Microsoft’s quiet Android coup
Although Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella hasn’t fundamentally changed Microsoft’s core business ever since taking over from Steve Ballmer, one thing we’ve noticed is that Nadella is much better at sticking subtle daggers into rivals. So where Microsoft under Ballmer used to go after Google with all the subtlety of a steroid-infused elephant with megaphones strapped to each if its tusks — remember the painfully awful “Scroogled” campaign, for instance — Nadella has been adept at coming up with clever ways to undermine Google’s domination of its own Android mobile platform.
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Apple Watch gets huge spreads in two more top magazines
Did you know that the Apple Watch is currently in the midst of a world tour? Not a physical one, of course — we’ll have to wait until April for that — but rather a print tour, popping up in some of the most popular magazines around the world.
Last week, we got an early look at the spread appearing in the March issue of Vogue, and now China’s East Touch and England’s The Sunday Times have joined in as well.
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Meet the one auto CEO who’s excited by the rumored Apple Car
With mounting evidence that Apple is at the very least exploring the possibility of developing a car, we’ve seen the expected influx of comments from auto industry veterans skeptical of Apple’s plans. A few weeks ago, for example, former GM CEO Dan Akersson cautioned Apple that they have no idea what they’re getting into. Shortly thereafter, Mercedes-Benz chief Dieter Zetsche essentially laughed off the notion that an Apple Car might pose any sort of competitive threat.
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Hilarious video shows how you can get free stuff by pretending you just won an Oscar
What would you do if you won an Oscar? I’ll tell you: you’d probably attend all of the Hollywood parties with the cast and crew of whatever project you worked on. But what if you didn’t have a cast and crew? What if you never actually won an Oscar in the first place, you just made a fake Oscar statue to carry around on the night of the Academy Awards?
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Hands-on with the best Android smartwatch that has ever been made
Coming to MWC 2015 I thought the LG Watch Urbane was going to be the sexiest new wearable device in town, but I soon discovered that was not going to be the case.
While the most interesting mobile toys introduced on Sunday came from two of the most important Android smartphone makers in the world, HTC and Samsung, other companies made several announcements as well. Among them, you could easily spot a new wearable device coming out of China — the Huawei Watch, which might just be the only Android smartwatch you should care about right now.
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Banks are ‘scrambling’ to stamp out Apple Pay-related fraud
It apparently hasn’t taken very long for scammers to figure out ways to commit fraud with Apple Pay. The Guardian’s Charles Arthur writes that some banks are “scrambling” to fix Apple Pay-related problems on their end that have allowed criminals to use the platform to buy goods with stolen identities and credit card information.
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Fashion expert tears into Apple Watch: ‘It’s just not pretty’
One challenge that the first generation of smartwatches will have is that they’re just too bulky to look natural sitting on your wrist. This is obviously something that will improve with time since gadgets tend to get lighter and thinner as they develop but the first batch of smartwatches we’ve seen still look rough in this regard. The first Apple Watch is no different and one fashion expert recently tore into Apple’s first wearable computer in an interview with Forbes.
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Galaxy S6 vs. HTC One M9: Samsung puts HTC to shame in early benchmarks
Let’s be clear: Benchmark results do not prove definitively that one device runs better than another, particularly since we know that OEMs have tried to optimize their devices to produce stronger results. That said, two new videos flagged by Android Police show that the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge really do appear to have eye-popping benchmark scores, at least in the versions being displayed at Mobile World Congress right now.
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LG Watch Urbane hands-on: The smartwatch LG really needs
A few days before MWC 2015 kicked off, LG unveiled not one but two interesting wearable devices, and even though they share the same name, they’re actually quite different. The LG Watch Urbane LTE model that I saw earlier is a SIM-enabled smartphone on your wrist, a device that’s pretty bulky, even though it looks good and you could easily get used to that big metallic piece of technology on your hand.
But the real looker on LG’s hands is the LG Watch Urbane that looks even better in real life than in pictures and videos.
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Galaxy S6 vs. iPhone 6: An early look at the battle of the sixes
We’re only in day 1 of the annual Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain, but it looks as though Samsung has already stolen the show. Samsung and HTC both announced stunning new flagship smartphones during separate press conferences on Sunday, but one succeeded in reinventing itself while the other showed off an iterative update that was decidedly far less exciting.
Where Samsung’s new Galaxy S6 and of the Galaxy S6 edge are concerned, Samsung will really only have one competitor when it comes to flagship smartphone sales, and that’s the iPhone 6; simply put, no other company can afford to go up against Samsung’s multi-billion dollar marketing and advertising budget.
So, how do Samsung’s new flagship phones stack up against Apple’s iPhone 6?
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