How to find the best wallpapers for Android

Wallpapers are the most basic personalization of a device.

Every phone or tablet comes a selection of wallpapers — images for your home screen or lock screen background that give your device a bit of personality. But often times those wallpapers don’t reflect your personality. We’re here to change that.

This is where you can find all the best wallpapers for your Android phone or tablet!

Google Wallpapers

Google got into the Wallpaper game last year with their Wallpapers app, which launched with the Google Pixel and has been growing every day. Wallpapers has a wide selection of wallpapers from satellite imagery to architecture to patterns to the wonderful beauty of nature. You can even choose to have Google mix up your wallpapers every day if you’re so inclined!

Download Google Wallpapers (free)

Muzei

Muzei wants to mix up your wallpaper a little more often than just daily, allowing you see a new wallpaper on your phone every few minutes if you so desire. Muzei’s many plugins also allow you to pull your prospective wallpapers from thousands of unique and curated sources, ensuring you’ll love whatever wallpaper Muzei picks. And if you don’t like the current wallpaper, you can set a Quick Settings tile to skip to the next wallpaper.

Download Muzei (free)

DeviantArt

DeviantArt is one of the biggest and most diverse online art communities on the internet, and as such it’s an incredible place to go and search for a wallpaper for anything and everything under the sun. When I’m building an Android theme, the DeviantArt app is usually where I start. Just remember that while DeviantArt has millions and millions of amazing wallpapers, it also has millions and millions of “deviant” art pieces, if you get my drift. Please search responsibly.

Download DeviantArt (free)

InterfaceLIFT

InterfaceLIFT is technically an iDevice theme site, but seeing as how theming an iPhone is just a wallpaper, that means it’s a great place for Android users to grab a wallpaper before we get into real theming.

Start your wallpaper search at InterfaceLIFT

Our wallpaper roundups

Every now and again, we endeavor to bring you the best of the best wallpapers from all across the internet — many of them from DeviantArt — and sometimes beyond, if need be! Our Wallpaper Weekly posts offer hundreds of wallpapers for everything from anime to nature to art to science for your wallpaper needs.

Start your wallpaper search in our Wallpaper Weekly archive!

Android Central’s wallpaper forum

Android Central’s forums are more than just a place to find help with your gear and talk about what we’re expecting from the next big smartphone announcement — they’re a great place to find new wallpapers and live wallpapers! Our Theming forum can give you new wallpapers and themes to try out on your own phones, and if you come across a wallpaper you really like elsewhere, be sure to share it in our forums and share the love with the rest of our readers!

Start your wallpaper search in our forums

Your turn!

What are your favorite places to find wallpapers? Maybe you have an app you love or an artist whose work you cherish? Leave us a comment down below!

Pixel 2 portrait mode can now be used on certain non-Google phones

Thank goodness for ports.

Portrait mode on the Pixel 2 is one of the things that continues to impress me on the phone even after months of using it, and it’s something that was recently ported over to the first-generation Pixel, Nexus 6P, and Nexus 5X as an update to Charles Chow’s Camera NX app. Now, thanks to another developer by the name of Arnova8G2 on the XDA Developers forums, the Pixel 2’s portrait mode can be used on certain non-Google phones running Oreo.

With Arnova8G2’s modification to Chow’s latest work, NX Camera 7.3 can be installed on other Android devices with a fully functional portrait mode. The OnePlus 3/3T, Moto G5S Plus, and Galaxy Note 8 are among the devices that have been confirmed to work with this, and while it should be compatible with most Android phones on Oreo, you’ll need to download the app and test it out for yourself.

Portrait mode is currently only working for rear cameras, but it’s expected that Arnova8G2 will release an updated version of the app so that it can be used with front-facing cameras, too.

Although this isn’t an official solution, it is something worth trying out if you can’t pick up the Pixel 2 but want to dive into the world of excellent portrait shots. The app seems to be working just fine for some folks, but others are reporting that it continually crashes. Again, your milage will vary.

If you decide to try the app for yourself, drop a comment down below and let us know what your results are.

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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Lyft will offer autonomous rides in Las Vegas during CES

Rideshare company Lyft is has been working to make autonomous cars a reality lately. The company’s pilot in Boston recently launched, thanks to a partnership with nuTonomy. Now Lyft has extended its partnership to nuTonomy’s parent company Aptiv, to give rides to folks attending the Computer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas from January 9th through the 12th.

Attendees won’t be able to grab a self-driving car to anywhere in Vegas, of course; this is still a point to point affair with more than 20 pre-defined routes and destinations. Aptiv will provide the automated driving vehicles while Lyft will take on the dispatch. The idea is to show how Aptiv’s technology can deal with complicated driving environments. Last year, the two companies offered rides on a simple 6.3 mile loop of city streets and highways.

The rides during this year’s CES can be requested from the Las Vegas Convention Center’s Gold Lot, and they’ll get an “informative exhibit” that shows off the potential of self-driving cars before their trip. There will be a safety driver behind the wheel, too, as well as an in-car host.

Source: Aptiv

Netflix renews Spike Lee’s ‘She’s Gotta Have It’ for a second season

Just over a month since the first season debuted in November, Netflix has renewed Spike Lee’s show She’s Gotta Have It for a second season. The show refreshes Lee’s 1986 classic film of the same name that launched his success and updates its story for modern audiences.

Happy New Year. Happy Year. Great News For 2018.

A post shared by Spike Lee (@officialspikelee) on Jan 1, 2018 at 3:09pm PST

Lee and his wife Tonya Lewis Lee posted the Instagram announcement (above) on the first day of 2018, but didn’t release any details on what lies in store for protagonist Nora Darling (DeWanda Wise), Likewise, the second season will have eight episodes, but their release date hasn’t been announced. The 10-episode first season arrived on November 23rd.

Via: Deadline

Source: Spike Lee (Instagram)

The best mobile games

Mobile gaming has come a long way. Over the past few years we’ve gone from simple distractions like Snake, Words With Friends and Doodle Jump to full-on narrative experiences crafted specifically for Android and iOS devices. What’s more, at least a few traditional console game developers have shifted entirely to mobile at this point, and, in a bit of a reversal, they’ve ported their games to consoles. By 2012, game-design toolsets like Unity and Unreal made a charming indie designed for mobile devices indistinguishable from one you’d play on a PlayStation or Xbox. As such, for the purposes of this list, we’re focusing on games that have been released within the past five years.

Console ports

While it’s impressive that Rockstar Games fit Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas onto mobile phones, you’ll need a gamepad to get the best experience. There are plenty of those available, sure, but chances are you won’t have one on you while you’re waiting in line at the grocery store. This list serves to champion the best mobile-native games that don’t require any additional hardware or accessories.

Alto’s Adventure

Everything about Alto’s Adventure is designed to help you relax. This sidescrolling snowboarding game takes a frantic mobile genre (endless runners) and slows the pace way down. Momentum from the first hill carries you forward, of course, but it never feels like you’re running a race. Instead, all you need to focus on are grinding rails, freeing llamas and busting sweet tricks over precipitous gaps. No two sessions feel quite the same either, thanks to ever-shifting goals and randomly generated slopes. It’s absolutely gorgeous too, and unlocking the diverse roster of characters — each with its own proficiencies — makes repeat trips down the mountain even more addictive.

Hidden Folks

“Slow paced, no pressure, and a lot of things to do that will wait for you.” That’s how Hidden Folks designer Adriaan de Jongh describes his latest game. Basically, it’s a cross between an adult coloring book and Where’s Waldo? wherein you explore the black-and-white line drawing in front of you however you see fit. Tapping on a tent might reveal a canoodling couple, while doing the same on some seeds in the farm scene will cause stalks of corn to sprout from the ground. Each successful find gets you closer to unlocking the next diorama. Considering how intricate each level is, though, you might want to play this on a tablet instead of your phone.

Ridiculous Fishing

In Ridiculous Fishing, picking the right firearm is just as important as dropping your line in the right place. Simply cast out, tilt your device left and right to avoid hitting fish as you plumb the briny depths, and try to hook as many as possible on the frantic return trip to the surface. Then things get ridiculous and you have to shoot your catch as it flies into the air. Different species occupy different locations, and when you’ve had enough of the main event, you can upgrade your gear (dual Uzis!). Or you could always check out what people are saying about your angling skills on the game’s hilarious version of Twitter, called Byrdr.

Lara Croft Go

Developer Square Enix Montreal started life as a AAA studio, and it shows. The team’s mobile games take familiar franchises and translate them into killer games that feel appropriate for the platform rather than shoehorned to work on mobile devices. Lara Croft Go is the studio’s best work to date. Whereas its predecessor Hitman Go had a steep learning curve, the Tomb Raider spin-off nails the sweet spot in terms of difficulty. Each painterly 2D level offers fresh challenges, and figuring out the game’s myriad puzzles never feels like you need a degree in advanced logic.

Neko Atsume

Neko Atsume offers a different type of escapism than most video games. Here, you can be the crazy cat lady or dude you always wanted to be — without allergies, an aversion to litter boxes or a feline-unfriendly living situation getting in the way. Simply drop treats and toys in your ever-expanding virtual garden and watch as Joe DiMeowgio, Hermeowne and their furry friends come out to play. Yep, you can even take photos of them to share online, where hopefully no one will judge you (much).

1979 Revolution: Black Friday

While everything else on this list is fun, none of the games have aspirations beyond being a distraction. That’s what makes 1979 Revolution: Black Friday so important. You play as a photojournalist in late ’70s Iran, documenting the unrest and political upheaval that took place. Iran-born Rockstar Games alum Navid Khonsari interviewed more than 50 scholars and historians and took thousands of photos to ensure accuracy, and he even interspersed home videos into the game as a means of storytelling.

Desert Golfing

Roughly 21 holes into Desert Golfing, it hits you: It doesn’t matter how well you’re doing. There aren’t celebrations for getting a hole in one, nor is there a darker narrative hidden below its simple 2D surface. Tapping the screen to get your golf ball into the hole on the other side of a dune is where the game’s mechanics start and stop. Sure, you have to contend with the ball’s physics, but other than that, it’s just you against the sand. But the simplicity is what makes Desert Golfing so appealing; it almost feels like a relic of the MS-DOS era, not a three-year-old mobile game.

Threes!

Regardless of medium, the best puzzle games are simple to pick up and difficult to master — things like Othello or sudoku. In that sense, Threes! is no different. Here, you arrange numbered tiles on a 4×4 grid into multiples of, you guessed it, three. Apple awarded it game of the year in 2014, the game was ported to Xbox One and there’s even a free browser-based version. Oh, and to keep the flames of your high-score chase stoked, you can always check out the ThreesPorn account on Twitter.

Monument Valley

With Monument Valley and its sequel, it turns out that you actually can fit an M.C. Escher painting into your pocket — or at least something incredibly close to the surrealist’s perception-challenging works. On your path to each puzzle’s end, you’ll spin platforms to connect otherwise disparate sections; navigate around path-blocking, anthropomorphic crows; and scratch your head more than a few times. Throughout, playing feels less like competing in mental olympics and more akin to a leisurely stroll. That’s thanks to calming reactive music and a gorgeous pastel color palette.

You Must Build a Boat

You Must Build a Boat gives away its entire premise in the title. You start with a dinghy, and by the time you’re finished you have a ship that rivals the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria pretty handily. Gorgeous pixel art and a chip-tune soundtrack make it even easier to lose track of how long you’ve been playing. Everything you do in the game facilitates upgrading your watercraft, and watching as your boat grows ever larger with each upgrade is almost as addictive as the game’s match-three puzzle system for fighting monsters. It’s the type of thing that makes trawling through dungeons so fulfilling.

Alphabear

The easiest way to describe Alphabear might be “words with bears.” You form words with letters on a grid, and for each word, you create a bear. Each bear is worth a fixed number of points; the longer the word is, the bigger the bear. As the bear grows, it unlocks surrounding tiles, which you can use to build more bears. And so the cycle repeats. The whimsical art and stylized bears help entice repeat plays, but maybe it’s the adorable carnivores’ foul mouths that keep us coming back for more.

Minecraft

One of the most impressive aspects of Minecraft on mobile is that it’s pretty much full-fat Minecraft on a device that fits in your pocket. You don’t need a gamepad to play, nor do you need a keyboard and mouse. And thanks to the recent Better Together update, you can even play in realms created on PC and consoles on your mobile device. More than that, you can join up with friends for co-op exploration and building. Yeah, it’s come a long way since the original Pocket Edition.

Amazon is reportedly looking to feature more Alexa ads (updated)

Last week, CNBC reported that Amazon had big plans for its online ad business in 2018 and was looking into moving its advertisements beyond its own sites and products. Now it appears that Amazon is also interested in placing more ads on Alexa, according to CNBC sources.

The company has reportedly been talking to major retailers like Procter & Gamble and Clorox and has been sussing out whether potential clients would be willing to pay to have their products placed higher in user searches done via Echo devices. There are apparently a number of promotional options on the table right now and CNBC says a few are already being tested. For example, users who previously bought Clorox product Pine-Sol may get an Alexa suggestion to buy another Clorox product, such as disinfecting wipes. Another ad option might be to have Alexa suggest a certain brand’s products when a user asks the virtual assistant for help cleaning a particular mess.

Amazon’s rules currently limit what kinds of ads can be delivered through Alexa. In its developer guidelines, Amazon says, “Streaming music, streaming radio, podcast, and flash briefing skills may include audio advertisements as long as (1) the advertisements do not use Alexa’s voice or a similar voice, refer to Alexa, or imitate Alexa interactions and (2) the skill does not include more or materially different advertising than is included when the same or similar content is made available outside of Alexa.” Last year, VoiceLabs started offering advertisements that allowed developers to monetize their Alexa skills, but after Amazon changed its Alexa ad policies, the company was forced to stop selling its Sponsored Messages.

As more and more users turn to voice searching when shopping, assistants like Alexa stand to become major advertising opportunities and potential money makers for the companies that develop them. It’s not surprising Amazon wants to take advantage of it, it’s maybe more surprising that it took this long.

Update: Despite what CNBC’s sources have said, an Amazon spokesperson has told us that there are currently no plans to add advertising to Alexa.

Source: CNBC

Google used a popular tax trick to shelter $19.2 billion

Just how much money do tech companies shelter from taxes? Quite a lot, according to the Dutch. Newly published Netherlands regulatory filings show that Google shielded €15.9 billion (about $19.2 billion) in 2016 using the popular “Dutch Sandwich” tax trick, saving it about $3.7 billion in taxes. The maneuver involves shifting revenue from an Irish subsidiary to a Dutch firm with no staff, and promptly moving the funds to a Bermuda mailbox owned by another Ireland-listed company. And this practice isn’t slowing down — Google moved 7 percent more cash through this approach in 2016 than it did a year earlier.

Google defended the practice in a statement to Bloomberg, reiterating its position that it “pay[s] all of the taxes due and [complies] with the tax laws in every country we operate in around the world.”

The statement is technically accurate, as it’s honoring local laws. However, the statement sidesteps the main concern: that companies like Google, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft are using tax loopholes that obey the letter of the law, but not the spirit of it. Governments in Europe and the US have argued that tech firms are depriving countries of expected tax revenue and have taken numerous steps to reclaim that money, including closing loopholes (Ireland’s closes in 2020) and finding new taxation methods.

These efforts won’t necessarily lead to a flood of income. Companies like Apple have already moved their money to other tax havens to keep shielding their profits from taxes. However, disclosures like these could increase the pressure for legal reforms by showing just how much these companies could be contributing to local economies.

Via: Bloomberg

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Amazon shipped over 5 billion items with Prime in 2017

As we close out one year and welcome another, Amazon has a few stats for us to better reflect on how we spent 2017 — evidently by sending each other a colossal volume of stuff. The company announced today that Prime members shipped over 5 billion items using the service this year.

The company announced the statistic today along with a few notes trumpeting Amazon products. Notably, among all manufacturers and categories, the Fire TV Stick and Echo Dot were the best-selling products purchased by Prime members in the US. Shocking nobody, the trendy Instant Pot was the most gifted item on Amazon’s Wedding Registry, as well as the most Wish Listed item; Accordingly, the Instant Pot Cookbook was the book Prime members gifted all year.

Amazon spent 2017 building out Prime’s non-shipping features, too, like reserving early film screenings for members. It also added more content to its video service, which has at least won some critical notice, snagging three Golden Globe nominations at this weekend’s awards ceremony. But shipping products will always be Amazon’s bread and butter; Hence the company’s move in October to let college kids subscribe to Prime on a month-to-month basis.

Source: Business Wire

Apple Acquires Canadian App Development Startup Buddybuild

Apple recently purchased Vancouver-based app startup Buddybuild, according to a blog post on the Buddybuild website (via iMore).

Buddybuild’s website describes the company as a “continuous integration, continuous deployment, and user feedback platform for development teams.” In other words, Buddybuild offers tools for developers that are designed to let them quickly and easily build apps through GitHub, BitBucket, or GitLab.

The entire Buddybuild team will be joining the Xcode engineering group at Apple to “build amazing developer tools for the entire iOS community,” with Buddybuild being rolled into Xcode itself.

Buddybuild will continue to operate out of Vancouver, Canada, and the Buddybuild service will remain available to existing customers for building, testing, and shipping iOS apps.

We’re excited to share that the buddybuild team has joined the Xcode engineering group at Apple to build amazing developer tools for the entire iOS community.

We’ve always been proud to be a Canadian company, so we’re also pleased that we will be staying right here in Vancouver — a hotbed of developer and engineering talent.

Though the service will remain available for current customers, the company is no longer accepting new customers. Current free starter plans and Android app development tools will be discontinued on March 1, 2018 following the acquisition.

Tag: Apple acquisition
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iMac Pro Teardown Reveals Modular RAM, CPU and SSD Along With Redesigned Internals

With the iMac Pro now in the hands of customers and available at Apple retail stores, popular repair site iFixit has acquired one of the $4,999 machines and has opened it up to see just what’s inside. iFixit tore down the base iMac Pro model with an 8-core processor, 32GB RAM, and a 1TB SSD.

iFixit found that the RAM, CPU, and SSDs in the iMac Pro are modular and can potentially be replaced following purchase, but most of the key components “require a full disassembly to replace.”

Standard 27-inch iMacs have a small hatch in the back that allows easy access to the RAM for post-purchase upgrades, but that’s missing in the iMac Pro. Apple has said that iMac Pro owners will need to get RAM replaced at an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider. iFixit says that compared to the 5K 27-inch iMac, replacing the RAM in the iMac Pro is indeed “a major undertaking.”

Apple is using standard 288-pin DDR4 ECC RAM sticks with standard chips, which iFixit was able to upgrade using its own $2,000 RAM upgrade kit. A CPU upgrade is “theoretically possible,” but because Apple uses a custom-made Intel chip, it’s not clear if an upgrade is actually feasible. The same goes for the SSDs — they’re modular and removable, but custom made by Apple. Unlike the CPU, the GPU is BGA-soldered into place and cannot be removed.

The internals of the iMac Pro are “totally different” from other iMacs, which is unsurprising as Apple said it introduced a new thermal design to accommodate the Xeon-W processors and Radeon Pro Vega GPUs built into the machines. The new thermal design includes an “enormous” dual-fan cooler, what iFixit says is a “ginormous heat sink,” and a “big rear vent.”

Apple’s iMac Pro appears to be equipped with the same LG display panel that’s used in the standard 27-inch 5K iMac, but because of new cables and a different camera setup, screens can’t be swapped across models.

iFixit gives the iMac Pro a repairability score of 3/10, because despite its upgradeable RAM and CPU, it’s difficult to open and tough to get to internal components that might need to be repaired or replaced.

The iMac Pro became available for purchase in mid-December, and the machine is now available to order from Apple’s website, with 8 and 10-core configurations shipping out in just a few days. Many Apple retail stores around the world also have the base model in stock and available for immediate purchase. Higher-priced 14 and 18-core configurations can be ordered, but won’t ship out for several weeks.

Pricing on the iMac Pro starts at $4,999 for the base machine with an 8-core 3.2GHz processor, 32GB ECC RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a Radeon Pro Vega 56 graphics card, and goes up to $13,199 for a maxed out iMac Pro with a 3.3GHz 18-core processor, 128GB ECC RAM, a 4TB SSD, and a Radeon Pro Vega 64 graphics card.

Related Roundup: iMac ProBuyer’s Guide: iMac Pro (Buy Now)
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