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Huawei unveils gorgeous Honor Magic phone with AI capabilities

Alexandra Arici
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Concept phones seem to be the rising trend this year. After Xiaomi’s Mi MIX edge-to-edge phone, now it’s time for Huawei to unveil its own concept – the Honor Magic.

The phone was teased last week and back then we told you the phone might prove to be Huawei’s first attempt at making a modular phone. Turns out, we were wrong. But that doesn’t mean the Honor Magic isn’t a special phone.

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First off, the phone does look stunning. The Honor Magic boasts a fondness for smooth curves that makes it quite appealing to the eyes.

The phone features a 5.09-inch AMOLED display with QHD resolution (1440 x 2560 pixels) and 577 ppi. Huawei throws in a 2.3GHz Kirin 950 processor under the hood which works in concert with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage.

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As you probably know, Huawei likes dual camera setups, so the Honor Magic takes advantage of a 12MP dual lens sensor with f/2.2 aperture and an 8MP selfie snapper on the back. The phone is supported by a 2,900 mAh battery and comes with Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box.

These are hard cold specs, but the Honor Magic does come bundled with a set of unique feats. You see the Magic is an AI driven phone. That being said, the company has bundled a host of functionalities which are exclusive to the phone.

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For example, say hello to the Wise Screen sensor – a piece of technology that taps into the power of a frame sensor and an infrared sensor located in the selfie camera to perform a nifty trick. When the owner of the Honor Magic picks up the phone the Wise Screen setup will be able to recognize the user’s hand and eyes thus unlocking the phone.

An additional FaceCode Intelligent Recognition ensures notifications and messages are shared only with the pre-registered face(s) thus preventing unwanted parties having access to sensitive information.

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Huawei has shared some other AI-related features the Honor Magic takes advantage of. Let’s say you are chatting with a friend about movies, the AI powering the device will be able to pick that up and offer its own set of opinions about what you should watch.

The DeepThink option gets activated when users press and hold the home button in order to retrieve multi-faced info based on your search history.

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If you use the Honor Magic to order a cab, you’ll be able to see the car’s license plate under locked screen mode. When you arrive at the theater, the phone will know to display the ticket (booking number) or the tracking number if you’re retrieving a parcel from the post office.

The Honor Magic is supposed to see what you see. So walk into a dark room at night and the phone will automatically launch the flashlight feature. Last but not least, Huawei teases the My Pocket feat which enables users to swipe up from the bottom screen in order to activate a save/share button.

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Naturally the phone will be sold under a premium price tag. Customers in China can already place a pre-order for the Honor Magic if they are willing to pay $530. Estimated delivery is scheduled for December 25. Hopefully Huawei will bring this “Magic” phone to the States pretty soon. We already know its current flagship, the Mate9 is bound for the US.

OK Google is now enabled in Android Auto for all

Alexandra Arici
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Remember that earlier this month, we told you some users noticed “OK Google” feature finally became available on Android Auto.

Well today Google officially announced the feature it going live for all, while inviting users to download the latest version from the Google Play Store in the process.

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Google boasts that Android Auto will now work with every car. All users need to do is connect a phone to a compatible car display or just put the phone in a dock and use Android Auto directly from the phone screen. However you’ll need to have a phone with Android 5.0 Lollipop or higher and an active data connection to get Android Auto running.

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Users can now get in the car and utter the magic “OK Google” words to activate the feature. Previously users had to press an on-screen microphone button to be able to start using voice commands, but that’s no longer the case.

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The feature is bound to make driving a lot safer. By using only voice commands drivers can now dictate a text message, switch songs or check the weather and the calendar without taking their hands off the wheel.

Android Auto is currently available in 31 countries including the United States and UK. However users in Germany, Sweden, Finland and Netherlands are reporting the service does not work in their country, although we do have confirmation it works in Portugal.

Capcom is bringing Mega Man to Android starting January 6

Alexandra Arici
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Are you nostalgic about old school games? Well if that’s the case then you’ll going to love this announcement. Japanese game maker Capcom has just revealed it will be porting the Mega Man series (Mega Man 1 through Mega Man 6) to iOS and Android next year.

Each game will be sold individually, but a set including all six game will be made available. The company will launch the games really soon, on January 6 but only in Japan. However, we’re pretty sure Capcom will make the games available worldwide soon after.

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The games start robot character Mega Man (or Rock Man) who must first through the levels using variations of the “Mega Buster” – a canon attached to his arm in order to save the world from Dr. Wily’s psychotic robotic threats.

Capcom shared teased gamers with a screenshot of the upcoming mobile title, which seems to suggest Mega Man will continue to take advantage of the 4:3 aspect ratio characteristic of the original series.

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It’s not the first time Rock Man tries to make it out on mobile. A few years ago Capcom released an emulated version of Mega Man 2 pus a Mega Man X port. However the titles weren’t too well received by the gaming community due to their questionable quality. Hopefully Capcom will get it right this time.

FreedomPop adds AT&T network support via new SIM card and hotspot

Alexandra Arici
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Here at AndrodGuys we’re big fans of MVNOs and their small business. For those who aren’t familiar with the term, a MNVO is a wireless service provider that does not have its own infrastructure and licenses network access from other carriers.

This week’s MNVO news comes from FreedomPop, the Los Angeles-based started which just announced it is now offering subscribers access to the AT&T network via a new SIM card (priced at $10) and a new hotspot (priced at $30).

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Previously, FreedomPop allowed users to tap only into Sprint’s network and now the new option gives users more variety.

The hotspot comes with 2GB of free data, while the SIM card can be used in concert with any GSM-compatible phone.

However, like with most service plans, there are a few caveats with what FreedomPop is offering. For starters, the free plan includes only 200 minutes of talk, 500 text messages and 200MB of data which might not be enough for the majority of users.

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Those who want more can jump onboard with a paid option, the most expensive one offering 10GB of data for $74.99 a month.

FreedomPop has gained a reputation of being a low-cost service provider. The MVNO’s tactics for keeping rates down include relying mostly on Wi-Fi access and zero-rating – a practice which allows access to apps and services without tapping in to the allotted data. The virtual carrier is also always looking to strike friendly deals with big carrier players like AT&T.

Verizon reconsiders, will brick the Galaxy Note7 come January 5

Alexandra Arici
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A few days ago we told you major carriers in the US agreed to work with Samsung and push an update that will suspend the Galaxy Note7’s ability to charge. But not all telecoms were so accommodating.

Verizon was the only one among big carriers which refused to help disable the Galaxy Note7 due to concerns related to the added risks the measure could pose to phablet users who don’t have a device to switch to.

On top of that, the holidays are coming and Verizon wanted to make sure its users stay connected with friends and family and have a functional phone in case they get stranded somewhere during the holiday travel season.

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Well it seems Big Red has reconsidered and will now join the AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint bandwagon and will release the update meant to kill the controversial phablet.

However, the company will let you enjoy Christmas first. But come January 5, Verizon will unleash the scythe of death upon remaining Galaxy Note7 units.

T-Mobile will be the first carrier to start rolling the update, scheduled for December 27. After which both AT&T and Verizon will release it on January 5, while Sprint will wait until January 8 to unchain its kill switch.

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In a recent statement, Samsung revealed that 93% Galaxy Note7s in the country have been return. Now the company hopes to retrieve the remaining 7% and be done with the Galaxy Note7 affair once and for all (at least in the US).

In other countries like the UK, Samsung is applying more permissive strategy. The company is expected to roll out an update which will limit the Note7’s battery charging to 30%.

Easily send your Evernote documents to Google Docs [How-To]

AndroidGuys
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Evernote recently released its new Privacy Policy which is set to go effective on January 23, 2017, in which it states, among other things, that Evernote employees are allowed to review your content for what they call the oversight of machine learning.

We will not get into the specifics in this post however if the changes listed in the article above make you feel like jumping ship and moving to another platform, here is the easiest way i have found to move all of your content from Evernote into Google Docs

Prerequisites:

For this How-To, we are going to use a third party application called IFTTT (If This Then That). If you are not familiar with this app do not fear, we are here to guide you. There are a few things you will need for this to work:

  1. You will need an Evernote account from which you want to export your files
  2. You will need a Google account to access your Google Docs
  3. You will need to create an IFTTT account.

Transfer your documents:

Lets jump right in and get your documents moved.

  1. Log into your IFTTT account. You can use either the web app or the mobile app.
  2. Tap on the search option.
  3. In the search bar, type in “IF the note has a tag upload it to GDrive”.
  4. Tap on the option named the same as above.
  5. Tap the “Turn On” slider.
  6. Set the specific tag you would like to trigger this action. The default tag is “mw-drive”
  7. Tap the check mark in the upper right hand corner.
  8. Launch your Evernote mobile app.
  9. Tap the Hamburger menu in the upper left hand corner.
  10. Select “All Notes”.
  11. Tap and hold on any note to begin the multi select option.
  12. Once you have all your notes selected, tap the three dots in the  upper right corner.
  13. Tap on the “Tag” option.
  14. Type in whatever you designated as your tag in the IFTTT recipe. PLEASE NOTE, the tag MUST be added AFTER the recipe is created.
  15. Sit back and watch the documents roll into your Google Drive folders. (IFTTT\Evernote by default)

YOU DID IT! I know this was a longer How-To than normal. But think about what you just accomplished. You just transferred all your notes into a completely separate system that otherwise had no way to simply export and import documents.

Have you ever used IFTTT before? What are your favorite recipes? Comment below and show us some new life hacks.

Slangwho app uses special algorithm to keep fake news at bay

Alexandra Arici
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Are you sick of all the fake news floating online tainting your mind with misinformation? Well luckily, there’s a way to avoid shady articles and bad stories. Enter, Slangwho – a multi-platform, content news aggregator curated by mobile users.

Today the company has announced the launch of its distraction-free news sharing app for Android and iOS devices. So now you can easily get informed just by taking your smartphone out.

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Slangwho aims to minimize distraction while you’re reading your news, by sending social media alerts and sponsored content into the background.

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Basically the app offers a clean, elegant feed which delivers relevant content which is selected based on what users discover and share.

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Today we’re bombarded with second-rate information that doesn’t offer anything of relevance, so finding worthy news has become more and more a chore. Due to the increasing number of news sources, it’s now extremely complicated to separate the bad ones from the good ones. And that’s where Slangwho wants to give a helping hand.

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With the new app, users work together to build a trust-worthy news database. New comers can find new users and content sites to follow by importing their contact lists from Facebook and Twitter.

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Once you identify an article worth sharing you can do within the iOS and Android share extensions. The news feed has a skim feature which allows user to view at a glance the most important content of the day without having to open the full article per se. Articles of interest can also be bookmarked for later reading.

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Slangwho claims it utilizes a special algorithm, designed to determine the authenticity of the news source and successfully keeping fake news away from your news feed.

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The app is available for download for free from the Google Play Store and App Store.

Google Home update adds hooks to Netflix, Google Photos, and Santa

AndroidGuys
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Personal assistant Google Home gets a little smarter this week, learning a few new tricks along the way. An update to the Google Home app helps the standalone device talk with Netflix and Google Photos.

Netflix

As part of the update, subscribers to Netflix can say things such as, “Ok Google, play Narcos from Netflix on my TV” and having exactly that happen. This is a quick and easy way to have your virtual assistant spring into action, readying your favorite programs.

Google Photos

Additionally, it’s possible to pull up geo-located photos from Google Photos to have them display, too. Try something like, “Ok Google, show me my photos from San Francisco” and you’ll be able to see them. Because Google Photos is already really smart, users should be able to search for, and view, photos by topics and tags as well. Examples here might include beach, dogs, selfies, sunset, snow, and food.

Santa

Each year Google makes it fun to track Santa as he makes his trek across the globe. Typically, this is done inside of Google Maps; however, this year is different. Children, and parents, can use Google Home to help locate the jolly fat guy. It’s as simple as, “Ok Google, where’s Santa right now?” It still ties into Google Maps, but it’s a whole lot cooler when you can use your voice.

YouTube Red Promotion

As if the Google Home was not already compelling enough to purchase on its own, Google is making it even easier to consider one. Anyone who purchases a Google Home before the end of the year can earn a free six-month subscription to YouTube Red. That’s right, you’ll have an ad-free YouTube experience across desktop, mobile, and even consoles, too.

T-Mobile baits AT&T customers by offering a year of free DirecTV Now

AndroidGuys
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Love ’em or hate ’em, T-Mobile sure knows how to be provocative. Especially CEO John Legere, who is always looking for a fight or verbal jab to throw. Today is no exception as T-Mobile announces a deal aimed squarely at AT&T and its customers.

Starting from tomorrow, December 16, anyone who brings two lines of service from AT&T over to T-Mobile can earn one year of DirecTV Now at no cost. Yes, the same service that recently launched from AT&T and its DirecTV brand.

AT&T is so distracted by their new businesses and DIRECTV that they continue to ignore their 110 million wireless customers. Luckily, the Un-carrier’s here to show them how to actually take care of customers!

DirecTV Now is a mobile television service which offers live sports and programming. Prices range from $35 to $70 per month, depending on which package a subscriber purchases. T-Mobile, for its part, will cover the $35 plan so long as the AT&T customer ports two lines of service and signs up with a One plan. The free service comes as a result of a monthly credit for $35 over the span of 12 months, resulting in a grand total of $420.

T-Mobile has also added DirecTV Now to its Binge On portfolio, too. In other words, any video watched under the “DVD quality” level of 480p will not impact the monthly data allotment.

Pebble promises its smartwatches won’t be rendered unusable in 2017

Alexandra Arici
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0

The world of wearables as we know it is changing. Not so long ago it was revealed that Fitbit will be acquiring Pebble for the sum of $40 million, while obliterating future Pebble products expected a debut on the market in 2017.

Yes, the Pebble Time 2 and Pebble Core won’t be shipping out to customers and Kickstarter backers will be getting their money back. Right now it seems quite obvious that Fitbit doesn’t seem to be interested in keeping the Pebble brand alive.

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However, it does seem that Pebble’s services will survive the acquisition – at least through 2017. According to a post on the Pebble developer blog, customers should rest assured “no one in the freshly-formed team seeks to brick Pebble watches in active service.”

So for the time being, the Pebble SDK, CloudPebble, Timeline APIs, firmaware availability, mobile apps, developer portal and Pebble appstore will continue to be available.

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This is relatively good news, considering that Pebble owners are given one more year to enjoy their smartwatch fully. However, even after support stops it doesn’t mean you will be forced to give up on the watch.

Pebble says that the “mobile app updates will ensure the operation of core Pebble functions, even with cloud services discontinued – they won’t break functionality.”

The features in danger of getting discontinued are those that relay on third-party services like dictation, messaging and weather. Although Fitbit is willing to work with Pebble in order to update those mobile apps to lower dependence on scattered cloud services.

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