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Samsung debuts Galaxy M series for India

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Samsung on Monday introduced its new Galaxy M series of phones, giving the Indian market a pair of devices aimed at millennials. The Galaxy M10 and Galaxy M20 are highlighted by Samsung’s new “Infinity-V” teardrop display.

As successors to the Galaxy A line, the two handsets are low-cost phones with large displays and dual rear cameras. Both are offered in ocean blue and charcoal black and will be sold through Samsung’s website and Amazon.

Samsung Galaxy M10

The Samsung Galaxy M10 offers up a 6.22-inch display with a 720×1520 pixel resolution and 19:9 aspect ratio. In other words, it’s a big, narrow screen with HD quality. Indeed, it covers around 90 percent of the front side of the phone.

Powered by Samsung’s Exynos 7870 (octa-core 1.6GHz) processor, it comes in two options: 2GB RAM with 16GB storage and 3GB RAM with 32GB storage.

The rear houses a 13-megapixel F1.9 main camera with an ultra-wide 5-megapixel F2.2 camera. Rounding things out are a 3,400mAh battery, rear fingerprint sensor, USB Type C, and headphone jack.

Samsung Galaxy M20

The Samsung Galaxy M20 is just a smidge larger at 6.33-inch display with a higher (1080 x 2340 pixels) resolution.

Power comes from a Samsung Exynos 7904 octa-core chipset at 1.8GHz. Memory is also boosted a bit with 3GB RAM/32GB storage and 4GB RAM/64GB storage.

In terms of cameras, this one also has a 13-megapixel F1.9 and 5-megapixel ultra-wide setup. Around front is am 8-megapixel F2.0 camera and in-display flash.

The battery here is a generous 5,000mAh power source; also present are USB Type C, a rear fingerprint reader, and fast 15W charging.

The Samsung Galaxy M10 and Galaxy M20 go on sale starting from February 5 with Rs. 7,990 ($112 US) and Rs. 10,990 ($155 US) price tags, respectively. Interested customers can shop both Samsung and Amazon.

Laserbreak 2: Fun game held back by plain audiovisuals (Review)

Gerson Noboa
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To me, puzzle games are a perfect fit for mobile devices. They are normally short enough that you can enjoy while commuting, and the controls feel at home on our touchscreens. Laserbreak 2 takes advantage of this and offers a compelling puzzle game with fun game play and great level design.

Developer: errorsevendev
Price: $1.42

Overview

Laserbreak 2 is a puzzle game in which you control a laser that has the power of breaking blocks, coins, and other objects scattered through the more than 100 levels.

Your main objective is to break a big, red block with an X on it. However, there are three coins on each level, not unlike the stars earned in Candy Crush.

You can clear a level just by hitting the red target, but completionists will like the added challenge of hitting every coin.

Game play

On each level, there is a spherical device that fires a green laser (kind of like a Death Star). This laser has the ability of incinerating objects moments after making contact with them. This sphere can be rotated by touching on it and then swiping in the desired direction. As previously said, to clear a level, you just need to burn a red target.

This is easier said than done, since the red target is normally out of reach. In order to clear a level, you have to interact with your environment to redirect the laser to your goal. As the game’s tutorial points out, there are glass and metal objects (like boxes, floors, or prisms) that reflect the laser.

There are also warp tunnels that transport objects through them. These can be used to warp coins, dynamite, and whatever objects need to break wooden platforms or glass walls. Some interactions are activated by pressing red buttons, which in turn activate fans, moving platforms, or doors.

All of these elements make for a very entertaining experience, in which a lot of different interactions are chained to reach a goal. Hitting the red target only can get a bit boring, especially in the first levels, where the difficulty is absurdly easy.

It is when trying to hit all coins that the game shines. The puzzles are intricate and rewarding, while the difficulty is ramped up gradually.

In case you are wondering, there are no in-app purchases or in-game currency. At first, I thought that the coins collected in each level could be used in some kind of store or other rubbish modern mobile games love to bundle. This is a no-ad game with zero in-app purchases or prompts to spend even more money.

Graphics and Sound

While the game play is normally pretty good, the weak point for this game come from the audiovisual department. I think that as long as a game is entertaining, any deficiency in graphics can be forgiving. However, the graphics on this game are very rudimentary. Tunnels especially look pretty bad. At least, all of the sprites follow the same basic style, with a very industrial look.

Sound effects are not the best quality either. The SFX when something burns is especially displeasing, but almost all of them are poor. There are also some that are higher volume than others, which creates a shoddy experience.

Conclusion

Laserbreak 2 is a puzzle game capable of creating a fun experience for its players. There are a lot of elements to interact with, making every level different and rewarding. The difficulty increases gradually in a satisfying way: it is never neither too easy nor too difficult, especially if you go after the three coins and not only the red target.

However, the game is held back by less-than-average graphics and sound. If you don’t mind this and are looking for fun game play only, feel free to give it a shot.

Download and install Laserbreak 2 from the Google Play Store.

Nokia phones now offered at Verizon and Cricket

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It might have taken a few years but Nokia phones have returned to the US market. At least in a manner formally offered by wireless carriers.

As of January 25 the Nokia 3.1 Plus can be purchased through AT&T prepaid subsidiary Cricket Wireless. What’s more, a few days from now (January 31) Verizon will carry the Nokia 2 V.

Nokia 3.1 Plus

The Nokia 3.1 Plus is highlighted by a 6-inch display, 3,500mAh battery, and Android 9 Pie operating system. Performance comes from a Snapdragon 439 processor with 2GB RAM and storage is 32GB internally with a microSD expansion card for up to 256GB.

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Additional details include a dual-camera rear setup with 13-megapixel and 5-megapixel front-facing camera. Also present are a fingerprint sensor, USB Type C charging, and a host of sensors and connectivity.

The Nokia 3.1 Plus retails for $160 through Cricket and doesn’t require a long-term contract.

Nokia 2 V

The Nokia 2 V is a lesser-powered phone that caters to the basic, often first-time, smartphone user. It runs Android 8.1 Oreo Go edition and features a Snapdragon 425 processor with 1GB RAM and 8GB storage. Should one need more space, the microSD expansion card slot allows for 128GB of media.

The Nokia 2 V has a 5.5-inch display, primary 8-megapixel camera on the rear, and a 5-megapixel camera on the front. Sold in blue and silver colors, it’s not immediately clear what Verizon will charge for the phone.

Alcatel Onyx launches exclusively on Cricket with dual cameras, fingerprint scanner, and more for $120

Jason England
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Launching today exclusively on Cricket is the Alcatel Onyx, a feature-packed phone that won’t drain your wallet. With a price of only $120 you might be surprised the Onyx packs in some premium features such as a dual camera with portrait mode, fingerprint scanner, and face unlock.

Along with all of these extras the Onyx is backed by a quad-core 1.5GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 5.5-inch 18:9 HD+ display. The 13MP + 2MP camera setup on the back not only features a portrait mode but also a night mode to help your low light photos look their best.

To ensure all your selfies come out great in any light, the 5MP camera on the front includes a screen flash option. Thankfully, with all this photo taking the Alcatel Onyx includes 32GB of internal storage as well as microSD card slot for expansion.

There is also a generous 3000mAh battery inside allowing the Onyx to last up to two days with mixed use. Which is great news when you’re on the go, but also because the Alcatel Onyx is still using the old micro USB standard.

The Alcatel Onyx runs Android Oreo 8.1 and is available starting today in Suede Black for $120 exclusively from Cricket Wireless. It might not be as impressive as some flagship phones out there but it packs a lot in for those of us on a budget.

Palabre: One of the most customizable and beautiful news readers around (Review)

Gerson Noboa
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Even in 2019 there are people who still have not forgiven Google for discontinuing Google Reader. The silver lining was that several alternatives popped up to try to fill the spot that Google inexplicably withdrew from.

One of the strongest apps in the category today is Palabre, a news reader that is as beautiful as customizable.

Developer: LevelUp Studio
Price: Free

Overview

Palabre is, at its core, a news reader. You can either use Palabre’s news sources or connect it to Feedly. Regardless of which provider you choose you can view different categories of news (or all at once, if you so desire) in several different layouts and themes.

Setup

To start using Palabre, you need to complete its long setup process. First, you need to choose a content provider. You can use either Palabre or Feedly. In addition, you can also add Flickr, Inoreader, The Old Reader, Twitter, and Feedbin.

In case you use Palabre, you can follow different categories, such as News, Tech, Android, and Apple. These categories have different sources inside, but you also have the option of adding sources individually.

Next, you need to choose a layout for the presentation of news. There are three different layouts: magazine, list, or large cards. Magazine is the default, and it shows a combination of large and small cells.

For those of you who prefer to use dark themes wherever possible, Palabre does feature one. The default, however, is a white theme that is not as eye-burning as Google’s latest downgrades to UI on their own apps.

Reading news

On its main page, Palabre shows you all the news sorted by the time they were published. A tab bar at the top lets you change to different categories (you can also swipe to either direction to change between tabs).

News show an image, the title, the source, and a small description. Even though it is loading news from several different places and getting images from a lot of sources, the app is buttery smooth and barely slows down.

I am testing on a OnePlus 6, but I also have an old LG G Tab 8.3 and Palabre does not stutter there either.

You will find a hamburger menu to the left to check individual sources, along with the amount of unread news. There is also a very convenient History option, in which you can go back to news you have previously read. This is something that Feedly has failed to introduce in all these years.

News details

Upon clicking on an article you like, the news reader is opened. This shows the article’s image on top, along with a share button. The article itself is shown below. At the end of it, a big “Visit Website” button is displayed, which takes you to an in-app browser that shows the article on the original website.

After the news article, there are three buttons: Readability, Keep Unread, and Share. Readability lets you read the article without distractions, and Keep Unread is self-explanatory. The share button is a little baffling, since there is one at the top already.

Something very nice is that Palabre has a section called “Similar content,” which is exactly that. I don’t know how it determines that an article is similar to another, but it is something nice to have regardless.

Settings

Normally, apps do not include this many settings to choose from, but Palabre has so much customization that it merits its own section. There are six different settings categories: Syncing, Display, Quick Actions, Reading, Notifications, and Other.

Syncing deals with the automatic background syncing of the app. You can set it to as short as 15 minutes or as long as 16 hours. There is also an option to turn it off altogether, or only doing it on WiFi.

You can also activate an offline mode, in which Palabre fetches the article itself instead of only the metadata, so that you can read it without an active connection.

Display deals with fonts, colors, images, and other options that deal with the article’s appearance. Quick actions are shortcuts on each news cell, which can be customized. For example, you can tap a corner to mark an article as read or share it.

Reading gives you the choice of controlling stuff like full screen or navigating with volume keys. Notifications control… notifications. Lastly, the Other category deals with data collection, beta community, feedback, licenses, and privacy policies.

Conclusion

Palabre offers a fully-featured news reader in a package that is fast, beautiful, and customizable. From the multiple source categories to the beautiful magazine-style interface to the insane amount of options, Palabre is the go-to news reader app. After using it, going back to Feedly felt like living in the Stone Age for me.

Download and install Palabre from the Google Play Store.

Verizon-backed Visible adds support for Android

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Backed by Verizon, Visible bills itself as a digital carrier – not a prepaid one. Still, though, for your money each month you get a no-contract plan that provides unlimited talk, text, data, and hotspot.

After having launched as an iPhone-only service less than one year ago, Visible has officially expanded to begin supporting Android. Today sees the brand offering an Android app in beta so that you can bring your own compatible device.

The plan is straightforward; there’s just one to choose from and it runs $40 per month. There’s no extra tax, fees, or hidden charges. How is that possible? It’s simple, Visible simply doesn’t have the same costs and overhead that come with other brands.

There are no physical Visible stores or costs associated with traditional call centers. Also, and perhaps more importantly, the data speeds and hotspot are capped at 5Mbps. This may not matter to too many people, but it might affect more than those who need support.

Visible Protect

In addition to launching support for Android devices, the carrier is introducing its Visible Protect service. Available for $10-$12 per month, and provided by Assurant, it covers accidental damage, loss, theft, and out of warranty mechanical breakdown. For new iPhone users this could also mean same-day repairs.

How to improve Android battery life — 8 essential tips to know

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There is no denying that Android smartphones have come a long way in terms of performance. While most modern devices come with advanced processors and huge amount of RAM coupled and powerful cameras, sadly, there are drawbacks. Chief among them is limiting the capacity of battery without compromising on weight, thickness, or portability factor.

Fortunately, you don’t have to just rely on the hardware to improve the battery life of your Android device. With the freedom the OS offers and the wide range of apps available, you can perform a few simple yet efficient tricks on your device to significantly improve its battery life.

Here is how you can improve the battery life of your Android smartphone with these 8 useful tips.

Disable Auto Sync for less frequently used accounts

Auto Sync on your Android device is a great feature if you need to be kept constantly updated by the apps on your devices. However, this feature might quickly end up being a battery drainer if you have a lot of apps installed on your device which pushes out notifications at regular intervals throughout the day and runs as background processes at all times.

So, if you want to save your battery life and are willing to compromise on getting regular updates, you can either disable the auto sync option on your device altogether, or just disable it for specific apps installed on your device.

You can do this by going to Settings->Accounts on your device. This page will have all the apps that uses the auto sync feature on your device and you can select the apps you want to disable the auto sync feature for and then click on sync account and disable the sync option.

This will just disable the auto sync option for this particular app, if you want to do it for all the apps and accounts installed on your device, you can just disable the auto sync data option at the bottom of the Accounts page.

battery life

Note: If you choose to disable the Auto sync option on your device, you will only get updates whenever you open the app and refresh it. You will no longer receive automatic notifications and updates from these apps.

Use Lite versions or web apps whenever possible

Some of the most popular apps like Facebook, Messenger and Google Maps have made lite versions of their apps available for download on the Google Play Store.

While these apps are aimed at devices with less ram and processing power, you can also use these to replace their full fledged and power hungry counterparts.

These apps offer almost all of the core features while leaving out the bloated features that are unnecessary and unused by most people in the full fledged app.

Since they don’t have as many features cramped into them, they do not use much processing power, ultimately resulting in a better battery life on your Android device.

battery lifeIf your favorite app does not have a lite version, you can use the web app of it – if available. These can be run on the browser on your device and do not need any additional app to work. Many web apps also come with a lot of features that are present in their standalone apps and even sends you notifications and updates.

Uninstall Battery Consuming and unused apps

While this might seem obvious, many people fail to take into account that just by uninstalling or removing the power hungry apps on their device, they can save a ton of battery life. To identify which apps are consuming the most battery life on your device, go to Settings->Battery->Menu->Battery Usage and examine the apps in the list.

battery lifeIf there is an app in that list that you don’t use that frequently or something which you can replace with a web app or a lite version, uninstall it immediately. You can also consider uninstalling some of the less used or unused apps on your device as some of these apps tend to run in the background constantly even if you are not using them, thus impacting your battery life.

If it is a system app and you are not able to uninstall it, you can just disable it by going to Settings->Apps and then selecting the particular app and clicking on disable.

Disable background data usage for less frequently used apps

This is a trick which I personally found out to have the most impact on saving the battery life on my Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus. Most apps do not completely stop running whenever you leave the app or clear it from your recents menu. Instead, they constantly run in the background waiting to send you any notifications or trying to use location or other services on your device.

You can disable this background operation of these apps by restricting their background data usage which means they will no longer run in the background after you exit them and thus significantly improving your battery life.

To do this, go to Settings->Apps and then select the app/apps for which you want to disable the background data usage. Now, select mobile data and disable the Allow background data usage option. You can do this for as many apps you want.

Disable location and WiFi scanning option

Location and GPS function on your device need not be enabled at all times and unless you are actually using the GPS service for navigation or other purposes, it only makes sense to disable them. You can switch to the Device only option in the location settings to improve the battery life on your device.

battery lifeThis option will restrict the service to only use the GPS information to determine your location instead of making use of the WiFi, bluetooth and other services on your device. Additionally, you can also disable the WiFi and Bluetooth scanning options under the location accuracy settings on your device to further improve your device’s battery life.

Enable dark mode wherever possible

As more and more phones come out with an OLED or an AMOLED displays, app developers are also coming up with ways to utilize these screens. One of the best ways to take advantage of these displays is to use dark mode on your device whenever and wherever possible. Using dark mode allows your device to disable individual pixels on your screen where black is present, allowing your device to reduce the battery consumption.

So, if you want to improve the battery life on your device, it is recommended to use dark mode on apps when it is available and also to use a dark wallpaper and even a dark theme on OEMs like Samsung and Xiaomi that has made custom themes available on their devices out of the box.

Download instead of streaming

If you are someone who listens to a lot of songs or podcasts or watches a lot of videos, then it is recommended that you download these and save them locally on your device instead of streaming them online. This method will not only save your mobile data, it also drains your battery at a significantly lesser rate when compared to online streaming.

Almost all the popular music streaming and Podcast apps allows their users to download its content and save them locally. Even the official YouTube app has an option to download selected videos and watch them from within the app without having to stream it using your mobile data connection.

Use Offline Google Maps whenever possible

Google allows you to download a specific area from the Google Maps app and save it locally on your device so that you can access its navigation services even when offline. While it might occupy some amount of your device’s local storage space, it is worth compromising considering that this method could also help you to save your precious battery life.

To do this, just open the Google Maps app on your device, and then select the offline maps option from the left navigation bar. Now you can select your own map by selecting your location by zooming in or out by using the navigation box provided.

Once you have selected the location you want to download, just click on the download button and the map of the selected location will now be downloaded and locally stored on your device.

You can now access this map from the Google Maps app on your device without connecting to the internet thus significantly improving your device’s battery life.

YouTube TV now covers nearly all of US

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Nearly two years after making its initial debut, YouTube TV has expanded to reach nearly 100 percent of the US market. Just in time for that big football game.

As one of our favorite ways to avoid cable and satellite operators, YouTube TV is Google’s way of delivering content from more than five dozen networks. For just $40 per month, customers can sign up with zero long-term obligation.

Since YouTube TV’s early days, it’s been important for us to create an experience that brings you the best of your favorite TV content. As part of that effort, we’ve offered local feeds from broadcasters, allowing you to catch up with the content that matters to you.

READ: How YouTube TV could revolutionize television

If you’re a Google loyalist, you owe it to yourself to give YouTube TV a shot. We’ve been hooked on it since day one and it pairs perfectly with an Android TV device like the NVIDIA SHIELD.

While YouTube TV has been slowly and steadily increasing its overall footprint, it has also been expanding its content, too. As of today the only key networks missing from the service are Viacom and Discovery.

Customers can add on extra networks such as AMC Premiere, Showtime, and NBA League Pass. Each comes with its own monthly fee which gets added to the overall bill.

YouTube TV Features

  • Over 60 networks, such as ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC. Plus, popular cable networks like TNT, TBS, CNN, ESPN, FX and on-demand programming.
  • A cloud DVR with no storage space limits. This enables subscribers to record live TV and never run out of storage space. Also, you can record shows simultaneously without using data or space on your device.
  • The ability to watch YouTube TV on any screen – mobile devices, tablets, computers and TVs.
  • Six accounts per household. Every YouTube TV membership comes with six accounts, each with its own unique recommendations and a personal DVR with no storage space limits.
  • Half the cost of cable with zero commitments. A YouTube TV membership is only $40 a month and there are no commitments – you can cancel anytime.

To check whether YouTube TV is available in your area, head to the website and enter your zip code.

LG’s gesture-controlled Premiere phone expected in February

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Goodbye touch. It was fun while it lasted.

LG is expected to launch a phone that relies heavily on gesture-based controls, or so we might assume. A new, 13-second video surfacing on YouTube with the tagline of “goodbye touch” tells us something interesting is on the horizon for next month.

The video shows a hand waving left and right, bringing messages into and out of frame. Ultimately ending with “LG Premiere” and a save-the-date note for February 24, it’s fairly safe to assume that this is the name of the device and its arrival date.

We don’t have any indication as to how much LG will tap into gestures for a phone. Where it works, how it works, and whether it’s system-wide remains to be seen.

This is definitely not the first time a phone maker has integrated gestures; Samsung offered in its Galaxy S4 nearly six years back.

Mobile World Congress takes place in late February is the venue of choice for handset manufacturers to introduce flagship phones. LG and Samsung have historically used MWC to bring out their latest and greatest.

With but a month to go before the annual trade show kicks off there’s a good chance that more details will surface soon. Unless LG keeps a really tight lip on its Premiere, that is.

Mobvoi TicWatch E2, TicWatch S2 now available to buy

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Mobvoi announced its latest models at CES 2019 earlier in the month but stopped short of providing any details on pricing and availability. Today we learn how much the Ticwatch E2 and Ticwatch S2 will cost. Indeed, the two went up for sale today.

Starting immediately, both the Ticwatch E2 and Ticwatch S2 are available to purchase from both Mobvoi’s online store as well as through Amazon. Both are among the least expensive Wear OS models available today.

The Ticwatch E2 runs $160 while the Ticwatch S2 comes in at just $180, some $20 less than its predecessor. Neither watch should be considered premium but they are excellent options for consumers looking for a wallet-friendly Wear OS affair.

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As we learned upon their announcement, this latest generation of affordable Ticwatch wearables employ Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear 2100 platform and not the MediaTek chipset from before.

The pair also feature 5ATM water resistance for splashes and shallow submersion, swim tracking, and TicMotion features. Designed by Mobvoi, these include automatic workout tracking and swim monitoring; custom gestures and more options are on the horizon.

The Ticwatch S2 comes with a US Military Standard 810G certification, which means it can withstand extreme temperatures and environments.

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