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With the announcement of the All New HTC One (M8) yesterday and its stock Android Google Play Edition, Google has now cut $100 off the price of the old HTC One Google Play Edition (GPE) bringing it down to $499 from $599. You can now order the discounted HTC One GPE from Google’s online store. The Google Play edition keeps all the hardware of the HTC One without Sense 5. However, the advantage of owning the GPE variant of HTC One is that users will receive the latest Android updates much quicker. If you’re interested in grabbing the smartphone, it comes with a 4.7-inch 1080p display, a Snapdragon 800 processor, an 4MP UltraPixel camera, a 2300mAh battery and the latest…

After Edward Snowden’s NSA leaks, Internet privacy is on everyone’s minds. One way in particular that people are looking for privacy is through their search engines. Google and Bing’s business models depend on using your search requests to serve up personalized ads. Alternative search engines such as DuckDuckGo have tried to fight this by promising not to track its users. A new search engine, called Disconnect, is tackling search privacy with a different approach. Instead of trying to build its own search engine, which would have difficulty competing against Google or Bing, Disconnect routes your searches through a proxy before the major search engines receive your reques…

As the music streaming market becomes increasingly crowded, each service is finding new ways to stand out. iTunes Radio teamed up with NPR, Samsung's Milk Music doesn't have ads and now Spotify has revealed a new 50% discount for college students in the United States. This offer has been available to students in the UK for about two years, but this is the first time American students will have the option to get Spotify Premium for $4.99 a month. If you're a student at any accredited university in the U.S., you can take advantage of this offer right away. You'll also be able to reactivate the offer for three additional years, giving you the ability to "graduate to Spotify,…

No, Nokia isn't yet a part of Microsoft and that's why it's announced a new event to show off even "more Lumia" devices next month. ZDNet says that Nokia is having a press event on April 2nd in San Francisco to talk about a new line of devices that will be unveiled just before Microsoft's Build developers conference. Nokia made some minor waves earlier this year when it launched its first-ever Android-based phones at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona although it's very likely that the company will come back to Windows Phone for this upcoming event, especially since it will come just before Microsoft is set to unveil Windows Phone 8.1. Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

http://androidforum.us/data/MetaMirrorCache/7b860641bb279d9aec67df3664f68baa.jpg HTC’s custom news-reading BlinkFeed app has further been tweaked in Sense 6.0, and it’s apparently ready to offer users even more information than before, whether it’s custom news pulled from various sources including social networks, or app-related information. During the live HTC One (M8) show, HTC confirmed that it’s opening the BlinkFeed SDK to developers, with partners including Foursquare and Fitbit already integrating BlinkFeed support in their apps. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Three things in life are certain: Death, taxes and rock-bottom customer satisfaction ratings for America's two largest cable companies. Consumers Union, the policy and advocacy division of Consumer Reports, is touting a new survey from the Consumer Reports National Research Center showing that Comcast and Time Warner Cable are two of the three least liked pay TV providers in the United States. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

During the HTC One (M8) launch event today, HTC announced the next version of their UI overlay to Sense 6, which they are calling Sixth Sense. The new HTC One (M8) will come with Sixth Sense straight out of the box. To help support current owners of HTC One devices, including last year’s model along with the HTC One Mini and the HTC One Max, the company will be rolling out Sixth Sense to owners of those devices some time this spring. HTC also announced during the event their HTC Advantage program, which is their commitment to ensuring their devices receive updates in a timely fashion. This commitment is to roll out major updates to Sense or Android within weeks after t…

Samsung is ready to launch the Galaxy S 5 worldwide starting from April 11, but it seems that the company is working on another variant of the device as well. According to a new leaked information, Samsung is most likely working on a ‘Zoom’ variant of the S5, just like the Galaxy S 4 Zoom which was released last year with a better camera and bulkier body. The leaked information comes in the form of a handwritten notes from a Samsung Poland’s presentation. However, compared to the Galaxy S 4 Zoom, the Galaxy S 5 Zoom will have a slimmer and thinner body due to a lens better inserted in its case. The device will come with a 20MP camera, 4.8 inch HD display with a screen …

Spotify has announced a new discount program for students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities to cut the cost for their premium service in half to only $4.99 per month. Existing student subscribers as well as new customers can take advantage of the deal. Students who want to sign up for the program have to submit a copy of a student ID card, a transcript, a tuition receipt or some other type of documentation that proves they are a student at an accredited institution in the U.S. Upon signing up, students are committing to a one year subscription term that can be renewed for two additional cycles for a total of three years. According to Spotify, the offer is for a l…

After months of leak after leak after leak, HTC finally took the wraps off of their latest flagship, the HTC One (M8), today in New York City and London. There wasn’t much left to shock us, but that doesn’t take away the fact that this is an amazing phone. Will it be the phone of the year? I will wait until I spend more time with it until I make that decision, but it certainly is off to a good start. HTC’s attention to detail is better than any company out there. The original HTC One (M7) was already a masterpiece, but they developed a new process to make an even better build and finish for this year. Head of HTC Design, Jonah Becker, said the challenge was making so…

In HTC’s first commercials for the new One (M8), Gary Oldman essentially tells the world to listen to the “TalkAndroids of the world” (the Internet) and pushes customers to form their own opinions on what phone to get, rather than listen to the marketing “blabber” usually pushed out regarding new devices. To view the newest commercials, hit the break below. Click here to view the embedded video. Click here to view the embedded video. Come comment on this article: New HTC One commercials released, feature Gary Oldman Visit TalkAndroid for Android news, Android guides, and much more! News via TalkAndroid

Between the reveal of the Galaxy S5 and the HTC One (M8), March has been the month of the Android smartphone, but while the new flagship devices duke it out on stage, Apple has quietly hit another impressive milestone. Forbes reports that as of this month, Apple has sold its 500 millionth iPhone. This lofty goal was achieved less than a year after the company reached 400 million sales in 2013. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Is Google finally getting ready to take enterprise customers' concerns about Android security seriously? Two unnamed sources tell The Information that Google is planning a major push to bring Android-based devices into the enterprise in part as a way to counter Samsung's efforts to make Android more enterprise-friendly with its Knox suite of mobile security services and to make sure it keeps Apple's own enterprise ambitions in check. Enterprise security has typically not been a major focus for Google, which has in the past been just happy to get Android devices into as many hands as it can so more people will use its popular services such as Gmail and Maps. The Informatio…

In most cases, popular mobile games hit Android only after they have been launched in the App Store, but that won’t be the case with a special version of Portal that’s apparently been developed for NVIDIA’s Android-based Shield console. The company announced that it’s working with Valve to bring the critically acclaimed PC game to Shield fans, although it’s not clear when the game will launch or how much it will cost. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Wow. It seems Facebook's ambitions are growing by the day. Little more than a month after his company bought messaging app WhatsApp for $19 billion, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday that Facebook was acquiring virtual reality gaming company Oculus VR for what The Wall Street Journal reports is for $2 billion. In his announcement Zuckerberg said that virtual reality technology is going to be the next major frontier for online interaction and that Oculus VR's Rift headset was at the forefront of virtual reality innovation. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Sony, which has been making Android-based smartwatches before other OEMs showed interest in launching such products of their own, said it won’t leave its own platform for Android Wear in the future. "We've already invested time and resources on this platform, and we will continue in that direction," Sony Mobile U.S. chief Ravi Nookala told CNET in an interview. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

It's still up for debate whether EA took anything away from being named the worst company in America for two years straight, but the company's victory (?) lap is finally ending. Consumerist has revealed that EA lost out to Time Warner Cable in the first round of voting for this year's 'Worst Company in America' bracket, forcing video game fans to direct their rage elsewhere for the remainder of the competition. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

After quietly upgrading one of the main hardware components of its first Android handset ever, OnePlus as quietly posted on its forums an official announcement date for the One handset. The device, which has not been shown to the world yet, will be showcased on April 23rd during a special media event taking place at the Wukesong Mastercard Stadium from 2 p.m. local time. The event will also be live-streamed on the web. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Microsoft is dropping support for Windows XP on April 8th, and with 95% of all ATMs still running XP, this could become a major problem for any banks that haven't signed agreements to keep support running past the deadline. And today, we learned of an ATM attack that could be easily fixed if the ATMs update to Windows 7 or 8: According to Symantec, attackers have found a way to steal money from ATMs using SMS messages. Symantec first noticed this attack late last year, when the attacks were happening in Mexico. In a blog post on Monday, it noted that a new variant of the malware, called Ploutus, had been translated to English. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy G…

Apple is basically facing a triple whammy for iPhone sales this spring. The overall smartphone market is currently going through a notable slowdown in sales growth and will go from nearly 40% growth in 2013 to under 20% growth in 2014, according to IDC. The China Mobile sales of TD-LTE phones as of February came in at weaker-than-expected 1.3 million units, translating to just 1 million iPhone units. And now it is looking as though the iPhone 6 won't launch until September or so, meaning that Apple will be stuck selling the less than thrilling iPhone 5, iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s models all through the June quarter. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

It's been a few months since we last heard any news regarding PlayStation and PlayStation 2 game emulation on the PS4, but according to an inside source, the software is well on its way to release. Ahsan Rasheed, a game industry tipster with some clout, has revealed through a series of tweets that Sony is working to bring local support for PS1 and PS2 games to the PS4 with native 1080p rendering for select titles. This goes hand in hand with a report from January which also claimed that classic game emulation would be coming to the PS4, separate from PlayStation Now game streaming. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

The highly anticipated OnePlus One will be fully unveiled next month on April 23. The image above was posted by Carl Pei over on the company’s forums. Pei is the Director of OnePlus Global. So yes, this is very official. In the post, Pei reiterates what the OnePlus One will be all about — quality and benefits. The device will have a 5.5-inch 1080p display with a 3100mAh battery. Inside, you will find Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 801 processor. While maintaining premium build quality, the device will have replaceable rear covers. Here is the full post by Pei: We’re almost ready to showcase our baby to the world. On April 23, the OnePlus One will be fully unveiled. Fo…

HTC has finally unveiled the most leaked device of the 2014. The successor to their universally praised HTC One looks like it will keep the same name, (no All New One branding anywhere yet) but improves just about everything that the HTC One did. As far as specs go, you’ll get a premium metal unibody design, a 5-inch 1080p Super LCD3 screen, Snapdragon 801 CPU, 2 GB of RAM, 32 GB of internal storage and a MicroSD card slot, a nano-SIM tray, and all the standard WiFi radios, Bluetooth 4.0, etc. The IR blaster is also making a return, as well as HTC Zoe, BoomSound, and all the stuff that made the One stand out last year. The duo-camera system is still present from all…

HTC confirmed that they will be releasing a Google Play Edition of their new HTC One in the coming weeks, and the preorder for the device will go up later today. It will be available directly through the Play Store for the not so low price of $699. The GPE HTC One will feature all of HTC’s new hardware, but you’ll lose all of the Sense 6.0 features in favor Android 4.2.2, obviously. It’ll be interesting to see if the phone will be able to take advantage of the duo-camera setup on the device without Sense, but I guess we’ll know for sure in the next few weeks. Come comment on this article: Google Play Edition of the HTC One M8 will go up for preorder later tod…

Ravi Nookala, head of Sony Mobile’s US arm, told CNET today that Sony won’t be using Google’s new Android Wear OS, an Android OS designed specifically for wearable products, for its smartwatch products. He said that they would continue to use their own Android-based platform designed for their smartwatch products. “We’ve already invested time and resources on this platform, and we will continue in that direction,” Nookala told CNET in an interview. Google announced its Android Wear OS designed for wearable products last week, which is heavily based on Google Now voice-recognition technology. LG will be the first to implement the Android Wear OS on its G Watch follow…