Android

HP’s annual two-day Mobile Pwn2Own competition came to a close this afternoon, with a group of veteran security researchers and other competitors able to compromise several flagship smartphones across the top-three mobile operating systems: Android, iOS and Windows Phone. The devices that were exploited include the Samsung Galaxy S5, Nexus 5, iPhone 5s, Amazon Fire Phone and Nokia Lumia 1520.
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Earlier this year Google announced the Project Tango tablet with “advanced vision capabilities” that would be coming at an undisclosed date in 2015, with a development kit coming near the end of this year. Now, as noted by Android Central, the tablet has finally popped up on the Google Play Store. It’s not showing on the store’s Devices page just yet, but the listing is accessible if you have the link.

At the moment shoppers won’t be able to buy the prototype tablet which includes an NVIDIA Tegra K1 CPU, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. It also comes with a motion tracking camera and integrated depth sensors.

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While the release of Android 5.0 Lollipop is only now beginning to roll out to Google’s own Nexus devices, it seems that Android 5.1 could already be in the works. Dutch site AndroidWorld has reported today that Google software engineers Romain Guy and Chet Haase were spotted using a Nexus 5 running Android Lollipop MR1 at the annual Devoxx conference in Belgium.
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While most of the world anxiously awaits Android Lollipop, AT&T has today started rolling out a couple of non-Lollipop updates to two of its devices: the Samsung Galaxy S 4 and the LG G3. And while the LG G3 is getting a relatively minor update, the Galaxy S 4 is actually being updated to Android 4.4.4 KitKat.
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The ASUS ZenWatch, which appeared to be for sale at Best Buy a couple of days ago at the price of $229.95, now has a page on the Google Play store—and a price of $199. Best Buy has since corrected its mistake, but this new page confirms that the price of the watch will indeed be the lower figure. The device isn’t yet available for purchase, but the Play Store says that it’s “Coming soon.”

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Google’s has been working around the clock updating its Android apps with new Material Design interfaces and the latest software to receive a makeover from Mountain View is Keep. Version 3.0.1 of the company’s note taking software has been refreshed with a flat look and feel, plus a new search interface that follows suit with Keep’s web variant.

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When you hear the word Droid, you probably think of two things: Star Wars and Android. While both items are a correct association, the latter comes with a bit of a twist. Armed with a licensing agreement with Lucasfilm, Verizon launched the Motorola Droid in the fall of 2009. To make a long story short; the device went on to become one of the first commercially successful Android smartphones, but with one small carryover. Verizon ran a very aggressive, but highly successful marketing campaign for the Motorola Droid and as a result, casual tech consumers started referring to Android phones and tablets as “Droids.”

Up until now, Verizon has typically released a few Droid-branded phones each year. But here we are at the end of 2014 and its hardware partner Motorola Mobility has been busy working on its own smartphones like the Moto X, which recently launched across multiple wireless carriers, including Verizon. With the exception of a questionable camera and a few small quirks, the former Google company’s flagship handset is truly sublime. So when Big Red and Motorola announced the Droid Turbo, we saw a device that looked to right some of the Moto X’s wrongs, at least on paper. However, is it really enough to lure us away from the phone that made us feel all warm and fuzzy just two short months ago?

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Earlier this year at its Unpacked event, Samsung previewed its Galaxy Note Edge phablet with a special, curved part of the display that wraps around the right side. We’ve already given you our early hands-on and first impressions of the latest Samsung Galaxy Note variant, and today the reviews are starting to surface. So what’s the verdict on this unique take on a phablet? Check out our roundup below:
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Lollipop is here and the Nvidia Shield Tablet will be among the first group of non-Nexus devices to make the jump to Android 5.0. Today, the company announced that its gaming slate will receive the software push on November 18th, along with a few other improvements to its in-house applications.

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Samsung has announced Flow, providing seamless transfer of content, work in progress and phone calls between different Samsung devices.

People today use multiple devices in their daily activities: phones, tablets, laptops, smart watches, TVs, and more. But the way we work is still device-centric. We still use one application, within one device, with data that is tied to that application and device.

Samsung Flow is a platform that enables developers to create seamless transitions across devices, so that people can change devices in the midst of an activity and continue right from where they left off.

Flow is compatible with anything that works with Android’s Share feature: if content can be shared with other apps, Flow can be used to to hand it off to other devices … 
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Samsung has announced its own location-based alerts system, designed to allow businesses to send alerts to your smartphone. These highly-localized messages could range from offers on products in the section of the store you are in, to directions to your seat in a stadium or theater.

Called Proximity, the service is based on Bluetooth LE beacons and will work in a similar fashion to Apple’s iBeacon service already in use in stores like Macy’s, American Eagle, The Bay, Lord & Taylor and Walmart – along with such diverse locations as MLB stadiums and airports … 
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Following the announcement that Android Lollipop will soon be distributed to Nexus devices as an over-the-air update, Google has gone ahead and posted factory images for the Nexus 5, 7 and 10 this afternoon. If you’re wondering how to install an Android Lollipop factory image on a Nexus device, it’s as simple as following a few step-by-step instructions.

And while most people just let Google handle restoring their data, you might want to keep things that Google doesn’t back up (like your SMS messages and the like). Fortunately, keeping your data intact while flashing a factory image is fairly easy. Read on for the full guide.

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Just a short while after announcing the Android 5.0 Lollipop over-the-air update for Nexus devices, Google has now posted the factory images for the Nexus 5, Nexus 7 (2012 and 2013 WiFi-only models), and Nexus 10.

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It’s definitely one of the most highly anticipated software updates that Android has ever seen. Today, the Android 5.0 Lollipop update—that was first previewed earlier this year at Google I/O—has begun rolling out OTA to Nexus devices everywhere. “Dessert is served,” Google says. We haven’t heard reports of any devices actually having access to the update quite yet, but with this tweet from the Android team, one can expect updates to start appearing very soon.

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