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Android Wear may be rebranded as “Wear OS,” A notification spotted in the  Android P Developer Preview  suggests that Android Wear may be rebranded to Wear OS. A Redditor  (via  Android Police ) spotted the Wear OS text recently when pairing an Android Wear device, and it was accompanied by what could be a new logo (here’s the  original ). Claim Your $500 worth of Bitcoin The branding can  apparently  be seen in the Developer Preview beta version 12.5, though there’s so far no explanation for it. The existence of both the text and the emblem—a “W” in Google’s trademark red, blue, yellow, green colors—however, suggest it’s not simply an error; other Google services have previously been spotted with new names in beta versions of Google products before being officially changed later. Imgur This could be part of a push to broaden the appeal of its products and services, rather than having them tied specifically to the Android sys...

Google  YouTube has been in the spotlight repeatedly over the past several months, but rarely for anything encouraging. Most recently, the video sharing platform was lambasted for allowing YouTube star Logan Paul to upload a vlog prominently featuring the body of someone who had allegedly committed suicide. The Google-owned property then refrained from laying down the law on Paul  until an uproar from users forced its hand days later . But as worrisome as  the Logan Paul episode  was for frequent visitors of YouTube, the actual reason that Google has to address the root of the problem is because of advertisers. They understandably don’t want to have their wares and services attached to inappropriate or controversial content. So YouTube is making some major changes. In a post  on the  Inside AdWords  blog  this week, Google VP of engineering Paul Muret discussed three ways that YouTube is going to address its biggest issues in 2...

Android device  You thought you were completely disconnected from any location tracking by  Google  and your phone when you went into your phone’s location services and toggled them off, right? You’d be wrong! Hah…ha…haaa…ugh. According to a report from  Quartz , Google has been doing a bit of location tracking on Android phones even if you told them not to by turning off your phone’s location services. And we’re talking about any of the modern Android phones you might own, so yes, you are included in this conversation. Quartz  found that Google has essentially been pinging nearby cellular towers and retrieving that info through the Firebase Cloud Messaging service that manages push notifications and messages. Again, this is all still happening even if you have turned off location services on your phone. This collection of location via cell tower can happen over both WiFi and cellular data connection too, by the way. The data collected is encrypted, but the ...

Google Add Your Comment   After  several weeks  of  rumors ,  Google announced  this evening an “agreement” that will see HTC employees who worked on the Pixel join the Alphabet company’s hardware division. The deal is valued at $1.1 billion, while HTC will continue to run its smartphone business. In a blog post this evening, hardware chief Rick Osterloh announced that Google “signed an agreement with HTC” to “fuel even more product innovation in the years ahead.” This acquihire will see “a team of HTC talent” — pegged at around 100 engineers this morning — join Google’s hardware division. With this agreement, a team of HTC talent will join Google as part of the hardware organization. These future fellow Googlers are amazing folks we’ve already been working with closely on the Pixel smartphone line, and we’re excited to see what we can do together as one team. Osterloh specifically notes that the incoming team has already worked with Google on...

Facebook While Facebook prepares to offer readers a way to  subscribe and pay for news  directly from inside its app, the social network continues to tinker with how it presents publishers’ content elsewhere. In the latest development, TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that Facebook has removed Instant Articles — Facebook’s self-hosted, faster-loading article format for mobile — from Messenger. “As we continue to refine and improve Instant Articles — and in order to have the greatest impact on people and publishers — we’re focusing our investment in Instant Articles in the Facebook core app and are no longer offering Instant Articles in Messenger,” a spokesperson said. “We believe that Messenger is an exciting channel for new and interesting news consumption experiences, including the opportunity to build unique messaging experiences in Messenger that many publishers (including TechCrunch) have executed successfully via the Messenger Platform.” Instant Article...

Google Wifi If you use a modern home Wi-Fi solution like the  Google Wifi  or our favorite mesh system, the  AmpliFi HD , you’re undoubtedly enjoying lightning fast internet all over your home. It’s great for phones, tablet, and other light-duty devices, but we have a better recommendation for your PC, streaming devices, or anything else that needs the fastest and most reliable connection possible. Wiring your house for Ethernet is a pain in the neck, which is why devices like the  TP-Link AV200 Nano Powerline Adapter Starter Kit  are so fantastic. You get the same reliability and sustained speeds as you would with cat5, but you don’t need to install anything at all. Plug one box in near your router, another box near your PC, and you’re done! Here are the highlights from the product page: Up to 200Mbps speed for seamless HD video streaming and online gaming300-meter range over electrical circuitry for better performance through walls and floorsMiniature desi...

    LG Mobile There are several reasons why a company like LG might finally decide to make the switch to an OLED display on their latest flagship. The move to a plastic OLED screen on the  V30  is, for many, one of the biggest deals about it, but what prompted LG to make the change? Daydream support could be one of those reasons, with Google’s Daydream VR spec requiring an OLED display, among other hardware components, in order to be supported. But that’s not it, even if the  V30 is LG’s first Daydream Ready phone . See also: LG POLED vs Samsung Super AMOLED LG POLED vs Samsung Super AMOLED Customer preference could also be the cause, with Samsung’s AMOLED screens largely  setting the standard  for what is considered a “good” screen on Android phones. But LG didn’t have any internal research or numbers to share with media, as most OEMs typically have when they introduce (or backtrack on) something new. LG Display’s increased P-OLED production ...

Having unveiled the Galaxy Note 8 officially, Samsung can now get down to the business of selling its new flagship smartphone. The company’s carrier and retail partners in several markets across the globe started  taking pre-orders for the handset on August 24 . Samsung is going to release the Galaxy Note 8 in markets like North America and parts of Europe on September 15. Samsung’s regional arms will confirm pricing and availability details for their respective markets. According to a new report, the Galaxy Note 8 launch date in India is likely to be September 11. The report also mentions that the 64GB variant of the handset will be priced at Rs. 74,900 or $1,170. Amazon India is reportedly going to be the exclusive online retailer for the Galaxy Note 8. Customers will also be able to purchase it from Samsung’s retail locations as well as the company’s offline retail partners. Samsung will apparently only start taking pre-orders for the Galaxy Note 8 f...

Welcome to the 206th Android Apps Weekly! Here are the the headlines from the last week: Android Oreo will get non-root theming . A third party app called Substratum will include the feature. There are some caveats. You have to use a computer to make it work. It also breaks a bit of basic functionality. It’s nothing serious, though. It’s a bit unconventional. However, it’s one step closer to native theming on Android. Plus, Substratum is a fairly excellent app on its own. Telltale Games launched a huge summer sale this week . Included are four The Walking Dead games, both Minecraft: Story Mode titles, The Wolf Among Us, Game of Thrones, Guardians of the Galaxy, and others. The sale includes the base game as well as the season pass for those titles. That means you can get the whole game at a discount. It might be worth it for adventure game fans. Google is trying to help depressed people . They’re working with the National Alliance of Mental Illness to get people help. Google Searchin...

Essential Phone Nearly 90 days ago,  Essential wowed the world  with their smartphone. It was supposed to  ship not long after that , but as everyone probably knows, that didn’t exactly happen. It’s taken a few months to iron the process out, but if you ordered an Essential Phone, you should be getting an email with tracking information very shortly.  That’s great news for Essential, and great news for early adopters and anyone considering buying the phone now that it’s available. It’s not so great that the launch will now be overshadowed by the  Galaxy Note 8  and the impending  iPhone 8 , both of which will likely command serious amounts of attention from reviewers and buyers, but maybe Essential managed to do something that will keep some of the spotlight. We’ll find out over the next month or so.

ckBerry has always placed a high priority on the needs of businesses, especially when it comes to security. All of the company's Android phones come with the 'DTEK' security suite, and BlackBerry has done a pretty good job of pushing out Google's monthly security patches. Now, BlackBerry may be looking to license its secure version of Android to other companies. According to a report from  The Economic Times , BlackBerry is calling its version of Android "BlackBerry Secure," and it includes all the security features currently shipping on its Android devices. The company's Senior Vice President, Alex Thurber, said, "We have a number of different contracts that we are working on right now. We expect some to be announced soon. We have an agreement with Optiemus for the India market for BlackBerry Secure." You may not have heard of Optiemus, but they are one of three companies licensing the BlackBerry brand to sell phones (the other two being TCL...

With each new iPhone 8 leak that we’ve seen so far, it becomes increasingly obvious that the hottest iPhone that Apple will launch this year will also feature a design unlike anything we’ve seen on previous models. The iPhone 8 will not have a physical home button and its bezels will be smaller than ever. CAD drawings, 3D renders, and protective case designs have shown the same purported iPhone 8 design over and over. Well, it looks all the rumors are true, and we have Apple to thank for the biggest iPhone 8 leak to date. DON'T MISS Genius flash drive works with micro-USB, USB-C, and USB-A all at once You know how Apple is big on secrecy and how the company has employed a team of highly skilled former intelligence officers to combat internal leaks? Well, Apple probably didn’t see this one coming. Someone at Apple accidentally — or intentionally — released the first firmware of Apple’s HomePod smart speaker. Intrepid developers took that firmware apart to find various details ab...

Ever since the release of the HTC Dream back in 2008, Android has been growing steadily. Over the weekend, the platform achieved a pretty major milestone when  Google Play Services  crossed 5 billion downloads on the Google Play Store. If you know anything about Android, you know that Play Services isn’t something you go to the Play Store and download yourself. Instead, the app is automatically loaded onto your Android-powered gadget — if it has access to Google’s suite of Play services, that is. Play Services was first launched in 2012, and since then, more than 5 billion people have logged into an Android device with their Google account to enable it. That’s a substantially large amount of people, and it makes sense considering  Google’s claim at I/O  earlier this year that there are currently 2 billion monthly active Android devices. The 5 billion number for Play Services is substantially higher because it includes billions of devices that are out of commissi...

The  Samsung Galaxy Note 8  has just been approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This is one of the last stops on the road to release and it arrives only a few weeks before the phone’s official unveiling on August 23 in New York. The device bears model number SM-N950 (following SM-N930, 920, 910 and 900 for the Note 7, Note 5, Note 4 and Note 3 respectively), and the FCC filing listing indicates that it will support the GSM and CDMA networks for full compatibility with US carriers, as you might expect. SEE ALSO: Update: Samsung Galaxy S8 Active render gives us a better look at the rugged flagship

This time, a leak occurred in the company Google – the public decided to show how Pixel 2, supposedly codenamed Walleye, will look, and also talked about the platform on which it will be built. If the novelty looks like it does on the render. Perhaps this is the main idea of ​​designers? The company has found the ideal form for itself, and only will change the filling and make only accurate design adjustments? Techno-spies reported that once again, users will be offered to buy  Google Pixel 2  with a 5-inch display or Pixel 2 XL with a screen of 5.5 inches. Novelties will receive the Snapdragon 836 platform, created according to the standards of 10-nanometer process technology, and will be expected to work on Android O. At the moment there is no information about the new platform from Qualcomm. But if it is in the plans of the chip maker, then almost certainly it will be an overclocked version of Snapdragon 835. By and large, the design of the second generation was decided ...

Changes big and small are coming to Android and these are our favorites. Android O  will soon be here, though it will take a while for most of us to see it. With it comes more of the tweaks under the hood with each release: changes to make batteries last longer, apps run better, and to keep our information safer. But there is also a lot of other cool stuff there! Things that sound small but will make a big difference like better ways to manage fonts and emojis, as well as bigger changes like new ways to show notifications. Everyone has a favorite feature from the list of changes, and that's what we're going around the table with this week. See what we're most looking forward to when Android O arrives. Jerry Hildenbrand I have two things, but they kind of go together so it's not cheating. The new window controls like picture-in-picture combined with new ways to use the keyboard mean developers can build apps that work even better on  Chromebooks . It's great ...

Google has a tendency to create multiple products that end up competing with each other, to some degree. Android and Chrome OS, Google's handful of messaging clients, the list goes on. But two of Google's subscription services, YouTube Red and Google Play Music, will soon merge into one offering. The merge was confirmed during a panel session at the New Music Seminar conference in New York, by YouTube's head of music, Lyor Cohen. He explained that Google needs to merge the services to help bring in new subscribers, saying "The important thing is combining YouTube Red and Google Play Music, and having one offering." Google later provided a statement to  The Verge , which stated that the company is still evaluating options and would notify users before any changes. Google's music ecosystem is a bit complicated, but I'm not sure if a merge would solve that. Google Play Music is a more typical music streaming service, while YouTube Music focuses on music vi...

HMD is set to roll out a new Nokia branded phone. It’s not just another Android smartphone but it’s the brand’s first ever premium flagship smartphone. This new mobile device will be announced officially on August 16 in London. Press invites are now out, following the recent leak about the handset. The upcoming Nokia 8 is expected to feature Carl Zeiss optics. We’re not surprised about this because the two have previously partnered already. We’re just curious how the camera technology will play well with the new Android phone. Nothing has been confirmed yet but here are the Nokia 8 specs and features we know so far: a 5.3-inch display screen, 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution, 13MP rear camera with Carl Zeiss optics, Snapdragon 835 processor as we  noted  earlier, 64GB onboard storage, 4GB or 6GB RAM, and dual SIM support. We’ve seen the  blue version  last week while a  copper colored Nokia 8  appeared yesterday. A silver version is also expected to be intr...

If anyone knew that big phones were a menace, it was Steve Jobs. He vowed never to make a large phablet sized iPhone because he knew the consequences. Difficulty of gripping and use, as phones and their screens grow bigger but hands stay the same, and a nuisance to carry, because they occupy so much space in your pocket. However, that’s the past… because the average phone screen size today stands at roughly 6 inches, while the average human thumb is just 2.74 inches. Phone cases are so commonplace today that you’ll rarely see a phone without one. Their use goes beyond just protecting your phone now, as they act as stands, card-holders, external batteries, wallets, etc. In fact, they’re so commonly bought alongside phones, it makes perfect sense that they solve this rising problem of phones slipping out of your hands (and hitting you in the face when you’re checking Instagram in bed). As opposed to those obscenely ugly PopSockets or those hideous Ring Stands that do nothing but make yo...

YouTube is a simple service with a lot of not-so-simple problems to it. It's easy for  YouTube  to frustrate users because beneath the cat videos and endless comment sections are a lot of features that can really make or break your experience. You thought you turned off Autoplay, but it still seems to be turned on when you're showing your family videos on the TV. You get notifications when people across the house are casting. Why? And more importantly, how do you end these annyoances? Here's how. How to control and stop someone casting from YouTube How to keep YouTube from Autoplaying when casting How to quickly skip forward or backward in a YouTube video How to change how far your double-tap to seek goes How to control and stop someone casting from YouTube By default, when someone casts content from YouTube (or most other apps) to a Chromecast, everyone else connected to the same router as at that Chromecast will receive a notification that allows them to control tha...