Bertel King, Jr.
Contributing since April, 2013
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3518articles
Page 106
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.
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The Pushbullet folks have pushed out an update not to the Android app, but to the Chrome extension, that expedites the whole file pushing process. Now when the need arrives to push a file to all of the devices under your account, instead of sending them off one at a time, the extension will let you target all the things. This is functionality that the Android app and the Pushbullet website already have, so consider this more of a step towards feature parity across the board.
The Gorilla Gadgets CHR-150 16,800mAh external battery pack is currently on sale for $39.99 on Woot. The site lists this as a savings of 71% ($100 off its original $139.99). This undercuts the price currently displayed on Amazon, where the battery goes for $69.99. This Woot deal, which will be over before the end of today, costs nearly half as much.
Sprint is continuing to expand the reach of its 4G LTE network, and today it has unveiled that faster data speeds are now available in seventeen new markets. Areas affected by this expansion stretch from coast to coast, though a third of them are concentrated in the Northeast. Both New York and Pennsylvania see three markets apiece join the ranks, with the large Buffalo and Pittsburgh metropolitan areas accounting for the most people. Illinois makes a strong showing for the Midwest with three areas from that state hitting the list as well.
Developer Moondrop Apps has brought Drawp for School to Android, a collaborative creation tool that gives teachers the means of producing content and sharing it with their students. Considering the amount of time they spend both distributing and collecting assignments from their pupils, this is a clear itch for tech to scratch. Drawp can cut down on the time lost to the process and add in that extra bit of pizzazz.
Hangouts may be fun, but it's not all fun and games. It should come as no surprise that in this day and age, many people turn to Google's video chats as a means of getting work done. So the company is rolling out a number of business-related improvements to the service.
Wireless chargers are convenient, but they don't precisely add to the decor of wherever they're placed. Even with the 2013 Nexus charger, which is relatively sleek, I'm happy its magnet is strong enough for me to leave it on the side of a bed frame or side table, keeping it and its cord out of sight. The Pond wireless charging tray promised to take care of this issue, and it did so in a way that attracted enough people (just over 200) for it to narrowly reach its $30,000 Kickstarter funding goal before running out of time.
Sprint has announced that an over-the-air software update is due out for its version of the Galaxy S4 going by the name of version number L720VPUFNG2. The changelog for this one is pretty minor, so there's little reason to start abusing that update button. Galaxy S4 owners should be on the lookout for an HD Voice icon (which they might be able to notice), and a number of security patches (which they won't).
New IDC Report Shows Huawei Doubling Smartphone Shipments, Samsung Shrinking But Still Way Out Front
The IDC has released a snapshot of the state of the industry following the end of the second quarter, and as always, some players are doing better than others. In this case, Chinese manufacturers are the biggest winners, benefiting both from growth at home and increasing success abroad.
The Satechi CD slot mount is well worth a buy (oops, I was supposed to save that for the end, wasn't I?). Last week I went hands-on with the Kenu Airframe+, an AC vent mount that I absolutely loved. But some readers pointed us in the direction of CD mounts, a category I hadn't yet considered, and one that gives purpose to a part of my car that I otherwise would be just fine with leaving off entirely. If your CD slot also goes as unused as an old VCR, then this type of mount may just be the tool for you.First thing's first, the Satechi CD slot mount is not a brand new product. It goes for 16.99 on Amazon, and it's far from the only product of its kind. But it was the one recently recommended to us, and after spending some time running the product through its paces, there's little reason not to give it a little attention. I'm happy with it, and so is Artem.
[EMBED_YT]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vATxjvWz03s
[/EMBED_YT]Sometimes you can look at a game and tell exactly what it's going to be about. Okay, most of the time you can look at a game and tell what it's going to be about. But every now and then a title comes along that really just wants to be different. Kapsula is a cross between a puzzle and racing game set in a futuristic world of Soviet space colonies filled with clones. It's a premise that makes very little sense at first and makes even less the longer you think about it.
Say what you will about certain social networks, LinkedIn is the one basically all of us can agree isn't any fun to use. That's not its purpose. We go there either to get a job or to tell everyone about the job we just got. It's easy for people with stable employment to end up with profiles as current as their Myspace pages.
The latest Beats Music update continues to flesh out its overall music streaming experience. This particular release, version 1.2, focuses on areas that distinguish Beats somewhat from the competition - its song discovery and basic social networking elements.
aCar is a one-stop shop of an app when it comes to keeping track of car-related details. The app can record servicing, parking fees, and, yes, fuel. The last thing on this list attracted the eye of Fuelly, a company whose website helps users calculate their vehicle's fuel economy. It purchased aCar back in May, and now the Android app is receiving its first update since the acquisition.
Earlier this year, UPS Mobile received a big bump in functionality, which was a nice change for an Android app that really didn't have to do all that much. The app puts tracking information front and center, as it should. Why else does anyone even check UPS online?
National Public Radio has had an official Android app for years now, but it wasn't particularly pretty then, and it doesn't look any better now. Fortunately the organization has now released a separate piece of software that doesn't look like it's put together by donations and held together by aging strings of code. NPR One is a new radio streaming app that puts out stories from the national organization and its many local affiliates to provide a personalized, easy-listening experience.
In an angsty blog post today eviscerating the prices AT&T and other carriers charge for family plans, T-Mobile CEO John Legere announced that his company was going to provide customers with even more bang for their buck. From July 30th through September, the carrier will offer a family of four up to 10GB of data for $100. For people who sign up during this time, these rates will last until 2016.
Microsoft recently launched a beta program for its OneNote Android app, and a couple weeks later we are now seeing the first update hit devices. It happens to include a number of noteworthy enhancements. Primarily, the debut beta update introduces the ability to take handwritten notes with either a fingertip or stylus, a natural progression for a note-taking app geared at touchscreen devices.
Games are about a lot of things. This one is about emotions. Thomas Was Alone may not look it from the screenshots, but its characters are going to suck you in and stick with you for a long time. Yes, these little squares are absolutely endearing, and you're going to care about them more than you think before this journey is up.
Update: The Android version of Shazam has now received this update as well. Here's the new changelog posted to the Play Store.