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According to reviews on the Play Store, the Google Sounds app that just popped up on the platform is super addictive, a great time waster, can turn two speakers into a surround sound experience, and prevents baldness. How is this possible? It's not. It's just an app that updates your sound settings so you can get ringtones that were previously only available on Pixel, and see some funky audio visualizations. At least, that's what it will be - neither of those features are live yet and, at the moment, downloading the app provides users with no real benefit at all.
Google isn't known for restraint when it comes to creating new products and services (especially ones with features that overlap existing properties), but it's equally notorious for killing off products — sometimes even those with devoted user bases (e.g. Inbox by Gmail). So notorious, in fact, that not one but two different online resources have popped up to highlight all of Google's many dead products. Let's take a stroll down memory lane, shall we?
When the Samsung Wireless Charger Duo first arrived alongside the Galaxy Note9 and Galaxy Watch, the Android Police team noted that it was far from aesthetically pleasing, and way more expensive than expected. Well, it's still ugly, but it's a whole lot cheaper on Amazon now if you can catch this one day sale.The Qi dual wireless charger is only $50 today, a whopping $70 (or 58 percent) off its regular $120 listing price. The 8.5-inch wide accessory offers one vertical phone stand and one smaller pad designed for the Galaxy Watch - but placing any other Qi compatible device works as well. The charger also features a built-in fan and ventilation to keep devices from overheating while charging.While this price reduction on Amazon is significant (Best Buy and Samsung's online store still list $120), it's also important to note that it's not the only dual charger out there, and some are even cheaper - take this one sold by lesser-known brand ZVE for $35.99. Still, the Wireless Charger Duo has Samsung's brand name behind it, and reviewers say it's relatively speedy, so it's certainly worth considering.Thanks: MosheSource: Amazon
Barnes & Noble's 10.1-inch Nook may be a hard sell at $129.99 for what is ultimately just a mediocre white label Android tablet, but the bookseller has just announced a .99 7-inch Nook tablet that might convince more buyers this holiday season.In direct competition with Amazon's 7-inch Fire 7 tablet, the wi-fi-only Nook tablet offers the benefit of featuring the Google Play Store out of the box - which is perhaps its main selling point (though we don't know what version of Android it runs).Apart from that, the device offers 16GB of storage (expandable up to 128GB by microSD card), a 7-inch 1024 x 600 IPS display (171 ppi), and promises a battery life of up to 7 hours use. For connectors, there's a micro USB 2.0 port and 3.5mm headset jack. If you're looking to take pictures, though, get ready to travel back to 2005 with a front-facing VGA camera (roughly 0.3 megapixels), or 2-megapixel rear-facing camera.Barnes & Noble doesn't divulge the processor or RAM (we've reached out for info), but last year the 7-inch Nook featured a 1.3GHz quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM, so it'll likely be the same or slightly stepped up. For what it's worth, that tablet got middling-to-decent reviews from the e-reader media set, but mainly because it was inexpensive enough to be potentially worth the buy despite slow performance and wall charger issue that prompted a recall. In any case, it's available now, in case you want a reasonably similar alternative to the Amazon Fire 7.
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- Google Fi has pulled the travel promotion earlier than initially expected. At around 10pm ET a Google employee posted on the Google Fi Help Center forums that the promotion "is no longer available on fi.google.com or store.google.com. She wrote: "Even though we ran out of gift cards, don't worry-- we have other exciting deals for you." She pointed to the $200 Fi service credit mentioned above. Initially, the company stated that the promotion would end at 11:59pm PT, though there was mention of limited quantities. Information and the terms of the deal have now been removed from the Fi site after what was no doubt a very successful promotion for the operator.
When Google revealed Project Fi had become Google Fi (and added support for a whole lot of new devices) this morning, it also launched a tempting one-day deal. Today, November 28th, anyone who purchases a phone through Google Fi before 11:59 PM PT can get up to a $1,000 credit from Airbnb, Hotels.com, Southwest Airlines, or Delta Air Lines.
Lenovo announced two new Android One devices in late August 2018: the Motorola One and One Power. The budget smartphones marked the Motorola brand's first Android One handsets outside of the US-only version of the Moto X4. Both are fairly middle-of-the-road Android devices when it comes to hardware, but software support is the real selling point, with promised updates to both Android Pie and Q, along with three years of security patches. Now, the manufacturer is following through on the first major update, with the announcement that Android Pie software is rolling out globally for both Motorola One handsets.
Project Fi logo (left) next to new Google Fi logo.
News of Google's censored Chinese search engine project Dragonfly has steadily leaked since August, angering many of the company's own employees - especially after the response that filtered down from the higher-ups was essentially: yes, we might compromise core values for business. A group of over 170 employees have now banded together to address the issue publicly with an article and petition posted on Medium in partnership with Amnesty International entitled "We are Google employees. Google must drop Dragonfly."
Remember when every YouTube video was plastered with multiple obnoxious annotations overlaying parts of the screen and beseeching you to click? Well, that era is finally drawing to its inevitable close. The video platform discontinued its annotations editor on May 2nd, 2017, and will stop showing any existing annotations on January 15th, 2019.
Despite its best efforts, Google Maps isn't quite as easy to use for restaurant hunting as Yelp. But the Mountain View tech giant isn't about to give up anytime soon: it has quietly added support for the ultimate social media tool - the hashtag - so users can more easily find reviews that identify #datenight spots or places that are #wheelchairaccessible, for example.
The Bose QuietComfort 25 wired headphone might be a little over four years old, but they still hold up remarkably well as a high-quality acoustic noise canceling headset at a great value. During the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales the headphones are even more affordable, dropping from a regular price of roughly $200 to 9.99 on Amazon.That's almost half off, though the regular price may have been heading downward to begin with. In late October the price dipped to $177.50 on Amazon. Either way ($90 off or roughly $67 off), it's a strong deal - especially considering the QuietComfort 35 I is full price at $350 on Amazon, while the QuietComfort 35 II is $300.Of course, you have to factor in the fact that both of the QC25's over-the-ear successors are wireless, but if you have a device with a 3.5mm headphone jack or don't mind using an adapter, it could be a good buy. If you're interested, you should note that there's not much time to decide - only until roughly the end of Cyber Monday.Source: Amazon
Xiaomi's new Mi Box S was announced just last month, in unison with Google's Pixel 3 reveal, at the reasonable price of $60. That price got even more reasonable recently when Walmart offered the Mi Box S and Google Home Mini as a bundle for $85 — a savings of $24 altogether. Now, for Black Friday, the big box retailer is discounting the gadget even further.
Even the most jaded smart home cynic can see the use in connected security systems, locks, and doorbells. Our own David Ruddock recently called his new smart door lock "the most sensible smart home gadget I've used," and, by his own admission, he's difficult to impress. For those interested in getting in on the smart home doorbell/lock/security kit game, Costco is currently offering discounted Ring and Nest bundles, some of which offer year-long subscriptions to cloud services for storing security video.
Sony's WH-1000XM2 wireless headphones debuted to rave reviews in 2017. It was praised for excellent sound quality, effective sound cancellation, and a comfortable fit — not to mention the fact that it was among the first to feature the Google Assistant. A new model, the WH-1000XM3, was revealed this August as a follow-up to the popular headset, but the 2017 variant is still worth consideration, especially at its current $200 price point during the Black Friday sales week.Generally, the WH-1000XM2 comes in at $350, but during the sales blitz that is late November, the wireless headphones are at around $200 through pretty much every retailer that has stock. That's a $150 savings, or a discount of about 43 percent. See the full list of retailers offering the promotion below:
If your wallet is already suffering from the major influx of pre-Black Friday deals, here's a welcome relief: YouTube now offers a bunch of free, ad-supported movies (at least in the US). Forget about your holiday spending woes and binge watch old school classics like Hackers, The Terminator, and a marathon's worth of Rocky films.
We're deep in the throes of Black Friday week, which one might imagine is generally the jolliest time of the year for Amazon. However, the massive global e-commerce platform has just revealed some less-than-jolly news: it "inadvertently disclosed" customer email addresses due to a "technical error."
It seems like apps are only gaining white space lately, but at least one of the world's most popular note taking apps is joining the dark side. With version 8.6 of Evernote, the app has introduced a dark mode. With any luck, other major note and to-do apps, like Google Keep and Microsoft OneNote, will follow soon.
Google Play Black Friday media deals: 99¢ on all Thanksgiving Day movie rentals, audiobook discounts, and more
Google Play Black Friday media deals: 99¢ on all Thanksgiving Day movie rentals, audiobook discounts, and more
Google may have just introduced a library of free, ad-supported movies to YouTube, but if you feel like watching something a little more recent than Agent Cody Banks, the company's new Google Play promotion might be a better option. On Thanksgiving Day only, Google Play is offering any movie rental for 99 cents.
It isn't easy to find a Wear OS device that is feature rich, affordable, and small enough to evade classification as a planet these days, but Fossil's new Sport smartwatch is certainly enticing. It's not too big (41 or 43mm case sizes), features the latest in wearable processing (Snapdragon Wear 3100), and covers all the standard bases (5 ATM water resistance, NFC, heart rate sensor) for $255. But in case you're thinking that's still a little bit pricey for what's on offer — you're probably right. But you're also in luck, because there's 30 percent off site-wide on Fossil products for Black Friday in the US, available immediately.
Europe's new digital copyright legislation has raised no shortage of concerns from business and consumer rights advocates alike. The severe new regulations include what critics have dubbed a "link tax" that would require most medium to large online platforms to pay copyright holders for reproducing even small snippets of text (though a few "individual words" is fine). This, of course, is at the core of Google News, and Google is adamant that it may shut down its news aggregation app in Europe if the EU does not alter the phrasing of its legislation.