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14,411 'Android' stories May 2011 - December 2015
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Android is Google’s mobile operating system, launched in September 2008, although its history technically began with the release of the Android alpha in November 2007. To this day, Android powers the majority of the world’s smartphones and comes in several different flavors across many phone makers.

Table of contents

What is Android?

Android Inc.

Android, before it was Android, was a company called Android Inc. That company was founded in Palo Alto, California, in 2003 by a crew of four: Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears, and Chris White. The company and its project was acquired by Google in 2005 for a sum of more than $50 million, although the exact number is unknown. The company’s founders joined Google as part of the deal.

In its infancy, Android was an operating system built not for touch screen smartphones like the iPhone, but rather BlackBerry-like devices with physical keyboards. It’s well documented that after Apple shocked the world with the iPhone, ahead of its nearest competition by at least a couple years, Google and Android Inc. had to go back to the drawing board to build something competitive.

Adoption by third-party makers

It didn’t take long after the launch of the iPhone for various manufacturers to enter the market with their alternatives — and Google’s Android immediately became the obvious platform of choice for just about everyone except Microsoft. HTC was the first manufacturer on board, and introduced the T-Mobile G1 running Android in September 2008. Soon after, HTC, Motorola, Samsung, and carriers like Sprint and T-Mobile jumped on board to form the Open Handset Alliance.

Android makers across the world

Iconic Android handsets

There have been thousands of Android phones released since Android’s inception, but some have been more important to the platform’s history than others. There was the original T-Mobile G1, as mentioned, but there was also the HTC One Google Play Edition, Moto G, Samsung Galaxy S4, and others. Some of the most iconic Android handsets include:

  • HTC G1
  • HTC Nexus One
  • Samsung Galaxy S, S2, S3, S4, and their successors
  • HTC Incredible S
  • Samsung Nexus S
  • Samsung Galaxy Nexus
  • Samsung Galaxy Note
  • Nokia 8
  • BlackBerry KeyOne
  • Google Pixel and its successors

In more modern times, there are several Android smartphones makers that popped up across various niches and in several international markets. Huawei is a dominant Android maker in China and many European markets, while Samsung is by far the most popular maker in the United States by far — effectively creating a duopoly with Apple. Today, there are dozens of major device makers contributing to the Android ecosystem.

Full list of Android OEMs

History of major Android versions

Android has seen countless software revisions over the course of its life, but in modern times the OS usually sees a major release on an annual cadence. In the earlier days, Google famously gave its major software releases dessert-themed codenames, but retired that practice in 2019 with the release of Android 10.

VersionNameReleaseDevices
2.3GingerbreadFebruary 9, 2011Nexus S
4.0Ice Cream SandwichOctober 19, 2011Galaxy Nexus
4.1Jelly BeanJuly 9, 2012Nexus 7
4.2Jelly BeanNovember 13, 2012Nexus 4, 10
4.3Jelly BeanJuly 24, 2013Nexus 7 (2013)
4.4KitKatOctober 31, 2013Nexus 5
5.0LollipopNovember 3, 2014Nexus 6, 9
5.1LollipopMarch 9, 2015Android One
6.0MarshmallowOctober 5, 2015Nexus 5X, 6P
7.0NougatAugust 22, 2016Nexus 5X, 6P
7.1NougatOctober 4, 2016Pixel, Pixel XL
8.0OreoAugust 21, 2017Pixel, Pixel XL
8.1OreoDecember 5, 2017Pixel, Pixel XL
9PieAugust 6, 2018Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL
1010September 3, 2019Pixel 3, 3a
1111September 8, 2020Pixel 4

List of major Android OS platforms

While Android proper is certainly the most widespread of Google’s Android operating systems, the company has also launched many offshoots of the main OS over the years. There’s Android Auto, Android Wear (now Wear OS), Android TV (now rebranded to Google TV), as well as versions of Android built for tablets and Android Things (now defunct).

Nexus 6P gets $50 discount in Google Store sales, Huawei Watch, Chromebooks discounted too

Avatar for Cam Bunton Dec 17 2015 - 3:12 am PT
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Google’s new Nexus phones are only a few weeks old, and yet you can already buy them at less than their full retail value. The Nexus 5X has been discounted since Black Friday weekend. Now, the flagship Nexus 6P has also seen a price drop.  You can now snag the smartphone with $50 discount in the US or Japan, direct from Google’s online store.

Smartphones aren’t the only products to see a price drop. Google has also discounted the Huawei Watch, Chromebooks and is offering deals on the new Chromecast and Chromecast Audio…


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OnePlus X in Champagne Gold available to order from December 22

Avatar for Cam Bunton Dec 17 2015 - 2:07 am PT
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OnePlus has announced that it will be bringing its alternative white/champagne gold version of the OnePlus X to western markets from next week. Anyone with an invite can purchase the champagne gold edition direct from the company’s online store from December 22nd. Up until now, this option has only been available in China.

Specification-wise, the phone is exactly the same as the Onyx (black) model. Like the black model, it will also come with the option to have a glass back, or the more limited (and more expensive) ceramic back. You won’t need a special invite to get this new color, and if you have an existing, valid invite when the gold models become available, you can use it for either black/grey or white/gold versions of the company’s budget smartphone.

The OnePlus X is one of this year’s most brilliant budget smartphones. It received virtually unanimous praise from reviewers, and made its way on to our list of 2015’s best affordable Android phones. If you’re looking for a great handset with premium build, brilliant display and responsive performance, you can do a lot worse than spend $250 on the OnePlus X (now in a more classy white and gold). Personally, I’d love for it to be bigger, but it’s undoubtedly one of the best small smartphones out there.

Android 6.1 rumored to arrive in June 2016, split-screen support in tow

Avatar for Cam Bunton Dec 17 2015 - 1:21 am PT
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Earlier this week, it was revealed that Google’s engineers are already working on baked-in split-screen multitasking support for Android. This was after the Pixel C team opened an AMA on Reddit to offer potential and existing customers the opportunity to pick their brains. Unsurprisingly, the topic of split-screen came up more than once. While some OEMs, like Samsung and LG, have built the feature in to their Android skins, Google is yet to bake it in to the core Android software.


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Report: Huawei to sell Mate 8 & Honor 5X smartphones in the U.S. beginning next year

Avatar for Chance Miller Dec 16 2015 - 3:48 pm PT
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honor-5x

Despite not selling its flagship smartphone in the United States, Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei has a hold on the third-place position in the world, behind Samsung and Apple. According to a report today from The Wall Street Journal, however, Huawei hopes to expand the availability of its flagship smartphone to the United States very soon…


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Facebook Messenger now lets you call an Uber w/ friends

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Dec 16 2015 - 12:00 pm PT
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Facebook today announced it’s rolling out a new feature for its Messenger chat app that will let users book a car through Uber. The feature, it said, expands on other “integrations” it’s added recently outside of the app’s core chat functionality, like the ability to send money or use the app for customer support.


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Sources: Women’s Huawei Watch variants coming at CES, 2nd gen. model later in 2016

Avatar for Stephen Hall Dec 16 2015 - 7:39 am PT
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The Huawei Watch is without a doubt one of the hottest wearables of 2015. The watch made waves this year as one of Huawei’s big breakout product launches in the United States, paired with the Nexus 6P — which is also a hit, widely regarded as the best Nexus phone ever. Now, people familiar with the matter have told 9to5Google that the Chinese company is planning to launch a made-for-women version(s) of the watch at CES 2016, and has already begun development of a second generation watch scheduled for the second half of next year…


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Android 6.0 Marshmallow tip: ‘Adopt’ your MicroSD card as internal storage [Video]

Avatar for Cam Bunton Dec 16 2015 - 7:02 am PT
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Although Marshmallow doesn’t come with any major user interface changes, it does come with a bunch of useful under-the-hood features that made the platform a little more versatile and customizable. One of those changes includes the ability to use an external MicroSD card as internal storage. Adoptable storage gives users the potential to use a memory card as internal memory, which comes as a huge bonus to anyone without enough built-in storage. If you have an 8GB or 16GB phone, or you’re using a Samsung device (jokes, sort-of) with Marshmallow you can follow a simple process to adopt external storage and use it for installing apps, or storing app data…


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Samsung Pay now works with 19 new cards, including PNC Visa and KeyBank MasterCard

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Dec 16 2015 - 6:53 am PT
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Samsung has announced that its Samsung Pay service has added 19 new card issuers in the USA, including ‘eligible’ PNC Visa credit and debit cards and KeyBank MasterCard credit and debit cards. The new banks and credit unions were first promised back in October.

New Visa issuers supported include TCF Bank, Central Florida Educators Federal Credit Union, Financial Center Federal Credit Union, Greater Kinston Federal Credit Union, Keypoint Credit Union, Numerica Credit Union, Utah Community Credit Union, Amegy Bank National Association, California Bank and Trust and Pentagon Federal Credit Union. Additional new MasterCard issuers supported include Achieva Credit Union, Associated Bank, Bayport Credit Union, Bethpage Federal Credit Union, Cambridge Savings Bank, USC Credit Union and Navy Federal Credit Union.

A full list of supported cards and banks can be found here.

There’s still time to get a free $50 Best Buy gift card by activating the mobile payment service before the end of the year.

Moto X (2014) getting its first taste of Android Marshmallow as software rollout begins in India

Avatar for Cam Bunton Dec 16 2015 - 5:01 am PT
1 Comment

Motorola has something of an advantage over other Android OEMs when it comes to pushing out software updates. Because its phones run a virtually stock version of Android, there’s very little to test and optimize before the update can be made available to users. Android Marshmallow has already started its rollout for users of this year’s Moto X Pure/Style, Play and Force, and now the software is being pushed to users of last year’s Moto X in India.

According to Android Central, the update weighs in at just under 885MB in size and comes with all of Marshmallow’s software features like Now on Tap, Doze Mode, granular app permissions and better volume/media controls.

With it now being available in India, we can expect it to be pushed to customers in other regions soon. Motorola’s software update list states that Moto x (2014) users in Latin America, Canada, Europe and Asia will all receive the update, while only Pure Edition users will get the software in the US. Of course, plans can be (and have) changed depending on customer demand when it comes to software rollouts, but as things stand, only Pure Edition models of the Moto X 2014 will get Android 6.0 in the States.

WSJ: HTC facing sales ban in Germany over smartphone patent dispute, adding to company’s problems

Avatar for Cam Bunton Dec 16 2015 - 4:09 am PT
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A German court recently granted an injunction against HTC, and could lead to the Taiwanese manufacturer’s smartphones being taken off shelves in Germany. It’s not exactly the good news HTC was hoping for following a troubled year of slipping market share, dropping revenue and the lukewarm market response to its devices.

Wall Street Journal reports that a patent licensing firm named Acacia Research Group LLC won a lawsuit on November 27 which granted it an injunction against HTC smartphone sales through the country’s biggest telecommunications provider. HTC smartphones sold by Deutsche Telekom are expected to be pulled by the end of this month, although the manufacturer will be appealing to try to overturn the decision. HTC is understandably disappointed by the ruling, and is working with DT to ‘minimize disruption’ to its customers …


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Turn your phone in to a lightsaber with this awesome Google Chrome web-game

Avatar for Cam Bunton Dec 16 2015 - 3:25 am PT
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As we know, Google has gone all out Star Wars this year; theming Chrome, Gmail, YouTube and other services with the movie’s imagery as well as launching custom Star Wars Cardboard headsets. With the Star Wars showings now kicking off around the globe, Google has saved the best until last. ‘Lightsaber Escape’ is the company’s latest Chrome Experiment, and ties in a number of modern browser-based technologies to make your smartphone and Chrome desktop browser work together.

Simply head on over to g.co/lightsaber and follow the instructions on screen. It’ll ask you to visit a specific web address on your smartphone. Once you’ve done that, the phone and desktop browsers talk to each other, and ask you to hold your phone vertically to calibrate it. Once calibrated, your phone is the handle of the lightsaber, while the ‘blade’ appears on screen and responds to your movements. The aim: Get out of the Star Destroyer and kill lots of Stormtroopers. It’s pretty awesome.

Google’s team developed the game in collaboration with Disney, Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic, and was built using WebGL for high resolution 3D graphics, while using WebRTC and WebSockets for fast, accurate and responsive communication between the mobile and desktop browsers. This is one of just many Star Wars experiences launched by Google. If you have a Cardboard set of any kind, you can also head on over to Google.com/starwars and explore Jakku Spy using your headset.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPd0w3pVQVI]

Sketchy Moto X prototype dummy leak suggests possible design for 2016 Motorola flagship

Avatar for Cam Bunton Dec 16 2015 - 2:31 am PT
1 Comment

This year’s Moto X has only been out for a couple of months, and already we’re seeing rumors and leaks for next year’s models. While that’s not exactly surprising, it’s always worth taking any early leaks and images with a suitable amount of skepticism. What appears to be an early machined prototype dummy has leaked online and suggests Motorola might go with a new design for next year’s Moto X, switching from a metal pill-shaped panel to a glass, circular enclosure. Unlike last year’s model, the dual LED flash is placed in a segment at the bottom of this panel, rather than in a translucent ring around the camera module.


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Google is offering a free $20 Best Buy Gift Card when you use Android Pay

Avatar for Jared Weintraub Dec 15 2015 - 2:29 pm PT
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As a way of saying “thanks!”, Google is offering a $20 Best Buy eGift Card for free when you use Android Pay on an eligible Nexus device. The credit gets added automatically to your Android Pay app by January 31.

That’s the best offer we’ve seen involving Android Pay, even though Samsung offered a free $50 Best Buy gift card for using Samsung Pay two weeks ago. The offer ends December 31st. Terms and Conditions:


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Original LG Watch Urbane price drops down to just $199

Avatar for Cam Bunton Dec 15 2015 - 9:21 am PT
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Back when it first launched, the LG Watch Urbane drew a lot of attention to itself thanks to its striking appearance. The round-faced chunky metal smartwatch didn’t look like anything else on the Android Wear market. If you’re still looking for a good value smartwatch, this could be the way to go. If you’re quick you snag the LG Watch Urbane for just $199 (down from $349) in one of today’s Lightning Deals. The deal ends in less than two hours (from time of typing). If you don’t manage to grab it, you can head on over to Rakuten where you can get the same deal on the silver model.

Feature highlights:

  • 1.3″ Full Circle P-OLED Display with Gorilla Glass 3 and Full Metal Body with Screw-Less Back Cover
  • Compatible with most devices with an Android 4.3 or later operating system
  • Fitness Integration with Built-In Continuous Heart Rate Monitor and syncs with sensors and applications for real time health and fitness data
  • Environmental Biosensors – detects and tracks Barometric Pressure, Gyroscopic Movements, Accelerometer, Geomagnetic Sensor, PPG Heart Rate Monitor
  • Music Streaming – stream music stored in the internal memory to a compatible Bluetooth device. Please note: The watch can be used only to receive notifications and accept/reject calls. Once accepted, you must then use your phone to talk.

Android Pay adds in-app payments, expanding to Australia in 2016

Avatar for Zac Hall Dec 15 2015 - 8:52 am PT
1 Comment

Android Pay launched earlier this fall bringing a fresh approach to NFC payments in stores to Google’s mobile platform, and today Android Pay is taking payments virtual. Google announced that Android Pay will now support in-app payments in supported apps. This means you can easily make secure payments when making purchases on your phone without having to type in your credit card information. Google also shared that it expects Android Pay to go global in 2016 starting with a launch down under in Australia.


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Leaked HTC One X9 photos give us our best look yet at the upcoming all-metal mid-ranger

Avatar for Cam Bunton Dec 15 2015 - 2:24 am PT
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HTC has taken something of a new direction recently — following the likes of Huawei and OnePlus — in delivering premium-looking smartphones with mid-range prices. Its latest phone, the One A9 aims to deliver a flagship experience at a lower price. Its upcoming One X9 is likely to be a slight step down from that, but more importantly, it’s a step up and possibly step away from its plastic-body Desire range…


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Nexus Studio Event: how Google’s 5X and 6P were created and more

Avatar for Abner Li Dec 14 2015 - 10:39 am PT
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[Ed. Note: This is a rewrite of the original post which was the result of a miscommunication between editor and writer on coverage of an excellent Reddit writeup of an event. Apologies for the mistake]

Last week, Google hosted a Nexus Studio event open to the public in New York City. For three days, many teams that helped build the latest generation of Nexus phones were on hand giving talks and answering questions about the Nexus 5X and 6P. These included representatives from the Nexus industrial design, hardware, and engineering teams, Nexus software product managers, and the Android UX design team, among many others.

One Reddit user wrote up a very detailed post about all the things he learned from the “super friendly and surprisingly open” Google employees on hand. Below is a summary of the interesting information gleamed from numerous talks…


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Leaked roadmap suggests which (and likely when) HTC phones will get Android 6.0 Marshmallow

Avatar for Cam Bunton Dec 14 2015 - 9:27 am PT
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With Android Marshmallow having been announced more than two months ago, and released on new devices last month, now’s the time when Android owners start getting anxious about when they might see the latest version on their devices.

Most manufacturers have already announced that they will be rolling out Android 6.0. Some, like Motorola, have already started pushing it to customers while HTC was the first to launch a non-Nexus device with Android Marshmallow pre-loaded out of the box. For those with existing HTC phones, that won’t come as any comfort at all, but what might is a roadmap leaked by LlabTooFeR which shows which HTC phones are getting a taste of Marshmallow, and when the manufacturer has planned to push the updates…


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Galaxy A9 specs leaked, powerful mid-ranger likely to feature huge 4000mAh battery, Snapdragon 620 chip, 1080p screen, more

Avatar for Cam Bunton Dec 14 2015 - 4:24 am PT
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Just a couple of weeks ago, Samsung officially unveiled its A-series lineup for the next year. The Galaxy A3, A5 and A7 feature respectable specifications and will be sold at prices well below those of the more high end Galaxy S series while retaining the premium metal chassis. But the A-series doesn’t end there. Samsung’s official Weibo account revealed details of yet another Alpha device: The Galaxy A9.

As you’d expect, the A9 is bigger than any of the others. With its 6-inch, full HD AMOLED display, the A9 is easily the biggest of the bunch, perhaps bordering on ‘too big’. The leak also reveals a 13MP camera on the back and 8MP front snapper, as well as a huge 4,000mAh battery. While not in the same territoriy as the behemoth 10,000mAh battery in the Oukitel K10000, it should still be easily enough to get most users through two days on a full charge.

SamMobile also pointed in the direction of another leak featuring more of the internal specifications. Those include a Snapdragon 620 processor clocked at 1.8GHz and paired with 3GB, alongside 32GB internal storage. Like the the other A-series phones, it also has a fingerprint sensor and Samsung Pay support. It runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, although an update to Marshmallow is expected. Samsung is likely to announce the new Galaxy A9 a little later this month. If all that pre-release info wasn’t enough, there’s a video showing off the A9 and A7 side-by-side.

[protected-iframe id=”8398502804bc60327893ca3329433aa9-22427743-89100566″ info=”http://player.youku.com/embed/XMTQxMDM4NDQ5Mg==” width=”1000″ height=”500″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=””]

Google to soon begin selling Nexus 6P via Best Buy, offer the gold variant in the United States

Avatar for Stephen Hall Dec 14 2015 - 3:32 am PT
4 Comments

Before the Nexus 6P launched, it seemed — thanks to some early render leaks — that four different colors of the phone were going to be available for consumers. Come the Nexus event in September, only three colors (Aluminium, Graphite, or Frost) were available in most regions, with only Japan announced to be getting access to the last “Special Edition” gold variant. According to people familiar with the matter, the company is planning to soon begin selling the Nexus 6P via Best Buy, and finally launch the gold variant in the United States after only just recently making it available to Japanese customers through cellular carrier SoftBank…


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WSJ: Samsung Galaxy S7 to feature 3D Touch, fast-charging Type C, maybe retina scanner too

Avatar for Cam Bunton Dec 14 2015 - 3:13 am PT
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galaxy s6

Samsung is widely expected to announce its next series of flagships at some point during the first quarter of next year. Early rumors have suggested that it’ll launch early, before the usual MWC launch cycle, while others expect it will be the big announcement at MWC. Either way, the Galaxy S7 will be announced before the end of February. If information obtained by the Wall Street Journal is anything to go by, we could have a device which, once again, leads the market in terms of features and performance…


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Huawei’s Honor brand to enter the US at CES 2016, likely with the Honor 5X

Avatar for Stephen Hall Dec 12 2015 - 8:04 pm PT
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We told you a few days ago that Honor, a brand of primarily low-end smartphones owned by Huawei, sent out invites for an event early next year at CES. The wording in that invite was very vague, mentioning only new “creative and smart technology,” but now we have more of an idea what the company has planned. As we previously speculated, it appears Honor is planning to officially enter the United States market…

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