In an update today, the Google Photos (Android, iOS, and on the web) team is rolling out a couple of new features- one that will help you share your memories, and one that might make you shed some tears.
The first of the two new features is helping you share your videos stored in Google Photos with friends and family. Sharing videos can be a bit cumbersome right now, but Google has come up with a solution to sharing your videos across email, through SMS, and within the app. When tapping the share button within Google Photos and choosing to share with an email address associated with a Google Photos account, the recipient will receive a notification in their Google Photos app. If they aren’t a Google Photos user, they will get an email with a link to the shared media instead. Phone numbers will work much the same with the recipient receiving an SMS with a link to the picture or video you’ve shared.
Google is taking the responsibility off you when you share pictures or video. You can share amongst many different contacts all with their own method of contact (email, phone number, Google photos member), and Google smartly shares it to each individual contact.
The Google Photos team is also expanding its automatic creations efforts. If you’ve used Google Photos for any period of time, you know that the app will occasionally notify you of a picture it may have auto-awesome’ed or a video it may have put together for you, but now, Google Photos is doing even more.
In the example below, you can watch your kids grow up through the pictures and videos you captured that reside in Google Photos. I love my daughter a lot, and I’m not afraid to admit that sometimes I get a little choked up when I look back at some of our precious memories. I have no doubt this new feature will produce a few tears as you look back on some fond memories from years past.
Nixon has finally launched its “action sports” smartwatch, the Mission. It is a fully waterproof, up to 10 ATM, and user customizable watch that runs full Android Wear. The watch was unveiled earlier this year and it’s finally available for pre-order on its website. The watch retails for $400 but goes up to $450 with user customization included.
The watch has some impressive specs as well, a 1.39 inch AMOLED display with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 2100, which should result in snappy performance and excellent battery life. It also houses a built-in GPS, thermometer, altimeter, barometer, compass, gyrometer, accelerometer and humidity sensor. The 48mm case is made of polycarbonate and stainless steel, and comes with a magnetic charging cable.
User customization on the Mission is limited to a few options for the case, bezel and band as well as a few options for a design on the back plate. There are enough choices there for anyone to make a stylish and unique watch that truly stands out, however, so no worries there. The watch features a fully waterproof design thanks to it’s ‘MicLock’ which seals the microphone port behind a two-stage lock to keep it protected even in deep water. It does add some chunk to the side of the watch, but it’s one of the only real sacrifices Nixon seems to have made with this watch. It otherwise ticks pretty much every box for a premium smartwatch today.
The Mission looks to be a excellent choice for the active user, and a great alternative to the Moto 360 Sport, especially when it comes to customization options. It may be a bit chunky and heavy for most people, but for someone looking to get outdoors while staying connected, the Mission is definitely looking to be a strong option.
Samsung recently released details of its Galaxy Note7 recall program. Weeks after the news began to break about exploding Note7 phones, Samsung has begun an exchange program with the cooperation of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Samsung has received flack in the past for only instituting a voluntary recall without any governmental backing and for confusing messages of whether users should shut off their phones or accepted an update that would only allow them to charge the phone to 60%.
But, we’re left wondering what more Samsung could have done. First, let’s jump into the details of the recall program.
You don’t want this in your pocket.
If you currently own a Samsung Galaxy Note7 purchases prior to September 15, you’re eligible to exchange your device for a brand new, non-exploding Note7 no later than September 21. If you’re not interested in exchanging for another Note7, you can choose either a Samsung Galaxy S7 or Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge to swap your defect device for. If you’re thinking “well, my Note7 cost $200 more than a Galaxy S7, what about that price difference?” you’ll be relieved to know that you will be refunded that difference between them. If you picked up any accessories, you’ll be able to replace those as well.
If you just want to wash your hands of the whole fiasco, you may be able to get a refund. Samsung states you can contact your point of purchase to see about a refund, but there is no word on a mandatory refund. T-Mobile let me return my purchased Note7, but customers have reported that other carriers will not allow a full refund of the phone and even some T-Mobile stores have denied refunds. Some carriers will allow refunds even though it doesn’t state it on their sites and vise versa. The whole thing looks like a mess. Customers are left to go into stores and hope for the best.
Early we posed the question of what more Samsung could’ve done. Earlier today it was revealed by Bloomberg that Samsung may have rushed the production of the Note7 on reports of a “boring” iPhone 7 from Apple. Whether it’s true that Samsung made faulty phones or not to beat the iPhone out of the gate will remain to be seen, but what truly matters is in the aftermath.
If you’re in the market for a new-to-you (aka used) Note7, there will be an easy to determine whether or not your phone is safe. Samsung is introducing a green battery icon within Android that will let you know if your Note7 is among those affected with a bad battery.
You can see the green icon in the Status Bar, the Always-On Display, and the Power-Off Prompt screen. In addition to the software, the box will also have a black square on the packaging. All of these safety measure combined should make it pretty easy to find out if you have a new Note7 or one that was recalled and never turned in.
Samsung deserves high praise for recalling every single Note7 instead of half-assing a recall. But, in my opinion, we should have seen full refunds offered for every device on the market no matter where they were purchased from. Many customers will lose faith in Samsung and I don’t believe they should be stuck with another Samsung device. Let them exchange for another phone outside of the Samsung lineup or get their money back and use their old phones.
The fallout from this cannot be predicted right now. How much this hurts Samsung in the long run is a hot topic of conversation among those in tech fields. What the Korean giant must do to get back in the good graces of consumers is something that will loom large for DJ Koh, Samsung’s Mobile Chief.
Do you think that Samsung has acted responsibly during the recall? Do you think it put customers at risk to beat the iPhone? Let us know down in the comments what your thoughts are about Samsung right now.
Today Google released a new app for travel goers called Google Trips. Available for Android and iOS, the company hopes it will be your new travel companion.
Google Trips
Hot on the heels of Destinations, which brings travel planning features to search, travelers now have an app. The app organizes your plane tickets and hotel reservations, offers travel guides for over 200 cities around the world and makes personalized recommendations based on your Google history.
On top of this, it works offline. Avoiding roaming charges and spotty Wi-Fi is probably the biggest travel issue. Google Trips lets you download everything you need locally before you leave, which includes maps and walking directions.
As with many Google products, you’re required to use your Google Account, whether it’s personal or work. You’ll probably want to use the account where your flight and hotel information is delivered to.
Creating a trip is easy. The main part of the app is called Things to Do. It builds custom itineraries based around things like the length of stay, popular destinations you want to see and anything you’ve previously starred or saved on a Google service. You can be general, like “72 hours in New York” or dive deep into shopping, museums and outdoor activities.
When your phone signal is active, the app gives you real-time information on which destinations are open or closed. It makes adjustments based on time of day and weather. Similar to Google search, it has an I’m Feeling Lucky recommendation for your day. Using this, Google gives you a random highlight from the city you’re in.
I received an interesting speaker from a company called ARCHEER to review. It’s ARCHEER’s 25 watt Bamboo stereo 2.1 wireless speaker that got its design cue from House of Marley’s Get Together Bluetooth speaker. I reviewed the House of Marley Get Together recently and found it to be one of my favorite Bluetooth speakers under $200.
The ARCHEER speaker is similar where it is made from similar materials and has quite a bit of sound output with it’s subwoofer and dual tweeters.
Let’s get into the review.
Design
It’s very clear that ARCHEER saw a popular design with House of Marley’s Get Together speaker when it put together its 25W Bamboo Stereo 2.1 wireless speaker. It’s made primarily of bamboo with canvas wrapped around the center portion of the speaker. The bamboo gives the speaker a real solid feel while the canvas gives the ARCHEER speaker a high-quality modern look.
The speaker has dual drivers that deliver the mids and highs which surround the center woofer that provides the bass. The bass is further enhanced with a port on the back allowing for more airflow.
Controls and connections are pretty standard, similar to what you would find on other wireless speakers. On the top of the speaker is where you will find separate buttons for power, play/pause, volume up/fast forward, and volume down/rewind. At the rear you will find a 3.5mm auxiliary port for a direct connection, a reset button, charge indicator light and a microUSB input slot for charging.
It also has a large internal battery rated at 5200mAh which is designed to last up to 11 hours at 50% maximum volume.
ARCHEER did a good job at recreating the House of Marley speaker in a smaller package.
Sound
If you are a bass aficionado, the ARCHEER Bluetooth speaker was made just for you. The lows on this speaker are very powerful which goes great with certain genres of music where bass is emphasized. The center woofer paired with the rear bass port make this speaker one of the loudest speakers I’ve heard priced under $100.
The two drivers manage to deliver crisp highs with mids to match. I’m not joking when I say the lows are the main focus of this speaker. At times, if you are are not directly in front of the speaker, the lows can drown out the mids rather easily. When you are in front of the speaker though, it does sound clear and detailed, there’s just an emphasis on the low end.
The power rating for the ARCHEER wireless speaker is 25W which is enough to get very loud. The size and power make it perfect for entertaining crowds in large rooms where it won’t be overpowered by people talking and laughing.
What is nice about the sound quality, is no matter what volume you have it set to, the sound scales well. At low volumes the bass maintains the same ratio as it does when it’s at the highest setting. Many speakers that focus on bass don’t sound good at lower volumes because all you hear is the bass, but this one sounds great across the entire power spectrum.
When it comes to the bass port, it sure does serve its purpose. The air it displaces is very noticeable when you put your hand behind it.
The bass port displaces enough air to move tissue paper with ease.
If you find yourself wanting to reduce the bass for other genres of music, you can set the speaker on its back and the sound becomes much more balanced. Quite honestly, when the speaker is on its back is when I actually love the sound output the most.
Battery
The ARCHEER Bluetooth speaker easily meets the 11 hour playback rating with its 5200mAH battery. When played at higher volumes for long periods of time, it drains the battery at a much faster pace. Using it outdoors, I turned mine up to about 80% of maximum volume and frequently pulled down six hours of playback.
If you’re listening to it indoors there almost no need to turn it up beyond 50% due to the incredible power behind each driver.
Summary
ARCHEER did an excellent job of mimicking House of Marley’s Get Together wireless speaker with its 25W Bluetooth 2.1 speaker. It managed to build a high quality speaker, with an emphasis on the low frequency sound range while maintaining clarity and crispiness.
I’m glad ARCHEER didn’t throw in the typical microphone for taking calls, because there is almost no way calls would sound good with this much power output. It’s one of the most powerful speakers I’ve listened to sub $100, and think it’s a great option for using around the house or outdoors. If you like bass, this speaker has loads of it when you want it. And when you don’t, simply place it on its back for a balanced sound output.
I think this speaker would make for a perfect gift for college students who live in dorms or apartments.
We’ve been asking for longer lasting smartphones for years, and finally manufacturers in the US are answering the call.
Sprint and Boost Mobile added a brand new and ultra powerful new smartphone to their lineups, the LG X power. The X power smartphone gets its name from its massive 4100mAh battery which was made to keep up with your busy lifestyle. It has a ridiculous talk time of 33 hours, a solid 8MP rear camera, 5.3″ HD display, 1.8GHz processor, 16GB memory expandable up to 128GB, 2GB RAM, and runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
What makes the LG X power an even more impressive phone is the unlocked price of just $129.99. It’s available at Boost Mobile now, and September 23rd for Sprint customers who can choose to pay $9 a month for 24 months instead of paying for it all up front. Keep in mind choosing to pay for the X power over 24 months will cost $216 after all payments are made.
Boost Mobile is a subsidiary of Sprint and offers an alternative to the major cell carriers in the US. It uses the same network as Sprint, but offers more affordable plans like its Unlimited Unhook’d plan for just $50 a month.
For your money you get unlimited text, minutes and LTE data, with optimized streaming for videos (480p), gaming and music which is similar to T-Mobile’s unlimited video and music streaming plans. Better yet, if you set up your prepaid monthly plan to auto-renew every month you’ll save $5 off your primary line. You won’t get locked into two year service contracts or long term financing plans too.
Sprint also now offers an Unlimited Freedom plan for its customers and it includes:
Unlimited talk, text and optimized streaming video, gaming and music
Unlimited nationwide 4G LTE data for most everything else
Just $60 a month for one line
$40 a month for a second line
$30 a month each for lines 3-10
Or for customers who don’t want their videos “optimized” for mobile use over LTE, can opt for the Unlimited Freedom Premium plan for $80 a month. Users who opt for the premium plan can stream unlimited video at 1080p resolution and music up to 1.5mbps.
Your battery indicator. Probably the most boring aspect of any smartphone. In fact, I bet the only time you notice it is when you’re phone reaches 15%. For most of us, our battery icons do not do a good job in showing just how much juice is left in our phone.
Sure, you can toggle an actual battery percentage to appear in your notification bar, but that takes up valuable space. And if you have the percentage displayed in the icon itself, the number is no readable at a glance. Haven’t you always wanted a freaking glowing bar at the top of your screen so you could always tell your battery level at a glance? No? Well finish the review, and I bet you’ll want one.
Haven’t you always wanted a freaking glowing bar at the top of your screen so you could always see your battery level at a glance? No? Well, finish this review, and I bet you’ll want one.
Setup
Before we take a dive into the Energy Bar app, let’s take a second to discuss the super straightforward setup. The app is free to download, and once you have it installed, you just need to enable it in the app. It will also take you to the Accessibility menu of your phone where you will also need to enable Energy Bar.
Experience
So what is Energy Bar all about? Its description calls it a pulsating energy bar, which sounds like the most annoying thing you could ever experience. But let me assure you that it is far from annoying.
Once enabled, it appears as a glowing bar across the top of your screen. As your phone’s battery diminishes, the bar moves to indicate how much charge is remaining. While it does not give any precise numbers, the bar does provide the easiest way to check your battery with a glance.
From my experience using Energy Bar, I found that it was quicker for me to tell how much battery was left using this rather than the stock battery indicator. How many times have you needed to know your exact battery percentage anyway?
When you are charging your device, you will also get a nice animation with segments of the bar being added as long as you have your device plugged in.
In the Energy Bar app, you will find several options for customizing the bar. First, you can choose between Normal Bar and Status Bar. The latter will replace your notification bar with the Energy Bar for a unique look. If you stick with Normal Bar, you can then decide how thick you want it to be.
You can also change the origin of the bar if you would like it to begin in the middle or right of your screen. The one setting I highly recommend selecting it to Auto Hide the bar for fullscreen apps. This way, any time you are using an app that takes up the entire screen of your phone, the Energy Bar will disappear along with the notification bar.
Under Color Configuration, you can let your creativity flow and change the color of your battery bar. You can separate the bar into segments of different colors so that once your battery passes a certain percent, the bar changes colors, too. This option makes seeing your battery percentage with a quick glance even easier.
If you would rather have your bar move as a gradient from one color to the next as your phone loses battery, you can select that option instead.
Here comes my biggest complaint with Energy Bar. While the most important settings like Auto Hide on fullscreen and bar thickness are included with the free version, more advanced settings like Status Bar mode and Gradient bar color are only usable after you pay. Unlocking all the features will cost you a whopping $1.99.
Final Thoughts
For many, I imagine the free version of Energy Bar will be enough. But those of you looking for more creative freedom might have pause when it comes time to pay. I personally stuck with the free version, but $1.99 isn’t a bad price to pay for an app like this. The paid version is ad-free, as well. Energy Bar adds an extra level of convenience to your phone as I believe all customization apps should, and I recommended it with the highest of praise.
Numbers released by the CPSC claim that there have been 92 incidents of Note 7 batteries exploding in the United States alone. Many of these have resulted in injuries to consumers, and property damaged as well. In addition to updating its recall page with this new information, Samsung has created an IMEI checker that will allow customers to check their Note 7’s IMEI number to see if they qualify for the Note 7 replacement program.
Samsung IMEI checker
Samsung’s recall page urges customers to power down their devices and do one of three things:
Exchange your current Galaxy Note7 device with a new Galaxy Note7 as approved by the CPSC available no later than September 21, 2016
Exchange your current Galaxy Note7 for a Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge and any Note 7 specific accessories with a refund of the price difference between devices
Contact your point of purchase to obtain a refund.
Should you decide to replace your Note 7 with an S7 or S7 edge, you will receive a refund for the difference in price between the devices, all Note 7 accessories, as well as a $25 bill credit or gift card. For the diehard Note 7 fans, replacement units to replace defective Note 7s will be in stores no later than September 21st.
Swiftkey, one of Androids most downloaded third-party keyboards, announced a major update today. After six years, the team at Swiftkey has rebuilt its language prediction engine using “neural networks.” The integration of the neural network platform means that the operation of Swiftkey’s keyboard will begin to mimic the human brain. The neural network will allow for more accurate autocorrect, better predictions, and creates large amounts of potential for the keyboards future.
Swiftkey’s “neural network” model vs. previous “n-gram” model
Swiftkey launched its keyboard for Android back in 2010. Today’s update, which is live in the Google Play Store, marks the first major overhaul of the app since its creation. The neural network the app has been built upon will allow the keyboard to process information in a much more “human” way.
This means the keyboard will now begin to understand relationships between words and sentence structures you have used in the past. In addition to understanding relationships, the keyboard will understand interchangeable words and the context of sentences. All this will come together and culminate in a much more productive keyboard that will be better at text predictions and correcting spelling mistakes.
Online streaming music platform Pandora is announcing a new plan for customers. The plan – called Pandora Plus – is a $4.99 monthly subscription that gives you more skips, replays and offline listening.
The new offline has predictive capabilities. It automatically detects when you lose your cellular signal and switches to one of your top stations. There shouldn’t be an interruption in the playing music.
The Pandora Plus plan is a good option for listeners who don’t want to commit to $15 per month for tailored music but still want more than a radio experience. Not only that, it sounds as if it’s even smarter than before.
We’re methodically and passionately developing the world’s most personal music experience… that includes flexibility in how you listen and what you pay for it… we have a solution tailored for you at a price point you can afford.
Pandora Plus launches today and rolls out to iOS and Android users “in the coming months.” Pandora One customers will be switched to the Pandora Plus service during this period. Listeners in Australia and New Zealand won’t see these features until 2017, though.
Before we take a dive into the Energy Bar app, let’s take a second to discuss the super straightforward setup. The app is free to download, and once you have it installed, you just need to enable it in the app. It will also take you to the Accessibility menu of your phone where you will also need to enable Energy Bar.
