Creative rises from the dead to try and destroy Android

Creative rises from the dead to try and destroy Android

Do you remember Creative? In the early 2000s, the company had a brief period of being cool, as its Zen MP3 players were the anti-establishment alternative to the iPod. These days, the Singapore-based company mostly makes gaming headsets and computer speakers — nothing to do with smartphones, in other words. But thanks to a complaint filed against every big Android phone manufacturer, Creative has quietly declared war on Android.

The complaint is filed against a who’s-who of Android smartphones: Samsung, LG, HTC, BlackBerry, Sony, ZTE, Lenovo and Motorola. The issue at hand is music players: all the phones have ’em, and Creative has a patent it thinks is being infringed on. Specifically, all the phones are capable of “playing stored media files selected by a user from a hierarchical display.”

MORE →

iPhone vs. Android: Which phones are more likely to fail?

For the second consecutive quarter, a study has determined that Apple’s line of iPhones is far more stable than Androidhandsets. Mobile diagnostics company Blancco Technology Group on Wednesday released the results of an updated study that looks to determine which phones stand up best to the test of time and continue to function without failing.

As was the case with the firm’s last study, Blancco found a huge disparity in reliability when comparing the two platforms.MORE →

Images of all the new emoji that might be coming soon to your smartphone

Images of all the new emoji that might be coming soon to your smartphone

Typically when a new emoji proposal comes over the wire, it’s not worth diving too deep into because there are no guarantees that the Unicode Consortium will approve any or all of the new suggestions. In the case of a new proposal making waves on Wednesday morning, however, an exception should be made for two reasons:

First, the new emoji set aims to empower women by offering two sets of the same emoji, one male and one female. Second, they’ll almost certainly be approved by the consortium because one of the people behind the new proposal is Google’s Mark Davis, who just so happens to be the president of the Unicode Consortium.MORE →

Google I/O 2016 preview: All the biggest announcements you can expect next week

Google I/O 2016 preview: All the biggest announcements you can expect next week

Every year during the spring and summer months, Android and Apple users alike are given a glimpse into the future of their respective mobile operating systems. Apple of course has WWDC which is slated to take place in June and Google will kick things off one month earlier when its annual I/O developers conference kicks off next week on May 18.

What makes Google’s I/O conference arguably more interesting and exciting than WWDC is that there’s a whole lot more to cover. While Apple will predictably cover the future of iOS and OS X, Google, as it’s prone to do, will cover an incredible array of products and technologies, hardly a surprise given how many different pots Google has its hands in these days. Indeed, Google’s broadening interest in all facets of technology – and even science – is what prompted the company to rename and restructure itself under the Alphabet umbrella.

All that said, we are eagerly anticipating Google to make a number of interesting announcements that extend far beyond the company’s upcoming Android N update. From a rumored VR headset to more information regarding a Project Tango smartphone, the collective eyes of the tech world will understandably be laser focused on all things Google I/O next week.

MORE

Google Translate for Android just got way more useful

Google Translate for Android just got way more useful

There’s an update out for Google’s Android Translate app that you should definitely go download. Rather than just working in the dedicated app, Translate for Android now works its magic system-wide, letting you translate text from WhatsApp, emails, or any app you can think of.

Tap to Translate is a new feature that lets you translate text from any app system-wide, without needing to flip back into the Translate app. Simply copy text from any app, and a little Translate button will appear. Tap it, and you’ll get a translation of whatever you highlighted. It works with 103 different languages, and will even function offline. Best of all, since the update is to the Translate app, and not part of Android, you don’t have to wait for your device manufacturer to include the update. Provided that you’re running Android 4.2 or up, you just need to nab the latest update from the Play Store.

MORE →

The most popular Android apps of all time

The most popular Android apps of all time

On March 6th, 2012, Googleofficially launched Google Play in order to consolidate its mobile stores and compete more effectively with Apple’s App Store. Four years later, Android has seen explosive growth in the apps department, with revenue climbing by a massive 35x in that timespan.

This week, analytics firm App Annie took a look back at the past four years to see which apps have contributed most to that astounding growth.

MORE →

Instagram releases completely redesigned iPhone app

Surprise: Instagram just released a major update to its iPhone app that completely changes the look of the world’s most popular photo-sharing app. We saw some hints that the Facebook-owned app was testing a pretty dramatic redesign, and early peeks at the new layout were universally praised by users. It looks like the redesign was so well-received that Instagram decided to move forward, and the new design is now available to all iPhone users.read more