Without a shadow of a doubt, 2014 marked the entrance of a countless number of apps that landed on all major app repositories - Google's Play Store, Apple's App Store, and the Windows Phone Store. If we have to be completely honest, the majority of these are nothing to write home about, but then again, a wide range of quality ones debuted as well. As usual, however, separating the wheat from the chaff is a cumbersome task.
Google, in particular, decided to make the latter a tad easier for the numerous fans of the Android platform, as Mountain View just highlighted the more notable ...
If you’ve installed Android 5.0 Lollipop on your device (or you’ve bought a device that runs Lollipop out of the box) and you’re not happy with the default SMS app, you can easily change it. You can choose to set Hangouts as your default messaging app, or try out third-party apps - there are plenty of them available via Google Play.
The carrier that has single-handedly transformed the industry in the US in less than two years has put together a tidy little Cyber Monday offering focused on, you guessed it, the iPhone.
This isn't the first time we put a Japanese cell phone under the spotlight, and it surely won't be the last. That's because Japan is home to a great number of unique and exotic handsets – handsets that a gadget lover might be curious about. Here's an excellent example of that – the Fujitsu F-04B Separate Keitai.
If you have ever had the good fortune to spend any amount of time in Japan, you might have noticed that TV programming is a whole different animal there. It is entertaining, the news is informative, and there is food everywhere.
The horde that is consumer shoppers trampling the retail landscape in pursuit of material items after a day of giving thanks is oxymoronic for sure. For businesses in the United States however, particularly smaller shops, Black Friday has shown to be the day that can change the entire year’s outlook.
There are two parts to this deal, well three parts really. First is the sale price of Google Chromecast which is good through Cyber Monday, making the dongle an even better deal than it already was at $25.
If you have decided to take a trip to the land of custom ROMs and Android hacking in general, you’d need to take one first step - flash (install) a custom recovery. In this article, we explain what exactly is a ‘custom recovery’, how you install it, and what are some popular solutions.
Back in March, I asked a relatively simple question: would any 2014 flagships actually surprise us in any way? I felt it was a fairly reasonable question because the daily deluge of rumors and the general trend of simply iterating hardware has led to us knowing quite a bit about what to expect whenever a flagship is on the way. With the release of the Nexus 6 and the start of the holiday season, we have seen the last of the 2014 flagships released; so, it seems like a good time look back and see if there really were any surprises throughout the year.
If this rollout of the Android 5.0 Lollipop update seemed more surreal compared to previous updates, you are probably not alone in the that feeling. Even with a couple unexpected obstacles though, the HTC One Google Play Edition devices are in final testing with the Lollipop update in Google’s quality assurance labs and will get updated before most other Android powered smartphones.
People that are not into making Vines or passing along Snapchat images may not see the point in these videos. However, Rudy Mancuso, who gets millions of loops off his 6-second videos, and Shaun “Shonduras” McBride, who adds a creative touch to photo images that he blasts across the ether, provide a very interesting perspective to this active segment of social media.
When it comes to social networking, there is Facebook and Twitter. LinkedIn is growing methodically through its focus on professional networking, and smaller services like Ello or Socl are GIF factories of sorts.
When it comes to gadgets and accessories, there is Japan, and then there is the rest of the world. When a nation has pushed technology like Japan has over the past generation, the result is seeing commonplace use of products that are still considered an outlier in other markets.
If you have a knack for Software Engineering and you like big displays, Microsoft wants you. The company has been looking to unify the experience of its main Windows operating system with its gaming and mobile platforms, and the progress thus far has been admirable.
iPhones have never given users the option of expanding storage with a microSD card. As the generations have advanced over the past few years, native storage options have increased, but for many, the 16GB iPhone was the affordable option as well as the practical one.
The devices under the Google umbrella have been having a bit of a rough time with the Android 5.0 Lollipop update so far. The Nexus devices have all been receiving the update on the usual roll out timeline (even though that timeline still annoys some users), but the Google Play edition devices have been seeing delays. It looks like the kinks may have been worked out though, because the LG G Pad 8.3 GPe Lollipop roll out has begun.
By and large, mobile rate plans in many markets have gone the route of “unlimited” with the exception of data in some cases. There are some pre-paid plans among the larger carriers that count voice minutes in their plans, but they are few and far between.
While smartphones with swivel / rotating / flippable cameras are becoming more and more popular (at least in Asia), there’s not a single model to run Windows Phone - they’re all based on Android. Probably with that in mind, Phone Designer created a concept smartphone called Spinner, which is based on Windows Phone and includes a rotating camera.
The HTC Desire 620, of which we told you earlier this week, has been officially announced in Taiwan - HTC’s home country. The new handset has two versions: the Desire 620 (featuring LTE connectivity and a 64-bit quad-core Snapdragon 410 processor clocked at 1.2 GHz), and the Desire 620G (this one doesn’t support LTE, and is powered by a 1.3 GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6592 processor).
OnePlus is getting ready to launch its One smartphone in India, planning to start selling it on December 2 there. Until that happens, the company has an important announcement for fans: its handset won’t be supported by Cyanogen in India. This means that, although the OnePlus One will be launched running CyanogenMod, it won’t be receiving any CyanogenMod updates. Fortunately, OnePlus will deliver software updates by itself.
While it hasn’t been officially introduced in the US, Microsoft’s Lumia 535 can be bought by US customers thanks to Expansys, which currently sells the smartphone for $169.99. That’s not a high price, but it’s more than what folks in India have to pay for the device: $149.
Ever wondered what it would be like if you could run Android on your Windows PC? Maybe yes, or maybe not, but the reality is that many of your peers certainly have. And where there's demand, there's also usually supply.
Chainfire's SuperSU app, one of the most popular "poweruser" tools for Android, which allows you to gain root access and manage root permissions for the apps that might need it, has just been updated with a substantial update. The most recent version of the app, 2.35, is the first full update ever since 2.01, which rolled out in the beginning of June.
Wallpapers are the one thing everyone has totally sorted out on their smartphones and tablets, regardless of what OS they run, what kind of display they have, which processor powers then, and other kinds of variables. In this day and age, you can choose among hundreds of apps with pre-selected backgrounds of various themes, or install a wallpaper generator app that turns clever algorithms into random, unique graphic patterns. This is what we're going to do right now, and our tools of choice will be PolyGen for Android & Crystals Wallpaper for iOS. Sounds like fun, no?
Android 5.0 Lollipop is already upon us, gracing select devices either officially or unofficially (courtesy of the tireless Android developers that have worked towards this). It comes to no surprise that select Sony models already run Lollipop (take the Sony Xperia L, for example); what's more, Sony has already revealed that a large number of its most recent and not-so-recent handsets will get the newest Android. Among these was the Sony Xperia Z Ultra, the large, 6.4" behemoth of a phablet that made the rounds roughly a year and a half ago.
Last week, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun declared that his company could become the world’s largest smartphone maker in 5 - 10 years, dethroning Samsung and Apple from the top. Of course, in order to get there, Xiaomi needs to establish itself as a top handset maker in key markets. The company is already hugely successful in China (its home country), and it’s also doing great in India. However, Xiaomi has problems meeting demand in foreign markets.
Seeing that its recently-started Indiegogo campaign is hugely successful, Jolla today added three new stretch goals, which, if reached, will enhance the upcoming Jolla Tablet.
Gionee is a Chinese handset maker known in the Western world for releasing two smartphones that were, at the time of their launch, the thinnest on the market: the Elife S5.5 and the Elife E5.1. Now, Gionee is getting ready to introduce another interesting smartphone: the world's first to sport two 1080p displays.
Not long after announcing the Lumia 535 as its very first own-branded Windows Phone handset, Microsoft this week started selling the device (more exactly, its dual SIM variant) in India. As far as we know, this is the first market where the 535 becomes available.
All things considered, the Android One initiative that Google announced several months ago is a pretty attractive undertaking that's hard to be beaten, at least on the entry-level market. After all, what's not to like - stock, unaltered Android combined with a mind-bogglingly low price tag. Well, the limited availability of the Android One devices is one of the downsides, but after all, the initiative was intended for India. At least initially, that is.
The next smartphone in HTC's Desire series - you know, the one that's about the "everything else" in "flagships, carrier-branded devices, and everything else" - seems to be the new HTC Desire 620. Bulgarian website Nixanbal.com managed to get its hands on it and presented the device for the rest of us. The original article has been pulled down from the media, but a cached version is still available.
Chinese media ETNews reported that the Samsung Galaxy A5, the successor of the Galaxy Alpha and the next step in establishing the A-series smartphones, will have its launch in China postponed. A Samsung Electronics official said that the company won't be able to launch the product in November, because of delays in manufacturing process. The launch is now expected to happen in December.
When it comes to really good concepts and ideas for iOS' future development, Ralph Theodory is second to none. Brought to you by the man that "ported" the Apple Watch round springboard to iOS 8 before the device is even remotely close to shipping, this iOS 9 concept video explores some seriously cool ideas that we feel are very worthy of Apple's consideration. Some of them make so much sense that we can't help but think they must have been tossed on the table at Cupertino at least a couple of times before they were axed out of the operating system.
When we're talking about value propositions, we tend to avoid the word "cheap" as people often get the wrong vibe off of it. But when we saw how much IUNI, Gionee's high-end brand, is nowadays charging for its U2, we felt like tagging it as simply "affordable" wouldn't do the aluminum-built device justice. Some of you might remember IUNI from a previous piece of ours covering the U3, but right now we're talking about the company's previous flagship.
Less than a year after introducing the Slate 6 VoiceTab, HP released its successor: the Slate 6 VoiceTab II. The only differences that we can spot right now between the new tablet and the old model are related to the software version, and the rear camera. The Slate 6 VoiceTab II runs Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box (instead of 4.2 Jelly Bean like the original tablet), and comes with an 8 MP rear camera (instead of a 5 MP one). The rest of the features seem to have remained unchanged, including: 3G connectivity, a 6-inch IPS display with 720 x 1280 pixels, 2 MP front-facing camera, a quad-core 1.2 GHz Marvell PXA1088 processor, 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of expandable storage space, and a 3000 mAh Li-Po battery. The device obviously has voice-calling capabilities, and even offers support for two SIM cards.
It's Thanksgiving! You might feel nostalgia hit you as you return home and meet your family. You might also feel extra-annoyed by grandma's endless questioning of your clothes, hair, job, language, relationship, and other mundane topics between turkey bites. In times like these, you can pull out your smartphone or tablet and immerse yourself in a video game you remember sinking hours of your childhood into, but have forgotten to revisit as a grown-up. So here's 12 of those good old games, preserved in their original, iconic state, but revamped to look good and play better than ever on our mobile ...
For the most part, the handsets we encounter at the FCC are easy to recognize. That's because the documents include quite a bit of clues for us to work with, including their model numbers, width and height, labels, drawings, and software specifications. This time, however, we're not entirely sure which phone just got the FCC's thumbs-up.