Android

The Nexus 9 just recently became available in its WiFi-only model, with Google promising an LTE variant sometime this year. Yesterday, however, an HTC-made tablet passed through the FCC carrying the ID NM80P82300 and support for LTE connectivity. Given that the Nexus 9 is manufactured by HTC, it seems more than likely that this device is indeed the LTE-capable Nexus 9.

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Google’s all-new Nexus 9 announced last month has already been through an unboxing and overview video, hands-on review and head-to-head comparison with the iPad Air in the past few weeks, and now the HTC-made tablet has undergone a full hardware teardown courtesy of the team at iFixit. Take a closer look inside the Nexus 9 after the break.
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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Samsung is planning to soon create a large office in New York City. Located in Manhattan, the office would be “one of the largest” corporate expansions in New York City in recent years. Citing “multiple real estate executives familiar with the search,” the report claims that Samsung has recently started reaching out to landlords and developers in New York City. The inquires have been about obtaining 1 million square feet of space, which would hold between 5,000 and 7,000 employees.

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Continuing its barrage of Android announcements today, Google this evening has announced that developers can now start submitting Android TV apps to the Play Store. This is to be expected as the Nexus Player starts to make its way into the hands of consumers. Google says that in addition to publishing apps exclusively for Android TV onto the Play Store, developers can also extend their existing apps for TV and publish them.

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It was reported last month that the HTC One (M8) and original HTC One (M7) would be receiving an update to Android Lollipop within 90 days of receiving the latest operating system build from Google. Consider that countdown started. HTC this afternoon tweeted that it has received the source code for Lollipop and will be releasing the update three months from today as expected.
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Update: Financial Times reports that Xiaomi has lined up $1.5 billion in venture funding as part of a valuation that could exceed $40 billion. Russian internet company DST, which also backed companies like Alibaba, Facebook and Airbnb, is one of the investors currently in negotiations with the Chinese handset maker.

Bloomberg on Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the matter, reports that Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is in talks to hold a funding round that could value the smartphone maker at between $40 billion to $50 billion. The news arrives just days after it was reported that Xiaomi overtook LG to become the world’s third-largest smartphone maker.
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The latest Android distribution numbers for a seven-day period ending November 3rd reveal that KitKat is installed on 30.2% of devices that accessed the Play Store during the last week. Meanwhile, the distribution of the over two-year-old Jelly Bean version continued to decline, but remains the leading platform, with a 50.1% share.
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Last month, AT&T confirmed that it was going to exclusively carry the selfie-focused HTC Desire EYE and today the carrier announced that it will start selling the device on November 7th for $150 under a two year service agreement. Ma Bell is also pushing HTC’s new smartphone through its Next program for $22.92 per month (20 months) or $27.50 per month (24 months). However, if all of the aforementioned purchase options sound too complicated, you can just buy the handset with no strings attached for $550.

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Verizon and AT&T announced today that they are working together to allow Voice over LTE calls between their customers. The carriers, which both previously announced the roll out of VoLTE technology earlier this year, said they expect VoLTE interoperability between their customers to arrive next year:
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It’s been a while since we’ve seen a new tablet from Google. The Nexus 7 was released in 2013, but Google’s large format Nexus 10 has been growing old since its debut in late 2012. Well, the Nexus 9 seems to be a happy medium between the previous releases, and like it or not, it’s here to replace both of them.

Android tablets haven’t always offered the greatest experience when compared to smartphones, but there’s one word that perfectly describes the change this market needed: Lollipop. In my opinion, Android 5.0 is the best thing that has happened to the tablet space in a while, and the Nexus 9 is the first place you’ll officially get to see it in action. That being said, there are a lot of factors aside from a pure software experience that make the Nexus 9 a great device.

Welcome to our full review of the HTC-made Google Nexus 9. Has Google made a triumphant return to the tablet space, or is this just something to tide you over until another company steps up to the plate? Let’s go ahead and find out…

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For the past several years Google has been winning. The company is responsible for the world’s most popular search engine. Its Android mobile operating system has the lion’s share of worldwide smartphone shipments and the tech juggernaut’s advertising platform generates gigantic sums of money every year. So when a habitual winner like Google actually loses, it typically doesn’t handle defeat too well, and despite all of the company’s accolades, it’s been getting clobbered in one area for almost four years straight.

Google has successfully captured your desktop’s homepage and managed to work its software into the pockets of millions of people, however the Internet’s reigning search king has continuously struggled to find success in one very critical space — the living room.

Since 2010, Google has been aggressively trying to attach itself to your television, and despite several software and hardware revisions, the company has continued to come up short. However, when Google revealed Android TV during its annual I/O developer conference earlier this year, hordes of cord-cutting couch potatoes were optimistic about what the future might hold.

Fast-forward to today and Google’s first Android TV-powered device has been deemed fit for full duty by the company’s leadership. But does Google’s Nexus Player have enough bells and whistles to stand out in an extremely crowded space loaded with cable boxes, game consoles and other TV-friendly contraptions?

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I’ve been an iPad Air user for a solid year. Sure, I’ve tried tried and reviewed other devices, but my go-to device for reading at night, some light work on the train or plane and just brain dead playing Facebook/Twitter/G+/Reddit/Email/Video chatting has been the Space Gray iPad Air 16GB.

Before the Air, I had used both of Google’s Samsung Nexus 10 and Asus Nexus 7 (2012) tablets and found them OK devices. The Google I/O version Nexus 7 power supply broke about 8 months in and I didn’t bother getting it fixed. The Samsung Nexus 10 was actually an under-rated device, in my opinion, probably mostly because the initial software wasn’t as polished as it should have been.

So with the Nexus 9, Google has had a long time to get its software right, and I shouldn’t have gotten déjà vu when I started using the Nexus 9, right?…
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Much like the five apps that Sony released last week for its SmartBand Talk, ASUS has today launched three apps for its upcoming ZenWatch Android Wear device (via Android Police). It’s kind of unfortunate, really, because Google made an app called “Wear” to do the kinds of things that these apps were made for. But along with Motorola (and the Moto 360), it appears the company has decided that it would rather have complete control over pairing and syncing its smartwatch.

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Samsung has just unveiled the US release date for its Galaxy Note Edge. We took a close look at this device back at IFA 2014, but Samsung has pretty much kept quiet about a launch outside of a couple of select markets. Well soon enough, you’ll be able to get your hands on the Galaxy Note Edge from some major US carriers…

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