Let's Talk Tech
Just in time for Earth day!
For you energy conscious folks out there, Google is now selling the Nest on Google Play!
$249 gets you a thermostat replacement which will connect to your home WiFi and learn your patterns to hopefully help you cut back on your energy usage.
Google purchased Nest back in January for $3 billion. In diversifying their product offerings, Nest looks like one of the first lifestyle products sold directly to consumers on Play.
Oh HTC. You just can’t time anything for your new flagship phone’s release can you?
Ahead of the announcement for their all new flagship M8 HTC One, what I’m loving calling the worst kept secret of 2014, HTC has taken the wraps off of their new BlinkFeed app.
This is a fantastic play by HTC and something I’ve been literally begging more manufacturers to do. Companies like HTC, LG, and Samsung deliver a TON of features and apps on a phone. Unlike a Nexus which is a fairly bare experience. However those individual manufacturer apps don’t get updated very often as they’re baked into the ROM supplied by said manufacturer. If the tiniest app gets updated at HTC HQ, you have to wait for a FULL OS UPDATE to get the benefits of that updated app. It’s one big lump sum.
Or at least it was until now. HTC is separating out BlinkFeed, and hosting it on Google Play. Now whenever a team at HTC but a little polish on this app, it can be pushed directly to One owners without waiting for a massive ROM download.
Android is still somewhat hamstrung by the carrier approval process, in that there’s still a significant lead time between when Google releases an OS update, the manufacturers customize it, and that update is approved and distributed by carriers. Google has been making a lot of progress in splicing out individual Android services and posting them as standalone apps. A user might not always get the latest Android OS, but all of their services can be up to date. Now HTC is following in those footsteps, and that makes me happy.
It’s funny to think that Google’s online Android store, dubbed Play, is only two years old. Tech moves so quickly that it feels like this branding has been around a lot longer.
Anywho, with birthdays comes presents, and Google has a few goodies on tap for you with app offers, free songs, and sales on albums and movies.
Hit up the Play store for more info, and wish them a happy second trip around the sun!
Google and Samsung really are working on their relationship.
Featured at FETC 2014, Samsung is showing off a Galaxy Tab 10.1 which focuses on Education markets, and they say it’ll be ready for the 2014-2015 school year.
Starting off with a fairly normal Galaxy Tab 10.1, it’s software and services which separate it from the herd. Piggybacking on their recent gains getting Android devices ready for corporate IT, these new tablets will feature simple set up and device management for teachers to utilize tablets in the classroom.
This also highlights Google’s push into the education market by working with Google Play for Education. This division of play focuses on teacher approved apps and media, gives teachers the ability to filter content by grade level and topic, and allows schools to order content via PO. Once content is purchased, it can be quickly pushed to students tablets.
Hopefully the controls are more robust than what we experienced here in LA using iPads last year…
Full press release below.
Continue reading “Samsung Intros Galaxy Tab Built for Education”
CHRISTMAS!!!
Title says it all on this one folks. If you need a little more holiday cheer, the standard  definition version of Will Ferrell’s holiday classic is free today on Google Play. The HD version is only going to cost you a Fiver.
Go get at it folks! Today only!
No sooner do we post on the LG GPad 8.3 GPE, then we discover the Sony Z Ultra is also playing ball.
Yup, we now have a proper phablet offering for those who want a true-blue stock Android experience on a larger screened phone. Offering up a 6.4″ 1080p display, it’s also the first GPE device to rock Qualcomm’s screamer Snapdragon 800 quad core. 16GB of storage on board with a MicroSD card slot, and the Z Ultra is also water resistant. A nice little touch there, helping the survivability of a somewhat pricey gadget.
Speaking of price, you’ll drop $649 for a Z Ultra of your very own. Not a bad price at all for a proper phablet, and it looks like handsets should be shipping out in 1-2 days. Get at it folks!
This has been exhausting.  Trolling leaks and rumors, but it’s finally here and it’s finally real. Though I still don’t understand Google’s plan here, rolling out a device and a new OS without any kind of proper Keynote or event.
The Nexus 5 is now officially up on Google Play for your smartphone purchasing enjoyment. Pretty much all the rumors about this thing were true, which kinda takes some of the fun out of talking about smartphones.
The $349 sports a 5″ 1080p screen, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, a Qualcomm 800 series quad core processor, an 8MP rear camera with OIS, wireless charging, and should play nice on T-Mobile or Sprint’s networks. Add $50 and you can double the storage.
So continues the price disruption of the Nexus line. $349 for an unlocked premier handset rocking bleeding edge internals is entirely unheard of. This is not an “On contract” price. It’s $349 out the door. You own it.
Plus they also released this nifty video:
So there you have it folks. Was there any better day to unveil a phone running an OS called KitKat than on Halloween? Â The wait was exasperating, I honestly didn’t know if we’d survive it, but we did.
More details on the Google Plus Devices Page.
Full PR after the jump:
Continue reading “Google FOR REAL Announces Nexus 5 and Android 4.4 KitKat”
It’s About Time? More like “TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH!”
But I digress…
Now those of us on Galaxies, Ones, and Droids get to jump into the next chapter of Zombie yard defense. New graphics, new plants, new powers, and new zombies to defeat! Crazy Dave is back to sell you weird stuff, and a whole world of zombie slaying is open to you as you travel to various zombie outbreaks throughout history.
Get planting folks. It’s free to play, with upgrades to buy, and this week you can get the Mighty Jalapeño for 65% off.