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.
If you’re looking to buy an Android phone for one of your loved ones this holiday season, we’ve got you covered here at 9to5Google. We’ve had our hands on most Android phones that have hit the market over the last 12 months, and now it’s time to decide which are the best of the best. We’ve decided on four specific Android handsets that should be your go-to if you’re looking a great Android gift…
Google introduced a feature that lets you to see the popular times of businesses and destinations in Search and Maps last year, and today that feature is getting a really cool addition: the ability to see the relative popularity of a given place in live time. Google also says it is adding the ability to see how long people usually stay at a given location as well as more specific business hours…
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I guess this shouldn’t come as much surprise, but a new report out of The Korea Herald says that Samsung is — yep, pretty shamelessly — planning to introduce a more “glossy” black version of its Galaxy S7 flagship for launch at some point in the next month…
LG’s V series — including last year’s V10 and the recently-launched V20 — is known for many things, but perhaps the most notable is its secondary display. This “ticker” lets you do things like quickly switch between apps and toggle quick settings, and also serves as another way to personalize your device. If you like that feature, though, you’re in for some bad news. According to a tweet today from renowned leaker Evan Blass, LG is moving on from the “ticker” with the forthcoming LG V30…
If there’s one thing that’s undeniably true about the Pixel, it’s that it has a higher level of fit and finish than any Nexus smartphone — or maybe even perhaps Android smartphone — preceding it. A couple of ways this is most obvious is the phone’s collection of high-quality wallpapers, and its unique specially-designed sounds that are both distinctly Google-y and pleasing to the senses.
Today, Google has published an article on its Google Design blog explaining how the team used these seeming minor details to create an experience with the Pixel that’s “confidently minimal” and stays true to Google’s design principles of “simplicity, intelligence, customization, and trustworthiness.”
Four days ago we told you of an inventory leak from T-Mobile suggesting that the carrier would soon carry the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge in its new “Blue Coral” variant. Today, the device went up for sale.
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Nest has introduced a pretty substantial update to its Android and iOS apps, bringing Nest Aware customers the ability to easily create, save, and share video clips straight from the Nest app. The Android app also adds support for Android TV, so you can quickly check out your Nest Cam feeds straight from your couch…
AT&T put the Blue Coral Galaxy S7 edge up for sale last week, and now it appears the phone is available to order from two competing carriers: Verizon and Sprint. The phone is going to run you $33 even per month in the 32GB model from Verizon, and goes for a slightly-higher $33.13 from Sprint…
Huawei today started selling the MediaPad M3 that it announced back at IFA on Amazon for $299. That’s great, if for some reason the Nexus 6P-lookalike caught your eye earlier this year. What’s also great (and by “great” I mean “terrible”) is that Huawei is also launching a pair of budget tablets today running Android 4.4 KitKat…
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Google is continually updating its “country availability for apps & digital content” support document, and today it was updated with 11 new countries for Google Play Movies. Ten new countries in the Middle East, plus Vietnam, will as of today be able to buy and rent films straight from the Google-run service.
If you’re looking for a phone that’s compatible with Moto Mods on the cheap, this might be the one for you. Techno.trading.house (98% positive feedback from 17319 ratings) via eBay offers a brand new Moto Z Play in 32GB capacity for $370 shipped, which is $80 off its retail price of $450. The phone only first became available last month.
Google has today announced a refreshed version of Google Play Newsstand, hot on the heels of the Google Play Music redesign that the Mountain View company launched earlier this week. Today, Newsstand is getting machine learning personalization, rich images and videos, and a web version…
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There aren’t that many people left that still care about Google+, but that doesn’t mean Google has given up on the platform — at least not yet. Today, we learn via famed Google Product Director Luke Wroblewksi that a nifty new feature is rolling out to the social network. You’ll soon be able to drag and drop images into the Google+ website to start a new post or add comments…
We were the first to tell you that Allo would be getting background themes in a future update, and today that update has arrived. The update also brings a feature called “Smart Smiley,” which is basically recommended emoji, and some nifty new Fantastic Beasts stickers…
It has long been rumored that Google is working on converging Chrome OS and Android, but the rumors suggesting that this idea could soon become reality began picking up more steam in recent months. Andromeda is its codename, a new OS from Google — or at least a branch of an existing one. It’s Google’s internal initiative to bring Android and Chrome OS together into one platform that’s made to work on all of kinds of devices — phones, laptops, convertibles, and tablets.
We’ve been hearing tidbits off and on about Andromeda over the last couple of months from a few different places, including a hodge podge of our own sources and tipsters and other reports. But now we think we’ve heard enough to really start piecing together the bigger picture of what Google has planned for the future of Android…
According to a new report out this afternoon, Google quietly picked up a startup by the name of Undecidable Labs last month. The company’s co-founder and CEO, Cathy Edwards, is now head of engineering and product development for image search at Google, according to the report, a change which is reflected on her LinkedIn profile. Edwards was previously an Apple engineer…
Samsung has today announced a new rewards program for Samsung Pay called Samsung Rewards. Like many other rewards programs, you’ll now be able to rack up points just for using Samsung Pay on your Galaxy smartphone, which can in turn be redeemed for prizes such as Samsung products, prepaid credit cards, gift cards, and more…
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In the wake of the unfortunate death of the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung announced a couple weeks ago that one of the phablet’s colors would be coming to the older Galaxy S7 Edge starting November 1st. We told you last week that AT&T opened up pre-orders for the device on its website. Now, a new inventory leak (via TmoNews) suggests that the new color will be coming to T-Mobile as well sometime in the near future.
Lenovo was the first manufacturer to launch a Google Tango-enabled smartphone (it became available publicly just a couple weeks ago, actually), but now it looks another OEM is about to enter the fray. According to a Digitimes post (which you should definitely take with a grain of salt, as usual), ASUS is planning to launch a Tango-enabled phone at CES early next year…