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Is the 2-year smartphone contract dead yet? Not technically, but it probably won't hang on much longer. Sprint is the latest carrier to announce it's done with the contract approach to selling phones. This comes just days after Verizon made the same announcement. T-Mobile, of course, has been doing this for several years.
We're getting very close to the final version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow. See? We even have a name now. The third developer preview just came out and it contains fixes, UI tweaks, and so on. None of that will do you any good right now, but the new wallpapers it ships with will work just fine on your current device. You can grab all nine new images below.
The news late last week for Google's modular smartphone initiative was not good. After promising a real world test of Project Ara would take place in 2015, Google finally had to pull back and cancel those plans. A series of tweets today at least provides some clues as to what's next for Ara. There are three tweets which conveniently answer the questions—when, where, and why?
When you think of OLED displays on phones, you probably think of Samsung's Super AMOLED. However, LG is a larger display manufacturer overall. Most of its phones and retail panels are LCD, and the few forays into OLED haven't been awesome. However, with the decision to pump a few billion dollars into research, LG Display could quickly catch up.
Samsung isn't leaving its flagship of yesteryear completely high and dry in this age of Stagefright vulnerability. An update is being sent to the Verizon Galaxy S4 today that patches the Stagefright vulnerability, and adds a few more fixes for good measure.
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Motorola's social media team has had a few oopsie moments lately. Just the other day Motorola's Twitter and Google+ accounts announced a launch date for the Moto X Pure, only to remove the postings. Now Motorola has posted a video tweet that briefly shows what appears to be a new Moto 360.
There have been a lot of Pac-Man games over the years, but there are only so many ways you can tweak the "run around a maze and eat things" genre. Hipster Whale (the developer of Crossy Road) has found a new one, though. After partnering with Namco, Hipster Whale came up with Pac-Man 256, a homage to the infamous level 256 glitch in the original game. A new gameplay video is now out, and it looks awesome.
Sony is ahead of most other OEMs when it comes to its support of open source. It contributes significantly to AOSP and even releases binaries for many of its devices so developers can build AOSP ROMs for them. Today, Sony is announcing support for the first three 64-bit devices in the Open Device project.
Fans of Warhammer 40,000 have put up with a lot over the years. The IP has been the basis for a great many mobile games, only some of which have been good. The newly announced Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade looks like it has some potential, just judging from the flashy gameplay trailer. Many questions remain unanswered, though.
Samsung has had a lot of strange ideas in the past, but you can afford to experiment when you're raking in cash as the top Android OEM. The newly announced keyboard cover for the Note 5 and S6 Edge+ is especially weird, though. It's a case with a snap-on physical keyboard that interacts with the screen. It's also indisputably ugly.
There's a distinct lack of new Android Wear devices on the market right now, but perhaps you can tide yourself over with some new apps and watch faces for your faithful wrist companion. We've got a ton of new stuff as always, but even more watch faces thanks to Google's recent push with various brands and designers. Strap on your watch and get ready.
Google's Niantic Labs is perhaps best known as the developer of the popular augmented reality game Ingress (it also makes the exploration app Field Trip). In the wake of the Alphabet announcement, Niantic is leaving Google behind, but not in the way you think. Google is spinning off the developer completely, turning it into an independent company.
Like it or not, CyanogenMod is still one of the most popular, well-supported custom ROMs out there. However, downloading the necessary files to flash it could be an exercise in frustration. See, the CM download page only listed device code names, but now it uses the device names you actually know.
Google announced the Stagefright vulnerability fix would start rolling out as an OTA today, but it has also added new factory images to the Nexus developer pages. That means bootloader unlocked Nexus phones and tablets can flash the new build immediately, even if your device is running some wacky ROM.
Samsung first talked about Samsung Pay when the Galaxy S6 was announced, but the service wasn't actually ready. Now it's all systems go for a September launch in the US. Samsung Pay will allow you to make wireless payments at almost any payment terminal that supports regular credit cards, and it's only compatible with Samsung's newer premium phones.
As expected, Samsung has announced a pair of new smartphones at its Unpacked event—the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+. The Note 5 is being presented as a perfect phablet for multitaskers and the S6 Edge+ as an ideal device for multimedia.
Not every game needs to have dozens of quests, tiered objectives, and an hour of cut scenes before you get to the actual game. Gathering Sky is a simple adventure game with great music and a casual gameplay style. One thing it doesn't have is in-app purchases.
Android offers developers a great deal of freedom to experiment with apps and come up with (maybe) the next big thing. Now Google has launched a website where it plans to show off some of the most interesting projects on Android. It's called Android Experiments and there are already 20 apps and demos to check out.