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Apple stepped up. Today it announced the iPhone 7, the first true successor to the iPhone 6 that launched in 2014. While many expected this to be yet another “tock” (think iPhone 6SE) update offering little more than incremental improvements and an almost indistinguishable design, Apple instead brought a slew of substantial enhancements to the device and introduced a new glossy black design that even convinces me that the phone is deserving of its whole integer naming bump.

Most of what Apple introduced with the iPhone 7 is admittedly catchup — they’re features that Android OEMs have been offering for months (or in some cases, years). Headphone jack removal, waterproofing, dual-cameras, stereo speakers, and 32GB base storage have all been done on Android handsets. The iPhone 7 does, however, pack a lot of these features into an overall package that’s undeniably polished and backs them up with raw power enhancements under the hood…

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If you thought that the flop that was the LG G5 was all the Korean company had in store for this year, you’re about to be surprised. The company has today announced its V20, the successor to last year’s dual-screened V10 handset and what I would call the true flagship of 2016 for LG. It’s an improved version of last year’s V10 in almost every way, and it also brings some unique features that make it stand apart not only from its predecessor, but from the entire market.

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When thinking of Google, there are essentially two versions of the company that come to mind for most. Some immediately — and solely — link it to its iconic search box put front and center on google.com, while others who are more aware know about the ocean of products and services the Mountain View firm is deeply involved in. One thing that doesn’t often come to the average person’s mind, though, is hardware. Come the next few months, however, that may all but change…

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Amid all the leaks and the pour of information surrounding Google’s upcoming event, there seems to be no shortage of hardware to unveil over at Mountain View. We’ve learned that the smartphone duo is likely to make the switch from “Nexus” to “Pixel”, but apparently there may be something else in the works — and, more precisely, a tablet…

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When the news broke that Google’s modular phone, Project Ara, had been shelved, many of us were shocked. Only months ago at Google I/O 2016, the company laid out plans to begin shipping developer units this fall and open up sales to the general public in 2017…

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The news that says Google is seemingly dropping the Nexus branding for its upcoming pair of flagship smartphones in favor of a more streamlined “Pixel” and “Pixel XL” nomenclature has just dropped, but Android Police is adding fuel to the fire with additional pieces of information regarding Google’s upcoming hardware focused event, which is said to be planned for next month with a slew of juicy announcements…

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Rumors surrounding Google’s yet-to-be-announced 2016 Nexus phones have been pretty all over the place. We’ve heard a lot, but not all of it has made sense. One early rumor though was that Google was actually planning to drop the Nexus brand on these devices, instead releasing a Pixel device. Since the original report we haven’t heard a ton regarding the use of that name, but tonight Android Police has dropped a bomb on us; Google’s upcoming smartphones will be called the Pixel and the Pixel XL.

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If you’ve jumped onto YouTube, or basically any social network today, you’ve probably heard something about YouTube’s “new” monetization rules and how they are “the death of YouTube.” So without freaking out about it, let’s see what’s going on here…

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Huawei has today launched the Nova and Nova Plus, two new entries into the Chinese company’s ever-growing portfolio of smartphones. These devices go without the special features and frills of many of the company’s other offferings, bringing modest mid-range specs at an affordable price more commonly associated with phones from Huawei’s sub-brand, Honor. The company also announced a tablet called the MediaPad M3.
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According to a report this afternoon from The Wall Street Journal, Google is planning to launch a ride sharing service in San Francisco, California later this year to take on rivals Uber and Lyft. The new service is said to bring much cheaper rates in a market that is already intensely competitive. The move also has long-term implications for Google’s self-driving car project…

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Google+ is the odd one out in the social space. Despite millions of users who love the service, it always seems to be the forgotten platform. For those who are using Google+, today Google has announced several major updates coming to the platform just ahead of a switch to the new UI which was announced last year.

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Storage space is something that both consumers and tech giants have issues with at some point or another, and a big reason for that is photos. Some users host thousands of photos on their device at any given time, and with services like Google Photos, Google is hosting millions of photos with more coming everyday. Now the company is working on a new JPEG compression method that allows smaller files sizes compared to current standards, and it’s all done using neural networks…

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If you’re a user of the internet (which you are, because you’re reading this site), then Google’s latest post to its Webmaster Central Blog is great news. If you’re a publisher or webmaster that likes to bombard users with intrusive ads, however, then you might want to look away.

In an effort to “improve the mobile search experience,” Google has announced today that it will soon begin penalizing sites in Google Search when it finds that the ads (or, more broadly, the interstitials) they serve users are too intrusive…

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With the release of Android 7.0 Nougat, Google is moving past the Summer break and springing right into the dense, final months of the year with a series of exciting announcements, which more or less span across all of its properties. With software comes hardware, too, but while we may have to wait just a tad longer for the upcoming Nexus devices to be unveiled officially, VR may be really close…

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