Android has no shortage of apps and tools for a variety of purposes, and it might not be incorrect to say that the platform from Google, just like Apple’s iOS, can now boast “there’s an app for that” without being able to prove it. As a matter of fact, there are certain facets where Android has apps that iOS couldn’t even dream of – or at least the way how these apps function. Want some examples? How about keyboards? Android has plenty of very capable contenders, whereas in iOS, you cannot modify that unless you’re jailbroken. Then, how about replacement messaging application? Go SMS Pro has been a favorite among Android users for a long time now, and then certain manufacturers (like Sony & HTC) have their own custom messaging apps that are pretty useful and aesthetically pleasing. You don’t get that on iOS, and it’s unlikely that you ever would.
Ingenious modders have turned LG's Optimus G into a fully fledged Nexus 7, complete with a broken LTE chip, and have released the mod into the wild.
Despite the defiant claims of the major smartphone companies that they're not copying each other (despite litigation finding evidence to the contrary), there's little doubt that the market's handsets - by and large - tend to follow the trends of one another. One feature that seems to have unfortunately died out, is the once-popular BlackBerry / Nokia LED notification light. Particularly useful if you find even the vibrating alert to be a tad obtrusive, it allows your device to communicate a notification without any sound whatsoever. While the OEMs appear to be neglecting a feature many of us would like to see return, the commendable work of those over at XDA-Developers has lead to something of a solution in the form of ButtonLED, which turns your hardware button into a makeshift notification light.
Over the last few years, many device makers have been flirting with the idea of rolling out flexible displays on its handheld devices, but no other company has been most outspoken about it than Samsung. At the Consumer Electronic Show, the company showed off its new generation of bendable displays, which have a huge potential for changing the traditional form factor of smartphones.
The Galaxy S III handset may be the current darling of the Android world, with more than 190,000 units a day flying off the shelves. But it seems that the South Korean company's current flagship device is just one part of a range of devices that have proved to be extremely successful for the company in the last 30 months. The company has announced that the accumulative sales of their Galaxy S range of devices has now surpassed 100 million units sold.
Whenever manufacturers make the decision to go through the upgrade process and release a new version of one of their devices into the wild, they always put extra effort into attempting to make sure they get the maximum possible life out of the battery. They may not admit it, but hardware producers like Samsung, Apple and especially Motorola would trade-in a number of features on their phones if they could guarantee exceptional power performance, as it is just so important to users. With that said, we've all been in the situation where our smartphone dies just at the wrong time.
Although floating apps are an integral part of the desktop computing experience, their presence on mobile devices is a relatively new phenomenon. Still, an app commanding only a fraction of the total display, and which can be moved around at will, is infinitely more useful, and while the likes of Samsung and Sony have both shown signs of implementing floating apps to mobile space, XDA-Developers member pidio1 has swopped the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2’s native browser with a resizable, floating one.
The Google Nexus 4 - designed and manufactured by the good guys over at LG - is arguably one of the hottest Android devices on the market, but it looks like some owners of the sought-after hardware are receiving more than what they bargained for. A number of Malaysian and Brazilian Nexus 4 owners are reporting that their devices have arrived pre-installed with Android 4.2.2, a version of the operating system that hasn't been made public yet.
Google Chrome Beta Channel Launches On Android, Gives Users / Devs Early Access To Upcoming Features
Fans of the extremely popular Chrome web browser have long been able to get access to pre-release versions of the software through Google's Beta Channel that has been running almost as long as the browser has been around. To compliment that existing system, Google has now extended that privilege to mobile users with the launch of the Chrome Beta for Android channel.
It’s true that Apple made tablets – portable computers with a slate design – a mainstream gadget with their iPad, even though there existed a lot of similar devices before that. Not only did they make it more accessible by selling the iPad at a price point that was agreeable to the masses, but the support from the Cupertino giant’s iTunes App Store with its massive number of iPad specific apps also helped the device’s popularity. Even though competitive manufacturers jumped onto the bandwagon with their similar Android based offerings, even today, the iOS App Store sports a much larger number of tablet-optimized apps in comparison to Google Play Store.
