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Anyone could sell someone else's tablet. The Nexus 7s and the Galaxy Tabs of the world may not have the brand recognition of the iPad, but consumers recognize them enough to know they want them, and it doesn't take much effort for a carrier to take an LTE version and push it to consumers. But this isn't enough for Verizon, as it has decided to sell a small tablet bearing its name and its name only. Meet the Ellipsis 7.
It's been hectic around here lately, but now that the Nexus 5 has finally launched, we can give the rumors a rest and turn our attention to other matters. For starters, we have another batch of your emails, so finish that soda, pull over to the side of the road, and turn off the stove, because you're in for a treat. Don't say we didn't warn you.
Comcast's XFINITY app has undergone a name change with its latest update, and it now only answers when referred to as XFINITY TV Go. Does the latest version, in fact, make TV go? If we're referring to live content, then the answer's yes. Comcast customers with an Android device or two lying around can now stream the news, sports, kids shows, and other content live.
Best Buy has a handful of deals targeted at college students that are bound to put a smile on a smartphone enthusiast's face, even if none of them actually help anyone with their education. Some of these offers preserve more money than others, with the Chromecast's $29.99 sales price saving customers only $5 bucks. On the other hand, or should I say - wrist, Best Buy is cutting $30 off the price of the Pebble smartwatch. This brings the price down to $119.99.
The Galaxy S4 Zoom is what you get if you hold a Galaxy S4 in one hand, a digital camera in the other, and slam them together. Samsung unveiled the device early in the summer, and while it didn't take long to arrive in other areas of the world, it's only just now coming to the US. Come November 8th, AT&T will become the first camera to offer the Galaxy S4 Zoom on this side of the pond.
Anyone looking for a solid Android gaming controller need look no further than the MOGA series. The original controller launched a year ago, and while there were and remain some drawbacks to the bundled software, the hardware itself is top notch. The latest generation hopes to address a fundamental drawback to gaming on a smartphone, the inescapable battery draining forces at work whenever you fire up a graphically intensive game and attempt to play it using a Bluetooth controller. Both the MOGA Hero Power and the Pro Power controllers let you recharge your handset as you game, and they're now available for anyone raring to give them a go.
We're right in the middle of basketball season, so I know it may be too much to ask to look away during the game, but when you get the chance, ESPN has released a fantasy football app to consume you during every other moment of the day. If you're already invested in a fantasy league, then you know the routine. Find some friends, form teams, draft players, and duke it out. With a dedicated mobile app, you won't have to sit down at a browser to make the magic happen.
The latest version of the Firefox Beta has hit the Play Store, and it introduces a change to the new tab page that is sure to liven up your mobile browsing experience. As usual, top sites are presented as thumbnails on the default screen, but version 26 makes your history, bookmarks, and reading list all accessible with just a few swipes. It's an intuitive and attractive experience that easily trumps that offered in the stable version of the browser.
Android 4.4 introduces a new interface for accessing files from within apps. Traditionally, trying to upload a file - say, to a social network - created a popup asking which source to pull it from. Now apps will open a sidebar navigation menu that lists all the available options, and Box has already rolled out an update adding support for it.
We have just a week to go before the sequel to 2011's Thor hits theaters, which makes this the perfect time to drop a movie tie-in game that cashes in on the hype. Gameloft's Thor: The Dark World places the god of thunder in a top-down dungeon crawler that looks not unlike the company's own Dungeon Hunter series, minus the multiplayer aspect. If you have an engine that works, why not use it, right?
Many mobile users who regularly access their files across multiple devices have found that relying on cloud storage just makes life simpler, but many of us don't keep our files stored in just one place. Now Android 4.4 is rolling out a new way to open files within apps that makes accessing all of these providers both easier and prettier. With KitKat's new storage access framework, apps that prompt users to browse for files will open a sidebar navigation menu that lists recent files, available cloud storage providers, and files stored internally.
KitKat Feature Spotlight: New Step Detector And Step Counter Low-Power Sensors, Other Battery-Saving Optimizations
KitKat Feature Spotlight: New Step Detector And Step Counter Low-Power Sensors
The Play Store is consistently pelted with new apps that always run in the background, counting our steps, tracking our location, or listening to us as we sleep. These tasks require that a process remains in an active state, and whenever there's any activity going on within a smartphone, battery life takes a hit. Android 4.4 reduces the impact of these processes with new support for hardware sensor batching.
The Google Search app is already the quickest way to retrieve information on your Android device. With just a few words, users can search the web, open apps, and pull up directions. The problem is that some information opens up in a web browser that would be better suited for an app. If you already have the IMDb app installed, why should a search result shoot you out to the browser? Some links ask which app you want them to open in, but how can you tell which ones?
Google may produce Android and maintain Google Play so that we can easily get content onto our devices, but at the end of the day, it's the developers that make the magic happen. They create the apps that make Android devices worth buying in the first place. So it's good news to see, as we would expect, that the Android 4.4 SDK is now available. Developers can make the upgrade from directly within the Android SDK Manager.
Sprint customer's missed out on the Nexus 4 last year, but that won't be the case this time. The carrier will start offering the Nexus 5 on November 8th for $149 on contract (after a mail-in rebate). This applies for customers looking to sign up for a new line or those who are eligible for an upgrade, and anyone who jumps on the offer will get guaranteed unlimited data for life. Customers can pre-order the device on Friday, Nov. 1 by visiting www.sprint.com/nexus5.
Sprint Galaxy Nexus owners, you can put down those pitchforks. Your Android 4.3 update is finally coming. Sure, it's arriving just in time for Android 4.4, but hey, it's not like anyone promised that your updates would be timely. Oh, they did? Well, it gets worse. The update is rolling out in stages over a 10 - 21 day period, and device selection is random. Some of you may still have close to a month to go.
If all things go as planned, this year's holiday fliers won't have to turn off their smartphones at any point during their trip. The Federal Aviation Administration announced today that airlines can safely allow passengers to use portable electronic devices during all phases of flight. But first the competing companies must each submit plans to the government department detailing their plans to manage the electronics, and policies could potentially vary among each airline.
Blizzard's franchises have so many followers that someone could fill a conference building with legions of fans and throw a party in their honor. Actually, such an event already exists. Blizzard hosts BlizzCon every year and invites thousands of players to come celebrate WarCraft, StarCraft, and Diablo. It lasts for two days, but considering how many hours conference goers have already invested into these titles, this amounts to little more than another quest. For anyone set on going, Blizzard has released the official BlizzCon 2013 guide into the Play Store, an indispensible aid that makes the party all the more manageable.
A new Kairosoft game is out, so that means it's time to put away that trigger finger and dig out your thinking cap, because it's time to manage property. Some of the company's previous titles have placed players in feudal Japan, on a soccer field, or atop luxurious apartment complexes, but its latest game plays it even safer. Pocket Harvest puts you at the head of your very own farm, a concept that has grown so ubiquitous through games like Harvest Moon and Farmville that it now ranks somewhere up there with Tetris and Solitaire.
Intel may have decided that ARM's advantage within small devices and embedded systems is just too much to contend with, because now the world's largest semiconductor chip maker will start to fabricate ARM chips in its plants. Altera announced at a conference today that Intel would produce the company's ARM Cortex-A53 processor beginning next year. Who would have guessed that Intel would be the company to manufacture one of the world's first quad-core 64-bit ARM chips?