It looks like HTC has beaten Samsung to the punch by launching its own smartphone with a fingerprint sensor before the Galaxy brand makers could get around to copying Apple's iPhone 5s. Announcing the One Max today, HTC becomes the second major smartphone maker to announce a new handset with a fingerprint sensing security solution in the same number of months, leaving Samsung as the only one of the 'big three' to join the fray.
The latest big Android release was definitely the Galaxy Note 3. Both big in the attention it drew and the sheer size of the device brought to market, Samsung's new phablet is proving just as popular as the two versions that came before it. No big shocks there, then.
As we work our way through the month of October it's surely only a matter of time until we see an invitation to Google's Nexus 5 event landing in inboxes across the blogging world. With more and more leaks of not just the hardware but also the software that it runs appearing on a seemingly daily basis, it's clear that Google's new smartphone can't be too far away.
The Nexus 5 leaks just keep on coming, and barely a day after the last photos showed up online we have now been treated to a video of what appears to be Google's next big smartphone release.
The official combination of hardware and software feature sets that ship with most devices is usually enough, but in some cases it just makes sense for developers to push the boundaries a little and extend the published capabilities of a device.
The new versions of Android have been arriving thick and fast over the past year, and although Android 4.3 Jelly Bean is still only a couple of months old, Android 4.4 KitKat has already been confirmed by Google. Since it first came to light that Android 4.4 was incoming, the tech world has been diligent as ever in its search for details, and has just unearthed some screenshots of the upcoming release in action. As you'll spot below, those previously-visited UI tweaks are present for all to see, as well as larger home screen icons.
We know what you Android users have been thinking: there is nothing worse in this world than thinking that you have root privileges on your favorite smartphone or tablet only to find out they have magically gone missing. Okay, so maybe the harsh reality of life does throw a few challenges at us that are significantly worse than that, but it can still be extremely confusing, annoyingly problematic when such a thing occurs without warning. If you've found yourself in this head-scratching situation then it's time to check out Simple Root Checker.
With Twitter having recently made like Facebook and gotten its IPO filing - and inadvertently revealed the IPO date as being November 15th - the company will really need to pull its finger out and begin impressing shareholders, particularly in mobile space. As with Facebook up until recently, the official Twitter apps have been rather lackluster, outshone by various third-party offerings, but with Mark Zuckerberg's rivaling social company now offering top-notch apps across the board, we'll be hoping for more of the same from the guys behind The Twitters. Today could be the start of that push, with a new version of the app optimized for Android tablets ready for use.
The fierce competition in the mobile industry is a definite win for the consumer, however, it is particularly annoying that choice of product is almost always defined by the region in which one resides. Some nations seem to have all the luck at times (looks at the United States), but with the Asian OEMs continuing to command large chunks of the smartphone market, more and more devices are built with exclusivity for the likes of Japan, Korea and China. The Samsung Galaxy J, which has just made an appearance in Japan, is like the Galaxy S4, in that it has been given a spectacular spec upgrade on what was supposed to be, or at least what we all thought was the "new" flagship.
One of the primary concerns of mobile users is security, and when there is ever a suspicion that this particular quality is under threat, all hell can, and invariably does, break loose. Enter the Quasar IV, an Android handset that promises unprecedented security to the point of being "hack-proof," and you may begin to understand why there's a certain buzz about this particular smartphone. We first heard about the maker QSAlpha's intentions were outlined some months ago, but now, the device has been given the green light, and the process of creating the world's first fully hack-proof smartphone has well and truly begun.
