Amazon today introduced four new Fire tablet models, including two Kids Editions. Here they are as follows:
Fire 7
Amazon’s all-new Fire 7 tablet is the cheapest of the bunch, coming in with a price-tag of $49.99. The slate is said to be thinner and lighter than its predecessor and arrives with an improved 7-inch IPS display. It also bundles a quad-core 1.3GHz processor, 8GB or 16GB of storage (with microSD support for up to 256GB of storage). The affordable Fire 7 includes a battery that can sustain up to 8 hours of use onboard.
Fire HD 8
For $30 more, the HD 8 offers an 8-inch display with 1280 x 800 resolution, a choice between 16GB or 32GB of internal storage (microSD card slot for expansion up to 256GB) and a battery that can last up to 12 hours on a single charge. Both models come with Amazon’s popular virtual assistant, Alexa out of the box. Customers can pick either model up in Black, Punch Red, Marine Blue or Canary Yellow. Don’t forget one thing: these tablets run Amazon’s own mobile OS and not Android.
Fire 7 Kids Edition
Amazon is also refreshing its kiddie-friendly tablet lineup with the new Fire 7 Kids Edition. The tablet comes with a kid-proof case meant to protect it against any kind of accidental abuse. A “no question asked” two-year warranty is included with the purchase, as well as a free year to the new Amazon FreeTime subscription service. The slate ships out with 16GB of storage for $99.99.
Fire HD 8 Kids Edition
As for the Fire HD 8 Kids Edition, it’s exactly the same as the Fire 7 Kids Edition, except you get a larger display with 720p, 32GB of storage and a longer lasting battery. The product can be acquired for $129.99.
The new models are already available to buy, but keep they are scheduled to start shipping on June 7.
It’s one of the most exciting days of the years for Google and Android fans, Google I/O 2017. The yearly developer conference is always full of some surprises! Sometimes we see some products announced, sometimes we get some updates on Android, and sometimes we see some get something completely out of left field to surprise us all.
Our own JD Snyder is at the event today and we’ll have full coverage of it, but if you want to tune into the keynote to see what Sundar and the rest of the team have to share, look no further than right here!
Now, remember that the keynote kicks off at 1 PM Eastern, 10 AM local time. We’re excited about the rumors swirling around for new products, new updates to android, and the unknown. What are you excited about? Leave us a comment down below and let us know!
Motorola’s new smartphones are starting to emerge. A few days ago the company revealed the Moto C and Moto C Plus models, but more are expected to arrive in the following months.
Like the Moto E4 and Moto E4 Plus – two handsets that are to be situated a bit above the Moto C and Moto C Plus. While we’re still in the dark as to when the two products will go live, we have to assume it’s going to be quite soon.
Case in point, two press renders revealing the Moto E4 and Moto E4 Plus appeared online via German publication WinFuture, this week.
As anticipated, the Moto E4 and Moto E4 Plus will feature a design reminiscent of this year’s Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus. The current leak also sheds more light on the upcoming phones’ specifications.
According to the information, the Moto E4 should arrive with a 5-inch display with 1280 x 720 resolution, while the Mote E4 Plus will feature a 5.5-inch screen with 720p display. Both handsets include a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6737M chipset which works in combination with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage.
Older Moto E4 press render
The lower-end Moto E will take advantage of a main 8-megapixel camera, plus a 5-megapixel front shooter, as well as a 2,800 mAh battery. The Moto E Plus, on the other hand will have a 13-megapixel camera on the back and a 5-megapixel self-portrait snapper plus a 5,000 mAh battery.
While availability details are currently unknown, we can tell you the Moto E4 is expected to go on sale for around $165, while the E4 Plus will feature a price-tag of approximately $210.
A few weeks ago John McAfee, owner of computer security software company McAfee, announced a super-secure smartphone called the John McAfee Privacy Phone.
The handset is expected to go on sale for $1,100 – which makes this private phone a very expensive purchase. Obviously John McAfee’s phone won’t be for everyone, but luckily there are alternatives for privacy-conscious users who don’t want to spend a whole fortune to protect their private information.
Enter the Oukitel K4000 Plus – a smartphone that comes with a privacy feature built into the phone’s OS in order to allow users to put a lock on their private files including documents, pictures, contacts, text and even apps.
The phone basically puts them in a private folder, while giving users three options to access them. The first one is pretty standard – the folder is available on your home screen and requires a password to open it.
The second option is more interesting – the folder itself is invisible and can be accessed via a special combination on the dial pad. The last method is a bit nutty (or cunning, however you want to call it), but hey maybe it will find its fair share of fans out there. The phone creates a fake secure folder which it populates with fake documents, while the real folder is kept safely hidden behind a second pass code.
As for specs, the Oukitel K4000 Plus is a pretty low-range affair. The product features a 5-inch display with 1280 x 720 resolution, a MediaTek MT6737 chipset and 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. A similar configuration can be found with the Moto C Plus and Nokia 3.
The Oukitel K4000 Plus also relies on a pretty large 4,100 mAh battery and runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. We should also note that despite it being a low-end device, Oukitel has outfitted the K4000 Plus with a fingerprint scanner which comes embedded in the Home button.
What’s more the phone appears to be quite sturdy too, as it takes advantage of a zinc alloy frame, as well as CNC coating and highlight polishing.
The handset is currently up for pre-sale until May 22 for $89.99. After which you will be able to acquire it for $109.99.
At MWC 2017, Nokia introduced three affordable new Android smartphones, but the company is expected to launch more models until the end of the year.
Like the Nokia 8 and the Nokia 9 – whose names already surfaced online a few times. Now Nokia’s purported upcoming models might have just been showed off in a video posted on Vimeo (which was quickly removed) by art director George Chevalier Lewis, who is one of Nokia’s known collaborators.
The teaser video appears to be an official promotional video of the Nokia’s 2017 smartphone lineup, but alongside known products such as the Nokia 5 or Nokia 3, two mysterious unidentified model were also spotted. Interestingly enough, the Nokia 6 has been left out of the mini-clip.
Purported Nokia 9 back side
One of these elusive handsets appears to sport a dual-camera setup, so we can speculate we’re looking at the Nokia 9. According to previous rumors, the phone should feature come packing a 5.5-inch display with advanced QHD resolution (2560 x 1440) and a Snapdragon 835 processor and a dual-lens main camera featuring at least one 22-megapixel sensor.
Back view of Nokia 6
As for the second unannounced mystery Nokia handset briefly spotted in the video, it’s probably the Nokia 8 or even the Nokia 7 for that matter. The device’s back could have easily been mistaken for Nokia 6’s rear, but the slightly different camera module is the giveaway. Word on the street has it the Nokia 8 might arrive with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 660 processor under the hood.
A while back HMD said it is looking to launch 6-7 smartphones this year and three have already been announced, which leaves room for 3 to 4 additional models. Hopefully at least one of them will be a premium device.
Verizon probably pushed back the launch of the Samsung Gear S3 Frontier smartwatch, in order to better promote its own Wear24 intelligent timepiece, which only recently started selling. Right now if you want to purchase a smartwatch off Big Red you have a few options at your disposal including the Samsung Gear S2 or Motorola Moto 360 2nd generation models.
Interestingly enough there’s no trace of the new LG Watch Sport which had been available for pre-order starting February 10. According to the Droid Life, the carrier has been sending cancellation emails to those who pre-ordered the device. Verizon actually told the publication the LG Watch Sport had been cancelled, a piece of information that has yet to be confirmed by LG.
Even so, one can’t find the page for the Verizon LG Watch Sport on the manufacturer’s website anymore, as only the one for the AT&T model remains.
For its part, Verizon is trying to console buyers by shaving $100 off the purchases of another connected watch. Coincidence or not, the carrier recently started selling its Wear24 intelligent timepiece which is available for $349 outright or $299 on a two-year contract.
Still those who won’t be swayed away from the LG Watch Sport can still order the product from AT&T for $249 on a two-year contract.
We’ve reached out to LG to inquire on the Verizon LG Watch Sport’s status and will update you as soon as more information becomes available.
Developed by Hothead Games, Kill Shot Virus is a new app from an established developer who has been responsible for apps like BIG WIN Racing, and Rivals at War. Having been recently updated on May 10 to version 1.0.2, Kill Shot Virus is very much in its infancy but the developer is working to patch any bugs quickly. Kill Shot Virus is a Zombie killing FPS game where you must protect survivors, kill the undead, and stop the virus spreading.
What it does
Kill Shot Virus has over 100 FPS missions where you must utilize a large set of weapons to kill the enemy zombies and stop the virus from spreading. With great graphics and effects, you’ll find yourself overcoming hordes of zombies all over an infected city.
You can even create a survival faction with your friends to rack up points together to dominate the global leaderboard. You can compete against rival factions and there’s even Urban Onslaught and Urban Pandemic event modes that have been included to survive against hordes of the infected and powerful boss-like super zombies.
Why we like it
Everyone loves a good zombie shoot-em-up, and Kill Shot Virus is a great example of one that has been optimized for mobile gameplay to just pick up and play. That would be one of my only criticisms with this game is that it is best enjoyed in short bursts as to keep it exciting. I think that’s more akin to the zombie FPS genre as a whole as it can get repetitive quickly. Picking up Kill Shot Virus will certainly leave you feeling like you’ve blown off some steam, and has great graphics to enjoy while you’re doing it.
How to get it
Kill Shot Virus is available for free from the Google Play Store. You can download it right here.
YouTube TV has already added a number of new channels to its upstart internet-based streaming TV service. Just weeks after launching with a rather wide variety of options, YouTube TV gains additional key channels.
Subscribers can now can access content from AMC, BBC America, IFC TV, Sundance TV, Telemundo, Univision, and We TV. This means watchers will be able to get their fix for Better Call Saul, Doctor Who, and many other programs.
YouTube TV runs $35 per month and includes live TV streaming from ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, and popular cable network. Additionally, it also offers unlimited cloud DVR and support for 6 accounts per household.
As of today, YouTube TV is only available in a small number of markets; Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, and San Francisco Bay Area are the lucky territories with YouTube TV support. It’s not clear when additional metro areas will be added to the list or how fast Google plans to grow the service.
Looking ahead, YouTube TV will also add Local Now and BBC World News to its roster. To see a full list of channels available under YouTube TV, check here.
Do you like to shoot pictures or video from your smartphone? Are you in the early stages of kicking off a YouTube vlogging career? What are you using to hold your handset? How can you hope to nab great panoramic shots or fun video when you have to hold onto it physically? Get yourself a mount of some sort.
JOBY, a brand who specializes in tripods, photo gear, and more, has introduced a pair of products which speak directly to the mobile user. If you’re in the market for something compact, light, and well-built, we suggest you give them a look.
We’ve had the new GripTight PRO Video Mount and the GripTight PRO Video GP Stand in our possession for a week or so and simply love them. Both make it really easy to shoot video or take pictures from any smartphone. Moreover, we’ve also tested the GripTight One as a smartphone holder for pics. All travel well and should find a place in your travel bag.
GripTight PRO Video Mount
The GripTight PRO Video Mount attaches to any tripod and employs a locking tilt functionality. Set it at a variety of angles and step back; you’re hands-free, remember?
Want to switch from portrait to landscape mode? A quick loosening on the back lets you flip your phone on its end for a different look. This one is designed to fit pretty much any phone on the market, even those with a wider body.
The panning arm gives you total control for panoramic pictures, time lapse photos, videos, and more. Not using it? Simply unlock it from the base and rotate it into a more comfortable position.
The whole thing weighs practically nothing, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at it. We found it to be solidly built and constructed from quality materials.
The legs are perhaps one of the signature features of the GorillaPod line of products from JOBY. While they stay in place quite well, they can be bent and angled it seemingly endless ways. Wrap it around a pole or snug it up against a door and you can grab some really interesting perspectives.
GripTight ONE
For those of you who don’t necessarily need a panning arm or would prefer something a little smaller, the GripTight ONE might be your cup of tea. Strong enough to hold up to 500 grams, it’s a more compact, yet still versatile product.
The unique mount folds up nice and tight and screws directly into any standard tripod mount. Open it up and you’ll find it fits essentially all smartphones. It won’t let you flip to portrait mode, but, if wide angle and landscape is your main concern, this is a non-issue.
This one also features the strong and flexible legs that you’ll find across the entire portfolio. Again, they’re smaller, but no less practical. Rest assured that you still wrap them around various things like tree branches or bicycle handlebars.
As a much more portable unit, you can slide this into a bag or even a pocket without much notice. You’ll want to unscrew the mount from the top before doing so lest you risk breaking it.
What we like most about products like these is the universal fit and interchangeability. You can swap the mounts out for the other base or put them on top of an existing tripod. This way, you can shoot from the home office with your favorite stand but then hit the road with something more suited to your mobile needs.
There’s no denying that online music services provide such an unparalleled level of convenience that some people have opted to use them exclusively. No more dealing with files, synchronization, ID3 tags, and finding a way of storing all of these files in the sometimes pitiful storage options offered by manufacturers.
However, there’s also a huge market out there who prefers to have their songs with them at all times. This is especially true in places where data is prohibitively expensive, so services like Spotify should either be used with offline files or with WiFi at all times. For these people, the Google Play Store has a lot of apps worthy of your attention, and Pi Music Player is one of those.
When starting the app, the only thing Pi asks of you is to select a theme. Since normally music players these days are either white or black, I decided to go with the Gloss theme in order to give the app a bit more color and personality. In my opinion, all of the themes look fine, though. After this, the app’s main screen will show up and you’ll have your whole library waiting for you.
Overview
As happens in many music players these days, Pi borrows from the Google Play Store design and puts a tab bar at the top. The tabs available are: Tracks, Albums, Artists, Genres, Playlists, and Folders. However, unlike the plethora of music players available in the marketplace, the tabs order cannot be changed.
Since everyone uses music players in a different way, this might pose an inconvenience for some people. For example, I never use playlists but some of my friends use their music players exclusively through playlists, so having to scroll the tab bar every time they want to access the playlist section might become a bit tiresome for them.
There’s a hamburger menu at the top left. Triggering it will show you items such as Smart Playlists, Ringtone Cutter, Equalizer, and Settings. On the top right, there’s a search button that does exactly what you expect from it. There’s also a feature Pi Power Share, which lets you share music with other users across platforms.
General Impressions
The highlight of Pi Music Player interface-wise is its animations. Swiping between different tabs, opening the Now Playing screen, and the splash screen are some of the noteworthy examples of this fact.
However, I feel like the rest of the app is not as beautiful as it could be. For example, the Artist tab consists of a list with the name of the artist, the number of albums, and the number of tracks. There’s no Artist picture or anything to make it a bit more appealing. Also, stuff like displaying “1 Tracks” is such an easy thing to avoid that I can’t understand the decision to leave it like that.
The Artist page is also something that I’ve seen executed in a more beautiful way in other apps. While apps like Shuttle and Pulsar opt for a grid to show album arts and then show the songs of a specific artist in a list, Pi shows a scroll view on top with all of the albums. There’s no Artist picture or something similar to spice things up, making things bland compared to other options.
Another thing I noticed is that album art works in a very weird way in this app. While some players opt for downloading everything from online databases, Pi prefers information embedded into the song’s ID3 tags. After hours of hard work throughout the years, my library is pretty well organized, with album arts and decent structure. However, Pi refused to acknowledge my hard work and showed me a generic album art for all of my songs.
Listen to this song, please.
However, I noticed that as I played songs more and more, then the album art started to pop up for some of them. This probably means that the artwork gets processed only after a song has been opened for the first time. It’s hard for me to understand the logic behind this after seeing so many smooth implementations on the Play Store. Also, when you play a song for the first time, you won’t see its artwork in the Now Playing screen. But if you go back one screen and then press the Now Playing bar at the top of the app, it is then displayed. Weird, right?
Otherwise, the app is responsive and loads everything quickly enough on my Huawei Honor 7 Lite with approximately 1300 songs. From playing a song to skipping to the next tune to applying EQ settings, Pi provided a snappy experience. I experienced no cutoffs or other performance nuances.
Options and In-App Purchases
A rather limited set of options are available.
This is a very interesting part to analyze since Pi includes some very neat options but lacks other seemingly basic ones. For example, an EQ provided in the free version is a welcome addition, since some developers hide the equalizer behind a pro purchase.
Also, there’s a ringtone maker, in which you cut a specific part of any of the songs in your library and makes it a brand-new ringtone for your phone. I haven’t seen a feature like this in a music player in a long time, and, even though it’s nice to have, it might not be as useful as other options.
Pi incorporates a sleep timer so that music can turn off after a certain period of time, a filter for songs of a specific length, lock screen album art, and an option to keep the phone’s screen on when you’re on the Playback screen.
Notably absent are Last.fm scrobbling, gapless playback, download artwork from online sources, whitelist/blacklist, and the ability to specify actions when connecting or disconnecting wired and wireless headsets.
There’s a store in which you can buy backgrounds for your app, but it also houses the ad-free version of the app. See, Pi can be used completely for free, and, the first ten times you open the app, you will get the ad-free experience. However, from launch 11 onwards, you will get ads while using it. To avoid this, you can pay approximately $1 to unlock the version without ads.
Conclusion
Pi Music Player is a solid competitor in the moderately crowded and competitive music player market. With more people embracing online services such as Spotify and Deezer thanks to the convenience and lack of onboard storage on modern smartphones, there’s less of a demand for music players.
However, for those of us who still prefer to have our libraries with us the whole time and not depend on internet connection, the number of good options available is astounding. Pi needs to correct some stuff in order to be able to compete, such as beautifying a bit the interface and resolve minor errors here and there. As I said previously, there’s small things that are missing, but, with enough updates, it could easily enter the group of elite music players.
Amazon’s all-new Fire 7 tablet is the cheapest of the bunch, coming in with a price-tag of $49.99. The slate is said to be thinner and lighter than its predecessor and arrives with an improved 7-inch IPS display. It also bundles a quad-core 1.3GHz processor, 8GB or 16GB of storage (with microSD support for up to 256GB of storage). The affordable Fire 7 includes a battery that can sustain up to 8 hours of use onboard.
For $30 more, the HD 8 offers an 8-inch display with 1280 x 800 resolution, a choice between 16GB or 32GB of internal storage (microSD card slot for expansion up to 256GB) and a battery that can last up to 12 hours on a single charge. Both models come with Amazon’s popular virtual assistant, Alexa out of the box. Customers can pick either model up in Black, Punch Red, Marine Blue or Canary Yellow. Don’t forget one thing: these tablets run Amazon’s own mobile OS and not Android.
Amazon is also refreshing its kiddie-friendly tablet lineup with the new Fire 7 Kids Edition. The tablet comes with a kid-proof case meant to protect it against any kind of accidental abuse. A “no question asked” two-year warranty is included with the purchase, as well as a free year to the new Amazon FreeTime subscription service. The slate ships out with 16GB of storage for $99.99.
As for the Fire HD 8 Kids Edition, it’s exactly the same as the Fire 7 Kids Edition, except you get a larger display with 720p, 32GB of storage and a longer lasting battery. The product can be acquired for $129.99.
As anticipated, the Moto E4 and 
Enter the Oukitel K4000 Plus – a smartphone that comes with a privacy feature built into the phone’s OS in order to allow users to put a lock on their private files including documents, pictures, contacts, text and even apps.
The second option is more interesting – the folder itself is invisible and can be accessed via a special combination on the dial pad. The last method is a bit nutty (or cunning, however you want to call it), but hey maybe it will find its fair share of fans out there. The phone creates a fake secure folder which it populates with fake documents, while the real folder is kept safely hidden behind a second pass code.
As for specs, the Oukitel K4000 Plus is a pretty low-range affair. The product features a 5-inch display with 1280 x 720 resolution, a MediaTek MT6737 chipset and 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. A similar configuration can be found with the 
The Oukitel K4000 Plus also relies on a pretty large 4,100 mAh battery and runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. We should also note that despite it being a low-end device, Oukitel has outfitted the K4000 Plus with a fingerprint scanner which comes embedded in the Home button.
Even so, one can’t find the page for the Verizon LG Watch Sport on the manufacturer’s website anymore, as only the one for the AT&T model remains.
