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.
Android Wear’s complete customization features give it an advantage Apple Watch can’t match once it launches next year. Everything on Android Wear and you could even make it look just like Apple Watch’s UI if you want, or if you’re a nostalgic 16-year old with too much time on your hands, you can hack Windows 95 onto the 1.63-inch display of the Samsung Gear Live.
Corbin Davenport posted a video of this smartwatch running the 20-year old operating system. His hack utilizes aDosBox, which emulates an x86 processor and DOS-like operating system so you can do silly stuff like install Microsoft’s oldest operating system, or old apps like Doom (which Corbin’s also done).
Watch the full video below:
Samsung might be a company that likes to jump in early when it comes to attacking rival Apple, but it’s also more than happy to hang around to get the last laugh.
With the heat from Bendgate now dissipating, Samsung has released one more video trying to fan critics’ flames in the direction of Cupertino by showing just how strong the Galaxy Note 4 allegedly is.
Entitled “Galaxy Note 4 Endures the Gluteus Maximus,” the video demonstrates Samsung’s new flagship taking part in the kind of controlled bend tests seen in the recent Consumer Reports video — including taking the repeated weight of a 100kg person sitting on it several hundred times.
Eric Schmidt has hit back at Tim Cook’s recent jibes at Google, claiming that “someone didn’t brief him correctly on Google’s policies.”
Schmidt was speaking as part of a CNN Money interview to promote his new book How Google Works. The Tim Cook comments in question concern Apple’s focus on keeping user data private.
During his recent two-part interview with Charlie Rose, Cook said that, “I think everyone has to ask, ‘How do companies make their money?’ Follow the money. And if they’re making money mainly by collecting gobs of personal data, I think you have a right to be worried and you should really understand what’s happening with that data.”
The iPhone 6 comes armed with a fast new A8 processor, but some fanboys were disappointed to discover the new chip only sports 1GB, when most premium Android handsets are rolling 2GB deep with more GHz on the spec sheet than iPhone 6 can match.
iPhone 6 has performed admirably in GeekBench tests, but to see how Apple’s new phone compares in the real world, PhoneBuff created a multi-tasking obstacle course, where the iPhone and it’s competition had to jump from app to app in the fastest time possible.
HTC One (M8) and the Samsung Galaxy S5 both have 2GB of RAM, when it comes to everyday use the iPhone 6 doesn’t just beat the competition, it nearly runs a lap around the Galaxy S5.
Check out the action below:
Would you give away your eldest child in exchange for free Wi-Fi? Six families in London agreed to do so when they accepted the terms and conditions of a free Wi-Fi hotspot set up by researchers without actually reading them properly. The vast majority of us probably would have done the same, so is it about time we started reading these things properly?
Here’s one way to put your iPhone 5s to good use after upgrading to the iPhone 6: Install the Android L Developer Preview. It sounds like an impossibility given Apple’s incredibly tight control over device security, but a small group of university researchers have managed it using a clever workaround. You’ll find proof in the short demonstration video below.
Samsung is all too willing to leap down Apple’s throat at any perceived error on Cupertino’s part, but apparently that same degree of quality control is not turned inwardly on Samsung’s own industrial design department.
Having brought forward its release date to try and beat the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus into South Korea and China, the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 has been met with negative customer reviews since its September 26 launch — on the basis that there is a sizeable gap between the smartphone’s display and its casing.
The best podcast client on mobile is now available in your browser. Shifty Jelly has today made its Pocket Casts web player available for limited beta testing, and it delivers all of the awesome features you’ve long been enjoying on Android and iOS.
Google chairman Eric Schmidt claims that Samsung had the iPhone 6’s technology one year ago, in a new interview for Bloomberg TV.
Sitting down with Google’s former Senior Vice President Jonathan Rosenberg to promote their new book How Google Works, Schmidt fended questions about the Android vs. iOS competition from “Market Makers” hosts Stephanie Ruhle and Erik Schatzker.
At one point in the interview, Ruhle asks Schmidt how he feels seeing people lined up around the block to pick up the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which sold a massive 10 million+ units in their first weekend on sale.
“Even though way more people carry Android phones how does Apple have that desire factor?” Ruhle says.
“I’ll tell you what I think,” Schmidt answers. “Samsung had these products a year ago.”
Apple’s new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus carry the best smartphone cameras you can buy right now, according to the camera and lens experts at DxOMark. Both devices achieve an impressive rating of 82 out of 100, beating the Samsung Galaxy S5, the Sony Xperia Z3, and even the 41-megapixel sensor in the Nokia 808 PureView.
The first batch of the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus have already made their hands to millions of consumers in the United States and other major markets of the world. There is no denying the fact that many among them will be long time Android users who have been patiently waiting for Apple to make the shift to a larger screen.
Ever fantasized about being a goat? Of course you haven’t. But you’d be surprised by just how entertaining it can be — especially when that goat is hellbent on destroying everything and near indestructible. With Goat Simulator now available on Android and iOS, that’s exactly what you can be — while at work, in the library, at a coffee shop, or just at home.
I may be in the minority here, but when I think of the type of TV show I’d picture Samsung as, my mind goes to scandalous political thriller House of Cards well before it does to Glee.
Which is, of course, why it makes absolute sense that Samsung is currently in the process of creating its own Glee-style “Musicom” (that’s a sitcom meets musical) centered around the lives of two fictitious young employees. Can’t you practically hear the songs already?
Called Best Future, the series will follow male and female flatmates, and is designed to portray Samsung as the kind of trendy-yet-lovable company people in their twenties and thirties would just love to work for.
Microsoft today announced a good-looking tablet keyboard that isn’t designed only for devices running its own Windows platform, but those powered by Android and iOS as well. It’s called the Universal Mobile Keyboard, and it’s folding design makes it ideal for those on the go.
If you love the look of Apple’s latest iPhones but you can’t stand the thought of ditching Android for iOS, then perhaps this shameless Chinese knockoff will get your mouth watering. It’s called the Sophone i6 and looks just like the real thing, but it runs Jelly Bean instead of iOS and it’s available at a fraction of the price.
Its specifications aren’t exactly awful, either.
