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Gear Up: Scosche MagicMount line keeps phones safe and secure in the car

AndroidGuys
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Scoshe is well-known in the mount industry, and is highly-preferred among its users.  Today, we’re going to take a look at a couple of their mounts.  If you’re not familiar with Scoshce’s range of products, the specialize in mounts for your tech, and although they do have cradles, most of them just use magnets.

Its website gives you a diagram on where you can place the magnet:

When I first opened the box, I was reluctant to attach a magnet to the back of my phone, because I’m hoping that my mount will still work long after I replace my phone. So, I went with the alternative option: I put the magnet in-between the phone and the case.  I didn’t remove the adhesive sticker, though. I just left the magnet hanging out behind my phone, and yes, it worked like a charm.

Let’s check out a couple products that Scoshe offers with no cradles to mess with, and no permanent stickers to place on the back of your phone.

MagicMount CD

The MagicMount CD conveniently inserts into your car’s CD player, with a “screw” on top to tighten it.  It does not damage the CD player in the car, and depending on how your car is set up, it can be the perfect place for hands-free usage. The mount itself moves around so you can angle it to the view is ideal for you, regardless of whether that’s portrait or landscape mode.

In my car, I stream all my music and podcasts from my phone, so this mount taking up the CD player is a non-issue. Moreover, I don’t want to mess with the suction cups on the dash, because I sit too far back for it to be convenient.  To me, this seems like the perfect place to put a mount.  Personally, I love this thing, and it works great.  My phone sits in place and doesn’t fall off, and it attaches instantly with the magnet (even if I didn’t attach it directly to my phone or case).

The only potentially negative thing I would say is to pay attention the the placement of your car’s CD slot. Since this mount is inserted into the CD slot, it will inevitably cover up something in your car.  For me, it’s my “auto” button for climate control, but I typically leave that on, anyway.  If I take the phone off the mount, I still have access to the button, but while it is mounted, the button is covered up.  Again, to me, no big deal, but give the layout of your dash a quick once-over before you buy.

You can purchase the mount from Scosche’s website or Amazon; pricing is about $20, on average. Scosche | Amazon

MagicMount PRO home/office

The MagicMount Pro home/office is designed to be stationary at home, or  in your office. Conveniently, it also comes with a free attachment to charge your Apple Watch at the same time.

I propped this up on the table beside my bed with the suction cup, so I can charge both my phone and watch at night. The suction cup is strong, and it doesn’t make it top-heavy.

Scosche’s website states, “This new mount in Scosche’s MagicMount Pro line-up creates an elegant look to any home or office… a perfect solution for keeping your device safe and your area clutter-free...” and it isn’t lying.  This mount looks really nice, if you are using it in your office, it easily matches the aesthetic of the 21st century office.

This is definitely a quality accessory, and one that I cannot recommend highly enough.  If you do not have an Apple Watch, you do not have to attach the included accessory, so it won’t look awkward. Either way, it looks professional and clean.

Like the CD mount, I highly recommend this.  I love how it props up both the watch and the phone, so in the middle of the night, I can just glance over to see incoming messages, and don’t have to physically pick up my phone. You can pick one up for about $40 from Scosche or Amazon. Scosche | Amazon

PhoneRescue lets you easily recover your lost Android data (Review)

Alexandra Arici
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Overview:

Have you ever deleted a photo or a file from your phone only to realize a couple seconds later that you made a terrible mistake? I for one, found myself in this very situation multiple times, inadvertently wiping out stuff because I was distracted and not fully paying attention.

Luckily, there’s a tool we can employ to bring our lost files back to us. It’s called PhoneRescue and is free to download on your Mac or Windows computer.

Getting Started:

For starters, let me note one thing. You won’t be downloading PhoneRescue from the Google Play Store, nor will you be installing it manually on your Android handset. Instead, you’ll need to visit PhoneRescue’s official web page and download the (free) Windows or Mac version.

That’s right, you’ll first need to get PhoneRescue on your computer.

There are a few steps you need to follow before actually getting to the recovery part. For starters, the app will serve up a list of “Quick Tips” or instructions which ideally need to be taken into consideration before you start the process of recovery.

You’ll be asked to do things like “Turn your device to Airplane Mode” or “Prohibit using Contacts, Messages, Calendar and other apps.”

Next, you’ll have to connect your phone via a USB cable to your computer. But not just any phone. For the time being, PhoneRescue supports devices from manufacturers like Samsung, Sony, HTC, Google, and Huawei. Support for Motorola, LG, and OnePlus is said to be coming soon.

UPDATE: as of the publication of this post both Motorola and LG are now supported by PhoneRescue

PhoneRescue says its customized technologies based on each specific phone or tablet model can deliver a high data recovery success rate and speed.

After connecting the phone, you need to enable USB Debugging on your respective device. I was working with a Samsung phone which has Developer mode enabled already, so it only took a few taps to turn USB Debugging on.

The following step is to choose which Scan you wish to perform. You’re given a choice between a Deep Scan and a Quick Scan. Note that if you opt for the former, you’ll need to have a rooted device.

I didn’t have mine rooted, but luckily PhoneRescue offers a built-in tool which does all the heavy work on your behalf. So it wasn’t long before my device got rooting privileges and I was able to proceed to the Deep Scan part of our story.

But PhoneRescue can perform a Quick Scan even though the Android device might not be rooted.

Once you choose what kind of scan you want to perform, PhoneRescue asks you to select the types of files you want to recover including Contacts, Call Logs, Photos, Music, Videos, Apps, Document, Messages, WhatsApp, etc. Click Next and wait a few minutes to see what PhoneRescue comes up with.

Well, does it work?

You’re probably wondering, does PhoneRescue do a good job at recovering lost/deleted data? Well, the answer is yes, sort of.

The app recovered a lot, but a lot of my data! The problem is that some of it wasn’t actually deleted and still exists on my phone. At other times, PhoneRescue jumbled up information.

For example, it recovered a few text messages (in Romanian) that were sent by my network operator a few months back. The problem was that one of my former collaborators who is based in Australia and can’t speak a word of Romanian was listed as the sender of the messages. While this wasn’t a huge problem for me, such mix-ups have the potential to make it harder for users to quickly find the piece of information they are seeking.

Nevertheless, the app did a good job at recovering some deleted pictures from a birthday party I attended back in February and I’m thankful for that at least.

Another great feature is that the app lets you recover data directly to your Android device, so you won’t have to copy it manually from your computer to your phone, although that’s an option too. However, you’ll need to be rooted for the feature to be available. I also have to praise the app for its clean-looking, intuitive user-interface which makes it extremely easy to work with.

As I mentioned above, PhoneRescue is free to download and install, but you won’t be able to use it indefinitely. In order to do so, you’ll have to acquire a Personal License. For $49.99 you can get the software licensed for 1 computer, use it as long as you want, as well as receive lifetime free support and free updates.

A family plan is also available for $69.99 which includes 5 computer licenses and also a business plan for $199 with 10+ computer licenses.

Conclusion:

PhoneRescue proved itself to be a very good tool, albeit being riddled with some minor faults (at least the Samsung version). The program is easy to setup and use and even does the rooting for you.

Furthermore, if you ever get confused there’s a truckload of tips and guides on how to best use the app waiting for you on the developer’s website. So if you too have lost some files or photos recently, you can go ahead and give PhoneRescue a try.

What’s the difference: Samsung Galaxy Note7 vs Galaxy Note7 Fan Edition

Alexandra Arici
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As anticipated, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Note7 Fan Edition in its home country, South Korea. It’s unclear whether the phone will be launched in other markets as well, but we do know Samsung is going to manufacture 400,000 units of the new Note7.

But ven if you’re not going to be able to purchase the Galaxy Note7 Fan Edition here in the US, you’re probably still wondering what’s the difference between the old and new iteration. Well in what follows we’re going to spell them out for you.

Safer battery

The whole reason why Samsung had to pull the Galaxy Note7 abruptly from the market was the faulty 3,500 mAh battery. In the new model, the company has embedded a smaller 3,200 mAh juice pack which has been tested and re-tested for safety using Samsung’s new 8-point battery inspection plan.

New processor

While last year’s Galaxy Note7 arrived with a Snapdragon 820, the Fan Edition carries a newer Snapdragon 821. It’s not the newest chipset available, but this is a refurbished product after all. The Snapdragon 821 is the same processor used by LG’s current G6.

Apart from the processor, the other specs remain the same, meaning that we have a 5.7-inch panel with QHD resolution (2,560 x 1,440), a 12-megapixel camera, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, an iris scanner, IP68 water resistance and wireless charging. Naturally, the S-Pen is also part of the bundle.

Subtle design differences

The exterior of the new Fan Edition looks the same, but Samsung’s logo doesn’t appear in front anymore, like in the case of the Galaxy S8. The branding on the back has also been modified to say “Galaxy Note7 Fan Edition”.

A touch of Galaxy S8

Samsung updated the UI on the Galaxy Note7 which now offers the slightly modified Samsung Experience interface found on the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ flagship.

Bixby

The new Galaxy Note7 Fan Edition becomes the second Samsung phone to include Bixby, the virtual assistant. Yet, Samsung didn’t go far with modifications as to include a dedicated Bixby physical button as well.

Pricing

The Fan Edition is priced at $610 in South Korea which means it is 30% less expensive than the original Galaxy Note7.

So is it worth it? To a Note7 diehard fan perhaps, but the majority of customers are probably going to wait for the Galaxy Note8, which is only a few months away.

Ulefone’s upcoming F2 offers 8GB of RAM on the cheap

Alexandra Arici
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Following the long Chinese OEM tradition of copying the designs of flagships launched by iconic brands, Ulefone is prepping its own Galaxy S8 lookalike.

At a glance, the F2 looks like a perfect Samsung Galaxy S8 clone coming with same 18:5:9 aspect ratio and edge-to-edge design with slim bezels, although it will include a smaller 5.7-inch display. And in some aspects, the F2 might be even better than the original, as it said to include 8GB of RAM and also a dual-camera setup. It also has the fingerprint scanner located beneath the camera setup.

Now if you want to own a truly qualitative phone you’ll buy the Galaxy S8 and skip the Ulefone F2 altogether. Given Ulefone’s track-record in pricing we expect the phone to boast a very affordable price tag. For example, the Ulefone Power 2 with 4GB/64GB storage and a huge 6,050 mAh battery is available for only $165. So for a price under $200 you can’t really expect the same level of quality and craftsmanship the Galaxy S8 brings to the table.

On the other hand, there aren’t a lot of phones with 8GB of RAM out there and most of them aren’t exactly super affordable. For example, the OnePlus 5 is available with this amount of RAM onboard for $539. But not everyone has $500+ to spend on a phone, so the Ulefone F2 might prove a good alternative for those who want a super speedy phone, but can’t afford to pay such a sum.

You can now sign up with Amazon Prime by asking Alexa

Alexandra Arici
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With Amazon Prime Day just around the corner, the company announced today that starting July 5 up until July 17 it will be offering a bunch of Alexa-exclusive deals that change each day.

What’s more, for the first time, ever Amazon device owners can sign up for a Prime membership just by using their and voice saying something like “Alexa, sign me up for Prime”.

It’s the perfect moment to register for Prime using voice commands. And if you do so right now via your Echo device you’ll be asked to pay only $79 (for a year) instead of $99.

Once you’ve signed up for a Prime membership, you can start asking your virtual assistant “Alexa, what are the deals today?” and listen to the latest available promotions including:

•    Save $50 on Bose Soundlink Bluetooth speaker III – say, “Alexa, order Bose Soundlink three.”
•    Save $20 on Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus 2nd Generation – works with Alexa – say, “Alexa, order Philips Lightstrip Plus.”
•    Save $7 on Wemo Mini smart plug – say, “Alexa, order Wemo Mini Smart Plug.”
•    Save $6 on Greenies dog treats, original flavor, 27 oz. – say, “Alexa, order Greenies dog treats.”
•    Save 50% on Wickedly Prime Sweet n’ Cheesy Popcorn Mix – say, “Alexa, order Sweet and Cheesy Popcorn.”
•    Save 35% on Haribo Gummi Bear 12-pack – say, “Alexa, order Haribo Gummi Bears.”
•    Save 30% on Squatty Potty – say, “Alexa, order Squatty Potty.”

Simply asking Alexa about daily deals will automatically enter users into a $5,000 sweepstakes.

What’s more, first-time voice shoppers who buy an Alexa deal via their Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Show, Amazon Tap, Fire TV or compatible Fire tablets starting today until July 9 will receive a $10 Amazon promo code.

As for Amazon’s Prime Day, the discount event is scheduled to start on July 10 at 6 am (PT), so better get your credit cards ready.

The ECOXGEAR EcoSlate Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker might be my favorite beach accessory

Matt Adams
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My family is basically a school of fish. Since living near the beach many moons ago, it always seems that we end up at the Outer Banks on vacation or we’re hitting up one of the many lakes around where we currently live. For a while now, I’ve been trying to merge my love of the beach and the water with my love of music. If you’re around me for any period of time you’ll know that I constantly have tunes on.

Sure, there are plenty of speakers out there with water resistance or that claim they’re safe to take to the beach, but they all looked kind of shitty or very expensive. So, when I was offered the ECOXGEAR EcoSlate, I jumped at the chance. The spec sheet indicates that it marries Ingress Protection (IP68), a long-lasting battery, and a flashlight. And one look at the thing tells you it isn’t going to be a cheaply made speaker you’ll get rid of or throw in the drawer after a few uses.

Physical Construction

I have no other words for this thing besides “badass.”

Alright, a one-word review is pretty boring, so I’ll go a little more in-depth. The most obvious thing to me when I look at it is the gigantic grill on the front. In my highly (not) scientific drop test, it stood up well to a drop from about three feet onto the corner of my wooden desk. I feel like this is a “worst of” scenario for everyday use. Anything more than that would fall outside of a normal scenario and you’re on your own at that point.

The huge bumpers on the corners offer pretty awesome drop protection that make the speaker bounce around a bit like a football when it hits the floor. If you ever do drop this thing around your feet, try to jump back because it’s going to hurt if it lands on the top of your foot. I know from experience. The weight isn’t overwhelming but I could tell when I added it to our already-full pack of supplies for the beach.

Buttons along with lights for power, blutooth connection, and battery level

The huge, rubber, backlit buttons on the top are a little oversized, but I really appreciated them when I was trying to operate the speaker at the beach. With the sun in your eyes and wet, pruney hands, it’s nice to have big defined buttons to press. You’ll get buttons for power, Bluetooth connection, EcoConnect, volume up and down, track selection, play/pause, and flashlight. The buttons have a bit of push-back in them so they take a little force to actually press down but provide a satisfying click when you bottom out.

The right side and bottom of the device have a hole for you to screw in the included carabiner. Unfortunately, mine broke after the first use. I’m willing to chalk this one up to bad luck because the carabiner and cord connecting it seemed like decent quality, but it’s certainly something to watch out for if you pick one of these speakers up.

The back of the speaker hides a locking compartment that houses a USB port to charge your other devices, a microUSB port for recharging the speaker, an aux-in port for plugging in your phone so you don’t have to use Bluetooth, and an on/off master switch. This compartment MUST be secured if the device gets wet or it will get ruined. It holds tight once it’s secured so you won’t need to worry about it coming undone by itself, but you’ll have to remember to secure it after you recharge the battery.

On the inside, the speaker houses a battery that ECOXGEAR claims (pretty accurately) provides 15 hours of music playback. We listened to the speaker at mainly mid to low volumes as the speaker is pretty powerful and got anywhere between 13 and 14 hours on a full charge.

Sound

I am in no way an audiophile and that’s important to keep in mind when I talk about the sound coming out of the ECOXGEAR EcoSlate. I love music and I normally have it on at any given time, but I don’t live my life trying to get the purest sound possible.

That being said, I wasn’t blown away by the EcoSlate. Yes, it does put out thunderously loud audio for the size of the body. The two 10W speakers and 2 passive woofers do very well in keeping entire rooms full of music, but I always feel like the soul in the music is just lacking.

Most of the times, it doesn’t matter that much. I keep going back to the example of being at the beach, but I think it’s a perfect example here. When you’re chilling in your chair with a beer, munching on some snacks and enjoying the view, do you need the best sounding speaker ever? I certainly don’t. I just need something that sounds “good” and the EcoSlate does the job.

Could the bass be beefier? Sure. Could the the mids be a little better defined? Absolutely. Could the highs be a little less sharp? Yep. But, overall listening does remain pleasant. You can kick on anything from Fall Out Boy to Blake Shelton, to No Doubt and enjoy your music just fine. I might stick clear of the pop princesses that hit the high notes often, but that’s really the only complaint I have.

Conclusion

200 lumen flashlight

Overall, I really like the ECOXGEAR EcoSlate. The speaker produces good enough sound and has really cool features like speaker pairing, an IP68 rating, and a flashlight. Right now the speaker sits at about $150 and that’s a perfect price for what it is. When you compare it to high-end speakers like the UE Megaboom that retails for $299, you can pick up two of these and pair them together for a really kickass experience for the price of one Megaboom.

Other reviews have pointed out that 100-foot range is a bit of a best case scenario for this speaker and they’re right. There’s a real problem here if you lose line of sight. During my test, I’ve been able to break up the signal while placing a child’s book between the phone (Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus) and the speaker. If I were walking into other rooms where walls separated us, I could understand, but I think there’s a weakness with speaker there.

Interference issues aside, the EcoSlate combines a lot of features into one package. You’d be hard pressed to find another speaker in the $150 range that has waterproofing, a rugged construction, a 10+ hour battery, the ability to charge a secondary device and a flashlight. When you take everything into consideration, I think the EcoSlate is one of the best options on the market and will certainly be making the return trip to the beach with me and my family.

If you’re interested in picking up the ECOXGEAR EcoSlate, you can grab one at Amazon, Costco, Home Depot, and ECOXGEAR’s site.

Samsung is creating a Bixby speaker

Dan Bartram
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Samsung are clearly putting a lot of effort into creating its own virtual assistant with Bixby. However, it’s not been smooth sailing and saw a significant delay despite being included with the Galaxy S8.

Despite the various delays, Samsung still seem to be pushing on with its strategy to compete with the likes of Google Home and Amazon Echo by launching its own speaker. Amazon’s Echo line occupies more than 70% of the US market so Samsung clearly seem to be looking to go after this share of the market. Presumably the speaker would function in a similar way to its competitors and offer access to Bixby via an integrated speaker and microphone to provide virtual assistance.

There’s no timeframe currently defined as to when a Bixby speaker would launch but presumably Samsung’s efforts are focused on getting the virtual assistant working as advertised.

Check out this PlayStation Vita-like smartphone headed for the Western market soon

Alexandra Arici
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Gaming and smartphones have gone hand-in-hand for years now, but there has never been a phone that’s been designed with gamers in mind. Not if you live in the West anyway.

Chinese handset maker, Snail Mobile has been making smartphones that look like handheld gaming consoles for years. But so far it has been selling them on its home turf only. Although the company has big plans.

According to Engadget, Snail Mobile’s latest phone – awkwardly called Snail Mobile i7 – will soon make a debut on the global market, first in Hong Kong and then in the Western world.

The phone bundles pretty great specs coming with a 6-inch display with fullHD resolution (1920 x 1080), 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. It relies on a MediaTek Helio X20 processor and includes a 16-megapixel camera alongside a 5-megapixel selfie snapper. The i7 also offers stereo speakers, USB Type-C port, and a super-large 6,000 mAh battery.

The phone’s body – reminiscent of the Sony PlayStation Vita – distinguishes it from the rest, while the presence of two analog sticks, D-pad and A,B,Y,X buttons lets gamers play without actually touching the display. Looking at it we can assume it provides a great experience for users who love to play older games through emulators.

However, given its odd shape, the i7 might not be the best choice for people looking to use the phone on a daily basis to perform regular tasks despite its large battery.

Anyway, Snail Mobile also plans to launch a premium version of the i7 which will offer 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage.

What do you think of the Snail Mobile i7? Would you be interested in acquiring one?

Bixby gets delayed in the US once more, don’t expect it until fall

Alexandra Arici
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Unveiled with a lot of pomp back in May, Samsung’s own virtual assistant called Bixby has failed to take off so far. Actually Bixby Voice – its most important part – wasn’t even available at the time of launch of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ – which were first phones to integrate the virtual helper.

Last month, Samsung introduced an Early Access program for Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ users in the US which allows them to try Bixby voice features ahead of the public release. But according to a recent report coming out of the Korean Herald, Samsung has been getting mixed responses from US testers who are mainly complaining about unsatisfactory results in terms of responding to requests and questions.

Which is why industry insiders are now predicting the English version of Bixby will be delayed until this fall (at the latest). Back in April, Samsung’s mobile chief, Koh Don-jin said that the Bixby English version will be unveiled in May. But the Korean tech giant couldn’t come through on its Bixby deadline.

The chief reason for that? Samsung apparently lacks the accumulation of big data – the key to deep learning technology – which would enable Bixby to learn and evolve based on the accumulation of data or “knowledge”.

The report at hand also cites geographical and language barriers between US and Korean engineers as a second major impediment in the development of the English version of Bixby.

Tech giants like Google, Apple and Amazon have been dabbling in the big data business for a while now, so they hold an advantage over Samsung. Will the Korean tech giant ever manage to catch up? Unfortunately, at this point, things don’t look too promising.

Interestingly enough, Samsung is taking steps to push Bixby to other devices. The Galaxy Note7 Fan Edition that launched in South Korea a few days ago comes with Bixby support and according to recent rumors the company is also working on a Bixby-powered speaker dubbed Vega.

Moto X4 in gold smiles for the camera

Alexandra Arici
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Recently it was revealed that the upcoming Moto X4 will land at Project Fi in the fourth quarter of the year. Well if you were curious of how the phone will look like, @evleaks just posted a press render showcasing the handset in all its glory.

From the image, it appears the phone will come with a full glass construction and gold paint job. But unlike what we saw in an earlier leaked presentation video, it seems the Moto X4 will feature the LED below the camera and not above.

Older Moto X4 leak

As for specs, the Moto X4 should make a debut into the world with a 5.2-inch display with fullHD (1920 x 1080) and a Snapdragon 630 processor running the show (made of eight cores all clocked at 2.2GHz).

Motorola will offer the product with 4GB of RAM onboard and 64GB of internal storage (with microSD card slot for memory expansion). The phone will include a dual camera setup that’s said to consist of one 8-megapixel sensor and a 12-megapixel one. A 16-megapixel snapper will sit on the front.

It’s expected the phone will carry a 3,000 mAh battery, as well as an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance and a front-mounted fingerprint sensor.

Now after putting a face on the Moto X4, all we need to find out is how much Motorola plans to ask for the phone. Hopefully, it won’t be more than $400.

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