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Samsung had some rather suboptimal financial results over the last year, and the current earning calls for 2019's third quarter show this isn't quite changing. Profits fell sharply compared to the same time frame last year, but at least smartphone sales raked in some profit thanks to the Galaxy Note10 and A series.
Samsung Electronics just published its 2018 financial results, and the figures are not looking good. Compared to Q4 2017, sales went down 20% and profit dropped 29%. The overall performance for the year has slightly progressed compared to 2018, though, with revenue up 1.75% and operating profit growing 9.77%. The Korean conglomerate's mobile division is the one with the worst realization, as both revenue and profit have decreased, comparing quarter to quarter and year to year.
If you entered the Google I/O lottery this year, dust off your F5 keys - lotto results have started showing up in inboxes.
In an apparent effort to boost app discoverability and engagement, it looks like Google is rolling out a beautiful new layout for "apps" search results on mobile. Doing a quick search for pretty much anything followed by the word "apps" will get you a grid of app results above the normal search results, each block colored according to the app's icon. Clicking the "expand" button opens up the grid, with more results smoothly flowing in. Check it out in motion below.
Another long design test appears to be drawing to a close for Google. After apparently beginning a wider rollout for the new mobile search UI (in testing since April), it seems that Google is making the revised image results UI final too.
Google is no stranger to testing new features or design tweaks on its live products, and search has been receiving quite a bit of attention lately. It doesn't necessarily come as a surprise, then, to see new design tweaks appearing for some users in Google's image search results.
Google has been testing lots of tweaks for its mobile search engine results page lately. We've seen colored underlines on results cards and a rather pleasing new layout for the search bar and associated tools, and now a few users are reporting something a little strange - colored dots. We've received multiple reports of search result cards with four dots (colored with Google's signature blue, green, yellow, and red) in the lower right corner.
A relatively small Google Maps update to v9.8 began rolling out last week, adding batch photo uploads and a way to restrict bookings from showing up in location screens. It turns out there was another secret feature waiting to be shown off. In the latest version, a search for one of four key phrases will pop up results related to your personal bookings. Just try asking for my events, my flights, my hotels, or my reservations to see a short list of personalized results.
Search, as the foundational product Google is known for, is obviously something the company is very thoughtful of when it comes to design. Even small changes can cause a big impact on user experience and engagements, so Google is careful about how design tweaks are implemented.
The folks over at Laptop Mag have undertaken a test that really piques our interest. The results show that T-Mobile smartphones consistently get the best battery life among the big four US carriers. The difference isn't insignificant either. We're talking about a steady gap of up to three hours, depending on the phone.
At Google I/O last week, Google announced Project Volta, its effort to change and drastically improve how Android manages battery life. Since then the folks over at Ars Technica have downloaded the publicly available L developer preview build and put it through its paces. Is there a noticeable difference? Yes, apparently. They were able to get an an extra two hours of battery life out of their Nexus 5, an improvement of thirty-six percent. Regardless of how exact these numbers are, the difference suggests good things.
Several days ago, it was brought to our attention that Google's Search app finally allowed completely touchless reminders, whereby a user could set a reminder from start to finish without touching the device. Previously, reminders required a touch confirmation at the end of the process. Now, the "voice of Google" simply asks if the user would like the reminder to be set. Saying "yes" will complete the interaction.
It looks like Google isn't done adding goodies to the latest round of updates for the official Search app. The hotword for activating the voice search function is now "Ok Google," and it also works while looking at results, not just from the standard search screen. You'll need Search 2.8.7 (grab the APK here if you don't have it yet) and an updated English (US) language pack to see the new functionality.
The Google Search 2.7 APK teardown is now officially the longest one in the history of Android Police. We find a bunch of interesting things, post about them, continue digging, and what do you know - keep running into new stuff. I'm fairly positive there won't be part 4 this time around, as we've squeezed out every last drop from v2.7, but as they say - never say never.
Just when you thought we were done with the already rather extensive Google Search teardown, another wild teardown appears. Yup, still the same good old Search 2.7, but this time, we found a hidden feature that you will really want, even more than custom hotwords. At least I think you will.
I do so much searching in the Play Store on a daily basis that every little trick that helps surface relevant results faster and filter out things I don't want is worth its weight in gold. Sometimes, you're searching for XYZ, which you know should be in the title, but instead get a ton of results back with XYZ in the description. This is especially frustrating when a new app or game gets released, and Google hasn't figured out it's popular yet. In that case, it's more than likely that searching for the name of the app will show it somewhere near the last results page.
[Whoa!] Google Will Start Down-Ranking Search Results That Receive Too Many Takedown Requests
This may not be strictly Android-related news, but it's safe to say that what Google does to search results is relevant to our readers' interests, no?
This may not be strictly Android-related news, but it's safe to say that what Google does to search results is relevant to our readers' interests, no? Today, Google announced via its Inside Search blog that the company will start including the volume of valid copyright removal notices as a factor in determining how high or low a site ranks in its search results. Translation: pirate sites won't be removed entirely, but they'll start ranking lower than legitimate sites.
Official London 2012 Results App Sprints To The Play Store With Olympics Results, Schedules, And News
Android-using Olympics fans now have another reason to be proud of their platform - back in May, the London 2012 Join In App was released, and now, the
Android-using Olympics fans now have another reason to be proud of their platform - back in May, the London 2012 Join In App was released, and now, the same developer has published the London 2012 Results App.
Sprint posted its fourth quarter earnings this morning, and they definitely painted a mixed picture of the company's financial position. On the one hand, the Alamo of unlimited data increased its subscriber base by 1.6 million in the last quarter, with big thanks likely owed to the addition of the iPhone to Sprint's lineup - giving them a significant advantage over their primary price point rival, T-Mobile.
They say that there are two sides to every story, and that certainly holds true for Sprint after they announced their second quarter 2011 results this morning.