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
Android phones used to come with a few hundred megabytes of RAM, then 1GB, and then 2 or 4GB. Now, 6 and even 8GB phones are common at the high-end. It's debatable if 8GB of RAM is useful on Android, but Oppo is pushing the envelope even further. A listing from Chinese regulator TENAA shows a version of the Find X with 10GB of RAM is on the way.
Microsoft owns SwiftKey these days, so it's no surprise some Microsoft features have wormed their way into the keyboard. For example, Microsoft Translator popped up in the beta version some weeks back. Now, Translator has arrived in SwiftKey stable with v7.1.4.19.
[Update: Charcoal color] Google Home Hub smart display leaked ahead of October event, no camera in sight
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- AndroidHeadlines has published two more images of the Google Home Hub, this time in the charcoal color. They show how the display part will be mounted on the speaker base, and it's almost certain that there won't be a hinge allowing the display to rotate to a portrait orientation. There's still no sign of a camera.
Google announced Assistant would work on displays a while back, but so far only third-parties have launched hardware. A new leak suggests Google is aiming to launch its own Assistant smart display called the Home Hub. Some leaked renders purport to show a device that looks like the offspring of a Chromebook and a Google Home speaker.
[Update: AT&T model leaked] LG V40 ThinQ leak shows off triple cameras and G7-style notch
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LG stuck with the V30 longer than we expected, re-releasing the phone twice more after the original version shipped in late 2017. Now, it seems poised to move on with the V40 ThinQ, a device with more cameras than you'll know what to do with. A leaked render of the phone shows off three sensors on the back, and a pair up front housed in a notch.
[Deal Alert] SanDisk microSD cards drop to $35 (200GB), $52 (256GB), and $100 (400GB) on Amazon
We just posted recently about the solid downward trend in microSD card pricing on Amazon, and now there's been another big drop. Amazon is having a one-day sale on the three largest capacity SanDisk cards. The 400GB, 256GB, and 200GB cards are all at historically low prices right now.Here are the on-sale cards.
There's no way to silently change the ringer volume in Android Pie, but a fix is coming
Developing a new version of Android is a serious undertaking, and sometimes little usability issues can be overlooked. Case in point: you cannot change the ringer volume in Android 9 without making noise. Yeesh. Thankfully, Google is aware of the issue, and a fix is incoming soon.
They say you should always start with a joke, and boy did Twitter have a real knee-slapper at the beginning of its latest blog post: "The Twitter Rules apply to everyone who uses Twitter." Haha. With the joke out of the way, Twitter explains that it has developed a new comprehensive policy on dehumanizing speech. It's also asking for feedback from all of us on the new policy.
It's always been hard to explain what Google Voice is because it feels like a VoIP service, but it's not. Google Voice has operated as a phonecall relay system all these years, forwarding your calls through another number. Earlier this year, Google started beta testing Wi-Fi calls in Google Voice, and it looks like the feature is rolling out to more users.
It almost goes without saying that Google's operational security is not so good lately. The Pixel 3 (and especially) 3 XL have leaked repeatedly and in great detail over the last few weeks. There are basically no surprises left for the Google event on October 9th, but now there's a new cache of images just in case you wanted them.
Shazam pre-dates the smartphone as we know it today, but it didn't become popular until everyone was carrying internet-connected devices that could play music. Then, everyone wanted to know what song was playing in the background. Shazam is no longer the only way to ID songs, but it's the only one now wholly owned by Apple. Why does this matter to you, an Android user? Shazam is about to be free.
Google is slowly but surely updating all its apps to the new Material interface, which in Google's case means lots of white. We've already seen the new theme pop up in the Calculator, Contacts, and more. Now, it's Google Calendar's turn. The v6.0 update is rolling out with the new look, and you can sideload it right now.
oku has leveraged low prices and vast app support to become one of the most well-known media streamer platforms. Devices like the Roku Stick are basically impulse purchases at this point. Today, some of Roku's cheapest streaming boxes are getting new capabilities. The updated Premiere is getting 4K HDR support, and the new Premiere+ adds Google Assistant.
On this fateful day ten years ago, Google, T-Mobile, and HTC joined forces to announce the T-Mobile G1. It would go on to launch internationally as the HTC Dream, but this piece of hardware was the first way consumers could experience the Android platform. The G1 was far from perfect, even by the standards of the day. At the same time, it offered an open, customizable experience in stark contrast to the iPhone. It was the start of something big.
Telltale Games is reportedly closing down and cancelling most current projects [Update: Confirmed]
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Telltale Games has won critical praise for titles like The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us, but that was not enough to keep the lights on. A flood of now-former employees report that Telltale is closing its doors in the near future after laying off most workers. Telltale has not officially confirmed any changes as of yet, but this looks like the end.
The LG G6 might not be the latest and greatest anymore, but the upgraded G6+ on Amazon is a reasonably good deal right now. Amazon just shaved $100 off the price of this device, leaving it at a mere $399.99. There's not a ton of competition in that price range, so the G6+ might be a good purchase.This phone, which is not the Prime Exclusive variant, debuted at $700 but fell to $500 more recently. Now, it's 4100 cheaper than that. In most ways, this is the G6 you may remember from 2017. It has a 5.7-inch 140p LCD display, a Snapdragon 821, and a headphone jack (wow, how quaint). There's also a quad-DAC and bundled B&O headphones. The Plus variant also has 128GB of storage.At this price, the regular unlocked G6+ is cheaper than the Prime Exclusive at $430. The phone should work on any US network (even CDMA networks like Verizon).Source: Amazon
You might remember a few months ago when Google announced Color Pop effects in Google Photos. A few people got neat Color Pop photo suggestions in the Assistant tab, but a wide rollout never happened. Now, it looks like Google is again testing Color Pop, and it brought manual bokeh effects along for the ride.
Amazon has various Fire TV boxes that stream video from the internet, but the Fire TV Recast is something new. This is a DVR tuner box for watching and saving video from OTA sources like Fox and NBC. However, the Recast doesn't have anything to do with displaying the video. For that, you need another piece of hardware.The $230 base model Fire TV Recast comes with 500GB of storage (enough for 75 hours) and two HDTV tuners. That means you can watch one channel while recording another or record two channels at the same time. The $270 upgraded model has double the storage and tuners. There are no video outputs on this box, so all setup and configuration happens via the Fire TV app or a connected Alexa device. For example, you could tell your Echo to record a show, and it would automatically program the Recast.You need one of several devices to watch video from the Recast. You can use a Fire TV device, of course, but Android and iOS devices with the Fire TV app will also do the trick. The Echo Show is supported as well. If using a mobile device, you can stream live or recorded TV anyplace. It's not clear if the Recast is smart enough to stream directly over your local network when you're at home, but I hope so.The Fire TV Recast is available for pre-order right now, and it'll ship on or around November 14th.
[Deal Alert] MicroSD card prices on Amazon keep dropping—SanDisk 256GB down to $65, 400GB at $140
Not that long ago, you had to drop big bucks for the largest microSD cards, and they weren't even very spacious. Things get cheaper of time, of course, but the last few months have brought a solid downward trend in microSD pricing. Today, you can get a 400GB SanDisk microSD card for just $139.95. It was over $200 earlier this year. The $64.99 256GB card was more than $100 just a few months ago.Most cards on Amazon have been dropping, but the trend for SanDisk's Ultra line of cards is the most pronounced.
Nokia 7 Plus becomes the first non-Pixel with Android Pie's Digital Wellbeing features
Google unveiled Digital Wellbeing at I/O this year and strongly implied it would be part of Android Pie. However, the feature only launched on Pixel devices as a beta at first. Now, Digital Wellbeing has expanded to its first non-Pixel phone—the Nokia 7 Plus.
[Deal Alert] Amazon Fire 7 tablet on sale for $35 if you act fast (Prime members only)
Amazon's Fire 7 tablet is usually quite inexpensive at $50, but now it's almost impossibly cheap for Prime members. If you act fast, you can get the entry-level tablet (with special offers) for a mere $35. This deal has been live for a few days, so it could go away at any time. Don't wait too long to decide.The Fire 7 is not impressively specced, but it doesn't have to be for $35 (or even $50). Amazon is probably losing money on the hardware in order to get a content delivery system into more hands. The Fire 7, as the name implies, has a 7-inch 1024 x 600 LCD with 8GB of storage, 1 GB of RAM, and a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek SoC.This tablet runs Amazon's Fire OS Android fork. So, you can sideload most Android apps and even get Google Play services installed if you want to get your hands dirty. It's a good device to give to kids or just to keep by the bed for reading. I mean, hell, for $35 you can use it as a fancy doorstop.Source: Amazon