Google’s Nexus tries to learn the iPhone lesson

Google wants to make its Nexus phones more like the iPhone We had heard about this previously, but now The Information confirms that Google is indeed seeking to have more and more control over its Nexus smartphones. The plan is simple: no visible partnerships in order to compete in the high end range, where the

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Apple is neither inmortal, nor invulnerable

Last financial results from Apple show how the company is as exposed as the rest of the world to macroeconomic issues. The economic conditions have impacted on its numbers and have pointed out that its greater strenght is also a potential weakness. The number of iPhones sold has grown a mere 1 per cent, but next

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Xiaomi against imaginary valuations

Investors are taking a second look at China’s high-value startups such as smartphone maker Xiaomi, which is now facing growing pressure to live up to high expectations. Xiaomi missed its 2015 sales target: they estimated 80 million smartphones shipped, but they weren’t capable of growing that fast and that much. They haven’t surprised us as

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The absurd backdoor

China passed a controversial new anti-terrorism law on Sunday that requires technology firms to help decrypt information, but not install security “backdoors” as initially planned, and allows the military to venture overseas on counter-terror operations. Counter-terrorism efforts are beginning to be infuriating. Most countries are passing laws against encryption and privacy that for lots of

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The $85 Chromebit is another nice, useless product that solves a problem that didn’t exist

The original Chromecast initiated a trend: HDMI dongles with computing capabilities were born. Intel Compute Stick and Splendo are two good examples of this kind of miniPC (in this case, based on Windows). Now we’ve got another alternative, not in format but in its OS. The Chromebit was announced a few months ago, and it has

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Ubuntu convergence has its own pace 

Canonical wants to get thing right before releasing it Your next PC will be your smartphone. That’s the idea Mark Shuttleworth – creator of Ubuntu and founder of Canonical- sold us on October 31st, 2011. The convergence dream was very real, but the plan failed. Ubuntu didn’t deliver that promise on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (April’14)

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Google plans on designing its own chips: easier said than done

Amir Efrati on The Information has revealed the conversation between Google and some chip makers about “developing chips based on Google’s own preferred designs“. The idea here is says Efrati, to “bring more uniformity” and “be more competitive with Apple’s phones at the high end of the market” I have some questions for Google. For example,

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HTC One A9: judging a book by its cover

HTC released yesterday the new HTC One A9, a smartphone that look really good from the outside and that also gets really interesting features on the inside. There are doubts about its battery life, but what matters here is the promise of Android updates 15 days after the official Nexus line updates. They’ll have to

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