Tag Archives: Android

Last week Samsung announced the Gear VR, an Android virtual reality headset developed by the guys over at Oculus. According to John Carmack, getting virtual reality running on Android was no easy task and due to the lack of native code development, creating applications for the platform is “no fun …

Microsoft is set to shift focus back to the MSN brand, just one week after it announced that the messenger service would be shutting down for good later this year. Several Bing apps, including News, Sports, Travel, Weather, and Finance, are set to be re-branded under the MSN name. Additionally, each app will …

Remember the Ouya? It was another of the Kickstarter success stories that hasn't turned out quite as well as was hoped. While initially it seemed like a great way to mix up the console space and challenge some of the big boys at their own game, ultimately the little Android …

It turns out that Amazon's new smartphone isn't selling so well, according to a new report the handset is off to a very slow start, having sold fewer than 35,000 units so far. The Firephone was announced back in June after a long series of rumours and leaks. Press outlets …

Huawei is one of the fastest-growing smartphone vendor in the world. Last year the company shipped 52 million smartphones and this year it aims to sell 80 million units. At present the company only sells phones based on Google Android operating system and despite obvious risks the firm has no …

Unity Technologies this week said it will add native support for Intel Corp.’s x86 microprocessors and system on chips to its Unity game engine for the Android operating system, which is used by loads of video games. The move will improve performance of games on devices based on Intel’s x86 …

Android is a pretty solid operating system but its open-source nature is both a gift and a curse. There are currently 18,796 different devices all running slightly different versions of the operating system and just over 7000 of those have hit the market in the last 12 months. Android fragmentation …

Google has just launched its new ‘Photo Sphere' camera application on iOS, allowing users to take 360 degree photos to then publish on social networks or Google Maps. This app is an extension of the feature found on the Android Operating system, the camera feature originally shipped on the Nexus …

Asustek Computer has announced plans to demonstrate its highly-anticipated smartwatch at the IFA 2014 trade-show in Berlin, Germany, next month. The company has even uploaded a preliminary picture of the device to partly show off its design. “Time has been transformed, and we have changed,” Asus quoted a Lebanese artist, …

Windows Phone fans have something to look forward to, HTC has just announced that it will be re-releasing the HTC One M8 as a Windows Phone device. We don't see too many high end Windows phones on the market aside from those released by Nokia so this is definitely a …

Samsung Electronics this week said that it had acquired SmartThings, a company that develops software and hardware for smart homes. The acquisition will help SmartThings to expand its product line, whereas Samsung will be able to enter a new market of smart home appliances. The company will continue to operate …

In the second quarter of 2014 shipments of smartphones reached a new milestone: 300 million units per quarter for the first time in history, according to International Data Corp. When it comes to operating systems, then Apple and Google controlled 96.4 per cent of the market, whereas shares of BlackBerry, …

It turns out that an Android Smartphone's gyroscope can be transformed into a microphone capable of listening in on you without your express permission. The discovery was made by security researchers at Stanford University in conjunction with defense firm, Rafael, which developed a new app called ‘Gyrophone'. While apps have …

Although there is a lot of buzz about Chromebooks – computers running Google’s Chrome operating system – actual sales of such systems are pretty low and will remain on that level going forward, according to Gartner. While shipments of Chromebooks do grow fast, the success of Chrome cannot be compared …

Samsung could be planning a preemptive strike on Apple's still unannounced but heavily leaked iPhone 6 with a new smartphone, dubbed the Galaxy Alpha. Samsung's rumored, upcoming smartphone has been talked about for quite a while and has also been referred to as the Galaxy Prime and the Galaxy F. According …

After a very successful two year stint providing the Internet with reliable leaks of mobile devices and ruining launch event surprises, EVLeaks, AKA Evan Blass, is retiring from his Twitter handle and will no longer be leaking upcoming smartphone or tablet information. Blass earned quite the reputation thanks to the …

Sony has announced that it is officially giving up on Playstation for Android, the cross-platform Vita and Android indie gaming publishing scheme will no longer be supported in newer versions of Google's mobile operating system. The service will still run on older Sony certified devices. However, Sony can't guarantee that …

Microsoft Corp. has sued Samsung Electronics for not paying royalties related to Google Android operating system. Samsung stopped paying Microsoft after the world’s largest developer of software announced its intention to acquire Nokia Corp.’s devices and services division. “We don’t take lightly filing a legal action, especially against a company …

For a limited amount of time the Dell Venue 7 media tablet will cease to be a product and will become a competitive advantage of Dell. The PC maker on Wednesday kicked off a campaign that grants every U.S. student who purchases a personal computer, a large display, or a …

Last week, KitGuru was invited to a press event in London, where Nvidia showed off its Shield tablet and controller for the very first time.  The Shield tablet has been designed to deliver a console experience through Nvidia's own technologies such as Shadow Play and Game-Stream. The device aims to deliver console …

Since Samsung Electronics is the largest maker of smartphones based on the Android operating system, it is a strategically important partner of Google. Since the search giant pins a lot of hopes on Samsung, it is naturally very frustrated that the South Korean company invests into Tizen operating system in …

The agreement between Apple and IBM will inevitably have a lot of effects on the industry of personal computers as well as mobile devices. For example, BlackBerry and Microsoft Corp. will clearly lose sales because of the new collaboration. Meanwhile, the partnership essentially brings IBM back to the personal computing …

As part of its major restructuring plan announced on Thursday, Microsoft Corp. will phase out its Google Android-based smartphones and will offer more affordable Lumia devices in order to address customers in budget as well as developing markets. Additionally, Microsoft announced plans to focus on higher-end smartphones and fight against …

Amazon this week hired Babak Parviz, a former Google executive who led the development of the company's Glass wearable gadget. Several weeks ago Mr. Parviz was replaced from his position at Google, but remained at the company. Apparently, Amazon has offered the executive better opportunities than his former employee. Potentially, …

Wearable computing devices are at their dawn. Early products are not very beautiful and lack a lot of functionality, but they will evolve and at present almost nobody knows anything about how they will evolve. However, Google, one of the pioneers of wearable computing gadgets, believes that they will miniaturize …

For many years MediaTek has been a supplier of affordable system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for smartphones and inexpensive tablets. However, starting this year the company will start to offer higher-performance application processors aimed at mainstream devices. But MediaTek does not want to stop there. A leaked roadmap shows that next year the Hsinchu, …

Nvidia Corp.’s Shield gaming device has not become popular after about a year on the market. Apparently, neither Google Android games with dedicated controls nor streamed PC titles could attract attention of core gamers. While it was expected that the company would introduce a new, sleeker, version of Shield this …

Microsoft Corp. and Canon on Wednesday said that they have signed a broad patent cross-licensing agreement. Thanks to the new pact the two companies gain licenses to each other’s highly valued and growing patent portfolios. Theoretically, Canon’s licensing of Microsoft patents may indicate that the company is preparing a family …

The list of devices set to receive Google's new Android L update has expanded to include all Nexus devices after the Nexus 4. This means that the update will roll out to the Original Nexus 7, Nexus 10 and the Nexus 4 handset. This is all thanks to Google releasing …

While Google and its partners introduced several attractive smartwatches powered by the Android Wear operating system at Google IO this week, this does not mean that they are going to revolutionize the market shortly. Apparently, less than a quarter of all Android-based smartphones are compatible with Android Wear devices. Android …