Get free shipping on Amazon stocking stuffers under $10, including smartphone cases, watches, and more

Fill up those stockings.

Amazon has a huge selection of potential stocking stuffers on sale. All of these items are $10 or less and come with free shipping for all.

Here’s a few of the ones we liked:

• Dunder Mifflin T-Shirt from The Office for $8.49
• Classic Ghostbusters T-Shirt for $10
• Sock Shop Men’s Santa’s Elf Socks for $6.25
• Forum Novelties Women’s Adult Christmas Socks for $8.49
• Christmas Tree Coil spring hat for $9.89
• Kids’ casual chic analog watch for $9.99
• Mavis’s Diary iPhone 6/6S Plus Christmas case for $6.99
• ZoeTouch glowing rave LED gloves for $9.99
• Innozon Wine Bottle cork light string for $7.99

Remember the closer it gets to Christmas, the less likely Amazon will be able to guarantee your presents arrive on time. Order soon before you lose your chance.

See on Amazon

Ara’s Favorite Tech of 2017

Ara’s Favorite Tech of 2017

It’s been a year with a lot of fun tech in it, but the amount that’s passed through my hands is relatively small compared to my colleagues. So many new phones and an explosion of smart home devices have meant that there’s never a moment technology is not touching our lives. There are some new toys that have grown near and dear to my heart, and I’m here to share them with you.

Samsung Galaxy S8

I miss carrying this phone every day. I miss its tall home screen while I’m browsing Twitter or typing out articles at the bar. I miss its gentle curves as it sat in my pocket. I miss its remarkable camera and whip-quick responsiveness … the GS8 wormed its way into my heart for the two months the SIM card in it worked, and if I could carrier unlock it, it’s what I’d be rocking each and every day. It made my themes look better and helped me get more done.

$729 Buy now

Samsung LevelOn Pro

I’ve been on the Bluetooth bandwagon for years, but usually settled for cheaper, more compact models that can easily hang around my neck. This year, I was given a nibble of posher, active noise canceling headphones, and I AM NEVER GOING BACK. The Samsung LevelOn Pros fit beautifully, block plenty of noise even without ANC turned on, and the touchpad controls are heaven. Being able to smoothly shift the volume up for a section you need blasting or down during the commercials on a broadcast is addictive and I miss it terribly when I return to my compact headphones, mashing the volume buttons like a Neanderthal.

$167 Buy Now

TicHome Mini

Ever since I laid hands on a Google Home, I’ve had one desire: I want a battery powered model so I can take it from room to room without having to reboot and re-cast whatever I was listening to. Enter the TicHome Mini, which is about the size of a Google Home Mini, with a single down-facing speaker, four easy-to-spot and use buttons for volume, commands, and power/muting. The battery lasts about 6 hours away from a charger, but that’s fine, because it still needs your home’s Wi-Fi so you won’t be going too far with it. It uses the same Micro-USB that most Android peripherals still use, so you won’t be hunting down a proprietary charger like the original Google Home uses. If you’ve got a kid who’ll want to bring Google into a pillow fort for Disney storytelling or bring it to their bedroom for help during homework, then a TicHome Mini should be great, and the IPX6 splash resistance means that it should hopefully stand up to a rough and tumble household.

$99 Buy Now

Movies Anywhere

I’ve been a fan of Disney Movies Anywhere since it came to Android years ago, and this year came the next big jump for the service: getting other studios on board. Enter Movies Anywhere, which drops the Disney name and adds four other major studios. If you still buy movies — and I know that club is shrinking — the first thing you should do if you think you want to buy one is go check the Movies Anywhere app to see if it’s supported. If it is, you can now comparison shop between the four digital stores and any stores selling DVD/Digital combo packs and see who had the best deal. If it’s not supported, buy a different movie.

Buy Now

Disney Emoji Blitz

I don’t have the time or the console/proper PC to invest in more hard-core gaming, but I confess that in the last year and a half, I have developed a slight addiction to a mobile game that should surprise absolutely no one: Disney Emoji Blitz. It’s a match-three game that uses Disney character emoji rather than gems or candy as the pieces. Even better, every emoji you unlock in the game is added to the Emoji Blitz Keyboard you can use to share Disney Emoji with your friends and family online. I’ll be the first to admit the Emoji Blitz keyboard needs some work, especially in regards to the thousands of object emoji that have been unlocked over 18 months of gameplay and item challenges. Speaking of challenges, Disney Emoji Blitz has increased the frequency and variety of the challenges it presents, going from about one a month to about one a week. In a year, there’s only been one bad event, and there have been dozens of new and useful emoji added, including expansions for Little Mermaid and the current Frozen expansion event.

Download

Phonster X

Pockets on women’s jeans are becoming increasingly incompatible with modern smartphones, and while there may be less conspicuous holster options out there, the Phonster X sets a statement while comfortably holding your phone, wallet, keys, and maybe some mints or pepper spray. There are basically two models of shoulder phone holsters on the market: the LD West and the Phonster X. The LD West has the straps snap directly to the elastic holster straps. The Phoster X features four loops on the underside of each pouch, which are looped through the snap-secured non-elastic backstraps. By having non-elastic straps, the Phonster X doesn’t bounce around quite so much while jogging or dancing, and the swiveling loops on the pouches help the holster lie better against your body. They’re not for everyone, but they are for me. Fewer people mess with a girl wearing a holster, even if it’s not packing a gun.

$109 Buy Now

The Pixel’s AR Stickers are the most fun you can have with a camera

Coming soon to a Pixel near you.

Alongside the update to Android 8.1, Google slipped in a feature originally shown off at the Pixel 2 launch event. AR Stickers, the camera mode which allows you to drop augmented reality objects into your photos, has arrived! What originally sounded like a silly gimmick now has me looking for excuses to toss in a couple of fun extras into whatever photo I am about to take. I find myself reaching to use it in situations where I wouldn’t normally take a photo, after only a couple of days having it on my phone.

Here’s a quick look at how it works, and how I’m using it!

Quick to launch, easy to use

AR Stickers aren’t a separate camera app on your Pixel. Instead, it lives right inside the Google Camera app. You access it just like you would Portrait Mode, by tapping the Menu button on the side of the camera and selecting AR Stickers as an option. Once you’re in this camera mode, you’ll see the standard video and photo button options underneath a host of augmented reality characters for you to drop into your shot.

Adding an AR Sticker to your shot is easy. You swipe through the options, drag the option you want into the shot, and once you release your finger that character springs to life. Once a character is placed, you can move it around and adjust the size as you see fit. This allows you to create tiny scenes on a table in front of you or life-sized scenes on the street next to you with ease, but the real magic happens as you move around the scene you’ve created.

Google’s AR Core tech makes it possible to position an AR Sticker and move around it as though it was really there. Get closer, and it feels closer. Walk around it, and you can see every angle. Best of all, as you move around the characters you’ve placed the lighting and shadows around them will change to look and feel more realistic.

For all of this to work, AR Core has a couple of cues for different environments. In ideal lighting situations, you will briefly see an array of white dots on the surfaces AR Core can detect when the camera opens. If the lighting is questionable or the surfaces in the shot aren’t idea, the camera will prompt you to slowly move the camera in a circle in front of you. This gives the camera a little more information to create the depth map needed for AR Stickers to feel real in the shot. You can still place AR Stickers if this depth map hasn’t been created, but there’s a huge difference in realism if you take a moment to set the shot up correctly.

Porgs and sleepy coffee cups and balloons!

Google promised a healthy selection of AR Stickers at launch, and as long as you’re a fan of Stranger Things and Star Wars you’ll agree that promise has been kept. We’ve seen the shot from the Pixel 2 launch where Eleven sends the Demogorgon back to the Upside Down, but that Sticker pack has a lot more to offer with most of the popular characters from the first season. To get in on hype for The Last Jedi, there’s also a Sticker pack with everyone’s favorite droids alongside Porgs and some of the more action-oriented fighting vehicles. Google’s intention here is to keep this section fresh with lots of pop culture Sticker packs, which means it probably won’t be too long before we see Game of Thrones and Avengers joining this set up.

But there’s more than just the latest characters from that new movie. Google’s own creation, dubbed Foodmoji, offer some emotional food and drink to help tell whatever story you’re trying to tell. My personal favorite is the sleepy coffee cup, but most of these characters do a great job putting a smile on your face as you enhance your photo or video. You’ll also find a series of balloons you can use to spell out basically anything. This gives you a little more direct control to say something in a photo, and each balloon set gives you the ability to change the colors and adjust the height as you place the Sticker. Finally, a set of generally silly Stickers, like a roller skate with wings and a pile of cash, exists to give you something for as many occasions as possible.

Go forth and Sticker everything

Overall, AR Stickers are a success. Google delivered a healthy selection, promises to offer more, and the stickers themselves are a lot of fun to use in both photos and video. When compared to standalone augmented reality sticker apps like Bemo on iOS, it’s clear Google’s AR Stickers not only significantly more capable but generally more fun to use.

The only thing I feel this experience is missing right now is the ability to use the front camera for photos and video. A shot of the Demogorgon screeching over my shoulder, or a Porg sitting on my head, would be amazing but technically very difficult. Google’s made no promises to use the front camera in the future, but it’d be nice to have if there’s a way to make it work without sacrificing quality.

Of course, there’s one other general downside to AR Stickers: if you don’t own a Pixel or Pixel 2, you don’t get them. This camera update will be rolling out with Android 8.1, but it’s going to be a Pixel exclusive and there’s currently no plans to change that. The good news, at least for Pixel fans, is this feature is absolutely good enough for Google to keep making it better all the time.

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

Best Buy
Verizon
Google Store
Project Fi

An Honorable Episode [#acpodcast]

This week on the show, Daniel Bader is on assignment in Hawaii. Yes, really. In his absence, Andrew Martonik, Alex Dobie, and Russell Holly pick up the slack and share their favorite tech of 2017. They also talk about the HTC U11+, a trio of new Honor phones, and Android Oreo (Go edition). Android Go is specifically designed for entry-level phones with 1GB or less of RAM, and 8GB of storage.

They also discuss the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, and rumors that the Galaxy S9 might be announced at CES in January 2018.

Show Notes and Links:

• Russell’s favorite tech of 2017

• Andrew’s favorite tech of 2017

• Alex’s favorite tech of 2017

• HTC U11+ review: The best phone you can’t buy

• Honor 7X review: The new budget champion

• New Honor View 10 is an Honor V10 for the rest of the world

• Honor View 10 hands-on preview: Flagship killer killer?

• Android 8.1 Oreo exits beta, now available for Pixel and Nexus devices

• Google launches Android Oreo (Go edition) for entry-level phones

• Google is partnering with Qualcomm and MediaTek for Android Go devices

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 845: Everything you need to know

• Top 5 reasons to be excited for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845

• Samsung Galaxy S9: Rumors, Specs, Release Date, and More!

Sponsors:

• MintSIM: Voice, data, and text for less. Get free first-class shipping with code IMFREESHIP.

• Thrifter.com: All the best deals from Amazon, Best Buy, and more, fussily curated and constantly updated.

• GameStash: Hundreds of awesome games on your Android phone. Try it free for 14 days!

Podcast MP3 URL: http://traffic.libsyn.com/androidcentral/androidcentral364.mp3

Deal: Get an LG V30 at Verizon for $540 ($300 off)

Available until December 13, 2017.

If you still have some holiday shopping to do and need to pick up a new Android phone for that lucky someone on your list, Verizon recently announced a new deal on the V30 that’s pretty dang enticing.

Starting today, December 11 and going until December 13, you can get $300 of an LG V30 at Verizon Wireless for a final price of just $540. That $300 discount is paid out over the course of 24 months as a bill credit, and you’ll need to purchase the V30 on an installment plan in order to take advantage of it.

Assuming you’re already on Verizon and don’t mind paying for the V30 month-to-month, $540 is a fantastic price for this phone. Although it got sidelined by the Note 8 and Pixel 2 XL, the V30 is still a great buy thanks to its gorgeous design, super fast performance, and phenomenal rear cameras.

To purchase the V30 on Verizon with this promotion, click/tap the button below.

See at Verizon

LG V30

• LG V30 review: The no-BS flagship
• Top LG V30 camera features
• Full LG V30 specs
• LG V30 vs. G6 vs. GS8
• The V30 is the first phone to support 600MHz spectrum
• Join our LG V30 forums

Best Streaming Music App for Android

Listen to the music you want to hear wherever you are!

In days past the only way to really access music was by listening to your personal collection, or dealing with whatever the local radio station was playing. Today we’re in much better straits thanks to streaming music giving you access to precisely the tracks you want to hear wherever you happen to be. From personalized radio stations, to playlists, to full albums, there is plenty to love about streaming music apps.

These are our picks for the best streaming music apps for Android!

Spotify Music

Spotify Music pulls to the head of the pack with its huge collection of music and the wide variety of features that it employs. The biggest perk is the wide variety of ways that you can find new music while exploring the app.

You’ve got genre and mood stations that are great if you’re throwing a party and want to turn on music to play for a while. It’s also easy to build playlists or listen to an entire album from beginning to end. With the emphasis on social connection, you can even share your music to your favorite social network, or browse the music that your friends are listening to.

See at Play Store

Pandora Radio

If you’re looking for the best option for streaming music on a budget, then you need look no further then Pandora Radio. Pandora was one of the first streaming music platforms, and it’s still popular for a good reason. You can create a station for a song or artist and then you’ll get music that is related. By liking or disliking the music that plays you can curate stations so that you only hear the music that you enjoy.

Pandora Radio includes not only music but also some audio you might not expect like Epic Rap Battles from YouTube and stand-up comedy sets. On top of creating and curating stations, you can also browse stations by genre or mood. As you like music you’ll also get access to Thumbprint radio, a station filled with only the songs that you have liked on other stations.

While you are limited to a specific number of song skips with the free version of Pandora, once you have curated your stations this shouldn’t be a real issue. You can have as many stations as you like, and it’s easy to add variety to an existing station if you want to hear something new.

See at Play Store

Google Play Music

Google Play Music has an impressive catalog when it comes to music, and may actually come installed when you get a new phone. While it does many things very well, (especially since Songza was added to the mix) Google Play Music really shines for those of you that also enjoy listening to podcasts.

From Nightvale to The Joe Rogan Experience, Google Play Music has a full section available for podcasts built in. This means that you can search by charts, category, or by specifically looking up your favorite podcast. You can easily add podcasts to a favorite list to make them easy to find again. You’re also able to manage your subscribed podcasts by auto downloading or receiving notifications about new episodes, as well as choosing the order that episodes are displayed in.

See at Play Store

Tidal

In terms of streaming music services, Tidal is still one of the younger players on the block. Don’t let that trick you, though. On top of their catalog of exclusive music like Beyonce’s Lemonade, or Prince’s full album list, they are also hands-down the absolute best experience for audiophiles.

Tidal delivers high fidelity sound on both its songs and its music videos. While they don’t have quite as large of a catalog as some other services, the 40 million tracks that they do have are top notch in quality. Tidal also boasts a ton of great music that is exclusive to the service.

See at Play Store

Apple Music

Apple Music might not sound like it should belong on an Android phone, and that’s where you would be so very, very, wrong. Apple Music has a solid collection of music with 30 million tracks, but it’s their playlists that should get you intrigued. Building personal playlists can be fun, but there are times you just want to find awesome music with as little work as possible.

Apple Music brings you thousands of different playlists that have been curated for pretty much every genre or activity on the planet. As you find and listen to music, you’ll also get special playlist recommendations that can help you to discover entirely new music. Apple Music also gives you access to a number of exclusive artists, records, and tracks, that you won’t be able to find streaming elsewhere.

See at Play Store

Are you listening?

Streaming music lets you access the tunes you want to hear when you want to hear them. While some apps require a subscription, others are available for free, and you can find the experience you’re looking for by checking out more than one streaming music service. Do you have a favorite streaming music app? Let us know about it in the comments below!

Anker’s PowerPort wireless charging pad is down to just $19 at Amazon

Charging without all the wires is awesome!

Plugging your phone in every time you want to charge it seems so last year. Wireless charging is the future, but in order to take advantage of it, you need a compatible phone and a wireless charging pad. There are so many different options out there, but not all of them charge your phone the same.

Anker is well-known for its awesome charging accessories, and its wireless charging pad is no exception. Right now you can pick up the Anker PowerPort Wireless 5 Pad for $18.59 at Amazon, which is a savings of around $6 from its regular price. This option can charge your phone about 10% faster than similar ones, but not quite as quick as its more expensive fast wireless charging pad.

This will work with new phones like the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, as well as Android phones such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, LG G6 and more.Other features include:

• Charge Fast, Live More: Charge 10% faster than other 5W wireless chargers.
• Case-Friendly: Charge straight through even extra-tough cases. (Metal attachments or credit cards will interfere with charging.)
• Certified Safe: Eliminate safety concerns with overvoltage protection, temperature control, foreign object detection, and more.

The charger doesn’t come with an AC adapter, so you’ll want to make sure you pick one up, and the Micro-USB cable is on the shorter side, so we’d recommend grabbing a longer one so that you can place the charger in a better spot for yourself.

See at Amazon

Russian hackers steal $10 million from ATMs through bank networks

The recent rash of bank system hacks goes deeper than you might have thought — it also includes stealing cash directly from ATMs. Researchers at Group-iB have published details of MoneyTaker, a group of Russian hackers that has stolen close to $10 million from American and Russian ATMs over the past 18 months. The attacks, which targeted 18 banks (15 of which were American), compromised interbank transfer systems to hijack payment orders — “money mules” would then withdraw the funds at machines.

The first known attack was in the spring of 2016, when MoneyTaker hit First Data’s STAR network (the largest transfer messaging system for ATMs in the US). They also compromised Russia’s AW CRB network, and swiped documents for OceanSystems’ Fed Link system used by roughly 200 banks across the Americas. And in some cases, the group stuck around after the initial heist — at least one US bank’s documents were stolen twice, while the perpetrators kept spying on Russian bank networks.

While it’s not clear who’s behind MoneyTaker, you’re only hearing about them now because they’re particularly clever. They’ve repeatedly switched their tools and methods to bypass software, and have taken care to erase their tracks. For instance, they’ve ‘borrowed’ security certificates from the US federal government, Bank of America, Microsoft and Yahoo. One Russian bank did manage to spot an attack and return some of the ill-gotten gains.

This particular hack didn’t directly affect users, since it was more about intercepting bank-to-bank transfers than emptying personal accounts. However, it illustrates both the sophistication of modern bank hacks and the vulnerability of the banks themselves. While it would be difficult to completely prevent hacks, it’s clear that attackers are having a relatively easy time making off with funds and sensitive data.

Via: Reuters

Source: Group-iB (reg. required)

NASA’s high altitude ER-2 scans California’s wildfires

For the second time this year, swaths of California are burning out of control thanks to unseasonably warm and dry temperatures. To better study what’s happening and assess the environmental impact, NASA deployed its high-altitude ER-2 aircraft with a host of scientific instruments on board. In the image above, sunlight glints on its prop as it flies over the Thomas Fire in Ventura county at around 65,000 feet.

The ER-2 has been scanning the blazes with a couple of interesting instruments that have flown, or will fly aboard the international space station (ISS). One of them is the AVIRIS spectrometer that can penetrate cloud, dust and smoke to see the ground below. While providing a clear image of the ground, it can also measure fine details in vegetation like water content and plant species growing. Eventually, a similar instrument will be launched into space.

On the flight pictured above, however, it’s carrying another instrument, the Cloud-Aerosol Multi-Angle Lidar (CAMAL). It was originally developed to a validate space-based version of the instrument called CATS, which operated for 33 months aboard the ISS, before going out of service last month. Now, CAMAL is being used for a similar purpose aboard the ER-2. Unlike other types of LiDAR used to scan the ground, CAMAL can study pollution, smoke, clouds and other atmospheric phenomena.

Another view of the Thomas Fires from space

Ideally, NASA flies the AVIRIS spectrometer over regions before a fire starts to get a base measurement, then overflies the same spot again afterwards. Comparing the before and after images gives researchers an idea about the severity of a fire.

Meanwhile, when the blaze is active, the area can be scanned with the CAMAL LiDAR to get a picture of the dust, smoke and cloud cover in the area. Using the space-based version of the instrument, for instance, NASA scanned the October wildfires, finding plumes extending as high as 2-3 miles that created “the worst air quality ever recorded in many parts of the Bay Area,” NASA’s CATS team said.

“The vision is that these types of measurements could be available from space in the next decade,” said JPL’s Rob Green. “The resulting information would then be used to develop fuel maps in advance that could be used to make better predictions about where you could mitigate risk by clearing brush and trees.” CAMAL can also be used by researchers to study cloud formations and learn more about climate change, which is helping fuel the wildfires in the first place.

Source: NASA

Ataribox pre-orders start this week, without any game details

Excited for the Ataribox? Well, starting December 14th, you’ll be able to lay down $250 – $300 for the retro-modern console. The company emailed the news to fans recently and even teased that there will be a chance for the “earliest supporters” to snag one at a discounted price. No, there still isn’t a firm release date for the console (last we heard was “late spring 2018”), or word on its included games. So, you know, proceed at your own risk regardless of how cool those design prototypes might look.