Articles about Android

Concerned as ever with diversity and equality, Google recently proposed a new set of emoji including a wider range of images of women in different professions. Today the company makes good on its promise and delivers the goods... with a little help from the powers-that-be.

Launched because "there aren't a lot [of emoji] that highlight the diversity of women's careers", the new emoji portray women in roles that have previously been the domain of man -- at least in pixel form. In all, the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee is adopting more than 100 new emoji after Google's suggestions.

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Consumers who want to buy an affordable smartphone will soon have an attractive new option to consider. The Lenovo-owned Motorola today takes the wraps off the Moto E3, which features competitive specs, the latest version of Android, and a nice design at a highly appealing price point.

The Moto E line has given us some of the best entry-level Android smartphones in recent years, and the third generation is no different. This year, it packs a large screen, quad-core processor, big battery, beefier camera, and storage expansion. Let's take a closer look at it.

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Google has its fingers in lots of messaging pies, and having added SMS support to Hangouts on Android, it wasn’t long before the merging of text and chat conversations was introduced. With the release of Hangouts 11, this changes.

With the new release, merged conversations are now gone -- SMS and chats are kept separate, but you won't lose anything -- perhaps in a bid to push people to its Messenger app to take care of texts. The same release also sees the addition of a long-awaited feature: the ability to send videos in a message.

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There is a semi-disturbing trend happening in the Android market nowadays -- very affordable smartphones. Before you call me nuts, it's true there is nothing inherently wrong with a consumer saving money, but a race to the bottom can hurt the platform overall. No-name manufacturers are leveraging decent specs and selling phones at insanely low prices, making profits tough for the big-name players. If Android becomes unprofitable, why will anyone bother?

ZTE is a lesser-known company in the USA, but I wouldn't categorize them as being "no-name". Today, it announces that its Axon 7 smartphone is coming to America, and at a rather affordable price. It's a nice balance, actually, as the specs are flagship-level, while the price tag is not overly low as to cannibalize the sales of others. It is a good blueprint of what specs/pricing for Android should be. You can pre-order this beautiful and powerful smartphone starting today.

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Pokémon Go is undoubtedly the hottest mobile game at the moment. In the first week after its release it has skyrocketed to the top of the free and top grossing charts on both the App Store and Google Play in Australia, New Zealand and United States.

Pokémon Go has already reached over 10 million installs on Google Play, which is very impressive when you consider that it is officially available only in the three aforementioned countries. However, this changes today as the makers of the game just added one more market to the list.

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Pokémon Go may be proving jaw-droppingly popular, but in the rush to catch 'em all, it seems that users have overlooked something of a privacy issue with the game. It's not unusual for apps and games to request, or require, access to your Google account but there are usually limits in place.

Not so with Pokémon Go. As reported by Search Engine Journal, iOS users have discovered that the game not only requires access to users' Google accounts, it requires full access. This is the highest level of access available to any app and if it is revoked, the game won't work.

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Gotta catch 'em all! The Pokémon phenomenon, it seems, did not die. Nintendo suddenly has a surprise hit on its hands in the form of augmented reality title Pokémon Go which is already riding high in the charts. The game has proved so successful, that in the few days since its launch it has been installed on more than 5 percent of Android smartphones.

The international roll-out has been paused while developer Niantic tries to beef up its servers to cope with demand. But while US Pokémon catchers are having a whale of a time, would-be gamers in other parts of the world -- such as the UK and the rest of Europe -- are turning to nefarious sources to grab Pokémon Go APKs. The bad news is that malware writers have already picked up on the title's popularity and developed infected versions.

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Quality in manufacturing is something I greatly value. No matter the product, I prefer things that are built to last. Quite frankly, our current disposable goods culture is not only wasteful, but bad for the environment too. It is distressing to think of all the obsolete and broken tech devices in landfills.

Rugged devices are obviously subject to obsolescence, but their durable nature makes them less-likely to break -- arguably making them last longer. The Samsung Galaxy S7 Active is a smartphone that is heavily advertised as being rugged and water-resistant, but apparently, those claims are not entirely accurate. The well-respected Consumer Reports has found one big claim to be false.

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This week OnePlus introduced the first update for its OnePlus 3 flagship to add a color-accurate sRGB mode for the display and improve RAM management, among other changes. Within two days, it should have reached all users, but the company pulled it after receiving reports of upgrade issues.

OnePlus says that it has fixed those issues, which are included in the new OxygenOS 3.2.1 OTA update that is now rolling out. That is not all that is new, however, as there are also some "additional improvements" as well. Here is what you need to know.

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The Rio Olympics are coming soon, and they are not without controversy. Not only is the Zika virus scaring some athletes and reporters from traveling to Brazil, but the country is facing high crime, poor economic conditions, and sanitation concerns.

While the competition is tainted by the aforementioned things, Samsung is looking to brighten it up a bit. How, you ask? With a smartphone, of course! The company is releasing a limited-edition version of the Galaxy S7 edge with an Olympic-themed style. A version will also be created for the Paralympics in the future.

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As we reported last month app collusion, where apps work together to extract sensitive data, now represents a very real security risk to mobile devices.

To address this emerging threat, component technology firm Formaltech, today is releasing FUSE, a DARPA-funded tool that detects inter-application collusion and other vulnerabilities in Android apps.

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OnePlus 3 users have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of OxygenOS 3.2.0 via an OTA update since the Chinese company announced the rollout. The update was supposed to address not only issues with memory management, but also introduce sRGB mode for the Optic AMOLED screen.

But a little over a day after saying the update would have hit every handset within 48 hours, it has been pulled.

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The OnePlus 3 is reportedly a great smartphone -- reviews have been glowing. The big selling point, however, is the low price. The company's smartphones are viewed by many to be the antithesis of the high-priced offerings of the big-names; a revolution, if you will.

Unfortunately for those in the UK, the price won't be as low for very long. Due to the infamous Brexit -- the state's decision to leave the European Union -- the British pound has lost a lot of value. As a result of the currency's decline, OnePlus is raising the price of its latest smartphone in the UK.

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When we discuss mobile malware we usually look at the technological aspects, specifically how it's designed, how it spreads, what devices it targets, how it affects them after infection, and how it can removed. What we rarely get to talk about is the financial side of things, which in the case of certain types of malware is the primary interest of their creators.

Check Point has published a report on the HummingBad malware campaign, finding that it generates $300,000 a month in fraudulent revenue with a pool of 85 million infected Android devices across the globe at its disposal. In a year attackers are looking at about $3.6 million in revenue, assuming the number of devices does not expand considerably.

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In what might be a last ditch effort to regain some of its former glory, BlackBerry is planning to release three new smartphones running Google’s Android OS.

Last year, the Canadian company launched its first smartphone running Android, the BlackBerry Priv. While it was well-received by critics for its implementation of Google’s OS, the smartphone with a slide-out keyboard was unable to sell well enough to turn the tide for BlackBerry, which has steadily declined since the release of Apple’s original iPhone.

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