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The original Injustice game from DC and Warner Bros. was a surprisingly big hit with more than 10 million downloads and 4.4 stars in the Play Store. Now, the sequel is available after a long pre-registration period. The basic mechanics of Injustice 2 will be familiar to players of the first game, but so too will the in-app purchases.
Amazon recently announced the end of its "Actually Free" program for the Amazon Appstore. Now, it's back to basics with things that cost money. Although, you can use Amazon coins instead of money if you want. New Appstore users can get a whole mess of coins at a steep discount right now, too.For those unfamiliar with Appstore Coins, each coin is basically a penny. However, Amazon offers discounts of up to 25% on apps, games, and in-app purchases when you use Amazon coins instead of money. So, buying 10,000 coins would usually cost you $100, but for a limited time the price is down to $65 for eligible accounts. Then you get a little more bang for your buck when you buy things. But what's an eligible account? That's where things get complicated.In order to get this $35 discount on coins, you must be new to the Amazon Appstore. Additionally, this Amazon account that has never downloaded an app or game must be from before today. So, no making new accounts right now to collect the discounted coins. If you fall into that category, head over to Amazon's promo page and get your code. Enter it at checkout to get the $35 discount. The codes are good through May 25th.Source: Amazon
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Launchers come and launchers go, but some of them come back. Who can forget the unexpected return of ADW Launcher recently? Not to be left out, the developers of Apex promised a comeback by the end of May, and now a new version is available. It's only a beta, but count this as a promise fulfilled.
You may not be aware, but ZTE is one of the largest smartphone makers in the US market. That's due in large part to devices like the newly announced Blade X Max; it's cheap and has reasonable specs for the price. This 6-inch phone drops tomorrow on Cricket for a mere $150.
Messaging apps are a hot business lately, and Snapchat is one of the hottest. I mean, all the kids are using it, and kids are never wrong about anything. Snap (the parent company of Snapchat) just announced its earnings for Q1 of 2017, but it didn't really earn anything. In fact, it lost a stupendous amount of money, about $2.2 billion.
There have thus far been three devices release in 2017 with support for HDR video: the Galaxy S8, the Galaxy Tab S3, and the LG G6. There isn't a lot of HDR video out there, though. Netflix is one of the few sources, and now it's finally available on Android. However, only the LG G6 is supported right now.
Carriers are always looking for ways to get you to add more lines, so a line of service for your car? Sure, why not? That's what SyncUP DRIVE from T-Mobile is all about, and today the carrier is making it cheaper to equip multiple cars with its tracking and diagnostic dongle. SyncUP DRIVE now includes as many as 24 cars on a single account at no additional cost.
Remember the days of regular charging with microUSB? You could use the same cable and plug for years and never know the difference. Now, every phone that comes out bumps up the charging standard, and not all Type-C cables are created equal. Aukey has a selection of charging accessories on sale today via Amazon with discounts as large as $11 with a coupon code.Here are the discounted products along with the coupon codes you'll need to enter.
The price of new Android Wear devices is still quite high, but many of the watches released a year or two ago are almost as capable as the new ones. Plus, they're cheap now. Case in point, you can get the Moto 360 v2 from B&H for as little as $190, and that's for the super-fancy gold metal version.
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Google rolled out Assistant first in Allo, but it only supported English at launch. Google has been slowly but steadily adding more languages to the Allo version, as well as the voice-activated version on phones. The company has quietly rolled out support for Spanish and French to Assistant in Allo, but it looks to still be in beta.
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- The Alexa app has been updated to v2.0, which adds the promised voice calling and messaging. It also brings a fresher interface that looks a lot better than what we previously had in v1.0 (check Rita's Echo Dot review to get an idea of how bad it looked before). The app still seems to be a web wrapper in some places, but many elements feel native and the iconography and colors are more modern. You can grab it from the widget below.
Amazon's Alexa assistant is currently only talking to you, but you will soon be able to have Alexa reach out and touch someone else. Amazon is adding voice calling and messaging to its Alexa devices, which will most likely be available in time for the launch of the Echo Show on June 28th. This won't be connected to your phone number—it's a completely separate way of making and accepting voice calls.Voice calls with Alexa work very much like you'd probably imagine. You ask Alexa to call one of your contacts, and that person's Echo starts ringing... but maybe not an Echo. Obviously, you both need to have Alexa access for this to work, but Amazon plans to make this feature available to owners of the Echo devices as well as anyone using the Alexa app. The Echo Show will have video calling support as well.[EMBED_YT]https://youtu.be/6fahgh19W5g[/EMBED_YT]Then, we have the voice messaging feature. Rather than having a real time phone call, your Alexa-using friends can send you audio snippets. When they show up, you can listen and reply by voice. These messages will be available in the Alexa app or on your Echo device (a light will glow green to alert you to new messages). It's sort of like going back to answering machines without the hassle of calling someone first.[EMBED_YT]https://youtu.be/Z1uSWAm4Kq0[/EMBED_YT]It's not clear if third-party Alexa devices will be included in the voice calling and messaging network. However, Amazon does stress that all of its Echo devices will have support. We'll probably learn more about this feature as we get closer to launch (whenever that is).
Is your dear mother still listening to music with wires? Then as her offspring, you are duty bound to rectify that this Mother's Day... according to Jaybird. To help out with that, the Freedom and X3 Bluetooth earbuds are on sale for just $99.99 right now.The Freedom earbuds are smaller than the X3s and a little more expensive most of the time, but I don't think they stay put as well during workouts. The Jaybird X3 are larger, but they're rock solid and sound a bit nicer. Both devices have built-in storage for saving your sound profiles, so you don't have to rely on the app for EQ settings. The Freedom earbuds are usually $150 and the X3 are $130, so these are reasonable discounts.The discount is available on Amazon, the Jaybird website, and at other retailers. It looks like all the colors are included via Jaybird, but there's a bit of variation at other retailers. Here's a small selection of places to buy.Jaybird X3
The developers of Waze like to throw wacky voice instructions into the app. In the past there's been everyone from T-Pain to Mr. T, but now the Waze navigation voice can be you, yes you. The latest update has a voice recorder to make your own custom direction prompts.
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Android Wear 2.0 has been sort of available for a few months, although almost no watches were running it. Your best bet if you wanted AW2.0 was to buy one of the new LG watches from Google. Now, one of the most popular Android Wear devices of yesteryear is getting Wear 2.0. If you've got a Huawei Watch, you might want to charge it up for the (hopefully) impending update. If you are on the preview, it's probably already downloading.
The Moto Z Play was probably the best of Motorola's first round of modular Z phones. It wasn't the fastest, but it was reasonably priced and got amazing battery life. It was a bit on the chunky side compared to its brethren, but Motorola is reportedly looking to rectify that. However, that means it won't have the same amazing longevity.
Time was you could pay a few bucks per month for phone insurance through your carrier and that was the end of it. Now, there are a myriad of different tiers with varying costs based on the phone you use. Yikes. T-Mobile is adding to the confusion today with a new device insurance tier called Premium Super Pro Protection Plus Extreme. I'm kidding, but the real name is only slightly less ridiculous—Premium Device Protection Plus.
Plenty of people use Lyft and other ride sharing services for business, and today Lyft is making that easier by launching a business-oriented version of the service. It's live right now for businesses of any size, and it costs nothing to use. Lyft is even paying you in the form of some free ride credit when you sign up.
Everyone was all hyped up about sapphire crystal displays a few years ago, then manufacturers realized what a complete pain in the butt it was to manufacture synthetic sapphire at an industrial scale. There have been a few phones and watches with this super hard material covering the screen, but Zagg offers a "Sapphire Defense" screen protector, too. That makes it sound like a sapphire glass screen protector, and the high price backs that assumption up. However, JerryRigEverything just posted a video revealing it to be nothing more than treated plastic.
There are so many thing to buy in the Play Store! I mean, that pack of 1,000 gems for $99.99 is really tempting, but maybe you can't justify the ridiculousness of that expense until payday. No problem—there's carrier billing. Simply bill it to your carrier and pay at the end of the month. Of course, your carrier needs to support it. Google has updated its support docs to indicate several more carriers around the world are now on board with carrier billing.
The current state of mobile gaming isn't to everyone's liking, and if you're one of those people you should move along now. The new Blitz Brigade: Rival Tactics from Gameloft has all the makings of a modern mobile game from the in-app purchases to the screaming guy app icon. This is, of course, a followup to the original Blitz Brigade, but it's a very different kind of game.