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.
Along with the Nexus Player that Google announced a couple of weeks ago, the company said that a game controller—that looks a lot like a Wii U classic controller—would soon be available to buy separate of the Player’s $99 price. Up to four people would be able to play at once using this controller, and it looked like the Nexus Player could become the Ouya that never was with its help.
This is plain crazy. An invite for Google’s reinvented email application, Inbox, is now going for more than $150 on eBay. We all saw it coming, but I don’t think anyone expected the internet to be this desperate to get access to the app a few weeks—or maybe even days—early. This is somewhat in line with what we’ve seen in the past, though, with some of the best examples being other services that Google slowly rolled out—namely Google+ and the original Gmail.
Minuum has long been the Android keyboard of choice for some, and today the company announced that the app is getting a bunch of useful new features, including what the company says are “major” improvements to the Minuum engine. First, Minuum now supports 5 new languages, including Swedish, Polis, Czech, Portuguese, and Turkish. These are of course in beta, however, and you should try them out at your own risk. Additionally, the update brings improved autocorrect and the company says that it has “completely revamped” how to app makes suggestions hoping to bring them closer to the words you type on the full keyboard. Finally, the update now lets all users have access to quick language switching, and a bunch of bug fixes are in tow as well.
Glass at Work, Google’s program that aims to put hands-free technology in the workplace by way of awesome third-party software, now has 5 new partners. This may not seem like much, but it brings the number of companies part of the program up to 9—effectively doubling it in size and scope. And with the Glass at Work program being one of the places that Glass seems to actually be a useful device, this is quite notable.
Oppo’s N3 has been teased for quite some time now, but for some reason the company is putting a lot of emphasis on the device’s camera. Most recently, the company took to Facebook to tease a strange rotating mechanism that will apparently be a “true head turner.” I would agree with that. But today, the company has taken to Twitter to show off an image of said rotating camera, expanding it to show all of its internals. The camera, as was revealed previously on Oppo’s Weibo account, will sport a 16 megapixel 1/2.3-inch sensor.
The chances of new perspectives. #ItsYourTurn #OPPON3 pic.twitter.com/jslbioCTRd
— OPPO (@oppo) October 21, 2014
Interesting, the company says it also has a giveaway coming “soon.”
.@zereflalata Soon. ;)
— OPPO (@oppo) October 20, 2014
If you’re one of the unlucky few who purchased an Ouya at some point in the last few years, you now have reason to celebrate. While the Nexus Player—which was announced last week—was the first Android TV device to hit the market, it looks like the Ouya might have effectively become the second. Amazingly, the Android TV operating is in the process of being ported to run on the Ouya by a team on the xda-developers forum lead by member cbwlkr.
A new version of the Android Wear firmware is rolling out to the LG G Watch today, and with it comes what appears to be the first parts of some intriguing new features. These new features, including support for on-board GPS and offline music playback via Bluetooth, have long been promised to Android Wear users. And today, it appears that the LG G Watch is the first device to start showing signs that these features are coming in full.
Sol Republic, makers of a wide variety of speakers and headphones, announced in August 2013—alongside the announcement of the Moto X—that it would be partnering with Motorola “to redefine the music experience,” and “change the way music fans experience and share music.” 9to5Google has learned, however, this partnership may not have worked out so well. According to people familiar with the partnership, Motorola will soon be dropping its affiliation and contract with Sol Republic.
Sergey Brin has said in the past that Chrome and Android were likely to one day conjoin, but that it was likely going to be a slow process that occurred over time. According to a report this afternoon from The Wall Street Journal, Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google’s VP of engineering for Android, has now been put in charge of overseeing the Chrome engineering team as well.
Following the actual announcement of Android Lollipop earlier this week, Google has now released its official SDK to developers interested in writing apps for the new OS. The release comes following the Android L SDK preview that was released earlier this year at Google I/O (which was only for the Nexus 5 and 7).
Android Lollipop was finally unveiled in its full form yesterday, and that shifts attention to Google’s next big Android release: Android Wear 2.0. We don’t really have any factual idea when this software might or might not be landing, but a new post from Artem Russakovskii on Google+ says that one of his sources thinks the day will be November 3rd—which would push it to arrive right around the same time as Lollipop. No one really knows at this point what the update is going to be bringing, but being released alongside another Android release, we can assume that there will be at least a couple notable features.
Google Fiber is about ready to launch in its third city, according to The Wall Street Journal. The service is apparently about 3 months behind original schedule, and sign ups will be launched this December focusing on the south and southeastern parts of the city. The company’s original announcement touted “mid-2014” for launch, but it looks like laying groundwork for a fiber internet service isn’t exactly an easy task.
According to tweets recently posted by HTC, the company’s One (M8) and One (M7) will be getting the recently announced Lollipop update sometime within 90 days of receiving it from Google. These devices are added to the long list of Android hardware that will be receiving the update, along with many of Motorola’s lineup, and notably, most relatively recent Nexus devices (including even the 2012 Nexus 7).
@nickmgray We're aiming to update the HTC One (M8) to Android 5.0 within 90 days of receiving the final software from Google. Stay tuned!
— HTC (@htc) October 15, 2014
@imdiane This applies to the HTC One (M7) as well.
— HTC (@htc) October 15, 2014
Along with the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9, Google today unveiled the Nexus Player, the company’s official Android TV set-top box made by ASUS. The device, being the first Android TV hardware on the market, will be available for preorder later this month alongside the Nexus 9.
Rumors started swirling yesterday that Lollipop was indeed going to be the name, and it appears that those hoping for candy on a stick for the name of Android L have been granted their wish. As Google has announced this morning, Android L is indeed Lollipop and will be shipping with the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 in the coming weeks.
Licorice, Lemon Meringue Pie, Lollipop, Laffy Taffy? What’s it going to be? We still don’t know for sure, but following recent rumors based on comments made by the designer of the Google sculptures that the upcoming release would be called “Licorice,” we now have compelling new evidence from a Chromium issue tracker that Google is actually going to go with “Lollipop” after all (via myce).
What a depressing few days. I remember 1 thing that used to make me feel better, tho. No mark in deference to Nexus. pic.twitter.com/76zhSfu8rJ
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) October 14, 2014
It looks like it’s just too hard to not leak things for Evan Blass, the guy behind @evleaks who supposedly retired from the leaking game a couple of months ago. It wasn’t too long ago that we gave you an exclusive look at the Nexus 6, but now the story of Nexus 6 leaks has basically come to a close with the leak of what appears to be Google’s own stock imagery of the device.
Last week we got a peek at an old Windows operating system running on Android Wear, but the guy behind that all-too useless piece of software has now used his skill to make something markedly more interesting. As of now, it looks like owners of Android Wear devices can play some of the favorite Game Boy Color classics on Google’s wearable computer.
Today, Google announced that it has opened yet another Google Glass Basecamp, this time in London, UK. And while it may seem that Google has definitely put Glass on the back burner with the flurry of Android Wear announcements, this is a comforting reassurance that the Glass project hasn’t been abandoned. You can schedule a visit to the new Basecamp online, where you’re able to register for a “demo,” “try and buy,” a “fitting,” or “support.”
A week ago today we gave you an exclusive look at what the upcoming Nexus 6/X will likely turn out to be. Along with that report, we created a render which, as far as we knew, reproduced very closely what the device actually looks like. Today, it seems that a photo has surfaced showing what we can confirm is the very same rumored Motorola device being used in public (via Android Police).
Expand
Expanding
Close
Following our report from yesterday, the first real photo of the purported Nexus 6/X Motorola “Shamu” has surfaced on the internet. The photo appeared in a thread on the XDA-Developers community and was apparently posted by one named “Michael Sudol.” Notably, the photo is almost perfectly in line with the mock up we shared less than 24 hours ago, noting the device’s aluminum edges and build almost identical to that of the second generation Moto X.
What exactly this device will turn out to be is still unknown, but all rumors have pointed toward it being part of Google’s upcoming lineup of Nexus devices (one piece of evidence is that all Nexus devices have had ocean-themed names). While a 5.2-inch variation of this device is seemingly floating around, the device we’re familiar with has a 5.92-inch screen, QHD resolution of 2560 x 1440 of 498 PPI, a 3,200 mAh battery, a 13 MP camera on the back, and a 2 MP front camera.
Google has updated the Play Store Developer Distribution Agreement (DDA) with a few notable changes that developers will likely want to pay attention to (via Android Police). First on the list, developers are now required to respond to customer service requests for paid apps and in-app purchases within 3 days.
For paid Products or in-app transactions, you must respond to customer support inquiries within three (3) business days, and within 24 hours to any support or Product concerns stated to be urgent by Google. Failure to provide adequate information or support for your Products may result in low Product ratings, less prominent product exposure, low sales, billing disputes, or removal from the Store.
Secondly, a huge change to how European VAT is handled is definitely going to make developers’ lives much easier. While developers have long been expected to handle the VAT tax for EU sales, Google is going to take over this task as of January 1st, 2015. Determining, charging, and remitting this tax is going to all be up to the fine folks in Mountain View.
Where Google, the Payment Processor or the Authorized Carrier is required by applicable (local) legislation to determine, apply and pay the applicable tax rate, Google, the Payment Processor or the Authorized Carrier (and not Developer) will be responsible for applying and collecting and remitting the taxes to the appropriate taxing authority. If Google collects and remits value added taxes on customer payments (where required of Google by applicable local law) and this remittance fulfils the applicable requirements for value added taxes on those customer payments, such taxes will not be passed on to Developer by Google. Where Google is required to collect and remit taxes as described in this section, Developer and Google will recognise a supply from Developer to Google for tax purposes, and developer will comply with the relevant tax obligations arising from this additional supply.
Google’s upcoming “Nexus 6” (some claim it will be called “Nexus X” because of Blade Runner) has long been rumored, and there have been many leaked specifications and details rolling out for quite some time now. But there hasn’t been much solid information about the device quite yet, leaving many who have passed on the iPhone 6 and OnePlus One hopelessly waiting to know if the wait will be worth it. For those of you who fall into this category, you’re in luck.
We can now corroborate previous rumors that its screen size nudges it out of smartphone territory, and closer to the likes of the recent push for phablet devices. If any smartphone is really a phablet, this is it—shipping with a behemoth screen that’s a massive 5.92-inches diagonally, with the device’s body being just a bit larger than that. 9to5Google has also learned that, as for the overall appearance of the device, it’s basically going to be a scaled up 2nd generation Moto X with some minor tweaks to make the larger size easier to use.
For reasons unknown, the anti-tracking search engine DuckDuckGo has been blocked in China. The CEO of DuckDuckGo, Gabriel Weinberg, has taken to Twitter to confirm the block, also saying that it seems the site has been blocked for a few weeks.
https://twitter.com/yegg/status/513657799856115713
It appears that the site has actually been blocked for quite some time now, as can be seen on the Great Fire censorship monitoring website (via TheNextWeb). A search for DuckDuckGo reveals that blockages started appearing on September 4th. Since that day, it doesn’t appear the site has yet become accessible again.
We’ll update this post if and when we find out more.