Articles about Android

We'll forgive you if you've lost track of all of the changes Facebook has introduced to the News Feed over the years -- it's often something of an experimental playground. The social network's latest idea is a dedicated "Trending News."

The section is currently rolling out to mobile users, and is something of an extension of Facebook's Trending Topics. It is making its way out to Android and iOS users in the US.

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Security researchers from Lookout are warning about raft of spyware-infected apps that have been found in Google Play. Seemingly connected to Iraq, more than a thousand apps hve been found to include SonicSpy spyware.

The spyware is embedded in a variety of legitimate-looking apps, such as messaging tools based on Telegram. One such example is an app called Soniac which was found to be capable of not only recording audio and retrieving contacts, but also taking photos and gathering phone logs. Lookout warns that SonicSpy is sneaky, and tries to hide from users to avoid detection.

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Following on from the launch of the OnePlus 5, owners of previous generation handsets from the Chinese company may well have been wondering how much more support they can expect. In an interview published on the OnePlus forums, the company's head of product has revealed all.

Oliver Z says that OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T owners will not see any more major updates after Android O is released. If you were hoping to see Android P, you're out of luck. This is going to be hard for some OnePlus fans to take; while it means the handsets will have been treated to two major OS updates, in terms of the length of time for which major upgrades are being provided, there is certainly room for disappointment.

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Navigating through any airport is stressful. Once you’ve queued for check-in, passed through security and trawled duty free, most people would locate the lounge for a couple of drinks. Problem is, it’s very easy to get lost in the moment and realize you’ve got to find your gate. That gate could be far further than you imagined and may even require a shuttle train to get you there in time. And that’s if you can find it at all!

The answer to this conundrum and much more is in the latest update of the TripIt app, released today. The paid-for premium TripIt Pro, now lets travelers see how far they have to walk between two specific points in an airport and also gives step-by-step walking directions for the shortest route between the two points in the airport you’ve specified.

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The Pixel and Pixel XL are among the best flagship smartphones that you can buy today. And, since they're rapidly approaching their one-year anniversary, they are now offered with some serious discounts direct from Google, making them an even more attractive proposition in the high-end market.

Google is offering the Pixel and Pixel XL with discounts of up to $200 on its online store, and, to sweeten the deal even further, you can also grab a VR headset for free.

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There's good news and bad news for OnePlus handset owners -- whether it's good or bad depends on whether you have a OnePlus 3/3T or a OnePlus 5. For users of the older handset, there's a new OxygenOS Open Beta which adds a decent selection of new features.

For OnePlus 5 users, however, the OxygenOS 4.5.7 update that was released earlier in the week is being recalled. OnePlus is responding reports of terrible gaming performance in withdrawing the update.

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Starting with the K8 Note, all of Lenovo's smartphones will come with stock Android installed. The company is dropping its customized Vibe Pure UI in favour of an (almost) untouched version of Android.

The Lenovo K8 Note will come with Android 7.1.1 Nougat installed, and the company is making only minor additions in the form of Dolby Atmos and TheaterMax -- gone is the bloatware that irks users so much.

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There are many metrics by which to measure how good an app is, and Google is starting to use a few more when it ranks Android apps and games in the Play Store. The latest app-ranking algorithm now takes into account app stability, performance and battery usage.

As well as improving the relevance of listings for people downloading apps, Google is also using this change to push developers to improve their apps.

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Google has relaxed its rules surrounding real-money gambling apps in Google Play -- in some countries, at least. There has been a ban on apps and games that allow users to gamble with real money since 2013, but that has now changed.

While there was previously a ban in place due to the difficulty in policing ages and complying with different gambling laws around the world, real-money gambling apps are now permitted in the UK, France and Ireland.

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Plex has some good news for cord cutters with Plex Media Server installed and a Plex Pass. The Plex Live TV and DVR features are now out of beta!

Live TV does very much of what you would expect, allowing live TV broadcasts to be streamed from a TV tuner to Plex. Plex DVR also lets you record shows, and time shifting has also been added so you can pause and rewind live broadcasts.

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Millions of smartphones around the world could have been affected by a Wi-Fi security flaw, security researchers have claimed.

Broadcom's mobile Wi-Fi chips hid a vulnerability on them which could have allowed malicious actors to potentially attack a billion Android or iOS devices.

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The second iteration of Nearby Connections -- called, funnily enough, Nearby Connections 2.0 -- is upon us. Google has released the API to Android developers, giving them access to greater bandwidth, reduced latency, and -- most excitingly -- offline functionality.

Working over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, Nearby Connections 2.0 makes it possible for devices to communicate with each other without the need for an internet connection. The API is supported by Android devices running Google Play services 11.0 and above, and it is essentially a peer-to-peer system that works much like a next-generation version of NFC.

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Minecraft fans can play the Microsoft-owned game on a variety of platforms, including PC, Android, iOS, and console.

It’s great fun as it is, but things are about to get even better, as from today Microsoft releases a beta that will let you play the game with friends across different devices.

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Flagships like the Apple iPhone 7 Plus, Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy S8 all have such great cameras that it can be really hard to definitively say which one is the best option for mobile photographers. Reviews, comparisons and blind tests all point to different winners, but, more often that not, you will usually find an Android smartphone at the top.

Vic Gundotra, who lead Google's mobile efforts for a couple of years, helped create Google+ and is an avid photographer, has a rather different opinion, claiming that Android is actually "a few years behind" the iPhone for mobile photography, and that, if you really care about photography, you should get an iPhone 7 Plus.

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The Android version of Cortana has been getting some attention from Microsoft recently, and today the company has released another update to its virtual assistant. With Cortana 2.9, Microsoft not only introduces something of an interface makeover, but also adds new features.

While the redesign is nothing major, it is a move for the better, with Settings now easier to access and the interface is reduced to two tabs rather than three -- and they are now labelled too! But it doesn’t end there.

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