Technology

Global app downloads topped 175 billion and consumer spending exceeded $86 billion in 2017, thanks to growth in emerging markets including China, India, Brazil and Russia, according to a new report from App Annie out this morning. Notably, India has now become the number two country by downloads, passing the …

Google’s Project Fi cell service never played the “unlimited data” game that most carriers in the U.S. like to play (and which is never truly unlimited). Instead, Google simply offered data at $10/GB/month and would give you a refund for any data you paid for but didn’t use. Now, however, …

Google today announced a significant change in how it ranks websites for mobile searches: it will now take page speed into consideration as one of its signals, the company says. The change, which Google is referring to as the “Speed Update,” will go into effect in July 2018, and will downrank very …

It’s getting to be Galaxy S9 season, and that’s a big deal in Android land. Samsung’s annual flagship phone release sets a benchmark by which all other phone releases are judged, and now we know when it will (probably) happen. Serial phone leaker Evan “evleaks” Blass has posted the announcement, …

Quad-level-cell (QLC) NAND flash is reportedly debuting this year from multiple companies. If you spent 2017 frustrated at the high price of SSDs, the advent of quad-level cell NAND could be the answer to solving capacity woes. New Intel leaks show QLC 3D NAND SSDs arriving in the not-so-distant future, …

When Intel and AMD announced they’d be cooperating on a new CPU with an Intel processor paired with an AMD GPU, it was easy to see who the loser was going to be. Nvidia has a dominant overall position in the GPU market, including the types of all-in-one and small …

In their zeal to promote virtual reality, companies have introduced a slew of 360-degree cameras of various sizes and price points. While some like the Ricoh Theta family and the Samsung 360 are much-loved by their owners, they haven’t caught on in the mass market. Despite being aimed at creating …

Developers are hard at work on the machine learning necessary for safer and more-autonomous vehicles. But all the AI in the world won’t be enough if the car relies on inadequate sensors. That was clearly demonstrated in one fatal Tesla crash that occurred in part because the car’s camera didn’t …

The app economy is continuing to grow, with the worldwide revenue from app stores expected to top $110 billion this year, according to recent estimates from App Annie. However, the time people spend using their apps is starting to stagnate, another report has found. In Flurry’s “State of Mobile 2017” …

Last spring, YouTube rolled out a massive update to its desktop site that included a redesign, faster underlying framework, and the addition of a dark mode. Now, that dark theme may be making its way to the YouTube mobile app, as well. The change was recently spotted by MacRumors (by …