android

Google has faced some European Union antitrust scrutiny as of late, but the company's troubles might have only just begun.

The Financial Times reported Thursday, citing EU documents it claims to have seen, that the governing body's competition watchdogs are conducting an informal investigation into whether Google is violating competition regulations with its Android operating system. According to the documents, Microsoft and Nokia, among other competitors, have complained to the EU that Google is violating competitive rules with its handling of Android.

The Financial Times story follows a report from The New York Times in April, saying that … Read more

Heard of the game Bad Pigs? Or is it Bad Piggies?

Some clever hacker decided to create a malicious app deceivingly similar to one of the top games in the Google Play store. And, it was downloaded more than 10,000 times before people took notice.

Security company F-Secure wrote on Wednesday that it had located Bad Pigs -- which had the same artwork and app description as Bad Piggies -- and let Google know. The only apparent differences between the two apps were the names of the app and the developer -- who was "Dan Stokes" rather … Read more

When the iPhone arrived six years ago, it was the hot commodity. It didn't take long for Apple's sleek, powerful smartphone to dominate the mobile phone market -- and one of its greatest draws was a rapidly growing software marketplace, curated and quality controlled, bringing extraordinarily useful features to what was essentially a pocket-size computer.

However, competitors weren't far behind. Some have continued on, others have failed, but by far the biggest is Internet giant Google's mobile operating system, Android. In fact, the number of Android devices activated outnumbers iOS devices by a mile -- 750 million Android to 600 million iOS.

Nevertheless, as we and many of you well know, the iTunes app marketplace seems vastly superior in quality of content, in spite of Apple's barriers to entry, such as a registration fee for app sellers, and the fact that Google Play is rapidly catching up in terms of quantity and downloads. Apple has pipped 50 billion downloads across over 900,000 apps, while Google Play is currently counting down to that number across 750,000 apps. But there's an even greater discrepancy in app revenue. A massive 76 percent of the entire revenue generated by apps goes to iOS -- leaving the other 24 percent of the pie to all other operating systems.… Read more

The big news today for Google+ is that the service is getting some notable improvements to its notifications system, the biggest of which is syncing across all devices. With this improvement, when you read or dismiss a notification on one device, the same action will be reflected across all of your devices, so you won't be bothered with repeat clicks and swipes.

Other updates include a new bell icon for notifications and an updated notifications tray, which separates new items from previously read items. According to Google's Vic Gundotra, the notifications improvements will be rolling out gradually starting … Read more

Android users who want to see if the grass really is greener on the Apple side of the fence now can try out the new color scheme debuting in iOS 7.

A theme called jbOS7 marries the Jelly Bean version of Android with the iOS 7 style. Its creator, shmogt, used some custom icons and TeslaCoil Software's Nova Launcher home screen replacement app.

"It is more than just a background image with some icons," shmogt said by e-mail. "The theme also has a lock screen as well as two additional screens that act as apps. For … Read more

Android users now can print photos, documents, and other files directly to certain printers with Google's Cloud Print app.

Landing in Google Play on Wednesday, the app allows you to print from any compatible Android phone or tablet to any Google Cloud Print connected printer. You can also share photos and documents from the built-in Gallery and other Android apps to Cloud Print and check on the status of your print jobs.

You can see if your printer is compatible with Google's cloud printing through the Cloud Print Web site.

HTC's Butterfly S seems to be spreading its wings courtesy of a few images and other details posted online by VR-Zone.

A follow-up to HTC's current Butterfly, aka Droid DNA, the upcoming S edition will sprout a pair of front-facing speakers, according to VR-Zone. The audio will also get some oomph from HTC's new BoomSound technology, which keeps distortion low even when pumping up the volume at full blast.

The new Butterfly will sport the same 5-inch 1920x1080 pixel display as its predecessor, VR-Zone added. But it will come with HTC's Sense 5, a new interface … Read more

With one small feature, iOS 7 might introduce the biggest change in iOS gaming since the App Store.

There's something I've wished for on both the iPhone and iPad for years: a true, universal, dedicated game controller. iOS 7 has granted my wish: indeed, one of the small but very significant additions to the next mobile OS announced at WWDC allows for third-party controllers. It's funny this happened to be announced during E3, because it just might be the trigger to change the mobile gaming industry.

Why it's big Third-party accessory-makers have tried making game controllers … Read more

Samsung's Galaxy Camera will be updated at its June 20 event, CEO JK Shin has confirmed.

Speaking to Korea Times in an interview published Wednesday, the chief executive said his company will launch a follow-up to its original Galaxy Camera at a June 20 event in London. As with its predecessor, the Galaxy Camera 2 will run Android and feature a mirrorless design.

Mirrorless point-and-shoot cameras are becoming more popular. They allow users to swap out lenses. Samsung currently sells mirrorless cameras under the NX branding, but those devices aren't running Android.

Samsung's June 20 event is … Read more