Save 50% on this Qi Wireless Charging Pad from Neva Tech!

More phones than ever support wireless charging these days as the tech industry does it’s best to reduce the number of wires and cords we need to connect to our phones. But wireless charging pads can also be a bit expensive, especially if you’re looking to keep one at work and maybe a couple conveniently located around your home for the entire family.

That’s where this slick deal from Android Central Digital Offers comes in! For a limited time only you can get a Qi Wireless Charging Pad by NevaTech for just $11. Unlike other wireless charging pads you may have seen before this one is ultra thin with a surface big enough to accommodate nearly any phone.

These come with the specs you’d expect from any charging accessory including built-in charging sensors to prevent your devices from overheating or shorting out, and each comes with a wall charger and USB cable.

Typically these charging pads would cost you at least $22 but you’ll save 50% with this deal. So what are you waiting for? If you’ve got a Qi-compatible phone and have been waiting for a good deal on a wireless charging pad the time is now!

See at Android Central Digital Offers

Nova Launcher’s Dynamic Badges still beat Android Oreo’s Notification Badges

Unread counts are dead. Long live Dynamic Badges!

For a long, long time, I hated unread counts on Android home screens. They were often inaccurate, they didn’t always go away once you acted on them, and above all, they were unforgivably ugly on any home screen theme. These days, notification badges are a little less ugly and a little more consistent, but the notification badges on Android Oreo aren’t the best to be found.

No, no, that honor belongs to Dynamic Badges on Nova Launcher.

You see those dots? Me neither.

Dynamic Badges are exactly that — vibrant, creative, and not boring.

Dynamic Badges came to Nova Launcher this past spring, and they have a few distinct advantages over Android Oreo’s native equivalent. First and foremost, they’re more vibrant. Oreo’s notification badges pick a color for their badges from the icon that it’ll be sitting on top of, which means that most of the time, these dots blend into the icon rather than standing out and reminding you to check your notifications.

Dynamic Badges will pull a color from the app’s notification or pull an image from the notification, such as the profile pic of someone who messages you, allowing them to stand out against most icons, especially if you’re using icon packs with limited color palettes.

This also means that notification badges can offer you information while standing out, by telling you who is pinging you before you open the notification shade or the app. I can see a dynamic badge from my boss and see that I need to reply to him quickly, or I can see a dynamic badge of a creeper I’m trying to avoid and ignore it. Dynamic Badges also work for media apps, giving me the album art of my currently playing song in Google Play Music or the thumbnail of the new video from one of my subscriptions on YouTube.

By being more vibrant and more informative, Dynamic Badges have helped me see the value of unread badges and helped me keep things clean and functional on my many home screen themes. If there is a downside to Dynamic Badges, it’s that if you have multiple badges in a folder, rather than getting the individual pictures or colors, you get a mini-folder of app icons on your folder icon telling you which apps in the folder have notifications. It’s a small flaw, but it’s still far better than boring, basic dots.

Nova Launcher: The best launcher for theming your phone

Meet the BlackBerry Motion in Europe this November at a CrackBerry meetup!

CrackBerry Meetups are going across the Atlantic, so if you’re in London, Frankfurt, Prague, or Paris next month, sign up to see the BlackBerry Motion!

After successful CrackBerry meetups in the U.S. and Barcelona earlier this year, CrackBerry Kevin and his band of misfits are taking their show on the road — or plane — to Europe.

Starting November 10 in London and wrapping up in Paris on the 18th, fans of BlackBerry phones and the culture they produced can check out the BlackBerry Motion, the latest Android phone in the lineup, and make some great friends along the way.

They’ll be starting in London on November 10th, followed by Frankfurt on the 14th, Prague on the 16th and finally Paris on the 18th. Like all of our meetups this year, there’ll be plenty of food, drinks and BlackBerry fans in attendance, along with the latest BlackBerry smartphones for attendees to check out. And there will be swag and prizes to give out, too!

If you’re a longtime CrackBerry reader, a BlackBerry fan or just thinking about picking up a new BlackBerry Motion or BlackBerry KEYone, these are events you won’t want to miss! Hit the links below to jump over to the Meetup page for your city where you can RSVP. Once you’re signed up we’ll be sending out updates as we finalize our venues for each city and the meetup events occur.

Kevin will also be working his BlackBerry Motion and BlackBerry KEYone’s hard on this tour, so you’ll want to be following @crackberrykevin on Instagram.

CrackBerry Meet-up Dates & RSVP

Hit the links below to jump over to official Meetup Page for full details and to RSVP. Once you’re RSVP’d, you’ll receive email updates as we get closer to dates, locking in the location and providing additional info.

• London – Friday, November 10th
• Frankfurt – Tuesday, November 14th
• Prague – Thursday, November 16th
• Paris – Saturday, November 18th

The BlackBerry Motion meetup tour comes to Canada next, so stay tuned!

Picture-in-Picture officially supported by Netflix on Android 8.1

Still no word when Netflix will support picture-in-picture on Android 8.0.

Android Oreo is filled with all sorts of tweaks and changes compared to Nougat, but one of the biggest user-facing features is picture-in-picture. Picture-in-picture allows you to keep watching a video while doing other things on your phone, and we’ve seen it supported by the likes of YouTube, Duo, and even Maps. Following the release of the Android 8.1 Oreo beta, it’s now been discovered that Netflix is the latest app to support this.

If you’re running 8.1 Oreo on your Nexus or Pixel device and want to use Netflix with picture-in-picture, it works just like we’ve seen in other apps that also support it. Just start playing a video within the Netflix app, press the home button, and the video will then shrink down so you can continue watching it while doing other tasks on your device.

Netflix confirmed to Android Police that this is an official feature with its application, but the odd part here is that picture-in-picture is only working with 8.1 and not 8.0. It’s unclear when Netflix will move this feature over to 8.0, but seeing as how it’s already working with 8.1, we’re inclined to believe that it’ll be pushed out sooner rather than later.

Android Oreo

• Android Oreo review!
• Everything new in Android Oreo
• How to get Android Oreo on your Pixel or Nexus
• Oreo will make you love notifications again
• Will my phone get Android Oreo?
• Join the Discussion

How Microsoft is turning Android into the mobile OS for Windows users

With Windows 10 Mobile dying, many former Windows phone users are turning to iOS and Android. But has Microsoft successfully turned Android into a phone for Windows?

The fact that Microsoft didn’t play nice with its major competitors has been in the rear-view mirror for years. With Microsoft apps filling the Google Play Store and Apple’s app store today, it’s easier than ever for users of Microsoft services to jump ship to other mobile OSes. Even Bill Gates is on Android.

While most of Microsoft’s services are available on both iOS and Android, the open nature of the latter means that Microsoft can create strong links between Android phones and Windows 10 PCs in both looks and functionality.

5 tips to help Windows Mobile users switch to Android — via Windows Central

Apps and services

Between customizing the look of an Android device with Microsoft Launcher, continuing to browse a page from your Android phone to your PC on Edge, and a variety of other Microsoft apps and services, Microsoft has a strong presence on Android in the apps department. And with Edge coming to the platform in preview recently, there’s reason to expect Microsoft’s support of Android to continue.

There’s reason to expect Microsoft’s support of Android to continue well into the future.

For users, this means that they don’t have to switch away from products they already are accustomed to using on PC, such as Office, if their work shifts away from Windows hardware. Even if an entire company switched from Windows to Android, they could still use most of Microsoft’s services.

And Microsoft’s support on Android, including specific versions of Android, isn’t half-hearted. When Samsung unveiled the DeX Dock, which provides a Continuum-esque experience, the Office suite was used to show it off. Microsoft has made a concerted effort to have a first-class experience for Microsoft services on Android.

On top of Microsoft’s support for Android, Google’s mobile OS also lets users select default apps for a number of functions. A person used to the Windows 10 ecosystem could use Cortana as their default assistant, Edge as their default browser, and Bing as their default search engine on their Android phone.

Though there are many Microsoft apps available in the Google Play Store, there are some missing services. Two notable exceptions are the Photos app, and Movies and TV. You can view photos and other content in the OneDrive app, but that isn’t the same as using apps built for viewing content.

The best Microsoft apps for Android

Continuing the experience

Plenty of apps work across platforms. And using Microsoft apps arguably makes a device into more of a “Microsoft phone” than a phone that’s specifically for Windows. But Microsoft has pushed the phrase “continue on PC” for a reason. They want users to be able to do a task on one device and then jump over to finish it on another. While this isn’t available in its final form on Windows 10, Timeline is set to be released as part of RS4, but there are already some ways that users can continue their experiences across devices.

The feature is quite literally at the center of Microsoft Edge on Android. You can continue your browsing with the tap of an icon. And Microsoft has also included continue on PC in Microsoft Launcher. It’s clear that as these features are fully fleshed out and Windows 10 continues to be developed, this process will become even more streamlined.

In addition to Timeline, Microsoft is planning to release a Cloud Clipboard that will allow you to copy and paste across devices, including Android phones. That inclusion of Android phones is a trend that’s very apparent in many of Microsoft’s efforts. If a feature can be used on Android, or iOS for that matter, Microsoft seems keen to make it work across as many devices as possible.

These features bridge the gap between a phone running Microsoft services and a phone for Windows by forging a connection between Windows 10 and Android and continuing the user experience across devices.

Samsung Galaxy S8 ‘Microsoft Edition:’ Everything you need to know

A ‘phone for Windows’ isn’t a Windows Phone

All of Microsoft’s work to bring its services to Android, while also continuing the user experience between Windows 10 and Android phones, is very useful for users but that doesn’t make an Android phone into a Windows phone. And it’s not just about Live tiles or user interface, though those are a factor. Windows is about more than Office, apps, transparency, and continuing things on Windows 10.

Windows 10 is about a complete unified experience across devices. It’s about unifying OneCore across devices and bringing a single OS to a variety of form factors through CShell. It’s about UWP apps being able to easily scale between devices with very little extra coding for developers. To a large extent, that vision is being fulfilled with PCs, Windows Mixed Reality, and Xbox One, but without phones, there is a gaping hole.

So while many Windows users can, and do, use Android phones to extend their Windows 10 and Microsoft experiences to their hands, it isn’t the same as having a completely unified experience.

What do users really want?

How much do end users care about the Universal Windows Platform (UWP), OneCore, CShell, and other deeply unified aspects of an OS? It’s likely that many readers of this site appreciate the efforts that Microsoft is making to unify Windows on different form factors but it’s also likely that many users don’t care.

If a user can create a Word document on their personal phone, continue it on their PC at work, embed photos from OneDrive that they had stored on their home PC, share the document through Skype or Microsoft Teams on a work phone, and then check off an item on their to-do list using Cortana or Microsoft Launcher, will they care how many OSes were involved or what code was used?

This scenario is an example of the mobility experience that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella often speaks about. And it’s how a device can be a phone for Windows without actually being a Windows Phone.

Your thoughts

What do you think? Is Microsoft turning Android devices into phones for Windows? Or does Microsoft need to have its own mobile OS to extend the Windows experience to people’s hands?

Take your DSLR gear on the go with the $10 Lowepro Adventura camera bag

Don’t miss your shot!

Is this deal for me?

Need a safe way to carry your camera essentials to your next shoot? Amazon has Lowepro’s Adventura camera shoulder bag on sale for just $9.99. That saves you $11 off its average price. This product does not ship with Prime shipping, though it still has free shipping at least. This deal is also available from Adorama.

The Adventura bag was designed to hold a DSLR with an attached standard lens, or camera accessories. It has a quick-release buckle which helps to keep your bag closed properly while also giving you fast access to anything inside. There’s a shoulder strap which is both adjustable and removable so you can decide to get rid of it if it’s not comfortable enough for you.

This camera bag features a padded interior for a protective, soft surface that won’t scuff any devices or accessories on the inside. It also has a zippered front pocket with organizers so you can store away smaller items like memory cards without worrying about them getting lost.

TL;DR

• What makes this deal worth considering? – While this isn’t its lowest price ever, this is still over 50% off its average pricing. This camera bag will keep your expensive items protected, so in essence, it’s worth way more than just $10.
• Things to know before you buy! – The Adventura 140 bag fits DSLR cameras, including the Canon EOS Rebel T3/T3i/T5/T5i/SL1, Nikon D3200, Nikon D3300, Sony Alpha A5000 and A6000, and more. If you’re still on the lookout for one, Canon is having a “Trick or Treat” sale right now with 15% off DSLRs!

See at Amazon

Happy Thrifting!

More from Thrifter:

• These mobile apps will pay you for doing small tasks
• Sharing your Netflix membership makes it more affordable

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

Pixel 2 XL review by MrMobile: Burn-in down the house

When Google announced its new Pixel smartphones, I knew right away that the bigger one was the phone for me. It packed a more modern design, a larger battery, and an exclusive paint job – plus, I’d already developed a fondness for its spiritual predecessor, the LG V30. What could go wrong?

Oh. That.

Flagship smartphone displays in 2017 are pretty good on the whole, so when a problem does pop up, usually it’s pretty obvious. Sadly, that’s been the case with most of the early Pixel 2 XL displays: whether it’s blue-shifting, low saturation or the dreaded early burn-in/image persistence problem, this panel has had some issues. Which is a shame because, underneath that display, it’s still the Pixel I prefer.

I’m MrMobile and this is the story of a very good smartphone tainted by a second-rate screen. Come see if it’s still worth your time in my Pixel 2 XL review above, and then let Andrew and Alex take you for the full tour in Android Central’s combined Pixel 2 and Pixel 2XL review!

Stay social, my friends

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Facebook will require political advertisers to disclose their identities

Facebook has had a rough few months since the election. At least 10 million people saw Russian-placed political ads on the platform, which may have helped widen the rift between political sides during the 2016 US presidential election. In reaction, the social network has pledged to hand-review any new ads that target politics and race. Further, Facebook has just announced that it will be rolling out new transparency features for all ads, including political ones, starting next month in Canada. The US will get the new tools by next summer, in time for the US midterm elections next November.

“When it comes to advertising on Facebook,” wrote Rb Goldman, VP of Facebook Ads, in a blog post, “people should be able to tell who the advertiser is and see the ads they’re running, especially for political ads. That level of transparency is good for democracy and it’s good for the electoral process. Transparency helps everyone, especially political watchdog groups and reporters, keep advertisers accountable for who they say they are and what they say to different groups.”

When the feature releases next month, you’ll be able to click “View Ads” on a Page and see any advertising that page is running, whether you’re a target for the ad or not. All advertising will also now be required to come from Pages, too. During the first Canadian test, only active ads will be available to view, but when the feature comes to the US, Facebook plans to build an archive of ads related to the federal elections. The company is also creating an archive that will hold up to four years of related ads and provide details on how much money was spent on each one. Facebook will also provide how many impressions each ad delivers and the demographics information about who the ads reached.

In addition, anyone placing an election-related ad on Facebook will have to provide more documentation on their identity and location as well as disclose that they are running election-related advertising. Advertisers will also have to include a “Paid for by” disclosure in the ad itself. For advertisers who don’t disclose up front, Facebook is also building machine learning tools to help find non-compliant advertisers and make them verify their identity. “We remain deeply committed to helping protect the integrity of the electoral process on Facebook” wrote Goldman. “And we will continue to work with our industry partners, lawmakers and our entire community to better ensure transparency and accountability in our advertising products.”

Facebook isn’t the only social network looking to make its platform less susceptible to social engineering. Twitter announced this week that it will also identify political ads and disclose who paid for them, as well.

Source: Facebook

First iPhone X Orders Now ‘Preparing for Shipment’ in Europe With November 3 Launch Day Delivery

The first iPhone X pre-order customers have begun noting in the MacRumors forums that their orders recently moved to the “preparing for shipment/dispatch” stage. These users are located in Europe, and will be among the first to get the iPhone X in their hands, with deliveries promised to arrive on launch day next Friday, November 3. As of writing, no movement on order statuses has been made for customers in the United States.

Image via @ryancarter_94
iPhone X pre-orders began at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time on October 27, and shipping estimates began slipping into 2-3 week delivery windows in a matter of minutes. Now, new orders for most models of the iPhone X sit at a 5-6 week delivery estimate. Apple has described demand for the iPhone X as “off the charts.”

Orders that are now updated to “preparing for shipment” status should begin shipping out to customers over the next few days. Once November 3 grows closer, the first orders will arrive to customers in New Zealand and Australia, and soon after that unboxing and hands-on videos of the iPhone X will likely be shared online.

Even though some orders are already preparing to ship, Apple coordinates with its shipping partners to hold deliveries until the official launch day, although on occasion a few can slip through early. The “preparing for shipment” stage also means that orders can no longer be changed or canceled. You can visit our iPhone forums now to discuss your order status with other MacRumors readers.

If you received a shipping estimate beyond the November 3 launch date, there’s a chance you could pick up an iPhone X in retail stores when the smartphone launches next Friday in more than 55 countries and territories worldwide. Of course, you’ll have to arrive early to get a place in line, and supply is predicted to be constrained in many stores. If you plan on visiting an Apple retail location, most stores will open at 8:00 a.m. local time on November 3.

Related Roundup: iPhone XBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
Discuss this article in our forums

Tech companies face scrutiny from Congress over data sharing

Facebook, Twitter, Google and other tech companies are about to face some close scrutiny from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has oversight over the tech and telecom industries. According to Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), it’s all in the name of consumer protection. Hearings are currently scheduled for November, but Walden sees this as a long-term process.

Specifically, the committee is interested in how exactly these companies’ algorithms work, and how they protect privacy. “We will be taking a more expansive look at the online experience to ensure safety, security, and an unfiltered flow of information,” said Walden in a post on Medium. The end goal is to give consumers more understanding of and power over how companies use their personal information.

There isn’t one single inspiration for this investigation, though Walden does cite the Equifax breach in his post as an example of “the staggering amount of personal information changing hands online.” The committee’s goal is to make sure that algorithms and personal information sharing practices between companies don’t violate people’s safety or their choices as a consumer.

Further down the road, Walden plans on hearings centering on identity verification and steps people can take once they know their personal data has been leaked. We all know that tech companies mine our data; it will be interesting to see what comes out of these hearings, and if a broader framework with consumer protections could be a result.

Via: Recode

Source: Medium