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Here’s how to watch the Samsung Galaxy S8 Unpacked 2017 event live

Alexandra Arici
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Today is the big day! In a few hours Samsung is going live in New York to unveil its latest Galaxy S8 flagship – the one we’ve been waiting for, for months.

Unless you are attending the event in New York, you’re probably want to tune in and watch the Unpacked 2017 live. There are several ways you can do that:

Watch it on the Samsung Official Website

You can watch the event by visiting the news.samsung.com or www.samsung.com/galaxy when the event begins.

Watch it on Youtube

Samsung Mobile’s YouTube page always live streams the Unpacked events, you can find it here.

Watch it on Facebook

Tune in on facebook.com/SamsungMobile or facebook.com/SamsungElectronics when the event begins.

Watch it on the Mobile App

Go to the Google Play Store and download the Unpacked 2017 app and install it on your device. Then tune on your mobile device once the event starts. 360 live streaming is also available at http://www.samsung.com/galaxy and in the Unpacked 2017 app.

Keep in mind that the Unpacked 2017 event starts today, March 29 at 11 AM EDT / 8 AM PT / 4 PM GMT / 4 PM CET.

While we wait for Samsung to officially unveil the Galaxy S8 in a few hours, you can take the time to read our in-depth What we know so far: Samsung Galaxy S8 edition.

New Facebook update adds new camera effects, Snapchat-like stories

Alexandra Arici
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Facebook is slowly turning into a Snapchat clone. After adding features like My Day on Messenger, the social network recently introduced a new update which brings another Snap-like feature. This time it’s a bunch of new camera effects and new ways to share photos and videos on Facebook with friends on iOS and Android.

With the new Facebook Stories, people can now share snapshots from throughout the day, glued together in a digital slideshow atop News Feed. Your friends can view you stories for up 24 hours, before they become digital dust. Don’t worry, these photos and videos won’t appear on your Timeline or in the News Feed unless you post them there.

To access the new feature, tap on the “Your Story” icon in Stories bar located at the top of News Feed. Currently, Facebook isn’t monetizing stories just yet, so you won’t be seeing ads squeezed between stories, although looking in the direction of Instagram we don’t believe it will last long.

In case you want to share your story with a specific friend(s) for a limited time, Facebook is now offering Direct the button. When users send a photo or video via Direct, friends will be able to view it once and reply with a message. Once the conversation ends, the image or video will be deleted.

On top of that, in social network is adding reactive and style effects in Facebook camera. These effects allow users to interact with dynamic object in photos and videos, while the style effects will add an artistic vibe to the composition.

Facebook has also partnered up with a number of major film makers to add new masks from Power Rangers, Alien: Covenant, Despicable Me 3, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, Wonder Woman and Smurfs: Lost Village.

The social network is rolling out the update globally for both Android and iOS alike.

Mophie Powerstation Plus review

AndroidGuys
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Many of today’s phones feature battery capacities in the 2,000mAh-3,000mAh range, with some pushing even further. And, while that’s often enough to get us through a typical day or two of usage, we don’t always have the luxury of plugging in when we’re low. A long day of geocaching or a few hours of pushing music to a Bluetooth speaker can put a damper on your evening plans to stream a game.

Even as phone batteries get higher capacities and quicker charging times, we’re still fans of portable power solutions. They’ve gotten smaller over the years yet the power levels have increased. Mophie, is a brand who has been in the game for some time and continues to put out excellent choices. We were sent a Mophie Powerstation Plus to review. Read on for our take on the portable unit.

The Mophie Powerstation Plus (branded as mophie powerstation plus) is a portable battery back (6,000mAh) with a premium design. Featuring a built-in cable with tips for both microUSB and Apple Lightning, it also packs a second USB port for plugging in a secondary device.

There’s essentially zero setup to the Powerstation Plus. Take it out of the box, plug in your phone, and you’re all set. The included cable tucks away nicely along the edge and only needs to come out when charging your handset.

The cable comes with two different tips, a microUSB for most legacy Android devices and a Lightning tip for Apple models. The Apple tip snaps on to the microUSB and is rather small. You might feel compelled to toss it aside if you don’t own any Apple products, but it leave a weird space in the side of the unit and doesn’t snap in tightly.

The model we were sent was silver (space grey) on top with a black bottom and side trim. There are other color options to choose from, including gold, rose gold, and PRODUCT (RED). Go for the two gold flavors and the back will be white while the red gets the black treatment.

We found that the black material was prone to pick up oils from hands almost too easily. See below for a picture to see what we mean. The space grey aluminum was soft to the touch but has been tough enough to withstand general abuse and tossing about.

Charging the Powerstation Plus up is done via a microUSB port; a 9-inch micro USB cable comes with the charger. Along the side of the device are four small indicator lights. With each representing 25% worth of juice, it’s a convenient way to figure out how much power is left.

Whereas the microUSB and Lightning port should cover the bases for most users, some of us are carrying devices with USB Type-C ports. As such, you’ll need to plug into the USB port, which is a convenient inclusion. Just bring your own cable.

The Mophie Powerstation Plus has an overall footprint that feels like a smaller smartphone. Given that every phone has a different size, it might feel wonky carrying the phone and charger at the same time. Our advice is to simply plug it in and set it off to the side.

The Powerstation Plus offers up 2.1A output and smart adaptive charging technology so that your connected phone gets the fastest and most efficient charging speeds available. This way you can be up and running again in no time.

The Powerstation Plus comes with a higher price tag than most of its competitors. At $79.95, it’s not exactly cheap. But, if you’ve ever spent time with products from Mophie, them you know you’re in for quality. Not only that, but products are covered by a two-year warranty.

While you might be tempted to go with a different brand, we suggest checking for other capacities from Mophie, first. The Powerstation Mini (4,000mAh) is $59.99; the Powerstation Plus XL (12,000mAh) is $99.95.

Best Live Wallpapers: An ambitious claim that comes up short (Review)

AndroidGuys
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Overview:

Best Live Wallpapers is a wallpaper library app that advertises futuristic live wallpapers that can make your phone come to life. In practice, it isn’t anything too special.

Developer: Yogesh Dama

Cost: Free (with ads)

Impressions:

Best Live Wallpapers is definitely nice looking, it has some nice Material Design looks and a simple interface for finding wallpapers. The app itself works and does essentially as advertised, providing live wallpapers for your phone.

The wallpapers on offer, on the other hand, are not too special or even that good. Most of the “live wallpapers” are simply short looping .gifs that are too brief to be satisfying and are also not the highest quality or resolution for my phone. They remind me of those old-fashioned feature phone wallpapers from the early 2000’s that were all the rage in my grade school days.

The wallpapers are sorted into a few select categories, generally pertaining to nature or the elements. There is no search function, and not really a great variety of images to choose from. There are not really any images from pop culture or sports or anything that most people would be interested in using for their phone wallpapers, at least in my experience.

Applying the wallpaper of your choice is a fairly easy affair, thankfully. You simply select the image you’d like, and it saves to your device and prompts you to set it as your wallpaper from there. No messy menus to navigate or anything like that. It’s nice to see it be so easy, even if you can’t find a photo you can use in the small library available.

Best Wallpapers also contains ads, but they’re generally unintrusive and small. They pop up alongside the wallpaper results as small images, but a clearly marked as ads. There is an option to remove them with a paid donation to the developer, but unless they offer more varied wallpapers with that donation I’d avoid it.

Conclusion:

Overall, there isn’t too much to Best Live Wallpapers. It’s relatively harmless and does at least what it advertises on the tin, but it is definitely not the best live wallpaper app around. I would look elsewhere if you want to find the best live wallpapers to make your phone stand out.

Download Best Live Wallpapers from the Google Play Store

Andy Rubin teases upcoming Essential bezeless smartphone

Alexandra Arici
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Not so long ago we told you Andy Rubin’s upcoming high-end smartphone loses the support of SoftBank which cited a conflict of interest.

However, as we explained to you previously this setback doesn’t necessarily spell doom and gloom for Rubin’s project dubbed Essential. Actually the project is apparently very close to being funded. And this week we get even more reason to believe as, as Andy Rubin has posted a teaser image which gives us a glimpse of the upcoming handset.

Like previous rumors have indicated, it’s pretty obvious from the image that Rubin’s upcoming Essential smartphone will be a bezeless affair a la Xiaomi Mi MIX. And given the icons visible on the screen, it’s quite possible the handset will be launched into the wild with Android onboard – although we can’t be 100% of this aspect just yet.

This theory is corroborated by the fact that not so long ago, a device named Essential FIH-PMI showed up in Geekbench revealing a Snapdragon 835 processor, 4GB of RAM and Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box. Apart from that, we’ve been hearing that the high-end smartphone meant to take on the Google Pixel and Apple iPhone, will feature modular add-ons similar to Moto Z’s Moto Mods line, which will add extra functionality to the phone.

It seems to us as this point that Andy Rubin’s smartphone is indeed happening, although we don’t know when we might finally get to see it on the market. It’s probably going to launch by the end of this year. Hopefully.

See exactly where your friend is at with Facebook Messenger’s Live Location

Alexandra Arici
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Are you starving and waiting for your friend to come over with food is proving to be too difficult to bear? You can try opening your Facebook app. This week the social media company has announced it was adding a Live Location feature in the Messenger app which basically lets you track friends.

So far, Messenger users have been allowed to send their current location to a friend, but now you’ll be able to watch your friend move around the map in real-time. But don’t worry – your buddy won’t be able to track your whereabouts if you don’t want them.

To access this feat, just tap on Location icon in the Android app or select Location under the More icon. Once you do that, you’ll be able to see a map of your current location and by tapping the blue bar you’ll share it with your friend(s) for up to 60 minutes. You can tap on Stop Sharing at any given time.

With Live Location, users will also be able to see an estimate of how long it takes to get to your friend’s house or to the restaurant you’re having a rendezvous with your work mates.

But even if Messenger offer this live tracking option now, it doesn’t mean you can’t share a static point on the map as well. For example, if you want to let your friend know you are waiting for them at a particular location, you can tap the location pin or More icon then tap the red pin in the upper right hand corner. Next, you can either drag and drop the pin onto the map or just search for the place to share.

Facebook is rolling out the new feature globally for iOS and Android users alike, who will be able to share their location details with one or a group of friends at a time.

Google Duo gets updated with audio calls for everyone

Alexandra Arici
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Back in August, Google says that its standalone video-chat app Duo will be getting audio calls soon. However, the search giant didn’t provide an exact date. Now, after 7 months of waiting Google is finally rolling out for Audio calls for its Duo app for users worldwide.

The announcement was made by Google’s Head for Product for Google Allo and Google Duo, Amit Fulay on Twitter:

Google promises that the new feature won’t consume large chunks of data and will function properly on low connection speeds. Customers in developing markets like India and Brazil (where Google originally introduced the audio call feature) who are very self-conscious about their mobile data, will probably welcome this feature the most.

Google’s Duo video calling application was announced back at Google’s I/O 2016, as an alternative to Apple’s FaceTime, but also WhatsApp.

The new update to Duo further muddies the waters of Google’s messaging app strategy. Why on earth is Google still keeping Duo in Allo separate? This is a question no one can seem to answer at this point. Allo hasn’t been a major hit for Google, but the app did offer some perks like access to the Google Assistant before the AI-driven virtual became available for non-Pixel devices.

On the other hand, Duo seems to be quite popular with users in developing markets and it seems the new audio call has been a highly requested by fans of the application. But instead of merging the two platforms and marketing them with a consistent strategy in mind, Google keeps updating the apps individually. In early March, Allo received an update with added improved GIF and emoji support, but also easier access to Google Assistant – but it’s quite unlikely the new feats will transform the app into a hit overnight.

Moto X (2017) leaks into the wild with Snapdragon 625, dual-camera setup

Alexandra Arici
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Lenovo and Motorola might be focusing their attention on the Moto Z series, but apparently the two companies are also preparing a Moto X revival sometime this year. We’ve already seen a bunch of leaked images showcasing the alleged Moto X (2017) and today we get even more pictures showcasing the handset.

Even better, we get to take a glimpse of some of specs of the upcoming Moto X. One of the images shows the phone in recovery mode, so we can see the phone apparently runs on a Snapdragon 625 processor working in concert with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. It also appears the main camera module is of the dual variety.

Other specifications aren’t yet available, like the display size or resolution, but as new information becomes available we’ll make sure to update you. At this point, the Moto X 2017 is shaping up to be a middle range device similar to the Honor 6X and ZTE Blade V8 Pro. The latter also takes advantage of a Snapdragon 625, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage and offers a dual-camera at an affordable price.

Motorola already has the Moto G5 Plus which comes with a Snapdragon 625, up to 3GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, but the phone does not offer a dual camera setup. So maybe with the new Moto X 2017, Motorola wants to enter the affordable dual camera market. It’s just a guess at this point, since nothing has been confirmed yet. So you better make sure you take this info with a healthy grain of salt.

T-Mobile intros three new prepaid plans for $45 and up

Alexandra Arici
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T-Mobile hasn’t been paying too much attention to its prepaid plans as of late, but this week the carrier is finally bringing some novelty into the equation. The company introduced three new plans prepaid customers can now choose from: two “Simply Prepaid” bundles and a “ONE Prepaid”. The plans start a $45 per month.

So let’s take each one and see what they offer. The base “Simply Prepaid” plan will cost users $45/month. For this amount of money, subscribers will be awarded unlimited talk, text and data. However, as it is the case which most of these plans, customers will get only 4GB of 4G LTE high-speed data. After you reach this cap, tethering speed is cut down to 3G.

If you want more, you can go for the second “Simply Prepaid” plan which is a bit more expensive, coming in at $55. Instead of 4GB of LTE data, it offers 6GB. Both bundles offer Wi-Fi Calling, Music Unlimited (streams without affecting your data bucket) and Data Maximizer (stream video at 480p). Subscribers willing to onboard of any of these two plans can keep their current number and device, or just buy a new one from T-Mobile.

For $5 extra users of the “Simply Prepaid” plans can get service to and from Mexico and Canada. An additional $15/month gets you Stateside International Calling which includes unlimited landline calls to wired phones in 70 countries plus texting to mobile devices in over 30 countries. T-Mobile is making available the two plans to its current subscriber-base.

As for the third “ONE Prepaid” plan – this is touted as an unlimited data bundle. It’s priced at $75/month for which you can get unlimited talk, text and 4G LTE plus coverage in Mexico and Canada and 200MB of roaming data. Note that hotspot is limited to 3G and data maximizer can’t be disabled. T-Mobile also allows subscribers of the plan to purchase HD video streaming for $3/day. The Stateside International Calling feature is available for $15/month.

The new plans are now available. T-Mobile says it’s no longer offering its older Simple Choice prepaid plans to new customers, but older subscribers can continue to stay on them if they want to.

Powerstick Hawkeye review: An alarm system for your USB devices

AndroidGuys
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The Hawkeye by PowerStick.com is a personal alarm system and reminder tool that connects to your USB-enabled device, allowing the user to monitor his USB cable, and whichever device is connected to it.

Design and Setup

The Hawkeye is incredibly easy to set up. It looks like any other USB dongle, but there is a button on the reverse side. The button activates the alarm. Since the Hawkeye works with any USB device, there is no setup, and it is device-agnostic. Once the device is out of the box, it is working immediately.

Features

We mentioned that the Hawkeye is both an alarm system and a reminder; they function in essentially the same way. Once out of the box, plug your USB cable into the Hawkeye, and then the Hawkeye into either a wall charger or a USB port and press the only button on the dongle. This now activates the alarm. Any time the device is removed from the cable that is connected to the dongle, the alarm sounds.

Designed for travelers, the alarm is ideal when in an airport or a coffee shop to ensure the security of your device if you need to step away. The reminder or notification use-case would be ideal when in a hotel.

Personally, I have walked out of a hotel room on more than one occasion and forgot to grab my charger, and the Hawkeye seeks to stop that from happening again. When you unplug your phone, but not from the wall, the alarm will sound, reminding you to grab your cable as well.

Conclusion

For the price ($14), the Hawkeye does exactly what it says. The alarm is slightly less-quiet than a standard mobile phone on the loudest setting, so don’t expect to hear it from several rooms away or a crowded airport, but inside a hotel room, or a moderately-quiet coffee shop, it can absolutely be heard.

The simple usage of the dongle with only one button is both a blessing and a curse–it turns on and off with just one press of a button, making it incredibly easy to disarm it. Also, if it becomes unplugged from the wall, no alarm will sound. Because of this, I think it is a great tool as a reminder in a hotel to not forget to grab your charger, but not exactly ideal in an airport to prevent someone from running off with your device.

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