This week is already shaping up as a busy one thanks to Apple's confirmed event at Town Hall, but according to reports and rumors, Google could well be poised to steal the show with a major roll-out of its own. Android L, which we first saw at this year's I/O event, is a rather significant bump on the current Android KitKat, and although the Big G has said very little on this topic, October is the search giant's usual month of choice for such announcements. With Android L seemingly imminent, users of Samsung devices will be looking on with a keen interest, and now, we've a leaked roadmap that indicates which of the Korean outfit's line-up will be seeing new software, and perhaps more importantly, when.
Google has made three new ads available online with just days if not hours left to go before it is expected to launch new Nexus devices. With a new Nexus 9 tablet and Nexus 6 smartphone peeping over the horizon, the three new ads have appeared just at the right time, with Google getting ready for another charm offensive while trying to peddle its new wares.
On the other side of the world, where we often meet ourselves, is an array of mobile app icons that can be brutally honest to you if you give it a chance. Icons help you quickly identify one app from the other, but what tells you what that app is really meant for, or what their existence means to you and your mobile device. As I eerily tread borderline 'cuckoo', I'll ask you if you believe in any stereotype characterizations for some of the famous smartphone apps out there.
Users of most Android-powered smartphones and tablets aren't really used to timely software updates, but the barely available Samsung Galaxy Note 4 has already seen its first update arrive, and the chances are you can't even buy one yet.
Instant picture messaging app Snapchat has risen to prominence over the past couple of years, establishing a niche for users who wish to share photos and short (albeit terrible quality) clips that self-destruct after a set period of time. The authors of Snapchat have come under fierce scrutiny on more than one occasion already over user privacy, and with a cache of around 13GB of snaps having leaked online, the company is pointing the finger at "illegal" third-party clients.
Android is not new to news of security bugs and vulnerabilities, but continues to roll on in spite of such news. Just recently, Rafay Baloch of RBH discovered a vulnerability in Android’s stock browser, including all browsers based on the stock AOSP code. This vulnerability was a serious one which caused the browser to fail in enforcing the Same Origin Policy (SOP) protocol, which basically governs how content from multiple resources is securely loaded into the browser. While this issue plagued pre-KitKat devices, Google was quick in patching it up. However, given the nature of Android’s ecosystem, updates aren’t rolled out that quickly, resulting in almost 45% Android devices out there that remain vulnerable according to the security experts at Lookout. Please note that this data is based on their apps user-base that is over 100 million, so it does make an interesting case nonetheless.
As well as the selfie-focused Desire EYE, HTC has also launched an intriguing, GoPro-like contraption designed to aid those wishing to capture point-of-view videos. The 16-megapixel sensor can also take pictures, and although the device doesn't include any kind of viewfinder, HTC asserts that this only adds to the RE Camera's simplicity.
Since the HTC One M8 dropped earlier on this year, the Taiwanese outfit has been fairly quiet, allowing Samsung and iPhone to take center stage, but now, the company is back with a handset focused almost solely on selfies. With many of us obsessed with the idea of taking pictures of ourselves, HTC wants to ensure that the quality doesn't suffer, and the Desire EYE, with its 13-megapixel camera, touts a caliber of front-facing snapper that compares with most rear-facing shooters.
Having been announced way back in early September at the IFA expo in Berlin, Samsung's Galaxy Note 4 is finally headed to market. A minor launch has already taken place in the company's native Korea, with the small inventory having quickly sold out, but with the mass roll-out now just days away for many countries including the United States, the Tizen OS maker is once again on the campaign trail. As a precursor to the presumably large promotion push that Samsung will commence as it dips into its sizeable marketing budget, the company has released a drop test video, seeking to show prospective buyers that the device is as tough as it is feature-rich.
Samsung is having something of a bad time right now. Having already announced three consecutive quarterly drop in profits, the South Korean firm has announced that it expects a decline in profit of almost 60% for the third quarter of 2014 after having already warned that the second half of the year would 'remain a challenge.'















