Author

Cam Bunton

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.

You can follow Cam on Twitter, add him on Google+ and subscribe to our YouTube channel to be the first to watch his videos about all things Google.

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LinkedIn revamps messaging experience on Android with redesigned app

Cam Bunton Sep 1 2015 - 8:32 am PT

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LinkedIn, the popular social network for connecting business people, has announced that its messaging experience is getting a serious design overhaul from today. Unlike the previous inbox, messages will no longer follow a traditional email format. Instead, it’s turned towards a messaging app design similar to Facebook Messenger.

LinkedIn has built everything from scratch, from the ground up with a cleaner, streamlined look with a brand new chat-style user interface. You can chat with contacts individually or send group messages, and conversations are organized around the people who are important to you. What’s more, you’ll be able to send documents, images, stickers, emojis and GIFs in your messages.

Starting today, we are rolling out a new messaging experience on LinkedIn that offers an easier and more lightweight way to have professional conversations with your connections. We know many of you have been asking for this ability and we’ve taken a thoughtful approach to reflect the evolving ways professionals are communicating with one another today, as well as, the different ways our members are interacting with each other across our international markets.

From today, the new messaging experience will by rolling out to English-speaking LinkedIn members across the globe on iOS, Android and on the web. If you have LinkedIn installed on your Android smartphone, check the Play Store for updates and you should find one waiting for you over the coming days or weeks.

Huawei Ascend Mate S photos and press render leak ahead of launch

Cam Bunton Sep 1 2015 - 7:48 am PT

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Just one day before it’s due to unveil its next smartphone and give us a refreshed look at its smartwatch, Huawei’s next Ascend Mate has shown up in form of leaked photos and press renders. Previous leaks showed us pre-release versions of the device and suggested it would be an all-metal device, similar to the Ascend Mate 7. Taking design cues from the HTC One series, it has the familiar antenna bands on the top and bottom as well as a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor.

Rumored specifications suggest this isn’t a flagship phone. The supposed 5.7-inch display on the front has a resolution of 1080×1920, and it’s powered by a Kirin 935 processor with 3GB RAM. One interesting feature mentioned by Steve Hemmerstoffer is that the device could feature Force Touch-like technology, similar to the pressure sensitive touch screen tech found on modern MacBooks and the Apple Watch. The camera on the back is expected to pack in a 20MP sensor while the front camera will allegedly be 8MP.

Evan Blass had his say on the device today too, with what looks to be the official press render of Huawei’s Ascend Mate S. If accurate (which his leaks almost always are) we can expect the device to ship in black, white and gold hues.

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It wasn’t long ago that Huawei started sending out invites to its IFA event. The invites themselves strongly hinted at the ‘S’ in the device name, a rumor which is seemingly confirmed on the screen of the leaked device. Sadly, for those who like a pure Android experience, it looks as though these devices will ship with the opinion-dividing EMUI custom skin. Still, it won’t be long until we finally see how a Huawei smartphone runs on stock Android. The Chinese manufacturer is expected to be one of Google’s partners for the two rumored Nexus phones due to land later this year.

Android Wear on iOS: Setup and first impressions [Video]

Cam Bunton Aug 31 2015 - 3:00 pm PT

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Android Wear finally has iOS support after Google pushed its iPhone-compatible software to the App Store. This means that Android has beaten Apple Watch to the cross-platform game. Or, at least it would, if iOS didn’t restrict it to a state of almost uselessness. The only device officially supported is the LG Watch Urbane although — as we previously revealed — the older generation Android Wear watches do work. I got it set up with my Moto 360, and have been mostly disappointed by my experience so far.

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Snapdragon 820 will be first chip to include Qualcomm’s anti-malware Smart Protect feature

Cam Bunton Aug 31 2015 - 6:50 am PT

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In a press release this morning, Qualcomm announced a brand new technology to help keep us protected from potential malware threats on our smartphones. Smart Protect will be built into chips in the near future and provide “real-time, on-device machine learning designed to support accurate and effective detection of zero-day malware threats for improved personal privacy and device security”. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 chip will be the first to feature the new technology when it hits the market in 2016.

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Google OnHub companion app hits the Play Store, boasts innovative setup and simple UI

Cam Bunton Aug 31 2015 - 6:02 am PT

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To coincide with the launch of its brand new OnHub wireless router, Google has released the companion app on the Play Store. The app is notable for several reasons. Firstly, it reveals some of the setup details and secondly, the router management options look so ridiculously simple, they almost seem too good to be true.
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T-Mobile to clamp down on network abusers, booting them down to lowest Simple Choice plan

Cam Bunton Aug 31 2015 - 4:37 am PT

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T-Mobile has announced that it’s going to seriously clamp down on any users using unauthorized methods to get around its tethering cap. Those caught using more data than they should be on the highest tier, unlimited Simple Choice plan will be warned to stop, before being moved down to the entry-level plan. This move is aimed specifically at smartphone users who deliberately break T-Mo’s terms and conditions using workarounds to conceal their tethering usage.

The magenta carrier published an updated FAQ page on its support site stating that some customers have been blowing way past the 7GB tethering limit on the highest Simple Choice plan. Some using as much as 2TB (2000GB) of data on their mobile plan. Its biggest concern is the experience created for others. With people using the network so heavily, it can ruin the network performance for everyone else. The carrier has developed a software to detect those using workarounds and will initially warn users. If they carry on abusing the network, then they get moved on to a plan with just 1GB data (including tethering).

We’re first warning these customers that they’re illegally using more data than they bought. We hope folks will stop on their own so they can keep their current plan. These customers are on an unlimited 4G LTE smartphone plan that includes a set amount of Smartphone Mobile HotSpot data, but they’re using workarounds to make their tethering look like smartphone usage which helps them use significantly more 4G LTE tethering than their plan includes.

Once they’re on a plan with a set amount of 4G LTE data, it won’t matter what method they use for Smartphone Mobile HotSpot. Once they use their 4G LTE data bucket, they’ll continue to be able to use data at reduced speeds and still never worry about overages.

T-Mobile will start communicating these changes with its customers from today and notes that only a very small percentage of its customers have been discovered to be concealing their tethering. Despite it being a very small fraction of the customer base, it has a “disproportionately negative impact” on the experience for everyone else.

Sony Xperia Z5 family shows up on video, including 5.5-inch Premium model

Cam Bunton Aug 31 2015 - 3:04 am PT

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Ahead of its official press announcement in Berlin later this week, Sony’s upcoming flagship smartphone family has been shown on video in what appears to be a pre-release interview recording with press, which somehow managed to find its way to YouTube. The video is in French, and YouTube’s auto-translating tool isn’t the hottest. Still, we’re now expecting Sony to release a trio of smartphones.

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LG announces Watch Urbane Luxe, $1200 gold-plated limited edition smartwatch

Cam Bunton Aug 31 2015 - 2:01 am PT

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Early this morning, LG announced a brand new, limited edition gold-plated version of its Urbane smartwatch. The LG Watch Urbane Luxe will be available to buy at the end of October and is expected to cost somewhere in the region of $1,200. It’s plated in 23-karat gold, features an alligator leather strap and a classic deployment clasp. What’s more, the case is coated in a piano-gloss lacquer.

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3 days with the Moto X Play: I love it, but…

Cam Bunton Aug 29 2015 - 9:01 am PT

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Just a few days ago, Motorola sent me its latest smartphone, the Moto X Play. It’s a sort-of halfway house between its super-affordable but awesome Moto G and the more premium unreleased Moto X Style/Pure. Although it’s not available in the US yet, it is available to buy in the UK and Canada, and evidence suggests it’ll be rebranded as a Verizon DROID of some kind. It costs under £300 in Britain, putting it in the same price range as devices like the OnePlus 2 and the 4GB Zenfone 2. In fact, it’s slightly more expensive than either of those.

I’ve been using the device as my daily driver since I unboxed it, and for the most part, but almost every part of my experience could be described as ‘I love it, but…” Each part of the phone almost has something not quite right. It’s not perfect, but I still think it’s great overall.

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Leaked BlackBerry ‘Venice’ photos show Android-powered QWERTY slider in the flesh

Cam Bunton Aug 29 2015 - 3:43 am PT

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If there has been one thing missing from the Android smartphone market over the past few years, it’s a great device with a physical keyboard. In fact, ever since the T-Mobile G2 (HTC Desire Z) hit the market in 2010, there’s been nothing worth paying attention to. That’s why — to me — the rumored BlackBerry Venice is the most exciting phone of the year so far. At least, the most exciting unreleased phone of the year. As each week goes by, the chances of it becoming a real product get stronger. For the first time, the Android-powered BlackBerry has been shown of in real, leaked hands-on photos.

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Five best third-party Android launchers to customize your device experience

Cam Bunton Aug 28 2015 - 10:25 am PT

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One of Android’s best features is the ability to download and install custom third-party launchers. Don’t like the way your phone home screen looks or how the apps are organized? Fine. Change it. But finding the best one, or a good one for that matter, can sometimes be a daunting challenge. And which one you think is the best ultimately depends on what you value most: aesthetics, organization or productivity? I’ve rounded up what I think are some of the best launchers out there, as well as a wild card for you to consider in your quest for the perfect Android experience.

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Google rolls out attractive, new apps search UI

Cam Bunton Aug 28 2015 - 2:52 am PT

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It looks like Google has been working behind the scenes to make searching for apps a much more intuitive and better-looking experience on Android. As spotted by the folks at Android Police, if you go searching for apps from the default search feature in Android, you’ll now get a very attractive, Material-themed grid of apps. Although it doesn’t work for every single term, simply search for anything followed by ‘apps’ and it’ll bring up a grid of downloadable options from the Google Play Store.

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Twitter introduces Music on Vine: Better audio controls and music discovery on Vine app

Cam Bunton Aug 28 2015 - 1:28 am PT

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Last night, Vine announced that it’s bringing greater music controls to its popular video-looping app on Android. While users have always had the ability to include audio of any kind in their Vines, this new update makes it far more precise. The biggest update is a feature called ‘Snap to Beat’ which enables users to more easily create a seamless loop, or perfect loop where you can’t tell the beginning of the audio from the end.

To get Snap to Beat working for you, choose a song by tapping on the music note in the ‘Details’ screen. Snap to Beat automatically identifies how much of the song to use to make a seamless loop, then trims the video to fit that music clip. If you don’t want it happening auto-magically, you can switch off Snap to Beat and edit the audio manually yourself. This gives the user complete control over how much sound to include in the Vine, and which part of the video it should play over.

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As a part of Vine’s new-found focus on music, there’s also a new audio discovery tool within the app. First up is a new ‘Featured Tracks’ section which you can explore when you create a new Vine and tap on the music note to add a song. What’s more, you can use Vine to detect what you’re listening to while watching other Vines. If a musical note icon appears beneath a Vine, tap on it, and it’ll show you the name of the track, and the name of the artist performing.

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The Music on Vine updates will be rolling out to Android from today and will be available to download from the Play Store for free.

As promised, Samsung Pay beta program opens to US users

Cam Bunton Aug 27 2015 - 9:43 am PT

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Samsung has officially launched its mobile payment service in the US. Perhaps the only catch, apart from the fact that it’s only available to customers with the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, Note 5 and S6 Edge+, is that it’s being labeled beta. As of right now, there aren’t many financial institutions supporting Samsung Pay. Samsung Pay Beta is “by special invite only” and Bank of America and U.S. Bank customers with credit, debit or small business cards you can apply as long as they have a Samsung Account.

While it may not be entirely useful today, Samsung Pay does have the potential to be more ubiquitously useful than Android Pay in retail. Reason: it not only works with NFC-equipped machines, its technology also enables it to work almost anywhere there’s a card machine with a magnetic-strip reader too. Samsung officially announced Samsung Pay at its Unpacked event in March, but had to push back the public launch to September. The service officially launches in the States in one month.

If you meet the criteria, have one of the company’s newest smartphones and want to give it a try, head on over to Samsung’s beta signup page to apply.

Big and small: Upcoming Moto 360L and 360S surface in leaked photos

Cam Bunton Aug 27 2015 - 8:22 am PT

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Recently we revealed that Motorola’s new smartwatch passed through the Brazilian equivalent of the FCC. In it, the filings indicated that Motorola is clearly working on two sizes for its next generation Moto 360 smartwatch. Moto 360L and Moto 360S will seemingly keep the same ‘flat tire’ on the bottom of the screen, and similar round metal cases but there are clear differences. Today, both big and small versions of the Moto 360 have popped up in individually leaked photos.

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Cyanogen OS 12.1 update for OnePlus One rolling out OTA

Cam Bunton Aug 27 2015 - 7:23 am PT

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Cyanogen has announced that its most recent update, Cyanogen OS 12.1, is rolling out now to OnePlus One owners as an over-the-air update. The initial launch has been slightly delayed, but it’s finally here and you should see it available to download over the coming days. Cyanogen OS 12.1 is based on Android 5.1 Lollipop and comes with a promising list of updates. From looking at the update, it seems Cyanogen is really going for productivity and performance over anything else. Those updates include:
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Ex-Apple John Sculley unveils Obi Worldphones, two attractive and affordable Android devices

Cam Bunton Aug 27 2015 - 2:31 am PT

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Obi Worldphones — a company co-founded by former Apple CEO John Sculley — has unveiled its first two affordable and aesthetically striking smartphones. Both phones are named after California cities: SF1 named after San Francisco and SJ1.5 named after San Jose and feature similar designs, although there are clear differences in specifications and performance.

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LG debuts ‘Rolly’ universal, rollable Bluetooth keyboard

Cam Bunton Aug 27 2015 - 1:06 am PT

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In a press release early this morning, Korean tech giant LG announced that it wants to grab a bigger share of the mobile accessories market. It wants to do so with Rolly Keyboard, a wireless, portable, rollable universal keyboard. Opened, it forms a four-row keyboard with close-to full size keys. What makes the keyboard unique is the method by which it’s stowed. Unlike the traditional single fold down the middle, each row of keys has a hinge, enabling the user to roll it up in to a ‘stick’.

Rolly Keyboard is powered by a single AAA battery and uses two Bluetooth 3.0 channels to pair to two separate devices and enable easy-switching between them, similar to the Microsoft Foldable Keyboard we reviewed recently. What’s more, it also features two arms to hold smartphones or tablets upright. It’s made from polycarbonate and black ABS plastic and LG claims it “offers satisfying tactile feedback often not found on flexible silicone keyboards”. Judging from the selection of keys on the device, it seems it’s going to be compatible with multiple platforms. Instead of offering a separate row for extra function keys for tasks like media playback, volume etc. LG has opted to use an individual ‘Fn’ key which — when pressed with a labelled key — will allow users to skip tracks, play/pause, change volume, pair devices and much more. And it won’t be alone on the accessory market his year:

“LG Rolly Keyboard is just one of the many premium input devices we’ll be unveiling in the coming months as we expand our accessories offerings,” said Seo Young-jae, vice president in charge of Innovative Personal Devices at LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “The goal was to create a product that could add more value to LG smartphones and tablets at the same time offering a unique design proposition that hadn’t been explored before.”

LG will show off its Rolly Keyboard at IFA in Berlin at the beginning of next month and launch in the U.S. in September. Pricing and availability details will be shared once it’s available to consumers. Along with the keyboard, LG is expected to announce a range of new Android-powered G Pad tablets in an attempt to compete directly with Samsung.

Pocket 6.0 rolls out for Android with new Recommendation feature

Cam Bunton Aug 26 2015 - 12:25 pm PT

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Pocket is one of the most popular read-it-later apps available on Android, and the service is about to get better (or perhaps worse depending on your viewpoint), with the public launch of recommendations. The feature has been tested in beta for some time, and is now officially out in the wild and will be available to users on Android, iOS and on the web. Pocket describes it as “high-quality content without the noise”.

Recommendations takes the absolute best content being saved across Pocket and tailors it to your own saving and reading habits. The result is a feed that’s completely unique and personalized to you, and is filled with the most interesting articles and videos you might have missed otherwise.

Instead of being a collation of the most viewed web pages from the web, recommendations are based on how popular stories are with people with your interests. Since they’re already curated by humans, the company hopes that helps tune out the noise. For instance, if you happen to save a lot of technology articles to read later in Pocket, you’ll be served up tech-based recommendations. What’s more, if you find a recommendation you don’t like, just press the ‘X’ and remove it from your feed.

Recommendations are currently available in English only currently, but the company states that it is working on a wider roll out in more languages. You can download Pocket 6.0 for Android from the Google Play Store for free.

ASUS Chromebook Flip C100P: Unboxing and first impressions [Video]

Cam Bunton Aug 26 2015 - 11:34 am PT

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ASUS announced the brand new Chromebook Flip just a couple of months ago, and we’ve been able to get our hands on it. It comes shipped with the usual essentials in a rather unremarkable brown cardboard box. But it’s the notebook itself that’s more important here. It’s an all-metal affair with a 360-degree flip-able 10.1-inch touchscreen. On first impressions, it seems fantastic.

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Crazy thin Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 goes on pre-order today, launches September 3rd

Cam Bunton Aug 26 2015 - 7:23 am PT

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Samsung recently announced a brand new tablet range dubbed the Galaxy Tab S2, and today, the company has announced that its new 8.0-inch and 9.7-inch tablets are going to be available to pre-order from Samsung, Amazon and Best Buy starting today. They’re expected to launch at partner retailers and carriers on September 3rd. Pricing starts at $399 for the Wi-Fi only 8-inch model with 32GB storage, with the 9.7-inch 32GB Wi-Fi only version costing $499.

T-Mobile is one of the first U.S. carriers to announce that it will be selling the LTE-equipped versions of the tablets from September for $649 full retail, or $0 down and 24 monthly payments of around $27.

As revealed previously, apart from size, the two Galaxy Tab S2 models share almost identical specifications. Both 4:3 ratio screens have a resolution of 2048 x 1536, both have 8MP rear cameras and 2.1MP front cameras. Both are also powered by the same octa-core processor, feature 32GB storage (expandable up to 218GB) and 3GB RAM, although there is a 64GB storage option for the 9.7-inch version. Both also have 802.11 Wi-Fi up to AC standard with 2.4GHz and 5GHz compatibility and have Bluetooth 4.1 radios, fingerprint scanners and a bunch of the usual motion and light sensors. Both, incredibly, are also just 5.6mm thin. The only other real difference is the battery capacity: The small version features 4,000mAh while the larger one has 5,870mAh.

So far, we’ve ben unable to locate any pre-order pages, but we’ll update the post with links to those as soon as they go live.

YouTube Gaming, Google’s Twitch competitor, purportedly launching tomorrow

Cam Bunton Aug 25 2015 - 1:36 pm PT

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YouTube Gaming, Google’s attempt at taking on Twitch, is allegedly set to launch tomorrow, August 26, according to TechCrunch’s sources. The site will go live at gaming.youtube.com tomorrow in the US and the UK and will act as a central hub where viewers can find and watch people live streaming their own video gameplay.

Google announced that it would be getting in to gaming live-streams a couple of months back and has been working behind the scenes to get its service ready for a public rollout. Once live it will act as a direct competitor to Twitch, an Amazon service which lets gamers stream their gameplay and offer it up to viewers to watch. It’s a huge market to get in to, and one which YouTube clearly has the infrastructure to manage. Just searching through YouTube for game walkthroughs or live-streams should be enough to convince anyone that the game-streaming market is huge.

The questions is: Will YouTube compete with Amazon’s Twitch effectively? Twitch has more than 1.5 million broadcasters and amasses over 100 million visitors every month and cost Amazon nearly $1 billion in September last year. Interestingly, Google itself was an interested party and was bidding in competition with Amazon to buy Twitch last year — at times Google was even believed to have closed the deal. YouTube Gaming will be available to download on Android when it launches.

Moto X Play unboxing and first impressions [Video]

Cam Bunton Aug 25 2015 - 1:18 pm PT

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Motorola announced a handful of new devices at an event just last month. The now Lenovo-owned company unveiled the new Moto G and two versions of the Moto X: Play and Style (or Pure). The Moto X Play is Motorola’s attempt at bringing a competitively-priced phone to the market with near-flagship specifications. For just under £280 in the UK you get a device with a full HD (1080 x 1920) 5.5-inch display, an octa-core processor and a gigantic 3,630mAh battery. It’s water-repellent, has a 21MP camera and — best of all — runs an almost vanilla version of Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.

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Android Marshmallow reportedly almost triples Nexus 5 standby time

Cam Bunton Aug 24 2015 - 7:12 am PT

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Android M, now revealed as 6.0 Marshmallow, could lead to much healthier standby battery life on your favorite smartphone according to some testing done by German blog Computerbase. Taking two Nexus 5 smartphones (one running Lollipop, the other Android M), the site ran side-by-side standby time tests and discovered that the Marshmallow-flavored Nexus achieved standby time nearly three times as long as its Lollipop-powered counterpart.

It’s a case of Android 5.1.1 versus the very first Dev Preview of Android M, and the latter’s standby time is significantly improved over the former. After 24 hours of leaving both devices on standby, the Nexus running Lollipop was down 12% while the M-powered Nexus was down just 4.5%. It was similar after 48 hours with the phone running 5.1.1 down by 24% and the Android M device down by only 9%. Using some basic arithmetic the site calculated that the Nexus 5 running Android Lollipop could last a maximum of 200 hours on standby while the Nexus running Android M could go a total of 533 hours. Rounding up, that’s 2.7 times longer.
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