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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.
Google is giving your Chromebook the nerdiest possible customization
Soon you'll be able to set your own custom hostname
Network administration is one of those annoying realities of using so many connected devices, and while there are plenty of tools that can help streamline things, sometimes it feels like Chromebooks are doing everything they can to make the task more difficult. Right now, it's a hassle to even identify your Chromebook on your local network because Chrome OS doesn't broadcast your device's hostname — a unique label that helps it stand out. As a result, diagnosing even simple wireless issues is more painful than it needs to be, forcing you to deal with cumbersome IP addresses. Thankfully, you won't have to wait much longer before you can assign your Chromebook a convenient, easy-to-recognize hostname of its own.
A new version of Android is on the way, but Google isn't announcing a name at Google I/O. All throughout the keynote, the next release continues to go by Android N.
Every time there's a new version of Android on the horizon, there's also a rash of speculation as to what dessert Google will use for its next codename. For Android N, now in an early and promising developer preview, the situation is no different. Android fans seem stuck on "Nutella," which would mean another licensed deal like the one with the KitKat rollout, though it's at least faintly possible that Google will use the name of an Indian dessert, as CEO Sundar Pichai hinted in a question and answer session. He also said in that same session that Google might conduct an online poll for future Android codenames... and in a roundabout way, that might just be happening now.
For a long time now, Google's Search app has had a new, more rounded launcher icon and a simple label in your app drawer: Google. The app's Play Store listing, however, has stubbornly clung to the name "Google Search," while retaining the old boxy icon of yore. Without a word, it looks like Google has cleaned up its Play Store listing at long last with the refreshed icon and simplified name. The change makes sense, given the previous mismatch between the Play Store and on-device icons and names. Google's app also encompasses an increasing number of features besides search, including a launcher and Google Now's predictive prowess.
The rumors continue to fly about the HTC M7, which we expect will be announced before too long. The latest tidbit comes from the usually-reliable @evleaks. According to the ever-mysterious entity, the company's newest flagship will simply be called 'HTC One.' Nice and clean, just the way we like it.
[Editorial] The Ten Commandments Of Naming Phones And Tablets - Thou Shalt Not Epic 4G Touch
Manufacturers, you're awful at naming things. Sorry. It's true. In many cases, you've either muddied the brand of your flagship devices, or made it incredibly
Manufacturers, you're awful at naming things. Sorry. It's true. In many cases, you've either muddied the brand of your flagship devices, or made it incredibly difficult for customers to know what they should be asking for when they walk into a store. This is probably not a good thing since you want customers to buy your stuff. More than that, though, you want them to love your stuff, so they'll buy more of it. Making it easier to say the name of the product will go a long way towards that goal.
In a not too surprising move, toy maker Hasbro has sued ASUS, claiming that the Transformer Prime tablet's name infringes trademarks related to Optimus Prime and Transformers children's toys.
If there's one thing we still don't know for sure about the Toshiba Android tablet, it's its name. At this year's CES, when the product was first announced and demoed, Toshiba refused to give up the name, simply referring to it as "the unnamed Toshiba tablet." The company then followed up with the site named just TheToshibaTablet.com, leaving us guessing and puzzled as to why it takes months to give a gadget a name. Then came guesses - Antares and ANT were both considerations, but it now seems like both were actually wrong (or rather, could be internal names) and the real name of the tablet will be...