The latest numbers from Strategy Analytics reveal that Chinese handset maker Xiaomi has surpassed Huawei and LG to become the third-largest smartphone maker in the world. Xiaomi has been making impressive strides since recruiting former Google executive Hugo Barra and more than doubling its sales following international expansion.
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Today we’re going to be comparing Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus to Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4. I realized that there are a limited range of “comparisons” that can happen between these two devices, but we’re going to touch on some of the most important factors between the two such as design, software, features, and cameras.
I’m not going to make this a battle between iOS and Android as many people have their own preferences which lead them to one platform or another. Either way, these two devices are shaping up to be the most coveted large screen smartphones of 2014 and it makes sense to compare them and help you make an informed decision…
FBI Director James Comey isn’t backing down from his position that Google and Apple are wrong to encrypt customer smartphone data preventing law enforcement agencies the possibility of access if requested. After last month sharing that the FBI was in talks with the two companies to discuss concerns with marketing devices as being inaccessible to third-parties including the government, the FBI Director spoke with CBS News in an interview where he continued to make the case against such encryption…
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Samsung on Monday night issued a statement warning that its third-quarter earnings would be considerably weaker than it initially expected. The South Korean company stated that it expects a third quarter operating profit of 4.1 trillion won, or $3.8 billion, and sales of 47 trillion won. Both of these numbers are below Reuters’ forecasts of 5.6 trillion won in operating profit and 50.9 trillion in sales (via CNBC).
Google has updated the Gmail app for iOS with support for the larger displays on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. There don’t seem to be any other unmentioned changes (still no unified inbox), but you won’t have to use the awkward zoomed view when using the app anymore.
You can grab Gmail version 3.1415926 (yes, that’s Pi) for free from the iOS App Store.
What’s New in Version 3.1415926
Support for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus
For the third quarter, HTC has announced that it earned $21 million in profit on revenue of $1.37 billion. Although this is a huge improvement over the hundred million dollar loss they reported in the year-ago quarter, the company remains in a shaky financial situation. Most of the return to profitability is accounted for by a drastic cost-cutting policy rather than increases in device sales.
Sales actually fell 8% in September year-on-year, following a 33% fall in July and a 10% improvement in August. Apple and Samsung remain fierce competition for the Taiwanese company, despite good hardware advancements in the HTC One M8.
Consumer Reports released a new video today taking on claims of overly-flexible iPhones that have appeared online recently. Apple noted that only a handful of complaints have come in and gave journalists a look at its testing procedures. Regardless of Cupertino’s claims, Consumer Reports kept its promise to conduct testing that was a bit more scientific in nature than previous YouTube videos.
To address these claims, several different phones were tested under up to 150 pounds of pressure to see when each model would stop “snapping back” to its original shape. The devices tested were the iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6, iPhone 5, HTC One M8, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, and LG G3.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHEmO-kRCSs?feature=player_detailpage]
Apple’s new iPhones have sold quite well, but their launch hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing. From hardware issues to botched software, the Cupertino-based software giant has had a lot on its plate over the past few days and of course critics have been quite vocal about the company’s recent challenges. Recently, late night TV funny man Conan O’Brien joined in on the Apple ribbing by putting together a bogus Samsung ad that offers a solution to troubled iPhone owners.
Google chairman Eric Schmidt and former product manager Jonathan Rosenberg are currently on tour promoting their new book How Google Works, and as the co-authors continue making their rounds, they’ve been engaging in some rather assertive interviews. This time around the duo stopped by Bloomberg’s Market Makers with hosts Erik Schatzker and Stephanie Ruhle. The group talked about the search giant’s biggest competitors like Apple, Yahoo, Amazon and others. Here are a few highlights from the 15 minute segment.
Google’s companion app for Google Glass was updated this afternoon on iOS with a few minor changes. The update to MyGlass bumps the app to version 0.8.0 and brings it closer to the generally more capable and more powerful MyGlass Android app.
Samsung was already taking shots at the iPhone 6 this morning with some new ads, but the Android handset maker has gone even further by releasing a set of new videos on YouTube today mocking everything from the iPhone 6 livestream problems to the device’s hardware (via Engadget). The ads are part of the “Note the Difference” campaign, and these specific videos belong to a playlist called “It Doesn’t Take a Genius.”
The ads feature two guys in blue shirts—the titular Apple Store “Geniuses”—discussing the upcoming device’s features (and lack of a stylus) and the companion Apple Watch. Each ends with a promotion for Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4 smartphone. You can check out all six ads in the playlist below:
Google this evening rolled out an update to the Google Voice app on iOS, adding several new features and much-needed visual enhancements. Bumping the app to version 1.6, this evening’s update is the first the app has seen since September 2013, and the first major update since 2012.
It looks like HTC wasn’t the only one to take a jab at Apple’s new king size iPhone 6 Plus. The Cupertino-based software giant’s longtime rival Samsung took to social media to taunt the company’s latest effort. The South Korean electronics manufacturer recently posted a tweet with a message saying “Big improvements and innovation come with change – even they thought so.” The social media post ended with an embedded image citing a now famous 2010 quote from late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, saying “No one is going to buy a big phone.”
Steve took the opportunity to rip on bigger rivals, saying that making a phone so big “you can’t get your hand around it” helps, but that “no one’s going to buy that.” We’re assuming he’s likely talking about the latest crop of 4-, 4.3- and 5-inch phones that include the Galaxy S series, the EVO 4G, Droid X, and Dell Streak, even going so far as to call them “Hummers”
Looks like HTC has gone on the defense with Apple and the announcement of the iPhone 6. As mentioned in a tweet by HTC, “Bigger screen. Better performance. Elegant design. Welcome to the party #iPhone6.” The tweet showcases that simple message and a photo of the HTC One M8 next to a pixelated photo of Apple’s new iPhone 6.
Amazon seems to have finally accepted that access to Amazon Instant Video still isn’t going to make anyone want to buy a Fire Phone. As of today, Amazon Prime members in the U.S. can watch Instant Video on any Android device using the updated Amazon app.
Prime members in the US can stream unlimited Prime Instant Video from inside the Amazon app using the Prime Instant Video player, including HBO shows The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, Six Feet Under, and The Wire …
Probably ill-advised timing but why not?
[protected-iframe id=”05f27370503ceb18ee2654366fc676bc-22427743-13611283″ info=”https://vine.co/v/OBBtIW7EnD9/embed/simple” width=”600″ height=”600″ frameborder=”0″]
If you want to learn what happened behind the scenes in the tumultuous world of Motorola in the past decade, Chicago Mag does an excellent in-depth feature of the company that is awaiting approval of its sale from Google to Lenovo. Some excellent bits:
Meanwhile, in arguably one of the worst decisions ever made by a major corporate CEO, Zander struck a deal with his Silicon Valley friend Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple. Together their companies created a Motorola iTunes phone, the first phone connected to Apple’s music store. “We can’t think of a more natural partnership than this one with Apple,” Zander said at the time. Named the Rokr, the phone launched in the fall of 2005. Jobs, who introduced it, called it “an iPod Shuffle right on your phone.”
Ouch, a Shuffle…
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Dropbox has today slashed its pricing and doubled the maximum storage space from 500GB to 1TB. Up until yesterday, you’d have been paying $500/year for 500GB; today you can pay just $120/year (or $99/year when paying annually) for a terabyte.
The new deal finally brings Dropbox into line with Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive, with Apple’s new iCloud pricing – which includes iCloud Drive – also looking to be broadly similar …
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_I4Ab_LdxQ]
Samsung has put together a blog post extolling the virtues of the metal frame, curved corners and finish of the handset it created to go head-to-head with Apple’s iPhone, the Galaxy Alpha. It follows an earlier post on the making of the phone.
The prose is best described as stilted, but the general idea is that every element of the design has a reason behind it. Metal, we are told, offers “thinness, style and a comfortable grip.” And just in case anyone should accuse them of copying the iPhone in switching from plastic to metal, Samsung is quick to point out it started making metal phones back in 2006 – a year before the first iPhone …
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“Know your competition, but don’t copy it.” Those words of wisdom come from the image above accompanying a message put on the entirely original – not a copy of Facebook – Google+ by Google executive chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt. Schmidt is promoting his new book with Jonathan Rosenberg called How Google Works due out next month where the billionaire lays out the principles that made Google what it is today.
Included with the lemonade stand image and ‘don’t copy’ caption is another Schmidt line on originality and competition. “Playing catch-up with the competition will never help you get ahead by creating something new,” Schmidt says. Google would be the “hard” boozy lemonade to the competitions’ fresh lemonade. In the case of Google Plus, the booze could be the hangouts or perhaps the photo editing features or integration with other Google products.
Now picture this tidbit from Walter Isaacson’s biography of the late Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs:
“I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong,” Jobs said. “I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”
It’s hard to deny that Android started looking a lot more like iOS after the iPhone’s introduction, and iOS has clearly borrowed its fair share of features from Google’s mobile operating system, but there’s no denying that Schmidt’s message could be challenged. File this one with the rest under Talking Schmidt.
If you’re not familiar with Google Cardboard, it’s one of the most affordable and portable VR (virtual reality) headsets to date. It’s a very simple creation in terms of design and functionality, but provides a solid look into the future of technology without breaking the bank.
Google unveiled Cardboard at I/O 2014, but it was designed with Android devices in mind. The official Cardboard app is nowhere to be found on Apple’s App Store, but that doesn’t mean all hope is lost for iOS users. Google may not care about iOS as a platform, but stereoscopic 3D is nothing new. In fact, there is a good handful of apps available for iOS that are also compatible with Google Cardboard…
The popular transportation service Uber has quickly been growing this year with new features like adding your destination right on the smartphone app when requesting a ride and poaching long time Apple engineering manager Chris Blumenberg who managed the Maps team. The service is even integrated into the Google Maps app on iPhone and Android, and check out the Uber care package the company sends new employees.
Today Uber is taking a major step toward integrating its service into even more apps and services as it introduces an API for developers to use in their own apps and a list of partners already planning to take advantage of it.
As of today, we officially open—to all developers—access to many of the primitives that power Uber’s magical experience. Apps can pass a destination address to the Uber app, display pickup times, provide fare estimates, access trip history and more.
The Korea Times is reporting that LG is planning to show off a successor to its G Watch wearable at IFA next month. The report, citing an unnamed LG official, claims that the device will go by the LG G Watch 2 moniker and be more high-end than the current generation G Watch. LG is reportedly planning to market the device as a competitor to Apple’s supposed, still unannounced iWatch.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh5l0xsIqnA]
A mid-range phone powered by a Snapdragon 400 processor isn’t going to excite many people, but the Sharp Aquos Crystal coming later this year to Sprint does have one very appealing feature: a near-invisible bezel …
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