Articles about Android

Inexpensive Android smartphones are nothing new. Getting premium quality phones at a low price is fairly new, however. While some folks hail these respectable wallet-friendly devices as a win for consumers, others -- such as yours truly -- view it as a race to the bottom which could ultimately harm the Android market overall.

Today, ZTE announces the ZMAX PRO Android smartphone. This device is chock full of premium features, such as an octa-core Snapdragon 617 processor, 2GB of RAM, expandable storage, and a fingerprint reader. The truly amazing aspect, however, is the price -- a shockingly low $99.

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It may only be a few weeks since Google revealed that Android 7.0 will be called Nougat, but there have already been several developer previews of the Marshmallow successor. Today Google launches the fifth and final preview before the official launch.

As this is the final preview, build NPD90G of Nougat can be considered near-final code; this is, near as damn it, what you'll be installing on your Android handset in the not-too-distant future when Android 7.0 is officially launched. At the moment, the preview build can only be installed on Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, and Pixel C devices, as well as General Mobile 4G (Android One) devices, but more will be added further down the line.

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It may be easy to dismiss reports of Android malware as nothing more than fear mongering by clickbait-loving journalists and security companies, but not even apologists can argue with the fact that the threat is real when malware is approved on Google Play.

ESET's security researchers have uncovered a fake lockscreen app, called Pokemon Go Ultimate, which takes advantage of the game's mindblowing popularity to mislead users into installing it ultimately generating revenue by clicking on porn ads.

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Pokémon Go has proved itself to be a rare phenomenon, and it has taken the world by storm. Attracting casual gamers of all ages the augmented reality title, Pokémon Go has seen people hitting the streets in search of elusive Pokémon -- until the servers overloaded.

There have been a few glitches with Pokémon Go, largely due to its staggering popularity. But today many people found that they were unable to get online for a different reason -- the game servers were hit by hackers. A group called PoodleCorp claims responsibility for the takedown and says worse is to come.

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Bluelight Filter is a free Android app which aims to reduce the harmful effects of the blue light emitted by smartphones and tablets.

This could reduce eye strain, help you sleep better, and generally make the screen easier to read.

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Yesterday, Europe's Competition Commission expanded its legal assault against Alphabet and major subsidiary Google. Four monopolies are under fire: AdSense, Android, search, and shopping services. Trustbusters allege that Google uses anticompetitive tactics to protect its market dominance, which share ranges from 80 percent to 90 percent in each category. Behind the charges is a hoity-toity attitude typical of overly-protectionist EU regulators. What if the information giant gave them what they want?

Imagine this: Google shuts down operations across the entire Euro zone—in a Brexit-like departure, but suddenly with no preparations. Switch it off. Search and other services could remain available in Britain and to all other non-EU countries. The company surely has the means, starting with IP blocking and expanding to other measures. The risk: Confirming just how dominant is Google, because of the incredible negative consequences. But the chaos also would lead to an outcry to restore services, while illuminating how important Big G is to citizens and how greatly businesses benefit, or profit, from the monopolies.

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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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