Androidifying

Okay, so Blackberry has been running Android apps for a while now, basically buy using a virtual machine to do it. Which is cool and all. Well not really. But now there’s a new image making the rounds this weekend that shows the Google Play Store on a Blackberry Z10. This is originating from a  Crackberry forum post , who posted the image you see above. It’s believed to be part of Blackberry OS 10.2.1, which is being tested internally right now. So it’s possible that the user could be one of the very few that still work at Blackberry. Oh but it gets even better, there are even more pictures. So it’s not just a case of the Google Play Store being photoshopped onto the device. Now, we’re thinking this is fake. When news gets to be slow like this, after the Nexus launch is over with. We start seeing a bunch of fake stuff, and we’re guessing this is part of it. Especially since Blackberry is in all kinds of financial trouble right now. However this could be the real deal, but I’ll want t

I know a lot of people dispute the fact that Google Glass will change their owner’s lives forever – but I am a firm believer that Glass will change the way their owners view the world. Google has handled this product in surprisingly an organized, systematic, testing and refinement before Glass is ever offered to the general public for sale.  A device of this magnitude has to come out of the stall running, and Google is making sure that there will be ample applications ready and that Glass will be a wearable device that is truly functional. Glass Main Menu Google has increased their pool of additional “testers” by allowing existing users to invite people to be a fellow Glass user, as they are referred. Google has methodically been issuing these invites more frequently and at a Saturday night appearance at the Engadget Expand conference in New York, Timothy Jordon, Google’s Senior Development advocate said, “The goal is to make it (Glass) more available so those who want Glass can get

Last night, @evleaks  let us know  that the HTC M8 will be hitting all four US carriers in Q1 of next year. Although this really isn’t news since we already knew that. The HTC M8 is the successor to the HTC One which actually did pretty well here in the US. Now it didn’t outsell any of Samsung’s devices, but that’s a tall order anyways since they spend so much on advertising. Which is possible when you are selling millions of devices per day. Earlier in the week we had heard some of the specs for the HTC M8. Which included a 5 or 5.2-inch display. Which I’d expect to stick to 1080p or higher. Along with a Snapdragon 800 processor and 3GB of RAM. I’d also expect it to have 32GB and 64GB of internal storage and possibly a microSD card slot like the HTC One Max had. We’ve actually been seeing the M8 codename running around the interwebs for a few months now. We’ve heard both that it’s a standalone device and that it’s the successor to the HTC One. I wonder what they’ll call it? The HTC Tw

The Oppo N1 was unveiled back in September, and the new Oppo flagship is really top of the line. When the N1 was announced, Oppo also announced to the world that they had partnered with CyanogenMod to pre-load the custom ROM on the handset. Oppo has released a few more details today about the limited edition N1 that will run CM right out of the box. There are going to be two versions of the N1, and they will begin shipping in December. We don’t know anything about pricing yet, but they will probably cost around $600. There will be a limited edition version and a standard version. Both devices will be available internationally. The limited edition Oppo N1 will come pre-loaded with CyanogenMod. It will also come with special CM stickers and packaging, and a smartphone case that will feature the Oppo and CyanogenMod mascots. The standard Oppo N1 will be running Oppo’s ColorROM and will have CyanogenMod pre-loaded, too. You won’t need to root your new N1 or even install a custom recovery t

Hasan Kaymak Innovations designs HTC concept devices and has quite a following on Google+. His latest concept is the HTC “ Dark Shadows ” tablet, and for good measure, he has also thrown in the HTC M8 Smartphone Concept as well. We know that HTC is working on a tablet, could this be it? He even provides concept specifications for the tablet: Dark Shadows Tablet 10-inch Display with 2560 x 1600 Resolution 64-bit Quad-Core Processor 4GB RAM 32GB/64GB Internal Storage microSD Card Slot for additional storage 4-UltraPixel Camera with LED Flash BoomSound Speakers USB 3.0 QuickCharge 7850mAh Battery HTC Voice Assistant HTC Zone and LEDs for Notifications Android 4.4 KitKat Above is the back and below is a good shot of the edge, looks pretty sexy for a tablet! But wait, there is more as this Dark Shadows also comes in a light color, Silver or White, it is hard to say with a concepts rendering, but whatever color, it is also very sharp looking. In the lighter color it is easier to see the deta

In Android 4.4, you may have noticed there’s a new option in settings. Just under the networks section there’s the Home option. In that setting you can actually change your launcher on your device. Now that’s nothing new, well it sort of is, let me explain. Prior to Android 4.4, if you downloaded a new launcher and then pressed home, it would ask you which launcher you wanted to use. Well that’s still there. But what’s changed is that before, you would have to go into Settings > Apps > and delete the data or defaults from the launcher to go back to the original one. Now Google has made that a whole lot easier. Basically under the Home section in settings you can choose which launcher you want and also uninstall them all from the same screen. Which is a great addition to the OS. How to Switch Launchers Go into Settings Tap on Home Tap on the Launcher you want to install It’s literally just that easy to do it. If you need more help we do have a video down below to help you out, w

The Nexus 5 hopla is finally settling down after a little more than a week – tempers are in check and reason is entering back into the picture.  Reviewers are reviewing, analyzing, and reporting their findings…all pretty much what we expected – camera and battery questions keep coming up, but from what I have seen the pictures look pretty good.  The jury is still out on the battery life, but it doesn’t look like even Android 4.4 KitKat is going to make it last much longer than the Nexus 4′s.  So now, all we have left to do is to make that purchase and where you buy your Nexus 5 will depend a lot on how much you pay. While Google Play may not be the only place you can buy a Nexus 5, it seems that it is certainly the cheapest place to purchase your next Nexus “baby.” For instance, in the U.K., Google is selling the 16GB variety at £299 ($481), but some retailers are charging as much as £425 ($643)! It is not entirely the retailers fault, as the price on Google Play is actually less than

The Chinese company, Xiaomi, has been in the news recently for several reasons and they can add one more as their first Red Rice (Hongmi) smartphone, a mid-range model, sold out its  100,000 devices in four minutes  on the internet, which is the only way you can purchase a Xiaomi product. Last month they released a flagship device, the Mi-3, and sold out the 100,000 devices in less than a minute and a half!  Their phones use the Android Operating System, but is heavily skinned and customized by Xiaomi. They aim to sell a high quality product at a reasonable price – the Red Rice smartphone sold for only $130 and included: 4.7-inch 720p display 1.5GHz Quad-Core MediaTek Processor 1GB of RAM 8MP Camera The other reason Xiaomi has been in the news is because they have been called the Apple of China, although they prefer to think of themselves as the Amazon of China. They want to sell directly to the customer, at a competitive price, and then make their real money with add-ons, such as soft

  The Nexus 5 is yet another device that you’re more than likely going to be cracking open and installing all sorts of kernels, ROMs, mods and tweaks on to. Which is a whole lot of fun – nobody can deny that – but sometimes things can go wrong. Maybe you flashed something in the wrong order or removed the device from the USB port too soon. No matter what the cause, there’s an easy way back to stock when it comes to the Nexus devices. These lie in the Factory Images provided by Google, essentially a big folder of files that restores your Nexus 5 to how it was before you took it out of the box. This is a great way of wiping the slate clean and getting your device back. Here, we’re going to tell you how to restore your Nexus 5 using the factory images provided by Google. If this is the first time using your Nexus 5 on your PC, then you’ll need to download the drivers and install the Android SDK in order to get fastboot installed onto your computer. Once you’ve done that, you

On the  Mozilla Blog today , they made the announcement that Firefox for Android will “bring an amazing web experience to users.”  They also pointed out that their Firefox browser will be included on the new Kobo Arc Tablets and the  GIGABYTE GSmart Simba  SX1 smartphone – could they get a longer name? Karen Rudnitski, Senior Product Manager for Firefox for Android said: We are pleased to partner with Kobo and GIGABYTE to offer Firefox as a pre-installed Web browser on Kobo Arc tablets and the GSmart Simba SX1 smartphone. Firefox is dedicated to offering users the best and most personal mobile browsing experience and we are happy to be able to bring that experience directly to users, globally. Firefox has been around a long time and Mozilla continually refines and updates their browser.  It does have an intuitive design and Mozilla claims it offers “the most powerful customization support of any mobile browser and leads the industry in pioneering privacy and security features like Do

Since the Nexus 5 was announced, everyone has been asking about the camera. Which was expected since that’s normally the sore point of a Nexus phone. Yesterday, I posted some samples from the Nexus 5 and I thought they were pretty good. Now I don’t think they are better than the Galaxy Note 3 or even the LG G2. But they do seem to be pretty good. Yesterday, I was asked to do a camera comparison between the Galaxy Note 3 and the Nexus 5, so that’s what we are here to do today. I’ve taken a few pictures with both cameras. Outside, and a couple in low light, which you can all see in this post. (above, Left is Galaxy Note 3, and Right is Nexus 5) Remember that the Galaxy Note 3 has a 13MP camera while the Nexus 5 has a 8MP camera with OIS (Optical Image Stabilization). Also Samsung’s cameras have always been pretty good, so I kind of expect it to be better. But I’m not going to say which one is better, since we all have different opinions. So we’ll look at the two of them side by side an

Just last week, Google announced Android 4.4. And as tech enthusiasts, we want KitKat on our current device right now. Well we’ve posted a few custom ROMs over the past few days that are running Android 4.4. So we decided to do some more research and find some more Android 4.4 – KitKat ROMs for everyone. 10. Android 4.4 Stable for the Xperia Z Not too many of us here in the US own the Xperia Z, but the Xperia Z is pretty popular elsewhere in the world. There’s now a stable ROM with Android 4.4 for the Xperia Z which brings all the features of KitKat over to the Xperia Z. Including the Google Experience Launcher. XDA Thread 9. KitKat 4.4 AOSP for HTC One Those of you running the HTC One are going to love this ROM. This one was built from AOSP and is using Android 4.3 Binaries. Right now it’s available for the AT&T, T-Mobile, and International versions. So far the Sprint and Verizon HTC One’s do not have a build, unfortunately. RootzWiki Thread 8. KitKat by koko8 Attention OG Nexus

The Nexus 5 isn’t the first device to have wireless charging, but it is the most recent one. Which is why there’s so much talk around it. The Nexus 4, Nexus 7 (2013), Motorola DROID Maxx, HTC DROID DNA and a few Windows phones also have wireless charging. We’ve already reviewed a couple on the site in the past few months. So we thought we’d do a nice top 10 for you. 10. Duracell Powermat Duracell has a nice flat powermat for your Nexus 5. And since it’s a pretty big one, you should be able to charge your Nexus 7 and Nexus 5 together. Duracell also has bigger mats for 2 devices and 3 devices if needed. Currently they are out of stock on Amazon, but they start at about $30. Which isn’t a bad price for a wireless charger. Duracell Powermat 1x Powermat for 1 Device-Black 9. Powermat 2X with Powercube Powermat has been pretty popular for their wireless chargers. They even sell cases for your phones that can turn them into wireless charging capable devices. This is one is pretty wide so you