Stephen is Growth Director at 9to5. You can find his current work at 9to5Mac, 9to5Google 9to5Toys, Electrek, and more. If you want to get in touch, follow me on Twitter. Or, email at stephen (at) 9to5mac (dot) com, or an encrypted email at hallstephenj (at) protonmail (dot) com.
iFixit has been hard at work tearing down the latest round of Android flagships, and following last week’s pull-apart of the HTC One M9, we now have a look at the inside of the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge. Smartphones in general have been breaking records for difficulty in repairability, but it seems that this year’s phones in particular are especially a pain, and the S6 edge is absolutely no exception. In fact, the S6 edge is taking a two-point hit in repairability compared to the S5…
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Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 SM-T330 8″ White 16 GB flash storage w/ Android 4.4 KitKat: $169.99 shipped (Reg. $250)
![[Galaxy S6 and S6 edge] 80lbf Three-Point Bend Test - YouTube 2015-04-06 10-25-20](https://9to5google.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/04/galaxy-s6-and-s6-edge-80lbf-three-point-bend-test-youtube-2015-04-06-10-25-20.png?w=704)
Following a bend test video released last week showing the Galaxy S6 as actually more fragile than the iPhone 6 Plus, Samsung has today released its own video that is definitely closer to being marketing material. While the other video pushed the iPhone 6 Plus, the HTC One M9, and the Galaxy S6 edge to the absolute limit, this video from Samsung tops the pressure off at 80 pounds to show off the phone’s durability…
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The iPhone 6 Plus launch was riddled with endless #bendgate drama, but it looks like the latest flagship from Samsung doesn’t fare much better than Apple’s flagship—at least according to this test. Dozens of YouTube videos have given the latest iPhone line the beating, but now it looks like it’s time for the 2015 round of Android flagships to get tested as well…
Google+ has long had an interesting feature called “Stories” that creates a fun timeline out of your uploaded photos, but now users are reporting that these are now showing up in Google Now. The card that’s appearing in some users’ feeds shows a photo preview of the story, an associated date, the number of moments—and tapping this card takes you to the Google+ app to view it in its full form or share it with your followers.
There are a lot of things you need to make sure are in order before you might see one of these cards, but it’s not all too complicated. The hardest part for most tech enthusiasts would probably be going out and taking enough photos for Google+ Stories to have something to work with. If you’ve never used Google+ Stories before, this is how you get started (according to Google’s support page):
Make a story
Stories are automatically created and you’ll be notified when one is made for you. Stories will work best if you:
- Turn on Google Location History for Android or iOS
- If you store photos on Google Drive, show your Drive photos & videos in your photo library
- Use Auto Backup on your mobile device or computer
- Make sure Auto Awesome is on
- Add your home & work addresses in Google Maps
- Take a lot of pictures
After you’ve done all of these things, it probably won’t be long before you see the above card in your Google Now feed. On the other hand, if you are receiving this card and you don’t want to or you simply have no interest in Google+ stories at all, Google says you can turn the feature off completely by disabling Auto Awesome.
(via Thomas Tenkely)
iFixit is known for their smartphone teardowns, and today they published their step-by-step walkthrough covering how to disassemble HTC’s latest flagship, the One M9. They’re adding to the device’s already less-than-awesome reception with this guide, though, giving the phone a mediocre 2/10 repairability grade and bashing the way its internals were designed the whole way through.
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Android 5.1 has only recently started hitting Nexus devices, and the general populace of Android device owners have still yet to see 5.0. But Google is already moving on past the latest 5.1 release, as evidenced by the appearance of Android 5.1.1 (API 22) in the Android SDK Manager.
It’s almost time for Google I/O, and that means we’re likely approaching the announcement of the next big version of Android. As usual, though, last year’s major iteration is still just now making its way to plenty of handsets. Today we have word (via Sprint) that its Galaxy S5 should be receiving the update imminently, and T-Mobile representative Des has confirmed (via Twitter) that the update is rolling out to the uncarrier’s LG G3 early next week.
#Lollipop Update: @TMobile #LGG3 software update available on 4/7 for download #uncarrier pic.twitter.com/OOqhTe7VaT
— Des (@askdes) April 2, 2015
Lollipop’s adoption has been pretty abysmal, and only early last month hit 3.3%. It’s been about a month since those numbers were released, however, so we’re probably at or beyond 5% at this point. As of the most recent data, KitKat actually saw an increase up to 40.9 percent up from February’s 39.7 percent. It wouldn’t be surprising if we still see the Material-packed software still hitting devices long into the summer months.
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Comcast has come out today to announce that they’re prepping to beat Google Fiber to Atlanta—but they’re not just going for par; the company wants to one-up the offerings of Google and AT&T by introducing previously unheard-of 2Gbps residential Internet service. It will be “the fastest residential Internet speed in the country,” the infamous media conglomerate says.
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Google has released several Android ads via the main Android YouTube account, but it appears that the company has now published the first cartoon Androidify-themed ad aimed specifically at India. The ad has appeared this morning on the Google India YouTube account, and features several Androidify cartoons playing what assumably is Indian-inspired music.
It appears that the ad is directly promoting the fact that even the low-end Android One devices are getting the latest version of Google’s mobile OS. “Things just got even better,” the ad says. “Android One upgrades to Lollipop 5.1.” The ad finishes out with a “Always the latest from Google” tagline, furthering the point that the company wants to fully support Android One in terms of software.
Check it out:
Thanks, Fedor!
HTC has today launched the M8s, a cheaper version of last year’s M8 flagship with specs that are just a bit less like a flagship. Taking a look at the above image, you might notice that the device isn’t like the cheaper “C” version of the iPhone 5—rather, the design of HTC’s new handset is almost exactly the same in terms of outer appearance. On the inside, though, there are definitely some compromises that will clearly set this handset apart from HTC’s current One M9 flagship.
Acer has today announced the latest addition to Google’s Chrome OS lineup with a new Chromebase all-in-one desktop with a touch screen. The announcement comes following the company’s introduction of the very first 15-inch Chromebook earlier this year, which like this device, was first of its kind.
The company has also sent invites to an event taking place at the World Trade Center on April 23rd…
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ARC Welder is a new Chrome extension that’s designed to be a developer tool, but it comes with a nice bonus: You can use it to install and run dozens upon dozens of Android apps within your browser. Running Android apps in Chrome isn’t exactly a new concept, as Duolingo, Evernote, Vine, and more were previously installable specifically on Chrome OS via the Chrome Web Store. But now Google’s App Runtime for Chrome can run most Android apps to some capacity via ARC Welder anywhere a Chrome browser can be installed (including Chrome OS), and developers can also use the extension to test their apps.
It’s actually pretty easy to get running, and we’ve put together this quick guide to walk you through the process of using your favorite Android apps on the desktop:
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Google has announced today that a useful new feature is coming to Inbox by Gmail, namely the ability to customize morning, afternoon and evening “Snooze” times. Once you have the update, all you have to do is open the app, slide left on an email, tap “Pick date & time,” and select the time you’d like to snooze to. You should see a prompt at the bottom of the app asking you if you want to make this your morning, afternoon, or evening time.
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Google has today announced that it’s bringing new sharing controls, alerts and “audit events” to both Google Drive for Work and Google for Education over the coming weeks. Security is one of the biggest concerns that companies have about moving their data to the cloud, and Google hopes these new features will help make the transition just a little bit easier…
The April Fools’ Day jokes are already streaming in full-force, and Samsung is kicking theirs off a day early with the “announcement” of the new Galaxy BLADE edge smart phone/knife. They may be making fun of themselves more than they think, though, making a joke of a feature many have widely considered to be a gimmick in the first place. The BLADE edge sports a “diamond edge blade,” “patented curved ergonomic ceramic,” a “100% water- and fire-proof display” and a handle that comes in 4 different materials.
Oh, and it comes with a stylus that doubles as a meat thermometer, called the S-Thermometer:
Galaxy BLADE edge comes with a stylus that doubles as a wireless meat thermometer and baking tool, to let you know when your pan-seared foie gras is the right temperature, and when your baked camembert is ready to be taken out of the oven. Use it to ensure the correct water temperature when cooking braised beef short ribs sous vide.
It would be pretty convenient for those who enjoy taking photos of their food to have a camera directly attached to a kitchen knife. Maybe you could even use the blade/device to livestream your cooking from the point of view of the knife/phone. That would be interesting. Of course, this product isn’t real by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s definitely something worth about 5 seconds of chuckling at as you go about your April Fools’ day. It’s probably best to heir on the side of caution for a couple days—this post from Samsung is just the beginning.
It’s been a long time coming for voice calling in WhatsApp. The company decided on an extremely dragged out rollout of the much-anticipated feature, but now it appears that anyone using the latest version of WhatsApp for Android has access to calling as many friends as they would like…
OnePlus said in an AMA on Reddit late last week that its upcoming #OneGameChanger product would be a drone called the DR-1, but thanks to an assortment of winky faces left on the posts, it wasn’t clear if the company was making a joke or not. It seemed plausible, but it’s also an interesting direction from a company that single-handedly disrupted the smartphone market with their super-cheap and high-powered OnePlus One smartphone. Now the company has confirmed officially that the #OneGameChanger that they’ve been teasing is indeed a drone…
Feeling adventurous? The DR-1 is flying to our store next month. #OneGameChanger https://t.co/0EzjG03kei
— OnePlus (@oneplus) March 31, 2015
I think it’s probably safe to say that this drone isn’t just going to your standard drone, as OnePlus seems to believe that something about their product is going to be a “game changer”. Drones are definitely a hot trend in the ranks of technology geeks, but they’re usually not cheap if you want one that’s high-quality. Maybe OnePlus is planning on doing the same thing with drones that it did with smartphones, bringing the “Never Settle” philosophy to the remote control quad-copters. According to OnePlus, the drone will be hitting stores at some point in April.
Google announced today that a new version of Gmail is now available, featuring several notable enhancements. First up, you’ll notice that the new version brings the oft-requested ability to view all of your mail in one place; just tap “All inboxes” and you’ll get a look at all of your email across added accounts. This is probably the most monumental change here, but there are a few other minor updates as well…
These days, many of us have more than one email address. If you’re a student, you may have one account for school, one for a campus group you lead, and one for your blog. If you’re a parent, you might have one for family and one for your business. However many email addresses you have, today’s improvements to the Gmail app for Android make it easy to manage all your mail from all your accounts (yes, even @yahoo and @outlook) while you’re on the go.
Messages from Yahoo, Outlook.com and other IMAP/POP accounts now have the familiar stacked conversation view (as has previously been available for Gmail conversations only), search has been updated with better auto-complete, and the app also has some nifty updated animations. Finally, you’ll find larger attachment previews and the nifty ability to “save to Drive with a single tap.”
You can grab the Gmail app on the Play Store for free as usual, and you should start seeing the update rolling out if you haven’t received it already.
Sundar Pichai recently said in a Forbes interview that Google was going to start focusing on the core parts of Google+ (namely, Hangouts, photos, and the Google+ stream) as being three independent areas of interest. One of the first big steps towards this goal, positioning “Photos” as being its own standalone product accessible across Google services, has finally started happening today: You can now view your Google+ photos under a new “Google Photos” section in Google Drive…
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