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Samsung Galaxy Note 8 leak shows off the unreleased device

Dan Bartram
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With the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 only around 3 weeks away, we’re today treated with the clearest picture of what the device could look like so far.

Coming courtesy of notorious leaker Evan Blass (@evleaks) on Twitter, he shows what the Note 8 will look like. There’s not many surprises – the device features the same infinity bezel-less display as the Galaxy S8. Perhaps of most interest is that the Note 8 doesn’t appear to share the same rounded edges that the S8 has.

The Note 8 under the hood is expected to share a similar spec setup to that of the Galaxy S8. The main difference is that Samsung intend on providing 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage option with the Note 8 as well as obviously the accompanying S-Pen. We’re also expecting to see Samsung equip the Note 8 with Samsung’s first dual camera setup with two 12MP sensors with lenses of different focal lengths and both optically stabilized.

What do you think? Do you prefer the S8 or the squarer looking Note 8?

BlackBerry KEYone now available in Sprint brick and mortar stores

Alexandra Arici
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Since July 14, the BlackBerry KEYone has been available at Sprint, but only online. Well as of this week, you can pick-up the handset from brick and mortar Sprint locations, as well.

The smartphone offers support for all major GSM and CDMA networks, so it should work with any carrier. It costs $528 a pop.

For those of you who don’t know the story behind the phone, the BlackBerry KEYone arrives with a 4.5-inch display with 1620 x 1080 resolution and 3:2 aspect ratio. Below the screen sits a 4-row QWERTY physical keyboard with keys that feature touch gesture support for flick typing, as well as 52 customizable shortcuts for your favorite apps.

The KEYone positions itself as a middle-ranger when it comes to performance. It is fueled by a Snapdragon 625 clocked at 2GHz in combination with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage.

The phone also carries a 12-megapixel camera with f/2.0 aperture, phase detection autofocus and dual-tone LED flash, as well as an 8-megapixel front facing camera.

It relies on a 3,505 mAh battery and runs Android 7.1 Nougat out of the box.

At Sprint you can get the phone with a Black/Silver paint job, but according to recent leaks, an all-Black version might be on the way too.

Amazon stops selling (some) BLU phones citing potential security issues [Updated with BLU’s statement]

Alexandra Arici
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Back in November 2016, news broke cover that some of BLU’s affordable smartphones were apparently sending sensitive user information to China.

Following the discovery, BLU was forced to remove some of its spyware-infected products off Amazon’s virtual shelves. But a month later, the products were once again available, this time no prying software onboard.

However, despite BLU’s claims that it has taken care of the issue, researchers from Kryptowire present at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas last week revealed that some BLU products are still sending data to the company’s server located in Shangai without users’ knowledge.

BLU’s R1 HD

The culprit is a third-party app called AdUps which apparently is still alive and well on some BLU devices, although the Chinese company who build the software allegedly disabled the spying functionality on the two devices it was originally discovered on.

In the aftermath of the announcement, Amazon issued a statement saying it has suspended sales of BLU phones on its website. BLU’s R1 HD was part of Amazon’s Prime Exclusive Phones program, but now the device is listed as “Currently Unavailable”. Amazon isn’t taking any chances and says customers should contact BLU’s customer support.

“Because security and privacy of our customers is of the utmost importance, all BLU phone models have been made unavailable for purchase on Amazon.com until the issue is resolved.”

Amazon statement to CNET

BLU denied any wrongdoings, explaining it stopped including AdUps in its product software package since 2016, although some older devices still use it.

Yet, it seems not all BLU models are listed as “Currently Unavailable” on Amazon. For example, I can still place an order for the BLU Studio X8 HD or the BLU Grand 5.5 HD. So maybe Amazon only stopped selling the BLU phone models that have been found to be infected like the BLU R1 HD? Even though the BLU R1 HD is not an “older” device.

Update: BLU has sent a statement regarding Amazon, which you can read below:

“Since Nov 2016 when the initial privacy concern was reported by Kryptowire, which BLU quickly remedied, Amazon has been aware of the Adups and other applications on our BLU devices which were deemed at the time by BLU, Amazon, and Kryptowire to pose no further security or privacy risk”

“Now almost a year later, the devices are still behaving in the same exact way, with standard and basic data collection that pose no security or privacy risk. There has been absolutely no new behavior or change in any of our devices to trigger any concern. We expect Amazon to understand this, and quickly reinstate our devices for sale.”

Bluetooth battery level indicators are finally coming to Android

Dan Bartram
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It’s a feature that has been on the Apple iPhone forever and if you’re reading this and thinking “well, my Android device has that”, then that’s because some OEM’s have included it in their skin. However, officially, stock Android does not include a battery level indication for connected Bluetooth devices. This simple icon provides an incredible amount of information for devices like headphones that perhaps don’t have an obvious battery level indicator.

That could be about to change as a new API has been added to AOSP that will make it seemingly a lot easier to establish the charge level of your Bluetooth headphones, namely:

  •  Add BluetoothDevice.getBatteryLevel() API to retreive battery level information of remote device
  • Add BluetoothDevice.ACTION_BATTERY_LEVEL_CHANGED intent to notify user that remote device’s battery level has changed
  • Add backend service methods for BluetoothDevice.getBatteryLevel()
  • Add battery level field in DeviceProperties with getters and setters
  • Add updateBatteryLevel() method in RemoteDevices
  • Add resetBatteryLevel() method in RemoteDevices
  • Reset battery level for device when device is disconnected in aclStateChangeCallback() to ensure a BATTERY_LEVEL_CHANGED intent when device first report battery level information after connection
  • Add tests for updateBatteryLevel() and resetBatteryLevel()

While the API has been added, we know it won’t be in Android O as Google have finalized the APIs but we could see the indicator appear in a minor point update shortly after Android O goes public.

Comix Zone (Review)

AndroidGuys
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Ah, Sega. No introduction necessary for them, I hope!

Comix Zone was originally made for the Sega Genesis back in 1995 and has since been released on Steam, Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Game Boy Advance, as well as Android and IOS. It follows the story of Sketch Turner, who… gets trapped in his own comic book by the main villain, Mortus, in order to kill Sketch so Mortus can escape into the real world. Not the most normal of plots but it’s a plot!

In order to install Comix Zone, you will need approximately 100MB of storage, as well as granting it the storage and… Wait, location? That one is optional if you are a privacy fan like myself.

Tutorial?

Older games had a habit of including tutorials in the manual, rather than in game. as such, here are the controls:

 

D-pad: the four directions let you move, the diagonals put you into stances for high/low kicks and punches.

A button – You’ll be using this one a lot, as it is used for attacking people and things. Also used for using items that you have selected (see C button)

B button – You jump. Me and jumping in games never mix.

Yes, Thanks Mr. Turner!

C Button – use this to scroll through the 3 items boxes in the top. When you do, you can press A to use the highlighted button. To pick said items up, just crouch on them (D-Pad down) Keep in mind you do get some items at the start, so grab ’em and go!

LOOT!

Oh, and there is a save button on the top corner. Unless you pay for local saves, your saves are stored on the cloud via Google Play Games. Mind the AD on that menu if you do not have ad-free.

How does it play?

Exactly as you would expect from an emulated game – i.e. “results may vary.” My Older phone (A Bush Spira B3) had some struggles, while my Wileyfox swift 2 plus (Name hopefully more familiar) ran it A-OK. As far as visuals and audio go.. its an emulated game from 1991. It’s not about the how it looks and sounds as that department was really limited back then-but still pretty fitting for each other, and that’s what matters.

Oh, and it’s surprisingly cruel. Firstly, you only have one life – you die, game over. Secondly, Health from what I’ve seen is rare- I had one health item. Oh, and thirdly? Punching any blocks, barrels, etc. damages you. It’ll be a fun day where I die again because I need to get rid of a barrel to continue progressing. Ah well, it’s part of the fun!

I have an issue with the saving mechanic. Not only do you have to pay or watch an advert to save or load, but you have to sign into Google Play Games Every. Single. Time. You can pay £1.99 to have Non-Sega adverts removed, although I’m not 100% sure if this affects saving. There was a way to buy local saves, but it seems to have disintegrated after I said no to it after the first launch. Not great.

Conclusion

While I can’t say much that hasn’t already been said, Comix Zone is a fun, albeit frustrating to some people. It’s good to see older games get a new lease of life through emulators, and CZ is not an exception to this. The use of adverts is annoying, however, and the saving system makes free users both be online and put up with adverts.

Here are some of the best apps for ordering food

Alexandra Arici
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Feeling hungry in the middle of the night? All you need to do is grab your Android phone, fire up your favorite food delivery app to get your order served right to your door.

You don’t even need to call your local restaurant and talk to a real person. In the 21st century, you can simply by-pass the annoyance of having to bark your order over the background noise of a very busy food joint by employing technology.

For this purpose, a bunch of food-delivery Android apps are available and they take care of everything including letting you browse through menus, place your order and make the payment (tip included). Below you’ll find some of the best you can use to order food with.

Seamless

Like the name indicates, this app lets you order in a few easy steps. Craving sushi? Just use the search bar to see which restaurants near you offer this particular dish. Choose your sushi variety and place your order.

Seamless also includes functionalities like Pre-order Your Next Meal, to avoid lunch rush hours and Express Reorder which allows foodies to order their favorite dishes faster. The app will send push notifications, so you can stay up to date with your order in real-time.

The app supports Android Pay, Pay Pal, and most credit cards.

Postmates

Postmates isn’t just limited to food joints. You can order anything from last-minute birthday gifts, cleaning supplies, convenience store items – and a Postmates shopper will go out and get them for you and then deliver them to your door.

Postmates operates on a 24/7 basis, so you can place your order anytime. The app also provides real-time tracking so you can be up to speed with the delivery progress shown on a live map. Postmates is available in several cities across the US including San Francisco, New York City, Miami, LA, Chicago, Boston and much more.

UberEATS

Are you a frequent Uber user? Then you’ll be interested to know Uber cabbies can also deliver food orders if you use the UberEATS app.

You can tap into a large network of local restaurants each time you fire up the app and search by food category (ex: American, Pizza, Burritos).

The most convenient part is that you get to pay with your Uber account, so there’s no need to sign up for another account. Obviously, you can watch Uber car make its way to you in real time.

UberEATS is currently available in multiple cities across the United States.

Caviar

Caviar provides foodies with photos of every item on a restaurant’s menu, so they can decide what they want to eat a lot faster. Users can schedule food delivery up to a week in advance.

For those in New York or San Francisco who are really-really hungry, there’s a feature called Caviar Fastbite which gets meals delivered in 15 minutes or less during peak lunch or dinner hours.

You can also leave notes to the chef, mentioning any special request you might have (ex: don’t add vinegar to the salad). Naturally, there’s a live order tracking option, as well.

goPuff

Another app that lets you order more than meals. Studying for an exam and need your supply of chips and ice cream replenished? Open up goPuff and in 30 minutes you should be hearing from your goPuff shopper.

Orders of $35+ are delivered to you for free, otherwise, you’ll have to pay a flat fee of $1.95. You can pay via credit card or pay the goPuff drivers in cash.

DoorDash

DoorDash is active in 450+ cities in the US and Canada and lets you browse more than 40,000 menus! The app lets you search by cuisine or food items including Pizza, Chinese, Burgers, Tacos, Brazilian, Comfort Food or Pasta.

Unlike other apps, there’s no order minimum with DoorDash, so you can order as much as you want. Pay with Android Pay or Credit Card.

Eat24

Eat24 uses information from Yelp (user reviews and recommendations) as the backbone for its food-ordering service.

Thus the app will let you sort restaurants based on distance, rating, delivery time and more, to make sure you won’t have a disagreeable experience. Eat24 is also focused on healthy eating by employing something called the Healthy Filter, which lets users focus more on items from the food pyramid.

Eat24’s CashCoupon reward system allows users to cash back for future orders. Fun!

Pizza Hut

Love pizza? Then you have to have this app installed on your Android phone. It biggest drawing point? It lets you easily browse through the day’s discounts, specialty meals, drinks, desserts and limited time offers.

What’s more, you don’t have to create an account to get pizza delivered to your door step. Pizza fans can pay with cash, credit or even gift cards.

And for fans of a particular type of pizza, the app has added the ability to reorder with only 5 clicks.

Munchery

Available for folks in San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, NYC and Los Angeles, Munchery aims to deliver chef-cooked dishes made from the freshest ingredients.

It’s important to note that every time you order, a small percentage goes toward donations to a local food bank. Apart from that Munchery is not very different from the other apps we’ve talked above.

It lets you choose meals and you can schedule delivery for a guaranteed 1-hour window up to a week in advance.

Last but not least, not really a food delivery app but….

Foodie – Delicious Camera

You’ve ordered so many great meals. Why not take a few inspiring photos too? This app is the essential companion for the sociable foodie.

It includes 30+ professional quality live filters and includes an easy smart guide feature to taking the best photos of food possible.

The app also lets you shoot videos of your meal and edit pictures/videos. Food doesn’t have to be dull ever again!

These headphones use AI to protect your hearing [Indiegogo]

Alexandra Arici
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There’s no arguing about it – AI is the next big thing in tech and it’s everywhere. We have AI-powered virtual assistants living in our phones, smartwatches, fridges and soon everywhere else.

That’s why it’s not a surprise that Japanese/US consumer electronics brand, Nakamichi created a new pair of wireless headphones called Edge, which apparently uses the power of artificial intelligence to deliver superior sound quality and advanced hearing protection.

Nakamichi’s Edge headphones are currently up on Indiegogo, so interested parties can order from there. The campaign has been already funded, but a few Early Birds are still available so you can get a pair for $169. The headphone starts shipping in August.

Edge comes equipped with a dual speaker driver system, with each bud including a 40mm driver, as well as a secondary 23mm driver. This means the headphones are powerful enough to deal with different sound spectrums. The Edge headphones can support 14 hours of music playback (when LED lights are off).

Don’t miss: Buyers guide – Headphones

But what about the artificial intelligence fueling the Edge? Well, according to Nakamichi it can examine your music and enhance the sound by adjusting a wide range of specifications like music frequencies, volume levels and timbre of instruments in order to deliver superior clarity, depth and spaciousness of sound. At least on paper, users will be able to hear new details in their music.

More importantly, the AI inside the headphone is in charge of protecting your hearing. The active noise cancellation system takes advantage of two noise-sensing microphones in each bud, so your hearing doesn’t get affected by the loud music.

Nakamichi says that according to most recent US data, 1.1 billion youths worldwide are at a risk of hearing loss due to unsafe listening practices. With Edge, the company hopes to make music listening as safe as possible.

So if you too are conscious about your faulty music listening habits and want to improve them, go on and make a pledge for a pair of Edge headphones on Indiegogo.

HTC U11 to get Bluetooth 5.0 with future updates

Alexandra Arici
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The Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ were the first devices to launch with Bluetooth 5.0, and so should have the HTC U11. Unfortunately, the phone made a debut with Bluetooth 4.2 onboard.

Luckily, it seems that HTC is prepping an update that will upgrade the U11 flagship to the latest Bluetooth standard. According to a recent FCC filing, HTC is looking to “enable Bluetooth 5.0 by software without any hardware change” on the U11.

What are the benefits of Bluetooth 5.0 you might be wondering? Well, the new standard promises twice the data transfer speed compared to the previous version, as well as to provide enough bandwidth to support two sets of wireless devices at the same time.

Don’t miss: Bluetooth 5.0 more than doubles 4.2’s performance

Furthermore, Bluetooth 5.0 has three times the range of a current Bluetooth technology which means up to 100ft. So now users will be able to keep their phone in one room inside the house while enjoying music in their backyard or the garage.

HTC hasn’t officially confirmed plans to update the U11 to the Bluetooth 5.0 standard, but given the FCC filing we’ll have to assume the update will start rolling out soon enough.

Like the HTC U11, the Moto Z2 Force also launched with Bluetooth 4.2. However, Motorola plans to update the phone to Bluetooth 5.0 once Android O becomes available. So the HTC U11 might also get Bluetooth 5.0 treatment after the latest Android version lands.

Samsung Gear S3 Frontier TUMI Special Edition lands with $449.99 price tag

Alexandra Arici
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Samsung recently announced it has entered a partnership with TUMI, a maker of world-class suitcases and travel bags, in order to offer a special edition of its Gear S3 Frontier smartwatch.

The product dubbed Samsung Gear Frontier TUMI Special Edition is already available for purchase online through Best Buy or Samsung for $449.99 a pop. Customers we’ll be able to pick it up from brick and mortar stores too, starting on August 6.

The TUMI Special Edition smartwatch retains the same specs as the standard model meaning it comes with a 1.3-inch Super AMOLED display with 360 x 360 resolution and Gorilla Glass SR+ protection. It also includes a 1GHz dual-core processor, 768MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, as well as GPS, NFC, wireless charging, IP68 certification and Samsung Pay functionality.

What sets it apart from the older version is the TUMI-designed watch band in Earl Grey made out of Italian canvas. It comes with a stainless-steel buckle, as well as stitched edge detailing and according to Samsung it’s durable enough to resist water, dust or rough conditions.

The Samsung Gear S3 Frontier TUMI Special Edition also includes a custom TUMI watchface to complete the look.

For comparison sake, the standard Samsung Gear S3 Frontier can be purchased for $349.99 from places like Best Buy, so the TUMI Special Edition will cost you $100 more.

Verizon Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge Plus get July 2017 Security Patch

Dan Bartram
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Verizon have started pushing out the July Android security update to all Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge Plus models.

Verizon’s variants of the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus are currently receiving the update version G928VVRU3CQF3, with the Galaxy Note 5 being upgraded to the build N920VVRU3CQF3.

While the updates deliver important Android security patches, there’s also a few fixes for software bugs on the devices including the bug that impacted the Google app when Easy Mode was activated.

Following the installation of the patch, users should see an improvement in the voice over WiFi performance. The patch also includes a new notification that will inform users when they’re running out of storage.

The update is making its way round the various Verizon models of the Note 5 and S6 Edge Plus and will be available through the system updates in the Android settings.

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