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The concept of trailers for movies and TV shows has existed for longer than time itself, but Netflix is looking to add a bit of modern flair to promote its newest content. Mobile previews, announced today, are vertical videos approximately 30 seconds in length that aim to help customers find something to watch more quickly. The feature is coming soon to Android.
The Ultimate Ears BLAST and MEGABLAST are good speakers overall, but there were two main areas in which we felt that they weren't quite up to snuff: pricing and features. The pricing concern has largely been alleviated, with some seriously good deals being offered on both models in the past few weeks, but we hadn't heard much on the feature front. Ultimate Ears has just announced that the BLAST and MEGABLAST will be getting Spotify Connect support, as well as some features it should have shipped with.
Carphone Warehouse, a phone retailer based in the UK, has had a leak involving the upcoming Moto G6 and G6 Plus on its site. Color options, contract pricing, and some specifications for both phones have been prematurely published, allowing us to get an even closer look at Motorola's upcoming Moto G lineup.
Nowadays, several phone manufacturers have their own payment services. There's Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, the upcoming LG Pay, and of course, Google Pay. After experiencing two rebrands and retaining the same Play Store listing, the Google Pay app has just hit 100 million downloads on the Play Store.
In a rather unconventional move, Amazon has announced a partnership with Best Buy. The next generation of Amazon Fire TV Edition-branded smart TVs will be exclusively sold by Best Buy at retail stores, on BestBuy.com, and most interestingly, by Best Buy on Amazon.com as a third-party seller for the very first time.
Nest has all but taken over the smart thermostat market, and it introduced the Thermostat E late last year as a budget-oriented alternative to its standard Learning Thermostat. At its regular price of $169, the Thermostat E was already a great buy, but Woot is now offering brand-new units for an incredible 9.99.
For those who travel to foreign countries often or are learning a new language, Google Translate can be a lifesaver. That's in large part thanks to features such as offline translation and instant camera translation from English. Seven new Indian languages --- Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu --- can now take advantage of those features.
Starting with the Galaxy S8, Samsung began bundling AKG-branded earphones, officially called "Samsung Earphones Tuned by AKG," with its flagship phones. As far as included earphones go, they're actually very good. Now, with our exclusive coupon, you can pick up a two-pack of these from Daily Steals for a stunningly low .99 - that's $10 per set.
For a couple of years now, Samsung has sold their flagships with Snapdragon chips in the US and Exynos chips everywhere else. The performance (and development, interestingly enough) is superior on the Exynos models nowadays, and the dual-SIM capabilities of these SM-G965F/DS variants can often come in handy. You can now pick up a dual-SIM S9+ for 4.99, which is lower than previous deals we've posted about.
Just as it did last year and the year before, Amazon is offering an extra 20% off of many of its Warehouse Deals in celebration of Earth Week. So if you don't mind purchasing slightly used products, you might be able to get a steep discount on whatever you're looking for.There are a ton of categories eligible for this 20% off discount, but smartphones, computers/tablets, TV/video, video games, camera and photo accessories, networking accessories, and more are included in the tech sector. Other eligible categories include kitchen appliances, coffee/tea, luggage, vacuums, and baby products.Here are some Android-related deals that you might be interested in:
Android Auto is handy to have in your car, but one of its main caveats is the requirement to have your phone plugged in at all times. Wireless Android Auto aims to solve that problem, and JVC and KENWOOD have collectively announced seven units that support it. KENWOOD's five units, all of which are understandably pretty pricey, are now shipping in the US.
Late last month, Razer released an Oreo preview build for the Razer Phone, with the final release slated to arrive in mid to late April. Well, we're now solidly in the territory of mid to late April, and Razer has kept its word. The company has also announced that the Razer Phone is now available at Best Buy.
Seven months have passed since we published the last installment of the AP Files. In that time, the Android world has seen some pretty interesting additions. Way too many flagships, including the latest from ASUS, Huawei, LG, and OnePlus, are being leaked/revealed with notches (thanks, Apple). Android P made its debut in developer preview form, and it looks like Google may be adding gesture navigation as well. LG unveiled the successor to the V30, the nicely-named V30S ThinQ, which is just a V30 with more RAM and some AI features you'll play with once and never touch again.
Ultimate Ears' new BLAST is a good speaker, but it's not without its flaws. One of those crucial flaws was its high price; at $229.99, the BLAST was more expensive than basically any of its competitors. However, recent discounts have made the price a lot more palatable, and this one from Verizon for 9.99 with the POWER UP dock included may be the best one yet.
Sony has officially announced the Xperia XZ2 Premium, the top dog in the XZ2 range. Last year's XZ Premium was best known for its 4K display, and the XZ2 Premium builds upon that by offering HDR certification, top-notch processing power, a "Motion Eye Dual" camera setup, Qi wireless charging, and more.
The Essential Phone's initial $700 price obviously wasn't very enticing, as the phone has since fallen to as low as $399 with a free 360 Camera attachment. Today's $399 deal from Amazon and Best Buy doesn't include the 360-degree camera, but let's be honest; you were never going to use that after the first day of ownership anyway.For your $399.99, you get a phone with a nearly bezel-less front and a notch, a ceramic back, a 5.7" 1440p LCD, a Snapdragon 835, 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, dual cameras, and a 3,040mAh battery. Android 8.1 Oreo recently rolled out to it, so you have the most recent version of Android on board. It's hard to beat those specs for the money, though it is worth noting that it still has issues on T-Mobile.Amazon and Best Buy are both offering this $399.99 price in the Black Moon and Pure White colors. Each retailer has its own selling points; Amazon offers free two-day shipping, but Best Buy has in-store pickup. If you're looking for a well-built phone with great specs, this should definitely be on your list.Source: Amazon (Black Moon), (Pure White); Best Buy (Black Moon), (Pure White)
With their fingerprint sensors, iris scanners, and facial recognition tech, Samsung phones feature more methods of biometric authentication than most, if not all, of their competitors. However, the Korean company is now being sued by a US-based "data security firm," PACid Technologies, for infringing on two US patents and one Korean patent with its biometric features.
Spotify has been working with Hulu on its $4.99 "Spotify Premium for Students" plan for nearly a year now, but the music streaming service is now introducing Hulu integration to non-students as well. At $12.99, it's not nearly as good of a deal as the student plan, but it's a nice discount for those who already have Hulu or want to give Hulu a shot. Plus, existing Premium subscribers can try Hulu out for three months for just $0.99.
It might surprise you to know that developers in many countries can't sell paid apps on the Play Store. Last month, Ecuador, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania added support for merchant registration (a prerequisite to sell paid apps and IAPs on the Play Store), and now Tunisia and Zimbabwe have joined in on the fun.
Over the past few days, OnePlus has been leaking details of its upcoming flagship, the OnePlus 6. The company revealed that the phone would indeed have a notch, then established that it would indeed be called 'OnePlus 6.' In its latest post, OnePlus has confirmed the 6's performance-related specifications: the Snapdragon 845, 8GB of RAM, and up to a whopping 256GB of storage.