Cult of Android - page 7

Final Fantasy VII may be a touchstone for thousands of gamers, but Final Fantasy IX is no slouch either, and it’s coming to your mobile phone today for 20 percent off.

It’s Safer Internet Day 2016, and Google just announced two big changes for Gmail that will make it even more secure. Starting this week, the company will make it easier to identify unencrypted and unauthenticated emails to make life even harder for scammers.

If you’ve forgotten why it’s great to be a gamer, you just have to take one look at Firewatch.

The first-person mystery set in the Wyoming wilderness is a visual masterpiece that’s being praised by just about everyone — and you can get it today on Mac, PC, Linux, and PlayStation 4.

Andy Rubin, who co-founded Android before leaving Google in 2014, is building dashboard cameras that he wants to give away for free. But in exchange for an extra eye on the road, Rubin wants you to give up all the data your dashcam collects.

SuitX, a company driven to lower the cost on bionic technology to help people walk, won a prestigious robotics competition that will help it fund a pediatric exoskeleton for children with neurological disorders.

Last week started with SuitX debuting an exoskeleton for $40,000 and ended Saturday with a $1 million prize in the United Arab Emirates AI and Robotics Award for Good.

HTC’s flagship for 2016 has leaked out early, and it looks like yet another iPhone clone.

The One M10 is almost identical to the One A9 that was introduced last October, but it finally does away with the front-facing HTC logo that was universally hated.

So the Apple Watch wasn’t the first smartwatch. It just became the most popular in a hurry.

Shortly after its debut last year, the Apple Watch set out to take over the market it was late to, accounting for two-thirds of all smartwatch shipments in 2015, according to a report by analysts with Canalys.

By Canalys estimates, that’s about 12 million units with more than 5 million Apple Watches sold during the final quarter of 2015.

In a petition to the Supreme Court, Apple says the high court shouldn’t waste its time with Samsung’s high-profile appeal in the two companies’ long legal battle over patents.

Samsung filed an appeal in December asking for the Supreme Court to take a look at how the damages were calculated, but Apple argues that even though it was awarded $548 million, the case is “legally unexceptional.”

Amazon’s Echo smart speaker just upped its music game, adding Spotify streaming to its ever-growing list of skills. Now playing your favorite artists and playlists is just a voice command away — at least if you’re a Spotify Premium subscriber.

Apple today updated the official Apple Music app for Android to add support for saving their offline music to an SD card.

Alto’s Adventure, the hit snowboarding game on iOS and Apple TV, is headed to the Android platform February 11.

Android gamers will, by and large, have the same gaming experience as their iOS brethren with one significant difference: this new release will be free on Android while it remains $2.99 on iOS.

Google is no longer the most valuable company in the world.

Earlier this week the search-giant’s parent company Alphabet overthrew Apple as the world’s top company in terms of marketcap, but it appears that the company’s reign is already after its stock price began trading way down this morning.

Dr. Homayoon Kazerooni has created bionic machinery that can help a person rise out of a wheelchair and walk. Yet, there’s one barrier preventing some people from walking – cost.

This week, Kazerooni’s work takes an important step forward. His company, SuitX debuted a lightweight exoskeleton, dubbed Phoenix, for people with mobility disorders at an initial price of $40,000, about two to four times cheaper than other devices.

Microsoft is acquiring SwiftKey, London-based makers of the popular virtual keyboard for Android and iOS, in a deal rumored to be worth $250 million.

SwiftKey insists it will continue to develop its keyboard for both platforms going forward — and it will remain free.

Google’s flagship Nexus 6P delivered significant design improvements last year, putting its hardware on par with the best devices from rival manufacturers. But Google wants the Nexus lineup to be even more like the iPhone.

To make that happen, the company will reduce its reliance on third-party manufacturing partners like Huawei and LG and assume greater control over Nexus hardware, according to one report.

If you think everyone and their sister has a Gmail account or uses WhatsApp these days, you wouldn’t be too far off.

Both tech giants, one a messaging app, the other an email service, have hit some serious milestones today.

Google’s parent company Alphabet is now the most valuable company in the world, passing Apple in market capitalization today in after hours trading.

This is the first time since February of 2010 that Google has passed Apple in value. The Cupertino-based iPhone maker has held the top spot since 2013 when it passed Exxon Mobile, but thanks to a strong earnings report today, Alphabet has rocketed to the top.

As the iPhone becomes increasingly popular in China, its Galaxy-branded rivals are falling. According to the latest data from Strategy Analytics, Samsung dropped out of the top five smartphone makers in China last year, with Apple the only non-Chinese company to make the list.

Android’s Material Design spec is coming to your desktop. With an upcoming Chrome update, Google will introduce a brand new look that will be immediately familiar to those who regularly use the company’s mobile apps — and we can’t wait.

Four out of the five most popular gadgets on Facebook are Apple devices, according to the social network’s new Preferred Audience tool. Unsurprisingly, the iPhone tops the list with more than four times as much interest as fourth-placed Samsung Galaxy.

As expensive miniature computers people carry around in their pockets, it’s no surprise that smartphones are regularly the targets of petty thieves.

But one particular thief outshone the rest when he recently (allegedly) managed to steal 38 different phones during a Libertines concert in the U.K., only to be arrested with them stuffed down his trousers.

A work phone and a personal phone I can understand, but explaining away the other 36 handsets was surely a bit of a challenge!

Tucked away in a recent Snapchat update for Android and iOS, users of the app will notice a new option that allows for the quick and easy sharing of a URL that links directly to their user profile. The link, which can then be copied or shared anywhere a link can be tapped or clicked, takes Snapchat users directly to the app on mobile, and then into the linking user’s profile.

Snapchat pushed updates to both of its primary applications, Android and iOS, a couple of days ago but made no mention of the new URLs.

A new portable power supply says it can store enough juice for three full phone charges in just 15 minutes.

The ASAP Dash is looking for $30,000 on crowdfunding site Indiegogo. And if it works as well as it says it does, it could be a must-have gadget for people who find themselves consistently low on power..

Smartphone shipments surpassed a record 1.43 billion units in 2015, according to the latest figures from IDC, and 22.7 percent of them carried the Samsung logo. Despite falling Galaxy sales, the South Korean company still shifted 93.3 million more devices than Apple.

Facebook is planning to roll out its new “Reactions” icons in the next few weeks, making it possible for us all to react a bit more subtly and carefully to our friends and family on Facebook.