Android
Google Assistant as we knew it is on the way out. Well, at least its guts. Late last year, Google added AI capabilities from its chatbot Bard to Google Assistant,…
Google starts blocking users from sideloading certain apps in Singapore
To reduce financial scams, Google has started a new program to prevent users from sideloading certain apps in Singapore. The company is looking to block sideloaded apps that abuse Android…
Yelp is releasing new features as part of its winter release, which includes a more visual feed, AI-powered summaries of businesses, and number masking while contacting businesses for better privacy.…
Phone season is in full swing. Last week Samsung introduced its new Galaxy S24 flagship, and the next few weeks will see a deluge of devices up to and including…
Android Auto is getting new AI-powered features, including suggested replies and actions
As Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy S24 line today, Google announced a series of new AI features that are launching for Android Auto, which is the secondary interface that brings…
Google announced today that the company plans to support more real-money games (RMG) on the Play Store this year by allowing more types of games in the category following local…
Google and Samsung are merging Nearby Share and Quick Share into a singular cross-Android solution
Google announced today at CES that it has collaborated with Samsung to combine their sharing solutions into a singular cross-Android solution under the Quick Share name. The new offering grows…
Independent music distribution service DistroKid launched its Android app today months after the company launched the iOS app. The Android app has similar capabilities to its iOS counterpart, which has…
Your mobile password manager might be exposing your credentials
A number of popular mobile password managers are inadvertently spilling user credentials due to a vulnerability in the autofill functionality of Android apps. The vulnerability, dubbed “AutoSpill,” can expose users’…
Pixel 8 Pro becomes the first smartphone powered by Google’s new AI model, Gemini
The Pixel 8 Pro will now become the first Android smartphone to be powered by Google’s next-generation AI model, Gemini, starting today, the company announced. Gemini Nano, a version of…
With iMessage thanks to Beeper Mini, the OnePlus Open is my new favorite phone
Multi-platform messaging startup Beeper, founded by YC and Pebble alum Eric Migicovsky, delivered an iMessage experience for Android that doesn’t use any intermediaries and, as such, should be (always a…
Android users gain nearly a dozen new features with latest update
Android users are poised to receive nearly a dozen new features in the latest release of the mobile operating system, including updates designed for smartphones, tablets, Wear OS smartwatches and…
Sunbird pauses its efforts to bring iMessage to Android amid security worries
Sunbird, which aims to bring iMessage to Android users, has halted development and pulled its app from the Play Store amid security issues raised this week. Earlier this week, the…
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Children’s tablet has malware and exposes kids’ data, researcher finds
In May this year, Alexis Hancock’s daughter got a children’s tablet for her birthday. Being a security researcher, Hancock was immediately worried. “I looked at it kind of sideways because I’ve never heard of Dragon Touch,” Hancock told TechCrunch, referring to the tablet’s maker. As it turned out, Hancock, who…
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Android’s new real-time app scanning aims to combat malicious sideloaded apps
Android’s in-built security engine Google Play Protect has a new feature that conducts a real-time analysis of an Android app’s code and blocks it from installing the app if it’s considered potentially harmful. Google announced in October the new real-time app scanning feature built into Google Play Protect that the…
Google Play’s policy update cracks down on ‘offensive’ AI apps, disruptive notifications
Google is taking aim at potentially problematic generative AI apps with a new policy, to be enforced starting early next year, that will require developers of Android applications published on…
WhatsApp is introducing support for passkeys on Android, the Meta-owned messaging service has announced. With this change, users will no longer have to deal with SMS two-factor authentication as they…
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Google Pixel 8 Pro: The camera’s still the thing
This is a camera upgrade. Full stop. If photos and video aren’t your primary concerns when it comes to buying a new smartphone, there’s virtually no reason to upgrade from the Pixel 7 Pro to the Pixel 8 Pro (check Darrell’s review to see if the same is true for…
A short-lived spyware operation called Oospy, which emerged earlier this year after its predecessor Spyhide was hacked, is no longer operational and has shut down. Oospy appeared online in late…
Google has announced the launch of its earthquake alert system for Android devices in India. The system uses smartphone sensors such as accelerators, which can act as small seismometers to…
India’s PhonePe launches app store with zero fee in challenge to Google
PhonePe launched the Indus Appstore Developer Platform on Saturday, promising zero platform fees and no commissions on in-app purchases as the Walmart-backed fintech races to win Android developers in Google’s…
Reddit users on mobile can now translate posts into other languages
Reddit is giving users the ability to translate posts into other languages. There will be eight different languages available to start — including English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch…
Google is changing its mobile operating system’s branding by adopting “Android” with a capital A instead of all lowercase letters. The company is also updating the bug droid logo to…
Google’s quarterly Android updates include Zoom and Webex support in cars
Google is introducing new on-the-fly updates for its Android apps, including a new Assistant widget, support for Zoom and Webex on Android Auto, and accessibility updates for the Lookup app.…
India has warned its citizens of an advanced malware targeting Android users, capable of accessing sensitive data and allowing hackers control over infected devices. The Controller General of Defence Accounts,…
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A Brazilian phone spyware was hacked and victims’ devices ‘deleted’ from server
A Portuguese-language spyware called WebDetetive has been used to compromise more than 76,000 Android phones in recent years across South America, largely in Brazil. WebDetetive is also the latest phone spyware company in recent months to have been hacked. In an undated note seen by TechCrunch, the unnamed hackers described…
YouTube announced a new experiment on Android devices that determines a song via humming — which seems like a major step up from Apple’s music recognition app Shazam. As noted on YouTube’s…
I got caught in the rain twice last week. That probably says more about my general lack of preparedness than anything, of course, but I was reminded both times how…
Google’s Messages app will now use RCS by default and encrypt group chats
Google announced today it’s making its Messages by Google app more secure with improvements to RCS, or Rich Communication Services — a protocol aimed at replacing SMS that is more…
Google brings contextual search suggestions, trending searches and more to Chrome on mobile
Google wants you to search more, and to do that, it’s launching a number of updates to Chrome on mobile today that will, among other things, highlight potential search queries…
