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Daydream View VR gets new apps from HBO, Netflix, LEGO, EA, and more

AndroidGuys
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Today is a big day in the word of virtual reality, at least as it pertains to Google’s Daydream View VR. Indeed, there are are more than a half dozen titles being introduced today, coming from names such as HBO, Netflix, LEGO, EA, and more.

A mixture of paid and free selections, it’s also a blend of streaming content and games. Moreover, two of them aren’t quite here yet and will debut later this month.

In addition to the new apps, Dadyream View VR is also getting new color options. Now, you can also find it in limited edition Crimson and Snow Daydream versions in the United States.

Don’t forget, it’s not just the Pixel and Pixel XL which are certified for the Daydream View VR now; last month, the Moto Z and Moto Z Force joined party. If you have either of those phones, or are considering them, you can pair it up with the Daydream View VR!

New titles

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LEGO BrickHeadz Builder VR: Design your own LEGO BrickHeadz characters and bring them to life. Unlock new characters and items with special combinations, and enjoy free play with virtual LEGO bricks.

Wands: Take on the role as a mysterious Wielder in an alternate 1880’s London. Equip your wand with a wide variety of spells and battle other Wielders for fame, power and glory.

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HBO NOW and HBO GO: Enjoy every episode of every season of original series such as Game of Thrones and Westworld, plus iconic favorites such as The Sopranos and The Wire on a virtual big screen with your HBO subscription.

NextVR: Be courtside, behind the goal or center stage. From NBA and NFL games and the US Open, to the Daytona 500 and Live Nation concerts, experience your favorite events live or revisit them through highlights.

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Underworld Overlord: Be the bad guy and defend your dungeon realm from an onslaught of so-called “heroes” who attempt to rob your treasures and slay your precious monsters. Direct your monsters into the fray, place deadly traps and defenses, and cast spells that help or hinder.

Gunjack 2: End of Shift: Immerse yourself in an epic sci-fi space shooter set in a cinematic VR world. As a turret operator charged with destroying waves of attackers, you stand united with your crew mates in the defense of the rig.

Layers of Fear: Solitude: Delve deep into the mind of an insane painter by exploring his Victorian-era mansion where visions, fears, and horror awaits.

Coming This Month

Netflix: Experience thousands of TV episodes and movies—including award-winning Netflix original series, movies, and documentaries—anytime, anywhere with your Netflix subscription.

Need for Speed No Limits VR: The first Need for Speed title in virtual reality, feel the ultimate thrill as you strap into the driver’s seat and launch yourself into an unparalleled, visceral ride. Choose your car, choose your track, and enter a new realm of white-knuckle racing reality.

Stretch your Netflix subscription by downloading videos to your mobile device [How-To]

AndroidGuys
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Netflix has recently announced that they are going to offer users the ability to download videos for offline viewing. In light of this amazing new feature the video streaming company has blessed us with, we are here to show you how to download and play your next binge session, offline.

Prerequisites:

There are a few things you must do before you can take your videos to go.

  1. You must have a Netflix account ($7.99 per month subscription)
  2. You must have the Netflix app installed on your mobile device

How-To:

There are two parts to this that we are going to cover; how to download and how to play the videos respectively.

Download:

  1. Launch the Netflix app
  2. Tap on the show you would like to download for offline use
  3. Tap on the Download button to begin the process
    1. If this is a movie, you will see the icon below the movie description
    2. If it is a TV show, you will see the download icon next to each episode
  4. To check the status of your downloads, tap the hamburger menu on the home screen
  5. Tap “My Downloads” and you will see all your downloaded videos and their progress

Play:

  1. Launch the Netflix app
  2. Tap the hamburger menu in the upper left hand corner
  3. Tap “My Downloads” (you could alternatively navigate to the video through standard means)
  4. Tap on the blue phone icon
  5. Tap the play option

Keep in mind that not all videos on Netflix are available for download.

Do you think this feature is useful? Let us know how you like this feature in the comments below.

Pokémon/Starbucks partnership turns over 7,800 coffee shops into PokéStops

Alexandra Arici
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Love to play Pokémon GO and you’re also a big fan of Starbucks’ yummy coffee? Then you’ll be thrilled to know that the Pokémon Company and the hot beverage giant are teaming up to transform over 7,800 coffee shops across US into PokéStops and Gyms.

Winter is coming so the Pokémon Company and Niantic are worried players won’t be so keen to go for long walks outside in the hopes of catching a Pokémon anymore. So they have come up with an ingenious solution.

pokemon-go

To honor the partnership, Starbucks has created a new Pokémon Go Frapuccino drink, both in game and in real life, so customers can treat themselves with a thematic hot beverage while they play.

Nantic CEO John Hanke explains in the official statement they choose Starbucks to encourage exploration, exercise and real world social interaction and the coffee shop giant’s footprint throughout the country provide a great platform to do so. It sounds good, but we don’t know how much exercising you can get done in a Starbucks coffeshop.

Starbucks

Starbucks coffee shops are scheduled to magically transform themselves into PokéStops on December 8 at 11 am PT / 2pm ET, so if you have one on your route you might as well go check it out.

Recently the Pokémon Company announced a partnership with Sprint, making the carrier the exclusive US wireless partner of the popular game maker.

Bluetooth 5 more than doubles 4.2’s performance

Donovan Jeska
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As of yesterday (December 7th, 2016), Bluetooth 5 (not 5.0, mind you) is officially available to hardware developers. Bluetooth is one of those transformative technologies that enables us to use things like smartwatches and wireless headphones quickly and (usually) easily. According to Mark Powell of Bluetooth SIG:

“Bluetooth is revolutionizing how people experience the IoT [Dono’s Note: “Internet of Things”]. Bluetooth 5 continues to drive this revolution by delivering reliable IoT connections and mobilizing the adoption of beacons, which in turn will decrease connection barriers and enable a seamless IoT experience…With the launch of Bluetooth 5, we continue to evolve to meet the needs of IoT developers and consumers while staying true to what Bluetooth is at its core: the global wireless standard for simple, secure, connectivity.”

What’s new in Bluetooth 5? According to Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group), 5 has twice the transfer speed (2Mbps), four times the range (200m), and eight times the payload capacity (255 bytes) when compared to Bluetooth 4.2. these improvements have the capability of changing the way we fundamentally use Bluetooth.

As the transfer capacity and range continue to increase, the utility of Bluetooth expands. This is going to be very important in the coming years, as the Internet of Things (home automation, wireless enabled appliances, and the like) becomes more popular.

A caveat, though; all of these statistics are purely theoretical and tested in a laboratory setting. So real-world numbers will be less and your personal mileage may vary. We should start seeing devices with Bluetooth 5 on-board in two-to-six months. 

Sleek Jet Black Oukitel U20 Plus version coming soon

Alexandra Arici
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Remember Oukitel’s affordable dual camera phone, the U20 Plus? The device was launched not so long ago for a super affordable price-tag.

Oukitel is trying to diversify its U20 Plus with the addition of new color versions. The company announced a new Campaign Gold version on December 7 which is currently available on Gearbest for only $99 through a Flash Sale.

oukitel-u20-plus-jet-black-advertising

Now Oukitel says new U20 Plus is coming in Jet Black color. Interestingly enough, Samsung also announced the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge with 128GB in “glossy” Black Pearl.

The Jet Black version of the U20 Plus will be available for pre-sale online by the end of the month.

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As for the spec, the Oukitel U20 Plus has a 5.5-inch IPS display with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution with 401 ppi. The handset takes advantage of an octa-core MTK6737T processor clocked at 1.3GHz in combination with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (that can be expanded to 32GB).

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In the photo department, the U20 Plus features a 13MP+2MP main dual camera with LED flash plus an 8MP selfie shooter. The phone runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

So what do you think? It’s certainly a lot cheaper than the Galaxy S7 edge Black Pearl.

Swappa will no longer sell gadgets on international market, only in the US

Alexandra Arici
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Have an older Android phone you want to sell or want to purchase a really cheap phone? Chances are you’ll go on Swappa to check out the available options.

So far the website has been curating transactions in different markets across the globe including the US, UK, Canada and Europe. But as it turns out, Swappa is in the process of phasing out international markets.

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A Canadian user asked on Twitter why the Swappa Canadian website was display contradicting information, only to receive the answer that Swappa is withdrawing from non-US markets. So only US residents will be able to buy and sell gently used gadgetry from now on.

Swappa made a name for itself as a marketplace which doesn’t sell junk, only qualitative refurbished devices. What’s more, users can choose to sell their phone rooted or flashed with a custom ROM like Cyanogen.

swappalogo

It works the other way around too. If you’re not exactly a pro when it comes to tinkering, you can opt to buy a pre-rooted or flashed device. Swappa is known for being more secure than eBay and focused on delivering quality products to their users. Surely a lot of international users will be sad to see Swappa go. The company hasn’t given an official reason for why it has chosen to phase out international markets.

 

AsteroidOS wants to breathe new life into your Android Wear smartwatch

Alexandra Arici
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2016 hasn’t been too kind to wearables. Customers are slowly but surely losing interest in this category, which showed so much promise a few years back.

But not everyone is ready to give up on wearables. Like French computer science student, Florent Revest who seems to have a passion for Android Wear devices. So he developed an alternative wearable open source operating system called AsteroidOS.

asteroidos-smartwatch

Revest released the 1.0 alpha version for AsteroidOS today for the LG G Watch, the Watch Urbane, ASUS ZenWatch 2 and Sony Smartwatch 3.

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Interested parties can download the Linux-based AsteroidOS on their device after unlocking them flashing the custom ROM onboard. However, note that for the time being only the LG G Watch features full support. The other watches currently lack Bluetooth support – which is kind of essential if you want to have a functional smartwatch.

But what can you except from AsteroidOS? Nothing too advanced at the moment. The OS bestows basic functions on your smartwatches like alarm clock, calculator, weather app and Settings menu. There’s another app which allows the syncing of notifications and music control via Bluetooth with any Android phone. But AsteroidOS will indeed refresh the feel of your wearable.

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We can’t help but notice that AsteroidOS doesn’t support any Samsung wearables so far, but maybe in time they will be added to the list. Revest was aided in his quest to build AsteroidOS by members of GitHub and xda communities and the project will most likely attract more helpers in the near future.

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AsteroidOS is still in its infancy, but the project looks quite promising. With major players like Motorola distancing themselves from the smartwatch ecosystem, the future seems uncertain for wearables. But that doesn’t mean we can’t try and improve existing models and that’s exactly what Revest is doing.

Black Pearl Samsung Galaxy S7 edge with 128GB available December 9

Alexandra Arici
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A while ago a bunch of images showcasing a new version of the Galaxy S7 in glossy black leaked online. Now Samsung has officially announced the Black Pearl version of the flagship phone.

black-pearl-samsung-galaxy-s7-edge-front

The glossy new color model will be sold with 128GB of internal storage and will become available in select markets starting December 9. Samsung hasn’t specified exactly in which countries the Black Pearl model will be sold yet.

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Naturally the phone will go on sale in Samsung’s home country, South Korea but given that the Coral Blue Galaxy S7 is available in the US, we believe the Black Pearl will be offered too.

The Android device will prove great alternative to the Jet Black iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus which made a debut on the market not so long ago.

black-pearl-samsung-galaxy-s7-edge-side

If the Black Pearl is not for you, you can still pick up the Galaxy S7 edge in White Pearl, Black Onyx, Gold Platinum, Silver Titanium and Coral Blue.

Samsung is striving to create some hype around its current premium devices, to make users forget about the Galaxy Note7. On top of that, the Korean tech giant is working hard on its next-gen Galaxy S8 which is expected to solve its recent woes.

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The phone should make it out with a 2K display, Snapdragon 835, a selfie camera with focus, virtual assistant and Harman branded stereo speakers. The Galaxy S8 might also ship out devoid of a 3.5 headphone jack and home button.

T-Mobiles unveils new DIGITS service: one phone number to rule all devices

Alexandra Arici
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A year after AT&T unveiled its NumberSync solution, T-Mobile has taken the wraps off a similar service dubbed DIGITS, which allows subscribers to use one phone number across all of their connected devices. For the time being the Magenta carrier will launch a limited, opt-in beta program, with DIGITS becoming fully available to everyone sometime in early 2017.

Just like NumberSync, DIGITS allows customers to use their T-Mobile number across a variety of devices including other smartphones, tablets, wearables and even desktop computers (Windows and Mac are supported).

say-hi-to-digits

Once you register for the beta, the T-Mobile support team will get you started. After you go through all the setting up processes, you will be able to sign in with your phone number and find all your private info (messages, call history or voice mail) waiting for you on the device you logged in.

What’s more, customers are allowed to attach multiple T-Mobile numbers on the same device. So you’ll be able to access numbers from work, home or personal line via a single handset.

With DIGITS, you’ll be able to funnel all your distinct number under a single DIGITS number. With the service in place, users can receive calls to DIGITS even if the phone calls were originally placed to the home line, for example.

Here comes the interesting part, the new service works on AT&T, Verizon and Sprint devices. You will have to download the Digits app and calls will be made through the respective carrier’s network.

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The DIGITS network-level solution is integrated into several phones including the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, but if you have any other phones don’t worry. Your favorite carrier also offers and Android / iOS app that can be installed on any device.

“Simply put, DIGITS is breakthrough technology that won’t be replicated any time soon. This isn’t the first time you can add extra numbers to a device, but this IS the first time you can do it all – multiple numbers on one device and one number on multiple devices – and do it with carrier-grade quality. DIGITS is your real T-Mobile number with every bit of the reliability, call prioritization, services and mobility you expect.”

Mike Sievert, Chief Operating Officer of T-Mobile.

The DIGITS beta trial is free of charge, but once it launches officially the service will be available for a fee. Although T-Mobile didn’t share any information about the specific pricing schemes.

10 geeky gift ideas for your tech loving son

Alexandra Arici
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Christmas is only a few weeks away, so you’re probably wondering what to get your son this year. Well if your kid happens to like tech, then we have a few recommendations for you. Don’t worry, child-friendly tech devices aren’t super expensive and most of them offer an educational component too, so your tech-loving son you’ll be able to learn something while playing with his/her new gizmo.

Verizon’s GizmoTab

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Yeah, tablets aren’t what they used to be. But children still love them, especially since they can be used for games. And parents like them due to the educational apps that can be found of them. So it’s a win-win situation.

For a kiddie tablet, the Verizon GizmoTab features some unusually good specs, so after you send your kid to bed you might be tempted to use the device yourself. The slate has 8-inch display with 720p resolution and a Snapdragon 617 with 3GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage.

The tablet bundles a large 5,100 mAh battery which means the device will enjoy a long life cycle. The GizmoTab is encased in a bumper which protects it against accidental damages.

The tablet can be bought for $249.99 outright or for $79.99 with 2 year activation plan.

Star Wars Portable Charger

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Is your boy a fan of Star Wars? If the answer is yes, consider buying him a Star Wars portable charger. Given that most children today have access to a smartphone or tablet, the accessory is just what he needs to keep his device all juiced up for when mommy or daddy call.

The cute charger gives up to 3 hours of extra use time and is only $9.99. You can get it in several variants including Stormtrooper, Darth Vader and Minis Bob Fett.

VTech Kidizoom Smartwatch DX

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Is your son waiting for you to leave the room, so he can play with your Samsung Gear S3? Then why not get him a smartwatch of his own? The VTech Kidizoom smartwatch from Toys R Us is the perfect gift for children aged 3 to 10.

The wearable includes eight games children can play, plus the ability to download more via the Learning Lodge. The watch features alarm, timer and a stopwatch function plus a calendar and calculator features. Your son will also be able to take pics and shoot videos using the device. The motion sensor embedded within the wearable, will allow children to explore three action challenges.

The colorful kiddie-friendly wearable is available in a range of colors for $59.99.

Holy Stone HS170 Predator Mini RC Helicopter Drone

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For boys fascinated by drones, the Holy Stone Helicopter Drone could make the best tech gift ever. It’s an affordable drone which doesn’t come equipped with a camera. However it’s light and small, so you don’t have to worry your child will get hurt playing with it.

The flying little robot features a setting that can help users adjust the remote’s responsiveness to three different levels. The drone has good performance of wind-resistant control range (about 30-50 meters) and can fly for about 6 to 8 minute before it needs to be popped in for a recharge. The colorful LED lights onboard make flying the drone at night a lot of fun.

The gizmo costs only $42.99 if you pick it up from Amazon.

Minecraft Diamond Sword

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Maybe your son is infatuated with Minecraft and likes to roleplay. Well then the Minecraft Foam Diamond Sword could be the right gift choice for him.

It’s a full size replica from the online Minecraft game made of heavy EVA foam, so that it feels like a real weapon. The toy costs $19.99.

Pokemon GO Plus

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Pokemon GO has captured the hearts of so many children and adults alike this year. If your son is also a fan of the game, why not consider buying him the Pokemon Go Plus wearable.

The wristband connects the phone over Bluetooth and then alerts gamers to new creatures and points of interest. The wearable has proved extremely popular with Pokemon Go players and so it’s quite hard to find a place that’s still selling it.

Luckily at Walmart, the Pokemon Go Plus is still available for $217. It’s a bit expensive given that the pre-order price was set for $39.99, but if you really want to make Pokemon Go loving kid happy, you won’t hesitate.

Doctor Who Tardis Mousepad

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Etsy is home to some of the most creative craftsmen out there. If your child watches Doctor Who and your Christmas present budget is not so big this year, we suggest you look into this personalized mouse mat. It’s hand-made and one of a kind and will only cost you $7.99 plus shipping.

Adventure Time: BMO Mimobot Flash Drive

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What if your boy is a fan of Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time? Well how about getting him this BMO Mimobot USB flash drive. It’s a limited edition USB stick and you can get it only with a few retailers. It offers 8GB of storage and can be bought for $19.00.

Spiderman Molded Bluetooth Speakers

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Every boy has a favorite superhero and if your child loves Spiderman, then you can buy him a super cool Spiderman Bluetooth speaker.

This one costs $29.40 and features a built in rechargeable battery that can play up to 8 hours of music on one charge. The device can connect to mp3/media devices via Bluetooth.

Tech Will Save US – Mover Kit

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We conclude this list with an educational tech gift for your son. Tech Will Saves us has number of project kits that aim to teach kids about tech.

This one will allow nerdy sons to create their own wrist wearable. If you know your son is interested in how things are built, skip the VTech Kidizoom Smartwatch and get him the Kit instead.

Packed with sensors and lights, children can learn how to develop their own apps for the device via an intuitive coding interface walking them through the process. The Kit costs $75.

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