developers

Google's new Foldables category for Android devices doesn't end with smartphones. Foldables is just the hardware category - they've begun calling out features that'll spread beyond the Samsung Galaxy F* foldable phone, too. One of three speakers at this week's Android Dev Summit speaking about how Foldables will work was Andrii Kulian, Engineer for Android Frameworks at Google. Also in the mix were Google Engineer Adrian Roos and Samsung Engineering Director Jisun Park.

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This week both Samsung and Google broke down the components of the upcoming "foldables" trend in smartphones, starting with the next Galaxy. Today we're going to break down the basics and try to get a baseline understanding of what these folding display-toting devices are all about. Speaking this week at the Android Dev Summit 2018 were Adrian Roos, Engineer for Android Frameworks at Google, Andrii Kulian, also Engineer for Android Frameworks at Google, and Jisun Park for Samsung Mobile.

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Today Google revealed a bit of information on how your smartphone spends its battery life. They did this at this week's Android Dev Summit, speaking to developers about what they can do in their apps to avoid consuming massive amounts of battery life. But this isn't just about that. This is about the biggest factor in battery consumption: screen brightness! And not only that, but screen color, too!

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You’d be forgiven if this news flew under your radar. With all the hype over Samsung’s foldable phone hogging the spotlight, it was almost too easy to miss out on some things that will benefit not just Samsung but all Android users at large. Coincidentally at the same time as Samsung’s developer conference, Google kicked of its own Android Dev Summit over at Mountain View, unloading a ton of goodies Android users can look forward to. And, yes, Google is making sure Android is ready for the new foldable trend.

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The day of the foldable phone is almost upon us, and with Samsung's Infinity Flex - and the mysterious smartphone that will use it sometime in 2019 - we have plenty of questions and a handful of answers. Key to the story is just what advantages a foldable phone will have over current devices, and what app-makers will need to do in order to get their software experiences ready for devices that morph between different sizes.

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Samsung's smart TVs are gaining more voice control, with new partnerships with streaming services like Netflix and Spotify that won't need you to pick up the remote. Announced at SDC 2018, Samsung's annual Developer Conference, the new Voice Media Control API will allow apps and services to enable speech controls more easily.

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Today with the Samsung Infinity Flex display, Samsung revealed their foldable smartphone. This device has two displays, one on the outside that looks a lot like a standard Galaxy S9 (or thereabouts). The device opens up like a book, if the first display was the cover. Inside is a display that's twice as large as the display up front. Today we're meant to start understanding why this concept became a reality.

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Samsung isn't done with Bixby. The virtual assistant may not have reached the usefulness of Alexa or the Google Assistant, or the consumer awareness of Siri, but Samsung is betting that embracing third-party developers and expanding Bixby's availability will make the difference in the long-term.

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Spotify Connect is a pretty nifty alternative to things like Bluetooth and AirPlay, but thus far, it's been strictly the domain of Premium users. Those who listen for free haven't had access to Spotify Connect, but that's all about to change with a new update to Spotify's Commercial Partners' SDK. Beginning today, those hardware partners can enable Spotify Connect for free users in their speakers.

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New details on the next wave in big-time updates for Android 9 Pie for Samsung phones are coming soon. This week at Samsung's developer conference, software information and connections to hardware of all sorts will be running rampant. Word is this afternoon that Samsung is right on the verge of deciding whether they'll release the Android 9 Beta to Samsung Galaxy S9 devices this week, right alongside information about what's inside.

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Since time immemorial, OK maybe just a decade or so ago, people have imagined what a Google OS would be like. At one point, it seemed that would be something based on Ubuntu Linux which turned out to simply be a version they use internally. Then came Android, which almost because but still isn’t that Google OS. These days, the running theory is Fuchsia OS but you don’t have to go that far into the future. That Google OS might already be already be here in the form of Chrome OS but it’s still missing one important thing to truly establish it as more than just a passing but expensive experiment for Google.

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Back in June, Microsoft announced its intention to purchase GitHub. The monolithic company revealed that it would pay an impressive $7.5 billion in stock to add GitHub to its portfolio, making this one expensive deal. Today, we're getting word that the acquisition is complete, having gone through all the necessary regulatory channels to gain approval from the world's various governments.

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