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While the frequency of Humble Mobile Bundles has slowed in the last year, we are still graced with new ones every now and again. This time around, you can get up to eight games, with more on the way. Thing is, you need to jump on this deal since it's only good for about another two weeks.
Mark it down, everyone: LG is the second OEM to start the Nougat rollout to its early 2016 phone, the G5. Seeing as the V20 launched with 7.0, LG already had a head start on the update wars this year. The catch here for most of us reading this is that the update is starting in South Korea. The claim is that the rest of the world will see it in the "coming weeks."
In other Verizon news today, the cell operator announced two new options for its prepaid customers. Both offer quite a bit of data for prices that are not too bad considering that this is Verizon we're talking about. The first of these new plans is a 5GB for $50 per month tier, followed by 10GB for $70 per month. Both are available starting November 13.
For you Google Home owners that have been waiting so patiently to change up the look of your fancy new speaker, this is for you. Google has made six new, shiny bases available on its store. Half of them are fabric and the other half are metal. These are designed to make your Home fit in better with your home... décor.
In light of the recent release of Google Home, it should come as a surprise to no one that former king (or queen) of connected speakers, the Amazon Echo, would start seeing more deals. Well, here it is. The Echo is $140 on Amazon today in both colors, which is a savings of $40.
So let's just get this out of the way. Neither of the deals here are valid in the U.S., nor are they likely to be available in most other countries. Although, it never hurts to check to see if you are in one of the lucky few. We have all seen these 10-cent deals before, so we should all know the drill by now.
Google's entry into the connected home market looks unassuming, but has thus far proved to be amusing. Even though it might be lacking in features and integrations right now, that could easily change down the road. In the spirit of Home's release, iFixit has given us their sacred teardown tradition to determine repairability for the smart speaker. Complete with photos and x-ray shots of the whole process, the process showed a few surprises.
Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi unveiled three new devices today: the Redmi 4A, Redmi 4 Standard Edition, and Redmi 4 Pro Edition. These enter the very popular Redmi family of mid-range affordable phones. All three bring metal constructions, 5" screens, and Marshmallow for astoundingly amazing price points.
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It was not too long ago that Samsung gave U.K. owners of the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge the ability to enroll their devices in the Marshmallow beta program. This marked a step outside of Samsung's norm, which was internal testing of major software updates. So here we are in the latter part of 2016 and Samsung seems to be following its new methodology... At least, it looked that way briefly.
Google has brought Playtime, its developer education event, back to San Francisco with some news for those that help to make Android awesome. If you missed the event or the video highlights, there is a handy blog post with a summary of the information announced. The most interesting points from it are that Google is now giving developers the ability to run subscription promotional prices and to see which users have requested refunds. Fun stuff, right?
Celebrate, Uber riders! The ride-sharing service has announced that it is overhauling its aging app. Gone will be the overly complicated navigation (they said it, not me) — instead, the app will be cleaner, smoother, and faster. Uber even states that it will be rebuilt from the ground up. The redesign focuses on the question of "Where to?" Since we all use Uber to, you know, get somewhere.
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At the beginning of the month, Asus announced that its latest Android Wear offering, the ZenWatch 3, would be available in the early part of November. It looks like the company came through with its promise. The ZenWatch 3 is now available to order for $229 through the Asus store and B&H. I daresay that this looks like a very nice piece.
Music is definitely everywhere. From our own personal libraries and streaming stations to advertisements and entertainment, it is a fundamental part of who we are as individuals and as a culture (for better or for worse). Since music is just noise (how's that for a scientific breakthrough), I have always found it neat to see the visual representation of the soundwaves in line with the song that is playing. Back when Windows Media Player was a thing, I always turned on the visualizer, finding it much more entertaining than staring at the album art — or worse, the placeholder image when no art was available.
Qualcomm has announced that it plans to acquire NXP Semiconductors for $47 billion USD, including debt, which will be the largest semiconductor deal ever. NXP, for those of who don't know, is a large player in the automotive, IoT, and security chips market. For reference, its chips are behind 14 of the top 15 most-popular infotainment systems.
Sony just announced today that its PlayStation Vue streaming service is coming to Android TV. If you do not know what Vue is, it might just seem like another streaming option. It is actually more akin to Dish's Sling TV with live TV channels, sports networks, and HBO and Showtime across a variety of price tiers. Additionally, the "PlayStation" moniker might give the impression of requiring Sony's PlayStation 4 game console — it actually doesn't. For all of the cord cutters out there, this is just another good option in a growing market.
Samsung posted its earnings for Q3 2016, and it is not as pleasant as it was three months ago. For the period ending September 30, 2016, total revenue was 47.82 trillion KRW ($42.01 billion USD), a decrease of 3.87 trillion KRW ($4.57 billion USD) from this point last year. Without going too much further into the financial details (I get excited about financial results, okay?), we can all guess the reason for the decline. The IT & Mobile Communication Division is what dragged Samsung down, but its other divisions showed some good results. The Consumer Electronics Division's favorable sales in SUHD TVs and home appliances are especially of note in the report.
We should all be familiar with the 10-cent deal alerts by now. It is a real luck of the draw to see if your home country is included in the sales.
If you ordered one of the new Pixel phones, you may want to start checking your order status. Pre-orders have finally begun to ship, as some of the AP staff can confirm. Google did give us a timeframe similar to this at the announcement event, so no one should be surprised.
Google seems to be on a new trend lately. The search giant has taken to advertising its products on its homepage, starting with Duo last month and then the Pixel phones earlier this week. Now, a small text banner has appeared to bring attention to Allo, the newest messaging service.
While I enjoy working out, I will admit that going without my favorite music makes it much more difficult — especially with cardio. For me, good music equals gains. Equally important, though, is keeping track of progress, but that can often require switching between two or three apps. That is, unless you go old-school and carry a notebook.