Android

The Xperia 1, as its name suggests, was supposed to mark a new beginning for Sony's mobile business. It was the first of its kind to be given access to Sony's own high-end imaging sensors. The Xperia 5 that shortly followed was supposed to improve on that as well. But if the two's ratings on DxOMark as well as other reviews are any indication, Sony might soon be really out of the smartphone game, despite having a strong camera DNA.

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Game streaming might be one of the buzzwords in the gaming industry today but the idea of accessing computers hosted elsewhere has long existed even before "streaming" itself became a thing. Remote desktop access isn't exactly new but Canonical, the company behind one of the most popular Linux distributions on the planet, is putting a unique twist to that idea by delivering not Windows or even Linux but Android on a cloud.

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Microsoft doesn't seem to be kidding when it said it wanted to give developers the chance to prepare for its dual-screen future quite early. Over the past weeks, it has been dropping bits and pieces of its vision, like its Fluent design language the Microsoft Launcher for Android. Now it has dropped its biggest chunk yet, providing the most critical tool that Android developers will need to make sure that their apps will behave well on the Surface Duo.

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LG has recently received a lot of flak for its snail-paced Android updates and, truth be told, that is still the case. But for one brief moment, it seems that LG is at least making the update worth the wait more than usual. It turns out, LG's Android 10 update is one of the extremely few that actually surfaced the hidden Desktop Mode that Google introduced in the latest version of the mobile operating system.

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For a number of years - nearly a decade at this point - the only official way to play Tetris on mobile devices has been through one of EA's apps, namely Tetris (otherwise known as Tetris 2011) and Tetris Blitz. Unfortunately for Tetris fans, neither of those games are long for this world, as EA has announced that it's retiring both of them later this year. It's already gone as far as removing Tetris and Tetris Blitz from the Google Play Store entirely.

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Today the folks behind the development of the WhatsApp mobile app released a new version with a Dark Theme. This means more than just a color flip is in play - it means we're seeing a whole new UI with color choices based on the users' desire to keep screen brightness as low as possible. Users will need to become part of the Google Play Beta Program, where they'll gain access to version 2.20.13 as of this week.

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Today the Twitter app for Android is crashing - if you've got the newest version of that app, and a few bits are out of order. The official Twitter Support Twitter account suggested that they're in the process of fixing the issues at hand - but recommend that you avoid updating your Android app for Twitter until said fixes are in the mix. Meanwhile, there's a quick-fix for those savvy enough to drop into Android Settings.

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After a lot of build up, Motorola's foldable Razr is nearly here. Today, Verizon detailed two important dates for the new phone, announcing when pre-orders open up and when the phone will release. It also shared how much the phone will cost on a monthly basis through its device payment program, and if you've been following news about the Razr, then you likely already know that it's going to cost a lot to own one.

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Google has published three new 'Experiments' apps for Android, each designed to improve your life in some way. Two of the three new apps fall under the company's Digital Wellbeing initiative, offering potential ways to help device owners manage their Android use. The third app isn't listed as a Digital Wellbeing product, but it does help reduce the stimulation and constant prodding that you'd ordinarily get from a smartphone.

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The Nokia 2.3 was just released in the USA at Best Buy for just a dollar under $130 USD. This is a smartphone with a set of specifications that do not seem to match its price tag. Given the relatively massive amount of cash being charged for the highest-end smartphones in the world today, it would seem about time that the original big-name brand in low-cost phones brought some heat.

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Huawei held an event in January 2020 in London to tell developers about their strategy for a post-Google smart device ecosystem. Dr. Jaime Gonzalo, Huawei's Europe-based vice president of consumer services, spoke at this special event, suggesting that they'd be building an app ecosystem that's far less focused on "spam" notifications than are Apple and Google.

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Today the folks at POCO confirmed that they would, indeed, release a second phone in the year 2020. This announcement came shortly after Xiaomi confirmed that POCO would be spun off into its own separate smartphone brand. The original POCO F1, aka Pocophone F1, was released a year and 5 months ago to almost universal acclaim, rolling with surprisingly high-end specifications and a price that seemed suspiciously low. Now they're teasing a second release.

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