Remember the AR stickers feature which Google demoed during its Pixel 2 event in October? Well, the search giant has released the AR Stickers app in the Play Store. It’s available for Pixel phones and require Android 8.1 Oreo to work – which is in the process of rolling out.
If you managed to make the jump to Android 8.1 Oreo, then Google says you should be able to see the new feature appear inside the camera app in the coming days. Taking advantage of new APIs available in Android 8.1 Oreo, the Pixel phones will now be able to superimpose 3D objects (cute creatures) onto the real world via the camera app. And Google’s new AR tech makes them look like they really belong in the scene.
In case you don’t remember ARCore is Google’s augmented reality platform, build upon the work Google previously did with Tango. But unlike Tango, ARCore doesn’t require the same special hardware.
The inaugural pack of AR stickers includes Stranger Things and Star Wars-themed stickers, as well as a handful of funny creatures including a doughnut, a coffee mug, and a sporty broccoli. The stickers can be resized and moved around for better effect.
Even if there isn’t a lot of content available right now, Google plans to unveil even more AR Stickers soon, so keep an eye out.
Fancy the LG V30, but the phone is just too expensive for you? Fortunately, it’s that time of the year when it’s raining deals. Case in point, Verizon has one on the LG V30 which lets buyers shave $300 off its retail price.
For a limited time, you’ll be able to acquire the phone for $12.50/month for 24 months, which takes the cost of the phone down to $540. To take advantage of the discount, customers need to purchase the device on an installment plan. Once a few months go by, Verizon will apply the price cut as a bill credit every month until you get back your $300.
The LG V30 is a high-end phone that launched only a few months ago. The device boasts a 6-inch P-OLED display with 1440 x 2880 resolution and 18:9 aspect ratio. It’s the first LG smartphone to take advantage of a Snapdragon 835 processor and is also equipped with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.
Like many of this year’s flagships, the LG V30 rocks a primary dual-camera setup which pairs a 16-megapixel sensor with f/1.6 aperture with a 13-megapixel one with f/1.9. On the front sits a 5-megapixel selfie camera. The device ships with Android 7.1.2 Nougat out of the box, but will be updated to Android 8.0 Oreo soon.
If you want to grab the LG V30 with a discount, you best hurry up as the deal is only unavailable until December 13.
Fancy the Samsung Galaxy S8 Active, but you’re unable to fit it in your budget right now? Fortunately, there are alternatives out there, like the recently released Vernee Active, which in some respects is even better than the Galaxy S8 Active. Below you’ll find five reasons why the Vernee Active is actually a pretty worthy alternative to Samsung’s rugged handset.
More RAM and storage
The Vernee Active might not take advantage of a bezel-less display with the modern 18:9:5 aspect ratio, but it does bring more to the table in terms of RAM and storage.
While the Galaxy S8 Active includes 4GB of RAM + 64GB storage (microSD card slot included), the Vernee Active boasts 6GB of RAM + 128GB of storage (microSD card slot also included).
The phone bundles an octa-core MediaTek P25 processor under the hood, while the Galaxy S8 Active relies on the Snapdragon 835 processor to keep things running smoothly.
Bigger battery
On top of offering more RAM and storage, the Vernee Active also has a bigger 4,200 mAh battery which is said to be able to last up to 3-days with light usage, which in theory is achievable due to the 1080p display. The Galaxy S8 Active, on the other hand, benefits from a 4,000 mAh fuel cell, that guarantees the phone can live a full, uninterrupted 24-hours.
A sturdy phone, by most standards
The Vernee Active is IP68-certified as waterproof in up to 5ft of water and up to 30 minutes, as well as dustproof and drop resistant. What’s more, the phone boasts Kevlar protection on the back and improved corner defense.
However, the phone is not MIL-STD-810G compliant like the Galaxy S8 Active.
More widely available
Not so long ago, the Samsung Galaxy S8 Active was an AT&T exclusive and only available in the US. Well, now two more carriers – T-Mobile and Sprint – have started offering the handset in the country.
In contrast, the Vernee Active is available even for those living outside the States, from online retailers like Aliexpress. What’s more, it sports LTE connectivity with no less than 28 supported bands, so buyers will be able to use SIM cards from AT&T or T-Mobile without a problem. But not Verizon and Sprint subscribers.
Better price
The biggest advantage the Vernee Active has over the Galaxy S8 Active is pricing. The phone is available for $319.99, plus you’ll be able to win a $500 prize if you join the commentfest on the official Vernee website.
In contrast, the Galaxy S8 Active is a lot more expensive. It’s available at AT&T and Sprint $849.99 outright, while T-Mobile sells it for $820.
Verizon on Monday announced a game-changing partnership with the NFL which will bring football games on smartphones regardless of carrier.
So far, Big Red has held the exclusive rights to mobile streaming of live NFL events, but all that will change starting January. Come next month, anyone with a smartphone will be able to watch games airing on their local market. And of course, you’ll be able to watch nationally televised matches, including Thursday, Sunday and Monday Night Football games, and of course the Super Bowl 2018.
Customers will be able to stream NFL games on their handset by downloading the official NFL Mobile app, Yahoo Sports app, or go90 – which is Verizon’s own streaming service. Even with the new deal in place, Big Red says it will continue to sponsor the NFL and offer unique experiences to customers enrolled with Verizon Up rewards program during key NFL events such as the Super Bowl or Pro Bowl.
“The NFL is a great partner for us and we are excited to take its premier content across a massive mobile scale so viewers can enjoy live football and other original NFL content where and how they want it.”
Streaming NFL games on smartphones has been a Verizon exclusive (Verizon’s exclusivity did not apply on PCs or devices larger than a phone) ever since 2010, so this is certainly an interesting turn of events, one that might have something to do with the recent decline in viewers. By making streaming available to all mobile devices regardless of carrier, Verizon and NFL hope to boost these numbers up again.
The Google Home Max was announced back in October during the Pixel 2 event, and back then the search giant said the speaker will be available in December.
Well, it’s December alright and the device just went on sale at Best Buy. It’s available in either Chalk of Charcoal coloring options and you can snatch one for $399 a pop. But Best Buy isn’t the only place you can get the Home Max. The Chalk model is also up for grabs from Verizon, while the Charcoal one is currently listed as out of stock.
For those who don’t remember, the Home Max is a Google Assistant-power stereo speaker aimed at customers interested in getting superior audio quality. To that end, it takes advantage of 4.5-inch (114 mm) high-excursion dual-voice-coil woofers, as well as two 0.7-inch (18mm) tweeters. It also includes six microphones for far-field voice control and has Chromecast built-in.
The Home Max – which was developed in-house – benefits from Google’s Smart Sound algorithm which can use the microphones on board to adjust the speaker’s sound according to where it is placed in the room. It can also raise or lower the volume depending on what’s happening in the house. For example, it can raise the volume when a fan is on.
It’s interesting to note that at launch, Google said it would be giving away 12-months of YouTube Music (ad-free) with every Home Max purchase, but neither Best Buy or Verizon mention this in their listings.
Is the new annual flagship smartphone worth your hard-earned money, or is your older phone worth a second look? According to a new report coming out of the New York Post, it seems customers these days prefer getting a software update packed with new features, rather than invest towards a new phone.
The rising trend might have something to do with the fact that carriers have stopped offering phone subsidies. Instead, customers are allowed to purchase a phone and pay it back over the course of 24 months or more in installments. So now more and more users are choosing to improve their phones via software upgrades, instead of buying a new phone every two years.
The phone that could bring back the 2-year update cycle?
According to Chetan Sharma, CEO of Chetan Sharma Consulting, the new behavior was prompted by the fact that customers are now paying the full price for new smartphones. The result is that users now tend to treat cellphones purchases like computer purchases and hold on to them longer.
The only hope for this developing trend to subside is a dynamic product coming from a major manufacturer like Apple. According to Sharma, a smartphone like the iPhone X might do the trick and have customers reaching for the wallets every two years. And to encourage the behavior, some device manufacturers have started programs which allow customers to trade-in previous-generation smartphones for new models.
So what do you think? Do you have a tendency to renew your smartphone every two years or prefer upgrading your older device with software updates? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
Sprint wants to encourage folks to switch carriers and sign up for its Sprint Unlimited plan this holiday season, so it’s throwing in a bonus worth $100.
But there’s a catch. We’re not talking about hard cold cash here, but rather virtual currency you’ll have to spend in Pokémon Go. That’s right, Sprint will be basically handing out $14,500 PokéCoins which can be exchanged for up to 3,600 Poké Balls, 480 Max Revives, 145 Premium Raid Passes or 96 Incubators.
Taking advantage of the offer is easy. Just activate a new line of service in a Sprint store, then ask a sales representative for the FREE Pokémon Go gift. You’ll soon receive a text message with instructions on how to redeem your prize.
The deal was announced in order to celebrate the fact that Niantic recently unleashed 50 new Pokémon from the Hoenn region including Treecko, Trochic or Mudkip.
Once again let us remind you, you’ll have to jump on board Sprint’s Unlimited plan in order to be able to take advantage of this offer. Sprint’s unlimited bundle includes four lines of unlimited data, talk and text for $25/month with the fifth one offered for free. Subscribers also get unlimited access to Hulu and a six-month trial for Tidal.
Sprint doesn’t say how long the deal is good for, so if you’re a serious Pokémon Go player you would do well to hurry up if you want to take advantage of the promo.
In the past couple years we’ve seen numerous electronic manufacturers dive into the new true wireless earbud market. Most are rolling out their first crack at it, while a select few were early starters and now have second iterations that don’t feel so beta anymore. One of the newest well-known manufacturers that are in the former camp is Sony. The Japanese giant has a well-placed presence in the audio market, not just with general headphones but wireless offerings that boast some of the best active noise-cancellation (ANC) tech thus far. Its over-ear flagship sequel, the WH-1000XM2, has garnered a lot of praise.
But can it deliver a first-gen pair of true wireless earbuds that hold the same excellence as the rest of their headphone line, and not fall victim to the same downsides as the rest? That’s what we’re here to discover. To boot, we’ll say that fitting in ANC into such a small package is darn impressive, and something that others cannot claim.
Design
Unboxing the WF-1000X
One thing we really like about Sony’s designs is that they rarely follow in others’ footsteps. Case in point, the shape of the WF-1000X don’t look like any other true wireless earbuds currently on the market. They bear an L-shape that may initially draw confusion on how to exactly don them. But it quickly becomes apparent as soon as you realize the proper orientation. Grasping the ear tip stems and pointing the other end forward reveals how they insert in your ears. The ear tips are angled to match the shape of your ear canal.
We think the reason for this design is due to all the technology at Sony desired to pack in. So instead of going outward from the ear, they wrap around a bit towards the front. This is clever and in practice, there’s no downside that we found. Despite their size, the earpieces are still exceptionally lightweight. They practically disappear in your ears. This design choice also enables Sony to have great separation between the audio driver and wireless-enabling electronics. We think this is one reason for the WF-1000X’s above average sonics (we’ll talk about the audio quality a little later).
Speaking of the build, it’s all plastic but with a finish on the primary shell that looks metallic. Our “Black” model has more of a reflective dark gray that has an attractive sheen in light. It transitions to a smooth, matte finish on the ear tip end and a small window on the other end (where a wireless receptor is visible).
To reiterate, these earbuds are the in-ear (or in-canal) type, so the seal that the ear tips make in the ear canal are a big proponent of the sound quality. Sony’s ear tips are a firm, bullet-style and they go in pretty deep. We had no problem getting an appropriate seal. In the case that you don’t, Sony includes three different sizes of not just the typical silicone material but also foam.
We didn’t have any issue with the WF-1000X falling out, even while working out (which we don’t recommend because they’re unfortunately not water/sweat-proof). The silicone ear tips have a sticky finish that cling to your ear canals. They are very comfortable and we didn’t get any aches whatsoever.
Included accessories.
The packaging also comes with a USB-A to micro-USB charging cable, user-installable ear fins (for extra support), and a premium-feeling metal carrying case that has a battery within. True wireless earbuds struggle with battery life (the WF-1000X are no exception), so manufacturers typically put a battery in the carrying case to assist. This case has enough capacity to charge the WF-1000X through 3 cycles. This is great to have, but with a measly 3-hour rating, many your sessions will probably be cut short and you’ll have to wait until they charge up before continuing. Sometimes the future feels like we’re going backwards.
The earpieces have their specific Left and Right silos in the case. They have two pins that match up to the magnetic connectors in the case. They click into place nicely, but you do have to make sure that they get seated correctly. One time we thought we did and then ended up with no juice on the right earpiece. There’s a blue and red LED indicators that light up from the transparent portion of the earpieces. Red will shown when they’re charging. A blue flash tells the user that the earbuds are on, but they stop flashing once they’re set in the ears and the Bluetooth connection is stabilized.
Usability
It’s always interesting to see how manufacturers implement the user controls in these little guys, being that there’s not much room to work with. Some try touch controls while others try different button placements. Sony opts for buttons, one on the bottom of each earpiece. The left earpiece controls the power and mode of ANC (Sony has three sound modes: ANC on, ANC on but with audible higher frequencies, and ANC off), and the right earpiece controls playback in the typical method: single press for play/pause, double press for next track, triple press for previous track, and long press to toggle the mobile device’s virtual assistant (i.e. Google Now on Android). The buttons worked well in our use. Finding and pressing them can sometimes rock the seal, but nothing major.
I’m usually the type that likes to just plug and play. So I booted my experience with the WF-1000X by simply taking them out of the case, pairing with Bluetooth on my phone, and playing. I knew that Sony had an app that accompany the earbuds, but meh. Well, I soon found that if you want to access to the full volume capacity, you have to use the app. I was hitting the volume ceiling with just plugging and playing and got super worried for these headphones. The app has an independent volume control, for whatever reason. So what I did was cranked it up from that end so that I can solely have volume control on the Bluetooth end. This is an easy enough fix, but we still don’t agree with it. It’s not intuitive. The app shouldn’t be a necessity. I can picture users returning the WF-1000X upon running into the low volume and not realizing that the app can fix it.
Most true wireless earbuds struggle with the Bluetooth connection. It’s understandable, since the receptors must be tiny and the range compromised. The WF-1000X are certainly not exempt from this issue, despite its design to move the receptors further out from the ears. We can’t say if the fault falls on hardware or software. Not to scare anyone, signal drop-age isn’t particularly a whole lot worse than other true wireless earbuds we’ve tried. Typically enough body movement between the source device and earbuds do it. But we have found that the signal can spaz out randomly on the WF-1000X. Usually it’s the right earpiece that gets lost (these earpieces use a master/slave relationship – the left earpiece is the master and the right links to it) and takes a few seconds to recover. Our experience with this is best described as hit or miss. Sometimes it would chug through flawlessly and sometimes it would struggle to recover. Additionally, a few times when we took the earpieces out of the case for a listen, only the left earpiece would play. We would then have to placing them back in the case so they shut off and reset and that did the trick, but annoying.
[Update: Sony has since issued a firmware update that improves the audio/connection stability. We have installed it and can tell that there are less dropouts. Additionally, Sony has linked the volume control with the system, so there’s no longer the separate controls we complained about.]
And alas, there’s the ANC. To first set the stage, we have to caution that the performance of the ANC here is not going to be on the same level as something like the Sony WH-1000XM2 or Bose QC 35. It helps block noise but it’s going to be near dead silent. We’d say it’s about half level of those. It’s up to you if that’s meaningful or not. It is in our opinion. It’s pretty amazing to have ANC at all in something this size and this challenging to engineer. In other words, we’ll take whatever we can get. In practice, you’ll mostly be cancelling out low-end rumbling, like a white noise in an office space or the rumbling of a dishwasher. Same goes for an airplane, but in this case you will pick up the higher frequency whizzing from the engines.
Sound
The WF-1000X easily pair to our Android phone, but Sony includes an NFC receptor on the bottom of the charging case for even quicker setup.
The WF-1000X is not going to rival any headphone in the $200 range for clarity or analytical details. That said, it is no slouch either. Dynamics are stellar, reaching higher than the price would suggest. Soundstage is also a strong suit relative to the competition. This means that the sound isn’t cohesively flat. It’s open, airy, and notes have depth/dimensionality and impact. If you can look past high fidelity, it’s a very enjoyable and engaging sound. Together with the noise-cancellation, it’s easy block out the out the outside world and get lost in the sound. In other words, Sony makes up for fidelity (which is in no way bad) with delivery and noise-cancellation.
Speaking of the frequency response, it’s fairly well balanced. As of late, Sony has been doing a great job getting a nice balance between neutrality and energy. The range upper bass to mid range is wonderfully present and well separated. But sub-bass doesn’t go as deep as you can get up the price chain. Likewise, the treble is appreciably detailed, but it not with standout quality or reach, just decent.
Like most wireless, ANC headphones, the WF-1000X isn’t exempt from low-level hiss. But it’s within the realm of reason. Unless it’s a quiet passage, the music drowns it out.
Final Thoughts
The WF-1000X are an…interesting pair of true wireless earbuds. They have a couple standout highs but also some potentially deal-breaker lows. We’d be able to recommend them, but with a glaring caution based on the iffy wireless signal – but this is significantly better now since the firmware update.
The WF-1000X sound quality is definitely where it should be for the price tag. What puts it over the edge is noise-cancellation, which no other truly wireless earbud can claim. If you value sound above other things, and want absolutely no wires, then the WF-1000X is the best that you can do at the moment.
Missed some of the deals Amazon had on its Prime Exclusive Phones during Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Don’t worry, the company isn’t done offering discounts this holiday season.
And if you haven’t found the perfect gift for that special loved one or family member, maybe Amazon’s list of discounts on Prime Exclusive Phones will inspire you.
Just keep in mind that these devices come with Amazon’s ads and offers on the lock screen. But if you’re OK with that, the phones are a pretty good deal especially this month:
Nokia 6 – $149.99 ($30 off); deal starts today until December 24
Moto G5 Plus 64GB – $199.99 ($40 off); deal starts at 12:01 a.m. on December 10 until December 23
Moto X4 – $279 ($50 off); deal starts at 12:01 a.m. on December 10 until December 23
LG X Charge – $119.99 ($30 off); deal starts at 12:01 a.m. on December 10 until December 23
LG Q6 – $179.99 ($50 off); deal starts at 12:01 a.m. on December 10 until December 23
LG G6+ – $449.99 ($50 off); deal starts at 12:01 a.m. on December 17 until December 23
These deals are available for a limited time while supply last. So if you eyed an offer, you best make sure you act fast.
During its Tech Summit this week, Qualcomm unveiled more than just the high-end Snapdragon 845 chipset for smartphones. In an attempt to cure the missing 3.5 headphone jack blues, the chip maker also announced its first dedicated USB-C Hi-Fi DAC, titled the AQT1000. Qualcomm already makes DACs and audio codes, but this is its first USB-C Hi-Fi DAC offering.
With the new USB Type-C plug-and-play module, Qualcomm aims to bring a more enhanced audio experience to the headphone dongles normally used with 3.5mm jack-lacking smartphones.
The module is designed to plug into a phone USB-C port and stream high-quality sound through its 3.5mm output.
To do so, the AQT1000 boasts a dynamic range of 123dB up to 384kHz, 32-bit audio, and THD+N of -105dB. Furthermore, the module also takes advantage of DSD (Direct Stream Digital) audio support, a format originally developed to capture jazz concerts – which takes a different approach to creating high-resolution audio signals than PCM.
Instead of using many bits of information in the single, DSD uses a single bit. But rather than sampling the info several thousand times a second, this single bit samples 2.8 million times a second to generate the audio signal. The result is a more “natural” sounding audio preferred by audiophiles.
Qualcomm will be offering the AQT1000 to manufacturers to bake it into their devices, rather than offer it as a dongle itself. The chip maker says to expect the first products in early 2018.
