Latest Articles
Sprint And SoftBank Merger Is Officially Completed
Sprint And SoftBank Merger Is Officially Completed
Sprint announced in a press release this afternoon that SoftBank's acquisition of the Sprint Corporation had officially been completed. The two companies announced a mutual interest back in October of last year. After struggling with competing bids from Dish Network, SoftBank received its final regulatory approval for the merger from the FCC just a week ago.
T-Mobile just announced its new JUMP! upgrade plan (no more caps after that, I promise), and it's really, really different. Really, really. As far as I am aware, no other mobile network in the world has a smartphone upgrade plan like this. If you haven't already read about the basics on Jump, let me break it down for you.
While LG originally announced the Optimus G Pro "Value Pack" back in March, at the time it was in reference to the Korean version of the device. The G Pro has since been released on AT&T Value Packless, but it appears that's finally changing: LG has officially announced that the VP upgrade will be hitting AT&T G Pro handsets very soon. While it sadly does not include an Android version bump, it does add a host of new features. Here they are:
An arcade and console classic, Crazy Taxi is a game that needs little introduction. After spending quite some time on iOS, you can finally live out the glory days of Dreamcast chauffeuring shenanigans on Android.
In what is bound to be the first of many more multi-photo leaks over the next month, Engadget has gotten its hands on an extensive set of snaps of the upcoming LG Optimus G2. Behold the imagery below, and read on for our take. The G2 has been previously leaked on multiple occasions, most recently in some video screencaps depicting LG's next flagship. LG also hasn't been shy on acknowledging the device's existence, teasing its Snapdragon 800 processor and August 7th launch event.
I love Yelp. In the US, it's the single best community-powered restaurant (and other place) rating platform available, and it consistently gets better. While it does have less of a following in some suburban and rural areas, for many city slickers Yelp is a way of life, and even as competing services have attempted to supplant it, Yelp has remained the most powerful tool of its kind.
Apple Ends Stupid "Appstore" Trademark Lawsuit Against Amazon, Probably Because It Was Really Stupid
Apple Ends Stupid & Appstore Trademark Lawsuit Against Amazon
While of only tangential relation to Android (the Amazon Appstore is an Android app store after all), when Apple filed a lawsuit against Amazon over 2 years ago for infringing its trademark on "App Store," I got a bit perturbed. Their reasoning? Well, basically there wasn't much in the way of good legal argument for the case from day one. In fact, Apple probably knew the likelihood of a victory was low, and has been biding time hoping that Amazon would cave to a settlement demand.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And when it comes to copying, I have no doubt that the Parrot Ziks will be imitated, reimagined, and otherwise "inspire" a new generation of Bluetooth headphones in the coming years. Yes, they're that different. The Ziks are also, to be blunt, an experimental product. They don't sit on your head very well, and they don't sound fantastic. Even their game-changing features, like the touchpad controls on the right ear housing, aren't quite fully baked yet.
This morning, SanDisk announced its newest line of microSDXC cards, the Extreme series. And they're Extreme[ly] fast. But as you and I know, manufacturer speed claims for microSD cards aren't exactly indicative of real-world performance figures (especially in smartphones), so we actually compared SanDisks's new Extreme cards to the older Ultra series. Here's what we found.
Here it is, ladies and gentlemen, the next DROID. Again. After being revealed in white over the weekend, along with the face of its MAXX sibling on Friday night, the Ultra is all but officially Verizon's next big thing to wear the caps lock-enhanced, Lucasfilm-licensed DROID moniker. And it's a thing of... well, not beauty. Beauty really isn't the right word. It's a thing of carbon fiber Kevlar (thanks for pointing that out), and I'll let you draw your own aesthetic conclusions on that basis.
After much speculation about "customizable" hardware, earth-shattering specifications, and groundbreaking construction materials, everything we've learned about the Moto X to date has been pretty... mundane.
HTC has dropped the kernel source files for the HTC First, an AT&T exclusive we reviewed back in May. These source materials will allow the First's [few] developers to provide better support for the device, and make custom kernels a possibility. Of course, this all depends on the development community, and I'm not sure just how much of a following the First has in that regard.
Welcome to the Android Police Podcast, Episode 67.
Update: Google has confirmed to us that "the Limited Edition White Nexus 8GB and 16GB are sold out on Google Play." A sold out limited edition would mean the limited run is over, so the White Nexus 4 is no more on the US Play Store.
Update: SlashGear has leaked some of the back-plate colors, and claims there will be a total of 16 to choose from. See the picture below for horrifying pastels.
If you didn't read our interview of the man behind the @evleaks Twitter account - Evan Blass - last week, go check it out. If you did, you may remember we promised that Evan would answer some of your questions from the comments section of that article. Well, here they are.
Both the Yonhap and Chosun news agencies of Korea are reporting that Samsung Mobile President JK Shin has confirmed 20 million Galaxy S4 handsets have been sold since the phone launched around the end of April. The Verge has a handy graphic below comparing sales of the Galaxy S4, S III, and S II against the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 from their respective launch dates. As you can see, if the 20 million figure is correct, Samsung is quickly closing in on Apple's "single model sales" crown.
