Apple’s 2GB handset.
Check out the video below:
We’ve already watched the Galaxy S7 batter the iPhone 6s in a series of camera tests, but how well does it stack up against a professional DSLR? When it comes to phase detection autofocus, surprisingly well, actually.
See Samsung’s new smartphone make the Nikon 70D look bad in the mind-blowing autofocus test below.
While Apple is embroiled in an ugly battle with the FBI in the hope that it can protect the privacy and security of its users, Amazon is throwing away the encryption it previously offered its own.
With its latest Fire OS 5 update, the company has removed the ability to encrypt data on its Fire tablets.
Remember when the iPhone had by far the best camera you could get in a smartphone? Those days are long gone.
In the camera comparison video below, Samsung’s new Galaxy S7 edge well and truly trounces the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus in almost every test carried out.
Google’s next-generation Nexus smartphone will adopt the iPhone’s 3D Touch technology, according to an “insider” familiar with the company’s plans. It’s thought HTC will be tasked with building the device, and it should arrive later this year.
Chiming in on one of the biggest tech stories of the year, Samsung says that customer privacy is “extremely important to it” and argues against software backdoors — but won’t totally commit to supporting Apple, either.
In the endless battle for supremacy between Apple and Samsung, the Korean company has leaped ahead of Cupertino when it comes to water-resistance. But the iPhone 6s Plus still reigns supreme in terms of shatter-resistance.
A YouTuber set the new Samsung Galaxy S7 edge next to an Apple iPhone 6s Plus in a big deep tub of water, then dropped them both from different heights, and the results are pretty predictable (yet still fun to watch).
The results definitely aren’t pretty.
It might sound like the black-and-white portion of a late-night informercial, but the fact is that we have a lot of stuff that needs charging and syncing, and not every cable will work. But the LMcable, which is currently seeking support on crowdfunding site Kickstarter, aims to take some of that pain away.
It’s a cool idea: One end of the LMcable is a standard USB plug that fits into your computer or wall adapter. The business end, however, is a multitasker. Orient it one way, and it’s a micro USB bit; flip it over, and it fits the Lightning port standard to Apple’s mobile devices. And anything that might help out our increasingly tangle-prone cord storage is alright by us.
Google Photos users can finally edit their images on the web, thanks to new browser-based tools that are available today.
The update sidesteps the need to use a third-party editing app to apply filters, effects, and other modifications — and allows you to view your images on a larger screen while perfecting them.
Keeping up with the latest information on the current presidential election just got easier if you’re an Amazon Echo owner.
NBC News has created a new “skill” for Alexa, the Echo’s virtual assistant: Now Alexa can read you top election headlines, candidate bios, election calendar events, and even the latest delegate counts.
Let’s see Siri do that, eh?