ZTE and Sprint launch a $130 phone with a massive 3990mAh battery

Boost Mobile is getting a pretty great new budget phone in the ZTE Max XL.

ZTE and Sprint have announced a new $130 phone that aims to keep people working for up to two full days.

The ZTE Max XL (or MAX XL if you’re annoying about it) features a 6-inch 1080p LCD display covered in Gorilla Glass 3, an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, a 13MP rear camera, and a whopping 3,990mAh battery.

That battery, along with the rear fingerprint sensor, is the main course here — though the phone runs Android 7.1.1 out of the box, which is impressive — but the dessert is the price tag, which comes to $130 in total. It actually comes in at $101.99 with the web-only $28 promotional discount, which makes it an even better deal at the moment.

The handset is part of Sprint’s plan to offer great budget phones for its Boost sub-brand, which uses its same LTE network but does away with the extras, and higher price, to make it more attractive to bargain seekers.

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The phone does use capacitive navigation buttons, which increases the overall footprint of an already-large phone, but most people who want a phone this big — it weighs 180 grams — are probably willing to put up with a bit of extra front bezel.

See at Boost Mobile

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How to turn off Gear VR safety warnings

Gear VR has safety warnings that pop up when you start up the VR headset, but you can turn them off.

Each time that you turn on your Gear VR a set of safety warnings pops up on your screen. While they are handy for informing new users about safety issues while using VR, if you regularly use your VR headset they can become a bit of a hassle. Thankfully turning off most safety warnings is a pretty easy option from within the settings. We’ve got the details on how to turn these settings off.

Read more at VRHeads.com

The Galaxy S8’s quick launch camera setting isn’t available globally

The ability to quickly launch the camera with the power button is missing on a few Galaxy S8 units.

Double tapping the home button was the fastest way to launch the camera on the Galaxy S6 and S7. But with the Galaxy S8 eschewing the home button, Samsung had to come up with a new way to quickly launch the camera, and the company turned to the power button. Pressing on the power button twice in quick succession opens the camera by default on the Galaxy S8 and S8+, but that option isn’t available on all units.

In the process of setting up my S8+, I noticed that the quick launch shortcut didn’t work as advertized. I pressed the power button twice to no avail, and digging into the settings to manually toggle the feature made me realize that the option isn’t available on my unit. I’m using the Indian variant of the S8+ (SM-G955FD) with build number G955FXXU1AQDD.

The issue doesn’t seem isolated to my device, as other Indian models of the S8 and S8+ don’t have the option listed either. With the feature unavailable, there’s no way to quickly launch the camera on the phone. With the phone set to go on sale next week in the country, it is possible Samsung may roll out a software update to bring the quick launch functionality to the phones. If not, the bxActions app offers an elegant workaround. The app remaps the Bixby button, allowing you to launch the camera with a quick tap.

Is the quick launch option missing on your S8 or S8+? Let us know in the comments below.

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+

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I used the LG G6 as my only camera on vacation and it was great

Smartphone cameras are so damn good in 2017 that it’s increasingly difficult to justify carrying my standalone camera.

I just returned from an excellent two-week vacation that took my girlfriend and I to Paris, Munich, Venice, and Rome. In the days leading up to the vacation, in which I had to pack two weeks’ worth of clothing and necessities into just an international carry-on roller bag and a messenger bag, I had the difficult decision of whether or not to bring my Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mk II camera. I already had my LG G6 in my pocket, but I knew I should have the pro-level camera for those “just in case” moments and reluctantly packed it, alongside an extra SD card, battery, and charger.

Returning from the trip after traveling thousands of miles, visiting four cities in three countries, shlepping around my camera, I ended up only taking it out of our apartments and hotels a single time. The LG G6, it turns out, was more than capable of chronicling our trip with amazing photos, proving my standalone camera to be superfluous on vacation.

New flagship phone + Google Photos editing

We’ve all taken turns gushing over the LG G6’s camera setup, both in terms of its top-end quality and extra versatility provided by the combination of a standard and wide-angle camera. The G6’s cameras were fully on display during my vacation, where I spent time around some great scenery, weather, and food for a couple of weeks.

Here are a few of the great shots I took in Paris.

And then in Munich.

Then we made our way to Venice.

And on to Rome to finish the trip.

I’m super happy with the quality of these photos — and not just the 30 included here, but the 100+ more I took and created an album with. Throughout the trip, I made ample use of the wide-angle camera to get great shots that I just couldn’t get with any other phone, and when I walked around to capture my surroundings, I treated shooting with the G6 just as I would my Olympus: taking care with the framing, lighting, and camera settings to get the most out of it.

And again, just as I would do with my standalone camera, I’m often doing some edits on these photos — and while the G6 takes great photos, the output is of course enhanced when I spend a couple minutes making tweaks. Google Photos has super powerful editing tools, and with a few taps I can apply a crop and some small adjustments that make the photos look exactly how I want. Indeed, not all of the photos shown above are unedited right out of the camera — but neither would my photos from my Olympus be, and I’m in full support of editing photos before sharing them.

The phone is dramatically smaller and internet-connected

Which one would you rather carry with you?

I’m not here to argue that the average photo I take with an LG G6 is better than the Olympus OM-D EM5 Mk II. I am, however, going to advocate on behalf of a phone that’s compact and likely to be within arm’s reach 24 hours a day, compared to a relatively large and heavy camera that requires some sort of strap or clip to keep available.

I can simply take a larger quantity and variety of photos with a phone than a camera.

I can simply take a larger quantity and variety of photos with a phone than I can with a standalone camera, and that increase in photos taken means far more to me than getting the highest possible quality, especially when the difference in quality between the two is smaller than ever. Add that to the fact that I just don’t have to carry around (and be worried about) a big chunk of expensive camera equipment, and it’s a big win for me.

Then there’s the angle of sharing. I keep a huge private collection of photos, but I love to share my favorites with the world. That’s just simpler with a smartphone, and it’s one of the joys that has come along with improving smartphone cameras and cellular networks. Yes, there’s technically a way for me to send photos from my camera to my phone over Wi-Fi and then share them out, but it’s so clunky and slow that it just isn’t going to happen. I’m better off just sharing what I took on my phone instead.

A smartphone can aboslutely be your only vacation camera

I’m a big fan of photography and love taking photos with my Olympus — both professionally and for fun. But when it comes to a vacation where we’re walking 5 to 10 miles every day and not knowing each morning what the day has in store, carrying a camera is far more of a burden than the extra image quality is worth.

This particular revelation was brought on by the supreme quality of the LG G6’s camera, but this is the case for any leading smartphone today. Take really great image quality (and ease of use), add in great on-phone editing tools and an always-available network, and you may find you’ll be okay carrying just a smartphone on your next vacation without worrying about what you’re missing.

LG G6

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• LG G6 vs. Google Pixel: The two best cameras right now
• Everything you need to know about the G6’s cameras
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AT&T has just ruined 5G for the rest of the mobile industry

AT&T says it just launched a new 5G network. It didn’t.

In one fell swoop, AT&T has all but undermined — and potentially ruined — the nascent brand that is 5G. The next-generation wireless standard, which hasn’t even been finalized yet, is set to roll out in earnest starting in 2019 or 2020. And even then, what we’ll see in the early days is a hybrid of what will eventually be the next way we connect to the internet on our phones and in our homes.

That hasn’t stopped AT&T from beginning its campaign to sully the still-whole notion of 5G with its new campaign promoting its “5G Evolution” network rolling out in Austin, Texas and, soon, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville and San Francisco.

5G Evolution, according to AT&T, is still entirely based on 4G LTE. There is nothing — nothing — in its current incarnation that has to do with what will eventually become 5G. Instead, it incorporates the same advanced 4G LTE features that T-Mobile, in its own admittedly bravuro way, has been touting for the past few months: 3x carrier aggregation, 4×4 MIMO and 256 QAM modulations.

We talked about these technologies back at MWC, which Qualcomm is using to promote its new X16 modem inside the Snapdragon 835 platform which, in perfect conditions, should allow speeds approaching 1Gbps. AT&T is merely capitalizing on the release of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+, the first devices in North America to support such speeds, to move the ball forward, just as it did prior to the release of LTE when it began telling customers its network supported 4G.

Fortunately, consumers aren’t stupid, and will likely see through this publicity stunt. A name change alone can’t — or shouldn’t — convince people that AT&T’s network is superior to T-Mobile’s or Verizon’s. Indeed, AT&T has far better coverage than T-Mobile in most of the country, and has fewer legacy problems with handsets than Verizon given its GSM roots. It’s unfortunate that AT&T, likely concerned with customer churn to T-Mobile, has resorted to these naming gimmicks, which will likely confuse some people and irritate others.

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+

• Galaxy S8 and S8+ review!
• Galaxy S8 and S8+ specs
• Everything you need to know about the Galaxy S8’s cameras
• Get to know Samsung Bixby
• Join our Galaxy S8 forums

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Google Maps: Ultimate Guide

Make the most out of Google Maps.

Google Maps is a powerful tool that’s used by over 1 billion people, and over the years the app has become more efficient at suggesting routes, offering detailed options for public transit, nearby points of interest, and so much more.

Google serves up directions for driving, walking, biking, or public transit. When you select the driving option, you can ask Google to suggest a route that avoids tolls, highways, or ferries. Similarly for public transit, you can choose your preferred mode of transportation.

Its sheer scale means that there are tons of features that aren’t immediately visible, and that’s where this guide comes in handy. If you’re just getting started with Google Maps or are looking to discover new features the service has to offer, read on.

• Save your home and work addresses
• Get driving and walking directions
• See public transit schedules
• Take maps offline
• Add multiple stops to your route
• Share your current location
• Book an Uber
• Use indoor maps
• Create and share lists
• View your location history

Save your home and work addresses

Setting an address for your home and work should be the first thing you do in Google Maps, as it gives you the ability to quickly navigate to your home or office from your current location. Choosing a custom address also lets you use voice commands for navigation such as “Take me home”.

How to save your home and work addresses in Google Maps

Get driving and walking directions

If you’re driving a car, exploring a new locale by walking around, cycling to work, or using public transit, Google Maps has you covered. You’ll be able to set your preferred mode of transport and select a route from all the available options with ease, with Google showing real-time travel info along with suggested shortcuts to avoid traffic.

How to get driving and walking directions in Google Maps

See public transit schedules

Google Maps is a valuable resource if you rely on public transit for your daily commute. The service gives you a detailed list of transit options for your journey —whether it’s by bus, train, or ferry — and it offers the ability to set a departure time and see what facilities are available at that time.

How to use Google Maps for public transit

Take maps offline

If you’re traveling abroad or heading to a location with limited internet connectivity, a good option is to save that particular area offline so you can get driving directions and view points of interest. Saved areas expire in 30 days, after which you’ll have to update them to continue navigating them offline.

How to use Google Maps offline

Add multiple stops to your route

The ability to add multiple stops to your route is easily one of the best features to come to Google Maps. You can set up to nine stops along your route, and Google gives you the overall trip time as well as any delays along your selected course.

How to add multiple stops in Google Maps

Share your current location

Google removed location sharing from Google+ and reintroduced it to Maps back in March, giving you an easy way to share your location with friends and family. You can broadcast your whereabouts for a set amount of time, select approved contacts to share your location with, or just create and share a link with your real-time location information.

How to share your location in Google Maps

Book an Uber

Google Maps lets you book an Uber — along with Lyft or Ola, based on your location — without ever leaving the app. You’ll be able to see tariff breakdowns for various tiers, as well as estimated wait times and payment options. You don’t even need to have Uber installed on your phone to use the service — you have the option to sign in to the service from Maps.

How to book an Uber in Google Maps

Use indoor maps

Indoor maps take the guesswork out of finding your favorite retail store inside a mall or the exhibit you’re looking for in a museum. The service is available in over 25 countries and lets you easily navigate within malls, museums, libraries, or sports venues.

How to use indoor maps in Google Maps

Create and share lists

The ability to create lists is the newest feature addition to Google Maps, and it brings a social element to the navigation service. With lists, you can easily create and share lists of your favorite restaurants, make easy-to-follow lists of places to visit when traveling to a new city, or follow a curated list of places. You can set up lists that are public (viewable by all), private, or those that can be accessed by a unique URL.

How to create and share lists in Google Maps

View your location history

Google Maps has a Timeline feature that lets you browse the places you’ve visited, categorized by date. The location data is augmented by any photos you’ve taken at a particular place, as well as travel time and mode of transport. It’s a nifty feature if you’re interested in looking at your previous travel data, but if you’re worried about your privacy (Google tracks everything), you can easily turn it off.

How to view your location history in Google Maps

How do you use Maps?

What Maps feature do you use the most? Is there a particular feature you’d like added to the service? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Google dramatically improves support for Indian languages across Translate, Gboard and more

When the entire internet is in your language, the possibilities are endless.

Google has long held a special focus on the technology needs of India, and is making a big step toward addressing the entire subcontinent with today’s announcements of improved language support across multiple products. In an attempt to make its products useful for nearly all of the estimated 400 million internet users in India, Google is expanding and improving its automatic translation, improving translations in Chrome, adding common Indian languages to Gboard and adding a Hindi dictionary to Google Search.

The backbone of these changes is the launch of what Google calls “Neural Machine Translation.” In general, this is a next-gen translation system that lets Google Translate better understand whole sentences rather than snippets or phrases, which is important when translating between English and nine widely used Indian languages: Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Punjabi, Malayalam and Kannada. The new system does a better job of understanding context and improves overall quality dramatically.

India’s languages are diverse, and these improvements address them.

That core Google Translate technology is also now integrated into Chrome, so you can get full-page translations with the same quality in those same nine languages.

On the opposite end of the translation, Gboard is adding 11 new languages, bringing the total number of often-used Indian languages supported to 22. With the new languages Gboard continues to have all the same features like glide typing and voice typing along with Google Search built in. You can also resize and reposition the keyboard to your liking. Perhaps most importantly, there’s transliteration from a QWERTY layout, so you can actually spell out words phonetically using the QWERTY keyboard and have them entered to the app in the language of your choice.

This combination of features goes a huge way toward making Google’s properties, but also everything accessible on the web, easier to understand for people in India who aren’t fluent in English.

YouTube Kids app now available on LG, Samsung and Sony smart TVs

This is an important expansion that probably took a bit too long to make.

Google is expanding its YouTube Kids app to altogether new platforms, bringing in smart TVs from LG, Samsung and Sony. The expansion moves the YouTube Kids app beyond just phones and tablets, in a move that you have to say is surprising wasn’t implemented earlier — the service has been around for two years now.

YouTube Kids has served up 30 billion video views and has over 8 million weekly active users — that’s a seriously large audience to address. Bringing the children’s programming to the biggest screen in your house just made sense. Here’s a breakdown of exactly which TV models will get the YouTube Kids app:

• All 2015 – 2017 LG webOS TVs via the LG content store
• All 2013 – 2017 Samsung Smart TVs and Blu-Ray Players that have access to the Samsung App Store
• 2016-2017 Sony TVs after a firmware update (except Android TV models, which will get their own app soon)

If you have a compatible TV and love YouTube kids, keep an eye out for updates starting today.

Kodi 18 on Android TV will have voice search and recommendations

Kodi 18 Leia will be getting even tighter integration into Android TV. Which is awesome.

Kodi 17 Krypton hasn’t been officially around for long but work is already well underway on the next release. Version 18, Leia — named after everyone’s favorite princess — is in the development stage right now and the dev team has given us a sneak peek at what’s headed to Android TV: Voice Search and recommendations.

It’s a neat addition that makes Kodi even better to use on Android TV as your central media center. So far you’ve had to go inside the Kodi app to find content, but with Leia, you’ll be able to speak into your remote and find it in a flash. Content found within Kodi will be displayed alongside other sources such as Google Play and Plex.

The other nice new feature coming specifically to Android TV is recommendations. On your home screen you’ll now get recommendation tiles based on random unwatched movies in your collection and recently watched TV shows that have new episodes available. With a single click you’re straight into Kodi and ready to go.

The video up top gives you a full run through of what you can expect when version 18 hits, but if you’re keen to take a look right now, you can. Head over to the Kodi downloads page and grab the latest nightly build of Leia to install on your Android TV and try it out for yourself.

How to set up Kodi on Android TV

Download Kodi 18 Leia nightly builds at Kodi

Amazon’s latest Dash button orders you fresh undies

Living in an apartment without an in-unit washer and dryer means that occasionally you go to great lengths to avoid carrying all your dirty clothes to the basement’s laundry room. Every now and then that entails saving time ahead of a date or trip (but not necessarily money) by buying new underwear instead of washing what you already have. Amazon is making that slovenly life a little more stylish and easier by offering a slew of new Dash buttons, including one for Calvin Klein undies. That’s right: One press is all it takes to get a fresh pack of Calvins delivered straight to your door.

Other new one-press shopping-widgets include AMP Energy, Lactaid, Listerine, Mountain Dew, Tropicana and, just in time for allergy season, Zyrtec. Amazon says that the Dash buttons have become pretty popular too, and that today’s addition brings us up to some 300 of the branded items in the retailer’s stable.

“Just a year ago, orders via Dash Button were occurring more than once a minute, now that rate has increased to more than 4x a minute,” Amazon said a statement. For some items, like Folgers coffee grounds and Glad garbage bags, Amazon says “more than half” of their orders are made via Dash Button.

Now, depending on where you live, you’ll still have to plan ahead a bit. If you have less than a few clean pair of drawers left in your, err, drawer and a busy social calendar, you might want to hit a local store if two-day Prime shipping is your only option. Or, you know, you could scrounge up a few bucks in quarters and actually do laundry. The choice is yours.

Source: Amazon