Deal: Speedy 5-port USB charger only $21.99
Charging can become a hassle for those of us with multiple USB-powered devices. We have to carry a big tangle ball of cables and power bricks just to keep our gadgets alive, which can prove to be a messy situation. Want to ease your charging hassles? You will find some comfort in today AA Deals Store offer.
The Speedy 5-port USB charger lives up to its name by giving you the ability to power 5 products at once. It will be a bit bulkier than your typical charger, but it makes up for the space it takes by offering a large 50W power capacity, making it a very capable accessory to power up your multiple devices.
Rest assured this is also no cheap charger. It is made of both plastic and aluminum, ensuring a light load and enough durability to keep you confident while handling it.
The Speedy 5-port USB charger also has the advantage of being a bit smarter than your usual brick. This unit can recognize a device’s specifications and adapt to its charging needs. As a result, the user should get shorter charge times and a more efficient use of energy.
Interested? The AA Deals Store is currently selling the Speedy 5-port USB charger for only $21, a 26% discount over its original price. It will be great your desk charging needs, as well as your road adventures. But make sure to sign up for it soon, as the deal should end in 2 days.
Microsoft’s Hyperlapse app for Android sheds its ‘beta’ tag, now available for all
Back in May, Microsoft released a video recording application to the Google Play Store called Hyperlapse, which allows you to take beautiful time-lapse videos on your mobile device. Even though the company has been adding support more and more devices over the past few months, it’s finally time for the app to come out of beta for all to download.
Microsoft’s Hyperlapse allows you to either capture or upload normal videos and speed them up to 32x their normal rate. Using the company’s impressive video processing technology, the app not only speeds up each video, but also takes out most of the shakes and stumbles that your smartphone captures when recording a video.
There’s a web version available, too. If you’d like to upload additional footage that’s not kept on your smartphone, you can download the Hyperlapse Pro preview app for the desktop.
If you’ve been waiting for a good way to record time-lapse videos on Android and don’t have access to Instagram’s Hyperlapse app on iOS, you should definitely give this app a try. It’s available in the Google Play Store for devices running Android 4.4 KitKat and above, and can be downloaded for free.
Samsung Fanboy Opinion: Samsung needs to get their act together
I have no problems admitting that I am a huge fan of Samsung Mobile and their Galaxy line in particular. I remember going to CES and viewing the first Note and thinking to myself: “Man, Samsung is going to make some real headway in the mobile market.” But, there is a difference between being a fanboy and being a blind fanboy. You must acknowledge your problems if you’re ever going to solve them, and blind fanboyism leads to inferior products like the iPhone (had to get my dig in). So remember, as you read through this post, realize I actually am using a Samsung Galaxy Note Edge as my daily driver(read my review here).
I fell in love with the Note 3, and even though people hated Touchwiz, I actually liked it. I loved having it for the stylus, split screen functionality, unique audio controls, etc. When Touchwiz ran on Kit Kat 4.4.2 it actually wasn’t a bad experience for me. Then I went to the Note 4 and Note 4 Edge, both on Kit Kat, and I thought those were the best phones on the market. There is no doubt in my mind that Samsung currently makes the best total hardware package right now, but it’s the software that is causing headaches, and I actually believe Samsung would dominate again if they fixed this issue.
My colleagues here at Androidguys, in particular Cooper Le and Benton Trerise, convinced me to buy a Nexus 6 and give stock Android a spin since they knew I am a diehard Samsung Fanboy. So, I did. I bought a Nexus 6 and learned a ton. I first learned how bad stock Lollipop was on the Nexus running 5.0. It drove me nuts as it did to others. When it went to 5.1 many bugs were fixed, but it made me question how Google gives too much freedom to manufacturers to mess with the software. As much as I love Material Design, at the end of the day it really doesn’t make me drool over Lollipop anymore than Kit Kat.
Motorola is a great example of a company who knows that lag, slow updates, and undeletable apps are super annoying to users. So what do they do? They offer features they believe will help the user experience and nothing more. They definitely don’t make their own email app, or texting app when Android already has them. And another company who doesn’t allow carrier bloat is Apple. One area where all iPhone users are fortunate.
Lollipop on Samsung hardware
Lollipop 5.0.1 SUCKS. Nexus owners don’t have to deal with many issues anymore because they are on 5.1. If you’re a Note 4 or Note Edge user, like me, you most likely started with Kit Kat on your device, which worked great. And then Google decided to release a buggy version of software that murdered battery life, caused memory leaks, and created WiFi issues (just to name a few). My first issue is with Google and releasing a version this buggy, because they left every manufacturer to fend for themselves to work through those issues. In their fifth generation of software, you would think battery life wouldn’t be an issue. My Note Edge went from easily making it through a full day on Kit Kat, to only lasting about 3/4 of a day (and that’s after cutting my usage). It took a couple of months to fix it, but Google did with the release of 5.1. But that doesn’t help me on my carrier-locked Note Edge. I have a thousand dollar phone, which at times runs slower than a 2nd gen Moto G with the battery life of a phone that can’t hold a proper charge.
The best part of this is, I have absolutely no idea when Samsung and AT&T will release Android 5.1. I used 12 different phones last year, with the Note 3 and 4 being my daily driver while I experimented with the others. I haven’t bought another Android phone since the Nexus 6, because I am so tired of the fragmentation. I don’t want to look up if the LG G4, HTC One M9, Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, or any other phone, are running 5.1, because I shouldn’t have to. Lollipop 5.0 is so bad that no smartphone user should have to put up with it any longer, yet it’s been over 9 months since Lollipop has been released and many of us are still dealing with issues. I’m not saying a phone’s software should be flawless, but I am saying a phone’s software in its fifth generation shouldn’t be killing battery life 9 months after its initial release.
Do away with bloat
No need for a Galaxy app store, Games, Keeper, Internet, Milk Music, Music, Instagram, and Mobile Hotspot apps.
Lollipop 5.0.1 on my Note Edge with TouchWiz and AT&T is a DISASTER. I have over 20 apps preinstalled by Samsung and AT&T that I can’t delete. Furthermore, it is annoying that some of those apps have to get updated through the Galaxy Store and not the Play Store. For someone like me who is a fan of Android smartphones, I can manage the updates. But for people like my brother who tried an S6 Edge, before going with an iPhone 6, have a valid point that it is ridiculous to have two app stores. It’s ridiculous that there is S-Voice in addition to Google Now. With as good as Google Now is, how can Samsung actually believe people would use S-Voice (if any reader uses S-Voice can you tell us in the comments why you use it)? I pay for a subscription to Google Play Music, and for as great as I think Milk Music is, I really don’t want it on my device. I will NEVER use it. Why does Samsung need to force apps on us? Are they really making that much money on these useless apps? I have a hard time believing they do, but cut the crap out Samsung. It’s not a good way to get people to like your devices when you force crappy apps on them.
Message to Samsung: Be your own thing.
Don’t abandon your loyalists by taking away our removable batteries and memory card slots. If you do, give us a real alternative like a kick ass battery. Sony manages to deliver incredible battery life with the Xperia Z3, and that has a metal frame with a glass front and back just like the S6. Make upgrading to 64GB cost just 25 dollars more than the 32GB variant. Don’t make us pay 100 extra for more internal memory just because Apple can. We all know it doesn’t cost 100 dollars more to insert 64GB vs 32GB. You’re so focused on Apple that you’re letting the Chinese catch up. Keep up this type of behavior, and you will be out of the mobile business just like Nokia, Blackberry, and even Motorola at one point.
Speaking for myself, I loved the Galaxy S5 and Note 3 even though they were made of all plastic. I know objectively they weren’t the best-looking devices, but in your hand they felt great and were rather durable. The S5 was waterproof but still managed to have a replaceable battery and expandable memory. The Note 3 was a true workhorse and offered a fantastic user experience. There were bugs on those devices, but nothing like losing battery life or memory leaking. The people that complained the most about the plastic build were not real Samsung fans as they cared more about how the hardware looked and felt over how it performed. So Samsung responded and abandoned their loyalists with the release of the S6. My first reaction to the release of the S6 was,” Oh geez, why did you have to go and play the Apple game and focus on looks rather than function?”
The funny part about the S6 is the Samsung haters came out in droves to buy it and the Samsung fans were just pissed off about taking away their memory card slot and swappable battery. Even many Apple users were swayed to try out the S6, but felt validated that Android was terrible because of all of the bugs and bloat on the phones. Many of the iPhone users who tried the S6, and went back, will probably never come back to Android now because this was probably one of the worst experiences you could have with Android. Nice work Sammy.
My suggestions for you Samsung
I’m not here to just complain about the same stuff everyone else complains about; I’m going to offer a solution which will make everyone happy.
Consider breaking up your software.
Keep developing Touchwiz. I think there are many great things about Touchwiz. But do it on your own software, Tizen. Leave Android alone. Google doesn’t do you any favors when they release buggy software like Lollipop 5.0. Not only do you have to deal with their issues, but you also have to correct them on all of your devices on Google’s schedule. I think I dealt with Android 5.0 on my Nexus 6 for 2 months before I got the next major update, which means I have to wait 6 months for the update on my Note Edge!
I remember reading a while back that you were going to cut back on the number of products you make, but I have yet to see proof of that. If anything I have seen the contrary, and you’re releasing even more products. The Note Edge and Note 4 have everything in common except for the Edge screen. Yet both phones are on different update schedules. Why did I buy the most expensive phone you make to receive the slowest updates? You’re spreading yourself too thin. Focus on making a few products great vs. creating a bunch of mediocre products.
Make a stock Android version of your Galaxy line and let people decide for themselves which software they want.
Also, let customers buy them on JUMP, EDGE, or hell, finance the devices yourself! You guys have a lot of money. Stop trying to play catch up to Apple. Be yourself. Stick with the fundamentals that got you success. You already differentiate yourself with your displays, processors, size options, etc.
Get back to your roots. You were an underdog before so there was no pressure when you created the first Galaxy device. Just like HTC and LG are underdogs now. They aren’t the top dog so people don’t have high expectations from them like they do with you. Learn from companies like Motorola who reinvented themselves, or OnePlus One who is making waves in the mobile industry. OnePlus is annoying as heck with their marketing style, and coupons needed to buy one of their phones, but they’re making waves because they’re trying to give people what they want. They don’t want to overpay for things they won’t use like bloatware or extravagant designs.
Stop with the anti-Apple commercials. It has become annoying. Be original. Solve our mobile problems and avoid adding new ones and we will love you back for it. I’m still your fanboy and every relationships has its ups and downs.
None of this is easy to do, but if you want to be great you have to earn it. Doing the easy thing like copying Apple is what gets you into trouble.
The post Samsung Fanboy Opinion: Samsung needs to get their act together appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Android Auto on Pioneer AVIC-7100NEX Review
As I talked about in my recent article outlining what Android Auto is, Google is hoping to make our roads safer by bringing a feature-rich experience to your car without causing you to take your eyes off the road or hands off the steering wheel much longer than a single press-of-the-button. Pioneer gave me one of their AVIC-7100NEX units with Android Auto installed for me to use. Let’s see if Google’s goal was well implemented.
Setup
I go through a lot of this in my “What is Android Auto, and how does it work?” article, so I won’t go into much detail about how to do it.
I’ll get into this more later, but the odd thing about Android Auto is its so simple… it’s complicated. Plugging your phone into Android Auto for the first time takes quite some time to download the Android Auto app, run the app, and actually set up the phone. There isn’t a whole lot for you, the user, to do other than sit and wait.
I have mixed feelings about this, as first-time set up for just about anything takes longer than normal, but I suppose when I would like to get in the car and get going, my road rage kicks in early when I’m sitting parked in my car for 5-10 minutes.
The other thing about Android Auto is while Google is much more restrictive about how a third-party app is designed for the system, not every app works perfectly with the system, and they don’t exactly work the way a car radio might normally work.
For example, I enjoy listening to podcasts at times while driving. If I get in the car and open a podcast through a third-party app, I like to listen to the whole thing before playing something else. So you’d think that the next time I get in the car, Android Auto would know to pull up that app and start playing that podcast immediately. Well, that doesn’t happen. The system seems to think I want to set things up differently every time. While theoretically the system isn’t supposed to know what I want to play at any given time, at the very least I’d like it so that opening up the podcast app begins playing the last thing it played.
But at this point, who is to blame here? Seeing as how Google is keeping the design of the app under control, and the ones who approve it, it could be theirs. However, we all know one of the beauties of Android exists in the openness of the app ecosystem. So then is it the app developer? Either way, it would be nice to see Google encourage this sort of functionality, so that just like a normal car radio, I don’t need to fiddle with anything just to get sound playing.
On that note, I’d like an easy way to find apps compatible with Android Auto through my phone, as currently there is no easy way to navigate to them through the Play Store. Perhaps a link to a section in the Play Store from the Android Auto app (while not connected to the car) would be useful.
“Android Auto is leaps and bounds better than any other in-dash car software system.“
Usage
Android Auto is a great piece of software… once you understand how it works.
Let me explain: Android Auto strives to keep things as simplified as possible, so that the driver can’t be distracted. Once you understand that, Android Auto works great. The problem is, I kept trying to complicate things. Rather, I kept trying to use it like an Android smartphone.
For example, when going to use Google Play Music, I wanted to select an artist to play. However, you can’t navigate to an artist’s page like you would on the Google Play Music app on an Android phone. Instead, you have to prompt Google with your voice, and say “Play *Artist Name*”. The only options you have by touch are “Listen now” (recommendations), “Recent playlists”, and “Instant mixes” (mixes based on your favorite artists & songs).
Point is, once you understand you’re not supposed to fiddle with the screen, using Android Auto is great. Navigating is fluid, animations follow Material Design standards, and compared to other car dash software, the performance is phenomenal. I felt like I had a smart car, being able to give it commands via voice with little-to-no hassle.
Conclusion
I understand that this review seems pretty wishy-washy about my feelings for Android Auto. I suppose that is how I feel: wishy-washy. On one hand, Android Auto is leaps and bounds better than any other in-dash car software system. I feel like I’m aboard the Enterprise talking to the ship computer whenever I ask Android Auto to give me the best place for tacos nearby.
On the other hand, some of the things I would expect to be natural parts of Android Auto, aren’t. Also, seeing as how the entry-level price of Android Auto is the cost of a flagship smartphone (no-contract), it can be hard for the average user to justify spending that money.
But really how can you blame the developers of Android Auto? For a first-time build, it really is beautiful.
But I’d really like it to work like my smartphone…
But… but…
The post Android Auto on Pioneer AVIC-7100NEX Review appeared first on AndroidGuys.
T-Mobile to pay $17.5 million over last year’s 911 outage
To settle a Federal Communications Commission investigation into 911 outages, T-Mobile will pay $17.5 million. The FCC investigation revealed that two separate outages occurred on the carrier’s network last year, lasting around three hours total. While the incidents were separate but related, they prohibited customers from reaching emergency personnel. The outages happened last August and affected T-Mobile customers nationwide, which the FCC says would’ve kept around 50 million people from calling 911 with their mobile phones during that time. After the carrier also failed to provide timely notification about the outage (according to FCC guidelines), it promised to overhaul procedures to avoid a similar incident in the future as part of the settlement. “The Commission has no higher priority than ensuring the reliability and resilience of our nation’s communications networks so that consumers can reach public safety in their time of need,” explained FCC chairman Tom Wheeler. “Communications providers that do not take necessary steps to ensure that Americans can call 911 will be held to account.”
[Image credit: Photo by Steve Sands/WireImage]
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, T-Mobile
Source: FCC
NASA gives you a flyover view of Pluto’s icy mountains
Hey NASA, stop blowing our minds, okay?
Actually, no, please continue.
Source: NASA (YouTube)
Rural pop-up hospital gets America’s first drone delivery
The first FAA-ok’d parcel delivery by drone took place in rural Virginia on Friday at Wise County, Virginia’s annual Remote Area Hospital. The RAH pops up every summer in Wise, which is deep in Appalachia, as a makeshift field hospital that treats hundreds of uninsured area residents for free. This year, the event’s organizers, Remote Area Medical, sought to explore the roles of emerging technology in humanitarian crises and, to that end, had Australian startup Flirtey drop off 10 pounds of supplies.
The test involved first flying the prescriptions for 20 patients in from Tazewell County Airport to Lonesome Pine Airport in Wise County aboard a self-navigating Cirrus SR22 from NASA. A pilot was onboard in case the autonomous flight system failed. The drugs were then loaded onto a quadcopter from Flirtey which flew them the last mile in to the fairgrounds where the hospital was set up. The drone needed six circuits in all to deliver its entire cargo but completed its task successfully. FAA approval for these sorts of flights is still pending. This was actually part of a series of test flights by the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership, which seeks ways to incorporate UAVs into America’s air traffic.
[Image Credit: top – Vimeo screen capture (2014); inline – FlugKerl2]
Via: The Roanoke Star
Source: Washington Post
Top selling items per country on Amazon Prime Day
Amazon Prime Day has since passed and while many consumers felt disappointed with the deals it was amazing for Amazon. They sold 34.4 million items which is 398 per second! As well as 18% growth compared to Black Friday 2014. That is truly astonishing figures and no wonder why Amazon said they are excited to host it again next year.
“Prime Day was a record-breaker globally – it surpassed all of our expectations,” said Alexandre Gagnon, Country Manager for Amazon.ca. “This week has been the busiest ever for Prime signups and we saw more members shopping on Amazon.ca on Prime Day than on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. We can’t wait to do it again next year.”
Here are the top sold items on Prime Day per country:
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Canada: Huggies Diapers
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US: Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy
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UK: Lenovo FLEX 10 10.1-inch Multimode Touchscreen Notebook
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Spain: SSD Drive
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Japan: Green Smoothie mix
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Italy: Logitech Keyboard
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Germany: Croc Sandals
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France: Monopoly Boardgame
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Austria: Croc Sandals
A few other insane facts about Prime Day are they sold 51,000 Bose headphones, compared to only eight the previous Wednesday. A total of 56,000 Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy boxsets. Even 10,000 Meguiar’s X2020 Supreme Shine Microfiber Towels, compared to 244 on the same day last week.
Did you buy anything on Prime Day? Tell us in the comments.
Source: iphoneincanada, Telegraph
Come comment on this article: Top selling items per country on Amazon Prime Day
Microsoft’s Hyperlapse for Android has left beta
We reported to you back in may that Microsoft’s Hyperlapse was now available in a closed beta, but now it’s available as a full fledged app. The app allows users to shoot time-lapse videos. You shoot a long video, but speed it up into a time-lapse that is very smooth to watch.
From Microsoft’s Hyperlapse:
Want to show your friends what you saw on that 12-mile hike you took last weekend, or let them experience how it felt to fly down the mountain on your recent ski trip? With Microsoft Hyperlapse, you can time lapse those experiences, distilling them into easily consumable, enjoyable experiences.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Come comment on this article: Microsoft’s Hyperlapse for Android has left beta
An early Cortana for Android has leaked which you can try today
We are all familiar with Google Now and iOS Siri, but Microsoft has been working on their digital assistant Cortana for a little while now and it’s getting closer and closer to launching on Android. Cortana is already available on some Windows phones, but Microsoft said it will come to Android as soon as July.
Those who don’t want to wait that long will be excited to know an early build has leaked. Do realize this isn’t a final build so things won’t look or work as nice as it will once the final version is released, but you can still try it today. You will need to log into your Microsoft account once you download it meaning Microsoft will know you are using an early version, but I don’t see why that would matter. Once that is done feel free to ask it whatever questions you want.
It’s basically the same thing as Google Now, you can ask it things like “what is the weather” and it will respond. What sets it apart from the other digital assistant apps is it has built in location reminders. You can tell it to remind you things once you get close to somewhere. Ask it to remind you to get milk once you arrive at the grocery store for example.
The layout is similar to Google Now as it is card based. It shows you the most recent or most important things at the top. Feel free to try it today, but do be aware it is a beta app and it isn’t officially from the Google Play Store. If not you can always wait until July when it is released in the Google Play Store.
Source: Suomimobiili
Via: Mobilesyrup
Come comment on this article: An early Cortana for Android has leaked which you can try today
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