Android is the undisputed leader in global smartphone shipments with iOS a distant second but when it comes to mobile browsing iOS is king and has been for some time now, despite Android’s overwhelming lead in number of active devices and users.

But things are changing with Android rapidly closing the gap behind iOS and now sitting just 1.86 percentage points behind Apple’s OS. The trend of Android catching up and finally surpassing iOS is nothing new – Android had less apps but finally caught up and surpassed Apple, Google Play is also closing-in in terms of revenue from apps. Read more »

Guess what – Google+ isn’t Google’s first go at a social network. Back before social networks were as popular as today, around the same time when Facebook was just getting started after Myspace paved the way, there was Orkut. The social network didn’t really leave a big mark in its 10 year tenure but has been used widely in Brazil and India.

Now that Google’s Google+, YouTube and Blogger are moving forward and luring users by the quarter Google, and Father Time, have finally caught up to Orkut. The service will be shutting down on September 30 of this year and effective today isn’t accepting new registrations. Read more »

After our meeting with the Samsung Gear Fit at the Mobile World Congress, we were left wanting for more so when we got it at the office we spent a lot of time with the device on wrist to test its many fitness and smartphone companion features in full.

The Samsung Gear Fit is the third smartwatch to come out of this year’s Gear generation but isn’t quite as functional as the Gear 2 and Neo. It it is closer to the fitness band market than to the fully functional smartwatches. For starters the Fit lacks a microphone and speaker so you won’t be able to take calls on it like you would on the other Gears. There’s no speaker too. What there is – a curved 1.84″ Super AMOLED screen that’s simply gorgeous and more intuitive to use. Read more »

The OnePlus One is finally here after some delays that could have potentially ruined the occasion. Thankfully those delays didn’t last as long as we feared so without further ado here goes the One.

Sharing a name with a popular HTC handset we know the OnePlus One has some proving to do but covers the right basics as a start. For one it brings a capable Snapdragon 801 chipset, a 5.5″ 1080p display and a 4K-enabled 13 MP snapper. Adding to a good foundation the One could also be the Nexus fan’s dream come true with a tailor-made CyanogenMod 11 OS for a clean, near-stock Android KitKat 4.4.2 experience. Read more »

This week’s poll will put the LG G3‘s claim to be the best flagship around to a new test – against the HTC One (M8).

The in-depth shootout review between the two is already out and we’ve shared our opinion about the two and which we think is better at what. Now it’s your chance to do so and vote for your favorite device. Read more »

Last week we had a new battle to your favorite flagship and it was an interesting one featuring two Korean heavyweights -the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the QHD-flaunting LG G3.

The categories are well-known by now – we ask you to pick your winner in terms of design, screen, user interface, still image quality and video quality. Now that the voting is over and we have decisive winners in every category – here are your picks. Read more »

Samsung would have you believe you want, scratch that, you need, the Gear 2 smartwatch. You may as well see a point there if you happen to own one of the 17 smartphones and tablets with a Gear Manager app – all of which, needless to say – are made by Samsung.

We make it sound like a devious plot but, in truth, it makes sense to – at the very least – be able to quickly locate a misplaced smartphone. And that’s on top of taking calls and telling the time of course. Then come perks like playing nicely with the heart rate sensor and the S Health app on a Galaxy S5. Read more »

After years of preparation, after many a tablet and various service unveiling, Amazon finally unveiled its first hand at a phone – the Fire Phone. The event took place in home-town Seattle and the venue was made a stage for innovation and differentiation.

Amazon’s event yesterday wasn’t available for watching live but it’s up online now. And if you’re just getting up and having your first coffee of the day, you can watch Jeff Bezos show off the Fire Phone after the break. Read more »

The LG G Watch is still flying under the radar but it’s continuing to pop up here and there, making sure we don’t forget it before it gets official. The latest public stunt saw it appear on Google Play’s devices website in Germany for a bit, before getting removed.

While we can take this to mean the watch is real, we already know that, so we’re just going to take as confirmation that Google will be selling it, probably alongside the Moto 360 smartwatch, on its Play website, much like with the Nexuses and Google Play Edition devices. Read more »

Samsung has issued a new major update to its Gear 2 that will bring it up to speed with the Gear Fit. The update brings improvements to S Health and various bug fixes but more importantly adds Blocking Mode (already present on the Fit).

Blocking Mode is Samsung’s Do Not Disturb feature which we’ve seen on Galaxy smartphones and blocks all incoming notifications from getting to your Gear 2. Blocking Mode can be set to either always on or during sleep only, which is very convenient. Read more »

A small company made out of former Sony Ericsson and Nokia engineers are working on the world’s smallest wireless earbuds and they’re calling them Earin. The company has decided to fund the manufacturing of the Earin with a Kickstarter campaign.

Unlike those other earbuds, which are merely posing as wireless, but still have a wire between them (I am looking at you JayBird BlueBuds X), Earin are true to their name. Read more »

Over the years Nokia has done alright for itself and established some well-known trademarks in the tech world. PureView is now synonymous with great camera performance, ClearBlack denotes great display hardware and Asha was Nokia’s dumb phone name while Lumia is the name of the best-selling Windows Phones by Nokia.

After Microsoft bought Nokia and transformed it into Microsoft Mobile, there were questions whether Microsoft will gain those famous Nokia trademarks or not. To blow away the mist of the unknown PureView, Lumia, Asha, ClearBlack, Surge and Mural brand names are now all owned by Microsoft Mobile. Read more »

Last week we asked you which you like best – the Sony Xperia Z2 or the Samsung Galaxy S5. The poll featured several categories – design, screen, user interface and still and video quality and now we have the results ready.

It turns out that the Xperia Z2 has a bigger fan base and you guys picked it as winner on more categories than its rival. Let’s see the breakdown. Read more »

Samsung unleashed the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 and Tab S 8.4 last night and has now uploaded the promo videos for both on YouTube.

In addition there’s also a brief hands-on video of the slates in action from New York city that touches on a lot of common ground with the promo video, bragging about the superior Super AMOLED technology behind those gorgeous displays, the many new software features like Multi Window with drag and drop, Samsung’s Paper Garden (debuting on the Galaxy Tab S), the fingerprint scanner (first on a tablet), IR blaster and more. Read more »

Smartwatches seem to be all the rage at the moment – in hype if not in market value. But the latter is expanding and people seem to be considering them more and more as they progress in features and in style.

When Samsung got into the game with its Galaxy Gear to match and surpassed the Sony SmartWatch series and various fitness-oriented manufacturers like Nike and FitBit we all thought it was a nice but non-polished effort. Now that there are Pebbles and Gear 2 and Gear Fit are out there, the market seems ripe and ready. Motorola’s Moto 360 seems the tech junkie’s dream and all eyes are on Apple’s coming iWatch. But what do the numbers say? Read more »