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Surprise: Advocates of the so-called "six strikes" anti-piracy policy are calling it a smashing success but aren't releasing any data to back up their claims. For those of you who need a refresher, the six strikes policy was a new plan pushed by copyright advocates on ISPs that essentially gives users up to six different notices or warnings after they download pirated content before throttling their Internet speeds or blocking their access to certain websites. The program was hit with multiple delays since its inception and critics have said that it's completely impossible to enforce fairly in buildings with shared connections. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy …

One of the most fascinating reveals following the Microsoft-Nokia acquisition saga was the existence of the Nokia X Android line of smartphones. Nokia's first substantial non-Windows Phone product may have been a major contributing factor in pushing the acquisition through, but Microsoft hasn't yet been able to quash the Nokia X line at the source. As the deal has yet to be finalized, Nokia has taken this opportunity to introduce the Android phones to the public at Mobile World Congress this week. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Ever since Apple moved the iPhone from a summer launch schedule to a fall launch schedule, rumors have popped up each year suggesting that the company will shift things back to the summer. It happened with the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 5s, and now it's happening again with the highly anticipated iPhone 6. While recent rumors and ongoing chatter point to a September release for the iPhone 6 and its larger phablet counterpart, a new report claims that the next-generation iPhone will likely launch much sooner than expected. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Pretty much every smartwatch that has been released so far has been ridiculously ugly. Most of them feature a rectangular screen that many consider to be too large for a wrist. Both the Pebble smartwatch and the Samsung Galaxy Gear suffer from this problem. To fix this, Engadget noted that the design firm Creoir, which has worked with both Nike and Jolla, created its own concept smartwatch to prove that they don’t have to be ugly. But the result, called Ibis, isn’t much better. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Even though it “only” announced a plastic Galaxy S5 version with Full HD display at MWC 2014, falling short of expectations, Samsung may still have a “Prime” version of the Galaxy S5 in the works. The news comes from Korean publication ET News, which has apparently learned that Samsung confirmed the "Project F" device behind closed-door meetings at MWC 2014. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

New scams looking to swindle people out of their hard-earned money are devised every day, and one particularly devious scheme targeting Verizon Wireless subscribers is now gaining notoriety. Droid Life recently posted about the new scam, which lures Verizon customers in by offering "a special reward" of $54 to subscribers who visit a new website set up for the promotion. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Last week Bloomberg reported that Samsung is going to offer the Galaxy S 5 at a lower price as compared to not only the competition, but also the launch prices of previous Galaxy S phones. Samsung didn’t offer any pricing at the Unpacked event, but another report out of ZDNet Korea seems to confirm Bloomberg’s report. Since the Galaxy S 5 really doesn’t offer anything significant in terms of hardware over the Galaxy S 4, this makes a lot of sense. Samsung could not only lower the off contract pricing, but they are likely to do it for contract pricing as well. If they can price it for $400 to $500 off contract and $99 to $149 on contract, it could rejuvenate the S …

Even though news seems to be centered around the new Galaxy S 5, that’s not the only news that’s coming out of Samsung’s camp. To “meet the ever-increasing needs needs of high-resolution displays and complicated computation without sacrificing battery life,” the company has announced a newer, more efficient Exynos processor. The new 5422 processor features eight cores ( four ARM® Cortex®- A15™ up to 2.1 GHz for the heavy lifting and four ARM® Cortex®- A7™ up to 1.5 GHz for lighter lifting.) Samsung says that the new octa-core processor is 34 percent more efficient than previous generations. On top of a speed increase, Samsung is implementing a new hibernation algorit…

HTC continues to get praise from the media, but it never translates into growth. They were just awarded the best phone of the year by the GSMA, which has to be bittersweet while watching Samsung sell over 200 million Galaxy S phones right in front of their eyes. I declared the HTC One the best phone on the planet, but I asked the question, “Is it good enough?” in my review last year. Some of you laughed at me, but it’s clear that being the best doesn’t always translate into success. CNet had a chance to sit down with Jack Yang, the new HTC boss of the South Asia Market, to find out what the thinking is for 2014. Ironically, Mr. Yang is the former head of Apple’s iPhone…

A new update for Plex should have users pretty excited this morning. The update brings a host of bug fixes, speed improvements, as well as the addition of scheduled tasks, partial scanning, support for more platforms. Additionally, shared sync is finally here. Media servers are required to have a Plex Pass but users who tie into your server aren’t required to. What this means is that while family and friends may have different accounts, they’ll be able to sync with you. Plex is also getting more Chromecast features. Users will now be able to cast music and photos to Chromecast. Items in your library can be cast in the usual way. Audio transcoding is available for forma…

While many MWC 2014 attendees may have brought their iPads along, Apple did not have an official presence at the show, a regular “habit” for the company. However, the iPad Air, Apple’s latest flagship iOS tablet, won the Best Mobile Tablet award GSMA awards – last year, Google’s Nexus 7 (2012) won the same award. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Even though the Galaxy S5 was only announced on Monday, a clone for the handset has already been unveiled, by Chinese device clone makers Goophone, which will be much less expensive than the real thing. The Goophone S5 will cost just $299.99, and for that price users will get a smartphone that looks almost exactly like the Galaxy S5, and offer almost similar specs. It’s not clear when the smartphone will ship to interested buyers, being currently marked as “out of stock” on the Goophone site. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Both Samsung and Qualcomm unveiled new mobile processors that are believed to equip Galaxy S5 variants, including the new Exynos 5422 and the Snapdragon 801, respectively. When Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S5 on Monday, it only revealed that the device sports a 2.5GHz quad-core processor without specifying more details about it. However, when it published a specs infographic for the Galaxy S family, it noted that the Galaxy S5 will be available in two flavors when it comes to CPUs, including a 2.5GHz quad-core model and a 2.1GHz octa-core version. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

It's a rare but welcome sight: The United States House of Representatives has passed a commonsense bill by a wide margin. Reuters reports that the House on Tuesday passed a bill that would make it legal for consumers to unlock their cellphones once their contracts have expired so they can be used on other networks, although there is a pretty big catch. According to Reuters, the bill still bans "bulk unlocking," which means that consumers still wouldn't be allowed to "sell their old devices to third parties that could unlock phones in bulk." The language added against bulk unlocking has led some consumer groups to withdraw their support for the bill. Continue reading...…

While the Galaxy S4 is no longer Samsung‘s flagship device, that doesn’t mean it can’t still make headlines! The Samsung Galaxy S4 on AT&T will begin getting the Android 4.4 KitKat update tomorrow, according to details that AT&T posted on their website. There are a number of small changes that users will get with the update. On the AT&T side of the update, users will now be able to drag and drop to uninstall or disable applications, and users should also experience improvements in call reliability. There will also be some TouchWiz changes and some changes to the lock screen. Source: AT&T Via: Android Authority Come comment on this article: Andr…

We’ve known Google has been working on a smartwatch for a while now, but we haven’t gotten a clear look at anything they’ve been planning. Now, thanks to Android Police, we’re getting a pretty decent glance at what Motorola was developing for Google prior to the Lenovo sale. The images show a prototype smartwatch with Motorola branding on the front face of the device, as well as a volume rocker on the top of the screen and a back button below the screen. It had a rubberized wristband that also looked to be detachable. The device was going to be a part of Google’s Nexus line and would’ve been called the Google Watch, but in development it was known as Gem, whic…

With hectic schedules, it can be hard to keep track of everything in your news feed. That’s why we created the TalkAndroid Daily Dose. This is where we recap the day’s hottest stories so you can get yourself up to speed in quick fashion. Happy reading!! Apps WinZip launches ZipShare, a way to zip and manage your cloud-based files Quixey expands Functional Search to provide info from within apps Carriers AT&T makes international calling and texting more affordable Android 4.4 KitKat on AT&T Galaxy S4 to begin rolling out tomorrow T-Mobile moving the chains, adds 4.4 million customers in 2013 Google Here’s a much closer look at Google’s …

With nearly a month left to MLB’s Opening Day, the most popular MLB.com At Bat app has been updated to version 3.0 for the 2014 baseball season with some new new features. The two new features that have been added includes the ability to choose more than one favorite team and the other one is push notifications for every run-scoring play of whichever team you choose and it can be customized according to your favorite team. MLB.com promises to add more features to its app before the Opening Day comes. If you’re an MLB.TV Premium subscriber, you can get the app for free of charge. However, new users can register for the service for just $19.99 which is worth it, cons…

Last month, CyanogenMod announced it partnered with OnePlus to release a CyanogenMod powered smartphone to the market this year. OnePlus has now announced that the upcoming device, the OnePlus One, has reached the ‘feature freeze’ phase of development. The company already started testing its first prototype, A0001, which arrived to their office on Monday. There’s no detail about the smartphone’s specifications but the company promised that the device would come with the best specifications. The company says that the device still needs a lot of improvements before releasing the final product to the market but they are “still loving it!.” The device is expected to be …

Another day, another huge PlayStation 4 sales milestone on the books. Sony has a serious hit on its hands in the early days of this console generation, with the PS4 having recently topped the 5.3 million unit mark as of mid-February. Adding on to that tally is the 322,083 consoles Sony reportedly sold in Japan in just two days following the PlayStation 4's hotly anticipated launch this past weekend. Japanese gaming site Famitsu reported the astonishing figure, and noted that the tally is almost four times as many consoles as the PlayStation 3 sold during its opening weekend in Japan seven years ago. Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Everything we've read about Google Fiber suggests that it really is a beast of an Internet service that positively blows away every other service offered in the United States today. Jackdaw Research analyst Jan Dawson, who lives in Provo, Utah and who has been a Google Fiber subscriber for months, confirms early reviews suggesting that Google Fiber is the fastest service in all the land. However, he also identifies a potential Achilles' heel for Google Fiber: Namely, most Wi-Fi routers aren't powerful enough to push out data anywhere close to the rate that Google Fiber is pushing it out to your device via wireline. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

On Monday, Arizona’s Legislature passed a bill that would let businesses refuse service to gays and lesbians. Governor Jan Brewer has until Friday to sign or veto the bill. Unsurprisingly, this bill has generated a huge storm of controversy. Not even everyone who voted for the bill still supports it, as after hearing the outcry against it, three state senators who voted for it are now urging Brewer to veto the bill. This bill has also attracted the ire of several large businesses that do business in Arizona, most notably Apple. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Flappy Bird is dead, and all of the shameless clones in world won't bring it back. Despite the game's fading relevance, the developers of the Twitterrific app have opted to pay tribute to game that stole our hearts with a recent update. iDownloadBlog happened across a simplistic Flappy Bird clone called Ollie Soars hidden within the Twitter timeline of the Twitterrific app, featuring Twitterrific's own avian mascot. In order to access Ollie Soars, just drag the timeline all the down to the bottom of the screen, further than would be necessary to refresh it, and the game should begin. Check out a video of the homage below. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius…

WhatsApp has shown that having a hugely popular mobile messaging app can be very lucrative and now BlackBerry is looking to cash in on its own widely used cross-platform BlackBerry Messenger service. We already know that BlackBerry is planning to incorporate ads and in-app purchases into BBM but the company on Tuesday unveiled a new version of BBM that could make the mobile messenger into even more of a cash cow. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Today, AT&T is making it much more affordable for customers to text and call internationally from the United States. Beginning Friday, all AT&T Mobile Share and Mobile Share Value plans will come with unlimited international texting from the U.S. In addition, AT&T is adding a $5-per-month package that allows subscribers to call any of 35 countries for a penny per minute. The 35 countries includes Canada and Mexico, as well as a multitude of Latin American and Caribbean countries. This is clearly a response to T-Mobile, who cut international costs last year, and gave subscribers free texting and internet access internationally, as well as Verizon, who also c…