When Google announced Android L at Google I/O, one of the software's biggest headline new features was its heads-up notifications. Allowing developers to give their apps notifications that fall down from the top of the screen rather than simply living in the status bar, heads-up notifications are similar to the way iOS handles incoming notifications, and are surely an improvement over what came before. Unfortunately, with the early versions of Android L only available for Nexus devices, everyone else is left out in the cold.
JoinedJanuary 21, 2011
Articles20,347
Oliver Haslam has written about technology for over a decade. His work has been published in print at Macworld and online pretty much everywhere else. If it plugs in or has a battery, it's fair game.
If you're all ready to flex your credit card and order a brand new Android Wear smartwatch, then you might want to just take a second to make sure it's compatible with your smartphone, because unless you're running Android 4.3 or above, you're out of luck, just like over 75% of Android owners.
We may be on the eve of Google I/O, but that doesn't mean that the company is going to hold news back for its big opening keynote. Hot on the heels of the news that Glass is now available for order in the UK, Google has also announced that new units will ship with extra RAM and a larger battery, two changes that have apparently come about as part of the public beta the company has been running for quite a while now.
While everyone is fawning over the idea of Apple announcing a watch with a 2.5-inch touch-screen, Withings has announced its own offering, called the Activité. Shipping this fall in two colors - white and silver - for the rather high price of $390, the Activité is actually more a fitness tracker than a smartwatch, though. Designed to be absolutely stunning rather than packed with more sensors than a Terminator, the Activité 'only' tracks steps taken and quality of sleep, with the number of calories burned also being calculated based on those steps.
When Microsoft bought Nokia, many understandably thought that the latter's brief flirtation with Android would come to an end. After all, Microsoft makes its own mobile operating system and having its own hardware to run it on made perfect sense. Why compete with yourself by letting Nokia make Android phones? Right?
We may not be into the whole selfie craze quite as much as the kids seem to be, but we do know a good app when we see one. If you do insist on taking photos of yourself along with what will probably be the top half of your arm because you're holding the phone out to take the picture, then there are plenty of apps to use. We're pretty sure there is nothing quite like to.be Camera though.
The old saying of 'there's no smoke without fire' has never been more apt than Apple's fabled iWatch. With absolutely no news coming out of Apple in official channels, there have been enough leaks, and enough hiring of medical and fashion-oriented people that, at this point, we'd be flabbergasted if a smartwatch wasn't on Apple's roadmap. Quite when that will turn into a shipping product however, is anybody's guess.
With Apple said to be stepping up its work to bring a smartwatch of its own to market, it's safe to say that Samsung has already put its stake into the ground as far as wearable technology goes. Already having launched more watches and wearables than any company needs to, Samsung is said to be set to bring not one, but two more to market sooner rather than later and is expected to debut at least one of them at the upcoming Google I/O event.
Never the ones to miss a good game and movie tie-in, Hasbro has released its latest iOS, Android game on the App Store and Play Store, respectively.
The App Store is great and all, and while we're happy to pay for good apps, you just can't beat the excellent price of FREE. That's why many developers take their paid-for apps and drop their price to absolutely nothing for a short time - it creates buzz and with a bit of luck, gets them to the top of the App Store charts. Then they just need that popularity to carry over once the price returns to normal. Sounds easy, doesn't it?
