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Mujjo’s Leather Case for the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus is brilliant (review)

One of the best parts about owning an Apple iPhone is the third-party accessory market. A lot of people skip over Apple’s own accessories and grab a case off Amazon or from Best Buy, but when they do that, they’re missing out on what I consider the best case on the market, the Apple Leather Case for iPhone. I’ve been searching for a leather case that replicated the quality of that Apple case for years now, and I think I finally have.

For the last few weeks, the Mujjo Leather Case for my Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus has been strapped to my phone and hasn’t come off*. The biggest factors for me when choosing a case are the quality of the materials, how bulky it is, and how much protection it adds. Mujjo’s case ticks all the boxes for me.

(*I listen to music while I shower so I leave the case downstairs to preserve the long-term life of it)

The Leather Case from Mujjo is just that, leather. A lot of cases claim to be leather or “vegan” leather, but they’re really just leather substitutes or a small bit of leather with substitutes mixed in. That’s not the case here. This case is full-grain leather that goes through a tanning processes. According to Mujjo, each case is treated with aniline oils to enrich color tones.

And truthfully, it feels fantastic in the hand. It’s been a few years since I’ve held an Apple Leather Case but I remember them being a bit more of a matte to the shiny Mujjo case. The Mujjo case is a little more slippery, but not to the point of being difficult to hold onto, and a little shinier but they’re both look and feel great in their own right.

In addition to feeling great because of the materials, it feels great to hold this case because it’s just so thin. Mujjo claims the case is 1mm thick, and while I don’t have tools precise enough to give me a reliable measurement, I don’t doubt the veracity of that statement. I’ve run through a million cases in my time and it’s one of the thinnest I’ve ever used for longer than a day or two. It’s just north of those snap-on cases that promise nothing but scratch resistance because they’re so thin that there’s no possible way they could protect against falls.

The cutouts wrap around the ports and buttons in an elegant way that shows real craftsmanship. One area where you can tell that Mujjo really knows what they’re doing is the camera cutout. Instead of using a reflective plastic border around the edge of the cutout, Mujjo kept the leather wrap here. I love this for a couple reasons, the first of which is that there’s nothing reflective to bounce the camera flash back into the lens. Secondly, the entire phone is black and it would really destroy the experience for me to have another accent color on the case.

If you’re looking for OtterBox level protection, this obviously isn’t the case for you. But, the case provides plenty of protection for your every day falls. The Galaxy S8 was recently ranked as the most fragile phone ever, and while I hate covering up beautiful phones with cases, you’d be silly to leave your $850 investment unprotected.

Case makers have been struggling a bit trying to get the height of the sides of their cases right due to the curved screen, but Mujjo did pretty well here. I actually find it’s a lot easier to find where to swipe in from the sides of the phone with a case on as it kind of guides my hands. It also helps me find the fingerprint sensor too, which is a big plus since it’s in such a silly place on the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus.

When I do reviews, I try as hard as possible to be honest about the negatives I’m seeing with products. Nothing can ever be perfect. But, I genuinely don’t have any negatives about the Mujjo Leather Case. Sure, it’s won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but that comes down to personal preference rather than any design or material choices made by Mujjo. Hell, you can even charge your phone wirelessly with it on. Not many cases will allow you to do that.

If you’re interested in picking one up, you can head over to Mujjo’s site and grab one. They also offer them in Saddle Tan too if you don’t like the black.

Stay safe with Legitifi, the first social identity verification app

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With the spread of mobile technology, it’s become much easier for people to satisfy their need for social interaction and human companionship virtually. Want to go out on a date? There’s an app for that. Need someone to watch your kid? You can easily find a babysitter online.

But before you welcome these people into your life and even more potentially dangerous, into your home, you should ask yourself “Are these people really who they say they are?” In most cases, you can’t know that for sure until you meet them in person. But what if you could run a background check on them before leaving the house? Now you can – with the help of Legitifi, the first social identity verification app.

How does it work? The app simply pulls social media information to verify and validate identities. On top of that, it combines the data and checks the National Sex Offender Database to show you the full story.

To get started you’ll need to download the app from the Google Play Store. Once installed on your device, you’ll be able to search for anyone by their phone number, email address or name. If the person you’re searching for has joined, the app will show you their profile. Or you can invite them to join via text or email.

The more someone fills in their profile, the more legitimate the profile becomes. Still, there’s a limitation here. The person you are searching for needs to be on social media and link her/his accounts to Legitifi in order for you to be able to gain any insight into their persona.

Luckily, Legitifi does not rely only on info pulled from social media. It also lets users “Vouch” for each other. If you interacted with someone and liked it, you can go ahead and vouch for them. Think of it as a positive review. The more an user has, the more legit they are.

If the idea behind the app sounds good to you, you can go ahead and give it a try. And don’t forget to tell us what you think about it.

WalletHub – A must download for any adult (Review)

Some people (me) have difficulty keeping track of their finances from time to time. While I always know what’s in my bank account, my credit score is usually somewhat of a mystery to me, both what’s in it and what it means. If you’re like me and that 3-digit number is an enigma to you too, you too should download WalletHub.

 

Developer: WalletHub

Price: Free

Download: Google Play

All you need to know in one place

All Your Info, All in One Place

When you first launch WalletHub, you will need to enter quite a bit of personal information. Obviously, this is needed to bring you your credit report. WalletHub has the usual disclaimer that your information will not be used for anything other than the report they are generating, and they promise that their reporting will not affect your credit score. This initial setup, both entering your data and them looking you up, will take a good 10-15 minutes, so expect to wait for a little bit. Once everything is loaded up, WalletHub will allow you to set a password or a pin number to keep your information safe from prying eyes.

 

From the main dashboard, you have your credit score displayed in an easy to read format that tells you your score, how that rates, and when the last time it was updated. From this screen, you can set goals such as buy a house or car, and get great resources about different types of loans, how to negotiate price, pitfalls to watch out for, and tips for all ranges of credit. There is also an indepth analysis tab that shows everything that has had an effect on your credit both positive and negative over the past month, with breakdowns for Payment History, Collections, Credit Utilization, Debt Load, Account Age, Account Diversity, and Credit Inquiries. There are other tabs that suggest credit cards for your credit score and help you analyse the pros and cons of various cards and various offers for cards.

Easy to read info and tips

A Solid App

Everything in the app out in the open in easy to find locations, so if this topic starts to get you overwhelmed, the app helps guide you along. Also with all of the information packed into this app in every category, they really make sure that if there is something you are unsure about in the world of credit scores they help talk you through it in an easy to understand way. Everything in the app is positive and directs you back to what your goals are and what steps you can take to reach them.

Set you goals and reach them with guides and tips

A Personal Touch

Without disclosing all my personal financial information to the whole internet, I will say that this app has first and foremost explained to me what everything on my report means, how different things effect my score, and how to make even more improvements to get where I want to be. Everything they have suggested to me so far has worked out and has been solid information, and the fact that they take the time with each step to explain to me what everything means is a huge sigh of relief to someone who easily gets overwhelmed by numbers.

 

Conclusion

Plain and simple, the fact that the features in this app are not included in every banking app baffles me. The reports, notifications, suggestions, and guides are top notch and really make you feel like you are in control of your financial life. This app is a must install for me, and should be for anyone else who is in charge of their financial life. So for all you adults out there, download now.

The next 18:9 ratio phone will come from Google

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The Pixel 2 is popping into the rumor mill with some frequency these days. Slowly but surely the aura of mystery is lifting and we’re starting to an idea of what the Pixel 2 will be like.

German website WinFuture has spotted the Pixel XL 2 in the GFXBench database with most of its specifications in tow. The listing reveals the Pixel XL 2 will apparently feature a 5.6-inch display with 2560 x 1312 pixels. The atypical resolution indicates the phone will have an 18:9 (or 2:1 ratio) aspect ratio, in the same vein as the LG G6. Earlier rumors also hinted at the possibility that the Pixel 2 will feature a dual curved panel.

According to GFXBench, the Pixel XL 2 should also arrive with a Snapdragon 835 processor, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of built-in storage. Previously, we heard the Pixel 2 might take advantage of a revised Snapdragon 835 version, the Snapdragon 836 which Qualcomm will supposedly introduce later this year. The LG V30 and Samsung Galaxy Note 8 are also expected to be based on the platform.

The Pixel XL 2 listing also includes a primary 12-megapixel camera with 4K video, as well as a 7-megapixel camera with 4K support.

If you’re curious to see how a tall and narrow Pixel 2 will look like, designer Benjamin Geskin has already created a concept that looks quite stunning, albeit the LG G6/Samsung Galaxy S8 resemblance is pretty obvious.

Huawei Honor 9 arrives with 6GB of RAM, Huawei Pay

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The Huawei Honor 8 was one of our favorite middle-range phones of last year. And obviously, we’re pretty excited that Huawei pulled the veil off its successor today.

Naturally the newcomer is called the Honor 9 and as predicted arrives with a 5.15-inch display with fullHD resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels) and 428ppi. The screen covers the DCI-P3 standard to deliver better color reproduction.

Like it’s the case with most Huawei phones, the Honor 9 takes advantage of a home-grown Kirin 960 processor with four cores clocked at 2.4GHz and four extra ones clocked at 1.8GHz. It’s the same processor that also fuels the Mate9 and P10, so the Honor 9 leans towards affordable flagship territory rather than middle-ranger.

Consider that Huawei is also offering the phone with 4GB of RAM/64GB storage or 6GB of RAM/64GB storage or 6GB of RAM/128GB storage (a microSD card is included for memory expansion up to 256GB in all models). Flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S8 only offer a standard of 4GB of RAM/64GB storage.

The Honor 9 also comes with an improved main dual-camera setup which pairs a 20-megapixel sensor for monochrome shooting with a 12-megapixel sensor for RGB and offers f/2.2 aperture, PDAF, and two-tone LED flash. For self-portraits, there’s an 8-megapixel secondary camera with f/2.0 living on the front.

Huawei is taking advantage of the Honor 9’s launch to also introduce its own mobile payment solution called Huawei Pay. The service will come pre-installed on the Honor 9.

Audiophiles will also love the Honor 9. The phone includes a Hi-Fi audio chip that was fine tuned by Grammy-winning recording engineer Rainer Maillard said to offer 90% improvements in audio purity and 60% increase in fidelity. But that’s not all, Huawei has embedded Histen audio processing tech inside the phone which gives a sense of being right next to the stage where the music plays. To make the offer even more enticing, Huawei is also offering a pair of custom Monster earphones with an Honor 9 purchase.

The new product relies on a 3,200 mAh battery and also includes a USB Type-C port, dual SIM, as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack (yey!). It runs Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box with Huawei’s own EMUI 5.1 interface on top.

The Honor 9 comes with a metal body and a sleek glass back and will become available for sale in three luscious colors including Blue, Grey and Amber Gold. Customers in China will be able to purchase it starting this Friday from Vmall, JD.com, Tmall.com and other online locations.

The 4GB/64GB version will cost approximately $338, while the 6GB/64GB model will have a $400 price-tag attached to it. The 6GB/128GB model will set you back with approximately $441.

No information regarding availability in other markets was shared at this time, but we do expect the Honor 9 to land in the US in the future.

OnePlus officially confirms OnePlus 2 won’t get Android 7.0 Nougat

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Android enthusiasts are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the OnePlus 5 which should land on June 20, but in the meantime, OnePlus 2 owners got some bad news.

Even if back in November 2016, OnePlus promised it will update the OnePlus 2 to Android 7.0 Nougat, the build never came. And now we finally have the confirmation it will never arrive. The Chinese company officially confirmed for Android Authority that the OnePlus 2 will not get the Android 7.0 Nougat update.

You’re probably wondering what’s the reason behind it all. Well according to the statement, when it built the OnePlus 2 the company did not have the software infrastructure team in place it does now, perhaps hinting that the convergence of the Hydrogen and Oxygen teams is to be blamed for the lack of update.

Furthermore, OnePlus added that customers service has been relaying this information for a while, saying that it “isn’t new and we think people were aware of it.”

Given that no official info about the Nougat update for the OnePlus 2 transpired ever since the Chinese company made the original announcement back in November 2016, the news does not come as a big shock.

Still, a lot of OnePlus 2 owners were probably still hoping their phone will get the update. Luckily, the device enjoys good third-party support, so there are alternative ways available to update to Android Nougat.  Sorry, OnePlus 2 owners you’re on your own.

Andy Rubin’s Essential phone will be a Sprint exclusive

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So far Andy Rubin’s Essential smartphone has been available for pre-order only from the Essential website for $699 a pop. Now a report coming out of USA Today reveals one of the major US carriers will also be selling the phone.

According to the information. Sprint will exclusively carry the Essential phone in its stores. The partnership between Andy Rubin’s new company and the nation’s no. 4 wireless carrier makes sense given Rubin’s friendship with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. SoftBank owns 83% of Sprint and Rubin is also is an adviser for SoftBank Vision Fund.

As an exclusive partner for Essential, Sprint is planning a big “hero launch” for the product.

We are planning to make this Essential phone very prominent in our stores and will have a premium space to showcase it.

Sprint Chief Marketing Officer, Roger Solé

Pricing of the Essential phone at Sprint is currently unknown.

For those who don’t remember, the Essential phone is a premium handset that is offered with modular accessories like a 360-degree camera that can shoot 4K 360 videos at 30fps. The handset carries a 5.71-inch display with 19:10 aspect ratio and 2,560 x 1,312 resolution, a Snapdragon 835 processor and a main dual-camera assembly.

The Essential will be available in four coloring options including Black Moon, Stellar Gray, Pure White and Ocean Depths, but right now only the Black Moon and Pure White models are available for pre-order. Hopefully, customers will be able to find all the variants at Sprint.

Tip: How to speed up your Samsung Galaxy S7

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Whilst the Galaxy S7 is no slouch when it comes to specs, the device is not as new as it once was and with apps getting more resourcing demand you could find the S7 to be slowing down. Luckily there is a hidden feature that you can change that will instantly speed up your device.

The tip will help speed up your Samsung Galaxy S7 helping reduce the impact of TouchWiz on the system resources. The best bit is there’s nothing extra to install or tons of settings to change, just a simple case of changing a setting with developer options enabled.

The little hack revolves around the animations applied to transitioning between windows and turning the device on or off. By simply turning this off, it contributes to making the device seem extremely snappy and fast by reducing the delay applied to the animation.

First, you’ll need to enable the Developer Options hidden menu. To do this, go into Settings -> About Device and scroll down to “Build Number”. Now, tap on “Build Number” five times and you’ll see a notification saying that “Developer mode has been enabled”.

With that hidden menu now enabled, we can head on into it to begin fastening up our Samsung Galaxy S7.

  1. Head on in to Developer Options in Settings.
  2. Scroll down to the Drawing section.
  3. Of interest here is the Window Animation ScaleTransition Animation Scale, and Animator Duration Scale.
  4. Click on them individually to change the scale.

You are able to turn the animations off completely, or set them to 0.5x (default is 1x) so the animations will be double speed for those who would like to retain them.

You’ll notice your Samsung Galaxy S7 feels substantially quicker. Let us know your comments in the section below.

App Highlight: Photofy Content

The App

Developed by Photofy Inc, Photofy is one of the best photo editing apps on the Google Play Store. With over 5,000,000 installs, this is my no means a new app and is regularly updated with the latest update on June 1, 2017.

What it does

Photofy offers a vast array of photo editing features to take your pictures to that next level. From simple cropping tools to stickers and text art, Photofy has everything you need to edit your photo.

Photofy is a super-easy photo editing app for consumers and businesses that combines all the features you need in one app: Templates, Filters, Light Effects, Photo Mirror, Fit (Insta-size photos to square for easy sharing to Instagram), Text with 90+ free fonts, Meme editor, Collage maker with over 70+ free layouts, and the world’s largest collection of overlay content (50,000+ graphic elements). Create amazing photos, collages, and marketing content.

Why we like it

Photofy has some great collage features and awesome stickers and artwork that you can effortlessly apply to your photos. I also like the blur feature and given it’s all in one app makes editing extremely easy.

How to get it

Photofy is available from the Google Play Store. You can download it right here.

How to SIM unlock the Galaxy Note 5

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You may not realize this, but the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 is still the latest and greatest Note you can buy right now. After Samsung skipped the Note 6 name and the Note 7 died an early death, the Note 5 was left at the top of the perch. And honestly, it’s still a fantastic phone. We recently upgraded my grandmother from an LG G2 to a Note 5 and I was honestly surprised at how fast and smooth the thing functioned.

If you’re looking to replace an older or broken phone or you’re still rocking the Note 5 you may have purchased from a carrier, this article is for you. Almost every phone purchased from a carrier come locked to that carrier and that can complicate things like vacations to foreign countries if you want to use your phone. In this article, we have a few tips and tricks for you to get that phone unlocked and use how you please.

First off, you can go through your carrier. If you bought your phone from a carrier and your account is in good standing, your device is paid off, and you’ve had the device on your account for a set number of days (varies by carrier) then you can request an unlock code.

If you’re like most Americans and you bought your Galaxy Note 5 on a payment plan through your carrier, you probably will not qualify for that at this point since it’s unlikely your phone is paid off. If you don’t meet the requirements or you’re trying to unlock a used or “new to you” phone, you’ll need to go through a third-party unlocking service like Android SIM Unlock.

So, how exactly do you get your phone unlocked? Here are the steps we’ll need to take for both methods.

Get your IMEI Number

Before you do anything else, you need your IMEI number. IMEI stands for International Mobile Equipment Identifier and it’s the unique code for every device to identify it to carriers for access on their networks. Here’s how you get your IMEI number:

  1. Open the phone application
  2. Dial *#06#
  3. Your phone’s IMEI will pop up on the display
  4. Write it down in a document on your computer or a piece of paper nearby

Unlocking

Free unlocking

Earlier in the article, we talked about the requirements to get your free SIM unlock. If you’re unsure if you qualify, give your carrier a call and ask. The worst they can tell you is no and all you’ve lost is time. If you do qualify, wonderful! Here are the steps to unlocking your device with an unlock code provided by your carrier:

  1. Call your carrier customer service (normally you just dial 611 and hit send!)
  2. Request an unlock code
  3. Provide the IMEI number you wrote down earlier
  4. Your unlock code will be sent to you and should arrive within 5 days
  5. Replace the SIM card in your phone with one from another carrier
  6. Enter the unlock code when the prompt comes up

When you get your unlock code, grab a piece of paper and write it down. While these steps are easy, you don’t want to be left trying to pull that information out of a document you have saved in the cloud when you have no service and no WiFi connections. Just do it the old fashion way.

Paid unlocking

If you don’t qualify for a free SIM unlock from your carrier, you still have options! You can buy a cheap unlock code from a third-party unlocker like Android SIM Unlock. This method will work for carriers besides T-Mobile and MetroPCS, so if you have service through them, we’ll have special instructions below for you.

  1. Visit Android SIM Unlock or a similar unlocking site and enter the IMEI you wrote down earlier
  2. Complete the checkout process
  3. Your unlock code will arrive in your email in about an hour, but most of the time sooner than that
  4. Put a SIM card from another carrier in your Samsung Galaxy Note 5
  5. Enter the unlock code in the prompt that appears on screen

T-Mobile and MetroPCS Unlocking Process

T-Mobile and MetroPCS, as we mentioned above, has its own unlocking app. Even if you don’t qualify for a free unlock, you can still unlock your device using the T-Mobile or MetroPCS Device unlock apps. Here’s how you’ll go about it:

  1. Visit Android SIM Unlock or a similar service and select the T-Mobile Device Unlock or MetroPCS Device Unlock option
  2. Enter your IMEI number
  3. Complete the checkout process
  4. You’ll receive your unlock confirmation email in 1 – 3 days
  5. Open the T-Mobile Device Unlock or MetroPCS Device unlock app
  6. Press Continue, then Permanent Unlock
  7. The unlock process will run and reboot your phone when it’s done

The process for T-Mobile isn’t any more complicated than other carriers, it’s just a bit slower.

It’s as easy as that. Enjoy your new (or used) Samsung Galaxy Note 5 on any network you please.