Google Play Music hits 1 billion installs

Google Play Music becomes the 15^th Android app to hit one billion installs. This somewhat shows that the number of people activating Android devices continue to grow. Google Play Music now has an extensive list of features on it since it launched in 2011. It lets users store personal music collections online, buy individual albums to stream via All Access subscriptions, and have personalized radio stations. Of course, this many installs don’t translate to all these users actually on the service. But, as mentioned, it does show the growing number of users on Android.

Source: Android Police | Download: Google Play Music (Free)

Chrome to start blocking Flash ads on September 1st

Constantly bugged by Flash ads popping up in your Chrome browser? Starting September 1^st, Google Chrome will make Flash-blocking a default setting for its users. Google’s encouraging its advertisers to switch to HTML5 so they won’t be affected by this. For users though, this might better the browsing experience on Chrome and maybe even help it use up less power. Chrome is known to be a power hog so hopefully this change might make things better.

Source: Google | Via: Engadget

LG’s new Nexus 5 expected to come out on September 29th

LG’s working on a new version of the Nexus 5 and a report claims this latest iteration will be coming out by the end of September, on the 29^th to be exact. The device will supposedly support Android 6.0 Marshmallow and be one of the two Nexus handsets coming out this fall (the other coming from Huawei). It’ll reportedly be powered by a hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor, 3GB of RAM, and will come with a 5.2-inch Quad HD display with a better 13-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization. It’s also rumoured to have a fingerprint scanner and USB-C port.

Source: Cult of Android

Lenovo folds smartphone unit under Motorola

Motorola's President Rick Osterloh will lead Lenovo's mobile charge under the Motorola brand

Lenovo announced today that it will shift all of its smartphone operations, including design and manufacturing under the Motorola banner. Lenovo acquired Motorola Mobility from Google last year for US $2.1 billion and 3,500 employees were retained. This made Lenovo the third largest smartphone maker at the time.

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