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Whelp. It’s been four months with HTC’s newest flagship, and we’ve just received official word that there will be a Windows Phone variant of the One soon out.
The M7 was my favorite Android of last year. Has the M8 lived up to the expectations set by its predecessor? Let’s take a look!
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M8 vs M7 Speaker Comparison
M8 vs GS5 Photo Comparison
M8 vs GS5 Video Comparison
Slickwraps Real Cork Skin for the HTC M8
Shop the HTC One M8 on Amazon to support this channel!
Last year LG delivered a phone well ahead of the curve in the G2. This year they’re continuing to push the envelope with the G3. On paper, it should be an absolute monster with a QHD screen, incredible battery life, and a new laser focusing system for the camera.
Has LG succeeded in redefining the Android experience?
We’ve produced a series of videos testing out the speaker and camera. Plus we’ve shot comparisons of the G3 against popular handsets like the GS5, Lumia Icon, and HTC M8. Lastly, we’ve taken a full tour around the hardware and software in our first impressions video.
If there’s any aspect of this phone that you’ve been curious about, chances are pretty good we’ve covered it. In detail. Hit the videos below if you’ve been curious about LG’s newest flagship!
Continue reading “SomeGadgetGuy’s Ultimate Collection of LG G3 Reviews and Comparison Videos!”
One of the most requested features asked of Chromecast was the ability to broadcast our phone or tablet’s screen on our TV. Looks like that’ll be finally coming our way!
Announced on the Chrome Blog today, there will be a new menu setting in the Chromecast app allowing you to broadcast what’s on your screen. Through other apps we could send videos, photos, and music, but now we’ll be able to cast a game or even just a home screen if we want to show off on a larger TV screen.
The 1.7 update of the Chromecast app will be rolling out soon supporting popular handsets from LG, HTC, Samsung and more. Nexus devices will of course be able to jump in on the fun too. Full PR below.
Continue reading “Mirror your Android Screen on Your TV Through Chromecast”
It’s an area where Android often lags. How to bring functional low cost phones to developing markets?
Google has been looking at software optimization with KitKat, who to provide a less punishing experience for low power handsets, but that still requires manufacturers to tailor the experience on the phones they produce. That can be a tough decision for a company to make, how much man power to assign to a device which likely wont generate as much profit as a flagship phone.
Android One is a program which aims to streamline the development, manufacturing, and support process. Android One devices will run stock Android like Nexus phones, though carriers and OEM’s will be able to pre-load apps to customize the experience. Google will also be responsible for providing updates to One phones as further incentive for manufacturers, saving them a little on support costs.
Micromax was on hand to show off an example One device and they’re expected to release a dual SIM handset with a 4.5″ screen and SD card slot for under $100.
Android One will start up in India first, with devices expected to drop later this Fall.
Google acquired QuickOffice around two years ago, and we’re now seeing the fruits of that acquisition.
Often when a Google user receives a Microsoft Office file, it needs to be converted to work in Google Docs. As we all know, any kind of conversion will often break SOMETHING in a doc or spreadsheet, be it formulas or formatting. Now Google will be rolling out native Office support built on the QuickOffice system with support for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Files will still need to be converted however for full online collaboration.
We’ll also see a Docs update to provide full presentation creation and playback support for mobile and tablet users.
A new Drive for Work program with enhanced encryption and admin controls, audit and activity API’s, and unlimited Drive storage for $10 per month per user. It’s a tactical move to keep the pressure on Microsoft as a number of companies are investigating the move to cloud services.
Google looks to be streamlining the Android experience, and more polish to the already functional UI will always be appreciated.
For Android L (no candy or dessert title G?) the focus is on flat simple design which improves on the cards layout of apps like Google Now. Dubbed ‘Material Design’, elements will slide in and expand fluidly, and depending on hardware it should render at up to 60fps for buttery smooth transitions.
We should also see improved notification support from the lockscreen, improved battery life with a new battery saver mode, a new Do Not Disturb mode, and support for Bluetooth 4.1.
Developer Previews will be rolling out later today, so get cracking developers! Expect to see L for everyone else later this Fall.
See the new UI elements in action below!
The long rumored Amazon phone is official!
The Fire Phone builds off of Amazon’s Kindle ecosystem, delivering a similar “FireOS” user interface running on top of a custom build of Android. This means 3rd party Android apps will be compatible, but Google services wont be included as this will use the Amazon App store instead of Google Play.
The hardware is a mix of mid-range and high-end. I’m glad to see the slightly smaller 4.7″ screen, though it’ll come in at 720p instead of the terrific 1080p found on the HTC M7. The venerable Qualcomm 800 quad-core is on board backed up by 2GB of RAM, plenty powerful for gaming on this screen resolution. Storage comes in 32GB and 64GB flavors, with no MicroSD card expansion it seems like a good platform to push Amazon Cloud Storage, as you can upload photos taken from a Fire Phone for free. Continue reading “Amazon Fire Phone Coming Exclusively to AT&T – 32GB for $199 on Contract”
Oh happy day for folks who like to binge watch their shows on Netflix.
Announced on the Netflix blog, Android devices will receive an update allowing phones and tablets to Post-Play, which is a fancy way of saying that when you finish one episode, the next episode of your show will automatically start playing.
Best of all, we also have word that this functionality will be coming to Chromecast “in a couple months”. Now that most Android phones now have the ability to act like a universal remote, I might never need to leave my couch ever again.
Read the full PR below.
Continue reading “Post-Play Netflix Streaming Comes to Android – Chromecast to Follow”