Androidifying

Google is now rolling out an update for Bluetooth streaming support on the Google Home . This means you’ll be able to use your Google Home more like a typical Bluetooth speaker to stream audio from your Android or iOS smartphone. The functionality is rolling out with firmware version 90387 (judging by screenshots from Android Police ), and means you no longer need to have a Google Cast-enabled device to stream your favorite tunes. This will come as welcome to news to Google Home owners as the device had been limited in this regard since its release last November, despite that it always housed the hardware to make it a perfectly serviceable Bluetooth speaker (it’s audio quality is rather impressive). In our original Google Home review , we noted that these limitations were one of the main downsides of the product, so we’re pleased to see this get addressed. See also: Google Home gets multi-user support in the UK 1 day ago In other recent news, research suggests that the

Solid-state batteries are expected to replace lithium-ion batteries that are currently found in smartphones and a bunch of other products in the near future. According to a report out of Korea, this is expected to happen over the next few years. An anonymous executive with Samsung SDI (the battery manufacturing arm of the Samsung conglomerate) told The Korea Herald that the company will start manufacturing solid-state batteries in one to two years. The first application for these batteries will be in smartphones. Meanwhile, solid-state batteries for electric cars would take till 2025 to hit the market, due to the more stringent safety constraints. “Our technological level to produce a solid-state battery for smartphones will be mature enough in one to two years .  However, it depends on Samsung Electronics whether it will be used for phones ,” warned the executive. Samsung SDI obviously isn’t the only company working on the new battery technology. There are quite a few others as w

In this post, which will be updated regularly, we take a closer look at the latest rumors surrounding Samsung’s upcoming flagship, the Galaxy Note 8. The Galaxy Note 7 turned out to be a disaster for Samsung. The phone had major issues with its battery , that ultimately resulted in a total global recall. Nevertheless, the company will still release its successor, the highly anticipated Galaxy Note 8. The Note series has always been popular among consumers, and it will be interesting to see if this changes in 2017 because of what happened with the Note 7. To make sure sales don’t suffer, Samsung’s upcoming smartphone has to bring a couple of new things to the table, while the tech giant must also convince people that the product is safe to use. Although the smartphone is still a few months away, we already know quite a bit about it. In this post, we take a closer look at all the rumors surrounding the Galaxy Note 8 including when will it be released, what it will look like, how muc

Google is rolling out the version 8.0 of the Play Store with a small but useful feature on board. The company added in-line change logs in the app updates menu, which basically show you everything that’s new in the latest version of an app. There’s now a small icon next to the update button that will bring up the “What’s new” section of an app when you tap on it. This is displayed on the same screen, so you don’t have to open an app’s page on the Play Store to see the new features the update brings to the table. You can see exactly what this looks like in the image above. See also: Google Play Store has a new offline page, notifies you when you’re online again 2 weeks ago As already mentioned, Google is currently rolling out the new version of the Play Store, which means it’s not available for all users yet. Let us know what you think!

Last year, a company called ProTruly announced two smartphones with built-in 360-degree cameras. Although the idea sounds great on paper, the problem is that 360-degree camera modules are quite big and don’t really look that great on handsets. It makes them both a lot taller as well as thicker. The ProTruly Darling, for example, which you can see in the image above, is actually 8.9 mm thick without the camera bump as well as 181.4 mm tall despite having a 5.5-inch screen. For comparison, the recently announced OnePlus 5 that sports a display of the same size is 154.2 mm tall and 7.3 mm thick. See also: First footage from Essential Phone’s 360-degree camera add-on posted online 3 weeks ago But it looks like things will change for the better in the near future. At MWC in Shanghai, Engadget talked with a company called HT Optical that makes the cameras found on ProTruly’s devices. The company said that it is working on a much smaller 360 camera module that will actually f

I’d wager you’ve had an idea for an app at some point. Most of us have. The really unlucky souls among us may have even seen that idea happen,  with someone else reaping the rewards . If you want to discover how to build apps for the world’s most popular operating system, The Ultimate Android Development Bundle can turn your light-bulb moment into a reality. And maybe into some profit too. This six course learning kit contains 88 hours of tuition in the art of building and monetizing apps . Even if you’ve never written a line of code in your life, you’ll master Java and learn how to use it to build beautiful programs for Android. You’ll build dozens of examples including  clones of popular apps such as Spotify and WhatsApp. Monkey See, Monkey do. Here’s what’s included: The Complete Android Developer Course: Go From Beginner To Advanced – $199 Value Android: From Beginner to Paid Professional – $199 Value How to Make a Freaking Android App – $120 Value Android App Devel

If you want to buy a smartphone for personal use, there’s no denying there are a ton of options to choose from. However, sometimes phones that are made for consumers are not good choices for businesses to give to their employees. Companies may want to have phones that are perhaps more powerful than the average handset, or have some special security features. See also: Best Android phones (June 2017): our picks, plus a giveaway 3 weeks ago The good news is that there are plenty of smartphones that are well suited for business and enterprise use, and some of them come with features specifically made for those needs. Here’s a list of what we think are the current best phones for business use. Samsung Galaxy S8/S8 Plus Samsung’s current flagship devices, the 5.8-inch Galaxy S8 and the 6.2-inch Galaxy S8 Plus , are excellent choices for businesses for two reasons. One is that both phones have some extra security features not found on many other phones. That includes an iris