Corbin Davenport
Contributing since August, 2015
-
3615articles
Page 181
About Corbin Davenport
Corbin is a tech journalist and developer who worked at Android Police from 2016 until 2021. Check out his other work at corbin.io.
Latest Articles
Back in April, Opera introduced a free VPN integrated into the desktop Opera browser. That feature arrived in the Opera developer channel almost a year after they acquired SurfEasy, a Toronto-based company that created easy-to-use VPN applications. A standalone Opera VPN application was released on iOS in May, and now it's available for Android devices.
Walgreens has supported NFC payments for a number of years, even when other retailers were trying to fight it. They are taking it a step further by becoming the first retail store to support their loyalty card via NFC on Android Pay. There are many stores that support managing their loyalty/rewards cards in Android Pay, but Walgreens is notable for being the first to support their card via NFC. Walgreen's Balance Rewards program works exactly how you would expect - purchasing items earns points, which you can then spend in-store.
The OnePlus X is a great little device for $250, with its borderline-flagship specs and small form factor. Although OnePlus has said they don't intend on making a direct successor to the X, at least they are still updating it. Starting today, OnePlus is making the Oxygen 3.1.0 Community Build (based on Android 6.0.1) available for the OnePlus X, just in time for Android 7.0.
Microsoft's home-built (or home-bought) smartphone lineup may not be long for this world, but it looks like the development community isn't giving up on it. The Nokia Lumia 520 is an entry-level Windows Phone 8 device, announced back in 2013, and later succeeded by the Lumia 525 and 530.
Samsung introduced the world to its Milk Music service back in March of 2014, and the name "Milk Music" was just as odd back then as it is now. It started off as an exclusive app available only on select Samsung Galaxy devices, and we gave it a positive review for being simple and having no ads.
Google Now has a tendency to add voice commands without most people noticing. Besides the few listed in-app, Google hides most of its commands, perhaps the most useful ones. For example, Google's voice actions have been integrated and implemented within YouTube, so you can control video playback with your mi... wait, no that's the next update.
Google Chrome has been undergoing a massive amount of changes recently. From massive optimizations, to the Android New Tab page showing Google Now cards, to Progressive Web Apps blurring the line between native and web apps.
Up until this point, the HTC 10 has only been available (in the United States) in the rather dull-looking Carbon Grey and Glacier Silver colors. But if you're in the market for a new phone, not only has the price once again dropped to $599 for the unlocked model - but you can now grab it in the Camellia Red and Topaz Gold colors.
Benchmarking applications like 3DMark and PassMark are great for scoring the graphics or computational power of a given device. Nenamark 2 was a popular choice for benchmarking graphics back in the day, and five years after Nenamark 2 launched, Nenamark 3 has arrived. It's not clear why.
Have you ever thought to yourself, "Gee, I really wish I could watch Ford™ virtual reality experiences on my phone"? Me neither, but someone out there must be at least mildly interested, even if they are an executive at Ford.
The original Automatic was a $100 adapter that connected to your car's OBD II port and synced with the Automatic companion app. It wasn't incredibly useful for the price: it tried to help users with tracking road trips and speeding warnings, but it received mixed reviews.
If you've never used Google Opinion Rewards, it's an app from Google that periodically sends you surveys and rewards you with Play Store credit. Most questions are usually location-based, asking if you've been to a certain place recently and how you would rate it. But it looks like Google may be using Opinion Rewards to improve YouTube video recommendations.
If you're rocking the leaked Nexus Launcher on your device, you might have noticed at least one animation wasn't working. With the current release version of the Google Search APK, tapping on the search button brings up the search bar, but without the fluid animations we've come to expect from Material Design.
One of the reasons the Samsung Gear S2 was quite so interesting was its primary input method. Similar to the Apple Watch's 'crown' button, the bezel around the watch's screen could be used to navigate menus and perform other functions. Even now, it's one of the best input methods I've seen on a smartwatch. But if a research project from the University of St Andrews holds practical promise, similar interactions - really, even more powerful ones - could be implemented on Android Wear, and without any new hardware.