HTC breaks its promise to update the One A9 ‘within 15 days’
When HTC launched the One A9, it promised to roll out new versions of Android “within 15 days” of their release. Pretty sweet, right? Well, it would be — but that’s not happening with Android 7.0. In a tweet, HTC said the new software will be hitting the HTC 10 in the fourth quarter of 2016, followed by the unlocked One M9, the unlocked One A9 and their carrier counterparts. The timeline suggests that the company will be breaking its promise with the One A9 — Google released Nougat on August 22nd, meaning the phone would need to receive it by September 6th.
We reached out to HTC, and a spokesperson told us: “With the excitement around Android Nougat, we’re aligning engineering resources around our most popular flagship products where the most customers will benefit.” It’s a shame, because the One A9 is a decent little phone. Admittedly, it’s not a top-tier powerhouse like the HTC 10, but it’s still capable. Throw in a five-inch display (an increasingly rare smartphone spec) and a light, reserved take on Android, and you’ve got a solid if unadventurous device.
The move is a head-scratcher, because HTC is struggling to sell phones as it is. The least it can do is support the people who are still buying them.
Via: XDA Developers
Source: HTC (Twitter)
Playing solitaire and tic-tac-toe is as easy as a Google search
A Google search is handy for getting info on nearly anything, but now the company is making it easier to play two timeless games on both mobile and the web. When you search for “solitaire” or “tic-tac-toe,” you’ll be able to play them both from the comforts of your browser on the desktop or inside the Google app on your phone or tablet. The company has been keen on adding these bits of whimsy to its search tool for a while now as these games follow animal sounds and a coin flip. You know, in case you need to decide who’s picking up the check in today’s cashless society. There’s also those Google Doodles that have been a mainstay for years, most recently offering Olympic-themed games.
Source: Google
NFL Network launches on PlayStation Vue ahead of football season
Last month, Sony announced that NFL Network and its RedZone channel for keeping up with scoring plays would arrive on PlayStation Vue before the start of the season. Well, the time has come. The company announced today that those two channels are now live on the service for Core and Elite subscribers. Those two tiers are priced at $35 a month and $45 a month, respectively, but if local channels are available in your area you’ll have to pay $10 more. If you’re interested in that RedZone add-on, you’ll need to hand over $40 for the entire season.
Sony says subscribers will also get access to NFL Network on the web, through the NFL app on streaming devices and on the NFL Mobile app at no additional charge. However, that access isn’t available just yet (“coming soon”) and there’s no word on when users can expect it. Just as a refresher, PlayStation Vue is available on PS4, PS3, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, Roku and both iOS and Android mobile devices. What’s more, you can use the service’s cloud-based DVR to record multiple games if you can’t tune in live.
Source: PlayStation Blog
Your iPhone 6 could be falling victim to ‘touch disease’
If you’ve ever seen a flickering gray bar at the top of your iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus lately, you may be the victim of a very serious problem plaguing your mobile device.
It’s a massive issue that’s been making the rounds on a staggering number of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Pluses sent in for repair each month, each displaying the same symptoms: the gray bar at the top of the screen and a touchscreen that refuses to work properly, almost as if it’s frozen.
According to IFixIt and Forbes, the issue is widespread enough to warrant several pages of complaints via the Apple support forums. The problem is, both the repair techs who continually see the issues coming in and the customers taking to the internet to make their concerns known aren’t seeing much done about it.
While there are some fixes by way of twisting the phone a bit or putting pressure on the screen, these are only temporary band-aids for a much larger problem. The malady may go away for a short time, but then return with a vengeance, eventually losing touchscreen functionality altogether.
Weirdly enough, replacing the touchscreen isn’t a proper fix. The gray bar will creep onto the new screen even when it’s been swapped out, because it’s not exactly a problem with the screen. It’s a problem with the Touch IC chips on the board inside the phone. They must be replaced for the problem to completely go away, and Apple’s Geniuses aren’t able to open up phones to go inside and replace them. Hence, the quandary. Instead, people are turning to smaller, third-party repair shops who are “unauthorized” to fix the issue.
Repair shops have been trying out various fixes to ward off the problem so that it doesn’t return. According to Jessa Jones, microsoldering specialist via IFixIt.org, placing a metal shield soldered over the sticker shield on the problem iPhones seems to fix the issue indefinitely, offering an “internal reinforcement,” a “futureproof shield,” as she calls it.
Unfortunately, since these kinds of fixes aren’t endorsed or OKed by Apple, Jessa and her colleagues have actually been banned from posting on the Apple Support Communities for offering their own views on resolving the problems that so many iPhone owners are experiencing. Apple is fine with having customers purchase new phones, but it doesn’t seem to want to include repair specialists who are finding success when it comes to actually fixing the issue.
It’s estimated, according to New York board repair specialist Louis Rossmann, that this “touch disease” malady could very well turn into a class action lawsuit at some point if customers make a big enough stink. And from the way things are going, it looks like that could be a very real possibility in the future.
Via: Forbes, IFixIt
To stay competitive, Walmart and Target turn to startups for help
Ten startup teams are holed up in Minneapolis through next month to use a new retail-focused accelerator there to launch everything from voice-based search technology for retailers to interactive games that help kids learn STEM concepts. Their workspace is a typical startup bullpen — an open zone filled with things like boxes of food, Apple products, whiteboards with rows of Post-its and signs hanging from the ceiling that mark each startup’s turf.
Their host is none other than Target, which built an 8,000-square-foot space at its headquarters in the city for the inaugural accelerator it launched earlier this summer. Never mind that Target employs some 341,000 people and does more than $73 billion in sales a year — it also wants to try and bottle some innovation from scrappy startup entrepreneurs as it attempts to chart a path forward.
That’s as good a starting point as any in understanding a high-stakes shift in priorities underway at big legacy retailers like Target and Walmart. Indeed, they’re increasingly caught up in a Silicon Valley-style scramble for top talent like coders and engineers. They’re also launching and staffing up skunkworks labs and working with startups — all in an effort to slingshot themselves into the future.
Some of the ideas Target is pursuing include the accelerator it founded in partnership with Techstars, as well as its “Food + Future coLab” focused on food innovation.That effort was launched in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab and Ideo. The idea behind the lab is to bring together teams from each of those founding organizations to come up with big ideas related to food.
Target in recent weeks began testing a concept at one of its Boston stores that came out of the lab. Essentially, it allows people to scan fruits and vegetables to identify their nutritional value — and to pay for the item based on its freshness.
Walmart, in its own way, is racing toward the same goal.
Earlier this month, the retail giant said it would pay about $3 billion to buy e-commerce startup (and Amazon competitor) Jet.com. In recent weeks, the company also rolled out its Walmart Pay payment system to all of its US stores.
And while it’s not readily apparent from visiting any of its nearly 5,300 US locations, Walmart also has a San Francisco Bay Area outpost called WalmartLabs — a kind of skunkworks unit focused on the retailer’s digital products and services like Walmart Pay.
“We’ve got several new things in the works I can’t announce,” Walmart Chief Technology Officer Jeremy King told Engadget. “But let’s just say you’ll see us make it even more compelling to use your phone in the store.”
What it all amounts to is two of the biggest, most traditional retailers in the US looking West for inspiration. And their experimentation is certainly worth watching. It might fall flat, but there’s also a chance they could successfully infuse enough Silicon Valley-style innovation into their playbooks to reinvent themselves — and the retail experience — in the process.
In a way, they don’t have much choice. While the retail industry is eking out barely 1 percent growth, e-commerce is zipping along at 15 percent, according to the latest Deloitte Retail Volatility Index, published by the consulting firm Deloitte.
Target, which said earlier this year that it plans to spend more than $2 billion starting in 2017 on tech and supply-chain improvements, has been busy on several fronts to try and capture some fresh digital mojo.
The company is hiring staffers for a tech project codenamed “Goldfish” that will be housed out of Target’s Sunnyvale, California, office, which opened in 2014 to focus on things like online and mobile data analytics. A job posting for engineers is short on details but says, “We’re a brand new team, intent on changing the way people shop.” West Stringfellow, whom Target hired last year as its first entrepreneur-in-residence after stints at Amazon and PayPal, is behind the mystery project, though he’s staying put in Minneapolis.
Among the teams participating in Target’s accelerator is L.A.-based MakersKit, which provides DIY craft kits and instructional videos for all ages. Others include MakerBloks, a Montreal-based startup that creates interactive games and craft materials to help children learn about electronics, technology and STEM ideas; and ItsByU, a startup that provides kits for users to create their own wedding-flower arrangements.
The teams are going through 14 weeks of programming and mentorship from executives like Target’s chairman and CEO himself, Brian Cornell. According to the company, 50 percent of the startup teams have female cofounders, and two are international — one from Canada and one from Hong Kong. There are also a couple of family-run outfits, with a husband-and-wife team as well as a team of sisters.
“We’re looking first and foremost to help these startups,” said Stringfellow, who is now Target’s vice president of internal innovation and operations. “If there’s a symbiotic opportunity, great. If not, that’s OK, too. We’ll be learning from their discipline, focus, excitement and passion, and a second-order effect will be us taking some of that and applying it to our products and teams and practices.”
The approach to digital and innovation efforts at WalmartLabs is a little different.
The company’s division focusing on new technologies and digital products is keeping its roadmap mostly hidden. But it generally focuses on innovation that can be built into features across Walmart’s operation.
WalmartLabs’ Bay Area presence is split between Sunnyvale and San Bruno, where it shares a parking lot with Twitter. King says being there lets the division compete with big tech companies for engineering and coding talent. And according to King, at least, it wins that hiring race more often than not.
At the inaugural TAP Conference last year, WalmartLabs director of innovation Ojonimi Bako spelled out its basic M.O. — the unit has a degree of freedom to experiment, separate from the rest of the company. The best of these ideas could eventually be scaled across the company. The lab is also free to pursue its own acquisitions of other companies, of which there have been 15, King says.
Together, Walmart and Target’s respective approaches show how legacy retailers can compete in the digital age. And they’re not alone. Over in Europe, retailer John Lewis — which operates 46 shops across the UK as well as a web presence — has an accelerator program of its own, called the JLAB.
The five retail tech startups John Lewis selected for the latest round of the program are built around everything from programmable robots to advanced computer-visioning. They get access to mentors and capital. John Lewis, in turn, gets to learn from them in a way that could potentially help the 152-year-old retailer stay relevant in the 21st century.
There are plenty of other examples. Consumer-goods giant Unilever has a corporate accelerator called the Unilever Foundry. Disney and BMW also host their own startup incubators.
Efforts like these from the retailers might end up successfully connecting them with smaller, faster-moving companies. And those companies might have different skill sets and insights the bigger brands can tap to improve their own operations.
Or maybe not.
Walmart CTO King, for his part, says traditional retailers too often are content to just build what he calls “toy shops,” where “10 to 20 people form a group to maybe build an app or play with beacons.”
Indeed, after a few years of operation, upscale department store Nordstrom recently dismantled the tech-focused “innovation lab” it had set up six years before. Nordstrom spokesman Dan Evans told Engadget innovation is now required across the whole company, not just for one unit.
“We no longer have a specific innovation lab, as we folded the responsibility of innovation across our technology teams so that each group has a stake in how we innovate for the customer,” he said.
It’s an admission of how tough it is to get the balance right: to maintain the core of what you as a retailer do, while at the same time trying to figure out why the world is changing around you, and what you can do about it.
Kasey Lobaugh, chief retail innovation officer for Deloitte Consulting, says he’s seeing a growing number of retailers deciding to pursue one or both of these paths, launching so-called innovation labs, many of them in Silicon Valley, and setting up incubators or accelerators.
Those innovation labs, though, have “been of marginal success so far,” Lobaugh says. “Largely what those centers have done is focus on technologies to apply to the current business. Like, not changing the business model, just doing something like adding beacons so we can communicate with an app and maybe send the customer interesting marketing material while they’re shopping.
“The second thing retailers have started to do,” he continued, “is say, ‘Maybe we need to be more like a startup, maybe figure out ways to be around startups.’ And so they launch an incubator to figure out what they’re doing and maybe learn from them. I’d say the jury is still out on how successful that will be.”
To Walmart’s King’s point about “toy shops,” Lobaugh notes how Uber did a lot more “than just develop a mobile app and tack it onto a taxicab company.” And therein is the cautionary note for retailers who think innovation centers are some sort of magic bullet.
“The analogy I would use for what retailers are doing with their innovation centers — and this is painting with a broad brush — but they’re thinking about, ‘How can I tack a mobile app onto my taxicab company?” he said. “Instead of thinking about, ‘How can I use technology to recast my business to be able to compete in a very different environment?’”
Meanwhile, at Target, Walmart and many of their competitors, that’s exactly the work that’s happening now. Expect it to continue. The retailers are more open now to looking for new ideas in unexpected places. Even if that place is a small, tech-savvy startup that couldn’t be more removed from the world of big-box retail.
Images: Target (Innovation lab teams); Walmart (@WalmartLabs); Mike Blake / Reuters (storefront)
Apple patents a way to collect iPhone thieves’ fingerprints
Apple’s done a lot to curb iPhone theft via the “Find my iPhone” feature and encryption that locks out users if an incorrect code or fingerprint is used too often. However, it’s thinking about getting more proactive, judging by a new patent. It claims a method of “capturing biometric information for identifying unauthorized users,” including fingerprints, video or audio. The information could be stored or send to a server, where police could presumably use it to figure out who nabbed your device.
The system is pretty simple. The Touch ID sensor, front camera and microphone are already there, they simply need to be switched on without alerting the bad guy. In one scheme, the system could capture biometric data after a single failed passcode attempt; in another, it would only store it after a pre-determined number of failed attempts. On top of storing video, audio and fingerprint data, it could save and transmit “forensic” info like a GPS location. (The patent doesn’t specifically mention the iPhone or iPad, but those are Apple’s only devices with fingerprint sensors.)
Such a feature might be on shaky legal ground, however. Apple, maybe more than any company, understands the downsides of storing data without notifying users. And while it’s fun to speculate about patents, the tech rarely makes it into actual products. Still, Apple can already track thieves, and such a scheme would let you nab them without having to traipse around the world.
Via: Apple Insider
Source: USPTO
Unique ‘Celebration’ Apple-1 Sells for $815,000
A rare “Celebration” Apple-1 computer has fetched $815,000 in an auction hosted by charity auction site CharityBuzz, one of the highest prices an Apple-1 has sold for at auction. During the final minutes of the auction, bids reached $1.2 million, but it appears the last bid was pulled just seconds before the auction ended.
The “Celebration” Apple-1, so named by computer historian Corey Cohen, features a blank “green” PCB board that was never sold to the public and was not a part of a known production run.
The auction included an original Apple-1 ACI cassette board, pre-NTI, with Robinson Nugent sockets, a period correct power supply, an early Apple-1 BASIC cassette labeled and authenticated by original Apple employee Daniel Kottke, Apple-1 manuals, marketing materials, and Cassette Board schematics.
Unlike other Apple-1 computers that have fetched lower prices, the Celebration Apple-1 is not in working condition but could be restored to full functionality with minor tweaks. Cohen recommended against such restoration to preserve the board’s uniqueness. “The Apple-1 board is a not just a piece of history, but a piece of art,” he said.
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak originally created and sold 175 Apple-1 computers during the summer of 1976, marking the launch of Apple computer, a company that’s grown to be one of the largest and most influential in the world. Of those 175 machines, only 60 or so are still in existence, making them quite valuable to collectors.
Several Apple-1 computers have surfaced at auction over the past few years, selling for prices between and $365,000 and $905,000.
10 percent of the proceeds from the CharityBuzz auction will benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Tags: Apple-1, CharityBuzz
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Satechi’s Fast Wireless charger and multi-port station have all of your charging needs covered (including USB Type-C)
There’s a good chance that you own a new smartphone made in 2016. One of the biggest changes across Android smartphones is the change to USB Type C, the new charging standard. USB Type C brings a fully reversible plug that can be used on both ends of the cable, whereas the older microUSB standard had a full size USB A plug on one end that fit into the wall or car charger with a non-reversible microUSB plug on the other end.
The switch to USB Type C brought about faulty chargers, cables and other accessories due to the lack of quality control from third party manufacturers. It also made Google’s Benson Leung ultra popular amongst tech enthusiasts as he became the trusted voice as to what USB Type C accessories were trustworthy. He fried a couple of his own devices on faulty USB Type C cables and chargers in the process. By doing that he also brought the attention of bad and rushed Type-C products to general consumer. He saved us all thousands of dollars in damages, and reemphasized the need to stick with reputable companies.
A company I trust with accessories is Satechi. Satechi was founded in 2005 with a goal to produce high quality accessories to improve our lives. It’s based in my hometown of San Diego, and Satechi recently released a new wireless charging pad as well as a multi-port charging station with USB Type C included.
Satechi Fast Wireless Charging Pad
Satechi’s Wireless Charger is made from aluminum giving it an ultra premium feel and look. The top is made of an ultra glossy plastic that is so shiny that is looks like glass. While I dig the look, glossy surfaces always attract fingerprints. However, given this is a wireless charger there should be no need to touch the surface. The metal edges are chamfered giving this thin charging pad a sophisticated and luxurious look. It is only 7.8mm thick and being made of metal, it has a decent amount of weight to it with rubber feet on the bottom, to prevent it from sliding off your desk or nightstand.
SEE ALSO: Sweet Candy: Logic Experiments – Always think five steps ahead. [Review]
Satechi’s Wireless Charging pad comes in four colors, Gold, Silver, Space Gray, and Rose Gold. To be honest all of the colors look like Apple devices, but there is nothing wrong with that as Apple has some of the best color schemes around.
This is a fast wireless charger with backwards compatibility for all Qi enabled smartphones. In order to take advantage of the fast wireless charging, you will need a Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 or later charging plug and a device with fast wireless charging capability like the latest Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and S7.
Fast wireless charging works as advertised with no side effects like extreme heat build up. It happens with some of the lesser quality wireless chargers. There is a small LED indicator on the front of the charging pad, blue indicates the device is charging while green lets you know your device is fully charged. I like that Satechi kept the LED indicator small so that it doesn’t light up my entire bedroom when I sleep. What I can also appreciate is Satechi’s attention to detail. Even though the surface of the charging pad is glossy, a + symbol made of soft rubber provides enough surface tension on my Note 7 to prevent it from sliding around or off the charger altogether.
At $24.99 the Satechi Wireless Charging pad is a bargain when compared to the official Samsung Fast Wireless Charging Pad which retails for over twice the price at $59.99. It works as advertised and the attention to detail is something that I rarely see with third party wireless charging pads.
If you own a device with Qi enabled wireless charging I highly recommend this charging pad from Satechi. You will not be disappointed, especially at the $24.99 price point.
Get the Satechi Fast Wireless Charging Pad from Amazon here.
Satechi 60W multi-port charging station
If you’re still using single port chargers, like the ones provided with your smartphones, you’re doing it all wrong. With a plethora of accessories and wireless devices, just about all of us need a charging station like this multi-port one from Satechi.
SEE ALSO: Satechi releases a new wireless gamepad to turn your smartphone into a gaming device
The 6-port charging station has four full sized Type-A 2.4A USB out ports, with two Type-C out ports for charging your compatible devices. If you own an Apple iPad, wireless headphones, wireless speaker, portable power bank and a Note 7 this charging station is perfect for you. It’s compact at just 4.5 x 2.75 x 1.13 inches, making this perfect for setting on your desk, nightstand or bringing it as your sole travel charger. It’s made of high quality plastic with no awkward seams, and it looks pretty cool for a charger too. Generally most charging stations are flat bricks, but the Satechi version has lines and groves that make it look unique and stylish.
The standard 2.4A USB Type-A ports don’t have enough juice to charge the LG G5 or Note 7 at full speed, but nonetheless they can still charge them. Instead of taking an hour to fully charge my Note 7 at the fastest speed from 0-100, it takes just over 1.5 hours. Like the wireless charging pad, this charger does not get hot, even with five devices charging at the same time.
The high powered USB Type C ports do charge my Nexus 6P at Fast Charging speeds but you will need a fully reversible USB Type-C cable on both ends like this one from Amazon.
What I love about this charger is that it can charge my most current devices while also having backward compatibility with my older devices. At $29.99 the Satechi Multi-port charging station is competitively priced with its rivals, but its quality is unmatched by third party accessory makers.
You can get the Satechi Multi-port charging station from Amazon for $29.99.
Props to Satechi for making two very high-quality chargers that are reasonably priced. Learn more about Satechi and its other products at Satechi.net.
How dbrand skins made my cracked S7 edge glass look new and better than ever
Samsung’s latest flagship smartphones are without question some of the best looking devices on the planet right now. I’d argue nothing comes close when it comes to looks. However, its smartphones are made of glass which isn’t the most durable material as it is brittle and will crack or shatter under pressure.
I used the S7 edge for several months, and I went case free. Why would I want to cover up such beauty with a bulky case? I paid dearly for using that logic, as the S7 edge slipped out of my pocket enough times to crack. While the first crack wasn’t so bad, the next time it dropped completely ruined the look of the S7 edge. Replacing the glass doesn’t come cheap. Already an expensive phone at $750, it would cost another $270 to get the glass replaced by Samsung. Luckily my display glass was not cracked, it only cracked on the front corner as the curve does not withstand falls well, and the entire back shattered entirely.
Replacing the glass would be a nice option if I had a spare $270 laying around, but chances are I would crack the glass again anyways.
Earlier in the year I tried out dbrand skins on my Nexus 5X and 6P (you can read the full reviews by clicking on the hyperlinks). They elevated my Nexus devices to a different level and also gave my phones a unique and stylish look that stood apart from the stock crowd. I turned to dbrand once again to give my S7 edge new life.
dbrand skins
dbrand offers a wide selection of skins made from the highest quality materials from 3M. It takes no chances on quality and dbrand’s customer service is top notch. There are plenty of reddit feeds that can attest to the quality, price, look, fit and responsive customer service of drband skins. The wide selection of materials offered range in metal, stone, wood, leather, matte, carbon fiber and true color.
dbrand sent me a decent range of materials to choose from for my S7 edge, and whatever I didn’t use is to giveaway to you readers who want to update the look of their S7 edge. Or better yet, giveaway the skins to readers who cracked their glass just like I did.
The dbrand wood grain skin is legit. I have it up against the House of Marley Get Up Stand Up real wood speaker, and as you can see the grain on the dbrand skin looks as real as the speaker, just a different color stain. There are even real grooves in the skin itself which truly sets this skin off.
SEE ALSO: Samsung Confirms Galaxy Tab to Launch with Android 3.1 in “Few Days”
The leather looks so real, I even had 10 of my friends verify the look. They all agreed that it looked like genuine leather.
The cleanest look is probably the Matte finish, which is perfect for those who prefer to keep their devices understated. The Matte finish does offer a little texture which makes the S7 edge much more grippable.
My favorite look of the bunch is the carbon fiber, particularly the bright orange. I am always misplacing my phone, but the orange stands out no matter where I leave it.
Installation is super easy. dbrand provides a cleaning cloth and instructions on its YouTube Channel which I have included below. dbrand includes a video for every device it sells skins for as each phone, tablet and computer are slightly different.
I am the type of person who hates putting on screen protectors. I don’t have the patience nor the dexterity to apply them without getting massive bubbles under the surface. However dbrand skins take me no longer than five minutes to install, and quite frankly, I’m probably slow. Once you watch the tutorial, installation is a breeze.
You basically just need to align the perfectly cut skin to the corners and camera, then apply pressure to have it stick firmly in place. If you don’t place it right on the first, second or even fifth try, simply lift off and realign until you get it right. The glue doesn’t come off and can be reapplied until you heat it up.
Once aligned, you take a hair dryer to warm up the skin and make it more malleable and then put the corners in place around the rounded edges of the S7 edge. Once you rub the sides down with the included cloth, you cannot feel any of the skins edges around the phone. The skin fits so perfectly that it now looks like my S7 edge was made out of real carbon fiber.
The one piece front skin is easy to install too. There are two versions that dbrand offers, a one piece front skin, or a split version without the edge pieces. I opted for the one piece that fits around the entire front of the phone.
SEE ALSO: Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 vs Apple iPad Air 2
After watching the video, I installed the white carbon fiber on the front to contrast the bright orange on the back. I didn’t really want to stare at a bright orange skin when I used my S7 edge. Installation of the front was just as easy as the back, even with the curved glass on the smartphone.
The results speak for themselves. Check the images below.
If you don’t plan on using your fingerprint reader, you can cover it with the included cutout provided by dbrand so it will match the rest of your phone. The front capacitive buttons on the S7 edge still work while covered, or you can use dbrand’s seperate bottom piece with cutouts so you can see the illuminated buttons underneath. I opted for full coverage since it gave my S7 edge a complete look.
I can’t say enough about how great dbrand skins are, from precision cutting to premium materials, dbrand does it all the right way. Skins aren’t pricey, as they cost just $14.85 for complete coverage of your S7 edge. dbrand also makes skins for a wide variety of gadgets as well and it has a custom skin builder for each device as well. That way you can see how your skins will look before you commit to a purchase.
I’m giving away the extra dbrand skins to two lucky readers. In order to win, you must be a US resident (sorry international readers), and you need to make a comment below telling us how much you love dbrand skins. You’ll get bonus points for retweeting this post and including @dbrandskins in the tweet as well. I’ll be giving away one wood grain and one leather grain to two readers. I already used the carbon fiber, so don’t ask for that since I don’t have it to giveaway.
If you don’t want to, or cannot afford to fix your cracked glass, or simply just want to make your phone look badass, you cannot go wrong with dbrand skins. They look and feel like the real deal and are extremely affordable.
Head on over to dbrand.com to learn more.
Parallel Space allows you to run 2 Android app accounts at once (review)
For a lot of us, our smartphones live a double-sided life. For some, it’s one life as a business tool (and often provided to us by our employer), and the other life as a personal digital sidekick.
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The business tool side of our device is all business and allows us to perform our work: responding to emails, reviewing documents, reaching out to important customers and colleagues. It’s our professional assistant, and to reveal any silly, suggestive, or just plain private information would be embarrassing if not outright scandalous. - The personal side of our device is our social and fun machine allowing us to connect with other like-minded people and show our individuality, quirkiness, and anything else that we choose to use to reveal about our identity.
- Multiple logins on a traditional device install can be cumbersome and time-consuming, and often one or more accounts are relegated to desktop-only duty. This negates the utility that your mobile device is meant to bring into your day-to-day in the first place!
For other people, there are simply multiple accounts of certain apps to maintain, and the traditional Android installation only allows for a single login at a time requiring you to re-login with a different username/password every time you want to switch. This can be time-consuming and frustrating.
Now in some cases, these two sides can generally co-exist on the same device. But there are many instances where it would probably be best to let one side dominate and
save the other side for only very private viewing. Or it would just be a heck of a lot easier if you didn’t have to re-login to switch accounts.
There is an app that allows you “partition” your device, allowing you to put up a virtual fence between your business and personal sides, or between multiple accounts. This app is called Parallel Space from developer LBE Tech.
Setup
The app is available free from the Google Play Store. To keep things straight from here forward, I’m going to take some artistic license and refer to Parallel Space as a “utility”, to separate it from all the apps you can load into and use within it. As far as the utility itself, that’s all there really is to it, unless you want to password-protect your second login (more on that in a moment).
SEE ALSO: Fabulous – an attractive albeit limited music player (review)
Experience
Once into the utility (it has an app-like icon on your homescreen), you are shown a blank tiled screen. Each tile represents an app that you have multiple logins to load into Parallel Space. Once you select the app, it appears in that tile. The first time you select that app, you are greeted with that app’s signup/login screen the same as if you were opening the app for the first time on its own.
Here you log in with your second account login info and from there, you are launched into that app with the same look, feel, and screen space as the original app that you previously loaded directly onto your device! When done, you just close the app like normal, and you then can go back to Parallel Space to open another app using a secondary account or go back your device’s native homescreen to use the app with your primary account.
Overall, it’s a pretty slick experience especially if you run corporate social media accounts but also have personal accounts in the same app. Short of having a second phone or laptop at the ready, Parallel Space is a pretty neat solution.
It’s a pretty light one memory-wise, too. All you really load onto your device is the Parallel Space utility itself (total claimed space of 84 MB on my device); the secondary app ‘installations’ happen on the utility’s virtualization engine. All this means you don’t get bogged down with double Facebook apps and background activities clogging up your memory.
This talk of providing login info and 3rd-party virtualization engines does bring up the question of security. On the utility’s server-side, all I can offer is that the utility boasts almost a million downloads in the Play Store, and I can’t find an incident of a security breech anywhere on the web.
As far as security on your device, you are provided an option if you choose to use it. You can secure your overall utility access with it’s own password, which is a handy way of “locking the gate” to all your secondary app accounts. You can also manage notifications for each of your secondary accounts to ensure nothing “pops up” that you’d rather not be seen.
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Caveats
There are a few caveats here that I see, though I personally don’t find them major.
First is some reported problems with battery drain. It is enough of a problem that the utility’s developer addresses it on their website’s FAQ page where it’s related to a first-time login to your Google account with the utility essentially confusing the Google Play service framework.
Second is an occasional speed issue when opening your secondary app account through the utility. The little opening animation can seem to get stuck for a few seconds. Nothing terrible, but long enough that you may start giving your screen the evil eye….though this may likely be a testament to our fickleness than the utility’s performance (how DARE you make me wait 3 seconds to see who’s DM’d me!).
Third is that you can’t add a second app account into Parallel Space if you have or need quick access to three or more accounts. The utility simply can’t run multiple accounts within itself (which sounds kind of ironic).
Conclusion
Simply put, I really enjoyed using Parallel Space as a true Android “utility” that makes my device so much more usable when it comes to using and managing multiple app accounts, especially social media. If you have succumbed to the idea of doing the logout/login dance with any given app on your device, I heartily recommend Parallel Space to alleviate your pain and make your day just a little smoother.
Download Parallel Space from the Google Play Store here.
AIVAnet 