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Forza Football: Stop using other football apps and download this one right now (Review)

Gerson Noboa
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Being from Ecuador, you might safely assume that I’m very passionate about football. The sport is so deeply tied to our culture; it controls our plans and our mood. Football makes you travel throughout the country to watch your local team and, to me, it is as relevant as other stuff that is supposed to actually be important. That’s why Forza Football is one of the first apps I install on any device I own.

I can’t remember when the first time was that I used it, but it’s definitely more than two years ago. This app is, in my opinion, one of the best apps available on the Play Store. It doesn’t matter if you know all of your team’s chants or if you just follow Real Madrid because you like Cristiano Ronaldo, Forza Football will make your experience so much better.

Developer: FootballAddicts
Price: Free

Setup

After the splash screen, Forza will automatically detect the country you’re in and show you the leagues available there. This will add them to your favorite leagues, an essential feature of Forza, since it will let you follow them in the app itself.

I’ve always thought that this part of the setup is actually in disorder, since I have always expected to be able to choose a team from my local league afterwards. Instead, Forza redirects you to popular leagues around the world. This include the Premier League (UK), La Liga (Spain), Bundesliga (Germany), and even the Primera División from Argentina.

Immediately after, you’re allowed to choose international competitions. Important events such as the Champions League, Europa League, World Cup Qualifiers, European Championship, and Copa America are included here. Some of them are pre-selected for you – namely the really important competitions, so you don’t need to go and look for them yourself. The selection here is truly astounding.

After this, you get to choose your home country’s national team, as well as your local team. See what I mean? The order is kind of weird. The national team comes pre-selected for you, and it also can include U21 and women national teams, which is cool. Choosing a team from this list, either local or national, will turn on notifications for the matches of that team (more on this later). You can choose more than one local team, of course, but do you seriously want to do that?

Forza’s setup seems like forever, right? Now it’s the time to choose teams from all around the world. There are some popular options here, such as Juventus, Arsenal, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern München. If your favorite team is a bit more obscure though, you’ll have to go to the settings page later and add it manually.

Finally, the last screen of the setup shows a list of all the teams with a little bell to the side. This lets you configure the kind of notifications you want to receive for each team. If you don’t want to receive notifications for Manchester United (live in San Francisco and the match time is too early for you), but you still want to see their results easily, then you can leave it as a favorite team but turn off notifications here. There’s also a granular control over the kind of notifications you receive.

Overview

forza_football_main
Forza’s Football main screen.

Finally! Forza will show you the screen you’ve longed for since we started this setup. A calendar strip is at the top, in which the current week will be displayed starting from Tuesday. This actually makes a lot of sense, since some leagues play some of their matches on Monday.

The rest of the screen is divided in two: your favorite teams and your favorite leagues. If a team you follow plays on the selected date, it will appear first and foremost so you won’t miss it.

If there are matches on the competitions you’ve followed, then they will appear below your favorite teams. These won’t filter by teams or anything: all of the matches played on that day valid for that league will appear here.

Tapping on the calendar icon at the top right will take you to a list view of the matches your favorite teams play in the next weeks. If you want to stop filtering your favorites at the top and just show everything according to their league, you can do that by tapping the switch at the top. If you only want to see live matches, there’s a button for that. There’s something for everyone here.

Match View

Tapping on a match will take you to the match view screen. This area is focused on a specific match, and the amount of information it shows is impressive. Also, it changes according to the phase of the match: fixture, currently playing, or played.

The screen itself is divided in five sectors: statistics, table information, match details, videos, and lineups. As you can figure, statistics, videos, and lineups are not available until the match is actually being played.

Statistics show live information such as possession, shots on target, yellow cards, and such. Table information shows the current standings in the table for the tournament this match is being played for. For example, if Arsenal plays Tottenham for the Premier League, then this tab will show the full Premier League standings.

This is updated live: this means that if Arsenal is winning, the table will already have the three points added to them. Both teams playing are shown in bold so it’s easier to spot them.

The match details tab is the most complex of them. It shows information such as the managers, age average, tendency, and stadium. When the match is being played, information such as yellow cards, red cards, goals, penalties and substitutions will also appear here. When the match is over, you can choose players of the match, and a small poll on confidence on chairman, squad, and manager of the team you support.

The videos tab will show you highlights (such as goals, failed penalties, and other important actions) from Dailymotion. This tab’s quality obviously depends on the match you’re watching. If you are looking at a Barcelona vs Real Madrid, then expect to see a lot of them. If you’re following a match from two obscure teams from Ecuador, then don’t expect any videos (even people in Ecuador don’t care about them anyways).

Finally, the squad tab does exactly what you expect of them, showing the starting 11, then showing substitutions and injured players. Special mention to Jack Wilshere, who always finds his way to this last section.

Options

forza_football_optionsThere’s a wide selections of options you can choose from. You can change your favorite leagues and competitions, manage what content you see on the details of a match, app language, notifications, and even support for themes.

The favorite leagues and competitions aspect is pretty much what you would expect. You can choose between every league and competition the app has to offer, and then mark it as favorite so you can see it on the main screen. The option of adding new teams is there too, in case you need it.

Themes range from really good to really ugly, but the fact that there’s actually an option for changing the colors of the app is nice. This is not a quick attempt of doing things either; when you change your theme, even the smallest of details change. It’s amazingly implemented and consistent throughout the app.

Notifications

This is one of the biggest aspects of this app, without doubt. In a nutshell, they work flawlessly. Remember all of those teams we chose on the setup and options screens? Well, you can get push notifications when these teams play.

There’s also the option of choosing with notifications you get: match reminder, lineups, match start, match end, goals, half time result, final result, yellow cards, red cards, video highligts, and even questions and transfer news about the team. You can do this for every individual theme or just set the default options on settings and use that here too.

forza_football_team_selection
You can change your teams at any time.

The robustness and granularity of this system is something admirable. As I said before, I’ve used this app for approximately two years and I’ve had issues with it exactly once. It’s amazing how well it works, how each setting is remembered correctly and reflected immediately, how prompt the notifications are, and how every event is in fact picked up and reported.

Clicking on the notification itself takes you to the match details screen. Don’t want to receive notifications right now? Is your homework more important than that North London derby? You can turn off notifications for the match right from the notification, so you can do that Ruby on Rails homework while Arsenal and Tottenham draw yet again.

Conclusion

Forza Football provides a wide array of options, features, customizability, and robustness that is rarely seen on an app, let alone a free one. It sounds cliche, but, considering the amount of stuff you can do, I can safely say that this is an app from football fans for football fans. Seriously, just go and download it right now if you’re a fan of football. I’m sure you wont regret it and your experience will be better.

Download Forza Football from the Google Play Store.

Google locks Pixel resellers out of their accounts, then has a change of heart

Alexandra Arici
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News that Google has suspended nearly 200 accounts suspected of violating the company’s terms of service, surfaced today. Around 200 people bought Pixel and Pixel XL phones via Project Fi with the express intent of making profit.

The devices were shipped directly to a re-seller based in New Hampshire – a sales tax free state, according to deal monitoring website Dan’s Deals. The scheme goes like this – after the phones were resold the (small) profits were split with the original Pixel buyers.

Buying a handset on Project Fi for yourself or a loved one is perfect legal, but Project Fi’s terms of service specifically state the phones are not to be commercially resold. So Google took action by suspending a number of accounts suspected of wrong doing. Affected users found they were unable to access Google services including apps for email, photos, documents and social media. Aouch, don’t mess with Google, people!

some-pixel-owners-want-to-make-moneyMore than that, in some cases it appears Google locked the secondary accounts that were listed as a backup account on the users’ Google profiles.

A Google spokesperson sent Dan’s Deal an official statement saying the company has “identified a scheme in which consumers were asked to purchase Pixel devices on behalf of a re-seller, who then marked-up the cost of those devices.”

US carrier bands and networks

The statement also notes that “after investigating the situation, we are restoring access to genuine accounts for customers who are locked out of many Google services they rely on.”

Well it seems like Google already reversed the decision of locking users out of their accounts, after receiving a deluge of complains, reports The Guardian.

google-pixel-and-pixel-xlIt turns out Google send an email to affected parties it has reviewed their appeals and it’s granting them access once again. However Google does note that “repeated violations of our terms may lead to account termination.”

Voices online have been questioning whether the punishment actually fitted the crime, calling Google’s initial decision to ban users a “digital death penalty”. But in the end Google proved to be merciful once again and everything went back to normal.

Speck offering 40% off cases site-wide before and after Black Friday

AndroidGuys
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Need to get a nice protective case for your smartphone or gadget? Black Friday is just around the corner and that means sales, discounts, and all sorts of promos. Speck has some pretty great savings on the horizon, one of which works site-wide and drops prices to nearly half their normal costs.

Here’s a quick look at what to expect from Speck in the coming weeks:

  • Offer: Take 40% Off Sitewide (exclusions apply)
    • Start Date: Monday, November 21st
    • End Date: Saturday, December 3rd
  • 30% Off CandyShell Clear Cases
    • Start Date: Monday, November 21st
    • End Date: Saturday, December 3rd
  • 20% Off Presidio Cases
    • Start Date: Monday, November 21st
    • End Date: Monday, November 28th

4 steps to setting up an Android blog that makes money (PROMOTED)

Guest Blogger
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1

So you’re thinking about setting up an Android blog.

You’ve probably got all kinds of questions as to how you can make it happen and how you can eventually make money from it.

Well, while it won’t be easy, it’s also not quite as challenging as it may seem.

So, without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the steps you’ll need to follow in order to setup an Android blog that makes money.

Step #1 – Determine Your Niche

The first thing you’re going to need to do is determine your niche.

With all of the competition out there today, it’s going to be extremely difficult to succeed if you choose to be general in your approach.

It’s absolutely vital that you get super specific about what aspect of the Android that you would like to cover.

Some obvious options include:

These are just a few of the many options that are available to you.

And don’t be afraid to break those niches down even further.

The more specific the niche, the less competition you’ll have to deal with and the easier it will be to position yourself as an authority on the subject matter.

Step #2 – Set Up a Content Schedule

If you want to build a successful Android blog, developing a content schedule is a must.

Without it, it’s going to be extremely difficult to post content on a consistent basis.

And if you aren’t publishing content on a consistent basis, your readers are going to become disinterested quickly.

And if your readers become disinterested quickly…well, you get the picture.

Step #3 – Develop a Marketing Plan

This is something that a lot of bloggers swing and miss on.

The bottom line is that there are millions of blogs out there.

Even if you decide on a super specific niche like ‘health apps for Androids’, there are undoubtedly going to be others that are blogging on the same topic.

And while you certainly have to create great content, that’s not going to matter if no one is reading it.

Find out where Android enthusiasts are spending their time and develop a plan for reaching them there.

Utilizing social media platforms is currently one of the best ways to do this.

Many modern day bloggers actually recommend that you commit to spending only about 10% of your time producing content and 90% of your time marketing.

While you can decide for yourself what works best for you, developing a blog marketing plan is absolutely necessary.

Step #4 – Commit to the Long Term

The reality of starting and developing a blog is that it is going to be very difficult to monetize it until you have a strong base of loyal readers.

Most bloggers will tell you that it takes at least a year worth of producing content and marketing their blog until they can monetize it to the point of a full-time income.

For this reason, it’s important that you’re willing to commit to the long term effort that it will take to create an Android blog that makes money.

Conclusion

While this is a simplified version of what it will take to create an Android blog that makes money, following these steps will help put you on the path to becoming a full-time blogger.

It won’t be easy. But it will certainly be worth it.

Xiaomi Mi MIX Nano leaks out, will have a smaller 5.5-inch display

Alexandra Arici
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0

Remember the gorgeous edge-to-edge Xiaomi Mi MIX that was unveiled last month? The phone is quite a monster coming with a huge 6.4-inch display.

But if you don’t particularly like holding a huge device to your ear while you’re in a call, the good news is that Xiaomi seems has a smaller version of the Mi MIX in the works. The phone dubbed the Xiaomi Mi MIX Nano showed up online in a bunch of leaked photographs this week.

better-view-of-two-xiaomi-mi-mix-phonesA few shadowy images apparently showcasing the size difference between the Mi MIX with the Mi MIX Nano have found their way online. One photo shows the About Phone section on the Mi MIX Nano and judging by it the smaller phone’s spec list is going to be quite similar to the Mi MIX.

xiaomi-mi-mix-settingsIn case you don’t remember the Mi MIX made a debut into the wild with a 6.4-inch display with 1080 x 2040 resolution and a Snapdragon 821 clocked at 2.35GHz under the hood working with either 4GB/6GB of RAM and 128GB/256GB of internal storage.

The phone features a 16MP/5MP camera couple, a hefty 4,400 mAh battery and Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box. In China the prices start from around $517 for the base version, but if you are an international customer and you really want the device, you’ll have to pay as much as you would for a Pixel. Websites like XiaomiDevice sell the 4GB/128GB version for $819 a pop.

two-xiaomi-mi-mix-phonesAnyway, moving along to the Mi MIX Nano, the phone should arrive with a 5.5-inch display just like the Google Pixel XL (same size, different take on it). The device should feature the same 1080p resolution as the Mi MIX, which fits much better in the picture given the phone’s diagonal.

The Nano will have a Snapdragon 821 clocked at 2.53 GHz (bug?) and only a 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage version. It will probably take advantage of a smaller battery, since it doesn’t have a huge screen to support.

mi-mix-vs-mi-mix-nanoLast but not least, the Nano is shown to be running Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, but hopefully by the time it’s ready to launch Android 7.0 Nougat will be unboard.

Rumors expect the Mi MIX Nano to launch for approximately $435 in China. Would you be interested?

Identify critical vulnerability in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips and win $15,000

Alexandra Arici
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0

Qualcomm just introduced its top of the line next-gen chipset Snapdragon 835 earlier this week. Now the company announced a new bug bounty program that invites white hat hackers to identify vulnerabilities in its Snapdragon chips and LTE modems.

Qualcomm is offering prizes up to $15,000 to those who successfully identify a bug (or more). It’s not uncommon for companies to appeal to the community asking for help to identify the weakest points in their products.

qualcomm-snapdragon-mobile-chipsetsThe main idea behind bug bounty programs such as this is that hackers get paid by the producing company to identify bugs. When a vulnerability is found they are requested to inform the manufacturer, rather than the world. The company gets to fix the problem before it becomes a serious issue and customers won’t even know about it.

Anyway, Qualcomm says it will honor contributions to the program in either QTI Product Security or the CodeAuroraForum Hall of Fame. It depends on the nature of subscription.

If you think you have what it takes to hunt down bugs for Qualcomm, you can get started already. To find out more about which chipsets are included in the program and what kind of software vulnerabilities are of interest, go ahead and visit the Hacker One website.

For starters, the bounty program will begin as a closed program with only 40 researchers working to identify vulnerabilities. After a while Qualcomm will open the gates and more people are expected to join.

a-mighty-powerhouseAs we told you above, Qualcomm just unveiled the Snapdragon 835 based on Samsung’s 10nm FinFET process. Compared to the previous 14nm Snapdragon 820 and 821, the new silicone piece is 30% smaller and promises 27% increased performance and 40% more energy savings.

The chip is the first to arrive with Quick Charge 4.0 and we can expect to see it arrive in consumer devices like the Samsung Galaxy S8 in 2017.

In the meantime Qualcomm wants to make absolutely sure its current lineup of Snapdragons is bug-free.

Udacity Blitz connects graduates to potential employers

Alexandra Arici
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Online learning is the future of education and these days more and more people are discovering the benefits of enrolling in online classes. Organizations like Udacity offer massive open online courses (MOOCs) in order to help those who wish to learn acquire a new skill.

Speaking of which, this week Udacity announced a new program called Blitz which aims to connect graduates with professionals seeking software engineers. The new service is meant to act as a bridge between businesses and software&app developers.

Udacity focuses on delivering high quality online courses in diverse fields including entrepreneurship, mobile app development, programing, machine learning, VR and even mathematics.

udacity-logoHere’s how the Blitz program works. Let’s say a business has an idea for an app, so they access the Blitz website and upload their proposal. Udacity will assess the project and provide a budget estimate in no time. A software team is then assembled, complete with a project manager who is in charge of overseeing things.

Businesses are given the freedom to interact with the members of the software team and if everything goes well, even prologue the collaboration further on. If the end results aren’t satisfactory, Udacity Blitz will be refund the business in-full. It’s quite simple.

learn-from-the-bestUdacity also announced it was partnering with 99designs.com for Blitz. The website provides custom app building services and from now one customers will have the ability to choose to work with an Udacity Blitz team, as well.

Companies have already started working with Blitz teams, for example the design agency AJ&Smart, Alphabet Inc’s Sidewalk Labs and LA-based recording studio Sundown Sessions. The company boasts that Blitz engineers who were offered full-time jobs after the initial collaboration are paid between $75,000 and $145,000 on average.

It’s an interesting development of the fast evolving MOOC industry. Udacity is no longer just an online learning website or a place where companies look for new employees, but an aggregate of both.

LeEco Black Friday deals include Le Pro 3 for $279, more

Alexandra Arici
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0

LeEco is a Chinese company trying to penetrate the US market. Most people might not be familiar with the brand in the US, but in China LeEco is pretty well known for making TVs phones, bicycles and offering a streaming video service akin to Netflix.

With Black Friday being just a week away, LeEco has already announced its list of discounts and promotions. The Chinese tech giant plans to host a sale that will begin on at 12:01 a.m. PT on November 25 and will run until 11:59 p.m. PT on November 28.

In order to access the discounts, interested parties are required to sign up for LeEco’s LeRewards program (don’t worry it’s free of charge). After which the shopping spree can begin.

One of the most notable discounts will be applied on the flagship Le Pro3 smartphone which usually sells for $399. Well during the period outlined above, the handset can be yours for $279. Customers can choose to add a $20 bundle to the purchase which includes a Bluetooth speaker and a power bank. Here’s what phone is all about.

LeEco Le Pro 3

  • leeco-pro35.5-inch display with 1080 x 1920 resolution
  • Snapdragon 821 processor
  • 4GB RAM
  • 64GB storage
  • 16MP/8MP camera combo
  • 4070mAh battery
  • All metal build
  • Android 6.0 Marshmallow
  • Unlocked for GSM carriers

The lower-end Le S3 which previously sold for $249, will not be going on sale for $129 a pop. The additional gift bundle costs $12 and comes packing a case, screen protector and power bank or Bluetooth speaker.

LeEco Le S3

  • leeco-le-s35.5-inch display with 1080 x 1920 resolution
  • Snapdragon 652 processor
  • 3GB RAM
  • 32GB storage
  • 16MP/8MP camera combo
  • 3000 mAh battery
  • Android 6.0 Marshmallow
  • Unlocked for GSM carriers

But if you’re not interested in phones right now, you should know that LeEco also offers a slew of pretty good deals on some of its 4K TVs.

  • more-leeco-black-friday-dealsSuper4 X65 now $1,099 ($300 off) plus a free Le S3 smartphone
  • Super4 X55 now $599 ($300 off) plus a free Le S3 smartphone
  • Super4 X43 Pro now $349 ($300 off)
  • uMax85 now $3,999 ($1,000 off)

If any of these deals sound good to you, don’t forget to sign up for LeEco’s LeRewards program before 25 November. Happy shopping!

New Moto phones available at Republic Wireless

Andrew Orr
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0

Great news! Republic Wireless now sells the Moto Z and Moto Z Play directly from its store. Republic Wireless offers Wi-Fi calling as its main selling point, which it combines with prepaid phone coverage.

Moto Z Features

  • Thin premium design
  • Vibrant 5.5″ Quad HD AMOLED display
  • Beautiful images with the 13MP large pixel camera
  • Massive on-board storage (64GB) with 4GB of RAM for blazing fast multitasking
  • Moto Mods™

Moto Z product photographyMoto Z Play Features

  • Massive 3510 mAH battery for over 50 hours of usage with Turbo Charge
  • Shoot like a pro with a 16MP dual auto-focus technology camera
  • Fingerprint reader
  • 5.5″ screen and blazing fast processor
  • Moto Mods™

Republic Wireless plans start at $15/month, which includes unlimited talk, text and data. Of course, as with any MVNO you can bring your own unlocked phone to the service. But if you’d like to buy a Moto phone from Republic, the carrier is selling the Moto Z for $699, while the Moto Z Play is $449.

Republic Wireless doesn’t work with all phones though. The carrier has a list of approved phones, and doesn’t accept iPhones. Here’s the full list:

  • Moto G (4th Gen.)
  • Moto G PLAY (4th Gen.)
  • Moto G PLUS (4th Gen.)
  • Moto X Pure Edition
  • Moto Z
  • Moto Z Play
  • Nexus 5X by LG
  • Nexus 6 by Motorola
  • Nexus 6P by Huawei
  • Pixel by Google
  • Pixel XL by Google
  • Samsung Galaxy J3
  • Samsung Galaxy S6
  • Samsung Galaxy S7
  • Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

If you have one of these phones, or you’d like to buy one from Republic Wireless, give it a try. You can find the main website here, as well as the FAQ here.

Mint SIM offers savings for new customers

Andrew Orr
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0

Mint SIM is an MVNO carrier that is a spin-off of Ultra Mobile. It first came to market with a unique offer: cheap smartphone plans, but you have to buy a year’s worth of data at a time. But now a new offer is on the table.

Mint SIM is lowering the rates even further, and has a new introductory offer. You can try the service before committing to a full year. New customers can buy three months of Mint service starting at $35, which is $11.67/month.

This is for a plan with unlimited talk and text and 2GB of LTE data. If you use up the 2GB, your data will be throttled for the remainder of the month. But throttling after a set amount of data is standard practice for many carriers offering “unlimited” plans.

mint-carriermap
Mint Coverage Map

As with other MVNOs (mobile virtual network operator), there is no contract or activation fee. Mint also uses T-Mobile’s network and works with any unlocked GSM phone. If you use your own phone, Mint will send you a free SIM card – you just pay a couple dollars for shipping. If you decide to stick with Mint, you’ll be able to buy other plans 6 – 12 months in advance.

There are a couple things to keep in mind though. Mint doesn’t offer any family plans, and you won’t get a refund if you cancel your service. If you decide to switch, you forfeit the rest of your balance.

 

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