Google Glass goes through good and bad spells. Sometimes Google's wearable technology is front and center, very much in the limelight and showing us all where computers of tomorrow may take us. Other times, Glass feels like something of an afterthought, or perhaps Google's hobby rather than something that it truly believes will be the future of how we receive information when on the move. Today is very much the former, with Google offering developers a sneak peek at its Glass software development kit, called the Glass Development Kit, or GDK.
History has shown us that Best Buy is never shy when it comes to providing their customers with a bargain, and it seems that they are at it again with an offer aimed directly at students. The deal, offered in conjunction with the American Sprint network, will see students offered a full year's worth of free service when they purchase a qualifying smartphone from the Best Buy range.
If you’re a diehard Android fan, then the Nexus 5 definitely caught your eye. Although it's only been publicly available for just shy of three weeks, the LG-manufactured Nexus 5 is already making its way to the top of holiday season shopping lists for consumers all over the globe. Those who are lucky enough to already own the device are seemingly full of praise for the latest in the Nexus smartphone range, but a number of concerns have been expressed, including the performance of the built-in camera as well as the tragically low speaker volume on the device.
Google unveiled Glass v2 as part of its ongoing Explorer Program, which brings forward a few upgrades over the previous gen Glass hardware. We were lucky enough to get our hands on one here at Redmond Pie, and for your viewing / reading pleasure, we are going to unbox the whole package which we got from Google to give our readers a perspective of what they’ll get in the box when Glass eventually hits retail channels some time next year.
As soon as Android 4.4 KitKat was formally announced, it was certain that the newer Nexus devices will definitely be getting the new version of the operation system. Nexus 4, the one year old Nexus flagship that is still plenty powerful, obviously made the cut, but it didn’t get an OTA update for the latest Android version as soon as it surfaced on Nexus 5. All we kept hearing was “a few weeks” without any definitive availability date. Well, we guess it’s pretty close now, as Google has posted the factory images for Android 4.4 KitKat for the Nexus 4 on its developer portal.
In May, Google revealed that its “All Access” music app would be hitting iOS, and since the search giant also noted that it was just a few weeks away, we expected to be grooving to some of our favorite songs through the service by summertime. Although it did seem as though the Android maker had completely forgotten about those on Apple's mobile OS, we now know this not to be the case, as the Google Play Music app has just hit the iOS App Store. Full details, as well as that download link, can be seen after the fold.
Consumers who take interest in the highly competitive smartphone market may not immediately class Motorola as one of the "big boys". The opinion of the wider community may differ on that one from person-to-person, but it seems that the Google-owned company is making a continued effort to claw back the reputable name they once had. The latest push in that effort takes the shape of the new Motorola Moto G handset that is designed to be an entry-level device for those looking to get in on the smartphone action with an affordable but powerful option.
Google has taken the earliest possible opportunity to give some good news to existing Nexus tablet owners. In an official post on the Android Google+ page the company has announced that the latest and greatest release of the Android operating system will be be coming to the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10. The announcement will come as great news to the Android community that is irritatingly used to waiting months for the latest version of the favored OS to become available on their existing hardware.
It has long since been the case that users switch from Android smartphones to iPhones in larger proportions, but more so than ever, the trend is increasing. According to a study by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, more Android users made the jump to Apple's iPhone this year than ever before, and although many of those picking up the new iPhone 5s / 5c were previously owners of an older iPhone, the Cupertino firm will surely be encouraged to see more and more consumers ditching Google's OS for its own ecosystem.
We've been hearing a great deal about Google Glass over the course of 2013. Almost 10,000 lucky technology enthusiasts have been putting the wearable tech through its paces since Google opened up the Glass program earlier in the year. There's been a renewed focus on the Glass project in the last few weeks, with Google recently announcing that they are planning on expanding the initiative to allow those early beta testers to invite an additional three people each to get in on the Glass action.
