Android

We already knew the LG G5 would launch in early April at the major US retailers (with a free spare battery and cradle offer in tow), but today AT&T makes things official for its customers announcing a preorder date of March 21st ahead of a launch on April 1st.
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In case you hadn’t heard, Android N adds a split-screen mode for phones/tablets and picture-in-picture for Android TV. As previously reported, it also has code references to a freeform mode that allows users to freely resize an app. Now, ArsTechnica (via developer Zhuowei Zhang) has managed to enable the mode and it reveals a very desktop-like UI…

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The LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE — yeah, that’s a mouthful of a name isn’t it? — is back. The Android Wear smartwatch that was supposed to debut the latest version of Google’s smartwatch software all the way back in November of last year was pulled from sale just days after it became available. LG eventually confirmed that the device was suffering a quality issue with a display component, but it was unclear what the device’s future would be.

Now, it seems that the Korean company has relaunched the LTE-enabled smartwatch…
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The HTC One M10 — rumored to be called simply the HTC 10 — has already leaked almost in full at this point. The phone, perhaps unsurprisingly, is going to ship with very similar specs as other early 2016 Android flagships, including of course being built around Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 system-on-a-chip. Now, Evleaks has come out to contradict some previous rumors saying that its previously-rumored AMOLED display is actually going to be a Super LCD 5 and that the phone will have a 3,000 mAh battery…

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We know that T-Mobile likes to distinguish itself from other US carriers, and that usually results in some bizarre stunts. Last month, to emphasize the return of water resistance in the Galaxy S7, the company set up a completely underwater-shot video unboxing of the device, and now that the LG G5 is about to reach stores across the country, T-Mobile is back at it again…

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At CES, Lenovo announced that the Motorola brand name would be phased out in favor of ‘Moto’ and ‘by Lenovo’ branding. Today, the company announced a restructuring of its Mobile Business Group that sees the exit of long-time Motorola president Rick Osterloh.

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The LG G5 is a weird phone, but that’s not a bad thing. If you only look at the spec sheet, there’s not much about LG’s latest G series handset that sets it apart from the other Snapdragon 820-powered competition. On paper, it might as well just be another option available for those perusing the shelves at their local carrier store. It has USB Type-C, a fingerprint sensor on the back, a nice camera set up, and a decent build. All of these things are expected of a 2016 flagship.

But the weirdness of the LG G5 is what makes it intriguing to me. Samsung ditched its plastic in favor of a premium metal and glass build with last year’s handset, and this year LG is following in step with an obvious evolution in the design of the phone. The all-metal beast now just has a single lock button around the back, the volume rockers have been moved to the sides, there’s a dual-camera set up, and most of all, this phone is modular…

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Earlier this morning, various US carriers announced pre-orders for next month’s launch of the LG G5. The success of the device’s marquee modular feature, however, may end up being heavily dependent on third-parties releasing useful modules. To spur development and announce details, LG hosted a developer conference yesterday according to Korean news site Etnews.

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HTC is going to announce a brand new phone at some point in the next couple of months, and will likely release the next generation flagship HTC One-series phone. While the device is likely to keep the trademark unibody metal chassis, it’s rumored to be moving away from the ‘One’ moniker, and will be named the ‘HTC 10’.

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Update: Samsung got in touch to say they’d read the article, and to assure me that steps are in place to improve its returns/exchange process for customers.

In respect of the other points raised we do empathise with your frustrations and can assure you that actions are underway and, in some cases, in place (the Samsung Shop is now able to offer exchange products for failures within the returns period) to ensure that we improve our service and support moving forward

It’s hard to imagine there was once a day when Android flagship phones performed noticeably worse than an iPhone. A few years ago, if there’s one thing Android OEMs were known for, it was pushing the most specced-out plastic phones possible. Most of the time, the specifications didn’t translate to a much better experience.

Despite more impressive-sounding specs, the Android flagships were noticeably slower than iPhones, their cameras were terrible and the fit and finish, or build quality was — quite frankly — woeful. It wasn’t true for every phone, but it was a prevailing theme.

A lot has changed over the past 4-5 years. Android phones have caught up with, and arguably, surpassed the iPhone. They have the best cameras, they’re fast, have useful tech like fast/wireless charging, big batteries, SD Card slots, waterproofing, crazy high def OLED displays and are somehow more affordable. What’s more, Apple’s cloud services which underpin its hardware leaves a lot to be desired, especially in staples like photo management, maps and messaging.

But there’s still one major area that Android manufacturers need to get their act together on: Customer Service.

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In 2015, Samsung changed its approach to smartphones. Instead of just packing in the most powerful components in to a hideous plastic shell, the company actually gave a damn about design for once. It delivered the stunning glass and metal S6 and S6 Edge, but compromised maybe a little too much on some aspects. Most notably, the battery and lack of external storage.

This year, the manufacturer took what was great about last year’s phones and improved upon the compromises. What that means is that this year, the S7 Edge is easily one of the best phones on the market.

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ProtonMail has announced the official launch of their mobile apps for iOS and Android today. ProtonMail brings seamless PGP end-to-end encryption to emailing, making it significantly more secure for those looking for an extra layer of privacy.

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Oppo has taken the wraps off its latest premium mid-rangers, the R9 and R9 Plus, just days after they showed up on TENAA. Both are Android 5.1-based phones running Oppo’s Color OS 3.0, a new, lighter and brighter version of the Chinese manufacturer’s custom user interface. Both also have front and back cameras packed with pixels, relatively capacious batteries, edge-to-edge displays, fingerprint sensors and fast charging.

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Uber is beginning to test a new feature that will make it easier for family and other close-knit groups to share an Uber account. That means that your family could use a single credit card for Uber across several devices, making it easy for parents to pay for their kids or other family members, for example.

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Following the introduction of the TAG Heuer Android Wear watch late last year— the first of the major Swiss brands to launch a full-fledged smartwatch— TAG’s parent company says Hublot will likely be its next brand to receive smartwatch features. Bloomberg reports:

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For the past few years, most of the major manufacturers have embraced a war on specs — which ultimately led to an incredibly fast-paced evolution of the smartphone. Unlike any other tech-related market before it – think desktop computers or laptops – however, the smartphone has proven to be disruptive in a different kind of way; it became truly universal, and capable of becoming an intimate part of virtually every aspect of people’s lives, from their jobs to personal hobbies to more practical utilities and a myriad of other use cases enabled by its mobility.

We had mobile phones before, sure, but the smartphone arrived and put a small computer in our hands, one that would eventually allow us to do a million things on the go that we would have only dreamed of a few years prior, literally outgrowing the tech industry and making companies like Google, Amazon and Apple among the highest valued in the world. So naturally, with such a big, expanding and opportunity-rich market, manufacturers and other tech giants alike put all of their effort into improving and refining these experiences, ultimately taking us where we are now.

The spec-war has been furious: each year’s imperative was a constant impel to cram in the newest and best components on the market in the smallest, most elegant package possible. More pixels, more megapixels, more cores, more RAM, more everything. While users — at least on Android — most notably complained about the lack of a polished experience to match the sheer capabilities of these internals, looking at it in retrospect we can see just how far we have come…

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