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What can we expect to change in phone operating systems at the end of 2018? (Promoted)

AndroidGuys
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Every year more users turn to their smartphones to browse the web, place orders, and communicate with others in lieu of using a desktop or laptop computer. In fact, more than half of all the web’s traffic is now transmitted through mobile devices. With increasing reliance on these devices, users expect smartphone manufacturers to make frequent, innovative changes to the phone’s software and operating systems. Read on to see where mobile operating systems are headed in 2018, and what you can expect from your smartphone by the end of the year.

Major Updates from Apple

Most smartphones available in 2018 are running complex operating systems that rival those found on traditional computers. Apple’s current OS, titled iOS, is in its eleventh version and was released at the end of 2017. This updated OS brought changes to newer iPhones such as animated, customization-enabled emojis, and battery health reports.

The next version of iOS 12 will be released in June of 2018, and updates to the core OS file are sure to follow throughout the rest of the year. You can expect improved performance, better battery reporting, and less of a drain from your background apps as Apple generally finds ways to make each OS more efficient. The autocorrect feature is said to be improved with the iOS 12 update as well, making for less frustration for all Apple users.

Vast Improvements for Android Users

Android, Apple’s rival in the smartphone OS market, will also see major changes by the end of 2018. Many newer Android-based phones are running the last stable release of Android, which was titled Oreo. This was the 8th version of the OS to be released. The 9th version of the OS, however, will come with many more features and is already being released for preview in mid-2018. By the end of 2018 you can expect Android 9, or Android P as it’s currently being called, to add new features and enhanced security to your smartphone.

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Android P will improve the aesthetic of your phone with more transparent layovers in the menu and icon screens and graphics. This modernization of the user interface will help bring a sleeker look to your Android, much in the spirit of Apple’s UI design practices.

A new feature called “Lockdown Mode” designed to enhance your phone’s security will excite many privacy-concerned Android users. While using Lockdown Mode your fingerprints and other biometric input won’t be able to unlock your phone. This prevents the concern of someone using your finger to unlock your phone while you’re sleeping. Android P will also have a feature where you can instantly and automatically connect to your car’s Bluetooth system once in range. This will save you some time from tinkering with Bluetooth settings on your morning commute.

Augmented Reality

Since Augmented Reality apps and games like PokemonGo hit the market in 2016 demand for them has been steadily increasing.

Not only can introducing virtual objects into your real-world view be fun and entertaining, there’s more and more practical uses for the technology being discovered throughout 2018. Some apps are even being used by carpenters and roofers to find the slope or dimensions of a physical project using a phone’s camera and AR software. You can expect smartphone OSs to embrace AR technologies and become more friendly to the development of these advanced apps throughout the year.

Enhanced Browsing

These changes in smartphone OSs have great implications for the web and website developers. Many of the new features that are being planned for release by the end of 2018 focus on giving users a simpler, more universal web browsing experience. Mobile browser software is now built with the presumption that websites will have responsive themes and design elements. For web designers, this means it’s more important than ever to be using responsive design on your WordPress hosting or other CMS-based sites.

To keep up with the enhanced browsing capabilities of smartphones, it’s a good idea to build your websites with mobile traffic at top priority. HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript work well with the 2018 releases of mobile browsers, but Adobe Flash is now incompatible with mobile and should not be used. To create the best experience for your smartphone using traffic base, consider getting a WordPress hosting account with fast load times and up-to-date software. This includes PHP version, CMS version, and any updates released for themes and plugins.

With all the changes in the works for mobile OSs in 2018, it can seem hard to keep up from a software developer or web designer’s standpoint. Following the best practices when building your website, with responsive design and light-weight frontends in mind, your mobile users will find your site loads quickly and without error. Smartphone users will enjoy the enhanced security found in 2018 updates, such as the Lockdown Mode coming to Android Phones, and many entertaining and useful features like increased AR compatibility that nearly all new phones will benefit from.

Android Oreo begins rolling out to the Huawei Mate SE

Andrew Myrick
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When the Huawei Mate SE was launched in March, there was one frustrating omission. Huawei opted to ship its latest device with Android Nougat, instead of Oreo.

That has all been rectified as an update is now rolling out to owners of the Mate SE. This update brings Android 8.0 Oreo in-tow, which comes along with Huawei’s EMUI 8.0 overlay.

The update weighs in at just about 2.4GB, and all of the features you have been wanting. These include a new “floating Navigation dock” which lets you take advantage of popular shortcuts from anywhere.

Huawei has also added the ability to connect to two different Bluetooth devices at the same time. This is a feature that is surprising, as you would expect to see this already available.

Nonetheless, the update should be rolling out to all Mate SE owners here in the US. So if you want to check to see if it’s available for you, head into Settings > Software Update and there should be some joy waiting for you.

As a reminder, the Mate SE sports a 5.93-inch display with an 18:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 2160 x 1080. Powering the handset is the Kirin 659 chipset, which is coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. Oh, and there’s a nifty dual-camera setup mounted on the rear.

Huawei decided to release the Mate SE after seeing the success of the Honor 7X. But the company packed some extra RAM and extra storage into its new budget handset.

Let us know if you have installed the update and how it is currently running on your Mate SE. If the update to Oreo piques your interest, then you can head over to Amazon and pick one up for just $229.99 for a limited time.

Buy the Huawei Mate SE!

Question of the Week: Will you spend $119 on Amazon Prime?

AndroidGuys
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As expected, Amazon recently raised the price of its annual membership fee for its Prime service. Having gone up another $20 as compared to last year, it’s now $119 per year to enjoy the same benefits.

This brings to our Question of the Week. Do you think it’s worth the money to sign up for, or renew, an Amazon Prime account? Sure, Amazon continues to add little things along the way, and its movies and television gets better each year. Does that matter enough to you?

You Tell Us

Do you plan to spend $119 on Amazon Prime this year? Is it your opinion that it’s worth the increased rate? Are you constantly taking advantage of savings on shipping and find it to be a wash? Or, was this increase the one that pushed you away?

We’d like to learn a little bit about you and whether you’ll be breaking out the wallet or purse to sign up. How do you justify spending that much? Will you go month to month? Are you canceling once your plan expires?

Share your opinion and win a $25 Gift Card!

Leave us a comment below with whether you’ll spend the money on Amazon Prime this year, and why or why not. We’ll go through the comments after one week and randomly select a winner. If your name is drawn, you’ll win a $25 Google Play Gift Card. Use it to buy apps, games, movies, eBooks, or music — you decide!

Comments entered before Sunday, May 20 (11:59PM PST) will be counted. As long as you’re on point and stick to the topic, we’ll consider you for the drawing!

How to enable Google’s new Smart Compose feature in Gmail

Andrew Myrick
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A couple of weeks ago, Google launched a huge redesign to the Gmail web client. The company didn’t stop there as there were some big announcements at I/O 2018, including Smart Compose.

Gmail didn’t steal the show considering how many new features are coming to Assistant. However, Smart Compose is sure to make your lives much easier, especially if you are feeling drowned.

Best Google I/O 2018 Announcements

Instead of forcing users to wait months, Google has started rolling out this feature. Today, we’re taking a look at how you can enable this in your Gmail account!

Enable Smart Compose

  1. Go to gmail.com
  2. Tap the gear icon in the top-right
  3. Select Settings
  4. Scroll down and toggle Experimental Access
  5. Refresh page

After Experimental Access has been enabled, you will then see the Smart Compose feature available. It will automatically be toggled on, but you can turn this off if you want.

Once everything is enabled, you can fire up a new message and Gmail will begin suggesting content. As you type the email, greyed out text will appear and if you want this to be input into the email, you can simply press the ‘tab’ key.

The downside here is that Smart Compose definitely seems to be in an alpha stage. The feature worked for me on some occasions but largely did not work.

This could be a case of Google needing to work out some kinks or using AI to improve the service. But for others, it’s likely that your emails can be taken care with just a few clicks.

Conclusion

It’s great to see that Google isn’t giving up on Gmail, as it starts ramping up the inclusion of new features and a new coat of paint. But we want to know what you think about Smart Compose.

Have you run into any issues as of yet? Be sure to sound off in the comments below and let us know whether you think that Smart Compose will be a useful tool in your arsenal.

Saturday Savings: Tech and Gear on sale this weekend

Andrew Myrick
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If you’re in the market for some new products, then you have come to the right place. Saturday Savings is back with another edition, where you can save big on devices like the Huawei Mate SE and more.

Weekend Recommender: Invisible Shield, mophie, Mount Genie, and more

In addition to saving on some new smartphones, Amazon has discounted many of its products like the Echo or Fire tablets. There are also some great deals for portable chargers and more.

Save on new tech

Huawei Mate SE – $249.99 $229.99

After the Honor 7X was launched, Huawei decided to launch the Mate SE for those of us here in the US. The handset sports a 5.93-inch display while being powered by the Kirin 659 and 4GB of RAM.

The Mate SE also sports 64GB of onboard storage, and a respectable 3,340mAh battery. On pricing, Huawei is offering a discount of $20, bringing the price down to just $229.99.

Buy the Huawei Mate SE!

Save on Accessories

Aukey USB-C PD Battery – $76.99 $56 w/code FORMOM7

While there are some great and cheap portable chargers, some times you need a bit more. The Aukey USB-C portable charger features power delivery technology and 30,000mAh of capacity.

The charger includes two standard USB ports, along with a USB-C port and a microUSB port. Normally, this charger is priced at $76.99 but you can save $20 when using the code FORMOM7.

Buy the Aukey USB-C PD Battery!

 

Weekend Recommender: InvisibleShield, mophie, Mount Genie, Circle, and more

AndroidGuys
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It’s Saturday, and the day before Mother’s Day. Did you get mom something nice this year? Before you say no and head out to grab a gift, take a few minutes to look through the following guide.

We want you to find something awesome to purchase for yourself or someone else. Father’s Day is coming up, right? Get in on it early and be a champ.

What you’ll find below is a collection of items that the staff has gathered up which we feel merit your attention. Take a look through this short list and you might find your next favorite thing! Or dad’s.

InvisibleShield Glass Curve Elite

As gorgeous as today’s modern phones are, the last thing we want to do is put a scuff or scratch on them. There’s nothing worse than finding an imperfection on your glass screen. Once you see it you cannot unsee it, right?

InvisibleShield, a brand that’s been in the game of screen protection for some time, has some great solutions for devices like the Samsung Galaxy S9 or Galaxy S9 Plus. The Glass Curve Elite features a shock absorbent layer to help ensure you don’t put a gouge in the glass.

Designed specifically with curved edges in mind, you get to keep your smooth finish and sexy taper. Smudge resistant, you’ve got the same precise touch response as before, plus you get a lifetime warranty. Best of all, it works with your case, too. Pick one up for about $50 from Zagg’s website.

mophie Juice Pack

We’re big fans of mophie here and come to enjoy it whenever new products are introduced for phones. Among the most recent accessories launched are the Juice Pack for the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus. Not to worry, though, there are plenty of other devices supported.

No matter how big your phone’s battery is, you can always use a little more. These external batteries are custom fit for your Samsung flagship and provide at least 32 more hours of talk time. How about around 120 hours of music playback? Whatever you wanna do with it; there’s 2070mAh worth of juice to work with.

Slim and low profile in design, you still get wireless charging capabilities in your handset. It’s a protective case and external battery in one. Each Juice Pack comes with a two-warranty. Grab yours for around $100 through mophie’s website.

Solo New York backpack

We all have gear and stuff that gets lugged around from place to place. At any given time we may have to pack up a laptop, phone, chargers and cables, books, magazines, and more.

Solo New York recently introduced three new bags designed to help you tote all of your gear. Not only are they practical, but they’re stylish as hell, too. Capable of holding 17-inch laptops, these have plenty of pockets for your phone and accessories, school books and papers, and other items.

We’ve been using the Everyday Max Backpack for the last two weeks and love the versatility. It doesn’t matter which way you grab it, or what you pack inside; the bag can be carried in all orientations. Throw it over your shoulder or carry it sideways like a messenger bag.

There are pockets big enough for full sized laptops and those small enough for keys and wallets. The yellow accents are really striking against the grey and dark blue.

At the very bottom is an area to house a pair of shoes. Shove ’em inside and know that they’ll not be touching anything else. So, tuck away a pair of crispy white kicks and wear your everyday utility shoes on the commute to and from work. Choose from three new models and purchase yours for about $80.

Mount Genie for Google Home Mini and Amazon Echo Dot

Have you purchased a Google Home Mini yet? If not, get on it! They’re super cool and only get better with time. You won’t remember life before having one.

Although the Google Home Mini has a pretty low profile, it still takes up space on the desk or counter. Wouldn’t it be nice to mount one of these flush to your wall or just plug it directly into an outlet and not worry about the cord? Enter Mount Genie.

With a variety of options to choose from, these guys specialize in creating mounts and accessories for the Google Home Mini, Amazon Echo Dot, and more. Affordably priced, each has its own use case and benefit.

Some are as simple as plugging into the wall outlet while others require just a little bit of work. For the designs that need a hole cut out or mount you’ll receive templates you can trace on the wall or ceiling.

Things change in an interesting way when you realize that you can place your digital assistant in different places throughout the house. So much so that we’re already considering picking up a few more for around the home.

Circle with Disney

With young ones connecting more and more at home how do you as a parent monitor and keep them safe? The Circle with Disney is a small little box that connects to your router and helps you monitor the usage of devices in your home.

Connecting is very simple; you’ll be adding family members to the account in no time at all. After that you pick the age of the family member and then what kind of content they are allowed to connect with, such as as Amazon, Hulu, Minecraft PE, Neflix, PBS, and YouTube.

We’re able to set time limits for certain things like one hour of YouTube as well as a bedtime for when you want certain devices to stay off the network.

We’ve been running with one for a few weeks and  are pleasantly surprised. There’s hardly any configuration to deal with beyond the initial setup. We like that we can view usage from inside the app, knowing which child is active. You are also able to set reward for your child based on certain things. For instance, we had good report cards so one evening we rewarded the kids with No Time Limit Today and No Offtime Today. Purchase for approximately $79 from Circle.

Here’s how you can enable YouTube’s new reminders to stop you from watching

Andrew Myrick
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During the Google I/O 2018 keynote, the Big G introduced a series of new ‘Digital Wellness’ features. While some of these features are only coming to Android P, others are coming to various apps, including YouTube.

READ MORE: Best Google I/O 2018 announcements

One such feature is the ability to have YouTube remind you to stop watching videos. As it would turn out, Google is not waiting until “later this year” to release this feature to users.

There is a back-end update coming to YouTube which enables the reminders within the app. Here are the settings you need to follow in order to enable reminders:

  1. Open YouTube
  2. Tap your profile image in the top right-hand corner
  3. Select Settings
  4. Select General
  5. Tap ‘Remind me to take a break‘

From there, you will see several different reminder frequencies:

  • Never
  • Every 15 minutes
  • Every 30 minutes
  • Every 60 minutes
  • Every 90 minutes
  • Every 180 minutes

After the “timer” has run out, a pop-up message will appear suggesting it’s time to take a break. Additionally, you can use this pop-up to either dismiss the message or go back to YouTube’s settings to adjust the frequency.

READ MORE: New features coming to Android P

As we mentioned above, this is not available for everyone just yet. Instead, you will have to wait for Google to “flip-the-switch” and enable this new feature for your devices.

But let’s be serious. Just limit your YouTube intake and go get some fresh air! Let us know what you think about this feature and Google’s new “Digital Wellbeing” movement.

Facer’s curation tools are now available for everyone

Alexandra Arici
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A popular smartwatch customization for Android, Facer today announced new tools for designers, curators and brands.

Last year, Facer unveiled Facer Creator, an advanced cross-platform watch face design tool. The intention of Facer Creator was to allow beginner users to create and publish simple watch faces in a matter of minutes, and more adventurous designers to create elaborate creations.

Now Facer is taking things to the next level by rolling out a big update to the Facer platform which opens up its branding and curation tools to all users. Previously, some of these options were limited to verified designers.

Here are the new features available

Customize your profile URL

Starting this week, all Facer users have the ability to use custom profiles URLs, in order to make their brand pop out. Check, for example, the MVMT’s official profile at the address: http://www.facer.io/u/mvmt.

The URLs will be handed out based on a first-come-first-served basis, so make sure you claim yours as soon as possible. Note: you will need to update your profile first.

Cover images

Cover images are great ways to illustrate a designer’s work and raise visibility on their products/creations and are now available to all Facer users.

Curated watch face collections

Last but definitely not least, Facer has added new tools which allow all users of the platform to create, curate and share collections of watch faces.

You can either create your own branded collection of watch faces or simply curate watch face collections created around a certain topic like “best faces for the Samsung Gear S3”.

Facer is exciting to see your creations! The best ones will be showcased on a weekly basis under the Featured section.

All the features described above are currently available to use and they are 100% free to try out. So if you love making watch faces, start getting creative with Facer. And maybe you’ll end up in the Featured section.

BlackBerry Mobile will unveil its latest handset, the ‘Key2’, on June 7th

Andrew Myrick
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While Samsung, LG, and Huawei are making headlines, BlackBerry Mobile

is trying to join the fun. The company posted to Twitter stating that the new BlackBerry Key2 would be announced on June 7th.

BlackBerry Key2

The event will be held at 10 AM in New York City, and we are unsure whether this will only be live-streamed. There’s obviously a strong possibility that BlackBerry could have some type of hands-on event.

As for what we are expecting, there have not been very many rumors. Previously, the ‘Athena’ was being leaked which was set to be the successor to the KeyOne.

Speaking of the KeyOne, the handset is still quite popular with its 4.5-inch display and Snapdragon 625 chipset. This is coupled with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage.

The leaked handset shows that there will be a full QWERTY keyboard placed below the display. Additionally, the fingerprint scanner is likely to be embedded into the space bar on the keyboard.

In the spec department, the Key2 is unlikely to be a true flagship from BlackBerry Mobile. Instead, we are expecting to see the Snapdragon 600 SoC, along with 6GB of RAM.

Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait a few more weeks before TCL shows off what it has been working on. Surprisingly, the KeyOne was one of the more underrated devices when it launched, and TCL is hoping to see the same with the Key2.

Let us know what you think about the BlackBerry Key2 and if you are interested in seeing what’s to come. It seems that the company is going to corner the market for those who want a hardware keyboard.

Urban Armor Gear Pathfinder case for OnePlus 5T review

Alexandra Arici
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The OnePlus 5T is a great smartphone coming with top specifications and a fair price. Even so, it’s far from being a perfect handset. For example, while the device feels good in hand, it’s extremely slippery.

OnePlus solved this with the Sandstone White version of the flagship. With a matte finish and slight texture, it provides significantly more grip. But if you own the Midnight Black model, it’s highly recommended that you use a protective case with your phone.

There’s no shortage of covers for the OnePlus 5T out there, but if you’re looking for something more rugged you should probably check out what Urban Armor Gear has to offer.

Part of the Pathfinder series, the Urban Armor Gear case for the OnePlus 5T is among the lightest cases ever designed by UAG.

Unfortunately, it does add some bulk. Without a case, the OnePlus 5T is a very sleek device. But snap the UAG case on and the device automatically loses its slimness and becomes more voluminous.

On the bright side of things, the case provides two-layer protection and is military standard MIL-STD 810G-516.6 compliant. Consumers can trust MIL-STD-810G as a primary indicator that the case was designed to, at minimum, survive a four-foot drop and come out unharmed. The case’s armor shell and impact resistant soft core see to that.

The case features oversized tactile buttons and facilitates easy access to the touchscreen and ports. The protective cover offers full compatibility with the OnePlus 5T’s fingerprint scanner, frontal and rear cameras, including face unlock.

The highlight here is represented by the oversized clicky buttons for power and volume which provide a rewarding user experience.

Most rugged cases are usually too bulky to support wireless compatibility with NFC payment systems. However, this particular case is slim enough so you can still use services such as Google Pay.

Does the case protect against falls as advertised?

Yeah, it does. The bumper is raised around the glass to help protect the display, so even if you drop your phone on the floor or on the sidewalk, the screen will come out unharmed. I’m usually pretty clumsy, which makes me prone to dropping phones a lot. But with the UAG case on, I don’t have to worry about shattering the OnePlus 5T’s beautiful AMOLED display anymore.

So should you invest in a UAG case for your OnePlus 5T? Yes, because the accessory can provide great protection. Mind you, it’s not a versatile case, meaning it does not double as a stand or anything like that. But it gets the job done. It will keep your phone away from harm’s say.

Yet, two things keep me from recommending this case wholeheartedly. First off, it’s pretty bulky. The OnePlus 5T is a sleek, beautiful device. But slapping the UAG case on it will transform it into a sturdy beast. I over exaggerate a bit, but you get the point.

Secondly, the case costs $39.95, which is quite a lot to pay for an additional accessory. Especially when there are more affordable options available. For example, the Anccer Ultra-Slim Hard Case keeps the flagship killer beautiful and only costs $12.

On the other hand, OnePlus’ official cases aren’t exactly cheap either. The OnePlus 5T Bumper Case in Ebony Wood/Rosewood or Carbon will take you back with $29.95.

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