The ruggedized Android dominating our thoughts for the moment may be the Galaxy S 4 Active, and while we're still waiting for much of this info we have on the phone to be confirmed, one item seems like a given: it's going to be expensive. If a reliable elements-proof construction is important to you but you don't have $600 to drop on a new smartphone, you may want to take a look at the Cat B15, which today goes up for sale online to North American customers. We first heard of this guy back at the Mobile World Congress, where we had the opportunity to go hands-on with the sturdy handset. ...

Earlier this month, LG distributed invitations to a May 30 event where news about a "G" phone was teased. When first hearing about this, we speculated as to just what LG might hope to reveal, with something like the regional launch of the Optimus G Pro for China high on that list. Still, images of an unknown LG smartphone kept appearing, and we couldn't quite shake the rumor that LG might be planning on getting an early start to announcing the Optimus G II, and would use this event to do so. Well, it now seems like we should have just stuck with our guy on this one, as LG has now confirmed ...

When you install an Android app, you're presented with a litany of permissions that the app requires you to accept. Currently, that's an all-or-nothing situation. While that makes things easier for developers, it also takes away a lot of power away from users, and potentially makes Android less secure. We've recently been talking about news uncovered thanks to Google I/O events, and that trend continues now, with Google addressing just this very issue during the Android team "fireside chat." When pressed to answer whether we'd see expanded user control over app permissions come to Android, ...

Despite our expectations, Google I/O 2013 failed to deliver a new version of Android. As we've discussed, that wasn't so much of a big deal, as we got plenty of improvements to services without needing a whole new Android build, but has left us wondering: just when might Key Lime Pie get here? We've seen evidence showing Android 4.3 in testing, and rumors have suggested that it could arrive sometime next month. We wait to learn if that will indeed come to pass, but in the meantime a couple little hints have surfaced in the wake of Google I/O that remind us that Key Lime Pie is still in our ...

The Nexus Q is unquestionably the black sheep of the Nexus family to date (yes, more than any CDMA Galaxy Nexus). After making its debut last summer, the project quickly went off the rails and fizzled-out before it really had a chance. This year, we were wondering if Google might take a second stab at the idea of a home Android-based media playback system, but no Nexus Q made an appearance at Google I/O. In fact, when the new Google All Access music system debuted and it specifically didn't support the Nexus Q – an Android built from the ground up for audio playback, it felt like this ...

Instead of bringing us a new Android version, last week's Google I/O instead introduced a whole load of updates to Google services, giving the platform a refresh without requiring a full-on new Android build. A big chunk of those improvements centered on Google+, including a number of improvements to how the service handles photographs. Today an updated version of the Android Google+ app arrives to finally give you access to these new features, numbering 41 in total. Google+ will now let you automatically backup photos to the cloud, and introduces all those automatic tools we learned about ...

Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia UL: it's been starting to feel like Sony's transformed itself into an assembly line for 1080p Androids lately. Despite all this focus on high-end, high-res handsets, it's also managed to continue addressing other market segments, and back in March we learned about a couple more conservative models, the Xperia L and Xperia SP. Now, the Xperia L is finally going up for pre-order for interested US customers. Is it worth what Sony's asking, though? Sony is currently taking orders for the Xperia L, with the intention of shipping the phones on May 23. Its radios will ...

Last month, Samsung announced the first Galaxy Tab 3 model, a seven-inch tablet. Obviously, more Tab 3 options would follow, and at the time we heard rumors about a few other hardware configurations. One of those included an eight-inch model with some nice specs like an AMOLED screen. As we wait for official word, some new specs have leaked for the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0, along with a possible render. Bad news first: this falls way short of those rumored specs. That means a regular old LCD screen (1280 x 800) and instead of a quad-core SoC, only a dual-core 1.5GHz component – no word on if ...