Category: Android
Switch view

Hugo Barra disassembles the Xiaomi Mi 4i on video

by 20 comments

Hugo Barra helped present the Xiaomi Mi 4i on stage, but his duties expand beyond a product spokesman, he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty and take the phone apart.

In doing so, he also tells the engineering story of making the Mi 4i. Read more »

Samsung Gear 2 spotted running Android Wear

by 15 comments

Even though the smartwatch niche is still pretty much in its infancy, Samsung has managed to already go through quite a few wearable gadgets. Some of you might remember the Gear 2. It came out back when the craze for curved displays was only beginning and is essentially a souped-up version of the original Galaxy gear, complete with camera and more number-crunching power. It was also one of the company’s first ambassadors for the Tizen OS.

One eager developer on XDA, unsatisfied with Samsung’s new OS, has managed to run Android Wear on the device. True fan dedication can go a long way, especially in a community like XDA. According to the creator of the port, it took him four months to get the device to boot into Google’s wearable platform and it is still pretty much a proof of concept. Read more »

Weekly poll: Smartwatch battle: Apple Watch vs the world

by 71 comments

The Apple Watch is officially here! Well technically. In keeping with its promise for an April 24 release date, the high-tech gadget is no longer in a preorder stage, but actually picking up one might still be a problem.

Yet apart from the glaring availability issues Cupertino is facing, the Apple Watch is a reality and we can’t wait to see how it fares in the growing smart wearable market. In this line of thought, we thought it would be only fair to pit it against its most-likely contenders in this week’s poll and ask you, our loyal readers, which device you fancy the most. Read more »

Xiaomi Mi 4i hands-on

by 59 comments

The Mi 4i is Xiaomi’s latest smartphone. Even though the company insists on calling it a flagship device, it’s really a mid-range smartphone with some high-end specifications at a really attractive price.

The company had a global launch event for the first time in India. We had a brief hands-on with the device, and here are our first impressions. Read more »

Google Glass version 2.0 said to be coming soon, version 3.0 being planned

by 66 comments

Just over a month after chairman Eric Schmidt made it clear that Google isn’t giving up on Google Glass, Massimo Vian, CEO of Italian eyewear manufacturer Luxottica, has said that the next iteration of the high-tech eyewear is coming out soon.

Speaking at the company’s general meeting in Milan, Italy, Vian also revealed that while the version 2.0 is currently being worked on, version 3.0 is also in the planning stages. “In Google, there are some second thoughts on how to interpret version 3 [of the eyewear],” he said. “What you saw was version 1. We’re now working on version 2, which is in preparation.” Read more »

Google made it easy to send directions to your Android phone from your desktop

by 31 comments

You can now easily send directions from your desktop to your Android smartphone. Google added the nifty functionality to its desktop search.

Activating the feature is as easy as it gets. Read more »

The leather on the back cover of LG G4 takes up to twelve weeks to tan

by 62 comments

The leather back cover of the upcoming LG G4 will be a bona fide luxury item. LG revealed that the 100% vegetable-tanned hide on the back of its flagship smartphone takes up to twelve weeks to process.

In addition to being environmentally friendly, vegetable tanning is apparently “the most traditional and the most recognizable” tanning method available. Read more »

New rumor states that the Galaxy Tab S2 will be Samsung’s thinnest tablet to date

by 41 comments

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 has been popping up in the rumor mill quite frequently during the past few months. This is only natural, as the continuation of the company’s famous Galaxy Tab S line was bound to see the light of day sooner or later.

This being said, we do have some idea of what to expect from the upcoming device and one of the most prevailing rumors has been that the tablet will be thinner than an iPad Air 2. A new rumor, courtesy of OnLeaks might just prove that the Galaxy Tab S2 is exceptionally thin. Read more »

Google Keep gets Android Wear support

by 50 comments

Today Google has started rolling out a new version of its note-taking app, Keep. The main new feature inside this release is support for Android Wear. So, in other words, you can now use Google Keep on your Android Wear-running smartwatch.

A note-taking app is obviously a good fit for your wrist – not only for quickly creating new notes, but also for viewing the ones you’ve already added from your phone or tablet. If you use Keep for grocery shopping lists, you may find it easier to glance at such information on your watch instead of your smartphone. Read more »

First official Xiaomi Mi 4i camera samples appear, look impressive

by 54 comments

Just a few hours ago, Xiaomi announced its brand new handset – the Mi 4i. Most of us expected it to be a more-affordable version of the Mi 4 and thus, not exactly a big deal, but the impressive device seems to have no intention of sitting in its sibling’s shadow and looks to be destined for an impressive career of its own.

With the Mi 4i Xiaomi has managed to really push the limits as to what is possible on a $200 budget. Naturally, the device is a mid-range offer, but it does pack an impressive amount of power and last-get technology. To quote just a few highlights from the impressive specs sheet: 5.0″ Full HD OGS IPS with 441 ppi, Second generation, 64-bit Snapdragon 615 SoC, an Adreno 405 GPU and 2GB of RAM. Read more »

LG G4′s genuine leather back takes center stage in its latest teaser video

by 24 comments

The LG G4 is coming and in a mere week – on April 28 we should finally see what the Korean giant has prepared to take on the Galaxy S6, S6 edge and the HTC One M9. Although, frankly, LG has left little to the imagination.

Leaks have been so plentiful, that we already know almost everything about the G4, although LG did throw a major “curve ball” with word of a curved screen, and yet, we can’t seem to stop talking about it. This alone should vogue well for the upcoming flagship and its merits. Read more »

Quick benchmark comparison of the Xiaomi Mi 4i

by 34 comments

The Xiaomi Mi 4i was just unveiled in India and while on stage gave a quick glimpse at its performance. The phone drops the Snapdragon 801 chipset of the Mi 4 and goes for Snapdragon 615. Hugo Barra said it’s the second generation 615 chipset where the processor works at higher frequencies – there are eight Cortex-A53 cores in total, four of which work at 1.7GHz (up from 1.5GHz) and the other four at 1.1GHz (up from 1GHz). There’s also 2GB of RAM and Adreno 405 GPU.

The slide above revealed some benchmark scores so we can try and compare the Xiaomi Mi 4i’s performance before we even get a hands-on. Read more »

Mortal Kombat X now available on Android

by 57 comments

Warner Bros. Interactive has kept its promise to bring the Mortal Kombat X for mobile devices. Now the visceral fighting game is made available for the Android 4.0 or higher devices with freemium model.

The NetherRealm Studios developed Mortal Kombat X was already available for the iOS platform so now both major platforms are covered. For mobile devices, the game includes the usual brutal fights along with card-collecting to unlock special features. Read more »

LG Watch Urbane will arrive in the Google Store next week

by 14 comments

LG will start selling the Watch Urbane this week in South Korea and will make it available in 13 different countries through the Google Store. Those 13 markets include Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Spain, UK and the United States.

Google announced that LG Watch Urbane will be the first Android Wear smartwatch to ship with the latest version of the OS. Read more »

New LG G4 promo video is all about the UX 4.0 user interface

by 48 comments

LG released a brand new promo video for the upcoming G4 flagship smartphone. Unlike the clip from a couple of days ago that focused on the handset’s 16MP camera, the new video is all about the brand new UX 4.0 user interface by LG.

The Korean giant’s latest promo effort focuses on four key features of the user interface. They include Quick Shot, Gesture Interval Shot, Ringtone ID, and Quick Memo+. Read more »