Jeff Beck
Contributing since April, 2015
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300articles
About Jeff Beck
As a Northwest native, Jeff lives and works in the shadow of Microsoft, Amazon, and T-Mobile. He enjoys his work as a radiology technologist, but his passion is Android. Jeff has two kids, a beautiful wife, and a tank full of happy fish. He loves cooking, reading, and unboxing new gadgets.
Latest Articles
12 Halloween costumes for robot vacuum cleaners absolutely no one asked for
Wherein Jeff escapes from his cage on the night of a full moon and writes an article that is sure to make the rest of the Android Police staff cringe.
Happy Covidween AP readers. Holidays during pandemics, as we've all now discovered, are kind of lousy. The only real advantage that Halloween has over other holidays is that at least today just about everyone should be on board with wearing masks... of one sort or another. As I contemplated the lameness of an impending holiday at home with just the family, when we normally host a costume party with friends, an idea occurred to me. If I couldn't have friends come over in costumes, why not dress up some little robots and have a party with them? (That was not even top 10 strangest idea I had that day in case you were wondering.)Well, after I had that glorious idea I reached out to my buddy Dan at Roborock, and asked if the company would be willing to send me a couple of clean and pristine units so I could play robot dress-up. Rather surprisingly, he said yes (confidence is powerful persuader my friends). The vacuums almost didn't arrive in time, but finally, yesterday afternoon, I received a shiny black Roborock S6 MaxV and a gleaming white S6 Pure in the mail (yeah, Roborock definitely earned that plug the hard way). I stayed up late last night in my office, like Dr. Frankenstein, bringing these little suckers to life. Now I share them vith the vorld! (I know, that's a Dracula accent, not a Frankenstein one, but it's still got that Halloween vibe, so it's cool.)Oh, one more thing before you see my creations, I, uh, didn't bother to ask Artem, the site owner, for approval of this article, but I'm sure he'll love it. (Pretty sure. Maybe. 3/10) Just in case he doesn't, if you like this kind of random weird stuff in your news feed, please feel free to say so in the comments below. Please. (I need to keep this job.)Now, my homebound Halloween friends, grab yourself a bucket of Kit Kats and enjoy the Roborock Costuum Parade. (No, that wasn't a typo Rita, I spelled it that way on purpose, because it's like vacuum, get it?)
Samsung's Galaxy S10 phones are fantastic devices; they look great, they're fast, and they come packed with features. If you missed Samsung's $200 off Black Friday sales earlier, here's another opportunity to grab them for prices well under MSRP. Right now on Amazon, the 128GB Galaxy S10 and 128GB S10+ are going for $600 and $700, respectively, which is a solid $300 markdown. The 256GB Galaxy S10e is also on sale for $600, down from its usual $850. All three deals are set to expire at the end of the day today.
11 new and notable Android apps from the last two weeks including Facebook Viewpoints, Milkshake — Website Builder, and Breaker—The social podcast app (11/16/19 - 11/30/19)
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous two weeks or so. Today I have a survey app from Facebook, a website builder from Envato, and a social podcast app from Breaker. So without further ado, here are the most notable Android apps released in the last two weeks.
Outfitting your home with various smart sensors, lighting, and appliances can get very expensive, very quickly. That's why you should, quite correctly, wait for most of this stuff to go on sale. Well, today's the day: we've scoured the deals and have over three-dozen smart home gadget discounts we think are good enough to highlight today.
Black Friday has consistently been one of the best times to shop for a new Chromebook, and 2019 is no exception. There are well over a dozen models on sale that we can recommend you check out, and it's quite possible the not-particularly-loved Pixel Slate is the best among them, now available for just $450 with a keyboard.We also only put supported Chromebooks in our recommendations. All of the laptops (and one tablet) below are still inside their support life window for Chrome OS updates, unlike a lot of the sketchier deals you'll see today. To learn more about that, check out our guide on buying Chromebooks during this mega-sale right here.
Many Hyundai owners are probably already very familiar with the MyHyundai with Blue Link app which offers many conveniences such as checking up on vehicle status, remotely starting the car, and access to helpful resources. For many years, though, the app has been kind of ugly and clunky with some features, like fingerprint security, arriving belatedly on Android long after its iOS counterpart. Now a major app update from Hyundai to version 4.2.4 corrects many of these oversights by bringing in a fresh new design and adding face unlock as optional biometric security.
Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, jolly Kwanzaa, or content December. I'll let you pick the greeting you identify with most. During this time of year it's lovely to focus on the things that bring us together, and one thing I think we can all agree on here at AP is that free stuff is awesome. In that spirit of awesomeness, I'd like to give each of you a small gift to celebrate Christmas (I'm doing the giving here, so I think I get to pick the occasion).
UnionPay cardholders that bank with Gazprombank or the Russian Agricultural Bank and that use a Huawei device now have a new mobile payment option – Huawei Pay. The mobile payment service similar to Samsung Pay and Google Pay had been exclusive to users in China, and this marks the first expansion of the service and serves as a stepping stone for broader expansion to other parts of Europe and beyond. This isn't particularly surprising as Huawei continues to grow as one of the largest smart phone manufactures in the world.
Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays AP readers. I can't tell you what a pleasure it is working at Android Police. One of my favorite parts of the job is interacting with all of you. Without you guys, there wouldn't be any point to what we do. More importantly, there wouldn't be any money, and as much as we enjoy our work, I don't think any of us would work here for free, except Corbin, he still doesn't know the rest of us get paid (shhhh).
JBL Everest Elite 750NC review: A very compelling set of noise cancelling Bluetooth headphones
Noise cancelling headphones rank high on my list of essential items to bring on a flight. By dampening the sounds of crying kids, chatty passengers, and the dull throbbing roar of the jet engines, NC headphones can transform a miserable travel experience into a tolerable one.The headphones pictured above are the JBL Everest Elite 750NC, and I'm pretty impressed with them. With an MSRP of $299 and a current street price of $229 they aren't cheap, but they deliver in the critical areas of noise cancellation, comfort, and sound quality, which helps to justify their lofty price. I've got a couple of small issues with the headphones, but you can decide for yourself if they are significant enough concerns to keep you from considering a pair.
DJI released an update to their Android app yesterday that adds a couple of features to the two newest drones in the DJI Family, the Spark and the Mavic. With the new software, both devices now have Dynamic Home Point updating. The feature, when enabled, "allows the aircraft to continuously update the home point according to its current position while tracking a person in ActiveTrack mode."
DJI Spark review: A delightful little drone weighed down by an abysmally unstable Android app
Several weeks ago I had the pleasure of spending a few days with DJI's latest and smallest drone, the Spark. The Spark is a remarkable piece of engineering. Weighing in at just 300 grams it's diminutive and dare I say, rather adorable. Everywhere I took it during our long weekend together people stopped to gawk at it, most with stupid grins on their faces. No one was intimidated by its small form or its bee swarm-like sounds, and everyone was astonished that such a small drone could fly so fast and stable and take such clear, sharp videos.I have seldom had as much fun, or experienced as much stress, testing a new product. If I were to declare the nature of my relationship with the Spark on Facebook I would have to choose the final option. It's complicated.
Since my introduction to the brand a couple of years ago, V-Moda has quickly become one of my favorite audio companies. Solid sound and performance, paired with impeccable build quality and distinctive styling make the company's products easy to like and recommend. I thoroughly enjoyed the Crossfade wireless headphones when I reviewed them a year ago, and though I had a few small issues with the headphones, I was impressed overall.When presented with the opportunity to review the newly released Crossfade 2 Wireless headphones I couldn't wait to try them out. In their press photos they looked an awful lot like their predecessor. Are they the same headphones with a new coat of paint and a higher price tag, or are they improved enough to be worthy of consideration over the original Crossfades that are already great? Read on, and you'll find out.
The front of the device is dominated by the display, surrounded by black bezels of moderate size top and bottom. The navigation buttons are back-lit capacitive keys at the bottom of the display arranged in the Samsung fashion, which feels backwards to many users, including myself. That's two things I really don't care for in one aspect of the tablet. Now, the buttons can be remapped in the settings to change the back button to the left and menu to the right. However, the icons can't be changed as they are back-lit cutouts, so instead of fixing the layout, it makes it even worse as the icons no longer match their actions.
This little guy is the UE Wonderboom, the newest speaker in UE's product line. It's half as tall, and almost twice as fat as its more expensive and elegant big brother, the UE Boom 2. At $50 less, it's nearly as loud and sounds almost as good. The catch? It's missing a few of the features of its older siblings. However, if the missing features are ones you don't care about, it's a better bargain.Anyone familiar with the UE line of speakers will instantly recognize the Wonderboom as a member of the family. The rubberized top and bottom, cloth-covered grill, and large volume buttons stitched into the fabric define it as a UE device. At the top of the device you'll find the power button, the Bluetooth pairing button, a small bungee loop, and the UE logo.
[Deal Alert] Save $5.50 on a dual-coil fast charging wireless stand from CHOETECH with our exclusive coupon code ($16.50 after coupon)
New Samsung S8 and LG G6 owners in search of a wireless charging stand, lend me your eyes. You really need to check out this deal. CHOETECH sent me a code to share with you all that slashes the price of their highly rated dual speed wireless charging stand by $5.50, dropping the price to $16.50. The two-coil design prevents finicky connections and it's fast charge compatible, checking off the boxes for the two most important features in a wireless charging stand.
V-Moda's Crossfade Wireless 2 headphones are more comfortable, better sounding, and last longer
V-Moda announced the Crossfade 2 Wireless headphones today, a follow-up to their popular and well-crafted Crossfade Wireless headphones. These new cans look nearly identical to their predecessors, but they've been improved in a number of different ways.
[Deal Alert] Pick up an AUKEY car charger with a QC 3.0 port and a USB Type-C 5V 3A port for $9.20 (Normally $19.99)
I really wish that phone manufacturers would make up their minds and choose just one fast charging technology. Some phones use Qualcomm Quick charge, others use a 5V 3A power supply via Type-C (I won't even get started on those who do something else completely different). It's annoying that each group of devices requires a different charger to charge at its peak potential. That is, unless you have one charger that can do both. That's precisely what this AUKEY car charger has, with one port for each charging technology. It's also on sale for more than 50 percent off today when you apply a coupon code.Frequent device switchers or couples and families sporting phones using different charging technologies should be all over this deal. Head over to Amazon to pick one up for yourself if it strikes your fancy. Make sure you apply the coupon code ZW6AYBPF at checkout to chop the price in half like a deal ninja with a price slicing katana.
[Deal Alert] Logitech Harmony Smart Control with Harmony Hub on sale for $69.99 at Best Buy & Amazon ($60 off)
If you are looking to add voice control for your TV and media console to your smart home setup then the Harmony Smart Control with the Harmony Hub is a product that you should definitely check out. With this kit you can control up to eight devices in your media center three different ways – with the remote, through Alexa, or the companion Android app. It also is compatible with some smart home devices like Sonos, Phillips Hue, and Apple TV. That's cool, and what is even cooler is that it's on sale right now for just $69.99, a whopping $60 off.Included in the kit are the following items.
[Deal Alert] Three styles of the Moto 360 2nd gen on sale for $169.99-199.99 at B&H Photo and Video ($120-210 off)
If you are rocking an Android Wear device that won't be getting the 2.0 update, then chances are that you're in the market for a new smartwatch (that is, if you still are digging Android Wear). One of the sharpest looking options in the current crop of devices is the second gen Moto 360. If you can forgive the flat-tire, there is a lot to like in this watch, including its price today. Right now, over at B&H, there are three different styles of the 360 on sale at some of the lowest prices we have ever seen.