Cam Bunton, Editor at 9to5Google – Cam has been passionate about tech since his dad bought the family’s first Commodore AMIGA back in the late 80’s. He’s been in the tech industry (writing and making videos) since 2010, and joined 9to5Google as the resident video producer and product reviewer in 2015. He sometimes writes news and reviews for 9to5Mac too.
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In a product announcement in which it gave credit to Amazon Alexa, Google today teased Google Home, a device which brings the newly announced Assistant in to the home. Design-wise, it looks very similar to the OnHub, and is customizable and incredibly versatile. “It will let anyone in the family, kids or adults, have a conversation with Google”…
When LG announced the new G5 at its launch event in Barcelona back in February, it also launched a handful of ‘Friends’ to work alongside the smartphone. One of them was the 360 CAM, which is essentially a 360-degree camera, and we’ve been sent a unit to check out.
Nokia Technologies announced in a press release this morning that it has signed an agreement with HMD global to build “a new generation of Nokia-branded mobile phones and tablets.” Although we don’t know exactly what flavour of Android, or how heavily skinned it will be, Nokia’s announcement states that Google’s mobile OS will be powering the new devices.
Update: There’s also a smaller, less powerful version called the Moto G Play coming to the States with a 2,800mAh battery. It’s powered by a Snapdragon 410 processor, has a 5-inch 720p display, 2GB RAM, water repellent coating, 8MP rear camera, 5MP front snapper and 16GB internal storage (expandable to 128GB via MicroSD.
Lenovo took to the stage this morning at an event in New Delhi, India, where it took the wraps off the latest generation Moto G smartphones. Unlike previous years, the Moto G is not a small, one-handed device. Instead, this year’s Moto G range features two versions and both are equipped with large 5.5-inch displays…
A fresh press render has leaked this morning courtesy of the fount-of-all-leaks, Evan Blass, showing the OnePlus 3 in a much more flattering light than the recent prototype leaks. The image seemingly confirms OnePlus’ move away from the replaceable plastic rear panels, with the company intent on releasing a metal-bodied device.
A couple of months ago, Google launched an Android Experiments competition. Three winners would win a trip to this year’s Google I/O conference, including a $5,000 budget towards lodging and food, while five runners-up would each receive a Nexus 6P. Google has now announced who those winners are, and updated its Experiments page with the winning projects…
Well-known leaker, Even Blass has produced yet another render of the next generation Moto G, this time it’s the regular model without a fingerprint sensor on the front panel. If accurate, it virtually confirms the previous speculation that this year’s G-series Moto phones will be available in regular and ‘Plus’ variants.
One of the undoubted benefits of USB Type-C is the fact that it’s reversible. It doesn’t matter which way around it is, you can just shove it in your phone and know it’ll work. Of course, it has other benefits too, which is why Samsung’s decision not to use it in the Galaxy S7 series was a little puzzling. Still, you can at the very least get the reversible factor using the right cable. One available option is the SCOSCHE reversible light-up Micro USB which I’ve had for the past month or so.
References to the previously-rumored Android VR headset have been found in the Android Developer Console, suggesting the device’s launch is indeed imminent. Developers logging in to the tool are now seeing an option for Android VR appear alongside the pre-existing Android Auto, Android TV and Android Wear options.
You may remember a little while back it was revealed that Google has been feeding its neural networks steamy romance novels to read. The aim through this exercise was to teach it to produce more human-like responses in order to power its search results and ‘smart reply’ systems.
As well as forcing its neural networks to digest more than 11,000 unpublished books (3,000 of which were romance), Google Brain’s engineers have also been teaching it to relate two unique phrases to each other. As revealed in a Quartz article, the method was fairly straightforward and resulted in some really weird, romantic, dark ‘poetry’.
When Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S7 Edge, they also showed off some official accessories. Some of them we’d seen before, while others have been redesigned to fit the Galaxy S7 Edge. I decided to check out the new S-View Cover, keyboard case and wireless charger built by Samsung specifically for its newer devices.
We’re coming to the end of the regular football (soccer) season in Europe, which means we still have some of the biggest competition finals to look forward to. Specifically, the Champions League and Europa League finals.
While BT won the rights to show the European competition games live on its paid BT Sport channels on TV, it has opted to open up the finals to a larger audience. For the first time, we’ll be able to watch both finals for free on YouTube.
While Android Pay has been alive in the US for some time now, Google is yet to launch its mobile payments system across the pond in the UK. Back in March they stated that the service would go live ‘within months’, but it appears Barclays has beaten them to market. Having already announced that it won’t be supporting Android Pay, the popular bank today announced a new Android-based mobile payment service which will go live next month.
T-Mobile has announced this morning that it will be offering the brand new HTC 10 through its own direct channels from May 18th. Customers will be able to pick one up in store, or online and can snag a free rapid charger and ICE View case if you buy it soon enough.
Just days after the first batch of OnePlus 3 leaks surfaced, more have appeared on Chinese social networking site, Weibo. This time, the device is shown completely case-less, with the boot-up screen clearly showing the OnePlus logo.
At this point it seems safe to assume that the third-generation device from OnePlus will indeed be this OnePlus 2/HTC One crossover.
Update: According to the store’s forums, Woot has been shipping customers 16GB refurbished or ‘open box’ versions instead of the 32GB new version advertised in their original listing. If yours hasn’t shipped yet, be sure to check your device as soon as it comes to make sure you have been sent the storage capacity advertised. If you get the incorrect version, get in touch with Woot for a solution. They’re aware of the issue, a Woot staff member posted the following message:
Hey all. Good morning. I know you’re upset and we are as well. We are working hard to figure out what all happened with this.
As soon as we get it all sorted out, I’ll post here and you’ll get an email from CS as well.
I’m so sorry for this and please know that I’m working to keep on top of it.
Online retailer Woot has a one day only offer on the unlocked LG Nexus 5 in new condition with 32GB storage. For those of you who have been looking out for a pure Android smartphone on a budget, today’s offer on 2014’s Nexus may be too good to miss.
Huawei has taken the wraps off its latest Honor smartphone in China and, if the spec list is anything to go by, this could be one of the best-equipped affordable smartphones around. With a 5.7-inch screen, high-end processor, fingerprint sensor, dual cameras and a premium metal build, the Honor V8 looks astonishing for its starting price of 2299 yuan ($352).
Following a third straight quarterly operating loss in its mobile division, LG’s CEO Cho Juno sent an email out to employees informing them that the company needs “to change the way we work to move faster and lighter”.
In practice, this means moving people out of its mobile division, and on to other divisions where the company has been more successful. The news comes via The Korea Herald, and comes as no surprise.
Xiaomi, this morning, took the wraps off its latest affordable metal-clad flagship. The Mi Max, as the name suggests, is a big phone, but Xiaomi claims it still comfortably fits in a pocket. With its 6.44-inch display, it’s easily the largest phone in the Chinese manufacturer’s lineup and comes with some incredible specs for the sub-$300 price.
Lenovo announced today that it will be bringing its second annual Tech World to San Francisco on June 9th. As well as bringing together some industry leaders to discuss the latest developments in virtual reality, smart connected devices and cloud technology, Lenovo will launch some new products. One of them will be the first consumer Project Tango-equipped Android smartphone.
T-Mobile announced via an official blog post this morning that it has inked a deal with ETECSA (Empresa De Telecomunicaciones De Cuba, S.A), a Cuban telecoms company, to offer cheaper calls to Cuba from the US, and offer roaming there for the first time.
For many, many years, whenever you search for anything on Google, chances are that you see a sea of blue unread links fill your web browser. Unless you’re in China, that is, in which case you see red ones.
Still, blue web links have been a feature within Google Search for a long time. So it comes as something of a minor shock to see that the company is now testing a new color: black.
HTC has published its financial results for Q1 2016 and things continue to look bleak for the once-giant of the smartphone world. The company made a loss of NT $4.8 billion ($148 million) on revenues of NT $14.8 billion ($455 million). Despite that, the company is predicting a strong 2016, thanks to the recent launch of its flagship smartphone and the market-leading Vive VR headset.
