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Digital Wellbeing: Get your face out of the phone [PODCAST]

AndroidGuys
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As much as we love our phones and mobile tech, maybe we’re using them the wrong way. Well, at a minimum we might be using them too much. Google recognizes this and has a tool to help. It’s called Digital Wellbeing and it will change the way you look at your phone usage.

Our most recent podcast sees us discussing Digital Wellbeing, its features, and benefits. While it’s available for select phones at this time, we definitely recommend it for all users. And, for those who don’t have access, we think you’ll like Action Dash.

What is Digital Wellbeing?

There are three primary categories which make up Digital Wellbeing:

  • App Timer
  • Do Not Disturb
  • Wind Down

Holding all of this information is the Dashboard, which shows a breakdown of exactly how you use your device. This information includes a nice little pie chart, showing the apps that you have used the most.

Below the chart, Dashboard shares how many times you have unlocked your device, along with the number of notifications. Further down the list, there are various sections to help find “Ways to disconnect”.

App Timer

App Timer Digital Wellbeing Android Pie

The first option we are looking at is the App Timer found in the Digital Wellbeing section. This will allow you to set limits to how long an application can be used.

As you approach the end of the timer, a notification will appear revealing how much time is left. Once the timer is up, the app icon will be greyed out, hopefully curbing your desire to open the app.

Of course, you can just bypass this timer, and continue using the app regardless. However, Google is hoping that App Timers will help keep you on your p’s and q’s and out of time-wasting apps.

Do Not Disturb

Do Not Disturb Digital Wellbeing Android Pie

Obviously, DND has been around on Android for quite some time. But, Google has brought a few new enhancements with the help of Digital Wellbeing.

In previous iterations of Android, Do Not Disturb mode would only silence sounds and vibrations of notifications. With Digital Wellbeing in Android Pie, any visuals attached to those notifications will also cease.

This means that your screen won’t light up at an inopportune time to distract you from your current task. But once DND is turned off, everything will go back to normal, opening the floodgate of notifications.

Wind Down

Wind Down Digital Wellbeing Android Pie

The final addition to Digital Wellbeing is Wind Down mode and is pretty self-explanatory. It’s no secret that quite a large number of folks use their phones while in bed.

However, this has been found to not be very helpful and can interrupt your sleep cycles due to the blue light from the display. Wind Down aims to change this by automatically enabling Night Light, Do Not Disturb, and switching the screen to grayscale.

After Wind Down has been set up for the first time, the change in the display will remind you to step away and get some sleep.

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Bixbi Button Remapper – bxActions review: The best thing to happen to your Bixby button

Jason England
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You know that button below the volume rocker on your Samsung Galaxy S or Note phone? You know the one I’m talking about, the one that you never press because all it does is open Bixby.

What if I told you it was capable of so much more? What if it allowed for multiple shortcuts using single press, long press, and double pressing? What if it could open any app you wanted, including Google Assistant, and more?

Developer: Jawomo

Price: Free/$2.99

Set up

It might sound too good to be true, but it’s not. Thankfully, there is a talented developer out there who gave us Bixbi Button Remapper – bxActions which transforms the worthless Bixby button into the most useful button on your phone.

In order to take back control of your Bixby button, you’re going to have to hand over certain permissions to bxActions. It might look a little complicated, but don’t worry. The app holds your hand and walks you through every step with animated tutorials. It even ensures you that your data will not be collected and stays on your phone.

One of the best parts of bxActions is that it is 100 percent free to remap your Bixby button to Google Assistant. By default, it is set up to open Google Assistant with a single press. In fact, if that’s all you wanted to do, you could install the app and never pay a dime.

However, bxActions is capable of so much more. Even without paying to unlock the full app it provides you with several shortcuts to assign to the Bixby button. You can assign it to the home button, back button, phone dialer, notification tray, open any app, use it to toggle the flashlight or do not disturb, and much more. The amount of options is staggering. It even offers you the ability to assign shortcuts to your volume keys.

If you want to unlock the true power of bxActions then you’re going to need to do two things though. First, you’ll need to give it extra permissions through the use of ADB commands or a handy bxActions.exe file stored on your phone.

Typically, you have to use ADB commands to give these sort of permissions, but the developer went the extra mile and included the bxActions.exe in the folder on your phone. This made enabling full control of the Bixby button so much easier, and if you change your mind later the same bxActions.exe can be used to reverse the process as well. Honestly, I can’t commend the developer enough for making this process as simple as possible for all users.

The second thing you’ll have to do to get the full power of bxActions is to buy the pro version. While bxActions offers a lot of functionality for free, once you unlock pro it takes it to the next level. It adds features such as long press and double press, plus it allows shortcuts for launching Tasker tasks, enabling one-handed mode, taking screenshots, toggling split screen, and more.

Final Thoughts

For such a well-designed app and all the capabilities it adds to your phone that will be used several times a day, $2.99 is a perfectly reasonable price. I gladly forked over my $2.99 to support the developer for all the hard work he put into making this app.

It’s a shame Samsung would rather use this button to force Bixby upon us than give its users something useful. While Samsung recently added the ability to assign a shortcut to the Bixby button, bxActions goes far beyond and truly sets your Bixby button free.

Bixbi Button Remapper – bxActions

Check out these hilarious Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus camera cutout wallpapers

Jason England
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Are you ready to embrace the cut-out display on the new Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus? If so, then we’ve got some wallpapers to help you do just that.

Samsung’s cut-out display is an alternative approach to offering an edge to edge display without using a notch. Instead of shying away and trying to hide the cut-out, a clever community has arisen to embrace it with these ingenious wallpapers. Below you’ll find some of the best wallpapers out for the Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus to show off the cut-out on your new phone.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Wallpapers

Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus Wallpapers

We found these hilarious wallpapers over on the Galaxy S10 Wallpapers subreddit on Reddit. Be sure to head over there to find the latest wallpapers and share them with us on our Twitter account. We’ll retweet the best ones!

If you’re looking for some more wallpapers, we have a ton of options here at AndroidGuys. If you’d like to download the Google Pixel 3 live wallpapers, check them out here. If you’d prefer the Galaxy Note 9’s wallpapers, you can find those here as well. We’re also going to shout out the D O M A and Area39-X Google Photos communities which have a ton of great options.

Samsung Galaxy Watch: the best option for Android users?

Andrew Allen
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I’ve grown to really like a smartwatch over the years. They are a great way to triage your notifications and online persona without fully using a phone. Samsung has had a nice lineup with the Galaxy Gear watches over the last few years. It since dropped the Gear moniker for just Galaxy Watch and it’s my latest option to try for a companion wrist device.

Samsung has long been a champion of the secondary devices we call smartwatches. They launched with Android Wear but quickly moved on to its in-house Tizen OS for the Gear line of watches. While these devices are definitely tuned to be paired with another Galaxy unit, they are often seen as the best option for Android users. The Galaxy Watch renews this tradition with a different name, but let’s find out if this has any bearing on the results from Samsung’s Watch.

Hardware

It’s just good. There’s really no other way to describe the Galaxy Watch. It looks and feels very much like a traditional watch. There are a noticeable weight and heft to the chassis that makes you feel like this thing will last and stand the tests of daily wear.

The hardware also allows you for a few ways to interact with the software menus on the Galaxy Watch. The main component is the bezel. It rotates like a traditional depth ring on a standard watch, but on Tizen, you use it to scroll through the UI. It’s a small, but awesome way to navigate while not having to touch the screen and adding smudges.

To the right side of the Galaxy Watch, you’ll find two buttons. The top one is for going back in a menu. It will take you to the previous screen while you are in apps. If you long-press the top key, it will launch Samsung Pay. These shortcuts can be customized as well.

The bottom button is the dedicated Home button. As you’d expect, it takes you directly back to the clock. It can also be used to double-press and launch Samsung’s AI assistant Bixby. Both buttons feel solid and have really good tactile feedback when pressed.

On the bottom of the watch is an infrared heart rate reader. This is a pretty standard affair for most smartwatches these days.

Software

This is the other side of most smartwatches. Honestly, this is where most fail. Even Google has struggled to really have a good experience on Wear OS. I am happy to report that the overall results of the Samsung Galaxy Watch are surprisingly positive.

The scrolling with the combination of physical buttons and the scrolling of the bezel is a great way to use a watch. You can navigate 90% of the interface without having to actually touch the screen. Everyone else please take notes. This is how it should be. These screens are tiny and cumbersome to navigate and select icons. Make is a moot point.

I’d challenge Samsung to take it a step further even. I’m going to sound like an old fart, but the Pebble is still my standard of smartwatch operating systems and though it faded into oblivion, it’s still the only company to get it right. If Samsung would add another button in the middle of the right side of the Galaxy Watch they would nail it!

This could be used to select UI options and you’d never have to touch the screen at all. With no touchscreen, you could maybe even save on battery life due to not always having to be looking for input as well. It’s probably a pipe dream, but someone has to do it eventually, right?

Tizen OS is pretty good overall. Samsung has done a great job making it just work. While third-party apps are lacking, the experience as a secondary device to funnel your phone content to works very well. Text, emails, and all your other notifications come through as you’d expect and even offer some nice previews on some.

The basic layout is set up from left to right. You have your notifications on the far left screen followed by the clock. After those, you can customize the layout with default widgets like weather, music, and Samsung Health. You can also hit the Samsung Store and add some more independent developed options.

Speaking of Health. I don’t understand why interacting with the Galaxy Watch, widgets, themes, and Health features are all separate apps. This is very jarring for new users who are used to other options like Fitbit, Garmin, and Wear OS having all these under one UI roof. The Wear app should consolidation all these apps and have most of them live under the setting while the main interface should be for Samsung Health.

Otherwise, Samsung Health features were very good. The Galaxy Watch successfully picked up activities when I went for long walks, runs, or hit the gym. It then logged them accordingly via the Health app. The same can be said for sleep and heart rate tracking. I had no issues from any of these while wearing the Galaxy Watch.

You also get some Samsung specific app integrations as mentioned in the hardware overview. The side buttons act as shortcuts to get to Samsung Pay and Bixby by default. Let’s start with the positive. Once set up, Samsung Pay works perfectly. You walk up to a cashier. Long-press the button. Enter your PIN and buy your items. It’s really seamless and nice to have the option to use your watch. One mentionable is that the Galaxy Watch only supports NFC payments and not the traditional MST strips of older Wear units.

Bixby is just not as good as other options. It’s definitely not as good as the industry leader Google Assistant. It can handle basic commands like “what’s the weather” or “set a timer” but more advanced requests often failed. It also sounds very harsh. After you get used to the very human responses from Google Assistant, Bixby is a noticeable step back.

Battery Life

This is where most smartwatches break down for me. I don’t want another device to constantly have to charge overnight. The good thing is that the  Galaxy Watch lasts more than a day. The bad thing is that it’s not the 4 days that the company claims. I got a consistent 2 days per charge. While this is admirable over most Android Wear watches, but still disappointing. I want a watch to last at least 3-4 days and preferably 5 days between charges.

Conclusion

I think the Samsung Galaxy Watch may be the best smartwatch for most Android users. It offers a solid notification system and UI navigation to manage your phone via your wrist. If you’re a Samsung user already, it’s a no brainer if shopping for a watch. The non-Samsung user will be forced into a few apps and services they may not normally choose, but the over experience is still overly positive.

Our Verizon model even has full LTE for connectivity and phone calls on the go. This model starts at $379 for the 42mm size and $399 for the 46mm. Both are solid LTE connected devices with Samsung powering your daily activities via Tizen.

First ten things to do with your Samsung Galaxy S10

Jason England
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The day has finally arrived and you just unboxed your shiny new Samsung Galaxy S10. Now, you’re holding one of the best phones of 2019 in your hands and wondering, what to do next? Considering how jam-packed the S10 is with features you might feel a little overwhelmed. Don’t worry, if you’re wondering where to start and what to do first we’ve got you covered.

Protect it

First and foremost, you’re going to want to protect it. The Galaxy S10 is an expensive device but with a glass front and back it is also a fragile device. While Gorilla Glass has come a long way it is still glass, and glass scratches or even worse it cracks.

To make sure your investment doesn’t get shattered, wrap it up. Here are a few choices below for cases and screen protectors. Remember, not every screen protector works with the new in-display fingerprint scanner but all of the below choices will work.

Cases

Screen Protectors

More Storage

Samsung raised the bar with the Galaxy S10 by including 128GB storage minimum and offering a 512GB model, but you can always use more space. Fortunately, there is a microSD card slot in the SIM tray. Below are a few good choices for adding some more storage to your phone for photos, videos, music, and more.

Set up Samsung Pay

One of my favorite features on Samsung phones is paying with Samsung Pay. By combining NFC and MST payments it works at nearly every pay terminal available. Paying with your phone has never been more simple or convenient. Just follow the steps below to get started.

  • Open Samsung Pay
  • Click Get Started
  • Use biometrics verification (iris or fingerprint)
  • Create a Samsung Pay 4-digit PIN
  • Add a card or Paypal to your Wallet

Blue Light Filter

Studies have shown that the blue light emitted from devices is not only bad for our sleep but bad for our eyesight. The blue light filter is one of the ways Samsung and some others have found to combat this. To enable it on your S10 follow these steps:

  • Open settings
  • Display
  • Tap Blue light filter
  • Now toggle from Sunset to sunrise or create your own schedule

Now, you can protect your eyes at night and sleep easier. You can also toggle it from the quick tiles any time you like by swiping down twice on the notification tray.

Swap the Navigation Buttons

If you’re a long time Samsung user you may have gotten used to having the back button on the right and overview button on the left. If you’re coming from most other phones, then this is probably something that has always frustrated you about Samsung phones. Thankfully, when Samsung made the switch to software navigation keys they provided us with the option to change it to match stock Android.

  • Open settings
  • Display
  • Navigation Bar

From here you can change the Button layout, adjust the color of the navigation bar, and more.

One-Handed Mode

There’s no getting around it, the S10 is a big phone. Working it with one hand can be a challenge for some of us. That’s where One-handed mode comes into play. With this nifty little feature, you can shrink down the screen with a shortcut making it much easier to reach items.

  • Open settings
  • Advanced features
  • Motions and gestures
  • One-handed mode

From here, you can toggle it on or off, and change which shortcut is used to launch it.

Turn on Night mode

With the update to Android Pie, Samsung included a new feature on its phones called Night mode. When enabled Night mode gives a dark theme to your notification panel, settings, and notifications. The dark theme is much easier on the eyes and thankfully doesn’t have to only be used at night. Follow these steps to try it out for yourself.

  • Open Settings
  • Tap Display
  • Toggle on Night mode

Customize the Bixby key

If you’re like me you never use the Bixby key because it only does one thing, open Bixby. However, that has changed as Samsung recently added a native setting to allow you to open other apps or run Bixby routines using the button. With the new setting, you’ll be able to assign two different shortcuts, one for single press and one for double press. However, one of these must be reserved for Bixby itself, but at least we can take back control of one of the shortcuts.

  • Press Bixby button
  • Tap the three dot menu
  • Choose Settings
  • Bixby key
  • Enable your single press or double press command

Turn on Atmos

Audio quality from Samsung phones continues to improve and software plays a big part in that. One of my favorite enhancements on several phones these days is Dolby Atmos technology. In my opinion, it really brings the sound to life and I always enable it on any phone includes it.

  • Open settings
  • Sounds and vibration
  • Scroll down to Advanced sound settings
  • Sound quality and effects
  • Toggle Dolby Atmos

You can also experiment with changing which mode to use and the equalizer while you’re in there. Sound is a very personal thing and thankfully we have the option to personalize it.

Themes

Not everyone is a fan of the whitewashed theme on Android, including myself. Fortunately, you aren’t stuck with that. Samsung provides an entire theme market with many free themes. Make your phone your own by spending some time browsing and finding something to match your style.

  • Open settings
  • Wallpapers and themes

Devices used in this article were provided by Verizon

I’m obsessed with leather tech accessories; here are two of my favorites

Matt Adams
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Technology keeps speeding up and we’re just along for the ride. In the age of new cell phones every day and upgrade plans that allow you to move on from a device just as quickly as you picked it up, nothing really lasts for very long anymore. Our tech rarely ages well, becoming more frustrating as time goes on.

That’s why I love the juxtaposition of leather cases, watch bands, and accessories for my devices. Even though the device itself might not age graceful, the accessories we buy for it don’t have to follow the same course. Leather just gets better as it wears. It feels better, it looks better, and it gets more character. That’s why I teamed up with two of my favorite leather technology accessory companies to look out a few of their products.

Bellroy Leather case for Pixel

Phone cases are a billion dollar industry on its own so it’s not surprising you’d find leather cases around. But, what you may not realize is that a lot of those “leather” cases are actually imitation leather. Any time you see Vegan Leather or TPU Leather, it’s not real cowhide.

That’s not the case with the Bellroy Leather case for the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL. This real leather case is environmentally certified and uses premium hides tanned by gold-rated Leather Working Group environmental protocols. Bellroy then dyes the leather so each case gets that weathered look you can expect to see on an old timer’s wallet after about 40 years of use. It feels fantastic to hold and looks high-end.

Leather is great but some cases really get let down in the protection department, even if the covering is fantastic. The Bellroy leather case is thick enough to provide some protection from falls while not making the phone feel too bulky. The Pixel isn’t the easiest phone to use anyways and adding a case to make it even bigger can be an awkward situation. Luckily, Bellroy figured out the perfect amount of protection vs. bulk here.

There’s a cutout for the fingerprint sensor around back and a small lip to cover the screen a bit. This can cause some problems when trying to swipe in from the right or left of the screen, but you get used to it pretty quickly. The case covers the power and volume buttons rather than leaving openings and does a pretty good job of not making the buttons feel mushy, like some other cases. Active Sense, the squeeze gesture on the sides of the Pixel, is also unaffected by the case.

Overall, this is a fantastic option if you’re looking for a high-quality leather case to use long term. You can grab the Bellroy Leather Case for the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL from Bellroy’s website, starting at $45.

Nomad Modern Watch Strap

Watches have come with leather straps for decades, but it’s oddly hard to find a quality, real leather strap for modern smartwatches. That’s where Nomad comes in. We’ve previously told you about Nomad’s leather wallets, ChargeKey, and Folio Wallet case, but none of them hold a candle to their watch straps, in my humble opinion.

This particular strap is for the Apple Watch Series 1-4 and will appeal to all of you who go “Captain Two Phones” and carry both an Android device and an iPhone. To be honest, the Apple Watch is the only reason I carry an iPhone anymore so I’m very into accessorizing and keeping my watch in tip-top shape, which is why I love Nomad’s strap.

I’ve only had the strap a few weeks but it’s already weather really nicely. The patina it’s developing is going to be a stunner and I have no doubt that this is a long term strap solution that I’ll be wearing for years to come, even if I upgrade my watch.

Nomad gives you plenty of color options here with Black, Slate Gray, and Natural color options. And if that isn’t enough, the Horween leather is from right here in the good old U.S. of A. You can grab the Nomad Modern Strap from Nomad’s website, starting at $59.95.

Opera bakes VPN into latest browser release

Andrew Allen
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Our online security is becoming more and more important. From online trackers to local hackers, we need to start paying more attention to our information and how it’s exploited. Popular browser development house Opera agrees. With its latest release, the company is included a VPN in the browser itself.

With Opera 51, you will receive a free, built-in virtual private network to help secure your online habits. The update will hit users today, March 20th 2019, and is available on the Android app via the Play Store. The company’s SVP of Android development, Peter Wallman, cites several trends to lead the browser to this addition:

“By enabling Opera’s VPN, users make it very difficult for third parties to steal pieces of their information and can avoid being tracked…

…We want to make VPN adoption easy and user-friendly, especially for those who want to feel more secure on the Web but are not aware of how to do it..”

Opera is offering a key solution to increasing your online security with a VPN readily available inside the browser. The company is also clear that this is for the betterment of the user and not for other gains. The VPN is free, unlimited, and requires no login to use. While most VPNs aren’t overly pricey, they are commonly a paid service.

The devs also made is super easy to set up the new VPN services inside of Opera.

  • Download or launch Opera
  • Tap the Settings with the “O” logo in the bottom right
  • Find VPN under the options
  • Enable the feature and the region you prefer

That’s it! Clean, easy installation and you have your very own private network. This will help protect your information while on public WiFi and even help against web trackers while surfing under normal conditions. This is another addition to a great browser with security-minded features like ad block that Opera already offers.

As a reminder, all Opera updates are done regionally in waves. If you don’t immediately see the update, it’s on the way.

 

Nanoleaf Canvas review

AndroidGuys
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A lot of what we review at AndroidGuys centers strictly around Android phones, tablets, and smartphones as a whole. That net has widened over the years with Chrome OS, smart homes, and the whole Internet of Things.

Much of what’s covered here could be considered more necessity and life-enhancing; there’s often more need than want. But, every so often we get a chance to review something that doesn’t necessarily provide any true value other than fun and entertainment.

Nanoleaf Canvas

The Nanoleaf Canvas is one of those things that is decidedly not something we need to own. It’s cool as hell, smart and interactive, and really ties a room together. The best part? It works no matter your environment or layout.

The Canvas is not the first product in the Nanoleaf portfolio; however, it’s perhaps the most feature-rich LED lighting kit available. Not only does it provide virtually endless color options and nearly unlimited configurations, but it’s smart. It detects environmental sounds for rhythmic dancing and patterns. Oh, and it also works with IFTTT, Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Apple HomeKit.

Setup

We were pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to set up Nanloeaf’s products and the Canvas is no different. The package consists of a power supply, nine panels, connecting pieces, and two-side adhesives.

It’s literally up to you as to how you want to design the layout of your Canvas kit. Each of the tiles has three connecting points. Feel free to line them up direct, offset, or mix and match.

The connectors (Linkers) are thin and flexible. They’re not quite bendable to right angles but Nanoleaf does offer a Flex Linker kit ($10) that bends up to 180 degrees. So, if you want to wrap a pillar, or extend your layout around corners, this is what you’ll need.

The hardest part of setting up was deciding which wall would get the Canvas. After that, it was a matter of figuring out how we wanted to arrange the panels. After overthinking it for far too long, we ultimately chose to wing it and build as we went.

The main panel, which houses a handful of buttons, is where you’ll connect the power supply. Keep this in mind as there will be a thin white cord that runs from the panel.

After that, it’s all fun and games. There’s no wrong orientation or direction to extend your build. The system intuitively knows how it’s set up; you’ll verify this in the mobile app.

Nanloeaf App

The mobile app walks you through the process of setting up the lights and also allows for deeper control over the lighting. Whether you want to turn every panel to a desired color or brightness, let them breathe and flow like water rippling, or dance to music, the app is where you go.

There are a number of preset options for colors, rhythm, and interactive lights. Out of the box there’s more than enough to satisfy the masses with an always-changing array of lights. Spend a couple minutes in the section for discovering new designs, though, and you’ll find all sorts of great color palettes, speeds, and effects that can be downloaded.

It’s not necessary that you open the app every time you want to use the lights. Really, once you have the stuff downloaded that you like, you don’t have to open it. The buttons on the control panel let you cycle through things. Moreover, the panels react to touch as well. With that said, it’s nice to have visual representation of color palettes.

General Impressions

We’ve set up the Nanoleaf Canvas to have schedules, added it to IFTTT for more lively notifications in the office, and played with Google Assistant. Every one of those works as we’d expected and each provides a different level of coolness.

Whereas the Canvas looks great just blinking, glowing, and pulsing by itself, we really like to watch it dance to music. It’s almost too distracting at times because of the myriad ways to configure it.

Were this a bedroom or living space we would have them cycling through Aurora Borealis-like ripples and other wave effects, glowing to wake us up, or providing reading light. These truly do work in any environment.

Conclusion

As it is, the nine pieces can be configured in cool and interesting ways that take up a decent amount of space. It’s all at once a quality piece of artwork, helpful lighting, and fun way to liven up a room.

The bonus points come when you factor in something like IFTTT when you can have it switch all of the panels to a certain color when a specific person emails you or a person tweets at you.

We like how much Google Assistant and Google Home have evolved over time. Now we’re able to do things like use our voice to change colors on a Philips Hue light or Nanoleaf Canvas. We can imagine all sorts of great, interactive ways to brighten up our home or office were these in each room.

We really like the Canvas and would love nothing more than to wrap rooms in the panels. The first day we put them up we realized that nine would not be enough to satisfy us long term. To that end, it’s an expensive set of tech, especially if you start to expand.

At $250 for the starter kit, it’s not an extraordinary amount of money when you compare it to other smart lights. And, given that it’s so flexible and feature-rich, one can see how it’s worth the money. Nevertheless, it would take a small fortune to outfit a wall with a few dozen panels.

If you do plan to start out with more than nine panels, you’ll want to opt for one of the other bundles. The Suave One is a 17-piece kit for $369 and The Bold One is $513 for 25 pieces. It’s not clear whether these were limited time deals at the time of publishing this review. From what we can gather it’s like adding multiple expansion packs and applying a discount code.

Nanoleaf offers add-on panels to the tune of $80 for four. At $20 per square you’d be into thousands of dollars if you set up a room to look as cool as those in the Nanloeaf promotional videos. Fortunately, it’s not all-or-nothing and you can slowly add to your wall over time.

Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have to figure out where we’ll plug in the next four panels.

How to use Google Maps offline

Jason England
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Let’s face it, we don’t have great cell service everywhere we go. Raise your hand if you’ve gotten lost someplace you’re unfamiliar with and had absolutely no signal. Thankfully, Google allows you to use its maps offline. And, with a little forethought you won’t end up stranded with no understanding of your surroundings.

What you should know about offline maps

The most important thing to know is that you will need to download the map before going to your location — preferably over Wi-Fi. Google Maps allows you to download a pretty large area with a few limitations. Generally speaking, though, you can get an area that covers a whole city with couple of nearby cities.

EDITOR PICKS

Depending on the size of the area you choose the offline map can take up quite a bit of storage. Worried about low on storage on your device? An option to save to a microSD card ensures you don’t fill that phone up.

Maps expire after 30 days, presumably because roads are always changing and Google wants you to have the most up to date information. Fortunately, your saved maps will automatically update over Wi-Fi.

Perhaps the best part of offline maps is that you are able to search locations and use navigation with the map just the same as if it were connected online. The rub is that you won’t have access to traffic data, transit details, walking directions, ride services, or biking directions in offline mode.

How to download offline maps

  1. Search the area you want to download
  2. Tap on the hamburger button for options
  3. Select Offline maps
  4. Choose select your own map
  5. Pinch to zoom to select the area you want to store offline
  6. Tap download

Once maps are downloaded, you can manage them by going into offline maps again and tapping on the three-dot menu for the map of your choice. From there you have options to update, view, rename, or delete the map in question.

For more settings, you can click on the settings cog in the top right corner where you can change preferences for storing and updating the maps.

There you have it, now you can store maps for all your favorite or new locations to make sure you’re never up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

FuseChicken Universal travel charger review: An all-in-one power solution

Andrew Allen
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I’ve been reviewing tech and accessories for over a decade now. I am rarely surprised by much anymore, but a name caught my eye recently when they sent a request for reviewing some of its products. The company is called FuseChicken. Yep, FuseChicken.

It’s definitely the oddest combination of names for a tech company but I had the opportunity to test out its new Universal travel charger. Incidentally, I was not aware that AndroidGuys had previously spent time with its products and even toured its facilities nearly seven years back.

Overview

The Universal wants to solve all your charging needs while on the go. It’s a Swiss Army knife of chargers honestly. It is a standard wall outlet charger as well as a battery pack. Inside is a 6700mAh power bank.

It also has Qi-enabled fast wireless charging. So, in a review, that’s USB-A, USB-C, and wireless charging. This is one of the few devices that can charge your phone and laptop that you can throw in your bag and continue using it to charge while traveling.

Design

I’ve always been a sucker for a black and white combination color scheme. The FuseChicken Universal charger has a nice soft-touch black trimmed with standard white plastics. It makes the device appealing while keeping a minimalistic pattern.

On the left, you have the wall adapter port that is interchangeable for US and Euro power outlets. Around the opposing side, you have an LED display for the power bank percentage, both USB ports, and a status light for charging. A red light means it’s charging and green means the device is on but in standby mode.

To the “top” of the unit are the FuseChicken logo and the letter “V” surrounded by wavebands similar to a WiFi signal image. This is where the magic happens to charge via Qi wireless charging.

The size is pretty nice too. The FuseChicken Universal is not much larger than most power bricks you may have to lay around. The photo below shows it next to a Targus USB-C charger I use while traveling.

Results

None of this really matters if the Universal fails in general usage. I’m happy to report that it’s spot on with what FuseChicken claims it offers. I was able to get a full charge via the USB ports almost 2.5 times on my Google Pixel 3 XL. This lines up with the bank’s 6700mAh cell.

The Qi charging also worked as expected with 10W quick charge being pushed to the device that supports it. Sadly this does not include my Pixel by cause it’s not “Made for Google” approved. Despite this, it functioned like any other charger.

One downside is that both USB ports don’t seem to support full fast charging. This option seems limited just to the USB-C plug. I’d also like to have seen the 18W power bank be able to charge my laptop as well. It just doesn’t seem to have enough juice to recharge my Dell.

Bonus Mini-review: The Shield C power cord

FuseChicken included this with my review material for the Universal charger and I was impressed. This USB-C cable is wrapped in steel chainmail. This makes it nearly indestructible and it looks awesome. The Shield cable reminds me of trim you’d find on a high-end car or a machine shop.

The cable allows for fast charge 2.0 and besides the wrapped steel cord there’s a nice soft rubber surround on each port of the cable. I was really surprised how well-made yet still flexible this cable was, and I’m glad that FuseChicken included it in the bag of goodies.

Conclusion

I hate to be jaded, but I didn’t really have high hopes with a company I’d never heard of for this review. I came away pleasantly surprised by FuseChicken. The Universal charger and the Shield C cable are both well-crafted products. Both look great and offer great functionality. And FuseChicken gets some bonus points for its namesake.

The Universal charger will set you back $85 on the FuseChicken website. That might seem like a lot, but power banks and some Qi chargers both can go in that price range. For all it does, I think it’s more than reasonable. The Shield C cable is $35 on the site, and again, seems in line with other products in that sector.

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