If you need something to watch this weekend and have yet to see the Transformers series launched in recent years, Google is giving you a good reason to start. The company is offering Transformers for free in their latest promo. To be specific this is the 2007 film that kicked off the live action rendition of one of history’s greatest and most popular intellectual properties.
In case you don’t know what Transformers is about, two alien races of robots — the autobots (good guys) and decepticons (bad guys) — are fighting each other for ultimate dominance. The fight is brought to earth, and the autobots soon find out that they’ll need to call on the courage of the human race to help fend off their foes.
If not for nostalgia, then you owe it to yourself to watch it for the cool factor alone. Oh, and this is a Michael Bay affair, so get ready for explosions. Lots and lots of explosions. Grab it from Google Play right here.
Google has officially opened their first retail store in Currys PC World in London. Called the “Google Shop,” the new store displays a variety of Google devices ranging from Android Wear smartwatches, to Chromebooks and Nexus devices. It’s really not unlike the smaller displays they already have inside of Best Buy locations.
The big difference is their London shop is much larger and features interactive experiences like Chromecast demos, or even a doodle wall where the user can use an electronic spray can to shoot virtual paint onto the wall. According to Business Insider, who got a firsthand look at the store, retail associates were actually real life Googlers, with one associate mentioning he previously worked on Google Glass (and we all know how that turned out). Ouch.
Because not everyone can make the trek out to London to experience the Google Shop for themselves, Google is also launching a new virtual reality app in the Play Store, giving users a 360-degree tour of the new store via Google Cardboard. Definitely a cool way to show off the fruits of their labor. The Google Shop is expected to launch in several new locations in the coming months, with Fulham and Thurrock, in Essex next on the list.
High-end watchmaker TAG Heuer is building a smartwatch, but they can’t do it on their own. The watch is said to be officially revealed tomorrow, with CEO Jean-Claude Biver telling Bloomberg in an interview that the Swiss company had to rely on key partnerships inside Silicon Valley to help build the smartwatch, as Switzerland was lacking the necessary tech know-how.
Exactly who are these partners? According to Reuters, Intel has already signed on to supply the processor, while Pocketlint is reporting that Google is also onboard, who we guess will likely provide the OS. That means, we could be looking at a luxury Android Wear smartwatch to compete with the Apple Watch.
Biver notes that while the internal components and OS will be American, the rest of the watch (casing, dial, crown, and design) is all Swiss. The watch will be a near replica of their current black Carrera watch, which retails for around ,000 depending on the exact model. Needless to say, we don’t expect this new smartwatch will come cheap.
We expect to learn more tomorrow when the new smartwatch is officially unveiled.
We’ve heard murmurings that Google has wanted to explore physical retail stores for years, but there hasn’t been a solid reason to do so to this point. But with a large army of Android phones and tablets, the advent of Android Wear and virtual reality headsets, and the #1 gadget of recent years Chromecast, the company has good reason to start testing the waters.
CNBC reports Google has done just that with their first ever retail presence. It’s not a full-blown store, mind you, but a mere corner inside of Curry’s PC World, one of the UK’s biggest electronics retailer. The exact location is on Tottenham Court Road in case you’re eager to take a visit.
It’ll have everything you’d imagine a tech store would have — demo areas for phones, tablets, computers and smart watches. There’s more to it than just tables filled with tech, though (we’re looking at you, Apple store). Google apparently has Chromecast “pods” to check out video, and even a huge video board where you can do some digital spray painting. Or perhaps going on a virtual trip through Google Maps using the “Portal” is more your thing.
It sounds extremely cool, and we hope Google can expand this experience to more regions over time. We imagine Google will add a lot more to this experience in the future should the store prove successful, such as being a one-stop shop for getting some Project Ara modules, or a place to get fitted for Google Glass whenever the consumer version arrives.
Still, all of that depends on Google’s success. It won’t be easy — Samsung will tell you that much — but if Google can establish a strong retail presence then it could be the single most exciting place to check out all the latest innovations in tech. Fingers crossed!
Here’s something you might not know: Sony doesn’t own the VAIO brand anymore. Over a year ago they spun off their VAIO computer business as its own entity. Now, free from Sony, VAIO is making their own smartphone. Unfortunately, it’s not nearly as nice as the smartphones Sony has been releasing. In fact it’s basically just a re-purposed Panasonic phone.
The VIAO phone is a very plain-looking device. It has a perfectly flat back, tapered sides, and not much else. In terms of specs it has a 5-inch 720p display, 1.2GHz processor, 13MP camera, 2GB of RAM, and it runs stock Android Lollipop. The VAIO phone is exactly the same as a phone you’ve probably never heard of: the Panasonic Eluga U2. It would seem that VAIO has simply put their own branding on the device.
The VAIO phone will go on sale later this month in Japan. It’s not nearly as nice as the VAIO devices that were made under Sony’s leadership, but it’s a decent Android device.
Every company falls victim to a leak or two ahead of their flagship devices’ official unveiling, and LG is no different. The LG G4 has escaped our grasps for far too long, but we might have just gotten our first look at the thing.
Surprise, surprise: it looks like almost every LG flagship device we’ve seen the past couple of years, rear button placement and all. The leak was provided by @onleaks, which is manned by one of the editors from credible French technology blog NowhereElse.Fr.
We’d say that’s pretty good reason to believe this leak will hold up, but if the HTC One M9 debacle taught us anything it’s that no one truly knows anything until the official goods are delivered. It’s also worth noting that the leakster stressed that this was a “non-final” render, so there is certainly a chance for some details to change.
There isn’t much to be known about the LG G4 right now, but it’ll supposedly sport dimensions of 148.9 x 76.5 x 9.9mm — that’s about 5.8 inches tall and 2.9 inches wide — and will undoubtedly come with a top-line Snapdragon 810 chipset. The device’s size indicates LG’s going with a display size somewhere between 5.2 and 5.5 inches. There are also murmurings that LG is thinking about embedding a fingerprint scanner in the rear home button.
With LG looking to a Spring announcement and a possible summer launch we’ll only hear more about the LG G4 from here on out. There’s no doubt in our minds it’ll live up to the eventual hype, but it’s up to LG to make a phone worthy of achieving that goal.
An XDA member has leaked, what appear to be photos of the the upcoming LG G4 Note. At least that’s what he’s calling it. The photos show a phone unlike previous LG devices we’ve seen, mainly the fact that it’s now got, what the leaker claims is a Galaxy Note-like stylus up on top.
It’s entirely possible LG repurposed what would normally be an antenna slot on Korean handsets with a stylus for the US version. That, or it’s an purely dedicated slot like on the LG G3 Stylus which LG announced last year. Running what that, we do know LG recently trademarked the “G Pen,” let alone the name G4 Note makes it easy to assume LG is gunning for Samsung’s Galaxy Note line.
He also goes on to mention that he’s currently testing the device on T-Mobile’s network (you can see their 4G LTE icon in the status bar) and that the phone has received several software updates and is still very buggy.
Hopefully he’ll be answering more questions in the thread on XDA. In the meantime, we’re going to continue scanning these photos for any more clues. What do you guys think?
UPDATE: After people started telling him the phone in his possession was a Korean model with an antenna, the OP set the record straight and added a photo of the pull-out stylus.
Well, I’ll be… Never thought I’d see the day an app update would hit Android users before those on iOS, especially an app as big as Instagram. I have to admit… it feels kinda good.
In any case, an update to Instagram — available now on Android and coming soon to iOS — is bringing a few new photo editing tools to the social network. The 2 new options include the ability to alter the tint of shadows in an image (Color), and lighten up shadows for a retro film look (Fade). While Color intensity can’t be adjusted, Fade can, allowing users to add a little or a whole lot.
In another small, but huge addition, Instagram is finally giving users the option to subscribe to their favorite ‘grammers. Simply hit up someone’s profile page, click the 3-dot menu and select “Turn on Post Notifications” and you’ll receive a notification on your phone every time that person uploads a new photo (previously, I had to use an IFTTT recipe to accomplish this). This is extremely useful for those that follow a boat load of people on Instagram and often times miss out on photos from their favorite users. This option is available right now for both Android and iOS users.
With every passing update, Instagram is slowing finding itself poised to tackle hardcore photo editing apps like VSCO Cam who have typically offered users a far greater set of tools and higher quality uploads. Now, if Instagram could only drop the square requirement, increase the resolution of their photos, and fix the poor upload quality on Android devices — they just might be able to sway over photo enthusiasts.
You can find Instagram 6.19.0 on Google Play right now.
It wasn’t long ago that we highly praised the Samsung Gear VR in our full review. In fact “highly praised” would be putting it lightly- to quote from that review, the proper terminology would be “stunned’. Only a few months have passed and Samsung has already announced huge improvements that help address some of the few (but hugely important) pitfalls of the Gear VR.
To remind you what an immersive, mind-blowing experience the Gear VR can be, watch our very own Chris Chavez dive head first into an alternate universe by way of Samsung’s new virtual reality technology:
There are some quotable gems in there, folks… Chris Chavez, ladies and gentlemen.
You can see in the photos that this new hardware looks identical to the existing Note 4 ready version, only the portion that houses the phone now fits the S6 and S6 edge. Adding this will drastically increase the pool of eligible buyers, but Samsung would optimally offer a one-size-fits-all option or (although it’d be much more expensive) build the screen and guts into the headset hardware itself.
I tested two experiences:
Theatrical show with a sprinkle of scandalousness
Flight simulation warfare game
They were equally amazing in their own way. The first allowed you to enjoy entertainment as you explored the world around you. It was like the difference between watching a movie at the theatre or going to an interactive experience (like SleepNoMore in NYC) where you become part of the movie itself. I’m really excited to see where this takes the entertainment industry as whole. Film makers who embrace this could create some truly stunning experiences. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Samsung partner up with a major film maker or studio to help push out a big launch that is only available on the Gear VR.
The game was promising as well, bringing me back to the days of Starfox 64 but instead of playing on the TV, I became part of the action, tracking my opponents with real life head movements instead of merely button mashing. It’s a pretty amazing experience that, unfortunately, doesn’t translate over YouTube and needs to be experienced for yourself.
The graphics weren’t exactly mind blowing and aside from shooting down incoming enemies there wasn’t much to explore, but this is just a demo. And as a demo it served its true purpose: I’m convinced that gaming on the Samsung Gear VR could revolutionize gaming.
The Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxys S6 Edge are officially on sale now. Samsung has already been heavily advertising the devices, but now we should see the marketing really pick up. This is where Samsung sets itself apart from other Android manufacturers. Everyone knows what a “Galaxy” is, and soon everyone will know the Galaxy S6.
The first couple of new Galaxy S6/Edge ads are starting to pop up on Samsung’s YouTube channels. The first one stars James Corden, new host of The Late Show. In the ad he is battling with his alter-ego hipster director, who Samsung named “Wilf” for some reason.
The second ad is all about anticipation. You can see people at the top of roller coasters, at the top of a waterfall, about to go on stage, and more. The the Galaxy S6 Edge is shown and everyone experiences the joy that follows anticipation.
We weren’t — and, by and large, still aren’t — sure what Tag Heuer would look to do for their first Android Wear smart watch when plans for them to make one were revealed, but Bloomberg’s latest report sheds a bit more light. First thing’s first: this thing won’t be cheap. Tag Heuer’s base price is set to start at ,400. That’s nowhere near the ,000+ Apple Watch – Watch Edition, but at least their bottom tier product comes in at at more manageable price point.
That said, Tag Heuer is a bit different compared to the likes of Apple, Motorola and LG. Watches are their expertise — their only expertise — and they know the area better than anyone else. While the engineering needed to make a smart watch probably isn’t quite as intricate as a mechanical watch, they will still likely take great care to craft a chassis with great precision and using nothing but the most premium materials.
An executive from Tag Heuer — Jean-Claude Biver — went on to comment that the watch will have 40 hours of battery life, which is just shy of the 2-day average we typically like to see but far better than the 18 hours you can pull on an Apple Watch. He also mentioned that despite being new competitors he hopes Apple does sell a ton of smart watches for the simple sake of growing the market and demand for these things.
Just goes to show that there are still some companies out there who value and embrace the spirit of true competition. Tag Heuer’s smart watch isn’t due until October or November so we imagine we’re still a long way out from seeing what’s in store.
HTC’s mid-March release window for the HTC One M9 is about as accurate as you can get. The company has just announced the first official availability date for the device. It’ll go on sale beginning March 16th in their home turf of Taiwan in conjunction with 5 of the nation’s largest carriers.
According to local press, HTC held the initial launch in Taiwan so as to instill some Taiwanese pride among the hometown people excited to buy their phone. They drove that point home with traditional festivities such as drum performances and a performance by a local orchestra. This is in contrast to last year’s strategy of making United States’ Verizon Wireless the very first carrier to call dibs on the HTC One M8.
HTC mentioned that while the M9’s officially recognized launch date is March 16th, it wouldn’t start showing up on store shelves of local carriers until March 23rd. Whether an international or global launch will happen at that point remains to be seen (B&H once let loose a March 25th date for those of us in the States), but if the phone is primed for one market then it should be good to go in many more.
We’ll try to get a more pointed release date as it pertains to everyone not in Taiwan, so sit tight (unless, of course, you’ll be fortunate enough to be in the nation next week and buy one for yourself). In the meantime get a good look at what to expect from our hands-on time with the device from Mobile World Congress last week.
The latest social app sensation, a creation by Twitter called Periscope, let’s users share live video with people around the world. The good? The app is supposedly awesome and seeing record adoption rates. The bad? The app has thus far eluded the Google Play Store and is currently only available on that pesky iPhone.
That all will soon change and you can be among the first to download the new Periscope for Android App from the Google Play Store.
If you follow a link to a Periscope live stream from your Android phone, you’re now directed to an e-mail sign up form offering instant notification when the Periscope Android app is available on the Google Play Store.
In reality you can visit any link to a specific Periscope live stream, the above being just one of them. But doesn’t somehow knowing that Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model Genevieve was Periscoping while she cooked make you want to download the app that much more? Us too. And if not, we’re sure you can find your own excuse with enough browsing.
Periscope was already off to a great start but it was the Mayweather vs Pacquiao boxing match that helped it skyrocket into the mainstream. At 0 per TV the fight still shattered Pay Per View records, but if Periscope didn’t exist the number may have been much higher: regular Joe’s used Periscope to share the view of their own TV with the globe, aiding what Showtime and HBO are claiming is blatant and rampant piracy. At least that’s what their lawsuit says.
The company took a much different tone after claiming they received 66 complaints from copyright holders, removed 30 live streams of the fight, but had many more that weren’t able to be handled prior to the fight’s end:
“Periscope operates in compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we respect intellectual property rights and are working to ensure there are robust tools in place to respond expeditiously,” the company said. “It’s not the kind of content we want to see in Periscope.”
It remains to be seen who the real winner will be, but until Twitter plops their periscope into the Android pool, we’ll remain mum on the matter.
Pebble has announced that they have started mass production on their latest smart watch, the Pebble Time. We’d love to say it’s fully great news as it means they’re on track to start shipping soon. The catch? They actually aren’t on time with their original deadline — they admitted this was a week later than they’d like to start mass producing, and that this has caused shipment estimates to move back by the same amount of time.
That said, a week isn’t a terrible delay compared to other Kickstarter projects (which we’ve seen could take another extra few months or even up to a year for the project creators to fulfill).
With today’s news comes a deeper look at the new color-filled interface, as well as a point-by-point list of features that you can expect on day one, and what’s coming soon. The video above will give you a look at how notifications, the timeline system and alerts work on Pebble Time, while the one you see below shows you how it handles weather.
Here’s that list of what’ll be ready as soon as you take out out of the box:
New timeline Interface. Review Past, Present, and Future events you care about right from your watch. Initial support includes timeline pins for calendars, sports scores, and weather.
Expanded app storage. Goodbye, 8-app limit! Pebble Time will store as many apps and faces as possible on the watch itself. When needed, an app or face not currently stored will automatically install from your Android or iOS device.
New Sports app. Keep tabs on the latest MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, NCAAF, and NCAAM scores with an official Sports app. Find which teams you want to follow to get start times, score updates, and more sent directly to your timeline.
Redesigned system apps in color. Alarms, Calendar, Music, Notifications, Sports, and Settings are all redesigned for Pebble Time’s new color e-paper display.
Voice replies to Android notifications. Dictate short replies for app notifications that allow direct text replies.
…and what’s confirmed to be on tap for future updates:
Voice response to Gmail notifications on iOS.
Voice notes app.
Stocks app.
Weather watchface.
Album art view for the Music app.
Not bad at all. Shipping will begin in the second half of this month, with many of the earliest backers starting to receive their orders in the last week of May or first week of June. Get excited!
When Samsung first teased the Iron Man Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge we’d only gotten a look at a box. A very cool box, mind you, but it was just the box. But today we seem to get our first glimpse at the device itself.
And a “glimpse” is all it is, as there isn’t much that can be seen in this tease of a photo. We get a rear shot of the device, with much of its detail drowned by a strong source of light emanating from the background.
It’s just enough illumination to see that the phone’s rear plate will be coated in a shade of red, with the Iron Man logo shimmering in what would likely be a golden color on top. We can also tell that the accents — particular that of the camera ring’s and the metal bumper of the device — will be shaded some sort of gold (though there’s no telling if this is some sort of paint or real gold plating).
We also get one more tidbit of info from the photo: it’ll be here as soon as next week! It’s worth noting that all this was posted on Samsung’s Korean Facebook page, so it’s possible this launch window pertains to that region alone. Heck, it’s even possible that this unit will be exclusive to South Korea. We’ll have to probe our friends at Samsung to find out more, but in the meantime let us know if you wouldn’t mind owning one of these.
Pebble has announced that their revised shipping estimates for the new Pebble Time are still on, and they even have a hard shipping date to prove it — May 27th! That’s a mere 5 days from now, and it shouldn’t be much longer beyond that until it starts arriving on doorsteps.
The team also notes that all Pebble Time backers will have their units manufactured by the end of May, with all backers expected to get tracking numbers for shipments by mid-June. This doesn’t include Pebble Time Steel orders which were originally scheduled to arrive late.
We also get an early look at the Pebble Time management app for Android and iOS, as well as new video demos showing how you organize menus and mange watch faces and apps. One noteworthy improvement in the app is the ability to manage all your apps and watch faces at once, instead of the 8 you were limited to for the previous version of the Pebble.
Speaking of which, the app for Pebble Time will be a standalone app, and the original Pebble app will remain in Google Play for those who won’t be getting the new color screen goodness.
It’s been possible to get Android Auto in your car for a couple of months now, but we’re still waiting on the first car to offer the smart vehicle system as standard. Wait no more: Hyundai has announced that they’re taking those honors with the 2015 Sonata.
The best part is that you can get the goods even if you already own the 2015 Sonata. Official Hyundai dealers can help you get the update as soon as today if you stop in, though if you don’t mind waiting you can apply it via a simple software update over USB later this summer.
HYUNDAI IS THE FIRST AUTOMAKER TO LAUNCH ANDROID AUTO (PRNewsFoto/Hyundai Motor America)
Android Auto requires a phone with Android 5.0 Lollipop for the deepest level of integration, so if you don’t already have it then you should look into options — official or otherwise — for updating whichever phone you have. Here’s a quick summary of everything Android Auto does to help make your time on the road safe:
The Google Now card-based experience provides suggested locations and travel times based on the user’s searches, calendar entries and home and office locations, as well as weather information and “now playing” information for music streamed via the phone
App software (navigation, streaming music, etc.) is automatically updated because the apps live on the phone
Natural voice recognition with Google voice actions
Owners can easily bring their personal reminders, suggested destinations, calendar appointments and music preferences with them when they get in their car
Android Auto automatically pairs with the for phone calls through Bluetooth when connected for the first time via USB
Android Auto has familiar interfaces that are easy to use and have almost no learning curve
LG is quite excited about the new smartphone they just unveiled earlier this week — the LG G4, if you haven’t been paying attention — and they’re going to share that excitement with everyone early on through a quartet of new ads. These 30 second spots serve simple purposes: to show off the phone and what went into crafting them.
They feature a man assembling the 16 megapixel f/1.8 camera, assembling the display, and stitching genuine leather onto the device’s rear cover. It isn’t quite enough to get you familiar with the phone in one go, but it certainly should provide enough intrigue for any uninformed viewer to learn more.
OnePlus is officially getting the hype train rolling for their upcoming OnePlus 2, the followup to last year’s (frustrating) OnePlus One flagship. Today they announced on social media that the phone will be the first Android flagship to feature USB Type C, a reversible port that doesn’t care which way you insert the cable in (similar to Apple’s Lightning port on the iPhone).
The connection does more than just charge devices (which tops out at 5A/20V/100W vs USB 2.0’s 2.5V), allowing video output as well thanks to higher 10Gbps speeds. Google committed to the new connector back when they unveiled the Chromebook Pixel 2 in March, so we expect it will also arrive in this year’s Nexus launching at the end of this year. OnePlus seems confident their flagship will be the first to use the new spec, so we expect a OnePlus 2 launch is right around the corner.
Samsung has quietly announced two new smartphones for their J lineup. It’s the Samsung Galaxy J5 and J7, and these wouldn’t be immediately noteworthy on their own without one fact: they’re Samsung’s first phones to equip front-facing flash units.
We’re hoping that design choice is a sign of things to come as having a flash on the front-facing camera is becoming increasingly as important (if not more) as having it on the rear. But for now, that little perk is limited to these two devices.
They do have legs to stand with on their own, though. The Galaxy J5 and J7 share much of the same specs, including 1.5GB of RAM, a 5 megapixel front camera, a 13 megapixel rear camera, 16GB of internal storage, dual-SIM, microSD and Android 5.1 Lollipop.
They differ in display and chipset. The Galaxy J5 will boast a 5-inch 720p display, a 2,600mAh battery and the 64-bit quad-core Snapdragon 410. Meanwhile, the bumps things up to 5.5 inches, 3,000mAh battery and a 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 615.
Both are on the affordable side at 5 and 9 for the Galaxy J5 and Galaxy J7, respectively. The idea is to appeal to the growing market of folks who seek phones with superior front-facing camera support, which apparently is all the rage over in Asia right now. Don’t expect to see these things trot too far out of that region, but importing is always a nice option if you just have to have one for whatever reason.
