Chance currently writes for both 9to5Google and 9to5Mac, in addition to 9to5Toys. He has previously written for several other online publications. He uses a Nexus 5, iPhone 5s, iPad Air, Hackintosh, and Macbook Air.
Last week, Motorola began rolling out a soak test for Android 5.0 Lollipop to users of the Moto X Pure Edition, and today it appears Motorola is continuing its soak testing with the second generation Moto G. Several users have reported receiving the update already and Motorola has also published the full release notes on its website (via Android Police).
Google has been using NASA’s Moffett Airfield as a home and launch pad for its private jets for several years now, but today, the company announced that it has singed a deal with NASA in which it will lease the airfield for the next 60 years. Google, via its real estate organization Planetary Ventures, will contribute $1.16 billion to the facilities over the lease, reducing NASA’s operation costs by $6.3 million annually.
Last summer, HTC signed a $12 million deal to bring Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. on board as a brand ambassador, and today, the company announced its latest celebrity spokesperson. In a press release, HTC revealed today that it has signed Seattle Mariners 2nd baseman Robinson Cano to a multi-year brand ambassador agreement.
When the Nexus 6 first went up for order on the Play Store, the process was anything but seamless for customers. The device sold-out almost instantly and Google’s servers took a massive hit, making it nearly impossible for anyone to get through and place an order. If you’re still looking to get your hands on a Nexus 6, however, Google this evening has announced its plans for restocking the device.
NVIDIA’s Shield tablet has quickly become one of the favorites among Android tablet users, and according to a video the company has posted today, it’s about to get even better. NVIDIA today posted a video on its YouTube channel giving us a sneak peek at Android 5.0 Lollipop running on the Shield tablet. Throughout the video, NVIDIA promises that an over-the-air update with Android 5.0 will rollout to Shield users this month.
If you live in the UK and have been feeling left out of all the Nexus 6 madness over the last few days, your wait appears to be almost over. According to mobile retailer Mobiles.co.uk, the Nexus 6 will be available for pre-order in the UK on November 18th. Retail availability will be December 1st, with pre-ordered devices hitting customer doorsteps on that same day.
The Nexus 9 just recently became available in its WiFi-only model, with Google promising an LTE variant sometime this year. Yesterday, however, an HTC-made tablet passed through the FCC carrying the ID NM80P82300 and support for LTE connectivity. Given that the Nexus 9 is manufactured by HTC, it seems more than likely that this device is indeed the LTE-capable Nexus 9.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Samsung is planning to soon create a large office in New York City. Located in Manhattan, the office would be “one of the largest” corporate expansions in New York City in recent years. Citing “multiple real estate executives familiar with the search,” the report claims that Samsung has recently started reaching out to landlords and developers in New York City. The inquires have been about obtaining 1 million square feet of space, which would hold between 5,000 and 7,000 employees.
Continuing its barrage of Android announcements today, Google this evening has announced that developers can now start submitting Android TV apps to the Play Store. This is to be expected as the Nexus Player starts to make its way into the hands of consumers. Google says that in addition to publishing apps exclusively for Android TV onto the Play Store, developers can also extend their existing apps for TV and publish them.
Google today has expanded its Play Music service to a handful of new European countries. The thirteen countries added in today’s expansion are primarily located in Eastern Europe and include Belarus, Bulgaria, and Romania. Residents of these countries will also have access to Google Music’s All Access subscription service in addition the standard Play Store selection.
The full list of all 13 new countries is below:
As always, you can read the full breakdown of what Google services are available in what countries on the company’s support page. It’s certainly nice to see Play Music growing.
Back in September, AT&T announced that it had plans to carry the Moto 360 at “some point in the future,” but left us to guessing for the actual release date of the device. Today, however, the carrier announced in press release that it will begin to offer the Moto 360 smartwatch on November 7th.
An update to Gmail for Android 5.0 Lollipop has been in the works for a long time, with the update promising to pack a plethora of new features and visual enhancements. This evening, after a long wait, the Gmail 5.0 app is now available to download with all the expected features in tow.
Google Glass in movie theaters has long been a topic of debate, with a plethora UK cinemas banning the wearable and at least one U.S. chain doing the same. Today, however, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) issued a statement announcing a new “zero tolerance” policy against wearables in the theatre. The statement says that all wearable devices must be powered off prior to the film beginning, no questions asked.
Continuing the onslaught of Material Design updates over the past few weeks, Google this evening has started rolling out an update to the Google Play Games Android app. As you can guess, the update is packed full of user interface tweaks, making it fit in with Android 5.0 Lollipop.
The update introduces a new icon, as well as themes we’ve seen throughout other Google Material Design updates. There are new colors, new animations, and new fonts. Google describes the update as being “bigger and bolder” than before.
The update is rolling out now via the Play Store, but it is a staged rollout, so it may take a little while to hit your device.
Samsung this evening has officially put the Galaxy Note 4 Developer Edition for Verizon up for sale on its website. The device will set you back $699 off-contract, which when compared to other devices on the market, is not unreasonable at all.
After months and months of inconsistent availability and controversial marketing techniques, the OnePlus One finally went up for official pre-order yesterday. As you’d expect however, the launch did not go as planned. The Chinese company’s site experienced a massive hit in traffic, causing it to be nearly impossible for customers to process an order, and even harder to tell if that order had actually gone through. This evening, OnePlus has published an apologetic blog post, explaining what exactly went wrong yesterday.
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Robin Labs, the developmental team behind mobile assistant platform Robin.AI, has today unveiled their latest project, an app that responds to emails for you. Dubbed Less.Mail, the app handles routine email responses by automatically replying to emails based on how it interprets the message’s initial text.
Last month, Google announced its future plans for Android Wear, including an update with offline music support and GPS functionality. Earlier this week, an update started rolling out to select Android Wear devices, bringing the beginnings of those features, but now Google has officially announced the update in a post on the official Android blog.
Continuing the pre-Android 5.0 Lollipop update extravaganza, Google this evening announced that it has updated the public AppCompat library to version 21. For those unfamiliar, this essentially means that it will allow for a more Material Design look and feel in apps on devices running pre-Lollipop versions of Android. This concept is exactly what we’ve been seeing in recent Google app updates, giving us the look of Material Design without running Android 5.0.
AppCompat (aka ActionBarCompat) started out as a backport of the Android 4.0 ActionBar API for devices running on Gingerbread, providing a common API layer on top of the backported implementation and the framework implementation. AppCompat v21 delivers an API and feature-set that is up-to-date with Android 5.0
Hot on the heels of the T-Mobile HTC One M8 receiving the update this morning, Verizon has announced that it will begin rolling out the EYE Experience update to its One M8 as early as tomorrow. HTC’s VP of Product Management made the announcement via Twitter this evening, saying that the update is currently slated to begin rolling out tomorrow, October 22nd, at noon.
Following this morning’s report that Android Wear 2.0 would drop on November 3rd, Android Police now reports that Google is planning to release Android 5.0 Lollipop to a trio of Nexus devices on that same day. The report claims that Lollipop will hit the 2012 WiFi-only Nexus 7, the 2013 WiFi-only Nexus 7, and the Nexus 10 on November 3rd.
Google this evening has announced a new Chrome extension that ties directly in with Google Translate. The new extension allows you to highlight a piece of text on a web page and then click the Translate icon that pops up. Alternatively, you can right-click on a phrase and choose “Google Translate” from the list of options.
Finally, the extension also adds a Translate button to the upper right corner of your browser window. Hitting that will Translate the entire webpage.
Simply highlight the text that you want to translate, and then click the Translate icon that appears. You can also right-click and choose “Google Translate”. If you click the icon in the upper right of your browser window, with no text highlighted, you can translate the entire web page.
The new Google Translate Chrome extension is available now from the Chrome Web Store for free. If you had the previous version of the extension installed, it will update automatically.
Earlier today it was reported that Google would finally unveil the Nexus 6 for all to see tomorrow, October 15th. Thanks a variety of leaks, including one of our own, we already know almost everything about it except for pricing and carrier availability. This evening, however, AT&T appears to have inadvertently outed the device on its website, revealing some of that information.
Earlier today, Verizon sent out invites to an October 28th press event for its unveiling of the DROID Turbo, but thanks to leak from Android Central, we now know everything there is to know about the device. The report claims that the device will be available in classic Verizon red and black variants with 32GB of internal storage.