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If you've been searching for the right portable charger, this might be just the deal for you. The Anker PowerCore+ 26800mAh PD model is one of the best around, and with the use of a coupon you can currently get it for $22 off the retail price. That's $87.99 instead of the usual $109.99, which is good value for what you're getting. If that seems expensive at first, remember this is a USB Power Delivery-capable battery that can charge some laptops.This Anker charger has one USB-C Power Delivery (30W) and two standard USB (type A, 5V/3A) ports, and can be also recharged at 27W thanks to the USB Power Delivery input. According to Anker, which is a brand we trust, the 26,800mAh capacity is good for seven full charges on most phones, two for tablets, or one charge for USB-C notebooks.
Rumors up to now have led us to believe the event to announce this year's Pixels phones would be on October 5th. It made sense, being just a day after last year's keynote on October 4th. We can now tell you that Google is in fact holding the event on the exact same date as last year, October 4th. First of all, a billboard appeared in Boston with "Oct. 4" on it. Secondly, Google just posted a video and site confirming as much.
Everyone's favorite reader app, Feedly, seems to be having some problems on Android right now. For some users, version 37.3.0 (which was released back in June) has started crashing every time it's opened. I can confirm the issue on my Pixel XL, and it looks a little something like this...
Third party apps and services have been able to connect with the Google Assistant in the States since late last year, through the Actions on Google platform. Compatibility with more languages and regions was promised, and a couple of months ago we got support for it here in the UK, too. Australia is next up. Starting today, developers and businesses down under can integrate their apps with the Google Assistant.
You may think that learning English isn't exactly a priority for the world's most populous country. While many Chinese people probably have little reason to speak English in their daily lives, there are still plenty who want to learn the language, either for business or personal reasons. As Mandarin is so different, pronunciation is particularly difficult to master. That's where Microsoft's new app, Engkoo, comes in.
There are a number of good reasons people haven't been that enamored by Allo since Google released it, not least that the company simply has too many messaging apps. One of the biggest issues at launch was the lack of a desktop or web client. How else could we get away with chatting to each other while at work without our boss finding out? That was rectified last month with the introduction of Allo for web, but it still lacked a few features from the app. A couple more of those have just made their way on to the web version.
Movie and TV streaming app Vudu has become a popular option on Android in recent years. Its last big update added a nifty service that allows you to digitize your old discs for a small fee, and implementing parental controls was another important recent improvement. The latest update, to version 5.3.165.52141, brings more useful features that you might expect from a streaming app of its kind.
Foldable smartphones with bendy screens have seemingly been on the horizon for some time. It's seen by some as the next great innovation in the industry, essentially giving you a tablet sized screen in a device with the footprint of a phone. While we've seen numerous concepts and heard many proclamations, nothing concrete has surfaced just yet. But that doesn't stop companies like Samsung from talking about it. In the latest comments to come from the Korean firm, Koh Dong-jin, president of mobile business, says the first flexible device could be ready in 2018.
Amid much confusion, Pixels and Nexuses are finally starting to receive September security OTAs
Better late than never
A few days ago, we reported on Android's September security bulletin, in which Google seemed to suggest the latest security patches for most Pixel and Nexus devices came bundled with the late-August upgrade to Android 8.0 Oreo. That turns out not to be the case, however, as our devices have all been stuck on the August 5th security patch level. There's still a fair amount of confusion swirling, but some users seem to be receiving September OTAs with up-to-date security patches at last.
In the shadow of the announcement for the handsome new Mi Mix 2, Xiaomi also introduced the Mi Note 3. It's essentially a Mi 6 with a larger 5.5" screen, and with a name like "Mi Note" there are no prizes for guessing which rival flagship it's intended to compete with. The Mi Note 3 also packs dual-cameras, which seems to be the device's key selling point. It has a regular 12MP sensor next to a telephoto lens.
When Xiaomi released the Mi Mix last October many of us thought it was nothing more than a fancy concept phone. Its improbably slim bezels, giant curved-edge 17:9 screen, and ceramic back didn't seem like something that should be real. Xiaomi even referred to it as a concept phone, but the remarkable device had a price tag (around $516) and could be bought by anyone. The Philippe Starck designed phone won many plaudits for squeezing an enormous 6.4" display into a tiny frame, and it looked certain there would be a follow up this year. That time has now come.
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- According to several subsequent reports, Sony's Xperia XZ Premium is also showing HDR options in YouTube.
High Dynamic Range (HDR) has seemingly been the next big thing in video playback for quite some time, but most people have yet to experience it outside of taking photos. It relates not to the resolution of a video, but to the amount of contrast and the color range, and it should make things look much more realistic. HDR content is still fairly limited, however, and so is device compatibility. The ill fated Samsung Galaxy Note7 was the first phone to support it, but few people got a chance to try it out on that, for obvious reasons. Its successor, the Note8, as well as the S8 and S8+ support it, too, and it seems YouTube's HDR videos will now work on those devices.
As the novelty of smartwatches begins to wear off a little (pun intended), the dust is settling and those companies capable of making passable devices are beginning to become more apparent. Huawei is one of them, and even though the Watch 2 Classic and Watch 2 Sport weren't quite as impressive as had been hoped, they still make for a good introduction to the Android Wear ecosystem if you can get a good deal on them. If you want something a little simpler that's just for sports, Huawei announced the Band 2 Pro fitness tracker earlier in the year with no Android Wear in sight. It's now available to buy in the States.
In the last couple of months, WhatsApp added a couple of new features to its beta channel for some final user testing, and now those features are deemed ready for the prime time. There's a picture-in-picture mode for video calls and the ability to set text only, self-destructing status updates.
London has a pretty advanced transport system by most metrics, and payments are pretty easy these days, either with a special pay-as-you-go pass called an Oyster Card or with almost any contactless bank card. Most Londoners (like myself) have long been clamoring for a better way to manage our Oysters, as you currently have to queue for a machine or go to the website if you want to check your balance or make a top-up. Thankfully, Transport for London (TfL) has joined forces with a developer called Cubic to finally bring us an official Oyster Card app for Android.
The devs in Menlo Park have been busy recently rolling out significant changes to the look of the Facebook app for Android, more about which you can read here. We've now received tips about a further change that's currently being tested which replaces the linear, swipe-left hamburger menu with a pull-down grid of options. The new layout even has notification dots, just like Android Oreo.
It's been roughly a year since Twitter made a ton of users very happy and fully introduced a night mode for its Android app. That was such a popular move with anyone who hadn't defected to a third party Twitter client that it seemed a dead cert it would eventually come to the desktop site. That time has now come.
It's been a busy time for YouTube recently, with the launch of a more material desktop version and a new logo, which also made its way to the Android app. A lot of that was superficial, of course, and the site still functions in pretty much the same way. An increasingly popular feature is live streaming, and Google has just announced some improvements designed to make YouTube Live "faster, easier and more accessible."
The September 2017 Android security update is here, and the bulletin contains the usual details about vulnerabilities that could be affecting various Android devices. Images and OTAs that include the September patches should protect against any possible issues, but so far they're only available for the Nexus 9 on Android 7.1.1. There are no Android 8.0 Oreo images with September patches for Pixel or Nexus devices live yet, but it shouldn't be too long before they are added.