Early adopters of Google’s living room initiative may now be in possession of obsolete hardware. Google is officially focusing its living room team on the newer Android TV, putting a freeze on further Google TV development themselves, and pulling the developer tools that other developers have relied upon to build their apps.
This news comes quietly out of a Google+ post from the Google TV and Android TV teams on the Google TV Developers Google+ page.
Sometimes it can be difficult to find a power outlet when you’re out and about. So what do you do when your smartphone or tablet is running out of juice? We’d recommend using an external battery pack, those convenient little batteries you can store in your purse or backpack to help keep your devices fully charged. Some battery packs are bulky, though, and we understand not everyone carries around a backpack at all times.
Updated with video
In the past year or so we’ve seen quite afew PC manufacturers experiment with putting Android onto all-in-one computers, generally with mixed results at best. As Windows struggles to stop the PC market’s slow decline however, it looks like we are destined to see many more devices that attempt to bring Google’s mobile OS to the desktop.
Just ahead of the official start of CES, Lenovo has now announced it is jumping into the Android computer game with two new all-in-one devices of its own: the Lenovo N308 All-in-one and the ThinkVision 28 smart monitor.
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
Always-on displays have been around for the best part of the decade. Improvements to battery life and display technology have made the feature almost indispensable to the modern smartphone user. But how many of you actually switch on the feature?
In this poll, we asked Android Authority readers this question. Here’s what they told us.
Do you use your phone’s always-on display feature? Results This fiercely popular poll garnered more than 8,000 votes.
And while Verizon did delay the update in an almost proverbial fashion for a full three months, it finally seems that the waiting will end soon. Although there’s no mention on Verizon’s support website of any exact date for the upgrade, the posting of the standard “benefits of software update” and “software update instructions” PDF docs are clear indicators that ICS is but a few days away.
First things first, you should know that the software update weighs in at a rather hefty 283.
Some smartphone makers implement a feature in their devices called “double tap to wake”, which allows users to wake the phone’s display by simply tapping on the screen two quick times. This feature is put in place for good reason on smartphones like the HTC One M8 or the LG G4 that have oddly-placed power buttons. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for it to be on the new Nexus 6P, as it not only has a rear-mounted fingerprint reader and easily-accessible power button, it also comes with Google’s handy Ambient Display mode.
Surprising virtually everyone, the PlayStation Blog has revealed that a mobile version of Lemmings is now available. The game is the latest entry in the Lemmings series, which started in 1991 and initially launched on the Amiga.
Even though this version of Lemmings is brand new (being developed by Sad Puppy Limited), the basic concept remains the same as its predecessors. The game is a puzzle-platformer that tasks you with guiding at least a certain percentage of anthropomorphized lemmings through stages filled with obstacles.
While Sprint is still ironing out the final kinks in its new 4G LTE network, Verizon Wireless is preparing yet another important expansion of its LTE service, making it that much difficult for anyone to threaten its leadership in the mobile carrier market. No less than 27 new markets will be covered starting today, while Big Red’s 4G LTE network will also be expanded in 47 existing markets. This should result, according to official statements, in over two thirds of the US population being covered by Verizon’s high-speed wireless service.
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Forget supersizing your Big Mac combo. McDonald’s has an even better plan to keep people around and kids busy – tablets. Maybe the games are no longer enough in the digital age, right? Either way, McDonald’s and Samsung have partnered to install tablets in most UK restaurants.
This move is part of the company’s “Experience of the future” program, which aims to offer customers an experience closer to the way they live.
Just a month ago, Dong Nguyen took down the massively popular game Flappy Bird from Google Play and the Apple AppStore, reportedly due to all the unwanted attention and the overall addictive nature of the game. Since that time, we’ve seen more clones pop up than we can count, yet no return of the original.
So we have to wonder: will everyone’s favorite bird to hate ever flap again? The answer is maybe.