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7 key reasons you’ll want Android 7.0 Nougat

AndroidGuys
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The official rollout of Android 7.0 Nougat has commenced, starting this week with a select number of devices in the Nexus and Pixel line. Although it might not appear so on the surface, the latest version of Android brings about plenty of features and details that you’ll surely want on your smartphone. Some are add convenience, some bring about better productivity, and others do something else noteworthy.

Fortunately, this time around Google was giving handset makers and developers much earlier access to the Android N software. Hopefully this means we’ll get quicker updates from OEMs and wireless service providers.

While it might still be a few months before your brand or carrier releases this version of Android, it’s sure to come for many of the flagships and models offered over the last year or so. And, even though some of these details might be tucked away or re-skinned to match the UI of your device, you should still look forward to them.

Below you’ll find seven reasons that you’ll want to install Android 7.0 on your smartphone. Although there are plenty of finer details to be found in the build, these are what should be most important to most of you.

Improved Battery

First introduced in Android 6.0, the Doze feature gets even smarter in this year’s build. With Nougat, Doze puts your phone into low power consumption modes even when you’re out and about. Yes, even when it’s tossing about in your pocket, Doze is doing its part to preserve battery life.

Smarter Notifications

Is your notification shade a hot mess of available updates, incoming messages, alerts, and missed calls? Look for Android 7.0 to clean that up with the bundled notifications; apps can group your notifications into much more digestable bundles with an option to expand them for more detail.

Direct Reply

direct_replySimilar to what you’ll find in Android Wear and the recent versions of Google Hangouts for Android, you’ll be able to reply to messages directly inside of the notification shade. This keeps you from having to open an app just to reply to your contacts. We love this little time saver in Hangouts and look forward to seeing other apps integrate the option.

Multiple Screens

With phones you’ll be able to run two applications side by side in a split-screen mode. It’s not new if you’ve been using Samsung devices over the last few generations, but it’s definitely convenient. We’re glad to see this at a platform level so that other OEMs benefit. This was a major paint point for Pixel C users who were looking to boost productivity.

For those who have an Android TV device, a similar picture-in-picture mode makes it so you can watch your current video while browsing or changing settings.

Emoji

Who doesn’t love to insert a goofy graphic as part of a message these days? With 72 new emoji in Android 7.0, there are now 1,500+ to choose from, including those that look like real people. As much as we like those silly yellow blob guys in Android, we’re happy to see the change in Nougat.

android_7_emoji

Security and Privacy

A key reason to stay current with any software platform, security is exactly that: peace of mind. Android 7.0 Nougat delivers a number of improvements in this area, including using a smarter “trusted face” for unlocking your device, file-based encryption, and direct booting that delivers notifications before you even log in with a password.

One feature we’re certainly looking forward to comes in the area of seamless software updates. Like it does with Chrome, Google will let you download and sync Android software updates in the background. It’s only available for select devices so we’re hoping to see this one on our next phone.

Usability

nougat_customizationAndroid 7.0 Nougat gives users more control over their device than ever before. The latest release offers up goodies such as customized quick settings and tiles, suggestions for settings, and a “clear all” option in Overview for closing down background apps.

Other gems include Emergency Info for adding blood type, allergies, and an emergency contact, all accessible from the lock screen. Speaking of which, you can also have separate wallpapers from the home screen and lock screen. Oh, and who hasn’t always wanted to adjust the size of text, icons, and other items?

OnePlus has a mysterious surprise for tomorrow

Andrew Orr
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OnePlus is planning some special announcement for tomorrow, August 25. The company tweeted a link to a YouTube video, and the video itself features a spinning record with a jaunty tune in the background.

I have no idea what the announcement could be. A music service? A new phone? Whatever it is, we’ll keep a look out for the announcement and update this article with more information. In the meantime, check out the video below:

T-Mobile One is violating net neutrality with its new plan

Andrew Orr
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7

Announced several days ago, the latest plan by T-Mobile brings an end to tiered plans and offers only one, unlimited plan. But after reading the fine print, the EFF says the plan violates net neutrality.

Net Neutrality

Net neutrality is a topic that deserves its own article. However, the basic principle is that internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the internet the same. They shouldn’t discriminate based on user, content, website, platform, application, hardware or mode of communication. Unfortunately, this goes against the type of rabid capitalism that Silicon Valley holds dear.

T-Mobile One

The new plan removes tiered data plans and offers unlimited data. It sounds good on the surface, but this does away with cheaper plans, including Pay-As-You-Go. The plan doesn’t cap 4G LTE data based on a monthly allotment. Instead, customers who use more than 26GB of data per month – about 3% – will have their speeds throttled.

Net neutrality activists are more concerned about how T-Mobile will treat streaming video. Customers will have their videos limited to streaming in 480p quality. In order to watch videos in a higher quality, you’ll have to fork over an extra $25/month per line.

Senior staff technologist of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) told the Daily Dot:

“From what we’ve read thus far it seems like T-Mobile’s new plan to charge its customers extra to not throttle video runs directly afoul of the principle of net neutrality.”

In a bold move, T-Mobile CEO John Legere challenged the EFF, saying:

“Who the fuck are you, anyway, EFF? Why are you stirring up so much trouble, and who pays you?”

A spokesperson for the FCC said that “the Commission’s informal policy review is ongoing. Chairman Wheeler said the Commission would keep an eye on new developments in this area and we are continuing to do so.”

Three easy steps to make your Note 7 look and feel like a Nexus

Matt Adams
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The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is undoubtedly one of the most impressive cellular devices ever manufactured. Some would argue it’s the best ever. The Note 7 is now waterproof and has expandable storage! It seems that Samsung really has been listening to its fans after all. We’re even beginning to see some changes in the software on Samsung’s devices.

Some, me included, would argue that Samsung is drastically toning down its software from what it used to be. If you’ve never owned an older Samsung phone (or missed the outrage on the internet) you may not know how bloated, ugly, and slow the software has been in the past. The software skin named TouchWiz has generally been a joke amongst Android fanboys due its past sins.

But, Google and Samsung are making it easier than ever ignore Samsung’s software in the Galaxy Note 7. Here are three tips to make your Samsung Galaxy Note 7 feel like a Nexus device.

Step 1: Material Theme

One of the best features of Samsung’s current flagship phones is that it ships with a theme store. If you’re like me and love the look of Stock Android, this will be your first stop in Nexusifying (Nexusing? Nexification?) your Galaxy Note 7.

To download the Material Design theme I’m using, open up Settings > Wallpapers and themes and then click the three dots in the top right corner and select search. From there type in Material Design and select the free theme from Cameron Bunch. There is also a great Material Dark theme in there if you want to download that too.

touchwiz home
Stock Touchwiz
material design home
Material Design theme

Feels better, doesn’t it? Samsung has come a long way with its new Grace UI, but Stock Android just looks better, in my opinion. Now, this won’t deal with things like the Settings App (although I do like Samsung’s redesign there) and Samsung’s apps, but it does do a pretty good job of giving you the illusion you’re using a Nexus device with all of the Material Design goodness that comes along with it.

Google now quick settings
Quick toggles
touchwiz settings
TouchWiz Settings app

Step 2: Google Now Launcher

One of the smartest things Google has ever done in the fight against OEM Android skins is releasing the Google Now Launcher. We all love it here at AndroidGuys (review here)  for its simplicity and the built-in Google Now screen to the left of home. Nothing you can download will give you a closer to stock feel than this launcher. You can grab the Google Now Launcher in the Play Store.

Google now final

Step 3: Disable Bloatware

This step comes with a BIG DISCLAIMER.

AndroidGuys and the author are NOT responsible for ANYTHING you do to your phone. Please do your own research before following ANY of these suggestions. 

Alright, now that we have that out of the way, I feel comfortable telling you about one of my favorite applications in the Play Store. It’s called Package Disabler Pro and it’s a steal at just $.99 right now. Package Disabler Pro does let’s you disable packages or applications that you would not normally be able to disable from within Android and the best part is that it does NOT require root.

The app does offer an option to quickly disable all the bloat in your phone with one click, but I’ve found it takes out some of the apps that are truly a selling point for Samsung phones like S Health, Samsung Pay, and a few others. Do yourself a favor and look at everything that you choose to disable and Google what exactly it does. If you’re not happy with the results you can display only your disabled packages and reenable them one by one or reenable them all.

package disabler pro

I don’t have hard evidence, just anecdotal, but my device feels much faster and more fluid after disabling about 80 packages. I initially had all of these disabled and turned them back on for the purpose of this article and was shocked at the difference.

You can grab Package Disabler Pro in the Play Store.

Opera’s free VPN service comes to Android

AndroidGuys
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2

Operas “unlimited” VPN service is now out for Android! Opera Free VPN, which was released for iOS earlier this year, will allow you to remain anonymous while browsing the web and using apps. You can also use this app to access region-locked content by spoofing your location. While spoofing your location, you can choose to use servers from US, Canada, Singapore, Germany and the Netherlands.

Opera VPN for Android

In addition to IP spoofing, Opera’s VPN also comes included with a Wi-Fi testing tool. This tool attempts to make your browsing experience more secure by scanning the network you are currently using. If it detects weaknesses such as your IP or location is exposed, or if the network allows others to grab information of connected devices, the tool will alert the user and list all of these weaknesses in a report.


Opera has included a ton of functionality for a free application. You might expect to see these kinds of features in expensive VPN apps, but Opera has included them at no charge. All of this free content quickly causes some users to question Opera’s business model. To its credit, Opera has been transparent about the issue and states that it will display some ads and collecting anonymous data on users. Some of the data they will be collecting will be things like web addresses visited, device type, browser type, and OS type.

Opera brings an impressive package to the table and it’s nice to see it finally available on Android. If you’d like to download Opera, check out the Play Store listing.

Galaxy S7 Active Review: #1 in almost every category

Jack McNenny
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2

Exclusive phones suck. Period. More people need access to a phone like the Galaxy S7 Active, which is currently locked down to just AT&T users like myself. After using the Galaxy S7 Active for a couple weeks, one thing has become clear to me. This phone is the best Android phone… wait, the best phone in general in four out of the five categories I am judging it on.

Build

This phone isn’t aiming to be in the hands of today’s designers or fashion experts, so don’t expect this device to blow you away with how good it looks. Grab a Galaxy S7 Edge if you’re going for a stunner. What Samsung sought out to do with this phone is build a tank of a device that will withstand anything. And they succeeded.

build1

build2

I’ve left this phone in the sink with the water running over it while I fixed myself a drink, I’ve dropped it out my car window going about 25 mph, and I even got bored and buried the thing under half a foot of dirt and left it there for a little while. All of these actions left the phone unscathed and ready for more.

The downside is this is a pretty ugly phone to say the least. The phone is made of rugged plastic that makes no attempt to match the sleek style of the regular Galaxy S7. The navigation buttons stick out too much, and remind me of a messaging phone before smartphones got popular. This phone was built for the outdoors, not for getting compliments.

I can’t tell you the extent of how the glass will hold up after so many drops (however there are videos out there showing some amazing results), but after dropping it out of a moving car window onto pavement with not even a scratch on the glass… I think you’ll come to trust this phone’s durability. Major props to Samsung for creating a phone like this, it easily competes with Motorola’s Droid Turbo 2 and the Moto Z Force.

Display

There’s not much to be said here that hasn’t already been said by Nick Schiwy in his Galaxy S7 review. Samsung continues to make the best smartphone displays in the world, and the S7 Active is no exception. We’re seeing the same panel put on the regular Galaxy S7, which is a 1440×2560 Super-AMOLED display, with an added layer of glass for durability. This added layer does make the regular S7 slightly more attractive, as the Active has slightly worse viewing angles when you tilt the phone to its side. The screen still amazes me with how bright it gets outside and how impressive games and movies look on it, as the AMOLED panel on this trumps all other AMOLED screens on the market because of Samsung providing its latest screen technology exclusively to its own premium phones.

active display

Camera

The S7 Active shares the same incredible camera that the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge have, which have been continuously praised as the best smartphone cameras in the world. I used this phone around the same time I was testing the OnePlus 3 and Moto Z Force, and neither of these two truly compare with the S7 Active’s camera.

camera screen

I don’t really like taking videos on smartphones because the stabilization generally looks bad, but the S7 phones are on a whole new level. While taking 1080p 60 FPS video, I truly realized why so many people love Samsung cameras. The fluidity of 60 frames per second on top of Samsung’s stabilizing mode (which can be toggled, but I don’t see why you would turn it off) creates a video-recording experience I’ve never used before. This phone creates the perfect opportunity to hike, mountain climb or even swim while taking some of the best photos possible on a phone.

Performance

This is the section where I’ll calm down a bit and not give Samsung every award. With the help of AT&T, the S7 Active comes with apps I’ll never use that I’m unable to uninstall. The phone gave me suggestions on what AT&T services I should use like connecting to DirectTV. I was not a fan…

However, I recommend you check out our guides to installing a new launcher to avoid all of AT&T’s services and bloatware if you prefer. These launchers allow you customize your homescreen and hide apps you never want to see again.

Anyway, only after using the OnePlus 3 did I notice a couple jitters when using the S7 Active, and it just wasn’t the same smoothness I was use to, nor the memory management. This phone comes with 4GB of RAM, but when multitasking it feels identical if not slower to switch between apps than my Idol 4S, which only has 3GB of RAM. This is frustrating because memory management has been a problem for Samsung for a long time. I will say, coming from using the OnePlus 3 to the S7 Active is vastly different from someone upgrading to this phone from a device a year or two old. All-in-all, you’re going to be satisfied with the performance on the S7 Active.

Battery

If you’re on AT&T, and you’re sick of your phone not lasting you half-way through the day, you are going to be dumbstruck with how good battery life is on this phone. To give you an idea, the Galaxy S7 Edge has a 5.5 inch screen with a 3,600 mAh battery. More screen size means more power consumption. The Edge has incredible battery life, giving most users around 5 hours of on screen time. The Galaxy S7 Active has a 5.1 inch screen – with a 4,000 mAh battery. This is a huge battery even for phones with much bigger screens. I’ve been consistently getting around seven hours of screen on time, which is ludicrous for me.

Easily, I’ve been making it into the evening of the second day of usage on a single charge with around 8-12% battery left, with heavy usage (not even you can kill my phone this time, Snapchat). There’s not much else to say here folks. Take this thing camping for a night or two, and you might find yourself not needing an extra battery pack at all.

Conclusion

Like I said in the introduction, whether you’re looking for a phone with the best display, best camera, best durability, or best battery life, The S7 Active covers all those areas in one rugged package. Performance isn’t the best out of all the offerings, but with the Snapdragon 820 chip it’s still extremely close to every other high-end Android phone.

Of course, this phone isn’t for everybody (not that a lot of people have a choice, AT&T…) because it’s not the prettiest phone out there and some people may prefer a bigger screen or less ugly navigation buttons at the bottom of the phone, but if looks aren’t an issues for you, you literally cannot go wrong choosing this phone over any other at the AT&T store.

CLARO changes your Android wallpapers for you (review)

Derrick Miyao
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1

Have you ever looked at your home screen picture and thought….that has been the same forever? It has become easier than ever to change just about anything you want in android. Changing your wallpaper while not difficult just plain gets forgotten. The fix, automatic wallpaper changers! They take pictures from the internet or your gallery and display them on you home screen changing automatically at specific intervals that you set.

I have been using IF THIS THEN THAT to change my wallpaper to the newest Reddit post in the comicwalls subreddit for a while now. This can get kind of tricky since I am not the one putting the data in the subreddit; I have to watch what it’s getting changed to and have often had to change it manually because of an inappropriate post or just something that I didn’t like.

A new app that has come out that makes this less tricky and lets me be in control of the images on my background is CLARO. Lets go through some of the options we get, as well as a gallery of pictures from the into in the app.

With CLARO I pick the content from the gallery on my phone and tell the app:

  • What color to make the pictures, Original, Greyscale,Sepia or random
  • What days I would like these particular pictures to display
  • How often I would like the pictures to change
  • When to start the schedule and when to stop it

There are also action settings that include:

  • Showing the wallpaper picker so I can pick manually
  • Showing a Notification in the shade when it changes
  • Playing a sound when it changes
  • Vibrating when it changes
  • Waking up the phone when it changes
  • Make several different folders with different pictures in them on different schedules
  • Blurring the image
  • Pick what order to switch the wallpaper, either in a specific sequence or randomly.

The app employs Google’s Material Design principles, which I love, so it gets brownie points in the category. I have been using this app for a few days changing the wallpaper every three minutes and it does not seem to have much effect on the battery and it is also nice to see something different from my gallery every time I look at my home screen.

There are some ads the pop up when you are setting things up, but they are not terrible; users do not spend much time setting things up most and do not see them very often. A Heads up, though, as the developer’s first language is not English so some of the menus and wording in other places in the app are not quite what you might expect.

The developer claims this app is different because the service in CLARO only runs when it is scheduled to change the wallpaper whereas other “live” wallpaper apps run the service all the time draining the battery and using CPU. According to the developer, this has a benefit over using services like Muzei Live Wallpaper and its various tie-ins. I am not sure how to verify this without digging deep into the Android system but what I can say is I have not noticed any CPU, memory, or battery performance slow downs since installing this app.

Thus far, CLARO seems to be a solid alternative for me and allows me to be in control of the wallpaper will still having it change automatically.

Google announces Android 7.0 update for these Nexus devices

AndroidGuys
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Google on Monday announced that the final, consumer-ready version of Android 7.0 Nougat is ready for public consumption. According to Google, the final release will begin rolling out to select Android devices over the coming weeks.

Among the models expected to see the 7.0 Nougat update are the Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, and Pixel C. Moreover, any users who were testing out the beta versions of Android 7.0 are going to see the software in the near term.

android_7_Emoji_Quick_Settings (1)

Key changes in the 7.0 Nougat release include an improved Doze function which puts the phone into a deeper sleep, drawing less power. With the latest build, Doze works even when you’re on the move and not simply at night when the phone is idle.

Productivity gets a boost with Android 7.0 as split-screen capabilities give users two panels to run apps at the same time. Consider it a picture-in-picture mode that allows for watching a movie while texting or reading a recipe and creating a shopping list.

Notifications are getting a punch-up with bundling for apps, direct replies, and more customization and control. Similar to what you see in Hangouts, it will be easier to reply to others from the notification shade.

android_7_emojiOther tweaks include an expanded emoji library of 1,500 (72 new ones), improved system and app update processes, and support for Vulkan API (high-end 3D graphics). And, one area we’re always cool with improving, security, gets even better with Nougat. Look for file-based encryption, a trusted face aspect for Smart Lock, and direct booting for quick access to key system functions.

Last, but certainly not least, Android 7.0 brings about support for Google’s Daydream virtual reality. Although it’s not yet launched, the framework is ready to go for devices running the latest in Android.

Google Duo: Finally, a FaceTime for the rest of us

AndroidGuys
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1

Overview

Duo is a simple, yet very well done video calling app from Google that aims to be the FaceTime for Android users.

Developer: Google

Cost: Free

Impressions

Long has the Apple community had access to an intuitive, simple and functional video calling service called FaceTime, and as long as Apple has had it, the Android faithful have been waiting for Google to offer up its own version for us to enjoy. Enter Duo, a simple video calling app that is super easy to use and works great on both iOS and Android.

You may be asking “what about good old Hangouts? Doesn’t it already do that stuff?” Well Duo, unlike Hangouts, is tied to your phone number and only offers two-way video calling. It has no group chat, messaging or cross-platform support for your PC and other devices. Duo is simply a video calling service and even though it only does one thing, it does it very well. Google made Duo with a minimalist interface, and some neat little features that help to set it apart from Hangouts and make it the go-to video calling app for Android users.

The most notable feature of Duo is Knock Knock, which allows whoever you call to see a preview of the person calling them. Its a neat little addition that adds a little something to the experience. It also makes filtering potentially undesirable calls based on what the other side of the call looks like. Knock Knock is only allowed from people in your contacts list, and you can easily turn it off if it’s not something you’re into. The other great feature Duo offers in end-to-end encryption, so all of your conversations are protected.

Video call quality and audio quality are excellent, with clear sound and smooth high definition calls. I initially had a few calls freeze or drop on the first day using Duo, but since then the calls have been consistent in performance and quality, I couldn’t be more satisfied. I’ve used it from Android to Android, and Android to iOS and both worked as expected with no issues due to compatibility. The only thing that iOS can’t do is show Knock Knock when the app is closed, otherwise you’ll just get an incoming call notification.

If there was any negative thing I could say about Duo, it would probably be the lack of any additional features. It only does the one thing, and it does do it well, but maybe an option of “video voicemail” or a group chat option would have been interesting to have at launch. The good thing is that there is always the possibility of new features with future updates so here’s hoping Google sticks by this one.

Conclusion

Duo is a excellent option for frequent video callers, and a worthy competitor to FaceTime that anyone can use. The app is simple, intuitive and functional and call quality is solid. Even though Duo is fairly light on additional features, Google has done an excellent job of bringing video calling to the masses with Duo and you should definitely check this one out.

Download Duo from the Google Play Store

EyeCons is a speed-matching game that offers some fun! (review)

AndroidGuys
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0

There are approximately 1 billion tile matching games in the Google Play Store. EyeCons is a a new 2-tile matching game that offers some unique twists as well as look & feel. It’s a great selection for all ages, as there is almost no text to get through. The game is actually a take on a board game of the same names from Hersch games, for you trivial buffs.

Screenshot_2016-08-14-21-49-54Setup

Easy enough; download for free from the Play Store. Once on your device, go ahead an open it…there is a screen to register via either your Facebook login or an email/password combo, but can also skip this step if you don’t want the social aspect to the game.
Once in you select single player and level 1 to get rocking. On this setup screen, though you can also see your profile (provided you’ve registered & logged in), adjust settings (sound & in-app purchases), shop for said in-app purchases, as well as a help/tutorial screen.

Gameplay

Eyecons is a pretty simple game to get rolling on. You are Screenshot_2016-08-14-21-51-40provided a screen full of stacked tiles, each with a unique icon-type of picture on them. The goal is equally simple: match any two like tiles by tapping on them. This makes them disappear and reveal the tiles below it (think Mahjong). Speed is key here; each level has a countdown timer, and your goal is to beat the timer to advance. But the game wouldn’t be complete without a set of power-ups and other available accelerators.

Examples are:

  • Hammer: Elimates a tile and its buried match with a single tap.
  • Shuffle: Rearranges the tiles to give you a fresh view.
  • Hint: Gives you a visual highlight of an available pair to clear.
  • Bombs & Super Bombs: Clears 2 or 3 pairs of tiles (respectively) .
  • Clock: Adds 5 more seconds to your countdown timer.

Screenshot_2016-08-15-13-04-17You accumulate these power-ups through good gameplay. You can also purchase these in the setup screen using coins either earned or bought using in-app purchases. The effectiveness of these power-ups was rather muted though; I found the effort to abort your focus on the tiles to hit a power-up almost wasn’t worth it…..I would prefer the power-ups to be more rare but also more powerful.
There is also a sort-of “turbo bar” that appears when you’ve matched a certain number of tile pairs. This bar allows you to earn multi-fold in coins with every subsequent tile match during its existence, but it depletes quickly so you need to max out your speed while this is up.

Screenshot_2016-08-10-17-23-22Graphics and Sound

This area is a real highlight of the game, for two reasons:

  1. The dark overall theme is pretty nice on the eyes, allowing for longer focus on the screen before your eyes tire out. A simple but very effective choice for the player.
  2. Both the the sound and the colors are punchy but not all-out garish, like in so many tile match games out there. In too many other titles the “bubble-gum bonanza” effect makes me want to put the game down within seconds, not to mention all the zany background music and sound effects flying out of my devices constantly.

EyeCons really dials this back; the music is constant but not at all intrusive (and completely mutable in the setup menu)…..and the sound effects upon tapping and clearing titles is a set of very simple ‘clicks’ and ‘boops’. In fact it almost sounds fickle to say that some sounds may be a little too subtle, as when you tap on non-matching tiles, nothing much happens…..I found myself re-tapping a couple of times occasionally only to finds that I was a little off on my matching.Screenshot_2016-08-10-17-24-19

Overall

EyeCons is a pretty fun game to play: easy to pick up and learn, very re-playable, and not annoyingly loud or obnoxious in any way. I highly recommend this title for your Android!

Download EyeCons from the Play Store for free here.

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