Well, it looks like someone forgot to the cue the fanfare. According to a recent report from Android Police, Android 5.1 is already floating around in the wild, just not where you'd expect. The new build - and its currently mysterious changelog - jus...
For all the criticism that Samsung has received for copying Apple over the years, it’s the times when the Korean company has copied itself that have proven most frustrating. Last year’s Galaxy S5 was a bigger version of the prior S4, which was a bigger version of the S III, which wasn’t all that great a smartphone to begin with. This sorry record of repetition caught up with Samsung in 2014 as better and cheaper alternatives undermined the Galaxy line’s dominance of both Android and smartphones in general. Stung by the unfamiliar sight of sales shrinking rather than growing, Samsung promised fundamental change to its smartphone range and the upcoming Galaxy S6 will be the truest embodiment of that reformation.
Samsung’s scale is such...
When Sony announced its new Bravia TVs at CES, it wasn't just the razor-thin form factor that had attendees leaping for joy. At last, Sony had thrown out its own software efforts in favour of Android TV, Google's burgeoning TV platform. Now, we've fo...
As a rule, rogue Android apps don't last long on Google Play -- either Google catches them quickly, or enough people complain that something gets done. That doesn't appear to have happened with a recent batch of apps, though. Antivirus developer Avas...
Pebble was one of the first smartwatch makers to find success (it chalked up its millionth sale late last year), but there's no question that it's facing a lot of pressure. Between Android Wear and the impending Apple Watch, it's not clear that inexp...
In 2007, an Eric Schmidt-led Google made a bizarre announcement: it said it would bid on a swath of extraordinarily valuable wireless spectrum, but only if the FCC committed to a set of rules that would require that any compatible device be able to connect to it without restriction. The move was particularly perplexing because it seemed like Google was undercutting the wireless operators it was trying to partner with in advance of its Android launch. Why would it throw billions at a bid to steal spectrum out from underneath the very companies it was trying to work with?
Early the following year, we had the answer: Google had a policy agenda. It didn’t win any spectrum — most of it went to Verizon — but by placing bids, it accomplished...
Wish your Android device's lock screen was a bit more scenic? Microsoft's Garage team has you covered with Picturesque, then. It pulls the daily image from Bing's homepage and throws it to your phone in addition to adding a box for Redmond's search e...
Lollipop didn't exactly take the Android world by storm when it first launched. Early adoption was slow enough that it made no real impact in usage share stats for the first couple of months. People are starting to take to Google's latest dessert-fla...
It's nothing like the experience you'd get using a Nexus 6 or Moto X Pure Edition, but Verizon Wireless is in the process of rolling out an Android 5.0 software update for Samsung's Galaxy S5. TouchWiz is still here in all its glory, but Samsung says it's made tweaks throughout the software to make it a good match for Google's Material Design. Those include a "brighter look and feel, bold colors, and fluid animation inspired by Material Design," according to Verizon's release notes. Samsung has also switched up the look of its on/off toggle for menus to be closer in line with Lollipop.
People who prefer the stock Android look are sure to scoff at that, but it does seem that Samsung is trying to edge closer to Google's vision when it...
You no longer have to fire up your computer just to give your children some programming lessons from Doctor Who. The BBC's educational coding game, The Doctor and the Dalek, is now available on iPads and Android tablets (both through Amazon and soon ...
In 2012, Michael Frei made a short black-and-white film about strange people who had electrical plugs instead of heads. It was a trippy six-minute-long animated experience that was hard to categorize — and now it's a video game, too.
Plug & Play the game, which is available now on iOS and coming soon to Android, follows the same basic premise as the animated film. (You can watch the whole thing above.) Essentially, it's a series of seemingly unconnected moments — fingers touching, lamps being plugged in, those bizarre plug people having uncomfortably familiar conversations about love and relationships — that link together in some surprising ways. But in the game, those moments are interactive, so it sort of plays out like an animated...
When we placed Samsung's Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 in front of Joseph Volpe, it was all he could do not to roll his eyes. Rather than any headline features, the slate was merely an improvement on the second generation, just with a newer version of Android an...