The new BlackBerry Passport phone is not going to win any awards for beautiful design. But then again, it’s not supposed to — it was designed specifically to appeal to BlackBerry diehards who want a phone primarily for productivity purposes and who don’t care what it looks like.
Read more here: Boy Genius Report
Google Now is already one of the greatest things to happen to mobile devices in the past few years. And every time we think that Google can’t possibly make it any better, awesome new functionality pops up that proves otherwise. The latest example is an awesome new feature that currently appears to be rolling out slowly to some users.
Read more here: Boy Genius Report
Sony on Tuesday unveiled a brand new Android handset whose main feature is the selfie-optimized front-facing camera. The Xperia C3 is not a hot flagship handset, an Xperia Z2 successor, meant to take on the high-end smartphones launched by the competition. Instead, Sony markets it simply as the “world’s best selfie smartphone.”
Read more here: Boy Genius Report
Google has published new Android distribution stats on its developers portal, the first numbers shared by the company following the Android L Developer Preview release, but the company did not include any Android L numbers in the new chart. That’s hardly surprising though, not only because Android L is not commercially available at this point, but also because the Developer Preview was released in the last week of June, with only two devices being officially supported so far.
Read more here: Boy Genius Report
Samsung on Tuesday morning reported unaudited financial results for the second quarter that badly missed analysts’ estimates. The company said that it expects second-quarter operating profit to fall to 7.2 trillion won, or approximately $7.1 billion, versus analysts’ expectations of 8.6 trillion won. That figure marks a massive 24% decline from the year-ago quarter. Samsung also said that it expects June-quarter revenue to decline 10% to 52 trillion won, or approximately $51.4 billion.
Read more here: Boy Genius Report
Popcorn Time – the controversial service offers a Netflix-like movie streaming experience to users interested in pirating movies in a different, more exotic way than traditional downloads – has just gotten better, Business Insider reports. The service now allows Windows users to stream their selections to a Chromecast-connected big-screen television, letting them enjoy new flicks free of charge on a larger display. However, the feature is only available in an alpha version at this point.
Read more here: Boy Genius Report
So far there’s only been one smartwatch that’s earned wide acclaim for its stylish design: Motorola’s Android Wear-based Moto 360. However, Design Milk draws our attention to a new smartwatch called the Withings Activité that might give the Moto 360 a run for its money for the title of the world’s best looking smartwatch.
Read more here: Boy Genius Report
So now that Google is working with Samsung to push its Knox mobile security system out to a wider number of Android phones, is BlackBerry CEO John Chen worried? Well, he probably is, which is why he’s decided to write up a new “BlackBerry Fact Check” of Samsung’s Knox system over at BlackBerry’s official company blog.
Read more here: Boy Genius Report
The LG G3 has yet to be launched in the U.S., and a new image leak from @evleaks reveals that the main carriers in the region already had their way with the handset. Of the four LG G3 versions going to AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon, only the Sprint model lacks any carrier branding. And of course, Verizon’s version has more logos on the handset than any other model.
Read more here: Boy Genius Report
The OnePlus One isn’t exactly the easiest smartphone to get your hands on, but for enthusiastic Android fans it’s still the most exciting smartphone we’ve seen this year. Now, to add a bit of extra excitement, OnePlus has not only confirmed that not only will the OnePlus One be updated to Android L following its release this fall… it might get the L update faster than most leading Android smartphones on the market.
Read more here: Boy Genius Report