Gadgetory

it's pretty much all about the nexus 5 at this point but we do have what could be the dawn of the flexible display and Samsung gets in trouble once again a chart regard manager Authority what's going on everybody and it's time for another dose of the week's top Android news it's android authority weekly we're basically in the thick of it when it comes to Nexus 5 rumors by now leaks just keep getting onto the internet and recently we got a picture of what looks like the actual device itself a user in the mac rumors forum claimed to have held the new Nexus smartphone and reported that it was smaller than the g2 and employs material very similar to the nexus 7 he also said that in this pretty build of the phone it starts up and actually tells you to guard it like a ninja so much for that after that we had a leak of another kind when a build of 4.4 kitkat was discovered in the wild naturally its information was scoured and a log file included some more spec information on the upcoming phone these included the 5-inch 1080p display the Snapdragon 800 and an 8 megapixel rear facing camera the juicier findings in the builds information came in the form of references to image stabilization although it may not be optical and some new USB features that may support OTG functionality as far as the actual android 4.4 build was concerned many of the apps included in it seemed to be quite updated and some code suggests that the core apps can and probably will become part of the Play Store allowing users with older phones to still be able to update their core experience even if they can't upgrade to the official version of KitKat the final story regarding the Nexus 5 deals with its camera again more information was scoured in a log file and it was speculated that the nexus 5 might come with a MEMS camera basically MEMS or a micro electrical mechanical system is a more sustainable physical build of a smartphone camera that could add some new functionality however our very own Bogdan posits that we might be jumping the gun here essentially the log file reference is definitely for a sony made sensor but it's not necessarily for the actual MEMS build whose real production doesn't actually start until twenty fourteen and even then it's more expensive to make and doesn't really fit in line with the lower price point of the Nexus line an image gallery focused upon 4.4 kitkat has also made it online showing not only what the new version of Android will basically look like but it even reveals a rather interesting Easter Egg that shows it still identifying itself as key lime pie the name was likely kept internally actually basically it retains a look very much like jelly bean but brings a few design changes and much smoother transitions with performance tweaks one interesting find however is that there is a new official setting in there for printing from your smartphone now none of these findings are confirmed as per usual but if you want to see any of these stories and the gallery of android 4.4 kitkat you can find links in the description below of course one of the biggest releases of the year happened this past week and it is the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 check out my full review if you haven't already and stay tuned for our continuing coverage of it with incredible specifications one of the best screams we've ever seen and that s pen it's for sure one hell of a beast but it actually hasn't been the smoothest release for samsung you may have been hearing the words of region lock being tossed around when talking about the note 3 and unfortunately this may be an issue that will be a thorn in our size for quite a while originally it was reported that the first sin used in a brand new note 3 had to be from the region it is associated with after that however the sim lock is lifted however a humongous threat over at XDA is flooded with angry users reporting that this isn't actually the case many users who perform to this initial activation still have trouble using foreign sim cards calls into the Samsung customer service area have been mixed at best with some reps sticking with the initial activation story and other stating outright that the region lock stands no matter what even if this is a measure to prevent illegal importing it's clear how much of a headache this is for many people and it might continue to be if Android 4.4 for Galaxy devices brings this region locked to even more phones it's a serious issue and we're going to keep our eye on the developments as they happen speaking of issues with Samsung it seems that they have been caught once again trying to benchmarks much like what the galaxy s4 samsung was found to be making the note 3 fire on all cylinders when benchmark apps are detected but this time around it looks like improved GPU performance and an altered display frame rate have been added into the mix what is a little interesting about all of this is that one test ran the benchmark without these boots and to be fair the note 3 still performed pretty damn well does samsung really need to game the system then well the answer is apparently yes not only because they want to get ahead in any which way but because apparently everyone wants to and integra veal to that all but a small number of key devices get this kind of optimization for benchmarking now we know that gaming benchmarks is a pretty common practice especially in general computing but now we know it's just as bad in the mobile space as well speaking of messing with the curve it looks like the next smartphone craze is on the horizon flexible displays are not a new idea but they've yet to be implemented in an actual device these screens would likely be made of plastic and Samsung has filled the beams that later this month we will see a phone with a plastic based display a Korean publication reported that this device won't have the S Pen or be a ruggedized phone perhaps it will be a new line for samsung and this interval from Samsung comes hot off the heels of LG's own developments apparently LG is also moving forward with their own flexible display offering in a sixth inch curved phone that is called the G flex now don't get quite too excited the phone itself isn't flexible but the plastic screen bends to its curve aside from this event the phone may not offer much else that is revelatory but a Japanese blog has reported that it will be a top-tier device our final story deals with security now we do hear the words of malware or virus sometimes tossed around along with Android but in reality many of us don't really see those problems so how safe is Android really well Google wanted to answer those questions itself their researchers found that less than 0 point 0 0 1 percent of all app installations have led to danger and any publicize discoveries of malware have been grossly exaggerated so to combat this trend Google will share its own data and findings whenever these reports appear this information comes a survey of 1.5 billion installations made possible by the verify apps service originally introduced in Android 4.2 yes all this data may or may not be truly accurate but now we know one thing if we stick to the Play Store for abs keep verify apps on and at least somewhat read security warnings then we should also be fine stay safe out there android friends and so there you have it for this edition of android authority weekly if you want to see the written companions for all of the stories covered in this edition you can find them in links in the description below also don't forget that there's also a lot of other great content on the android authority channel and there are a couple links over there on the side drop us a like on our videos and subscribe if you haven't already i'll see you on the next edition next week at the same time same place android authority because we're your source for all things android