Hagop Kavafian
Contributing since January, 2019
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About Hagop Kavafian
Hagop is a tech-savvy guy, who's also into traveling, fitness, biking, food, and planes. He's heptalingual and has lived in 5 different countries, but has decided to settle in Paris for the time being.
Latest Articles
Back in October, Facebook finally granted WhatsApp users on Android the ability to swipe on a message to reply to it. Although this let us enjoy something iOS users had for a while, the company's Messenger platform still didn't allow users to quote a particular message to reply to it. However, the social media giant is working on making its messaging services more consistent with each other. Indeed, after allowing you to unsend messages, it's now bringing the swipe-to-quote feature to Messenger as well.
If you play games on your Android device, you may be familiar with gaming "Events," which let you win prizes and rewards. These can be found in the Play Store, under a game's description so you can be aware of special giveaways or contests. However, until now, you had to check every app's page individually and couldn't get a consolidated view of all upcoming events. To make things easier, Google is gradually rolling out a dedicated "Events" tab, which synthesizes the information in a single place for you.
If you're into photography and are on the lookout for a decent and affordable Android phone, the Samsung Galaxy A9 may be worth considering. It offers decent specs, a pleasant design, and has four — yes four! — rear cameras, to capture every important moment. Considering the handset is only six months old and is currently selling for $200 less than its MSRP, it's definitely a bargain.
Unlike most phones shown at MWC, the Galaxy Fold was kept in a protective glass box, which prevented visitors from getting their hands on the device. Despite the casing, we noticed a crease in the middle the display, which isn't a surprise given the panel is covered by plastic and not glass. Indeed, every time the handset is opened and closed, the plastic gets bent and creases over (a short period of) time. However, there were no unofficial videos of the Galaxy Fold available online to confirm this until one surfaced yesterday. It reveals more about the phone, including a very noticeable crease in the screen.
Android Ice Cream Sandwich was the first version of the operating system to introduce virtual navigation keys to phones, allowing manufacturers to dismiss physical ones. Although some decided to wait much longer to implement these, — I'm looking at you, Samsung — almost all Android devices nowadays have finally abandoned traditional buttons in favor of on-screen input. With the introduction of the iPhone X, Apple wanted to maximize screen space and therefore designed an ingenious swiping-based navigation system, that didn't require the need for buttons. With Pie, Google took its stab at it, but didn't quite make up its mind between using keys or gestures and instead went for a combination of both. Things are looking brighter, though: There's a good chance the Back Button is living its last moments, and the search giant appears to be moving towards more gestures to interact with the interface.
With One UI, Samsung introduced a system-wide night mode for its Android Pie devices. The new feature darkens the manufacturer's proprietary software such as the Calculator and Messages apps and also alters the overall menus and interface colors, but still requires you to manually enable dark mode in other applications like Messenger or Slack. Android Auto, on the other hand, happily receives this setting and defaults to it, no matter the time of the day.
Smartphones are growing increasingly powerful and are boasting faster processors, larger storage, and greater memory. Nine years ago, the first Galaxy S shipped with just 512MB of RAM, but the capacity on smartphones has evolved to reach a minimum of 6GB on the S10e. It looks like these numbers will continue to expand, as Samsung just announced it's begun mass-producing its new LPDDR4X 12GB DRAM chip.
Continued Conversation lets you reply to Assistant after it answers you, without having to repeat "OK Google" every time. For instance, after asking it for the weather, you can respond to your smart speaker with another command such as "How about tomorrow?" Until recently, the feature only supported US English, but the company has now made it available to all English users.
Several manufacturers have looked at solutions to turn phones into full-featured workstations, the most recent one being Samsung with DeX. Sadly, most of these required a costly dock to connect to external monitors, keyboards and mice, which led to limited usage. Since the release of the Note 9, Samsung got rid of the need to use a cradle and let users directly connect the handset to a display using the built-in USB-C port, which made it easier to use the device as an actual computer. However, since the solution is specific to Samsung, apps have to be optimized specifically for DeX to work best when used in desktop mode, or would otherwise just be regular windowed Android apps. It appears Google is finally looking at harmonizing desktop mode with Android Q, thanks to native support for it.
Although a connected home ecosystem will surely make your life easier, setting it up tends to be costly, as you usually have to buy smart speakers, bulbs, and plugs. You can often save a few bucks when buying a starter kit, which includes a combination of smart devices at a discount. Amazon regularly throws in a connected device with its smart speakers and sells them at a markdown, which is what it's doing now with this deal that lets you save $37 when buying a second-generation Echo speaker together with a TP-Link Smart Plug Mini.It's interesting Amazon isn't bundling the Echo with its own smart plug, but a third-party one instead. It's not necessarily a bad thing, though, as the TP-Link Smart Plug Mini is highly praised, and even works with other systems, such as Google Assistant, Cortana, Nest, and IFTTT. As its name might suggest, it's also compact and will leave the second outlet free when plugged into the wall, which lets you use it as a regular socket or stack two smart plugs on top of each other. Unfortunately, unlike many other smart sockets on the market, this one can only handle up to 10A, which is suitable for small electronics, but probably not enough for larger appliances such as electric heaters.Buy: Amazon
If you're looking for a kid-friendly tablet for your youngsters, Amazon's Kindle Fire Kids Edition devices are amongst the best offering on the market. Their rugged-case, kid-specific content, easy-to-use parental controls, and guarantee against damages make them perfectly suitable for children. The company has just marked their prices down to the lowest they've ever been, with $40 off the 7" and 8" models, and a $50 rebate on the 10" version.All three tablets come with 2-year Worry-Free guarantee, which lets you trade your broken device for a new one at no extra charge. The included "kid proof" case should, however, limit the amount of damage the Fire will sustain in case it gets dropped.
Back in August, Google added bilingual support to Assistant, giving users the ability to address it in two different languages without fiddling with settings. As I live in Paris, I'm a big fan of this feature: I mostly speak to my Assistant in English, but I find it much easier to use French when mentioning an address for example. Also, when I have guests over, they can easily interact with my smart speaker in their native tongue, rather than having to speak in English. Initially, Google introduced support for six languages and gradually added many more. The company is now expanding this list to incorporate new ones, including regional dialects.
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Google's fast charger, originally designed to power up Pixel smartphones, has been available on the company's store since 2016. It's been selling for $35 ever since but Walmart is currently offering it for less than $15, which is a fair bargain if you're looking to reduce your device's charging time.
Google's recently discontinued the brilliantly straightforward Chromecast Audio in a move to encourage people to buy full-featured smart speakers rather than letting them stream music cordlessly with the help of a dongle. Unfortunately for many, this was one of the few ways to connect "dumb" audio equipment to Wi-Fi networks, and with Google sunsetting its product, people have been left with a limited number of alternatives — excluding Bluetooth, of course. This was until Amazon unveiled the Echo Input, which essentially lets you use any speaker with Alexa.Besides letting you stream music wirelessly, the Echo Input features four microphones and therefore turns any speaker into an Alexa-enabled assistant. It's essentially an Echo Dot without a built-in speaker, which instead connects to your existing one using a 3.5mm jack or Bluetooth. The device usually sells for $35, but it's currently $15 off and therefore a relatively affordable option if you're thinking of upgrading your older equipment.The Echo Input comes in white and black and looks relatively discreet. This is good news, since you may have to put it out in the open for it to hear you.Buy: Amazon
Samsung introduced its revamped One UI interface in November. The company claims the new design is more intuitive and requires less finger movement on large screens. In addition, it brings a dark mode for stock apps and system elements, which looks sleek and saves battery on OLED displays.
About a year ago, Spotify started testing a new full-screen album art layout for specific songs and playlists and more recently enhanced this feature to display repeating video snippets called "canvases" for certain tracks. Although the company claims these are designed to limit battery and data usage, they create an inconsistent experience when they're amongst other songs that don't have these animated images, especially because I'd rather see the actual album cover instead of an animation uploaded by the artist. However, it appears the streaming giant wants to let users choose if they want to disable these and show the regular CD cover instead.
Samsung's latest Galaxy S10 series went from pre-order to regular-order today, eliminating the wait associated with picking one up. Sadly, you'll also lose out on pre-order Galaxy Buds freebie. Several existing offers through US carriers have persisted, though, and we've checked the details on the different promotions currently available and compiled them here.
Several rumors are suggesting Motorola is considering releasing a foldable device soon, including a hint from the company's VP of Global Product, Dan Dery. After all, it's only fair to expect Lenovo's subsidiary to try to rival Samsung and Huawei in this promising market. According to the grapevine, the manufacturer is looking at reviving the iconic RAZR brand with a flip phone that features an internal bendable display and a smaller outer screen. Details on how the latter will interact with Android have leaked, and the least we can say is that it looks quite limited.
Following recent confidentiality scandals, the social media giant just announced plans for a new "privacy-focused platform." In parallel, it also appears to be working on a new all-white user interface for Android. Although the two don't seem to be related, it's quite intriguing the company is designing a colorless app amid privacy-related concerns.
[Update: Deal available again] Grab a 2-pack Aukey smart socket or a dual outlet smart plug for ~$20
Earlier this week we were telling you how you could save money on new smart plugs thanks to Amazon's markdown. Although this was an interesting deal, many Assistant users felt let down as they were only compatible with Alexa. Well, we've got some comforting news for you: With these promotional codes, you can grab a pair of Aukey WiFi Smart Plugs for just $20 or a dual outlet plug for $19, respectively $8 and $6 off their original prices.To enjoy the rebate, add the items to your Amazon cart and enter these coupons when checking out: