Android News

Over the past several weeks, rumors have suggested that Huawei is working on a launch with U.S. carriers. Today, the company confirmed that it will begin carrier sales in 2018, with more details coming at CES in January. Nintendo Switch Speaking to the Associated Press , consumer CEO Richard Yu confirmed the various rumors of a launch happening next year. The Huawei Mate 10 will be its flagship device, with the official announcement occuring at CES in Las Vegas next month. Announced in October , the flagship is powered by Huawei’s Kirin 970 processor with 4/6GB of RAM and 64/128GBGB of storage. The Mate 10 features a 5.9-inch 2560 x 1440 LCD display at 16:9 with a 3.5mm headphone jack and microSD card slot. Meanwhile, the Mate 10 Pro jumps to a 6-inch OLED panel, but only at 1080p resolution. It drops the headphone jack and microSD card slot, but gains IP67 dust and water resistance in the process. This Android Oreo device touts AI-smarts with a dedicated co-processor

It’s hard to convince someone why they should buy a smartwatch. One argument might be for notifications, payments, or apps, and another might be for fitness. In many cases, today’s smartwatches fall into one of those two categories. However, Samsung’s new Gear Sport bridges the gap with impressive fitness features paired with the company’s excellent Tizen wearable OS. The best gifts for Android users HARDWARE | A tried and true design that actually fits on everyone’s wrist Samsung’s Gear S wearables haven’t changed their look much since the Gear S2, and that’s not a bad thing by any means. The Gear S3 Frontier and Gear S3 Classic  are some of the best looking wearables on the market today. The Gear Sport is simply a refinement of that good design. It’s “squircle” outer ring with rotating circular bezel look great together, and the blue color I tested is unique. The biggest improvement made to the Gear Sport over Samsung’s other smartwatch options is in terms of size.

Ladies and gentlemen, behold!  Chrome Beta 64 (64.0.3282.29) for Android has been released and is  available in Google Play .  A partial list of the changes in this build is available in the  Git log . Details on new features is available on the  Chromium blog , and developers should check out our updates related to the web platform  here . If you find a new issue, please let us know by  filing a bug . More information about Chrome for Android is available on the  Chrome site . Estelle Yomba Google Chrome

For the past several years, Magic Leap’s augmented reality device has been fervently anticipated due to the various claims made about the company’s technology. However, as 2017 ends, the startup has yet to unveil a product, though a new report today details one app that showcases Magic Leap’s capabilities. Nintendo Switch Magic Leap — in partnership with band Sigur Rós — teased an augmented reality app today. This visual “audiovisual project” uses mixed reality (Magic Leap’s branding for AR) to visualize music. Running at 8-10 minutes, the app is called Tónandi and  Pitchfork  has published several screenshots of the experience. I see a group of little sprites floating around in front of me. The jellyfish-like creatures seem to match the waveform of the music I’m hearing through headphones. Encouraged to explore with my hands, I reach out, causing the waveforms to alter shape—both visually and in the audio playback, like a SoundCloud embed that’s somehow alive, three

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 . Everyone can use an Echo Dot: Just $50! 9to5Toys Lunch Break delivers the best deals every day of the week at 12:30PM EST. This includes price drops on all sorts of Apple products from iPad to MacBook and everything in between, as well as HomeKit gear, accessories of all kinds and so much more. You’ll also find our daily coverage of the coolest new gear and gadgets from across the internet along with our New Toy of the Day, product reviews, giveaways and app sales. Head below for today’s top deals and most interesting new products in the world of tech and beyond… TODAY’S CAN’T MISS DEALS: Roku’s 2017 Streaming Media Sticks from $40, grab the 4K model for $50 Bose QuietComfort 25 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones for $150 shipped Insignia’s Bluetooth 2-Ch. Sou

Posted by Jamal Eason , Product Manager, Android Today, we are excited to announce Quick Boot for the Android Emulator. With Quick Boot, you can launch the Android Emulator in under 6 seconds. Quick Boot works by snapshotting an emulator session so you can reload in seconds. Quick Boot was first released with Android Studio 3.0 in the canary update channel and we are excited to release the feature as a stable update today. In addition to this new feature, we also wanted to highlight some of the top features from recent releases. Since the complete revamp of the Android Emulator two years ago , we continue to focus on improving speed, stability and adding a rich set of features that accelerate your app development and testing. With all the recent changes, it is definitely worth updating to the latest version of the Android Emulator to use it today. Top 5 Features Quick Boot - Released as a stable feature today, Quick Boot allows you to resume your Android Emulator session in unde

In late 2016, Google began experimenting with mobile-first indexing of Search results to provide an experience that better reflects how people now use the web. A year later, Google has  provided an update on the effort that is now underway for a “handful of sites.” Nintendo Switch The switch to mobile-first indexing is due to how Google’s crawling, indexing, and ranking systems look at only the desktop version of a page’s content. Given how mobile pages are not always in parity, those searching on mobile devices might get a vastly different experience from the fully featured site that the algorithm found best for desktop viewers. As such, mobile-first indexing will use content from the mobile version of the site to index and rank, thus improving the primary way people search for things today. Given that this shift in indexing is significant, Google started with experiments in November of 2016: We’ll continue to carefully experiment over the coming months on a small-s

Small startups rarely make it in the smartphone market, but OnePlus has proven to be an exception to that rule. Over the course of over half a dozen smartphone launches, the company has proved to be fairly successful. Now, it’s looking back at its history so far. The best gifts for Android users A short film uploaded to the company’s YouTube channel this past weekend looks back to late 2013, when the company revealed its first product — the OnePlus One . From there, the video goes through how its online community grew, its various milestones over the years, and of course, its products. One sour note in the video for OnePlus is that of the OnePlus 2 —  a phone which widely disappointed  fans of the company. That, however, was quickly followed by the stellar OnePlus 3 and 3T, all the way up to 2017 with the launches of the OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 5T. Needless to say, OnePlus’ history these past few years has been quite a ride, and the company is far from finished… VIDEO

Third-party launchers on Android are available to suit every need, but one of the best for years has been Nova Launcher. As of last week, Nova has been available for a whopping 6 years, and the developers have a special treat for those who haven’t bought it yet… The best gifts for Android users In case you’ve never heard of it, Nova Launcher is one of the most popular third-party homescreen replacement apps for Android with dozens upon dozens of ways to customize your homescreen. From icon size to icon packs and colors, there’s really no limit to what you can do with Nova beyond your own creativity. Of course, you can do quite a bit with the free version, but you’ll need Nova’s Prime upgrade to unlock everything. Typically, buying Prime costs $4.99 (which is absolutely worth it), but right now, Nova is discounting that to “ the lowest possible price .” In every region that supports it, Nova is being discounted as much as it can, and in the United States, that’s down to

Controlling the settings for your domain, and the organizational units (OUs) within it, is a critical part of being a G Suite admin. We’re now making that easier with changes to the apps settings list page in the Admin console. Navigating to Apps > G Suite will now list out your domain’s available G Suite core apps with a cleaner look and feel. Also on this page you’ll see a new panel on the left-hand side where you can toggle between app management at the domain or OU level. If you select an OU in the left panel and then hover over an app, you'll see two options: Off (override) : This option turns off the app for the OU, overriding the ON/OFF setting made at the parent organization level. Inherit: This option uses the ON/OFF setting designated at the OU’s parent organization level. Alternatively, if you click into the details page of a specific app and go to adjust the ON/OFF setting to “On for some organizations,” you’ll see a new page layout that shows the service

“Fake news” is probably one of the most recognizable terms to come out of 2017, and Google has certainly had to work to prevent illegitimate sources from showing in search results. Especially in the case of tragedies, Google’s news results this year have pulled up alarming results , and the company is continually taking steps to fix these issues. The best gifts for Android users A change in Google’s policy  (via Bloomberg ) reveals that the company is stopping sites from showing up in news results if they mask their country of origin. Sites are now forbidden to “misrepresent or conceal their country of origin or are directed at users in another country under false premises.” In other words, a site from a foreign country can’t say it’s from the US. Speaking to Bloomberg , a Google spokeswomen explains that this move is meant to make Google’s news results more accurate and transparent. We update our policies on a regular basis to reflect a constantly changing web and ho

OnePlus recently debuted the OnePlus 5T ‘Star Wars’ edition in India and select markets around the globe and, for good reason, fans are fascinated by it. Now, it’s been discovered that OnePlus has hidden a clever little Easter Egg in the box with the phone. The best gifts for Android users First spotted by Android Central , there’s a “hologram” prism in the box with the OnePlus 5T “Star Wars” edition. However, you won’t find this one without first being a clever codebreaker . A greeting card in the box which reveals the clue “scribble with pencil” when you look at the first letter of each line on the card. Once you perform that action, another clue is presented. Find the secret compartment and check the weather forecast on Ahch-To. Once you find the prism hidden in the box (it’s at the very bottom), you’ll then want to construct it according to the included instructions, and then head over to your phone. Once you open OnePlus’ weather application, do a search for “A

Google’s rear-facing fingerprint sensors have been pretty excellent, especially on the Pixel devices. The company’s latest Pixel 2 phones were no different, but a recent update may have slowed things down a bit, as quite a few Pixel 2 XL owners have reported. The best gifts for Android users First spotted by Android Police , quite a few users on Google’s support forums as well as Reddit are reporting that unlocking their phone using the fingerprint sensor has gotten slightly slower after updating to Android 8.1. It’s still unclear if this is a widespread issue, but it is affecting quite a few Pixel 2 XL owners. This isn’t a massive problem, obviously, but it does make Google’s sensor feel less responsive. As you can see in the video below, there’s a slight delay between placing a finger down and when the phone actually turns on and unlocks, something we didn’t seen on the phone in 8.0. Google, thankfully, has acknowledged this . The issue has been mentioned on a thre

Twitter’s promised new rules designed to tackle abusive tweets and posts by hate groups kick in today. The company first vowed to do more back in October, in response to a #WomenBoycottTwitter protest … The company said that specific threats against both individuals and groups of people were already prohibited, but that it would now be doing more to oppose violence. Accounts that affiliate with organizations that use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes. Groups included in this policy will be those that identify as such or engage in activity — both on and off the platform — that promotes violence. This policy does not apply to military or government entities and we will consider exceptions for groups that are currently engaging in (or have engaged in) peaceful resolution. Content that glorifies violence or the perpetrators of a violent act . This includes celebrating any violent act in a manner that may inspire others to replicate it or any violenc

Samsung’s Galaxy S8 was one of the best phones to come out this year, so we’re obviously looking forward to what the company has in store for 2018. Now, some new reports and renders are giving us a better idea of what to expect from the Galaxy S9… The best gifts for Android users Courtesy of @OnLeaks , new renders of the Galaxy S9 have hit the web revealing a design which doesn’t look all that different from the original — not that that’s a bad thing. On the surface, the only notable changes are on the back, as the front simply thins out the chin and forehead bezels  a bit . Looking at the back of the phone, though, this render of the Galaxy S9 shows off a single rear camera lens as opposed to two that many expected following the Note 8 . Reports from last week claim that only the larger S9+ will pack dual-cameras. Another notable detail revealed in this leak is the presence of a rear facing fingerprint sensor. Many were hoping Samsung would be able to pull off an in-

If you’ve ever battled with your kids to limit their screen time to the recommended 1-2 hours per day, there’s good news: it doesn’t appear to be necessary. A joint study between the Oxford Internet Institute and Cardiff University published in the journal  Child Development found that there was ‘no consistent correlation’ between limiting screen time and a range of child well-being measures … Using data from approximately 20,000 telephone interviews with parents, the authors assessed the relationship between their children’s technology use and wellbeing. Over the course of a month this relationship was measured in terms of caregiver attachment, impact on emotional resilience, curiosity and positive effect. The results revealed a number of interesting findings that suggest that limiting children’s digital device use is not necessarily beneficial for wellbeing. The team found no consistent correlations between either the 2010 or revised 2016 advised digital usage limits and yo

Chrome for Android has been updated to version  63.0.3239.111 ; the update will be  available in Google Play  over the next few days.  A list of all Chromium changes in this build can be found  here . This release fixes a bug that prevents some apps from adding cookies. If you find a new issue, please let us know by  filing a bug . More information about Chrome for Android is available on the  Chrome site . Estelle Yomba Google Chrome

Google doesn’t give its flagship phone discounts all that often. We’ve seen quite a few discounts from the likes of Verizon and Best Buy, but now, for the first time since its release, the Google Store is discounting the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. The best gifts for Android users Usual retail pricing on the smaller Google Pixel 2 lands at $649 for the 64GB model. If you act now, though, the Google Store is offering that same model for $599. That also cuts Google’s monthly financing rate to $24.96 a month. You can simply add $100 if you’d prefer 128GB of storage. On the other hand, Google’s larger flagship, the Pixel 2 XL , is getting discounted by $75. That takes the base pricing down to $775 from $850. Monthly financing also drops to $32.25, and the 128GB still adds $100. Of course, you can also cut the price down even further with a trade-in which can be valued at up to $435 depending on what device you’re upgrading from. For either device, you can configure your vario

As part of its ongoing litigation with Alphabet’s Waymo self-driving unit, a new letter from Uber’s former manager of global intelligence makes startling accusations towards the ride-hailing company. The letter alleges that Uber engaged in a series of surveillance activities and corporate espionage… Samsung U28E590D 28-Inch 4K Monitor Richard Jaobs was previously Uber’s manager of global intelligence before being fired earlier this year. The letter was written by Jacobs’ attorney and published, in heavily redacted form, on Friday. The letter alleges that a division inside Uber’s Strategic Services Group engaged in practices such as wiretapping, bribery of foreign officials, eavesdropping, and various other forms of surveillance. The division allegedly used ephemeral encrypted chat services and “non-attributable” devices to hide their actions, TechCrunch reports. In the letter, Jacobs’ lawyer writes that the actions were in an effort to obtain to “trade secrets, codeba