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Lenovo leaks its upcoming Smart Clock 2 and wireless charging dock
Stereophonic sound for a USB port — fair trade-off?
Forget tracking the trickle of intel from obscure sources: Lenovo has outed its Smart Clock 2 on its website without an official announcement. With a new clock comes a new design that will facilitate a new accessory that will allow you wirelessly charge other devices.
More than two years after Samsung announced its original Dex dock, Plugable designed a competitor that can work with virtually any USB-C device. The Cube is a tiny hub that connects to your device through an external cable and acts as a dock to link it to USB peripherals, a monitor, and even an external network.
The launcher is arguably the most frequently viewed screen on your phone, and it's also one that Google thoroughly enjoys playing around with. Of course, we couldn't have a new major release of Android without some change in the launcher, and this time is no different.
Samsung introduced the DeX Station alongside the Galaxy S8 last year. For those unfamiliar with DeX, it's a dock system that enables you to project a desktop experience to an external monitor. Just one day after 2018 began, Samsung registered 'DeX Pad' as a trademark in Europe. Now we have our first look at the DeX Pad, and while it's not a looker, its purpose is to turn your Galaxy phone into a touchpad.
Usually, we aren't too into Kickstarter stuff here at AP. No small number of crowdfunded endeavors have failed to materialize in the past, and too many of them are merely rebadged OEM goods. But in this brave new dongle-filled world, the HyperDrive has caught our eye. It's a combo USB-C hub, Qi charger, and phone stand all in one. And, unlike many Kickstarter promises, this one has already hit its funding goal.
I'm sure that you've heard all about Razer's Project Linda, which has caught the attention of many media outlets here at CES. David and I dropped by Razer's booth to take a look at the concept, and while the wide-eyed technology enthusiast in me thought it was super neat, my pragmatic side remained unconvinced.
Anker is running a decent little sale over on Amazon. Right now you can pick up a six-foot durable braided USB-C cable for just , a 20,000mAh battery for .99, a USB-C mini-dock with 2 USB, 4KHDMI, SD Card slot, and Ethernet for .99, and a tiny cubic Bluetooth speaker for .59.
If you are in the market for an inexpensive phone mount, right now over at Amazon you can pick one up for $4 with promo code HM6MF7KT. It's regularly $8, which makes that a 50% savings. Make a bold note, though, that it will only work if you've got a phone on the smaller side, between 4 and 5.2" in screen size (or 55mm-85mm in width).
Amazon has a ton of obscure brands that sell shady, poorly-built products you should avoid; AUKEY is not one of them. I personally own a few AUKEY chargers and batteries, and I've been very satisfied with all of them. Now, through November 29th, AUKEY is handing out discounts for some of their products in the form of promo codes.First up, the charging accessories. For their dual-port wall charger with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 tech in both ports, you can take $5 off the current price of $19.99 with the code AUKEYBF1. If you've got a ton of devices like I do, you may want to take a peek at the company's 6-port wall charger, which comprises of two Quick Charge 3.0-capable ports and four 2.4A ports. With code AUKEYBF2, you can take $6 off AUKEY's $27.99 price on Amazon. Want to charge your phone quickly in the car? Look no further than the CC-T7 car charger, which is equipped with one QC3.0 port and one 2.4A port. AUKEYBF3 will take $1.68 off the car charger's $11.99 price point.AUKEY is also further discounting its 7-port hub, which is made up of four USB 3.0 ports and three "smart charging" ports, from $24.99 to $19.99 with code AUKEYBF4. And if you're looking for a massive portable battery pack, NLD526NB will save you $10 on AUKEY's $39.99 20,000mAh unit, which has one QC3.0 port, one 2.4A port, and both microUSB and Lightning inputs.Here's a summary:
Manufactures have been scaling back the included extras that come with hardware for a while now - you won't find included headphones or cases with any of the latest flagship phones. But you can generally rely on getting a USB cable and a wall-wart charger at least. Such is the case with the current Android Wear devices, the LG G Watch and the Samsung Gear Live. But if you have one, you'd better hold onto that charger like it's made of gold, because it might as well be. At present there doesn't seem to be any way to get a replacement.
Remember that neato Sony car stereo we checked out at CES, which is basically the perfect receiver for someone who uses their phone for all their in-car entertainment? Well, the XSP N1BT (catchy!) is here. You can buy it from Crutchfield or pre-order it now on Amazon for $249.99, and it will ship out on Thursday the 29th, just barely making Sony's May commitment for release.
Google Patents A Laptop With A Built-In Smartphone, Let The Chromebook And Android Speculation Begin
Asus has lately become the king of anime-style transforming electronics, with their Transformer tablet line and Padfone devices. It looks like Google is paying attention, at least when it comes to conceptual hardware. US patent 8,649,821, granted to Google in February of this year, describes a laptop with a built-in and detachable cell phone, with the two working in tandem for various functions. While Android and Chromebooks aren't specifically mentioned in the patent documentation, it's easy to assume they were on the engineers' minds, since it was filed in September of 2012.
Update 3/27/14: The guys at B & A Studio found a much more affordable way to manufacture the dock, so they cancelled the already-95%-funded project and opened a new one. As a result of the new manufacturing process, the company is now only seeking $13,000 (instead of the original $20,000), and the docks are down from $35 each to $19. That's a pretty massive savings – now you can essentially get two for the price of one original.
Electronics are getting increasingly affordable, which means even non-enthusiasts these days are ending up with multiple devices they use regularly all needing to get charged at around the same time. Between smartphones, tablets, second tablets, portable media players, smartwatches, and activity trackers, far too many desks, countertops, and side tables are becoming entangled by cables of varying length and size. Therefore it's not difficult to understand why so many people were drawn to the All-Dock Kickstarter project. The campaign just closed with the team having pulled in $97,479 in funding.
Part of the reason I was drawn to the Chromebook Pixel is that it's essentially a thin client for accessing the same content I interact with using my phones and tablets. Having to move and maintain files between separate machines is a chore I no longer wish to deal with, so I'm happy to see that this issue may soon be a thing of the past. Today at IFA, Acer demoed its Extend prototype, a laptop-dock that could enable you to use a smartphone as a your primary computer.
There have been plenty of times over the course of many lengthy emails sent from my smartphone that I've wished for a keyboard shaped like something between a heavily armored headless bird and a stingray that's missing its tail. Okay, I may not have worded the wish quite in that way, but the point is that a new Kickstarter project is available that promises to make it come true nonetheless. The TREWGrip Mobile QWERTY is a handheld typing device and mouse that will give your smartphone wings.
Nova Launcher is one of the most popular home screen replacements out there, and the developers are hard at work ensuring that this doesn't change any time soon. The latest update introduces even more ways to customize every aspect of your launcher's appearance. Anyone who makes the jump to version 2.2 will gain the ability to add backgrounds to their docks, customize the look of their unread badges, and dabble with new scroll effects. You'll need to have Nova Launcher Prime to utilize those last two, though.
Samsung Introduces Side Sync: 'PC In Mobile, Mobile In PC' With A Fatal Flaw
Samsung has just announced details of a new syncing/file management tool called Side Sync, which it mentioned last month alongside new ATIV PC branding.
Samsung has just announced details of a new syncing/file management tool called Side Sync, which it mentioned last month alongside new ATIV PC branding.
[Deal Alert] Samsung Multimedia Desktop Dock, Compatible With Most Samsung Phones Including The Galaxy S4, Is Just $16 On Amazon (68% Off)
There are still very few "universal" docks available for Android users, but if you own a Samsung smartphone, this little baby comes pretty close. The Samsung
There are still very few "universal" docks available for Android users, but if you own a Samsung smartphone, this little baby comes pretty close. The Samsung Galaxy Multimedia Desktop Charging Dock includes a spiffy flip-out stand big enough to support the biggest of Notes, plus an audio-out 3.5mm jack for easy output to a nearby speaker. One Amazon vendor is selling the dock for just sixteen dollars American, a discount of more than two thirds off the retail price.
After months of speculation, pre-orders, and cameo appearances, it's finally here (kind of) – one of the precious few official Nexus accessories users have ever been able to purchase: the Nexus 7 Dock. After snapping one up when they appeared at B&H, I was one of the unlucky handful to receive a "we regret to inform you" email, noting that the dock was not, in fact, available yet. Just a few days later, though, my dock showed up in the mail.