Jordan Palmer
Contributing since August, 2016
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1269articles
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About Jordan Palmer
Jordan is an editor for Android Police and a technology enthusiast. He writes frequently, both professionally and as a hobby, loving the process of putting pen to paper... or fingers to a keyboard. Beyond tech journalism, Jordan enjoys writing fiction and spending many of his free seconds world-building for his novels. He also fills his time with video games (like Overwatch), staying fit, and ignoring his house cat.
Latest Articles
Coming as a surprise to no one, the number of Android devices has continued to climb over the years. At Google I/O 2017, Sundar Pichai announced that there are now over 2 billion active monthly Android devices worldwide. That's an insanely high number.
It's Wednesday once again, which means it's time for another round of app sales. Today is special, however — Google I/O starts today! So while you wait for the keynote livestream to start, you can pore through the list you'll find below. Both 10-cent Apps of the Week have been spotted, too. Be sure to go back to Monday's post to see if any of the items there are still free/discounted.
LG has been one of the manufacturers who has stuck with LCD panels on its smartphones. While they look great, they still can't hold a candle to what Samsung puts in its Galaxy S and Note phones. Likely hoping to change that, the smaller Korean OEM (in terms of smartphone market share) is planning to ship its first smartphone with an OLED display in Q3 this year.
Instagram is getting some new features to appeal to your creative side. If you've been dying for some face filters for your posts or Direct messages, you can now have them. More features are also being added, like video rewind and hashtags right on the Stories that you post. Sounds... engaging.
Element Electronics, the manufacturer of affordable TVs, has taken to the internet to announce that pre-orders for its new line of 4K television sets with Amazon's Fire TV built-in are officially live. Featuring Alexa, voice controls, and all of the ecosystem's streaming apps, Element is poised to tackle the low-end 4K smart TV market.Surprisingly, these are the first televisions with Amazon's platform built-in — we've already seen it with both Android TV and Roku. The so-called Fire TV Edition line will come in four sizes: 43", 50", 55", and 65". All of them clock in at a 3840x2160 resolution with a 60Hz native/120Hz effective refresh rate, a "quad-core CPU/GPU chipset," 3GB of RAM, 16GB of storage (expandable via USB/SD), built-in WiFi/Bluetooth 4.1, 4 HDMI ports, and optical audio.Here is what these TVs will cost you:
Well, it's the start of a new week, but I think this one is more special than most. Google I/O kicks off on Wednesday, and I am sure that there will be plenty of exciting news. To tide you over until then, I've got the first round of app sales for the week.
In one of those not-so-surprising pieces of news this morning, Digitimes reported that Asus might be throwing in the towel on Android Wear. Despite the slight revitalization we've seen throughout this year, the sales numbers for the ZenWatch line are not looking good.
Another week has come and gone. For some, it's graduation time, while most of us simply trudge on with our lives. But, today is Friday and that means it's time for the final round of app sales! Remember to go back to check Wednesday's post to see what apps are still free or on-sale.
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After announcing Live 360, Facebook is continuing its crusade into the live broadcasting arena with an audio-only format cleverly named Live Audio. The premise is extremely basic: users will be able to broadcast their voices to any subscriber who may be tuning in.
2017 has seen a sort of rebirth for Android Wear. Between v2.0 of the wearable OS and the LG Watch Style and Sport, the platform is still struggling to make headway. Besides the "run-of-the-mill" smartwatches that you can buy, there exists a special luxury segment where technology meets fine craftsmanship. Tag Heuer is one of the better known brands to launch ludicrously expensive Wear devices, but Montblanc is hoping to take some of Tag's mindshare.
Sony announced the L1 back in March, calling it an affordable device. At the time, Sony kept the lid on pricing and availability, leaving them a mystery. With May almost half over, the Japanese OEM has finally made the budget phone available for sale in the U.S. through Amazon and Best Buy. For $199.99, you get a 5.5" 720p display, a MediaTek MT6737T SoC, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, a microSD slot, single nano SIM tray, 13MP/5MP cameras, a 2,620mAh battery, and a choice between three colors. Those specs certainly class the L1 in the low-end spectrum of smartphones.
Half of the week is almost gone and we're back with some more app sales. Today's list is rather short, so be sure to go back and look at Monday's post if you haven't already. We also have the partner to the 0.10 app that appeared at the beginning of this week.
Monday has rolled around once again and that means it's time for some more free and on-sale apps! It's finals week for me, so some of the entries on our list today are helpful distractions because who needs to study? Anyway, be sure to check back on Friday's post to see if any of the apps there are still free.
Pluto TV is a free television streaming service that broadcasts over 100 live news, sports, and other channels. The one thing that might irritate some people is that you can't just watch the stuff you want — you only get what's on. Regardless, it's an interesting value proposition.
The Top Developers program launched several years ago as a method of drawing attention to devs who put out great apps. We all started seeing the little blue arrow badge next to some of the developers' names, but it got easy to grow accustomed and eventually jaded to it.
Friday is here and the week is almost over. To celebrate the impending weekend, we're back with some more free and on-sale apps for you. If you haven't yet, be sure to go check out Wednesday's list — some of the freebies and sales should still be good.
The KEYone, the latest in the BlackBerry Ltd/TCL collaboration, is a phone that returns to the Canadian brand's iconic roots, for better or for worse. With Nougat and a strong focus on security, the KEYone is aimed at enterprise users and long-time fanatics.
Half of the week is gone (or mostly), which means it's time for yet another round of app sales. The list is much smaller today than it was Monday, and some of the apps from that post are still free or discounted so be sure to check it out.
The Galaxy S8/S8+ are the best phones of 2017 so far with the top-of-the-line SoC, gorgeous display, and an improved software experience. Either costs a pretty penny, so any sort of savings is worth it, right? Today we have the Verizon/GSM unlocked Galaxy S8+ for $824.99, which is only $15 off the price straight from Big Red. This one, however, is free of taxes and shipping costs. Makes it more interesting.
When the Honor 6X launched earlier this year, you could say that we here at AP were unimpressed. Sure, the phone packed in a lot of good specs for $250, but it shipped with Marshmallow, a version of Android that was over a year old at that point (well, it still is). In March, Huawei's sub-brand launched a beta program for 6X owners to try out Nougat and the much improved EMUI 5 — the company promised that Android 7.0 would roll out in the first half of 2017. Looks like that may actually happen.