In a notable technology push, Walmart is giving 740,000 US employees a Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro that’s preloaded with a new internal app to help customers. This Android phone will also be available for personal usage.
Expand Expanding Close
Thanks to leaks and listings that have oddly been left public, we know that Walmart is working on two of the most affordable Android TV devices in the US. Now, we’re finally getting a release window for these Walmart Android TV streamers.
Expand Expanding Close
Based on some early listings and a few leaks, Walmart may soon start a wave in the Android TV space with super-affordable “onn” branded streaming devices. Now, ahead of release, the Walmart Android TV devices have started showing up at some retail stores for purchase.
Expand Expanding Close
Up until this past year, Google’s Android TV has lacked the cheap hardware that pushed competitors like Roku and Fire TV to the masses. Now, Walmart is looking to wage a war on price by debuting an ultra-cheap $25 Android TV streaming stick.
Expand Expanding Close
Leaks have hit the web over the past few months regarding Walmart’s upcoming “Onn”-branded Android TV box, but now we’re getting a clearer picture. AFTVNews has managed to get its hands on the unreleased device, showing off the physical hardware in detail, including its retail packaging.
Expand Expanding Close
Earlier this year we covered the first appearance of a self-branded Android TV streaming stick from Walmart, and tonight, the product has appeared on the retailer’s website. While it’s missing some crucial details, it shows off the design in full.
Expand Expanding Close
The cloud gaming market came onto the scene in a big way throughout 2019 and 2020 with the debuts of Stadia, GeForce Now, Amazon Luna, Shadow, and Microsoft xCloud, but there was one more contender that didn’t see the light of day. Walmart was working on its own cloud gaming service known as “Project Storm” that, as revealed in new court documents, would have worked a lot like GeForce Now.
Expand Expanding Close
Android TV, by way of Google TV, is set to be a big deal in 2021, and it seems that Walmart is set to get in on the action. After bringing Android to its affordable tablets, the Walmart Onn brand is now set to use Android TV to power a streaming stick.
Expand Expanding Close
Last year, Walmart took on Amazon’s Fire Tablet with affordable Android tablets that included the Google Play Store. After first appearing on our radar last month, Walmart has officially launched a new pair of tablets dubbed the “Onn Pro” series. Here’s what they bring to the table.
Last year Walmart debuted a competitor for the Amazon Fire Tablet using its Onn brand and pretty pure Android. They were alright. The security was really bad. Now, it looks like Walmart is preparing successors to its original Onn tablets, this time with Android 10 out of the box.
Earlier this year, we took a quick look at some of Walmart’s super-affordable Android tablets under the Onn brand. They’re decent at best, but now they’re getting an upgrade, thanks to TWRP support. But that is also revealing some laughably bad security.
Cheap Android tablets are everywhere, and they’re largely garbage. However, with Amazon’s $50 Fire Tablet on the market, there’s at least one decent option to compete against. Recently, Walmart debuted its own cheap Android tablets, and I’ve been checking one out in person for the past few days. Here are some quick thoughts on why it’s a halfway decent alternative to Amazon.
Earlier this year it was reported that Walmart was working on bringing its own Android tablets to the market to compete with Amazon’s popular Fire tablets. This week, those tablets have finally gone on sale with the Walmart Onn tablet starting at $64.
Even though the retail giant dropped its partnership with Google Express earlier this year, Walmart hasn’t stopped its collaboration with Google Home. Today, Walmart is announcing a new Google Assistant integration which gives users the ability to quickly order their groceries using just their voice.
Android tablets have largely been disappointing over the years, but the advantage for many of them has been pricing. Now, Walmart is reportedly working on two Android tablets.
When you order products online, it’s likely from Amazon. Google Express has slowly been built up as a competitor to Amazon for certain cases, and a huge reason for that was thanks to a partnership with Walmart. Now, though, Walmart has disappeared entirely from Google’s shopping platform.
In what may be the most bizarre launch so far this year, Walmart has launched a premium shopping service using an unlikely mix of old and new technology …
We’re just a day away from Google’s big hardware event, and one of the products we’re looking forward to most is the compact Google Home Mini. The $50 assistant looks great, and now it’s just popped up for pre-order through Walmart.
Since the launch of Android Pay, retail giant Walmart has refused to accept the mobile payment option, saying instead that it only matters that consumers have a payment option that is widely accepted. Today, however, Walmart has announced its own mobile payment solution called Walmart Pay that is compatible with both iOS and Android.
The Moto G has always been a great deal but it hasn’t been paired with the best budget carriers to date. In what might be a big holiday seller for mid-tier users, Sprint subsidy Virgin today began offering 3 new Android smartphones including the Moto G 3rd gen. for $150, the HTC Desire 626s for $130 and Huawei Union at $80.
The standout here is the Moto G which I absolutely loved (with a few caveats) which retails at $180. The 5-inch phone is pretty close to flagship level last year with a few missing bits. The 5 inch screen is perfect sized but the lack of NFC payment options might be a turn off. It shares the camera of the Nexus 6 and it is IPX7 waterproof to 3 feet for 30 minutes. Hopefully Virgin won’t mess with the almost stock Android and provide timely updates (fingers crossed)
That $30 you save you can pay your 1st month of usage on the 3 gig 4G of data plan (see plans below). While Sprint’s network may not be the strongest in all areas, I’ve found it to be improving rapidly lately.
The Moto G will almost certainly be the first Android 6.0 device on Virgin and at $150 down and $30/month a great gift idea for the kids/parents/grandparents out there. Alternatively, if you want to use an Android device like an iPod touch (without a carrier) this is the first $30 discount we’ve seen.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Virgin Mobile, which offers a number of prepaid Android devices, is introducing a few new plans for its smartphones sold through Walmart.
Data Done Right Single Line and Multi-line Data Sharing plans are available exclusively at Walmart and are currently available on seven different 4G LTE2 smartphones, including the Samsung Galaxy S5. All phones come pre-loaded with the Virgin Mobile application, which provides data buy-ups and international add-ons with one touch, directly from the device. Every Multi-line plan also comes with a free mobile hotspot feature, making it even easier to share data across Wi-Fi enabled devices.
The new Data Done Right single line plans are reduced by $5 over previous offerings and include 500MB more high-speed data before throttling users. The plans start at $30/month for 300 minutes talk with unlimited text and data, and go up to $40 for unlimited everything.
There are also new multi-line plans that include an extra 2GB of high-speed data and range from $65/month for 2 lines to $115/month for 4 lines with 6GB of shared high-speed data on the low-end plan up to 14GB shared on the $115 plan.
The new plans will become available this Monday, May 18. You can check out the selection of devices here.
Half of a 2012 FTC report on Google’s business practices has been “inadvertently disclosed” in an open records request by the WSJ. Bizarrely, what was leaked was every other page of the report. MarketingLand’s Danny Sullivan has been busy reading the report and tweeting some of the things revealed by it.
The FTC eventually concluded that Google had not violated antitrust laws by favoring its own services over that of rivals, but found it was “a close call.”
[tweet https://twitter.com/dannysullivan/status/580634396618698752/]
Google did, for example, promote its own services in search results …
Expand
Expanding
Close
From 9to5Toys.com where we are rounding up all the best Black Friday deals we have two huge headliners on the almost never discounted Nest product line (that Google picked up along with iPod-father Tony Fadell earlier this year):
The Nest Learning Thermostat (2nd generation) for $199 shipped. That’s $50 below list and the best price we’ve ever seen.
You can find it at Amazon, Best Buy, Lowes and Abt for $199 for a limited time.
The Dropcam Wireless HD Video Monitoring Camera can be found for $99.99 with free shipping. That’s $50 below list and the lowest price we have ever seen on this cloud-based camera/recording system.
Available for $$99 ($50 off) at Amazon and Best Buy.
With a 107° degree field of view and 4x zoom, Dropcam keeps you connected with people, places and pets in sharp 720p HD video.
Head over to 9to5Toys for the Best Black Friday deals on the web. A little more background on Nest:
Expand
Expanding
Close
Since its initial release last year, the Chromecast has added support for a plethora of apps and services, including Plex, Vevo, Songza, and many more. Last month, Google announced the Chromecast SDK, which it said would make supporting the device even easier for developers. Online streaming video service Vudu has now announced that it too will soon support Chromecast with that SDK.
On its website Sunday, the WalMart-owned company stated that both its Android and iOS apps will soon receive updates that add Chromecast support. The company also adds that streaming will be available through Chrome on Windows and Mac, although that has been available since day one.
There are no details available as to when we can expect the Android and iOS Vudu apps to be updated, although we can’t imagine it taking too long. Rdio and Beats Music are also expected to add Chromecast support soon, so it’s clear that the SDK is going to help beef up the app selection significantly.