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.
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Most of Google's services are free, but you're actually giving Google a lot of your data to keep it that way. The Opinion Rewards app makes the transaction more explicit: answer these questions and you get some Google credit. Starting now, you can manually adjust your profile in the Opinion Rewards app, which affects the surveys you get.
Sony unveiled its latest flagship smartphones at Mobile World Congress a few months back, and they look different for the first time in many years. Well, they look different compared to past generational updates from Sony. The Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact are still obviously Sony hardware, but they adopt an 18:9 screen ratio and a rear fingerprint sensor. The high price is still classic Sony, though.
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The Google Assistant can control smart home devices, set calendar reminders, and play almost any piece of music in the world. It's also good at unit conversions, and that happens to be something I use quite often. Not right now, though. Unit conversions are broken on Assistant across all devices.
Google I/O is now less than a month away, and Google has updated the website with all the events, keynotes, and sessions it will hold. The schedule could be changed at Google's discretion prior to the big day, but attendees can head to the I/O site right now to reserve seats for the sessions as currently listed.
We all know how annoying it can be when you've got two friends who are clearly into each other, but neither one of them has the guts to make a move. So, everyone around them has to put up with the awkwardness and tension. That's where T-Mobile and Sprint are right now. They've almost gotten together a few times, only to have things fall apart at the last minute. Now, the carriers are reportedly entering into merger talks again. Maybe they'll finally seal the deal this time.
Google changed tactics in 2016 with the launch of the Pixel and Pixel XL. The Nexus brand was gone, and the phones were more expensive. Still, the Pixel turned out to be a fantastic phone. Google kept it around on the Google Store even after the Pixel 2 launched, but now that's over. The first-gen Pixels are gone.
Portrait mode is increasingly available on smartphones, especially those with two cameras. These pics have blurred backgrounds to make the subject pop like you were using a lens with a shallow depth-of-field. Some phones do this better than others, but I think all of them do it better than Instagram, which just added "Focus" mode in the latest update.
Remember a few years ago when smartphone makers were just racing to have the most megapixels possible? Ah, those were quaint times. Now, it's about the number of cameras you can cram into a phone. Huawei is leading the pack with three rear cams on the P20 Pro, but how'd it manage that? The phone-destroyers at iFixit are here to find out. They've taken a P20 Pro apart to find out what's up.
OnePlus is good enough to provide beta versions of OxygenOS for most of its phones, but those downloads vanished yesterday. We wondered at first if there was a bug, but OnePlus claimed the removal was just because it switched to the oneplus.com domain. Now, the betas are back, but the builds are newer.
[Update: Sprint too] Essential rolls out new Oreo 8.1 build with Bluetooth 5.0, April patches, and more
Essential didn't find much success selling a $700 smartphone, but it's doing better selling that same phone for $500 or less. The Essential Phone has improved with software updates, and it's currently running Android 8.1 Oreo. The company isn't taking too much time to pat itself on the back after getting Oreo out the door. There's already another build with the latest patches and new Bluetooth features.
Huawei released its flagship Mate 10 Pro in the US a few months back, but the P20 is not officially destined for American shores. You'll be able to get it on this side of the pond, but only in a few places. There are currently two eBay listings from reputable sellers where you can secure a unit right now. Be prepared to pay handsomely, though.
The Play Store used to be the wild west of app distribution—you could download apps that would root your phone back in the day. Now, Google disallows various apps that are considered inappropriate or dangerous, and you can add another class of apps to the list today. Google has updated its terms to ban fake ID apps.
Samsung DeX allows your phone to project a desktop-like UI onto a larger screen, but the first generation Station that debuted last year had a rather clunky dock. There's a new version of the DeX hardware that's lighter, and you can get the "DeX Pad" free when you purchase a Galaxy S9 right now.
Twitter's stupid token limit claims another victim as Flamingo vanishes from the Play Store
Did you ever pick up the fantastic Twitter client Flamingo? Well, you missed your chance. Thanks to Twitter's ridiculous API token limit, another Twitter client has been cut down in its prime. Developer Sam Ruston confirms the client has been removed from the Play Store because it's almost out of tokens, so you can't buy it anymore.
YouTube and YouTube TV don't share much other than the name, but that might change soon. Buried deep in the YouTube app is your watch history from YouTube TV. This suggests there will be some connection later, but right now it just throws up errors when you try to open a video.
There's a shortage of video designed for virtual reality, but you can still enjoy content intended for the flat screen in VR. There are VR apps for Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and more. Now, you can add Plex to the list. The new app should be live in the Oculus store right this minute.
Getting things done is easier when a team is all on the same page, so keeping individual to-do lists might not be ideal. Taskade is a new app that seeks to make your bullet lists and random thoughts more collaborative with quick sharing and built-in chat features. It's free, too.
The first time Samsung took a swing at completely wireless earbuds, the results weren't great. However, the 2018 revision of the Gear IconX was much better. These earbuds have better battery life, an improved charging case, and they're super-compact. The MSRP is just a bit high. The price has been coming down on Amazon lately, and even lower than usual right now. You can pick up the black IconX earbuds for $149.89.The IconX are Bluetooth earbuds, but they also include built-in fitness tracking. They'll last about five hours on a charge over Bluetooth, but you can get a little more if you save tracks on the internal 4GB of storage. The charging case can juice up the earbuds a few more times without a cable, but when you do have plug in, it uses a Type-C cable.
I reviewed the Fitbit Ionic when it launched late last year, and at the time I didn't much care for it. I was not into the design, and there were multiple software issues. I've continued to wear the watch on and off since then, and I spent about a week with the Fitbit Versa just recently. The Ionic has gotten several updates since my original review, including the recent bump to FitbitOS 2.0 that matches what ships on the Versa. With Google's Wear OS still on a downward trajectory, I'm giving Fitbit's flagship smartwatch another shot.
Taboola partners with ZTE to launch a news feed for smartphones (and you won't believe what happens next)
You're probably familiar with Taboola, at least in passing. It's the source of many sponsored news sections on websites. Now, Taboola is looking to become part of your smartphone with its new "content discovery" platform. It looks a lot like the Google Feed, but it's not. In fact, it could come off like one giant ad on your phone.