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About
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Features
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Go through 12 weekly lessons
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Bonus products included: Forex Trading Blueprint, Forex Digital Flashcards, Access to
Forex Article Database
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If this is your first time buying, then you are also eligible for a further 10% discount when you subscribe for email updates.
How about a freebie?
Not looking to spend any money today? That’s alright, we understand. Why not visit the AndroidGuys section for freebies and take something anyhow? Go ahead, grab two!
Can’t remember the name of that restaurant you stumbled upon while searching for something completely unrelated? Google has your back. The search giant has been testing the Recent tab for quite some time, but this week it seems the feature is going live for most users on the Google app beta release.
You can check if the new feat is available for you by checking the app’s Settings > Accounts & privacy > Enable Recent. Once enabled the Recent tab will display groups of related searches, while also giving users the opportunity to compare results side-by-side. Don’t want to see a certain search result? No problem, just delete them by simply swiping up. However, you need to remember that deleting a search result in Recent won’t clear the search from your browsing history – as the two apparently rely on two separate systems
A short tutorial is available when you open Recent for the first time from the navigation drawer of the Google app, to help you get the hang on thing. It’s the top option there.
If you don’t want to use the tab anymore and its presence is annoying you for some reason, all you need to do is go back to Settings and disable the toggle that says “Enable Recent”. It’s that easy.
Phones are in an interesting place right now. While we have amazing, feature-rich flagships like the LG G6 and Samsung Galaxy S8 that push the boundaries of what we thought possible, not everyone wants to spend $600+ on a phone.
But, you don’t have to spend that kind of money to get a really good phone anymore. Motorola has an ad campaign right now that says there haven’t been any big innovations in phones for years now, but I think they’re wrong. Innovation has been going on and where you can see it more than anywhere is in the budget market.
That is where the Moto G5 Plus sits. As the name indicates, this is the fifth iteration of the Moto G lineup. The Moto G lineup started as a low-cost alternative to the Moto X lineup which stripped away some features but kept the core principals of what Motorola wanted to present to customers: Close to stock Android, decent build quality, and a curved back design.
Lenovo owns Motorola now, but the mission stays the same. The newest Moto G starts at $230 (our review device is the more expensive $300 version) and you get a really, really good phone for your money. This is strictly my opinion, but the Moto G5 Plus might be the best value in cell phones right now, taking the title from OnePlus 3T. While these are two different devices aimed at two different segments of customers, they both accomplish the same thing: Incredible phones with incredible value.
So far, I’ve spent one week with the Moto G5 Plus. Generally, I believe it takes at least two weeks to conduct a full review of a device. For that reason, we’ve marked this review as an initial review and will continue to update it with information as we see fit.
Body and Build Quality
When the newest Moto G was announced, one of the biggest criticisms I saw on social media was about the body. This year Lenovo/Motorola decided to go with a metal back, plastic sides, and a glass front. Those who thought that the Moto G would be “like every other phone on the market” had a valid fear. One of the things that set the Moto G of past apart was the plastic, rounded back that offered awesome grip and looked pretty good doing it.
Moto G4
And sure, there are a ton of phones out there that use metal for the back of its devices, but I don’t see an issue with that. We can have a ton of devices all made out of the same things while keeping their uniqueness. I truly think that the Moto G5 Plus is one of the most unique devices I’ve ever used for a couple reasons we’ll get to in a bit, but the metal back doesn’t detract at all, in fact, I love it. It feels wonderful in the hand and gives a sense of a premium device.
Above and below the metal on the back are small plastic bands that wrap around to the sides of the device. I can only assume this is a manufacturing answer to giving proper room for the antennas. We’ve seen antenna bands on devices, most notably the Apple iPhone, but there are none here. The plastic matches the design of the metal back and you can only tell where they meet to due a groove so small I can’t even get my fingernail into it.
Buttons that are clicky-enough sit on the right side of the device, while the top holds the combo microSD card/SIM card slot. Aside from that, the sides and top are bare. The bottom sees a micro USB port, headphone jack, and microphone. To say I was disappointed to see a micro USB charging port on a device, even a budget device, released in 2017 would be accurate. We’ve reached out to Motorola for comment on why exactly (waiting to hear back), but I assume it was a cost-cutting issue.
C’mon, Moto.
The front of the device holds a very capable 5.2″ 1080p display. The bezels are big, not only on the sides but the chin and forehead too. Luckily the chin makes use of that space with an extremely fast fingerprint sensor. The sensor is more like the Moto Z and OnePlus 3 rather than the iPhone where you actually have to press it to activate. Meaning that all you need to do is rest your finger on the sensor, and you’re in.
I’m a fan of this approach since its one less movable part to break. The earpiece doubles as a speaker, which is nice, but I do wish it was a bit louder. But hey, front-firing is always better than the speaker being placed on the bottom of the device, or God forbid, on the rear of the device, so kudos to Moto.
My take away from the device construction is that Motorola knocked it out of the park. The Moto G5 Plus feels like a device that costs at least another $100 dollars more than what it’s actually priced at.
It does feel a bit thick and wide to me, but I’m coming from that previously mentioned OnePlus 3T which excels at being thin and light. The phone is light enough (5.5 ounces) that it won’t fatigue your fingers or wrist, but there are other devices out there which are even lighter.
Software
Android keeps getting better and better, which means Motorola’s software keeps getting better and better too. That’s the advantage of using a near-stock build of Android. Another advantage is fast updates but after the disappointingly long wait for Nougat on the Moto Z lineup, I won’t recommend this device if quick updates are important to you.
Luckily, Motorola kept the ship steady with the Moto G5 Plus. We again see the near-stock build of Android with some really smart and convenient improvements.
If you’ve followed the Pixel at all, you’ll know that the device shipped with fingerprint scanner gestures that allowed it to lower the notification window with a quick swipe down of the scanner. We’ve seen other devices like the Honor 8 have the ability to open apps through single or long pressed of its fingerprint scanner. The Moto G5 Plus might have my favorite new feature of all of them.
Welcome to one-button navigation. It might not be a revolutionary idea. It might exist on other devices (although I don’t know any) but it’s the one thing I’m going to miss when I send this phone back to Motorola. A swipe to the right equals a press of the back button, tapping the fingerprint scanner is the same as a press of the home button, and a swipe to the left opens the multitasking window. It’s freaking brilliant and I love it. I want it on every phone from here until they come out with something better. The learning curve was minimal and it just makes sense.
The famous Motorola round widget on your home screen has only gotten better. It now gives smart updates, such as how long until it rains or how long it will rain for (you know you’re in for it when it says “rain for the next 91 minutes”). Not to bury the lede here but the launcher that comes default on the device has the same swipe up gesture to open the applications window as the Pixel Launcher. I normally mess around with the default launcher on a phone before throwing Nova on it, but this has a lot of things I like and I think if I kept the phone, I would actually keep the default launcher.
Under the hood, the Moto G5 Plus is running Android 7.0 with the January security update. It runs pretty much flawlessly. The Snapdragon 625 processor feels more like a flagship processor in the G5 Plus due to the complete lack of unnecessary processes running the background like you’ll find on heavier skins. I never have stutters (it’s only been a week so this is something we’ll keep an eye on) and app load times, while a hair slower, are comparable to the Snapdragon 821 on my OnePlus 3T.
Returning this year are all of the smart gestures you’ve come to expect from Motorola like chopping twice to turn on the flashlight or twisting the device to turn on the camera. We also see the return of the best lockscreen in the game. You still get previews of your notifications with the ability to open or dismiss them right from the lockscreen. Unfortunately, the panel in the Moto G5 Plus is an IPS LCD so you don’t get the same power-saving advantages you would if it was an AMOLED display, but the name of the game is convenience and Motorola continues to deliver there.
Android Nougat has been out for over six months now, but many still haven’t seen the software in action. Fragmentation is still an issue. Marshmallow is only on 31% devices while Nougat is on almost 3% of devices and that still kind of blows me away. In 2017 the easiest way to get a software upgrade is just to buy a new device every year and that is really sad. Luckily, Motorola is making it cheap on you to do so, but OEMs must do better going forward.
If you’re unfamiliar with Nougat, there are a lot of nice quality of life improvements like bundled notifications, quick reply in the notification window and native multi-window. Add this in with the under the hood API changes, power saving efforts, and other things I am not smart enough to understand, and you have a really excellent OS to install on your device. Motorola’s strategy for a long time now has been not to screw with Android, just make it better. Luckily it has continued that way of thinking because the software on the Moto G5 Plus is excellent.
Performance
Even though I touched on performance a bit in the software section, I want to go a little bit more in-depth here. Just to give you an idea of what we’re working with, here are the important specs of the Moto G5 Plus
Operating System: Android 7.0 Nougat, January Security Update
As we mentioned before, we’re working with the more expensive of the two Moto G5 Plus versions. The cheaper $230 version has 32GB of storage (expandable) and 2GB of RAM, while our unit has 64GB of storage (expandable) and 4GB of RAM. While I haven’t tested the two devices side-by-side, I would recommend spending the extra $70 to get more RAM and storage. If you plan to keep the device long-term, future-proof your purchase by spending a little bit more.
Zero lag. You don’t often find it on devices these days, in fact, I think the only device I’ve ever seen it on was the Pixel XL, but you will here. At least, in the week I’ve been reviewing the device, I’ve seen none.
Where I generally get frustrated the most is scrolling through Reddit. Whether it be touch latency or just the OS causing slowdowns, most phones have a problem scrolling through lists. Taking an extra second while loading an app or pulling information I can forgive, but in 2017 I should be able to move my finger across the screen and have the phone respond directly to that. The Moto G5 Plus has so far been perfect in that regard.
Loading times and graphical performance have been just fine. This isn’t the powerhouse that the Snapdragon 835 will be, you’ll do fine in games. I don’t play a ton, my daughter does. While watching her I noticed no slowdowns, no real dropped frames or lagging. Is she playing the most graphics intensive games? No, but generally people who are picking up this device (aside from maybe young teens) won’t be either.
The Snapdragon 625 chip in the Moto G5 Plus isn’t sexy. Sexy is the latest and greatest. The Snapdragon 835 is debuting this year and its what everyone wants. People are dissing the LG G6 because it “only” has a Snapdragon 821. The 821 came out in the second half of last year and powers phones like the OnePlus 3T and Pixel (XL). It’s a fantastic chip that will power through everything out there.
But, the Snapdragon 625? It’s awesome. Sure, it’s probably equivalent to the processing power of flagships of a year or two ago, but it has all the power efficiency gains of the last couple of years too. And this thing is a beast when it comes to battery life. Six hours of on screen time comes easy. Two days of regular use comes easy. I’ve had this phone for seven days and I’ve charged it three times. It isn’t the battery life champ that the Moto Z Play is, but it’s damn good and in the upper echelon of devices. And when you’re getting low, the included Turbo Charger delivers on its promise of giving you an extra few hours of usage after just 15 minutes of charging.
So far the performance section sounds like a love letter to Motorola, but not all that glitters is gold. One of the biggest omissions in the Moto G5 Plus is NFC. I get that this is a budget device but the lack of NFC when Google, Samsung, and LG are all pushing contactless payments is really, really silly.
Camera
Every piece of literature ever produced (slight exaggeration) about the Moto G5 Plus has placed emphasis on the camera. Motorola wants you to feel comfortable buying its $300 device even though budget phones get a bad rap for having subpar main cameras.
Well…I wish I could say I was more impressed. The spec sheets lists a 12MP camera with a f/1.7 aperture on the rear with a 5MP shooter on the front at f/2.2. There’s no optical image stabilization to be found and that hurts the Moto G5 Plus in low-light situations. A lot.
Daylight pictures are fine. In fact, with HDR mode, not only do pictures look good, but they’re taken fast and reliably. You’re not going to see Pixel or iPhone-like quality, but these will still be perfect for social media or pinning to your home screen as your background.
Where the Moto G5 Plus falls flat is in darker situations. You’ll see a lot of the same issues that plague other budget devices: grain, overly dark areas with no contrast, and soft corners. Low-light photography seems to be an issue that continues to plague all but the most expensive of devices.
Sure, you can use pro-mode to pull more detail out of your shots at night, but most people aren’t going to go through all of that. They want to pull a camera out of their pocket, twist their wrist and shoot.
Here are a few samples from our time with the G5 Plus, but keep an eye on our Instagram account for more over the next few weeks.
Conclusion
The Moto G5 Plus has had an unassuming release. You probably haven’t seen much advertising outside maybe an Amazon ad or two. There hasn’t been a ton of buzz about the phone due to it being released between the LG G6 and the Samsung Galaxy S8 along with its budget price tag. But, that should change.
If you’re looking to spend $300 or less on a phone, this should be your only choice. There are no better phones on the market at this price point than the Moto G5 Plus. And it’s not even close. If you want to increase your budget, go get a OnePlus 3T for the more premium materials, USB type-C, NFC, and Dash Charging, but I think the Moto G5 Plus offers the best value on the market right now.
I would like to see Motorola focus on low-light photography more in the future. I think (I don’t know, but I think) the issue with low-light photography has more to do with software than hardware. If I’m right, I hope Google and Motorola can team up to make improvements to all of Android. Raise the bar everywhere, not just with Motorola devices. NFC is a silly omission, but one most people can live without and the bezels are enormous for 2017 expectations.
But, the phone is just damn good. I haven’t wanted to put it down since I picked it up and the one-button navigation has changed the way that I think about using my phone. Seriously, someone please enable this for the OnePlus 3T. I need it in my life and once you use it, you won’t want to go back either.
You have a few options if you want to pick of the Moto G5 Plus. Amazon has teamed up with Motorola once again to offer the device at a reduced price, but you’ll have to deal with ads on your lockscreen and occasionally in your notification window. If you don’t care about such things, it’s an easy way to save $60.
Today Amazon announced two new additions to its unlocked Prime Exclusive Phones program – the Alcatel A30 and Moto G5 Plus. The two new handsets will join Amazon Prime’s previous lineup which includes the BLU R1 HD, Moto G4 and Moto G4 Play.
The Alcatel A30 will be available for purchase for only $59.99 ($40 off the full retail price) for Amazon Prime members, while the Moto G5 Plus will be offered starting at $184.99 (at least $45 off the full retail price). The two phones are available for pre-order starting today.
The Alcatel A30 is an budget phone with entry-level specs. The phone takes advantage of a metallic sliver frame and textured back. It boasts a 5-inch display with 1280 x 720 resolution and a quad-core Snapdragon 210 processor clocked at 1.1GHz. There’s also 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (expandable via miroSD cardslot up to 32GB) and a 2,460 mAh power box.
In the photo department, the Alcatel A30 takes advantage of an 8MP/5MP camera combo. At this moment the Alcatel A30 is one of the cheapest Android 7.0 Nougat available on the market.
We’re more excited about the Moto G5 Plus announcement. The phone which was unveiled at MWC 2017 in Barcelona comes boasting a 5.2-inch display with 1920 x 1080 resolution and Snapdragon 625 processor clocked at 2GHz. It will be available in two versions – one with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of built-in storage and another with 4GB of RAM and 64GB internal storage. A microSD card slot is available to allow memory expansion up to 128GB.
The Moto G5 Plus has a 12MP dual pixel with dual LED flash main camera and a 5MP selfie snapper. It relies on a 3,000 mAh battery with TurboPower charging.
In case you’re not familiar with Amazon Prime, this is a service which allows users to enjoy exclusive access to movies, TV shows, ad-free music, Kindle books and unlimited photo storage. For a monthly fee of $10.99 subscribers can also purchase smartphones like the new Alcatel A30 and Moto G5 Plus at discounted prices.
One of the easiest ways to customize your smartwatch is to try out some new watch faces. One way to do that is to download the Facer app which offers access to up to 15,000 different watch faces.
This week Facer announced it hit a major milestone in its existence – the app has been downloaded by more than one million users of Android Wear, Tizen and Apple Watch users. This was made possible, because the app is continuously adding support for new products. Back in December, the Facer app became available on the Samsung Gear S3 smartwatch, ASUS ZenWatch 3, Moto 360 Sport, Nixon Mission and Michael Kors Access Bradshaw.
In its official statement, Facer also notes that due to the app’s rising success, digital watch face designers are starting to see a consistent revenue flow. While most of the 5,000 designers creating watch faces for Facer are doing it as a hobby, others have managed to turn their creations into an important source of income. We’re also told that inspired by the success of the app, many designers have started developing their own watch brands.
Facer is basically using this special occasion to also try and woo more developers to design watch faces for the app. If you are creative enough and love smartwatches of all flavors you can go ahead and start using the Facer Creator Tool in order to assemble a portfolio of watch faces. Once you complete it, Facer asks you to submit it for review along with an online application.
T-Mobile has been hosting a low-key promotion for users who are willing to port their number from another carrier. Interested parties need to use a code that can be employed to get 20% off on as many as 12 lines
It’s an interesting promotion, but T-Mobile hasn’t heavily advertised it. That’s probably because getting the code that will allow you to access the promotion doesn’t seem to be very easy. You’ll need to find a T-Mobile employee willing to hand you a code. Apparently, various T-Mobile employees have been given a limited number of codes to use however they see fit.
The deal will be available until the end of the month – March 31 to be more precise. We should also note the same “20% Off For Life” deal can be applied with the carrier’s “Two lines for $100 promotion”. I
Now if you are not familiar with T-Mobile One Unlimited plan, let us tell you the bundle offers video streaming at 720p and up to 10GB of LTE data each month. After you reach this cap, tethering speed is reduced to 3G. Folks who end up using 2GB of data each month (or less for that matter) will be awarded extra $10 credit. Interested parties need to be signed up with Auto Pay to take advantage of the promo.
We’re not sure why T-Mobile decided to end the promotion next week. Maybe the Magenta carrier was just experimenting with the idea. The company is always looking for new ways to attract more customers to its networks and the “20% Off For Life” deal is one that T-Mobile tried out for a time. However, it’s quite possible the company might start offering the deal again at a later date.
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As per a recent survey, over 30% of marketing spending plans has been streamed into TV ads and online videos. Where on the one hand, you can see a decline in average revenues derived from these spending. If you set a comparison, the promoters who pick online video marketing spend just around 6% every year as compared to traditional video advertisements. This ratio clearly spells out that video marketing is going to be a big thing of the future, with higher ROIs and greater audience engagement. If you’re into content marketing foray, then it’s time to adapt videos actively in your marketing plan.
Today, you can find several video agencies and even individuals churning out some really compelling content to sway their target audience. GoAnimate, Spiel, etc. are some of the big names that Google will redirect towards you. If you’ve got your own in-house team to create these videos then there’s nothing better than it. But, if you’re looking for professionals and experts from the industry, you might want to hire one of these. The best part about online video marketing is that it’s crisp, concise and clear with its message. It combines the best of both the worlds.
Online videos today have higher generation values in contrast with animated videos or even display ads. This is the reason why installing a video advertisement into your marketing plan appears to work best in getting a watcher’s attention. Despite the fact that they come with added costs with all that animated characters, the repeated use of them on social networking sites and video directories like YouTube helps in making an image of the brand.
Online video marketing is also reliable as it crosses multiple platforms. As individuals can access these video promotions through their desktops and portable workstations as well as by means of cell phones and tablets, these ads capture a wide range of audience. Right from the ones who are high tech savvy to the ones who use their phones to checkout smaller updates. Anybody with a mobile device connected to the Internet can see these advertisements at any location or time. Additionally, the product used to play the videos appears to be good with any stage or working framework like Android, iOS, Windows etc.
The general observation that only young people in their mid-twenties watch online videos on their mobile devices is not genuine any longer. On account of the boundless utilization of cell phones and tablets, many individuals in their forties are additionally observing short movies, animated videos, explainer videos, and, even listen to the music on the web. In fact, the spending power in the hands of above twenties is more than the teenagers, which is why they can spend more on the latest gadgets.
Interactive videos online also increases brand awareness and helps in improving conversions. The best among video promotions on the web are those with intelligent segments. Promotions that urge clients to watch and rate in return for coupons or an unexpected gift raises consummation rates, which thus enhances brand awareness. In the event that these people were highly interested on the promotion’s item or service, then viewing the advertisement just improves its chances of turning into deals. Whatever the promoters’ objectives in their advertising methodology, online video marketing is by all accounts a compelling arrangement.
Video advertising is gobbling up the internet commerce as organizations and online advertisers exploit on its attributes to entice more clients to their products, websites and brand name. Online videos are can be easily viewed on cell phones that are powerful to suit any sort of applications to run these videos. Evergreen video content that is gainful to clients is attracting more, which is a clear indication that video advertising is better than textual content material. Organization’s promotional videos can be immediately delivered in the absolutely best configurations within a concise time with an expectance of an enormous impact. The benefits of video advertising are expansive and huge to attract progressively more online advertisers to charm more clients to their organization and brand. Loads of innovative online advertisers and entrepreneurs are conveying videos as a form of direct mail advertisements in visual kind. This is an astoundingly extraordinary idea as today’s tech-advanced clients are more hypnotized with a direct video mail advertisement than a genuine mail or pamphlet showing the absolute best of business.
Video promotion may initiate enormous results, for example, viral videos that would make the day for entrepreneur or online advertiser. At the point when a video becomes famous online, enormous web activity is foreseen to surge the organization’s site with more buyers and conceivable outcomes to create more deals and incomes for business. Online marketers and entrepreneurs who wish to enjoy more savings of their funds through video marketing may make their own particular videos rather than contracting the experts in the market which may be costly and not so much solid. Making a video is not an extreme task and there are hundreds of dynamic gadgets present online and in the market that can help you with creating a fantastic online video. The required components would be by and large a cam or web camcorder and the best programming application to make a powerful video in an hour around for the beginner video makers.
Today, online videos can be downloaded quickly at faster speeds to be seen on cutting edge cell phones that are versatile to propel persistent use from anyplace. This favorable circumstances is perfect for online advertisers and business visionaries who wish to advance their brand image and organization items to a bigger set of potential customers. The larger part of modern cell phones are adapted with the best components and applications to see live videos rapidly with ease, and also keeping pace with standard online marketing standards. Video promoting ventures on cell phones are less costly to make, and with more dynamic gadgets the processes can be easily used to bolster your marketing activities.
The LG G6 got unveiled at MWC 2017 and if you’ve taken a liking to the device and couldn’t wait to get your hands on it, then we have some good news for you. The flagship is scheduled to officially launch at T-Mobile on April 7, but as it turns out some customers who have already placed an early pre-order for the device are now seeing the phone arrive ahead of schedule.
T-Mobile LG G6 pre-sales went live on March 22 and now some Reddit users are reporting they already received their new phone. That was fast, huh?
Still it’s not the first time T-Mobile tries to impress customers by sending out their orders ahead of time. So if you too have place a pre-order for the LG G6 you might want to keep an eye out for a shipment notification.
In case you missed LG’s announcement at MWC 2017, let us refresh your memory a little bit. The LG G6 arrives with an interesting 5.7-inch IPS LCD display with 2560 x 1440-pixel resolution. I say interesting because while most phones tend to stick with 16:9 ratios, the LG G6 is now switching it up to 18:9 (or 2:1), which in theory should make more room for information to be displayed.
The phone takes advantage of last year’s Snapdragon 821, since initial Snapdragon 835 yields were reserved by Samsung for its Galaxy S8. LG also throws in 4GB of RAM and 32GB/64GB of internal storage (expandable up to 2TB via microSD card slot).
Furthermore, the phone brings a dual 13MP Wide (f/2.4) and Standard (f/1.8) camera plus a 5MP wide-angle f/2.2 selfie snapper. Naturally, like all phones being launched in 2017, the LG G6 ships out with Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box.
The US version of the LG G6 brings about wireless charging, but does away with the audio quad-DAC feature that made the LG V20 an interesting option to behold.
We knew it was coming, but it seems that we’re one step closer to the end of Hangouts as we know it. In an email received by one G Suite customer, Google confirmed that SMS support in Hangouts will cease to exist starting in May.
However, there’s some good news for those of us who continue to use Google Voice – SMS support will still exist. Some users have started receiving notices within Hangouts, suggesting to switch to another messaging app to prepare for the changes ahead of the May 22nd deadline.
Coincidentally, this date will be just a few days after the conclusion of Google I/O 2017. So maybe there’s a chance we’ll see some type of big update announced for Allo, but I won’t be holding my breath.
I, for one, don’t want to switch to something like Allo until SMS support is added. I’ve used it with a few friends, but it feels more like a gimmick than a serious messaging platform. Maybe, I’m just stuck in my ways as I’ve been using Hangouts for years.
Things were just so simple. I could message anyone from whatever device I was using, regardless of the platform: iOS (check), Android (check), Windows (check), Mac OS (check). But there’s not even a web client for Allo.
There’s a lot of time left in 2017 for Google to right its messaging ship, so we’ll just have to cross our fingers and hope everything gets fixed. In the meantime, I’ll slowly start pouring one out for Hangouts.
I think it is safe to say that everyone has experienced issues with their home wifi at some point. I think a good number of you feel me when I say there is that one spot in your house that just pisses you off because you can’t get a good connection. Often this is because of ventilation pipes in the wall, brick fireplace chimneys, or simply distance from your wireless router.
Often times, the wireless router finds itself in the office, which inevitably on an exterior wall. The optimal place to put your router would be directly in the middle of your house based on how the wireless signal is distributed. Unfortunately for most of us, it’s just not possible to make that happen. Enter Ubiquiti Labs new mesh networking hardware. This neat little gadget extends your network past what any single router can reach by adding another access point for your wireless devices to connect to.
Setup
Ubiquiti does make a router that is designed to work with these mesh points, but for the purposes of this review, we used this with a third party router (Netgear R6400) for this review.
Setup is very straightforward. The AmpliFi system is all set up with a mobile app called, you can probably guess, AmpliFi. Once you plug the mesh point into a wall socket and give it about 60 seconds to boot up properly, launch the app. If it is not already enabled, you will be prompted to turn on your Bluetooth and location services. Once all necessary services are enabled you will be shown a nice list of devices (if you have multiple points) for you to configure. Follow the prompts to find a network to connect to and type in your password.
Design
The mesh point consists of two parts: the power supply and the antenna. The power supply has a grounded plug and a dish-like connector on the top. The dish is what actually transmits the power to the antenna. The antenna is a long slender piece of molded plastic-like material that houses all the electronics. on the front of the antenna are 5 LED’s that are used to reflect the connection status of your mesh point. The device, overall, is well designed and would blend in with most home designs, however, I do wish that it was just a hair smaller.
How it Works
After the initial setup is complete, you want to find the right place in your house to plug in the mesh point. I live out in the country and I figured this would be a good way to try this out. I plugged it into one of the buildings that is roughly 150 feet from my house, which, according to the readout on the app, provides the mesh point with a 36% connection to my router (keep in mind I am using the 2.4 GHz band which does allow for longer range than 5GHz). With the placement I decided to use, I was able to get about 350 feet away from my router and still have a connection to my network.
Performance is great, for the most part. I did not notice any drop in network performance when connecting to the mesh point or any connectivity issues while using it either. It is a nice feeling to connect to a separate device but not need to manage a separate wireless network. My only complaint is in the handoff from one access point to the other. I did do a few tests of network connectivity during this handoff and I have to say that performance was less than optimal. I never had a successful handoff where any download I was doing was able to complete after connecting. My hope is that this would be corrected if we were using the AmpliFi router, but that will need to be a test for another day.
Remote Access
Yes, you read that correctly. The mobile app was recently upgraded to allow access to your AmpliFi devices from outside the network. As you can tell from the screenshot, I am not connected to any Wifi network and I am able to see live throughput of the access point. While you are connected to the network you gain the ability to run connection tests back to the ISP.
The app also affords you the ability to connect with the live support team at your fingertips. Simply tap the menu button in the upper left corner, and select the Live Support button. A chat session will launch and you are instantly connected with a support person in a live chat window. Can’t beat that service!
Conclusion
The AmpliFi line, by Ubiquiti, is something that I was very excited to review. That being said, my overall experience was meh. The app is great, the design is sleek, and the components are quality, but, if you are using it in the same manner as we did here, I think there are more affordable options to extend your wireless network.
I hope to get the opportunity to review the router/mesh point combo to see if it is what I expect a name like Ubiquiti to put out.
You can check if the new feat is available for you by checking the app’s Settings > Accounts & privacy > Enable Recent. Once enabled the Recent tab will display groups of related searches, while also giving users the opportunity to compare results side-by-side. Don’t want to see a certain search result? No problem, just delete them by simply swiping up. However, you need to remember that deleting a search result in Recent won’t clear the search from your browsing history – as the two apparently rely on two separate systems
A short tutorial is available when you open Recent for the first time from the navigation drawer of the Google app, to help you get the hang on thing. It’s the top option there.
Buttons that are clicky-enough sit on the right side of the device, while the top holds the combo microSD card/SIM card slot. Aside from that, the sides and top are bare. The bottom sees a micro USB port, headphone jack, and microphone. To say I was disappointed to see a micro USB charging port on a device, even a budget device, released in 2017 would be accurate. We’ve reached out to Motorola for comment on why exactly (waiting to hear back), but I assume it was a cost-cutting issue.
My take away from the device construction is that Motorola knocked it out of the park. The Moto G5 Plus feels like a device that costs at least another $100 dollars more than what it’s actually priced at.
The famous Motorola round widget on your home screen has only gotten better. It now gives smart updates, such as how long until it rains or how long it will rain for (you know you’re in for it when it says “rain for the next 91 minutes”). Not to bury the lede here but the launcher that comes default on the device has the same swipe up gesture to open the applications window as the Pixel Launcher. I normally mess around with the default launcher on a phone before throwing Nova on it, but this has a lot of things I like and I think if I kept the phone, I would actually keep the default launcher.
Where I generally get frustrated the most is scrolling through Reddit. Whether it be touch latency or just the OS causing slowdowns, most phones have a problem scrolling through lists. Taking an extra second while loading an app or pulling information I can forgive, but in 2017 I should be able to move my finger across the screen and have the phone respond directly to that. The Moto G5 Plus has so far been perfect in that regard.
Daylight pictures are fine. In fact, with HDR mode, not only do pictures look good, but they’re taken fast and reliably. You’re not going to see Pixel or iPhone-like quality, but these will still be perfect for social media or pinning to your home screen as your background.
I would like to see Motorola focus on low-light photography more in the future. I think (I don’t know, but I think) the issue with low-light photography has more to do with software than hardware. If I’m right, I hope Google and Motorola can team up to make improvements to all of Android. Raise the bar everywhere, not just with Motorola devices. NFC is a silly omission, but one most people can live without and the bezels are enormous for 2017 expectations.
The Alcatel A30 is an budget phone with entry-level specs. The phone takes advantage of a metallic sliver frame and textured back. It boasts a 5-inch display with 1280 x 720 resolution and a quad-core Snapdragon 210 processor clocked at 1.1GHz. There’s also 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (expandable via miroSD cardslot up to 32GB) and a 2,460 mAh power box.
We’re more excited about the 
This week Facer announced it hit a major milestone in its existence – the app has been downloaded by more than one million users of Android Wear, 
In its official statement, Facer also notes that due to the app’s rising success, digital watch face designers are starting to see a consistent revenue flow. While most of the 5,000 designers creating watch faces for Facer are doing it as a hobby, others have managed to turn their creations into an important source of income. We’re also told that inspired by the success of the app, many designers have started developing their own watch brands.
The deal will be available until the end of the month – March 31 to be more precise. We should also note the same “20% Off For Life” deal can be applied with the carrier’s “Two lines for $100 promotion”. I
We’re not sure why T-Mobile decided to end the promotion next week. Maybe the Magenta carrier was just experimenting with the idea. The company is always looking for new ways to attract more customers to its networks and the “20% Off For Life” deal is one that T-Mobile tried out for a time. However, it’s quite possible the company might start offering the deal again at a later date.
Still it’s not the first time T-Mobile tries to impress customers by sending out their orders ahead of time. So if you too have place a pre-order for the 
The phone takes advantage of last year’s Snapdragon 821, since initial 
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I, for one, don’t want to switch to something like 
How it Works
After the initial setup is complete, you want to find the right place in your house to plug in the mesh point. I live out in the country and I figured this would be a good way to try this out. I plugged it into one of the buildings that is roughly 150 feet from my house, which, according to the readout on the app, provides the mesh point with a 36% connection to my router (keep in mind I am using the 2.4 GHz band which does allow for longer range than 5GHz). With the placement I decided to use, I was able to get about 350 feet away from my router and still have a connection to my network.