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8 best gadgets we reviewed in February
A Goldilocks smartphone and e-reader take center stage among our favorite devices from this past month
February's crop of tech releases and reviews didn't see any big-name flagship phones or insanely hyped new devices, but a handful of fun and useful gadgets caught our eye nonetheless. With a handful of these geared directly toward having fun, and some shaking up their respective midrange markets, we had an especially good time digging deep into these great phones, e-readers, and audio accessories.
Pixel 6 and 6 Pro get their first on-time update with Google's February patch
Now available for Pixel 3a and newer
We're only a week into February, but we've already seen this month's patch hit a handful of Samsung phones. If you're rocking a Pixel, there's no need to feel left out any longer. Google's ready to join the party with a new update for its current devices, including, most notably, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro.
Samsung rolling out February security patch to Galaxy S9 outside the US
The update is also showing up on more Galaxy S21 phones
Read update
Even though each Android security update has a specific month in the name, the patches are usually provided to manufacturers a week or two in advance, so phone makers can have the system upgrades ready in time (or not). Samsung has been known to pull the switch before the first day of a given month, and that's happening again for the February 2021 patches.
Considering the shortness of February and the general malaise that is the entertainment industry between January and March, it's impressive that Android received so many high-profile games during the month. And indeed we did: JRPG fans have no less than three new classics to check out, there's a new chapter of The Walking Dead for horror fans, and plenty of titles for more causal players to try. Below in no particular order, you'll find our picks for the seven best new Android games of February, plus a few honorable mentions.
Dear readers: I have a confession to make. I completely forgot about our monthly best-of games series, because when the event came up on the calendar I was busy drooling over the new SHIELD set-top box and other Game Developers Conference-related stuff in San Francisco. Here, belated but hopefully still appreciated, are my picks for the top seven Android games of last month and a few honorable mentions.
ASUS isn't the only one upgrading their tablets to Ice Cream Sandwich in the beginning of February - we were running around the South Hall at CES 2012 and ran into Archos, which, among other things, manufactures a whole series of G9 tablets (various combinations of 101 and 80).
Owners of the original ASUS Transformer (TF101) were ecstatic last week when ASUS promised the Ice Cream Sandwich update to roll out shortly after the one for the Prime, meaning any day after January 12th was fair game. Considering ICS for the Prime went out early, and shortly after ASUS Singapore posted this
There's been no shortage of leaks involving the Xperia Play, but Sony Ericsson hasn't said a single word on the matter... until now, that is. A new event was just posted on the company's Facebook page, and guess what it's related to:
After yesterday's launch of Optimus V on Virgin Mobile USA for $150, MetroPCS, another prepaid carrier, just followed the same suit and dropped the price of its own Optimus variant, the Optimus M, from $229 to $149.
You could say Motorola's earnings call ended on a high note - the company's CEO, Sanjay Jha, told analysts that the Atrix 4G will be launching at the end of February, as will the 3G version of the XOOM. That doesn't quite line up with the rumors we've been hearing about a February 17th release, and Jha later added that the XOOM might even be bumped to a release in March if things don't go according to plan. Bummer.
Engadget - whose record on these things is usually among the best in the business - seems to have pulled the trigger on one that's pretty obviously fake. Check it out: