Update

Several BLU phones have been secretly sending data via third-party app

The unlocked smartphone company BLU has now admitted that several of its handsets have been secretly sending out personal data collected from their owners. The data was transmitted via a third-party app that was installed on six of its phones. Best Android security practices Features According to The New York Times, the security firm Kryptowire first discovered that an app in some of BLU’s phones was transmitting data to a Chinese server every 72 hours.

What's new in Android 4.3 Jelly Bean

We are only a day away from the expected official announcement of Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, however, that hasn’t stopped leaked builds of the next Android update from finding their way onto the internet. The Nexus 4 has now been blessed with a leaked build for Android 4.3 (click here for the incredible story of how it came to fruition), after the Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition received the Android 4.

Google Play Movies is upgrading SD and HD movies to 4K for free

TL;DR Google is upgrading user-owned SD and HD films in Play Movies to 4K for free, but only in the U.S. and Canada. The search giant is also making UHD movies cheaper to buy in the Play Store. An updated Play Movies app is bringing a refreshed app to Samsung, LG, and Vizio TVs as well as bringing UHD streaming to Samsung’s 4K Smart TVs. Just over a week ago, a teardown of a recent Play Movies build revealed several strings of code that hinted at Google potentially upgrading user’s movies to 4K.

Just who is Oppo? And why you should know them

Over the last month or so, you might have heard the name “Oppo” quite a bit as Android Authority covered all manner of teasers and rumors related to the recently announced Oppo N1. If you’ve found yourself wondering who Oppo is, then you’re certainly not alone. Oppo Find 5 Despite its (relatively) small marketing budget and the fact that it’s a fairly new smartphone manufacturer, Oppo still manages to pack quite a few features into their handsets and yet offer prices that easily undercut better known brands such as Samsung, HTC and Sony.

Oppo F11 Pro Avengers Endgame edition unboxing

Avengers: Endgame is smashing box office records all over the world. You won’t find any spoilers here, but it’s an amazing film. If you’re a Marvel fan you should definitely see it. To commemorate the release of the movie, Oppo has released the F11 Pro Avengers Endgame Limited Edition. We’ve previously reviewed the Oppo F11 Pro so we won’t go into much detail about the phone here. If you want to know more about it, feel free to read our Oppo F11 Pro full review.

Root your Nexus the easy way, Nexus Root Toolkit updated for Android 4.3

If you’re looking for an easy way to root your Android device and aren’t familiar with fastboot or ADB, then look no further. The Nexus Root Toolkit by WugFresh has been updated to support Android 4.3 as well as the 2013 Nexus 7. Nexus Root Toolkit will unlock, root, relock, and return your Nexus device back to stock if the need would ever arise. The Nexus Root Toolkit is much more than just a rooting and unrooting tool.

What can you do with T-Mobile's "Free Data For Life" plan?

T-Mobile has beenissuing a press release claiming that with the purchase of a cellular-enabled tablet at a select Walmart store, you can receive data for life! Sounds great! Except, in reality, it is barely enough 4G data for anyone looking to possibly stream a movie, stream any music and/or email attachments multiple times. If someone purchases a cellular-enabled tablet on T-Mobile’s 4G network, that person will recieve up to 200MB of free 4G data every single month for the entire duration of the tablet’s life.

LG Velvet 2 Pro, Rollable now on sale to LG employees only

TL;DR LG is reportedly selling off its unreleased smartphones to its Korea-based employees. Per a leak, the devices on offer include the LG Rainbow/Velvet 2 Pro and the LG Rollable. Employees can reportedly have the Velvet 2 Pro for around $170. Before it announced its retirement from the mobile space, LG was still working on a few devices. One of which was the LG Rainbow, or referred to as the LG Velvet 2 Pro.

Word Lens real-time translation app launches on Android

About 2 years ago, an app called Word Lens launched for the iPhone. It seemed like one of the more technically impressive apps out there and a great demo for what smartphones can do for us these days. Word Lens worked, in a way, similarly to Google Goggles, which you could use to take pictures of text in another language, and then Google’s servers would use OCR to see what’s in the image, and then use the Google Translate engine to translate, in your language of choice.

Diagnosing your phone's battery health

The more powerful the phone, the more things it can do. Unfortunately, the more things a phone can do, the faster its battery will drain. You can’t expect a person to multitask and not get tired, after all. It’s easy to abuse our phones. When you have a powerful processor and a lot of storage space available, it’s pretty hard not to install and use a lot of apps at one time.