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First official LineageOS builds are available for download

Alexandra Arici
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Following the demise of Cyanogen Inc. a new entity has emerged: LineageOS – which is basically a continuation of CyanogenMod OS.

The advantage of an open source project is that it never really expires, so LineageOS has picked up where CyanogenMod left off – hence the name (Lineage=direct descent from an ancestor; ancestry or pedigree).

CyanogenMod RIPWell over the weekend, a few official LinageOS builds have started rolling out for supported devices (including Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, Motorola Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus, Nexbit Robin and Xiaomi Redmi 1S). More will be coming of course, as the team behind LineageOS plans to add support for more than 80 devices in total.

The new ROM will bestow a taste of Android Marshmallow and Android Nougat on compatible devices. The team says to also expect “experimental” builds along the usual weekly builds for the next two months. Experimental builds are aimed for users running CyanogenMod 13 and CyanogenMod 14.1 builds who wish to migrate to LineageOS. These builds are designed to maintain user data intact except for app permission which will have to be set again.

LineageOS LogoWhile LineageOS is the continuation of CyanogenMod, there are a few difference that need to be pointed out. For example, with the new ROMs there won’t be any default root access. This will be provided separately via a .zip file users will have to flash.

The LineageOS team is currently rolling out official builds for a handful of devices, but keep an eye on their download page as more builds are expected to be added soon.

Noah Camera takes your selfie game to a new level (review)

AndroidGuys
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Overview:

Noah Camera is a camera app designed to enhance your photos and selfies with filters and allow you to easily share them on social media and with friends.

Developer: JP Brothers, Inc.

Cost: Free (with ads)

Impressions:

Noah Camera is a camera app designed to enhance your photos and selfies with filters and allow you to easily share them on social media and with friends.

Noah Camera is a neat app for hardcore selfie takers. While I may not consider myself a part of that crowd, I can certainly see the potential in a solid camera app with a myriad of filters available to make your pictures as good as they can be. Noah offers just that, a simple but solid camera app with dozens of filters to customize your shots and make them stand out. While I probably wouldn’t use this over my stock camera app, it is indeed a solid camera experience standalone.

I’ve taken some shots with my stock Google Pixel camera app, and then with Noah and some filters so you can see some examples of how Noah can change your photos and the quality in which they come out:

Noah Camera

The filter selection is extensive, to say the least. Noah Camera sorts them by type and shows a preview on the viewfinder before you take the picture so you’ll know exactly how it turns out. Many familiar filters from Instagram and other camera apps are present, and some fairly original ones as well that really transform your photos. Selecting the desired filter is easy thanks to the swipe to select feature, as well as a gallery of filters that pops up along the bottom for fast and easy selection. Noah also allows for some personalization of the app itself, with a customizable shutter button and the option to run in silent shutter mode, for the sake of others around you.

Noah Camera also has some strong social sharing options, with the ability to post straight to Instagram and Facebook right after you take your photo in-app. Of course, it also saves to your gallery so you can do whatever you like with the pictures, but the easy sharing options are excellent especially for Instagram junkies.

Admittedly there isn’t much else to go on with Noah Camera, as it’s simply a camera app with some fancy filters and sharing settings, but for how simple it is it works very well and is very user-friendly. I do have some complaints, like the watermark at the bottom right, which is also customizable but is difficult to remove. There is a setting for removing it but it didn’t always work and most of my photos have the “Noah” watermark in the corner. A small complaint but still annoying. Also, a lot of the filters seem the same to me. Many really alter the look of the photo, but there are a bunch that mostly wash it out or make it darker in small increments which I feel would have been better implemented as a slider for saturation or brightness.

Conclusion:

Noah Camera is a useful tool for content creators and selfie enthusiasts of all stripes. It’s simple, straightforward, and has a bunch of useful features to help set it apart from other camera apps on the Play Store. Be sure to give it a try.

Download Noah Camera from the Google Play Store

Redraw Keyboard – Customize ALL THE THINGS (App Review)

AndroidGuys
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Android has a billion keyboard options. Okay, maybe there’s not quite a billion keyboard apps out there to choose from, but with all of the customization options offered by some of them, it might at well be since every Android user ever could easily have a different looking keyboard. However, not all keyboards are created equal and there are plenty that choose to be flashy over having the functionality of other keyboards. Redraw attempts to combine the best of functions, appearance, and even achievements into a keyboard. Yes, achievements. Let’s take a look.

Developer: Redraw
Price: Free/IAP
Download: Google Play

Oh, Google. You slay me.
Oh, Google. You slay me.

The Setup

The first thing that will pop up when you first open the app is a Google Play Games login. This may seem strange at first but connect it. I’ll cover more on this a little later on. The app will take you through all the necessary steps of enabling the keyboard in system settings and selecting it from the list of keyboards available. You then receive your daily reward. At this point, you’ve probably realized that this is no typical keyboard app but incorporates a game type element to it. Your daily reward of coins will enable you to purchase your first theme from a very extensive list. There are clean and simple themes that are a simple black and white, ones that simulate the iPhone keyboard, and ones that are way more detailed with fire, lighting, roses, skulls, and even themes such as Easter, Winter, and Black Friday (yes, that’s really a thing). After you pick your first theme, your setup is complete and you’re free to start typing to your heart’s content.

YES! I needed a good Black Friday theme!
YES! I needed a good Black Friday theme!

Features

Redraw includes a lot of popular features that are present in most of the top keyboard apps. You can tap to type, swipe your finger, word prediction, spell check, and quick access to emojis. The keyboard is set up in an intuitive way that allows you to effortlessly add emojis or stickers to any message. There are dozens upon dozens of sticker packs available, so if cute animals are your thing, you’re covered. If you like things a little edgier, there are fingers with attitudes. If you’re still feeling the Poké-craze, maybe a cool creature pack (read: not real Pokémon, but with a similar design) is more to your liking. You can also buy wallpapers for your phone, more fonts for your keyboard, and even additional sounds for your keyboard. Everything can be used to customize your keyboard exactly to your liking. There is a menu button on the top left of the keyboard that allows you to quickly access most of these setting, themes, or even achievements.

Wait… Achievement?!

Now let’s pause for a second here. This keyboard includes 35 achievements that will all supply you with even more gold coins to deck out your keyboard. Achievements range from easy things like swipe your first 5 words, to ones that you’ll get over time, such as send 10 stickers. Each achievement has a monetary value attached to it that can range from only 50 coins to a couple hundred depending on how long they take to unlock. This is a really innovative and creative feature that I believe is a first for the Android keyboard community, and it’s a welcome feature that really spices up an already extensive list of features.

What should I go with: Blue Haired Betty, or Fingers with attitude?
What should I go with: Blue Haired Betty or Fingers with attitude?

Daily use

I’ve been a pretty regular user of GBoard up until this point, and in my first day of using this keyboard, I was a little underwhelmed. It didn’t seem to have as good predictions as GBoard, and I had an ugly white keyboard with big bubble looking letters. Then I dug a little deeper. I turned on such features as auto-correct which fixed a great number of typos (and consequently, a lot of my complaints) then discovered where you can customize your own theme. I’m pretty big into Overwatch right now on Xbox, so I took a picture of the logo, placed it in the background, tweaked the color of the keys so they could easily be read, added an orange accent color, and changed the transparency of the key outline until my keyboard was totally geeked out and I was over the moon. My keyboard now worked great, looked great, and I was turning the heads of lots of my friends.

Conclusion

Redraw keyboard has most of the features of a lot of the popular keyboards out there but adds extensive customization and some truly unique features such as achievements. You will need to make sure that predictions and auto-correct are enabled, but once you get everything setup, the keyboard really does offer a solid experience and does it with style. Achievements are just the icing on the cake and add a lot to otherwise mundane tasks. All in all, you owe it to yourself to take this one for a spin.

HTC U Ultra vs LG V20 (Smartphone Showdown)

Alexandra Arici
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Earlier this month, HTC unveiled the HTC U Ultra flagship in a bid to restore customers’ interest in the brand. HTC has been struggling to remain relevant for years now and the company’s latest “U” phone family hopes to spark some enthusiasm with Android fans. For this purpose HTC has mixed in a lot of fancy features, some borrowed, some re-cosmeticized and some potentially useless into its latest and greatest.

One of the HTC U Ultra’s marking traits is the presence of an additional secondary display in the vein of the LG V20. Given that there aren’t many phones on the market that offer this feature, we thought we’d compare the two, especially since they’re both premium devices.

Display

Main: 5.7-inch with 1440 x 2560 resolution with 513ppi vs 5.5-inch with 1440 x 2560 resolution with 513ppi

Secondary: 2.05-inch with 160 x 1040 pixels vs 2.1-inch with 160 x 1040 pixels

HTC U Ultra SecondWe live in the era of big phones. Just look at Samsung – the Korean tech giant is expected to unveil a Galaxy S8 with 5.7-inch and 6.2-inch versions. However, not everyone is a fan of huge phones that can’t be held properly in hand. If that’s the case for you, you’re probably going to have to skip both these phones and go pick up a more moderate 5-inch Google Pixel instead (obviously, it’s not the only option).

Going back to the HTC U Ultra and LG V20, both these phones feature ginormous displays PLUS a secondary one. HTC calls it “Dual Displays”, while LG says the V20 has a “Second Screen.” However you want to call it, the tiny displays on top offer similar features. Owners can use it to check for notifications real quick or easily access apps via shortcuts.

While in theory the inclusion of a secondary display ticker makes total sense, given that users are no longer required to switch the phone on to check notifications and launch apps, which should help save battery life, in real life things are a bit different. The ticker does put a strain on battery life and that’s why we might even see the LG V30 arrive without one.

So at this point it seems to us HTC just wanted to bundle all sort of “cutting-edge” features into the HTC U Ultra, in a desperate attempt to make the device stand out. The company didn’t really innovate, so you shouldn’t expect to see the smaller display on the HTC U Ultra do anything different than the one on the LG V20 already does.

Computing power

Snapdragon 821 vs Snapdragon 820

Adreno 530 vs Adreno 530

4GB of RAM vs 4GB of RAM

HTC U Ultra 2The HTC U Ultra was launched with 2016’s Snapdragon 821 chipset under the hood. HTC missed the opportunity to be the first Android OEM to intro a phone with Qualcomm’s latest top tier chipset, Snapdragon 835. Anyway, the Snapdragon 821 is a quad-core CPU featuring 2 x 2.15GHz Kyro cores and 2 x 1.6GHz Kyro cores. It’s the same chipset that powers the Google Pixel, one of the best phones out there.

As for the LG V20 which was released in October, the phone is supported by a Snapdragon 820 which is a quad-core processor with 2 x 2.15GHz Kyro cores plus 2 x 1.6GHz Kyro cores. The two phones are on par RAM wise, so they should both run pretty smooth with no major differences.

Cameras

12MP/16MP vs 16MP+8MP/5MP

Selfie HTC U UltraThe awesome 12MP main camera of the Google Pixel is also present on the HTC U Ultra plus a few improvements. Now the HTC snapper takes advantage of phase-detection autofocus, laser autofocus, f/1.8 aperture and optical image stabilization.

As for the LG V20, the dual camera setup offers laser autofocus, optical image stabilization and LED flash. We should insert a word of warning here, select LG V20 users have been complaining the camera glass on the back is very sensitive and tends to break unexpectedly.

In the selfie department, the HTC U Ultra features an impressive 16MP self-portrait shooter just like the OnePlus 3T and Samsung Galaxy A7 and A5 (2017). The secondary snapper can switch between UltraPixel mode (for low-light environments) to the standard mode when lighting conditions improve.

The LG V20 is less impressive when it comes to selfies, coming with a 5MP front camera.

Software

Android 7.0 Nougat vs Android 7.0 Nougat

LG V20 SoftwareBoth phones ship with Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box. However, the HTC U Ultra features its own Sense UI plastered on top which adds several new features such as the AI-driven Sense Companion (basically a virtual assistant).

It seems like virtual assistants are becoming a ubiquitous commodity in 2017. Samsung will add Bixby in the Galaxy S8 and Nokia will probably offer up Viki with its upcoming flagships. Going back to, the Sense Companion basically sounds like every smart assistant out there. The system learns your habits and then gives you suggestions, so nothing to write home about really.

However, if you’re not a fan of virtual assistant and prefer daily brain workouts over helpful suggestions, you’ll be happy to know that the LG V20 doesn’t have an AI companion.

Battery

3,000 mAh (non-removable) vs 3,200 mAh (removable)

LG V20 BackBattery is quite important when picking out a new smartphone, especially if you’re going to pay premium.

Phones like the Moto Z and Pixel XL offer stellar battery life, but we don’t suppose the HTC U Ultra will be able to deliver the same. The phone features a power draining 5.7-inch QHD display plus a Snapdragon 821 and even though Nougat is optimized to preserve battery, we are skeptical the HTC U Ultra will surprise us.

By contrast, the LG did a little bit better and bundled a larger 3,200 mAh battery under the V20’s hood. The power source is removable, so you can always swap out the dead battery and replace it with a fresh one.

Other features

64GB/128GB of internal storage vs 64GB of internal storage

LG V20 SideThe HTC U Ultra is going to have a variant with 128GB of storage onboard. However, at launch the phone will be offered with 64GB only.

Surprisingly, the HTC phone does feature a microSD card slot which allows for memory expansion to up to 256GB. And so does the LG V20.

Pricing

$749 vs $799

As we mentioned in the beginning, both phones are premium models which are bound to break the piggy bank.

As you can see the LG V20 is a bit more expensive, but users also have the option of purchasing the phone from carriers like Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T with prices ranging between $672 and $830 (unless you really want it unlocked).

Epilogue

To conclude this smartphone battle, we’ll tell you that reviewers have found the LG V20 is a phone that boasts spectacular audio capabilities. As for the HTC U Ultra, we’ll have to draw your attention to the inexplicable absence of BoomSound speakers on board of the device. It was one of the best features offered by the company, so it’s quite puzzling to see HTC is not using it as a selling point on its latest flagship.

The HTC U Ultra also lacks the 3.5mm headphone jack, which is alive and well on the LG V20. But the U Ultra probably boasts a much better camera than the one on the V20. However, if battery life is important to you, you’ll go for the LG V20.

Save big on these great smartphones from BLUBOO and get a free smartwatch

AG Deals Team
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If you’re a fan of AndroidGuys, then you’ve probably heard about BLUBOO. This manufacturer offers different budget options for just about everyone, in addition to introducing a new smartwatch. Fortunately, there are sometimes that these budget options are the subject of a deeper discount.

Screen Shot 2017-01-21 at 11.33.11 AMThis is the case as of right now as BLUBOO is offering a series of deals for customers. The first gift provides 50 different customers with a free BLUBOO smartphone of their choice. The second gift gives 50 customers a smartphone of their choice for just $9.99. The final gift provides select customers with a free BLUBOO Uwatch smartwatch.

In addition to offering some awesome giveaways, BLUBOO has also discounted some of its smartphones, including the BLUBOO Maya Max. Normally priced at $159.99, you can save $30 on this device today.

Here are some of the other discounts that are taking place:

There are some rules about this giveaway, as you will need to purchase a device before being able to be eligible for any of these giveaways. The company will also be announcing the winners on Facebook and YouTube on February 8th.

Give us a heads up if you have any questions about this promotion, and let us know what you end up grabbing.

GeekBuying’s Chinese New Year’s sale has me throwing money at my screen

Matt Adams
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Are you looking to save a ton of money on a phone right now? Well, you may not realize it, but this is the perfect time of year to do just that. Most of the phones produced in the world are made in China and the Chinese New Year is about to hit (January 25) so we’re starting to see a ton of awesome deals come out of the East.

One of our favorite sites, Geekbuying is running a few different packages that are really hard to pass up. First off, we’re seeing a huge sale on Ulephone. Ulephone is a manufacturer that makes some of the most interesting devices on the market.

Right now you can grab a Ulephone Tiger for only $89. The Tiger has a 4200mAh battery, a metal body, and a fingerprint scanner. That’s crazy for under $100. You can also grab a Ulephone Armor which looks like its the perfect phone for the job site. The Armor has a tough construction to stand up to big falls and is IP68 water resistant. It also features 32GB of storage, a quad-core processor, and an HD display. That’s hard to beat for $160 (currently $40 off!)

Ulefone Tiger
Ulephone Tiger
Ulefone Armor
Ulephone Armor

If Ulephone isn’t your speed, consider checking out Doogee. Doogee has focused on packing amazing specs into phones that look pretty good to boot and are offered at cut-rate prices. We are always impressed when we get to take a look at its devices.

The Doogee T5 is one of the best deals that GeekBuying has going on right now. The phone will only run you $130 right now which is a $140 savings. That’s right! It’s over half off! The T5 is another rugged phone designed to stand up to the abuses of our modern world. It has an IP rating of 67 which means its waterproof, shockproof, and dustproof. You also get a huge 4500mAh battery, 13MP Samsung camera, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of Storage, and an octa-core processor. If you’re thinking that this sounds like a flagship level device, I agree!

Doogee doesn’t just make tough phones, they also make some beautiful devices like the Doogee Y6. The Piano Black Y6 draws on inspiration from Apple and Samsung to make one of the most attractive devices out there today. Beyond its aesthetics, the phone packs in 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, an octa-core processor, a 5.5″ HD display, and a fingerprint scanner all for just $150.

Doogee T5
Doogee T5
Doogee Y6
Doogee Y6

Geekbuying is also running a special with Bluboo where 50 customers have the chance to win free phones! For those who purchase a Bluboo device, you’ll be entered into a drawing and 50 people will get their phones for free, 50 people will only have to pay $9.99 for the devices, and some customers (no details on how many) can win a free Bluboo watch!

Geekbuying currently has the Bluboo Dual for only $103 right now which is crazy for a phone that has dual cameras. The rest of the specs are little modest, but you are only paying $103! The Bluboo Dual has 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage (expandable), a 3000mAh battery, and a 5.5″ FHD display. Not too shabby, especially when the Dual looks as good as it does.

If you want Samsung-level design without paying $750 for a phone, the Bluboo Edge might be perfect for you. The phone features the same specs as the Dual (without the dual cameras and 400mAh smaller battery) but offers a beautiful 5.5″ dual curved display. The display isn’t the only thing that is curved! The rear of the device has nice curves at the sides to make the Edge phone of the sleekest and sexiest phones on the market today and you can grab one for only $120.

Bluboo Dual
Bluboo Dual
Bluboo Edge
Bluboo Edge

Facebook Messenger: A New Review (review)

AndroidGuys
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There’s a cool app available on the Play Store. It was born as an off-shoot of another popular app, a data-based chat app that allows the user of the parent app to communicate privately, one-on-one.
It has since become its own standalone app, and quickly became one of the most popular apps of all-time. It has also become its own platform, capable of allowing other developers to create functions, capabilities, and bots (!).

That app is…………Facebook Messenger.

I know, I know; not exactly a new or emerging app the likes of which we usually review. But it’s also an app that has grown in it’s popularity and capabilities in such a short time, we feel that it deserves a new look at it.
Please note; I am not Facebook’s biggest fan, and I actually do have some issues with the way they operate sometimes. That said I do have an account, and do use Messenger quite often. Even with my qualms about the service, it does have some pretty nice features that do obviously make it quite attractive to users world-wide. Let’s take a quick spin through [what I consider] some of the most useful.

Setup

It’s likely you’ve at least tried Messenger before, so this step shouldn’t need much messenger-sign-up-android (1)explanation. If you don’t use Facebook or just aren’t a fan, good news: you don’t need to even have a Facebook account to use Messenger. Just your mobile phone number will suffice. You download the app from the Play Store. Then either connect with your Facebook account or mobile number, and you’re in.

Features

Boy, where to start with this one. The list is long and rapidly growing longer, so let’s go through (what I consider) the biggest features one-by-one:

Integrated SMS

This feature made some pretty serious headlines earlier this year. Messenger can now be messenger_smsused as both your data-based messenging app and cellular SMS texting interface. No, it doesn’t physically take over cellular-based texting, but it reigns in all your incoming and outgoing texts into it’s interface, giving you a single app to open, no matter the message’s medium.
Conventional wisdom may object to this migration, knowing Facebook’s inherit desire to be know all the details of your web activity….Facebook itself has claimed that they pull no data regarding your texts back its servers; it’s only offering this feature [essentially] so you use or stay on the Messenger app that much longer. I guess it’s up to you whether you’re comfortable with that notion.

Integrated Photo & Video Capture

This one’s not a real novel feature, but it’s functionality it top-notch. While in the app, you can launch either your device’s front or rear camera to easily capture media for sharing purposes.

Video Chat

Nowadays not as much breaking-news, but again it works really, really smoothly (though note: this doesn’t work with SMS integration). Just by pressing the blue icon. I say ‘blue’, because it may be gray….this tells you that person isn’t available to take a video call at that time. Neat!

games-facebook_messengerIn-App Games

When in a conversation, just click on the little game controller icon and pick your battle. The list of games is pretty long, and Facebook states it will get longer in the short-term. While gaming has had a limited existence within Messenger in the past, Facebook has just this week released the hounds on the full-boat game offerings.
You can read more about this new feature here.

Contact Codesscreenshot_20161203-221714

Similar to Snapchat, Messenger offers a tile with a scan-able code along with your immediate & pertinent contact info.

Show Location

If you’re wandering around town and are trying to meet up with some friends, Messenger’s location-sharing feature may come in handy.

A Personalized Greeting (if you have a messenger-location-sharing3business/page).

If you have a commercial account or page, Messenger allows you include a greeting, to show up when someone opens the app to send you a message. This is a great feature to setting the tone a customer (or potential one) experiences when interfacing with your brand.

Send Audio Clips (eliminate voicemail!)

I’m pretty surprised this one isn’t more popular than it is. Instead of leaving a phone message (and messenger_audiomaking your friend go through the arduous task of navigating cellular voice mail), you can simply hit the microphone button and leave a voice message right in the app. So instead of having to “dial-in”, the receiver can get a notification and press “play”.  Ahhh…it works so damn well.

Well-Composed Group Chats.

Unlike traditional SMS (where my experience has shown it to be a total mess), Messenger handles group chats with relative aplomb. The main way they accomplish this is giving group chats their own tab, sorting them together instead of mixed amongst all your other conversations (particularly with individuals who also show up in the group chats).

Stand-Alone Desktop App

messenger_desktopOK, this isn’t mobile-based, but I personally use it and it works well. Messenger.com will bring up a streamlined interface that works just like the mobile app; so you don’t have to keep going to your phone while at your desk during the work day (provided your employer is generally cool with this, of course).

Call an Uber. Or a Lyft.

uber_facebook_messengerRight in the app is a menu option to “request a ride”. From here you can choose Uber or Lyft as your service of choice, and off you go….without leaving Messenger.

Pin a Conversation

Within group chats, you can pin a specific thread to the top of your list, so it’s easy to find!

Mute notifications

If you’re trying to get some work done, or have another obligation & don’t want to get sidetracked with a Messenger conversation, you can choose to ‘mute’ notifications from a particular thread for your choice of time (15 minutes, 1 hour, etc.).

Send & receive money

…and Facebook doesn’t even charge for the service. While in a conversation, click on the “$” icon, select the amount you want to send to the person you’re chatting with, and enter your credit card info. Done.

Send your location (though not using Google Maps)messenger-location-sharing-coverphoto

While you may not need this very often, if you do find your and your friends having trouble finding each other while out & about it may come in pretty handy. Simply click on your location, and your friend(s) will be able to view a click-able map to see exactly where you are.

Conclusion

Love it or hate it, Facebook has built a great feature set into a very well-performing app in Messenger. And combined with the crazy-big user base, it’s getting harder every day to justify not using it (or at least having it installed).
Hopefully you found some previously-unknown feature that will come in useful for you. Or, maybe, you may have found your threshold reason to give it a try. Let us know if you have any other must-try features in Messenger!

Donald Trump says bye to his Galaxy phone, welcomes highly encrypted handset

Alexandra Arici
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Today Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States. But before the ceremony, mister Trump made a stop to hand in his Android device, which was previously identified as a Galaxy phone.

According to a report coming from the Associated Press, Trump exchanged his device for an unknown locked-down device which was approved by the Secret Services.

Before him, President Obama was also subject to the same treatment and used a heavily modified BlackBerry device which didn’t come bundled with the normal features – for security reasons.

Obama BlackBerryLater on, Obama switched to an iPhone which allowed him to send emails to a select group of trusted contacts and browse the Internet. The report also reveals the President had a phone he used to write tweets one, but rarely pressed sent without consulting with his staff.

Speaking of which, the new President mainly used his now-ex Galaxy phone to send out tweets. Now it’s unclear whether mister Trump will be allowed another device on top of the super secure phone he is expected to use as chief of state. Mister Trump previously said he would like to continue to tweet, even as he steps into office.

Trump TwitterThis will mark an important change for Trump, who was previously easily accessible, even in the days following his election. For example, it was revealed that Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull received Trump’s number from golfer Greg Norman.

But with the super secure, encrypted phone in place, it won’t be so easy to reach the new President anymore. Which must be a relief for the Secret Services.

Samsung’s new app helps color blind people see the whole color spectrum

Alexandra Arici
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Color blindness (or Color Vision Deficiency) is a condition that affects the person’s ability to see color or differences in color. For example, people with CVD see very little difference between red and green.

SeeColors App By SamsungThe ailment affects approximately 1 in 12 men (8%) and 1 in 200 women of the world, so it’s a very wide-spread condition. Luckily there are ways to trick color blindness.

Samsung wants to help people with CVD see the world as it is, so it has partnered up with the Hungarian company Colorite to produce an app called #SeeColors. The piece of software can be used to diagnose the level of CVD a patient is affected with. It also allows individuals suffering from CVD to see a full spectrum of color via Samsung’s Television screens.

The #SeeColors app is available on smartphones and Tizen-based TVs to first identify the level of CVD. It’s then up to a Samsung Smart TVs to recalibrate the screen based on the test results.

Color Vision Deficiency 4Colorite, also manufacturers color correction glasses that can be used by CVD patients when they are on the go and don’t have a Samsung TV nearby.

We should also note that the #SeeColors Smart TV app comes pre-installed on all 2016 Samsung SUHD TVs, while the Android app is available from the Google Play Store and Galaxy App Store for users located in Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. You’ll need a Samsung Galaxy phone to run the app (S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+ and S7, S7 edge).

Color Vision Deficiency 3If Samsung’s new #SeeColors app proves popular, the Korean tech giant might extend its availability in other countries, but we don’t have any information on that topic for the time being.

Would you be willing to pay double for a Google Pixel XL 128GB?

Alexandra Arici
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1

How badly do you want to get your hands on the Google Pixel XL with 128GB storage? The phone is quite a rare piece of gadgetry not many people own. As we told you before, customers who have ordered one from Verizon have to wait until March to actually get their hands on the device, while the Google Play Store lists the item as Out of Stock.

So what is a Pixel XL enthusiast going to do if he/she really-really wants the phone? They could try Amazon. The online retailer isn’t an official Google Pixel seller, but until not so long ago, Amazon was selling the Pixel XL 128GB for a whopping $1,518.

Amazon Selling Overprized Pixel XLAt the time of the writing of this article, all the phones offered up for sale have been sold out. Which is mind blowing given that the Google Play Store used to sell the same device for $869 plus tax.

Currently you can still the buy the phone in Black or White from a bunch of resellers. One of them is even asking for $1,799 – which is double the Pixel XL’s retail price!!

Overprized Pixel XLDue to the high prices, you can notice the Pixel XL has been given some pretty poor reviews. But don’t go thinking the low star ratings have anything to do with the phone. The Pixel XL is still an excellent device.

But while demand for the Pixel XL continues to skyrocket, there are going to be sellers which are going to try to take advantage of the situation. Still we weren’t really expecting this from Amazon.

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