Steal This Look: Give your Android a makeover in five minutes
We’re huge fans of changing the home screen around a bit and creating a new user experience for our Android. In fact, we love it so much that we have an ongoing series of Get This Look posts. In a nutshell we show you a new layout, app, widget, or icon set for your Android handset and tell you which apps you’ll need to mimic the feel.
Some of these are a little easier to create than others and many of them can be tweaked to no end. The following details are but the ingredients to which you can create your own delicious Android dish; your results will vary. Which is awesome! If nothing else, this is a great way to discover new apps, widgets, icons, and more!
If you like to keep a semi-clean layout on your home screen, then you may enjoy this Android makeover. There’s not a ton of tinkering needed here and the launcher and widget apps provide tons of customization. Moreover, the wallpaper app has more choices to pick from than you’ll know what to do with. We venture to guess you’ll find something you love with the titles below.
You might put in a few bucks to get things rolling but you’ll be glad you did in the long run. Then again, if you’ve been doing the custom home screen stuff for a while, you may have already spent what you needed.
What you’ll need:
- Nova Launcher Prime or your preferred custom launcher
- Zooper Widget Pro
- Wallpaper: Wallpapers for Me (under “Minimal” category)
- Icons: Glim
- Clock and Weather Widget: Typographical
A couple of things to note for this specific design: We have the desktop grid at 8×6 icons and the widget is a 2×2 with scaling set to 100 percent. Also, we opted to remove the notification bar from displaying in the home screen. You will find there are all sorts of possibilities with the apps here so play around!
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[TA Deals] Save 15% off of any eLearning bundle with coupon code, today only
If there are any eLearning bundles you’ve been eyeing this year, now might be the time to finally pick one up before 2016.
With the coupon code LEARN15 you can knock an additional 15% any eLearning bundle, excluding PWYW bundles, which stacks on top of their already hefty discounted prices. These bundles cover everything from game design to programming languages to application to usage, so there’s bound to be a couple things that interest you.
This sale is only good for today, so don’t pass up the opportunity to score some cheap bundles.
Come comment on this article: [TA Deals] Save 15% off of any eLearning bundle with coupon code, today only
‘iPhone 7’ Waterproof Rumors Persist Amid Claims of Hidden Antenna Bands
Catcher Technology will remain the largest chassis supplier for the upcoming line of next-generation iPhones, tentatively referred to as the “iPhone 7,” according to the China-based Commercial Times (via DigiTimes). Sources noted that Catcher’s non-Apple clients, representing about 40 percent of its overall sales, will keep it going until the majority of its output begins with the manufacturing of the iPhone 7 later in 2016. In total, Catcher Technology’s manufacturing supply is estimated to account for 30 to 35 percent of the shipment numbers for the iPhone 7.
iPhone 7 concept mock-up by designer Martin Hajek
The report also mentioned the continuing rumor that the iPhone 7 may be a completely waterproof device, building on the recent momentum that the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus had this year that showed improved water resistance. The Commercial Times also spoke of “new compound materials” that would be put in place to form a discreet housing for the iPhone 7’s antenna, suggesting the possible removal of the bands from the back of the current iPhone generation.
As a non S-generation year, the iPhone 7 is expected to be a big step-up from the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, in terms of design and functionality, when it launches next year. Besides a waterproof design and now the possibility of a hidden antenna band, another rumor suggested Apple could be phasing out the 3.5mm headphone jack for an all-in-one Lightning connector port.
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Enter to win Honor’s talent show
Do you have a special talent and would like to use it to win a prize? If you do, you are in luck as Honor is having a talent show.
Unlike the talent shows you see on TV, to enter you do not have to wait outside for 15hrs in the rain before you get seen by a judge. All you have to do is upload a 30-60 second video to YouTube displaying your talent. Make sure to send the video to Honor so they can see it too.
If your talent is the best, Honor will crown you the winner and will let you perform your talent at one of their live events. All winners will also get a prize bundle including the latest Honor smartphone, which is not yet released in Europe, an Honor Band Z1, and an all-inclusive break to one of the greatest cities in Europe.
The talent show isn’t open to everyone, but if you live in Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, France or the Netherlands you can enter. You also must be over 18 years old.
Press Release:
The search is on: Honor Star 2016 competition set to uncover the talent of tomorrow
London, December 29, 2015 – Honor is inviting people across Europe to share their hidden talents with the launch of its ‘Honor Star 2016’ competition. If you’re a budding singer, actor or have an unusual sporting talent, now is your opportunity to win the chance to present your skills on stage in front of an audience! All you have to do is upload a video clip of yourself performing your talent to your YouTube account.
Video clips must be at least 30 seconds and a maximum of 1 minute long, and you’ll need to share the link with Honor either on its YouTube video post, on its Facebook page or directly via the contact form on hihonor.com (click ‘Support’ and then ‘Contact Us’). The five winners will get the chance to perform their unique talent on stage at one of Honor’s next live events. Winners will also receive great prize bundles including the latest Honor smartphone (not yet released in Europe), an Honor Band Z1and an all-inclusive break to one of the greatest cities in Europe.
Honor’s smartphones meet the needs of digital natives who are always connected, challenge common behaviour and take a brave approach to life. So if you’ve got secret skateboarding talents, are a budding musician, can do some cool moves on your snowboard or just have a unique talent that no-one else shares, then get involved!
Entry to the ‘Honor Star 2016’ competition is free of charge and open to anyone who, at the date of entry, is aged 18 years or over and permanent resident in one of the following EU countries: Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, France or the Netherlands. The competition opened on December 21st and the deadline for entries is January 18th, 2016.
For further details regarding conditions of participation for the competition, please see Honor’s website: weu.hihonor.com/honorstar_en.pdf
Come comment on this article: Enter to win Honor’s talent show
‘iPhone 6c’ Said to Have Slightly Larger Battery Than iPhone 5s and 2GB of RAM
Apple’s so-called “iPhone 6c” will have a 1,642 mAh battery, slightly larger than the iPhone 5s battery’s 1,570 mAh capacity, according to Chinese website MyDrivers [Google Translate] (via Gadgetz Arena).
The report, citing “insider Foxconn employees,” also corroborates multiple rumors claiming the 4-inch iPhone will feature an A9 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB base storage, Touch ID and the same 2.5d curved glass used on the iPhone 6 and later.
Apple’s suppliers will reportedly begin mass production of the much-rumored smartphone in January ahead of a possible March announcement and subsequent April release. At least five sources have now predicted the “iPhone 6c” will launch in early 2016 since rumors about the device began circulating this year.
In November, often-reliable Japanese blog Mac Otakara reported that Apple has developed a new 4-inch iPhone that is essentially an iPhone 5s with sixth-generation iPod touch features, including an A8 chip, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1 and an improved FaceTime HD camera with ƒ/2.2 aperture. The “iPhone 6c” may also come in at least three colors and lack 3D Touch.
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Every 2016 Samsung Smart TV will be IoT ready
At CES 2016 Samsung will unveil that every 2016 Smart TV they make will be Internet of Things (IoT) enabled and connect with the SmartThings platform.
Also, all of Samsung’s 2016 SUHD TVs will apply IoT hub technology. This means the TV will be able to be used as the controller for all other IoT devices. Think of it like being the basestation. They will be able to connect and control more than 200 SmartThings compatible devices like lights, cameras, thermostats and more.
Hyun Suk Kim, President of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics said:
“The 2016 line-up of Smart TVs will offer consumers new possibilities and cement Samsung’s market leading position, as the first company to launch IoT ready TVs.”
The SmartThings platform is what will mainly power all of this. It is what allows users to control IoT devices from their smartphone or TVs. Rather than having many different apps, you only need one app to rule them all.
Source: Samsung
Come comment on this article: Every 2016 Samsung Smart TV will be IoT ready
Ford concept turns your car wheel into an electric unicycle
There’s an irony to driving downtown: since you frequently have to park well away from your destination, there’s a real chance that you’ll be slower around town than someone taking the bus. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have private, motorized transport for the entire trip? Ford thinks so. It recently obtained a patent for a car wheel that turns into an electric unicycle. You’d only have to detach the wheel and slap on a kit that gives you the controls and seating you need to get moving.
As with other patents, there’s no guarantee that you’ll ever see a product out of this. Ford may only be locking down the idea to prevent others from swiping it later on. With that in mind, it’s clear that the automaker has been thinking about how this would work in real life. The car could include an automatic jack that would make it easy to remove the wheel, and you might even use your phone or tablet as a dashboard. If this car/unicycle mashup does ever make it to market, it would let you park further from your endpoint even as you save both fuel and time.
Via: Gizmodo
Source: USPTO
Amazon’s holiday hits included instant film and turntables
You’d think that an internet retail behemoth like Amazon would primarily sell a lot of cutting-edge tech during the holidays, but nope — that wasn’t the case this year. The company has posted its annual holiday bestsellers, and it turns out that some of the hottest purchases were decidedly retro. The best-selling camera tech this year, for example, was Fujifilm’s Instax instant film. A digital camera, the GoPro Hero4, was only a runner-up. Likewise, the top home audio gear was a Jensen turntable, eclipsing a Yamaha receiver and Sonos’ Play:1 two-speaker kit.
Yes, newer technology did rule other places on the chart, but not necessarily in the way you’d think. It’s evident that many people are thrifty when they shop online: both the top-selling laptop (a Toshiba Satellite C55) and TV (a 32-inch, 1080p Samsung set) were budget models, and even the best-selling tablets were Amazon’s entry-level variants. While the shopping data isn’t completely surprising (you probably want to see that expensive 4K TV in person before you buy it), it’s a reminder that people haven’t fully embraced the concept of buying big-ticket items sight unseen.
[Image credit: Cyrus McCrimmon/The Denver Post via Getty Images]
Source: Amazon
Smartisan’s T2 phone is all about metal and minimalism
You may not have heard of Smartisan before, but this Chinese smartphone maker is already three-and-a-half years old and has released two devices so far: the premium T1 and the budget-friendly U1, both of which featuring an insanely long list of unique UI tricks that left us smiling. All good things take time: 19 months after its first flagship model, Smartisan is finally back with a fancy metallic upgrade, the T2, and this time it’s less about specs, but more about refining the design in favor of minimalism. No power button, no exposed screws, no visible SIM tray and, most interestingly, no plastic bands on the smooth and subtly rounded aluminum frame. This seamless bezel alone is apparently the outcome of 588 days of research and development, so it’s no wonder that this is also a first for Chinese smartphones. Slideshow-352534
While the T1 had a removable back cover for customization and for accessing the SIM tray, the slimmer and lighter T2 doesn’t. But rather than tainting the T2’s clean bezel, Smartisan has taken a page out of Motorola’s book and turned the volume keys on the right as part of the new Nano SIM tray. Simply poke a pin into the nearby hole and the whole piece pops out. The other set of volume keys on the left remain unchanged, and as before, you can assign screen brightness to one side and volume to the other in system settings, depending on your hand preference.
As for the missing power button at the top, well, you’ll now have to rely on the home key, which is one of the three customizable physical buttons as featured on the T1. If anything, the new 2.5D Gorilla Glass 3 panel (same on the back side) complements well with these buttons.
Spec-wise the T2 isn’t all that exciting; it’s more of a sensible combination rather than something mind-blowing. Right in the heart you have a hexa-core Snapdragon 808 chipset (2x Cortex-A57 at 1.82 GHz + 4x Cortex-A53 at 1.44 GHz) which isn’t as powerful as the octa-core 810 (two more A57 cores, and possibly clocked at higher speeds), but given the 2,670 mAh battery, this was no doubt intentional. On a more positive note, this Qualcomm chip also offers a generous range of bands for both LTE and 3G UMTS (both are US-friendly), along with VoLTE support on all three major carriers in China.
Other hidden components include a choice of either 16GB of 32GB of internal storage, 3GB of LPDDR3 RAM, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC and a pair of Texas Instrument OPA1612 chips for audio amplification. For photography, the 13-megapixel f/2.0 main camera has been upgraded with optical image stabilization and new video recording options: 4K at 30fps and 720p at 120fps. Alas, no dual-tone LED flash here. On the other side, not much has changed with the 5-megapixel selfie camera. To be picky, we would have liked to see either microSD expansion or at least a 64GB option at launch, and USB Type-C connection would have been a nice talking point.
On the software side, the T2 runs on the new Smartisan OS 2.5 based on Android 5.1, which is also made available to the U1 variants today and then the T1 on January 6th. You’ll find the same big-tile launcher with slick animations, with the main update here being the frosted tile option, which finally lets users set a photo as the wallpaper without making a visual mess, plus you can take a peek at the original picture underneath when you drag a tile around. Better yet, you can even give this new launcher a spin on your very own Android device; just grab the APK from Smartisan’s website and install it.
The new OS also offers some new handy tools. The Smartisan Drive app features a very simple interface — just ginormous buttons for car navigation, music and phone — for minimal distraction. We’re also liking the seemingly foolproof remote assistance app co-developed by fellow Chinese company Cutecomm, which is good news for users who have to occasionally help their less tech-savvy elders; and it’s smart enough to show a warning prompt when the remote user attempts to access payment apps on the host device. Last but not least, the T2 comes with built-in global data roaming service which not only supports 48 countries and regions, but also charges cheaply — just 25 yuan or about $4 per day when roaming in the US or the UK, for example. But obviously, this service is only available to users based in China.
As with its previous flagship model, Smartisan has no intention to join the Chinese price war with the T2, but it’s still relatively affordable for what it is: 2,499 yuan or about $385 for the 16GB version, and 2,599 yuan or about $400 for 32GB. The first lot has quickly sold out in China shortly after the launch event, so you’ll just have to keep an eye on your favorite importers until more stock arrives. And who knows, this phone may eventually launch in the US, as Smartisan does plan on expanding beyond its home country later this year.
Via: Engadget Chinese
Source: Smartisan
Today’s best-selling unlocked Android phones at Best Buy (December 29)
The $99 Moto G (Gen 2) still leads the pack
So you got yourself some money over the holidays and now you’re looking to spend some. Why not start the new year out right with a new phone?
Purchasing a new smartphone can be quite the expensive endeavor. Moreover, it can also be a bit of a headache as you try to consider which phone, which carrier, and which rate plan is right. We’re here to help you with at least one of those segments: the phone. And, more specifically, we’re going to help nail down one place to check for your handset needs.
Why unlocked?
The benefit of an unlocked smartphone, for those who aren’t aware, is that it can be used on a variety of wireless service providers. Going this route ensures you don’t have to worry about contracts or long-term obligations. Want to hop from T-Mobile to AT&T or vice-versa? That’s no problem when you’re using an unlocked GSM phone.
We’ve gathered up the 10 best-selling unlocked Android devices from Best Buy so you can get a sense for what’s available. Indeed, you’ll see a nice mix of big-name vendors and devices from other, scrappy players. Note that we’ve omitted color variations; you might find other colors available.
So, the next time you need to replace your existing phone, consider scooping up one of these. It’s often a heck of a lot cheaper than going through your carrier in the long run.
- Motoroloa Moto G 2nd Generation 8GB – $99.99 SAVE $50
- Samsung Galaxy S6 32GB – $449.99 SAVE $150
- BLU Studio X 8GB- $99.99 SAVE $50
- Sony Xperia C4 16GB- $249.99 SAVE $50
- Motorola Moto G 3rd Generation 8GB – $179.99
- Huawei P8 Lite 16GB- $199.99 SAVE $50
- Motorola Moto X Pure 16GB – $399.99
- Samsung Galaxy S4 (Unlocked) – $269.99 SAVE $150
- Blu Advance 4 4GB – $59.99
- BLU Life X8 8GB – $129.99
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