Verizon makes it official: Nexus 6 launches online March 12th, in-store March 19th

It took Verizon an obnoxious amount of time to join the Nexus 6 party, but the nation’s largest carrier has finally set an official date. It’s March 12th — a date we’ve given you before thanks to trusty insiders — and it’ll largely be the same Nexus 6 available everywhere else (with exception to that sore thumb of a logo, of course). Note that it will only be available through Verizon’s online store tomorrow. Those hoping to run into a store to grab one will have to wait until March 19th.

This is Verizon’s first officially supported Nexus phone since the Galaxy Nexus debacle of 2011. That particular handset was marred by a couple of big shortcomings: bad battery life (likely due to the infancy of LTE) and Verizon’s lengthy upgrade schedule. We’re hoping things have changed all these years later and that they’ll be able to deliver the same quality Nexus experience that everyone else currently is.

Verizon’s Nexus 6 will cost you 9.99 with a new two-year activation or .08 per month for 24 months with Verizon Edge. It’ll come with support for Advanced Calling 1.0 out of the box thanks to it shipping with Android 5.1 Lollipop — perhaps the update’s arrival was Verizon’s sole reason for delaying their launch.

Oh, and if you buy one before the month is over you’ll even get 6 free months of Google Play Music service. Not bad at all. Take the plunge online starting tomorrow.

[via Verizon]

Twitter makes it possible to DM someone without having to follow each other

“Can you follow me so I can send you a direct message?” That’s how a typical 140-character conversation that needs to go private begins if the two parties aren’t following each other. It was always annoying not being able to send private, direct messages to other people unless both parties followed each other, but now Twitter is changing that.

You can now set whether you want people to be able to send you a direct message regardless of follow status. Should you enable it, someone who wants to send you a direct message will see a button to do so when they visit your profile. You can also continue the conversation with a reply of your own even if that person has opted out of receiving direct messages from people they don’t follow.

Here’s how you go about doing it on the Android version of the Twitter app once you’ve received the update:

1. In the top menu, tap on the overflow icon


2. Select Settings and tap the account @username you’d like to adjust.


3. Under Other, tap Receive Direct Messages from anyone to allow anyone to send you Messages.

And there you have it — no more awkward “follow me and I’ll follow you” nonsense before two people are able to converse in the private, comfy confines of their digital message box.

[via Twitter]

Google makes $17.3 billion in revenue in Q1 2015, Nexus sales suffered a “decline”

Google’s Q1 2015 numbers are in, and as usual the company raked in a lot of dough. They were able to amass .3 billion in revenue — which is a 12% increase year-on-year — and .85 billion of that was marked as profit.

Advertising was a big part of that, as usual, with that sector of Google’s business responsible for more than billion of revenue on its own. Google did mark a 23% increase of .8 billion in revenue for their “other” businesses (such as the money they get from Google Play digital and physical sales), though performance 2% dropped quarter-over-quarter.

Google attributed the slight dip to a decline in sales of Nexus devices. While they didn’t get specific, they are likely referring to the fact that the Nexus 6 was available at a high-end price point of 0 which could have deterred more sales than yesteryear’s 0 Nexus 5. It’s still odd considering the Nexus 6 was widely available on major American carriers for financed smartphone payment plans or subsidized contracts.

But the beat goes on as it always has for Google. They’re really not interested in selling more hardware than the next guy. They’re interested in creating great platforms and services that everyone will use so that their major money maker — search and advertising — finds its way into more and more hands. You can check out the full numbers at the jump.

[via Google]

Little Worlds watch face makes clever use of the Moto 360’s flat tire bezel

Motorola’s “flat tire” bezel on the Moto 360 has been the subject of many jokes, but instead of rejecting that component of the watch like a bastardized step child, why not put it to some interesting use? This “Minimal and Elegant” watch face by Studio eXtreme does just that with its cool Little Worlds feature.

What it does is simple: it uses the flat tire as the foundation for a silhouette of a city skyline, flowers on a hill or any other cool little thing you could think of (it’s entirely customizable). The watch face itself is well-designed, to boot, so the $.99 you’ll need to spend to get it seems well worth it.

Give it a download if you’re tired of the flat tire being little more than an ugly blemish on an otherwise beautiful device. Oh, and Motorola: this is no excuse to keep the flat tire on your next round smart watch. We want this thing gone.

Moto G 3rd Gen makes brief appearance on retailer’s website

There’s little doubt Motorola will follow up their widely successful mid-range Moto G (2nd Gen) with a followup this year. Moto CEO Rick Osterloh practically said as much in a tweet last month where he reiterated the company’s rough yearly release cycle. With the Moto G 2nd Gen’s first birthday just a few months away, it’s no surprise that we’d start seeing the first few “leaks” make their way online, no matter how small.

Sure enough, a listing for a the Moto G 3rd Gen popped up on Indian retailer Flipkart’s website although not many details were given. It did, however, reveal a possible model number — AP3560AD1K8 — something you might want to keep a look out for in the future. While it’s possible Flipkart was merely trying to get a head start on Moto G 2015 SEO, the post was immediately taken down after it was discovered.

More than anything, we’re just curious to see how Motorola will improve on the 3rd generation Moto G. The phone already offers a tremendous combination of solid hardware and great performance for an affordable price. If Motorola can finally at 4G LTE, we could see the device become a break out hit in the prepaid market.

[GadgetRAID]

Google Play’s upcoming Family section makes finding kid-friendly content easier than ever

We’ve had more than a few clues that Google was fixin’ to announce a new kid-friendly section of the Google Play Store. They’ve definitely been focusing on family oriented apps with the recent launch of YouTube kids and their acquisition of Launchpad Toys, a studio responsible for popular apps for kids on iOS.

The biggest clue came last week when we discovered Google’s “Designed for Families” program, a special program for developers that allows them to submit their apps for additional review so that they’ll be labeled as family-friendly in the Play Store.

According to Google, more than 1/3 of Android users in the US are parents with a kids under the age of 12. It’s because of this, Google finally took the wraps off their latest project aimed at families, a new family home section coming soon to the Google Play Store.

The new page offers a handful of tools parents can use to help discover family-friendly content for their kids. First up is the “Family star,” Google’s little green star icon that highlights family-friendly apps, games, movies, and books in the Play Store. The family home section also allows parents to search for content based on their age group, showing only filtered family-friendly results.

Because generally kids like looking for content based on their favorite characters or shows, they can now browser for content based on characters like Dora the Explorer, or My Little Pony. Apps and games features in family home (which undergo a manual review process) all feature objective 3rd party content ratings (like ESRB ratings) and are labeled when they’re ad-supported.

Google says that with a new set of parental controls stronger password protection for in-app purchases, Android is more fantastic than ever for families looking to keep a watchful eye over their kids digital playtime.

OnePlus wants you to get on their hype train, makes no apologies about marketing tactics

Love it or hate, there’s probably only reason you’ve even heard of OnePlus and much of that has to do with their grass roots marketing. When the smartphone startup and brainchild of former OPPO exec Carl Pei joined Google+, they used it as a way to generate buzz amongst Android’s most die hard users without pouring countless ad dollars into online or television marketing campaigns like the big guys. So far, it’s worked. Except when it hasn’t.

The company’s motto of “Never settle” had a way of backfiring on them at times, especially when it came to faulty devices, customer service issues, or the company’s insanely frustrating invite system. Despite all this, the OnePlus is set to do it all over again with their next flagship device, the OnePlus 2.

OnePlus has been teasing the phone for the better part of a few weeks now and if you thought maybe they’d tone down their “marketing” or do things differently this time around — think again. Lately they’ve been trickling out details on the device’s specs as they near its inevitable launch and tomorrow, they’ll unveil another component in an effort at keeping the hype train rolling. Don’t like the way OnePlus is doing things? Too bad. That’s the sentiment OnePlus is conveying in their latest blog post.

According to OnePlus, their marketing budget is extremely small (outside of Google+, it’s virtually nonexistent) and in order to stay relevant they need to be loud. Really loud. It’s the only way they can go head-to-head with the Samsungs and LGs of the world who have already gotten off to a great start with their 2015 flagships. In other words, OnePlus is going to continue doing what they’ve always done, because it worked out so well for them the last time. If that takes you and your wallet elsewhere, then so be it.

We can’t help but wonder if a company’s marketing — even OnePlus’ — has ever really turned someone away from buying an Android device. In Android circles, we typically find it’s more about hardware and specs than anything else (customer service, software, support, etc.). Even though OnePlus’ #neversettle hashtag was hijacked, we’ll find out soon enough if their phone is worth the hype.

[OnePlus]

Pushbullet’s massive new update makes it a file sharing juggernaut [VIDEO]

Pushbullet is getting a huge new update today, and it makes this one of the most pleasant file sharing apps out there. The main change you will see is a new user interface that breaks shared files up into 3 different categories:

• Friends: stuff you’ve shared to friends, or stuff they’ve shared with you. You can even tap a friend’s name to see your share history with that person.


• Me: stuff you’ve shared to your various devices.


• Following: stuff being shared to certain “channels” that you can follow.

Makes a lot of sense, no? They’ve also improved messaging and replying to make it easy to respond to a friend’s file without having to jump through hoops.

We’re also getting revamped browser extensions that’ll give you access to all these features and new info, as well as a brand new Windows app that introduces a very awesome feature: chat heads. The Windows app can be minimized to your tray, and if a friend pushes something to you you’ll see a bubble with their face pop up. Opening the bubble shows a concise user interface for viewing and replying to that friend, and it’s just as easy to whisk them back away until the next time they have a cat picture to throw your way.

Oh, and those same changes are headed to the web version of Pushbullet, as well. This is a very big step for the team, and it essentially makes Pushbullet a chat platform with a really robust file sharing element  Can’t say we’re not totally excited for where this thing is headed. You can find download links here to get Pushbullet for whichever devices you want it on.

[via Pushbullet]

Kik’s latest update makes it one of the few messaging apps that lets you upload video from your gallery

There’s no shortage of messaging applications out on the Google Play Store, but Kik is sets itself apart thanks to wide adoption, and its super easy sign up. Simply choose a username, password, and you’re all set. You wont need to provide anyone with your full name or email address in order to chat with friends, adding a sort of anonymity to the service.

While there’s plenty of messaging applications that allow you to take and send video (don’t worry, it should be coming to Hangouts eventually), Kik’s latest update ups the ante by giving users the ability to upload videos straight off their gallery/camera roll. It’s absolutely perfect for sharing videos you’ve already taken. For the vast majority of folks, these should be most of videos you’d want to share with friends while chatting.

Just like with their photos, expect Kik to compresses the videos down to Snapchat-like video quality. Given their user base, we don’t think many people will have issue. Bandwidth isn’t cheap and Kik is free after all. You can grab the update right now on the Google Play Store if you’d like to give it a shot. Now, if only they could add GIF uploads I’d have even more reason to use it.

Kik (Playboard) | Kik (Play Store)