Articles about Android

The LG G6 is one of the most intriguing smartphones unveiled this year, and starting today it is finally rolling out across the globe. The device was unveiled at MWC 2017, with its novel 5.7-inch display being the standout feature.

The flagship was actually released in South Korea in mid-March, but LG waited until this month to bring it to international markets. In the coming period it will be available at almost 200 carriers worldwide and in major markets in North America, Europe, Asia, and Central and South America.

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It has been a while since Google announced its plans for YouTube Go, a streamlined version of its mobile app with a focus on sharing and minimizing data usage. Now the company has released the first beta on Google Play.

Designed for use in countries with less-than-reliable internet connection, such as India, YouTube Go also allows for the downloading of videos for offline viewing without buffering. The app includes a number of options to help you "maximize your fun without burning up your data," including the ability to preview videos and see the amount of data required to download different quality versions of the same file.

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We already know that interest in Windows 10 is on the wane, but now Android is more popular than any version of Windows with Internet users. Google's mobile operating system has overtaken Windows as the preference for getting online for the first time.

Usage figures published by StatCounter show that Android accounted for 37.93 percent of the worldwide OS Internet usage share in March. Windows is not far behind at 37.91 percent, but Android taking the lead is being described as a "milestone in technology history."

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Researchers from Virginia Tech have found that Android apps can work together to mine personal information from smartphones. While users have long been aware of the need to check the privacy settings and permissions for individual apps, few people will have thought of the potential for collusion between apps that, individually, have innocuous-looking settings.

A team from the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech's College of Engineering developed a tool called DIALDroid (Database powered ICC AnaLysis for anDroid) and used it to monitor the exchange of data between apps. Analysis of 110,150 apps over three years found that security and privacy is put at risk as information is shared between different, independent apps that users may have installed.

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Two days ago, the US House voted to destroy the rights of American web users, essentially putting their privacy up for sale.

Now, as reported by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Verizon has announced plans to install software on Android devices that will track which apps customers download and use. This data will be shared with other Verizon companies, including AOL, and used to push targeted ads on you across the internet. If that doesn’t sound all that bad, the EFF points out the ads could be based on things such as "which bank you use and whether you’ve downloaded a fertility app."

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Recent changes at Twitter have focused mainly on clamping down on abuse and trolling, but there have also been adjustment tweaks that allow users to send longer messages. Now the site is introducing another change that effectively means you are able to send longer replies to people.

The latest change does not mean that you are given more than 140 characters to play with, but the 140 character limit is now put to better use. In short, all 140 characters are available for you to reply with as @usernames no longer count towards the total.

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Yesterday's Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ announcement held few surprises (with the possible exception of Samsung DeX) thanks to all of the leaks ahead of the event. But something we didn’t find out until today is that there is a customized Microsoft Edition of the handset available too.

Not only will there be a Samsung Galaxy S8 Microsoft Edition and a Samsung Galaxy S8+ Microsoft Edition, but the smartphones will be available to buy direct from Microsoft. Pre-orders start today, but only in Microsoft's US retail stores.

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If you are in the market for a new Android smartphone, you will undoubtedly consider Samsung. After all, the company makes some of the best smartphones running Google's mobile operating system. In fact, without Samsung, it can be questioned if Android would even be as popular as it is today.

Earlier today, the manufacturer officially unveiled the Galaxy S8 (and a larger "plus" variant). The world was excited for this announcement, as it is Samsung's first true flagship since the Note7 fiasco. You may be wondering if you should buy the new Galaxy smartphone, and I have a very simple answer for you. Yes. Buy it. Pre-order it ASAP.

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It's something that Microsoft has already tried with Continuum, and now Samsung is ready to give it a bash: transforming a smartphone into a desktop. For the South Korean company, today's events in NYC and London are primarily about the launch of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, but this is certainly not all that's being revealed.

The company also spoke about Samsung DeX, described as a way of "extending the smartphone to a desktop environment." What this means is that, with a DeX Station, Galaxy S8 and S8+ owners can transform their smartphones into a desktop system that can be controlled with a regular keyboard and mouse, benefiting from a larger HDMI display.

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Cortana has been available on Android for a year now (in the US at least), and Microsoft recently made its virtual assistant even more useful by making it accessible on the lock screen.

Today, however, the company takes things a stage further by making it possible to interact with Cortana above the lock.

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JustPark is a smart app which helps you find your perfect parking space from more than 200,000 in more than 1,000 cities worldwide.

Give the app a location and it’ll display available spaces on a map, along with its cost (the company says it’s up to 70 percent cheaper than street parking) and the time it’ll take to walk to your destination.

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The best price tag to find on anything is one that reads "Free", and Google has introduced a new section to the Play Store with this in mind. The new "Free App of the Week" section does very much what you would expect -- slashes the price of a paid-for app to zero. Great news for Android users!

It's an idea that Apple has experienced great success with, and it's a quick and easy way for Google to increase engagement in its app store. The first free app is Cartoon Network's Card Wars --Adventure Time which normally retails for $2.99.

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Samsung would almost certainly prefer people to be concentrating on the upcoming Galaxy S8 and virtual assistant Bixby, but the disastrous Galaxy Note7 is still etched in memories. After the phones kept catching fire due to a battery problem, the Korean company started to push out OTA updates to cripple them slightly.

But this and even a ban on taking the handsets on flights, was not enough to discourage everyone from using their Note7. Now, in a bid to complete kill of the troublesome phone, Samsung is pushing out another update that completely disables charging.

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There is much to like about the new Moto G5 Plus. It's got a nice screen, fast processor, fingerprint sensor, large battery and an interesting design too. It also runs Android Nougat and it comes with Google Assistant out of the box. But all this comes at a price, which may seem a bit too high for some.

The base model, which comes with 32GB of storage and 2GB of RAM, costs $229.99 in US, while the high-end version, which features 64GB and 4GB of RAM, can be had for $299.99. It is not exactly cheap, if you want the latter model, but you can get it at a nice discount on Amazon.

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Google Assistant made its debut on the Pixel and Pixel XL last year, and after a period of exclusivity the search giant started to bring the voice assistant to other Android smartphones. The new LG G6 and the Samsung Galaxy S7 line have it, and, now, so do two other popular flagships.

OnePlus has announced on Twitter that the successor to Google Now is finally available on its OnePlus 3T and OnePlus 3. Both smartphones run Android Nougat, which is required for Google Assistant.

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