Vote for your favourites in the EE Pocket-lint Gadget Awards 2016 now

It’s coming to that time of year again where we joyfully celebrate the last 12 months of wonderful gadgets, gizmos, games and entertainment tech. Yes, the build-up to the 2016 EE Pocket-lint Gadget Awards has started and we need you to get involved.

Our annual awards have been running for 13 years now and are prestigious amongst the tech and gaming communities. What’s more, you have a say on which products are worthy of the ultimate in accolades.

We’ve already done a lot of work in the background, examining all the products we’ve reviewed and featured throughout the year to wheedle down a mighty list of candidates to, what we like to call, a longlist of the best. We now need you to help us trim it further, so we end up with the shiniest stars in each category.

Head over to our dedicated Longlist page on the EE Pocket-lint Gadget Awards 2016 micro-site and vote for your favourites. We’ll then combine your opinion and our own to create a shortlist for each category. That will be announced on 11 October.

At that stage in the process, we then invite industry experts and peers in the field of tech journalism to vote, along with yourself and the Pocket-lint team. We believe that opening the process to readers and experts alike, it makes for the fairest awards process in the entire tech industry.

The winners will then be crowned during a swish event at the Shoreditch Town Hall on 23 November. 

The categories we’re looking for your help on are:

• Best Game
• Best Camera
• Best Phone
• Best Tablet / 2-in-1
• Best Laptop
• Best Home Entertainment Device or Service
• Best Headphones
• Best TV
• Best Smarthome Device
• Best Wireless Speaker
• Best VR Device
• Best Fitness Gadget
• Best Smartwatch
• Best Car

We also have a Product of the Year category, but that is given to the best overall product based on each category winner.

You don’t have to vote on every category, just the ones you fancy or know most about.

So head on over to the EE Pocket-lint Gadget Awards 2016 Longlist page now and help us celebrate the very best in gadgets and games.

500,000 replacement Samsung Galaxy Note 7s arrive in the US

Around 500,000 replacement Galaxy Note 7s have arrived in the US and will sent to mobile carriers and retailers as Samsung begins its full replacement program. Samsung said it would replace all 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 smartphones sold in light of several users reporting theirs had caught fire while charging.

Samsung has said it will replace a further 500,000 units will replaced by the end of September.

• Samsung Galaxy Note 7 recalled, sales stopped

Tim Baxter, president of Samsung Electronics America said: “New devices will be in stores no later than tomorrow [Wednesday] and we will continue to take the necessary actions to ensure users are powering down and immediately exchanging recalled devices”.

So far, nearly a quarter of all Note 7 owners in the US have already replaced their device, with the majority opting for a new phone rather than a refund.

• Samsung Galaxy Note 7 review
• Samsung could bring forward S8 launch in wake of exploding Note 7

Samsung stopped selling the Note 7 on September 2nd after it found there were issues with the battery cell. Initially the company just wanted to replace phones with certain serial numbers, but this was quickly changed to a worldwide recall of all phones regardless of when they were purchased.

Google Allo: How to install, set up and use the latest smart messenger

Allo, Google’s latest smart messenger is officially rolling out on the Android Play Store and iOS App Store over the next few days. If you can’t wait for it to appear, have an Android phone, and don’t mind downloading the software directly from APK Mirror – an unofficial source – you can download it right away.

Google Allo: How to install

Simply head to the APK Mirror page and download the software. Just be sure that you have allowed your phone to install programs and apps from unofficial sources. Head to settings>security and switch the “Unknown sources” toggle to the on position.

Despite APK Mirror’s claim that it is completely safe to use, and the fact we’ve used it many times without any issues, there is always a risk when downloading from unofficial sources. Sometimes software infected with malware can slip through the cracks, so be sure you’re okay with the risks before you start dowloading.

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Google Allo: Getting Started

As with any app running on Android Marshmallow or later, the set up involves agreeing to a few permissions. Once you’ve agreed, you’ll get to a screen requiring access to your SIM/mobile number, which then activates the system and registers it to your number, similar to WhatsApp.

The app detects your number automatically then registers it, and there’s very little waiting time, if any.

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Once that bit’s done, you’re asked to take a selfie to use as your profile picture. Of course, if you want to, you can skip this stage. Taking this selfie is pretty much the last setup screen before you’re whisked off to the main messages inbox which – at the beginning – is pretty sparse. 

Your first message thread is with Google Assistant, the smart bot developed to help bring search smarts to your conversations. In this thread, you’ll be asked for permission to use your location.

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Google Allo: Smart replies

When it comes to artificial intelligence and machine learning, Google has been ahead of its biggest competition for some time. Using what it’s developed, Allo has a smart reply feature which offers you appropriate, contextually aware smart suggestions for quick replies.

When someone sends you a picture, or a message, Smart Reply will offer you a selection of suggestions you can choose from in attractive teal-lined oval bubbles. Just tap the one you want, and that’s your reply. No typing required.

What’s particularly great about the Smart Reply system is that, as time goes by, it learns from you. It begins to develop a knowledge of your character, and the kinds of responses you give, so that its suggestions become highly personalised and tailored to you.

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Google Allo: Stickers, emoji and more

Tap the “+” button to the left of the text input field and you’ll get to the media sharing screen. From here you can either snap a picture and share it, choose an image from your gallery, share your location or send stickers. 

There’s already a good selection of funny and expressive stickers to choose from, but you can add more, just like you can with iMessages. On the right edge of the toolbar where you select the sticker family you want to use there’s a small teal icon that looks like a sticker with a “+” sign on it. Press it to download and add even more stickers.  

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Similar to iMessage in iOS 10, you can also markup photos you have in your library. Simply choose an image that’s in your gallery and hit the little pencil icon. Once that’s done, you can scribble over the picture using a selection of standard colours as well as type text on it before sending to your Allo contact. 

As well as all of that, you can also add emphasis to your messages by making the text smaller or larger. All you have to do is slide up or down from the “send” icon to change the size of the font on screen. 

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Google Allo: Use the Assistant

With Allo being a Google product it does, of course, have a built-in search tool bot which lets you quickly and easily find things from the internet and share them instantly with your friends.

It works in the same way as a bot might in any other messaging app. Simply type “@google” followed by your request. For example, if you’re chatting with a friend about finding somewhere nice nearby to eat Italian food, simple type something like “@google italian restaurants nearby”.

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When you do this, or any other location based search, you’ll get cards on your screen, similar to when you’re looking for places nearby on Google Search on your mobile.

Of course, you can search for other things too, like videos or information. Sometimes Google’s Assistant bot will ask for feedback on its results, which should help the service provide more relevant responses in the future.

But it’s not just about getting serious responses, you can ask it to “show me something funny” and it’ll send a funny video, or tell you something interesting. It told us that the cardboard sleeve around a coffee cup is called a “Zarf”. That’s something we didn’t know yesterday. 

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Google Allo: Incognito Mode

Like its Chrome browser, Google’s Allo app has an incognito mode, which takes security beyond the already encrypted messages in standard chats. In incognito mode, messages have end-to-end encryption as well as message expiration and discreet notifications. 

When you start an incognito chat with anyone you can set the when the chat is going to expire, ranging from five seconds to one week. Whenever you receive an incognito message, notifications won’t show any personal information. 

Google Allo: Sending SMS?

Google Allo is supposed to be able to send regular text messages to non-Allo users. In our testing, if you input a phone number and send them a message it may look like the message has sent, but nothing appears on the other phone if they’re an iPhone user.

If they’re an Android user – as discovered by Android Central – the receiver gets a popup notification telling them that [X] person is “chatting with” them using the Allo app, with the option to install the app. 

That means you’re going to have to convince your friends and family they need to install yet another messenger app to go alongside WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and whatever else they already use. 

Google Allo: Delete chats, turn off notifications and block contacts

As with any decent messaging app, you can delete individual chats from your inbox. Simply press and hold any chat in the main inbox view and choose “delete” from the list. In this same list you can also choose to stop notifications from that conversation or block the contact. 

Virtually race against friends on Nautilus’ latest treadmill

When I’m running, topless, in my high-rise New York apartment, I often wonder: what are my friends doing? Are they on a treadmill right now? And if they are, why don’t we just run together, properly, outdoors? I joke of course. Outside is dangerous. Cars. Pollution. Other people in general. Fortunately, Nautilus’ T618 Treadmill will let you (kind of) run with buddies and online strangers, courtesy of tech from RunSocial. It’ll also display a view of one of several beautiful outdoor tracks, with the scenery going past as fast as you’re willing to run.

Nautilus is a huge manufacturer of gym equipment: those on-rails weight machines at your local sweat emporium? Probably Nautilus. With a possibly huge install-base (let alone the one-percenters looking for a new treadmill), it should make the chances of spotting other joggers, virtually, more likely. RunSocial already offers its service on an iOS app, but that requires some precarious iPad placement — depending on your treadmill of choice. With the Nautilus model, it’s all built-in, as well Bluetooth connectivity for heart-rate tracking, USB ports, built-in speakers and three cooling fans. (Those are for you, not the machine.)

Fellow runners will show up on-screen as 3D renders, like some sort of bi-ped ghost car from Gran Turismo or Mario Kart. They can be your friends or outright strangers running the same track as you. According to RunSocial’s iOS app, you’ll be able to tap on the avatars to see how far or fast they’re going — and feel appropriate levels of shame or pride. The treadmill launches this month, priced at $1,300.

Source: Nautilus

Dropbox’s Mac app is now clearer about what it can access

After concerns were raised over how its app had gained elevated privileges on users’ Macs, Dropbox moved quickly to put people’s minds at rest. Desktop developer Ben Newhouse acknowledged that some design decisions made it look like it was circumventing Apple’s built-in protections, but now that the new macOS Sierra update is available, Dropbox access requests are becoming a lot clearer.

The Dropbox Mac app will explicitly ask Sierra users for permission to access Accessibility, the macOS feature that allows the cloud backup tool to integrate with Microsoft Office, improve file syncing and perform automatic app updates. Apple has updated its protections around Accessibility and Dropbox is using it to better explain why it needs extended access once it has been installed.

Currently, the new permissions are only available in the macOS Sierra app. However, Dropbox told Venturebeat that Mac OS X users will see similar changes in the coming weeks. “We realize this isn’t a great experience,” the company says on its support page. “We’re actively working to make this better.”

While it’s generally understood that Dropbox requires deep hooks integrate its collaboration features on Apple machines, the old implementation wasn’t clear about what it was doing. An unofficial dialog would pop up telling users the app needed their password “to work properly,” when it was actually whitelisting itself in the Accessibility settings in an undocumented way.

Users were worried that Dropbox would be able to wipe their administrator passwords and open the door to malware. The company insists that’s not the case and hopes that the new permissions and updated documentation clear up what the app will and won’t do once it is installed.

Via: Venturebeat

Source: Dropbox Blog

Tumblr Brings Apple’s Live Photos to the Web, Publishes Open Source Code

Blogging site Tumblr has announced web support for Live Photos, the animated image format Apple introduced with the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.

Now when visitors to a Tumblr-hosted site see the concentric circles in the top-left of an image, they can click and hold on the picture to play it, audio included.

“That’s right! Live Photos work on the web now,” reads the company’s announcement. “Whenever you see that famous Live Photo icon, click and hold to make them swing.”

Nine months ago Tumblr introduced support for the format to its mobile app, which also allows users to turn them into GIFs. Since then, the ability to view Live Photos has spread to other third-party apps like Facebook.

To make Live Photos compatible with all browsers, Tumblr developers wrote some JavaScript code that converts the MOV file captured by an iPhone into an MP4, and merges it with the still JPEG image.

Tumblr has also published open source code on GitHub, enabling other web developers to build support for Live Photos into their own sites. An Android version is also in the works, says the company.

Tumblr claims to be the first to support Live Photos on the web, although The Verge points out that some independent developers have made them work before, but it was never easy or widespread.

Tags: Live Photos, Tumblr
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Pokémon Go Ends 74-Day Reign as Highest Grossing App in U.S. App Store

Pokémon Go has been bumped from the top of the United States iOS App Store’s top grossing chart, seventy-four days after originally being titled the highest grossing app in the country. The game has been beaten by Clash Royale, which recently received an update “that sent players into a spending frenzy.”

In new data collected by Sensor Tower, Pokémon Go’s success was put into comparison with other apps that surged in popularity for a period of time. In terms of most consecutive days as number one on the App Store’s top grossing chart, Pokémon Go’s 74 day streak came out third, behind Clash of Clans (347 days) and Candy Crush Saga (109 days).

Pokémon GO managed 42 more consecutive days atop the chart than the game that unseated it, Clash Royale, and more than twice as many days as the 10th game on the chart, The Simpsons: Tapped Out, which stayed at the top for 15 days. Not all of the top 10 were games; Pandora and Spotify have both spent more than two consecutive weeks at the apex of the Top Grossing ranking, at 20 and 18 days, respectively.

Due to the staggered rollout of Pokémon Go, Niantic’s game is still the top grossing app in the App Store in some countries, including Australia, Great Britain, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, and Thailand. It’s also still earning the top spot in revenue on the Google Play Store in the United States.

Although popularity has waned, Niantic and The Pokémon Company have kept up with consistent updates to the game, most recently introducing a “buddy” system that allows players to choose a favorite Pokémon as a buddy. The Pokémon acting as a buddy then earns candy after a certain distance is traveled, making it much easier to get candies for upgrading rare Pokémon. Players are still waiting for trading, friend battling, a new generation of Pokémon, and the now-confirmed Apple Watch app.

Tags: App Store, Pokémon GO
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