Google Nexus 5 revision, Google Edition devices, Spotify free & more – Pocketnow Daily Recap

Pocketnow Daily gets an average of 300 to 500 comments a day, and sometimes even a thousand. We’d like to thank you all for participating in our question of the day, and we love your feedback so much, that we decided that since we can’t respond to ever single one of your comments, we should at least feature a couple in a weekly video. This is the Pocketnow Daily Recap. Since we only have 3 minutes on every Daily video to go through the hottest news, the weekly recap will serve as a more extensive discussion where we also include your thoughts on the subject. Sadly, for the sake of ...

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HTC One Developer Edition Android 4.3 is coming, will skip Android 4.2.2

Update: The article and quotes refer to the Developer Edition (64GB) HTC One While some international versions of the HTC One, including ours, have received their Android 4.2.2 updates, American flavors have not, yet. The situation is similar with the Google Developer Edition HTC One, but it is about to change, according to Jason Mackenzie, HTC’s president of global sales. While answering questions on Twitter, Mackenzie said that Android “2.2 is minor update so decided to go straight to 4.3″. He was referring to the Google Developer Edition HTC One, and, apparently, the ...

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Has anyone actually purchased a Google Play edition Galaxy S 4 or HTC One?

Google has sold devices under the Nexus brand for the last few years. The Nexus program serves as a proving ground for competitively priced smartphones and tablets, but also as a means to show off the latest and greatest in Android technologies. This has driven the industry to include the new features (NFC, barometer, etc.) in their own handsets, and helps keep prices down. Like it or not, manufacturers inevitably replace much of the Google-ish UI with their own user interface. This may add features and functionality, but it can also add overhead and lag — and ultimately, the user ...

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Moto X vs HTC One Google-Edition (Video)

You asked for it, and no amount of pithy pre-roll pedantry is going to keep you from the magic. So ignore all this text and hop on down to our newest comparison featuring the latest and greatest deluxe smartphones from two major manufacturers: Moto X vs HTC One (Google Play Edition) is here! Or, if you’re not the type to blow past carefully-crafted intro text all willy-nilly, here’s a little pre-comparison scoop on what we’ll be taking a look at today. As you know, we went hands-on with the Moto X ...

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How to make your Verizon Galaxy S 4 a Google Edition (Video)

When Samsung announced there would be a Google Play edition Galaxy S 4 after the Google I/O conference in May, many existing owners of Galaxy S 4s  were upset, and rightly so. They purchased what they thought they had been waiting for: one of the best smartphones ever created. It still is, don’t get me wrong, but when it was revealed that there would be a “pure Android” version available soon, many were disappointed. I’d be frustrated, too. I’ve long ...

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From Android skins to Android stock: a sweet & sour experience with the Google-edition HTC One

The skin/no-skin debate is the Coke vs. Pepsi divide of the smartphone space – if the cola war were an 80-20 split in favor of Pepsi, that is. Studies outlining user attitudes toward UI overlays are hard to come by, but there’s no real question about the prevalent feeling in the tech press: when it comes to Android skins, you can smell the disdain a mile away. If you ask me, the almost-automatic hatred of skins is a tired, destructive artifact of a jaded tech media. It’s a holdover from the days when

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HTC One Google Edition unboxing (Video)

Taylor Martin might’ve taught you how to make your own carrier-branded HTC One into a fancy Google-Edition version with some crazy (easy) hacking, and he might even have made another video demonstrating all the reasons you should go ahead and do just that. He might even be working on another video, demonstrating how to reverse all that action and return to the BlinkFeed-rocking world of Sense, at this very ...

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Pocketnow Weekly 051: Baby, you’re a firework

It’s weird when holidays fall in the middle of the week, because either you’re kicking off a long weekend with the special celebration, or you’re returning to work the next day with a fuzzy brain, a sunburn, and sand in your hair. We’re in the latter situation this week at Pocketnow, the American portion of the team coming down from a day of BBQ and a night of fireworks … but in our case, it’s a good thing. Because today’s the day for our weekly mobile tech podcast, and we love us some mobile-tech podcasting. We hope you do, too, because ...

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Samsung Galaxy S 4 Google Play Edition Android 4.3 screenshots leak

Just yesterday we’ve heard reports of Android 4.3 being prepared for the Samsung Galaxy S 4 Google Edition and it looks like today there’s purported proof. The screenshots above and below are allegedly taken off of an early Android 4.3 build. The build is powering a Qualcomm Snapdragon version Samsung Galaxy S 4 and the details of the build are, as seen in the screenshot below: Android version is 4.3, build number JWR66N.S005.130625, and Android build number. Android 4.3 is not ...

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Google Edition HTC One and GS4 on sale, Motorola branding, phones & more – Pocketnow Daily

Watch today’s Pocketnow Daily as we talk about the Samsung Galaxy S 4 with LTE-Advanced which was recently announced for the Korean market. We later talk about LG and the recently leaked photos of the Optimus G2. HTC follows with a new 8XT smartphone that borrows some Boom Sound love for Windows Phone, aside from the launch rumors of the HTC One mini. Motorola is next as we have a new logo, new leaks of a phone, and a new series of smartphones that will be called the Droid ULTRA. We end today’s show talking Google’s launch of their Google Edition HTC One and Samsung ...

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I want a Moto X and so should you, here’s why

Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside recently confirmed that the Motorola “X Phone” is not a figment of our imagination, nor a wishful hope. “It’s going to be called the Moto X (and) it’s going to be broadly distributed” later this year. There you have it: it’s not the “Motorola X Phone”, it’s not the “Motorola Nexus X”. The new phone, when it’s released, will be called the “Moto X”, and I want one. Hello Moto! GeoLocation & Situational Awareness The letter X is often associated with location. “X ...

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Thinking about the HTC One Google Edition? Here’s what you’ll be missing

Google used to have “launch partners” to help it show off a new operating system or new platform. Motorola showed off its XOOM tablet, Logitech showed off its Google TV set top box. After that, Google leaned more toward Nexus devices to show its new features, rather than its traditional “launch partner” approach. Many of us in the tech industry mused about the potential (albeit remote) of multiple Nexus devices in each category ...

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Pocketnow Weekly 047: Nokia EOS rumors, webOS sentimentalism, & a whole lotta outtakes

Sometimes you get listener mail that asks how the band got together in the first place. Sometimes that happens the day after you drop some nostalgic sentimentalism all over the internet. Sometimes, simultaneously, there are some sweet, juicy rumors and leaks about a top-of-the-line camera phone with what looks like a moon crater on it. Sometimes you gotta put all that into a podcast with the original cadre of Pocketnow ‘casters, and see what comes out. All that, plus the longest outtake reel in the history of Pocketnow, more Nokia EOS rumors than you can shake a stick at, the ...

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The Google Edition Galaxy S 4 and HTC One will be a boon to the development community, and to you

When sites like Pocketnow review smartphones and tablets it can be somewhat difficult to flatten the playing field and return an unbiased evaluation comparing Apples to Apples (if you’ll pardon the pun). Part of this stems from the fact that in addition to comparing different hardware, journalists are also challenged with comparing dissimilar software features. These differences can reach beyond the user experience and can manifest anomalous readings in bench-marking utilities and negatively impact everyday performance. Thanks to

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Pocketnow Live, Ep. 18: Google Edition smartphones are the next big thing

Topic Google Edition smartphones seem to no only be the trending topic, but also the next big thing. Those preferring a vanilla Android experience, a Nexus experience, if you will, will definitely prefer the Google Edition Samsung Galaxy S 4 and HTC One devices. Without TouchWiz or Sense, and with the latest vanilla version of stock Android, you can basically choose your own Nexus device. Is this the new trend for the future? Will we see more manufacturers adopt this dualist system of offering a device with two different user experiences? Will this mean that OEM personalization will slowly ...

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