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Google is making a real effort to enhance its travel features across a variety of platforms lately. Over the past few months, the search giant updated Google Flights with new features for sussing out whether you're overpaying for airfare and hotels, added new tools in Search for planning upcoming trips, and overhauled hotel listings in Google Maps. It's now continuing that trend with an update to hotel browsing on Search for desktop that takes after a mobile refresh from earlier this year.
T-Mobile, the third largest wireless carrier in the US by subscriber count, posted impressive third quarter results Tuesday. The operator revealed 774,000 net new monthly-billed subscribers — far above Wall Street estimates of around 628,000 net additions. As for revenue, T-Mobile brought in $10.84 billion, beating estimates of $10.72 billion. Perhaps the best news of all for the wireless company's future, though, was its announcement that shareholders had greenlit its acquisition of Sprint, the fourth largest American carrier.
One of the most interesting things you can do with a smart display is to pair it with a doorbell that streams and records video, making it easier to identify visitors before you get to the door. If you have neither of those devices, Google is currently offering a bundle deal for its new Home Hub plus a Nest Hello doorbell that reduces the smart display to $99 from $150, bringing the total for the two devices to $328. Both the Google Store and Best Buy are also offering the discount when customers pair the Home Hub with a variety of other Nest and Google products, including the third generation Nest Learning Thermostat. 
Below is the full list of Nest products available in Best Buy bundles:
Depending on your perspective, it's either a smart move or extremely unfortunate that Sony is reducing the amount of proprietary software it puts on its phones. But whether you love Sony's mobile skin or you're more of a stock Android fan, the stripping down continues with the loss of Xperia Themes on the Xperia XZ3 devices due to "low usage."
LG first launched its mobile payments platform in June 2017, but only in South Korea. Since then, the company accidentally published a broken payments app with muddled branding in early 2018, and later confirmed LG Pay would arrive in the US at some point that year. But the most recent step toward mobile payments from the company is something a bit different: LG Pay Quick. LG has recently applied to trademark the name in Europe, the US, and South Korea.
It's not easy to turn heads in the mobile industry in 2018. At best, we see new handsets come out to critical acclaim but also a sense of stifled boredom. Maybe it is the best of its kind yet, but so what? Apart from the fact that it ticks every box, what does it bring to the table that's new? Fortunately, for those of us seeking something different (if a bit quirky), Razer has decided to get into the mobile market. The gaming hardware company is now on its second generation smartphone, the Razer Phone 2, and it's staying true to its original vision: a handset for elite mobile gamers. This puts the device in an interesting position. It's vying to be a luxury product — so it should not only compete with the best but somehow achieve more. That's where the 120Hz refresh rate display comes in, and the RGB light-up logo.
5G is coming soon, but if you still have no idea what it is, or why it matters, then you're not alone. It isn't easy to gain a clear understanding of the subject — most explanations on the net end up being half vague marketing jargon and half complex technical details. That's why we're adding a new entry to our layman's guide to 5G in anticipation of the first 5G smartphones and networks in 2019.
MoviePass' ongoing implosion has always been very public, so somehow it makes sense that its parent company issued a press release to announce its plans to formally distance itself from the failing movie subscription service. Helios and Matheson Analytics (HMNY), which focuses primarily on data analysis, stated that it plans to spin out MoviePass and some associated holdings into an independent company in order separate the movie services' brand from its own.
It seems like a new data privacy scandal crops up every day for some major tech company or another (okay, mostly Facebook) — but Google is working to opt out of that pattern. The tech giant has announced that it is building data privacy controls — and clear explanations of what it does with user data — into Search itself, on both desktop and mobile. Additionally, it notes that it'll give the same treatment to Maps next year, along with "many other Google products."
Let's face it: some corners of YouTube are just plain disturbing. To save our children from seeing the dankest of memes before they're ready, YouTube Kids exists — a platform where you can set limits on what sort of content your little one can see, how long they can watch videos, and even whether or not they can use the search bar. Google is now broadening YouTube Kids' reach by expanding support to Google Assistant-enabled Smart Displays, Google Home, and Cast TVs.
Qualcomm confirmed that the 675 can support 120Hz — impressive for a mid-range GPU — but of course it'll come down to whether manufacturers see fit to provide that sort of tech in a mid-range smartphone. In a further effort to bring high-end gaming to the mid-range, the chip maker is working with games and game engines like Unity and Unreal to optimize for 600-series chipsets.
This is promising for carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile, both of which plan to use mmWave for early 5G deployments. Qualcomm states that the antenna modules, which pair with its X50 modem, support up to 800Mhz of bandwidth in the 26.5-29.5GHz; 27.5-28.35GHz; and 37-40GHz mmWave bands.
It's been a bad year for data privacy — though it might be more accurate to say it's been a bad year for blissful ignorance. User data privacy issues are suddenly erupting into the spotlight after bubbling under the surface for years. While Facebook provided the most scandal fodder so far this year, Google hasn't been immune. One issue that gained widespread attention was its misleading representation of how Location History tracking works. After changing the wording on its support page in August, the company has now once more edited the page, moving to a description that is technically correct, but slightly more vague than its original fix.
Essential may be at work on making an AI-focused alternative smartphone that operates mainly on voice commands, but it'll have to do so with a significantly reduced staff. Essential has confirmed that it is laying off a large portion of its staff, which Bloomberg reports amounts to roughly 30 percent of the 120-person workforce — mainly in the hardware and sales divisions.
Back in January, secure messaging app Telegram acquired an alternative client based on its own database library. Since then, it's rebranded the app from Challegram to Telegram X, and made it a testing ground for experimental features. An extremely fruitful testing ground. This new October update is no different from its feature-packed predecessors, delivering a ton of changes. Among the most interesting additions: the introduction of new supported languages and Android Pie features.
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- Facebook has clarified that data such as call length and frequency of calls can be used to target ads. Recode reports that the social media platform reached out to revise statements made to the publication concerning user privacy on Portal. The publication initially reported that no data collected through its device will be used to target users with ads on Facebook. That's simply not true, however. While Portal itself will not run ads, it will collect call log data including who you call, as well as general usage data — for instance, how much time you spend on certain apps in Portal — all of which can be used to target ads on the company's other properties, like Facebook or Messenger. This all makes sense — ads are the social network's major business — but it's not comforting considering Facebook's poor track record with users' sensitive information. At least the company is attempting a level of transparency, but one can only wonder if it has simply given up hope of ever shipping meaningful amounts of this product at all.
While Facebook's video calling smart home devices have long been in the works, the wake of another major data privacy scandal doesn't feel like the best time for a product launch. But perhaps Facebook just couldn't wait any longer — after all, it was reportedly supposed to debut the new products earlier this year, but held off due to bad press from the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Today, just a little over a week after it announced a security flaw that affected 50 million accounts, the company launched the Portal ($199) and Portal+ ($349), both Amazon Alexa-enabled video calling devices.
It was only this March that Huawei released the Porsche Design Mate 10 RS, but the mobile company has already raced to the finish line with a successor: the Mate 20 RS. It's quite similar to the newly announced Mate 20 Pro, except a bit swankier with its leather back panel and improved memory/storage options.
When Android Police reviewed the Anker Nebula Capsule in April 2018, we said it was "almost certainly the best portable projector you can buy, but it commands a high price." That price just got a lot more reasonable, though, with a sale that brings the soda can-sized smart projector to 5 on Amazon — $85 off its original $350 price. The Nebula Capsule runs Android 7.1.2, so there are plenty of apps available, and it lasts around four hours on a single charge, or 30 hours in Bluetooth speaker mode. Plus, the super portable little gadget's build quality really impressed our own Corbin Davenport. To nab it at the reduced price, enter CAPSULEV at checkout, and make sure to do so before the sale ends on October 30th.
Anker's got a few other notable deals on right now, too. See them listed in point form below.Roav VIVA Alexa-enabled 2-port USB Car Charger — $33.99 (down from $59.99). Coupon: ROAVFF44. Ends November 6th.Roav by Anker, Bluetooth Receiver with Bluetooth 4.1 — $10.99 (down from $15.99). Coupon: B2EVERDL. Ends October 24th.Anker Qi-certified Powerport Wireless 5 Pad — $10.99 (down from $17.99). Coupon: GETWIRELESS. Ends October 20th.Anker SoundBuds Slim+ Wireless Stereo Bluetooth Sports Headphones — $21.99 (down from $29.99). No code. Ends October 28th.Anker USB-C with Power Delivery 60W Wall Charger — $31.99 (down from $39.99). Coupon: ANKERPD6. Ends October 25th.The discounts for Anker's Roav auto devices, headphones, and chargers bring many of the accessories to record low prices, according to tracking tool Keepa. Looks like it's the perfect time to nab any that are on your wish list.
Social media stars finally have an Adobe video app just for them. Adobe announced its Project Rush cross-device video editing app in June 2018, revealing a platform designed for individuals creating and publishing video content for the web. Now it officially has a name — Premiere Rush CC — and an availability timeline for Android.
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Popping your smartphone into a headset is the most basic form of virtual reality technology, but of those devices, the Google Daydream View is a high-quality option. Right now, the 2017 Daydream View is 60 percent off and the 2016 Daydream View is 62 percent off through Verizon, making it a good time to purchase either device if you've been eyeing a simple mobile VR accessory. The 2017 version comes in at $40, down from $100 at regular price, while the 2016 device is $30, down from $80.