Having been purchased by Google three years ago before being recently offloaded to Lenovo for almost $10 billion less, you might have forgiven Motorola for losing a little of its get-up-and-go, but today's announcement of the Moto 360 - the first confirmed smartwatch to be running on its former overlord's Android Wear software - indicates that Motorola is far from beleaguered by the unsettling corporate movements, and still has a great deal to offer the mobile market. The device itself, which looks a digitized version of a traditional wristwatch, will be available at some point in the summer, with Motorola - like Google - currently focusing its efforts in developing the ecosystem.
With Samsung having already announced the Gear 2 and Gear Fit smartwatches at Mobile World Congress, it was only going to be a matter of time before the other big names in tech joined the fray, and amid ongoing rumors that Apple will drop its elusive 'iWatch' product later this year, Google has gone ahead and released the Developer Preview of its 'Android Wear' SDK. As the name implies, this particular flavor of the search giant's open-source platform is designed specifically for wearables, and the Big G also took the opportunity to reel off a bunch of manufacturers, including Motorola and HTC, that will begin releasing wearable products using the software later on this year.
Apple and Game Center has long since facilitated multiplayer gaming for those running iOS devices, and thanks to a recent update, Google Play Game Services will offer something similar to those rocking iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. What's more, as well as allowing gamers to compete against each other on iOS, developers integrating Google Play Game Services into their titles will enable players to compete cross-platform with users on Android, outlining the search giant's intention to expand and improve the online capabilities of the Play Store.
It's not uncommon, as has been the case over the past couple of months, for talk of the next iPhone to begin swiftly following the release of the current model. But while we've only seen tentative upgrades in terms of the Apple smartphone's form factor since the original handset arrived in 2007, the talk of two new devices - the larger of which may pack a display in excess of 5.5 inches - has raised more than a few eyebrows. With this in mind, ISI analyst Brian Marshall not only believes that we'll see unprecedented numbers of consumers upgrading to the new, larger model, but he also foresees scores of Android users jumping ship as Apple finally decides to go big.
Considering the gold rush that ensued upon the release of the iPhone 5s back in September, it's none too surprising that in the UK, mobile carrier Vodafone has sought exclusivity over the gold variant of Samsung's forthcoming Galaxy S5. The deal means that on British shores, only Vodafone will carry the device, which is due for release on April 11th, and the network operator will begin taking pre-orders from March 28th.
Samsung has announced a series of "specialized usability accessories" designed for its Galaxy Core Advance smartphone - a device that the company recently released for those with special usability requirements. The new roster of add-ons, which includes a cover that can help visually-impaired users to navigate without hitting obstacles, is part of a concerted push from Samsung and other vendors to focus on accessibility, and with more devices and peripherals planned beyond the current low-end Galaxy Core Advance, the range looks set to expand in the coming months.
As with any major new release from Samsung, the Galaxy S5 includes a bunch of exclusive features and apps, but, as ever, dedicated Droidsters have been quick to pluck said features and distribute them among the rest of the Android community. Even though the sought-after handset is not yet upon us, the guys over at XDA-Developers have shared the APK files of apps like S Note, WatchON, and Gear Manager, and although there's no guarantee that they'll run perfectly on whichever device you happen to own, they're now readily available for your downloading pleasure.
It was back in late 2012 that Crazy Taxi, the popular title from way back in the SEGA Dreamcast era, re-emerged for the iPhone and iPad, and a short while later, the Android version also manifested itself over at the Google Play Store. With Crazy Taxi: City Rush due for release later on this month, SEGA has made the original Crazy Taxi absolutely free, but since the offer is only good for a few days, we'd strongly advise grabbing it sooner rather than later.
You have to admire Samsung's continued and irrepressible efforts to push such a high volume of top-end devices out into the market as possible, and in doing so, appeal to as many different niches as it can. As was the case with the Galaxy S4, the just-announced Galaxy S5 will spawn a bunch of spin-off handsets, and following on from the camera-centric Galaxy S4 Zoom, we now how have what looks a fairly legit leak of the Galaxy S5 Zoom's tech specs via GFXBench.
2014 is shaping up quite nicely as The Year of the Smartwatch, and with Samsung already having announced the Gear 2 and Gear Fit at last month's Mobile World Congress, we're expecting at least two of the mobile industry's other big names to follow suit in the coming months. As well as the Apple 'iWatch,' which has been referenced in numerous leaks and concepts running back a few years now, Google also rumored to be developing a smartwatch of its own. Today, for the first time, we've an insight into its purported specifications.
