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When people talk about Android phones these days, there's a good chance they're really referring to Samsung and one of its many, many, many Galaxy devices. Mobile advertising firm Chitika has found that Samsung smartphones and tablets accounted for 55.5% of all North American mobile ad impressions on its network among Android devices, which is pretty astonishing considering that no other Android OEM even cracked 10%. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

It figures: Just when we were starting to see one good reason for Sprint to acquire T-Mobile, the whole transaction has been put on ice. Bloomberg News reports that Deutsche Telekom CEO Timotheus Höttges doesn't see any sale of T-Mobile to Sprint happening anytime soon, which seems to indicate that Sprint and DT have been unsuccessful in their efforts to win over U.S. regulators. This news comes just as Sprint chairman Masayoshi Son had started to go on a public relations charm offensive aimed at winning over a skeptical public about the potential benefits of a merger between the two carriers. If the two companies decide to put the merger on hold, it will be interesting t…

You didn't think T-Mobile CEO John Legere was going to take a new study that trashed his company's wireless network lying down, did you? RootMetrics this week unveiled a major new study of American wireless carriers that ranked T-Mobile's network dead last in multiple categories including overall performance, reliability, call quality and text message performance. On his Twitter account, Legere sarcastically congratulated his competitors for posting such strong results "LAST year" and went on to say that the data used in the study is "slanted" and "out of date" even though it was conducted in the second half of 2013. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Repo…

Samsung was caught red-handed more than once last year as reviewers repeatedly discovered evidence that the company's phones and tablets were artificially boosting benchmark scores. Although Samsung was the primary culprit, other popular brands were found to be using similar CPU optimization to skirt around legitimate results, but based on the latest tests, the biggest name in Android seems to have cleaned up its act once and for all. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

http://androidforum.us/data/MetaMirrorCache/e27586d8556501b4c00b79c0bc6a6435.jpg Verizon has been the one carrier that's most resisted the T-Mobile-led wireless pricing wars of the past few months and now we can see why. RootMetrics has posted the results of its massive study of wireless voice, SMS and data quality and has found that Verizon is besting its rivals for overall quality in 35 of 50 states and its tied for first place with AT&T in 11 more. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

The OnePlus One has so far promised to be one of the most exciting Android handsets of the year thanks to an interesting marketing campaign. However, the company did not unveil any actual details about the handset aside for price (sub $400) and launch date (sometime in Q2) until Wednesday, when CEO Pete Lau finally announced the first confirmed spec of the handset: its processor. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

A new AFP report, which cites a Commercial Times story, says that A8 chip production for the iPhone 6 family of phones has started, with Taiwan’s TSMC being the primary chip maker for the handset. Samsung has apparently been left mostly out of chip production, the report hints, as TSMC has “won most of the manufacturing orders for logic and power management integrated chips for the new handset." Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Nexus 5 users who have noticed an annoying camera bug that often sees a software process called "mm-qcamera-daemon" eat up CPU resources and drain their handset's battery can now rest assured that Google is on the case. As noted by Phandroid, Google has officially acknowledged the Nexus 5 bug on its Android issue tracker website and promised that a fix is in the works. That's the good news. The bad news is that we still have no timeline as far as when the fix might be issued, since Google would only say that it will be implemented in a future Android software update. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

PlayStation fever went international as the PS4 launched to huge sales in Japan last month, but after an impressive performance in its first week, the next seven days were worryingly deflated. 4gamer shares the latest report from Media Create, which shows PS4 unit sales have dropped to 65,685 from the high-water mark of 322,083 last week. According to PlayStation LifeStyle, those figures represent the second lowest week 2 sales of any recent console launch, including the Vita, the 3DS and the Wii U. Supply constraints are likely a factor, and the PS4 also reached Japan outside of the holiday season, but whatever the reason, Japan's gamers aren't adopting Sony's new system…

Pebble just updated their Android beta app to version 11, which promises to be a huge improvement over Beta 10. Beta 11 will improve stability considerably among other things. Here’s the rundown of improvements…. PebbleKit JS localStorage is now sandboxed for each app Many improvements to onboarding and FW installation Issues with sideloading apps in some circumstances have been fixed Some issues with loading JS configuration views after the app has been quit have been addressed JavaScript app logs printed via ADB are cleaner MyPebble now loads faster There is also a known issue in which pairing a Pebble during onboarding might not succeed. If you run into…

With our Internet routers doing not much other than keeping us connected, there’s much room to expand. Enter Soap, the world’s first smart router. This Kickstarter project looks to make conventional routers a thing of the past. With soap, you’ll be able to hide your WiFi network, block online ads, control various electronics around the house, i.e. your garage door, lights, locks, etc. “The concept behind Soap was rather simple – we wanted to come up with an innovative, all-inclusive device that could help simplify the lives of countless people who are not accustomed to the latest technologies and the complex software that they are based on.” Currentl…

When we first heard that Motorola was going to be hosting a little event at MWC we were unsure as to what they would be chatting about. With the Lenovo deal fresh on everyone’s mind we hoped that we’d find out more on that. However discussions held at the short event went in a different direction. There was talk of the Moto G’s success, the next-gen Moto X in the works, and even a moment on wearables. For those that missed the event, Motorola has finally uploaded it to its YouTube account. We have that video for you after the break. If you have a half an hour to kill, then this may be right up your alley. Click here to view the embedded video. Come …

One day, we might all be wearing some sort of smart glasses such as Google Glass, the Galaxy Glass, and/or something else. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to sit and listen to a bunch of people dictating their emails and text messages, so what’s the solution? You can whip out your phone, but that might be too tiring for some people. What if you could just type in the air with your fingers? Well, Samsung might have a solution for that. A recent patent application shows an augmented reality keyboard that could be used in their version of Glass, which I presume would be called Galaxy Glass or Gear Glass. The patent is titled Input Method and Apparatus of Portable…

We’ve been excited to see NVIDIA’s 64-bit Tegra K1 processor in action ever since it was announced back in January, but benchmarks have been scarce and it’s obviously not in any devices just yet. Fortunately for our curiosity, an AnTuTu benchmark for a device with the 64-bit K1 processor has shown up, and it looks every bit as impressive as NVIDIA made it out to be two months ago. The 64-bit chip showed up with a benchmark score of 43617, which is about 10k points higher than the Snapdragon 800 found in the current crop of flagship devices, and a few thousand points ahead of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 805 and 801 chips. In certain CPU tests, the K1 faltered a bit compare…

Roku on Tuesday unveiled the new Roku Streaming Stick, its own fresh take on affordable TV HDMI dongles that bring more entertainment to the living room – the company launched a similar streaming stick in 2012. Roku’s 2014 stick appears to be a response to Google’s Chromecast dongle, one of the most popular devices sold by the Search giant. Unlike the Chromecast, the Roku comes with an additional piece of hardware, a remote control that can be used to “access the sleek Roku user interface with shortcuts to movies, TV shows, news, the Roku Channel Store, Roku Search and more,” but it will still have some Chromecast-like streaming features. Continue reading... Via…

Apple is apparently ready to get rid off another MacBook Pro model, Digitimes reports. After ditching the 15-inch MacBook Pro with optical drive in late October 2013, the company will also stop manufacturing the only MacBook Pro that still has an optical drive, and which happens to be the cheapest MacBook Pro version available stores, the 13-inch MacBook Pro. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

While Samsung unveiled new wearable devices at MWC 2014, saying they would be available in stores in early April, the company did not actually mention pricing details for the Gear 2, the Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit. However, it appears SamMobile has learned the European prices for these devices, and from the looks of it, the new smartwatches and fitness band are not exactly affordable. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Gamers, start your engines. Just weeks after the console's first major update was pushed out, Microsoft has announced that the Xbox One's March update began rolling out to consoles on Tuesday night. The big new software update comes one week ahead of Titanfall's release on March 11th, and it includes plenty of new functionality as well as some big bug fixes. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

BlackBerry users were outraged when they learned that T-Mobile had launched a promotion enticing them to trade in their old BlackBerry smartphones in exchange for a shiny new iPhone, and they weren't shy in going after T-Mobile boss John Legere to let him know it. New BlackBerry CEO John Chen took the opportunity to pile on and rally his troops, noting that he too was outraged by the "ill-conceived marketing promotion." All this rage prompted Legere & Co. to concoct a new BlackBerry-friendly promotion, allowing current BlackBerry users to trade in their handsets for $250 toward a new BlackBerry, or $200 toward any other new smartphone of their choosing. Sadly, t…

According to Webtrek, Xiaomi’s upcoming tablet may be a formidable budget tablet with a large screen. Also, you can see a shot of the device’s backside above. This 9.2-inch tablet is slated to have 1280×720 resolution and run Android 4.3 out of the box; however, Xiaomi’s own overlay will likely take precedent of the software. Running the show is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor with 1GB of RAM. This processor will be clocked at 1.6GHz. And internally is 8GB of storage. The rear camera has seven megapixels and the front has one and a half megapixels. Hit the break for a chart of the leaked specifications. Source: Webtrek.it Via: Gizchina Come comment on …

If you were worried about Lenovo releasing an Ashton Kutcher-inspired smartphone, we have some good news. Despite a previous report, Kutcher will not be working with the company on smartphones; however, he will actually be working with Lenovo on tablets. Ray Gorman, Lenovo’s President of External Communication, tells Pocket-link that “the development agreement Lenovo has with Ashton Kutcher is for tablets only, and not for smartphones.” So get ready for some Ashton Kutcher-inspired tablets later this year. Source: Pocket-lint Come comment on this article: Ashton Kutcher is working on tablets, not smartphones, with Lenovo Visit TalkAndroid for Android news, And…

Adobe’s new photograph management service Revel now has an official application ready to download in the Play Store. In addition to just having a singular place for photos and videos, Adobe Revel encourages users to share photos the albums of their friends or family. On the Play Store page, Adobe says Revel is “the private place to view and share your everyday photos.” Both the application and service are free to use. Hit the break for the gallery and download links. Play Store Download Link Source: Adobe Revel Come comment on this article: Adobe Revel, a new photo and video management app, is now available in the Play Store Visit TalkAn…

The Sprint variant of the Moto X is set to get the Android 4.4.2 update as build 161.44.32. This update will include the same changes as the T-Mobile and Verizon Moto X models. The features that will be brought to the device include improved battery life, the ability to cloud print, and a fix for email sync. You can check for the update yourself by going to Settings > About phone > System updates. Source: Motorola Come comment on this article: Android 4.4.2 update for Sprint Moto X ready to roll out Visit TalkAndroid for Android news, Android guides, and much more! News via TalkAndroid

If you’ve downloaded and flashed Paranoid Androids latest KitKat 4.x builds, you’ve quickly noticed that their famous features (such as Halo) have not been included into the builds, but instead met with a more “vanilla” Android ROM. Turns out the team is in the midst of re-inventing themselves when it comes to their custom ROM’s. While the ROM will still offer plenty of features, they plan on making it a more unified “Google” experience. They are also re-writing the code for all of their features and plan on doing much less “kanging,” or borrowing other features, from other ROM’s. Any PA ROm users out there disappointed with this news? Let us know! For a full and more …

If there's one thing that's even stupider than people who drive while watching videos on Google Glass, it's people who drive while watching videos on their smartphones. However, Samsung has apparently come up with a way to make sure you can still at least use your Galaxy S5 in the car without risking a major crash. Dutch website KopenGalaxyS5 has posted a leaked screenshot showing the new "Driving Mode" for the Galaxy S5 that will let you use voice commands to execute core smartphone functionalities such as answering your telephone, getting turn-by-turn navigation and playing your favorite music. You'll apparently be able to access the features simply by saying "Hi Galaxy…