How to download audiobooks from Google Play

Here’s how to get started with audiobooks on Google Play.

After months of rumors, Google has finally started listing audiobooks on Google Play. Unlike Amazon’s Audible — which has a monthly subscription fee of $14.95 that lets you pick up one title every month — Google is offering individual titles for sale without any monthly commitments.

Google is also rolling out a 50% discount on your first audiobook purchase as a way to incentivize customers, with the promotion valid until February 26. The deal makes it an enticing option if you’re just getting started with audiobooks and are interested in seeing what’s in store. Let’s dive in.

How to download audiobooks from Google Play

Open the Play Store from the app drawer or home screen.
Select the Books tab.

Tap the Audiobooks category.

You should see a banner for 50% off your first audiobook. Tap it to add the promo to your cart.
Browse the list of audiobooks or search for a particular title via the search icon in the top right corner.

Enter your query in the text field.

You’ll see a list of results. Select your desired title to proceed.
In the listing, you’ll see the duration of the audiobook, and an option to listen to a sample before you make your purchase. Tap Play sample to listen to an excerpt of the audiobook.

If you decide to go through with the purchase, tap the blue Audiobook button.

Google will populate the card information associated with your account, and you should also see your discount code applied automatically. Hit Buy audiobook to finalize the purchase.
You’ll be prompted to enter your password or your fingerprint to authenticate the purchase. Do so and hit the Confirm button.

You should see a payment confirmation dialog box.

That’s it! You’ll be able to listen to your audiobook on Android, iOS, the web, and on your Google Home by just saying, “Ok Google, read my book”. If you’re listening on your phone, Play Books automatically downloads new purchases, allowing you to listen to the book offline.

The Play Books interface has options to skip ahead or back 30 seconds, as well as settings to adjust the playback speed and set a sleep timer. You also have options to cast audio to a Chromecast Audio device.

What audiobooks are you guys looking to pick up? Let me know in the comments below.

Audiobooks at Google Play

LG’s mobile division continued to lose money in Q4 2017

LG saw $2.77 billion in mobile sales in Q4, but it’s still millions of dollars in the hole.

For quite a few quarters, LG’s mobile division has been bleeding money. Phones like the G6 and V30 prove that LG is capable of making quality products, but the sales figures that it’s been seeing simply aren’t good enough. LG just released its financial performance for Q4 of 2017, and as expected, its mobile department reported a loss for the 11th quarter in a row.

LG saw mobile revenues of $2.77 billion in Q4 and $10.52 billion for all of 2017. However, despite these seemingly high numbers, the company is still faced with quarterly operating losses of $192.33 million.

A new CEO was assigned to LG’s mobile division last November, and we’ll be interested to see if new leadership is what LG needs to turn things around. Development for the LG G7 has been quite rocky so far, with conflicting reports coming out regarding the phone’s naming and release date. LG needs to really hit it out of the park in 2018, and while I’d love to see the company dig itself out of the hole that it’s in, it’ll be faced with stiff competition from Samsung, Google, and others.

Despite losing money with its mobile operations, however, LG as a whole actually had a pretty solid last quarter. Q4 revenues are reported to be 15% higher compared to last year, and full-year profits for 2017 saw an increase of 85% from 2016 thanks to LG’s televisions and other home appliances.

LG publishes patents for two foldable phone concepts

Deal: 50% off lease price on Galaxy Note 8, S8, or S8+ from Sprint!

If you’re looking to pick up one of the latest Samsung devices from Sprint — you’re in luck. For a limited time, you can get 50% off the lease price of the Galaxy Note 8, Galaxy S8, or Galaxy S8+ from Sprint with $0 down via an 18-month lease.

Sprint’s Unlimited Freedom Plan

If you’re looking to pair up your new phone with a plan, Sprint’s Unlimited Freedom is one of the cheapest on the market with 4 lines for $25/mo per line and 5th line free (until 03/31/19), with autopay. Plus Hulu is now included!

Plan Includes:

• Unlimited talk, text, and data. Once you’ve reached 23GB of data, your speeds may temporarily slow down during times of high network congestion.
• HD video, 1080p
• 10GB of 4G mobile hotspot

The fine print:

• This deal requires a new line of service activation and an 18-month lease. Well-qualified customers are eligible.
• At the end of the 18-month lease, you have the option to buy your device. You’ll pay the balance between the full price and what you’ve paid so far.
• There are taxes on any device you go with and you’ll have to pay that up front regardless.
• If you cancel your service, the remaining device balance will become due.

Note 8 at Sprint S8+ at Sprint S8 at Sprint

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What to do if you’re locked out of your phone after resetting it

While it’s for our own good, Factory Reset Protection can trip you up when you reset your phone. These tips can help.

Google and the company that made your phone have some tools in place to help prevent phone theft and your privacy when it comes to resetting your phone. Factory reset protection is set up so that you’ll need to know your phone password or your Google account password before you can reset a device and use it as new.

Normally, you’ll never see any issues here. You can erase and reset your phone from its settings menu because you used the phone password to unlock the screen (and you might be prompted to enter it again or enter your Google password during the process) and the account data will be properly erased, If it’s not, when you set things back up you can simply enter your Google account password when it asks. Everything will just work.

But sometimes, things don’t “just work”. Getting locked out of your own phone is frustrating and the help options can be, too. Here’s the breakdown of what you can do if it ever happens to you.

Why do I need to know the old account information?

In recent versions of Android, once a phone has been tied to a Google account you need to use the same account and password to “unlock” it if you reset it. It’s called FRP (Factory Reset Protection), and it’s done to make stolen phones less valuable; if you steal my phone you can’t unlock the screen to use it, and if you reset it you need my Google account information to set it up again. If you can’t use my phone, you’re less likely to steal it. Or if you’ve found a phone and can’t use it you’ll be more likely to turn it over to the police. Every company that makes phones with access to Google Play is using this feature and some also have their own version that can do the same thing through their accounts.

Even a great idea seems bad when it keeps you from using your phone.

The problem is that if you reset your own phone, or buy a used phone that still has FRP active you might need to know the account username and password that was last used on the phone to sync with Google’s servers. Resetting the phone through the settings should remove the account before it erases the data, but it very often doesn’t. Sometimes we forget those details, or if we bought a phone from someone else we might not be able to get them. While people are always looking for exploits to work around the FRP lock, once found they quickly get patched. (Though sometimes those patches take a while to work their way through manufacturers and carriers, so it’s always worth a Google search.)

Resetting your password

When this happens on your own account and you have access from another phone (or tablet or computer) your first instinct is to reset your Google account password. But there are some things you need to know about that, too.

When you change the password on your Google account, you might not be able to use the new password on another device for 24 hours (or 72 for older phones). This is done to prevent “suspicious” activity, like stealing someone’s Google password and changing it, then logging into a device with the new password in order to harvest someones personal data (banking information or other financial details like an Amazon account specifically).

You’ll need to wait 24 hours after a password change before you can use the Google account to set up a device. If the device is still running Lollipop, that changes to 72 hours.

So what should I do?

There are three ways to get in. The first, using the Google account recovery tool, will only work if you took the time to set up a backup phone (and can swap your SIM card with another phone to get a text) or second email account. We’ll go over how to do that in the next section, but if you already did it you can click this link to start the recovery process. Make sure your phone is charged and turned on, and make sure you have access to a phone using the recovery number or the recovery account email. If you’re using two-factor authentication, you’ll need a way to authorize your account. If that would usually be the phone you’re trying to unlock, the recovery tool will walk you through the steps to disable 2FA or use a CAPTCHA code.

The next step is to reset your account password from another device, then wait for 24 (or 72 — see above) hours before trying to set it up. You can leave the phone powered on or shut it off, just don’t try to do anything with it while you’re waiting or you may reset the countdown. Waiting a full day (or three) really sucks, but it’s better than not having any access to your account and not being able to use your phone ever again.

If you bought used, you’ll need to contact the original owner for some help.

The third option is to try hacking your way in. We can’t really recommend this for anyone, but if you’re the kind of person who likes to tinker with your phone’s software and think you have found a hack that will bypass the FRP on your phone it’s an option. But know that this can have some serious drawbacks if things go wrong and you might ruin the phone itself. It’s not a good option for most people.

If none of these solutions work you can try filling out this form or calling 650-253-0000 to work your way through the Google Accounts customer service menu. You can also try checking with the company you bought the phone from, as they may have experience solving the issue.

If you aren’t the original owner and don’t have access to a way to recover the account, you’ll need to contact whoever you bought it from.

Account recovery options

Save yourself some headache and set up your account recovery options. Visit your Google account sign-in and security settings page and add your account recovery options. These tell Google how to send you a token to get into your account if you’re locked out and will solve all the headaches that can happen when FRP doesn’t work as it should. We recommend you provide all the detail you can here.

Remember, just because the FRP “issue” hasn’t hit you yet doesn’t mean it never will. Don’t think that you’ll never be locked out of your own phone and your own account! Take a few minutes and make sure Google can help you get in if you need them to.

Updated January 2018: Added to and verified all the information here.

T-Mobile offers free data and calls in South Korea during the 2018 Olympics

Starting February 7 and going through March 20.

The 2018 Winter Games are just around the corner, and while I’ll personally be watching from the couch in my living room, there are a lot of folks that’ll make the trek to South Korea to watch in person. An international data plan is typically required to stay connected whenever traveling aboard, but T-Mobile is giving its customers free unlimited data and calling during the entire competition.

This offer is available for all post-paid T-Mobile customers, and it’ll begin February 7 and go throughout the closing ceremonies on March 20. In addition to the unlimited data and calling that’s being offered, T-Mobile ONE plans already come with free texting in South Korea.

Per everyone’s favorite CEO, John Legere:

The Winter Games are full of unforgettable moments, and now, T-Mobile customers in South Korea can snap, tweet and share those big moments without worrying about bill shock when they get back home. And while the carriers gouge you and make you jump through ridiculous hoops, the Un-carrier makes it easy! Free and unlimited data and calling just HAPPEN from the moment you step foot in South Korea.

For comparison’s sake, AT&T customers traveling to South Korea will need to spend an extra $10 a day to continue to use their service. Verizon is offering free TravelPasses so that customers can get a free 500MB of data each day, but if you miss the deadline for this, you’ll also need to shell out $10 every day you want to use your phone.

Verizon Go Unlimited plans will include coverage in Mexico and Canada

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How to use Google Home to prep for your Super Bowl party!

Use your Google Home to get prepped for the Super Bowl!

The Super Bowl is the biggest football game of the year, and it’s nearly here. That means running to the store to make sure you’ve got everything you need, ensuring that your living room is ready to fit 10 people all hollering about the game, and taking advantage of the ways that Google Home can help you prepare.

From control over your connected home devices to checking on traffic, Google Home can help you to get ready!

• Use commands
• Take advantage of connected devices
• Turn off your microphone

Use commands

Google Home commands can let you set timers, check on traffic, and even check your schedule. Prepping for your Super Bowl party can be stressful. From putting together all of the food to making sure that you’ve timed everything right, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.

That’s where Google Home can help. You can set timers if something is cooking in the oven, check travel times if you need to go and pick up last minute supplies, and even check your schedule in the morning to make sure everything is getting done properly. This means you can stress less and enjoy more on game day! You can try out any of these commands to get ready:

• When does the Super Bowl start?
• Who’s playing in the Super Bowl this year?
• How long should you cook nachos?
• Set an alarm for 5:30 p.m. eastern on February 4.
• Set a timer for 10 minutes.
• What’s the Super Bowl score?
• Remind me to pick up taco chips tomorrow at noon.

Take advantage of connected devices

Google Home works with a variety of devices in your connected home from Hue bulbs to ecobee’s thermostat. This means that when it’s time to start getting ready for the party, you can just ask your Google Home to do a few things for you while you try to get all of that delicious food cooked and ready.

You can adjust the temperature, which can be especially handy once the room starts to get too warm during the game or tell your Home to adjust the lights so that everyone is focusing on that epic touchdown and nothing else. While there are plenty of connected home devices, these are the ones you may want to take advantage of during the game:

• Philips Hue smart lights
• Google Chromecast
• eecobee4 smart thermostat
• LIFX smart lights
• Wink Hub 2
• Nanoleaf Aurora smart lights

Turn off your microphone

Plenty of people are used to their friends mucking about with Google Home, or the debacle last year when a commercial activated Google Home units all over the place. If you want to avoid these sorts of things when you’re watching the game, then you may want to just turn off the mic.

All you need to do is hit the mute button button, and you can mute your Google Home. This means you won’t be able to activate it using your voice, but it also won’t pipe up at an inopportune time either.

Get ready for the game!

Using a few of Google Home’s available commands and settings, you can make sure that you’ve got everything ready for the big game. This means everything from adjusting the lighting with your Hue bulbs to ensuring that you’ve got enough time for that last run to the store to grab supplies. Have you used your Google Home to get ready? Let us know about it in the comments below!

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Security flaw lets anyone access a locked Prime Exclusive Moto G5 Plus

Would you like a security flaw with that ad?

If you’re in the market for an affordable unlocked phone, Amazon’s Prime Exclusive phones are worth checking out. Devices offered include the likes of the Moto X4, LG G6, and Nokia 6, and you can get them at pretty steep discounts as a result of ads that Amazon places on their lock screens.

Unfortunately, it would appear that these ads have created a security flaw on at least some phones. One owner of the Moto G5 Plus recently took to Twitter to show that, even though their phone is locked with the G5 Plus’s fingerprint sensor, taping the “view ad” button the lock screen bypasses the lock screen and opens the web browser. From here, tapping the home or back button will take you to the home screen.

Although Amazon has yet to comment on what’s taking place here, it would appear that the issue stems from Moto Display. This feature needs to be turned on in order for the flaw to work, and according to some users, the phone will remain locked as it should if you wait 30 seconds or more after it was last unlocked.

The Moto G5 Plus is the only Prime Exclusive phone that’s been reported to have this issue so far, and it’s worth mentioning that not everyone who owns the phone has been able to replicate the issue. It’s a bugger for sure and I’d like to see Amazon get a solution pushed out soon, but I wouldn’t consider it a reason to not buy the G5 Plus if you were thinking about doing so.

These are all the Moto phones Motorola is releasing in 2018

Trump’s budget reportedly proposes an end to ISS funding by 2025

It appears that there’s a troubling line item in President Trump’s proposed budget. According to The Verge reporter Loren Grush, the proposal ends funding for the International Space Station by 2025. It’s important to note that the final budget won’t be released until the 12th of February, so this item could change then, but The Verge spoke with two insiders who confirmed that this item would be in the final budget. We’ve reached out to NASA for clarification.

The US is only currently committed to funding the ISS through 2024, but most expected that we would continue our support through 2028. At that point, NASA was expected to turn over the US operations of the station to commercial space companies. However, it’s unlikely that will be doable by 2024 or 2025; losing the ISS as a low Earth orbit destination so early would be a blow to both NASA and private spaceflight companies.

The argument in favor of ending ISS operations early is that we can focus those resources on deeper space exploration. However, that assumes the two are in opposition to one another; they are, in fact, not. The ISS is a necessary stepping stone for missions that take us beyond Earth’s orbit. If the US ends support for it before we have a viable method to actually venture into deep space, we could end up with a spaceflight drought because we have nowhere in orbit to send our astronauts. Remember that it’s looking like human flight certification for both SpaceX and Boeing won’t be until late 2019/early 2020.

Nothing is set in stone yet, but the International Space Station has been a crucial example of how countries can work together, regardless of what’s happening back on Earth. A signal from the US that we are no longer interested in ISS activities could affect international partners who also are not currently committed to the station beyond 2024. The desire to free ourselves from the shackles lower Earth orbit is certainly understandable, and one many share. But it may not be the best idea to accomplish that at the expense of the ISS.

Source: The Verge

Facebook nabs exclusive streaming rights for pro surfing

If you’re interested in professional surfing, there’s no higher competition than the World Surf League (WSL). Hawaiian John John Florence is the current men’s champion, while Australian Tyler Wright dominates the women’s division. At the moment, you can watch championship events for free on Facebook or through the WSL website and mobile app. But that’s about to change — Facebook has inked a “historic partnership” that will make it the exclusive platform for WSL streaming. It covers all men and women Championship Tour events in 2018 and 2019, as well as the Junior Championships, Qualifying Series 10,000 and Big Wave Tour events.

In the US, you’ll find the streams on Facebook’s Watch service. If you live anywhere else, well, it’ll be the usual ‘find the appropriate Facebook page’ routine. Surf fans who despise Facebook will, inevitably, be disappointed with the decision. For the WSL, however, it’s clearly about cash and helping its niche sport survive. It’s unclear, however, how surfing fits into Facebook’s larger sports strategy. The company has bought some streaming rights — MLB baseball matches and Champions League soccer, for instance — but remains a bit player in the wider industry. It’ll be hoping its latest hire, former Eurosport CEO Peter Hutton, can change that for the better.

Source: World Surf League

Theater subscription service MoviePass snaps up its first film

MoviePass is wasting no time in making good on its plans to invest in films. The company behind the ‘unlimited’ theater subscription has snapped up crime caper American Animals for $3 million at Sundance. The move sees it share North American distribution rights for the film with indie studio The Orchard, according to Variety.

With a stake in the flick, MoviePass will promote it to its 1.5 million subscribers in the hopes of amassing more customer data, which it will use as leverage with studios and exhibitors. While theater chains such as AMC will continue rooting for it to fail. But, the numbers add up: Flicks that get a push on the MoviePass app receive a 10 percent box office bump. Recent examples include Oscar hopefuls The Post, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and The Shape of Water.

Now, it’s hoping to do the same for American Animals: a buzzy indie film about two childhood friends who plot a daring art heist. The movie has racked up plaudits for the performances of its up-and-coming cast and director Bart Layton’s kinetic style. MoviePass also reportedly lost out to Lionsgate for comedy Blindspotting, but don’t be surprised if it snags more films on the festival circuit.

Source: Variety