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
[Deal Alert] TP-Link OnHub On Sale For $179.87 ($20 Off) On Amazon [Update: Asus OnHub Too]
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- The Asus OnHub just dropped to $180 on Amazon as well.
Need a router? Maybe you've found yourself with renewed interest in the OnHub now that Google has added a modicum of home automation functionality with IFTTT. It's still hard to justify the $200 price, but it's a little cheaper on Amazon today. The OnHub virtually never goes on sale, but it's about $20 off currently. That brings the price to $179.87.The OnHub is a dual-band 802.11ac WiFi router with an array of 13 antennas designed to support more devices with fewer connectivity issues. It also has a fantastic management app in the Play Store that makes it easy to monitor your network activity and prioritize devices.This sale is valid only on the standard blue shrouded model. The black one is still $200. Even at $180 it is more expensive than many competing devices, and I'm personally annoyed the USB port doesn't do anything yet. Still some people say it's the most stable router they've ever used.
The OnHub has been out for more than six months now, and it hasn't evolved much beyond the basic router functionality. Google promised us smart home features, and now it's starting to happen. The latest OnHub update added support for IFTTT. The channel is already live for you to start crafting automation recipes, but your OnHub needs to be on firmware version 7978.51.0, which is rolling out now.
Well, that Angry Birds movie is going to come out in a few weeks, so the time has come for Rovio's latest promotional vehicle to launch. Angry Birds Action! appeared in the Play Store as a geo-limited beta a few weeks ago, and now it's live for everyone. What's it like? It's a mix of pinball, classic Angry Birds, and desperation. I kid, sort of.
LG has been criticized for its decision to remove the app drawer on the G5, but its UX 5.0 demo video a while back said the app drawer option was returning. The best it could do in the short term was publish the old UX 4.0 home screen in SmartWorld, but now an updated home interface for the G5 is rolling out that adds the app drawer option.
The Nexus 9 was removed from the Google Store yesterday, which isn't really a surprise; it was old. The Moto 360 Sport, not so much. That hasn't stopped Google from ending sales of the wearable after just a few months. Womp womp.The Moto 360 Sport only launched in the US in January, and came to the Google Store shortly thereafter. The listing in the Google Store now says the watch is "unavailable in your country." The Google support page also no longer lists the Sport, whereas before it showed as available in the US and Canada. Amusingly, Google temporarily broke the listing when prepping for the removal—the 360 Sport briefly rang up as a case.It's odd Google wouldn't just start discounting the 360 Sport, as it has with several other devices recently. Motorola still offers the 360 Sport, and it's on Amazon too (hugely marked down). This probably means sales are not great. Considering the original $300 price, I'm not shocked.Source: Google Store
Chrome Beta Updated To v51 With Material Bookmarks Widget And No More Merged Tabs Option
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The march of Chrome updates never ends, and now is the time for the beta build to advance. Google is rolling out Chrome Beta v51 on Android. Since we've already seen v51 in the dev channel, we know what to look for—and yep, the merged tabs/apps option is indeed gone. So, that wasn't a fluke.
Federal Judge Finds Amazon Was At Fault When It Billed Parents For In-App Purchases Made By Kids
Here's a bit of a blast from the past. A federal judge has decided that Amazon was in the wrong when it billed parents for in-app purchases made by their kids on its Appstore platform. Both Apple and Google settled this case with the Federal Trade Commission two years ago, but Amazon wanted its day in court. It didn't go so well.
Google's Snapseed app is a rather robust photo editor for being free, and it's getting even better with today's update. Of course, "today" really means whenever Google's staged rollout reaches your device. Luckily, we've got the new version ready for download so you can experience the joys of negative structure. What? That's a thing.
When you buy an expensive electronic device with a warranty, you hope you never have to use said warranty. It's always at least somewhat of a pain. For many Motorola customers, the process has been worse than that. We've been seeing an unusual number of complaints about Motorola's warranty support lately, and it looks like it might finally be coming back to bite the company. A $5 million class action complaint has been filed because of Moto's ongoing warranty issues.
Nextbit pre-announced its big April update a few weeks ago, and now it's starting to hit devices. Not only does this bump the device up to the current version of Android with new security patches, it includes tweaks to the camera that apparently make it much faster and better.
It took a few months, but developers are finally getting in line and adding support for fingerprint readers in Android 6.0. We've seen a few popular apps get support recently, including Chase and Bank of America. The latest app to get support is State Farm's Pocket Agent app.
Google is always making little changes here and there that aren't worth going into detail on, but you add up enough little changes and baby, you got a stew going. Er, I mean a post. A blog post... like this one. At any rate, the Google+ app has been updated to v7.7 and the web got a feature update a few days ago.
Google's Nearby API is one of the coolest things developers aren't using. I mean, they are, but not as often as I had hoped. Radon is a new sharing app based on Nearby, and it's pretty cool. Just share something to Radon, and it will search for target devices in close proximity with WiFi, Bluetooth, and ultrasonic pulses.
HTC Announces The One S9 With A MediaTek Helio X10, 2GB Of RAM, And 5-Inch 1080p LCD
It would appear HTC is not done with the "One" branding. The company has just announced the One S9, a device that appears to slot into the same not-quite-flagship space as the A9. In fact, it looks like a cross between the M9 and the A9. This device comes with a MediaTek SoC and just 16GB of on-board storage, so it's not exactly competition for the HTC 10. You probably won't be able to buy it where you live anyway.
Google already sells various Android Wear devices in the Google Store, but now it's getting into the accessory game with the MODE watchbands. These watchbands are on sale today in leather and silicone varieties and will work on any watch (Android Wear or other) that uses standard lugs. They're designed to be easily swapped with a new clip system, but they're not cheap. Google is asking $50 for the silicone ones and $60 for leather.
Twitter instituted the API token limit way back in 2012. Since then, a number of high-profile apps have maxed out at 100,000 users and been retired. The latest app to become a victim of its own success is Fenix. It ran out of tokens yesterday and now it's gone from the Play Store. It took almost exactly two years.
Google finally made podcasts official in Play Music last week, but not everyone is seeing the option even after updating to the newest app version. You might be able to give Play Music a kick in the butt by refreshing your account. It is an option in the app's settings—refreshing, not butt kicking.
Most of the top Android phones (and even some mid-range ones) are shipping with fingerprint readers these days. App developers are starting to take notice and add support to apps, and today an important one for many people has been updated. Chase Mobile, which has tens of millions of downloads, now supports fingerprint logins. Bank of America just did the same a few days ago.
LG's phones have long been popular with people who want to play with mods, and now that can begin in earnest with the LG G5. This device now has an official build of TWRP ready for flashing. With a custom recovery, you can do all sorts of neat stuff.
Lenovo's Zuk Z2 Pro Packs A Snapdragon 820, 6GB Of RAM, A USB Type-C Port, And More For The Chinese Market
Lenovo has a lot of things going on these days as it continues to make its Lenovo-branded devices while simultaneously digesting the corpse of Motorola. It also has other sub-brands like Zuk. The latest device in that family was just announced in China, and it definitely looks good on paper with flagship specs and a reasonable price.