Grab a three pack of Google Home Mini for just £89 from Google’s UK eBay store

Stock up on Google’s smallest Home smart speaker and save a packet with this great bundle.

The Google Home Mini was one of the hot products in the UK’s version of Black Friday this last couple of weeks, with a reduction to £34 putting it in many more homes. But, the deals don’t stop, and Google is offering a great bundle through its official eBay store.

Right now you can get a three pack of Google Home Mini in the chalk finish for just £89. Now the regular price has gone back up to £49, you’re making a saving of £58 over buying these separately. That’s more than a Google Home Mini!

Even if you’re just looking for some great gifts to give for the holidays, this bundle is an absolute steal. Hit the link below and grab it while you can.

See at eBay

T-Mobile releases list of 920+ markets that support LTE Advanced

T-Mobile’s making it easy to see if you live in an area that supports its LTE Advanced network.

On November 9, T-Mobile announced that the continuous expansion of its LTE Advanced network had resulted in it supporting more than 920 different markets all across the United States.

LTE Advanced allows for faster and more powerful data connections compared to what’s possible with regular LTE, and the Un-Carrier has now released a full list of every single market where this service is accessible.

The list was shared by T-Mobile’s CTO Neville Ray on Twitter, and along with showing all the markets that support LTE Advanced, you can also tell which ones support this and T-Mobile’s carrier aggregation, 4×4 MIMO, and 256 QAM tech.

Along with this list, you can still use T-Mobile’s BYOD Check App to confirm whether or not your area also supports T-Mobile’s Extended Range and VoLTE services.

T-Mobile’s LTE Advanced network now live in over 920 markets

Google Pixel 2 review, a month later: Still solid, still the best

It’s worth taking another look.

We published our original Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL review over a month ago, back on October 17. Since that review went up, the Pixel 2 has been my “main” phone. Sure I’ve switched away to different devices as needed, but I’ve always fallen back to it. That means I’ve spent well over a month with the Pixel 2 in my hand and my pocket, getting valuable experience using it that just can’t possibly make it into a first review.

With that new knowledge, it really warrants another take on the Pixel 2. A look at what’s held up, areas that still detract from the experience and whether I think it’s still worthy of the strong endorsement handed out back in mid-October.

Still great

Google Pixel 2 What I still love

Unsurprisingly, I’m still loving pretty much everything about the Pixel 2. The phone’s relatively compact size is still refreshing, giving me the freedom to easily use it in one hand no matter the situation and being able to toss a case on it without sacrificing usability. Sure the screen size feels a tad restricting when I need to use multi-window mode or have time to kill and pull up YouTube, but considering those situations are a minority of my phone use I far prefer the ability to manage it in one hand the rest of the time.

The dual speakers are great to have, offering more volume than I really need and not blowing out even when you crank it up. I regularly listen to podcasts and music in the morning, simply carrying my phone around the house for a bit rather than bothering with a separate speaker, and the Pixel 2 gets the job done. It’s also plenty loud for turn-by-turn navigation when I’m using Android Auto in a car mount. Even the most devout “no bezel” faithful can recognize that having solid, loud speakers is at least partially worth that extra bezel space.

The true bread and butter of the Pixel experience is the software, and it continues to be great. Both on Android 8.0 from launch and on the Android 8.1 Developer Preview the past two weeks, my Pixel 2 has been solid. No crashes, hang-ups, stutters, slow-downs or instability. Google’s launcher is silky smooth and so I’ve stuck with it, even though I have been using the Google Now Feed less and less as it becomes more of a news reader than an assistive information feed.

Google continues to have amazing software, and it keeps getting better over time.

But really, it’s all of the little touches of the Pixel’s software — beyond what we’d normally call “stock” or “clean” Android — that make it a treat. The ambient display is good, the “Now Playing” feature is fun to have and getting the earliest access to all of Google’s latest features with Android 8.0 and its top-tier apps is an added value. And for someone who utilizes so many Google services on any phone I use, not having duplicate manufacturer apps getting in my way is a plus.

Battery life has continued to surprise me as well, going through a full day with some to spare even on tougher weekdays with lots of use. I’m not entirely sure how Google’s getting so much out of such a small battery, but my experiences are backed up by tons of other Pixel 2 owners.

The camera, of course, continues to be fantastic. It’s near-impossible to take a bad photo with this phone, and every single time you press the shutter button you expect great results. Leaving HDR+ in “Auto” mode and just letting the software do its thing yields wonderful results — slightly punchy colors, super sharp edges and great dynamic range. And this is before Google starts offloading its processing to the Pixel Visual Core co-processor.

Using a couple other phones recently I still wish the Pixel 2 had some sort of a “Pro” mode with more adjustability, and some more built-in features like a time lapse mode. But with shot-to-shot results this good, it’s hard to argue with Google’s simple approach. And don’t forget the added Pixel benefit of free full-resolution image uploads to Google Photos for a couple years.

A couple bugbears

Google Pixel 2 What I don’t like

A couple of the Pixel 2’s flaws were easy to see right from the start, and haven’t gotten any easier to deal with over time.

I still hate that I don’t have a headphone jack on this phone. I understand why Google removed it, and I use Bluetooth headphones and speakers now more than ever, but I still hate it regardless. (Yes, I just used “hate” twice — I mean it.) The Pixel 2 comes with a headphone adapter, thankfully, but I have more than one place I want to plug a standard 3.5 mm cable into my phone — this leads me to carry the dongle around the house and to and from my car, inevitably leaving it somewhere inconvenient. Thankfully replacement adapters cost just $9 from the Google Store, but that’s $9 more than I should have to spend on this kind of thing.

I also switch between phones often and it’s still hit-or-miss whether the various USB-C adapters from each will work on the other devices. Yay, more adapter headaches! Switching to USB-C headphones, in theory, would be fine, but there are hardly any to choose from ($149?!) and they don’t work with my laptop or desktop computers.

I see a world in the not-so-near future where Bluetooth and USB-C have removed the need for 3.5 mm cables and ports for all but very specialized use cases. But that’s the future, not the present, and this is still a notable downside on the Pixel 2 when other really good phones offer a headphone jack.

For as good as the Pixel 2’s hardware is, it doesn’t exactly turn heads or steal quick glances.

I also totally understand much of the criticism lobbed at the Pixel 2’s simplistic design. I still enjoy the quality of the materials and construction, but I sure do wish Google took a few more risks with this hardware. As I said above I don’t really mind the size of the bezels above and below the screen, but the overall look of the phone that just feels set in the past — even when compared to the curves of the Pixel 2 XL. The closest thing you get to visual flair on the Pixel 2 is in “Kinda Blue” with its contrast-colored power button — that isn’t saying much. Aside from that, the rest of it is just very generic.

Some (myself included) appreciate the clean, simple and understated lines of the Pixel 2. But I see the desire from others to have their phone actually turn heads and get noticed. The Pixel 2 isn’t stealing any quick glances the way a Galaxy S8, LG V30 or HTC U11 is.

Great phone

Google Pixel 2 One month on

Over a month after first giving a strong recommendation to the Pixel 2, I can easily still stand by it. In my eyes, it still offers the absolute best overall Android experience, carefully weighing usability and features both in the hardware and software.

It’s the best Google has made and a fantastic phone I think anyone would be happy using.

The screen size is relatively small compared to the rest of the flagship industry, but it offers great one-handed usability with plenty of room to get typical tasks done. The software doesn’t have every feature, but it has amazing speed and consistency along with seamless integration of Google’s latest features and apps. And then there’s the camera. What an amazing selling point. Anyone can pick up a Pixel 2 and take wonderful photos in a wide variety of situations with no photography skills at all.

We can all quibble about the value proposition of the larger Pixel 2 XL at $849, with a larger screen and battery not quite justifying the $200 price bump. But when you look at what the Pixel 2 offers for just $649 it’s no surprise that I and the rest of the Android Central team rate it so highly. And an extra month of use has only solidified my feelings on this great phone. Even taking its imperfections into account, it’s the best phone Google has made and one I think anyone would be happy using.

Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL

• Pixel 2 FAQ: Everything you need to know!
• Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL review: The new standard
• Google Pixel 2 specs
• Google Pixel 2 vs. Pixel 2 XL: What’s the difference?
• Join our Pixel 2 forums

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The Oontz Angle 3 Ultra Bluetooth speaker is down to a low price at $35

Pretty sure “oontz” is an onomatopoeia of bass sounds.

The Oontz Angle 3 Ultra portable Bluetooth speaker is down to $34.99 on Amazon. It normally sells around $50. We didn’t see any spectacular drops on this speaker over the Black Friday weekend. This is the lowest price drop ever and the only deal we’ve seen in a while.

The features include:

• Crystal clear sound and bass. Surprisingly loud with 14 Watts driving Dual Precision Stereo Woofers — Perfect home speaker and travel speaker
• Our advanced antenna design provides an amazing wireless bluetooth range of up to 100 unobstructed feet
• OontZ Wireless Dual Pairing – quickly and easily set up two speakers to play together – one as left channel, one as right channel for incredible stereo sound separation up to 100 feet apart
• IPX6 showerproof/splashproof/rainproof
• For watching videos and playing the audio through the OontZ Angle 3 Ultra you can change the firmware to optimize for video, which reduces latency and improves the lip sync between the video and audio
• Up to 20 hours of battery life and built-in mic for hands-free conversations

The Angle 3 Ultra has 4.5 stars based on 104 user reviews.

The Oontz has an odd shape, so you need an odd-shaped carrying case if you want to keep it nice on the go. Good thing Cambridge sells one for just $10.

See on Amazon

Twitter Lite launches in 24 more countries on Google Play Store

Tweets for everyone!

Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen a big expansion of “lite” applications that take up less space, require less data, and offer the same core features as their regular counterparts. Facebook, Messenger, and Skype are some of the biggest apps that have followed this trend, and Twitter is now expanding its own lite application to even more areas.

Twitter Lite was first launched in April 2017 as a mobile site, and in September, expanded to its own Android app that was released on the Play Store for users in the Philippines. With this latest expansion, Twitter Lite is launching in 24 additional countries so more people can take advantage of what it has to offer.

You’ll find the same core Twitter experience with its lite version, including support for features such as GIF search, ranked timeline, direct messages, and more.

Twitter Lite weighs in at less than 3MB, loads content much faster on 2G and 3G networks, and even allows users to download certain images and videos as part of a data saver mode.

The full list of supported markets for Twitter Lite is as follows:

• Algeria
• Bangladesh
• Bolivia
• Brazil
• Chile
• Columbia
• Costa Rica
• Ecuador
• Egypt
• El Salvador
• Israel
• Kazakhstan
• Mexico
• Malaysia
• Nigeria
• Nepal
• Panama
• Peru
• Serbia
• South Africa
• Tanzania
• Thailand
• Tunisia
• Venezuela

Skype Lite for Android is a throwback to a simpler (better?) Skype

Let Google Assistant change your life with a Google Home two-pack for $130

Two for the price of one.

Is this deal for me?

Best Buy is offering a two-pack of Google Home voice-activated speakers for just $129.98 today only. This deal is the first of Best Buy’s 20 Days of Doorbusters. Google Home usually sells for $129 so this is like getting another for a dollar, however the product is currently discounted to $79.99 if you just want one.

Google Home includes the Google Assistant which will answer your questions, set alarms or appointments and more. You can ask what the weather will be like, what’s on the news or who won last night’s game and quickly find out. You can also set it up with Spotify to play music, or pair it with Chromecast to start a show or movie using your voice. It can even recognize your voice as opposed to others’ voices in your house for a personalized experience.

TL;DR

• What makes this deal worth considering? – This brings the price of the Google Home down to $65 apiece, which is a $14 savings off its current sale price of $79. Normally this product sells for $129, so this deal is like getting one for a dollar on any regular day.
• Things to know before you buy! – This deal is part of Best Buy’s 20 Days of Doorbusters, meaning it’s valid today only.

See at Best Buy

Google Home Mini crashing when music is played at high volume

Google is aware of the issue at hand and actively looking for a fix.

Google’s small and cheap Home Mini is bound to be on a lot of people’s wish lists this holiday season, but a new issue that’s popped up for the speaker has been preventing some folks from listening to music on it at high volumes.

Complaints about this have popped up on the Google Home Help Forum and on Reddit, and while it’s unclear exactly what songs or volume levels replicate the issue, one Redditor claims that playing either Royals by Lorde or Icon by Jayden Smith at 100% volume is a good way to test if your speaker is affected.

I decided to give this a try for myself, and sure enough, my Home Mini shut off and rebooted just before Lorde could finish saying she’d never seen a diamond in the flesh.

This is unsurprisingly frustrating, but a Googler has since responded and said that the Home team is aware of the issue at hand and investigating to find a fix.

If you run into the issue yourself, Paula from Google recommends recreating the issue, immediately submitting feedback through the Google Home app, and using the keyword “GHT3 – Google Home Mini reboot at high volume” along with a description and checked boxes so a screenshot and logs are included with the submission.

If you’ve experienced this bug on your Home Mini, drop us a comment down below.

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• Google Home review
• These services work with Google Home
• Google Home vs. Amazon Echo
• Join our Google Home forums!

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Google’s ‘Santa Tracker’ begins its journey to Christmas (and presents)!

December is here, and that means Google’s Santa Tracker is ready to show you the path to Christmas Eve.

Thanksgiving is over, and for many families that means it is time to start decorating for Christmas. While you’re busy setting up a tree and figuring out which bulb in your impossibly long strand of lights is in need of replacing, it may have slipped your mind that Google’s Santa Tracker app and website started unlocking fun things for you to do with your family.

Not to worry, we’re here with a friendly reminder.

For the uninitiated, Google’s Santa Tracker is an absurdly large digital undertaking that seems to grow in functionality every year. While there are several Santa Tracker apps and websites out there, Google’s offering combines a web app and an Android app to offer a 25-day experience that is all about Santa and Christmas. Each day there’s a new activity to unlock, and this year Google’s teasing a new drawing experience as well as an app for taking “Elfies” and “the largest online multiplayer snowball fight ever”. At the end of the journey, there’s a “live” Santa tracker that shows you where on Earth the big man in red is currently flying around.

If nothing else, this is a fun app to Chromecast to your TV throughout December so your kids can see the countdown to Christmas and a great look at the fun and educational activities Google sprinkles throughout the month. Since Google is always adding new things, we’re sure to see something fun for everyone before the tracker goes live. Enjoy!

Take me to the Tracker!

Google cracks down on apps with shady lock screen ads

Following years of complaints by users, Google is cracking down on Android apps that show shady ads on your lock screen, according to a new developer policy spotted by Android Police. That includes very popular ones like ES File Explorer, which has over 100 million downloads to date. They often force annoying, obtrusive and even spyware ads to pop up for games, iffy anti-virus tools and other dreck.

Google is letting some apps continue to display ads, however. “Unless the exclusive purpose of the app is that of a lock screen, apps may not introduce ads or features that monetize the locked display of a device,” the new developer policy note reads. In other words, if the express purpose of the app is to be a lock screen, it can continue to annoy you with ads.

Last year, users on Reddit went so far as to build a spreadsheet of apps that exhibit the behavior, which includes the Go suite of apps (Weather, Keyboard, etc.), ES File Explorer, HiFont and 360security. On a Reddit post about the new policy (with over 1,400 comments), users noted that even smartphone manufacturers like Samsung have pre-installed apps that exhibited the behavior.

Bad ads have become a scourge across Google products, and the search giant said it removed over two billion of them last year. Apps that are deceptive, disruptive, inappropriate or interfere with apps or device functionality and banned from the store. Google introduce Play Protect early this year in an effort to curb the problem, but a lot of shady stuff still gets through.

Via: Android Police

Source: Google

What you need to know about net neutrality (before it gets taken away)

You’ve probably heard of “net neutrality” by now. It’s been in the news again as the FCC introduced a proposal last week to reverse regulations put in place in 2015. Yes, we just went over this two years ago, but in two weeks, those regulations could be undone. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai wants to roll back the FCC’s current regulations that classify broadband internet as a utility-like tool for communication (like the telephone), categorizing it instead as an information service. This change would lift bans on throttling, blocking and paid prioritization, as well as reduce the amount of data companies would have to report.

Right now, the FCC’s proposal has been posted for public perusal and comment, and come Dec. 14th, the commission will vote on whether to adopt the new guidelines. If you want to have a say and leave your thoughts on the comment portal, you need to know what’s being debated, what the key terms mean and what’s at stake.

The heart of the debate (this time around) is whether to classify your broadband internet as a Title I Information Service or a Title II Common Carrier. Sound like incomprehensible jargon? Don’t worry, it gets even more confusing when you start digging into the hundreds of pages of legalese in all the regulations that have accumulated over the years. But let’s start with the most fundamental concepts.

What are Title I and Title II?

Title I and Title II are sections of the Communications Act of 1934, which allows the FCC to regulate wire and radio communication services. There are seven titles in the act, and Title II, called Common Carrier, spells out the legal guidelines for service providers operating under that classification. To be clear, there are titles in other acts as well, but it’s the 1934 act to which the FCC proposal is referring.

Title II service providers are more rigorously regulated and held to standards similar to your telephone, gas and electric providers. In 2015, the FCC passed the Open Internet Order (also known as the Title II Order), which classified ISPs as common carriers and expressly banned activities like throttling, blocking and paid prioritization.

A screenshot of the 2015 Open Internet order that spells out the ban on throttling, blocking and paid prioritization.

Title I, on the other hand, allows for what Pai calls “light-touch regulation,” which not only lifts that ban but also requires less reporting from companies operating in the sector. Technically, this categorization means service providers wouldn’t have to disclose how they were managing their networks, but the FCC’s proposal adds a transparency requirement that says they have to.

The transparency requirement, which is modified from the Open Internet Order of 2010, makes it mandatory for ISPs to disclose blocking, throttling, affiliated prioritization, paid prioritization, congestion management, application-specific behavior, device-attachment rules and security. Simply put, if ISPs are slowing down or speeding up specific data, they have to explain why.

In abandoning Title II obligations, though, the FCC would no longer require ISPs to report such details as “packet loss, geographically-specific disclosures and performance at peak usage times, among other things.” That refers to information like upload and download rates when the network is congested and the percentage of data dropped when there’s a bottleneck in the stream. The FCC said “these additional reporting obligations unduly burden ISPs without providing a comparable benefit to consumers,” and are “unnecessary and burdensome.”

There are built-in transparency requirements about problematic practices. But they don’t prevent ISPs from prioritizing content they like and throttling data they don’t, nor does it penalize them for doing so. ISPs just have to declare what they’re doing and explain why. This means they are free to carry out these activities, which were banned under the Title II order, so long as they disclose it. It would be like letting your partner get away with cheating as long as they explain why they did it.

Reverting to Title I classification places faith in ISPs to responsibly report what they’re doing, and who knows? Maybe they would comply. Just know that there’s already a long list of net-neutrality violators in the world, and most of these offenders are still in operation.

What’s so wrong about throttling, blocking or paid prioritization?

You’re really asking, what is net neutrality (again) and why is it important? Quick refresher: Net neutrality is the idea that, as its name implies, the internet and the companies that provide it should be neutral. Its speed or reliability should not be affected because of what you’re downloading or whether your service provider likes it.

This means that the data you consume over the internet should be treated equally — whether you are visiting Wikipedia, checking your email, watching porn or downloading manifestos. Your internet service provider (ISP) should not be allowed to slow down (throttle) your Netflix streaming or speed up data transmission from its own video-streaming service.

The crux of the issue here is fairness. It’d be like if your classmate was the principal’s child and he kept getting easier homework and tests because of his parent’s influence, and therefore, better grades. In this analogy, the principal would be an ISP like Comcast or Verizon, your classmate would be a subsidiary like NBCUniversal or Go90 (or even Engadget), and you would be an independent or third-party competitor like Netflix or ABC. Consumers would favor sites that loaded faster or offered a better experience, pulling traffic away from competing services and potentially putting them out of business. It could stifle competition, which would give consumers less choice over the services they can use.

Lack of competition is already a major issue when it comes to broadband services. In many parts of the country, people have only one or two options, and if you’re really lucky, there might be three. When you can’t pick an alternative, you’re forced to submit to a company’s pricing and features if you want service at all. Competition can also lead to better value, speed and ISP services for customers.

For example, if a cable company decided to do away with set-top-box rental fees to attract new customers, it could steal business from existing providers, which would have to come up with ways to retain their clients. This could lead to the entire industry doing away with set-top-box fees altogether.

Things get even trickier when you consider that ISPs are competing with each other and third parties not just on broadband, but streaming services as well. ISPs like Comcast and Verizon go up against Netflix and Hulu with their own apps (like Verizon’s Go90) that are frequently inferior. If they had the power to prioritize their own products and slow down the likes of Netflix and Hulu or charge more in addition to those companies’ own subscription fees in exchange for faster streams, it could force consumers to use inferior products.

Losing net neutrality could diminish competition (what little there is left of it), and give immense power to the few players in the industry, which is bad news for consumers all around.

Images: Aaron Bernstein / Reuters (Hon. Ajit Pai)