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
Samsung launched the Note7 a few months ago with a lovely blue color option. Sadly, that phone was cancelled due to the defective battery issues. That left everyone with no way to get that nice blue phone, until now. The previously announced Blue Coral GS7 Edge is now live on AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint. It didn't take as long as we expected.
Asus has been one of the more persistent promoters of Android Wear since it was released. As other companies have scaled back on wearables, Asus is full speed ahead with a third-generation ZenWatch. The first ZenWatch was a solid addition to the initial wave of watches, and the ZenWatch 2 had some appeal due to the extremely competitive price. Both those watches had the same rounded square body and general aesthetic, but the ZenWatch 3 is a radical departure. This is a completely round watch—no flat tire—and it makes more tweaks to the UI of Android Wear than any watch I've used before.
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Until recently, the SHIELD Android TV was the only Google-y device that could output 4K video. Now, there's the Chromecast Ultra and the Mi Box, which gives Google some reason to actually make 4K video available. Play Movies didn't include this option when the devices launched, but now it appears to be rolling out.
Google had several variants of the new Live Cases for the Pixel ready to go on day-one, but the unannounced Google Earth and Google Trends variants showed up on Verizon's site unexpectedly a few days ago. Now, Google has announced they are officially available for sale. Well, some of them.
Any.do is one of the most popular to-do list managers on Android, and it's about to get a major update. The Any.do team has just announced the v4.0 update, which is rolling out to Android soon (it's on iOS today). It includes a few features users have been asking for, specifically a built-in calendar and real-time sync. Then there's the new AI assistant, which people weren't asking for, but Any.do hopes you'll like anyway.
Android Pay launches tomorrow (November 17th) in Poland with support for three banks
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Android Pay has existed for more than a year now. It's expanded far beyond the original US launch, but there's a lot of the world still to go. Google has announced another step along the way for Android Pay, and it's Poland. This is the second EU nation to get access. Well, that's only if you still count the UK. Post-Brexit, I guess you could say Poland is the first.
T-Mobile announces Black (and magenta) Friday deals including free lines, a free Galaxy S7, and accessory sales
T-Mobile is gearing up to tempt consumers with some holiday deals, but it's not content to stick to Black Friday. Tmo has invented an entirely new shopping event called Magenta Friday. The gist is that you can get some free stuff starting this coming Friday, November 18th.
It's been a while since an Android tablet from a top-tier manufacturer hit the market, and Huawei counts these days. The previously announced MediaPad M3 is coming to the US, and you can order it now. $299 gets you on the list when it ships from Amazon on November 21st.This is the US version of the tablet, not an international device imported for US consumers. That means you get warranty and the right type of charger in the box. The MediaPad M3 comes equipped with an 8.4-inch 2560x1600 LCD, an octa-core Kirin 950, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage. It runs Android 6.0 with EMUI 4.1. That's not ideal, but hopefully EMUI 5.0 shows up with Nougat eventually.[EMBED_YT]https://youtu.be/WqOpZfTVIoQ[/EMBED_YT]The last Android tablet of consequence in this size and price range was the NVIDIA Shield Tablet (and Tablet K1), so it's nice to see Huawei giving it a shot. You can order the MediaPad M3 right now, and it'll ship with Prime later this month.Source: AmazonThanks: Chris
Franco.Kernel Updater v2.1 is rolling out with night mode, app shortcuts, quick settings tiles, and more
Android users who demand maximum control over their devices are most likely running franco.Kernel. The franco.Kernel Updater app lets you put all that power to use, and the latest update adds a ton of new features for devices running this kernel. There are display profiles, a "night shift" mode, and a few goodies for anyone running Nougat.
Google announces PhotoScan app to digitize your old photos and improved editing tools in Google Photos
Google is big into machine learning, and one of the product areas that's benefiting from that is photography. You may recall Google said it would use math to fix lens flare on the Pixel, and now it's rolling out a photo scanning app that seems to do something similar. The new PhotoScan app will let you turn your old printed photos into digital ones with the power of computational photography. Plus, the editing tools in Photos are getting better. It's weird that PhotoScan isn't just part of Photos, but Google loves multiple apps.
OnePlus makes the long-rumored OnePlus 3T official with a Snapdragon 821, larger battery, and a higher starting price
OnePlus is all about having the latest and greatest internals without paying a full flagship price. The OnePlus 3 came out a few months ago with a Snapdragon 820, but now there's a Snapdragon 821 in some phones like the Pixel. That just won't do, so OnePlus is releasing a whole new variant of the phone called the OnePlus 3T.
TuneIn Radio lets you listen to a ton of streaming audio content including news, sports, music, talk radio, and yes—podcasts. There's a cool new feature for podcast listeners in the latest TuneIn Radio update. You can finally download podcasts for offline playback in TuneIn v17.0.1.
[Update: Winners] Humble Mobile Board Games Bundle adds 3 games—plus, we've got 10 free codes to give away
The latest Humble Mobile Bundle has been live for a week, and you know what that means. Yes, more games. This is a board game bundle that already included such favorites as Catan and Ticket To Ride. Now you get three more games for one reasonable price. You can also get a chance to win the bundle free right here.
Samsung has a history of running promotions to encourage people to give Samsung Pay a shot. Now, it's launching a revamped rewards program to keep you coming back. Samsung Rewards gives you points each time you use Samsung Pay, and that can eventually lead to free gift cards, cash back, and even free Samsung gear. It's a more extensive program compared to the Samsung Pay Rewards card that rolled out a few months ago.
Fingerprint sensors have been a thing on Android for a while, and Google has had official API support in Android for more than a year. Still, there are some apps that inexplicably lack support for fingerprint security. Mint was one of them until today. This app has finally been updated with a fingerprint security option.
You have almost certainly heard the name Harman when it comes to audio products, but the company has spent the last few years getting big into automotive technology as well. That's what piqued Samsung's interest in the company, and now the Korean tech giant is putting a lot of cash on the table to become a player in connected car tech. The $8 billion deal will be Samsung's biggest acquisition to date when it closes.
You may recall the outcry from OnePlus fans when it took until June for the OnePlus 2 to get a proper Marshmallow update. The company's software team has undergone some changes since then, and apparently that means updates are back on track. OP says Nougat will come to the OnePlus 3 as a community build in the next few weeks, and a final build will come out by the end of the year.
Logitech's ZeroTouch car mounts re-purposed as Android Auto mounts, now available from Google Store
Some months ago, Logitech released a pair of car mounts called "ZeroTouch." At the time, I thought they were interesting, but ultimately not worth the high price. Now, this same hardware is back on the Google Store as an Android Auto mount. The price is still crazy, though.
Everyone likes a story, right? What about an Instagram Story? I don't know, at least some people like those. Today, Instagram is adding a few new features to its Stories feature, including Boomerang videos. Yeah, that's a whole separate app, but now it's built-in too.