About Ryan Whitwam
Ryan is a tech/science writer, skeptic, lover of all things electronic, and Android fan. In his spare time he reads golden-age sci-fi and sleeps, but rarely at the same time. His wife tolerates him as few would. He's the author of a sci-fi novel called The Crooked City, which is available on Amazon and Google Play.
Latest Articles
Most Android Wear watches can take a splash, but knock them around and they might not hold up very well. Casio's first Android Wear device was an exception with its MIL-STD-810G rating, and the second one will be much the same. The WSD-F20 will be built to last, and it'll be running Android Wear 2.0 when it comes out around April. It won't be cheap, though.
FLIR announces third-gen FLIR One smartphone thermal camera with USB Type-C, plus drone thermal cameras
FLIR has been dipping its toes in mobile over the last few years with products like the FLIR One and Cat S60 smartphone. The FLIR One that came out a couple years ago added thermal vision to (almost) any smartphone, but it was microUSB. Not all phones had the port facing the "right" way, but now the company is fixing that and getting with the times. The third-gen FLIR One is official, and it has a USB Type-C port.
Honor announces the Honor 6X with dual cameras, Kirin 655 SoC, and Android 6.0 for $249
Are you a "cost-conscious yet uncompromising Internet-minded millennial?" If so, this is your lucky day, because Huawei's Honor sub-brand says it knows how you think. It understands the "double or nothing motto that millennials live and breathe." Finally, someone gets it! These are all things Honor has said in its PR today as it announced the global launch of the Honor 6X. It only costs $249, and I assume you can buy it even if you're not a "young and bold consumer." I myself am old and cautious.
It's that time of month again—Google has posted updates for Nexus and Pixel devices, and there's a new security bulletin full of scary things. As usual, the OTAs are going to be rolling out to Google devices in the next few days, but you can grab the files right now and do the update manually.
Hyundai has been pretty quick to take advantage of Google features over the years. The 2015 Hyundai Sonata was the first car with Android Auto at launch, for example. At CES 2017, the company has announced that users of Hyundai's Blue Link service can now use Google Home to issue commands to their cars.
Android finally added support for split-screen apps in 7.0 Nougat, but Google has been playing with the specifics of launching apps in split-screen. It removed the UI tuner's swipe gesture, and the home button behavior has been tweaked in 7.1. The whole system can be a little clumsy at times, but Screens makes split-screen mode a one-tap proposition. It's rather barebones, but it gets the job done.
Hasbro Play-Doh TOUCH turns your real life creations into semi-terrifying virtual creatures
Most of us played with Play-Doh at some point in our childhood, but these days kids can take their creations virtual. Hasbro's new Play-Doh TOUCH app lets you scan things you make and place them in a virtual world. While it's technically for Play-Doh creations, it works with anything that appears to have limbs.
There are many, many keyboard apps in the Play Store, but Google Keyboard has long been my go-to option. With the Gboard re-branding, Google added a few long-awaited features like multiple active languages and integrated search. That was enough to push it over the 500 million download threshold, joining apps like Photos, Dropbox, and Super-Bright LED Flashlight.
The previously announced Google Play billing for Drive storage is already live for some
Google announced a couple weeks ago that billing for Google Drive would move over to the Play Store subscription system. At the time it said this would happen sometime in January, but it looks like it's already live for some people. Time to check your Google Play account page.
LG posts January security bulletin ahead of Google with Android and LG-specific patches
Google has been releasing monthly security patches like clockwork ever since it revamped the Android security model in the wake of Stage Fright. Samsung and LG are also trying to keep up with the monthly patches, but not always with the most success. LG's getting the jump on Google today, though. It has posted the January security bulletin a little early with information on Google and LG-specific patches.
If you've got a little holiday cash to burn, Amazon is offering some tempting deals. Actually, a lot of tempting deals. It's called Digital Day, and as the name implies, it includes a ton of deals on digital goods valid for today only. Remember, there's also that $0.99 movie promo running on Amazon.It would not be a good use of anyone's time to tell you about every single deal, so here are some Android-related things you may find particularly interesting.
Holiday app and game sales: Nova Launcher Prime, Reigns, Moon+ Reader Pro, and much more [Continuously Updated]
As we head into the end of the holiday season, maybe you're looking to purchase yourself a little something. You can buy an app or game in the Play Store, but who wants to pay full price? It just so happens there are a lot of them on sale right now.
[Deal Alert] Sprint's LG V20 is 50% off ($16.50 per month) through the end of the year
Sprint can't seem to figure out what the deal is with those new jobs it announced, but it knows it would very much like you to buy a new LG V20. This device has been discounted a whopping 50%, but you need to sign up or upgrade your Sprint line by the end of 2016 to get the deal.
Amazon adds limited context functionality to Alexa, but it's still no match for Google
Amazon hopped on the voice assistant train a few years ago with the Echo, and has since added its Alexa platform to a myriad of products. While Alexa is great at things like controlling smart home devices, its ability to answer multiple queries is not so great. It appears to be getting better, though. Amazon has added some limited contextual awareness to Alexa.
Samsung Gear S3 review: A good smartwatch, but probably not enough to win over smartwatch skeptics
Let's get this out of the way first: smartwatches have not been the big sellers that many technology firms were hoping they would be. Android Wear is stumbling, and even Apple is having trouble convincing its rabid fans to pony up $300 to $1000 on a wearable device. Samsung has taken a long and winding road through the land of wearables, having released an Android-powered smartwatch before Android Wear existed, then adopting Android Wear ever so briefly, then diving into its own Tizen-powered watch ecosystem.
[Android 7.1 Tip] Get rid of the Play Store on your home screen and use the 'My Apps' shortcut instead
Odds are you have the Play Store on your home screen for easy accessibility, but have you ever considered not having it? I don't mean you should dig into the app drawer every time you need to open the store, but perhaps the regular Play Store link isn't the most efficient. If you're on Android 7.1, maybe you ought to replace it with the My Apps shortcut.
Lost Journey becomes the first ever $0.01 Play Store sale (probably by accident) [Update: More]
Read update
Google is having a sale in the Play Store right now, and a lot of developers have their apps and games featured in it. One game in particular has the distinction of being really, really cheap. Lost Journey is literally as cheap as it can be without being free. It's $0.01 right now—yes, just a penny. This is probably a mistake.
[So Smart] This man's smart television with Google TV caught some malware, and now it's bricked
You know what's great? Having lots of streaming content available on your TV. What's not so great is when your quest to stream content results in ransomware bricking your TV. One fellow on Twitter shared the story of an LG TV that caught some nasty malware, and now it's apparently useless. Perhaps technology has gone too far.
T-Mobile is the first to kill remaining Galaxy Note7 devices on its network with new update
The Note7 doomsday has arrived. Samsung announced several weeks ago its intention to send out an OTA update that killed the Note7's ability to charge in the US. T-Mobile was the first carrier to schedule the update, and now it's rolling out. Any remaining Note7 devices on Tmo will soon be put out of their misery.
Wireless headphones are more important than ever as phones start (inadvisably) ditching the venerable 3.5mm headphone jack. Jaybird has been on the scene for a few years, making some of the most highly regarded wireless earbuds you can get. The Jaybird X2 are particularly popular, and have been coming down in price a lot. Earlier this year the company launched the Freedom earbuds, which didn't get such high praise.