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Opinion: As a long time stock Android fan, I was pleasantly surprised by TouchWiz

“Be together, not the same” is the mantra Google has been spreading for quite some time now. It’s a good reflection of its intent and purpose; with 1.5 billion active users and a myriad of OEM partners contributing to its growth, the OS couldn’t ask for more diversity. Among Android enthusiasts, however, a vastly shared belief is that the stock, unadulterated, ‘vanilla’ experience delivered by Google is generally superior to basically any of the offerings brought to the table by third parties. This mainly stems from a bad history that saw manufacturers continuously deliver sub-par experiences and often lag far behind in the update cycle, not to mention the numerous design inconsistencies which added up to Google’s own often messy and unclear aesthetics. When Material Design was introduced back in 2014, however, a few things started to change.

For one, notoriously ill-designed UIs such as those from LG and Samsung (as well as from HTC, Sony, and most others) started to follow Google’s now precise and definite guidelines more closely, giving Android an overall sense of basic consistency at least across major instances. Samsung’s TouchWiz, in particular, got often criticized over the years because of its excessive bloatware and poor design choices, but with the massive hardware overhaul brought by the Galaxy S6 last year, software too got a considerable Lollipop-based facelift which went a little under the radar. The Galaxy S7 brought the whole thing one step further, and even coming from a long series of stock Android devices, I have to admit that my experience with TouchWiz wasn’t just not bad, but left me thinking of it as an outright smart, good-looking and overall well designed ‘skin’…


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Opinion: Android OEMs have power, but Google making its own phone might be worth the risk

At the beginning, OEM partners were vital in order to spread Android. Google would handle the hard work of creating the operating system, while OEMs would manufacture and deal with carriers. This approach worked and Android is now the most used mobile OS and Samsung is the largest smartphone vendor in terms of shipped devices. But how is Google going to keep Android growing into the future?..
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Moto G 3rd Gen hits Virgin for $149.99 (and HTC Desire 626 or Huawei Union) on low cost plans

The Moto G has always been a great deal but it hasn’t been paired with the best budget carriers to date. In what might be a big holiday seller for mid-tier users, Sprint subsidy Virgin today began offering 3 new Android smartphones including the Moto G 3rd gen. for $150, the HTC Desire 626s for $130 and Huawei Union at $80.

The standout here is the Moto G which I absolutely loved (with a few caveats) which retails at $180. The 5-inch phone is pretty close to flagship level last year with a few missing bits. The 5 inch screen is perfect sized but the lack of NFC payment options might be a turn off. It shares the camera of the Nexus 6 and it is IPX7 waterproof to 3 feet for 30 minutes.  Hopefully Virgin won’t mess with the almost stock Android and provide timely updates (fingers crossed)

That $30 you save you can pay your 1st month of usage on the 3 gig 4G of data plan (see plans below). While Sprint’s network may not be the strongest in all areas, I’ve found it to be improving rapidly lately.

The Moto G will almost certainly be the first Android 6.0 device on Virgin and at $150 down and $30/month a great gift idea for the kids/parents/grandparents out there. Alternatively, if you want to use an Android device like an iPod touch (without a carrier) this is the first $30 discount we’ve seen.
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Overlay-killer GO Launcher EX hits #6 in the Android app charts

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If manufacturers or carriers ever needed evidence that 9to5google is not alone in wishing they’d lay off the overlays, new figures suggest that overlay-killer Go Launcher EX is now the 6th most popular Android app. The app allows you to set your own customised homescreen to replace that set by the manufacturer or carrier … 
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New Switch app lets you seamlessly change between Sense 5 and Google Experience Android on your HTC One

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vOZFIGcIJ5s

Now that there are two variants of the HTC One floating around, one with Sense 5 and one with near-stock Android, customers have a decision to make. Do you want the unsubsidized, $650 Google Play Edition model or the subsidized model variant with Sense 5? A new app from the longtime Android developer Paul O’Brien aims to get rid of that problem by making it easy to switch between the two software builds on either variant.

The video above demonstrates the Switch app that does just that – lets you switch between Sense 5 and stock Android. It’s incredibly simple. All you have to do is launch the Switch app and choose which experience to boot into. Because the apps and data are stored in a central environment, all your data is accessible in both ROMs.
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Google confirms stock Android HTC One launching June 26 on Google Play for $599

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Live from his D11 interview today (live blog here), Google’s head of Android Sundar Pichai just confirmed the rumors of a stock Android HTC One. The device will officially be launching on Google Play on June 26th, alongside Samsung’s Galaxy S4, for $599. HTC also announced the device on its blog today:

Response to the HTC One has been phenomenal with reviewers praising the gorgeous design and innovative features. We’ve paired the stunning all-metal unibody with innovative HTC Sense features and the result is something truly remarkable. Now, we’re excited to offer HTC fans and admirers alike a new experience on what we think is the best hardware available today.

The stock Android HTC One will come with 32GB, an unlockable bootloader, and will be SIM-unlocked for GSM networks like T-Mobile and AT&T when it goes on sale at the end of next month– the same day as the recently announced stock Galaxy S4. The new stock ‘Nexus experience’ HTC One will initially only be available to users in the US.

You can see how the new Nexus experience HTC One stacks up against the Developer Edition and SIM unlocked version direct from HTC in the comparison chart below:
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Motorola and Google to release stock Android phones with less overlay and smaller form-factor in second half of 2013

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via skattertech.com

Since acquiring Motorola for $13 billion last May, Google has been expected to launch a Motorola smartphone running stock Android, but the most recent Google-branded Nexus 4 device was made in partnership with LG.

Motorola’s design chief Jim Wicks tells PC Mag, though, that Google and Motorola have been working closely during that time on multiple devices running stock Android with less overlay that we should expect later this year.


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