With the booming market of smart phones, new apps are being developed every day. Hence, the competition is incredibly tough. If you are on your way to making one, stop and ask yourself these questions first.
What app am I building?
Before building an app, you need to consider what kind of business it is for. It is important that you do a bit of research before you set work on. Browse through some similar apps to check out what cool new things which you can incorporate or the mistakes you should avoid. For example, if you are building a new app for your hotel, look at the apps of popular Amsterdam, New York or Las Vegas hotels to get some interesting ideas on how to crack the travel deals formula and make a platform, which is lure-worthy for the user to appear and reappear at.
Is the app for a new or existing business?
What kind of work you need to put into your app depends upon whether you are designing it for a new or an existing business. For a brand new business, you get an open canvas where you can choose everything from scratch. But if it is an existing business, you have to keep the image of the business in mind and build your app based on that.
What is my target group?
The target user is what should determine how you build your app. If school students are your primary users, keep is preppy and bright but that is not the best idea for app for a construction company. Moreover, if your app is going to be used by older people who are not yet very comfortable with newer technology, it is best to keep the it simple, with all the operations clearly mentioned.
Paid or free?
Unless you are building a niche app, chances of people buying a paid app are incredibly low. Hence you will not start making money unless you can build a strong clientele who will gladly pay for your app. It is a smart idea to build a free trial version which will help turn your free users into loyal customers.
What OS should I build my app for?
You need to choose which operating system you want to build your app for. Android and iOS are two different mediums with two extremely different sets of users. If your aim is to make money quickly, iOS is what you should choose. It is an excellent medium but it is also exclusive. So, if your app needs popularity, Android the best choice. It is the most popularly used platform worldwide. Earning well through an Android app might take some time, but the rewards it will reap eventually, is worth the wait.
Beta testing
You have to let your app go through stringent beta testing before launching it for the public. It is always a good idea to use your family and friends to test your app on but is that enough? It is wise to employ the services of a professional beta testing program for the best technical analysis.
Today’s market for apps is highly competitive and hence, you must stand out from the crowd. It is important to plan well to create an excellent and unique app which will not get lost.
In a world where virtual social interaction is quickly gaining ground on the traditional face-to-face meet and greet as the most-utilized path to romance, internet dating is a burgeoning industry ripe with business opportunity. Playing virtual Cupid is a great way for the budding entrepreneur with a passion for cultivating love to create a profitable venture. But how does one go about building such a business? It may be easier than you think.
First and foremost: decide upon your approach: do you plan to target a particular genre of folks? Old people, gay people, locals, divorced people, people looking for hook-ups or committed relationships? Do some research and focus on what you determine is an untapped or underserved market. Does your city or town have its own exclusive dating site? If not, that might be the way to go. Deciding your niche is crucial for how you build your site and who you target to market your site or app to.
Once you determine your primary audience, you can work on choosing a name. Be creative and playful, and choose something that speaks to your theme. Once you’ve decided on a name, you can utilize a quick google search to determine if your chosen name is available, along with the URL. Pick a host, legally register your business and purchase your URL.
Now that you have the foundation established, it is time to build, which includes the most essential component, cultivating your site. If you have little to no experience with website design or coding, you can outsource your website design, but that is an expense that adds up quickly. The benefit to custom design is you can tailor features to what you have in mind. For example, you could add a mature chat room feature, or match users based on specific criteria.
Some options for those who prefer a ready-made template are SkaDate, WordPress, and datingpro. WordPress Sweet Date is a highly-reviewed dating website template available for $59. Another strong consideration is this fast-paced market it mobile accessibility and if you choose to promote yourself as an app or dating site with mobile compatibility.
You need to decide what information you will request of your users for their profiles. Again, this is a time to consider their niche. If your members are interested in long-term relationships, their profiles should be far more detailed than if they are only in it for a one-night-stand. Consider including favorite activities, personal interests, favorite music, what they are looking for in another person, etc.
As for branding, you will need a solid, simple logo. Outsource the design locally or go with the many online options like designhill.com or logodesign.net.
You must also determine whether your site is going to offer paid or free membership. Free sites are likely to experience more traffic and make money by hosting affiliate sites or once you build a large user base, but with paid sites, you may have to invest more in upfront marketing but reap easier profit margins in the long run.
A free trial period is a great way to gain users along with requiring payment only to gain the ability to communicate with other members. If you decide on paid memberships, you will also have to embed a payment tool. Paypal is an excellent choice for a simple and user-friendly platform that many users will already be familiar with, however, if you choose a third-party form of payment, these tools do not offer reoccurring payment options and can cost a good deal to conduct business with, cutting into your profit margins.
Set a launch date and work with the software to iron out possible glitches. Once you feel confident in your product, recruit some friends to test it out and gather feedback, tweaking as need be.
You’ve already determined your target market, and now that you have a solid product to stand upon, it is time to promote it. Choose appropriate advertising venues; local radio and print media if you selected a local focus, Google ads if your audience is wide-spread (Facebook no longer allows advertisements from new dating sites). Maintain a blog and update it regularly with fresh posts about your niche to promote SEO.
The next step? Patience and persistence. It may take a very long time to build your name in the online dating community and gain enough members to make any money at all. But don’t give up hope. Continue to put out refreshing content and promote your site, and responding to user feedback. Once you gain members, send out email promotions and updates regularly. Give an incentive for referrals. Like so many singles out there navigating the web for that perfect somebody: you have to keep putting in the work until you experience success.
Editor Note: This sponsored post was vetted by AndroidGuys at the time of publication, however the information and views may not represent those of the site as a whole.
Google Assistant has been recently updated to include 15 new, useful actions. Actions are voice-only commands, like Skills are for Alexa. In the case of Amazon’s intelligent assistant, users can browse third party apps via a dedicated website, but when it comes to the Assistant, Google itself approves and enables skills its cloud servers and from there, users can access them.
Some of these new actions include Chefling (which was already available for Alexa) which helps users keep track of what’s in their fridge, suggests recipes based on the available ingredients and provides alerts when certain grocery items are about to expire. The option of asking Google Assistant to add grocery items to a Google Keep shopping list was already available.
Chiefling isn’t the only foodie-friendly action that has been recently added. Users of Google Assistant, also welcome Wine Guide, Beer Guide and Food Network.
Moving along, there’s also an action that allows users to start, stop and pause cleaning sessions with a Neato robot vacuum cleaner. And if you’re a fan of movies, the Movie Maestro can quickly deliver the IMBD rating of the movie you’re about to watch. With Racing Results users can get horse race results from all over the UK, United States, France and Ireland.
Weirdly enough there’s an action which gives you quotes by Jaden Smith. The action was developed by a 16-year-old who considers Will Smith’s 18-year-old son highly inspirational. He also developed another action called Computer Builder, which provides users with a roundup of building a computer basics.
Sure, if you compare the capabilities of the Google Assistant with the ones of Amazon Alexa, you’ll notice the former is a lot more limited. However, it’s not really fair to make a comparison between them, since the Google Assistant was only opened to developers in late 2016, while Alexa has a head start of 18 months.
During this time, Amazon aggressively pushed the service to developers. The strategy proved fruitful, since Alexa users now have up to 10,000 skills to take advantage of. But the Google Assistant will catch up eventually.
Do you live in a house with multiple smartphone users? Or, maybe you own a handful of devices that need charged via USB. It’s not uncommon to have a tablet, smartwatch, digital camera, Fire TV remote, phone, Kindle, etc. It isn’t hard to find yourself with more than a few things fighting for the plus and outlets. Ever considered a charging station or dock?
Unitek has a couple of options to choose from which could be of value to those of you who need to plug a variety of devices in on a regular basis. Moreover, if you’ve got one place that everyone in the house goes to for charging, these are something you might want to purchase. All of the products listed below come with a two-year warranty.
96W/2.4A 10-Port USB Charging Station with Quick Charge 3.0
Why you’ll want it:Charge up to ten devices at one time, including two of them using Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0. Move the dividers around to fit your needs; space them out for wider items like backup batteries or put them closer together for that skinny tablet. It’s the perfect office companion for those of you who have keyboards and mice that need the occasional charge on top of the various phones and headphones. About $70
36W/2.4A Detachable 4 Port USB Charging Station Dock
Why you’ll want it: An excellent option for the nightstand, it lets you plug in your phone, tablet, and two other products at once. Although it charges four things at once, the dock has room for six devices so feel free to put other tech in there, too. The cord is long enough to tuck behind the bed or dresser; provides up to 5V 7.2A and one power port up to 2.4A. About $28
Aluminum Type C 3-Port Data Hub with SD/Micro SD/TF Card Reader
Why you’ll want it: If you own a Chromebook or laptop with a USB Type-C port, this unit adds a number of ports and functionality to it. Give your device three extra USB 3.0 ports on one side and adds a card reader that supports a variety of formats on the other: SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC, RS-MMC, Micro SD, and Mini SD. Aluminum build ensures it will stand up to moderate abuse; it looks great next to any hardware. About $20
Portable USB 3.0 4-Port Ultra Slim Data hub
Why you’ll want it: Inexpensive but flexible, this portable unit converts one USB port into four. Moreover, there’s an extra microUSB output that can be used to power your phone or tablet. Backward compatible with USB 2.0 / 1.1, the USB 3.0 ports deliver charging and fast data transfer speeds. The built-in clasp keeps the cord from flopping around while the small footprint allows for portability. About $10
Editor Note: These items were provided to AndroidGuys for promotional consideration. Morever, they were offered to us at no cost and with no expectation of review or coverage.
Have you ever thought about getting into Forex trading? Not sure where to start or what to do get started? Wouldn’t it be nice to get a crash course in the principles and strategies? How about enough training to actually earn certification?
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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.
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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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