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Google announces a new app called Trips

Andrew Orr
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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.

google trips 01

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.

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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.

ARCHEER 25W Bamboo Stereo 2.1 Bluetooth Speaker (review)

Derrick Miyao
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.
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.

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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.

Check out the ARCHEER 25W Bamboo Stereo 2.1 Bluetooth Speaker at Amazon to learn more.

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Sprint and Boost Mobile announce the all new LG X power for just $130 (4100mAh battery)

AndroidGuys
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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.

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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.

Get the LG X power for $129.99 at Boost Mobile with free shipping included here.

LG X power specs:

  • Height: 5.86″
  • Width: 2.95″
  • Depth: .31″
  • Weight: 4.87 oz.
  • Screen Size: 5.3″ Touchscreen Display
  • Talking Time: 33 hours
  • Battery Type: 4,100mAh battery
  • Removable: No
  • Memory: 2GB RAM/16GB ROM
  • Processor: 1.8GHz Octa-core Processor
  • Operating System: Android™ 6.0 (Marshmallow)

If you’d like to learn more about MVNO operators like Boost Mobile, check out the post below.

There are over 80 cellular providers in the US and they can all save you loads of money

Energy Bar review: The coolest way to check your battery

AndroidGuys
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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

energy-bar-setup-2Before 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.

energy-bar-charging

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.

energy-bar-settings

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.

energy-bar-colors

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.

Get your glow on!

Samsung Note 7 recall finally official; Replacements due September 21

AndroidGuys
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All Samsung Note 7 devices sold before September 15, 2016 are now officially recalled. While Samsung created its voluntary safety recall on September 2nd, the company has now partnered with the CPSC to officially recall all devices sold before September 15, 2016.

CSPC Home page
CSPC Home page

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 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.

See Also

The lessons the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is teaching all of us

Swiftkey announces world’s first smartphone keyboard powered by a neural network

AndroidGuys
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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.

With this update, Swiftkey's prediction engine will see massive improvements
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.

See Also

Pandora’s new $5 monthly plan bulks up existing features, adds new smarts

Pandora’s new $5 monthly plan bulks up existing features, adds new smarts

Andrew Orr
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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.

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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.

Buyer’s Guide: Bluetooth Speakers

Top 5 Android apps for privacy and security

Andrew Orr
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Are you a fan of Android, but maybe not Google? Are you tired of using services that track your every move, what you say and use that information against you? Here is a roundup of our favorite apps for privacy and security.

Email: Protonmail

Protonmail is an encrypted email service based in Switzerland. Since your data is stored on Swiss servers, they are protected by strict Swiss privacy laws. You get strong security with end-to-end encryption, so third parties like Google or the NSA (is there a difference?) can’t read them.

Protonmail doesn’t keep any personal information, not even IP logs. It’s compatible with OpenPGP and fully open source. You can protect emails with passwords, send emails that self-destruct and use custom labels and filters.

Protonmail comes in three tiers: Free, Plus and Visionary.

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Google Play Link | Source Code

Messaging: Signal

By using Signal, you can send fully private messages to your friends and family. It offers end-to-end encryption on all of your messages. Unlike Facebook Messenger or Google Allo, every message is in incognito mode.

signal

Just like most other messaging apps, you can chat with people one on one or create groups. Signal is free and open source software (FLOSS) so anyone can verify its security. The app uses your existing phone number and address book.

Not only can you send private messages, but you can also use Signal to call people anywhere in the world with no long distance charges.

Google Play Link | Source Code

VPN: LiquidVPN

LiquidVPN is a great tool to protect your web browsing. Many people recommend using a VPN on public Wi-Fi, but we at AndroidGuys recommend using a VPN all the time, on public and private Wi-Fi.

With LiquidVPN you can hide your IP address, encrypt your data, bypass censorship and unblock websites. The Wyoming-based company has servers located in nine different countries.

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The service has unique features not found with other VPN providers, like modulating IPs, a custom DNS service, shared IP VPN tunnels and a technology called Liquid Lock. Liquid Lock controls your system’s firewall so only encrypted traffic can stream out.

LiquidVPN has three plans:

  • Sidekick: $7/month (two devices)
  • Road Warrior: $10/month (four devices)
  • Ultimate: $18/month (eight devices)

Google Play Link

Cloud Storage: Mega

Mega offers 50GB of free end-to-end encrypted cloud storage. Dubbed “The Privacy Company” Mega is a New Zealand-based company. With Mega, you can automatically upload your photos and contacts.

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You can upload, download and share encrypted files with other people. They have a free plan as well as several paid plans, giving you more storage and better bandwidth. However, you can only buy the pro plans through third-party resellers.

Google Play Link

Web Browsing: Orbot

Orbot is a free tool that lets you browse Tor. Although Tor isn’t without issues, having been notoriously hacked by the FBI, it’s still generally secure enough for the majority of users.

orbot

Orbot encrypts your web traffic and routes it through a system of nodes/relays around the world. It’s open source and if your phone is rooted, you can route all app traffic through Tor, not just the internet.

Google Play Link | Source Code

Conclusion

As you can see, being safe and secure while using the internet is easy. As technology becomes more advanced and the Internet of Things becomes further entrenched in our lives, privacy will become more important in the future.

UPDATE: The person behind the PrivacyToolsIO Twitter account warned about using Mega. He/she directed me to this article about Kim Dotcom. An alternative cloud tool to use is called Cryptomator, and this is referenced on the Privacy Tools website. It’s not a cloud service itself, but it lets you create encrypted vaults for your data and store it in Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud Drive and OneDrive. Check it out here.

Further Reading: www.privacytools.io – encryption against global mass surveillance ?

When and where to buy: Moto Z Play

AndroidGuys
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Announced this summer, the Moto Z Play is the latest addition to Motorola’s Moto Z lineup. As the most affordable of the Z series, it gives users the ability to add Moto Mods to the back. In other words, it allows for one to add cool features that expand the capabilities.

Want a better camera or one with a zoom? You’ll want to check out the Hasselblad mod. Like to pump out the jams? JBL has something you’d be interested in listening to music on. There are a number of Moto Mods that extend the usefulness of the Moto Z series.

The Moto Z Play is more of a middle of the pack experience that doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not. With that said, it offers up a 5.5-inch screen at 1080 pixel resolution and packs a 16-megapixel rear camera.

Other specifications that are worth pointing out include a capacious 3510mAh battery with TurboPower charging, and 32GB of internal space. Should that not be enough, you can add on more via a microSD expansion card.

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Starting in October, you can buy the Moto Z Play straight from Motorola for $450 unlocked, or as low as $18.83/month for 24 months with a Moto Credit Account.

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You can visit Verizon at this link to buy the Moto Z Play Droid. You can pay the full cost up front ($408) or pay $17/month for 24 months on a payment plan (activation fee: $20). For a limited time you can buy one Moto Z and get the second one 50% off.

Gmail introduces responsive design for all devices

Andrew Orr
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Gmail is updating to provide responsive design for all devices. For emails that support it, the Gmail app will scale the content of the email to fit different screen sizes. This means text that’s easier to read, bigger buttons and links, and wider images. You’ll also see these changes on the desktop as well.

gmail-responsive

 

If you’re a developer, you can achieve this by using CSS media queries to make sure your email is formatted correctly. You can change styles based on width, rotation and resolution.

Example:

@media screen and (min-width: 500px) {
  .colored {
    color:red;
  }
}

You can find the full list of supported CSS rules in the developer documentation.

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