Every year, various Android OEMs release hundreds of new Android powered smartphones. However, only a handful of them sell in millions of units and are truly worth your hard earned money.
This year was no different with Samsung and releasing their flagship handsets by the first half of this year, followed by LG, Sony, Google and Motorola in the second half. But, which was the best Android smartphone released this year? Read our round up below to find out.
It’s not too difficult to look back over the last 12 months and pick out a whole host of consumer tech products that were a great success — they’re the ones we all remember, after all. But what about those that didn’t do so well.
We’ve put together a list of the biggest tech flops from 2013 — 7 devices and services that were supposed to be big, but just couldn’t cut it. We’ll start with the overwhelming failure of the HTC First, the first Facebook-powered smartphone.
Android’s software library gets bigger and stronger each and every year, and that’s no surprise given that it now holds the largest share of the worldwide smartphone market. And there’s never been a better time to be an Android user from a third-party software standpoint.
Not only has Android caught up with the quantity of apps on iOS, but developers are helping it bridge the gap between quality, too. Apps like VSCO Cam, Cal, and Yahoo! Weather are proving that Android software can be just as beautiful as its rivals, while things like Cover and Fleksy demonstrate the important of its customization options — and the benefits of using Android over other mobile platforms.
Picking a small selection of apps for a Best of 2013 roundup hasn’t exactly been easy, then. This list could have been significantly longer than it is, but we’ve tried to condense it down and cherry pick the apps that really stand out. So, without further ado, here are the best Android apps of 2013.
Kanto’s YU2s seem to come from a time when speakers were solid, simple structures; proud temples to sound that said of their owners, Hey, I’m serious about music, and I know what I’m doing. Aesthetics were important, of course, but unquestioningly took a backseat to sound. Sound was king.
If you haven’t heard of Kanto before, that’s OK — the Canadian outfit just sprouted up in the Vancouver suburbs around five years ago. The YU2s are Kanto’s latest speakers, the smallest of their lineup of a half-dozen or so, and they’re designed to fit unobtrusively on a bookshelf or desk and play music from your computer or mobile device.
The YU2’s performance during our review, however, was nothing short of astonishing — and they could very capably substitute for larger speakers in a variety of roles.
Earlier this week, Google released the Android 4.4.2 OTA update for all the Nexus devices it currently supports. Unlike the Android 4.4.1 update that was rolled out last week, the latest update to KitKat only fixed a few under-the-hood bugs and patched a major security loophole.
The roll-out of the Android 4.4.2 OTA update has been pretty quick from Google’s side and chances are you must have already received the OTA update notification on your device. However, if you are rooted, the OTA update will fail to install on your Nexus device.
