Google

Remember that great Monotune ad from a couple weeks ago? It was a great little jab at Apple, criticizing the monotony of its devices and praising the beauty that comes with Android phones being different. Now, Google has released an album on Google Play that keeps the joke rolling…

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Compared to the dozens of other Android Wear watches we’ve seen over the last couple of years, the Moto 360 Sport is both different and the same. It’s different because, unlike the more popular classy offerings in the form of the Huawei Watch, the Fossil Q, the Moto 360 (2nd gen.), and others, the Moto 360 was made from the ground up with an active lifestyle in mind. It’s the same, however, in pretty much every other way imaginable…
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Following Apple’s filling earlier today in which it formally responded to the FBI’s court request to access date on a locked iPhone, the Wall Street Journal now reports that both Google plans to file court motions in which they support Apple’s stance. Facebook is also expected to file a motion, as is Twitter.

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One of the arguably biggest efforts pulled off by Google in recent times is its massive visual facelift that goes by the name of ‘Material Design‘.  Among the most prominent concrete examples of its practical application, Android certainly stands out, and in Google’s commitment towards bringing a more unified and consistent looking OS, the company may be taking things a step further by the time Android N lands.

In a report from Android Police, the publication independently confirmed that screenshots found on the Android Developers blog post about Android Support Library v23.2 are coming from a yet-unreleased version of the OS, which seems to be implementing the famous hamburger menu inside the Settings app…

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Just one day after the UK’s public spending watchdog described the £130M ($185M) back-tax paid by Google in the country as “disproportionately small,” France is demanding a rather larger sum. Reuters reports that the country’s finance ministry believes Google owes €1.6B ($1.76B).

“As far as our country is concerned, back taxes concerning this company amount to 1.6 billion euros,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said […]

Earlier this month, Finance Minister Michel Sapin ruled out striking a deal with the U.S. search engine company as the British government recently did, saying the sums at stake in France were “far greater” than those in Britain … 

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Google is announcing two notable new features for Gmail for Android today, including support for rich text formatting and a new “Instant RSVPs” feature that offers one-tap access to responding to Calendar invites.
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The Public Accounts Committee, the British Parliament’s public spending watchdog, has criticized the £130M ($185M) tax deal Google struck with the UK government as “disproportionately small.” The committee also criticized the secrecy around how the sum was calculated, reports the Guardian.

Google’s controversial tax deal cannot be properly assessed by MPs because of secrecy surrounding the negotiations, according to a report by parliament’s public spending watchdog. But the deal to pay £130m in back taxes for a 10-year period seems “disproportionately small when compared with the size of Google’s business in the UK”, the public accounts committee has found.

A report published today calls for more to be done to prevent “aggressive [tax] avoidance” by multinational companies, with Google accused of hypocrisy …

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Google’s Boston Dynamics company, the people behind previous terrifying yet amazing robot videos, has today shared a glimpse at what it is calling the “next generation” of its Atlas robot. The new generation of Atlas is designed to operate both indoors and outdoors, the company says, and weighs a solid 180 pounds.

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One of the main reasons why so many people love Android is its famous customisability. Google’s OS is notoriously flexible, and despite being already available in a variety of different forms thanks to the OEMs’ re-skinning, the hundreds of apps present on the Play Store allow for further personalization in almost every corner of the system. Toggles, widgets, icon packs and entire lock screen replacements are just a few of the categories of things Android can be user-modified with.

However, particularly after Material Design‘s introduction and a general push towards cohesiveness and consistency across the system, the diverse adaptations of the OS have started to look more and more similar; be it thanks to whiter, more card-based menus, the use of similar toggle icons or the widely adopted carousel-like task switcher, among others, Android has finally started to look and feel instantly recognizable, even when buried deep underneath the oft-poor design decisions made by third parties…

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Less than a year ago, Google Compare was launched in the United States to help customers find and compare credit card rates, mortgages, and car insurance. Now, however, Google has announced that it is shutting the Google Compare service down, reports Search Engine Land. Google’s specific reasoning for shutting down Compare is unclear at this point, but after being available for less than a year, it’s a pretty quick turnaround time for the company.

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Google made its commitment to RCS (Rich Communications Services) clear last year when the company acquired Jibe, but now things are getting even more serious. The GSM Association today announced that it, more than 15 global mobile operators around the world, and Google, have finally struck a deal to actually make bring RCS to widespread adoption. And Google says that an Android RCS client is in the works, being made in collaboration with several Android OEMs and the aforementioned mobile operators…

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Samsung’s latest flagship devices bundle in several new features and capabilities, and they critically cap off these additions with shiny new black, silver, and gold color schemes, so the best way to protect the new device is the award-winning transparent CandyShell Clear from Speck. Samsung has done many things to improve the reliability of the new Galaxy smartphones, including new waterproofing and dust-resistance technology, but the devices will still be prone to damage from drops, scratches, and nicks.

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Sony has unveiled three new Xperia phones, known as the X-series. The entry-level device is the XA, with a MediaTek MT6755 processor rather than a Snapdragon chip. With a 720p display and 16GB storage, Sony’s description of it as a “super mid-range” device seems to be pushing it, though you do get 2GB RAM and 13MP/8MP cameras.

The standard X gets much better specs and should make photography fans happy. It boasts a Snapdragon 650 processor with 3GB of RAM plus 32GB of storage. The display is a good if unexceptional 5-inch 1080p one, but the standout element here is the camera combo. The X gets the same 23MP rear camera as in the Z5 (though with improved firmware) and a 13MP front camera Sony says offers 6400ISO for ultra-capable low-light performance – and a new predictive auto-focus that can track a moving object in the frame … 

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It goes without saying that the Samsung Galaxy S7 (and the S7 edge) and the LG G5 were the two big announcements today at Mobile World Congress 2016 press day, showcasing the best that these two Android OEMs have to offer. Both of these devices were horribly-kept secrets in their own ways, but now that they’re here, which one are you planning to get?

Let us know which one is your pick in the poll below, but first let’s take a look at a few of their differences…

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Samsung’s Gear 360 video camera leaked a few weeks ago, and today it’s official. Until now the idea of owning a camera that can capture video and images in a VR-compatible 360-degree format may have been a foreign concept to most, but Samsung is really taking a stab at bringing VR content to the mainstream with this offering….

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