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Review: Google’s Nexus 5X is a great smartphone, but not the best in its class [Video]

Avatar for Dom Esposito Oct 29 2015 - 12:44 pm PT
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Google’s Nexus 5X may not the best budget smartphone you can buy, but it’s the only one that will appeal to purists out there. Google’s LG-made Nexus 5X is definitely worthy of some attention, but these days it’s a tough market out there for a flagship with a midrange price. The question is, can its $379 price tag win your heart and the cash in your wallet?

The Nexus 5X is the first budget Nexus we’ve seen in quite a while, the smallest as well, and as the name suggests, it’s the sequel to the Nexus 5. With that, you’ll find a very familiar plastic build with updated internals and a few extra surprises…


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Nexus 6P teardown reveals that the attractive flagship is extremely difficult to repair

Avatar for Stephen Hall Oct 29 2015 - 9:13 am PT
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There are plenty of different comparison points between this year’s Nexus phones, and in most of them the Nexus 6P is simply superior. The Nexus 6P has a larger screen, a more premium build, a better camera, and more powerful internals. But there’s one area that we now know that the Nexus 6P is clearly the loser. When it comes to repairability, the Nexus 6P is one of the worst phones ever, getting a score of just 2 out of 10 from iFixit…
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BlackBerry details the features of its upcoming PRIV slider phone [Video]

Avatar for Stephen Hall Oct 29 2015 - 7:07 am PT
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BlackBerry’s PRIV handset is getting a lot of attention, and there’s many reasons for that. The most obvious is that it’s a slider phone — something that we haven’t seen on Android for quite a while. BlackBerry was known for their sliders and holding onto the physical keyboard when the rest of the industry moved on, and now they’re bringing that back in a secure package that seems to be more than decent. Many won’t bat an eye, but there are others who might notice some of its unique features.

To highlight those features and hopefully catch those potential customers, BlackBerry has uploaded a video demonstrating what the PRIV has to offer: it’s physical keyboard, BlackBerry Hub, Pop-up widgets, its curved 5.4-inch screen, and more:

The PRIV is also bringing a lot to the table for those more interested in getting great specifications. The phone has a 5.4-inch, 2560 x 1440 resolution AMOLED display at 540ppi, a Snapdragon 808 hexa-core processor, 3 GB RAM, and 32 GB of expandable storage. You’ll find an 18-megapixel rear camera, a 2-megapixel front camera, dual-LED flash, and a 3,410 mAh battery. Sadly, though, it looks like the phone is going to launch with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.

You can pre-order the BlackBerry PRIV from the company’s website.

Alphabet partners w/ three carriers to bring Project Loon service to Indonesia

Avatar for Chance Miller Oct 28 2015 - 5:00 pm PT
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Google X’s incredibly ambitious Project Loon is expanding into another country soon. Parent company Alphabet today announced that it is teaming up with the three largest wireless carriers in Indonesia to test its Project Loon in Indonesia beginning next year. Google is targeting Indonesia because it is the fourth most populous country in the world, but two-thirds of its citizens lack access to Internet.


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Google names Oklahoma City, Jacksonville and Tampa as potential Fiber cities

Avatar for Stephen Hall Oct 28 2015 - 4:00 pm PT
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Google Fiber is slowly but surely gaining momentum, and the Mountain View company just last month announced that it began exploring Irvine, Louisville, and San Diego as potential cities for the service. Today, it looks like there are three more cities being added to the “maybe one day” list (which is definitely an upgrade from the “who knows” list most cities are still on): Oklahoma City, Oklahom, Jacksonville, Florida, and Tampa, Florida.

Google says these “growing tech hubs” have a “strong entrepreneurial spirit”:

That’s why today, we’re inviting Oklahoma City, OK, Jacksonville, FL and Tampa, FL, to explore bringing Google Fiber to their communities, as we did last month with three other cities. These growing tech-hubs have a strong entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to small business growth. Their list of accolades is long—from Jacksonville’s title as a top 10 city for tech jobs, to Tampa Bay’s #2 spot on the list of best cities for young entrepreneurs, to Oklahoma City’s recognition as the #1 city to launch a business. One of our goals is to make sure speed isn’t an accidental ceiling for how people and businesses use the Web, and these cities are the perfect places to show what’s possible with gigabit Internet.

There are currently 3 Fiber cities, and 6 that are definitely on the way. This announcement leaves us with 9 cities that Google has designated as potentials, with the other 6 being Portland, San Jose, Irving, San Diego, Louisville, and Phoenix. Now, Google is going to start the “joint planning process” in collaboration with the three new cities’ local leaders to study their respective communities. Now it’s just a waiting game for those lucky enough to reside in these cities.

PSA: YouTube Red is now live, and you can sign up for a free trial now

Avatar for Stephen Hall Oct 28 2015 - 10:08 am PT
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Google introduced the world to its curiously-named YouTube Red service just last week, and mentioned that October 28th would be the day that it launched. Well, today is October 28th, and you can now head over to YouTube.com/red to sign up for the service. Google’s kicking off Red with a one month free trial for all users, after which you’ll be charged $9.99 per month…

With YouTube Red, you’ll get access to a completely ad-free YouTube experience (which alone is an enticing offer for those of us that still want to support content creators), you’ll be able to download videos for offline viewing on a variety of devices, and — one feature that has been much-requested since YouTube hit mobile devices — you’ll be able to keep the app running in the background when your screen is off.

The thing that’s confusing to me about this whole ordeal is that there’s so much convergence of content between Google Play Music and YouTube Red. A Google Play Music Unlimited subscription seems to get you a YouTube Red subscription and vice-versa, so now I have to decide which of the two platforms I will use for music streaming. But I guess that’s pretty typical for Google’s products.

I’m not complaining, so don’t get me wrong. I think it’s pretty nice that Google is making these two services just one monthly bill, and I doubt I ever be willing to pay for both. The reason for that is because there’s just so much content overlap, and I guess that’s the same thing that might make this confusing for the average customer. Either way, I get another free month of Google Play Music Unlimited out of this even if I don’t end up sticking with Red, and that’s fine by me.

https://youtu.be/YL9RetC0ook

Google says some Nexus 6P shipments delayed, offering $25 refund to affected customers

Avatar for Chance Miller Oct 27 2015 - 6:12 pm PT
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Several early Nexus 6P orders began shipping last week to eager customers, but now it looks as if many will have to wait a little bit longer before their device arrives. Google this evening has sent out an email to undisclosed number of people who pre-ordered the Nexus 6P, informing them that shipment of their device has been delayed.


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‘Future teardown’ of a Google self-driving car shows us who could be making the various elements

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Oct 27 2015 - 7:19 am PT
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While it seems near-certain that Google plans a full-scale commercial rollout of its self-driving cars, it has also made clear on several occasions that it has no plans to manufacture the cars itself. As a recent opinion piece on sister site Electrek argued, actually manufacturing a car is massively complex undertaking.

Google will therefore be looking for partners to pull together different elements of the car, and Re/code has put together an interesting look at the most likely candidates. Though the piece is focused on the Apple Car, the analysis applies to Apple and Google alike … 
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You can now buy the waterproof HTC RE camera for just $50 shipped (Reg. $200)

Avatar for Stephen Hall Oct 27 2015 - 6:57 am PT
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HTC’s RE camera hasn’t exactly been the blowout hit, and at least a few times over the last several months we’ve seen it as low as $100 brand-new. Now, you can buy the HTC RE from the company’s website for just $50 shipped, which is $150 less than its regular $200 retail price and the lowest price we’ve seen.

The HTC RE, importantly, has a waterproof build — which makes it the obvious choice for water sports and outdoors filming. The camera also sports a 146° wide angle lens, and a 16-megapixel, 1/2.3″ Sony CMOS sensor. It has just one button, made for when you’re out with friends and just want to quickly capture a moment.

HTC’s website is currently offering the device in four colors: silver, orange, blue, and green. The device is compatible with both iPhone and Android platforms, and also brings the RE Live Stream feature, which lets you stream up to 30-minutes of footage directly from the device to YouTube. It’s nearing impulse buy at this price.

Google adds more train information to Google Flights in Europe

Avatar for Stephen Hall Oct 26 2015 - 3:28 pm PT
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While this might not make much sense to North American readers, high-speed trains are commonly a very smart alternative to flights when traveling across the European continent. Due to this, it makes sense that Google would add train information to Google Flights in Europe. Now, when browsing flights in Google Flights, users will be able to quickly see when it might make more sense to go by rail.

Here’s the low down:

Every year, billions of people travel across Europe for personal and professional reasons — often choosing high-speed rail as a convenient option. Now Google Flights makes it easy to compare the time and cost to ride vs. fly when trains are a logical and good alternative to many flight routes in Europe.

We started by adding train options for routes in Italy and Spain. Today we’re excited to announce a partnership with Deutsche Bahn in Germany to bring their expansive, fast rail service to Google Flights.

According to Google, this launch brings train options for 56 destinations and hundreds of routes across Northern Europe. The company says that Frankfurt-Munich and Hamburg-Stuttgart are popular routes, as well as Zurich-Frankfurt and Frankfurt-Amsterdam. As of today, you should be able to see these Northern Europe train options in the app, and even more routes in Italy and Spain, as well.

Opinion: I’m now a VR believer, and Google’s Tilt Brush app is particularly breathtaking

Avatar for Stephen Hall Oct 26 2015 - 3:12 pm PT
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Late last week, I got a chance to give HTC Vive a test run at the Big Android BBQ in Hurst, Texas. I feel almost ashamed to say this, but I hadn’t even touched virtual reality at all — besides Google Cardboard, of course — until Friday. And while this probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to those out there that have already played with devices like Oculus and Vive in the past, I’m absolutely, completely, thoroughly, fully, a believer in virtual reality. Here’s how it went down…
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9to5Toys Lunch Break: 2nd generation Moto G (unlocked) $119, USB power deals, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Oct 26 2015 - 1:57 pm PT
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Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

Unlocked Motorola Moto G (2nd generation) 8GB white: $119 shipped (Reg. $180) | Amazon

USB Roundup: Aukey 5000mAh Charger + MFi Lightning Cable $15 (Reg. $21), Lumsing 13400mAh Power bank $23, more

Giveaway: Polk Audio’s Omni Whole Home Music System – Soundbar w/ subwoofer and S2 Speaker ($880 value)

Best Buy lands the first major blow in this year’s battle for holiday shoppers

Amazon thinks leaving your house is over-rated, expands Prime free same-day delivery service

Dell Black Friday Ad Leak: Gears of War Xbox One w/ Fallout 4 + controller $300, VIZIO 60-Inch 4K HDTV $800, more

More new gear from today:

Fashion deals at Amazon – extra 20% off fall athletic/outdoor shoes: Caterpillar boots $52, ASICS running shoes $40, more

More deals still alive:

Gift Cards up to 20% off: JCPenney, Sports Authority, more

App Store Free App of the Week: Dr. Panda’s Mailman ($4 value)

New products & more:

Dyson’s pricey 360 Eye robo-vac finally sees the light of day

Use your smartphone as a controller for these AirConsole Mac/PC browser games

 

Facebook bolstering Android Notifications tab with sports scores, birthdays, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Oct 26 2015 - 11:49 am PT
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If you’re a Facebook user, you’re definitely familiar with the Notifications tab in the company’s Android app. Although it has barely evolved from being a simple stream of your notifications since its introduction many years ago, Facebook has today come out to outline some changes on the way to make it more useful and personalized.
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Android Marshmallow stock ROM appears for LG G4 as OTA rollout delayed

Avatar for Stephen Hall Oct 26 2015 - 7:28 am PT
1 Comment

LG said earlier this month that Android Marshmallow is coming to the G4 soon (possibly quicker than pretty much every other non-Nexus smartphone), but a new post by the Korean company on its Poland Facebook page says that the update have been “temporarily suspended” due to technical issues (via AndroidBeat):

Nicolas, update is temporarily suspended due to technical reasons. We will keep you informed about the changes!


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Google reveals RankBrain, the AI system that it’s been using for ‘a very large fraction’ of searches

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Oct 26 2015 - 5:55 am PT
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It’s no surprise that Google employs artificial intelligence to help parse search queries, but it did surprise me to learn that a full 15% of Google searches are ones its systems have never seen before. It’s these that the company has been decoding with the help of an AI system called RankBrain, reports Bloomberg.

For the past few months, a “very large fraction” of the millions of queries a second that people type into the company’s search engine have been interpreted by an artificial intelligence system, nicknamed RankBrain, said Greg Corrado, a senior research scientist with the company, outlining for the first time the emerging role of AI in search.

As you’d expect, Google uses literally hundreds of different ‘signals’ to make sense of searches, and the vast majority of these are based on discoveries and insights that people in the team have had – but RankBrain is the first system that genuinely learns … 
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Google patents way to tell if you are a car driver or passenger through smartwatch movements

Avatar for Cam Bunton Oct 26 2015 - 4:50 am PT
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Google may have made leaps and bounds already in the development of future automotive technology with its autonomous vehicle program, but that’s not all it’s working on. A patent recently published by the USPTO reveals a concept for an in-car tool which uses your wearable device’s movements to work out if you’re the driver or passenger…


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Yahoo will now show Google search results after signing deal

Avatar for Cam Bunton Oct 26 2015 - 2:23 am PT
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Yahoo announced in its financial earnings results for Q3 that it has signed a partnership deal with Google to show search results and ads in its own search tools. The deal came in to effect on October 1st and will last until the end of 2018. Under the terms of this new deal, Yahoo gets to choose which search queries it sends to Google, while Google provides search ads, algorithmic search and image search services for mobile and desktop…


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9to5Toys Last Call: Galaxy Note 4 (unlocked) $300, HooToo Wireless Travel Router $40, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Oct 23 2015 - 3:39 pm PT
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Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 32GB (unlocked): $300 shipped (Reg. $700) | eBay

HooToo Wireless Travel Router and 10400mAh External Charger: $40 shipped (Reg $60)

Get started with Google’s Express delivery service: $35 credit for $10

Acer Chromebook 1.50GHz/4GB/16GB SSD: $249 shipped (Reg. $279)

Best Buy lands the first major blow in this year’s battle for holiday shoppers

Amazon thinks leaving your house is over-rated, expands Prime free same-day delivery service

Dell Black Friday Ad Leak: Gears of War Xbox One w/ Fallout 4 + controller $300, VIZIO 60-Inch 4K HDTV $800, more

More new gear from today:

 

Daily Deals: Logitech Performance Mouse MX $45, SanDisk 64GB Flash Memory Card for MacBook Air $44, more

More deals still alive:

Get a 64GB Wi-Fi iPad Air 2 for less than Apple charges for 16GB: $490 shipped (Reg. $599)

proXPN VPN: Premium Lifetime Subscription for $39 ($375 value)

New products & more:

The MiniBrew launches on Indiegogo as an iPhone-connected way to make your own beer

Bird of Prey’s prone-style bicycle puts the rider facedown while riding

PSA: Several early Nexus 6P orders are now shipping

Avatar for Stephen Hall Oct 23 2015 - 3:15 pm PT
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If you ordered a Nexus 6P, this one’s for you. According to various reports across Twitter, Google+, and Reddit, many Nexus 6P orders are shipping this afternoon. From the looks of it (and that includes at least two different Reddit threads), those who ordered the 32 GB aluminum model are getting first dibs…

If you’re one of the lucky few who have a phone shipping this afternoon and you ordered with overnight shipping, you’ll probably see your phone at your doorstep on Monday. The rest of of the Nexus 6P variants — assuming you ordered on launch day — will likely begin shipping out sometime next week.

Google assists refugee crisis with lightweight mobile info site & improved Translate offering

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Oct 23 2015 - 6:53 am PT
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Following Google’s donation-matching program, which has so far raised more than $12M to fund humanitarian aid for refugees from Syria and other war zones, the company says that it is now providing technological assistance too.

In a blog post today, Google says that it has developed an open source project called the Crisis Info Hub to provide migrants with access to the immediate information they need on arrival in Greece in a lightweight, battery-saving way. The company says that it is also helping to beef-up mobile data connectivity locally … 
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Google’s market capitalization surpasses the half trillion mark as Alphabet’s stock soars

Avatar for Fred Lambert Oct 23 2015 - 6:32 am PT
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Yesterday, Google’s parent company Alphabet released its earnings report and announced its first stock buyback program. Investors welcomed the news and sent the company’s stock soaring 11.8% in early trading Friday morning, which pushed Alphabet’s (GOOG) market capitalization passed the half a trillion mark.
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Wondering where that weird $5,099,019,513.59 Alphabet buyback number came from? Here’s where …

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Oct 23 2015 - 3:54 am PT
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When we reported yesterday that Alphabet was planning to buy back $5,099,019,513.59 of its own stock, you may have wondered how the company came up with such a strangely specific number.

RBC Capital’s Mark Mahaney actually figured out the answer during the earnings call – appropriately enough, by Googling the number. The alphabet has 26 letters, and the square root of 26 is 5.09901951359. Multiply that by a billion and, yep, you get $5,099,019,513.59.

Alphabet financial chief Ruth Porat reassured analysts that the number wasn’t merely arrived at by whimsy: the company first figured out what made financial sense and later decided to have a little fun by slightly modifying the $5B number it came up with.

The WSJ notes that it’s not the first time Google has had this kind of fun with formulae.

The name Google is a play on googol, which is the number 1 followed by a hundred zeroes. When it first filed to go public, it said it planned to raise $2,718,281,828, a billion times the value of “e,” an important mathematical concept in calculus.

Nearly a year later, it said it was going to sell 14.2 million shares of stock. Well, not exactly 14.2 million, but 14,159,265, the numbers that follow the decimal in pi. And when the company made a move to buy Nortel Network patents, one of its bids was actually “pi” — around $3.14 billion. (Its other bids were plays on numbers, too; Google lost the bid.)

The market appears to approve of Google’s numbers: at the time of writing, the stock is up more than 10% in pre-market trading.