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YouTube TV app goes live for your Android TV and Xbox

Alexandra Arici
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Back in April, Google officially launched its entry into the streaming of live TV, with YouTube TV. The service lets users access live and recorded content from major networks typically found on cable, so it’s great option for cord cutters. However, YouTube TV suffered from one major flaw – it offered no elegant way to stream content on TV.

Not anymore, as Google recently announced a new YouTube TV app for the big screen. If you own an Android TV, then you will be glad to know the app just went live in the Google Play Store. What’s more, the corresponding app for Xbox is also available from the Xbox Store, all you have to do is search for it. Note that the YouTube TV app is an independent listing from the standard YouTube app and is no incorporated into the latter.

Google has noted that the YouTube TV app will hit TVs from Samsung and Sony, as well as the Apple TV in the upcoming weeks. So if you own one such device, you’ll have a bit of waiting to do. No word on the app’s availability on the Roku or Fire TV.

But if you’re the owner of an Android TV or Xbox, you can go ahead and try the new YouTube TV app right now. The YouTube TV service is available for subscribers for $35/month but only in a few select markets.

Razer announces its first Razer Phone for gamers

AndroidGuys
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Razer has been solidifying itself as a gaming company, from the moment it acquired Android-based console maker Ouya, released its Razer Serval gaming controller at Google Play, to the creation of its Nabu watch that’s “smart, but not a smartwatch.”

The company known for its living room push, even with Android TV, has made no secret of its desire to create a gaming smartphone for some time. Earlier this year, the company acquired cloud-integrated smartphone maker Nextbit, a sign that it intends to do something with cloud storage and phone manufacturing.

This week’s announcement of the Razer smartphone for gamers is a revelation of what Razer has had in mind for some time. The new Razer Phone for gamers is a phone that features the latest and greatest in hardware design, with the included specs:

  • Display: 5.7-inch, Quad HD (2,560 x 1,440p) with Sharp’s IGZO LCD and Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 (120Hz UltraMotion)
  • Processor: octa-core, Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC
  • RAM: 8GB LPDDR4
  • Storage: 64GB UFS storage with 2TB-capable microSD card slot
  • Cameras: 8MP (f/2.0) front-facing with fast focus (no AF), 12MP (f/1.75) + 13MP (f/2.6) Zoom dual camera combo with 2X telephoto lens, Dual PDAF, dual tone, Dual LED flash, Dual AF
  • Battery: 4,000mAh with Qualcomm QuickCharge 4+
  • Audio: Dolby ATMOS, THX certified, Dual Amplifiers, Stereo Front-Facing Speakers
  • Wireless: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC

For the gamer in you, Razer has partnered with Tencent and Square Enix to offer popular multiplayer online battle (MOBA) “Arena of Valor,” alongside of other games such as “Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition,” “Shadowgun Legends,” and “Titanfall™: Assault,” to name a few. You can find more Razer Phone games at the “via” link below.

Alongside of the new Razer Phone, Razer is also offering its own Hammerhead BT earbuds, the Razer Phone Rugged Case for added phone protection, and the silicon-based Razer Phone Word Case to protect its new phone from wear and tear.

The Razer Phone is not yet available for purchase, but you can sign up to “be in the know” at the source link below. Stop by and take a look at the gallery for more visual information.

Gamers, what do you think about the Razer Phone? Is it a worthy contender? Do you think average consumers would buy it, whether they love gaming or not?

Galaxy Note 8 Enterprise Edition announced with Samsung KNOX smarts and three years of security updates

AndroidGuys
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Samsung has announced its Galaxy Note 8 for everyday consumers, but there’s quite a market available for businesses in the smartphone market, too. Enterprise solutions give businesses something attractive, far above what the everyday consumer expects, and businesses will, unlike most consumers, purchase smartphones in large quantities. As you can see, the financial opportunity businesses wield keeps the most successful companies on top. And Samsung wants to be there.

The Korean Android OEM announced the Galaxy Note 8 Enterprise Edition, the Galaxy Note 8 with in-built enterprise solutions for business professionals. The Galaxy Note 8 Enterprise Edition brings the same basic specs such as the 6.3-inch, Infinity Super AMOLED display with Quad HD+ resolution, 18.5:9 aspect ratio, Qualcomm’s octa-core Snapdragon 835 SoC, 6GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage.

The same dual 12MP camera combo that graces the “Galaxy” for the first time, along with IP68 water and dust resistance, water-resistant S Pen, and 3,300mAh battery, all return here. And 4K, 60fps video recording is expected to land on the Galaxy Note 8 any day now, if it hasn’t already.

The difference between the Enterprise Edition and the consumer-friendly model is that the Galaxy Note 8 Enterprise Edition brings the promise of three years of security updates, Samsung KNOX configuration, along with Samsung Enterprise Firmware Over-The-Air (OTA) software to help businesses push out updates in a centralized fashion so that all business professionals stay up to date.

Apart from these new business additions, Samsung’s consumer-friendly Galaxy Note 8 also features an additional help for business professionals by way of its Hiya Business Profiles that let you dial businesses while staying in the phone app. The Galaxy Note 8’s in-built iris scanner and back-mounted fingerprint sensor also provide biometric ID and mobile security that is applauded by the enterprise scene as a whole.

The Galaxy Note 8 Enterprise Edition costs $994 and is immediately available for purchase. The $994 price tag is slightly higher than what everyday consumers pay for the device at Samsung.com (~$930 USD) or at US wireless carriers such as Verizon ($960).

Galaxy Upcycling: Recycle your Samsung smartphone and so much more

AndroidGuys
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Samsung has done its best to be an environmentally-friendly company, from the early days when “Galaxies” were made of plastic, not glass, and arrived to buyers in soy ink boxes. Though the days of plastic smartphones are gone from the Korean Android OEM’s portfolio, Samsung is still committed to environmental friendliness. Its upcoming program, called Galaxy Upcycling, is living proof.

Galaxy Upcycling, a future Samsung Galaxy recycling program, will allow you to recycle your Samsung Galaxy smartphone in a way different than how most consumers think about recycling. Usually, to recycle your smartphone, you’d place your device in a recycling bin so that it would be torn apart with significant, salvageable components reused in other devices.

This is the normal view of recycling, but Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Upcycling will take old smartphones (intact, mind you), and reuse these devices in new ways. For example, using a recycled Galaxy S7 to turn on your home lights and adjust your home thermostat, air conditioner, or smart TV. Your old Galaxy S7 could be used to turn on the lights and feed your fish.

The new Galaxy Upcycling program is not only about recycling old Samsung Galaxy smartphones, but it’s also a place to join a community of recycling ideas. At the Galaxy Upcycling website, you’ll be able to not only read of recycling ideas but also propose your own so that all those who visit the site (even those who don’t buy Galaxy smartphones) can gain insight into recycling purposes for their respective devices.

Samsung has teamed up with teardown company iFixit, a company known for its teardowns of a wide number of high-end smartphones such as the Galaxy S8 and LG G6, among others. The launch date of Samsung’s new Galaxy recycling program is unknown at this point.

You can find out more about Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Upcycling program by checking out the YouTube video below, then head on over to the source link for additional info.

HTC U11 Life announced as $350 take on the flagship

Scott Webster
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HTC today announced its latest smartphone, the U11 life, as an unlocked and more affordable take on its flagship handset experience. Priced at only $350, it will be sold directly through HTC and at T-Mobile stores.

At first blush the HTC U11 life is nearly identical to its pricier brethren. But, rather than having the premium glass materials, this one opts for a clear acrylic glass exterior that is designed to be highly refractive and vivid. Moreover, it’s also IP67 rated against water and weather (dust, rain, snow).

Internal hardware includes a Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 processor with 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage. Those who need more room for media and files can add a microSD card up to 2TB.

Both the rear camera and front-facing camera are 16-megapixel shooters with f/2.0 aperture. The backside has Phase Detection Auto Focus while the front has a fixed focus.

Like its flagship counterpart, the U11 life features the Edge Sense technology to trigger functions like Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. Other goodies that made the leap from the standard U11 include HTC USonic with Active Noise Cancellation, and HDR Boost.

The HTC U11 life runs on Android 7.1 out of the box, but HTC promises an update to Android 8.0 Oreo by the end of November.

The HTC U11 life is now available directly from HTC.com for $350 where it’s offered in Sapphire Blue. Starting from November 3, T-Mobile will also carry the phone with the same price.

Bezel-less UHANS MX makes a splash in the 3G-only market (Promoted)

Guest Blogger
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I know what you’re thinking; 3G-only? It’s definitely a niche market – after all, why would you want slower speeds when you can have faster speeds? But – contrary to what the major carriers will tell you – there are still rather large areas of the country (let alone the world) that rely exclusively on Edge and 3G networks for connection. For those people, UHANS has showcased the MX.

Clearly inspired by the Samsung Galaxy S8, UHANS has created a bezel-less smartphone at a sub-$100 price tag that gives those with less-than-demanding data needs a little taste of decadence.  At $87, UHANS aims to make the MX the cheapest bezel-less smartphone on the market today. As you’d expect its specs are modest; a 5.2″ 720p IPS LCD display, a MTK6580 quad-core processor, 2/16GB RAM/ROM (expandable), Android 7.0, a 3000mAh battery, and 8/5mp front/back cameras. But the design is a modern one, making it an inexpensive alternative for those in low-coverage areas that don’t want to resort to flip phones or pay for high-end devices.  One thing I should note is that the front camera is mounted on the lower left-hand corner of the phone – lefties, beware.

The UHANS MX is up for pre-order right now until November 12th – pre-order yours at $86.99 to take advantage!

Editor Note: This article is a paid or sponsored publication. AndroidGuys has vetted the links at the time of publication; however, the articles should not be considered a blanket endorsement for the products or services highlighted herein. In some instances AndroidGuys may receive a small percentage of revenue derived from purchases through affiliate links. Money generated here is used to help pay for the site and/or staff. AndroidGuys does not endorse the products listed here.

Cricket Wireless to offer ZTE Overture 3 on November 10

AndroidGuys
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Cricket Wireless will soon carry the ZTE Overture 3 as part of its smartphone lineup. Set to go on sale November 10, the phone will carry a $50 price tag.

There are few preliminary specifications to share at this time, but it goes without saying that it’s aimed at the lower end user. Details include a 5-inch display, 5-megapixel rear camera, and quad-core processor.

Digging a little deeper we learn the handset features a lock screen shortcut to launch into selfies, a scratch-resistant coating for the display, HD voice capability, and FM radio.

Customers who switch from another wireless carrier will be able to purchase the Overture 3 for free as part of a promotion. More information on the ZTE Overture 3 will be made available in the coming days.

Cricket Wireless is a prepaid carrier who utilizes the AT&T network. Rate plans start as low as $30 per month with 1GB of high speed data and range as high as $60 per month with unlimited LTE data.

Android 8.0 Oreo beta appears for Samsung Galaxy S8; testing to begin soon

AndroidGuys
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Samsung has plans to roll out Android Oreo for the Galaxy S8 in early 2018, according to a recent Samsung Turkey claim, but the exact month of the release is unknown. With that said, though, the timing isn’t too far off because Samsung’s Android Oreo beta Galaxy S8 license has appeared, with testing to begin soon.

According to the Android Oreo beta Galaxy S8 license, the Korean Android OEM will allow Galaxy S8 users “to experience new features and the latest UX based on Android 8.0 Oreo” that are “for testing and evaluation purposes only, before publicly releasing the official software version of Android 8.0 Oreo (“O OS”).”

Samsung’s Android Nougat beta program for the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge arrived last November 10th, with the beta program ending on December 30th. If the Nougat beta program is any indication, Samsung could launch the Android Oreo beta Galaxy S8 program at the same time as it did last year, with the program ending around the end of December and Android 8.0 landing on the Galaxy S8 series in January 2018. A six or seven-week Android Oreo beta program isn’t out of the question. Samsung has already enabled Android Oreo support for Samsung Pay, its mobile payments service.

 

Android owner Google has already released its Android Oreo beta for the Pixel and Pixel XL, Nexus 6P, and Nexus 5X, and Chinese Android OEM OnePlus has already released its Android Oreo beta for the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T. HMD Global has announced its Android Oreo beta labs for the Android-powered Nokia 8. LG is testing Android Oreo for the LG G6, and new Android OEM Essential says that it intends to release Android Oreo for the Essential Phone by November 2017.

Bluetooth pairing on Android just got a whole lot easier

Dan Bartram
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Google has today announced a new improvement to Bluetooth pairing called Fast Pair. The company is calling it the hassle-free process to pair your Bluetooth devices.

Unlike most features that get released, Fast Pair actually doesn’t require the very latest version of Android to support it. Fast Pair is supported on all Android devices running Google Play services 11.7+ with compatibility back to Marshmallow (Android 6.0).

Fast Pair uses BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) for advertising and discovery and uses classic Bluetooth for pairing. Here’s how Fast Pair works:

  1. Turn on a Fast Pair-enabled device and put it in pairing mode.
    • Android scans for BLE broadcasts in close proximity of the user’s phone and discovers a Fast Pair packet (provided Bluetooth and Location is turned on).
    • This packet is sent to our servers to get back the device’s product image, product name and companion app (if there is one).
  2. The user receives a high priority notification asking them to “Tap to pair” to the device. The notification contains the product name and image.
  3. When the user taps on the notification, we use classic Bluetooth to establish a connection.
  4. A success notification is shown which contains a link to download the companion app (if there is one).

What’s great about this is you no longer have to mess around with the Bluetooth settings to get a pair of headphones paired. It works very similarly to the exclusive pairing process Apple has with the iPhone and its Airpods.

It’s something manufacturers will need to work with Google to get properly implemented, and as you can imagine the new Pixel Buds are already supported. Hopefully with the right adoption, the Fast Pair process will soon become standard in Bluetooth accessories across Android.

Android 8.1 Oreo brings Netflix Picture-in-Picture support

AndroidGuys
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Google recently released its Android 8.1 Oreo Developer Preview, bringing new features such as Android Go memory optimizations for low-end Android-powered handsets as well as Autofill enhancements, among other things, but Android 8.1 will bring an additional treat – at least for Netflix users, anyway.

What’s the treat, you ask? Netflix is bringing Picture-in-Picture (PiP) support for Netflix movies as a part of its Android 8.1 Oreo update. It’s well-known that Android 8.0 already brought Picture-in-Picture mode, but please understand that Picture-in-Picture Mode must be enabled within each Android app by app developers before users can experience in-app integration. In Android 8.0, Netflix hadn’t enabled it; this will all change with the upcoming Android system update.

What is Picture-in-Picture Mode? It is a feature that allows you to zoom out of an app (say, YouTube) and check your Gmail email while doing so, for example. You can continue to watch your favorite YouTube video while browsing the Web, answering email, texting a friend or relative, and so on.

Netflix’s Picture-in-Picture integration will allow Netflix subscribers (particularly T-Mobile customers most of all) to continue watching movies and TV shows while doing other web activities.

Picture in Picture mode

Android 8.1 isn’t said to bring much outside of enhancements and bug fixes, but there’s a rumor that the incremental system update could bring SMS Connect, a feature that lets Android smartphone users send SMS messages through their Chromebook with their phone number attached. This feature is already available for Google Project Fi subscribers (this is one reason to pick up the new Moto X4 with its Project Fi integration).

For now, Android 8.1 Oreo is only available for Google’s Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, as well as the original Pixel and Pixel XL. All other Android-powered handsets must wait for the system update to arrive, which could take two or three months at least. If you’re a Pixel owner, head over to your Netflix app and hit that update button.

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