Flagship Apple Store Possibly Still Planned at Yonge-Bloor in Toronto

Canada’s most populous city may eventually be home to a flagship Apple retail store at one of its busiest intersections.

A render of what The One will look like upon completion
MacRumors has learned that Apple has been labeled in a planning document for The One, a tall 80-plus-floor condominium under construction at the corner of Yonge Street and Bloor Street in Toronto. The architecture firm behind the project, Foster + Partners, has partnered with Apple on numerous occasions.

The One’s architectural plan
The plans outline a proposed triple-height, 19,000-square-foot retail store with space for a riser to the ceiling, suggesting the store could have a cantilevered balcony like Apple’s flagship Union Square location in San Francisco. The store’s large glass entrance would open up to the sidewalk facing Yonge Street.

Apple Union Square in San Francisco
While the blueprints were submitted to the City of Toronto in March 2016, eagle-eyed MacRumors reader and Toronto resident Pedro Marques noticed the document has been updated, and it appears Apple was labeled at a later date.

Apple has yet to announce any plans to open a flagship store in Toronto, but rumors about the company setting up shop at Yonge and Bloor date back to at least 2012. The planning document is the first concrete evidence we’ve seen beyond subtle hints from builder Mizrahi Developments.

Apple would be one of several retailers at the base of the condominium, and the store could also have an entrance in Toronto’s PATH, a series of underground hallways that connect downtown offices, stores, and subway stations.

Despite being mentioned in the planning document, there is no guarantee that Apple has finalized a lease to occupy The One. A few years ago, an anonymous tipster informed MacRumors that Apple was considering pulling out of the project given delays, pushback from some local residents, and other issues.

Toronto has four existing Apple retail stores at Eaton Centre, Fairview Mall, Sherway Gardens, and Yorkdale, but all of them are within shopping malls, and only one is located in the downtown core.

A large, street-facing Apple store has been long desired in Toronto, and in a handful of years from now, it may finally be a reality.

Related Roundup: Apple StoresTag: Canada
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TiVo Reveals ‘Next-Gen Platform’ to Combine Cable and Streaming Content Across Multiple Devices

TiVo this morning announced a new “Next-Gen Platform” that aims to combine content from cable tv, streaming, DVR, and on-demand all in one place (via Engadget). The enterprise announcement is aimed at operators who might partner with TiVo on the platform, so the official launch of such a service is likely a ways off.

Image via Engadget
When it does launch, the Next-Gen Platform will deliver all of a user’s content to “managed” set-top boxes powered by Linux and Android TV, as well as “unmanaged” devices like Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV. The OS-agnostic approach will let users access shows and movies from both cable providers and streaming services — Netflix is used specifically in promo images — on Apple TV, iPhone, MacBook, and more.

This means that TiVo’s platform isn’t a new cord-cutting service of its own, but something that cable and streaming operators will have to choose to integrate into their existing services for customers to gain access.

TiVo’s Next-Gen Platform allows providers to deliver content to customers where they want to watch it, whether on managed set-top-boxes, such as Linux and Android TV; unmanaged bring-your-own devices, such as Apple TV and Amazon Fire; as well as mobile and web. Our Next-Gen Platform gives operators rapid agility for faster time to market and scalability, while subscribers enjoy a greater level of personalization across content sources and devices.

Specifically, operators will be able to integrate the platform on managed set-top boxes with TiVo for Linux and TiVo for Android TV. The company said this cloud-powered software will offer TiVo’s personalized recommendations, voice commands, and the Next-Gen Platform’s main hook of integration across other devices for a multi-screen experience.

The other parts of the platform include TiVo for Streamers and TiVo for Mobile, which will be apps that offer the same features and experience as the set-top boxes, but delivered to Apple TV, Fire TV, iPhone, Android, and more. For the smartphone app, TiVo said that it will be able to “support multiple use cases,” from a standalone, cloud-enabled Internet Protocol television (IPTV) app separate from the user’s set-top box, as well as a hybrid app that could be more of a companion experience to TiVo’s big-screen apps.

TiVo argues that the Next-Gen Platform will “help operators reduce churn, drive customer engagement, stay ahead of the competition and own the customer experience,” but at this time no partners have been confirmed to support the future service. With CES starting next week on January 9, more information about TiVo’s new platform is expected to be coming soon.

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Canalys Predicts 2018 Will Be ‘Defining Year’ for Smart Speaker Growth

A new report posted today by Canalys predicts that 2018 will be “the defining year” for smart speaker adoption, with the global market expected to grow to 56.3 million shipments by the end of the year, up from just over 30 million in 2017 (via TechCrunch).

Canalys predicts that Amazon and Google will remain in the lead with Echo and Home speakers, respectively. In addition to existing products, Apple’s HomePod will be one of multiple new entries in the market to help smart speaker consumer adoption grow this year.

Canalys research analyst Lucio Chen said that smart speaker uptake has “grown faster than any other consumer technology” the group has recently encountered, including augmented reality, virtual reality, and wearables.

“2018 will be the defining year for smart speaker adoption,” said Canalys Research Analyst Lucio Chen. “Smart speaker uptake has grown faster than any other consumer technology we’ve recently encountered, such as AR, VR or even wearables. While 2017 has been a banner year for smart speakers in terms of hardware sales, especially for Google and Amazon, smart speakers in 2018 will move beyond hardware, with strategic attempts to monetize the growing installed base in the US and beyond.

The possibilities to do this are endless, be it discreet advertising, content subscription bundles, premium services or enterprise solutions. The technology is still in transition, and increased investments from multiple players of the ecosystem will fuel growth.”

On a country-by-country basis, the United States is believed to remain “the single most important market” for smart speakers in 2018, with shipments predicted to reach 38.4 million units. China is then marked as a distant second place with 4.4 million units. Looking further into the future, Canalys mentioned that the U.S. will hold its top spot in the global smart speaker market through 2020.

Canalys wrote that smart speaker adoption has accelerated on a global scale due to “successful upgrades” to existing products, and potential for smart home integration.

“Vendors have begun offering successful upgrades to their latest models, and a key element driving this stickiness are the smart home partnerships. Alexa’s multiple smart home integrations, Google’s partnership with Nest and Apple’s HomeKit initiatives will continue to excite consumers of the smart speaker and fuel sales in 2018.”

The HomePod will be Apple’s entry into the smart speaker market, allowing users to use voice commands to control HomeKit devices, play Apple Music, ask Siri questions, and more. The device was previously set to launch in December 2017, but in November Apple decided to delay the speaker’s debut to early 2018. Since that delay we haven’t heard any mention of when the HomePod might launch, but the company’s definition of “early” is generally January through April.

Related Roundup: HomePodTag: Canalys
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No, an alien megastructure doesn’t explain that mysterious star

How do you explain an outer space discovery that confounds even astronomers? Blame it on aliens. At least that often seems to be the first reaction when such mysteries arise.

Take “Tabby’s Star” as a case in point. In 2015, a strange star named KIC 8462852 ignited interest and speculation inside and outside the scientific community, fueled in part by Jason Wright, an astronomer from Penn State University, who suggested that the star’s unusual dimming events might be caused by an alien megastructure that surrounded it. His thought was that a structure, such as a Dyson sphere, would periodically obstruct the star’s light, and thus cause its appearance to dim.

KIC 8462852 was first spotted in 2011 by citizen scientists through a program called Planet Hunters, which lets people examine light patterns from the comfort of their computers.

“The original discovery of this star was made by citizen scientists, who found what the professionals had missed because it was so strange and so different from what we expected that our computer algorithms had missed it entirely,” Wright told Digital Trends.

The star was later studied by a team led by Yale University astronomer Tabetha Boyajian, earning it the nickname “Tabby’s Star” and generating a lot of buzz. Over 1,700 people donated more than $100,000 in a Kickstarter campaign to give astronomers dedicated time to observe the star and collect data from ground-based telescopes. And thanks to their donations, Boyajian, Wright, and over 100 other astronomers have been able to debunk the alien megastructure theory.

The more likely explanation is less sexy but still important. According to a paper published this week in he Astrophysical Journal Letters, the star’s unusual dimming events are caused by little more than clouds of dust.

“Dust is most likely the reason why the star’s light appears to dim and brighten,” Boyajian said.

That news might come as a shame to alien hunters, but the findings were anything but disappointing for the scientists involved. While observing the star from March 2016 to December 2017, the researchers identified four occasions when the star’s light dimmed and, equipped with an unparalleled wealth of cosmic data, they reasoned that the events weren’t caused by an advanced civilization.

“The new data shows that different colors of light are being blocked at different intensities. Therefore, whatever is passing between us and the star is not opaque, as would be expected from a planet or alien megastructure,” Boyajian said.

Aliens may have been ruled out but there’s still plenty of data to sift through.

“We still have troves of data that were contributed that we have not analyzed yet,” Wright said. For his part, Wright want to investigate the “exocomet hypothesis,” which suggests that the dimming could be due to matter left behind from a handful of Halley-like comments.

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Shadow is a cloud gaming service that wants to make your gaming PC obsolete

As we enter 2018, true cloud computing — using a computer that offloads all but its most basic mechanical functions to a remote server — feels like a lost cause. In gaming, specifically, a few major players have tried to use the technology to create a Netflix-esque “on demand” alternative to buying games, consoles, and expensive PCs.

There was OnLive, the independent cloud game-streaming service which popularized the idea, but could not draw in enough players to stay afloat. Sony’s PlayStation Now, lets PlayStation 4 owners stream a limited library of games, but adds enough lag to prevent it from becoming a preferable alternative to playing native PS4 games. Nvidia’s GeForce Now, currently in beta, works quite well based on the time we’ve spent with it, but the service charges based on use time.

Rather than create a service that delivers content, Blade wants to replace your console or gaming PC entirely.

Despite the technology’s failure-pocked history, French start-up Blade thinks it has what it takes to succeed in the space. Its cloud gaming service, Shadow, aims to bring the experience of playing a powerful gaming PC to any device, be it a laptop, tablet, phone, or smart TV. The company has raised more than £20M from investors since it opened shop in 2015, and has signed technical and marketing partnerships with Intel, Microsoft, Razer, AMD — and even its competitor, Nvidia.

Blade’s goal for Shadow is substantially more ambitious than any of its peers. Rather than creating a service that delivers content, it wants to replace your console or gaming PC entirely. Booting up Shadow serves you a virtual Windows machine, which you can use play to play your games on Steam, Origin, Humble, and Itch.io. The games purchased by yours, and yours to keep, from the standard storefronts. Your Shadow machine is just like any computer you’d own, except you can access it on any device for which Blade has created a client, including Macs, PCs, iOS, and Android devices. Shadow also works directly on Sony smart TVs through an Android client, and a client for Tizen-based Samsung smart TVs is on the way.

The goal of all this is bold, yet simple. Blade wants to make the home PC obsolete.

Casting a Shadow

That means Shadow is not a cloud gaming service, but a cloud computing service – end stop. According to Blade president Asher Kagan, Shadow’s gaming focus allows it to tap into a community hungry for new tech, and doubles as a proof of concept. Playing games like The Witcher 3, Destiny 2, or Rise of the Tomb Raider, is among the most taxing PC users ask of their hardware. If Shadow can do that well enough to be an alternative to owning a PC, Kagan believes players will embrace the idea.

Shadow offers a different set of features than cloud gaming services of the past, so it makes sense that they do things differently. Many, if not most, services power their virtual machines by amassing networks of computers to create a massively powerful server to power virtual clients.  With GeForce Now, players purchase play-time using specifications that mimic a GTX 1060 or 1080, but you aren’t buying access to a discrete machine — just access to different levels of resources. Shadow devotes dedicated components to each user.

According to Blade, the Shadow service offers a virtual machine with the equivalent of an eight-thread Intel Xeon processor, a “high-end” Nvidia GPU, 12 GB of RAM, and 256 GB of solid state storage. With these specs, Kagan claimed Shadow can deliver games running in 4K resolution at 60Hz, and up to 144Hz in full HD, which would theoretically make it viable for competitive esports play. However, Blade doesn’t keep a computer with each customer’s name on it. Shadow simply partitions users so they never share processing power. That should mean, in theory, that your Shadow PC’s performance won’t change based on the number of users online at once.

In theory, your Shadow PC’s performance won’t change based on the number of users online at once.

Blade also plans to minimize latency by making sure everyone has access to local servers. It is so committed to this, in fact, that when Shadow initially launches on February 15, it will only be available in California. Blade will roll out the service nationwide as it builds new server hubs. While the plans have not been finalized, Kagan said the company plans to build four to five server hubs in the U.S. by the time the launch wraps in summer 2018.

The price for the privilege isn’t cheap, but may be less than you’d expect. Shadow costs $35 per month with an annual contract, $40 per month with a three-month commitment, or $50 month-to-month. It sounds expensive relative to other subscriptions you might purchase for gaming but, as Kagan noted, this is a cost you’re paying instead of buying a 4K-ready gaming PC. Blade estimates that a physical PC on par with its service would cost consumers $2,000, plus the subsequent upgrades.

You want a box? We’ll give you a box

Shadow is a service first and foremost, and you shouldn’t need to invest in hardware at all, save for upgrading your home network. That notion doesn’t exactly line up with our current understanding of technology, especially when it comes to gaming PCs. Most of us expecting to have something to point to as “the game machine.”

For those players — and people who don’t have a compatible device that easily hooks to a monitor or TV — Shadow does have a piece of hardware, appropriately called “the Shadow box.” The box, a very small PC in a sleek case, serves as a junction between the Shadow service and any TV or monitor.

Blade declined to reveal all the hardware in the box, but said it uses AMD APU. The device also features an Ethernet port, two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, two display ports, audio in and audio out. The device comes with a Display-to-HDMI adapter, so it will be compatible with most TVs out of the box. There is a panel on the front that lights up, because Shadow is a form of PC gaming — and all PC gaming products must light up.

Like the service itself, The Shadow Box seems expensive, but also could be a bargain. It cost $140, and will be available to rent for $10 per month. Keep in mind that this is not a game console or an all-in-one PC — controllers, keyboards, and mice are not included.

So, does it work?

Blade is promising a lot with Shadow, but we’ve heard similar ideas before. The proof is in the experience.

It worked… most of the time.

At a brief demo, held in New York, we played Rise of The Tomb Raider on an ASUS 501V laptop, then switched over to a Macbook Pro, then a Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 tablet, and finished up on a Samsung Galaxy S7 smartphone connected to a third-party smartphone gamepad peripheral. Switching between each platform took a few moments, and our gameplay session picked up exactly where we left off. The game looked great and controlled with no noticeable input lag across all the devices. It worked…most of the time.

At a few points across the various devices, the game experienced serious hitching. Presumably, these issues were the product of an unstable connection. Kagan said the issues stemmed from the fact that we were playing the game on Blade’s California-based server.

We have no way to know whether that’s accurate, but it was clear that the problems were not tied to the individual devices, or swapping among them. Given the pitch, it was enough for us to leave the demo with an open mind.

Cloud gaming looms

Based on its uniform performance across many devices, we bought the notion that the Shadow box needs only the most basic PC components to support Shadow. We don’t know that, though, since we could only use it in a controlled test environment set up by the company itself.

Aside from the potential technical hiccups, there are obstacles to using Shadow that fall outside of Blade’s control. If your internet service provider implements data caps or throttling on your home or mobile devices, that can impact your ability to use Shadow for long stretches. Similarly, in the post-net neutrality era, services like Shadow seem a ripe opportunity for ISPs to impose extra fees or constraints that would make using the service costly.

Still, in the cloud gaming space, creating a product that raises questions is better than most have achieved. For many, especially those not so enamored with expensive gaming PCs, the idea of a personal computing experience untethered from a personal computer is a dream come true. By starting small and focusing on technology, Blade has a chance to bring Shadow, and cloud gaming, back into the conversation.

Blade will start taking a limited number of pre-orders for the Shadow service in California on Thursday, January 4. The launch is planned for California on February 15. To find out more about how to sign up, check out the Shadow website.

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New sandstone white OnePlus 5T is so pure, it’ll make your heart ache

Fans of colourful phones were disappointed when OnePlus launched the one-color-only midnight black OnePlus 5T, and then disappointed again when they discovered the lava red and Star Wars special edition OnePlus 5T phones were sold only outside the United States and the United Kingdom. OnePlus hasn’t forgotten about us, though. Our limited version of the OnePlus 5T is now here, and it’s very special indeed. It comes in sandstone white, mixing the unique tactile texture anyone familiar with the OnePlus One and OnePlus 2 will recall fondly, with the crisp, pure white color of the company’s first phone.

White was once a must-have smartphone color, but has recently fallen from grace, with manufacturers choosing gold, black, and some considerably brighter hues to make devices stand out. Seeing the OnePlus 5T in sandstone white reminds us why this is a shame. It’s a beauty. OnePlus says it’s the most expensive finish it has ever made, which is quite an achievement considering it has used ceramic on the OnePlus X in the past. It’s also a laborious process. There are four stages — aprimer, a white masking layer, sandblasting, and a UV layer for improved tactility — which adds 75 minutes to the time it takes to make each sandstone white OnePlus 5T.

OnePlus

The result? A pure white smartphone that feels more like subtly polished stone than sandpaper. This is a good thing. You could practically rub down painted walls with the back of the OnePlus 2, and while there is a texture to the sandstone white, it’s much less abrasive, providing grip, comfort, and a sleek new look. It’s less slippery than the midnight black model, and we didn’t feel the need to put it in a case. We have a feeling the white back could get grubby over time, however.

Giving it a matte finish was a great decision, as was putting a thin sliver of chrome around the fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone. It now looks like part of the phone, unlike its appearance on the midnight black model. OnePlus has added a splash of color by treating the alert slider to an aluminum polishing process, giving it a sparkling red finish.

Otherwise, the sandstone white OnePlus 5T is the same as the midnight black model. It only comes in the 8GB RAM and 128GB internal storage configuration, and costs the same at $560 or 500 British pounds. It’s a limited model, and OnePlus says it’ll only be available while stocks last. Our phone came with Android 7.1.1 and the October 2017 Android security update, plus the latest  stable version of OnePlus’s OxygenOS. This is version 4.7.4 and includes alterations to the camera app, and improvements to the face unlock feature.

If you haven’t already bought a OnePlus 5T — and it’s a phone we highly recommend — the sandstone white version is the one to buy right now. The OnePlus 5T sandstone white can be purchased from OnePlus’s website from January 10.

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Eight more lives: Mad Catz rises from the dead as PC gaming brand

Last March, gaming accessory giant Mad Catz filed for bankruptcy following the poor performance of the company’s Rock Band 4, which is published in partnership with developer Harmonix. At the time, the company announced plans to liquidate all of its assets and it appeared the Mad Catz name was no more, but that is no longer true.

“Less than a year after the much-loved brand disappeared from the gaming landscape, Mad Catz is back under new management, with new ideas, new attitude, and most importantly, an entire range of new, high-quality gaming products!” the company said in a press release.

For now, it appears Mad Catz will exist solely as a PC gaming brand. The company is planning to show off a line of products at CES from January 9 through January 12, including its Rat mice and Strike. keyboards, as well as a variety of headsets and mouse pads.

Mad Catz’ current lineup of products is a far cry from what the company became famous for: cheap controllers. Its low-quality, inexpensive wired controllers were available for consoles like the original Xbox and GameCube, and their build quality made them the bane of unlucky players.

But in later years, a switch was flipped. We reviewed the Rat Pro X mouse in 2016, and found its customizable design and performance to be fantastic, though its higher price didn’t make it an ideal choice for casual players. Mad Catz also produced a line of fight sticks for games like Street Fighter V and Killer Instinct, which received positive reviews.

“Through listening to gamers worldwide, we plan to once again forge a path of innovation in the gaming hardware community, and we’re already working on delivering products which we believe will enhance gamers’ abilities and do justice to the Mad Catz name,” said director of sales and operations Selena Chang in the release. “We can’t wait to unveil a little more at CES 2018 and in the months to come.”

With eight more lives to go, Mad Catz has a little wiggle room when it comes to innovation. We hope to see the brand return to the console space, as well, perhaps with higher-quality products that mimic its PC lineup.

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LG G7 (2018 flagship) rumor roundup: Everything you need to know

The LG G6 was a solid phone that got overshadowed by the competition. With the G7 (or whatever it ends up being called), LG isn’t going to let that happen again.

When talking about underrated phones from 2017, it’s almost impossible to not mention the LG G6. LG made a huge comeback following the disaster that was the G5, but devices like the Samsung Galaxy S8 simply ate the G6 for breakfast and didn’t leave it with much of a fighting chance to stand out from the crowd.

LG needs a winner this year with the G6’s successor, and although details aren’t quite as abundant as they are for the Galaxy S9, there are still a few solid rumors floating around that have us excited for what LG will release in 2018.

Without further ado, here’s everything we know about LG’s successor to the G6.

It won’t be called the LG G7

If you noticed that we’ve refrained from actually saying “LG G7” so far, there’s a reason for that. A report popped up on January 3 indicating that LG will be ditching its G-series branding in favor of something else for a phone that’ll be released in “the first half” of the year.

Get ready to say goodbye to the G-series this year 👋

We’re expecting this rebranding to make its debut with what would have been called the G7, and while the phone in question will be the sequel to the G6, it’ll have a much different name. LG is supposedly playing around with the idea of having the phone launch with two digits in its name so that customers don’t think it’s outdated compared to the likes of the Galaxy S9 and iPhone X, but this could also change by the time the phone’s released.

We’ll refer to the G6’s successor as the G7 throughout the rest of this article, but just know that it’ll be called something else at release time.

The phone should be powered by the Snapdragon 845

As great as the G6 was, one of the main reasons you might have been inclined to choose the Galaxy S8 over it was because of the processor it shipped with. The G6 launched with the Snapdragon 821, and while the 821 was a perfectly fast CPU, the S8 launched just a few weeks later with the much newer 835.

This year, however, we aren’t expecting LG to make the same mistake. A report from The Investor last May said that LG would be partnering with Qualcomm to release the G7 with its Snapdragon 845 processor, and towards the end of December, a list was found showing that the G7 would launch with the 845 in February.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 is a big improvement compared to the 835, offering speed improvements, better camera performance, faster cellular speed, and a lot more. If LG can get this inside the G7, that’ll put it on a much more level playing field than what we saw with the G6 and S8 last year.

A curved OLED display with slim bezels

The LG V30.

LG was one of the first companies to market with a near bezel-less phone, but Samsung’s curved glass and AMOLED technology outshined the G6’s flat design and use of an LED panel. LG took a few notes from good old Sammy later in the year with the V30 and finally adopted curved sides and used its own OLED display tech. Curved screens and OLED displays are what we’ve sort of come to expect in flagship phones these days, and that’s likely what we’ll see with the G7.

The OLED technology used on the V30 wasn’t the best we’ve ever seen, but it was still a huge improvement from the last time LG toyed with OLED on the G Flex 2 back in 2015. In addition to offering deeper blacks and more contrasty colors, OLED on the G7 would also allow it to use Google’s Daydream VR platform (something the G6 didn’t support).

Expect an announcement in February

Like we mentioned above, that list claiming the G7 will launch with the 845 also suggests it’ll be released in February. If you’ve followed past releases in the G-series, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.

The G6 was announced on February 26 and the G5 saw an unveiling on February 21, and both of these took place at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. This year’s MWC is scheduled to start on February 26, and that’s likely when LG will take the wraps off the G7.

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How’s your LG G5 holding up?

Believe it or not, people are still happy with the G5.

Before LG released the mostly well-received G6, there was the G5. The LG G5 was one of the first modular phones that was released in a mainstream fashion, and while there were some good ideas with the phone, it was pretty much considered to be a flop. The cameras on the back were truly excellent for the time and the addition of microSD was great, but the questionable build quality, lackluster display, and dead-on-arrival modular system held it back from true greatness.

There are still some folks that are using the G5 nearly two years after its release, and despite the bad press it received at launch time, they seem to be quite happy with it.

Here’s what some G5 owners in our forum have to say about the phone:

mikey1273
10-02-2017 10:42 AM

“

I still like mine. The specs and Performance are good. Battery life is acceptable, it will last all day with moderate usage and if you dim the screen a little. A lot of screen time with brightnees up all the way the battery goes faster than I expected. It does charge fast and can swap batteries. The modular features I think were cool on paper and in thought, in life not that useful and the…

Reply

bruiser49
10-02-2017 12:23 PM

“

Love my g5, except for the 16mp camera. This quit focusing properly after about 3 months (2000 pics). Cleared cache, factory reset 3 times, and replaced the camera. No improvement. Running nougat 7.0.
Bought it used, so no warranty. Any others with same issue?

Reply

Jeff Bellin
10-06-2017 11:24 PM

“

I am still very happy with this phone. I’ve had it for 7 months now and it hasn’t loat a bit of speed or responsiveness. I’m fine with the cameras though clearly they’ve made a quantum leap since, from everything I’ve read about the V30 (which I drool about!) but these cameras are awesome, especially the “std” 16 mp with amazing manual mode and, honestly, totally kick-butt auto performance, both…

Reply

Greedog
01-04-2018 07:52 AM

“

I’ve had my G5 since May 2016. And I too cannot understand why this phone received the reviews it did. I love this phone and for over a year I couldn’t put it down.

The GPS is the only thing that was spotty. Everything else always worked great and still does. As much as I love it I recently picked up a V20 at a reasonable price and handed off the G5 to my wife but I can’t pry the Nexus 4 out…

Reply

Now, we’d like to hear from you – If you own an LG G5, are you still liking the phone?

Join the conversation in the forums!

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Get a 5% bonus on your refund this year with this $20 H&R Block Tax Software

Tax day is right around the corner, so it’s time to start thinking about that refund.

Amazon’s Gold Box deal of the day today features a bunch of H&R Block tax software to make all of that a little bit easier. There are four different versions available, but the most basic edition to include both federal and state returns is the H&R Block Tax Software Deluxe + State 2017 for $19.99. For the last month or so it has only been available for $35, and it was selling as high as $45 in November.

If you want to make that refund a little nicer, this software is the way to go. If you prepare and file your returns using H&R Block’s programs and choose to have your refund given to you in the form of an Amazon gift card, you’ll get a 5% bonus attached.

Here are the other programs available:

• Tax Software Deluxe 2017 for $13.99 (from $30)
• Tax Software Premium 2017 for $29.99 (from $55)
• Tax Software Premium and Business 2017 for $36.99 (from $70)

See on Amazon