Interested In What Motorola China Has To Say? Watch The Livestream Here And Find Out

After Lenovo purchased Motorola Mobility from Google, it was obvious that Motorola will return to China after a significantly long absence. The company has announced that they’ll hold an even in Beijing on January 26, in Beijing Convention Center, and announced the 2nd-gen Moto G and Moto X handsets along with the Moto X Pro, which is essentially the Nexus 6 with a different software. Motorola might have another ace up its sleeve, but these devices will surely make an appearance.

The event has just started in Beijing, and you can watch the live stream if you’d like, all you have to do is follow this link and it will take you straight to the live coverage of this event. Keep in mind that the event is in Chinese though, just throwing that out there. Interactive chat is on the right though, so you might be able to communicate in English as well if that’s what you’d like.

As for the devices that will be announced, I’m sure that you’re familiar with all of them. The Moto G handset is Motorola’s mid-range offering which offers a lot for the price point. The Snapdragon 400-powered handset sports a 5-inch 720p display, 1GB of RAM and a really solid build quality next to an almost stock version of Android, only some Motorola services are on there. It remains to be seen how much will the software will be altered for the Chinese market though.

Motorola Moto X, on the other hand, is a more powerful handset. This thing sports a 5.2-inch 1080p display, 2GB of RAM and is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 801 quad-core CPU. The Moto X has even more features built-in, most of which I believe many of you will consider quite useful. And last, but not least, the Moto X Pro, this thing is expected to look exactly like the Nexus 6, but pack different software, at least according to reports. Anyhow, tune in and watch the livestream of this event if you’re interested, let us know what you think once the event is over.

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New CyanogenMod 12 boot animation turns night into day

T-Mobile makes SCORE! program official, lets you pay $5 per month for smartphone discounts

T-Mobile has made a new program official for customers to take part in, and they’re calling it SCORE! The program simply lets you pay an extra $5 per month on your bill, and then you’ll get discounts on smartphones after a few months.

After 6 months of paying that extra few bucks, T-Mobile will give you a free entry level smartphone. Today, that would be something along the lines of the Alcatel OneTouch Evolve 2, which isn’t a bad deal for the equivalent of 30 bucks. However, if you keep paying and don’t cash in, after 12 months you’d be able to pick up a much nicer phone (T-Mobile uses the LG L90 LTE as an example) without paying anything, or you can get a bigger discount on other phones. The discount is supposedly at least $150 off a phone in the same tier as a Galaxy S5, so you’re basically paying $60 for a $150+ discount. Not a bad deal at all. The drawback is that you can’t put those discounted phones on an installment plan, but since you’re saving a bit each month, it should be easier to make those big purchases.

Whether or not you plan on taking advantage of the SCORE! program, it’s nice to have the option to. This kind of deal is pretty strange to the wireless industry, but it’s good to see T-Mobile testing out new ways to sell customers phones.

source: T-Mobile

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Android Headliner: What’s Next For WhatsApp Could Be Part Of Facebook’s Plans To Expand The Platform

If you’re a WhatsApp user, whether through their official application or previously through a popular third party application for it called WhatsApp Plus, you’ve more than likely been following the news surrounding WhatsApp this past week. Facebook(who is the owner of WhatsApp)has been making some big changes for the messaging application as of late and with all the shifting in directions we’re left to visualize what’s next for WhatsApp. It isn’t too hard to picture, as two of the major changes they have made or announced this week somewhat follow the same path and attempt to serve the same purpose, which is to make WhatsApp more accessible.

This is evident by two things. Facebook has finally brought WhatsApp to the web. After months of talk about a desktop version of the insanely popular messaging application, this week WhatsApp for the desktop finally made its debut, allowing users to access their message streams from their laptop or desktop should they already be using their computer. This makes things easier for heavy WhatsApp users who like to use the service to stay in contact with their family and friends but don’t have the time to pull out their phones and shoot a quick message. In the sense of productivity and efficiency, this makes sense. Perhaps on a larger scale though, Facebook is using this opportunity to bring WhatsApp to more people. The group of people who wouldn’t use WhatsApp on their phones but instead only if they could send messages from their browser. Facebook already offers this sort of split capability for their Messenger service, so perhaps it was only a matter of time before they brought a web based experience to the users of WhatsApp as well. It isn’t immediately known if Facebook would ever consider merging the two services into one massive messaging platform, but it would make sense if they were trying to consolidate Messenger and WhatsApp into one entire service. Whether or not Facebook is planning a transition of the sort is unknown but it’s somewhat of a logical move as there’s no real reason for them to have two competing services that offer the messaging platform on both mobile devices as well as the browser.

Facebook also introduced a new product for WhatsApp users that could not only give them more value in using the app, but could also potentially be another way for them to snag new users. It’s called the WhatSIM, and is basically a cheap little SIM card that has one purpose, to bring WhatsApp messaging to users anywhere in the world for free by purchasing the inexpensive WhatSIM. For those that travel and want to stay connected to friends and family, WhatSIM is a cheap one time payment for the SIM and offers free use of WhatsApp messaging thereafter, no matter where you are. Facebook has made an interesting choice here, one that serves as a way to bring in some more revenue, by bolstering their user base and making it possible for people who might have never used WhatsApp a chance to see what it’s all about now that there’s a chance to use it for free. WhatsApp could also be looking to finally add a voice calls feature to the service, as a user on reddit states that a “calls folder” had shown up in their application after WhatsApp had received a recent update. With Facebook offering free messaging worldwide via the new whatSIM, a browser based application, and potentially an upcoming voice service that promised near a year ago, WhatsApp is potentially due to cover all bases of communication regardless of platform or location.

It isn’t necessarily in direct correlation with what seems like expansion efforts for WhatsApp, but the cease and desist order given to the team of developers who had created WhatsApp Plus(the third party WhatsApp app)could have something to do with what Facebook has planned for the future of WhatsApp. Perhaps Facebook is just trying to protect their assets and maybe it all just comes down to a violation of terms of service. WhatsApp Plus isn’t new though, so if the app violated the terms of service why wait until now to shut things down? Maybe Facebook is planning some new additions to the official WhatsApp application that WhatsApp Plus already offered, and it would make sense if they didn’t want any competition over it. Whatever Facebook has planned for the future of WhatsApp, gaining more users and expanding the WhatsApp platform seems to be a clear move.

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ExoDrive Cases Are The External Storage Solution For Devices With No External Storage

Over the last twelve months there has been a trend towards significantly increasing device’s internal storage capacity. For those that like to carry lots of images, movies and music then this is a great thing. Gone are the days when users are forced to make-do with only 16GB (or lower) internal storage limits. That said, there does seem to have been one particular offset for the cost of greater internal storage. That is, that a lot of devices which offer 32GB and 64GB internal limits are now ignoring external storage cards completely. As such, those with a 64GB internal storage device are again finding themselves with a memory limit in place.

Well, a new product making the rounds on Kickstarter seems to be looking to address this problem and has come up with a rather good idea. ExoDrive cases are cases which once attached to your device, offer the ability to utilize external storage cards even if your device does not come with an external storage or microSD card slot. If you are wondering how this works then it is simple. The case itself comes with the microSD card slot. In addition, the case also has a microSD to microUSB adapter built in, which plugs into your microUSB socket on your phone. Therefore, when the case is attached, the external storage card is being routed through your microUSB socket. What is even more interesting, is that the microUSB slot remains available while the case is attached and as such you can still charge your phone or connect to your laptop (as normal) without issue.

According to the the creators, the ExoDrive cases are compatible with microSD card slots up to 128GB (although they do note, they potentially offer support up to 2TB cards). In terms of device compatibility, the Kickstarter page states their cases will be available for a number of devices like the Motorola Moto G, Moto X, Samsung Galaxy S5, Galaxy S4, OnePlus One, HTC One M8, One M7, LG G2 as well as the Google Nexus 5 and Google Nexus 6. If you are interested in picking up one of these cases, then the very early bird prices of $25 have already all gone There are a few $35 early bird prices left, while after that you, will be looking at the standard Kickstarter price of $45 per case. The cases are said to be available in black, grey or white and shipping is expected to commence March 2015. Head over to the Kickstarter listing for more information on these ExoDrive cases.

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Redditer Launches Boot Animation For CM Theme Engine Using Cyanogen Inc.’s New Logo

In the world of customization on Android devices there are nearly limitless possibilities of what one could do to their device to bring their own flavor and personality to the every day experience. You’ll find no shortage of homescreen setups, third party home launchers, fonts, and the like, and for the truly adventurous and those who root their devices and throw on a custom ROM, those possibilities are expanded upon ten fold, giving users the ability to customize almost every single aspect of their device. One of the areas where a rooted device owner can customize is with boot animations, a rather popular art in the world of custom ROM’s.

A redditer and community owner/member on G+ centering around Android development with ROMs and boot animations has just launched a new boot animation onto Google Play recently that uses Cyanogen Inc.’s new logo, and although the comments on reddit seem to be filled with some mixed opinions, this is a really polished boot animation and we think it looks rather amazing. Hats of to Kiernan Moore who created this beauty and re-created the Cyanogen Inc. logo. We’d wager this would look absolutely awesome on a OnePlus One.

The Cyanogen Inc. boot animation can be found in either a dark or light theme, which gives you options of either a white or black background for the boot animation. This time around Moore states that he is giving out his boot animation for free, which is a pretty sweet deal if you ask us especially for how good it looks. He does have a selection of other available boot animations as well though too, some of them $0.99 if you want to check them out here. Our favorite is probably either the Flicker or Lollipop animation out of his other works. Not only are both light and dark themes for the Cyanogen boot animation free on Google Play, but Moore is also sharing the zip files for them on the reddit thread linked in the source below. If you have a device running either on CM 11 or CM 12(as Moore states it works with CM 11 or CM 12 theme engine), you can grab the boot animations from the Play Store.

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[Weekend Poll] Do You Pay For A Music Streaming Service? Which One?

I asked you back in 2013 which streaming music service you paid for - if any - and now a little over a year later, I think it's time for an update. Last time we held this poll, a full 50% of respondents indicated they paid for Google Play Music All Access (at least, it was the paid service they used most), with a sharp drop-off for Spotify, in second place at 14%.

[Weekend Poll] Do You Pay For A Music Streaming Service? Which One? was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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T-Mobile Officially Launches New SCORE! Program For Non EIP Customers

A couple days ago we learned of a possible new program that T-Mobile would be getting ready to launch called SCORE!, which was essentially a way for people that weren’t on the JUMP! program with EIP to get some discounts on new phones similar to the way JUMP! customers were able to upgrade every 6 months to a new device. The program would basically allow customers who weren’t on JUMP! with EIP to either upgrade after a 6 month or 12 month period to get free entry level handsets or discounts on higher-end devices after those two periods of time.

Today T-Mobile has officially launched the SCORE! program, and it basically holds everything we talked about the other day. Customers who aren’t on the JUMP! program(so pretty much everyone else, including prepaid customers)will be able to sign up for SCORE! for $5 a month, and if a customer wants to upgrade after 6 months they’ll be able to pick up the Alcatel OneTouch Evolve 2 for either regular plans or prepaid at no cost. Unfortunately that is the only handset available for the 6 month mark for now.

If a customer is willing to wait 12 months however before they try to upgrade to a new handset, they’ll have a vastly larger selection of devices to choose from including high-end devices like the Nexus 6. Although the high end devices won’t be free after 12 months, instead they’ll be available at a discounted cost. For example, a person waiting 12 months to upgrade on the SCORE! program will be able to get the Nexus 6 for $499 instead of $649. Another available option will be the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 for $599 instead of $749 which is full retail. There will also be other free entry level devices like the LG Optimus L90, and the T-Mobile Concord II.(prepaid only)It should go without saying, but once you use up your SCORE! discount, your time resets all the way back to zero months. So, it would be smart to make the most of the 12 months for instance and grab a high end phone at discount instead of wasting it on an entry level device for free. That of course is just my two cents. SCORE! is available as of now, so if you’re going to be in need of a new phone with 12 months, we’d suggest signing up for it immediately.

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Deal: Toshiba 13.3-inch Chromebook – $179.99

eBay currently has the 13.3-inch Toshiba Chromebook on sale. It’s going for just $179.99 right now. This is a manufacturer refurbished model of the Toshiba Chromebook for those wondering. It’s powered by the Intel Celeron 2955U processor. Which is plenty powerful for a Chromebook. You can grab yours from the link below.

• Toshiba 13.3-inch Chromebook – $179.99 (eBay)

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Android Authority this week

Rumor: HTC One M9 Plus Will Be A Larger Model Of The M9 With The Same Specs

After HTC released the 20013 One (M7), their next product in the same family was the HTC One Mini and this was followed by the HTC One Max, to complete the family. The One and One Mini had quite different specifications with the One Mini being very much a cut down version of the One; it offered a lesser screen, processor, memory and camera compared with the One. The One Max, however, might have been expected to follow the Samsung model, whereby the larger device is more powerful, has a better display or some other improvements. However, HTC released the HTC One Max with the same quad core, 1.7 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor of the original One. At the time, some fans were surprised and disappointed that HTC didn’t upgrade the processor to the new (at the time) Snapdragon 800 to offer that bit more to customers. And now HTC may be doing the same thing again with the HTC One (M9), which we believe will be announced in March, and the HTC One (M9) Plus, also known as the HTC Hima Ace Plus. As such, we might reasonably expect the HTC One (M9) Plus to be based around the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor with a screen somewhere between 5.5-inch to 6.0-inch, but launched against a backdrop of the newer Snapdragon 815 or 820 processors.

One of the other features that’s expected on the One (M9) Plus is a fingerprint scanner. We saw something similar on the One (M7) Max but for the 2015 edition, HTC may be including a very Samsung-esque looking home button under the screen. This might replace one of the BoomSound front face speakers, although it would surprise me if HTC dropped a speaker for a fingerprint sensor. We’ve already seen how BoomSound has evolved over the months, going from a relatively large speaker grill to a much smaller one. The images of devices that we are seeing appear to be prototype models so we may well be seeing how HTC are experimenting with designs. At least one handset appears to have dual rear cameras, so perhaps HTC are going to provide the One (M9) Plus with a duo-camera setup similar to the One (M8)?

As for when we will find out… that remains uncertain. We believe that the One (M9) will be officially announced in early March, but sources point to the One Plus not being announced until much later in the year, presumably to capture some of Samsung’s mindshare with the rumors of their next Galaxy Note model that will start to circulate in September time. I for one would hope that HTC will reveal the One Plus sooner than this, before Qualcomm launch a new Snapdragon processor and the specification sheet looks outdated at any rate.

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The Nexus Player Is Now Available At US Retailers: Best Buy, Newegg, And Amazon

Google's first retail Android TV device, the Nexus Player, hasn't been met with the same kind of demand as last year's new Nexus phone or tablet, or even its little brother the Chromecast. But if you'd like to buy it somewhere aside from the Google Play Store, today you can. The set-top box has its retail debut this weekend, starting with the usual suspects in the United States: Amazon, Newegg, and Best Buy.

The Nexus Player Is Now Available At US Retailers: Best Buy, Newegg, And Amazon was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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CyanogenMod 12 Has A New Boot Animation And It Is Very...White

Prepare your eyes and ears, because CyanogenMod is introducing a new boot animation in today's nightlies (for CM 12 builds). Your eyes need to be ready because this time, the background is white. Your ears, on the other hand, need to be ready for all the inevitable whining about how some users wish it was still predominantly dark. Rather than tiptoe around it, here are the goods:

As long as you aren't offended by the color scheme, it is actually quite nice.

CyanogenMod 12 Has A New Boot Animation And It Is Very...White was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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