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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

Meet the first all-in-one Windows-style desktop that runs Android

Image Source: AOC

Hardcore Android fans already know what Jide is. It’s the company behind Remix OS, the Windows-style Android operating system that can be installed on any computer, regardless what OS it runs. In addition to offering its desktop Android reboot free of charge to anyone looking for Android on their computer, the company has introduced Remix OS devices of its own in the past. Now, Jide has partnered with AOC to launch a standalone all-in-one PC that runs Android out of the box.

ZTE’s upcoming flagship could make Samsung worried

ZTE’s first Axon smartphone was everything we’ve come to expect from China’s no-brand smartphone manufacturers: cheap, powerful, and basically boring. If these leaked specs are true (and the price stays close to $250), this could cause more problems ufor the status quo.
More: http://bgr.com/2016/05/13/zte-axon-7-android-smartphone/

New OnePlus 3 render leak shows off gorgeous design that resembles the HTC 10

Evan Blass, also known as @evleaks, has published a new render for theOnePlus 3 showing off a good looking handset that resembles the HTC 10 to a certain degree. And that's not a bad thing. Also according to Blass is the fact that this particular smartphone will have an AMOLED display and a 3000mAh battery to power everything.
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ASUS teases upcoming Zenfone lineup ahead of Computex debut

ASUS has released a teaser trailer for the upcoming ZenFone 3, which is set to be announced during Computex 2016. The company is expected to unveil the next Zen smartphone on May 30, which will occur just before the main Computex event kicks off on the following day.

It's likely we'll see the ZenFone 3, and possibly a ZenFone 3 Deluxe. There's also a third device shown in the teaser but we're unsure as to what this could be. Sound off your thoughts in the comments.

Source: AndroidCentral

Moto G4 and G4 Plus specs

At a media event in New Delhi, Lenovo unveiled the Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus. Both phones are aimed at the budget segment, and offer Full HD displays for the first time. The octa-core Snapdragon 617 SoC powers both handsets, with the key differentiator being the fingerprint sensor, which is present on the G4 Plus. The standard G4 comes with 2GB of RAM and 16GB storage, while the G4 Plus is available with 3GB of RAM and 32GB storage...Read more

T-Mobile adds Google Play Music, Spotify, Qello Concerts and more to BingeOn

T-Mobile has announced that it has once again added a number of new BingeOn partners. This marks the fifth expansion of the service in the six months since its release, and it holds some big name additions. While some of these previously allowed music streaming under Music Freedom, they now offer unlimited video streaming as well

A list of new providers includes:

• Google Play Music
• Great Big Story
• NBC
• Kiswe
• Ligonier Ministries
• NOGGIN
• Qello Concerts
• Radio Disney
• Univision
• Univision Noticias
• Spotify
• TIDAL
• Toon Goggles

The carrier says that more than 377 million hours of video have been streamed without using the customers mobile data allotments and that people are watching up to twice as much content from the providers in the program. Are you a fan of T-Mobile's BingeOn, or do you have it disabled? Let us know in the comments!

Source: Androidcentral.com

T-Mobile adds Google Play Music, Spotify, Qello Concerts and more to BingeOn

Samsung Galaxy S5 Broadband LTE-A updating to Marshmallow in South Korea

Samsung’s Galaxy S5 represented the last efforts of the Korean conglomerate’s attempt to push plastic flagships for premium prices. While the device didn’t quite live up to performance expectations, it would be followed by last year’s glass-glued Galaxy, and this year’s seventh heaven...Read more

Koushik Dutta pulls Vysor due to patent licensing demand from MPEG LA (Update: it’s back!)

Update (May 16): After just two days of being offline, Koushik Dutta has figured out a way to bring Vysor back to the Chrome Web Store.

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The developer says almost 20,000 people use Vysor each day, half of which use it over 4 hours per day. Obviously this meant getting the app back online was a priority. It is changing a bit, though, so here’s what you need to know going forward.

Vysor is now a subscription app. If you don’t want to pay, you’ll still have the ability to mirror and control your Android device from Chrome, and also take screenshots. A Vysor Pro subscription, which costs $1.99/month or $9.99/year, gets you high quality mirroring, fullscreen mode, Vysor Share, the ability to drag and drop files, and access to all future features. The dev also says he removed the infringing h264 decoder and switched to Chrome’s Pepper VideoDecoder introduced in Chrome 48.

Interested in trying out Vysor for yourself? Head to the link below to get started.

DOWNLOAD VYSOR FROM THE CHROME WEB STORE

Xiaomi unveils YI 4K action camera

Xiaomi has just unveiled the successor to their YI camera, which now includes the ability to record in 4K. The latest version of the camera is aptly named the YI 4K Action Camera and it hopes to compete with the GoPro Hero series and other similarly spec’d action cams...read more

You can now sign up to beta test Pokémon Go in the US by: BOGDAN PETROVAN 4 HOURS AGO 75 13

If you like Pokémon and spending time outside, The Pokémon Company and Alphabet’s Niantic Labs would like to have a word with you.

The long awaited Pokémon Go is now accepting beta users in the United States. You can sign up for the privilege right here and, if selected, you’ll get to shape the development of the Pokémon-themed augmented reality game ahead of its release later this year...Read more

Samsung updates the Galaxy S7’s Always on Display to allow for time settings

This year, both Samsung and LG sought to bring the marvelous magic of Always on Display functionality to their flagship handsets. The idea behind the thinking is that users will be able to check the time and notifications simply by looking at their phone’s display even when it’s turned off. Whereas LG’s implementation allows a bit more usability in terms of what kinds of notifications are displayed, Samsung’s can at least take advantage of AMOLED display technology, which only uses power to display non-black pixels.

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Seidio SURFACE with Metal Kickstand Case for Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

   
  

Product Description

Deal of the Day Tue 17th May 2016 Only while stocks last!

The SURFACE with Metal Kickstand for your Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge has been redesigned to make it even better and still kept the sleek design you have come to know and love. The SURFACE with Metal Kickstand features an amazingly thin, shock absorbent TPU inner layer that completely encases your phone and features our Hexguard™ Technology that provides extra cushioning during impact. An outer Polycarbonate layer slides into place, like our original SURFACE design, protecting against scratches and abrasions while our sleek glossed texture gives an elegant look and feel to the device. The SURFACE with Metal Kickstand offers an unmatched combination of durable protection, sleek design, and elegant finish...Read more