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The Funny Backpack Google Uses To Map the Insides of Buildings

In its ongoing quest to map the entire planet, Google has turned its all-seeing eyes on the next logical place: the indoors. Today, Google is showing off six new indoor maps and the Cartographer, a backpack full of high-tech sensors that makes floor plans in real time. You have likely already seen Trekker—the Street View…

Google X’s Vice President Just Got a Spot in the White House

The White House has announced Google X’s vice president Megan Smith as the nation’s next chief technology officer, filling the void vacated by former CTO Todd Park last month. The CTO position was officially created by Obama back in 2009, when he was much more worried about the crushing Great Recession and bloated government spending…

Soldiers Describe How DARPA Smartphones Save Lives in Battle

The average pedestrian walks around with more sophisticated navigation and communication technology in his pocket than our soldiers have on the battlefield. That’s why the military is working hard on developing a battle-ready smartphone that would bring our troops up to speed. According to the soldiers who’ve tested the Pentagon’s prototypes, the tech can’t come…

Android Wear 2.0 May Launch as Soon as Next Month

Almost seven months after the platform’s launch in March, Android Wear may already be preparing for its first update, according to Android Police. And it could have some goodies you’ve been waiting for. Citing an anonymous source, the site believes Google could be pushing out Android Wear 2.0 (official name pending) on or around October…

Your Nest Protect Just Got a Whole Lot Smarter

It’s been a tumultuous year for Nest’s second product, Protect, a fire and CO alarm that’s endured not only a halt in sales and recall, but also a price cut and return to the shelves. Yet in a low-key announcement today, Nest showed how powerful its product model can be: By introducing new functionality for…

HTC Desire 820: A Powerful 64-Bit Android Mid-Ranger

A “mid tier hero”, if such a phone can exist, HTC’s Desire 820 is an intriguing device. Despite being directed at the less-expensive mid-range end of the market, it’s the world’s first to sport Qualcomm’s powerful new 64-bit, 1.5GHz quad core Snapdragon 615 processor. Whether or not Android devices need a 64-bit chip is up…

Google Will Apparently Replace Your Nexus 5 No Matter How You Broke It

Did you bust your Nexus 5 smartphone? Don’t sweat it—users are saying that the Play Store will send you a brand-new (refurbished) handset for free, no matter how you broke yours. Google hasn’t confirmed the offer just yet, but it seems legit. This isn’t the first no-questions-asked smartphone replacement policy; Motorola and HTC both offer…

SmartWatch 3: Sony Finally Opts for Android Wear

Ahead of IFA, there were rumours that Sony was to release a third SmartWatch that would still be running on the company’s own wearable operating system. On the basis of our experience with previous efforts, that would have been a very bad idea indeed. Thankfully, the real deal SmartWatch 3 that’s just been launched at…

Samsung Galaxy Note 4: Better in All the Right Places

Known for its handwriting friendliness and screens pushing near six inches, Samsung’s Galaxy Note series is the progenitor of the modern stylus-centric smartphone. It’s easily the go-to choice for an Android phablet. But with LG’s G3 Stylus here and the rumored iPhablet around the corner, the new Galaxy Note 4 has to work a whole…

The Samsung Galaxy Note Edge Is One Weird-Looking Smartphone

At Unpacked, Samsung’s annual Note-centric launch event, the Korean-based technology giant offered a two-for-one special. The major highlight was the Galaxy Note 4, the next phablet phone in a prestigious line of stylus devices, and then there was this quirky little guy: The Galaxy Note Edge. Samsung has been known to do head-scratching smartphone projects…

Lenovo Tab S8: Skinny, Cheap and Surprisingly OK

Now everyone owns a tablet it’s a little harder to get excited by a new offering from Lenovo—but its new Tab S8 is super-skinny, reasonably specced and, best of all, pretty damn cheap. The 8-inch device offers a seven-hour battery life, 8-megapixel rear camera, 1,920 x 1,200 screen, 2GB of RAM and a quad-core Intel…

Owners of the new HTC One (M8), the HTC One Max and Desire 816 now qualify for 100GB of Google Drive storage. Some older models will get a 25GB chunk of server when upgrading to Sense 5+ and Sense 6 too.

We Need a “Private Photo” Mode For Phones

There are still too many unknowns about the hack that launched a thousand (well, a dozen or so) celeb nudes over the weekend; how it happened, what’s being done to keep it from happening again. But one thing has become more clear than ever: the need for a “private photo” mode on your smartphone. That…

If Anyone Can Get Delivery Drones Legalized, It’s Google

The commercial drone industry has a new best friend, and that friend is powerful and loaded. It’s Google, which recently unveiled to The Atlantic its secret drone delivery program, Project Wing, meaning another tech titan now has skin in the commercial UAV game. One that might just have enough clout to make delivery drones happen.…

Remember Android One? It’s Google’s program to get manufacturers to develop high-quality, low-cost (less than $100) smartphones running stock versions of Android for developing countries. These devices, which will be regularly updated just like the Nexus line, now look like they’re round the corner. Google has sent out invites for a September 15 event in…

More Rumors Point To Apple Turning Your iPhone Into a Digital Wallet

If you would have asked me a month ago what would be some of the most talked about topics surrounding Apple’s upcoming event on Sept. 9th, bigger iPhones, sapphire screens, and a rumored iWatch would definitely be my top three. NFC-powered mobile payments would rank somewhere near last place. But all the news this week…

You May Finally Be Able to Buy a OnePlus One Smartphone in October

OnePlus One is the best smartphone you can’t buy. Ok, that’s not necessarily true, it’s just really, really hard. It all comes down to invites, which the company gives out during occasional raffles or online contests, that allow lucky winners to then buy the phone. https://gizmodo.com/oneplus-one-review-an-unbelievably-fantastic-smartphon-1598476240 The invite system has received a decent amount of…

6 Simple Things Google’s Self-Driving Car Still Can’t Handle

Self-driving cars are most definitely the future. They have been for decades. For Google, that future isn’t quite as close as you might think—as of right now, its autonomous vehicle would fail a driver’s license test before it ever got out of the parking lot. MIT Technology Review took a closer look at the driving…

Samsung Is Getting Nokia’s Here For Navigation

However good Google Maps might be, Samsung has decided that it can offer better. Teaming up with Nokia, a beta version of Here for Android is being made available exclusively for Samsung. https://gizmodo.com/nokias-insanely-fast-new-mapping-service-looks-awesome-5960184 The new navigation app, powered by Nokia’s rather good backend, will become available for Samsung smartphones with the launch of the new…

Google Authorship—the thing that told you who wrote each article you saw when you searched—is being killed off. The reason? People just don’t use it.