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Android app marketing tips (Sponsored)

Guest Blogger
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When it comes to the mobile devices, we find there are many things you can find for free: Wi-Fi for phones, voice and video calls, streaming content, news, amateur radio, dx, and, of course, applications. However, when we talk about the free mobile apps, not many of us realize that the marketing of the same is not free.

There are accessible resources that can be used to promote an Android application, but it is a costly affair because your valuable time is the most important thing on the list; you’ll have to be dedicated at all times.

If you’re currently worried about your first Android application, we have the tips to help you formulate a marketing strategy that will get you closer to success with every attempt you make.

Set up an inviting and user engaging product page

This is the first time, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re making a basic application or an advanced one, you need a product page that adds credibility to your application and gives a good impression to your users.

Use SEO to promote your app

As an app developer, you should learn about apps to execute tips and continually revise your knowledge to increase app downloads. Learn about keywords, format, length you should maintain for the description of your application. At the same time, Google Play Keyword Optimization is important, and you need to work on it.

Many developers make sure that once the application is created by then, it should be compatible with Google Play as well as the Apple App Store. Although this is a good thing to do, avoid it for your first application.

Social media

We are dependent to a great extent on social media, and you cannot deny that fact that till the time people have viewed your application for having learned about it on a particular social networking site, you’ll not be in a position to convince them that your app is worth downloading. It has cost attached to it, but it can get you result faster as compared to any other option we have today.

Forum and blog posting

Forums and blog posting will help you market your application efficiently. Many Android users are visiting various forums and blogs on a regular basis to learn about the new developments taking place in the world of Android. Additionally, they even use them to hunt for new apps developed by developers across the world.

While using this option, make sure that you have adequate knowledge about popular forums and blogs so that you do not invest your energy in ineffective options.

Pulsar Media Player: Sweet music players are made of this (Review)

Gerson Noboa
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Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I am obsessed with music. I’ve made sure that I can listen to music in any situation I’m in, be it driving or working, walking or taking a shower. It is always nice to listen to songs that can transport your mind to different situations, that can make you feel better, that can make you cry because of how good they are.

However, I’ve found that most phones come with a default music player that is completely devoid of features and that is probably an afterthought for phone manufacturers. Why leave one of the most important parts of your life to an app that is not up to the task? Enter Pulsar Media Player, by Rhythm Software, an app that aims to change that by providing a beautiful interface and useful features around your beloved music collection.

Developer: Rhythm Software
Price: Free

Setup

The good thing about Pulsar is that, under the right conditions, there’s no setup required. When you open the app, songs are already there for you, so there’s no manual scanning or folder selection. All of the playable audio format files are already there for your convenience.

The bad thing about this is that if you receive a lot of voice messages, or record voice notes yourself, you need to filter them out. You don’t actually want your voice messages to get played on that awesome party you’re throwing on Friday, right?

Pulsar gives you an option to exclude folders from the library scan, so at least you can leave out your Whatsapp audio files folder, for example. In some other players, I’ve seen options to filter out songs of a certain length. That is not included in Pulsar, though.

But don’t get me wrong, having almost no setup is amazing and it should be the way apps work, so kudos to Pulsar for it.

Overview

Upon opening the app, you will see that the layout is very similar to the Play Store. There are five (configurable) tabs at the top: Albums, Artists, Folders, Genres, and Songs. You can also add Playlists if you want, and reorder them to your liking.

Artists and albums are sorted into a grid view that looks superb, since it incorporates the album art/artist picture in the grid cell. Also, the app analyzes the picture and adjusts the background of the cell accordingly, making the whole grid very colorful. If you prefer, you can change it to list view, but why should you?

There’s a navigation drawer with the same options available on the main screen, so it is kind of redundant. The only useful aspect of it is that you can access the Play Queue quickly. Also, from this menu, you can access the options. I firmly believe that with a little bit of tinkering, the side drawer could be scrapped altogether to avoid redundancy.

If you need to search, there’s an app-wide button for that. It not only performs the search in the current screen, but in the whole library. Just write a big enough query (read: don’t type “the”) and it will show you artists, albums, and songs that relate to the term.

Artists and Beyond

When selecting an artist, it will take you to the artist page, which shows all of the albums associated with them, as well as the respective album art. It will also show a nice picture of the band through a neat material-esque animation.

It will list all of the songs, and you can even order them by album, name, date added and date released. For your convenience, there’s a shuffle button to start listening to the artists’ songs right away.

Selecting an album will take you to a very similar screen, in which the album’s songs are listed with exactly the same arrangement.

Now Playing

The Now Playing screen has everything you would expect from it. No more, no less. The usual play/pause button, previous and next, shuffle, repeat (none, one, and all), and a seek bar are there for you. Almost all of it is occupied by the album art (which by the way, Pulsar tries to download automatically if it’s not added into your ID3 tags).

When I go to sleep, I never count sheep, I count all the charms about Linda ?

There’s also a button for checking out the playing queue, where you can sort the songs that will be played next, remove them, and go to their corresponding artist/album. On the top, you will see buttons for sharing songs, liking them, or even play then to Google Cast devices.

General Impressions

The first thing I could notice about Pulsar is that it is lightning fast. It seems like performance was high on the list of priorities of the developer, because the app is buttery smooth. There’s no slowing down when dealing with a lot of images, although my library has approximately 1300 songs, so it’s not the biggest out there. As always, your mileage may vary.

The navigation drawer shows the same information available in the tabs.

The attention to detail is very evident in the UI. Being implemented with Material Design in mind (like every app should be by now), the app feels right at home on newer versions of Android. Nice animations are all over the place, and everything just makes sense. It is certainly better than the music player included in my Huawei Honor 7 Lite.

There are absolutely no surprises when listening to music. Transitions from song to song are fast, playback does not skip, and it overall works exactly as you expect it to.

Options and Pro Version

There are some options to choose from, albeit in limited numbers.

There are a few options you can change, but they’re not as extensive as in other music players. Apart from options previously mentioned, you can also toggle options related to artwork, such as controlling if the app will download album art or not, if it should do it with Wi-Fi only or with mobile data as well, and show artwork on the lock screen.

For some people, Last.fm scrobbling is essential for any music player they use, and I’m glad to say that Pulsar does include it as an option. There’s also gapless playback and prevent autoplay when connecting to Bluetooth (a very useful option indeed).

Finally, there are three themes you can choose from. There are 13 more of them available in Pulsar Pro, which is only $2.99 away. This Pro version also includes a 5-band equalizer, 9 equalizer presents, bass booster, and reverb settings. There are no ads in the free version, but I would encourage you to buy it to support the developers.

Conclusion

Pulsar Media Player is a (very) lightweight alternative to the default one included on your device. With a sleek, smooth interface, and no-nonsense approach, it is very easy to recommend if you’re not a power user.

Sure, there’s a EQ available in the Pro version, along with some other useful choices, but if you’re the type of person that cares about stuff like specifying a minimum length for a song to be added to the library, controlling if the app should launch when headphones are connected, or that kind of very specific use cases, then Pulsar might be a little too light on features. However, for the vast majority of users, Pulsar is an alternative you should keep on your radar.

Download Pulsar Media Player from the Google Play Store.

Samsung DeX: What is it and what’s it good for?

Alexandra Arici
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The Samsung Galaxy S8 comes with a host of improvements and new feats, but one of the most interesting is brought about by an accessory called the DeX dock. Much like Microsoft’s Continuum, the dock allows owners of the Galaxy S8 to hook up their Android smartphone to an external monitor in order to get a fully-fledged desktop experience.

But to access all the DeX goodness, you’ll need the dock. The bad news is that it’s sold separately for an additional $150. Given that the Galaxy S8 is already super expensive, some customers might be skittish to pick up the DeX. But those who do decide to invest, will find the accessory can be quite useful.

The DeX comes equipped HDMI port, two USB ports and Bluetooth connectivity. It also keeps the Galaxy S8 all juiced up while in-use, so users won’t have to worry about the battery running out. All you need to get started is to plug in the phone into the station – which connects the phone to a HDMI compatible monitor –  connect any type of Bluetooth, USB or RF-type keyboard and a mouse and voila you get DeX UI.

Samsung says it has completely redesigned and optimized Android UI to offer a complete experience when in use with a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Users will find there’s a button that gives quick access to compatible apps; they will also be able to minimize or maximize individual apps or multi-task.

Speaking of compatible apps, Samsung has partnered up with Microsoft and Adobe to bring Microsoft Office and Adobe mobile apps to the DeX experience. On top of that DeX is also compatible with virtual desktop apps like Citrix, Amazon, Workspace and VMWare, so can get productive. Your usual Android apps also work. However, it’s a bit unclear about how apps that aren’t optimized for a larger display, will work with the DeX. Samsung so far, has detailed only its own host of apps.

Phone functionality continues to work in the background and you can even take hands-free phone calls over the PC or answer texts from the desktop interface.

Samsung also offers contextual menus and a desktop version Web browser. Notifications and the status bar haven’t been removed from the desktop version, as they continue to live at the bottom. There’s also a lock screen and you can even secure your DeX interface with a passcode or facial recognition, to keep prying eyes out.

With all the convenience it brings, DeX is not actually meant to replace your laptop (actually for $150 you could buy a Chromebook). But if you’re a regularly going on a business trips, this accessory might prove quite valuable to you, as it allows you to plug your phone into any office.

The Samsung DeX dock become available sometimes in late April.

Now even Facebook has a virtual assistant – meet M

Alexandra Arici
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The speed at which tech companies seem to be popping out virtual assistants these days is mind-boggling. Meet the latest addition to the list – it’s Facebook’s Messenger-bound assistant, M which the social media company has been developing since 2015.

While M is far from being a finalized product, it’s first component is currently available. Using M’s wits, Messenger can now suggest a bunch of things to users.

Like most AI-driven helps out there, M uses machine learning to offer contextual suggestions. When M recognizes a certain theme or phrase during a chat, it will prompt the user to send stickers, pay or request money, do location sharing, make plans, conduct a poll or choose a ride.

Unlike the Google Assistant, you can’t summon M forth, but the assistant will pop into chats “organically” whenever it senses its assistance is needed. It remains to be seen whether M has enough wits to keep its presence under wraps when the conversation doesn’t call for its assistance.

Fortunately, if you don’t really want your chat being monitored by an artificial intelligence, you can go ahead a disable M from the settings panel. Facebook also allows you to configure it to provide only certain suggestions, like stickers or location sharing.

Right now, Facebook is rolling out Suggestions to users located in the US, but the feature will probably become more widely available in other markets, soon enough.

So if Siri, Bixby, Google Assistant, HTC’s Sense Companion, Alexa or Arbo aren’t enough for you, you can go ahead and try M too.

Google rolls out “Fact Check” tag in a bid to combat fake news

Alexandra Arici
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Fake news is an annoying byproduct of our increasingly digitized society. Living in the connected era, one will frequently stumble upon an odd paradox – with so many information sources out there, how do we know which one we can trust? Good question, Google says – let’s see what we can do about that.

Acknowledging this modern problem, Google today introduced the new “Fact Check” tool – a label which when present, highlights information that was fast checked by news publishers and fact-checking organizations. Now when you research a claim online, Google will display the usual card containing a snippet of information, alongside info about who made the claim and who checked the legitimacy of the claim – which is shown below.

Google is not actually doing the fact checking itself, but has partnered up with 115 fact-checking organizations that will be in charge of verifying information veracity. Others are invited to join the club, Google has strict rules and will only welcome organizations that are “algorithmically determined to be an authoritative source of information.”

Don’t’ expect fact checking to be available for every piece of information you search for, not at the moment anyway. Google also warns you might stumble upon instances where pages have been checked by different publishers with different conclusions being issued. Nevertheless, the search giant believes that even though different conclusions might be presented, it’s useful for people to have a clear view on how many sources agree with the claim under scrutiny and how many don’t.

Ever since October, Google has been testing the feature in select countries, especially in Google News. Today’s announcement marks the global roll out of the feature in both Google Search and News.

The most expensive Galaxy S8 will go on sale soon with free DeX Station

Alexandra Arici
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During the official launch event in New York, Samsung said that the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ will both arrive with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of built-in storage.

While most markets will be getting the versions mentioned above, Samsung has a special variant of the Galaxy S8+ which it plans to sell only in China. And Samsung official Chinese website already listed this particular Galaxy S8+ model, which arrives with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage.

While Samsung doesn’t list a price for the device, Korean news outlet ETNews claims the phone will be sold for approximately $1,020 in the country. Samsung apparently made the decision of selling a 6GB of RAM variant in the country in order to better compete with Chinese OEMs which routinely offer extremely well-specced handsets. For example, products like the Vivo Xplay5 Elite or the ZTE Nubia Z11 come packing 6GB of RAM. Unfortunately for Samsung, these products also sell for a lot more attractive price-tags.

To sweeten the deal, Samsung is also throwing in a free DeX station accessory (worth $150) with the purchase of this particular model of the Galaxy S8+.

It’s unclear whether Samsung will end up selling the Galaxy S8+ with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage on other markets. If the product proves to be popular in the country, Samsung might consider expanding its availability.

Would you fancy a Galaxy S8+ with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage? Let us know in the comments below.

Sprint intros new Unlimited Freedom offer, available until June, 2018

Alexandra Arici
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As anticipated, Sprint announced this week it will be ending its long-running Switch to Sprint and save 50% on Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile rates. The carrier also introduced an adjusted version of its original Unlimited Freedom plan, which will be available all the way through mid-2018. New customers should be able to take advantage of the offer between April 7 (today) and June 30, 2018.

What does Sprint’s new Unlimited Freedom plan offer? Well interested parties can get the first line for $50, which is definitely cheaper than what the other three carriers are offering. Adding a second line will bump the bill up to $80 ($20 less than what T-Mobile is offering), and with lines three and four are onboard, customers will need to pay $100 or $120 respectively. The bundle includes HD-quality video streaming and 10GB of tethering. As you can see, from the table attached this article, Sprint’s adjusted plan still remains the cheapest.

Sprint's LogoThe carrier says customers can jump onboard with the Unlimited Freedom plan until June 2018. After which the pricing scheme changes a little bit, as you’ll need to pay $60/month for the first line, $40 for a second and $30 for line three and four. Which in total – amount for $160 for four lines. Which is still cheaper than what other carriers are offering.

Recently AT&T also updated its Unlimited Plus data plan to include free HBO. The unlimited plans war rages on!

Nine awesome tech bundles you can buy for less than a Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus

Matt Adams
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How do you decide to spend how much money you spend on tech? Is owning the most up to date, expensive phone out there a priority for you? Do you want a phone that does everything you need or do you want to be seen with the latest technology?

Everyone has their own priorities, and that’s fine.

Right now tech is in an amazing place and phones are getting better and sexier than they’ve ever been. Revolutionary advances in display technology are leading to bigger and more beautiful displays in smaller phones. It’s honestly amazing to hold a phone that is almost entirely screen. Cost, though, must be a determining factor in your purchases. Keeping this in mind, here are nine tech bundles that cost less than the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus by itself.

The Ultimate Stock Android Bundle

Stock Android is the best flavor of Android for me. I love phones that come with stock, or near stock builds of Android because I feel like they allow me to make the phone anything I want it to be. When you have a heavy skin like on Samsung’s devices, you’re locked into Samsung’s vision. And sure, Samsung’s software has certainly gotten better, but it will still have a reputation of slowing down after six months due to a bloated OS. Instead of dropping $850 on an S8, you could get a Nexus 6P and a Pixel C instead.

Are they new? Nope, but Swappa empowers you to know exactly what you’re getting before you buy it. They won’t approve devices that have been blacklisted, are currently on payment plans or aren’t in good enough condition. The listings and sales are heavily moderated and Swappa staff are always around to help out when you need. If you want a new version of the Pixel C, you can actually pick one up from the Google Store for $600.

While these aren’t the newest pieces of tech, they still perform fantastic in 2017 and have a few years of life ahead of them. One of the biggest advantages of buying Nexus and Pixel is the development community. Even if Google decides to stop updating the devices, there is a dedicated group of developers on XDA Developers that will pick up the mantle.

Consider this: the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, a phone released 5.5 years ago has a newer version of Android (7.1) than the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus will at launch due to the folks over at XDA who continue development.

Total Price: $800

A flagship phone and smartwatch bundle

If you don’t want to pay flagship prices, but you still want flagship specs, this one is for you. We’re going to lead it off with the OnePlus 3T, one of, if not the, best value in smartphones right now. The OP3T has a Snapdragon 821 processor, 6GB (Yes, six!) of RAM, 64GB of storage, one of the best fingerprint sensors in the game, a 5.5″ display, DASH charging, and close to stock software. It’s my daily driver for a reason, it’s a fantastic phone. The OnePlus 3T starts at $439 for the 64GB model and ranges up to $479 for the 128GB version.

In addition to the OnePlus 3T, you’ll also have cash left over to pick up the best Android Wear watch on the market right now, the LG Watch Style. Sleek and stylish, the LG Watch Style comes with Google Assistant built in. You’ll have access to all your Android apps while looking great. The LG Watch Style starts at $250 for the silver and titanium models while the rose gold version will cost you an additional $30.

Total Price: $689

The Ultimate Android Gaming Bundle

There are a ton of games in the Play Store, and while we’re far from getting the newest AAA titles, there are some excellent games like Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, Portal, Super Meat Boy, Borderlands 2, and BAMF VR. This bundle is designed to satisfy all your gaming desires while leaving a little bit of coin still left in your pocket to buy the games from the Play Store.

We start off with the only real Android console out right now, the Nvidia Shield Pro. The Shield Pro supports 4K HDR media which means, not only can you play games on your TV, but you can also watch Netflix and Youtube in 4K. It’s one of the most cost-effective ways to view 4K media right now. The Shield Pro comes with one remote and one controller to play your games with. If you have a computer with a Geforce video card, you can also stream your games from your computer to your tv through your Shield with GameStream.

But, Android gaming isn’t just about sitting down at your TV and starting a game with a controller in hand. We have VR too so you’re going to need a sweet VR headset. While it is true you can pick up something like Google Cardboard on the cheap, those are more for just viewing content on the quick and cheap. The VICTONY 3D VR Headset comes with a gamepad to interact with your device and games and a comfortable design.

But what phone should sit in that VR headset? None other than the battery life champion, the Moto Z Play. If you want to game FOREVER, get the Moto Z Play. Within the phone is a 3500mAh battery and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor that combine to give some users upwards of 10 hours of screen on time and two days of use. You could use the Z Play to play games all day and still have battery left over at the end of the night.

Rounding out our gaming bundle is a well-reviewed Bluetooth gamepad. These gamepads come in handy if you like playing first-person shooters, side scrollers, or emulating games like Pokemon. The GameSir G3s Bluetooth Wireless Controller has a 4-star rating on Amazon with some glowing reviews.

Total: $800

Smart Home Bundle

One of the coolest areas of tech to watch the past few years is the boom in Smart Home tech. Want to turn on your lights? Yell at your Amazon Echo to control your Philips Hue bulbs. Too cold? Use the Ecobee app to turn up the heat. Here are some awesome smart home toys you can get all for less than the Galaxy S8 Plus.

First, we’re going to start with lighting. Philips Hue is one of the biggest names in smart home functionality right now, so we’re going to pick up a starter kit. You can control your new Philips Hue bulbs through an app, but what fun is that? Let’s tell them what to do instead. For that, we’re going to pick up an Amazon Echo. With Echo, you can do all sorts of things like initiate searches, order things from Amazon, control your smart home products, listen to music and more.

Ecobee3 makes one of the highest rated smart thermostats currently listed on Amazon so we’ll be picking on of those up too. The thermostat allows you to stay on top of how much energy you’re using on heating and cooling your home and allows you to turn the heat and air on or off while you aren’t at home.

At the front door, your guests will be greeted with two more pieces of tech, an August Smart Lock that allows you to open your doors without a key and a Zmodo Greet Wifi Video Doorbell. The August Smart Lock will allow you to lock and unlock your door with the included app so if you’re carrying a load of groceries, you don’t have to worry about fumbling with keys.

The Zmodo Greet doorbell gives you eyes on whoever is at your door. We’ve all seen the commercials on TV of crooks casing houses acting like delivery drivers, but what you don’t see is the most useful feature of these doorbells: avoiding salesmen coming to your door. We live in an unregulated energy state and we must have three or four energy salesmen come to our door a month. I might pick one of these up just for that.

Rounding off our Smart Home package is an Echo Dot. While your Echo can be the central hub in a room like your living room, your Echo Dot is convenient to put in a bedroom and tell your thermostat to start warming up the house in the morning or turn down those lights to 20% when you’re reading in bed at night.

Total Price: $756

Getting Fit Bundle

If you’re like most, your New Year’s resolution to get healthier is long since broken. But, it doesn’t have to continue on like this. Instead of picking up that Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus, why not use that cash to pick up a great phone and some gear that’ll help you get fit?

Both the Fitbit Charge and Fitbit Alta are great options. The trackers will help you keep an eye on your steps, calories burned, and other metrics while looking nice and without costing an arm and a leg. In addition to a Fitbit, we’ll also be picking up a Weight Gurus Smart Scale too. This scale connects to your phone through Bluetooth so you can track exactly how those workouts are impacting your waistline. One of the reasons that people give up is because they aren’t seeing results fast enough, tracking your weight with this smart scale will help you see those as quickly as possible.

Our next two smart items both have to do with water. First, we’re going to pick up the Swimbuds Headphones and 8GB waterproof MP3 player. Swimming is great for your health and it’s even easier to stay pumped up with your tunes on. This waterproof MP3 player will allow you to store enough music to get through all your workouts. We’ll also be picking up a Hidrate Spark, a smart water bottle. Yeah, I didn’t know they existed either. This water bottle, while more expensive than your normal water bottle, lets you stay on top of what’s going in your body, and that’s extremely important when you’re trying to get healthy.

So, we’ve picked up all of these smart workout items, what phone are we getting? Well, I’m going to suggest the awesome Blu Pure XR, which we reviewed here. For $300 you get a phone that performs like a flagship with one of the best macro cameras we’ve seen out there today. Awesome build quality and a beautiful 5.5″ display are just a few of the headlines of this awesome budget device.

Total Price: $625

Rock Out Bundle

If you’re anything like me, music is a driving force in your life. I have headphones on or earbuds in every chance I get. This music bundle is designed to enhance your music listening with every product.

We’re going to lead it off with the best Bluetooth earbuds out there right now. Jaybird makes the X lineup and Freedom lineup and you can’t go wrong with either. I use my Freedoms and get excellent battery life and they sound great. You can tune the how the earbuds sound with the Jaybird MySound app too. Pretty cool.

If you prefer headphones over earbuds, pick up the Sennheiser HD 598 Cs. These are my “daily driver” headphones that I wear every day while writing. They’re extremely comfortable and sound excellent. I get no fatigue while wearing them and I think they look great too. Can’t say enough good things about these headphones.

The House of Marley Get Together Bluetooth Speaker is one of the best out there in its price category. As you can see in our review, we loved how the speaker looks, how it sounds and how much it costs.

We thought a lot about which phone to pick up for this package. It has to have excellent speakers and an upgraded DAC was considered too. We finally decided on the ZTE Axon 7 (review here) due to the high-quality front-facing speakers and quick software updates. The phone also has close to stock Android and awesome build quality. It’s one of the best phones on the market and won’t run you anywhere near what the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus will.

Total Price: $829

Out and About Bundle

Is there anything better than the great outdoors? Just imagine yourself out for a walk, run, or hike with the sun on your shoulders and a sky full of puffy white clouds. Love camping under the stars or going tubing? Well, you may want to invest in some of this tech to take with you instead of just one new phone.

There is a ton of stuff in this package, so let’s jump right in. We start with the Sharkk 2O Bluetooth Speaker that has an IP67 rating. That IP rating means this little guy is water resistant and should be great to have on the beach or when you’re out for a day on the water.

If you love to camp, pick up the BioLite CampStove Bundle. It comes with a Grill and KettlePot attachment plus a USB Light. The beauty of this device is that it generates electricity from burning wood to charge your mobile phones, tablets, or what may have you. While you’re cooking your dinner, you may need a bit of light so grab an MPOWERD Luci Outdoor 2.0 Inflatable Solar Light. Powered directly by the sun, this light has no additional batteries needed and will give you enough light to get around at night while in the wilderness.

If the USB port on the BioLite CampStove isn’t enough, consider grabbing a Dizaul 5000mAh Portable Solar Power Bank. With a 5000mAh capacity, you should be able to recharge most any phone or tablet and then recharge the battery bank with the power of the sun.

The phone we’re going to grab in this bundle is the Samsung Galaxy S7 Active. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with Samsung’s flagship-level devices from 2016 and the Active version of the S7 gives you a little more piece of mind if you drop your device. It’s perfect for an outdoorsman. We’ll gather all of our gear into a new TYLT Energi Bag with built in battery bank and head into the woods!

Total Price: $787

Console Gaming and TV Bundle!

One of the great things about the last few years in tech is how cheap it’s all getting. Instead of picking up a Samsung Galaxy S8, you can literally get a game system, a headset for that system, a TV, soundbar and a phone too.

We’re going to start out with the TV, a 40″ Sceptre LED 1080p TV. While not the most recognizable name, the TV does have excellent reviews on Amazon. We don’t have one to review ourselves (feel free to send one over, Sceptre!) but feel pretty confident in the reviews. If you bump up your budget just a hair you can pick up an option from Samsung.

We’re going to pair that 40″ LED TV with an AmazonBasics 2.0 Channel Bluetooth Soundbar. TV audio generally sucks, so to get the most out of this package, a soundbar is a must. AmazonBasics is an awesome brand from the online retail giant itself and this particular soundbar has a 4/5 rating with almost 500 reviews.

What are we going to use that TV for? Video games and streaming media, of course! Picking up either an Xbox One S or PlayStation 4 enable us to have hours of fun playing games with our friends or streaming media from apps like YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, or Twitch. So that we can communicate with our friends when we’re playing games alongside them, we’ll also grab a Turtle beach Ear Force 50X headset for your console of choice.

That’s a ton of stuff, but it still leaves us plenty of room in the budget to pick up the best budget phone on the market right now, the Moto G5 Plus. We recently reviewed the G5 Plus and put it in the same category as the OnePlus 3T for bang for your buck. You honestly feel like you’re using a phone that costs twice as much when you’re using the Moto G5 Plus. Motorola did an excellent job.

Google-fied Home Bundle

This little bundle is dedicated to all things Google. We bent the rules a hair on this one by getting the price to almost exactly what you’ll pay for an S8 Plus, but we think its worth it for everything you get.

Google Home is one of my favorite tech products in my house. Sure, it doesn’t do quite everything I think it should, but we really enjoy the ability to voice control our Philips Hue lights, tell it to play some tunes, or ask what a Lion sounds like. Google Wifi was a product announced alongside Google Home and it’ll be our next addition. With Google Wifi, you get three bases that you place throughout your home creating a WiFi mesh network. This should keep your speeds and coverage consistent. Google suggests that you add one WiFi point for every 1500 sq ft. in your home so you may only need one depending on your place.

A Nest Thermostat is the next entry in our list. The smart thermostat can regulate your house’s energy use by detecting if you’re at home or not based on your cell phone’s connection to the home WiFi. Pretty neat. Also, if you’re cold or hot at night, just grab your phone and use the Nest app instead of getting out of bed to change the temperature. The Nest is a lazy, cold person’s dream and I would know because I am that person.

Rounding out our list is a Chromecast and a Chromebook. The Chromecast makes any TV into a smart TV with the ability to cast media from apps like YouTube, ESPN, Netflix and a ton more apps. With the money left in our budget, we’ll grab a nice little 11.6″ Chromebook from Lenovo. The 80SF0001US is just enough computer to allow us to surf the web and cast a tab to our TV through our Chromecast with the Cast button in Chrome.

Total Price: $850

While all our bundles might not tickle your fancy, we hope that a few do. The point of this article is more to point out that you can get so much more for your money than just a flagship phone. Don’t get us wrong, flagship phones are awesome and we lust after them too, but you can get a lot of bang for your buck with that dough. Mid-tier and budget phones are getting so good now that you can get a great device while only spending $300 to $500 and use that leftover money for some fun toys.

Editor Note

One small note before we wrap things up. You’ll notice that some of the items we linked above have Amazon affiliate codes in them. Amazon affiliates pays a percentage of the item to the person who presented you the link. It’s a small percentage, anywhere from 2% to 10% in most cases. We don’t make a lot on these or link these items only because we can make money on them, but it does help to pay for some of our costs associated with the site.

If you don’t feel comfortable with that, we completely understand and suggest signing up for an Amazon smile account instead. Amazon Smile makes a donation to a charity of your choice for every eligible purchase you make and those can really add up. If you want one of these products and want to bypass the Affiliates code, go to smile.amazon.com and copy and paste the item name in the search bar.

Clockwise Lite is a unique but quirky alarm app option (Review)

AndroidGuys
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There are literally dozens of alarm/clock apps available in the Play Store. Most of these focus on user interface, attempting to woo you with a unique approach look & feel, time setting, alarm setting, and alarm management. And most of these same options also give you some level of flexibility with what you wake up to, in terms of ringtones or upload-able music clips.

There is another app in the Play Store that gives you all this, but also strives to bring you a lot more depth to the actual alarm portion of your experience. It’s called Clockwise Lite, from the developer Epoch Software. It’s an app that’s usable for all ages, and (mostly) works on all devices….more on that in a bit. Let’s explore this alarm app to see what it can offer….

Setup

Setup is fairly easy: just download from the Play Store and you’re in. Once you’ve opened the Clockwise app, you are taken on a screen-by-screen tour of the available features. A main one of which is called “Modules”. These are voice-based audible (a typical Google-esque synthesized female voice) form factors that make up your actual alarm (on top of your selected music or ringtone, of course).

These Modules include:

  • Notifications
  • Weather
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • News
  • To-do List
  • Event Calendar
  • Traffic
  • Quote of the Day
  • This Day in History
  • Fun Fact

You can choose to have these read to you either sequential to the initial music/ringtone, or played over the top, with the music as background.

Additionally, you can set the modules in the order that you’d like to hear them. Want news first? Sure thing. How about the fun fact of the day? Yep, no problem (my favorite: “The earth’s spider population could eat the earth’s human population in under 1 year.” Neat!).

When the alarm does go off, and if you don’t have the toggle set to have the voice play over the music, then you will get an icon in your notification bar. This gives you a manual start button to begin playback of the voice-based alarm audio. Not sure if this is nice to have or kind of weird; I presumed, being the apparent key feature to the app, that the voice functions would be more automatic. It’s probably just me, but I’d be curious to see if this is a deal-breaker for the user that simply doesn’t want to touch their phone first thing in the morning.

It should be re-stated that this is the “Lite” version of the Clockwise app. This means a max of 4 modules available at any given time, and of course ads. The paid ($.99) version gives you unlimited modules to utilize and clears out all ads.

I found the setup interface to be usable, but it could be better. Setting the time was fairly simple, but for some reason I couldn’t find the way to actually turn the alarm on. Turns out it was hiding in plain sight; the small ‘OFF’ text on the left side of the screen is actually a toggle switch….press to switch to ‘ON’. I’d like to think I’m not a total dummy for not getting this right away.

On this setup screen you can also plainly see the modules you have activated for your next alarm. There are buttons for quickly selecting additional modules, as well as the general app settings.

Clockwise settings include setting your ringtone/music, snooze time, module order (see above screenshot), upgrading to the ‘pro’ version, and the voice settings. This includes altering the synthesized speech rate and pitch, to something that pleases you.

Concerns

If there is an item of concern for me, it was of app steadiness. I was working this app on my *new* LG G6, and I experienced repeated occurrences of the app crashing. No idea what was causing this, though I do have my theory.
I also have an Alcatel Idol phone that I ran this app on, and experienced no trouble whatsoever.

The big difference? The G6 is running 7.0 Nougat, while the Idol is 6.0.1 Marshmallow. So my guess is that the app has yet to be completely vetted with Nougat….but again that’s just my theory.

Conclusion

Overall I like the idea of Clockwise Lite. The idea of getting your news, weather, and other information read to you as an alarm function while you’re still waking up is a pretty slick idea. The execution in the app has a bit of polish left to acquire to make it a must-download, but I would still urge you to give it a try and see if it is a viable option to rise you from your slumber.

Developer Comments

Clockwise is looking to add Fitbit, smartwatch and speech recognition into the app for a more inclusive and immersive user experience. Look out for these upcoming enhancements.

Download Clockwise from the Play Store here.

Go to the Clockwise website here.

 

Pebble sends out update to ensure its smartwatches keep working

Alexandra Arici
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As you probably know by now, last year Pebble was acquired by fitness tracker maker Fitbit. Soon after the announcement, it was revealed that Pebble’s future hardware plans will be axed, so many wondered what would happen to the Pebble watches still in use.

Pebble vowed to keep remaining units active, at least throughout 2017 by stating that “no one in the freshly-formed team seeks to brick Pebble watches in active service.” Now the former watch maker is pushing an update to Pebble’s app for iOS and Android which is meant to keep the light on remaining Pebble watch on.

Pebble explains via a blog post that through this update, it is essentially eliminating the smartwatches’ reliance on Pebble’s cloud services – which will be shutting down soon. On top of that, users will be able to side-load applications and future firmware on their watch without the devices requesting to access to servers.

However, Pebble users won’t continue to be able to access their smartwatches’ full host of features. For example, services like dictation, messaging and weather (which rely on third-party services) won’t be available after Pebble’s servers go dark. However, Pebble hasn’t made any specific comments on whether it might be able to salvage these features or not. So we guess there’s still hope.

While the news is not all good, if you’re a Pebble owner you’re probably relieved to know that at least you’ll still be able to use the basic functions on your smartwatch.

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