The move from Android Pay, Google Wallet, and Pay with Google to Google Pay hasn't been completely smooth sailing, but the Mountain View giant is slowly getting its footing and transitioning everything from the old brandings to the new one. The latest to make the switch are web payments done either on desktop or on iOS.
Read MoreThe US smartphone market is devolving into a Samsung and Apple market - and that's bad for Android
If you live in the United States and walk into a Verizon store, you have essentially four options when it comes to choosing a premium smartphone brand: Apple, Samsung, LG, and Google. Yesterday, we learned that continuing to expect LG will be one of these options probably isn't the best bet.
While there may yet be a premium LG phone that launches on Verizon, the Korean conglomerate looks poised to join Motorola as one of Verizon's when-it's-convenient handset partners, and is quite possibly on its way to the Verizon graveyard with the likes of HTC, Sony, and BlackBerry.
The same can generally be said of AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint.
Read MoreSwitching to the iPhone, part three: Everything I hate about the iPhone X
I look at my phone. It vibrates. It asks for my password.
This is the single most annoying experience I have on a regular basis with the iPhone X. Face ID is at once pretty good and absolutely infuriating. The iPhone X is, as a result, the most frustrating smartphone I have used in recent memory. The iPhone X is also pretty great, but when it rubs me the wrong way, it really rubs me the wrong way.
Switching to the iPhone hasn't been without annoyances and sacrifices. In fact, it's come with quite a few, if I'm going to be honest with you about it.
Read MoreAndroid to iPhone, part two: What I've liked about switching to the iPhone X
I can already tell I’ll have a hard time going back to Android’s software navigation keys.
One of the most pleasantly surprising features of the iPhone X - and something that’s going to read like it’s straight out of Phil Schiller’s marketing playbook - comes in the form of what Apple removed from the phone: the home button. By forcing the issue of gesture navigation instead of going half-in with soft keys, Apple’s made a convert of me. I like gesture nav.
It’s also kind of broken. There’s no universal gesture to go back (some apps let you swipe from the left - sometimes), and the quick switcher button at the top left of the phone requires some serious thumb acrobatics to reach.
Read MoreI’ve never used an iPhone, part one: Switching to the iPhone X and first thoughts
On a fall day over eight years ago, I walked into an AT&T store in Davis, my college town, to see the iPhone 3GS. I held it, stared at it, looked at the price card, then back at the phone, and then down at the price card again. Reality began to set in.
I was locked into a contract with my Sony-Ericsson feature phone for another six months. I asked about early upgrade pricing - $200 on top of the $199 AT&T already charged for the phone - but I was a student, and my meager checking account balance could barely withstand the regular on-contract price and accompanying increase in the monthly service fee.
Read MoreSamsung's latest ad makes direct jabs at multiple generations of the iPhone, and it's pretty funny
Samsung seems to be angling towards a different type of ad campaign: one that makes fun of competitors' devices. We first saw this (indirectly) with Samsung's 'Screen Reviews' commercial, but this latest 'Growing Up' takes the roasts to a whole other level. Several generations of the iPhone are highlighted here, and it's really very well done.
Read MoreOpinion: The iPhone X will overshadow the new Pixels, and Google needs a battle plan
Today, Apple announced the iPhone X to the fanfare of hundreds of members of the media, investors, and its own employees at a large event in the company's new purpose-built Steve Jobs Theater, housed within its brand-new mega-campus. Next month, Google will announce the second generation of its Pixel smartphones, alongside a handful of other new products, at what will likely be a comparatively small affair attended almost exclusively by technology journalists. It will probably be in a nice - but decidedly rented - event space in San Francisco.
Apple will ship millions of iPhone Xs before the year is out, assuming supply is not an issue.
Read MoreThe iPhone X and Apple Day: Thoughts from five Android Police team members
The iPhone X is, undoubtedly, the most radical rethink of the iPhone to date. Not just for what it adds, but also what it eliminates: no home button, no fingerprint scanner, and no real bezels to speak of. While the design of Apple's new phone isn't exactly unfamiliar, it's still fairly stunning in its own right, and pretty much seals the deal on low-bezel phones being the future.
There's no doubt in my mind that the iPhone X will create an attention vacuum for all other smartphones. Certainly, other phones will still be announced and get coverage, but it will be far more limited in terms of staying power and general interest to the smartphone-buying public.
Read MoreThe Best Of AP
Virgin Mobile USA has stopped selling Android phones entirely
Virgin Mobile has been a popular pre-paid wireless carrier in the United States for a while now, using Sprint's network as a backend. As with most carriers in the US, both iPhones and Android devices were available to customers. However, Virgin has now partnered with Apple and will only offer iPhones moving forward.
Read More[Update: Now on App Store] Google Assistant is coming to iOS
Two days ago, we shared that Google Assistant was almost definitely about to arrive on iOS. Not to be all "told you so," but, we told you so. At Google's I/O 17 event, the company revealed that Assistant is now officially available for iOS devices.
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