Cult of Android - page 18

Google just dropped a bombshell announcement that the operating structure of the company is getting seriously shaken up. To start, co-founder Larry Page broke the news of Alphabet: a new holding company which Google will operate under moving forward. Page will operate as the CEO with Sergey Brin as President effective immediately.

Google will finally launch Android Pay, its brand new mobile payments service, alongside a refreshed Nexus 5 from LG in October, a new report claims. The Apple Pay competitor will take advantage of Android M’s native support for fingerprint scanners.

The latest update to HBO Now on Android and iOS gives subscribers the ability to stream their favorite shows to their TV via a Chromecast. The new feature comes less than a month after HBO Now made its debut on Android following Apple’s exclusive three-month deal.

Loyal iPhone fans will argue iOS is much better than Android, but many have never even used Google’s platform. That’s proven in the hilarious video below, in which Apple fanboys are fooled into thinking Lollipop running on an iPhone is the iOS 9 update that’s coming this fall.

T-Mobile is doing pretty hot lately, but it’s unfortunately at Sprint’s expense. While the latter carrier has been declining in market share for the past couple of years, it’s finally now in last place out of the four major U.S. wireless carriers. T-Mobile snatched the bronze model.

In the quarterly earnings call, Sprint said it had 57.7 million customers with a net gain of 675,000. T-Mobile, however, gained 2.1 million customers last quarter for a grand total of 58.9 million.

CONTINUE READING »

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced that he is upholding the four game suspension the league gave Tom Brady for his role in Deflategate earlier this year, all because the four-time Super Bowl champion refused to hand over his cellphone.

The New England Patriot quarterback told fans this morning that he’s disappointed with the league’s decision, but he’s got a perfectly good explanation as to why he couldn’t give investigators his phone to access to his text messages – he had just switched to the iPhone 6.

If you have young children, the last question you want to hear on any long journey is, “Are we there yet?” It’s never asked just once; it’s asked again and again and again until you angrily threaten to turn around and go home, or you plow into a tree.

The question is so infuriating that even Google Maps can’t take it. Ask the maddening question a few times while navigating and you’ll get the angry response you deserve.

When Tony Fadell was put in charge of Google Glass earlier this year, we wrote that the father of the iPod had been “tasked with saving Google Glass from extinction.”

According to a new interview with the Nest co-founder, that’s not entirely accurate, though. Fadell says that rather than being saddled with the project by Google, he actively asked for it.

“It wasn’t handed to me and said, ‘Tony clean it up,'” he explained. “I offered. I remember what it was like when we did the iPod and the iPhone [at Apple]. I think this can be that important, but it’s going to take time to get it right.”

Get ready to spend your time chomping dots and eating ghosts with this amazing version of arcade classic Pac-Man, one of the most recognizable games of the past 35 years.

Designed by the original Pac-Man creator Tōru Iwatani, Championship Edition (CE) came out for the Xbox 360 in 2007, and it was the best ever remake of the arcade original.

Now Pac-Man CE DX, an improved version of the game that released onto Xbox 360 in 2010, is here for your iPhone or Android smartphone, and I’m betting you’ll spend some serious time playing it.

“What you don’t know won’t hurt you” is a common phrase that unfortunately does not apply to the apps on your phone. It turns out that thousands of apps on Android and iOS secretly have ads in them that you can’t see, and they very well might be what’s causing a number of problems that plague smartphones today.

Looks like Samsung and Apple pretty much own the smartphone market, though there are some scrappy contenders starting to make headway.

According to International Data Corporation (IDC), handset makers shipped a total of 337.2 million smartphones worldwide in the last quarter of 2015 (Q2). This is up 11.6 percent from last year, an amazing bit of growth considering how many smartphones are already on the loose.

The carrier that’s built up quite an army of discontent from its customers over the years probably didn’t win over anyone with its latest announcement. AT&T is raising its upgrade fees for postpaid customers and tacking on a weird, unnecessary activation fee for new AT&T Next customers.

A number of Silicon Valley technology giants have backed Samsung in its legal battle against Apple. Documents confirm Dell, eBay, Facebook, Google, and HP all took the South Korean company’s side in a “friend of the court” brief on July 1.

If you can’t bring yourself to pay for a virtual reality headset made of cardboard, then now’s your chance to bag one for free, courtesy of a popular porn portal. BaDoink advertises the many safe-for-work things you can do with the device, knowing full well you’ll try some NSFW things, too.

Samsung’s long-awaited Galaxy Tab S2 is here to take on the iPad Air, and it hopes to turn your head with an ultra-slim form factor that measures just 5.6mm thick — half a millimeter thinner than Apple’s latest device. It also adopts the iPad’s aspect ratio, alongside updated internals.

Fallout Shelter, the terrific vault-building game from Bethesda, raked in a whopping $5.1 million during its first two weeks availability.

The payday is even more staggering when you take into account that the game is totally free to download and play, only offers one virtual add-on, and isn’t even available on Android yet.

Android’s massive lead in market share is translating into a staggering number of app downloads, with Google Play serving 85 percent more apps than the App Store during the second quarter of 2015. But despite that, iOS is holding onto a significant lead where it matters most — in revenue.

Apple finally turned on Apple Pay in the U.K. this week as part of its push to make 2015 ‘the year of Apple Pay’, but it may soon face competition from its biggest rival, Samsung.

In preparation for a full roll out later this year, Samsung has begun testing its contactless payment service, Samsung Pay, at select locations in South Korea starting on July 15th.

Marshall, the British company famous for its amplifiers and headphones, today announced its first smartphone. It’s called London, it’s powered by Android, and it sports a beautiful design that boasts a bunch of unique features — including two headphone jacks for enjoying music with friends.

Google is planning to make it easier than ever to shop online by allowing you to purchase the products that appear in your mobile search results. With a new feature dubbed “Purchase on Google,” shoppers will be able to buy goods from supported retailers in just a few taps.

Twitter managed to create a swarm of disgruntled developers over the past few years. It worked tirelessly to break down many of the third-party apps that made the social network successful. Now, as Twitter discovers what it really is as a service, it’s working to repair relationships with developers and elevate the platform. This ought to be a win-win for everyone.

T-Mobile introduced a new family plan that’s directly targeting Verizon Wireless and isn’t shying away from it. The new plan, which offers 10GB of 4G LTE data to each family member plus unlimited talk and text starting at $100 per month, bests Verizon’s shared 10GB of data for four members at $140.

T-Mobile’s CEO John Legere hasn’t been nice to competitors since taking the reigns and doesn’t seem interested in starting now. While Verizon claims its family plan is actually $80 per month, Legere argues that you’ll get charged at least $140 per month when all the additional fees add up.

Apple’s latest iPhones may be six months older than the Galaxy S6, but they have no problem outpacing Samsung’s flagship — and all other competitors — in a high-end gaming comparison.

GameBench found the iPhone 6 to be top in both frames-per-second and stability across all game types.

Google is planning another big Android Wear update that will deliver a number of new features Apple Watch users are already enjoying, according to a new report. Among them are interactive watch faces and the ability to send doodles and emojis to friends.

Samsung’s latest Galaxy devices are already leading the rest of the market when it comes to display resolution. But the South Korean company is said to be working on new smartphone panels that go far beyond today’s Quad HD technology.

According to a new report, the “11K” display will boast an astonishing 2,250 pixels-per-inch.