The recently launched Nokia X, the Android powered device that is intended to promote Microsoft’s services via Android, has been hacked to run Google’s services instead. Basically, you will now be able to run any Google Mobile Services – PlayStore, Gmail, Maps, Notes, etc, on the device. 

The forked version of Android will not include Play Store or any Google App, like Chrome, Maps etc, however, it can still manage to run the Android applications you want. These X smartphones from Nokia will instead include, Skype, Here maps, Outlook and more services. 

The first [...]

Sources close to Microsoft have reported this week that the company is currently developing and experimenting with a new free version of its Windows 8.1 operating system.

Bing, which will be at the center of the low-cost operating system, is already growing as a platform and Microsoft hopes that will continue into the future.

While early versions of the software have leaked online, we understand that Windows 8.1 with Bing is an experimental project that aims to bring a low-cost version of Windows to consumers. 

Considering that the company has [...]

Boeing Co. on Wednesday unveiled a smartphone that appears to come straight from a James Bond spy movie.

The long-rumoured “Black” Android spy smartphone, which has the ability to self-destruct if tampered with, will soon be a reality, according to a patent filed by the aerospace and defence contractor.

“Boeing’s Black phone will be sold primarily to government agencies and companies engaged in contractual activities with those agencies that are related to defense and homeland security,” the filing states. “The device will be marketed and sold in a [...]

Apple has updated its iOS Security document to include intricate, detailed information pertaining to the Touch ID sensor that is found on the iPhone 5s. 

Apple reiterates that Touch ID and its Secure Enclave store only data from scanned fingerprints, rather than actual images. Using a secure boot process, the Enclave – a coprocessor inside of Apple’s A7 processor – verifies and signs information independently of other iOS hardware and software.

All Secure Enclaves can function independently even if a kernel is compromised and each one contains a unique ID inaccessible to other parts [...]

Google today revealed the first details of its Ara Developers’ Conference, a series of events that’ll focus on getting devs up to speed on the current and upcoming features of Project Ara. A new follow-up profile by TIME indicates we could see the device come to market by next year, with a $50 price tag to start. 

That MDK should be released in early April, Google says, as a free and open platform specification, along with a reference implementation that will help would-be Ara module developers to create their own piece.

The event will take place in Mountain View, [...]

Samsung is adding two new processors to its Exynos family. The Samsung Exynos 5422 is an updated, faster version of the Exynos 5420 octa-core processor, while the new Exynos 5260 is the company’s first hexa-core chip.

The line struggles to compete with Qualcomm when it comes to LTE radio capabilities, so like previous releases we’ll see the Exynos version of the phone in markets where LTE isn’t an option yet. In the US and in parts of Europe where LTE has been steadily growing, we’ll see the Qualcomm variant so users can take advantage of the special bonded download feature Samsung has implemented for the Galaxy [...]

Goophone has come out in support of those who can’t afford the newly launched Samsung Galaxy S5 – by cloning the device in just 2 days and naming it, imaginatively, the Goophone S5.

The Goophone S5 will pack a 5-inch 1920×1080 display and will be powered by a MediaTek octa-core chipset clocked at 2GHz. It will come with 2GB of RAM, 32GB of onboard storage, WiFi, dual-SIM capabilities, a 2,800mAh battery, a 13MP rear-facing camera, a 5MP front-facing camera, and will be priced at $300.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 on the other hand, features a [...]

Samsung has launched Samsung Knox 2.0, the second generation of its enterprise orientated security software. 

Samsung has sold over 25 million devices running Knox, with more than one million active users on the platform. Samsung also revealed this week that it sees 210,000 Knox-enabled devices each month, translating to an average of approximately 7,000 devices each day.

Thus, with a new slew of Galaxy mobile devices on the way, so to is the next version of Knox.

One of the greatest updates to arrive on KNOX 2.0 is how it handles Android apps. In [...]

BlackBerry has unwrapped two new handsets at the Barcelona expo – the BlackBerry Q20 and BlackBerry Z3.

The BlackBerry- and Foxconn-built 3G-only BlackBerry Z3 is an entry-level BlackBerry 10 smartphone running 10.2.1 with a 5-inch 960×540 pixel qHD display, a 1.2 GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, 1.5 GB RAM, 8GB storage, a 2650 mAh non-removable battery, a 5MP rear camera and a 1.1MP front-facing camera. The BlackBerry Z3 will be available in Indonesia this coming April for under $200. There are future plans to create the Z3 as an LTE-capable device, but no indication of an Indian release.

Ads are coming to the New Tab page of Mozilla Firefox. The company announced the new move, Tuesday, during the annual meeting of the Interactive Advertising Bureau in California.

This is a slight paradigm shift for sure, considering how New Tab pages have remained ad-free before. Darren Herman,  Mozilla’s VP of Content Services, says the content in the new Directory Tile program will  include “pre-packaged content for first-time users.  Some of these tile placements will be from the Mozilla ecosystem, some will be popular websites in a given geographic location, and some will be sponsored content from [...]

Google said in a regulatory filing this morning that it had closed its acquisition of Nest on Feb. 7.

Nest has always been on Google’s radar. Google Ventures, the company’s startup investment arm, was one of the Nest’s early investors. Google was previously rumored to be building a Nest thermostat competitor, and there were even leaked screenshots of a smart thermostat app built by Google called “EnergySense,” which would let you control the temperature from a smartphone or Web client.

Google is pretty famous at this point for acquiring vast amounts of [...]

There’s plenty to talk about with the sale of Motorola to Lenovo, from what it means for the future of the American Smartphone manufacturer to the reasons Google bought them in the first pace, and everyone seems to have an opinion, including Apple’s CEO Tim Cook. 

“I wasn’t surprised,” said Cook in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “Google gets rid of something that’s losing money, something that they’re not committed to.” Cook went on to state that becoming a company that melds hardware, software, and services together is quite difficult and that Google obviously hasn’t quite gotten proficient in this arena, [...]