Larry Page, one of the founders of the original Google, has just dropped a bombshell. Google as you know it is no more. Long live Alphabet.

In a letter to investors today, Page has revealed himself as the CEO of a new company called Alphabet. Alphabet is essentially the new Google, in that all of the different projects currently operating under the Google name — projects that have long grown further and further away from Google — are now Alphabet products. Including Google itself. Sundar Pichai will take over as CEO of Google, which as a whole will report to Alphabet, led by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. All other Alphabet companies, like X Labs and Calico, will get their own CEO who will also report to Alphabet.

On the financial side, “Alphabet Inc. will replace Google Inc. as the publicly-traded entity and all shares of Google will automatically convert into the same number of shares of Alphabet, with all of the same rights. Google will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alphabet.”

As a result of Alphabet’s creation, and its ownership of Google, Google as an Alphabet owned product itself will be slimmed down. This will theoretically lead to a more agile and focused Google, which will in turn theoretically make Google better in the long run.

Page and Alphabet have laid out the main goals for the new company as:

• Getting more ambitious things done.
• Taking the long-term view.
• Empowering great entrepreneurs and companies to flourish.
• Investing at the scale of the opportunities and resources we see.
• Improving the transparency and oversight of what we’re doing.
• Making Google even better through greater focus.
• And hopefully… as a result of all this, improving the lives of as many people as we can.

This is a lot to digest late on a Monday afternoon, and there’s a lot we don’t know right now (is Android now an Alphabet company?) so rest assured there will be plenty more on Alphabet to come.

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HTC has had a rough couple of years. Sales from the company have fallen 75 percent since 2011, while manufacturers like Apple and Samsung have seen nothing but success year after year. Today marks a new milestone in the journey to the bottom for HTC, as investors have declared the company worthless.

Detailed in a post on Bloomberg, HTC is now trading on the stock market below its cash value. What this means is that essentially, all of HTC’s back stock including products on hand, warehouses, supply chains, factories, research labs and real estate are all worthless to investors. The only real asset HTC has to its name at this point is its cash reserves, which are just enough to keep investors from all but burning the company to the ground.

While HTC executives have detailed plans to generate revenue and get the company largely profitable again by focusing on the high-end of the smartphone market, no one’s buying it. According to Bloomberg, “analysts also now see profit eluding HTC through the end of 2017 and none of the 22 tracked by Bloomberg that updated their view in the past three months recommend investors buy the stock.”

HTC may still have some fight left in ‘em, and along with continuing to manufacture high-end phones, they are also planning to branch out into more product segments like VR. But being told by investors that your cash is the only thing going for your company can’t possibly be a good feeling. Here’s to hoping HTC can pull off a miracle.

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Every week we cover new Android apps with Fresh Meat on Wednesday, followed by Android Gaming on Thursday and Top 10 App Updates on Friday. When Monday rolls around, we look back to see which apps were the most appealing to our audience. Read on for the five most popular Android apps from last week. These apps are ones that are most likely new and haven’t appeared in the top five list more than three times.

1. Weather 360

App info: Weather 360 is the most beautiful, Material design Android weather forecast application and widget which offers weather forecast, analog clock and digital clock widgets, smart battery tracker and weather widget.

2. Mobile TV

App info: Digital TV brings the old-style broadcast TV experience to mobile devices, making the experience more personal and more universally available.

3. Focus

App info: Focus is an incredible new kind of gallery, perfectly tuned for speed, efficiency, and ease of use.

4. Trulon – The Shadow Engine

App info: Enter a world of steampunk and magic by experiencing the debut title of the Trulon series. Trulon – The Shadow Engine is an adventure RPG with a unique card combat system.

5. Polarr Photo Editor

App info: Make high-level edits with this powerful and elegant tool for advanced photo enthusiasts. Learn new ways to process your photos, or find the tools you already know and love and use them on your mobile device.

Note:  To ensure that all apps receive a fair chance to make the list, we will retire any app that has made the list for three consecutive weeks.

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HTC One M8 users, we have some bad news for you today. If you were hoping to land an update to Sense 7 to hold you over until Android M becomes available presumably sometime later this year, you’re out of luck.

According to HTC’s Mo Versi, Sense 7 on the HTC One M8 will be tied directly to Android M. Despite originally being promised in August, it looks like M8 owners will have to wait awhile. Currently, the HTC One M9 runs Sense 7 and Android 5.1. The update to Android 5.1 includes security enhancements and battery improvements, something One M8 owners will simply have to do without for now.

At a time when HTC is very publicly struggling, what fans the company has left are probably feeling pretty burned right about now. We don’t blame ya. Feel free to let it out in the comments below.

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The latest round of Android devices receiving the Stagefright patch, keeping your device safe from malicious MMS messages, are here. Starting today, the Verizon Galaxy Note Edge and Galaxy Note 4 are being patched, along with T-Mobile Galaxy Note 4 as well.

Just about every manufacturer and carrier under the sun have pledged to quickly rollout patches for Android’s “Stagefright” vulnerability, and most are delivering in a responsible, timely manner. Today’s updates mark just a few in a line of many still to come. Once your device receives the update, don’t delay. Make sure to update your handset as soon as possible.

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Google has always touted Android One as its way to get smartphones in the hands of the next billion connected users. With Android One, Google would bring smartphones to developing countries where they aren’t a necessity, and change that.

But it seems that somewhere in the process, Google lost sight of its goals. Selling $185 phones, only online, in a place like India where other smartphones can be had for much cheaper and where brick and mortar stores outsell online retailers 3 to 1, helped get Android One off to a bad start. Now Google is looking to change that.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Google’s managing director for Google South-East Asia and India, Rajan Anandan, said Google will be rebooting Android One with an emphasis on making phones even more affordable, and easier to buy. According to Anandan, Google is aiming to get Android One devices down to below $50, a price point Google calls the sweet-spot.

Google has been tweaking Android and its services to fit developing markets, now it’s time to see if it can really gain some traction in hardware. Unfortunately, that’s where the details on how Google will be rebooting Android One end for now, but be on the lookout for more information in the coming weeks.

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Amazon’s Deal of the Day today is a great one for anyone looking to upgrade the storage in their phone with a microSD card. A wide selection of PNY memory cards are on sale today, with 128GB going for as little as $52.

Here are some of the prices on PNY memory:

128GB for $52
64GB for $25
32GB for $14
and more

As with all of Amazon’s Deal of the Day prices, these will only be on sale for a limited time.

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In the spirit of transparency and honesty, OnePlus has taken to its forums to announce that the first shipment of OnePlus 2 devices for North American markets — US and Canada — will lag behind Europe by 2-3 weeks.

The delay comes from production scheduling conflicts, but according to OnePlus, it won’t affect sales:

The production of the OnePlus 2 is in full swing and we’re excited to get the OnePlus 2 in your hands. However we do want to tell our users in North America that due to production schedules, shipping to the States and Canada will commence 2-3 weeks after shipments to Europe.

But don’t worry, this won’t affect our selling date. You can still use your invite codes to purchase the OnePlus 2 at oneplus.net starting August 11.OnePlus 2 Shipments DelayedOnePlus

While having to wait an extra couple weeks is a pain, especially for those in need of a new phone, it could be much worse. Now that the hype has died down a bit, we’d like to hear how many of you are planning to buy a OnePlus 2 in the comments below.

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In a quiet announcement, Qualcomm has announced three new processors in its entry-level and mid-range line-up. The first of the bunch is the Snapdragon 212 processor, which features four Cortex-A7 cores clocked at 1.3GHz. The rest of the processor has stayed the same as the previous model. Next up is the Snapdragon 412 processor, which sports four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.4GHz. The only other change in the 412 is that its memory bandwidth has increased to 600MHz, up from 533MHz.

The last of the group is the Snapdragon 616 processor, which is an octa-core processor with four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.7GHz and another four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.2GHz. Other than that, the Snapdragon 616 remains unchanged. All three chips should begin to be found in devices near the end of this year.

Source: Qualcomm (1), (2), (3)
Via: Android Police

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For one of its biggest apps, Google has been surprisingly slow with keeping Hangouts as up to speed as its other apps. Today the company is releasing Hangouts 4.0 for Android, which brings in a number of large changes, most notable of which is the complete addition of material design, which has long been missing/incomplete within Hangouts. The addition of material design has brought in a significant addition in the form of a universal compose button that allows you to start a new group, message or call with just a tap or two. It’s also even faster to share attachments such as photos or emoji with a simplified menu.

Google is also boasting speed and efficiency improvements with hangouts, noting a number of bug fixes and less battery consumption. A whole host of other improvements are bundled in that include but aren’t limited to outgoing caller ID, MMS messages through Google Voice, Hangouts for Android Wear and custom status messages.

It’s a hefty update and brings in many of the oft-requested features that users have been talking about. The update is rolling out now, but you may not see it for a couple of days. Stay patient and you’ll be rewarded.

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