Cyanogen failed to kill Android, now it is shuttering its services and OS as part of a pivot

It’s been a rocky few months for Cyanogen, the ambitious startup that aimed to build a better version of Android than Google. It has laid off staff, let go of its CEO and parted ways with another co-founder — now it is shutting down its services and nightly software builds on December 31.

Dutch regulators order T-Mobile to stop offering free music streaming over net neutrality concerns

T-Mobile’s no-data-charge-music-streaming-thing has been going strong since 2014 here in the States, with the company adding services to the offering one by one.

Huawei P10 release date, news and rumors

Huawei is the third-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, but you’d hardly know it in the West. That could all be about to change though, as the company is slowly but surely stepping out of the shadow of its rivals with impressive phones like the Huawei P9, which combined high-end specs with an innovative camera and a pleasantly low price.

Uber explains why it looks like its app is still tracking your location, long after drop-off

Uber responded today to reports that its app continues to check users’ locations even when they hadn’t used the ride-hailing service for days or weeks. The company explained that the issue is being caused by the iOS operating system itself, not direct tracking by its app.

Facebook admits to another metrics mistake affecting Instant Article publishers

For a metrics powered company, Facebook is pretty bad at metrics. The company justannounced its third metrics-related issue in the past two months with today’s reveal that it also experienced problems providing accurate numbers to publishers on its Instant Articles platform.

Google brings its upgraded keyboard app Gboard to Android

Google today officially announced that it’s rebranding its Google Keyboard application for Android users to “Gboard,” the name sported by its newer keyboard app that sports a fully integrated Google Search engine, emoji and GIF search, and more. The keyboard’s Android launch had been spotted earlier this week by a number of media sites and blogs, who had also noted app arrived with a few new features, as well.

Facebook Messenger’s artsy new camera turns any text into filters

What’s better than a few geofilters? A billion algorithmically generated filters. That’s Facebook Messenger’s strategy to steal the visual communication crown from Snapchat, thanks to its new camera feature that rolls out today. Well, actually, “a billion” is selling it short.

Facebook now flags and down-ranks fake news with help from outside fact checkers

Snopes, FactCheck.org, Politifact, ABC News, and AP will help Facebook make good on four of the six promises Mark Zuckerberg made about fighting fake news without it becoming “the arbiter of truth.” It will make fake news posts less visible, append warnings from fact checkers to fake news in the feed, make reporting hoaxes easier and disrupt the financial incentives of fake news spammers.
“We’re not looking to get into the grey area of opinion,” Facebook’s VP of News Feed Adam Mosseri tells me. “What we are focusing on with this work is specifically the worst of the work — clear hoaxes that were shared intentionally, usually by spammers, for financial gain.”

Apple’s standalone support app hits the U.S. App Store

Apple’s recently launched standalone support application is now hitting the U.S. App Store. The app, which had quietly debuted last month outside the U.S., lets you access product documentation, schedule appointments, as well as chat, email or schedule calls with an Apple Support technician, among other things.

This breakthrough means we’re one step closer to phones that charge as you walk

New research suggests we may soon have phones that we won’t ever need to plug into a charger, as movement will generate the energy to keep them powered up.

T-Mobile’s Digits calling service is designed to make phone numbers device agnostic

T-Mobile’s pitch is simple, “We’re dragging the phone number into the internet age.” The actual functionality is a bit trickier, which is why the carrier looked to do a little bit of analyst handholding and a consumer Twitter Q&A (at 10:30AM PT today) ahead of launch.
The underlying idea is to tie user identity to a single phone number, available across devices, in much the same way that email (or, for that matter, Google Voice and to a lesser extent Apple’s Messages) works. So, you can place calls and send texts through the same number on multiple smartphones, PCs, cellular connected smartwatches and even feature phones – and, lord help you, all of them will ring at the same time when a message comes through.

ZTE Nubia Z11, Nubia N1 India Launch Set for Wednesday

Chinese handset manufacturer ZTE has sent out media invites announcing the launch of two Nubia smartphones. The Nubia Z11 and Nubia N1 are set to launch in India on December 14 at an event in Delhi, where the pricing and availability of both the devices will be revealed.

Samsung Galaxy S8 might feature an all-screen design

Samsung is going all guns blazing for the launch of its next flagship, Galaxy S8 early next year. The company has lot to deliver especially after the failure with Galaxy Note7. As always, the rumour mill is abuzz with what Galaxy S8 might look like and it is turning to be another great design.

HandEnergy brings new twist to pocket electricity generation

A lot of mobile devices don't offer the option of swapping in a fresh battery for uninterrupted uptime. Although external USB power banks are useful, they're also limited by capacity. A new hybrid generator, currently funding on Kickstarter, is looking to offer on-demand power from the palm of just one hand. HandEnergy is designed to produce electricity at wall socket speeds through gentle wrist rotations.

Netflix becomes the Top Grossing iPhone app for the first time

Netflix’s decision to introduce an in-app subscription option in its iOS app over a year ago has helped the streaming service steadily gain more subscribers, and surge up the Top Grossing charts in the Apple App Store. Back in November of last year, the app hit the Top Grossing chart for the first time, reaching the No. 9 position. Today, Netflix has reached another milestone, as the app has earned the No. 1 Top Grossing spot on the U.S. iPhone App Store.

Verizon won’t push Samsung’s Note 7 bricking update, but the other carriers will

Early this morning Samsung announced plans to finally extinguish the on-going fire that is the Note 7 once and for all here in the States by way of a software update that won’t allow the troubled phone to charge at all. Apparently not everyone involved is onboard with the move.