Amazon Fire Tablet 7 vs. Fire Tablet Kids Edition: Which should I buy?

You want to get your youngsters an Amazon Fire Tablet, but which version is right for you?

The Amazon Fire Tablet 7 is a great buy at $50, especially for the kids. It’s capable enough to keep them entertained while not costing enough to pull your hair out if it gets accidentally destroyed. You can also get all the (non-Google) major content services on there as well as a dedicated kids mode to keep those little fingers from buying a new laptop on your Amazon account.

But when you go to buy, there’s both a “regular” 7-inch and a Kids Edition, which now also has an 8-inch version. Underneath, they’re both regular Amazon Fire tablets. So what’s the difference and which should you buy?

Let’s break it down.

What’s the difference?

When you spend $50 on the standard Fire Tablet what you get is the 8GB model with special offers, meaning ads on the lock screen. And that’s it. No case or added extras, just the basic tablet and a charger in a choice of your preferred color.

When you buy the Kids Edition, it costs more at $100, but with that you get the 16GB tablet, also with a roughty-toughty kid-proof case to keep it nice and safe during those inevitable falls. Amazon also throws in a “no questions asked” two-year warranty, so if the worst does happen, you just send it back and get a new one. The Kids Edition also comes with unlimited, free access to 10,000 kid-friendly books, movies, TV shows, educational apps, and games with 1 year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited included.

For an additional $30, you can get the Fire 8 Kids Edition which comes with 32GB of internal storage and a better-looking display.

Value added

The biggest thing to consider when thinking about getting the Kids Edition is the value-added inclusions Amazon gives you. The case itself retails for around $25 if you buy it separately, the 16GB 7-inch tablet costs $70 and then there’s the FreeTime Unlimited subscription on top.

If you buy the basic $50 Fire Tablet you’ll have to pay extra for each of these, and you won’t get a two-year warranty, either. Likewise, if you get the basic Fire 8 which starts at $80. You get the same value-add for less than the cost of buying everything separately.

Different cases

You don’t just have to get Amazon’s case to protect a Fire Tablet from the kids. The FreeTime is no doubt a tremendous case that’s friendly to small hands while still allowing easy access to all the ports and buttons.

There are a number of cases available at various prices though that will do just as good a job. So you can protect a Fire Tablet and give it to your little ones if it’s not just for them.

It’s not inconceivable you might want to use it yourself from time to time!

The best kid-proof cases for the Amazon Fire Tablet

So which should I buy?

If you’re purely buying a tablet for your kids, spend the extra and get the Kids Edition. It’s worth the investment, not least for that worry-free two-year warranty. But it’s a single purchase that comes 100% child-equipped, with that tough as hell case and the included 1-year subscription to kids content. And if you can stretch to the extra for the Fire 8, that’s the one to get. It’s well worth the extra $30.

You can provide the same experience by buying a regular Fire Tablet at $50. But you should probably only get one of those if you’re going to be buying for an older child/teenager or it’s going to be used by yourself a decent amount of the time. If that sounds more like your scenario, then this option is for you. Buy a more grown-up case and slap in a microSD card and use it like a grown-up would!

See at Amazon

Updated December 2017: This post has been refreshed to ensure you still have the latest details on both versions of the Amazon Fire Tablet.

Google temporarily pauses ban of apps using Accessibility Services

Tasker fans, take a deep breath.

In mid-November, Google started contacting developers to let them know that it’d be implementing new restrictions on apps using Accessibility Services. The reasoning behind this was to crack down on security vulnerabilities that can arise as a result of apps using these maliciously, but it also caused for confusion and aggravation around apps like LastPass that use Accessibility Services legitimately.

According to Android Police, Google is now reaching out to developers once again to let them know that it’s taking a step back on these actions.

Per an email that’s being sent out to developers whose apps using Accessibility Services:

We’re evaluating responsible and innovative uses of accessibility services. While we complete this evaluation, we are pausing the 30 day notice we previously contacted you about. We’ll notify you once our evaluation is completed. If further actions are needed to bring your app into compliance with our policies, your 30 day notice will begin when we reach back out to you.

After reading off more specifics for developers, the email reads:

If you believe your app uses the Accessibility API for a responsible, innovative purpose that isn’t related to accessibility, please respond to this email and tell us more about how your app benefits users. This kind of feedback may be helpful to us as we complete our evaluation of accessibility services.

There’s a solid argument to be made for limiting which apps can tap into Android’s Accessibility Services, but we are relieved to hear that Google is keeping an open mind for titles that are using them for legitimate, user-beneficial reasons. It’s unclear when Google will resume its crackdown on these apps, but in the meantime, a lot of developers can breathe much easier.

Accessibility Services: What they are and why Google is cracking down on their misuse

Action Launcher: The ultimate guide

Action Launcher is proof that you really can have it all.

Some launchers are made to be quick. Some launchers are made to be adaptable. Some launchers are made to be smart. Then there are some launchers that try to do it all, and they usually fail. Action Launcher, however, is the rare instance of a home screen launcher that is as quick as it is cunning, and white it does have limits, there’s no doubt that Action is one of the best launchers you could come home to.

The Swiss Army home screen

Action Launcher is a launcher that’s perfect for the instant gratification generation, because it’s watchword is quick: Quickdrawer, Quickpage, Quicktheme. You can get your home screen set up exactly as you want with Action Launcher and you can find your way around it real quick. Here’s what makes Action Launcher the best launcher and the only launcher for so many users.

Action Launcher review

Theming made easy

Theming on Android takes a little skill, a little know-how, and a lot of luck. Or you could just use Action Launcher, which makes it stupid simple to get your launcher themed properly to color-match most wallpapers you set.

Inside Quicktheme

Behold, a Cave of Wonders

Most launchers are pretty straightforward: you have a number of home screens, a dock, and an app drawer. Action Launcher’s not most launchers, and if you look closely at this diamond in the Android rough, you’ll find a treasure chest of hidden wonders.

Covers, Shutters, and Quickpage: Action Launcher’s hidden treasures

Get Adaptive

Adaptive icons are here, and no doubt they will improve, but until they do, Action Launcher has decided to take matters into their own hands by creating launcher-exclusive AdaptivePack to allow users to get Adaptive goodness on their home screens without being completely besieged by white backer plates. As a bonus, you can now have adaptive folder icons to match your adaptive icons!

Action Launcher’s approach to Adaptive icons

Why would you make us choose?!

Swiping from the left edge of Action Launcher, you have two mutually-exclusive features you can choose from: the recently-added Google Now pane, and Action Launcher’s classic Quickdrawer. So… which do you choose? How can you choose?!

Quickdrawer or Google Now, an Action Launcher dilemma

Be a hero with Action Launcher Supporter

App development is a full-time job, and good apps deserve to have their developer compensated so they can devote their full time to making said apps better instead of being distracted by another job. Enter Action Launcher Supporter, and the history that led to it.

Go beyond Plus! Action Launcher Supporters

Why do you love Action Launcher?

Tell us in the comments: what keeps you coming home to Action Launcher?

Qualcomm working with Baidu to optimize DuerOS for Snapdragon processors

A move to help push artificial intelligence even further.

Qualcomm’s second annual Snapdragon Technology Summit is still underway in Hawaii, and during the second day of the event, the company announced a new partnership with Chinese web service provider Baidu in a move to help optimize DuerOS for Snapdragon processors.

DuerOS is Baidu’s own artificial intelligence (think Google Assistant or Alexa), and by working with Qualcomm, Baidu will be able to release and optimize it for phones that are powered by Snapdragon silicon – including the new Snapdragon 845.

With these optimizations, DuerOS will be able to feature an always-on component using Qualcomm’s Aqstic audio codec so that it can be summoned at any time by saying “Xiaodu Xiaodu.” In addition to this, Baidu will also be able to implement both echo and noise cancellation features so users can talk to DuerOS is just about any environment.

DuerOS first launched earlier at the beginning of 2017, but it’s already established more than 130 different partners. You can find DuerOS on not only phones, but televisions, smart speakers, refrigerators, and more throughout China. This partnership with Qualcomm is a big one to help progress the AI even further, and it’ll be mighty interesting to see what effect this has in the coming months.

Top 5 reasons to be excited for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845

Which PlayStation 4 is best for PlayStation VR?

Which PlayStation 4 should I buy?

Sony now has three PlayStation 4 consoles, which is going to make holiday shopping a little confusing. There’s the PlayStation 4 that has been available to purchase for over a year now, the “New PlayStation 4” with a slimmer body and near-identical hardware, and the more capable PlayStation 4 Pro. If your goal is to purchase a PlayStation 4 to use with PlayStation VR, you’re probably wondering which PlayStation 4 you need to buy.

The good news is that all these consoles support PlayStation VR, but there are some differences you should be aware of.

Read more at VRHeads!

Google launches ‘Change the Game’ to celebrate female gamers

Whoever said gaming was just for guys?

There’s something to be said about kicking back after a long day and playing a solid video game. Letting all your responsibilities melt away while blasting aliens in the face with a bazooka or dominating your buddies in a word game is endless fun, but if you’ve ever spent any amount of time lurking around in the gaming community, you’ll know that there’s a connotation that it’s very male dominate.

This is something that Google wants to address with a new initiative called “Change the Game.”

Google partnered with Newzoo to take a look at the presence of women in the gaming space, and the results just might surprise you. The study showed that 65% of all women play mobile games of some sort, and women are actually more active mobile gamers compared to men with 43% of women playing games for more than five days each week compared to just 38% of men doing the same thing.

It’s clear that a lot of women enjoy playing mobile games, but when it comes to the industry itself, the numbers aren’t nearly as high. Google discovered that just 24.8% of workers in the gaming industry identify as either female or transgender, and likely as a result of this, only a mere 30% of women feel that games being released are made for them.

Indie games on the Play Store that feature strong female protagonists.

With Change the Game, Google is launching an interactive web experience that talks about mobile gaming and women in the United States. Alongside this, you’ll also find a new short film shedding light on the same topic and a collection of games in the Play Store that feature strong female protagonists.

Once you’re done checking out Google’s releases for Change the Game, head to the comments and let us know what your favorite game and/or female protagonist in a game is. She’s not from a mobile game, but my vote easily goes to Aloy from Horizon: Zero Dawn. What about you?

Portal Knights console game now available on Android for $4.99

The next ‘Hearthstone’ expansion is a dungeon-delving adventure

Blizzard’s free-to-play card game Hearthstone just released its third and final expansion of 2017, Kobolds and Catacombs. Like the other two content releases earlier this year, K&C adds 135 new cards and a few new concepts to shake up play. But most exciting is the new single-player mode that riffs on classic dungeon-delving tabletop adventures. Dive in now: Players get three free card packs plus a random legendary weapon to celebrate the expansion’s launch.

In celebration of #Kobolds & Catacombs launch day, Blizzard Entertainment and Hearthstone proudly present King Togwaggle’s directorial debut! pic.twitter.com/HGnP5N0KKj

— Hearthstone (@PlayHearthstone) December 7, 2017

K&C introduces a new mechanic, Recruit, which summons a minion from your deck and drops them into play. Perfect, right? So efficient! But most Recruit cards are conditional (e.g. only bringing creatures of a certain cost), so you’ll have to build your decks carefully. As mentioned, each class gets its own legendary-quality weapon, most of which have powerful or lingering effects that make them useful for far more than whacking enemies.

There are also two new card types. Spellstones are spells that increase in power after certain conditions are met keyed to your class (suffer damage as a Warlock, etc), and once powered up, can swing the game in your favor. In keeping with the expansion’s Dungeons and Dragons-esque theme, the other new cards are Unidentified Items, which randomly adopt one of four upgrades every game.

The single-player mode, Dungeon Run, will excite players who have mourned the absence of solo content after Blizzard switched to releasing only full expansions this year. Previously, they interspersed larger 135-card releases with smaller 45-content drops called Adventures that centered around player-versus-computer experiences. To make up for it, Blizzard promised to add free solo content to the new full expansions, beginning with the previous release Knights of the Frozen Throne. Whether that makes up for how much more expensive it is to keep up with the game without the far-cheaper Adventures is up to each player.

Kobolds and Catacombs is the last of 2017’s three planned expansions. When the first big content release drops next year (likely in April), it will phase out 2016’s cards from the ‘Standard’ mode of play, which only keeps the current and previous year’s cards.

Source: Blizzard

‘Mario + Rabbids’ gets a free versus battle mode tomorrow

The Nintendo Switch is quickly becoming the go-to console for games with couch co-op and local multiplayer. Need more evidence? Ubisoft is adding a versus mode to Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, one of the best Switch games available. “Each player has just three available actions per turn, and how you decide to invest them is a big part of the strategy here,” a post on Ubiblog reads. “You may be accustomed to moving, attacking and using techniques for each of your heroes during every turn in campaign and co-op, but versus is a different story.”

This sounds like more than just a tacked-on addition too. Characters start out upgraded, and who you choose for your team will affect your strategies on the (adorable) battlefield. And if you’re in a hurry you can limit battles to as few as seven turns, with time limits for each turn. The free mode goes live tomorrow, December 8th.

Source: Ubiblog

This is why you don’t look directly at a solar eclipse

Remember all that talk about eclipse glasses ahead of the full solar eclipse in August? Remember NASA repeatedly letting everyone know how important those glasses were for eye safety? Do you remember how many times you heard someone say to not under any circumstances look directly at the sun during the eclipse? Well despite all of those persistent warnings, some people still did just that and a new paper published today in JAMA Ophthalmology shows that just six seconds of unprotected viewing can cause permanent damage.

The paper focuses on a woman in her 20s who looked directly at the sun without eye protection for around six seconds during the eclipse. She said her vision became blurry and distorted just a few hours later and that she started seeing a black spot when looking out of her left eye. Three days after the eclipse, she went to an ophthalmologist in New York and subsequent eye exams showed she had permanently damaged photoreceptors in both eyes and a lesion in her left. “It remains to be seen whether the patient can recover any visual function from this region of disturbed photoreceptors in the future,” the authors note in the case study.

There’s no treatment for this type of damage but getting a good look at what exactly is affected in the eye after staring at the sun could help ophthalmologists better understand this condition. The US will see another total solar eclipse in 2024, so let this serve as a warning — the sun is no joke and you need eye protection if you’re going to look at it, eclipse or no.

Via: The Verge

Source: JAMA Ophthalmology

Facebook Live can now broadcast Messenger games

Facebook is celebrating the first year of games on Messenger by introducing new titles and a few new features, starting with the ability to livestream them to friends. If you want to show your friends list how good you are with Everwing — or how much you suck at it — all you need to do is tap that new camera icon in the upper right corner of the game screen to stream on Facebook Live. You’ll then be able to choose which audience you want to share it with before you post it like you would any other Live video. This particular feature is will be available starting today, but Facebook has another offering in store for 2018.

Early next year, you can play games with friends from within a video chat in real time, allowing you see each other’s reactions and have a deeper level of connection even if you’re not physically in one location. By the looks of things, this one will roll out title per title, since the first one slated to get it is none other than Words with Friends. It could certainly give old players who think it’s lost its luster the incentive to pick it up again… and make faces at opponents to distract them from conjuring up that winning word.

In addition, Facebook is also launching new games for Messenger next year, including Angry Birds. A new version of the physics game with unique features and modes created specifically for the chat app will launch in early 2018, followed by a few more titles like arcade-style adventure Sonic Jump by SEGA.