The After Math: Baby, it’s cold outside
It’s 50 degrees and raining here in San Francisco which, by West Coast standards, constitutes the second coming of Snowpacalypse. With this sort of weather the only rational choice is to stay inside and patiently wait for spring. But just because we’re tied to the couch for the next few months doesn’t mean we can’t take a tour of the West Wing, knit ourselves some binge socks or play 16 new (old) XBox games. Because counting the days to spring is way easier if you do it by the numbers.Slideshow-349707
Android Authority this week – December 20, 2015
Android fans, this week brought us a ton of details about Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S7, a first look at HTC’s One X9, a possible glimpse of Motorola’s future design language, updates to a bunch of Google apps, and Marshmallow OTA news.
Inside AA HQ
Following ten days of voting and six days of in-depth comparisons, this week we announced the results of Best of Android 2015 and Smartphone of the Year: Reader’s Choice. The Galaxy Note 5 won our comparison series, beating the Nexus 6P by a large margin. But Google’s phablet took the first place in the Reader’s Choice vote, gathering more than twice as many votes as the runner up, the Note 5. Read the full details about the competition in our announcement post and congratulations to Paulo from Portugal, who won a Nexus 6P in our giveaway.
This week the prize in our beloved weekly giveaway is the Nexus 5X! Throw your name in the hat here.
The stuff you shouldn’t miss
- Tech talk: Which phone charges the fastest? We test the most popular ones out.
- Review: Lanh brings you a second opinion on the Nexus 6P.
- Comparison: Note 5 or S6 Edge Plus: we help you make up your mind.
- Feature: What will a flagship Android look like a year from now?
Top news of the week
Juicy Galaxy S7 details
- WSJ: Galaxy S7 to go on sale in March, with pressure-sensitive screen, USB Type C, and microSD
- Report: Samsung Galaxy S7 to have software optimization that rivals the iPhone
Galaxy A9 leaks
Marshmallow for all
- When will your Lenovo phone get Android 6.0 Marshmallow? Details show up online
- HTC One M9 to get Marshmallow for Canadian carrier variants in early 2016
- HTC One A9 international unlocked variant receives OTA: no Android 6.0.1 or December security patch present
- 11 Samsung phones to receive Android 6.0 in Q1 2016
- Moto X (2014) now updating to Marshmallow in India
- Samsung Galaxy S3 gets Android 6.0 Marshmallow, courtesy of CyanogenMod 13
Google app updates
- Chrome Beta v48 adds custom notification buttons, Presentation API support and more
- Google Play Music updated with notification panel rating
- Android Pay can now take care of your in-app purchases
- Google Now on Tap gets new features, now supports French, Spanish and four other languages
- Report: Hangouts to lose SMS integration, gain notable new features in next big update
- YouTube to receive background downloading and pause buffering
- Google’s Androidify app receives a big holiday update
New Moto?
HTC One X9
- (Update: first review & new images) Clear HTC One X9 images leak online
- More pictures and a video of the HTC One X9 surface
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Tiny microscope lets you see the smallest-ever inkjet prints
No, that’s not an up-close look at a monitor. That’s the world’s tiniest color inkjet image made large, and you may not need it blown up to see it in the future — if you’re willing to lay down some cash. In a hybrid of scientific discovery and publicity stunt, Scrona and ETH Zurich have used nano-sized quantum dots to print a clown fish picture measuring just 0.000014 square inches across, setting a Guinness World Record for the smallest color inkjet image to date. You need a good microscope just to see it, in fact… and conveniently, Scrona is working on just that.
The company is crowdfunding the µPeek, a card-sized microscope that you control through your smartphone. It can zoom between 35X and 350X, depending on your phone, and it’s capable of brightfield, darkfield and (in the Blue model) fluorescence microscopy. It currently takes a pledge of $135 or more to get one in June, but the fun comes when you drop $295 or more: Scrona will print your own text or image at the micron scale, so you’ll always have something special to look at. Sure, the personal micro-picture isn’t that practical, but the microscope should still be useful if you have any budding biologists at home.
[Image credit: Scrona/ETH Zurich]
Source: Kickstarter, ETH Zurich
The world’s ‘most powerful’ smartphone isn’t, but it’s still good
One smartphone maker is learning the hard way why you shouldn’t promise more than you can deliver. Yu (partly owned by India’s Micromax) has unveiled the Yutopia, which it bills as the “most powerful phone on the planet.” There’s only one problem: it isn’t. You’ll find plenty to like in the Cyanogen OS handset between its 5.2-inch quad HD display, Snapdragon 810 chip, 4GB of RAM, 21-megapixel rear camera, 8-megapixel front shooter, fingerprint reader and 3,000mAh battery. However, you’ve seen all of this or better in phones released months ago — odds are that you bought a Galaxy Note 5 or Nexus 6P if you were determined to get the best specs.
However, you might forgive Yu’s stronger-than-usual marketing bluster when you see the price. The Yutopia will sell for 24,999 rupees off-contract, or about $377, when it reaches India on December 26th. Given that even Motorola’s fine Moto X Pure Edition costs $399 in the US, you’re getting a whole lot of phone for the money.
Via: XDA, Android Community
Source: Amazon India
Nexus 5X International Giveaway!
Welcome to the Sunday Giveaway, the place where we giveaway a new Android phone or tablet each and every Sunday!
A big congratulations to last week’s winners of the Blu Pure XL 3 Phone giveaway : Wayne J. (Canada), Aviral G (India), Rocky S (Canada).
This week we are giving away a brand new Nexus 5X
The Nexus 5X is offers solid specs, a promising camera, and the Nexus Imprint fingerprint sensor, combined with pure Android and a fast updates guarantee.
- Nexus 5X review
- Best Nexus 5X cases
- Nexus 5X vs Nexus 6P
- Nexus 5X vs Moto X Pure/Style
- Nexus 5X vs OnePlus X
Join Now!
Nexus 5X International Giveaway!
https://js.gleam.io/e.js
More Giveaways:
Winners Gallery
Winners Gallery on Google+
Terms & Conditions
- The giveaway is an international giveaway (Except when we can not ship to your Country.)
- If we can not ship to your country, you will be compensated with an online gift card of equal MSRP value to the prize.
- We are not responsible for lost shipments.
- You must be age of majority in your Country of residence.
- We are not responsible for any duties, import taxes that you may incur.
- Only 1 entry per person, do not enter multiple email addresses. We will verify all winners and if we detect multiple email addresses by the same person you will not be eligible to win.
- We reserve all rights to make any changes to this giveaway.
- This giveaway is operated by Android Authority.
- The prize will ship when it is available to purchase.
CyanogenMod nightlies come to the LG G3 Beat, G3 S, G2 Mini and Optimus L70
Isn’t it funny how the ROM market works? All these older and lower-end phones are pretty much getting Android 6.0 Marshmallow before many of you. Well… kind of; at least they are doing so unofficially. CyanogenMod keeps expanding its support to more devices and today a few LG handsets are getting nightly support for CyanogenMod 13, the Marshmallow version of the world’s most popular third-party Android ROM.
The new list of supported smartphones includes the LG G3 S, LG G3 Beat, LG G2 Mini and LG Optimus L70. This means life is really good for plenty of LG users, who are ready to experience the latest and greatest from CyanogenMod now. And it is quite literally the latest and greatest.
Related LG articles:
- Don’t call it a mini: LG launches mid-range 5-inch G3 Beat
- LG G2 Mini hands-on
- Best LG G2 Mini cases
If you aren’t familiar with CyanogenMod’s nightly builds, they are literally updates which include the new code from every single day. This is only for users who want to be at the bleeding edge of CyanogenMod’s software, so expect to find some bugs and other issues. That is in addition to all the other dangers that come with tinkering with a phone and installing third-party software. Do your research and be careful before proceeding, because all responsibility will fall upon you shall anything go wrong.
See also: 5 reasons to install CyanogenMod
With that said, you can now go ahead and download all the files straight from CyanogenMod’s download pages. You can find them right below. And don’t forget to hit the comments to express your frustration about not having Android 6.0 before these guys!
Download the LG G3 Beat CyanogenMod 13 nightlies
Download the LG G3 S CyanogenMod 13 nightlies
Download the LG G2 Mini CyanogenMod 13 nightlies
Download the LG Optimus L70 CyanogenMod 13 nightlies
Ex-NBA star buys a ‘League of Legends’ eSports team
If there was any doubt that eSports are attracting the attention of the conventional sports world, it just got erased. Former LA Lakers player Rick Fox has bought Gravity, one of the bigger League of Legends teams, for an unspecified amount of cash. As he explains, eSports is on the cusp of “something massive” — he wants to get in before things blow up. He’s certainly no stranger to this world between his partnership at Twin Galaxies (the game record-keeping institution) and contributions to a fundraiser for competitive gaming.
He may well be on to something. As Bloomberg notes, 27 million people watched 2014’s League of Legends World Championship. That’s more than the 19.9 million who saw this year’s NBA finals, folks. Even though Gravity isn’t likely to pay its players NBA-level salaries any time soon, it might not take long for Fox to make a return on his investment.
[Image credit: Kirby Lee/Getty Images]
Source: Bloomberg
2016 to be the year of pressure-sensitive displays, but do you care?
Apple’s implementation of pressure-sensitive displays have taken the tech world by storm… or at the very least they seem to have started a trend. Research firm IHS is now predicting that 25% of all smartphones coming in 2016 will have some form of pressure sensitivity display, likely similar to Apple’s Force Touch, 3D Touch, or whatever you want to call it.
If you are not familiar with this technology, pressure-sensitive displays can help a smartphone determine how hard you are pressing a screen with your finger. This will then allow the operating system to apply different actions depending on the pressure level. In iOS, for example, you can make quick previews or settings come up by pressing harder.
See also: Opinion: Force Touch is a paradoxical complication in the world of sublime simplicity
This is cool and all, but we are still trying to figure out whether it’s a gimmick or an actual helpful feature. Also, we have pretty much been taking advantage of something very similar – long pressing. How are pressure-sensitive any better? The debate is pretty hot right now.
Some of us believe there is not much of a need for it, and it will do nothing but confuse users. I swear, nearly every time a person asks me how the iPhone 6S is different from the 6, I tell them one of the biggest differences they will notice is Force Touch. Then they ask me what it is and how it works. They usually have no idea about it, and that’s because the industry didn’t evolve with this concept in mind. It’s a new way to interact with our devices and will take some time to be adopted.
Other related content:
On the other hand, Force Touch enthusiasts say it’s a much more intuitive way to work with a phone. In a way, it’s how we interact with the rest of the world, after all. People just need to get used to it. Like with any other new technology, you don’t really know how valuable something is until you actually learn to live with it. Then you can’t let it go. Instagram has actually realized what this technology can do to the experience, and they have ported a transformed version of their Force Touch integration to Android.
On which side to you stand? Are you into pressure-sensitive screens? Would you rather live with long presses? Hit the comments and let us know!
With this self-drying jacket, your Marty McFly costume is complete
A startup called Falyon has created a jacket that’ll match those Back to the Future kicks perfectly. It doesn’t only look like Marty McFly’s jacket from the movies, you see, it can also dry itself inside-out by circulating high-pressure air internally. The self-drying jacket’s Kickstarter campaign says the air inside is redirected by built-in air amplifiers powered by a rechargeable battery. Falyon claims it’ll only take a minute or two to dry spills or light wetness from rainfall, but you’re gonna have to spend much more time than Marty did to dry up after jumping into a pond.
Besides the amplifiers, the jacket also has vents that expel air near your face and hair, a lot of hidden pockets for gadgets and a power button to switch on the drying action. Unfortunately, it’s a bit late to wear this for Back to the Future day, but if the startup can deliver on April 2016 like its campaign promises, there’s always Halloween next year.
Via: Oh Gizmo, Damn Geeky, PSFK, Gizmodo
Source: Kickstarter
Take a VR tour of the White House to celebrate the holidays
Looking for some VR content to enjoy this holiday season? I won’t deny there isn’t much to check out, but videos, games and other interactive media are starting to pop up more and more. The latest comes courtesy of the US government and Google. It’s a holiday-themed 360-degree video tour of the White House.
What makes this video special is not only that you get to play around with your VR goggles, but also that it is one of the few videos created by Google’s JUMP VR camera rig, which consists of 16 GoPro units. It takes you through the president’s residence and showcases all the decorations and special events happening within.
In addition, the Search Giant has added this video to to the Google Expeditions movement. Teachers and other educators can now take their students on a virtual field trip to the white house, regardless of where they are.
You can use your Google Cardboard (or any headset that works with YouTube) to get watching. Simply move your head around to look at everything around you. Alternatively, you can watch this on any computer and just switch your perspective by clicking and dragging with your mouse.
Other VR-related content:
- Google’s plan to help make VR a reality
- GoPro Odyssey 16-camera VR rig now available for $15,000
- Android and adult content: from skirting the Play Store, to VR and double standards
Interested? Here is the video. I gave it a watch and must say the quality is not up to par with what I expected. The whole video seems a bit muddy/blurry. I have to say I expected much more from 16 GoPro cameras, but why don’t you tell us what you think? Watch it and hit the comments to give us your 2 cents on the video.
AIVAnet 