Michael Crider
Contributing since December, 2013
-
3608articles
Page 34
About Michael Crider
Michael is a born Texan and a former graphic designer. He's been covering technology in general and Android in particular since 2011. His interests include folk music, football, science fiction, and salsa verde, in no particular order. He wrote a novel called Good Intentions: A Supervillain Story, and it's available on Amazon.
Latest Articles
While Sling TV makes a pretty compelling offering for those who want to ditch expensive conventional television service, its all-live setup is something of a bummer - recording has become so ingrained in the premium TV mindset that it's hard to give up. The company is rectifying that shortcoming with Cloud DVR, a (wait for it) DVR service that uses cloud storage to hold recorded TV episodes and other content. It's in closed beta right now - prospective users can sign up and cross their fingers at this address.
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications and live wallpapers that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous 2 weeks or so.
For fans of all things automotive, the trio of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May are three of the most recognizable voices in the world. The three hosted the relaunched UK car show Top Gear for more than a decade before a controversial falling out with the BBC, after which all three moved to the new Amazon show The Grand Tour. As a brilliant bit of promotion for the new show, they're now available as custom driving narration in the Waze navigation app.
The Moto G series has become something of a fixture of the mid-range and low-end Android market, thanks to a combination of competent hardware and clean software. That's no less true now that Motorola has gone modular with its flagship Z series - in fact, I'll bet that a few fans of the old Moto X models are moving down the line. Today Best Buy is offering the Verizon prepaid Moto G4 Play, normally $85, for a jaw-dropping .99. You don't even have to buy any service to get the phone - nice!
The new OnePlus 3T is a respectable if not earth-shattering update to the alternative flagship - see Ryan Whitwam's review for the full breakdown of the new phone and how it compares with the original OP3. It went on sale in the US last week, but now buyers in Europe also have a chance to get their hands on one. It's straight sales all the way - none of the ticket systems that OnePlus used to indulge in.
Something about the international Duos (dual-SIM) models of Samsung's Galaxy phones makes them ripe for discounts, especially on eBay. We start seeing good deals on these phones a few weeks after release, and they only get better with time. Case in point: today one vendor is offering both the standard Galaxy S7 and the S7 Edge, both in Duos flavors, both for hundreds of dollars off of MSRP. The S7 Duos is just 9.99 while the S7 Edge Duos is 9.99.
The mobile market is mature enough that there aren't too many issues left when it comes to cross-compatibility between Android and iOS, at least for relatively simple matters like mobile web surfing or SMS. But the latest flagship phones on both sides of the aisle seem to have a bit of digital beef, at least according to a few Pixel owners. This discussion on the Google's product forum details a bizarre bug distorting screenshots sent from the iPhone 7 Plus (the latest and most expensive iPhone) to the Pixel.
The MediaPad M3, Huawei's latest attempt to compete with mid-sized tablets in the iPad Mini niche, has only been officially available in the US for a week. But the tablet is already on sale, and by an impressive 20% no less. Amazon is selling the MediaPad M3 for 9, $60 off the retail price. That's not bad at all for a device with its specs, especially since competition in the premium Android tablet space (and in this smaller form factor) seems to be so thin these days.
There are a lot of point-and-click adventure games on the Play Store, some of them ports of classics from decades ago, some of them original games spurred on by the genre's mobile renaissance. But none seem so downright dedicated to the classic format as Kathy Rain, the rookie effort from independent developer Clifftop Games. Equal parts Agatha Christie and Broken Sword, the game's graphics, setting, and sound design are all crafted to call back to the golden age of 90s adventures with an original story.
Most of the deals we've dug up for Black Friday have been for phones and other electronics - tangible goods. For those looking for something a little less corporeal, there's currently a very rare discount available on Dropbox storage. Dell's online storefront has a year of Dropbox Pro storage going for .99, which is $40 less than the usual charge for one terabyte of backup space. If that's not enough to get your attention, Dell will throw in $25 in gift card credit for its store for free.
It's well into the evening now for most of the US, so presumably the bloody melee that is retail Black Friday sales is mostly over. If you've set your broken bones and patched up your bruises and you're still itching for some deals, the big box online stores are still offering discounts on MicroSD card storage, plus SanDisk's Wi-Fi-powered flash storage devices. Let's break it down by retailer, shall we?
If you're in the market for an action camera that can shoot in insane 4K resolution, you could do worse than the YI. Jeff Beck gave the camera an easy recommendation versus the more common GoPro models in his review, even if users will need to buy the accessories separately. Today Amazon has the YI 4K, in black, white, and pink colors, for $50 off. That brings the camera down to just $199.99.The YI can handle 4K recording at 30 frames per second, but if you'd like to see your snowboarding faceplants in slow motion it can also handle 120fps at 1080p or 240fps at 720p. Photo stills are taken at 12 megapixels. Unlike GoPro models, the Yi uses a full color touchscreen for setup and browsing photos and videos. There's also an Android app for handy management if you've mounted the camera somewhere inaccessible, plus easy transfer and sharing.The listing is fulfilled by Amazon, which means free two-day shipping for Prime subscribers (and free standard shipping for everyone else thanks to the price). The "Selfie set," which includes the camera and a remote shutter switch, is also discounted from $280 to $229. As usual with Amazon sales, there's no indication of when the camera will go back to its full price, but it seems unlikely that the discount will last into next week.Source: Amazon
The Nextbit Robin is a quirky little phone, selling itself on a unique cloud storage-based Android ROM and a striking squared-off body. Ryan gave it a solid review when it debuted earlier this year, noting its appealing design and budget price. The phone frequently goes on sale from various retailers, but today's deal on eBay might be the best yet: it's down to just 9.99, a whopping $250 off of the original price.
Connected gadgets like Google Home and Amazon's Echo are neat enough by themselves, but they really come into their own when paired with connected home tech. If you'd like to get started on a collection of said tech, Google subsidiary Nest is currently holding a Black Friday Sale with $50 off of each of its flagship products: the Nest Thermostat, the Nest Cam security camera, and the Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide detector. All prices are good on the Nest online store.
Black Friday deals have been kind of underwhelming for the last few years, but Verizon seems to be taking full advantage of its "exclusive" on the US carrier version of the Pixel phones. For customers who buy a new phone today (Thanksgiving) or tomorrow, the price is reduced to a month for the Pixel and a month for the Pixel XL. That works out to just $239.99 for the Pixel and $359.99 for the Pixel XL (only the 128GB model of the larger phone is being discounted) over the two-year payment period.
Most of the time when a customer sends a gadget in for repair, under warranty or otherwise, the manufacturer will either fix the problem with the original unit, issue a refurbished unit that's also been fixed, or (if supply and/or time is low) send out a new one. None of those three options seem to be available for certain ailments of the Nexus 5X. According to an Android Police reader and several posters on the dedicated 5X subreddit, LG is issuing full refunds for owners that are suffering from a particular malfunction that causes a "boot loop" and an unusable phone.
Buying a used phone is something of a crapshoot. Customers can do all the research they like or pore over photos with a magnifying glass, but eventually they just have to trust that someone else hasn't dumped a lemon of a device onto the next sucker. Swappa, a marketplace for gadget buyers and sellers that specializes in Android hardware, is trying to take some of the uncertainty out of that process. Starting today the company is offering device protection plans for phones, with laptops and tablets coming soon.
When shopping for a budget or mid-range phone, there is always an element of compromise. How many high-end features, how much capability are you willing to give up for the sake of a few hundred dollars? It's a similar proposition in just about any field - from a multi-year car purchase to a simple meal - but the scales are tipping for mobile. The last few years have been marked by amazing value, and thus less and less compromise, in the mid-range segment.
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android games that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous 2 weeks or so.
AirDroid, the free app that offers easy file transfers and remote management for Android devices, remains one of the best and most consistent apps on the Play Store. Developer Sand Studio is scrupulous in maintaining the app's functionality and improving it with new features and design tweaks. Today the dev introduced what's probably the biggest change to the platform since it offered a paid option: a complete visual overhaul. Everything from the layout to the logo to the promotional web page has been updated.