August, 2015

• 12 August

  New rumors fill in blanks for rumored LG and Huawei Nexus phones

  

  The Nexus 5 is fast approaching its two-year anniversary. James Martin The picture gets a little bit clearer for two rumored Nexus smartphones today as reliable Twitter source @onleaks shares new unconfirmed details. We’re getting to that point of the year where we look for new handsets from Google and its partners. Often released in …

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• 12 August

  Google to spin out game maker Niantic Labs as independent company

  

  The Niantic spinoff comes days after a massive Google restructuring. Niantic Labs Google’s remaking of its business has only just begun. The search giant is spinning out game-maker Niantic Labs from its company, according to a statement from the company on Wednesday. The company said it plans to expand who it builds the game for as an independent company, without …

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• 12 August

  Sideclick soups up your media streamer’s remote (hands

  

  Enlarge Image True Bloom LLC In my house, the streaming box is king. Sure, we still use the DVR from time to time, but a lot of our TV viewing is powered by Roku. And that means juggling three remotes: one to turn on the TV (and switch to the correct input), one to control the volume on the sound …

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• 12 August

  Apple Pay rival CurrentC may delay launch until next year

  

  Apple Pay is already available, but it will eventually be joined by MCX’s CurrentC. James Martin/CNET A consortium of retailers developing an alternative to mobile-payment platforms Apple Pay and Samsung Pay might have to delay its national rollout until next year. CurrentC, the mobile-payment platform developed by the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), will kick off a public beta within the …

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• 12 August

  How to juggle tracks with Up Next on Apple Music

  

  I put Apple Music through its first party last weekend. With our guests’ ages ranging from late 20s to early 50s, a spirited debate eventually emerged regarding music selection. Thankfully, with Up Next, we were able to keep the peace and the dance floor crowded. If you don’t know about this useful feature of Apple Music, allow me to show …

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• 12 August

  Save mobile data with Snapchat’s new Travel Mode

  

  Enlarge Image Jason Cipriani/CNET Earlier this week Snapchat updated its mobile apps with a couple of new features, one of which the company calls Travel Mode. When enabled, this new feature will prevent content from things like Stories from automatically loading in the background when your smartphone is on a cellular connection. Meaning this could potentially save you money by …

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• 12 August

  Apple Music: Should Apple have bought Pandora instead of Beats?

  

  Apple Music has so far scored 11 million free subscribers, so they probably won’t reach their rumored goal of 100 million subscribers anytime soon. Even with the company’s considerable marketing muscle and free trial subscriptions, 11 mil seems pretty paltry. It’s starting to look like Apple bought the wrong company — Beats — it should have bought Pandora. It’d be …

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• 11 August

  Samsung looks to get a head start on Apple with its next jumbo smartphone

  

  Samsung will show off its newest jumbo smartphones, including a likely follow-up to last year’s Galaxy Note Edge, during an event in New York. Juan Garzón/CNET Samsung hopes to get the jump on Apple. But will it be enough? On Thursday, Samsung will host its second Unpacked event of the year to introduce its newest phablets, the jumbo-sized hybrids between …

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• 11 August

  Google, HTC vets prep ‘friggin’ awesome’ smartphone for Sept. 1 launch

  

  Nextbit is already shifting from software to hardware. Screenshot by Roger Cheng/CNET You would normally laugh off any no-name company’s attempt to jump into the brutally competitive smartphone business. But given the pedigree of the members at startup Nextbit, you have to at least be curious. Nextbit, which began life as a secretive software startup focused on a cloud-based tool …

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• 11 August

  Sprint unveils free calls, texts to Canada and Mexico

  

  Sprint is opening the world to its customers to make it cheaper to make calls and access data. Sprint Sprint is the latest US carrier to make it easier (and cheaper) for customers to communicate with friends and family around the world. Sprint on Monday unveiled its Open World add-on plan, which offers free calling and texting from the US …

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