Android

One of the reasons why I initially fell in love with Android was Google’s ability — often showcased on an annual basis in May or June at I/O — to always push technology forward, reinvent itself, and even dare to go a little overboard before making sure that everything was under control.

Most notably, since the end of 2011, Ice Cream Sandwich started to look as a more mature OS, one whose direction was beginning to make sense, appear clearer, as Android itself was soaring, soon to be the most adopted mobile operating system on the planet. What we know as “Holo”, a good-looking visual style for the system, was introduced, and coupled with bleeding-edge devices such as the Galaxy Nexus it made for a pretty sweet package.

But now, 5 years after the Galaxy Nexus was released and with Lollipop’s new design under its belt, where is Google going next?

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Ahead of MWC 2016, Archos has announced the Diamond 2 Plus and Diamond 2 Note. Both phones are aimed at the European markets and feature metal bodies, high ends specs, and stock Android 6.0 Marshmallow at low price points.

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After being all the rage when it launched on iOS last month, social network Peach has finally made its way to Android. Peach is basically another status sharing app, but its novelty comes in its heavy use of GIFs, multiple ways to ‘poke’ a person, and the use of “Magic Words” to send information and communicate in fun ways.

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First details about LG’s upcoming G5 smartphone first showed up 2 months ago, and the first sketchy renders followed shortly after, but it wasn’t until just recently that the phone first appeared in the flesh on the Dubai equivalent of Craigslist. Now, after seeing the phone in a dummy shell, its Quick Cover case officially unveiled by LG, and benchmarks revealing its performance, Evan Blass has come out just days before the phone’s announcement to all but confirm everything we’ve seen thus far…

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If you haven’t seen enough of the Galaxy S7 already, we’re here to fix that. In a new series of leaked renders (via @onleaks), we now have a look at every variant of both the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge from several different angles. Another new image also recently surfaced showing — for the first time — the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge next to each other…

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While the Galaxy S7 has received almost all the pre-release attention, LG’s own upcoming flagship has seen its fair-share of Internet time. Most recently, an online listing showed up on a Dubai selling site, seemingly showing the all-metal device in full. In those images, it appeared as if the bottom edge was detachable, corroborating previous rumors that LG would be building in an innovative way to house a replaceable battery.

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Following Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s vague series of tweets yesterday, Hiroshi Lockheimer, senior vice president of Android, Chrome OS and Chromecast, has come out and offered his own opinion on Apple’s battle with the government on national security versus user privacy. Earlier this week, a U.S. judge ruled that Apple must help the FBI obtain data from a passcode-locked iPhone 5c used by one of the gunmen in the fatal San Bernardino shooting. Apple CEO Tim Cook then responded by posting an open letter on Apple’s homepage saying that Apple would not comply with the court’s request.

Although Lockheimer’s responses are just as vague as Pichai’s, he does seem to agree with Cook and Apple…

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According to a new report from Strategy Analytics, the sales of smartwatches in the fourth quarter of 2015 outpaced sales of Swiss watches for the first time. The company claims that during the holiday quarter, a total of 8.1 million smartwatches were shipped, while 7.9 million Swiss watches were shipped.

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Very quickly, USB Type-C has this year become a part of every phone’s spec sheet. Either a new phone has USB Type-C, or it doesn’t. And it’s already being seen as a pro (or a con) when comparing phones against each other. Before the introduction of USB-C, pretty much every handset was assumed to have the previous connector, microUSB. And pretty much every phone did. Now, that’s changing.

With the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P, and the OnePlus 2 before that, Android smartphones have recently begun adopting the new standard en masse, and as far as we know, many of the phones set to be announced in the coming months — including the HTC One M10 and the LG G5 — are going to make the jump. For me, supporting USB Type-C is absolutely a requirement for my next phone. Here’s why…

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Last month, Google announced that new Play Games users would get a player ID instead of having to make a Google+ account. Player IDs are now being rebranded as Gamer ID and will act as an in-game identity. As they are unique, Google recommends heading to the Play Games app now to claim yours.

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PayPal has updated its Android app with a completely redesigned interface that completely redesigns the interface of the app. PayPal announced the update in a post on its blog, detailing all of the new features, including a new start screen, improved Send and Request interface, new account info details, and much more.

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Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 launch event is now just a few days away and we’re now at the point where there’s little we think we don’t know about the next flagships from Sammy. Perhaps the one thing that has confused us is what I/O technology it’ll be equipped with. Amazingly, it’s easily the most discussed thing currently in our 9to5Google staff group chat.

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Bullitt Group has partnered with Cat in the UK to create the first Android smartphone with a built in thermal imaging camera. The embedded thermal camera from FLIR can detect heat and measure surface temperatures from distances of up to 100 feet. In the press release published today, the company also claims it’s the ‘world’s most waterproof smartphone’.

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It has been a wild 24 hours when it comes to smartphone encryption and user privacy versus national security. Last night, a U.S. judge ruled that Apple must help the FBI obtain data from a passcode-locked iPhone 5c used by one of the gunmen in the fatal San Bernardino shooting. Just hours later, Apple CEO Tim Cook responded by posting an open letter on Apple’s homepage saying that Apple would not comply with the court’s request. Now, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has chimed in on the matter, saying that he agrees with Cook.

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Twitter has toady announced long-awaited support for native GIF search with partners Giphy and Riffsy. The addition of GIF search means that users will now be able to search for GIFs from a library of thousands and instantly insert them into their direct message or tweet.

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Update: A new hands-on video shows the $4 iPhone clone in all its glory (embedded below).

We told you earlier today about the insane $4 Freedom 251 phone, and now at least one publication has managed to get their hands on the device. Initial impressions aren’t great, and it looks like this phone — unsurprisingly — is just a mess of copyright infringement. Not unlike many other low-end offerings from dozens of overseas manufacturers, the phone pulls a lot of “inspiration” from the Cupertino company’s smashing successes…

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