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Breaking news for Android. Get the latest on apps, carriers, devices, and more!

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.

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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).

Android Lollipop is on the way to Sprint’s LG G Flex 2

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 8 2015 - 11:19 am PT
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Even though Android M was announced more than a week ago at Google I/O 2015, many devices across carriers are still only now getting Android Lollipop. Now, adding to that list, Sprint’s LG G Flex 2 is about to get Google’s Material Design-filled release.

As noted on Sprint’s website, the device is getting updated directly to the latest build, version 5.1.1. Additionally, Sprint says that the LG G Flex 2 is getting factory reset protection. Keep your eyes out for the update to start rolling out starting today.

LG’s G4 gets an iFixit teardown, beats all of this year’s flagships in repairability

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 8 2015 - 10:13 am PT
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This year’s Android flagships have really gotten the beating from iFixit. The group gave the HTC One M9 a 2/10 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 a slightly-better 4/10, just as two examples. But the LG G4, which many believe to be the best Android handset introduced this year as of yet, seems to have an advantage in terms of repairability as well. At least partially due to the fact that it’s one of the only handsets left that has a removable back, iFixit has graced LG’s flagship with a repairability score of 8/10.
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Nest’s plans for a Dropcam successor possibly outed by new FCC documents

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 8 2015 - 9:09 am PT
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Nest sent out press invitations last week to an event on June 17th, and we speculated that it might mean that the company is ready to announce its first Dropcam successor since being acquired by Google in June of 2014. Now, thanks to an FCC filing that we’ve uncovered (published to the FCC website on May 28th), it seems more likely that the company is getting ready to announce the next generation of its security camera…
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OnePlus One price permanently dropped to $249, or $349 with Dropbox Pro subscription for limited time

Avatar for Tom Maxwell Jun 8 2015 - 8:47 am PT
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OnePlus has sold only somewhere over a million units of its OnePlus One (very small compared to the big OEMs), and went as far as to call its recent flash sales of the phone as something that would “shake up the industry,”  but the company isn’t stopping there. Based on taking a “hard look at the numbers to make sure we were maintaining our commitment to our users,” OnePlus has decided to make the $249 starting price of the One permanent (sorry to everyone who waiting anxiously at their computers to get the deal last week). It also has a new partner in another promotion…

Starting June 10th – and for a limited time, they say – the company will be offering the 64GB OnePlus One with a 1-year subscription to Dropbox Pro, the cloud storage service, for $349. The deal is valid in the US, EU, and Canada. We wouldn’t be too surprised to see this deal lasts longer, though, as Dropbox continues its ugly battle against Google, Microsoft, and others to be the future storage center of people’s millions of files as they move from device to device.

While the OnePlus One is a solid buy for anyone in the market for a gimmick-free, what-you-see-is-what-you-get Android phone sold at cost, we still expect to see a OnePlus 2 soon, with the last word from OnePlus that it would go on sale “sometime in 2015.” Bloomberg pegged the August through September timeframe as when we should see it, and we recently reported on seeing a mysterious device from OnePlus show up in Geekbench test results. Just something to keep in mind.

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Samsung Galaxy S6 Active officially announced by AT&T, sports massive 3,500mAh battery (Update: available June 12)

Avatar for Tom Maxwell Jun 8 2015 - 7:39 am PT
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We’ve had quite a few leaks of the device already, and now AT&T has officially unveiled the Samsung Galaxy S6 Active on its website. We’re still waiting for the customary blog post to go up with information on pricing and availability, though, so we’ll update this post when those details goes live.

Update: The press release has just gone out with everything we really want to know about the Galaxy S6 Active. In terms of details we didn’t know about, the phone runs 5.0.2 Lollipop, comes with an Exynos 7420 64-bit octa-core processor, 32GB of internal storage, and the 5.1″ QHD Super AMOLED display has a pixel density of 577 ppi. The S6 Active will be available starting June 12th, as always, as an AT&T exclusive and will be available on the same day both online and in retail stores. Installment pricing with be as such: $0 down on AT&T Next for $23.17 with 30 device payments on Next 24, $28.96 per month at 24 payments on Next 18, or $34.75 per month at 20 payments on Next 12.

“With the Galaxy S6 active, we’re delivering consumers with high durability coupled with the powerful performance of Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone,” said Tim Baxter, President & COO & Mobile Division GM of Samsung Electronics America. “The result is a smartphone that brings ruggedized capabilities and water resistance coupled with the camera, battery and design features that empower our consumers and business users to do more.”

The promotional page for the S6 Active confirms just about every detail we already knew about the rugged device save for battery size – the S6 Active indeed does have a 3,500mAh onboard battery (contrary to belief it might stay at 2,800mAh), as well as Quick Charge and Ultra Power Saving functionality, that together should stretch out use off a cable by quite some time.

The Galaxy S6 Active has an IP68 rating and is certified to meet military standards for water and dust resistance, shock, vibration, extreme temperatures, humidity, and high altitude. It comes in Blue Camo, White Camo, or Gray and as expected has a 5.1″ QHD Super AMOLED display and 16MP rear and 5MP front-facing cameras.

The company has a promotional video for the phone up on its YouTube account:

Latest comScore data shows Android remain the top platform with 52% of the market

Avatar for Chance Miller Jun 5 2015 - 4:13 pm PT
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comScore today has released its latest data regarding smartphone market share. The analytics firm says that 188.6 million people owned a smartphone during a three-month period ending in April. That equates to 76.9 percent of the mobile market being made up of smartphones at this point. Apple, according to the data, further strengthened its lead. The company saw a 1.8 percent increase in market share this time around, going from 41.3 percent in January to 43.1 percent in April.


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AT&T hints at an imminent Galaxy S6 Active launch

Avatar for Tom Maxwell Jun 5 2015 - 2:11 pm PT
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We’re quickly nearing the point when we’ve covered more leaks of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Active – a ruggedized variant of the flagship Galaxy S6 – than we can count on two hands, so it only makes sense to keep the coverage coming. Today’s bit of news isn’t a leak, however, but rather a tweet from AT&T hinting at an imminent launch of the device.


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HTC’s sales slump continues, performance guidance slashed for April-June quarter

Avatar for Tom Maxwell Jun 5 2015 - 1:03 pm PT
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HTC hasn’t been having the best run lately and that continues today. After promising this past Wednesday at an investor meeting to reinvigorate its line through a new product in October and “improved design and innovation,” the Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer has posted bleak earnings results for the month of May with revenue of NT$10.79 billion (US$347 million), down 50% over the same month last year and down 11% from April’s revenue of NT$13.5 billion (US$440 million). Revenue for April was down itself 33% from the month prior and 38% from April 2014.


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9to5Toys Lunch Break: 22,400mAh power bank $29, 480GB Pro SSD $200, Galaxy Tab Pro $200, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 5 2015 - 12:55 pm PT
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Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

EC Technology 22,400mAh Ultra High Capacity Power Bank $29 Prime shipped (Reg. $39)

SanDisk Extreme Pro 480GB 2.5-inch Internal Solid-State Drive $200 shipped (Reg. $230+), more

Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4″ 16GB Black tablet: $200 shipped (Reg. $300) | Best Buy

Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone 32GB (unlocked) GSM: $580 shipped (Reg. $800) | eBay

Motorola Nexus 6 from $499 shipped for 32 GB and $549 shipped for 64 GB (Reg. $649, $699) | Amazon

Get $50 in Google Play credit when you buy a Nexus 9 from $399 | Google Store

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 32GB (unlocked): $400 shipped (Reg. $700) | eBay

Bose updates its best-sounding Soundlink Mini II portable Bluetooth speaker with (almost) everything we asked for

More new gear from today:

Amazon Gold Box – up to 68% off iconic actors/directors collections: Clint Eastwood 22-Disc Blu-ray set $47, more

More deals still alive:

Klipsch Quintet 5-Channel Home Theater System: $160 shipped (orig. $550)

New products & more:

Microdia plans a microSD card with 512GB of storage space, release in July

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Sony’s water-resistant Xperia M4 Aqua and selfie-pro Xperia C4 shipping now

Avatar for Tom Maxwell Jun 5 2015 - 11:38 am PT
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Three new phones in Sony’s already large Xperia lineup are now shipping and hitting store shelves. XperiaBlog reports that its begun seeing both the water-resistant Xperia M4 Aqua and its dual-SIM variant the M4 Aqua dual showing up on store shelves in retailers across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East while Sony Mobile has confirmed the “The World’s Best Selfie Smartphone,” the C4, has begun shipping to the Asia-Pacific region.

The M4 Aqua, pictured below, is offered in white, black, and coral color options and has an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance. It’s a fairly mid-range phone featuring a 5.0″ 720 x 1280 pixel-resolution screen, a 1GHz octa-core Snapdragon 610 processor, and 2GB of RAM.

The Xperia C4, meanwhile, is a more powerful phone – Sony’s first with an octa-core processor – that is all about selfies, and even has its own PROselfie® registered trademark. What makes the C4 good for taking selfies is that the front-facing camera has a 28mm wide-angle lens, 5MP Sony Exmor R mobile sensor (Sony says the rear camera is good too, though), and front-facing LED flash. Sony says that in a test against the competition in 6 different picture-taking scenarios (low-light, outdoor, etc), the C4 came out on top, and has posted a full report on the results. There’s a dual-SIM variant of the C4 shipping as well, and the phone will be available in white, black, or mint color schemes. Sony says the rollout will reach other regions “within the coming weeks.”

Here’s how Hound beta compares to Google Now (Video)

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 5 2015 - 11:16 am PT
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We told you earlier this week about a new voice assistant called Hound, and if you take SoundHound’s internal demo at face value, the app seems like it’s almost too impressive to be true. That video actually went somewhat viral (despite being recorded with a potato), and we wanted to put Hound through the paces to see if it lives up to the hype. We decided it wouldn’t hurt to put Google Now in the mix too and see how SoundHound’s new app compares to Google’s trusty voice assistant…
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HTC introduces a 24-karat gold One M9, takes its photo with an iPhone

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 5 2015 - 9:57 am PT
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Introducing smart devices made of gold isn’t exactly a new concept (and it’s gone mainstream to a new degree as of late), but now Taiwanese phone maker HTC is on board. Some think the phone is gorgeous in gold, and some think it’s absolutely disgusting. Either way, the company’s flagship smartphone, the One M9, isn’t going to make its way up to par with the Android flagships with a 24-karat gold body.

Oh, and it looks like HTC also managed to accidentally reveal that photos they took to unveil the phone… were taken with an iPhone.
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Sony briefly releases companion Android app for SmartBand 2, confirms heart rate monitor

Avatar for Chance Miller Jun 4 2015 - 7:18 pm PT
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While Sony has yet to officially announce a second generation SmartBand fitness tracker, it briefly released a companion Android app this evening for the device before quickly taking it down. The app, no longer available in the Play Store, was simply titled SmartBand 2 and gave a handful of features we can expect to find in Sony’s upcoming wearable (via Xperia Blog).


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Nest sends out invites for mysterious press event on June 17th

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 4 2015 - 1:32 pm PT
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Nest hasn’t made any substantial announcements since the company was acquired by Google last year, but it looks like that might change soon. In a press invite that’s very short on details, the company asks a select few publications to join for “a Nest press conference” scheduled to take place Wednesday, June 17th, in San Francisco…
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Facebook launches ‘Lite’ Android app for slow networks, new Messenger location sharing feature

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jun 4 2015 - 1:28 pm PT
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A couple Facebook announcements today for Android users: Those in the developing world get a new “Lite” version of Facebook that brings a scaled-back but much faster experience when using the app on slower networks.  In addition, all Facebook Messenger users on Android are getting new and improved features for sharing their location.

Facebook notes that the new Lite app is “is less than 1MB so it is fast to install and quick to load. It includes Facebook’s core experiences like News Feed, status updates, photos, notifications and more.”

And here’s the company’s description of the new location sharing features rolling out to Messenger users today:

 Today, we’re excited to start rolling it out in place of our previous location sharing feature. Now you can choose to explicitly send a map of your location or another particular place as a separate message… With this update, you have full control over when and how you share your location information. You only send a location when you tap on the location pin and then choose to send it as a separate message. You can also share a location—like a meeting spot—even if you’re not there.

Here’s a look at the new location sharing features on Android:

The new Facebook Lite app is already available on Google Play for users in Asia while users in parts of Latin America, Africa, and Europe will get access over the coming weeks.

9to5Toys Lunch Break: Galaxy S6 (unlocked) $580, Galaxy Tab Pro $200, Bose Soundlink Mini II release, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 4 2015 - 12:55 pm PT
0 Comments

Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone 32GB (unlocked) GSM: $580 shipped (Reg. $800) | eBay

Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4″ 16GB Black tablet: $200 shipped (Reg. $300) | Best Buy

Bose updates its best-sounding Soundlink Mini II portable Bluetooth speaker with (almost) everything we asked for

Motorola Nexus 6 from $499 shipped for 32 GB and $549 shipped for 64 GB (Reg. $649, $699) | Amazon

Get $50 in Google Play credit when you buy a Nexus 9 from $399 | Google Store

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 32GB (unlocked): $400 shipped (Reg. $700) | eBay

Various HTC deals are worth taking a look at

Father’s Day Gift Guide: top picks, exclusive discounts and a $482 giveaway

More new gear from today:

 

Klipsch Quintet 5-Channel Home Theater System: $160 shipped (orig. $550)

More deals still alive:

Save 20% on GoPro’s HERO4 Black Action Camera: $399 shipped (Reg. $500)

New products & more:

Logitech’s new Anywhere 2 wireless mouse follows the design of the popular Master MX

Taking a look at all the little Android M features that really make it great [Gallery]

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 4 2015 - 11:22 am PT
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Android M is now available in developer preview, but only for those that own a modern Nexus device. Specifically, owners of the Nexus 5, 6, 9, and Player can grab the latest developer build of Android M, and the dozens of new visual and functional features that the operating system brings.

But while Google spent a while at I/O going over the big-picture changes it hopes to bring with M (granular app permissions, fingerprint support, better battery life, and more), there are a lot of smaller changes coming to the OS as well that reimagine how some of the most basic user-facing functions of the OS work. In many cases, these changes are more than welcome.

Google said at I/O last week that they’re putting a “big focus on quality end-to-end” with Android M, so let’s find out what that means in terms of the general user experience…
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New Android TV apps arrive as update revamps app discovery for the platform

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jun 4 2015 - 11:08 am PT
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Android TV is getting a ton of new content today as Google revamps app discovery for the platform making around 600 new apps for the platform discoverable in the Google Play Store. The new update comes alongside Android TV update 5.5.15 that offers better organization for Android TV apps with new sections, categories, and improved navigation, opposed to just the selection of curated app lists that were previously available.

The new apps span across many categories from movies to news apps and games:


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Motorola says performance ‘not quite there’ for Moto 360 Android Wear 5.1.1 update

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 4 2015 - 9:33 am PT
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While many Android Wear devices—including my own LG G Watch R—have already gotten the latest Android Wear update, the Moto 360 is lagging behind. Motorola has come out to say that it’s “working with Google to ensure the software works great on Moto 360,” and that “Performance is not quite there yet.”

And while this still leaves things kind of open-ended, we should be seeing the update hit sometime over the next couple of weeks. Google said in April that the update would begin rolling out after a “few weeks” and we’re going on two months since that initial announcement. It looks like Motorola has just hit a little bit of a snag along the way.

We’ll keep you updated as the update rolls out (hopefully soon), and be sure to check out our roundup of OTA download links if you need to manually update your G Watch, G Watch R, or Asus ZenWatch.

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Android Lollipop coming to a bevy of Sony Xperia smartphones

Avatar for Tom Maxwell Jun 4 2015 - 9:31 am PT
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If there’s one smartphone manufacturer punching above the rest to provide the latest software from Google to the greatest amount of customers, it’s Sony. The company posted to its blog today that not only is Android 5.1 Lollipop rolling out to the whole series of Xperia Z-Z3 phones as well as the Xperia ZL, ZR, and Tablet Z right now, but July will be the beginning of a Lollipop rollout for even more devices.

First, in July the Xperia T2 Ultra and Xperia C3 will get the update. Then starting “a little after we’ve made the update available for the Xperia Z Series,” the M2 and M2 Aqua will go directly to Android 5.1.

The company says to hang tight for more updates on each of these rollouts (noting that timing may vary by market and/or carrier) and follow them @SonyMobileNews on Twitter for information as its released, or keeping checking the blog. We’ll continue to keep you posted on these rollouts as well.

Blind dancer wows the America’s Got Talent crowd thanks to Google Glass (Video)

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 4 2015 - 7:33 am PT
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Benjamin Yonattan, from Guatemala, is legally blind. With very limited field of vision, he can only see through what is effectively a hole the size of a straw. But that’s not stopping him from taking to the America’s Got Talent stage as a dancer, first thanks to his courage and secondly thanks to the first generation Google Glass.
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