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Motorola Nexus phone possible after Lenovo assimilation

The Android world is waiting with bated breath on who will be making the next Nexus device later this year, whether it be a tablet, smartphone, or even a phablet. That honor might be bestowed finally on Motorola, Google's former subsidiary, but the wheels might only start turning once Motorola is fully under Lenovo's purview.

The next Google device maker is always a fun guessing game, trying to pit manufacturers against each other in something that almost resembles a game of Magic the Gathering. Google has chosen already chosen some of the top Android OEMs in the market, once for HTC, twice for ASUS, thrice for Samsung, and twice for LG. With this pattern, some believe that HTC might be next chosen one, but The Information believes Motorola is actually next. It might seem that Motorola should have been the perfect candidate for the Nexus 5, considering it was still owned by Google back then but it might have been for that exact reason that it wasn't chosen. Although Google is practically choosing one out of many manufacturers, it has to be careful not to play favorites. At least not too much.

But that's no longer the case and Motorola is no longer with Google, leaving it free to be chosen as a rightful heir to the Nexus name. If things do go that way, the next Nexus device, let's call it Nexus 6 for now, will be interesting, as a device and as a story. As the name might imply, the Nexus 6 is believed to be the first Nexus phablet, which could make it a perfect partner for the Moto 360 smartwatch, since you wouldn't want to pull out your giant phone all the time. It will also be one of the very few deep relationships Google will have with Lenovo beyond the Chromebook sector. Motorola has definitely showed its chops when it unveiled the Moto X, putting prime features in hardware that wasn't exactly high-end even at that time. It will definitely be interesting to see what the new Lenovo-Motorola duo will be able to pull off this time.

As much as the prospect of a Motorola, or any manufacturer, Nexus phablet is an exciting topic for discussion, it might not equally be when it comes to business talk. LG, when denying rumors that it will be making the next Nexus, revealed how the Nexus line, though popular, isn't exactly profitable. Google dictates the number of devices to be made, which is quite low by OEM standards. Lenovo, and Motorola, aren't exactly the biggest sellers in the Android world, which may make them not overly eager to sign up for the Nexus program. But then, depending on how the Nexus 6 turns out, this might exactly be what Motorola and Lenovo need to put their names right at the top.

SOURCE: The Information

VIA: SlashGear

Live on Youtube app updated, more Xperia devices supported

We talked about this cool app a while back, which allows Sony Xperia device users – in actuality, it was initially just for the current flagship, the Sony Xperia Z2 – to broadcast live video over their Youtube channel. An update for the “Live on Youtube” app has just rolled out from Sony, and we’re getting news that more devices are supported.

The standard requirement is still that the app will only run on devices running Android 4.4 Kitkat, and that the user needs to have a Youtube channel (for very obvious reasons). But the device roster has been updated to include the Sony Xperia Z1, Xperia Z1 Compact (a late addition to the changelog) and the Xperia ZL2. Now users for these three other Sony devices can do their own webcasts straight from their phones.

The app works by taking 15 minutes of the video feed from the Xperia devices’ cameras – very capable cameras at that – and broadcasts it live on the user’s Youtube account. There are two modes of the app – the public one where you can share the feed’s link on social networks so that the whole world (well, potentially) would be able to see your video. You can also use the private feed and just pick the people you want to share the feed with, maybe just to members of your family.

The rest of the update, according to Sony, are just minor bug fixes and performance enhancements. We still need to remind users that the caveat to this app is that they will need to turn on the “live feature” setting on their Youtube account for the app to work. There are also countries and places where Youtube is not available, and there is also a restriction on the usage of the app in Germany.

VIA: Xperia Blog

Nokia X update gives endangered phone one last hurrah

Microsoft might have formally closed the doors on its brief Android venture, but it isn't completely pulling the plug on its already existing Android smartphones. Nokia has just announced an incoming software update for the Nokia X, X+, and XL devices, bringing in a wealth of new features and apps, which might also be the last substantial update the smartphones will get.

The biggest UI improvement in this update is the new App Switcher feature, basically like Android's own Recent Apps display. Users need only swipe down from the top edge of the phone to bring down the quick control panel and then select the app switcher icon. This will take them to a cards like layout of currently running and recently used apps, where they can switch to those apps or close the app. It's a few steps more compared to the regular Android way, but considering Nokia/Microsoft's custom UI doesn't have a navigation panel, it's a necessary evil.

The update will also bring a load of pre-installed Microsoft apps to the phone. In particular Outlook, OneDrive, and OneNote will now be baked into the phone's firmware. Outlook brings Microsoft's email and calendaring service to the phone, while OneNote Mobile will let users access notes stored on OneDrive. They can also create notes right from the phone, though curiously limited to a maximum of 500 notes.

Like any other regular Android device, this software update will be arriving via OTA but can also be manually queried from the phone's Settings app. Unfortunately, this isn't the same Nokia X software platform 2.0 that was unveiled with the new Nokia X2, but considering that platform 2.0 will never make it to the older phones because of hardware limitations, this might be the closest that Nokia X owners can get to that experience. And since there is no certainty that Microsoft will continue supporting the platform after it has laid off most of the old Nokia's workforce, Nokia X owners might want to savor this update as much as they can.

SOURCE: Microsoft

A 'Fake ID' Flaw in Android Leaves Millions of Phones Vulnerable

A team of security researchers has discovered a security flaw in Google's mobile OS which affects handsets running versions up to and including 4.4—leaving a potential 82 percent of Android users at risk.

Nvidia Shield Tablet Review: A Gaming Beast, But So Much More

Nvidia's Shield tablet was made for playing games. That's what it's best at. But it's also much more. In fact, it should probably be your next Android tablet no matter how much button-mashing you do.

T-Mobile’s Simple Choice Family plan has 10GB data offer

T-Mobile CEO John Legere really doesn’t pull any punches when calling out his competitors’ claims to offer the “Best Ever Pricing” when it comes to offering family plans to their consumers. What he is boasting about though is that his company is the only one among the carriers that can really back up this claim, particularly with their new Simple Choice program that gives four lines 10GB worth of data connection on an LTE network.

Based on a comparative table they posted on the T-Mobile blog, the normal monthly charges for a normal family plan for four mobile phones is $160. But the Simple Choice plan is just at $100 a month, which means each family member gets 2.5GB on LTE, which is apparently the average size of data that average people consume on a monthly basis. But aside from that, the plan also offers unlimited texts, calls and data (non-LTE of course), as well as tethering to use your phone’s fast connection on your desktop or other gadgets.

If international charges are your concern, the Simple Choice plan also has unlimited text and data in more than 120 countries, and there is no additional charges for this. Music streaming services are also part of the bundle, including T-Mobile’s own UnRadio, an Internet music service created in cooperation with Rhapsody with over 20 million songs on its database.

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The Simple Choice bundle is available for new sign-ups to T-Mobile starting July 30 and will be open to sign-ups until the end of September. With your $60 savings, as compared to the other carriers’ plans, this seems like a deal that is good to pass up. Think also of all the apps and games you can buy on that saved amount!

VIA: SlashGear

SOURCE: T-Mobile

It’s here: Five highlights of NVIDIA’s SHIELD Tablet

NVIDIA's form-factor for the SHIELD Tablet may be more traditional than that of the original SHIELD gaming portable, but as the first reviews suggest, that's not to say it's uninteresting. SlashGear has been putting the Tegra K1 powered slate through its paces and come away mightily impressed, both by the SHIELD Tablet's potency and its updated pen system.

So what are the highlights?

It's mighty powerful

The SHIELD Tablet is the first to run NVIDIA's latest Tegra K1 chipset, with a full 192 CUDA cores and Kepler graphics. That's the same GPU technology as powers NVIDIA's most potent desktop video cards, and even the accelerator boards used in its supercomputers.

It has a clever wireless controller

NVIDIA switched from Bluetooth to WiFi Direct for the SHIELD Wireless Controller, all in the name of cutting latency, and it pays dividends. There's none of the occasional lag or fuzziness you can feel in a Bluetooth gamepad; this is just like the controller you'd use with your regular console.

You can play your PC games remotely

Desktop gamers love their PC games, but most tower systems aren't conducive to being brought out of the house. Using GameStream, the SHIELD Tablet can be used to remotely play full PC titles - all that's transferred from PC to tablet is the graphics, so even system-intensive games like Titanfall will work smoothly as long as your home system is up to it.

NVIDIA GRID plays games in the cloud

We've seen streaming gaming before, from providers like OnLive, but NVIDIA bakes its GRID system right into the new SHIELD Hub. Titles like Borderlands, Saints Row: The Third, Rade Driver GRID, and Street Fighter X Tekken are on offer, and while how well they play depends on the quality of your connection (we're still waiting to get our hands on the LTE-equipped SHIELD Tablet) the fact it's all free makes it tough to complain.

It has a stylus that actually works

NVIDIA calls its pen system DirectStylus 2: all you really need to know is that it's 99-percent of the performance of an expensive digital pen, at a fraction of the cost. It really shows its worth in Dabbler, NVIDIA's home-grown art app, which is capable of 3D modeling drying watercolors, creating virtual textures of paper and canvas, and even controlling how ink and paint drips depending on gravity and how you're holding the tablet.

There's plenty more to find out about the SHIELD Tablet, but for all the details right now, check out the full review over at SlashGear. We'll have more on the innovative gaming slate here on Android Community, too!

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