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Google intros Android Oreo (Go edition) for entry-level phones

Alexandra Arici
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During its I/O 2017 conference several months ago, Google unveiled Android Go, a lightweight version of Android targeting budget phones running 1GB of RAM or lower.

Since then we haven’t heard much of Android Go, but this week Google finally unveiled Android Oreo (Go edition) as part of the Android 8.1 rollout which is expected to start today.

Android Oreo (Go edition) is made up of three parts: the operating system per-se, Google apps, and the Play Store. Google optimized the operating system by employing data management features and built-in security tools in order to deliver performance and storage improvements.

Android Oreo (Go edition) has been fine-tuned for speed and reliability, so the average app will run 15% faster on the devices taking advantage of this light-weight OS. Since entry-level devices usually come equipped with very little storage space, Google made sure to optimize Android Oreo (Go edition), as well as the pre-installed apps to take up to 50% less space on the handsets.

Speaking of which, Android Oreo (Go edition) is expected to arrive with a total of nine apps pre-installed including Google Go, Google Assistant Go, YouTube Go, Google Maps Go, Gmail Go, Gboard, Google Play, Chrome, and Files Go. As explained above, these apps have been optimized to take up as little space as possible. Case in point, Google Go weights under 5MB.

Furthermore, the Google Play Store in Android Oreo (Go edition) contains a special section in which users will be able to find recommended apps for entry-level devices such as theirs. Yet, the Store will also give access to regular apps.

Google has also thought of helping you save data, by baking in features that block background data usage across apps or tools such as Data Saver in Chrome.

In the announcement post, Google also notes that devices running the new software will make a debut on the market in the coming months, although no other details on the matter were provided.

ZTE’s Axon M: Twice the screens, twice the fun (Promoted)

Guest Blogger
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Outside of the world of TV shows, no-one really uses a flip phone anymore, do they? It’s all touchscreen smartphones now, and we can answer calls with a flick of the finger, so there’s no need to flip a phone open or closed except to make a dramatic gesture. We can all agree that flip phones are part of our technological past.

Or can we? ZTE’s latest smartphone innovation shows that they disagree completely. However, before you start to wonder at their business sense, their idea of a flip phone is not quite what we’ve come to know a flip phone to be. When you flip the Axon M open, you won’t find a keypad under the screen. What you will find is a phone that could change the way we look at smartphones going forward.

Why This Isn’t Just Another Flip Phone

Let’s get the suspense out of the way, for those who don’t know. ZTE’s latest development is a twin-screen flip device that hinges open to broaden the display, but the real innovation lies in what you can do with those screens.

Intriguing. Go On…

Most smartphones now offer split-screen capability. However, even with a phone like the Pixel 2 XL, that can be limiting. Sure, you can have — for example — a stock tracker open in one half of the screen and Twitter in the other, so you can live-tweet the markets reacting to a big news story. Try to do anything that relies on much definition, though, and it’s a chaotic festival of squinting and mistyping on the now-tiny keyboard.

The Axon M, instead, allows you to have two apps open on separate screens. So, you can have Netflix streaming on one screen, and open up IMDB on the other to see who that actor is, who you can’t quite place but you know you’ve seen before.

It Sounds Familiar…

It may do, if you’re a fan of smartphones good and bad. Kyocera tried the dual-screen trick in 2011, with the Echo. The phone was so poorly received that they never released a follow-up; it sounded good, but the processor was too weak to drive any decent functionality.

The Axon M has a much stronger processor, and the software has been honed to ensure no loss of speed or usability. Boasting Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 821 processor and 4GB of RAM, there’s plenty of power to allow the dual screen display it’s gaming functionality we all hoped for! Whether you’re wanting increased immersion into the fast paced world of Asphalt 8: Airborne, or you want to play on virtual sports, this phone has you covered!
What will be interesting to see is the further developments this increased functionality may bring to the handheld gaming market as a whole!

Two-player, board style games like Battleships and more control intensive games like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas could have a whole new lease of life on the device, as they never quite worked on a one screen display!

What Else Can It Do?

The phone makes practical use of features like screen mirroring. So if you’re in a restaurant with a friend and waiting for your appetizers, you can “tent” the phone and have a show or a game on both screens.

You can also stretch a display so one app makes use of both screens. The Axon M runs Android, and ZTE have ensured that the top 100 Android apps are functional when spread over two screens; essentially, it becomes a tablet in function as well as size. All of this, and ZTE promise that it won’t drain the battery; even with both screens on the go for hours, it can go all day on a full charge.

With models like the Axon M, a flip phone comeback might just be on the cards.

Samsung Galaxy S9 might dazzle in Purple next year

Alexandra Arici
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Over the years we’ve seen a lot of great color options for Samsung’s smartphones, but the Galaxy S8 topped it all. The Korean tech giant has just unveiled a Burgundy Red version of its flagship, and another Galaxy S8 Plus version in Pink just went on sale in Spain.

These are the latest color options, but the Galaxy S8 was already available in Midnight Black, Orchid Grey, Arctic Silver, Maple Gold (in select markets) and Coral Blue. But what about that Purple version that was teased by the rumor mill before the official announcement? Unfortunately, it never made it on the market.

For some reason, Samsung abandoned this project, but luckily for those of you who love Purple, Violet and all things related, we have good news.

According to a report coming out of SamMobile, Samsung plans to launch a Purple version of the Galaxy S9, alongside Black, Gold and Blue ones – which will probably be quite similar to the Galaxy Note 8’s. As for the Purple variant, it could end up being a darker, more intense shade of purple, as opposed to a pastel one.

It remains to be seen how the Purple Galaxy S9 will actually look like and whether Samsung will make it available on the US market at launch. Chances are that it won’t, but we’re merely speculating at this point.

According to the rumor mill, the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ could make their first public appearance at CES 2018, although the official launch event is expected to take place in February. So who knows maybe we’ll get to take a sneak peek at the Purple Galaxy S9 come next month.

T-Mobile is giving away two Samsung Galaxy S8 Active smartphones on December 5

Alexandra Arici
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T-Mobile will be spicing up its reward program this Tuesday, December 5 with a sweepstakes that offers some fabulous prizes.

First off, we should note that the carrier is giving away free sausage biscuit sandwiches from Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s. On top of that, if you ever wanted to learn how to cook, you can now get a free cooking class from Panna, courtesy of T-Mobile. Also this week, subscribers will be able to save $30 on tickets to their favorite sporting event or concert from Ticket Liquidators, as well as 25% from craft store Joann’s Fabric.

 

And now for the more interesting part. The Magenta carrier is hosting a sweepstakes during which it will randomly be drawing the winner on an hourly basis. Each hour, a lucky subscriber will win the prize allocated to that time slot, plus a second one for a friend or loved one. Here’s the timetable for the sweepstakes.

  • 9:00 am PT: two pairs of B&O Play H4 headphones
  • 10:00 am PT: two UE Megaboom speakers in Red
  • 11:00 am PT: two Samsung Gear VR headsets with controllers
  • 12:00 pm PT: two Samsung Gear S3 Frontier smartwatches + a check worth $728 to cover taxes and other expenses
  • 13:00 pm PT: two Samsung Galaxy Tab E tablets
  • 14:00 pm PT: two Samsung Galaxy S8 Active smartphones + a check worth $728 to cover taxes and other expenses
  • 15:00 pm PT: two Samsung 65-inch UHD Smart TVs and two Sound Bars + a check worth $2,742 to cover taxes and other expenses

Interested parties are invited to start following @TMobile on Twitter to get access to the instructions on how to enter the sweepstakes, which will be posted around 8 am PST on Tuesday, December 5. T-Mobile notes that the entries submitted according to the instruction post should include the #HolidayTWOgether and #Contest hashtags.

Does the prospect of winning any of the prizes listed above sound good to you? Then don’t forget to mark the date on your calendar. Especially since you don’t even have to be a T-Mobile subscriber to enter the sweepstakes.

OnePlus 5T Star Wars Edition is coming, but you might not be able to get it [Update]

Alexandra Arici
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Were you disappointed when the Lava Red OnePlus 5T turned out to be just another color version and not the rumored Star Wars edition?

Don’t be, because it seems like the OnePlus 5T Star Wars edition is actually a real product. Although it will not be offered in Red, as previously expected.

Present during India’s Comic-Con, OnePlus (who is one of the sponsors) briefly teased the upcoming OnePlus 5T Star Wars Edition. As you can see in the image attached above, the phone sports a white paint job, while the Star Wars logo lives at the bottom. There’s also a red alert slider button – a neat little detail.

Don’t miss: The OnePlus 5T is now official, here’s what’s new

The OnePlus 5T Star Wars Edition will reportedly also be bundled with Star Wars effects and wallpapers, as to make it even more appealing to fans of the galactic saga.

According to Tech PP – the publication who noted the handset was teased during Comic-Con in India, the device will go on sale on December 16, just a day after the new Star Wars: The Last Jedi is scheduled to start showing in theaters.

Unfortunately, it seems the OnePlus 5T Star Wars is the product of the partnership between OnePlus India and Disney India and as a result, the phone will be sold only in the country. Hopefully, this won’t end up being the case, as many Star Wars fans across the world would love to be given the chance to buy the phone.

Yet OnePlus seems to have a tendency to sell its Limited Edition phones locally. For example, do you remember the OnePlus 3T Colette Edition which was made available only in France?

Going back to the OnePlus 5T Star Wars edition, the phone is expected to come packing 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Only 15,000 units will be made available at launch.

[Update]: GSM Arena reports it has received confirmation that the phone will exclusively be sold in India to celebrate OnePlus’ anniversary in the country. The phone will be available starting December 16 online, as well as offline in experience zones in Bengaluru and Noida. The official announcement is scheduled for December 14.

Galaxy S9 could be accompanied by the DeX Pad

Dan Bartram
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Samsung is reportedly working on a new version of the DeX Station that was first introduced with the Galaxy S8. The second generation DeX Pad is likely to resemble more of a wireless charging pad than a dock and will accompany the Galaxy S9.

The source comes on the back of reports by popular leaker @evleaks that suggested a revamped DeX station was in the works for the next Galaxy.

The reason to move to a pad rather than having the phone docked is thanks to enhancements in Android Oreo that could mean the Galaxy S9 can be used as a mouse pad or a keyboard. This would remove the need to have to carry around a separate keyboard and mouse to use your device as a portable computer.

The phone will still need to be connected somehow to the USB Type-C port so Samsung will need to come up with some clever method of making connecting the Galaxy S9 a slick process and also hiding the connecting port when not in use. It’ll probably be similar to the fold-away connector on the Gear VR.

Certainly including functionality to have the phone function as a mouse of keyboard would widen the use case for DeX meaning you only need a screen.

What do you guys think? Would you use DeX if the new version could offer a keyboard or mouse functionality?

Google reveals the best apps & games of 2017

Alexandra Arici
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With only one month to go before the New Year, Google has unveiled its collection of “Best of 2017” apps, games and media from the Play Store.

The lists are available for every country where the service is available, but below you’ll find the most popular content in the US this year:

Most popular new games of 2017

Most popular games of 2017

Top streamed songs of 2017

Top movies of 2017

Top TV shows of 2017

To books of 2017

Have you tried any of these apps and games? If you haven’t then it might be time to download them on your smartphone or tablet right now.

Essential Camera updated with portrait mode and more

Dan Bartram
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Essential has rolled out a pretty important update that will make quite a few people happy.

We’ve previously reported that the camera software on the Essential Phone was somewhat underperforming and in fact sideloading the official Google camera on the device improves the picture quality. Essential hasn’t stood still with improving the performance of its device and this time have released yet another update to improve the camera on the PH-1.

If you haven’t already received an OTA update on your device then it will be available pretty soon.This particular update will enable Portrait Mode on your Essential Phone and will also bring some added exposure settings for all modes as well as overall compression of the pictures.

Head on to Settings> About Phone> System Update to manually check for available OTA updates to grab the new portrait mode.

Google finally bans apps that include lock screen ads

Dan Bartram
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Ads are a valuable source of revenue for most companies, and full disclosure AndroidGuys relies on ads to continue to bring you the latest Andriod news, but unfortunately, certain implementation of ads are less than user-friendly.

One of these implementations is lock-screen ads that have previously shown up in apps like ES File Explorer. It seems Google agrees with the detrimental impact ads on the lock screen has to the user experience and is now removing apps that provide such functionality from the Play Store.

While the new policy isn’t a definitive block on ads on the lock screen, it does by proxy prevent such apps from existing.

Unless the exclusive purpose of the app is that of a lockscreen, apps may not introduce ads or features that monetize the locked display of a device.

That means that an app not explicitly designed to be a lock screen app cannot also shoehorn ads onto your existing lock screen. An app that is actually a lock screen may, under the new policy, still provide adds on said lock screen because the user will know what they’re getting into when downloading it.

The idea of the new policy is to make it transparent to the user what they are downloading and not wonder why ads have all of a sudden started appearing. Good move by Google and hopefully it will begin removing said apps that violate this new policy from the Play Store imminently.

CES 2018 is just one month away, here’s what to expect

Alexandra Arici
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One of the biggest consumer electronics shows is coming up next month. CES 2018 will be taking place in Las Vegas between January 9 and 12 and all the bih names in the industry will be present at the event showcasing some of their latest tech.

So what can we expect to see at CES 2018 in terms of Android smartphones? Well, we can’t be really sure, but based on rumors and leaks we have made a list of possible products that could make an appearance during the event.

Samsung Galaxy S9 teaser

According to prolific industry leakster, Evan Blass (who is often right), Samsung’s upcoming flagships, the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ will make their first public appearance at CES 2017.

That’s not to say that the Korean tech giant will be launching the phones during the event, no, that’s still scheduled for late February, but in Las Vegas, the company might briefly show off its upcoming flagship devices. Who knows, Samsung might do so behind closed doors (like it did with the Galaxy S6 in 2015 for example), so don’t count on seeing much of the Galaxy S9 during the event.

Samsung Galaxy X

Samsung foldable smartphone has been in the rumor mill ever since 2015, but rumors about the purported device been intensifying in the past few months. A support page for the device in question (SM-G888N0) appeared on Samsung’s website no so long ago, fueling hopes of an imminent launch.

So who knows, Samsung might use CES 2018 as the launch platform for its Galaxy X smartphone. Or it could, at the very least, showcase it on the grounds.

Samsung Galaxy A series (2018)

Last year Samsung launched its next-gen Galaxy A (2017) series which includes the A7, A5 and A3 models at CES 2017. So we expect the company will pull a similar move this year and introduce the Galaxy A series (2018) edition.

If the latest leaks are to be believed, next year’s Galaxy A series will include four models instead of three: the Galaxy A8, Galaxy A7, Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A3. The Galaxy A8 will be the most high-end one of all, and while all models will feature a bezel-less InfinityDisplays, the A8 will also come with a dual front-facing selfie camera.

LG G7

LG already announced it will be hosting a media event on January 8 at CES, so could we see the LG G7 make an appearance? According to a recent report coming out of Business Korea, it could.

Given that Samsung has a history of monopolizing the initial stock of the new Snapdragon high-end SoC, LG and other devices makers are forced to look elsewhere. This is why the LG G6 launched with the Snapdragon 821 on board, so maybe this year LG is racing to launch its flagship ahead of Samsung with the upcoming Snapdragon 845 on board.

But we’re more inclined to think that like last year, LG will probably unveil a bunch of new middle-range smartphones at CES 2018.

Honor 7X

Last year, Huawei’s sub-brand Honor unveiled the Honor 6X – a dual camera smartphone with an attractive price tag attached.

Well as Honor has already unveiled the 7X successor in China, we expect the company to announce its availability in the US. The Honor 7X is set to bring great specs including an 18:9 bezel-less display, 4GB of RAM and dual cameras and hopefully it will be sold for less than $300.

ZTE Axon 8

Here’s a thought. ZTE just confirmed a few days ago that that Axon 7 is no longer manufactured. So maybe ZTE is gearing up to finally launched the successor of this popular affordable flagship phone? The company already stated a successor of the Axon 7 will come at some point, so what if the Chinese device maker is preparing a surprise for its fans at CES 2018?

But given how quiet the rumor mill has been on the matter, we wouldn’t hold our breath. ZTE will more likely come to Las Vegas with a few new mid-rangers. A successor to the budget dual camera phone, the Blade V8 Pro, that was launched last year might be in the cards.

ASUS ZenFone M1

Last year at CES 2017, ASUS had a lot to show in terms of phones. It unveiled the ZenFone AR, a Google Tango phone with 8GB of RAM, as well as the ZenFone 3 Zoom. So we expect the Taiwanese company to make some sort of smartphone-related announcement at CES 2018.

Here’s our guess. ASUS will announce an 18:9 aspect ratio phone for the US market. So far the company has only two such models in its portfolio: the Pegasus 4S which launched in China and the ZenFone Max Plus (M1), a model which popped up in Russia recently.

ASUS could choose to bring any of these models in the US, although we expect the naming scheme to differ a little bit.

TCL Palm

Back in August 2017, it was revealed that TCL – the company currently holding the rights to the BlackBerry brand – is looking bring back Palm, the maker of iconic smartphones such as Pre. TCL acquired Palm back in 2011.

According to one of TCL’s own executives, new Palm devices should make an appearance in early 2018. So, if we’re lucky we might get to check them out at CES 2018.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 845

Qualcomm launched the Snapdragon 835 in November last year and shared more details about the new mobile platform at CES 2017. Since it’s expected that the Snapdragon 845 will make a debut shortly, Qualcomm will most likely offer a more detailed glimpse of the new processor at CES next year.

Special mention

Google

Google hasn’t made an appearance at CES in a few years. Well, in 2018 the search giant is getting a booth at the event, but don’t get your hopes up about seeing any new products on display.

The most probable scenario is that Google is simply going to showcase some of its current products like the yet-to-be-released Google Home Max, as well as the new Pixels 2, Google Home Mini and more.

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