One of the key UI changes in the new Android 4.4 KitKat is the presence of the Moto X style translucent navigation and notification bars on the homescreen that allows the wallpaper to shine through. Turns out though, it’s not something everyone will be getting, even if you have a Nexus device.

In a rather Apple-esque move, Google has decided to disable the translucency effect on the Nexus 10 tablet, citing performance issues. The Android source code for the tablet states quite clearly ‘Translucent status & navigation bars perform poorly on this device’ and the value of the effect is set to ‘False’. Read more »

The latest numbers from Google show that manufacturers are still having a hard time delivering Android 4.3 Jelly Bean to their smartphones. Good thing the guys from the CyanogenMod team are here to help those in need.

The developers have published the M1 release of CyanogenMod 10.2, which is based on Android 4.3 and supports over 70 different devices. M1 stands for Milestone version, which slots between the stable ROMs and the betas that the team releases. Read more »

Sony does more than make Android devices, it’s a giant in the entertainment business too – games, films and music. The company is using this position to give some free goodies to owners of its Xperia flagship products – the Xperia Z1 phone, Xperia Z Ultra phablet and the Xperia Tablet Z slate.

Using the pre-installed Xperia Privilege app (also available for download at the Play Store), owners of these devices get access to 10 free games. Read more »

Roughly 24 hours after going official the LG Nexus 5 got the root treatment. The feat was accomplished by the renowned Android developer Chainfire.

At a quick glance, the root method appears easy to accomplish. Read more »

Smartwatches have been all the rage lately, and no conversation on the topic would be complete without mentioning Kickstarter’s darling, the Pebble.

Although it doesn’t have the touchscreen and flashy design of some of its competitors, the Pebble brings a great feature set at a price significantly below competing offerings from Sony and Samsung. After the break, we take a close look at the Pebble and how it works. Read more »

The Nexus 5 is the first Nexus device with optical image stabilization. Officially it has a 1/3.2″ 8MP sensor and an f/2.4 aperture but the EXIF info on photos taken with the Nexus 5 report f/2.53.

That’s right, Nexus 5 photos are already on the web even if yours won’t ship for a week (it’s good to be a Googler). Read more »

Intel has officially announced the commercial rollout of its latest multimode, multiband 4G LTE chipsets. Intel’s XMM 7160 is already getting a global rollout after debuting on Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 3 10.1.

The popular chip maker has also expanded its portfolio of 4G LTE chipsets with the introduction of PCIe M.2 modules. Read more »

Google officially announced its newest Android OS – the 4.4 KitKat. The latest version of the Android will debut on the Nexus 5 and as tradition dictates, the upgrades for the other Nexus devices will come shortly after that.

However, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus will be missing on the Android 4.4 KitKat fun. The Galaxy Nexus was first launched about two years ago and the devices falls outside of the 18-month update window that is followed by Google and other manufacturers to upgrade their smartphones. Read more »

The new Nexus 5 is official – finally! – and as part of the Devices section of the Play Store, Google has added some accessories on the virtual shelves. This includes bumper cases in several colors and a QuickCover, similar to those on LG phones.

The Nexus 5 comes in Black or White only, but you can spice it up a bit with a bumper. There are 4 color options at the moment – Bright Red, Bright Yellow, Gray and Black. Read more »

According to the latest report by IDC, Samsung has been able to achieve a year-over-year growth of some 123%, and has increased its tablet market share by some 8 points.

This comes at a cost to Apple, who has gone without a new tablet launches during the second and third quarters to drive sales. Read more »

Qualcomm has updated its BatteryGuru app that is designed exclusively for Snapdragon-powered smartphones. The chip maker’s native app enhances the battery performance, without damaging the overall experience with its optimizations.

The newest version of the BatteryGuru now comes with the improved battery management and the version 2.0 brings the all new intelligent charging recommendations. Read more »

After Lenovo’s Yoga line-up of ultrabooks turned out to be quite a success, the company has decided to take a stab at making a Yoga tablet. Meet the Lenovo Yoga Tablet 8 and Yoga Tablet 10.

The members of the Yoga Tablet family feature a prominent circular bulge at the top, which holds a few tricks up its sleeve and allows the slate to stand in three different modes. Read more »

You have probably heard of this LeBron James fella. The professional basketball player adorned with four Most Valuable Player awards, two NBA Finals MVPs and today starts the new season as defending champion looking for a three-peat (three consecutive titles).

According to Samsung, a part of that success was down to the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and a rainbow assembly of Galaxy Gear smartwatches the star uses. The latest video ad aired at the start of the new NBA season shows how LeBron goes about his pre-season summer break with a lot of Sammy toys around him. Read more »

At yesterday’s Google event, the company announced a slew of new features for their Google+ social networking service, along with the Hangouts messaging service.

Google+ already had a pretty impressive photo sharing experience that is way ahead of what other services such as Facebook offer but now Google has made it even better. In the new update, the service automatically scans your photos and sorts them by categories such as sunsets, snow, etc. by identifying over a thousand objects within the images to make searching for your photos easier. Read more »

NVIDIA’s Android-based handheld gaming console Shield has received a massive update that brings with it several important new features. The first one is the update to Android 4.3 from the 4.2 on the previous build. Android 4.3, as you may know, brings things such as Bluetooth Smart support, improved text input and OpenGL ES 3.0, among other things (although Tegra 4 in the Shield doesn’t actually support OpenGL ES 3.0).

NVIDIA has also updated the game streaming support on the Shield. Now called GameStream, it lets you stream from 109 titles (at the time of writing) from your PC running an NVIDIA Kepler-based GPU to your Shield. You can also connect your Shield to a TV and play the Shield games on the big screen in Full HD. Read more »