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The Android team's excitement for its dessert anthology has cooled off in the few years, but that hasn't stopped hardcore fans from calling Android 10 "Quince Tart." In addition to the numbers, the alphabetically-ordered sweets helped us viscerally link the OS's progress and missteps with our attitudes toward them.
After years of fixing phones, uBreakiFix finally gets around to fixing its name
New owners Asurion will lend its name to the storefronts and mobile repair vehicles
A couple of years ago, national gadget repair chain and frequent strip mall tenant uBreakiFix was purchased by Asurion. That's not a ship name from Star Trek (USS Asurion has a nice ring, right?), it's that company that sells third-party insurance for the stuff you buy. The purchase made sense, and it looks like Asurion is hoping to further integrate the stores into its brand. According to a press release, the retail stores will be renamed beginning later this year.
C by GE gets a (badly needed) new name, expands from smart bulbs to other home products
Security cameras, outdoor outlets, and a fan switch join all those bulbs
The clunkiest-sounding brand in smart home lighting is turning the page on the calendar and taking a new name. General Electric's lighting division was sold off to Savant Systems in July. With a change in ownership comes the demise of C by GE and the rise of Cync — yes, like "synchronization" — along with an expanded product catalogue for 2021.
Google's new icons for Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, and Meet all look the same
Thanks for making them so easily distinguishable, Googz
As part of its announcement of G Suite's rebranding to Google Workspace, Google introduced a new visual identity and five redesigned icons for some of its popular services: Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, and Meet. The icons, as you can see them above, are similar to what we've come to expect from Google — and perhaps a little too similar at that.
Mixed in among the Pixels, Chromecast, and speaker yesterday was another important tidbit. Google is essentially rebranding Android TV to Google TV over the next few years. But "Google TV" is more than just a software skin, it's also the new name for Google Play Movies & TV. That's makes it the second Play-branded service to get the boot in the next month if you consider Play Music, and I don't think this change goes far enough. It's been eight years, and it's time for Google to kill the "Play" branding across the board.
Google TV is the future of Android TV but Android TV will still exist (and yes, this is confusing)
But Google can't really fix it, either
Google's new Chromecast with Google TV marks not just a change for Google's hardware lineup to better compete with Roku and Fire TV hardware, it's also the future of Android TV as we know it, though it all gets pretty messy. See, Google TV will also be coming to third-party hardware from companies like Sony starting next year, though Android TV itself will live on — at least until 2022.
A couple of days ago, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau revealed that the company would be changing up its visual identity with some fresh branding and the new logo is now live. It might not be immediately obvious to you what's new since it's a very subtle adjustment, but the logo has been modernized while the typeface has also been updated.
OnePlus's March 18 branding reveal spoiled by Chinese trademark office
Expect a bolder font, a bit more curb-iage
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Corporate branding usually isn't anyone's jam, but it's part of how a company tries to convince consumers that buy its products that supposedly suited to their lifestyles. It is with this notion in mind that we report the brand makeover OnePlus will undertake on Wednesday.
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We've come to high season for high-pressure presentations in cavernous venues for little pieces of circuitry encased in glass, metal, and plastic again. IFA 2019 is just about underway in Berlin and tech companies are on rehearsals looking for the right words, notes, camera shots, and switches to hit. Unfortunately for Sony, someone in the control room flipped the wrong switch and briefly revealed the existence of the company's next big smartphone, the Xperia 5.
Earlier this month, Google revealed its updated design language for the Android logo ahead of the Android 10 release. In addition to elevating the bugdroid (or at least its head) to the logo itself, new typography for the "android" text was also shown off. As part of today's big push to update the various Android sites, the logos for Android TV, Android Auto, and Android One have all been updated to match those previous changes.
If you've placed bets on when HTC will release its last smartphone (at least under its own name) and have marked that date prior to June of this year, you've lost your money. The financially-languishing Taiwanese phone maker still has some gusto left and it may look to continue getting its name out there one way or another. The latest news in its attempts to do so comes from Russia, where regulatory documents have indicated that the company will promote several new smartphones in the near future using a familiar name for longtime HTC fans.
When the big Nest rebranding hit Google, products like the Home Hub saw their names changed to the Google Nest Hub, confusingly differentiating them as separate from the "Home" series smart speakers that they have more in common with than any "Nest" branded hardware. Initially, it seemed like all of Google's "Home" branded stuff would be changed to "Google Nest," but Google later confirmed to us that its speakers would not follow this change. Apparently, no one told the @madebygoogle Twitter account that.
Google might have had a slow quarter with its ad-serving business this winter, but it could be primed to sell bigger and bolder than before — and we're talking more than just AdClicks. Away from its immensely profitable search engine, the company has reorganized one of its marketing divisions to potentially open up larger opportunities for companies to promote themselves through Google properties.
Samsung is doing a little spring cleaning with its smartphone branding. It has decided to merge the budget-focused Galaxy J series into the mid-range Galaxy A lineup. Specifically, the 'J' lineage is being carried on by the Galaxy A30 and Galaxy A50.The company announced the change-up in a video on its global YouTube account:[EMBED_YT]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX0hS7ibqj8&feature=youtu.be[/EMBED_YT]The Galaxy A strategy took a big turn this year: a whopping seven devices have been released since January 1. Two of them launched in China just last week — the Galaxy A40s and the Galaxy A60. With more phones set to fall under the 'A' label, the decommissioning of the Galaxy J series may have gone hand-in-hand.We should also point out that it's not as if pricing has shot up dramatically with the change-up. An unlocked A50 retails for about $300 in the United States. For perspective, AT&T is selling last year's Galaxy J7 for 0 while the Galaxy A6 at T-Mobile was last marked at $400. With that A50, consumers are getting three rear cameras, an in-display fingerprint sensor, and a 4,000mAh battery — more than what either of the older devices could provide on their own.Source: Samsung
Most of you are probably familiar with AT&T's very misleading initiative to dub an enhanced version of 4G LTE "5G Evolution." As the top comment on that post predicted, the "5G E" icon has begun to roll out very quickly, already hitting both the LG V30 and Samsung Galaxy S8 active less than two weeks after the announcement.
Technology is complicated enough for the average consumer, but carriers have a long and storied history of manipulating terminology to make it even harder to follow. Years ago, carriers like T-Mobile and AT&T jumped the gun on 4G by rebranding their 3G HSPA+ networks as "4G." Now, AT&T is doing the same thing as we move on toward 5G. After announcing 5G Evolution branding earlier this year, it's going to use a fake 5G icon on LTE phones.
Uber hired former Coca-Cola exec Rebecca Messina as its first chief marketing officer two days ago, and she's joining just in time for the announcement a complete rebrand. The Uber and Uber Eats apps have been updated with new logos that use a proprietary new typeface called 'Uber Move.'
LG's mobile business has been doing some questionable things lately. It all began to go downhill when it released a V30 with slightly better specs as the "V30S ThinQ" for a whopping $929.99 (which it has since lowered by $200). It then updated the existing V30 with "ThinQ" branding as well. The company now seems to be doing the same thing with the G6 for some reason, despite the phone being over a year old.
Android Wear may be changing its image, according to a Reddit post by user H3x0n. Per the post, during the setup of an Android Wear watch (the post didn't specify which), H3x0n was greeted with both a new icon and an unfamiliar name for the operating system.