Xiaomi teased a foldable smartphone prototype back in January but we haven’t really heard much from the company after that. It’s possible the firm is simply waiting for the right time to launch them.
Meanwhile, a 2018 patent filed by the Chinese company has recently been approved. It has also made its way into the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) database.
Spotted by LetsGoDigital, the Xiaomi patent shows a Moto Razr-like clamshell foldable phone.
We’ve previously reported on Android 4.2.2 rumor after rumor which both included screenshots that could have easily been faked with a simple build.prop edit. We here at Android Authority decided to do a little bit of digging on our own and this is what we’ve found. Nexus devices running various builds of Android 4.2.2 have been hitting our website pretty hard over the past week. That’s right, we’ve seen the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 all show up in our web server logs.
We’ve seen plenty of really good stuff from Taiwan-based Asus in the past few months — not to mention the brand-spanking new Nexus 7 tablet — so there’s a lot of interest in what kind of moves the company is planning to do next. So what exactly is in the cards for them? If a recent report on All Things D is to be believed, the next big step for Asus is a bold entry into the competitive smartphone market in the U.
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
TL;DR
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group has announced Auracast. Auracast is the next generation of Bluetooth audio technology. Auracast provides audio sharing, virtually unlimited broadcasting, and more. Audiophiles are in for some good news, thanks to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) and its latest Bluetooth innovation.
The SIG has announced Auracast, a new audio technology and brand that offers audio sharing, public listening tech, improved accessibility, and more.
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
Android Device Manager has saved our guts at least once, right? The ability to find, ring, block and wipe a device remotely can be very convenient when a phone gets lost or stolen. And now we are finding out Chromebooks with access to the Google Play Store can also take advantage of these neat features.
While it seems to be an accidental side feature, the ability to use the Android Device Manager with a Chromebook will prove useful to many.
The new LTE-A version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 was compared to its competitors in a series of benchmarks. The results show that the Snapdragon 800 version consumes the same or less power than the Exynos 5 Octa version and other competitors.
A Korean website tested the battery life of the new LTE-A version of the Samsung Galaxy S4, the first device powered by a Snapdragon 800 processor. Playwares put the Galaxy S4 LTE-A SHV-E330S, which launched last week and is a South Korea exclusive, through a web browsing test, a video playback test, and a 3D benchmark, in order to see how the Snapdragon 800 processor fares against competitors.
Google has a reputation for launching and ditching numerous messaging and communications apps over the years. It looks like the search company isn’t giving up yet, as it’s apparently working on a mobile app that unifies various Google services.
According to The Information (paywall), citing several sources who used the app or were briefed on it, the new app is set to be part of its G-Suite collection of enterprise services.
Electric vehicles are undoubtedly gaining steam as the vehicle of choice for many motorists, but one major downside is charging time. This means you might be caught waiting in line at a charging station during your journey.
Now, Google has announced that you can use Google Maps to check real-time availability of charging station ports in the U.S. and U.K. In other words, you don’t have to physically go to a station to see if there are any free ports.
Google on Christmas day has quietly announced via its Google Play Google Plus page that its Play Store Gift Cards are available for purchase from a variety of third-party retail partners including Target, GameStop, Radio Shack, Walmart and others. Here’s one such status update on the Google Plus page:
Need a last minute #holiday gift? Get Google Play gift cards, now available at Target, +GameStop, +RadioShack and +Walmart. Find a retailer near you: US-http://goo.
Although it operates the largest social networking service in Japan and it has seen some success with a couple of basic, but addictive iOS games, GREE hasn’t made much efforts to get into the Android game (both literally and figuratively).
The only GREE title available in Google Play until a few days ago was Crime City, a crime game that probably doesn’t say much to many of you. However, the new Modern War might just put GREE on the Android map, as it looks like a pretty fun and challenging little MMO war game.