Bertel King, Jr.
Contributing since April, 2013
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3518articles
About Bertel King, Jr.
Bertel is a Linux user who likes budget smartphones more than flagships, uses a custom ROM, and gets his apps from F-Droid. When he isn't writing short stories for Android Police, you might find him penning the fictional kind. Otherwise, look for him reading pixels that were converted to ink and paper.
Latest Articles
Viber is one of the many apps trying to supplant traditional phone calls and texts. But to achieve that dream, the service can't stop with connecting you to friends and family. You need to get in touch with stores and other businesses too. That's why the latest Viber update introduces public accounts.
Welcome back. Last we gathered here, the Pixel phones were only a rumor and Google's Home invasion had only just appeared at Google I/O.
Tell me your thoughts on the Amazon Echo. Do you like the product but don't buy into the Amazon ecosystem? Are you into the concept but don't want a black plastic cylinder taking up shelf space in your home? In case of the former, you might want to wait for Google Home. But if you're feeling the latter, then maybe you should check out the Triby portable speaker that comes with Alexa built-in.Triby's speaker is on sale on Amazon for 50% off. That brings the unit down to $99.99, less than Echo.The Alexa integration lets you use voice commands to stream Spotify, get news updates, set alarms, activate smart home devices, and more. This product is a slender square with a handle, so you can tuck it against a wall or hang it from a rack. A magnetized back also gives you the option to stick the unit on a fridge. A speakerphone lets you make calls over VoIP or a paired smartphone. If you get two, you have a makeshift home intercom system.
Google takes pride in its smartphone cameras. The company has long sought to make taking photos a primary part of the Nexus experience, with hit or miss results. Now it's looking like the development team has another hit on its hands. At today's event, Google was proud to announce that DxOMark has given the Pixel phone its highest score for a smartphone camera yet.
At today's Pixel event, Google announced an impressive statistic -- it has sold over 30 million Chromecast devices to date.
The Force Awakens is approaching a year old, but by Star Wars standards, the merchandising is only just beginning. A particularly new offering is the Star Wars Force Band, which lets you control Sphero's tiny BB-8 droid that has been rolling around since the film hit theaters. But instead of doing so using an on-screen interface, you use the Force.[EMBED_YT]https://youtu.be/8GGYO5vdrnI[/EMBED_YT]In this case, the Force responds to wrist movement detected by Sphero's band. You can signal BB-8 to move away from you or have it follow you. A nearly 300MB companion app offers a minigame that helps you learn how to steer the toy around.The app also provides additional use for the band that isn't dependent on also owning a BB-8. In a nod to Pokemon Go, you can collect digital holocrons in the environment around you.
At this year's I/O, Google announced Daydream, a VR platform for phones and the headsets that go with them. We expect Google to reveal its in-house design for a Daydream VR viewer device on October 4th.
We've highlighted each entry of the Sorcery! series as they've arrived on Android, because each has been a compelling blend of a 'Choose Your Own Adventure" book with a tabletop RPG. Sorcery! 4: The Crown of Kings has arrived, and now it's time to see how your particular story is going to end.
Certain Android manufacturers do a good job of regularly supplying kernel source code, and Motorola is one of them. Nearly two months after the Moto Z Droid became available from Verizon, Motorola is now posting those files online.
Users pay Google not in dollars, but in data. In exchange for handing over all of our private information, we get cool stuff like Google Trips. This travel app culls your Gmail account for hotel reservations, flight bookings, travel times, addresses, and other information you could possibly need for your next trip.
The Xperia C5 Ultra launched last year with Android Lollipop, as in 5.0. An over-the-air update to Android 5.1 arrived this past January. Eight months later, Sony is pushing the device up to Marshmallow.
T-Mobile and Sprint each have their own unlimited video streaming plans that let you watch all the content you want without eating away your data plan, with or without throttling. Now AT&T is coming out with a special one of its own, as promised.
Android Pay is spreading. If you manage your finances with a big bank, chances are you can make payments by tapping your phone against a payment terminal -- yes, even if you use Chase. If you do your banking with a smaller institution, you may have to cross your fingers.
In a Google Duo world, do you really want to fire up an old-fashioned video chat? Facebook figures your answer is 'prolly not,' so it's simplifying the experience inside of Messenger. This change is called Instant Video.
An ongoing issue with smartphones is that they pull people out of the world around them. Instead of interacting with others face-to-face or being aware of our surroundings, we increasingly spend our time tapping out tiny screens.
The Asus ZenPad S 8.0 was, for the most part, a very solid tablet. Now Asus is announcing the latest entry in that line, the ZenPad 3S 10.
Sonos and Spotify may not be exclusive, but they are in a relationship. Last year we watched a Sonos app update gain Spotify radio integration. Soon Spotify will add the ability to manage Sonos speakers from inside the Spotify mobile app. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. That's how some relationships work.
Students are heading back to school. That means phones are leaving the careful confines of home and venturing back out into the world... Okay, I was going to insert a joke about nerds not leaving the house over the summer, but this year, this happened, so I'm just going to move on.
In the early days, Android Wear had a luxury problem. Okay, the early models had a far way to go to be considered luxury. They had to first work their way up to unembarrassing, let alone classy.But these days you can throw half a grand at a stylish gold watch if you want to. Better yet, you can catch one on sale for less than half that. Right now Amazon is selling the rose gold Huawei Watch with a sapphire strap for only $219.11.For comparison, Best Buy wants 0 for the same watch. B&H is still asking for a hundred more than that.
Actively watching Nougat roll out to Nexus owners this week? Most Android devices don't have a shot at getting an update to the latest and greatest. Some, like the Galaxy S5 Active, are only just now getting an update to last year's version.