With the smartphone market now fully fleshed out, companies like Apple and Google are now looking to try and find the next big growth market, which means both firms are now throwing as much at the metaphorical wall as possible, just to see what, if anything, sticks. Apple has already made a play for the car, while Google's push in wearables is easy to see in its Android Wear and Google Glass product.
The Rubik's cube is well-known as being a very tricky puzzle, and before the Digital Age brought us Flappy Bird et al, many would kill some time trying to match up all of the colors on each face of the legendary puzzle. Now, to commemorate the Rubik's Cube's 40th birthday, you can try your hand at this classic challenge from right within your browser thanks to Google Doodle.
A new piece of malware, which is capable of infiltrating various specifications of Android-based devices, has seemingly hit a new low in terms of sheer malice. Once installed, the infected device is abruptly disabled, showing only a pop-up message that demands significant sums of money be parted with by the victim.
Since its inception and initial enthusiasm, Google Glass has suffered something of a damaged reputation amongst those who don't own it. Becoming, for some, an example of all that is wrong with modern technology and even being used as a symbol of gentrification in San Francisco and surrounding areas that is being placed squarely at Google's feet, Google Glass is currently in the midst of a P.R. crisis.
Android, or the associated open source project (AOSP), are technically derivatives of Linux, and hence, they natively work with any Linux-based system without requiring extra configurations. This holds true for any Linux variant, and even OS X, too, which shares a common base. However, for Windows – the most widely used PC operating system – things are little different. In Microsoft’s operating environment, everything is about drivers. Any hardware component that you have attached to your system, it will require proper drivers to be configured, whether it’s an internal piece of hardware or a peripheral. It’s not like this is something unique to Windows; it’s just that the latter requires more third-party drivers than its counterparts, and that’s where Android users share the same woes.
One of the great things about the Google-branded Nexus range - besides the fact that users can enjoy untouched Android and swift, timely updates - is that the devices themselves are considerably cheaper than comparable products. But while the likes of the Nexus 7 tablet and Nexus 5 smartphone continue to offer a fairly high-end experience on a budget, the search giant could take things a step further with a sub-$100 handset.
It's that time of the year again at which point the really funny folks come out to play. Google is always game for a joke or two on April 1st, and has begun the tomfoolery with a little adjustment to its famed Maps app. Essentially, it brings a Pokémon Challenge element to the revered navigation tool, and since it's now April Fools' day in many parts of the world already, the Big G has already delivered its prank to tech fans.
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.
Facebook's purchase of WhatsApp for $19 billion has taught us a lot of things, and while the focus has been mainly upon the breathtaking sums of money involved in this particular transaction, WhatsApp's swift 5-year rise, and the dogged, determined nature of one Brian Acton, the acquisition has made apparent the fact that Facebook is up there with the big boys when it comes to spending. Indeed, hitherto, it has been Google stumping up the cash to acquire large firms such as Motorola, and intriguingly, Fortune is reporting that the search giant once placed $10 billion on the table in an offer to buy WhatsApp out.
Samsung is one of the most prolific carriers of Google's Android. Save a couple of half-hearted Windows Phone efforts over the past couple of years, the Korean company has consistently churned out swathes of smartphones running the ubiquitous software, and considering how many hundreds of millions of handsets out there are on Android, the $50 million Google paid to acquire Android nearly a decade ago looks a shrewd bit of business. But it has now emerged that in actual fact, Andy Rubin, one of the founding members of the Android team, actually pitched the product to the Galaxy maker out in Seoul, a proposition that Samsung unequivocally - and perhaps, regrettably - baulked at.
