Android

Following its recent acquisition of Aviate, Yahoo has relaunched the company’s home screen replacement software today. Rebranded as Yahoo Aviate Launcher, the app is now out of beta and introduces some new features like Favorite People, which automatically places your most popular contacts into a list of favorites for fast access. To place a call or send a text, simply swipe upward from your device’s home screen.

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Google’s annual I/O conference is only two days away but leaks and rumors leading up to this year’s show have been going strong for quite a while. In an effort to brace ourselves for Mountain View’s latest contributions to the tech world, we’ve decided to discuss what we might be seeing in the next couple of days. While some of these items are a given, others are a mix of rumors and speculation. There’s no guarantee that everything listed here will be announced during I/O, but we eventually expect to see these projects from Google at some point in time. That being said, here are some things that we might see this year in San Francisco.

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When Google acquired Nest, the company also picked up the talents of the its CEO, former Apple executive Tony Fadell. Getting settled in at Mountain View, the man who once oversaw the development of the iPod is reportedly making moves at the search giant. According to The Information, Fadell is now is now top dog at Google’s hardware division.

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Sprint and Samsung have just announced the Galaxy S5 Sport. Similar to the Galaxy S5 Active, available on AT&T, the Galaxy S5 Sport is IP67 water and dust resistance and has a textured casing to give it a more rugged and sturdy feel. Samsung notes, however, that the Galaxy S5 is not shockproof and is only rated for water submersion of up to 1 meter for 30 minutes.

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The fate of the Nexus line of devices has been up in the air for sometime now due to rumors of the Android Silver program and an LG executive saying that his company had no plans on manufacturing the next Nexus device. Android Police, however, has now published information regarding an upcoming Nexus tablet. According to the report, Google and HTC have teamed up to develop the next Nexus tablet, dubbed the Volantis. The device has an 8.9-inch screen and looks to potentially replace the Nexus 10.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrqZl2QIz0c

Samsung is preparing to debut its first Android Wear-powered smartwatch next week during Google’s I/O developer conference, according to a new report from Cnet. The company has been working on two different models of the wearable, but there isn’t an word yet which of those versions will be revealed during the event.

Samsung has already tried to jump into the smartwatch market with its various Gear watches. Google first showed off a watch-specific version of Android, dubbed “Android Wear,” earlier this year.

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Motorola has been aggressively pushing its Moto X lately, but the smartphone’s rumored successor appears to be coming along. Pictured above is a purported shot of the Moto X+1 wrapped up in plastic like it was killed by a mafia hitman. Not exactly a fashion statement, the device’s operator claims that this was done to hide identifying markings on the handset.

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Almost immediately following the pandemonium that was the release of Android 4.4.3, Google is now rolling out software version 4.4.4 of its mobile operating system to Nexus devices via an over-the-air update. Yesterday, the company released factory images of its newest version of Android, so device updates were pretty much inevitable. The new release only weighs in at 2.5MB and is believed to squash a few bugs that were missed by its predecessor.

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A nice new Google Search feature arriving today will provide users with quick links to popular music apps when searching for artists or music related queries. Imagine you search for the name of your favorite artist or a new band you’ve just heard about, your search results will now display links to, for example, Spotify, Rdio, or iHeartRadio.

When you look up musicians and bands on Google, you often want to play their songs right away. Say you’re curious about your favorite pop artist’s latest hits, or you’re with friends chatting about the newest indie rock group and want to play some of their music. Starting today, when you ask Google about a musician, you can simply tap a link to play their music right in one of your installed apps.

The feature is first rolling out to Android devices in the U.S. and will initially support a handful of music apps including Rdio, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Google Play, TuneIn, and YouTube.

Google also noted that it is “working to expand this feature to users worldwide, with their local services like Deezer.”

When the LG G3 was first announced, I wasn’t exactly sure what to think about it. Sure, the G2 was nice and had a beautiful display with some quirky software features, but it wasn’t something I was ever interested in using on a daily basis. I considered it to be nothing more than a mediocre device in a big race. Don’t get me wrong, it was definitely a step up for LG, but the G2’s late release put it up against some tough competition in 2013.

Fast forward to the LG G3. Even with its recent announcement and small-scale initial launch, the G3 has captured the attention of many. It’s nothing short of a 2014-standard as far as flagship specifications go, but will the LG G3 be the best smartphone this year? That remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure, this is the best smartphone that LG has created thus far….

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A OnePlus One in the wild is about as rare as a household connected to Google Fiber, but despite how uncommon these two occurrences are, they’re very much real. In the case of the former, the folks at iFixit have managed to get their hands on the elusive smartphone and dismember it in the name of science. This exploratory surgery pretty much uncovered what we’d expect to see: 3GB of Samsung-made RAM, a 5.5-inch 1080p display, a Snapdragon 801 CPU and a pair of cameras (5 and 13-megapixel) designed by Chinese manufacture Sunny Optical Technology.

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In what comes as somewhat of a surprising move, Google has just posted Android 4.4.4 factory image for several Nexus devices. The release comes not too long after 4.4.3 was rolled out. Android 4.4.3 was a highly antipciated release that we saw several leaks of, but 4.4.4 comes as a surprise.

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According to a report from PC World, both Google and Microsoft are planning to announce plans to add a smartphone kill switch to their mobile software in an effort to combat device theft. The feature would allow users with stolen devices to report their device as missing and disable it from being used without specific credentials in an incident of theft. This feature has already proven to deter theft of iPhones as iOS recently introduced a similar functionality.

The news comes after The New York Times released data from the city’s police pointing to a 19 percent decline in iPhone thefts in 2014 compared to the same period in 2013 which considers Apple’s Activation Lock feature introduced to the public last fall with iOS 7. The report from PC World notes that thefts of Samsung devices have risen by more than 40 percent.

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After a few leaks, a lot of hype and a reasonable amount of fanfare, Samsung officially announced its new Galaxy Tab S product line last week during an event in New York City. Pre-orders are already live for the new high-res slate and today the company has announced a US release date of June 27th. The Galaxy Tab S will be sold directly from Samsung on its website, as well as at retailers like Amazon, Best Buy and Sears.

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Slowly but surely, Google is starting to bring some of Android’s core apps to Google Play and today that trend continues. The company recently added its stock Email application to the Play Store, making it available to folks with eligible gear like Nexus or select Google Play edition smartphones and tablets. In the past, Mountain View has opened its base apps up to most devices, so it’s possible that we may see its Email app get the same treatment at a later time.

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Android Wear is expected to be a major part of Google’s showing next week during its I/O conference and to give a hint of what’s on deck, the company has released a new video overlooking what its new platform has to offer. This introduction demo highlights Mountain View’s intentions for its new software, discussing what separates it from the Android experience on a smartphone, detailing its focus on convenience.

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After several months of speculation, Amazon has just unveiled its own smartphone on stage at an event in Seattle, Washington. As expected, the device features the much rumored a 3D display.

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