Jacob Long
Contributing since December, 2014
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394articles
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About Jacob Long
Jacob is a technology writer and researcher. He's also an avid sports fan, especially when it comes to the Chicago White Sox. When not working, you can usually find him tweaking his Android devices or reading political news.
Latest Articles
Sony Xperia X, X Performance, XA, and XA Ultra are beginning to arrive at US retailers for pre-order
For Xperia fans in the US, getting the phones is not as straightforward as it is for other major brands like Samsung or HTC because you won't be buying them through a carrier. That means interested buyers need to look to electronics retailers. Well, the search is almost over for the newly-released Xperia X series in the US.It's worth making clear that you can't take these home just yet. Some retailers will allow you to put in a pre-order, others just have placeholder, out of stock listings. Below is the release day pricing along with links to each retailer's listing.
The good folks at Evernote have done something they don't normally do: They made a feature once exclusive to paid users free to all. Now, no matter how much money you've forked over to the company, you can set a passcode for the app to keep unwanted eyes off of your notes.
Snapchat Will Soon Include Many More Ads As Company Tries To Wean Itself Off Venture Capital
Snapchat, not long ago an ad-free platform, is preparing to ramp up the promotional content. In a series of industry-targeted announcements, the company has detailed several initiatives that will inevitably result in users seeing ads more frequently than they do now.
MLB At Bat Gets Update To Support 60 FPS Streaming, Bandwidth Controls To Conserve Data, And Live Pitch-By-Pitch Data Becomes Available To Free Users
MLB is about as good as it gets when it comes to mobile and streaming presence, but that's no reason for it to rest on its laurels. That's why the latest update to MLB At Bat, the league's Android presence for following live action, brings several significant goodies to both free and premium users.
Sprint customers and adventurous types have an absolute steal on their hands with this one. For just $429, more than $100 below the next-best deal we've seen, you can get a new (Gold) Galaxy S7. Just make sure the details work for you.
Samsung Announces Batman-Themed Galaxy S7 Edge Injustice Edition To Commemorate Third Anniversary Of Injustice: Gods Among Us Mobile Game
Have you been trying to decide which phone to buy, but none of them are Batman enough? Then Samsung has just the product for you. In partnership with Warner Bros. Interactive, Samsung has announced the Galaxy S7 edge Injustice Edition.
[Deal Alert] Get A Brand New Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Duos For $630 ($170 Off Retail) Plus Free US Shipping From eBay
Nothing beats a new current-generation phone at a steep discount, right? That's what you can have with this deal on eBay for a Galaxy S7 Edge Duos. It's going for $630, $170 below common retail price and doesn't lock you into any particular carrier. That's $20 better than the best price we've seen to date, which was 3 weeks ago.
Verizon HTC 10 Update With Camera Improvements And Bug Fixes To Begin Rolling Out On Friday
According to both Verizon and HTC's Mo Versi, owners of the HTC 10 will receive an OTA update starting on Friday. As seems to be tradition for HTC flagships, the early months are characterized by a flurry of camera refinements and this round seems no different.
Google Play Music And TripAdvisor Team Up To Offer 2-Month Free Trial And Locale-Specific Playlists For Your Vacation
If you want to take in the sights and sounds of your destination while you vacation, Google and TripAdvisor have just the thing for you: playlists for popular travel spots on Play Music. And if you aren't yet a subscriber, those who download TripAdvisor now are eligible for a two-month free trial to Play Music's paid service.
Google Is Preparing To Add The Raspberry Pi 3 To AOSP, It Will Apparently Become An Officially Supported Device
The Raspberry Pi 3 appears to be on track to receive official AOSP support from Google. At least, that is the most obvious conclusion based on the fact that Google has created a code repository for it within the same directory that also includes the Nexus devices and generic source code.
Embedded Charts From Google Sheets Can Now Be Updated In Docs Or Slides With A Single Click
Embedding charts into a document is one of those basic office app functions that you take for granted. It's important that you can do it, but you may not see an obvious way embedding charts could be improved. Google did, though: rather than re-embedding every time the underlying data changes—which would require deleting the old embed and adding the replacement—you can now just click a button to refresh the chart.
Sometimes content is just best accessed in its native app. But just as often, we have no need for that app beyond a single specific instance. To deal with this inefficiency, Google is introducing Android Instant Apps. For content that is deep-linked into participating apps, the app will seamlessly download and install to let you use it in that very moment.
While maybe not the biggest change in Android N, Google announced a few interface changes to app switching that were particularly well-received during the I/O keynote. A couple of them had already popped up in the Developer Previews, but the keynote serves as confirmation that they will make it to the final builds. A change that is new to all of us is that there will be a reduction in the number of apps shown in the recent apps UI. Anything that hasn't been used "in a while" will be hidden from the user.
Family Library For Google Play Purchases Is Official, App Purchases Will Be Shared Among Up To Six Family Members Starting July 2nd
We knew it was coming eventually, but just before the Google I/O keynote began, Google updated its developer documentation with more details about Family Library. Most important, we have a launch date of sorts: July 2nd. That date marks when app purchases will be shared in the Family Library by default unless the developer opts out.
[Update: Play Store Page Is Up For Pre-Registration] Duo Is Google's New One-On-One Video Calling App For Android And iOS
As a major component of what appears to be a big push to revamp its messaging offerings, Google has announced Duo, a video calling app. As the name suggests, it is focused solely on two-person video conversations.
The Information: Google To Enter The Chat Bot Market With New Developer Tools, Integrations
The Joneses have new things, so Google decided to jump on the bandwagon. At least, that's according to a report from The Information which says Google is hard at work developing a platform for chat bots in the same vein that Facebook and more recently Microsoft have done. Some, but perhaps not all, the details will be discussed at I/O this week. Details are thin in the report, but the backbone of the initiative seems to be developer tools.
We've covered Remix OS before, which is Jide's project to mold Android-x86 into a desktop OS, like when they released the Remix Mini plug-in PC. It is a really quite interesting and polished take, borrowing heavily from Linux and Windows 10 design language with your familiar Android apps existing in a windowed environment. While Jide has made it available to download onto your laptop or desktop (and tablets like you would do with Cyanogenmod or similar), they now have a new hardware partner in AOC. The Mars will be a 24" all-in-one PC that runs Remix OS out of the box.
Google apparently has a Material Design UI overhaul in the works for YouTube and it looks pretty good. While it has not yet been pushed to the masses, it is apparently being tested on a small group of users while the developers look for bugs and Google braces for any negative feedback (people hate change, remember). Here's a look at the goods and a way to enable the new UI for yourself.
[Deal Alert] UE Roll, The Waterproof And Ultra-Portable Bluetooth Speaker, Is Half Off ($49.99) Plus Free Shipping At Best Buy
Most of you who pay much attention to the bluetooth speaker market know that Ultimate Ears, a.k.a UE, makes good stuff. While the UE Boom and related Boom variants are pretty well-known, the Roll is a nice, albeit quirkier member of the product line. What sets it apart, other than the smaller size, is that it is also waterproof and designed to be strapped onto whatever you want to. If the sticker price of $100 was too steep for you, then give it another look while it's discounted to $49.99 at Best Buy.
Last week, Sony had a nice gift for a large portion of the owners of their relatively recent devices: Marshmallow! That was following up on March updates to their newest releases. Still, a few were left out. The wait should be over soon, if not already, for owners of the Z3 Tablet Compact.