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There have been a few Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns lately that are pushing the idea of a modular phone similar to Google's Project Ara. These are devices designed by small teams of people without the engineering resources of Google, and if you'll forgive my pessimism, they sound like nonsense. Nexpaq is a somewhat more modest take on the modular phone. The modules plug into the Nexpaq case and you simply drop in your existing phone.
Samsung was early to the recent smartwatch craze, but its products haven't exactly sold like gangbusters. While Samsung has made an Android Wear watch, it seems more interested in moving forward with its Tizen-based Gear platform, and the new Gear SDK offers a lot of detail about that next device. It'll be round, but that's not the only thing we know.
As part of NVIDIA's Shield console announcement several months ago, it said the GRID game streaming service would be getting an update to operate at 1080p and 60 frames per second. According to NVIDIA, that improvement is now live. If you have a SHIELD Tablet, you can test it right now. The Portable is only 720p, so it's a moot point there.
Cyanogen Inc's exclusive partner in India, Micromax has a new phone on the way called the Yuphoria. Why the funky spelling? Because it's part of the YU line of devices along with the Yureka. The Yuphoria is launching later this month with respectable mid-range specs and a low price.
BitTorrent brought an alpha version of its Bleep private messaging client to Android last year, and today it's officially launching on all major platforms including Android. Bleep doesn't require an account to sign up and all your messages are encrypted with local keys so no one else can access your data.
It's not cheap to take Android away from Google, nor is it an inexpensive proposition to put a bullet through Google's head. So it should come as no surprise that Cyanogen Inc. is on the lookout for investment partners. The latest company to throw in with the Android software maker is Foxconn. Yes, that Foxconn.
Android is a complex, multifaceted beast with a lot of moving parts that can break. In the grand scheme of things, this bug isn't a huge deal. It doesn't affect functionality, but it sure is annoying. Here's the deal: get an expanded notification with more than 7 elements on Android 5.1, and you'll probably see a line at the bottom that says, "@17041057."
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The Galaxy S6 is the hottest Android phone on the market right now, but it's not perfect. Some owners of this device have started reporting a bug that prevents them from dismissing a Samsung terms and conditions popup. Oh, it goes away at first, but then it takes over the screen again several minutes later.
Motorola has a mixed record when it comes to device updates. The first-gen Moto X made the jump from Jelly Bean to KitKat quite smoothly, but Lollipop has proven to be more of a challenge. Motorola recently announced the 2013 Moto X would go straight to Android 5.1, but when? Soon, according to Motorola's David Schuster.
One of the less glamorous improvements to Android 5.0 Lollipop is the move to updating WebView via the Play Store rather than only with system updates. WebView is the component that lets apps render web pages internally rather than kicking you over to a browser. A recent update to WebView was crashes left and right, but now Google thinks it has that all sorted out.
The current Humble Mobile Bundle has been live for a week and there's one week still to go. That means new games have been added to sweeten the deal. The already great selection of six games has been joined by Groundskeeper 2 and Highrise Word Heroes.
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Google announced the Android 5.1.1 update for the Nexus 9 last Thursday, and said it was rolling out that very day. Clearly that didn't happen, but now it's here and we've got the OTA link to prove it (build LMY47X). Just keep in mind for future reference Google's definition of "today" is what the rest of us call "four days from now."
This is a deal alert that really lives up to the urgent nature of the term—you need to act fast to take advantage of this one. The RAVPower Element 10,400mAh battery pack is on sale for just $15.99, but only for the next few hours or until it's out of stock.
You may have heard that the LG G4 doesn't have support for Qualcomm's Quick Charge 2.0 technology, which seems odd considering it has a Snapdragon 808. That's what LG said at the launch event, but it's looking now like that was just a formality. The G4 has just appeared on Qualcomm's officially supported QC2.0 device list.
In recent years, Dropcam has been the leader when it comes to smart home security cameras. FLIR recently jumped in to the market with the FLIR FX wireless security camera. This is a mobile-centric security system that offers cool ways to review your video and receive alerts on your phone when something goes down at home. Let's see how it performs.
Android Wear is designed to make sense for a tiny screen that's going to be on your wrist. Everything is handled with large buttons, swipes, and gestures. Macintosh System 6, on the other hand, has tiny buttons and requires a mouse. You'd never really want to run it on a smartwatch, but you can. Corbin Davenport is here to prove it.
It has been a long wait for the Lollipop update for the Dell Venue 8 7840. Dell has missed several deadlines to get Lollipop rolled out to this device, but now it's here. Android 5.0.2 is available for download from the update menu right now.
Straight Talk offers good deals for mobile service on the big national networks (it's an MVNO), but the deal is getting a little sweeter today for anyone who brings their own phone. The standard plan will now offer 5GB of unthrottled LTE data instead of just 3GB. The price is staying at $45, and the increased data takes effect on your next monthly "refill" date.
The Nexus 9 isn't the only device getting a 5.1 update today—Motorola has made the Android 5.1 update for the 2nd gen Moto X official and has started sending it out. The rollout is starting with a soak test in Brazil, but it shouldn't be long before it hits all the Moto X variants.
So you're not an artist, no problem. VoxelMaker allows you to create any scene you can dream up and render it with lighting effects, depth of field, and more. What can you build with hundreds of tiny cubes? Probably lots of things.