What happened in Android news on Monday, October 3?
In 2007, I was enthralled by a “smart” phone made by LG: the Shine KE970. Tiny by today’s standards, it was a metal slider with a 2.2-inch 240×320 pixel screen and a 2MP camera which, according to a review at the time, “takes only 2 seconds to focus on its subject.” It could connect to a WAP browser over an EDGE data network that, in 2007, was [Read More…]
Google’s ready to announce its new phones and potentially much more.
We all get very excited for a Google event, and rightfully so. After a pretty big Google I/O earlier this year and plenty of leaks pointing us in the right direction, this latest event is expected to be worth your time. New phones with Pixel branding are a lock, but there will likely be much more to be shown off and explained. It’s going to [Read More…]
A completely comprehensive leak, again by a retail partner.
Canadian carrier Bell definitely has egg on its face after leaking pictures of the Pixel and Pixel XL, but now UK retailer Carphone Warehouse has outdone it. As pointed out in our forums, CPW has full product pages for the upcoming Google Pixel and Pixel XL including various photos and specs.
If the leaked specs are to be believed, things are breaking down roughly as expected [Read More…]
Made by Google, leaked by Bell.
In the lead up to the October 4 announcement, it seems someone at Canadian operator Bell has pulled the trigger a little early on Google Pixel promotional materials. First spotted by Steve Hemmerstoffer, the carrier seems to have mistakenly put a Pixel render and promotional blurb up on its Galaxy Note 7 business order page.
The render in question shows the Pixel in white and silver; so far we’ve only seen the black [Read More…]
Some last-minute thoughts on Google’s big hardware event.
Besides two very obvious things that are definitely coming, it’s difficult to know exactly how hyped to get about Google’s October 4 event. Sure, new Pixel phones are on the way. As I’ve already said, Google needs to show us not just two great phones — that’s table stakes — but also why two great new phones matters, and more broadly why Google can become a tier-one hardware [Read More…]
HTC’s biggest-selling phones of 2016 might not even bear its logo.
With less than a week to go before launch, Android fans are eagerly expecting Google’s Pixel phones. But just a couple of months back, the idea of a fully Google-branded phone hadn’t yet dawned, and instead the rumor mill swirled around two new HTC Nexuses. (Marlin and Sailfish, if you want to get really nerdy.)
The difference is an important one. As we’ve already explored, [Read More…]
Should the Pixel phones resemble the Nexus line in some way?
When the Pixel phones debut next week — a 5-inch Pixel and a 5.5-inch Pixel XL, if rumors are to be believed — they are going to be compared, whether Google likes it or not, to the Nexus phones that came before.
Google may be attempting a clean break from that legacy of annual Nexus refreshes, but there’s only so much in a name: To [Read More…]
The big message the company needs to convey on October 4 is why normal people should care about a phone ‘made by Google.’
Do you have an Android phone?
No, I have a Galaxy.
Just about every one of us at Android Central have had some variation on that conversation over the past few years. It underscores the difference in how normal people — those who don’t live and breathe smartphone industry nonsense every day — view phones. For [Read More…]
Big Pixel and baby Pixel side-by-side, in context.
As reported yesterday, we know have the first official-looking renders of Google’s new Pixel phones, thanks to leaker Evan Blass. No surprise: Both the 5-inch Pixel and 5.5-inch Pixel XL look basically identical. In fact, the change in wallpaper is more noticeable than the difference in size, when viewed individually.
However, with a bit of simple math, it’s easy to put these two alongside each other in context, since we know [Read More…]
Might Google’s new phones consign us to a world of circular icons? And what would that mean for other Android phone makers?
The first leaked Google Pixel phone render doesn’t show us a whole lot. It’s a rounded rectangle with a screen on the front, an earpiece, cameras, sensors and buttons. By far the most interesting thing about the leaked image is what’s on that screen.
Every icon is a circle. Even apps [Read More…]
