Even after a huge push into the hardware sector, Google remains first and foremost a search and advertising company. It’s where the vast majority of the Mountain View’s profits come from, despite their other products grabbing more of the headlines. With great advertising power also comes great responsibility and Google has just announced that starting in early 2018, following previous rumors, their Chrome browser will block all “unacceptable” ads on web pages.
Motorola has been on a roll these last couple years putting out powerful, yet affordable smartphones as well as its own series of modular accessories known as Moto Mods. Now, thanks to Motorola Canada’s Twitter, we can expect the announcement of the Lenovo-owned company’s “next bold phone” on June 1st.
YouTube is an immensely popular video platform, that goes without saying, and Google is continuing to explore new ways for video creators and their viewers to enjoy and even interact with the content. At today’s Google I/O 2017 keynote, Google introduced 360-degree video support for your connected TV as well as a new Super Chat API.
During the Google I/O 2017 keynote, not only did the Mountain View company announce that Android is now actively running on 2 billion devices, but a new initiative coming soon will allow for all smartphones, regardless of power and specs, to run a smooth and great Android experience. Enter Android Go.
While many smartphones are still waiting for their Android 7.0 Nougat update, Google is charging full steam ahead with the developer preview for the platform’s next release: Android O. Today, during the Google I/O 2017 keynote, Google announced a host of new features coming with Android O, including picture-in-picture support, smart text selection, OS security enhancements, and more.
The Google Home smart speaker was one of the first products to utilize the powerful Google Assistant artificial intelligence platform. In direct competition with Amazon Alexa, Google Home provides you with smart and voice-dictated information that syncs across all of your Google services and apps. Today during the Google I/O 2017 keynote, Google announced a host of new features coming to Google Home including hands-free calling, Spotify integration, calendar reminders, and more.
Google I/O is always a massive event for the Mountain View company, and while it’s not just about Android, the popular mobile operating system hit an impressive milestone with 2 billion active Android devices worldwide.
Today during the Google I/O 2017 keynote, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced a new feature called Google Lens that will bring it’s powerful machine learning platform to your smartphone camera to help you identify what’s around you.
With Google I/O right around the corner, it’s not unusual to see some interesting things related to the Mountain View tech giant pop up around the internet. You may have heard rumblings here and there about Google’s mysterious and confusing new OS called Fuchsia. While very little was, and still is, known about what exactly this OS could be, thanks to Kyle Bradshaw over at Hotfix we now have a glimpse of the possible new UI.
Nokia made a splash during MWC 2017 when it announced its new Android smartphones, the Nokia 6, Nokia 5 and Nokia 3. High-end, midrange, and lower end, respectively, Nokia is aiming to bring strong Android phones globally at lower costs. For those in the U.S. hoping to get their hands on the beast of the trio, the Nokia 6, you may not have to wait much longer as the device has popped up for FCC certification.
There is no doubt how important the Galaxy S8 is to Samsung and it looks as though their hard work has paid off. Now that the phones are available for purchase everywhere, Samsung has just announced that during the preorder period they not only saw more orders than last year’s Galaxy S7, but those numbers have set an all-time record.
Google’s smartwatch OS, Android Wear, has come along way with its update to version 2.0, yet numerous delays led to stalled production of new wearable devices as well as increased competition from the likes of Samsung with its own Tizen OS. There are a number of smartwatches already running Android Wear 2.0, and thanks to a post on the Google Support forums we now know which wearables are next in line for the update and, more importantly, when they will get it!
HTC, while once considered one of the top Android smartphone manufacturers, has had a shaky last few years. Despite that, the Taiwanese company hasn’t slowed down and has been working hard to bring the focus back to “U” and courtesy of Evan Blass’ Twitter, we have our first “in the wild” glimpse of the upcoming HTC U (aka Ocean).
In 2016, Lenovo-owned Motorola debuted the Moto Z and Moto Z Force smartphones that brought with them some powerful specs and a unique approach to customization and experience with their line of Moto Mods. While the success of modularity in smartphones has been shaky at best, Motorola is still full-steam ahead and we are now getting our first possible glimpse of what might be in store for the next Moto Z. Let’s check it out.
