Android

Back in November, Google announced that Currents news service would slowly be transitioned into a new Google Play Newsstand app, and today, the company has finally taken the final step. Google today released an update for the Currents app that makes it nothing more than a pathway to Play Newsstand (via Android Police).

When users launch the Currents app after updating, they will be presented with a screen telling them to download Google Play Newsstand. Newsstand will be able to automatically import all Currents subscription, making the transition as easy as possible for users. Once users agree to make the switch to Newsstand, the app icon for Currents will disappear, making it impossible to ever return.

iOS users are still waiting for Google’s Newsstand app, but there’s something with an eerily similar name preinstalled on all iOS devices already…

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Google’s Android and Chrome chief Sundar Pichai just announced the official dates for Google’s upcoming 7th annual Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco. While last year’s even took place in May, this year Google is moving up the conference to June 25-26. Pichai also noted that Google will implement a new registration system that will avoid tickets selling out within minutes like last year:
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fThtsb-Yj0w]

Like it has done on several occasions in the past, Samsung is directly mocking Apple in its latest advertisement for the new Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1. The commercial, posted to Samsung’s YouTube page, is a clear parody of Apple’s Pencil ad for the iPad Air that has been airing on TV since Apple debuted it for the introduction of the new tablet in October of last year. Another ad for the Galaxy Note 3 (below) takes on the iPhone’s small screen size.
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Following weeks of rumors regarding the next-generation flagship smartphone from HTC, today images of the device have leaked via reliable leakster @evleaks. The image above shows off what appears to be an evolution of the previous HTC One design with camera and flash components that line up with earlier leaks of the device. Up until now most leaks of the device have been referring to its “M8” codename. However, the tweet from evleaks seems to indicate that the device will be branded the new “HTC One 2014” edition. It also looks like at least some partners will be getting a gold version of the device.

Yesterday, HTC sent out invites for an event being held on March 25. Rumor has it the company could skip any unveilings at Mobile World Congress later this month and hold out for its own event at the end of next month.

So far rumors for the device include a 5″ 1080p display, Android 4.4 KitKat, 3GB of RAM, a Snapdragon 800 processor, and Sense 6.0. Evleaks shared another image of the device showing off a protective case and the latest Sense homescreen (below):
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We’re just a week away from Mobile World Congress kicking off in Barcelona, and while the event has been rather quiet for the past couple of years, it looks like that may change this time around. Samsung has already announced a press event for MWC, during which it will unveil its Galaxy S5 flagship. According to two new reports, however, the company also has more planned for the event.

Both USA Today and The Verge are reporting that Samsung will unveil at least one new Galaxy Gear smartwatch variant at its press event next week. The Verge report is sparse on details, simply reporting that Samsung could unveil “multiple new Galaxy Gear” models at the event.

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Photo: digitaltrends.com

With the number of Galaxy S5 leaks in recent weeks, many are expecting we’ll get our first official glimpse of the device at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at the end of February. While Samsung’s invites for the “Unpacked5” event did all but confirm an unveiling for MWC, today the company has flat out said that a new flagship Galaxy smartphone will be launched in the coming weeks. In a blog post announcing new LED flash components for mobile devices, Samsung said the technology will be “used in the next Galaxy smartphone, which is expected to be introduced later this month.”

Because high-quality smartphone cameras require a wider FOV (Field of View) angle for better picture quality, Samsung’s new reflector-integrated flash LEDs are designed to enable a great deal of flexibility by providing a wide FOV within a small space through the integration of a light source,  a lead frame, and a reflector with its own optics and diffusion features.

Of course Samsung has a long line of Galaxy devices that it could possibly be referring to, but there’s a good chance we’ll see the new flagship S5 on Monday Feb. 24. The event will be live streamed at youtube.com/samsungmobile and we’ll be bringing you live coverage as new products get announced. 
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Photo: ibtimes.com

Samsung’s been rather quiet when it comes to its plans to update United States devices to Android 4.4 KitKat. Today, however, the company has finally detailed exactly which devices it plans to update to Android 4.4.2, although it still left out the specific “when” detail.

Samsung says that it currently plans to update the entire Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S III line of devices, in addition to the Note II and Note III. Other various tablets and devices will be updated, as well, including the Note 8.0 and Tab 3. The entire list is below:
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Ahead of its scheduled announcement at Mobile World Congress on Monday, Nokia is teasing what we expect to be its first venture into Android handsets.

What has been codenamed Normandy, an Android variant with a Windows Phone-like user interface seen on Nokia’s recent smartphones, is being branded as Nokia X according to information shared by evleaks and mirrored by Nokia’s promo (seen above).

Nokia X. pic.twitter.com/meA05ALusT

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) February 17, 2014

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Image: ggpht.com

For those who may be waiting to choose between the Samsung S5 and the new HTC flagship handset code-named the M8, HTC has a little sweetener for you: a free, one-time replacement of the screen if you break it within the first six months of ownership. The company is also promising to offer Android updates for two years.

Now when customers buy any HTC One they can rest assured their device will be future proofed, with major Android updates for 2 years from launch. And it’s nearly accident proof too, because we will replace a broken screen for free once within the first 6 months you own it—let’s face it accidents do happen and we want to keep your device in great condition … 
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After months and months of rumors regarding the HTC One follow-up codenamed M8, HTC today sent out invites to an event scheduled for March 25th where the company is expected to officially unveil the device. While HTC hasn’t come right out and said the event is specifically for the M8, it will be showing off its new flagship devices for 2014. That means we likely won’t be seeing much from HTC during Mobile World Congress next week in Barcelona, but we’ll keep you updated on the latest. 
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Last night, it was reported that Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside would be stepping down from his position to become the chief operating officer at cloud storage company Dropbox. Woodside has now confirmed this decision in a blog post on the Official Motorola Blog, saying that he will step down as CEO at the end of March.

Woodside goes on to announce that Jonathan Rosenberg, who was the SVP of Products at Google from 2002 until 2011, will step in as COO at Motorola Mobility on April 1st. Rosenberg worked closely with Woodside and was “intimately involved” with decisions at Motorola. Google Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora will remain Executive Chairman of the Motorola Operating Board and continue to oversee strategy at the company. It looks as if Motorola will be going without a CEO after Woodside leaves, leaving Lenovo with a lot of control.

Woodside says he is leaving Motorola Mobility “in great hands” and that he is immensely proud of what the company has accomplished in the past 18 months. He also notes that he is excited for the next chapter for the company under Lenovo, who purchased it for $3 billion last month.

Dropbox CEO Drew Houston has also issued a statement on the news.

“We’ve long admired Dennis’s leadership at Google and Motorola where he ran multi-billion dollar businesses and built amazing organizations around the world. We’re so happy to welcome Dennis to our team — I can’t imagine a better person to help us bring Dropbox to global scale.”

Read the full resignation letter after the jump:

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The Wall Street Journal has published a new report in which it claims that there are some major “strings attached” for manufacturers when it comes to using Android. According to documents obtained by the publication, Google has imposed strict regulations on companies that wish to have access to YouTube or the Play Store on their devices. The documents show that in order to receive access to those services, companies are forced to feature other Google apps and set Google search as the default search engine on the device.

Companies wishing to gain access to Google services are forced to sign a “Mobile Application Distribution Agreement” with Google. Both HTC and Samsung have signed such agreements, which force them to preinstall twelve Google apps on any device they release. Other details of the agreement include placing the Search and Play Store apps “immediately adjacent” to the homescreen, and that Google apps appear no more than one screen away. Samsung and Google also recently signed a deal to license each other’s patents for the next 10 years.

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Google today updated the Play Music app for Android with a handful of new features. The biggest change is the ability to cache radio stations for offline listening, following the update in December that added the ability to save songs to your SD card. This means that you can now create a radio station and be able to listen to it whenever you want, even if you don’t have an active internet connection. It’s unclear how much of a radio station Google will cache, but we’d imagine it’s quite a few songs, so you can listen for a while before hearing a repeat song (via Android Police).

Also new with this update is the ability to manage your authorized Google Play Music devices from directly within the app. There’s a cap of 10 devices, and as many power users now, it doesn’t take long to reach that limit, especially if you share an account with family members.

There are a few other minor tweaks throughout the app with this update, such as a new “Play Next” button on songs, artists, and albums. There’s no official changelog just yet, as this appears to be a staged rollout. Be sure to keep an eye on the Play Store for the update to hit your device.

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Research firm IDC is out today with its latest report on the worldwide smartphone market highlighting shipments and marketshare by operating system for last quarter and all of 2013. Together Android and iOS made up around 95.7% of all smartphone shipments in the last quarter of 2013 (up from 91.2% in the year ago quarter), but the real story is how much Android has grown compared to iOS. As of last quarter, Android made up almost 80% of that 95.7% and shipped close to 800 million of the billion smartphones shipped during 2013. 
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Koushik Dutta, Cyanogen Inc co-founder and developer of the AllCast app that allows Chromecast streaming of local photos and video from your phone or tablet, has posted the above meme graphic hinting at the ability to mirror the entire Android screen to a TV.

Dutta had previously suggested that the functionality might be coming to Android officially … 
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Samsung looks set to launch at least two different versions of the Galaxy S5, its replacement for the current range-topping S4, code-named Prime and Standard – and it appears possible that Sprint will be getting the lower-spec version.

The two versions first showed up in benchmarks by AnTuTu, showing a Prime model labelled US Cellular and a lower-spec Standard model labelled Europe … 
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