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LastPass is one of the most popular password managers on the market, but it's getting a price hike today. It's going to be twice as expensive going forward, but the good news is you're getting some more features for the money. The bad news is those features used to be free. Users of the free account won't be completely losing out, though.
Duolingo has achieved a significant download milestone today; after a little over four years in the Play Store, Duilingo has reached the 100-500 million download bracket. There are apps in the Play Store with billions of downloads, sure, but they're mostly things that come pre-installed on phones. It's a real accomplishment for an education app like Duilingo to hit 100 million downloads.
Motorola kicked off the era of Moto Mods last year with the Moto Z and Z Force. The latter was only available on Verizon in the US, but this year the Z2 Force is coming to all US carriers. It's also the only flagship phone the company is releasing this summer—there's no regular Z phone at all. That makes the Z2 Force a critical phone for Motorola as it seeks to convince consumers and mobile carriers that Mods are a good idea.
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There are plenty of budget phones out there, and most of them aren't bad. However, the Moto G5 Plus is the most not bad I've seen. It usually starts at a very reasonable $230, but today B&H is selling the 32GB device for just $199.99 and the 64GB for $249.99.You're probably used to seeing the Moto G5 Plus at something of a discount on Amazon, but that's the ad-supported Prime edition phone. The one at B&H is the completely unencumbered phone. It's unlocked with support for all mobile networks. The 32GB phone with 3GB of RAM is going for $200, which is $30 off the regular price. The discount is a bit steeper for the version with 64GB of storage and 4GB of RAM. That one is down to $250 from the regular $300 price.
Designer Andrew Bell has something tasty to share this summer—a new special edition Android mini is live on the Dead Zebra store. The new watermelon Android mini is available for order right now, but it'll only be on sale for a limited time. There's also a new Android logo enamel pin. That's neat, but that watermelon, guys.
Google's own Nest smart thermostat supported Assistant commands very early on, but Honeywell makes a lot of similar products that were not supported. That changes today with the announcement that Honeywell's Lyric and Total Connect Comfort thermostats will work with Assistant. There's a bit of setup required, but it's fast.
The future is now, and VR is a thing. Well, not always a good thing, but it's a thing nonetheless. If you want to check out the several things smartphone VR has to offer, the Daydream View headset is on sale now for $59.99 via Amazon, Verizon, and Best Buy. It's not on sale in the Google Store for whatever reason.Google's regular price for this accessory is $80, so this is $20 off. The Daydream View is covered in soft fabric, which is pretty weird. The selection of colors included in the sale varies by retailer. Amazon only has the slate at $60, but Best Buy and Verizon included slate, crimson, and snow.
The Nextbit Robin has been popping up for next to nothing on eBay and Amazon lately, which isn't surprising as the company behind the funky little smartphone has been swallowed up by the glowing green maw of Razer. Nextbit has been winding down support for the Robin as it moves on as a Razer subsidiary. Today, support for the Robin is officially ending. Bummer.
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Motorola announced the Moto Z2 Force recently with a price of $800, a full $80 more than the first generation device. That seemed especially bold when Motorola is still pushing Mods that can cost as much as $300. Now, the company appears to have dropped the price without so much as a word. The phone is currently listed on the Motorola website at $720, the same as last year's phone.
Motorola used to have a very simple product lineup, but this is no longer the case. In fact, the G-series is becoming downright convoluted with all the slight variations. The G5S Plus popped up on the US Motorola site earlier today, and now the G5S Plus and G5S are official in Europe. They'll both come to the US later this year, but in slightly different forms.
There's a new Humble Bundle live, and it's all about puzzles—action puzzlers, relaxing puzzlers, and everything in between. All you need to do is drop a few bucks, and you can get up to nine Android puzzle games with no DRM or in-app purchases. There are a lot of great titles this time, too.
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Motorola is set to launch the Moto Z2 Force in a few weeks on all major US carriers. Those carriers are doing their part to make the launch a success with various promos, but you ought to look upon these deals with skepticism. Our full Moto Z2 Force review will be ready in a few days, but I thought it would be prudent to expand on something I touched on in the hands-on: the ShatterShield display. I'm afraid this screen will be a deal breaker for many people. While it doesn't crack, there are plenty of other issues with it.
The explosion of budget phones several years ago allowed Asus to become a larger player in the smartphone market. There have been ups and downs since then, including a ZenFone 3 launch that took way too long to come to fruition. Perhaps things will be different with the ZenFone 4, which Asus is announcing on August 19th.
A big Action Launcher update is rolling out today, and it's adding something many of you have been clamoring for in recent weeks: Google Feed integration (previously known as Google Now). Nova Launcher added this feature a few weeks ago, and now Action Launcher is taking a similar approach. You'll need to sideload a plugin, but no root is required. That's not all that's in this update, either. You like Android O stuff? Action Launcher has it.
T-Mobile fired up a buy one, get one (BOGO) deal on the Galaxy S8 shortly after it launched. While there were caveats, it was a good value. Now, that deal is back, and the upcoming Moto Z2 Force getting the same BOGO offer. You probably want the GS8, though.
We live in interesting times. As the USB Type-C standard slowly spreads, we're left with three different USB ports in operation. There's USB-C, USB-A, and microUSB, but no longer will you need different flash drives for all those devices. A company called Silicon Power has announced a flash drive that has all three connectors, and it doesn't look as awkward as you'd expect.
Niantic's inability to make Pokémon Go work properly is becoming legend. Basically, if something can go wrong, it will go wrong. And there was a lot of wrong at the high-profile Pokémon Go Fest in Chicago last weekend. It was such a mess that a few dozen players have filed a class action lawsuit against Niantic, alleging false advertising.
Do you have unusually strong opinions about Google+ and what Google should be doing with it? Then today is your lucky day. Google is seeking people to help test new features and give feedback on the direction of G+. Not all who apply will be accepted, though.
Google and LG teamed up on a pair of smartwatches to show off Android Wear 2.0, one of which had all the things and the other had very few things. That other watch is the LG Watch Style, which still sells for $249 on the Google Store. That's way too much, but it's on sale for a much more reasonable $139.99 on eBay right now.
Samsung's early estimates of its Q2 earnings pointed to record earnings, and the newly released final numbers confirm it. Samsung, which had to recall one of its most important phones less than a year ago, had an operating profit of $12.67 billion (14.4 trillion Korean won) in Q2. That's slightly higher than the estimate from early this month.