Today Google has announced “guest mode” for its Chromecast HDMI streaming dongle. This new functionality lets people connect to your Chromecast without having to also be on the same Wi-Fi network as the dongle.

Previously, anyone who wanted to send stuff to a Chromecast had to have their mobile device connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the streaming device. Not anymore, though. Read more »

The age-old question – which device is faster? – has received an answer in a video, at least when it comes to the two current ‘kings’ of Android and Apple’s finest. Someone decided to pit the iPhone 6, Motorola Nexus 6, and Samsung Galaxy Note 4 against one another in a speed test of sorts.

The test itself is pretty simple. At the beginning, a timer is set on each device. Then, various apps and games are started, and the full desktop Amazon home page is loaded in the browser. Once one of the apps (or the website) has fully loaded, a tap on the Home button comes and it’s on to the next one. Read more »

Following Microsoft’s acquisition of Minecraft maker Mojang in September, the mobile version of the well known game has now finally arrived on Windows Phone. Minecraft Pocket Edition can now be purchased from the Windows Phone app store for $6.99. It will only work on devices running Windows Phone 8.1, though, so if you’re stuck on an older version of the OS you should update (if you can).

The game lets you play it either as a single player or in multiplayer, and there are two modes to choose from: Survival or Creative. Read more »

Back in January, Facebook introduced a new Trending section on its website. And starting today, Trending is going to be available inside Facebook’s Android app. It will only be seen by people in the US for now, however. Support for Trending on iOS and for other countries is reportedly “coming soon”, though with no time frame attached.

Trending helps you discover stuff that is interesting, relevant conversations about hot topics, and stories from different sources. Read more »

It looks like yesterday’s rumor was right. Google has now announced the Android 5.0 Lollipop update for its Wear smartwatch platform, which will be rolling out to all Android Wear devices in the next week. Aside from bumping up the Android version number it’s based on, the new Wear software will come with several enhancements.

And what is already the most advertised of those is the addition of Android Wear watch faces to the Google Play Store. There are many new watch faces in there just waiting to be downloaded. And the new watch face API is now out for all developers, so they can create even more of them. Read more »

The Nokia that still exists after Microsoft bought off its mobile device-making unit has been working on a version of its Here Maps app for Android for quite a while now. A beta version has been available through sideloading since October, and today it arrived in the Google Play Store.

This will surely make it a lot more accessible for more people, as not everyone with an Android device knows what sideloading is or how to do it. Even so, however, apparently more than a million people had downloaded Here Maps for Android prior to it going live in the Play Store. That’s quite an achievement. Read more »

The Here suite of apps for Windows Phone has been updated today. All of the apps have new versions waiting to be downloaded and installed, but perhaps the biggest changes are brought to the Here Drive+ app. It now supports voice-guided navigation in 18 more countries or territories.

These are Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Iraq, Libya, Mauritania, Mauritius, Nepal, Paraguay, Saint Helena, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. This brings the total number of countries and territories in which voice-guided directions are available to 118. Read more »

On the phone and tablet side some devices have already been updated to run Android 5.0 Lollipop, the latest version of Google’s OS. But the company’s Android Wear platform has not yet made the jump. That could all change tomorrow.

A new rumor says that’s when the update to Android 5.0.1 Lollipop for Android Wear will start rolling out. This means the smartwatches that have been released so far running Google’s wearable platform should all get the new software in the following days and weeks (since Google itself is in charge of updating the Wear devices). Read more »

Today Amazon has unveiled a new feature for its customers. It’s called Make an Offer, and it basically lets you negotiate lower prices with Amazon sellers.

To start, you’re able to do this for “more than 150,000 items” in the Sports and Entertainment Collectibles, Collectible Coins, and Fine Art categories. Read more »

This year we’ve seen mobile device makers launching smartwatches left and right. But traditional watchmakers apparently haven’t stood idly by, instead some have been working on their very own smartwatch offerings. One of these will be made by TAG Heuer, one of Switzerland’s best known watch brands.

Back in September, that company has already admitted that it’s developing a smartwatch of its own. And now a rumor claims to know when the wearable will be unveiled. Read more »

After initially only being available in the US, Cortana was enabled for China and the UK too this summer. And now Microsoft’s virtual assistant is making it to four more countries: France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

Today, Microsoft has announced that it will start rolling out an update for the Windows Phone Developer Preview Program which will make Cortana available in these new places as an “alpha”. Read more »

Skype has released an update for its Windows app today (the desktop Windows, mind you, not Windows Phone). Version 7.0 brings with it support for video calling people using Lync, as well as a few other things.

Audio calls and chats with Lync users have been possible since 2013, and now the video call functionality has finally been turned on between the two Microsoft-owned services. Lync is part of Microsoft Office, and it offers IM and presence, video conferencing, as well as telephony, being geared at businesses. Read more »

Last week, Jolla updated its extremely successful crowdfunding campaign for its first tablet by adding a few “stretch goals”. Once reached, each of these would enable a new feature for the Jolla Tablet.

The first milestone was at $1.5 million raised, and that has now been passed. So this effectively means that the Jolla Tablet will support microSDHC cards up to 128GB in capacity. Read more »

The Chinese National Development and Reform Commission has been conducting an antitrust investigation of Qualcomm’s activities in the country for quite a while, and now we get an idea of what the outcome of that will be. Short version: not good for Qualcomm.

The mobile chip maker will have to pay “huge fines” for “monopolistic” behavior, but that’s not all. It will also be forced to lower its licensing fees in China, as well as give up on its “reverse patent license”. Read more »

The KitKat update for the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom started rolling out back in July, but it amazingly managed to so far not make it to AT&T’s version of the device. Only now, many months later, can we report that the Galaxy S4 Zoom sold by AT&T is in the process of receiving the new software.

Of course, KitKat isn’t the latest version of Android anymore. Though given the fact that this is the first ever update that AT&T’s S4 Zoom has gotten, we wouldn’t bet on it seeing Android 5.0 Lollipop anytime soon. Read more »