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Unlike some tech companies out there, Microsoft has the ability to laugh at itself. WPCentral has found that asking Microsoft's new voice-enabled personal assistant Cortana about the company's last "personal assistant" for Microsoft Office will get Clippy to pop up on your smartphone display and thank you for asking about him. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Microsoft has shown that it is dedicated to improving the Xbox One user experience, having already issued multiple big software updates for the new console that was released just five months ago. Beginning late Monday night, the company began rolling out its Xbox One April update, which includes a number of fixes and new features that were detailed by Microsoft on one of its blogs. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Samsung has high expectations for the Galaxy S5. The 2014 flagship phone has received widespread acclaim for its stellar display and surprising durability, leading to huge adoption numbers and growing sales predictions from Samsung. The Korea Times reports that Samsung shipped 1.3 times as many Galaxy S5 units on the first day of sales than it did on the launch day of the S4. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Even though Microsoft's Scroogled campaign against Google might have been a flop, it did raise some legitimate questions on behalf of users who might not be comfortable with Google's algorithms scanning their private emails for frequently used keywords that it would use to sell more targeted ads. The Guardian brings us word that Google has issued an update to its Gmail terms of service where it explicitly lays out how it scans your emails and how it uses the data it gathers from them. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

The most exciting innovation in the mobile market finally has a release date. According to CNET, Google announced today at the Project Ara developers conference that its first modular smartphone will go on sale in January 2015 for the low price of $50. Project lead Paul Eremenko told the crowd that the initial model will be a boring gray device by design, so as not to distract from the additional physical components. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

If you find yourself unable to access your favorite websites over the next few weeks, don't worry: The Internet isn't broken, it's just undergoing very needed repairs. The Washington Post has talked with some security experts who expect that patching the Heartbleed bug is going to cause major disruptions on the Internet for a while as major web companies scramble to guard their websites against a bug that caught the tech world flat-footed last week. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Game of Thrones, the most pirated show of 2013, started its fourth season two weeks ago and it's already breaking records just two episodes in. TorrentFreak reports that "The Lion and the Rose," the second of episode of the show's fourth season, garnered the largest torrent swarm ever recorded on Sunday night. Nearly 200,000 users were downloading the same exact torrent all at once, breaking the previous record of the season three finale, which raked in around 170,000 concurrent downloads. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Humble Bundle today launched their 5th mobile bundle, feature 6 great games - Aralon: Sword and Shadow, Bag It!, Carcassonne, The Cave, The Room Two, and R-Type II. You can get three of the games for whatever you want to pay, but if you purchase all 6 you’ll still be paying more than what you pay for the bundle. The bundle comes in at $20, which averages out to less than $4 per game. In fact, the bundle includes 3 games that cost $4.99 each. Not only that, but a portion of the money made will go to charity. Hit the source link to buy the bundle for yourself! Source: Humble Bundle Come comment on this article: Humble Mobile Bundle 5 launched with 6 games Visi…

People always wonder what projects Google’s secret division dubbed as “Google X” considers each year. Thankfully, a couple members of this secret Google division came out and discussed some of the projects that were talked about. Hoverboards, teleportation and space elevators were all talked about and while it seems very far-fetched and a far reach, you have to reach for the stars in order to achieve something great, right? While it’s not practical for the technology we currently have, I like the idea that Google at least talks about these ideas. Lets face it, ever since we all saw “Back to the Future 2,” I think it’s safe to say we all have wished for hoverboards to b…

Like with any other valuable object, smartphones are often the target of thieves. Many lawmakers and even carriers and device manufacturers have questioned how to implement features on devices that would cut down on theft, but until now there hasn’t been much of a united stance in making that happen. On Tuesday, a group of wireless carriers and smartphone manufacturers voluntarily agreed to start including anti-theft measures on smartphones next year. The list of companies that have pledged support include major US carriers like Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile, as well as big smartphone manufacturers like Samsung, Apple, Google, and Microsoft, but also inclu…

The Samsung Galaxy S5 on AT&T and Verizon was found to be missing the Download Booster feature, which combines the use of WiFi and LTE connections to download large files, and which Samsung has been showing off ever since their latest flagship was released. Users of the Verizon and AT&T variants of the device will be happy to know that there is a work-around to the feature being hidden – all they have to do is install a third party launcher (such as NOVA) and create a shortcut to it. Despite this, we still don’t know if the Download Booster actually works using this workaround. A line of code could be inserted enable the feature to work natively, but this code …

The Samsung Galaxy S5 was officially launched last Friday, but not everyone is able to get the device just yet. Ting Wireless, a Sprint MVNO, won’t be able to offer the device until after Sprint has, but today they started taking pre-orders for the device. These orders are set to ship in May. The Galaxy S5 is being sold by Ting for $597, which is lower than the full retail price being offered by AT&T, Sprint, or T-Mobile. Ting offers low monthly rates to its customers, but because of this they cannot offer subsidized phones. Source: Ting Come comment on this article: Galaxy S5 available for pre-order on Ting for less than $600 Visit TalkAndroid for Andr…

Is this a hint about where LG will be going with its next flagship handset? @evleaks gives us a new leaked picture of a smartphone called the LG isai FL that definitely shows LG upping its game design-wise from the LG G2 that it released last year. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Would Nokia's story have had a happier ending if the company had decided to pull the trigger on releasing its first-ever tablet computer back in 2001? That's impossible to know, but Finland's ISTV has scored a look at Nokia's tablet-that-never-was in an exclusive interview with Esko Yliruusi, who worked as a data communications specialist at Nokia from 1996 through 2001 and who helped work on the device. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

A new image leak apparently showing various OnePlus One marketing elements placed on a board alongside various product-related details has been discovered by GizChina.it on the OnePlus forum. It also contains some interesting gems, including a design sketch for the phone and what appears to be the backplate of the handset. The same OnePlus forum thread is also home to several other purported One images, including design sketches for the One’s box, alleged motherboard photos and even a user interface leak. Various renders seemingly showing the OnePlus One's retail box have also been posted. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Google on Tuesday announced that Gmail is getting a brand new feature that should definitely be appreciated by photographers who mainly use their smartphones to take pictures. Google’s email app will now let users insert their images faster in their emails when using the desktop version of Gmail, as long as their phones are configured to automatically back up photos on Google+. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

http://androidforum.us/data/MetaMirrorCache/23bad9264c195971d55718769f197fad.jpg Apple was awarded a patent on Tuesday for a technology that should allow for much more accurate indoor location detection and mapping, even in the absence of GPS. The new patent, which was picked up by Apple Insider, uses a combination of Wi-Fi access points, location databases and other data to determine proximity to what the patent called “presence areas.” It then analyzes various data such as Wi-Fi signal strength and building architecture to determine a more precise location. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Late last week, Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google VP of engineering for Android, took the stand for the Samsung vs Apple trial. Of course this trial is all about copying Apple, and Lockheimer argued that they never tried to copy Apple’s iOS. Not only that, many of the Android’s software features were created before Apple did. “We liked to have our own identity; we liked to have our own ideas,” Lockheimer said. “We were very passionate about what we were doing, and it was important that we have our own ideas.” Lockheimer was Samsung’s first witness for their defense, and they said they might call as many as 17 witnesses. Samsung is taking a different approach this time ar…

We posted a teardown of the Galaxy S 5 last week, which was for repair purposes, but teardowns can also give us an indication on how much the device costs the manufacturer to produce. IHS, a marketing research firm, conducted their own teardown and concluded that the Galaxy S 5 costs about $256 to build. That is $12 over last year’s Galaxy S 4 ($244). Other than upgraded hardware, the main additions this year’s GS5 offers over last year’s GS4 is a fingerprint scanner, a biosensor, and the ability to survive a heavy dose of water. IHS concluded the fingerprint scanner costs about $4 and the biosensor runs about $1.45. There was no word on the cost of the waterproofing, …

There have been reports that LG is looking to release the upcoming G3 a little early this year. Back in March, the indication was for June, but the latest report pins July as the new target date. Last year, they unveiled the G2 in August, followed by a fall release. It’s very likely that LG will unveil the G3 in late June to prep for the July release. From everything we are hearing about the G3, it does appear to be an absolute beast. It’s expected to sport a 5.5-inch 2560×1440 display, a Snapdragon 801 or 805, along with 3GB of RAM. It will mostly likely have a pretty good camera as well. source: ZDNet Korea via: G4Games Come comment on this article: LG G3 co…

This will raise some eyebrows. On Twitter, @evleaks posted an image of the upcoming LG Isai FL smartphone in white. The device, which he says will be “coming to au by KDDI in Japan,” keeps its bezel measurement to a minimum. A few hours after the image above was posted, @evleaks shared the Isai FL in blue. Things get interesting thanks to the design of this device. Like the LG G2, the space between the display and the edge of the handset is very small. Also, LG’s rear buttons are back in action on this device. What is even more interesting is that the design language of this device is eerily similar to that of the Nexus 5. Just look at the shape and frame of this devic…

A new report from SRLabs indicates the new Samsung Galaxy S 5 fingerprint scanner is similar to other devices on the market in being open to attacks using molds of fingerprints. Similar to the iPhone 5S and other commercial grade fingerprint scanners, malicious individuals can make a mold of a fingerprint that is sufficient to unlock a Galaxy S 5. In the case of the latest Samsung smartphone to hit the market, Samsung does not require any additional password or PIN to be used in conjunction with the fingerprint to unlock the device or to take advantage of PayPal’s integration with the fingerprint scanner. SRLabs noted in their examination and testing of the Galaxy S 5 …

For the past week, a lot of the tech world has been trying to figure out what to do about the Heartbleed bug that has the potential to compromise the security of any website that uses the Open SSL encryption protocol. However, The National Journal reports that Google got a big head start on patching Heartbleed because it discovered the security hole back in March and never told anyone else about it. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Samsung's hotly anticipated Galaxy S5 smartphone just debuted a few short days ago, but the device is already being sold at a big discount. Verizon Wireless' version of the new flagship phone, which normally starts at $199.99 on contract for the 16GB model, can now be ordered from Amazon for just $99.99 — a discount of 50% off the up-front cost of the phone. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

The Galaxy S5 can do plenty of things that the iPhone can't, but even with IP67 certification, Samsung still hasn't built a more durable phone than the iPhone 5s. The Associated Press shares the latest results from SquareTrade's durability tests, which put the iPhone 5s just half a point ahead of the brand new Galaxy S5. According to SquareTrade, the relative small size of the iPhone 5s gives it an edge over the 5-inch Android phones which have begun flooding the market. An iPhone owner is simply less likely to drop his or her phone. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report