Apple has entered into the "Smartphone Anti-Theft Voluntary Commitment" with HTC, Motorola, Samsung, and others, to curb the smartphone theft epidemic that has been plaguing many city streets.
Under the voluntary agreement, the manufacturers are planning to add several new security features to their smartphones going on sale after July 2015, to make for an industry standard.
Under the Commitment, manufacturers' smartphones must:
In 2011, Google's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said that, "by the summer of 2012, the majority of the televisions you see in stores will have Google TV embedded." But here it is, 2014, and a quick search of BestBuy.com confirms that the lofty goal never came to fruition.
The company hasn't given up on the living room though. In fact, according to a report from The Verge, it's readying a new Android-based set-top right now. The site has obtained screenshots and other documents outing the project, which is apparently named Android TV...
Crittercism, a mobile application performance management (APM) solution, has posted a new study this weekend entitled Mobile Experience Benchmark. The 19-page document covers several topics, but perhaps most interesting is the section on app stability.
The firm took a look at mobile application crashes on various versions of iOS and Android, running on a wide range of devices. And what it found was that on Apple's platform, iOS 7.1 is the most stable, and on Google's platform, Android Gingerbread is the least...
While the iPhone 5c has failed to live up to internal expectations set by Apple, the smartphone certainly hasn't been moving off the shelves as badly as some people might think. According to an AppleInsider report by Daniel Eran Dilger, the mid-tier handset actually outsold every BlackBerry, Windows Phone and flagship Android device in the United States during the winter quarter. Take a look…
Apple is contemplating launching an iTunes app for Android devices to bolster its digital music sales, according to a new Billboard report. The company is also said to be in exploratory talks with senior label executives about rolling out an on-demand streaming service that would rival Spotify and Beats Music. These two moves are part of a broader strategy that would help the Cupertino-based company combat double-digit drops in iTunes downloads in the United States…
Yahoo today announced a renewed push into gaming with the launch of its Classic Games site. The site features an easy-to-use design that allows you to browse for and play games across the Web, Android and iOS devices.
The company also introduced the Yahoo Games Network, a new platform for third-party game developers akin to Apple's Game Center. It offers various tools including analytics, player authentication, monetization, and social sharing...
Google has just announced its brand new Android Wear platform for powering wearable devices like smartwatches and handset maker Motorola is already showing off its first Android Wear-driven device, a smartwatch dubbed Moto 360.
Billed as a "modern timepiece," the device indeed is designed much like classic timepieces and sports high-grade finish that oozes premium quality.
The Moto 360, of course, runs Android Wear and includes Google Now integration, Android notifications, apps like weather, sports scores and more. It does gestures, too. "With just a twist of the wrist," Motorola writes, you can see who’s emailing or calling, what time your next meeting is or a friend’s latest social post...
Wearable computing is set to take off in a big way as the Internet giant Google on Tuesday introduced Android Wear, as previously promised.
Android Wear, as the name suggests, is meant to put Android on wearable devices such as smartwatches.
The company will be releasing soon the official Android Wear APIs to device vendors who want to put the power of Android in their health and fitness bands, smartwatches and other wearable gizmos.
Wearable devices driven by Android Wear include 'OK, Google' functionality and Android's rich notification system. Moreover, they can show users timely information and suggestions akin to Google Now.
Health and fitness functions are supported as well: users can get their fitness summaries and set their goals with reminders. Fitness apps taking advantage of the Android Wear APIs can give users information such as real-time speed, distance and time for their run, cycle or walk.
Perhaps the most interesting bit is the ability of Android Wear devices to relay your voice commands to other devices such as smartphones, tablets or Chrome devices. Starting today, programmers can download a Developer Preview to tailor their existing app notifications for watches powered by Android Wear.
The company said that first Android-powered wearables are coming later this year. Jump past the fold for more information and a pair of pretty good promotional videos...
First announced at the Internet giant's I/O developer conference last May, Google Play Games services provide Android, iOS and web developers with APIs for Apple Game Center-like features such as leaderboards, achievements, cloud saves, sign-in services and more. There was just one piece of the puzzle missing for the full cross-platform gaming nirvana: support for multiplayer sessions between iOS and Android devices.
As announced today on the official Android Developers blog and at Game Developers Conference, the newly-updated SDK now makes it easy to implement both Google Play Games turn-based and real-time multiplayer modes. When implemented by a game developer on both iOS and Android, player with an iPhone can challenge his or her Android-totting friend to multiplayer matches, and vice versa...
After becoming the world's top mobile operating system for smartphones and tablets, Google's Android software wants to become the leading platform for wearable devices.
CNET's Daniel Terdiman, reporting from the SXSW conference, has just tweeted that Google's Sundar Pichai confirmed that the Internet giant will be releasing its own Android software development kit (SDK) for wearable devices in the next two weeks.
The move indicates the search company's interest in the emerging wearable devices market, which has not exploded yet but is being closely watched in part due to Apple's rumored iWatch wearable project. Google itself is thought to be working on a smartwatch of its own...
In a somewhat surprising move, Samsung announced today a new streaming radio service dubbed 'Milk Music.' The service is a lot like Apple's iTunes Radio in that music is chosen based on a user's preferences, and it's platform-specific—it's only available to Galaxy device owners.
The service is powered by Slacker Radio, which would explain the absence of rumors that Samsung was working on such a project, and there are no ads. As for the app, it offers the usual features including the ability to save songs for offline listening and create custom radio stations...
In the wake of numerous reports that all point to the same conclusion - that malware infestation is running amok on Android - the Internet giant made an unusually open statement through the mouth of its Android lead, Sundar Pichai, who finally admitted that Android wasn't built for security.
"If I had a company dedicated to malware, I would also be targetting Android", Pichai allegedly said to a stunned audience at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. When your own platform lead starts making such frank statements about Android security, it's high time you considered taking these security reports at face value...