Androidifying

Sony came out with the Walkman series in 1980 and introduced us to “Japanese” electronics to the U.S. Portable listening devices have come a long way baby, spurred on by the iPod from Apple and continued improvements from Sony. With so many people carry around smartphones, that can hold thousands of songs, playlists, and many other features, the portable music device, is not near as popular as it once was. That, however, did not stop Sony from introducing two new lines of Walkmans that combine both the superb audio quality that Sony is famous for and the Android platform, and are in line for an October release. Let us first look at the new  NW-F880 series Walkman  that comes in four colors – Black, White, an Aqua Blue, and Pink (although the 64GB model only comes in Black or White), as well as three different variations. The NW-F885 sports 16GB Storage at $274, the NW-F886 packs 32GB at $304, and the NW-F887 has 64GB of storage at $405. All of the devices boost a 24bit/193 kHz audio qu

Galaxy Gear “lacks something special” but will work with Galaxy S4, Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2 in coming months, according to the South Korean giant, which means that’s when the new Android 4.3 update will be available for these devices. Android 4.3 update hinted Samsung’s Lee Don-joo, the president of strategic marketing for the mobile division, told the  Korea Times  that the Galaxy S4 will be connected to the Gear “by next month,” with the Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note 2 getting Galaxy Gear support by the end of the year: “All functions of the Gear will be connected to the Galaxy S4 smartphone by next month and the connection will be expanded to Galaxy Note2 and Galaxy S3 by the end of December,” said the president. Why is that statement so important? Well, in order for the Galaxy Gear to connect to other devices than the Galaxy Note 3, these devices are required to run Android 4.3, as the smartwatch uses Bluetooth 4.0 LE to hook up to smartphones and tablets. Bluetooth 4.0 LE h

Google Glass is in the news constantly due to its unique approach to interfacing with the world around us, but also because Google has constantly been upgrading its capabilities approximately once a month. With each update and refinement, Glass becomes more intriguing and one-step closer to becoming a reality, and with the latest update about to roll out, XE10 finally adds the ability for Glassware Apps (third party apps) to be downloaded on Glass. Google and App Developers have been working hand-in-hand since the Explorer Edition was first introduced to the 8,000+ beta testers in April 2013. Google wants to make sure that MANY applications are ready when Glass launches to the public sometime in 2014. Google has methodically gone about the business of Glass by introducing them to a select group, continual testing and receiving feedback, making refinements, occasionally allowing current Glass users to invite friends to join, thusly expanding the group for more feedback and improvements.

BlackBerry failed miserably in its attempt to bring BBM to Android and iOS last week, but the Canadian company hasn’t given up on making its popular messaging service available to all. In fact, it isn’t just targeting other mobile platforms, but it’s also planning to bring BBM to your desktop, too. BlackBerry showed off BBM for Windows during BlackBerry Jam Asia this week. It looks exactly how you’d expect a desktop instant messaging client to look, only with BlackBerry 10’s buttons and menu bars. A Mac application wasn’t previewed, but given the company’s new focus on making BBM available to all, we’re assuming there is one in development. N4BB reports that BBM for desktops works similarly to BBM for the BlackBerry PlayBook; rather than allowing you to login to BBM on two devices, you create a “bridge” between your computer and your smartphone and messages are sent and received through your phone. A desktop app could give BBM a much greater chance at competing with already-popular

The Nexus 5 is LG and Google’s worst kept secret right now. We’ve seen a lot of leaks and rumors of the Nexus 5 which we expect Google to announce next month with Android 4.4 KitKat. The Nexus 5 was even left in a bar, whether it was intentional or not. We all have theories about that, but we’ll save those for another post. So far we know a lot about the Nexus 5, or at least we think we do. The Nexus 5 is stated to have a 4.96-inch 1080p display with a Snapdragon 800 processor. The Nexus 5 appeared on  GFXBench’s website , and the device scored pretty good on two game simulation tests. We didn’t yet have the on-screen results, but off-screen testing shows that the Nexus 5 is likely featuring the powerful Adreno 330 GPU. This also puts the device on par with the iPhone 5S at a score of 23. And it puts it above the Xperia Z1 at 21 and the LG G2 at 20. Which it’s pretty cool to see it surpass the LG G2, since that’s the device we believe the Nexus 5 is modelled after. The T-Rex 2.7 test i

Fall is officially here, and with it comes a whole new set of rumors and speculations to report on. The  Samsung  Galaxy  S5 is the next device to get some love, with an awesome series of concept pictures showing up online. The pictures, which come from  GalaxyS5Info show a sleek and shiny device, true to Samsung’s design. Although there’s no telling what Samsung has in store for us with the follow-up to the Galaxy S4, the pictures to detail some technologies that would make sense to be making their way into Samsung’s next flagship smartphone. The concept assumes that the Galaxy S5 will rock a 5.3″ screen, with curved sides made possible by a flexible OLED YOUM display. Thanks to the screen’s wraparound nature, the concept GS5 doesn’t need any physical buttons on the sides. Instead, the screen’s software buttons will run the show. The concept also shows an aluminum unibody construction with a waterproof and shockproof body. The power button on the top of the device which is armed wi

At the end of August, we’ve talked about the super-thin Vivo X3 smartphone, which likely won’t be released anywhere in the West. The same company is now working on an even more impressive product, one that has a swivel camera a la some fairly old Nokia N-Series devices like the N90, N93 and N93i at the top. Moreover, that camera uses Nikon’s technology to produce that much better photos and videos. It is said that this camera has a 20-megapixel sensor, and a professional SLR chip called EXPEED E1-158 1051 200 M. We’re not sure what that exactly means but we can’t help but love the fact that someone’s making a smartphone with Nikon’s camera, while experimenting with innovative form factors. It’s about time we move beyond basic specs wars and see some real innovation in the mobile industry. Faster chips and improved software are cool, but it’s things like swivel cameras and new form factors that move us forward… or at least that’s what I think. What do you say? And before I let you go,