Last week, Google told 9 to 5 Google it would be in charge of releasing monthly security updates for Verizon's Pixels and Verizon would be in charge of pushing out system updates (read: new versions of Android).
Well, that's no longer the plan. Google will release both system updates and monthly security patches and Verizon's Pixel phones will receive them on the same day as Pixel phones sold through the Google online store according to Ars Technica.
"First and foremost, all operating system and security updates to the Pixel devices will happen in partnership with Google," a Verizon spokesperson told Ars. "In other words, when Google releases an update, Verizon phones will receive the same update at the same time (much like iOS updates). Verizon will not stand in the way of any major updates and users will get all updates at the same time as Google."
That's really great news! The fear with Verizon handling system updates was that it could drag its feet like it has in the past.
And there's more good news: the three pre-installed "bloatware" apps that come on the Verizon Pixels will be removable and the phones will be carrier unlocked, meaning they'll work with any carrier.
We previously recommended buying the Pixels directly from Google, but now that we know the Verizon versions will be identical to Google's (after you uninstall the three apps, of course), the only reason not to buy from Verizon is if you're on a different carrier.
If you're on Verizon, the Pixels are even more attractive now, especially if you trade in your old phone for up to $300.
The Moto Z and Moto Z Force are two of Lenovo/Motorola’s finest smartphones and its Moto Mods are the best shot at making modular phones a reality (at least until Google’s Project Ara launches next year).
Joining the Z family is the new Moto Z Play Droid, an Android device with mid-range specs, a long-lasting battery and one feature the Z and Z Force don’t have: a headphone jack.
Works with all Moto Mods
A Verizon-exclusive in the U.S., the Z Play Droid eschews the Z and Z Force’s rigid metal design for a glass sandwich (a booming trend in the Android world).
It still has the same magnetic pin system protruding out of the backside for interfacing with Moto Mods. It’s fully compatible with all existing Moto Mods, like the expensive portable projector, external speaker, battery pack and the new Hasselblad True Zoom camera attachment.
IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
In my opinion, the metal pins clash with the glass back. I much prefer the cohesive coldness of the exposed pins with the striped metal on the Z and Z Force. It’s not the ugliest design by any means (I like the the glass back look). It’s just not as sleek as its siblings.
The massive camera hump is still an eyesore, but like I said when I reviewed the Z and Z Force, it’s easily mitigated by throwing on a Moto Shell Case (sold separately) to make the entire backside flush.
The middle sibling
The screen’s the same 5.5 inches, but with a lower full HD (1,920 x 1,080) resolution as opposed to a sharper Quad HD (2,560 x 1,440) resolution. It’s plenty sharp with 403 pixels per inch (ppi) and you won’t find many faults looking at it, but if you’re planning on using it with VR headsets like Google Cardboard or the Homido V2, you’re going to get a subpar viewing experience.
The fingerprint sensor works but it's no home button.
IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
Below the screen is the same squircle-shaped fingerprint sensor like on the Z and Z Force and G4 and G4 Plus. It’s super responsive and long-pressing it to lock the screen is still handy. The only downside is it’s still not a home button. Pressing it expecting it to bring you back to the homescreen is a lost cause. The fingerprint sensor is also useful for buying things with Android Pay.
As always, Lenovo’s kept Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow mostly stock with a few of its own Motorola twists such as the quick camera launch (double twist gesture) and quick flashlight (double chop gesture). There’s also Moto Display, Actions and Voice, which provide a more contextually-aware phone experience.
So much bloatware.
IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
Excessive bloatware is still an issue. Most of them are from Verizon and third-party apps you’ll want to either immediately remove or disable. Bloatware is the cost when phone makers sign a deal with the carriers and they care more about their own partnership interests than pleasing customers. You know, the people who are supposed to pay money for these things.
Pull out the nano SIM card tray and you’ll also a find a microSD card slot to expand the 32GB of internal storage up to a theoretical 2TB (256GB cards are the largest currently available and they’re kinda pricey).
The Z Force Droid is equipped with a 16-megapixel camera on the back with dual-LED flash, laser autofocus and phase detection autofocus. The front camera is a 5-megapixel shooter with an LED flash.
IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
The cameras have always a weak point on Motorola smartphones and while the Z Force Droid takes good photos, they pale in comparison to what Samsung’s Galaxy S7, S7 Edge and Note7 are capable of.
For video, the rear camera can shoot 4K video at up to 30 frames per second (fps) and slow-motion video at 720p resolution at 120 fps.
As I mentioned earlier, battery life is pretty good on the Z Play Droid. Motorola claims it’s good for up to 50 hours on a charge with mixed usage. As a somewhat heavy user, I got around 40 hours on a charge, but as always, if you manage your phone settings well, you can squeeze more battery life from a single charge. Besides, the Z Play Droid supports quick charging with the included Turbo Charger which gives you up to 10 hours of battery life with 15 minutes of topping off via the reversible USB-C port.
A modest modular phone
IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
The success of modular phones depends on two things: tons of (hopefully affordable) modules that really make investing in the modular system worth it and lots of phone options to choose from.
Adding the Z Play Droid gives Lenovo and customers three choices to pick from. If the Moto Z’s battery is too thin and the Moto Z Force’s battery is too thick and both phones' lack of a headphone jack isn’t kosher to you, then maybe the $408 (full cost, payable in monthly installments) Z Play Droid is the one for you.
The only thing high-end about the Z Play Droid might be its metal and glass design, but that’s okay because it’s not intended to compete with the S7 and iPhone 6S. It’s the modular phone for the masses who have a tighter budget ... if you’re on Verizon or plan to switch to it. (There will be an unlocked verison of the Z Play Droid available in October for $450.)
Moto Z Play Droid
The Good
Works with all Moto Mods • Long battery life • Includes a headphone jack • Water-repellent
The Bad
Weaker performance • So much Verizon bloatware • Average cameras • Fingerprint sensor still doesn’t work like a home button
The Bottom Line
The Moto Z Play Droid is a decent addition to the Moto Z modular family, but it isn’t a groundbreaking device.
Shortly after its massive deal for Yahoo!, telecommunications giant Verizon has acquiredfleet management firm Fleetmatics for $2.4 billion, it announced on Monday. The purchase is aimed at bolstering Verizon’s push into the Internet of Things (IoT) market.
It comes just one week after the cellular giant’s $4.8 billion purchase—which could rise to over $6 billion when taken altogether—of Yahoo’s core business.
Fleetmatics is one of the largest providers of fleet management tools, which include location, fuel, and speed data on trucks. With this data, the firm says it can improve performance and safety of drivers in the fleet.
Negotiations between the two companies started in May. Verizon received confirmation from its board soon after and a deal was agreed two months later. That is quick for Verizon; the company usually spends a few months deliberating a deal before making a decision.
We don’t know what Verizon intends to do with Fleetmatics once the deal is complete. It could remain independent of the Verizon brand or join the IoT unit, which is growing at a faster rate than Fleetmatics.
Verizon adds to fleet management depth with deal
This is Verizon’s second fleet management acquisition in 2016. The first happened in June, when Verizon acquired Telogis for an undisclosed amount. Telogis provides fleet management solutions to AT&T and its partner General Motors, so the acquisition was seen as a way for Verizon to profit from AT&T’s IoT success.
The carrier’s IoT unit made over $500 million in 2015, but Verizon said in October 2015 that it was not satisfied with the speed of growth. Since then, the strategy has changed to give partners more access to its platform and let them work on implementation of applications.
This is similar to the way IBM or Amazon Web Services works. Instead of providing the entire platform, the ThingSpace cloud product gives developers and enterprise clients tools to build what they want.
The market for mergers and acquisitions, particularly in software, is red-hot: Big private-equity firms, flush with cash, did 170 software deals worth $27.22 billion in the first half of 2016 alone. Beleaguered Yahoo was scooped up by Verizon for $4.8 billion; Microsoft announced a blockbuster $26 billion purchase of professional-networking site LinkedIn. That deal prompted waves of speculation about just how Microsoft will leverage LinkedIn’s treasure trove of resume data to bolster its own products.
But the software M&A frenzy also highlights how smaller tech companies can turbocharge their growth by pursuing highly strategic, add-on acquisitions.
As a software investor focused on mid-sized technology companies, I meet many business owners in this segment who (unlike the executives at Microsoft!) don’t recognize the signals that their company needs to grow in a new way — chiefly, by acquiring other companies that can fill holes in their product line or offer complementary products and services. Spotting these signs is more than just smart leadership; it can help companies uncover growth opportunities — and lead to bigger possibilities long-term.
What’s more, as valuations for some private technology companies trend downward these days, it’s an especially good time to consider this type of growth strategy.
It’s the customer growth rate, stupid
One telltale sign that you may need to consider M&A is a change (namely, a negative one) in your rate of month-to-month customer growth. This signal is tricky, though. As long as you keep gaining new customers, a dip in the growth rate probably isn’t a big deal, right? Isn’t that typical of companies as they grow in size?
Sometimes. But a dip in your rate of customer growth can also signal a need to expand beyond your current market, and should at least prompt a re-evaluation of the products you’re offering. You should be asking: What else do your customers need? What are they buying elsewhere today? This could, in turn, lead to new ways to boost new customer growth.
A rule of thumb in my business is that customers spend 1-2 percent of their revenue on software. If that amount for Customer X equals $100,000, and they’re spending $10,000 with you, there’s another $90,000 you’re missing out on. Figure out how to capture that spend. It’ll be a gain on both sides, as customers often find a one-stop shop makes their process easier. The old saying “one throat to choke” holds true.
Brightree* is an instructive case here. Initially a business-management software company for home medical equipment providers, Brightree acquired C&S Billing Center in 2009 to expand its product offering. With C&S Billing, Brightree customers could get relief for their billing headaches and pay Brightree for the add-on service involving skilled staff. The acquisition significantly boosted Brightree’s overall revenue.
Not all new offerings are bolt-ons, however. Sometimes broadening your product line makes your company attractive to adjacent buyers, increasing your overall market. For example, let’s look at another Brightree acquisition — CareAnyware, in 2013. Similar to Brightree, CareAnyware was a cloud software provider but sold to two different post-acute markets: home health and hospice. By expanding into new segments of the healthcare continuum, Brightree greatly increased its potential size of the pie. ResMed (NYSE: RMD) acquired Brightree for $800 million in April 2016.
Another key metric to track as you’re thinking about potential M&A is whether your product’s average sales price is staying the same, or declining. Perhaps it could generate more revenue if you combined it with another service to solve a bigger problem for customers. Start this evaluation by talking to the sales reps. What questions do they hear on repeat? What keeps customers up at night?
WebPT*, which helps physical therapists run their businesses effectively, asked these questions a couple of years ago. Their customers told them that they knew Obamacare would eventually tie medical reimbursements to successful patient outcomes.
WebPT looked for a way to help customers stay ahead of that requirement long-term — knowing that, in the short term, patient outcome data would also help therapists do their jobs better. Enter WebOutcomes, a firm WebPT bought in November 2014. What initially seemed like a one-off feature — outcomes data — is fast evolving into a core offering for the company.
Churn, baby, churn
Finally, all companies should be closely tracking customer churn as a potential M&A signal. Better yet, you should be on alert for the very early signs that customers are simply unhappy, and may churn away in the future.
Maybe you haven’t heard from them in a while, either on the customer-support lines or through email. Perhaps they downgraded their service plan, or — in the software business — their usage stats shift, indicating they’re not as engaged in your product, meaning not using it as often as they once did, or using as many features. Any of these could be an early sign of a customer who’s thinking of pulling the plug.
But customer churn can also signal bigger opportunities if you’re open to smart acquisitions. Use this opportunity to find out if customers are thinking of going elsewhere, and why. Your sales reps might already have this intel, or you can ask customers point-blank.
Once you know the competitors eating your lunch, size up their offerings. You can respond in one of several ways: You can buy them outright; you can invest in more technology to beat them; or, if you’re a larger player competing with some shiny new toy, you might opt to change your pricing or service bundle. A startup that isn’t well-funded might not outlast a competitor who can afford a canny pricing pivot.
Even huge technology players often grow via add-on acquisitions — particularly as the entire industry shifts to newer cloud-based software. In fact, your next phase of growth may involve partnering with a big gun.
Oracle has acknowledged the importance of the cloud-software trend, making several strategic acquisitions of companies like HR software company Taleo; marketing software companies Responsys and Eloqua; Big Machines, which provided back-end sales processing software in the cloud; and, more recently, Opower and Textura.
Similarly, Salesforce expanded from a CRM-only business into areas like cloud services and marketing through targeted acquisitions. The company gained even more wallet share by acquiring companies such as ExactTarget*, an email marketing platform, and Assistly, which it renamed Desk.com and leveraged to provide strong customer-service support. Salesforce announced in June it would acquire Demandware, a marketing platform for retailers.
Think of your company like a shark: If it’s not moving forward, it could die. Don’t be afraid to look around your market, and remain open to partnering with competitors and complementary companies. If you stay aware and give your business the occasional boost, you will not only survive, you will thrive.
Samsung's impressive new Galaxy Note 7 doesn't launch until Aug. 19, but pre-orders begin today.
In the U.S., the Note 7 will be available on Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and U.S. Cellular in three colors: Blue Coral, Black Onyx and Silver Titanium. Here's how much it'll cost on each carrier.
On Verizon, the Note 7 will be available on a monthly installment plan of $36 per month for 24 months or $864 upfront.
AT&T is selling the Note 7 for $29.34 per month for 30 months or $879.99 upfront.
T-Mobile's selling the phone for $32.50 per month for 24 month ($69.99 down) or $849.99in full.
Sprint is offering the Note 7 for $35.42 paid over 24 months, $349.99 (after mail-in rebate) with a 2-year contract, or $849.99 in full.
U.S. Cellular hasn't announced pricing for the Note 7.
IMAGE: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
The phones are identical on all of the carriers. Looking at the numbers, AT&T is the most expensive option followed by Verizon. T-Mobile and Sprint offer the best deal on the Note 7.
Shoppers who pre-order the Note 7 also get a free gift of their choice: a Gear Fit 2 or 256GB microSD card.
T-Mobile is also throwing in a full year of Netflix, which makes it the most attractive deal.
Mashable got to spend some time with the Note 7 and was impressed by all it has to offer.
Notable specs include:
5.7-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED display with dual-curved edges
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor
Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow
4GB of RAM
64GB of storage (expandable to 256GB via microSD)
IP68 dust and water resistance (including the S Pen)
Yahoo finally found a buyer, Mobileye and Tesla broke up, and some of the largest tech companies reported quarterly earnings. These are the biggest tech stories of the week. You can now get the Weekly Roundup sent straight to your inbox, delivered Saturday mornings.
1. Verizon (which owns AOL, which owns TechCrunch) announced it is acquiring Yahoo’s core business for $4.83 billion in cash. This includes Yahoo’s advertising, content, search and mobile activities. It’s crazy to think that in 2000, Yahoo was worth a whopping $125 billion. If you won the last computing platform and are on the cusp of the next one you’re not built for, you might want to sell your company. It’s easier to pivot than make a comeback, after all.
3. Once promising AR motorcycle helmet startup Skully is no longer. We discovered that the company’s shutdown will leave several vendors and Skully’s manufacturer Flextronics with unpaid bills and at least 50 full-time employees out of a job. It’s unclear if any of the vendors will be paid.
5. WikiLeaks published a searchable database of 19,252 DNC-related emails packed with personal and financial information. Following the leak, Florida congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced she will be stepping down from her role as the head of the Democratic National Committee after the end of the event.
6. Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump participated in a Reddit AMA, managing to answer 13 questions on topics ranging from NASA to media bias.In a separate facepalm-inducing moment, Trump invited Russia (yes, the entire country of Russia) to hack into Hillary Clinton’s inbox and release “the 30,000 e-mails that are missing.” Yikes.
8.Upthere, a new company from Apple and Oracle vets, came out of beta with $77 million in funding. The company believes that cloud storage should be your primary storage and not just a place for keeping backups. It’s now generally available for OS X/MacOS, Android and iOS.
9. Xiaomi announced its first laptop, and it sure does look familiar. The Mi Notebook Air comes in two sizes — 13.3-inch and 12.5-inch — running Windows with a full-HD display, full-metal body and type-C USB charging and two USB slots. The Macbook Air rival will come as cheap as $540.
10. Amazon debuted a dedicated shop for Kickstarter projects. Amazon is now hosting 300 successful Kickstarter products across a variety of categories, now all available for purchase.
11. Uber cofounder and CEO of Expa Studios Garrett Camp unveiled Expa’s latest project, Haus. Haus is a real estate play that focuses on digitizing the discovery, buying and selling of residential property.
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