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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Verizon customers still clinging on to their grandfathered unlimited data plans will shortly face a $20 price hike. The wireless carrier confirmed to CNET that it plans to raise the price of its old unlimited plan, meaning grandfathered customers will face a monthly data plan charge of $49. The price increase will take place once each individual contract expires…
With several companies having recently announced brand new flagship phones in time for the holiday season, you may be tempted to go all out and get the latest, biggest and best phones available. Samsung released the Galaxy S6 Edge plus and Note 5, LG announced the V10, and Google’s Nexus range got an update. But, with those new, shiny phones out at full price comes the depreciation of slightly less shiny and new phones which are still very much flagships in their own right.
We’ve rounded up some of this year’s flagships, all of which have seen discounts (some more generous than others) with the arrival of the newest devices…
Hangouts 4.0 hasn’t been around that long, but according to a tip from Derek Ross, version 5.0 will be launching imminently with a handful of important improvements. Most of the improvements seem to center around speed and efficiency. Ross posted the following list of features to his Google+ profile, suggesting we might see some visual differences as well as performance improvements:
Visual changes include a new Hangouts splash screen as well as making the ‘signed in as’ pop-up white, giving it a cleaner look. What’s more, GIFs now work for the first time, so you’ll be able to annoy your friends and contacts with animated pictures, if you like.
We’re not sure when the update is going to drop, but the last couple of points are a good indication that it’s coming very soon. The Dogfood icon being removed suggests that internal testing is completed and that it’s ready for public use.
The ASUS ZenPad S 8.0 is the company’s latest attempt to bring us a competitively priced product at an affordable price. The 2GB RAM model featured in the video costs just $211 in the US (£199 in the UK) and packs a 2K resolution 8-inch display, a quad-core Intel Atom processor, 8MP f/2.0 rear camera and Android Lollipop, all in a device which looks and feels fantastic…
With Google having recently announced the brand new LG and Huawei-made Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P, it could be the perfect time to pick up last year’s “Pure Android” flagship. The Motorola Nexus 6 recently got dropped to just $349 on Amazon, but a third-party reseller on eBay has just undercut that price by a cool $50. You can buy last year’s stock Android flagship for just $299.
As far as specs go, the Nexus 6 still holds up really well. In fact, it’s still my daily driver. That’s mostly to do with how smoothly it runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow which I’ve been running since Dev Preview 2. It has a huge 5.9-inch QuadHD display, stereo front-facing speakers, 3220mAh battery with QuickCharge and Qi charging support along with Snapdragon’s powerful quad-core 805-series processor.
The eBay listing notes that quantities are limited, so if you’re wanting to snag the N6 as cheaply as possible, you should do so before inventory vanishes.
Samsung’s gigantic upcoming tablet has cropped up online more than once in recent times. The most recent rumor indicated that the device, code-named ‘Tahoe’, will be released as the Samsung Galaxy View and sport whopping 18.4-inch display. An FCC filing reveals more about the as-yet-unreleased tablet from Samsung, including its dimensions, some previously unknown features and which carrier it’s likely heading to…
Early this summer, Sony announced a new Concept for Android software testing scheme in which it invited owners in specific markets, and with specific handsets, to test out new concept software. Seemingly it went well for Sony, as it announced this morning that it’s opening up a similar program for Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
Users with the Xperia Z3 or Z3 Compact in a number of countries will be able to apply to join the program. This news comes just a day after the manufacturer released its long list of devices which should receive Marshmallow over the coming months.
One of the most hotly-anticipated handsets of this year was finally made official recently, although little was said about its internal specs. All we know (officially) is that the BlackBerry PRIV will be an Android smartphone, and it will be a portrait slider with a physical QWERTY keyboard with “flagship specs”. Apart from a couple of official press renders, and a bungled hands-on demo by the chief, BlackBerry hasn’t been keen too share all the details with us yet.
A new leak from N4BB suggests strongly that early rumors of a focus on camera performance are accurate. The 18MP camera on the back purportedly features Schneider-Kreuznach optics and can record in 4K resolution at 30fps. It can also film 1080p at 720p at both 30fps and 60fps.
Although we don’t know exactly what processor is inside the PRIV, the leak suggests that it will be a 64-bit processor. There have been rumors previously stating that it will be the Snapdragon 808 hexa-core chip, the same processor found in the LG G4, Moto X Pure and LG Nexus 5X. BlackBerry then seemingly among the many manufacturers keen to avoid the overheating Snapdragon 810.
Previous leaks showed that the software would be a customized version of Android, keeping many stock elements but adding some of BlackBerry’s own popular tools and features like the notification Hub. Another piece of software being installed is a program called BlackBerry Safeguard which shows you how secure your BlackBerry PRIV is. In it, users can manage what information apps have access to and how they’re using it, and gives you warnings if there are settings you can change to make your device more secure.
We’ve heard before that PRIV = Privacy and Privilege. Security is a big focus for BlackBerry and its enterprise services are among some of the most-trusted on the planet. In the past, BlackBerry’s chief did state that they’d only release an Android phone if they could make it secure. It seems then that it has, and that BlackBerry Safeguard is just one of the ways which the company will secure the Google-powered device.
Android 6.0 Marshmallow was finally made available for the public to download, and with it comes a host of new features. Although they’re not all visibly obvious, they’re welcome changes nonetheless. We’ve rounded up our ten favorite inclusions in this year’s new operating system.
Google finally made Android 6.0 Marshmallow available to download for Nexus users yesterday, and as it did, its previous newest version of the OS reached 23.5% of current connected Android devices. That means Google’s “sweetest update yet” jumped 2.5% over the past few weeks.
As Android 6.0 launches, we’re still in a position where most users on Google’s mobile OS are using a version that’s at least two years old. A huge 38.9% are using Android 4.4 KitKat (launched in 2013), while just over 30% are using one of the three versions of Jelly Bean, which was initially released way back in 2012. To put it bluntly, that means that the previously most recent version of Android was only the third most popular OS.
We’re used to Apple poking fun at Android during its iOS announcements every year, and we’ve read just about every angle there is going on the fragmentation argument, but stats like this won’t do anything to help Google’s cause. Realizing that more than three quarters of its user base are still running 2+ year-old versions of software can’t be a good thing. It’s part of the reason Google announced the Android One program last year.
Android One devices are typically very budget-friendly smartphones made available in developing markets which — like the higher end Nexus phones — get the latest software as soon as it’s available. Marshmallow, which was only launched yesterday, has already started showing up on these Android One phones.
Microsoft’s Hololens now has a price for developers
At Microsoft’s event today it unveiled a huge array of ambitious and interesting technology which should be enough to make Google and Apple stand up and take notice. The once-giant of the consumer electronics world has had to reinvent itself over the past couple of years, and judging from today’s event, it’s doing enough to get people interested again at the very least. At best, it could transform the way we see technology and computing.
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Sony has joined the likes of Motorola, HTC and Google in announcing which of its products will (eventually) receive the sought-after update to Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Sony’s list includes several Xperia devices, old and new, and spans devices back to 2013. So, even if you have a Sony Xperia M5, you’ll be able to get the brand new OS on your device at some point. The Xperia-makers state in their blog post that they’ve “been working hard to bring this major update to as many of our devices as possible, as quickly as we can.”
GCF, the Global Certification Forum has preemptively congratulated HTC on having its as-yet announced One A9 pass through certification. It’s the first time we’ve seen the name officially listed.
It’s expected HTC will release several different models of the A9 to suit various markets. The device linked to by GCF supports LTE Cat 6 on bands 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20 and 28, suggesting this is the device primed for launch in Africa, Asia and Europe…
Continuing its trend from recent quarters, HTC has announced yet another loss-making financial period. The Taiwan-based tech company lost a total of NT$4.94 billion (approx $151M USD) after taxes and operating costs in the three month period ending in September. Overall revenue dropped nearly NT$12 billion ($367M USD) quarter-on-quarter to NT$21.4 billion ($655M), with a loss of NT$4.49 billion ($137M) before tax and costs…
Back in August, a report claimed Samsung was working on a huge 18.4-inch tablet code-named ‘Tahoe’. Despite the massive size of the display, it was rumored that it would ‘only’ feature a resolution of 1080 x 1920, giving it a mediocre pixel density of under 120ppi. A rumor which is seemingly corroborated by a set of leaked benchmarks on GFXBench, and a tweet from Evan Blass with the device’s likely official name: Samsung Galaxy View…
Asus’ ZenWatch 2 is easily one of this year’s best value Android Wear smartwatches. With prices starting at just $149, it’s about half the price of the other Android wearables launched in 2015. Now, it’s available to order from the Google Store.
As is customary these days with new smartwatches, there are two sizes of ZenWatch 2. The 45mm and 49mm versions sport slightly different specs, with the smaller model featuring a 280 x 280 resolution screen, 300mAh battery and support for standard 18mm watch bands. The larger watch supports 22mm bands, has a 400mAh battery and a 320 x 320 display. Both have 4GB storage, 512MB RAM and the same Qualcomm processor, IP67 water resistance, Bluetooth 4.1 and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g.
If you order the 49mm model from Google, the predicted shipment timeframe is 1-2 business days, while the 45mm model just says ‘coming soon’. If you want to save a little cash, NewEgg is offering pre-orders for the ZenWatch 2 for $129 and $149 for the rubber and leather-strapped models respectively.
If the ZenWatch 2 isn’t your style at all, and you’re on a tight budget, there are a bunch of last year’s Android Wear watches available at similar prices.
Google has somewhat famously adopted the the phrase ‘don’t be evil’ as a business-wide mantra in the past. In fact, it was written in the company’s code of conduct for employees. With the company adopting an entirely new structure, the time has finally come for the mantra to change. Alphabet, the new holding company’s message to employees: Do the right thing.
The budget smartphone tier is getting more interesting as every month goes by. What you can get for your money on a low budget these days is fantastic. And it gets better every time any company releases a new competitive low-end phone. While some might look to the likes of the Moto G, or Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3 as the ultimate in bang-for-buck device, there’s a new company from Britain in town which might have just released one of the most disruptive phones so far.
The Wileyfox Swift costs £129 in the UK (that’s £15-60 less than the UK Moto G), and offers an incredible all-round experience for the money…
In a blog post published today, Motorola has confirmed that it will be bringing Android 6.0 Marshmallow to several of its phones from the past couple of years. As you’d expect, the list is made mostly of the stock Android phones like the Moto X, Nexus 6 and Moto G. And since Android 6.0 includes features very similar to Moto Assist and Moto Migrate, the company has stated it will be removing those software features from any handset running Marshmallow…
The next generation of I/O technology is slowly making its way across categories and — as with any evolution — there’s a period of transition. With USB Type-C we a have a fast, reversible and small connector that does virtually anything you can imagine. Whether it’s powering a laptop, external hard drive or a flagship smartphone, USB Type-C can do it all.
Eventually, all tech will ship with USB Type-C ports, but until that’s a reality we’re still left in a position where we need to plug-in our USB Type-C equipped gadget in to something. That ‘something’ normally has a USB Type-A port…
With so many companies having recently announced their new generations of Android Wear watches, there’s never been a better (or cheaper) time to try out the platform. There were many risks with trying it out before. First off, Android Wear watches weren’t that cheap. For a sibling platform with limited performance, it was a lot of money to gamble on a wrist gadget you might hate. Those same watches are now last generation, and with that, they’re much cheaper and give you an easier access point to Android Wear. Perhaps more importantly, the OS itself has come on leaps and bounds since its introduction. Now you can get a great Android Wear experience without having to fork out a ton of cash…
Following evidence suggesting that Samsung has tested at least two revisions of the Snapdragon 820 processor in its next flagship, the Galaxy S7, a new report claims that the upcoming smartphone will indeed ship with Qualcomm’s next high-end chip. Korean publication, ETNews claims that Samsung will be targeting its biggest markets (America and China) with the SD820-equipped smartphone…
Last night, LG sent out a press release detailing its next flagship smartphone and teased its 2nd-generation Urbane watch. Today, at an event in New York, LG gave a more detailed first look to a select group of press folk. In so many ways, I can’t help but feel the LG V10 is the phone the LG G4 could have been. With so many flagship phones being equipped with fingerprint sensors and durable metal frames, the G4 has been a little out of place.
Now that the V10 has been outed, we can take a look at how its spec sheet compares to its little brother…
Microsoft and Google have announced that they’re dropping their long-running smartphone and video game console patent disputes. This announcement brings an end to some 20 lawsuits in the States and in Europe. Neither company revealed the exact financial terms, but did announce that instead of fighting each other over technology, that they envisage a future where the work together for the benefit of their customers…