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KitKat reaches 24.5% of Android distribution market

The latest numbers for Android distribution are in from Google and the numbers show a noticeable change from last month. The single most popular flavor of Android for the week ending September 9, 2014 is Android Jelly Bean API 16 at 25.1% of the market. That is a 1.4% decline for the share of the market that same OS version held last month.



However, Jelly Bean API 17 and 18 did grow slightly during the month. The big mover on the chart is Android KitKat, which now holds 24.5% of the Android market. In August, KitKat held 20.9% of the market making it the second most popular version of Android out there.



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That growth for KitKat is no surprise considering the number of new devices that have hit the market recently using the OS that have proven popular with buyers. Android Gingerbread did lose a bit of ground, in August it held 13.6% of the Android market and this month it held 11.4% of the market.


As always, these numbers come from the number of phones that checked into the Android market for the seven days ending on September 9, 2014. Froyo is still holding on with 0.7% of the market showing no change from last month.


SOURCE: Android





T-Mobile partners with Gogo to bring in-flight text and voicemail

If you’re on a plane to another state and you suddenly remembered a very important message you have to send to your mother, you have to wait until the plane lands to be able to tell her to unplug the iron you left on in your room. But if your carrier is T-Mobile, you don’t have to wait anymore (or else your house might catch on fire or something.). The “un-carrier” has partnered with Gogo, an aero-communications service provider, so their subscribers can enjoy in-flight texting and voice messaging.



If you’re a T-Mobile subscriber, starting September 17, you can now send and receive text messages, picture messages as well as visual voicemail through the in-flight WiFi services of Gogo. And you don’t have to pay an arm or a leg to do so. This service is available for free in over 2,000 commercial aircraft flying within the country. They did not however specify which airlines this will be available in, so maybe you have to ask the airline first before booking your flight.


But you will only be able to use this if your smartphone is WiFi Calling-enabled (which T-Mobile promises all their new phones will be). Connect with the in-flight Gogo WiFi, then launch your browser and you’ll be asked to verify that you’re indeed a T-Mobile customer (better have your plan info ready). Be sure you’ve made at least one WiFi call before your flight to ensure that the feature is activated.


Ever since the FAA has allowed (sometimes, required) that mobile devices be open during the entire flight, there has been a demand for services like this, except that most of them charge a lot for it. Now let’s see if the T-Mobile/Gogo coverage in the air will be good enough for you to be able to reach people who are down there. To check if your smartphone is compatible, you can visit the T-Mobile website where they have a constantly updated list.


SOURCE: T-Mobile





T-Mobile now offering free WiFi calls for subscribers

Someone predicted a few years back that pretty soon, mobile carriers would be obsolete since people will be doing all their messaging and calling through the Internet. Well, carriers are still here but one of them has realized that the second part of that prediction has already come true and so they are slowly adapting their business model to that scenario. T-Mobile is now flaunting that all their subscribers (given their phones have the capability to do so) will now be able to do free WiFi calling.



WiFi Unleashed brings to all Simple Choice plan holders free WiFi calling and texting through all the new smartphones they’re offering. And if your smartphone is stuck in the year 2005 and cannot do that yet, their upgrade program called JUMP! is offering an exclusive enrolment window so you can get yourself a newer device. You don’t need a separate app to be able to enjoy the free WiFi calls, you just use your phone as it is.


And if your house or office seems to not have a clear Wifi connection, T-Mobile is also offering the Personal CellSpot device, which is basically a WiFi router "with a unique patent-pending technology that prioritizes voice calls for crystal clear HD Voice.” For a $25 deposit for subscribers and $99 for prepaid users, the device comes with a 802.11ac, USB 3.0 connectivity and has a range of around 3,000 square feet. It will supposedly help you have better free WiFi calls and if you have a phone that is capable of VoLTE, then audio and video will be better.


T-Mobile, specifically CEO John Legere, has had a colorful history of directly “confronting” rival carriers over their non-subscriber friendly offers. This new offer from the “un-carrier” might just further change the way people do their calls and relate to their carriers, as long as the data offers and connection remain reasonable and more than adequate.


SOURCE: T-Mobile





HTC Nexus 9 coming soon, NVIDIA “says”

HTC has been long rumored to launch the next Nexus tablet. The rumors started early this year, followed by a internal codename tip, preliminary specifications leak and even certified by Wi-Fi Alliance already. NVIDIA has kindly provided the latest confirmation, confirmed that its Tegra K1 chipset will be the heart of the HTC Nexus 9.



Revealed in a legal document related to its recent patent lawsuit against Qualcomm and Samsung, the document explains that the Tegra K1 processor is powerful and being used in range of products by different manufacturers. It then described that NVIDIA is expecting the Nexus 9 to be powered by Tegra K1 as well, with HTC as the tablet maker, and to be announced in this quarter (Q3 2014).


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That’s all what the document has hinted. NVIDIA has removed the document already from its website. No detail specifications are listed in the document, however, according to previous rumors, the HTC Nexus 9 will be an 8.9-inch tablet with 2048 x 1440 resolution. Other specs include a 4GB RAM, NFC, GPS, 8MP camera, 3MP front facing camera and 16/32GB internal storage.


While we are not sure about the exact announcement date, Q3 2014 is ending this month on September 30. The only known HTC press event is in New York City on October 8, named "double exposure", which is likely scheduled for the new Nexus 9 tablet.


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VIA: Bright Side of News, SlashGear





Google gives 2-hour window for refund of apps,games

If you’re one of those people who always has buyers’ remorse after purchasing an app, whether it’s $0.99 or $9.99, you can now rest assured that your “mistake” can be corrected within two hours of buying an app or game on Google Play Store. At least, that’s what it officially says on their GPS policy page now.



Previously, the refund time was only 15 minutes (although they seemed to have been experimenting with the 2-hour window since last month), which was nearly not enough time to actually install the app, try it out for a few minutes and then decide whether or not you want to keep it. But now you have a little longer to make up your mind on whether or not the app or game was a good buy. All you need is go to the Google Play Store app and go to the My Apps section and look at the app or game that you would like to return.


If the 2-hour period has not yet elapsed by the time you do it, there should be a a Refund button beside the Open button there. If you just see an Uninstall button there, then it means your window has closed. You can still uninstall it if you think it’s really a waste of space on your device, but of course no refund will be forthcoming.


If you sneakily think that you can buy the app, use it for 2 hours, refund it, buy it again and use for 2 hours, then refund it again, Google is on to you. You can only refund or return an app once, and if you’ve decided to buy it again, then you’re stuck with it. You can check out Google Play Store’s return paid apps and games policy on the help page.


Why We Need Apple

Why We Need Apple


It's no secret that I'm an Android guy. I worked for two years at an Android-focused site and I own multiple devices with "Nexus" in the name. Still, I couldn't be happier about Apple's announcements yesterday. Why? Because what Apple does affects us all.


Read more...




Google Hangouts now lets you make voice calls

There you have it. Just a day after we were speculating about the seeming migration of Google Voice to Hangouts, Google has officially made an announcement to the effect. When you update your Hangouts to its latest version, you will now be able to make free calls to other users of the messaging service, to numbers within the United States, and for a low fee, even calls outside the country.



We reported on the fact that several Google users were receiving the prompt to migrate their Google Voice to Hangouts, even though there wasn’t any official announcement yet. When things seemed to not be properly working yet, we speculated that not all the kinks had been worked out but that the change was imminent. Well now it is and as long as you update Hangouts to its latest version and you install the Hangouts Dialer, you will be able to make free voice calls, just like you would most other free messaging apps.


There is no mention though if Google Voice is totally done for, although there is probably no use for it now when you can make calls from Hangouts. We also don’t know for now if there will be a way for the “unread” messages from Voice to be retrieved from Hangouts or somewhere else, since the migration yesterday wasn’t able to let users listen or read their messages.


You can update Hangouts through the Google Play Store or you can also update it manually. Don’t forget, you need to download Hangouts Dialer first to be able to use the free calls function of Hangouts.


SOURCE: Google





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