IPhone

It isn’t a Nexus but it might as well be. Google announced a special version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 that will run stock Android, has an open boot loader and get updates straight from Google. You can buy 16GB (with open SD card slot) for AT&T and T-Mobile at the Play Store for $649 starting on June 25th.

Yay?
Expand
Expanding
Close

Google just announced its much rumored new music service that it is calling Google Play Music “All Access” live on stage at its Google I/O event keynote presentation.

Google execs focused on showing off curated playlists but also made a note of pointing out a “radio” feature that will automatically create an endless radio station based on the song you’re currently listening to. The service will also allow users to search for a particular song or view the “playlist” of a radio station to remove unwanted songs.

The service also includes a feature called “Listen Now” that will provide quick access to recently listened to songs, customized radio stations based on your preferences, and recommendations for new releases from artists you like.

The service will be available on the web, tablets, and phones and cost users $9.99 per month with a 30 day free trial in the US. Those that sign up before the end of June will be able to get the subscription for just $7.99/month and Google said the service will land in other countries soon.

We knew from leaks in the weeks leading up to I/O that Google was planning some gaming related announcements and today the company has officially announced the service in a press release ahead of its Google I/O keynote taking place now. Not only will the service allow Android developers to build in real-time multiplayer, social features, achievements, and leaderboards while storing game saves and settings in the cloud, the SDK for Google Play game services will also be available to iOS and web developers.

Google noted a few titles for Android have already been updated with the feature including World of Goo, Super Stickman Golf 2, Beach Buggy Blitz, Kingdom Rush, Eternity Warriors 2, and Osmos.

Not surprisingly, the cross-platform gaming service will also build in Google+ integration to track high scores, achievements and more:

-Achievements that increase engagement and promote different styles of play.

-Social and public leaderboards that seamlessly use Google+ circles to track high scores across friends and across the world.

-Cloud saves that provide a simple and streamlined storage API to store game saves and settings. Now players never have to replay Level 1 again.

-Real-time multiplayer for easy addition of cooperative or competitive game play on Android devices. Using G+ Circles a game can have up to 4 simultaneous friends or auto-matched players in a game session together with support for additional players coming soon.

Google’s full press release below:
Expand
Expanding
Close

Investors seem pretty optimistic about today’s events even though hardware and OS expectations have been tempered somewhat.

What might be interesting here is that if you negate Google and Apple’s cash on hand, the Market caps of the two companies are pretty close.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Although BlackBerry has been rumored to bring its BBM messaging platform to iOS and other devices before, today the company has made things official announcing at its event that support for both iOS and Android will be arriving in the coming months. The service, which BlackBerry says currently has about  60 million monthly active users, will come to devices running iOS 6 and Android 4.0 or above when it’s launched as a free app sometime this summer in the App Store and Google Play.

The company said that it would be bringing messaging and groups functionality to new platforms first but also has plans to introduce voice features, screen sharing, and its just announced “social engagement platform” dubbed ‘Channels’ in future releases. BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins said the company is “committed to making the BBM experience on other platforms as fully featured” as possible:
Expand
Expanding
Close

The iPhone and iPad have already been cleared for use by a number of US government agencies, and in February the US Defense Department confirmed plans to open its networks to 100,000 new devices from Apple and Google by February of next year. Today, The Wall Street Journal reports the DoD is about to grant two more important security approvals that could increase the number of agencies allowed to deploy iPhone, iPads, and Samsung Galaxy devices:

The Defense Information Systems Agency, or DISA, the agency that sanctions commercial technology for Pentagon use, is set to rule that Samsung’s Galaxy line of smartphones, preloaded with Samsung’s Knox security software, conforms with the Pentagon’s so-called Security Technology Implementation Guide, according to people familiar with the approval process. That would allow it to be used by some Pentagon agencies for things like sending and receiving internal emails, according to these people.

Separately, DISA is expected to rule that Apple’s latest operating system, iOS 6, conforms to a different security-requirement guide, these people said. That would allow iPhones and iPads to be used by military agencies for nonclassified communications, like email and Web browsing.

The report from WSJ explained Samsung has been steadily increasing its attempt to break into corporate and government markets by hiring a new team of security experts and former RIM employees to reach out to Western governments and corporations:
Expand
Expanding
Close

That’s the S4 sandwiched between the HTC One and the iPhone 5

I’ve been playing with Samsung’s Galaxy S4 (no, I won’t write S 4) for the better part of a week and, not to spoil the whole review: I love it.  It is better in every way than the S3 hardware-wise, and Samsung even has some good software on this phone, particularly in the camera field. I’ve never been a fan of Samsung’s software.

It is what is on the inside that counts, right?

This phone will do extremely well in the market and will keep up the fight against the almighty iPhone 5 and HTC One (which we reviewed earlier this month and loved). In the Apple world, this S4 is called an ‘S update’ – where the outward design is mostly the same but a lot of changes have taken place under the hood.

Below I’ll drill down exactly what that means.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Henry McCracken over at Time has done us all a favor by collecting various data sets that illustrate the state of iOS versus Android.

The data ranges from device marketshare to revenue from app downloads, which presents some stark differences between the two platforms.

We unpack the results below.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Since we first heard rumors that Microsoft was working on Office for iOS and Android as far back as 2011 and got a look at alleged leaked images of an iPad app that Microsoft later denied were real, every couple of months we’ve seen reports that say the app is coming soon. First it was November 2012, then early 2013, and others claimed “sometime after” March 2013. Along the way  The latest rumor: Microsoft has Office for iPhone and Android is scheduled for fall 2014.

Zdnet claims to have got its hands on Microsoft roadmap for next year and says on it is “iOS/Android support for Office”:
Expand
Expanding
Close

I’ve been really excited to get my hands on the HTC One.

The world is chock-full of low-end — and high-end —  Android phones that are plastic and hard to distinguish from one another. So, as an iPhone user primarily, I liked the One’s obvious iPhone 5-like accents—which is seemingly A-O.K. by Apple, at least as evidenced by the global settlement and 10-year licensing deal reached with HTC last year—and entirely aluminum construction.

HTC’s flagship phone in 2012, the One X, earned critical acclaim from reviewers across the blogosphere, but the Samsung Galaxy S III and iPhone 4S overshadowed its launch. Now, one year later, HTC is up to bat again with the HTC One, but this time around, it faces nearly the same challenges in the Galaxy S 4 and iPhone 5.

Check out the full review below to see how the HTC One measures up.

Expand
Expanding
Close

[protected-iframe id=”c4f74094c6997794ba60f6e523e1b6a5-22427743-20587613″ info=”http://new.livestream.com/accounts/817005/events/1980369/feed_embed?width=4=580&height=1000″ width=”580″ height=”1000″ frameborder=”0″]

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will take the stage in Menlo Park, Calif., this morning to show off his company’s “new home on Android,” and you can watch a live stream of the event in the widget above.

The video should auto-play around 10 a.m. PST.

Expand
Expanding
Close

After releasing a free version of the Quickoffice iPad app for its Google Apps for Business customers in December, Google today announced free iPhone and Android versions of the app exclusively for its Apps for Business customers.

Google Apps for Business can already edit Microsoft Office files using Quickoffice on an iPad, and starting today they can do the same on iPhone and Androiddevices. From Word to Excel to Powerpoint, you can make quick edits at the airport or from the back of a taxi and save and share everything in Google Drive… iPad and iPhone users can open and edit Office files directly from the Drive app. Just open Drive and select the file, make edits using Quickoffice and save it back to Drive.

Google noted the updated apps also bring new features including support for multiple Google Drive accounts, improved chart rendering, ZIP folders from multiple files, and the ability to sort Drive files by “Shared with me, Starred, and Recent”:

Expand
Expanding
Close

We have been hearing much about Samsung’s advertising efforts in recent months including its efforts crafting the now well-known ad campaign mocking iPhone line sitters, to some of the companies recent marketing tactics used to target iPhone users. Last night The Wall Street Journal published a new piece outlining Samsung’s increasingly aggressive advertising thanks to new data from research firm Kantar Media. According to the report, Samsung passed Apple in 2012 for ad spending by around $68M in the US:

Outspent by rival Apple Inc. more than three to one in advertising for mobile phones in the U.S. in 2011, Samsung responded with a marketing blitz on TV, billboards, the Internet and print media that moved the Korean company into the pole position last year… In 2012, Samsung spent $401 million advertising its phones in the U.S. to Apple’s $333 million, according to ad research and consulting firm Kantar Media.

Apple spent more than three times Samsung on marketing its mobile devices in 2011. If a slew of recent media reports is any indication, including one from Apple’s own former ad man Ken Segall, many seem to think Apple is losing its advertising momentum to Samsung.

The Wall Street Journal added that executives at carriers said Samsung “also spends more on “below the line” marketing than any device maker. Those funds help pay for in-store advertising, promotions and training for carrier sales representatives that help close the sale.”

To put the spending in perspective for the global smartphone market, Tech/telco analyst Benedict Evans noted the figures above account for around 10% of Samsung global ad budget compared to 1/3 of Apple’s, which also somewhat reflects sales proportions.

After lots of leaks, rumors and outright company forecasts,  Samsung today announced the Galaxy Note 8.0, an 8-inch iPad Mini competitor. The 1280×800 pixel display will have a slightly better PPI of 189 than the Mini and match camera specs and a quad core processor. Samsung’s Note 8.0 will also double up the Mini with 2GB of RAM and add an S-Pen for those who need/want it as well as expandable storage via the Micro-SD card slot. Just like the Galaxy Tab 7 2 it has an IR blaster with a rebranded Peel station navigation. On the down side, it won’t have LTE (only HSPA+) and it will run a slightly out-dated 4.1.2 version of Android Jelly Bean. It also weighs almost an ounce more than the iPad Mini.

Oh and it can make calls like a huge phone.

Will this go head to head against the Mini? My gut reaction is no. Samsung’s Touchwiz overlay and pen will keep these out of the hands of mainstream users. No price or launch date is yet planned but the specs tell me (720P TFT display) that Samsung is aiming for a low price. I’d expect to see this at $250 in the US probably just after it launches in the 2nd quarter in a number of Asian and EU territories.

https://twitter.com/9to5mac/status/305507515855167489

Press release follows:

Expand
Expanding
Close