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Shazam is working on an update to their music identification app to bring users a new, cleaner interface. This should make it easier to preview, buy, and share songs or TV show information. Shazam is also improving access to lyrics, showing them as soon as a song is matched. Shazam is also improving the speed with which information about broadcast TV shows is displayed. Other improvements include improvements to recommendations provided by Shazam and more in-depth background information like biographical data and discographies. Shazam has already rolled out the update to iOS users for both the regular, free version of Shazam as well as the paid Encore version. Shaza…

Sony’s SmartWatch 2 looks to be on the way of a pretty big update. The demo unit of the SmartWatch 2 at last week’s Mobile World Congress was running 1.0.B.4.80 compared to the current build 1.0.B.3.46. The new firmware shows more information on the screen, including the weather, a pedometer, a battery indicator, the last notification received and the next upcoming alarm. In addition, the new software includes a scrollable notification drop-down menu , the ability to choose which apps you want to receive notifications from, and customization options like the option to change your wallpaper and which apps are shown on the home screen. The update isn’t rolling out just y…

The latest device to get Android 4.4.2 is the T-Mobile variant of the LG G2. Technically, it was available a few days ago via the PC Utility app, but it is now available via an OTA update. If you haven’t received a notification prompting you to update just yet, follow these steps: From Settings, tap General. Tap About phone. Tap Update center. Tap System updates. Tap Check now. Follow on screen prompts. The update should make your device much faster, in addition to bringing new features and improvements. Source: T-Mobile Come comment on this article: Android 4.4.2 for T-Mobile’s LG G2 now available Visit TalkAndroid for Android news, Android …

The importance of developing an ecosystem for rising platforms these days cannot be stressed enough— Ouya certainly has the right idea, as the Android-based game console manufacturer as announced that it will be pushing its software to other hardware in the future. Although the move will likely decrease sales on the Ouya gaming system, the reach of the software platform will certainly be able to branch out. In an interview with “AListDaily,” Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman discussed her plans. Hit the break for the details. One thing you’ll start to see is Ouya on other people’s devices. For us, we’ll always have a minimum set of standards so the games will work well on …

Senator Al Franken (D-Minnesota) warned regulators in a letter last week that the proposed merger between cable industry giants Comcast and Time Warner Cable should be scrutinized because Comcast has "a history of breaching its legal obligations to consumers." The letter, addressed to Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler, saw Franken voice serious concerns that the proposed $45 billion merger would be horrible for consumers in a number of ways. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Ellen DeGeneres was not shy about using a Galaxy phone during Sunday’s 86th edition of the Academy Awards to take pictures of herself and others both on stage and backstage during the Oscars, Entertainment Weekly reports. One of Ellen's pictures quickly became Twitter's most retweeted tweets of all time, breaking the previous record held by a photo posted by President Barack Obama at the end of his 2012 reelection campaign. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Although the Galaxy Tab 4 did not make its debut at Mobile World Congress, the next-generation tablet seems to have been confirmed by Samsung unintentionally in a recent advertisement. Planete Galaxy came across an ad (seen above) which lists all 20 devices that will be compatible with the upcoming Gear Fit, and at the end of the list is the unannounced Galaxy Tab 4. The tablet listing highlights three different sized models: 10.1-inch, 8-inch and 7-inch (the same lineup as the current Galaxy Tab 3). The Galaxy Tab 4 is rumored to feature a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, 64GB of total storage and Android 4.4 KitKat. Be on the lookout for an official reveal in the near futur…

Has Microsoft's Scroogled ad campaign convinced you to switch to Bing yet? Probably not but that isn't going to stop Microsoft from unleashing similar anti-Google ads in the future, especially now that it's appointed one-time political consultant Mark Penn to be its chief strategy officer. Penn, who masterminded Microsoft's not-exactly-successful Scroogled campaign, will be new CEO Satya Nadella's point man for strategic decisions at Microsoft that will include "input in the area of competitive research and analysis." In his letter announcing the new appointment, Nadella said that Penn will use his "unique skill set across a broader set of challenges facing the company, …

Microsoft has a problem: It desperately wants any remaining Windows XP users to upgrade to a newer version of the operating system but a huge chunk of them still haven't budged. The latest numbers from NetMarketShare show that Windows XP still accounts for around 29.5% of all desktops in use even though Microsoft is due to end support for the 13-year-old platform on April 8th. ZDNet reports that Microsoft plans to pester remaining XP holdovers starting next week by sending them pop-up notifications reminding them — again — that it will end XP support within a month. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

For users of Twitter on Android, there are a number of options and each one a little different than the others. Many people automatically assume that the best Twitter app is the one made by Twitter itself, but that’s not always the case. For some people, it may be appropriate to get a third party app instead. Here is a list of some of the best Twitter apps available. Head on past the break to get started. 1. twicca by Tetsuya Aoyama Twicca is one of the oldest Twitter clients for Android on the Google Play store, but that certainly doesn’t mean that the app is outdated. Quite the contrary, in fact. One of the great things about twicca is that it is very lightweig…

A new report out of Korea suggests that Samsung is experiencing a little bit of a problem with a significant feature for the Galaxy S 5. It is being reported that the company is having an issue internally producing the fingerprint scanner and unless they bring in a third party, it would be very difficult to launch next month in one hundred-fifty countries. Because of this, Samsung has started to negotiate a deal with CrucialTec. CrucialTec is a company that manufactures Optical Track Pad mobile input devices for companies across the world. And if this negotiation does yield a deal, Samsung’s upcoming flagship should arrive right on time. Source: Daum Via: G 4 Games…

Samsung made it official today that they are launching a new series of Chromebook devices. The new models will come in 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch screen sizes and will have a faux leather lid like Samsung has been using on the backs of recent devices. The larger 13.3-inch version will feature a full HD resolution screen running at 1920×1080 and both models will come equipped with Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa processor and 4GB of RAM. According to Samsung, the devices will cold boot in less than 10 seconds and will be able to run for up to 8.5 hours on a single battery charge. To help sweeten the deal, Samsung is throwing in some additional software or services like Air Droid …

Verizon announced new prepaid plans that offer customers lower prices with lower data allotments to match. As part of the revisions to their prepaid plans, Verizon is rebranding them as ALLSET PLANS. Consumers looking for a feature phone can get a device with a $35 per month plan that includes 500 calling minutes, unlimited texts, and 500MB of data. Moving up to a smartphone, the least expensive option is $45 per month which includes unlimited voice and texts while users get 500MB of data. To give consumers some flexibility, Verizon also introduced “Bridge Data” which enables users to refill their data bucket. An additional 500MB of data will run $5, 1GB will go for $1…

Echoing earlier research, Gartner announced today that worldwide sales of tablets in 2013 totaled 195.4 million units with Android laying claim to 62% of the market. The big beneficiary of Android’s growth, driven by users snapping up smaller, lower-end devices, was Samsung who sold just over 37 million units. Meanwhile, Samsung’s biggest rival, Apple, saw their market share slide from almost 53% to only 36% despite selling 9 million more units compared to the prior year. The silver lining for Apple was that they continue to retain the title of largest tablet manufacturer. Although Samsung is closing the gap quickly, Apple still sold about twice as many tablets as Samsung…

In return for all of the money Samsung spent on the 86th annual Academy Awards on Sunday night, host Ellen DeGeneres took photos with a Galaxy smartphone on stage throughout the night, and while mingling with the star-studded audience (yes, we know she also posted photos with her own iPhone while backstage — no one cares). One of the resulting photos she posted to Twitter using the phone quickly became the most retweeted photo of all time. While that image came out just fine, another one DeGeneres tweeted while on stage came out a bit blurry, and Nokia quickly used the photo as an opportunity to remind the world that its camera phones are among the best in the world. C…

Microsoft is preparing for another major shakeup as CEO Satya Nadella announced over the weekend that two top executives will be leaving the company this year. According to the internal letter sent to Microsoft employees, Tony Bates, the leader of the Business Development and Evangelism team and former CEO of Skype, will be departing, along with Tami Reller, leader of the Marketing Group. Business Insider shared the letter on their website, and you can read it in full below. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Both the PlaySation 4 and the Xbox One have been hits but now we have enough data to declare a clear winner in the early rounds: It's the PlayStation 4. GameSpot has written a very thorough post outlining why the PS4 has outsold the Xbox One ever since its launch late last year while also noting that Sony's console has some distinct advantages over Microsoft's going forward that could help it win for years to come. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Even though Samsung is not yet ready to say how much the Galaxy S5 will cost, the company seems extremely interested in convincing as many people as possible to buy the handset by offering them free apps and bonus content. Reports suggest that the South Korean giant wants to price the S5 lower than its predecessor, but carriers and retailers that have the handset up for pre-order suggest the phone will have a regular high-end price. Samsung has listed a variety of “gifts” on its website which amount to $575 in free content, however, suggesting that even priced in line with other flagship phones, the Galaxy S5 will offer owners a tremendous value. Continue reading... …

Were things really as crazy as Scorsese made them out to be? Ritholtz Wealth Management financial advisor and "Reformed Broker" Josh Brown recently went on Yahoo Finance's Breakout to help separate fact from fiction and discuss how things really were at Stratton Oakmont, the brokerage on which Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street is based. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Comcast and Time Warner Cable have never been beloved but the two companies' recent decision to merge has made them disliked even more. YouGov's BrandIndex has found that perceptions of both Comcast and Time Warner Cable have tanked even further following their merger announcement as more consumers are seemingly worried that the newly merged company will use its clout to jack up prices even more. In terms of perceived quality and whether consumers would recommend their services to others, Comcast and Time Warner Cable are now well below any other major cable provider in the United States. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Volvo on Monday posted a short teaser video in which it demos the user interface of Apple’s newly launched CarPlay iOS feature that will let drivers connect their iPhones to upcoming car models and control them via touch and/or voice while driving. CarPlay is fully integrated in Volvo’s new UI for upcoming models, offering users access to a UI that’s similar to the iPhone’s UI, on a touchscreen console placed in the middle of the dashboard. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

We recently revealed the six organizations that secretly run the Internet, and interesting new details surrounding one of them were recently uncovered. In a great piece over at The Guardian, the site covers one of the most intriguing security measures taken by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the group responsible for the system that maps the Internet and ensures that web addresses point to the proper servers around the world. To protect the system that maintains all of this data, 14 people hold 14 keys, half of which must be used as part of a movie-like ritual in order to entire that the systems that map the Internet remain safe and secure…

An Android smartphone will apparently beat any competing devices in camera performance, at least when it comes to counting megapixels. An image leak posted on Weibo seems to indicate that the unreleased Oppo Find 7 smartphone will have a 50-megapixel camera, the kind of camera that’s not usually seen on mobile devices. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Game Center on iOS has always been a bit of a let down. As a bare bones social network to keep track of your friends and achievements, it does its job, but it can't compete with the functionality of most gaming networks. That's why Microsoft is thinking about expanding its hugely popular Xbox Live to every mobile platform under the sun. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Samsung spent a serious amount of money during last night’s Academy Awards promoting everything from phones to TVs. It wasn’t even commercials because the host, Ellen DeGeneres, promoted them as well. She even took a selfie of herself and a few audience members using a Galaxy Note 3 that ended up being the most retweeted tweet in history. Some declared Samsung the victor, but something behind the scenes could give Apple a lot of ammunition. Apparently Ellen uses an iPhone as her daily driver. She used the Note 3 out in the open, but she tweeted with her iPhone backstage. Now it’s far from shocking that a celebrity doesn’t always use everything they promote since it’s …