Google’s smaller Home Mini speaker will cost just $49

The Google Home Mini will cost just $49 when it debuts next month.

A treasure trove of leaked Google hardware information is coming to light today as Droid-life is reporting evidence of an upcoming miniature version of the Google Home set to debut at company’s October 4 hardware event in San Francisco. From Droid-life:

According to the information we’ve viewed, the Google Home Mini (official name) will arrive in Chalk, Charcoal, and Coral colors. The Google Home Mini will be powered rather than wireless, at least according to the images here. This Google Home Mini will be able to help you with your schedule, set reminders, grab news, and other Home-related inquiries. It’ll cost just $49 and is, of course, sports Google Assistant.

The speaker will reportedly come to market as the Google Home Mini in three colors, and will take on Amazon’s incredibly successful Echo Dot, which has dropped in price to a similar $49 in recent months (though we’ve seen it for as low as $39).

Google Home Mini won’t have replaceable bases like its larger counterpart, and certainly won’t sound as good, but its main attraction is Google Assistant, which has grown in usefulness since it debuted over a year ago.

Google Hardware

• Google Wifi review
• Google Home review
• Everything you need to know about the Chromecast Ultra
• Chromecast vs Chromecast Ultra: Which should you buy?

Google Wifi:

Google
Amazon

Google Home:

Google
Best Buy

Chromecast Ultra:

Google
Best Buy

Google Pixel 2 XL shown in black and white, pricing rumored at $849

Here’s our best render leak yet.

We’re just a couple weeks away from Google’s October 4 Pixel event, so we’re in the crunch time for major leaks. Look what we have here: the folks over at Droid-life have renders of the new Pixel 2 XL in both black and white. Yes the name is apparently “Pixel 2 XL” with the 2 before the XL, which is something that has been a bit of a toss-up before now.

What we see looks a whole lot like early leaks, with the glass “visor” on the back that’s much smaller than last year and no longer containing the rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. A larger, single camera lens is further down from the top edge, but the rest of the back look like a dead ringer for the current Pixel XL — lots of flat, lightly textured metal. There is what looks like a power button sitting above volume keys on the side. There’s obviously a white version as well, which retains the black underneath the back glass, which should get some people excited.

The leak also offers up a purported starting price of $849, which will coincide with 64GB of internal storage. A bump to $949 gets you 128GB. That starting price is an $80 jump over the Pixel XL’s starting price in 2016, and unsurprisingly more in line with the super-top-end phones of the year. Let’s hope the smaller Pixel 2 has a more attainable price to counterbalance it.

Google Pixel + Pixel XL

• Google Pixel and Pixel XL review
• Google Pixel XL review: A U.S. perspective
• Google Pixel FAQ: Should you upgrade?
• Pixel + Pixel XL specs
• Understanding Android 7.1 Nougat
• Join the discussion in the forums!

Google Store
Verizon

Amazon’s a hero with tons of Marvel comics on sale, including some freebies

Dive into this Marvel comics sale and experience more of your favorite hero’s greatest moments and defeats!

Any good Marvel fan has been counting the days ’til Thor: Ragnarok arrives in theaters to continue Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If the wait for November 3rd is getting increasingly harrowing for you, then this deal is likely just what you need. Amazon has a huge variety of digital Marvel comics and graphic novels on sale currently, with many available completely free!

As you know, Marvel is home to some of the most well-known and beloved superheroes on Earth and beyond. The volume of comic books and graphic novels the company has published over decades is staggering, and the myriad of stories produced has truly changed the world.

A few of the free comics on sale include:

• Jessica Jones #1
• All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #1
• Marvel Adventures: Iron Man #1
• Captain America & Thor!: Avengers #1

Meanwhile, there are tons of longer reads heavily discounted currently, such as:

• Kingsman: The Secret Service – $4
• Deadpool: Dead Head Redemption – $0.80
• Captain America; Civil War – $1
• Deadpool Kills The Marvel Universe – $1.40
• Spiderman: Dying Wish – $1.40
• Black Widow: Deadly Origin – $1.40
• Iron Man Noir, Volume 1 – $1.40

Most of these comics are viewable via the free comiXology app which is a companion to the Kindle app dedicated solely to comics, graphic novels and manga. The app is available to download on iOS and Android devices, along with Amazon tablets. You can even go to comiXology.com to read your comics on your computer. These comics can also be read via the regular Kindle app.

If you’re searching for unrestricted access to Marvel’s library of comics and graphic novels, consider joining Marvel Unlimited. For $10 a month (or $69 per year), you’ll gain instant streaming access to a digital library of over 20,000 Marvel comics. Overall, it blows Amazon’s deal out of the sky if you’re a regular comic book reader.

See at Amazon

More from Thrifter:

• Which Warehouse Shopping Club is Best for You?
• Priority Pass Select Memberships can save you big at airports

For more great deals be sure to check out our friends at Thrifter now!

Google Home Mini is the Amazon Echo Dot competitor we need — now it just has to sell

Google’s problem hasn’t been that it can’t make good hardware. It’s just that it’s never been able to market it properly.

Fun fact: Google Home is my favorite of the connected-speaker-assist-things so far. I like it more than Amazon Echo. Way more than the Echo Dot. Maybe not quite as much as Echo Show, but that’s a whole ‘nother product just waiting for a purpose.

No, these are not to scale.

The just-leaked Google Home Mini, as leaked by Droid-Life, has me downright excited.

Start with the way it looks. It’s got that same sort of fabric thing going on that the original Google Home has. And so long as you get away from the drab gray (please, Google, make sure that’s not the only color available at launch), it’s going to be a looker. After the Echo Show, Google Home is the best-designed of the bunch. This should follow in its footsteps.

Then there’s the diminutive size. Like the Echo Dot, it’s going to be small. While the OG Google Home isn’t exactly massive, something even smaller will be able to tucked into corners that much more, and that’s a good thing. How good will it sound? I have no idea. But size generally does matter when it comes to that sort of thing. I’d be surprised if it’s as good as the original Echo Home. But so long as it’s at least as good as the Echo Dot (and that’s a low bar, I know), then we’re good. But figure it’ll also be able to shoot out to other speakers, so…

Also, this:

Also I am totally down for smart speakers that look like whoopee cushions https://t.co/PO0j6P6Ugp

— Chris Davies (@c_davies) September 19, 2017

Next is the price. The unofficial listing (until Oct. 4, anyway) is $49, right in line with the Echo Dot. That’s important because price is the Dot’s one true weapon. It doesn’t look great. It doesn’t sound great. And I’d argue that Google’s “Actions” are generally better and easier to use than Alexa’s “Skills.” (Plus remember that Google Home can now make phone calls.)

Amazon still has a huge advantage in that it promotes the Echo Dot on its home page — and doesn’t sell Google Home.

But you haven’t been able to beat the price of the Echo Dot, which we’ve seen dip to just under $40 when on sale. (And I’m not counting the Eufy Genie, which is basically an inferior Echo Dot.)

At $49 — and figure we’ll probably see discounts, and even more likely a “Buy a phone, get a Home Mini for free” deal — this is going to be priced to move.

The final piece of the puzzle is marketing. Google’s gotten a lot better at that over the past few years, with specifically with its Android Wear “Be together, not the same” commercials, and later with spots for the Pixel phones. It’ll need to spend a bunch of bucks promoting the Home Mini to keep up with Amazon. (To say nothing of the front-page advertising advantage Amazon has, as well as the fact that you can’t actually buy a Google Home on Amazon, because competition sucks and all that.)

But it looks like Google’s finally got something on its hands that can compete with the Echo Dot. Now it just has to sell it. Erm, after it’s actually announced.

Google Hardware

• Google Wifi review
• Google Home review
• Everything you need to know about the Chromecast Ultra
• Chromecast vs Chromecast Ultra: Which should you buy?

Google Wifi:

Google
Amazon

Google Home:

Google
Best Buy

Chromecast Ultra:

Google
Best Buy

Google Pixelbook convertible breaks cover with high-end hardware, pen and big price tag

It’s Google hardware leak day!

Right alongside fresh leaks of the Pixel 2 XL and new Google Home Mini, we also have information on a brand new Pixel-branded Chromebook from Google called the Pixelbook. Droid-Life has a couple of images and some information, pointing to a true successor to the first two Chromebook Pixels with high-end hardware and a relatively traditional laptop-like form factor.

The core differentiation from previous Chromebook Pixels is that the Google Pixelbook folds over into a tablet and has an optional $99 “Pixelbook Pen” stylus for input, not unlike the Samsung Chromebook Pro that was made in tight coordination with Google. The Pixelbook, however, is a top-end laptop with a purported starting price of $1149 for 128GB of internal storage. Additional storage bumps to 256GB at $1,399 and 512GB at $1,749 will also be available.

The available Pixelbook render shows a svelte laptop with relatively typical proportions and what could be a large speaker above the keyboard before the screen hinge. At this price a metal unibody is a good bet, there’s a big trackpad, and the display looks to have the same sort of taller-than-most 3:2 aspect ratio. The now-conventional rotating screen points to the Pixelbook being a different hardware project from the previously rumored crazy 2-in-1 device Google is also apparently working on.

The early Chromebook Pixels were very clearly beloved by those who were willing to shell out the big dollars for an ultimate Chromebook experience, but with their high price they were hardly big sellers. It’s interesting to see Google going back to the well again with super-high-end hardware and pricing for a Chromebook — a product category so many people currently associate with a $200-400 budget laptop.

We should expect to hear all of the details and explanation from Google at its October 4 event, where we’ll also see the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL phones, Google Home Mini and maybe a few more treats as well.

Senate passes bill requiring easy access to public government data

Dreams of making government data easily accessible just came a little closer to reality. The US Senate has passed a defense authorization bill that includes the OPEN Government Data Act, a bipartisan bill aimed at making public data useful. The measure insists that any government agency info published on Data.gov must be made available in a “machine-readable” format (that is, your PC or phone knows what to do with it) and should be easily searched. To put it another way, the government can’t just dump raw files and expect you to make sense of them.

The act also includes clauses designed to protect “privacy and national security,” so it shouldn’t include extremely sensitive data about you or any military secrets. And federal officials have to use this info (when relevant) for decision-making, giving them a vested interest in making the data useful.

A version of the defense bill has already cleared the House of Representatives without mention of the data act, so the next step is to send it to a Conference Committee to sort out differences. If the data portion sticks, it’s likely to become law. The biggest challenge isn’t so much opening government data to the public as it is getting the full story — as we’ve already seen, the current administration isn’t fond of data that contradicts its agenda.

Source: Senator Ben Sasse, Congress.gov

Hilton Honors members can spend their points on Amazon

Folks in the Hilton Honors reward program have a new reason to hoard points: They can now pay with them when shopping on Amazon. Not for everything, mind you, as most digital content (Kindle downloads, music, Amazon Video, and so on) are off-limits. But you can spend your Hilton Honors points on the rest of your oddball needs and late-night purchases.

Now with Hilton Honors you can use your Points to buy tons of stuff at @amazon! https://t.co/zhxUMU7jib pic.twitter.com/QkkGkHsKme

— Hilton Honors (@HiltonHonors) September 19, 2017

Users need only sign in to their Amazon Account, click ‘Shop With Points’ and choose Hilton Honors. The full list of un-buyable items is up on the FAQ page, as well as the conversion rate (500 Honors points equals one dollar). Finally, Hilton rewards customers must subject themselves to one more hurdle: You can’t use ‘one click’ buying when shopping with points.

Source: Business Wire

Apple’s fitness-focused watchOS 4 is available for download

As you might have guessed, iOS 11 isn’t the only treat Apple has in store for its mobile device owners. The tech giant has also released watchOS 4, a major update to the Apple Watch that focuses on the health-conscious crowd. It includes many more workout types, lets you switch activities in mid-workout and will even sync with gym machines to provide consistent data. Also, heart rate monitoring is taking giant strides forward — watchOS now provides a more detailed history of your heart rate, offers a view of your heart rate from your watch face and will warn you if there’s a spike in heart rate when you’re inactive.

There are plenty of improvements even when you aren’t headed for your morning run. There’s a slew of new watch faces, including a Siri face that provides context-sensitive info, a trippy Kaleidoscope face and Toy Story characters. You can browse apps in a easier-to-tap list instead of the usual grid, and the music app has been reworked with both a fresher interface and automatic syncing for Apple Music playlists. You’ll also find hooks for Apple Pay Cash, although the money transfer feature won’t be available until later in the fall.

A heads-up: watchOS 4 won’t be available for your Watch until you install iOS 11, so be sure to do that first.

Source: Apple

Your local library’s e-books will now show up in Google searches

Google has made life a little easier for those who like to check out e-books from their local library. Now, when you search for a book through Google, results for libraries near you that carry that e-book will show up along with outlets where you can buy it.

Calling all U.S. bookworms! Now you can take a look at what e-books are available to borrow at your local library, right in Search. 📚 pic.twitter.com/jxiripTUMh

— Google (@Google) September 18, 2017

Here’s how it works. On mobile, search for the book you’re interested in and click the “Get Book” tab that appears right up top, just under the book’s info. You’ll then see where you can buy the e-book and below that, which libraries have it available. On desktop, the purchasing and library information appears on the right-hand side of the screen, just scroll down to get to the library bit. Once you click your library, you’ll need your membership information to log in and get the book.

Google is packing more and more into its search features these days, but this option is pretty convenient and could save you a trip to the library, or at least a search step. The feature is currently US-only and is rolling out now.

Via: SlashGear

Source: Google

Google’s mini Home speaker and Pixel 2 XL leak ahead of October event (updated)

If Google was trying to keep all its October 4th announcements under wraps, it just failed in spectacular fashion. Droid Life has obtained images and details for three of the headliners, and it’s clear that there are a few surprises even if you’ve been following the leaks pretty closely. To start, that rumored tiny Home speaker has a name and a face. It’s the Google Home Mini (at left), and it’s basically what you’d expect: an Echo Dot-like $49 puck that ditches the higher-quality speakers in favor of a laser-like focus on Google Assistant. You won’t get to swap coverings like you can with the full-size Home, but you will have the option of an eye-catching coral color in addition to more pedestrian charcoal (black) and chalk (white/silver).

As for the Pixel 2 XL? The phone itself is a poorly kept secret, but we now know what it’ll look like in finished form (it’s pretty close to the renders) and how much it’ll cost you. You’ll get both “black and white” (above at center) and “just black” hues, with pricing starting at $849 for a 64GB model and $949 for 128GB. That’s expensive as far as Google-branded phones go, but consider this: when the Galaxy Note 8 starts around $930 and the iPhone X will cost $999, this top-of-the-range Pixel might seem like a bargain.

The Daydream View headset isn’t quite so earth-shattering as the other two leaks, but it does look like it has a different finish (including a coral option) and will cost $99 instead of the $79 you paid for the original. It’s not certain what that extra $20 gets you, if anything — there could be functional upgrades to the headset and controller, a more sweat-resistant covering or just an arbitrary price hike. Either way, you don’t have too much longer to wait for the full scoop.

Update: A leak has also emerged for the standard-sized Pixel 2. It’ll sell at typical 2017 flagship prices ($649 for 64GB, $749 for 128GB) and will come in a melancholic “Kinda Blue” (below) in addition to black and white colors.

Source: Droid Life (Home Mini), (Pixel 2 XL), (Daydream View), (Pixel 2)