A Google smartwatch powered by Android with built-in Google Now is in the late stages of development, according to people familiar with the matter, who have been speaking to The Wall Street Journal. Google is now in talks with Asian suppliers, which could begin mass producing the device “within months.”
Although Apple is still (very) profitably plugging along with the iPhone, there’s a new king of smartphones, and it’s Samsung. The Korean gadget maker continued to dominate smartphone sales in the third quarter, shipping over 88 million smartphones this quarter compared to just 33.8 million iPhones shipped. And it gets worse for Apple.
Samsung has struck a $100 million deal with the NBA that will see its tablets and televisions used courtside during games. The deal is seen as a strategic move that could expand the global reach of both parties, shoving Samsung’s logo and devices into the faces of NBA fans, and putting NBA content into the hands of Samsung’s customers.
BlackBerry has now done away with its waiting list for BBM on Android and iOS, allowing new users to begin using the messaging service right after they’ve signed up. The Canadian company has also promised new features in future updates, including Channels, BBM Voice, and BBM Video.
Dead Trigger 2, the sequel to heavily-downloaded hit zombie game, Dead Trigger, burst onto Google Play and the App Store late Wednesday night, bringing next-level graphics and gameplay to devices in your very pocket.
This first-person shooter has an all new touch control scheme that was created, says the developer, Madfinger Games, specifically for casual gamers. You’ll be able to use the virtual joystick, of course, and Android players can use supported game controllers. What’s interesting, however, is the new casual-gamer-style touch control scheme.
You’ll immerse yourself into a world where the humans are fighting the zombies, like you do. The game itself, however, is played out in real time on a global scale.
O2 U.K. has partnered with Evernote to give all of its customers a one-year Evernote Premium subscription for free. The offer applies to all business, pay monthly, pay-as-you-go, and mobile broadband customers, and it’s available starting today.
Samsung has been fined $340,000 by Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission for an Internet campaign against HTC that violated fair trade rules. The South Korean company paid students to praise its own smartphones in online reviews while slamming those of rival HTC.
The BAFTA-nominated games studio behind award-winning Great Big War Game, Rubicon Development, just released its latest mobile game: Combat Monsters. It’s available now on Google Play, the App Store, Windows, and will be coming soon to the Mac.
BlackBerry finally brought BBM to Android and iOS earlier this week, but in an effort to prevent the server problems that halted its initial debut, the Canadian company decided to implement a waiting list that allows it to control how many users gain access.
But if you were late to the party and you’re stuck at the back of the line, you’ll be pleased to know there’s a quick and easy way to bypass that waiting list. Just follow the simple steps below.
Forgetting the disaster that was Battlefield 3: Aftershock, I’ve always thought EA’s other Battlefield titles for iOS were pretty good. But the company has promised a new “high-end” and “high-performance” Battlefield title for mobile that could come a little closer to its console counterpart — and may even be able to “inter-operate” with it.
Who cares?
That’s the question I was asked time and time again when I told people that BBM was coming to Android and iOS. But it seems a lot of people care. In fact, when BBM finally made its cross-platform debut yesterday, the app was downloaded over 5 million times in just eight hours.
When you’re the head of one of the nation’s four largest mobile carriers, you’ve got access to a lot of phones. You’ve probably got to try them out all the time. But do you ever have access to so many phones that you forget which is which, or that the iPhone in your hand is not, in fact, a Samsung Galaxy phablet?
SEGA has today announced its mobile games lineup for the coming months, with a number of notable new titles heading to Android and iOS.
Highlights include a revamped Sonic the Hedgehog 2 — which will be available on Android for the first time; Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed, and a rhythm franchise that originally made its debut on the Nintendo DS.
Samsung looks to be preparing its own extended warranty plans that will provide additional coverage for its smartphones, tablets, and other consumer electronics, according to a new trademark registered with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.
Called “Protection Plus,” the service is expected to offer the same kind of protection that is available to iPhone, iPad, and iPod users with AppleCare+.
Google is in the smartphone business, obviously. But are they in it to win it, or just f**king around?
Sometimes I wonder.
Google is obviously a visionary company with incredible technology and the capacity to build some of the greatest stuff out there.
In fact, Google already has created all the elements of a monster, iPhone-killing super-phone. Yet some invisible, internal company flaw seems to be stopping the company from putting all those elements into an actual phone.
The iPhone-killing elements are scattered all over different phones that Google sells, and some of the elements aren’t in the phones at all.
As a result, Google’s fans are faced with an artificial choice between this feature or that feature — or just giving up and buying either a non-Google Android phone or an iPhone for a more compelling mobile experience.
What’s stopping Google from integrating all its best stuff into a single phone that would thrill everybody and dominate the market?
Is it Microsoft-style company politics, where internal power struggles among VPs and product managers create a hyperpluralism that paralyzes the company?
I don’t know. But what I do know is that Google could completely transform the market by simply using what it’s already got.
Here are the four actions Google needs to take to use what it’s got to create the ultimate iPhone killer super-phone.
Google stock has risen 13% today, surpassing $1,000 for the first time ever. It comes a day after the search giant announced its earnings for last quarter, which beat Wall Street expectations thanks to a surge in mobile and video advertising that helped increase quarterly revenue by 23%.
When it comes to smartphone displays, how many pixels is too many? Most of us believe the current crop of 1080p displays shipping with today’s flagships provide more than enough for our handheld devices, but Chinese manufacturer Vivo disagrees.
The company has begun teasing the Xplay3S, its new smartphone that will become the world’s first with a 2K display.
As promised, Microsoft has released its official Remote Desktop app for Android and iOS to coincide with the launch of Windows 8.1. The app is free to download and use, and just like the many third-party remote desktop clients, it allows you to access your Windows PC remotely from your smartphone or tablet.
While you may see the same adverts inside the Facebook app no matter which smartphone you use, those ads are 1,790% more profitable on the iPhone than they are on Android-powered smartphones. That’s according to an analysis of over 200 billion Facebook ads from Nanigans, one of the biggest customers of Facebook ads.
Could you be persuaded to give up your iPhone and switch to Android if you were given a really simple tool to transfer all of your important data? Motorola is certainly hoping so with its new web-based migration tool that takes all of your contacts and calendar events from iCloud and puts them on a Moto X.
Twitter hopes to compete with instant messaging services like WhatsApp and Line with a new app that’s dedicated to direct messaging, AllThingsD reports. The company hopes the move will bring “the long-buried feature to the forefront” and place a new emphasis on its private messaging capabilities.
EE has today announced the U.K.’s first 4G pay-as-you-go plans, as well as its “most affordable” pay monthly 4G packages as it looks to step up its fight against competing 4G services from O2 and Vodafone. They go live on October 30, and they promise to provide Brits with cheaper and easier access to the 4G revolution.
When you’re browsing the web on your mobile, prepare to stumble across new popups that bash the smartphone you’re using.
LG, together with advertising agency M&C Saatchi, has designed intelligent new ads that find out what smartphone you’re using to take trolling to a new level. They’ll pick common faults with your iPhone, your Galaxy S4, or your HTC One — and then tell you why the LG G2 is better.
Google Glass may look pretty absurd in its current form, but its still a first-generation device that’s only available in a limited capacity to developers and a handful of lucky early adopters. But by the time the device is ready for public release in 2014, it will sport a new, lightweight and “cooler” design.
Just a week or so ago, we quoted a Square Enix producer saying that there were a lot of fans in the offices who wanted to see a Final Fantasy VII port happen. But don’t hold your breath, as millions of fans appear to have done, promting Square Enix to set the record straight: it’s years away from happening, if ever.
