Android

A day after Motorola revealed that it is working on a smartwatch for release later this year, Android Police posted low-resolution photos of what it says is an early prototype from some point last year. The unnamed source claims that the watch was code-named Gem but known to the development team as the Google Watch.

With Motorola having now parted company from Google, and Google believed to be working on an LG-made Nexus-branded smartwatch to be announced next month and launched at Google I/O in June, the one certainty is that this device won’t be launched as the Google Watch … 
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During its press conference at Mobile World Congress today and fresh off news that the company is being purchased by Lenovo, Motorola unveiled some of its upcoming product plans including an ETA for the next-generation Moto X. The company confirmed during a Q&A session that the “next version of Moto X” will arrive sometime in “late Summer.” The news comes alongside plans to expand availability of its current smartphone lineup and the Moto Maker customization tool for Moto X customers. 
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Bloomberg reports that Google, Apple, Samsung and others have teamed up to co-sign a letter sent to the European Union requesting policy changes that will limit the ability of patent trolls to block product sales. Apple and Samsung are just two of 19 companies backing the letter:

Apple and Samsung are among 19 companies and associations that told the EU in a letter that a new court should limit the ability of companies that license technology to win court injunctions when the validity of the underlying patent is in dispute.

Manufacturers are turning to lawmakers and courts in Europe and America in battles with patent trolls, a derogatory term for intellectual property owners that don’t manufacturer products and instead rely on license fees. A similar group of companies are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to make it easier for them to collect legal fees in patent disputes.

As noted in the report, similar initiatives involving many of the same companies have recently been put before the U.S. Supreme Court. Apple made its feelings on patent trolls pretty clear in a recent FTC filing when it revealed that it was the subject of 92 lawsuits by patent assertion entities over the course of the past three years. That, Apple noted, is more than any other company. Google published its own blog post today noting “the current draft rules contain certain provisions that trolls could exploit, taking a potentially serious toll on economic growth and innovation in Europe.”
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Fleksy, the makers of the ‘smart’ predicting custom keyboard, are bringing their technology to the Samsung Gear 2. Fleksy says they are the first custom keyboard developer to integrate with the Gear 2 to enable sending and responding text messages, at a microscopic scale.

With a hilariously small button layout, it’s hard to believe that input will be anywhere near accurate enough for real use.

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At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, SanDisk has just announced a new accessory that will make many Android users very happy. The company has unveiled the world’s first ever 128GB microSD card. More specifically, the card uses the microSDXC standard, meaning that it works with devices only that are compatible with XC, not just the lower-end HC.

SanDisk does note, however, that the card is “designed for Android” and will be fully compatible with many Android devices. In addition to this new 128GB card, SanDisk will also be updating its “Memory Zone” app for Android, which allows users to easily and access files stored on microSD cards. The app also allows users to back up content to it and free-up internal device memory. A new “OptiMem” will automatically transfer older photos on a device to external memory.

The availability of 128GB microSD cards also signals that we could soon start seeing Android devices with 128GB of internal storage. This would be a big upgrade, especially when the operating system on many devices takes up more than 6GB of space.

The 128GB SanDisk microSD card will run $199.99 when it is released. The card will be available exclusively from Amazon and BestBuy.

Samsung just unveiled the fifth iteration of its Galaxy S line of smartphones at Mobile World Congress, and alongside that unveil, the company shared some sales numbers. According to Samsung CEO JK Shin, the South Korean company has sold more than 200 million Galaxy S smartphones since the line was first introduced in 2010.

While Shin didn’t break down that 200 million by each specific smartphone, we do know that Samsung crossed 40 million sales of the Galaxy S4 back in October. In December, the company announced that it had sold 10 million Galaxy Note 3 units. Another report also claimed that Samsung sold a whopping 120 million smartphones total in Q3 of 2013, more than Apple, Nokia, and LG combined.

Apple recently crossed an even bigger milestone by selling  its 700 millionth iOS device. Of course, that number also includes the iPad. Either way, it’s clear that both Apple and Samsung are neck and neck in terms of device sales. Samsung could also soon face stiffer competition from HTC when it unveils its newest flagship.

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As expected, Samsung just announced its new flagship Galaxy S5 smartphone during its press conference today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. After weeks of rumors, we finally get to see how the real thing compares to the specs and features reported in the various leaks leading up to today’s event. The big focus of today’s unveiling: the new S5 packs in a built-in heart rate sensor that enables new features in the S Health 3.0 app, as well as a finger print scanner that puts it on par with Apple’s TouchID feature on the iPhone 5S. Samsung confirmed that it will be offering mobile payments with the fingerprint scanner as well as using it as a security feature to make content in certain apps only accessible when activated by the user’s fingerprint.

While we’re waiting for the event to kick off with more details, here are some specs announced so far by Samsung:

-5.1-inch 1920 x 1080 FHD Super AMOLED display
-2.5GHz Quad core processor
-Android 4.4.2 (Kitkat)
-heart rate sensor
-16 megapixel camera, 2.1 megapixel
-fifth generation Wi-Fi 802.11ac and 2X2 MIMO
-Download Booster WiFi-LTE bonding
-Finger Scanner
-IP67 dust and water resistant
-2800mAh battery
-2GB RAM
-16/32GB memory (up to 64GB w/ microSD)
-dimensions: 142.0 x 72.5 x 8.1mm, 145g
-charcoal Black, shimmery White, electric Blue and copper Gold

Samsung said the device will be available in the U.S. in April through major carrier partners.

The full press release is below:

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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wOnaoq1AYE]

Samsung is about to officially unveil its new flagship Galaxy S5 smartphone at Mobile World Congress and a live stream of the entire event will be available through the YouTube channel above.

On top of the S5, it’s likely Samsung will have some other product announcements and give us a look at the new Gear smartwatch. There have been plenty of rumors about what might be included in the Galaxy S5, but we’ll know for sure in less than an hour.

The live stream of the press conference is embedded above and kicks off at at 2 p.m. ET/8 p.m. Barcelona time. 
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Rumors of Nokia launching an Android phone seemed unlikely for a company acquired by Microsoft, but the company today announced not just one Android device, but three: the Nokia X, X+ and XL. The company’s flirtation with Android does, however, appear to be a token one – not that Microsoft is pleased.

The three budget phones are effectively hybrid devices. Not only have they been given an overlay designed to make them look like they are running Windows Phone, they aren’t even running a standard version of Android and won’t be able to run apps from the Google Play store …

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Photo: ibtimes.com

Customers buying Samsung devices at Samsung retail stores will soon receive a personalized experience based on their job, hobbies and other traits, 9to5Google has learned.

This includes contextually preloading third-party apps at point of purchase. For example, banking, finance and spreadsheet apps will be targeted at people working in corporations or self-employed businessmen. Similarly, students in higher education will get office suites and note-taking apps preinstalled. Casual games are also in the pool of possible apps, particularly aimed at satisfying younger buyers.

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CNET is reporting that Google is set to announce a smartwatch next month, manufactured by LG (who also manufactured the two most recent Nexus phones). The device is described as the Nexus of smartwatches, with Google controlling the design of software and hardware.

Although Google will announce the product in March, the watch will not be released until June at Google I/O. As 9to5Google reported last year, Google’s smartwatch will revolve around Google Now’s assistant features with voice playing a major role in how users interact with the product.

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Following a pair of leaked images this morning, Samsung has just taken the wraps off of two new Gear smartwatches, the Gear 2 and the Gear 2 Neo. The difference between the two models is the lack of a camera on the Gear Neo. As rumored earlier this month, both of the models have ditched Android in favor of Samsung’s Tizen operating system.

According to Samsung, the switch to Tizen will offer many improvements to the end-user. First off, Tizen is much less power intensive, which means battery life has improved to 2-3 days, according to Samsung—much better than the one day life given by the original Gear. Tizen will also offer an “enriched application ecosystem” to the user.

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Streaming TV is heating-up. Amazon looks set to launch its TV box in March, we’re expecting Apple to announce a new Apple TV box in April, and Google is reputed to be not far behind with a Nexus-branded box.

So-called cord-cutting – people who give up their cable TV subscriptions in favor of streaming content over the web – is growing in popularity. Mobile TV viewing on tablets is increasingly common.

All of which makes me wonder whether we’re witnessing the beginning of the end of live TV … ? 
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y42eQJmGbxk]

A lot of clues in the above ad, but obviously nothing is guaranteed. The waterproof angle would be a major blow to Sony’s Z line which is the only major phone than can get dunked. Samsung’s S4 Active is water resistant, but not very rugged. I’ll be waiting for the Google Play edition, personally.

Image: digitaltrends.com

Amazon’s TV box, which the company is believed to have been working on for around a year, is to be launched next month, according to unnamed content distribution sources cited by re/code. It had originally been expected to be launched in time for last year’s holiday sales.

People I’ve talked to who are partnering with Amazon believe the company is aiming for a March rollout […]

Sources tell me Amazon’s box will be powered by Google’s Android operating system, which is also not a surprise — Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets use a “forked” version of Android … 
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe10ExwzCqk]

Google today announced “Project Tango,” an experimental effort that will see a prototype Android phone equipped with sensors for advanced motion and space tracking to a limited number of developers. The sensors embedded in the hardware will allow 3D scanning to map environments and the ability to track the full 3D motion of the device to open up new opportunities for developers from indoor navigation to gaming experiences. Here’s more on the hardware from Google’s new Project Tango website:

Our current prototype is a 5” phone containing customized hardware and software designed to track the full 3D motion of the device, while simultaneously creating a map of the environment. These sensors allow the phone to make over a quarter million 3D measurements every second, updating it’s position and orientation in real-time, combining that data into a single 3D model of the space around you…It runs Android and includes development APIs to provide position, orientation, and depth data to standard Android applications written in Java, C/C++, as well as the Unity Game Engine.

The prototype includes a 4MP camera, 2x Computer Vision Processors, integrated depth sensing, and a motion tracking camera.

Developers will be able to sign up starting today, but Google will only hand out around 200 units of the device initially. The project is lead by the Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group, the same team behind Project Ara and one part of Motorola that Google did not sell to Lenovo. 
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