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Back when I used a Surface Pro 2 as my primary computer, I was quickly running out of space and needed more room. A 128GB microSD card set me back well over $100, and just a few short years later, the same capacity with faster read/write speeds is less than half the price.If you have a phone, tablet, Nintendo Switch, or something else with a microSD card slot, Samsung's new Evo Select cards are the way to go. They're pretty cheap - just $13 for 32GB, $23 for 64GB, and $44.99 for 128GB. In addition, these are Class 10 UHS 3 cards, with up to 100MB/s read and 60MB/s write speeds. They're perfect for Android's adoptable storage, or any other tasks that benefit from faster data access.This isn't a deal alert, because they were only just released on Amazon this month and haven't changed in price since then, but these are definitely worth posting about. You can find the cards at the source link below.Source: Amazon
Team17, perhaps best known for its long-running Worms series, released 'Penarium' on Steam back in 2015. The game is centered around a sadistic arena-like circus show, where you take on the role of Willy as he tries to survive the death traps. Now the game has been released on the Play Store.
The Galaxy S8 has just been released, but the S7 is still a great device. We've seen several models go on sale recently, and today you can get a refurbished T-Mobile S7 for just $279.99 - not a bad deal at all.
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Chrome 58 just recently hit stable, which means Chrome 59 has been moved up to the Beta branch. This time around, Chrome is finally adding support for the Animated PNG standard. There are also a few other important changes, so let's take a look.
Kodi, formerly known as XBMC, is an open-source media player that is available on a variety of platforms - including Android. If you use Kodi on your Android TV, you'll be happy to know that the next major release will support Leanback suggestions and voice search.
You may recall Android Police's long-running 'What We Use' series, where the fantastic people that work here share the tech (and sometimes non-tech) products they use on a frequent basis.I haven't actually written one of these posts yet - simply because I only joined AP last year. I've had a fascination with technology as long as I can remember, but my arsenal of toys is constantly changing. So without further ado, this is what I use.
Google has been planning to mark all HTTP sites as non-secure in Chrome for a while now, but the company is taking baby steps to ensure users (and owners of HTTP-only sites) don't freak out. Chrome already identifies HTTP sites with password or credit card fields as "Not Secure" in the address bar, and Chrome 62 will expand that to any HTTP site with any data entry fields.
One of the reasons Amazon's Alexa assistant has become so popular is because it can be integrated into nearly everything. We've seen phones, speakers, and even refrigerators with Alexa. Now Google is opening up Google Assistant to the same level of accessibility, with the new Google Assistant SDK.
Back in Chrome 54, Google replaced Chrome for Android's New Tab page with a new design that prominently featured suggested content - much like Google Now's feed. To quote Douglas Adams, "This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." Switching to the old design was possible by disabling a few Chrome flags, but the recent Chrome 58 update removes this ability.
The Galaxy S8 and S8+ haven't been in the hands of consumers for long, but as with almost any Android phone, developers are eager to flash custom recoveries and ROMs onto it. As such, it should come as little surprise that TWRP is already available for the Exynos Galaxy S8 and S8+.
Well this is... unexpected. We've heard whispers of a new Google Home/Google WiFi combo, and even the next Pixel devices, but nothing in the realm of audio products. Out of nowhere, a set of headphones from Google have appeared in a new FCC filing.
Amazon is definitely one of the lead players when it comes to voice assistants. The company's newest Echo speaker, the Echo Look, is... different. Instead of your usual speaker with a voice assistant, the Echo Look is specifically designed for taking pictures of your outfit. No, this isn't April Fools.[EMBED_YT]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zss2uj-mMw0[/EMBED_YT]The Echo Look has a depth-sensing camera with LED lighting in order to take photos (or video) of your clothes. You can then save them to the Echo Look app to "create a personal lookbook" containing all your outfits.But that's not the best part. Amazon says the Echo Look has a "Style Check," which uses "advanced machine learning algorithms and advice from fashion specialists." You can submit two photos to Style Check, and it will determine which look is best based on the fit, color, styling, and current trends. Amazon says this will get smarter over time based on feedback from users and fashion experts.In addition to all the fashion-oriented functionality, the Echo Look has the full Alexa assistant. You can find the product page at the link below.Source: AmazonThanks: Marc
Samsung is usually pretty good about releasing kernel sources for its phones in a timely manner - at least for its flagship devices. Hot on the heels of the worldwide Galaxy S8 and S8+ release, Samsung has published the kernel source code for the Exynos variants of both phones.
Several car manufacturers have announced their support for Android Auto recently, including Citroën and Peugeot. Chevrolet and Vauxhall are up next, with a large amount of 2017 and 2018 models from both companies receiving Android Auto.
Twitter changes the user interface almost constantly on its beta app - I suppose that's to be expected. The latest new feature in testing is a live counter for likes, retweets, and replies on each tweet. The counter appears to update roughly once a second.
One of the killer features of Chromebooks is the ability to run Android applications from the Play Store. But it has been difficult to tell exactly when each model would get the feature, until now. Google has updated its list of Chrome OS devices to clarify the status of the Play Store for each product.
YouTube Kids was originally released in 2015, as a portal for child-appropriate content on everyone's favorite video sharing site. However, there hasn't been a dedicated TV app for YouTube Kids, just iOS and Android apps. Today on the official company blog, YouTube announced a Kids app for various smart TVs - but Android TV is still strangely missing.
Nvidia's SHIELD (not to be confused with the SHIELD Portable or SHIELD Tablet) is probably the best Android TV box on the market, and definitely the best when it comes to 4K content. Now the SHIELD supports playing 4K movies and TV shows from Google Play Movies.
Back in February, Sony announced two new budget phones - the XA1 and XA1 Ultra. Comparable to the Moto G and G Plus respectively, Sony calls these devices "super mid-range." Now the XA1 has showed up for pre-order on Amazon and Best Buy for $299, in Black, Gold, Pink, and White.The XA1 is powered by a MediaTek Helio P20 processor, with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. There's a microSD card slot too, if you need more space. The phone has a 5" display with a resolution of 720p - a bit disappointing to see at this price. However, the XA1 does have a 23MP back camera with f2.0 aperture and an 8MP front camera.[EMBED_YT]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp3_xK1cw3o[/EMBED_YT]The primary competitor at this price point is probably the Moto G5 Plus, which bests the XA1 in several areas. That phone has a higher-resolution screen, 1GB more RAM, and twice the internal storage. However, the cameras on the XA1 are better, and it has a sleeker design (in my own opinion, at least).You can pre-order the XA1 from Amazon and Best Buy from the links below.Source: Amazon, Best Buy
When the iPhone was first released, there wasn't an App Store. During the announcement at WWDC 2007, Steve Jobs said that web apps would be the only development platform for the iPhone. The decision obviously didn't stick, with Apple announcing the App Store just a year later, but it started the idea of mobile-first web apps (that weren't basic WAP sites).