Hot on the heels of Android Wear’s firmware bump, Google Fit for Android received a major update as well. The latest version of the search giant’s health and fitness suite brings new features to the platform.

Google Fit now supports manual entry for over 100 new activities. Read more »

The ultra-popular, incredibly time wasting mobile game Candy Crush Saga is now available for Windows Phone devices. The title is available to install for free from the Windows Phone Store.

Candy Crush Saga for Windows Phone looks and plays just like its iOS and Android counterparts. Read more »

After we’ve seen it update all of its Android apps to use the Material Design that it’s so proud of, Google has now apparently moved on to iOS. So the Google search app for Apple’s mobile OS is today getting an update to version 5.0.0, and one of the biggest new things is the addition of the Material Design language.

Additionally, there are a few new features in tow too. The Recents view shows you the pages you recently visited, the Google button lets you start a search with just one tap (wherever you are in the app), and Google Maps allows you to explore interactive maps, nearby places, and Street View right inside the search app (though only on iPhone for now). Read more »

Microsoft will hold a Windows 10-related event on Wednesday, January 21, 2015. Terry Myerson, Joe Belfiore, and Phil Spencer from the Operating Systems Group will all be speaking, as will CEO Satya Nadella.

The company has only published its official invite for now (which you can see above), choosing not to specifically say what the event will be about. However, a rumor from last month said we’d hear all about the consumer-facing features of Windows 10 for PCs “towards the end of January”. So this seems to be that. If so, then on this occasion Microsoft will also talk about Windows 10 on phones and tablets for the first time. Read more »

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 »

Polaroid’s Socialmatic camera, which was announced at this year’s CES in Las Vegas, is now available for pre-order from Amazon for $299.99, with availability set for January 1. The device will come in white and black color options.

The USP of the camera is that it lets you print out photos in less than a minute as well as share them on social networks like Facebook and Instagram. The device runs a customized version of Android and features a 4.5-inch display, 14-megapixel camera on the front, 2-megapixel camera on the back, and 4GB of internal storage (which can be expanded by up to 32GB via a micro SD card). It also has stereo speakers and a microphone. Read more »

Oppo has released a rather quirky promotional video for the new Oppo R5. It is all centered around one of the handset’s most prominent features – its 4.85mm body. This is truly an admirable accomplishment in smartphone terms, but maybe not quite as razor-sharp, as the following video seems to imply. The concept is quite original and very much in tune with today’s gorilla-marketing strategies, but perhaps borders a bit on the comic side as almost any device can be smashed into fruit with mostly the same amount of visual carnage.

The Snapdragon 615- powered flagship is in fact quite durable with its 155g 3D-welded aluminum body. Using it as a hammer, however might have also been a step too far. The frame seemed to fair quite well under the ridiculous abuse Read more »

After the recent mass roll-out of the new material design look, the YouTube app is once again receiving special treatment from Google. The latest addition to the video streaming service is the long-requested feature of offline video playback.

This sounds incredibly exciting, but before you head on to the Play Store eager for an update, there are a few catches. The new feature is initially available only in India, Indonesia and the Philippines and only for select video content, or as Google put it: “much of [the] popular YouTube content”. So if you happen to reside in the aforementioned areas, look out for an offline icon on certain clips to see the feature in action. Read more »

If you are using Microsoft’s Xbox Music streaming service, you can now download 100 popular albums for free. Microsoft is giving those away those albums to citizens in the USA only (damn licensing rights!), who are subscribers to its music app with Xbox Music Pass activated.

Some of the free albums include TRON: Legacy OST, Swedish House Mafia – Until Now, U2 – All That You Can’t Leave Behind, Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP2, Zedd – Clarity, Avicii – True, Lana Del Ray – Born to Die, Jessie J – Sweet Talker, Lil Wayne – Tha Carter III and Imagine Dragons – Night Visions. Read more »

Nearly a year after adding a Bitcoin currency converter to its Bing search engine, Microsoft has started accepting the digital currency as a mode of payment for apps, games, and other digital content on Windows, Windows Phone, Xbox Games, Xbox Music, and Xbox Video stores. A Coindesk report says that the software giant has partnered with Bitpay to enable Bitcoin payments.

According to the Redmond-based company’s payments information page, which contains detailed steps on how to add money to your Microsoft account with Bitcoin, the feature is currently available to US-based customers who can now use Bitcoin to add money to their Microsoft account. Read more »

If you have been using Hangouts for some time now, you’d know the app was in some serious need for overhaul. Not only was it not updated to Google’s new Material Design but also had several other issues.

That all seems to have been taken care of in the latest update, however, which not only brings an updated design but also several other features and improvements. For starters, the app now conforms to Material Design guidelines and looks a lot better, if not significantly better. Read more »

Instagram boasts 300 million users. Kevin Systrom, the CEO of the social network delivered the news about the achievement in a dedicated blog post.

The latest user count means that Instagram now boasts more users than Twitter. Read more »

Google quietly released an Android TV app, which allows streaming of live channels to the platform. Dubbed Live Channels for Android TV, the application works only on the Asus Nexus Player for the time being.

Live Channels needs a built-in tuner to work (IP-based tuners are also supported) — you cannot simply stream a channel by installing it at the moment. Read more »

United Airlines announced that it will hand out 23,000 iPhone 6 Plus devices to its flight attendants. The airline will begin distributing Apple’s phablet during the second quarter of next year.

As expected, the iPhone 6 Plus units that the crew members will have a number of work tools preloaded. Read more »