Your home will love this $140 Philips Hue 4-bulb Color Starter Kit

Smart lights are the best lights!

If you would have told me a few years ago that I would have lights all over my new house that I can control with my voice, I would have told you that you were crazy and walked away. Now, that’s the life I live, and I kinda love it.

Amazon is making that life possible for you too by offering the Philips Hue 4-bulb Starter Kit for $139.99, a savings of $60 from its regular price. This is also $20 lower than our previous mention.

• Automate your lighting experience with Philips Hue and control your lights from home or away. Create light schedules from the Philips Hue App and never come home to a dark house.
• Connect to the Hue Bridge, and add up to 50 lights. Expand your system with up to 12 Hue accessories (sold separately), such as a Hue Dimmer Switch, Hue Tap, or Hue Motion Sensor.
• Install the LED lights as you would install ordinary bulbs and pair them with the Hue Bridge, which allows you to control smart-bulb-equipped lamps and overhead lights via the Philips Hue App.
• Control your lights with your voice using Alexa, Apple HomeKit, or Google Assistant. Pair it for home automation with your existing Nest or Samsung SmartThings system.

This kit comes with a Hue Bridge, power adapter, ethernet cable, and four White and Color Ambiance lights. Philips offers a two-year warranty. You’ll probably also want to grab a couple extra bulbs to use around the house.

See at Amazon

Do you carry one or two phones?

Our forum users talk about whether or not they own two (or more) phones.

In 2017 alone, we’ve seen devices like the Galaxy S8, LG V30, Essential Phone, Google Pixel 2, Huawei Mate 10 Pro, Note 8, and a lot of other really incredible phones. Having so many options to choose from is truly something, but for some folks that can’t decide between just one, they choose to carry two daily drivers.

Owning two (or more) phones is an awesome way to test out more of what the market has to offer, but it can also be rather costly.

Here’s what some of our forum users had to say about the two-phone life.

amyf27
12-07-2017 12:56 PM

“

Currently I only have one phone, the Note 8. I did try out an iPhone 7 plus briefly before I got my note as a backup phone and did not care for it. Slightly interested in the lgv30 as a second device but I love this darn note

Reply

mysamsungs7e
12-07-2017 01:17 PM

“

I have the Note 8 and iPhone X both amazing.

Reply

jamezr
12-07-2017 09:44 PM

“

Right now I have he Note 8 and Pixel 2 XL on the Android side and iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X on the IOS side if the fence.

Reply

rsgoldens
12-07-2017 08:32 PM

“

I have a Note 8, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8+

I have a problem, what can I say…

Reply

What about you – Do you carry one or two phones?

Join the conversation in the forums!

An easy fix for Google Pixel 2 fingerprint scanner issues

When a convenience turns into a concern, we get mad.

The Google Pixel 2’s fingerprint sensor is in a perfect place to effortlessly use. But what happens when you put your finger there and it just … doesn’t work? After a few attempts of the sensor not recognizing your fingerprint, the software actually fails out and requires you to enter your passcode to get past the lock screen or password to enter a secure app. That’s not fun — particularly when it happens regularly.

It’s easy to think that the fingerprint sensor itself just isn’t good or there’s a problem with the software. It’s actually likely something much simpler: the sensor is just dirty.

I was having a seriously frustrating time using my Pixel 2 XL. Unlike my smaller Pixel 2, the fingerprint sensor just stopped working regularly. I was consistently tripping the “too many attempts” counter trying to get the fingerprint sensor to work, and even removing and re-adding my fingerprints wasn’t fixing it. I thought the sensor was failing … until I looked closely at it and saw just how much grime had built up on the sensor over the weeks I’ve had it. Ew. But this is totally normal — we wash our hands often because they get dirty, but how often are we washing our phones?

With just a few swipes of a damp cloth, you’ll see the film of grime start to disappear.

If you’re facing the same issue, it’s time to clean up your fingerprint sensor. But first, you might as well start fresh in the software as well by removing your previously learned fingerprints. Go into Settings, Security & location and Pixel Imprint and then confirm your screen lock. Tap the little trash can icon next to all enrolled fingerprints to delete them — now it’s time to clean the sensor.

Cleaning your fingerprint sensor is simple. You don’t need a fancy cloth or special cleaning solutions. For most situations of regular “yeah you get some stuff stuck on there” you can just use a damp non-abrasive cloth or even a paper towel. Remove your case, if you have one, and get the towel damp (not dripping wet). Give the sensor a good little scrub — there’s a good chance you’ll start to see the film of grime come off right away. Without placing much pressure on it, continue to rub in a circular motion for about 15 seconds to make sure it’s all cleaned up.

Set the phone aside and let the sensor dry out. Provided you didn’t soak your cloth to start, it shouldn’t take long. Once it’s dry, open up those Security & location settings again and enroll your fingerprints. It’s very likely that this simple process of cleaning the sensor has just fixed your recognition woes. It completely alleviated my fingerprint sensor problems, and I think it will for you too.

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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Google reported to launch its third music streaming service in 2018

In March 2018, Google might launch its third attempt at a music streaming service with YouTube Remix.

Music streaming services have become a dime a dozen, and because of this, it can be hard to successfully break into the market when the likes of Spotify, Pandora, and even Apple Music are dominating the industry. Google’s already made a couple attempts with its own music streaming solutions, but according to a report from Bloomberg, we’ll see the company’s third one launch next March.

The new streaming service is currently dubbed as “Remix”, and Google has reportedly already made deals with Warner Music Group and is currently in talks with Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Merlin to flesh out the service as much as possible.

Third time’s the charm?

Remix is expected to offer on-demand listening for whatever songs you’d like, as well as an integration of related video clips – not surprising considering that Remix will be launching as a YouTube-branded service.

Google first dipped its toes in the music streaming market back in 2011 with the release of Google Play Music, and in 2014 followed this up with YouTube Music Key. Music Key transitioned into YouTube Red a couple years later in 2016, and it includes premium YouTube content in addition to Google Play Music All Access. Because of this, it’ll be interesting to see if YouTube Remix replaces Google Play Music or if Google will try to have both coexist next to each other.

YouTube is said to have been trying to make a deal with Sony and Universal for over a year at this point for Remix, so whether or not we actually get a launch in March remains to be seen.

Google Play Music and YouTube Red are the best deal in streaming right now

Microsoft’s SwiftKey keyboard for Android isn’t what it used to be

SwiftKey on Android is not a good Android keyboard. In fact, it might be the worst one out there.

I was a Windows phone user for years before I finally made the switch to an Android smartphone. I had used everything from the HTC 7 Mozart all the way up to the HP Elite x3 as my daily driver. Back in 2010, when I made the switch from my iPhone 3GS to my HTC 7 Mozart, the keyboard was an obvious standout feature. It was so good.

Windows Phone 8.1 only improved the keyboard with the introduction of shape writing and better autocorrect, and although the Windows 10 Mobile keyboard was a little sub-par when it first launched, it didn’t take long for that old behavior to return, maintaining Windows Phone’s number one spot for best mobile OS keyboard.

But in 2017, that doesn’t matter. But Microsoft made great keyboards, so I would at least expect it to have nailed the fundamentals on Android. It already has a great app launcher, superb Edge browser, Cortana, Outlook, and many more fantastic Android apps to help tie over any Windows phone converts. SwiftKey? Not so much …

The SwiftKey experience

Look at how bad SwiftKey is at showing key popups when typing at a relatively fast speed on Android compared to the Google keyboard. pic.twitter.com/iwAEYNyWMx

— Zac Bowden (@zacbowden) 5 December 2017

SwiftKey is Microsoft’s official Android keyboard. There are just so many things I don’t like about SwiftKey on Android, including its slow, laggy performance that often drops below 30 frames per second (FPS) when scrolling through the keyboards settings. Keep in mind, all my experiences I write about here are on a OnePlus 5T and Samsung Galaxy S8, two of the most powerful Android flagships from 2017. Of course, my issues and opinions on this keyboard may differ from yours. These are my personal experiences.

Let’s start with the typing experience, which sucks. Using the shape-writing function feels slow; the shape writing line animation is often laggy, and the keyboard is terrible at keeping up pace with key-popups. Key-popups are another thing that is disabled by default. Every other keyboard I’ve tried on Android can display key-popups at pace, no matter how fast I type. I find key-popups to be an integral part of all virtual keyboards, as it gives you visual feedback that you’ve hit the button you were aiming for. If the popups aren’t able to keep up, it throws me off my typing pattern, and makes for a terrible user experience.

The actual appearance of the SwiftKey keyboard looks like something out of 2008. Sure, SwiftKey supports themes, and “some” of the themes available look OK. But the default themes are anything but. A lot of them look dated, from back when it was trendy for Android keyboard to look like crap. The keyboard supports custom themes, but I wouldn’t call that anything special considering the “custom” element is just changing the keyboard’s background. There’s no color configuration options, just the background. Other keyboards have way better custom theming support.

There are much better Android keyboards available

I’ve also noticed that the “stats” feature in the SwiftKey app never works. No matter what device I try it on. This is apparent on stable and beta releases of SwiftKey.

I’ve tried plenty of Android keyboards since I made the switch from Windows Phone, looking for one that can at least pretend to compete with the mighty Windows Phone keyboard. I’ve tried everything from Google’s keyboard to Flesky, and I finally found my Windows Phone keyboard replacement. I present to you … the BlackBerry keyboard.

This isn’t a keyboard you’re supposed to be able to install on non-BlackBerry devices, but you can bypass that block if you want to with an app called BlackBerry Manager. The BlackBerry keyboard is hands-down, the best virtual keyboard I’ve ever used on any platform. It’s simple, fast, with great auto-correct and shape writing, and it even has CTRL shortcuts for copy and paste.

The BlackBerry keyboard gets the fundamentals right, and that’s incredibly important. I never tap into a text field and have to wait for half a second for the keyboard to pop up as I did with SwiftKey. I’m able to use keyboard shortcuts I’m familiar with on my PC on my phone thanks to the addition of CRTL shortcut support on the BlackBerry keyboard. How is this not a part of Microsoft’s keyboard offering on Android? And I realize the prediction engine between these keyboards is similar, it’s not prediction I have an issue with. It’s everything else about SwiftKey that I dislike.

Microsoft, it’s time to turn SwiftKey into a flagship keyboard experience on Android. You have the resources to make a keyboard better than BlackBerry’s. Take the excellent Windows Phone keyboard experience, add things such as CTRL shortcut support, more configurable options, merge it with SwiftKey, give SwiftKey a new, modern look, and maybe even give SwiftKey a rebrand. It’s time to start taking your Android keyboard seriously because right now it’s a joke.

I’m not bashing SwiftKey for the hell of it. I’m a huge fan of Microsoft’s current Android efforts, and I really want the Microsoft Android experience to be good. I want SwiftKey to be good. In fact, I want SwiftKey to be the best keyboard on Android, it just needs work before it can attain that status. And sure, maybe SwiftKey is good enough for you, and if so then that’s great, but there definitely are better keyboards on Android, and there shouldn’t be. SwiftKey should be the best keyboard out there.

Now don’t get me wrong, SwiftKey was once the best you could find on Android, but it isn’t anymore. I agree, it was once ahead of its time, but so many other keyboards have surpassed it in quality and performance since then. SwiftKey is falling behind, and Microsoft has a lot of catching up to do because of it. Those who use SwiftKey and claim it to be the best on Android likely haven’t tried the Google or BlackBerry keyboards. They are really, very good. SwiftKey could learn a thing or two from them.

See at Google Play Store

Amazon Music Unlimited and Echo devices coming to 28 additional countries

Here’s which countries get to share in on the Amazon fun.

On December 8, 2017, Amazon announced that it’s officially expanding both its Music Unlimited streaming service and Echo smart speakers to 28 new countries.

Amazon Music Unlimited costs $7.99/month in the United States for Prime members ($9.99 for non-Prime customers), and for that price you get access to a library of 40 million songs, offline listening, and support for a variety of different devices, including Android, iOS, PC, Mac, Amazon Fire TV, and (of course) Echo speakers.

Echo speakers in these new markets currently only support controls in English, but we could see more languages added later on down the road.

As for the countries that are part of this expansion, they include:

• Belgium
• Bolivia
• Bulgaria
• Chile
• Columbia
• Costa Rica
• Cyprus
• Czech Republic
• Ecuador
• El Salvador
• Estonia
• Finland
• Greece
• Hungary
• Iceland
• Latvia
• Liechtenstein
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Malta
• Netherlands
• Panama
• Peru
• Poland
• Portugal
• Slovakia
• Sweden
• Uruguay

If it seems like Amazon’s been expanding a lot of its products to other countries recently, that’s because it has. This latest news comes just a day after the Fire 7 and Fire HD 8 tablets launched in Canada, and back in November, Canadians were also finally treated with the release of Echo speakers.

See at Amazon

Amazon Echo

• Tap, Echo or Dot: The ultimate Alexa question
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This $13 Anker portable charger would fit neatly inside a holiday stocking

It’s a portable charger that fits in your hand.

This Anker black Astro E1 ultra compact portable charger is down to $13.19 on Amazon. It normally sells around $17 and the other colors are selling for $20 right now.

This charger is the size of a candy bar but has 6700mAh, which means it’s got enough power to fully charge a Galaxy S8.

Features include:

• Exclusive PowerIQ Technology: Detects your device to deliver its fastest possible charge speed up to 2 amps. Does not support Qualcomm Quick Charge.
• Add over two full charges to an iPhone 7 or 6s or at least one full charge to a 7 Plus, Galaxy S8, Nexus 5 or other smartphone
• Fits perfectly in your pocket. Recharges in 5.5 hours with a 1A adapter (not included) and the included Micro USB cable.

It has an 18-month warranty from Anker. Users give it 4.5 stars based on 539 reviews.

You can use the included micro USB cable or upgrade to a 3-foot cable from Anker for $5.

See on Amazon

Android’s ‘Check for update’ button is broken, fix coming in 2018

The culprit? Google Play Services.

Back in September, Googler Elliot Hughes announced on Google+ that Android’s “Check for update” button was being reworked so that it actually checked and pulled any new updates for your device rather than just doing a check to see if an update was planned for your area that day. In other words, you’d theoretically be able to get your hands on OTA updates much faster than before.

This came as exciting news for a lot of the Android community, but with the recent release of 8.1 Oreo, people have been noticing that the button still doesn’t do diddly squat. Spotted by Android Police, Hughes recently took to Google+ once more, but this time to announce that the latest update for Google Play Services has stopped the feature from working as intended.

Per Hughes post:

[UPDATE: a Google Play Services update after I posted this broke the feature again. (An API incompatibility between the System Update code and the Checkin code, if you’re interested in the details: bugs involving two separate moving parts are often the sneakiest.) This was fixed again internally, but late enough that it will be next year before this works again for non-Googlers.

It’s unclear when in 2018 this solution will be made available to the public, but we’re crossing our fingers that it’ll be sooner rather than later.

Have you gotten your hands on 8.1 Oreo yet?

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

Jerry’s Favorite Things of 2017

Jerry’s Favorite Things of 2017

2017 is just about finished, and that means it’s time to do the last-minute holiday shopping that you promised yourself you wouldn’t wait for the last minute to do again. While we can’t brave the cold and wait in lines with you, we can help sort through the endless amount of cool stuff you’ll find online for any special people in your life. Here are a handful of things I loved from 2017 to help.

BlackBerry KEYone

Call it BlackBerry’s comeback or a return to basics or any of the other buzzwords used to describe the KEYone from BlackBerry, but it still will be the best phone you can buy with a keyboard. And it’s a great keyboard, featuring BlackBerry’s familiar caps and function key mapping as well as a touch sensor that supports gestures.

Besides the keyboard, it’s an all-around great phone, too. It might not be as sexy as a Pixel or Galaxy phone, but it’s dependable, secure, and will last all day on a single charge. Oh — it has access to all the apps in Google’s Play Store, too.

If you are looking for a new phone for someone special (including your special self!) it’s totally worth looking at the KEYone. Especially if there is any work to be done on the phone in between all the Facebooking and playing games.

From $422 Buy Now

Google Pixelbook

The Pixelbook isn’t just another Chromebook. And with a $1,000 price, it shouldn’t be. It’s Google’s vision of where mobile is heading when you’re using a big screen and imagine it as a cross between a laptop and a tablet. And it’s great in both roles, featuring all the security and ease-of-use of a Chromebook with Android app support in a package that’s as easy to use in “tablet” mode as an iPad is.

Complete with outstanding current-generation hardware, it’s also one of the best-built laptops you’re likely to find. Pair it with the Google Pixelbook Pen, and prepare yourself for something you’ve never experienced before.

$From 999 Buy Now

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Make America Nazi-free Again. #NoMoreNazis

$40 Buy Now

Lego Jerry Garcia

I’m usually not the type that helps a company cash in on a dead celebrity, but pairing the one and only Jerry Garcia and Lego calls for some rule-bending here. There’s not much to say except it’s Lego and Jerry Garcia, which makes it the perfect toy for almost anyone. Keep on Truckin’, Jerry.

$15 Buy Now

Fender Mustang GT 40 Modeling Guitar Amp

You don’t have to spend over $1,000 on a modeling amp for your favorite guitarist. The Mustang GT 40 from Fender isn’t going to bring enough oompf to create that wall of noise for a concert, but it’s perfect for practicing or just playing with friends. Over 100 presets and Wi-Fi capability to download more mean that almost any type of sound will come from the speaker, and I was able to replace a rack of pedals while jamming at home with the GT 40. Highly recommend for anyone who wants to try modeling through their amp and doesn’t want to break the bank.

$250 Buy Now

HTC Vive

VR is the future of gaming, and that’s coming from someone who was the biggest skeptic out there until I tried it. And I think the HTC Vive is the best way to get started. It’s comfortable and easy to set up, and has a long list of great games on Steam or through Viveport. It’s also a great way for anyone who happens to have mobility issues to see the world that isn’t exactly accessible to them!

$600 Buy Now

Marvel comics arrive in Hoopla’s public library app

Comic books are a brilliant medium, but keeping up with the latest releases can be expensive. If you live in the US, it’s worth checking out Hoopla; the service is supported by more than 1,500 public libraries, and offers free digital access to DC, Image and IDW titles. And starting today, another major publisher is joining the platform: Marvel. More than 250 collections and graphic novels will be available, including Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet book one — by author, journalist and comic book writer Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates — Civil War and X-Men: The Dark Pheonix Saga.

There’s a handy map here that shows all of the Hoopla-supported libraries in the US. As Variety explains, the libraries set their own lending limits, so you might be able to check out five or 10 at a time through the app. You won’t, of course, get every new Marvel release, but it’s a good place to start if you’re unsure which characters or series to follow. Hoopla says there should be plenty of familiar faces from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including Spider-Man, Daredevil, The Runaways, The Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy. As Luke Cage would say: Sweet Christmas…

Via: Variety

Source: Hoopla (Press Release)