Based on user feedback, Google has added new functionality to the Inbox by Gmail app, centering around snoozing emails. Not only will snooze have a clean new look, but two more options will be added: Later this week and This weekend. In addition, you can also set days on the weekend for preferred email times, like you already can with preferred morning times.
There are different days and ranges to choose from, which will be helpful for non-US Android users as not everyone has the same weekend range.
Ranges:
Saturday – Sunday
Friday – Saturday
Thursday – Friday
Friday only
Saturday only
Sunday only
If you don’t have it already, check out these links to try Inbox by Gmail:
That’s all she wrote! Mobile World Congress 2016 is now over, and boy, what a show it was. There were huge presentations, some surprises, and a ton of cool tech shown off at the show this year. Here are some of our favorite moments from the show.
LG and Samsung kill it
There were high expectations going into Mobile World Congress 2016. We all knew that we’d be seeing new flagship devices from LG and Samsung. We’ve been seeing leaks for what seems like half a year at this point. Going into shows like this with long lead ups, it’s sometimes hard to meet expectations, no matter what you’re presenting. The general consensus around the AndroidGuys staff is how LG and Samsung both had excellent shows.
Both of the tech giants did a great job stating the case for the new phones and the associated tech with it. Samsung really did listen to the fans! We’re seeing the return of a micro SD card slot and water resistance, as well as bigger batteries.
LG went completely out of the box and released a brand new phone. The new metal uni-body LG G5 is the first modular flagship phone. We all loved the idea of the modules that you can add into the phone to increase functionality.
One of the most exciting things in tech is seeing how companies a step below the Samsungs and LGs of the world are battling it out in the mid-range and budget space. MWC 2016 shone a huge spotlight on some of these companies and the extremely compelling devices its bringing to market.
The most compelling of which may be Alcatel’s Idol 4S. With flagship specs, a beautifully designed device and creative innovations like being able to use the phone upside down, I can’t wait to see how this phone, and its little brother the Idol 4, do this year. Alcatel released one of the best mid-range phones from last year in the Idol 3, and would appear to have the experience and the specs to make it a major player this year.
Archos is another brand that you may recognize. Archos has been a pioneer in portable audio, and at MWC 2016 it showed two of its new phones, the Diamond 2 Plus and Diamond 2 Note. Both of the devices sit under the $300 price point and have great specs. The Plus has a 5.5″ 1080P screen, 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of Storage and comes in at $229. The Note is headlined by a 6″ 2560 x 1440p screen, 3 GB of RAM and a huge 3600 mAh battery. It’ll cost only $269. Check out the rest of the specs and details here.
Sony Surprises Everyone
If you had any idea that Sony was going to take to the stage this year and effectively kill and replace its flagship line, I’d like your advice on tonight’s lottery numbers. We expected a quiet conference from Sony, but boy were we wrong.
If you’re interested in more from the Sony presentation, including pictures and video, check out our coverage here.
HTC changes it up
This year’s Mobile World Conference felt a little weird. We normally see a ton of leaks of a new HTC flagship device leading up to an unveiling of a familiar, yet improved, device. This year, HTC did something completely different. While we have seen a few leaks of the newest HTC flagship, HTC’s presentation this year centered on its budget friendly Desire line.
The Desire line is a more budget focused lineup of phones that has been met with decent success here in the States. HTC has gone out on a limb this year and redesigned the lineup to incorporate a more streetware inspired look. The three Desire devices (530, 630 and 825) come in four colors, white, blue, black or red, with multi-colored speckles called micro-splashes. Despite the redesigned aesthetics, the specs are still decidedly mid-range at best.
We’ll have to see how the new look impacts HTC’s bottom line.
Looking ahead
There was a ton of new tech debuted this week. Virtual Reality featured heavily with a new headset from LG, and Mark Zuckerberg showing up during Samsung’s event and touting Oculus and GearVR’s partnership.
We got more confirmation that cheap phones are getting better with a ton of offerings in the $200 – $450 range. One to look out for is Xiaomi’s Mi 5. It has specs to stand up to anyone with a price ($300) to beat everyone.
Lenovo released a line of midrange phones and tablets that has us wondering what’s in store for Motorola going forward. ZTE’s announced a new Android based projector, can it revolutionize the business presentation world?
What was your favorite tech from Mobile World Congress 2016? Were you one of the 100,000 people that attended the event? Did you stream any of it? Let us know down in the comments what your favorite part was.
In an effort to compete with the likes of Periscope, Facebook first introduced Live video and collages back in December. At first, this feature was only available for iOS users in the US. Facebook Live “lets you show the people you care about what you’re seeing in real time — whether you’re visiting a new place, cooking your favorite recipe, or just want to share some thoughts.”
Now, Live is coming to Android. Facebook’s own statistics show that more than 50% of people watching live videos are on Android devices. Facebook knows it can’t leave out such a big market for long, especially since most of its recent efforts have been focussed on mobile.
The rollout will be gradual, starting in the US next week and slowly working out to more than 30 countries worldwide. Users will have access to data such as the number of viewers, names of your friends who tune in, and a real-time stream of comments as you broadcast. When you’re done, the video will be saved to your Timeline and will be available to anyone who missed the live video.
As 2015 came and went with wheels on our cars *and* on our hoverboards, there came with it a growing sense from a few generations that this was simply not the futuristic world we were promised.
Nevermind the wonders of the Hitchhiker’s Guide we call the internet, we’re overwhelmingly usingit to complain about the lack of the *real* future we were promised. Considering R2-D2’s freestanding holograms are limited to gigantic machines with teensy-tinsy results, the pico-projector market seemed poised to give us *some* measure of living in the amazing future we technically still inhabit.
As of 2016, the promises of 2005, of a pico in every phone, seem a distant memory. We were promised easy public display of all our digital content, and instead had to settle for large screens with ultra-retinal resolution.
In a way, that reveals all the challenges this imaginative idea embodies, and explains why the tech itself is still so difficult to find. China enjoys a modest market for phone/pico devices, while the rest of the world has adopted stand-alone pico-projectors. These devices are generally much larger than any smartphone you’ll find, but are clearly aiming to appeal to those who would otherwise be lugging around a full-size projector.
In short, the idea appeals to most anyone with a smartphone, but the current technology only has a place in niche markets. Truly, this is tech bound to some variation of Moore’s Law. Advancements in displays seen on modern phones, particularly their wildly-increasing resolutions, are building a foundation for higher-resolution projectors of smaller and smaller size. The developments of new LED technology to illuminate those displays is helping to establish newer, smaller, brighter lights. The kind that pico-projectors absolutely require if they hope to become anything more than a pretty-good niche feature.
The energy-saving benefits of LEDs are well-known. However, their small size has been a bit misleading in what their capacity actually is. Sure, if you jam a hundred of them into a lightbulb attachment, you’ll be amazed by how bright it is. The trouble being, you’ll still be hard-pressed to find a single-unit LED that can truly put out the light needed to project an image. For example, that super-bright tactical flashlight you’re eyeing is very likely using an LED cluster, alongside some bulky optics, to create a convincingly bright light for you to use. No matter how many times you’re dazzled by the result, asking a single unit to project the lights and darks of a digital image convincingly still results in a severely-compromised experience.
This is the other reason pico-projectors have increasingly separated themselves from being attached to smartphones. Compromises to both the phone and the projector are significant enough to create a device that isn’t very appealing as either. The form factor is thrown off by the extra size, and a device already prone to overheating now has a very hot bundle of lights directly inside it. The reviews for the Samsung Galaxy Beam 2 praised the fun options provided by the projector in optimal circumstances, though with a 640×360 resolution, it wasn’t terribly well-suited to the professional use it clearly aspires towards.
Which brings us back to the best pico-projectors available in 2016…a line of very small projectors, a great deal larger than anything you would want to fit into a smartphone. Some are still palm-sized, yet pack in full HD and even 3D. While others are about half the size of the phone. The market is still testing the waters, but we’re still years away from finding one in the latest Android smartphone.
Since downloading the game, you know that =Twenty will be completely focused around math. The goal of the game is simple: you have to connect numbers in a board so that they add up to a number that’s determined by the difficulty level you choose, and you have to repeat the process 20 times as fast as you can. It’s the board and you against the clock.
There’s absolutely no setup needed. On my Nexus 6, the time from launching the app to starting a game was about five seconds. You just open the game, choose a level, and start right away. There’s no support for Google Play Games, however.
Features
=Twenty shows a concise tutorial to get you going.
The developer offers a concise “How to Play” explaining what you need to do in this game, in case you download the game without reading the description. You can choose among four different levels of difficulty: Easy, Normal, Hard and Expert. By the way, there’s a reason the Expert button is so small. It will take you forever to finish a game in Expert level. The difficulty level determines the number that you have to add up. For Easy, the number is 8. Medium will ramp up this number to 12, Hard to 20 and Expert to a whopping 36.
In game, you are presented with a 4×4 board in Easy and Medium, and a 5×5 board in Hard and Expert, with random numbers. The only restriction you have is that the numbers you choose have to be next to each other, and you can’t connect them diagonally. You can connect numbers by swiping through them. When your chosen numbers add up to the required value, they will nicely disappear and new random numbers will take up their place.
At the top of the screen, you will have the number of sequences you have to complete to finish the game, the time since you started the game and your personal best time. When you finish the game, the app shows you the time it took you to finish and gives you the option to share your prowess (or embarrassment) to your social networks. I think it would be a great addition to add a leaderboard here, so you can compare your best times to the ones being done by other people. For now, you are competing against yourself. Also, after playing for some time, the game can get a little bit tedious and repetitive, so it’s ideal for playing in short sessions.
=Twenty’s board in Medium difficulty.You can post your best scores to social media.
Throughout the app, there are no fancy elements and there are very few animations. Buttons are simple and pastel colors are used for the most part. However, because of the developer’s decision to keep it simple, the app performs swiftly and the download is only 3 MB. Unfortunately, this also means that the landscape layout leaves much to be desired, even on the infamously-big Nexus 6 screen.
There’s an ad banner at the bottom of every screen (except How to Play), but it is not obtrusive at all. After a few games, however, a full screen ad is triggered. At least there’s absolutely no in-app purchases to be found, but there’s also no way to buy an ad-free experience.
Conclusion
=Twenty offers a fun experience in quick bursts, while boasting a simple interface and great performance. It may not offer much replayability, since once you get the hang of it, your scores won’t improve much, but the four difficulty levels can spice things up a bit. Nevertheless, it is an enjoyable exercise for the brain that will not consume your time or wallet.
Sony surprised us all when it debuted a new Xperia X line of smartphones at MWC 2016, with no typical Xperia Z refresh in sight. Fortunately, the company later addressed the confusion, saying that its Xperia Z line has come to a close.
Some aren’t too phased by the moniker change. It’s not like the Xperia X phones are a drastic departure from what we’ve known an Xperia phone to be. But this means that it can be confusing to tell what exactly is happening (especially with three new phones). So, let’s concisely break down the changes Sony has made.
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Hardware
The biggest change is the size offerings. Whereas the latest Xperia Z5 trio had variety (4.6″, 5.2″, and 5.5″ display sizes), all of the new Xperia X phones have the same 5″ size. That is pretty disappointing, in my opinion. 5″ is considered small these days, and the varied sizes in the Z5 covered different consumer preferences.
You can essentially think of the three Xperia X phones has the same phone, but with varying tiers of specs. From the bottom to the top, there’s the Xperia XA, Xperia X, and Xperia X Performance. Let’s compare each with their Xperia Z5 predecessors.
Xperia XA vs Xperia Z5 Compact
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Xperia Z5 Compact
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Xperia XA
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The Xperia XA and last year’s Xperia Z5 Compact aren’t really that much different. The biggest change is the 0.4″ increase in screen size.
Xperia Z5 Compact
Xperia XA
Display
4.6″ 720p IPS LCD
5″ 720p IPS LCD
Chipset
Snapdragon 810 (octa-core, 64-bit)
MediaTek MT6755 (octa-core, 64-bit)
Memory
2GB of RAM
2GB of RAM
Storage
32GB internal, up to 200GB microSD
16GB internal, up to 200GB microSD
Cameras
23MP rear and 5MP front
13MP rear and 8MP front
Battery
2,700mAh
2,300mAh
Software
Android 5.1 (Lollipop)
Android 6.0 (Marshmallow)
Colors
White, Graphite Black, Yellow, Coral
White, Graphite Black, Lime Gold, Rose Gold
However, the Xperia Z5 Compact does best the new low-end in a couple ways. Despite the MediaTek MT6755 having an octa-core processor, it’s still considered a mid-range performer, unlike the high-end Snapdragon 810 SoC. The Z5 Compact also had double the internal storage and 400mAh more battery capacity.
Xperia X vs Xperia Z5
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Xperia Z5
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Xperia X
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The middle siblings in both of the lines are even less distinct. We only have a 0.2″ difference in display size.
Xperia Z5
Xperia X
Display
5.2″ 1080p IPS LCD
5″ 1080p IPS LCD
Chipset
Snapdragon 810 (octa-core, 64-bit)
Snapdragon 650 (hexa-core, 64-bit)
Memory
3GB of RAM
3GB of RAM
Storage
32GB internal, up to 200GB microSD
32GB internal, up to 200GB microSD
Cameras
23MP rear and 5MP front
23MP rear and 13MP front
Battery
2,900mAh
2,620mAh
Software
Android 5.1 (Lollipop)
Android 6.0 (Marshmallow)
Colors
White, Graphite Black, Gold, Green
White, Graphite Black, Lime Gold, Rose Gold
Again, we’re comparing a mid-end SoC (Snapdragon 650) with a high-end one (Snapdragon 810). All of the other specs are almost a mirror copy. The newer Xperia X has a higher megapixel front camera while the Z5 has 280mAh more battery capacity.
Xperia X Performance vs Xperia Z5 Premium
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Xperia Z5 Premium
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Xperia X Performance
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Sony’s new top-end phone offers the latest in speed, thanks to the brand-spanking new Snapdragon 820 beast, but the Z5 Premium strongly holds its own in a couple ways.
Xperia Z5 Premium
Xperia X Performance
Display
5.5″ 4K IPS LCD
5″ 1080p IPS LCD
Chipset
Snapdragon 810 (octa-core, 64-bit)
Snapdragon 820 (quad-core, 64-bit)
Memory
3GB of RAM
3GB of RAM
Storage
32GB internal, up to 200GB microSD
32GB internal, up to 200GB microSD
Cameras
23MP rear and 5MP front
23MP rear and 13MP front
Battery
3,430mAh
2,700mAh
Software
Android 5.1 (Lollipop)
Android 6.0 (Marshmallow)
Colors
Chrome, Black, Gold
White, Graphite Black, Lime Gold, Rose Gold
First, the larger 5.5″ screen offers a sweet-spot size for many users, and it could do a whopping 4K resolution. The new Xperia X Performance plays it safe with a modest 1080p panel. Additionally, the Z5 Premium had a lot more battery capacity (730mAh more).
Design
It will generally be hard to tell the difference between the two Xperia lines; from a distance they look identical. But close up, you’ll find some subtly distinctive design cues.
Xperia X
On the new design, the glass on the front curves into the side frame, giving a smooth edge and just better aesthetics. The metal frame is overall more rounded for a better feel in hand.
Xperia Z5
All of the phones in the Xperia X line have a metal back. The only difference is that the Xperia X Performance stands out more with a premium, brushed-metal finish. In contrast, last year’s Z5 lineup had glass back covers. Albeit, they were frosted with a matte finish, therefore, there visually isn’t a huge distinction between the two materials (except from the specialty chrome Z5 Premium, which had a mirror, glass back). Metal holds up better against damage, though.
One unfortunate point is that Sony is letting up on the waterproofing. Whereas all the phones in the Z5 family had the IP68 rating, only the top-end Xperia X Performance retains it now.
Lastly, only the Xperia X and X Performance get special treatment with regard to the fingerprint scanner. It’s still side-mounted, like on the Z5 phones.
Camera
The primary camera in the Z5 phones last year were already top-notch (they all used the same 23MP Exmor RS sensor), but Sony’s not done yet. While the Xperia X and X Performance appear to use the same module (24mm wide-angle G Lens at f/2.0), there’s now “Predictive” Hybrid Auto-Focus. That means that the Auto-Focus intelligently tracks moving objects (constantly predicting where it will move), so that the focus does not get uninterrupted by movement.
If you’re eyeing the Xperia XA, sadly it doesn’t have the superior optics. It still has Sony’s Exmor RS technology, but at 13MP instead of 23MP. And there’s at least Hybrid Auto-Focus (sans the “Predictive” feature).
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Thoughts
I wouldn’t say that the new Xperia X announcement got the best reception. It’s somewhat confusing when Sony builds up the Xperia Z line, only to bring it to a screeching halt. I loved how the Xperia Z5 family offered the choice of small, medium, or large (no other manufacturer does). It’s a pity that it was short-lived.
Alas, Sony’s mobile division has been suffering and something had to change. The hardware got subtle but welcomed refinements and the camera got some new tricks. Let’s just hope that this is enough.
Do you think this is the right move? Are you sold on one of the Xperia X phones?
Google has teased a couple of screenshots of the Android Support Library which shows the latest version, 23.2. This version will bring several new updates to Android, the most notable of which is called AppCompat DayNight theme.
This new night mode will not only be system wide but will be available for Android developers to code into their own apps. This will enable automatic night mode based on the time of day and the user’s last known location, but only if the app in question has location permissions. This feature will be available on Android devices as far back as Ice Cream Sandwich. Although a system-level dark mode was first seen in the Android M Developer Previews, it was removed from the final release version.
The Importance Of Night Mode
Having a system-wide Night Mode for our devices is becoming increasingly important because we’re spending more of our time staring at these screens. Even Apple has baked a night mode into its latest version of iOS. Studies show that enabling night mode on devices like smartphones and tablets can help you sleep better. Night Mode works by blocking the blue light coming out of your screen and only allowing yellow or red light.
Blue light from our devices has a shorter wavelength and can affect melatonin levels in our brain, which is the hormone responsible for making us drowsy. Anne-Marie Chang, a neuroscientist at Harvard University, did a brief interview with Scientific American and shed some light (but not blue light) on this issue:
“We have known for quite awhile now that light is the most powerful cue for shifting the phase or resetting the time of the circadian clock. We also know that melatonin is present at low levels during the day, begins being released a few hours before bedtime and peaks in the middle of the night. Past studies have shown that light suppresses melatonin, such that light in the early evening causes a circadian delay, or resets the clock to a later schedule; and light in the early morning causes a circadian advancement, or resets the clock to an earlier schedule.”
LG has made the popular Nexus 5 (2013) and the Nexus 5X (2015), but won’t be returning to the Nexus program this year.
LG is one of only a few companies that have made multiple Nexus devices, but now say it needs to focus inward. An LG spokesperson remarked at Mobile World Congress 2016 that, “LG needs to focus on its own brand”. This isn’t entirely unreasonable for the Korean giant. It has just announced the LG G5, which is a major release for it. The G5 features a metal, uni-body build that can be opened up and have modules added to expand the functionality of the phone.
Although its not clear how many units have been sold, the most recent Nexus from LG has been popular among budget conscious Android fans. Google has been promoting it (and the Huawei Nexus 6P) heavily on television, in print, and on billboards, but if you failed to notice who made the Nexus 5X or Nexus 6P you could be forgiven. Google often forgoes stating the manufacture of the phones in advertisements, and focuses more on the Nexus branding.
The statements from LG contrast heavily with another recent Nexus partner. In a recent interview a Motorola spokesperson sounded only too eager to make another Nexus device.
[blockquote author=”Adrienne Hayes, Chief Marketing Officer, Motorola”]I don’t know whether we’ll do another Nexus device, but we would be happy to. It was a good experience.[/blockquote]
It remains to be seen who will manufacture the 2016 Nexus device(s), or how many we may see. 2015 brought us two phones, which was a first, but with one OEM bowing out, who will Google turn to next? Will we ever see another Nexus tablet? The most recent Nexus 9 is getting on in age and could use a refresh.
Do you want your voice to be heard on who should manufacture the nexus Nexus? Head on over here and vote.
Its never good to hear of hardware partners bowing out of the Nexus program, but LG should be given a little bit of slack. The release of the 5X was overshadowed by the much more powerful Huawei Nexus 6P. I doubt that LG sees any advantage to releasing another phone with Google if that will be the case again Nexus year.
This shortcut app lacks the features to set it apart from the countless other shortcut apps out there, but at the same time, it does what it sets out to do admirably, and with style.
Shorty’s initial setup requires you to choose which shortcuts you’d like the option to launch. It took me a moment to figure this out, so let me walk you through it to save you the trouble:
Open Shorty.
Click the + button in the lower right hand corner.
Select which action you’d like Shorty to perform.
Customize any options, if necessary.
These actions are then stored in the floating “S” button on-screen; tap it to access them.
Impressions –
I’m torn on Shorty. Truly. I love the idea; a floating-button shortcut application that has a clean interface that matches Android’s modern styling, but also lacks the customization and options that would really set it apart from other shortcut apps.
A couple things that may make the app worthwhile; Giphy Support, and the ability to pool together any combination of apps accessible anywhere in your system. Think of it as a home screen folder, but floating on top of everything else on your phone.
The Giphy support is, perhaps, the best thing about this app; thousands of .gifs at your fingertips, only two taps away. The .gifs loaded quickly in my experience, and inserted easily into most apps I tried. The other options within Shorty are rather pedestrian; launch an app, insert a predetermined text, send an SMS or make a phone call to a previously specified contact, launch the camera, or control a media app.
In addition to being a little light on options, Shorty is also light on customization; you can’t change the colors of the shortcuts, nor can you change any styling within the app itself. If you don’t like red, you are, unfortunately out of luck.
What I like
Giphy Support.
Create a custom folder accessible anywhere.
What I don’t
Limited options.
Only one theme.
For the price, I expected more.
Conclusion –
Shorty sets out to provide a shortcut app with material-design stylings, and in that arena it succeeds well. It has a few desirable features but otherwise underwhelms in customization. Options and features don’t quite stand up to the price.
Google has pushed an update to its official Google+ app on Android to bring it to version 7.3 and with it a few small, but notable, updates. The Google+ app is the interface on Android that users will use on their smartphone and tablet to access the Google+ social network.
What it brings?
This particular update to the Google+ app brings the usual bug fixes and speed improvements, but also some pretty cool features:
10 bugs fixed
4 accessibility issues addressed
Ability to filter your notifications by All, Unread & Other
Several Community moderation tools
Delete multiple items in Activity Log at once
Hide the top bar when scrolling Collections & Communities
Even faster Web browsing on WiFi
Search auto-complete
How to get it?
For those new at installing apps and updates manually via APK files, it is very simple process. The benefits of installing manually include not having to wait for the automatic update to hit your phone via the Google Play Store. First, you’ll download the APK file by hitting the button below, and this will download the file to your phone. Once downloaded, tap the file to bring up the installation prompt. You can read the app permissions if applicable and then tap ‘Install’. The app is now ready to use!
One of the most exciting things in tech is seeing how companies a step below the Samsungs and LGs of the world are battling it out in the mid-range and budget space. MWC 2016 shone a huge spotlight on some of these companies and the extremely compelling devices its bringing to market.
Archos is another brand that you may recognize. Archos has been a pioneer in portable audio, and at MWC 2016 it showed two of its new phones, the Diamond 2 Plus and Diamond 2 Note. Both of the devices sit under the $300 price point and have great specs. The Plus has a 5.5″ 1080P screen, 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of Storage and comes in at $229. The Note is headlined by a 6″ 2560 x 1440p screen, 3 GB of RAM and a huge 3600 mAh battery. It’ll cost only $269. 
As of 2016, the promises of 2005, of a pico in every phone, seem a distant memory. We were promised easy public display of all our digital content, and instead had to settle for large screens with ultra-retinal resolution.
This is the other reason 
