Brace yourself for Season 6 with our Game of Thrones Wallpaper Wednesday

Don’t let your home screen fall into a rut — switch out your wallpaper!

You don’t have to pull out a complex new theme like Deadpool to bring a breath of fresh air to your home screen. A new wallpaper can do wonders, and launchers like Action Launcher can re-theme your entire home screen around a good wallpaper. In our effort to help brighten your device — and maybe your day — we’re compiling some wallpapers for you to try out.

If you’ve got a wallpaper you use everywhere, share it in the comments below! We’re always looking for something new. Now get your wallpaper picker ready and see what’s in store this week.

Winter Has Come by James Bousema

A number of things come to mind in this beautifully macabre scene. It’s lonely at the top. The road to the top stomps over a lot of bodies. But mostly to my mind what comes to mind is blood. That’s a whole lot of blood. Like put-the-Red-Wedding-to-shame whole lot of blood.

Winter Has Come by James Bousema

Iron Throne by jjfwh

The Iron Throne is the subject for a lot of wallpapers, but this surprisingly simple symmetric wallpaper pulls me in somehow. And this deviantart user has a whole gallery of poster-type wallpapers for us to showcase our House pride with.

Iron Throne by jjfwh

The Old Houses of Westeros

Another series of wallpapers with German-style crests on parchment backgrounds stirs something within me. I dunno if it’s just how I was trained by Harry Potter or if it’s the helmets atop each crest (look at the Magneto-style helmet for House Martell!!), but if you’ve got to wear a House crest into battle — or work, more often work — it’s hard to go wrong with these beauties, originally from reddit.

The Old Houses of Westeros

Baratheons by Looksnookem

While deer are not my favorite animals, the ones used in the iconography for Baratheon house are just the most majestic animals on the show (and that quite possibly includes the dragons). And this illustration of a Baratheon stag, quite possibly with magical powers judging by the aura surrounding it and its glowing white eyes, is the most majestic I’ve come across yet. I look in those glowing eyes and I’ve never believed harder in OURS IS THE FURY.

Baratheons by Looksnookem

Game of Musical Thrones

Game of Thrones is a show with a lot of doom, gloom, death, destruction, blood, guts, and other soul-crushing endeavours. (Thank you, George R.R.Martin!) Sometimes you just have to laugh in the face of that much shock, awe, and occasional horror of this show or you’re just gonna start bawling. The idea of all the House animals playing musical chairs with the Iron Throne just makes you want to laugh, and we need those laughs after another bloody, bloody episode. As an added bonus, you can buy a dashing t-shirt with the same design so that you can show off your nerdiness and help fellow fans laugh off [redacted] getting [redacted] in Sunday’s episode.

Game of Musical Thrones

Inbox now helps you keep up with calendar events, newsletters and links

Google is rolling out an update for its Inbox by Gmail email client on Android. It includes some new features for keeping up with events in Google Calendar, among other things.

Google stated:

Events can be hard to keep track of in your inbox because details—and people’s plans—may change. Inbox now gathers emails from a single event together and shows you what’s changed at a glance. When you tap on an event, you’ll see a comprehensive overview, all in one place.

In addition, Inbox will now allow users to preview the content in newsletters and click directly to any article in them. It also offers a way to saved shared links:

Simply share the link to Inbox on Android or iOS, or use the new Inbox by Gmail Chrome extension on web. When you check your email, you’ll see your saved links grouped together in one place.

HTC 10 versus iPhone 6s: No place like home (button)

Can HTC regain its position of strength?

The HTC 10 looks nothing like an iPhone. Let’s just get that out of the way.

Its predecessor, or half-sibling — whatever you wish to call the One A9 — resembled the iPhone 6s in more than a few ways, but much was made about nothing. The two phones were made of single blocks of brushed aluminum, with etched speaker ports, front home buttons and, perhaps most egregious on the part of HTC, a small rounded camera bump.

Whatever. That was then, this is now. HTC has returned with its best phone yet, seven months into Apple’s latest iPhone flagship life cycle. So why compare the two? Because HTC is gunning directly for Apple’s design leadership — and say what you will about Apple, the iPhone, or the latest model, the industry has responded to Apple’s guidance in a big way — and many Android users are looking for alternatives to the Samsung behemoth.

Hardware

The HTC 10 is what would have happened to the iPhone 5s if Apple had decided to broadly expand its use of the chamfer. All single-cut bevel and anodization. But HTC’s latest somehow retains that unknowable essence the company lost between the release of the M7 and the A9, which became splotchy after the M9 was too similar (but somehow too different?) to the M8.

In other words, it’s been a confusing few years for the Taiwanese once-giant.

In that time, Apple’s sales, and its confidence, have soared. The company sold over 200 million iPhones in 2015, buoyed by the release of its now-standard three-size strategy. Though the 4.7-inch iPhone 6s looks identical to its predecessor, Apple thickened and strengthened the shell slightly to prevent the occasional bent chassis.

Both phones are unquestionably well made, but the HTC 10 finds a satisfying compromise in its 5.2-inch screen size compared to the iPhone 6s’ considerably lower-resolution 4.7-inch display and its Plus counterpart’s 5.5-inch panel. I can happily say using the HTC 10 with one hand is not just possible, but enjoyable. While it takes a dextrous thumb to maneuver between the top notification shade and capacitive home button (that doubles as a fingerprint sensor), I never once felt it a precarious proposition.

It’s been a confusing few years for the Taiwanese once-giant.

HTC also managed to out-engineer Apple in terms of external sound, too: the HTC 10 boasts two speakers, one front-facing in next to the earpiece, the other down-facing, placed identically to the iPhone’s. Together, the two speakers are loud, clear, and noteworthy. They speak to HTC’s commitment to audio in an industry that has erred almost entirely on the visual experience of a smartphone. But there, too, HTC excels.

The HTC 10’s QHD display doesn’t get quite as bright as the iPhone 6s’, but its viewing angles and color accuracy are just as good. While colors don’t explode as they do on Samsung’s Super AMOLED panels, the HTC 10’s SuperLCD5 finds a happy (and, through settings, customizable) medium.

The more I use the HTC 10, the more impressed I am by what the company accomplished, especially in such trying times. Apple has the luxury of two-year design cadences, of near-infinite research and development budgets, of sourcing the best parts from the best component makers. Viewed in such a context, it is even more incredible that HTC pulled off such a device under its heavy constraints.

Software and experience

Let’s keep this short(ish). HTC’s pared-back Android Marshmallow software is a pleasure to use, and promising compromise for customers looking to pivot from, but not abandon, the Nexus line.

In years past, there used to be whole swaths of features that iOS users coveted from Android and vice versa. Without inciting riots, let’s just all admit (yes, it’s alright to do so) that both platforms are reaching a point of maturity where all the major checkboxes have been ticked. Robust app ecosystems; scalable notifications; built-in virtual assistants; settings galore (to a fault).

The more I use the HTC 10, the more impressed I am by what the company accomplished

Where Android continues to suffer, though, is how its OEM partners approach modifications, some with a heavy hand, and others, like HTC, with a more forgivable lighter touch. As has been the case in years past, HTC’s commitment to expeditious updates, regular bug fixes, and Play Store-pushed core apps have fostered a leanness that, outside of Google itself, very few companies can consistently claim. When HTC promises an update to the latest version of Android within three months of its announcement, we have no reason to doubt. Sure, some of these updates are hampered by carriers’ inconsistent quality assurance processes, but for the most part we see HTC out the door first.

By comparison, Apple, by virtue of its closed circle of hardware and software, releases updates to all carriers, across many of its products, at the same time. While this does cause unforeseen problems on occasion, the vast majority of users get to benefit from new features, bug fixes and security updates on the same day. Google has alleviated many security concerns with its monthly patches, but some partners are better than others at pushing them out to users with regularity.

Read the full review

There’s a lot more to HTC’s software improvements than we have room for here, so read through Alex Dobie’s review to get the full scoop.

Read our HTC 10 review

At its core, the HTC 10 provides a software experience both recognizable as Sense and as stock Android, though with the requisite bloat, such as pre-installs from Facebook and News Republic that remind us we’re dealing with a company looking to monetize aspects of its software experience. You see this exemplified in Boost+, the much-derided app that is now available to all Android users in the Play Store.

I think most people want HTC to succeed, and based on its increasingly cozy relationship, especially Google. But it will take more than debloating and simplifying its software to find an audience.

Camera quality

In an area where HTC has floundered in recent years, it’s comforting to know it has righted what used to be its devices’ biggest liability. That isn’t to say that everything is perfect — and we’re in a holding pattern of sorts until HTC issues its first of what will likely be many camera-related patches — but it’s by far the best camera experience ever seen on an HTC handset.

On the flip side, Apple’s apparent camera advantage has been steadily eroded in the months since the iPhone 6s’s release. From Samsung’s Galaxy S7 to LG’s more-than-capable G5, the Android ecosystem has blown the proverbial game wide open. HTC fits somewhere in the middle; its 12MP “UltraPixel” rear shooter isn’t quite as reliable as the iPhone 6s for capturing true-to-life daytime shots, but its optical image stabilization is great for evening captures. And while the iPhone 6s, even without OIS, manages to eke consistently better 4K video than the HTC 10, the latter has some of the best audio capture I’ve ever gleaned from a mobile device. Again, HTC targets a small but important part of the smartphone segment.

HTC 10 (left) / iPhone 6s (right); click images to view larger

In terms of front-facing cameras, the two are relatively evenly matched in good light; it is in poor light where the iPhone forces you to activate its contentious Retina Flash to avoid blurriness from the 5MP sensor. HTC’s industry-first optically-stabilized 5MP front shooter manages to grab ahold of more light in darkened environments, but augments such scenes with fine grain caused by a slightly smaller sensor.

Wrap-up

HTC has entered the market with a phone I am increasingly enamored with. From its stunning design to its impressive spec sheet and graciously reliable camera, there are few things for which I can fault HTC. Its biggest problem is its environment; it goes up against Samsung’s best-ever lineup, and Apple’s continued strength in the market.

I honestly haven’t been able to say this since the One M7 back in 2013, but HTC’s smartphone is as good as anything on the market right now, and shouldn’t be dismissed even when placed next to Apple’s or Samsung’s best.

HTC 10

• HTC 10 review
• HTC 10 specs
• These are the HTC 10 colors
• Our first photo and video samples
• Meet the Ice View case
• Join our HTC 10 forums

HTC
Verizon

Verizon simplifies its Cloud storage plans, now includes 5GB of storage each month for free

Verizon is simplifying its Cloud offerings and giving you more for your money. The base plan now includes 5GB of storage per month for free, and the top plan goes as high as 1TB per month for $9.99. With these new plans, Verizon is giving customers more storage without asking for any additional money, so you can now safely store all of your contacts, photos, videos and more in the cloud without breaking the bank.

The new cloud storage plans, as noted by Verizon now are:

• Small (S): Free 5GB of storage per month
• Medium (M): $2.99 for 25GB of storage per month
• Large (L): $4.99 for 250GB of storage per month
• Extra-Large (XL): $9.99 for 1TB of storage per month

Current subscribers will be given the additional storage of the tier they are on without having to do anything on their end, for example if you’re currently on a 75GB plan you’ll be bumped to the new 250GB plan.

Chrome surpasses 1 billion monthly users on Android and iOS

Google has announced that the mobile version of its Chrome browser, running on both Android and iOS, has now passed 1 billion monthly active users. This puts Chrome in the same club as products like YouTube, Maps, and Search, all of which have passed the same milestone.

From TechCrunch:

Google says its users now load 771 billion pages per month (on desktop and mobile combined), and they use Google Translate for 3.6 billion of these pages. The company also says that its data-saving features for both the desktop and mobile now saves its users a total of 2 million gigabytes of data used every month.

Google didn’t break down of how many people used Chrome on each platform, and while Android no doubt leads those numbers, it’s likely that the iOS version has proven popular as well.

This announcement comes just one week after Google released Chrome 50 for desktops.

‘Shadow Complex Remastered’ hits the PS4 on May 3

Sony announced on Wednesday that is bringing the last-gen hit sidescroller Shadow Complex into the modern gaming era and release a remastered version of it on May 3rd for the PS4. For those not familiar with the title, Shadow Complex follows the exploits of one Jason Flemming who must rescue his girlfriend (guh, cliche much?) from a faction of high-tech soldiers in a secret underground bunker. It utilizes the same sort of 2.5D gameplay as Super Metroid, wherein the environment is 3D but the player can only move in two dimensions — enemies are not, however, similarly restricted and can attack from anywhere.

Shadow Complex was one of the most popular Live Arcade games ever released on the Xbox 360. The Xbox One got its own remastered version in March. The PS4 version will include the same graphics boost as well as additional Challenge Levels. There’s no word yet on how much the the PS4 version will cost when it hits Sony’s virtual store shelves.

Source: PlayStation Blog

Find and play podcasts in the Android Google app

Google finally added podcasts to Google Play Music this week, but the episodic content is still rolling out to the music service’s Android app. While you’re waiting to have all of your listening content in one place, the folks in Mountain View are giving you another option in the main search app. Starting today, you’ll be able to fire up a podcast right from the search results in the Google app on Android. Once you start a show, a player appears at the bottom of the window with play/pause controls and options for skipping ahead 30 seconds and skipping back 10 seconds.

Need to do something else on your phone? The podcast will continue playing from the Google app if you leave, and those controls are easily accessible by swiping down on the notifications menu — similar to other audio apps. What’s more, some podcasts that aren’t available through Google Play Music are with this new feature in the main Google app. For example, searching for Serial or Fresh Air produces the last few episodes, but those two popular podcasts don’t show up in Music’s web-based desktop app. The opposite is true as well: some of the podcasts in Music on the desktop don’t immediately pop up when I search for them in the Google app.

The initial search results show you the three most recent episodes with a play button beside each one. If you need to go back further, tapping “more episodes” will display the podcast’s description and a longer episode list. In the case of Serial, you see all 26 episodes, but for one that’s been around longer, like Fresh Air, Google will let you browse the last 50. If you don’t mind streaming podcasts, this is a handy add-on to an app you already have on your phone. However, if you prefer to take your listening offline, you’ll need to look into options like Pocket Casts, Spotify and others.

Source: Google

Google Keep finally gets a Chrome extension for easier saving

Heads up, taskmasters and note-takers: Google Keep just got a few new features that should help it fit better into your workflow. For one, Google finally got around to making a Chrome extension so you can save web pages (or parts of them) straight to Keep with handy notes in tow. A small (but vocal!) subset of Keep fans have been clamoring for a proper in-browser option for ages, prompting some developers to cook up their own extensions — all without a proper Keep API from Google.

Creating new Keep entries while multitasking just got easier on Android, too. Sweet, sweet content (like web links, photos and text) in other apps can be saved to Keep via the Share menu. Google’s own example demonstrates saving a link from Chrome for Android, but the trick also works for non-Google software — we’re told that any app that supports Android’s Share Intents will play nice with Keep. We also now have the power to categorize our Keep notes with #hashtags (naturally), though it’s really just an easier way to add existing labels or create a new ones. Throw in some minor UI changes for Keep’s Android app, and we’ve got a surprisingly substantial update — you’ll be able to start playing with these features shortly.

Source: Google Docs blog