In a small update this afternoon, Google brought YouTube for Android support to the all-new Nexus Q. YouTube support is definitely welcomed on the media streamer that began shipping yesterday. The support allows users to sit-back and watch YouTube videos on the big screen. Also in the update, Google included a slew of bug fixes and remote function to Android 2.5 devices and older. The function allows users to play YouTube videos on other devices. Release notes are below for your perusal: [Google Play via Android Community]
It has been rumored for quite sometime that Facebook will make its own smartphone to allow customers easier access to the social network. While we have not heard anything concrete, we have more news on the rumored social smartphone today courtesy of Bloomberg. According to the publication’s report, Facebook is partnering with Taiwan-based HTC to release the phone in mid-2013. HTC is behind the well-received One series, along with Thunderbolt and Droid Incredible 4G, so it certainly would not be a bad partnership for either company. Facebook, the world’s largest social network, sees the majority of its hits through mobile devices—without any ads hitting users’ eyes. A Facebook smartphone would allow the company to get crafty with advertising and begin making money off its mobile userbase. Past the news of the partnership, there is no information on availability or pricing of the device. While HTC released the HTC Status in February 2011, which included a Facebook button, it was not a full Facebook phone.
At any rate, a device with the sole intention for Facebook use would be interesting. Â [Bloomberg, Image via Flickr]
We certainly found it a little odd when Sprint unleashed three phones on its network that supported LTE a few months back, even though LTE was not yet supported on the Now Network. However, do not fear, because Sprint’s LTE network has officially gone live today in Kansas, Georgia, and Texas. The network is now available for use in a total of 15 urban areas spread around those states. This is great news for owners of the Sprint Galaxy S III, Galaxy Nexus, and EVO 4G LTE who can finally ditch WiMAX and get the awesome LTE speeds they have craved. We suspect more areas will rapidly be added, especially through 2013 when Sprint begins deploying some extra speed to its LTE network, which will cause some sure fear out of AT&T and Verizon. [Kansas City Star via Engadget] Expand Expanding Close
Along with the release of Android 4.0 Jelly Bean on the HSPA+ Galaxy Nexus this evening, Google updated the unreleased Nexus 7 to Android 4.1.1, allowing only those who got the 7-inch tablet at Google I/O to play around with it. The 12.6MB update does not feature anything too crazy past bug fixes—besides bringing Google Wallet to the tablet. I would say this update is not too far off from the Galaxy Nexus either. Luckily, it will be there for when the rest of us get the Nexus 7 in the mail shortly. For those who have played with it, how is the update? (via Android Central)
Google just began pushing out the all-new Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to its HSPA+ Galaxy Nexus in an over-the-air update this evening. Galaxy Nexus users will be prompted to update over the next few days, but you can always check software update to get the update a little faster. For those unfamiliar, Jelly Bean was introduced at this year’s Google I/O. It brings a slew of new features to the Android platform, including a revamped notifications system and Siri-competitor Google Now. The update is definitely worth grabbing, as it makes for a much smoother experience all around. Next up, Google said Jelly Bean will land on “all Galaxy Nexus,” the Nexus S, and Motorola Xoom in the coming weeks. You can read Google’s official announcement below: (via The Verge)
Google revealed today that it is set to report its Q2 2012 financial earnings to investors July 19 at 1:30 p.m. PST. In typical fashion, Google will release the earnings in a press release 30 minutes prior, and then it will stream the call with investors on its Investor Relations page. You can tune in to 9to5Google for when the earnings hit for a full, complete breakdown. We will most likely also hear more about Google’s planned stock-split on the call. In the mean time, check out the full press release below. Last quarter’s earnings are going to be hard to beat.
Do you have the international version of the Samsung Galaxy S III? If so, it is time to fire up Software Update. Samsung released a new over-the-air update for the device. The 72.68MB update is not groundbreaking by any means, but it does add “improved stability” and a small new feature. Samsung included a brightness toggle within the notification drawer, which lets you easily change how bright (or not bright) your device is. You can also select the “auto brightness” setting to make things a little easier. Past that, there does not seem to be anything else too important in this update. If you have a Galaxy S III, it may be worth grabbing. (via SlashGear)
Samsung Electronics Co. can resume sales of its Galaxy Nexus smartphone at least until next week, a U.S. appeals court said today.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit today issued a temporary stay of the ban on the smartphone until Apple responds on July 12. Notice of the order was posted on the court’s website.
This whole fiasco looks like it is far from over. In the mean time, Google is destined to release an update for the Galaxy Nexus next week that supposedly fixes the issues brought up by Apple in the patent case.
Set to report earnings its Q2 earnings on July 27, Samsung in a typical fashion has released estimates for quarterly earnings. This quarter, the South Korean-based electronics company estimated a $5.9 billion operating profit, which is a record for the company. Samsung said strong sales of its Galaxy line are leading to so much profit. Samsung already said it expects to sell 10 million Galaxy S III units during the month of July—which is certainly impressive. We will have to wait until the end of the month for the full story. But, at any rate, Samsung does not look like it will lose its title as the technology company with the highest profit. (via Reuters)
In wake of Judge Koh rejecting Samsung’s request to thwart the preliminary injunction Apple gained on its Galaxy Nexus, the pure-Android smartphone has disappeared from the Google Play website this evening. It is not clear if the removal is due to the phone being updated to the all-new Jelly Bean, or because of the injunction itself, but it certainly does make for interesting timing.
In the meantime, Google and Samsung are said to be working on a software patch to fix the issues that are causing legal happenings. A few months ago, the Galaxy Nexus dropped down to $399 and then lower to a solid $349 a few weeks later. Fast forward to now, and the Galaxy Nexus is just listed as “coming soon.” The device is still available on Amazon, for a little heftier price.
Research firm ComScore is out with new quarterly numbers today, giving us a look at the current state of mobile marketshare in the United States. Over the last three months, nothing too dramatic has changed. Android still has the lead in marketshare, now boasting a 50.9-percent share of smartphone customers (0.8-percent gain over three months ago but down from March), whereas Apple is in second with a 31.9-percent share (1.7-percent gain).
As for OEMs, Samsung has a commanding lead with 25.7-percent marketshare, followed by LG with 19.1-percent (had a 0.3-percent loss). Apple is third with 15 percent (boasting a 1.5-percent increase). The real story will come when companies report their earnings to investors in a few weeks. You can check out the charts after the break for all the details:
The launch of the Samsung Galaxy S III could be summarized in one word: delays. Being one of the carriers experiencing such delays, AT&T announced this afternoon that the Samsung Galaxy S III would finally go on sale for its network June 6. According to AT&T’s online store, only the 16GB white and blue versions of the device will be available at launch, priced at $199 on a two-year contract and featuring AT&T’s 4G LTE. For some reason, the 32GB version and exclusive AT&T red model are nowhere to be found. Is anyone picking one up?
Verizon announced in a press release this morning that the HTC Droid Incredible 4G is launching on its network July 5 for $149 on a two-year contract. The Droid Incredible 4G was previously shown off at this year’s CTIA after running its course in the rumor-mill for months. It is packed with a 4-inch qHD display, 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, front-facing camera, 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, 4G LTE, and the option for up to 32GB of expandable storage. It will be interesting to see how this device will stack up against the Galaxy S III, which launches on Verizon fairly soon but is currently facing delays. At any rate, this looks like a sleek device.
Open source media player VLC announced an all-new beta Android app available on the Google Play store this morning. The app features the ability to play a long list of support video and audio with a basic controller that allows you to play, pause, and skip content. We assume better features will be added over time. The VideoLAN staff makes it clear that the app is not on the stable side. However, why not give it a shot if you are loyal to the orange and black. Though we do have to pass on VideoLAN’s message, just as a warning: “It might kill your kitten, destroy your house and start the Mayan apocalypse. Use it at your own risk.” Sounds rough. (via The Verge)
The deal has been in the rumor-mill for months now, but Beats has officially acquired music streaming service MOG, according to USA Today. In typical acquisition fashion, neither company disclosed the exact specifics of the deal. It would have been worth knowing how much the half-HTC owned company paid, but companies never like to admitt anything sadly.
For those unfamiliar, MOG has a collection of 16,000 songs that it streams on various devices including Android, iOS, Roku, Logitech Squeezbox, and more—similar to Spotify and RDIO. MOG also has similar pricing to other services. It is available for $5 a month for streaming on the Web and through a channel on Roku, and the $10 a month plan offers complete access across the board. Users who do not feel like paying a dime can use the MOG’s “FreePlay” plan, which allows users to use the MOG website to play music.
The company founded in 2005, and it recently expanded its services outside of the United States for the first time into Australia. We would not call MOG as popular as Pandora, Spotify, or RDIO, but it does have a nice following, group of staff, and technology.
In August 2011, HTC bought a major stake in Beats and has incorporated the Beats branding and “sound experience” into its smartphones ever since. I am not a betting man, but I would say MOG would most likely make its way over to HTC devices in some capacity in the near future.
As we told you last week, Sprint officially began selling the Galaxy S III in stores and online today. The Now Network priced the 16 GB and 32GB Galaxy S III at $200 and $250, respectively. However, if you are looking to pick up one in-store, you will have to settle with the 16GB version. The 32GB version is only offered online. Is any of you picking one up? Samsung pegged shipments of the Galaxy S III to be over 10 million units for the month of July (also due to high demand).
In a movement concerning public safety, the National Weather Service will begin sending text notifications to those in the path of a dangerous weather event like tornadoes, blizzards, hurricanes, ice storms, and more.
Yahoo News (AP) reported that the text message sent out to smartphone owners in the affected area will be less than 90 characters and free, so no sign-up is required. If users want to opt-out of the service, they can do so. However, in the midst of tornado season in the Midwest, and hurricane season in the South, I cannot see why anyone would. The service opened up today for Windows Phone and Android devices, while iPhone users will have to wait until the Fall to get updates pushed to them (at least through the NWS).
As we found in our iOS 6 beta hands-on earlier this month, Apple included government alerts into the new OS. iOS 6 supports the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod Touch 4G, iPad 2, and the new iPad, so it looks like many users will be in the clear. Government alerts will give weather information to users via the NWS and other news about public safety.
AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile are all signed-up with the program to offer weather alerts to the majority of their devices. Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile now offer the service across all the United States, while AT&T only has the service available in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Portland, Ore. However, an AT&T spokesperson confirmed to the AP that more areas would be added over time.
Satellite-based positioning is not used in the program, but rather the four carriers send an alert from the local tower to every device in the county that is about to be affected. Smartphones that can pick it up will display the information. It is not clear how many devices can pick-up the notification, but a spokesperson for the project said it is most likely “in the millions.” As iPhones are upgraded to iOS 6 later this fall, that number should grow substantially.
Since there was not much severe weather on the radar across the country today (just heat), the system most likely did not get any use. As the weeks roll on, we will get to see which areas the new system is now deployed in. Presumably, more devices and areas will be added over time. (via The Verge)
Bloombergreported this morning that Amazon is set to add social gaming features to its hot-selling Kindle Fire by giving it a feature that Google currently does not make available on stock Android. Specifically, the company will make it easy for developers to add the social feature into its existing games—presumably with a simple SDK. App users will then be able to interact with leaderboards and an achievement system, adding a bit to the gaming experience on the Fire platform. Apple makes a similar feature available on iOS and OS X with its Game Center platform. There are currently 43,000 apps available on the Amazon Appstore, which could certainly benefit from some added social features.
Ready to get Jelly Bean running on your Galaxy Nexus, but you do not feel like downloading and transferring the files? Well, you are in luck. Famed developer Stroughton Smith put up the OTA download links for the new Android 4.1, making it easy to get the install going. There are also links for the Nexus 7. However, if you have it, you do not need 4.1. If you are good at flashing and all that, get going.
Hot off the heals of Google’s announcement about Jelly Bean this afternoon, the team just posted a full page to highlight what looks to be every feature of the new mobile operating system. A few of the big features include an overall faster experience, expandable notifications, a revamped voice search, a Siri-like competitor called “Google Now,” resizable widgets, high-res contact photos, and more. You can check out the page for all the details, or read our earlier coverage.
Google makes Hangouts, Talk, and Messenger available to its users to keep up communication with friends and colleagues. With as much as Google has pushed its new group video chat service Google Hangouts, one might wonder why the company has two other communication services lying around. When asked that very question today at an I/O session on Hangouts this afternoon, Google Product Manager Nikhyl Singhal had answers. GigaOm noted that Singhal said: “We have done an incredibly poor job servicing our users here.” The Google employee also noted that while the company does not have anything to announce yet, it is working to join its communication platform together into one platform, which would allow users to do text chats, one-on-one video chats, and group video chats simultaneously. In my opinion, it is a smart move. It would definitely go along with Google’s recent move to cut-down on a slew of services and just focus on one product.
Interestingly, another Google employee shared that the Google staff does a whopping “10,000 hangouts every day.” As for more Hangout features, the only bit revealed during the session is that the team hopes to bring all features to every supported device. That sounds lovely! (via GigaOm)
Along with a ton of other updates today, the crew in Mountain View pushed out their latest update: YouTube for Android version 4.0. Announced on the YouTube Blogthis evening, the update includes a load of new features. Most notably, YouTube for Android has a new, sleek user-interface. There is a guide on the left side of the app that lists your favorite channels, including a “feed constantly updating with new videos,” called the “Channel Feed.” There you will find the latest videos from your subscriptions, so you will never miss a beat. Another big feature in today’s update is the ability to cache videos over Wi-Fi, which allows for smoother playback and less loading time for later. The feature can easily be turned on through the Settings menu by enabling “Preloading.” The YouTube team made it clear that you will still need a connection to playback the video. This is not offline by any means, but load time should be noticeably improved.
Another cool feature the YouTube app gained is a remote functionality that allows you to send videos and control playback on your TV. There is no information about which TVs are now supported, but Google told us to “stay tuned for updates.” Hopefully we get a clear list soon, but we would say most Google TVs are supported for now. Are you ready to check the update out yourself? You can now hit up the update button right from the Web. Check out the full release note after the break.
The oh-so popular Sprint Galaxy S III was originally supposed to hit brick-and-mortar stores late last week, but the new handset was not able to make its launch date due to “overwhelming demand.” Today, Sprint announced the Galaxy S III will finally hit the Now Network’s shelves July 1. The 16GB will be available in stores, while the 16GB and 32GB will both be available online for $200 and $250, respectively, on a two-year contract. Online and pre-orders should have shipped, or they will be shipping shortly. We have more details here. Interestingly, Samsung pegged shipments of the Galaxy S III to be over 10 million units for the month of July—also due to high-demand. (via Engadget)
Well that did not take long. Just after its unveiling this afternoon at the keynote to kickoff Google I/O, Wiredposted a teardown of the new Nexus Q media streamer. There is not much new learned from the teardown, but you can really see the attention to detail that the staff over in Mountain View gave the device. Also worth noting is that this product is manufactured in the United States, which is not usual for gadgets.
Furthermore, Engadget noted the Nexus Q made its way through the Federal Communications Commission. You can go to Wired for more information on the teardown.
