After Google recently updated their iOS Search app with built-in Google Now functionality, reports started popping up of massive battery drain caused by the seemingly always-on GPS. I personally saw said problem with my first evening with Now active dropping my battery a full 70% in ~2-1/2 hours. Subsequent tests netted at least 40-50% in the same time span. Google quickly hit back that the way they implemented GPS use in Google Now should barely affect battery life because...
Facebook’s “new home” on Android was just revealed and well….it’s a bit lackluster if you had some grand dreams of a Facebook superphone. If your bar wasn’t set too high, though, Facebook Home could be pretty intriguing. On the hardware front the actual “Facebook Phone” is called the HTC First and is more of a mid-range affair while the Facebook Home application itself is basically a customized home screen and launcher....
Today is a good day for social butterflies running Android 4.0+. For starters, the company’s in-house, popular (depending on who you ask) social network Google+ has received some minor tweaks in the form of performance improvements and support for larger photos as well as strikethrough text formatting. On the other side of the fence, a much more popular (read: used) social network is getting a much bigger update today. Twitter 4.0 is now live in the Google Play store...
Just one year ago Instagram launched their highly hyped Android app to tears of joy/scowls of disgust by many. For a long time, Android users were chomping at the bit to get access to the then iOS-only network. A vocal minority of iOS users meanwhile made ridiculous (read: also, asinine) claims that allowing Android users on it would devalue the service and pollute users’ feeds with horrible pictures. Fast forward one year later and that “horrible” ugly...
Since Google’s announcement of Google Reader’s upcoming death, countless news junkies have been scrambling to find a suitable replacement. But developers as well have found the same scramble on their doorstep, at least those looking to capitalize on Google’s decision. Feedly is one such service that has gone above and beyond in courting ex-Google Reader users by kicking their service and mobile app updates into overdrive. There have already been a couple...
Google last redesigned their mobile app front in 2012 when rebranding from the well known “Android Market” to a more encompassing “Google Play”. Since then, things have been pretty quiet with only a few tweaks here and there. But last night, while most of the world was making preparations for their daily ~7 hours of unconsciousness, screenshots of the new Google Play 4.0 leaked. As you can see from the images above (more available at DroidLife),...
