Some OnePlus 5 owners are seriously bugged by a strange scrolling issue

Why it matters to you

If your OnePlus 5 is doing some pretty strange things while scrolling, your eyes aren’t fooling you. Other users appear to be suffering from the issue.

The OnePlus 5 has garnered some pretty favorable reviews over the past week or so, including one from our own Andy Boxall who praised the device’s no-compromises, straightforward approach to a low-priced flagship. However, there appears to be an issue plaguing some units that have made their way to customers, and it’s an odd one.

Some have called it “jelly-like” scrolling. Others, like Damir Franc on YouTube, more accurately classified it as a “strobing effect.” Whatever the name, the fact is some OnePlus 5 devices have exhibited some pretty odd behavior while scrolling, the likes of which are off-putting for a phone with such a high-end processor and RAM spec.

There are many videos floating around online displaying this, including a litany of reports on Reddit, but the one above offers a pretty clear depiction of the problem. It’s a compression effect that gives menu items in a vertical list a strange sense of inertia. Scroll down, and you’ll find the items above your finger will bunch together and squish, while those below it will expand and stretch. The opposite is true when you’re going in the other direction, and to some degree it looks like an intentional design choice to make scrolling more weighted and animated. Instead, it just ends up feeling like you’re navigating the phone with drunk goggles on.

If it was intentional, it wouldn’t be the first touchscreen device to purposefully do some pretty strange things with scrolling. However even that’s not a satisfactory answer, for two reasons.

First, not all phones are exhibiting the issue. Second, the effect isn’t smooth — it’s downright jumpy. Looking at it in the video above, the compression is inconsistent and a little delayed. It’s almost as if vertical sync has been disabled, causing a juddering sensation that animates different parts of the display at different speeds.

Understandably, some owners have been left scratching their heads, while others have proposed theories. A user on the XDA Developers forums actually looked into the vertical sync possibility and found that the OnePlus 5 was in fact turning off the function regularly, but only when the device wasn’t animating anything on screen. Many others believe the display may have been mounted upside down on defective units based on the idea that the effect is less noticeable when you hold the phone the other way around, but that’s not a conclusive argument either. For what it’s worth, we haven’t encountered the issue on any of our OnePlus 5 units here in the Digital Trends office.

To make matters worse, OnePlus hasn’t been particularly helpful in sourcing the cause. It appears the company has taken the Samsung approach of denying the existence of a problem at all. This was the manufacturer’s response to XDA:

“The OnePlus 5 uses the same level of high-quality components as all OnePlus devices, including the AMOLED display. We’ve received feedback from a small number of users saying that at times they notice a subtle visual effect when scrolling. This is natural and there’s no variance in screens between devices.”

The problem is, of course, that the effect is anything but subtle, and seems to affect each unit differently. Although the situation appears dire now, the phone has only been freshly released, so it’s quite possible future updates could alleviate things as they did with the Galaxy S8’s red tint issue. We’ll keep you posted as things develop.

Placer app finds people to stand in line so you don’t have to

Why it matters to you

If you’re in NYC and don’t have time to stand in lines — let alone ones that wrap around the block — Placer is an app that will find line-sitters for you at popular venues and locations.

When you’re in New York City, lines are inevitable regardless of the location or time of day. They’re also probably the main reason why New Yorkers rely so heavily on door delivery services whether it’s for essentials like food and groceries, or even alcohol. For events where your presence is essential — museum queues, product launches, popular restaurants — Placer is here to help.

Similar to TaskRabbit, this mobile app for iOS and Android eliminates having to stand in line by connecting you with registered line-sitters known as “Placers” — people you pay to stand in line for you. The idea came from the company founders’ trip to Europe when they found themselves standing in lines for up to four hours at a time.

“This wait often led to running out of time to experience everything we wanted while on holidays. In my situation, I was constantly having to send my wife and three kids to go to other places while I waited at the attraction and then would call them to get back in time,” Dan Filmer, founder and CEO of Placer, told Digital Trends.

Launched exclusively in New York City on Thursday, June 29, the app provides you with a feed of popular places around NYC ranging from bakeries to stadiums and most recently, kiosks. Underneath each location is the average wait time and how far away you are in reference to your current location.

Once you find the place you’re looking for, you’ll tap on the image and click on the “I want a placer” icon. You’ll then have to identify how many people your Placer will be standing in line for — adults and children — and the exact time you’d like them to be in line. You can book up to 24 hours in advance if your plans are set ahead of time.

You’ll receive a notification when a Placer is available along with the amount they’re charging to stand in line. The Placers set their own rates based on weather, star rating, and overall experience with the wait time. All payments are made through the app so you don’t have to worry about having to carry cash or using a third-party payment service.

When you find your placer in line, you provide them with a “jump code” to confirm you’ve found the right line-sitter and take your place in line. You can identify them through either their profile picture on the app, wearing purple Placer merchandise, or the outfit they described through communication.

For some, the concept of this app might give you immediate anxiety thinking about the rude stares and eye rolls you might get from people standing in line behind you as you switch spots with your Placer — especially if they’re holding spots for multiple people.

Filmer expressed that as of now, there aren’t any locations that prohibit Placers and assures that it’s actually good for business. Using the platform helps to reduce frustration customers experience with long lines at particular venues and can actually help to get more people through its doors.

“My approach is to let the person in charge of the line — and those waiting in front and behind me — know that I’m a Placer and am waiting in line for someone else and explain how the app works,” Jose Leal, a line-sitter for Placer, told Digital Trends.

When we tried the app out ourselves, the interface was straightforward and simple to use. If you request a Placer for more than one venue or location, it neatly organizes them all in a section called “My Jumps.” You’ll also be able to save potential places for the future and suggest ones for Placer to add in if they aren’t available through the app.

We scrolled through the feed to see all of the places available and came across ones that were known for their long wait time — Shake Shack, DŌ Cookie Dough Confections, and Trader Joe’s. Weirdly enough, restaurants way out of our range like the West Coast’s In-N-Out Burger showed up as well.

Searching for places was also a bit difficult because none of the places we typed in showed up automatically. It would show a number of different ones first and we didn’t find the specific restaurant we were looking for until we scrolled further down into the results.

We went with Shake Shack — whose burgers and fries hypnotize people into standing in lines that wrap around the block — and tapped on “I want a placer.” Unfortunately, we didn’t find a placer until a few hours later, only to try it again the next day and find one three within seconds. The placers had rates ranging between $20-$35, which we could then either assign, or decide to wait for a cheaper deal.

Filmer explained that the app’s algorithm works to find you the highest ranked placer closest to the venue or location you’re booking and if they’re not registered within that vicinity, then the platform will continue to search for the best placer. He assured the wait time for placer responses will decrease seeing as how they currently have 500 in NYC, with more signing up each day.

Happy Asteroid Day! Here’s how scientists plan to save us from Armageddon

One hundred years from now, while borrowing time on one of NASA’s telescopes, an amateur astronomer sees something disconcerting — a massive asteroid heading towards Earth. Luckily this asteroid was discovered decades earlier by a similar group of stargazers, and a spacecraft was dispatched and pull the object out of our way.

June 30 is Asteroid Day, a United Nation sanctioned event designed to raise awareness about asteroid risks and shine a spotlight on the people working to spot near-Earth objects in the sky. This year more than 700 events are planned in 190 countries, with participation from agencies like NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). along with a 24-hour livestream online.  If the above scenario ever does occur, we may have Asteroid Day to thank for our preparedness.

“The ultimate goal is to protect our planet from future asteroid impacts.”

“The ultimate goal is to protect our planet from future asteroid impacts,” Asteroid Day co-founder Grig Richters told Digital Trends. “This can only be achieved when the global community works together to fund the science and the space missions.”

In 2014, Richters and his co-founders — including Queen guitarist Brian May whom, you may not know, is also an astrophysicist — gathered more than 200 signatures from renowned scientists and artists for the Asteroid Day declaration. In December 2016, the United Nations approved International Asteroid Day “to raise public awareness about the asteroid impact hazard.”

The sky is falling!

Asteroid risks have been known for some time. June 30 marks the anniversary of the Tunguska event, an impact event that occurred in 1908 and flattened 770 square miles of forest in Siberia.

And the current threat is very real. Just four years ago, a meteor entered Earth’s atmosphere undetected before illuminating the sky and exploding over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. The event, which was captured on numerous dashboard cameras, caused nearly 1,500 people to seek medical treatment and damaged over 7,200 buildings.

“We could be struck tomorrow by an object that wipes out a city and we have no knowledge,” NASA astronauts and planetary scientist Tom Jones told Digital Trends. “We have very little knowledge of what could happen to us tomorrow or a thousand years from now, just because we haven’t used our space tools to evaluate the hazard thoroughly.”

To be sure, there’s slim chance we’ll be hit by a large asteroid like the one that lead to the dinosaurs’ extinction. We’ve identified most of them and they’re travelling at a safe distance from Earth.

“We do not have to be concerned about a significant asteroid impacting Earth on the short-middle term, if significant means a body that is capable of global effects,” planetary scientist Patrick Michel told Digital Trends in November.

“We’ve found about 1.5 percent of the million or so objects that could be a city-buster-type asteroid.”

The more realistic concerns come from smaller objects like the one that exploded above Chelyabinsk, which are small enough to sneak by undetected but big enough to cause local damage. However, at 65 meters wide, the Chelyabinsk meteor was small compared to objects around 450 feet in diameter, which can cause regional destruction. But even these city-busters are difficult to spot.

“About 95 percent of the large ones that could do-in civilization have been found,” Jones said. “But we know about 1.5 percent of the million or so objects that could be a city-buster-type asteroid.”

Avoiding Armageddon

Mitigating the risk of an impact is a two-pronged approach. First we have to discover and track asteroids. Then we demonstrate ways to deflect them.

Scientists around the world are working to identify, track, and protect against asteroids and other near-Earth objects (NEOs). Since 1998 NASA has had a congressional mandate to catalogue NEOs, particularly those over a half-mile wide, which could cause destruction on a global scale.

ESA and NASA’s proposed Asteroid Impact and Deflection Mission (AIDA) would send a spacecraft to an asteroid to test technologies that may someday save us from an impact.

AIDA would consist of two spacecraft — ESA’s Asteroid Impact Monitoring Mission (AIM) and NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). The joint missions would head to a double asteroid system called Didymos, which pass about ten million miles by Earth in 2022.

After AIM performs scientific surveys of the asteroid system, the DART spacecraft will crash directly into the smaller of the asteroids. The idea is that an impact may be sufficient to deflect an asteroid that’s on a collision course with Earth. Although ESA denied AIM funding in favor of its ExoMars mission, NASA still intends to pursue AIDA.

Meanwhile, another NASA project, the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) seeks to tug an asteroid off its trajectory by using a spacecraft’s gravitational attraction. The agency asked for proposals from private partners to help with experimentation and payload delivery.

The private sector has an important role to play in our study of asteroids. The nonprofit B612 foundation’s sole goal is to protect Earth from asteroids and its current Sentinel Mission aims to develop an infrared telescope specifically designed to spot NEOs.

But asteroids aren’t all bad. As the leftovers from our solar system’s early days, they hold clues to how the solar system formed and offer a perspective on our place in it. NASA’s OSIRIX-REx spacecraft is on its way to study the asteroid Bennu before taking samples and returning to Earth. Asteroids also contain metals like iron, nickel, and cobalt, which make them of interest for Luxembourg and mining companies like Planetary Resources.

“We will be struck again — it’s just a matter of when.”

It’s clear that asteroids are a topic of increasing interest for public and private institutions, but Jones and those behind Asteroid Day are concerned that we aren’t doing enough. “We will be struck again,” he said. “It’s just a matter of when.”

He added that we have the potential to stop a catastrophe “on a scale that’s unimaginable in human experience” within the next century by putting even just a fraction of our effort and funding into programs like AIDA. “Postponing activity at Mars for a couple years is a good trade for…this unique opportunity to hit and deflect the small asteroid Didymos. If we miss this we’ll have to find another nice target down the road.”

“It’s pretty cheap insurance,” he quipped.

An asteroid impact of global scale is unlikely, but the fact remains that we’re unprepared. On the other hand, we know about just a fraction of the asteroids that could cause regional damage, and will need to increase our efforts to identify them. Hopefully Asteroid Day can raise awareness of the issue and inspire future generations of scientists to take up the task.

Happy Asteroid Day! Here’s how scientists plan to save us from Armageddon

One hundred years from now, while borrowing time on one of NASA’s telescopes, an amateur astronomer sees something disconcerting — a massive asteroid heading towards Earth. Luckily this asteroid was discovered decades earlier by a similar group of stargazers, and a spacecraft was dispatched and pull the object out of our way.

June 30 is Asteroid Day, a United Nation sanctioned event designed to raise awareness about asteroid risks and shine a spotlight on the people working to spot near-Earth objects in the sky. This year more than 700 events are planned in 190 countries, with participation from agencies like NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). along with a 24-hour livestream online.  If the above scenario ever does occur, we may have Asteroid Day to thank for our preparedness.

“The ultimate goal is to protect our planet from future asteroid impacts.”

“The ultimate goal is to protect our planet from future asteroid impacts,” Asteroid Day co-founder Grig Richters told Digital Trends. “This can only be achieved when the global community works together to fund the science and the space missions.”

In 2014, Richters and his co-founders — including Queen guitarist Brian May whom, you may not know, is also an astrophysicist — gathered more than 200 signatures from renowned scientists and artists for the Asteroid Day declaration. In December 2016, the United Nations approved International Asteroid Day “to raise public awareness about the asteroid impact hazard.”

The sky is falling!

Asteroid risks have been known for some time. June 30 marks the anniversary of the Tunguska event, an impact event that occurred in 1908 and flattened 770 square miles of forest in Siberia.

And the current threat is very real. Just four years ago, a meteor entered Earth’s atmosphere undetected before illuminating the sky and exploding over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. The event, which was captured on numerous dashboard cameras, caused nearly 1,500 people to seek medical treatment and damaged over 7,200 buildings.

“We could be struck tomorrow by an object that wipes out a city and we have no knowledge,” NASA astronauts and planetary scientist Tom Jones told Digital Trends. “We have very little knowledge of what could happen to us tomorrow or a thousand years from now, just because we haven’t used our space tools to evaluate the hazard thoroughly.”

To be sure, there’s slim chance we’ll be hit by a large asteroid like the one that lead to the dinosaurs’ extinction. We’ve identified most of them and they’re travelling at a safe distance from Earth.

“We do not have to be concerned about a significant asteroid impacting Earth on the short-middle term, if significant means a body that is capable of global effects,” planetary scientist Patrick Michel told Digital Trends in November.

“We’ve found about 1.5 percent of the million or so objects that could be a city-buster-type asteroid.”

The more realistic concerns come from smaller objects like the one that exploded above Chelyabinsk, which are small enough to sneak by undetected but big enough to cause local damage. However, at 65 meters wide, the Chelyabinsk meteor was small compared to objects around 450 feet in diameter, which can cause regional destruction. But even these city-busters are difficult to spot.

“About 95 percent of the large ones that could do-in civilization have been found,” Jones said. “But we know about 1.5 percent of the million or so objects that could be a city-buster-type asteroid.”

Avoiding Armageddon

Mitigating the risk of an impact is a two-pronged approach. First we have to discover and track asteroids. Then we demonstrate ways to deflect them.

Scientists around the world are working to identify, track, and protect against asteroids and other near-Earth objects (NEOs). Since 1998 NASA has had a congressional mandate to catalogue NEOs, particularly those over a half-mile wide, which could cause destruction on a global scale.

ESA and NASA’s proposed Asteroid Impact and Deflection Mission (AIDA) would send a spacecraft to an asteroid to test technologies that may someday save us from an impact.

AIDA would consist of two spacecraft — ESA’s Asteroid Impact Monitoring Mission (AIM) and NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). The joint missions would head to a double asteroid system called Didymos, which pass about ten million miles by Earth in 2022.

After AIM performs scientific surveys of the asteroid system, the DART spacecraft will crash directly into the smaller of the asteroids. The idea is that an impact may be sufficient to deflect an asteroid that’s on a collision course with Earth. Although ESA denied AIM funding in favor of its ExoMars mission, NASA still intends to pursue AIDA.

Meanwhile, another NASA project, the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) seeks to tug an asteroid off its trajectory by using a spacecraft’s gravitational attraction. The agency asked for proposals from private partners to help with experimentation and payload delivery.

The private sector has an important role to play in our study of asteroids. The nonprofit B612 foundation’s sole goal is to protect Earth from asteroids and its current Sentinel Mission aims to develop an infrared telescope specifically designed to spot NEOs.

But asteroids aren’t all bad. As the leftovers from our solar system’s early days, they hold clues to how the solar system formed and offer a perspective on our place in it. NASA’s OSIRIX-REx spacecraft is on its way to study the asteroid Bennu before taking samples and returning to Earth. Asteroids also contain metals like iron, nickel, and cobalt, which make them of interest for Luxembourg and mining companies like Planetary Resources.

“We will be struck again — it’s just a matter of when.”

It’s clear that asteroids are a topic of increasing interest for public and private institutions, but Jones and those behind Asteroid Day are concerned that we aren’t doing enough. “We will be struck again,” he said. “It’s just a matter of when.”

He added that we have the potential to stop a catastrophe “on a scale that’s unimaginable in human experience” within the next century by putting even just a fraction of our effort and funding into programs like AIDA. “Postponing activity at Mars for a couple years is a good trade for…this unique opportunity to hit and deflect the small asteroid Didymos. If we miss this we’ll have to find another nice target down the road.”

“It’s pretty cheap insurance,” he quipped.

An asteroid impact of global scale is unlikely, but the fact remains that we’re unprepared. On the other hand, we know about just a fraction of the asteroids that could cause regional damage, and will need to increase our efforts to identify them. Hopefully Asteroid Day can raise awareness of the issue and inspire future generations of scientists to take up the task.

Here are our 3 favorite Amazon tech deals for Friday

Friday’s Amazon Gold Box deals feature a UBS-powered desk fan, a portable charger, and a wireless headset. Score savings up to $45 and discounts as deep as 66 percent. Read on to browse today’s best Amazon tech deals.

Aceyoon Silent Mini USB Powered Desk Fan

Keep cool this summer and be more productive at your workstation with an Aceyoon Silent Mini USB Powered Desk Fan, which is currently 66 percent off on Amazon. Like many of our favorite fans, this mini fan is suitable for your desk, car, office, and more.

The fan has an ultra silent high-quality brushless motor so it’s not a distraction. It can reach up to 2,500 RPM with low noise and will still not affect your working or sleeping. It supports a 360-degree multi-angle manual rotation, you can choose the best wind direction freely.

It’s powered by a 1.2-meter USB cable so you can easily charge it on the go with a USB power bank. The mini fan is portable and will not overtake your desk space. It is suitable for use in offices, homes, dorms, libraries, games rooms, and even outdoor places. A dense protective cover greatly protects anything, such as your little baby’s finger, from getting near the blades.

The Aceyoon Silent Mini USB Powered Desk Fan normally retails for $23 but is currently discounted to $8 on Amazon, providing a $15 (66 percent) discount.

Amazon

Poweradd 2nd Gen 3.4A Pilot 2GS 10000mAh Power Bank

Stay powered up where ever you go with a Poweradd 2nd Gen 3.4A Pilot 2GS 10000mAh Power Bank, which is currently 66 percent off on Amazon. The power bank has classic styling and an average 4.3 out of 5-star review on Amazon, based on over 3,800 customer reviews.

The power bank automatically detects your device and deliver its fastest possible charge speed up to 2.4A. It has a 5V/2A input that is twice as fast as 1amp input, which means you can fully charge it in only 5 hours. The charger can provide four solid charges to an iPhone 6s, or at least two and a half charges to a Galaxy S6, or one and a half charges to an iPad Mini.

Like many of the best portable chargers, it has a compact design with an Aviation Aluminum body designed to ensure lightweight and durability. The compact size makes it easy to carry around as it easily fit into your pocket. The Grade A+ Li-polymer cell premium microchips multi-protect system provides protection against overcharging, over-discharging, over-voltage, over current and short-circuit issues.

The Poweradd 2nd Gen 3.4A Pilot 2GS 10000mAh Power Bank formally retails for $40 but is currently on sale for $13 on Amazon, saving you $27 (66 percent).

Amazon

Mpow Bluetooth Headphones Over Ear Hi-Fi Stereo Wireless Headset

Upgrade your listening experience with a Mpow Bluetooth Headphones Over Ear Hi-Fi Stereo Wireless Headset, which is currently 57 percent off on Amazon. The headset lets you spoil your ears with robust, balanced, and detailed sound.

The headset is a No. 1 Best Seller on Amazon and features passive noise isolating technology. The closed-back design provides immersive hi-fi sound thanks in part to a CSR chip and 40mm driver. A built-in 420mAh battery provides up to 13-hour music time, or 15-hour talking time on a single charge. 

The headset is built to be comfortable with memory-protein ear cushions that simulate human skin texture and ensure lasting comfort. The stainless steel slider and softly padded headband allows you to find the perfect fit and provides extra durability. The headset has a folding design that not just saves space at your desk space but is also convenient for carrying in the included carrying bag.

The Mpow Bluetooth Headphones Over Ear Hi-Fi Stereo Wireless Headset normally retails for $80 but is currently on sale for $35 on Amazon, providing a $45 (57 percent) discount.

Amazon

Looking for more great deals on tech and electronics? Check out our deals page to score some extra savings on our favorite gadgets.

Best Sprint Phones

Sprint offers some of the best smartphones worth bringing home. We’ve rounded them up just for you!

Sprint doesn’t exactly play well with others, at least in the sense that the selection of unlocked phones that you can bring to its network is rather limited. If you are trying to bring your unlocked phone to Sprint, it’s best to head to the nearest location and ask if your device is compatible.

That said, it also has a relatively decent list of phones that you can buy straight from them, including some of the top Android devices available right now. Wondering what those are? Well, we’ve rounded up a quick list of the best phones Sprint has to offer.

• Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+
• HTC U11
• LG G6
• Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 edge

Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+

Surely, you’ve heard about Samsung’s latest and best? The Galaxy S8/S8+ is on billboards everywhere you for a good reason — it’s one of the best Android-powered smartphone releases of the year. This phone comes with the latest specifications, including a Snapdragon 835 processor and 4GB of RAM. It’s also got a stunning 5.8-inch or 6.2-inch Super AMOLED display (depending on the model you choose), and it’s capable of virtual reality right out of the box — including Google Daydream (well, soon).

Want to know more? There’s a review waiting for you:

Read the Galaxy S8/S8+ review

And now, it’s time to shop.

See Galaxy S8 at Sprint

See Galaxy S8+ at Sprint

HTC U11

They’re back! You may have thought HTC had drifted off into the ether, but it’s still kicking, and it’s got a beautiful smartphone in tow to remind us of its design prowess. The HTC U11 is a truly a sight to be seen, one that will surely encourage your friends to ooh and ahh. It’s not too shabby on the specifications, either, as it has a Snapdragon 835 processor, 4GB of RAM, and an impressive 12-megapixel camera. It’s got a couple of other tricks, too, including compatibility with Amazon Alexa, and a pair of sufficient stereo speakers.

There’s more to explore. Do you dare?

Read the HTC U11 review

Ready to bring it home?

See the U11 at Sprint

LG G6

The LG G6 is a fine choice if you’re looking for something a little bigger but with a nearly bezel-less display. LG’s also packed this smartphone with a Snapdragon 821 and 4GB of RAM, and it’s all held together by a 3300mAh battery. This time around, the company’s flagship is also water resistant, so you can take it around the pool without worrying too much — as long as it stays out of the deep end. The G6 also hails dual 13-megapixel cameras on the back, one of which is a wide-angle lens that shoots panorama-like photos.

Dive further into those cameras in the review!

Read the G6 review

Get yourself a new phone!

See the G6 at Sprint

Samsung Galaxy S7 edge

Samsung’s Galaxy S7 edge was once considered one of the best smartphones that money can buy. The device was a major upgrade over its predecessor, and its 5.5-inch Super AMOLED made the phone both pocketable and big enough to watch videos on the go comfortably.

Now you can get the phone for cheaper than you would have had you purchased it last year. If you’re looking to save a bit of cash and want flagship-like features, including a water-resistant chassis, the Galaxy S7 edge is still a surefire bet.

We reviewed it back then, too.

See the Galaxy S7 edge review

And you can still grab it at Sprint.

See Galaxy S7 edge at Sprint

Love singing in the shower? Get a waterproof Bluetooth speaker for only $10

Belting out your favorite tunes in the shower is a time-honored tradition, and nothing feels as good as hitting those high notes (even if you are a little flat) as you’re scrubbing up and getting ready for the day. Wouldn’t it be nice to have some accompaniment, so you’re not always singing alone? As funny as it would be to hire a full band to serenade you as you soap yourself up each morning, a Bluetooth speaker may be more practical.

Take your favorite tunes in the shower with you for only $10 Learn more

Of course, waterproof Bluetooth speakers don’t typically come cheap, and lots of them have some fancy features that you just don’t need for your daily showers. Relax. Android Central Offers is here to help.

Right now, through Android Central Digital Offers you can pick up a waterproof Bluetooth speaker for only $9.99! It’s quick and easy to pair up with your phone or computer, so you can listen to music while taking a steamy shower without having to take your expensive device into the bathroom with you. The suction cup back on this Bluetooth speaker means it can be used in any shower and is easily removable, so you can take it with you on your vacations and business trips!

Next time you hold a concert in your shower, and you’re using your shower head as a microphone, make sure you have this great waterproof Bluetooth speaker backing you up so you can really rock out!

Sing like nobody is listening! Learn more

You’re stuck on an island with one app — what is it? [Roundtable]

What’s the one app you can’t live without?

You wipe the sand off your eyelids and slowly open your tired eyes. Your lips are parched and cracked. How long have I been out? You look around and see only the blue of the rolling ocean and the yellow, dirty sand. What’s the last thing I remember? A boat. A crash. And nothing.

You look down and in your hand is a phone. A waterproof phone. You press the power button and, miraculously, it turns on! What’s my password again? You rifle through your confused state for a memory. The password — you have it. You unlock it and there’s only one app on your home screen — but it’s your favorite app! You can’t wait to use it every moment of every day as your body wastes away on this forgotten hellscape somewhere in the Pacific.

So — what is that app?

Daniel Bader

Is it sad that the first app that popped into my head was Newton, my favorite email client? I need to get out more.

Seriously, though, I thought about what my priorities are on this damn thing I call a pocket supercomputer, and if there was only one app I could open (and use, with magical island cellular service) for the rest of my days it would probably be Audible. I know, that sounds ridiculous, but I love listening to audiobooks, and with the vast wealth of human knowledge and burgeoning ideas at my fingertips until the day I die, I could probably stand to walk around aimlessly while chomping on coconuts as I pored through every Master and Commander novel or, the masochist I am, Infinite Jest.

Andrew Martonik

Do I have a data connection? If this is some kind of magical island in the middle of nowhere but with LTE (hey, it’s a hypothetical question, so why not?), my app of choice is Chrome. There are lots of one-task specialized apps I could pick, but if I only get one, it’s going to be an app that can get so much done — that’s Chrome for me.

Sure I’d prefer to do most things in a separate purpose-built app, and the mobile web still isn’t great. But if I have a phone and only Chrome, I can get a whole lot more accomplished — and in a variety of different areas — than with any other single app.

Jen Karner

To start with I have a few questions that need to be answered. Do I have signal? What does my power look like? Do I have unlimited data? Yes. These are the first questions that pop into my head because I am totally that guy.

If I could access any app, and have the ability to use it forever somehow, but was unable to call for help I’d probably go with Google Drive or Spotify. Writing fiction is my hobby, but music keeps me alive. If I can have social media though, I’m going with Facebook because then I could get someone to come rescue me. Hello location services!

Florence Ion

Snapchat, duh. I’m gonna monetize the heck out of this desert island situation. I’m going to do for lonely island memes what Tom Hanks did to volleyballs. Of course, from there, I’m hoping that my husband will send someone to come get me, since I know the first place he’ll look for me to see whether I’m still alive is my social media channels.

And, hey, you can’t tell me there isn’t LTE on this island! If everyone else can take this fantasy to where they want it to go, mine is going to take place in the far future, where Facebook and Google have brought Internet to even the most isolated parts of the world. This is the future we’re headed for, sheeple. Might as well embrace our new corporate robot overloads and pray that they come rescue us when we stray from the pack.

Ara Wagoner

On a desert island, you’re going to have limited recharging potential, no internet, and a metric crap-ton of time to kill. Even if none of things were true, the only app I need on my phone to keep me sane and happy is Google Play Music. Let’s face it, if I’m gonna last more than five minutes on an island before I start talking to myself and going completely insane, I’m gonna need some music. Does this app have a lot of bugs and UI glitches that need fixing? You bet your apps, it does! But it’s the music service I bought into over five years ago and for better or worse, it’s the one I’ll be using for the foreseeable future.

If I’m on a desert island with no signal, I won’t have access to my cloud library, but that’s okay. I’m always prepared for long, offline listening sessions, in fact my favorite way to use Google Play Music is in Downloaded Only mode. By carefully curating what I keep downloaded on Google Play Music, I can shuffle through parts of my library that I want to listen to often, rather than sorting through the thousand and thousands of songs in my entire library.

That said, good Google does Play Music need some overhauling.

Alex Dobie

Let’s face it — in a desert island situation, you’re going to have a lot of time to kill. And so I’d turn to my go-to time-killing app, Pocket Casts. Assuming I had time to preload a decent selection of shows before the start of my tropical predicament (or I was somehow able to fashion working Wi-Fi out of rope and coconut shells) I’d be able to keep myself entertained until rescue arrived.

I listen to a lot of podcasts when I travel, and I usually load up a few hours — at least — of ‘casts in Pocket Casts before any long-haul flights. The app also plays nicely with external storage, and has lots of handy options for helping clear out shows to save storage. (Because where are you gonna buy more SD cards on a desert island?)

Harish Jonnalagadda

I’m not setting foot on a boat again. I never really liked traveling by water, and three days in Venice reinforced that belief. But if I somehow ended up stranded on a deserted island and I had my phone with me, I would immediately start typing away on Simplenote. The app doesn’t need to be connected to the internet, and it has a minimalist interface that’s great for writing.

Also, a desert island is the perfect setting for a novel. For one thing, there wouldn’t be any distractions. Get ready for a Robinson Crusoe-style epic, albeit one chronicling the misadventures of a terribly uncoordinated man. In the meantime, I’m picking up a solar-powered battery bank. It may take forever to charge, but time tends to lose all meaning on an island in the middle of nowhere.

Marc Lagace

Ok, so this question is hard, because there’s a number of scenarios and factors that still need to be addressed. If I somehow miraculously had an internet signal on this desert island, I’d definitely want my favorite social media app Instagram so I could update my Instagram story with S.O.S. messages. Sadly, no one would bother to watch them and I’d be stuck on the island for several more years — but at least I’d also have a never-ending stream of pretty pictures to look.

If in a much more realistic scenario there’s no internet… but the phone will never run out of I’ve fashioned myself a solar-powered phone charger out of some coconuts (OK, not entirely realistic), I would definitely want to see a favorite time-killing game that I could play offline for hours on end… Rollercoaster Tycoon: Classic!

Your turn

What are your desert island apps? Would you stay by reading, writing, listening to music, or playing games?

Google hires former Intel exec as VP of Diversity

Google has a new VP of Diversity.

Danielle Mastrangel Brown, a former VP and Chief of Diversity & Inclusion at Intel, will begin at Google on July. Brown had been with Intel for 8 years, and leaves them with a workforce that is almost a quarter female. We can only hope she has the same luck with Google.

Google’s pledged to improve its diversity time and time again over the last three years, but in their blog post this week they admit there’s still plenty to be done. The hire of Brown is only a part of their renewed efforts. Google recently launched a engineering residency program for Howard University aimed at raising the number of
technical African American Googlers from the 1% it is today.

The blog post is also littered with anecdotes about diversity and the strength it brigns the company, but the one that sticks out the most to this humble blogger is the statement that the Really Blue Pixel came from creative lead Alberto Villarreal’s history with Mexico City.

Best games for Google Daydream

What are the best games for Google Daydream?

For many people, Daydream View is more than Google’s take on VR. It’s the first VR headset for a lot of Pixel owners, and that means there’s plenty of room to explore and have some fun. It also means there are a lot of apps in the Play Store asking for some money from you without a whole lot of assurance that the game will be worth the cash.

While there’s plenty of fun to be had with the free apps available for Daydream, some of the other experiences are on an entirely different level. Here’s where you need to start if you’re looking for quality games for Daydream.

Read more at VR Heads!