Do you prefer Nova Launcher or TouchWiz Home?

The battle of third vs. first-party.

As most all of you know, one of Android’s greatest strengths lies in the ability to customize just about every little aspect of it that you want. Third-party launchers are a great way to change up the entire look and feel of your device, and time and time again, Nova Launcher has proven to be one of the best options around for doing this.

Samsung’s own Android launcher (TouchWiz Home) used to be hot garbage just a few short years ago, but since the Galaxy S8, Samsung managed to turn it into something that a lot of people actually prefer using over a third-party one.

Some of our forum users recently started talking about whether they prefer Nova or TouchWiz Home, and these are a few of the responses.

michail71
02-18-2018 09:54 AM

“

I’ve been using Nova Launcher on my V20 for the past year and I just upgraded to a Note 8 yesterday. Yeah, I know this isn’t the Note group but this is a bit of a generic topic.

I’ve been really impressed by the stock setup (apps and launcher) on this phone. I almost feel like it has been customized with a independent launcher of some sorts. 🙂 I think Samsung is getting a bit Apple like…

Reply

justnivek
02-18-2018 10:18 AM

“

I’ve been a nova prime user for as long as I remember, nova is great at what it does and for most Android phones is the better option than the stock launcher

…..but

I can’t seem to leave Samsung’s stock launcher on my S8, it’s just amazing and so beautiful and I love how small the widgets info is (example is my bible widget, on stock it shows all the info in a smaller amount of space but…

Reply

sleepnclass
02-20-2018 03:53 AM

“

I don’t mind Samsung’s ui but I’m sure I’m in the minority. I used to use nova all the time but now when i use it on my s8+ or note 8 it slows it down really bad so I gave up on theming.

Reply

Golfdriver97
02-19-2018 09:53 AM

“

I use Nova on my Note 5. I’m sure there is a difference between Samsung’s UI between the two, though.

Reply

Now, we’d like to hear from you – Are you using Nova Launcher or Samsung’s TouchWiz Home?

Join the conversation in the forums!

Amazon is discounting the Prime-exclusive Moto X4 by $150 for one day only

Limited time offer.

You can grab an unlocked version from several retailers for $299.99 right now, but this is a great way to save even more. Amazon no longer uses your phone’s lock screen to display ads, and instead, the company just preloads a few of its apps on the phone including the Amazon widget, Prime Movies, Prime Photos Storage and more. The phone is IP68 water resistant and features a 5.2-inch display, Snapdragon 630 processor, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.

Alexa is only a voice command away as well. Simply say “Alexa” and you can begin playing music, check the news, and much more. This is also an unlocked version which will work on all major U.S. carriers, and this discount is available on both the silver and black versions of this phone. Remember, this price is only good for today, so don’t miss out.

If you don’t want to deal with Amazon’s extra apps and don’t mind spending $50 more, you can pick up a regular unlocked version from B&H, Motorola directly, Best Buy and Newegg.

See at Amazon

Swype Keyboard is officially being discontinued

Time to move to Gboard.

Like a lot of my fellow Android users, I often used to jump back and forth between keyboard apps on my phone. I’ve dabbled with just about every popular option out there, but today the Play Store is losing one of its long-standing champs as development for Swype Keyboard has officially ended.

According to one Redditor that contacted customer support at Nuance (the company behind Swype), they were told that “Swype+Dragon for Android has faced end of development.” This was then followed up by a message from Swype’s Product Team that reads:

Nuance will no longer be updating the Swype+Dragon keyboard for Android. We’re sorry to leave the direct-to-consumer keyboard business, but this change is necessary to allow us to concentrate on developing our AI solutions for sale directly to businesses.

Shortly after this, XDA Developers received a statement from Swype’s PR department confirming what the Reddit user was told.

Swype has been on the Android Market/Google Play Store since as far back as 2013, and at the time of publishing this article, the Play Store indicates it has between 1,000,000 and 5,000,000 installs. In addition to being around on the Play Store for so long, many Huawei devices still ship with Swype preinstalled out of the box.

The Swype Keyboard app is still on the Play Store, but it won’t receive any future updates from here on out. I’ve personally been using Gboard for well over a year as my keyboard of choice, and while it can take some time to understand all of its different features, it really does offer one of the best typing experiences on Android.

If you’re currently a Swype user, what keyboard app will you be moving to?

Android P wish list: What I want Google to add

Mega Man Mobile series for Android review: Malfunctioning robots

What should be a celebration of an iconic video game series is dragged down by development issues.

Nostalgia plays a huge role in gaming these days. As cool as games with jaw-dropping graphics are, more and more you’re seeing retro-styled titles or ports of 8-bit video game classics making their way to the Google Play Store.

Play Mega Man Mobile 1-6 for FreeGAMESTASH

Sega set the standard for how companies ought to go about re-releasing legacy titles to nostalgia-hungry smartphone gamer with its Sega Forever series. Another classic company, Capcom, also tried to cash in on this 8-bit retro phase in grand fashion last year, releasing the first six Mega Man games as mobile releases onto the Google Play Store:

• Mega Man Mobile
• Mega Man Mobile 2
• Mega Man Mobile 3
• Mega Man Mobile 4
• Mega Man Mobile 5
• Mega Man Mobile 6

Mega Man, AKA Rockman in Japan, AKA The Blue Bomber, is a plucky young lad in a blue armor suit who must defeat Dr. Wily and his army of robots to save the earth and achieve everlasting peace. Originally released for the Famicom in Japan and NES in the U.S., there’s a lot of video game history in those first six titles, establishing Mega Man as one of the more recognizable video game characters and winning over legions of fans over the past 30 years.

Unfortunately, the Mega Man Mobile games aren’t quite what they should be, and hardcore Mega Man fans will undoubtedly be disappointed by them. There are a few overarching issues I need to address with these games to start:

Not direct ports

The first and most glaringly obvious point is that these are not direct ports of the original NES games — instead, these are “mobile” versions of Mega Man that have been optimized for newer Android devices.

What changes have been made? In each game description, Capcom makes it clear that both the gameplay and difficulty have been “optimized for smartphones” and that there are certain elements that differ from the original games. What they mean by that is they had to drastically lower the difficulty level to accommodate for the touchscreen controls.

They also included the erroneously named “Normal Mode” which gives you unlimited lives and continues, along with “Hard Mode”, which limits your number of continues and ups the enemy’s attack. Truth be told, Hard Mode should be called Normal because it more closely matches the challenge of playing the original — and Normal Mode should be called Easy Mode because it removes all the consequences of dying. Any time Mega Man dies, he simply respawns at the last checkpoint. I found the forgiving nature of “Normal Mode” to be the only way to make progress in any of these games. These old NES games are notorious for being tough as nails, but prepare to die 1,000 cheap deaths playing them. Sometimes it will be your fault, but more often than not it will be the game controls or mechanics slipping you up.

I found the forgiving nature of “Normal Mode” to be the only way to make progress in any of these games.

When these games were first released for Android in January of 2017, other sites ripped Capcom to shreds for not simply emulating these 30-year-old games on Android to be enjoyed in their former glory, and for the shoddy touch controls and abysmal frame rate. Capcom addressed the framerate issue with a February 2017 update that added the option of selecting the game speed, and of the three options included, Turbo Mode is the one you’ll want to go with if you can’t handle sluggish framerate. I found it to be the only way to enjoy these games — the lowest game speed option shouldn’t even be there because it makes the game essentially unplayable.

No support game controllers

The other indefensible exclusion from these games is the lack of Bluetooth controller support. Not all touchscreen controls are awful, but touchscreen controls in an action platformer game that requires run-and-gun gameplay and pinpoint jumps are just asking for problems.

I mean, it’s one thing if you’re developing a brand new game and you don’t want to go through the extra hassle of including controller support. That’s fine. But if you’re a big company like Capcom and you’re re-releasing some of your console classics onto mobile, you damn well better include controller support.

Games like Mega Man Mobile are the perfect candidate for Bluetooth controller support.

The hardcore fans that are going to be your core market for game releases like these and those gamers may well retain the muscle memory from mashing physical buttons for hours on end playing these games as a kid. But you lose all of that with touchscreen controls. There’s no tactile feedback when you go to jump or shoot, the virtual d-pad removes your ability to correct yourself on tricky jumps in platforming sections, and jumping and firing — a very important skill in Mega Man games to master — become a random guessing game of whether you timed your jump and shoot presses properly.

Putting the frame rate issues and lower difficulty aside, the lack of control options is my biggest gripe with these games. The fact that it’s been over a full year since release and nothing has been done in spite of so many user reviews asking for them seems to point to indifference on Capcom’s part. It’s annoying and it certainly deserves to addressed.

Which are worth playing?

Beyond these broad issues that needed to be addressed up front, the question then becomes which individual games are worth playing. Based on your own history playing the Mega Man series, you might have a particular connection with a specific title but if you’re coming in fresh and just want the best Mega Man experience on your phone here are my thoughts:

• You can probably skip right over Mega Man 1: It sort of pains me to say it considering these are the OG Mega Man titles, but the first Mega Man plays the worst on Android. It lacks the added abilities and controls of later releases and shows its age more so than its sequels.
• Mega Man 2 has the best bosses: This one’s subjective, but for a series that has stuck with the generic “Blank” Man naming convention, Mega Man 2 offers the best variety in my opinion — even with the likes of “Air Man” and “Wood Man” on the roster.
• Stick to the 4, 5, and 6 for the most fun: Things start to really improve with Mega Man Mobile 3 which introduces Mega Man’s robot dog, Rush, and also adds power slides to the gameplay. But it’s the fourth title that adds the Mega Blaster which allows you to charge up blasts to deliver extra damage and really fleshes out Mega Man’s abilities. If you’ve never played Mega Man before, you’re best off starting with Mega Man Mobile 4 and working up from there (or tracking down an old NES console and doing it up right).

Final Thoughts

There’s no denying that Capcom sort of dropped the ball here, which is all the more disappointing when you consider that Mega Man is one of their most iconic franchise. Charging $2 a pop for each of these games that have had frame rate and control issues since day one feels like a scummy cash grab.

All six games are available in the GameStash library for free, and that’s probably the best way to play through each of these games and find the ones you enjoy the most. The games themselves are definitely worth playing and they’re well suited for younger audiences. It’s just a shame that Capcom didn’t spend the extra effort to get it right.

Google Pay launches to replace Android Pay and Google Wallet

The rebrand to end them all.

At the beginning of the year, Google announced that it’d be merging its Android Pay and Google Wallet services under one new umbrella called “Google Pay.” A little more than a month since that announcement, the Google Pay app is now rolling out to users via an update on the Play Store.

What does this change mean? Admittedly, not a whole lot. The Android Pay app on the Play Store is being changed to Google Pay, and while there’s a new logo and tweaked UI, all of Android Pay’s core functionality is still here. You can view all of your linked cards, pay for things in stores without having to first open the Google Pay app, and make payments online when you see a “Buy with G Pay” button.

Google says that users in the United States and the United Kingdom will be able to use the main Google Pay app to send and receive money from friends and family members in “the next few months”, but until then, the Google Wallet app is being changed to Google Pay Send with an updated UI and branding, too.

The Google Pay branding is showing up in the Play Store on my end, but I’ve still got the old Android Pay interface on my Pixel 2. It’ll likely take a couple days for the changes to be rolled out to everyone, so don’t fret if you aren’t seeing the new look right away.

If you do already have the new Google Pay app, what do you think about it so far?

Download: Google Pay (free)

Job listings suggest that Spotify is working on its own smart speaker

“Spotify is on its way to creating its first physical products.”

Ever since Amazon came out with the Echo in 2014, the market for smart speakers has exploded into something that Google, Apple, and countless other companies are trying to dip their toes into. According to a new job listing, one of the next smart speakers could come from none other than Spotify.

A new job listing was recently added to Spotify’s website for an “Operations Manager – Hardware Product.” Under the title for this position, it says “Spotify is on its way to creating its first physical products and setting up an operational organization for manufacturing, supply chain, sales & marketing.”

Could a Spotify speaker stand against the Google Home and Apple HomePod?

The Operations Manager will be in charge of Spotify’s distribution, supply, logistics, etc., and the streaming service notes that this person will also “contribute in the creation of innovative Spotify experiences via connected hardware.” In addition to this, Spotify has other listings for a Senior Project Manager: Hardware Production and a Project Manager: Hardware Production & Engineering.

Although the job listing doesn’t directly mention that Spotify is working on a smart speaker, this seems like the first logical step for the company if it wants to dive into the world of hardware. A Spotify-made speaker could be tremendously successful considering the service’s 70 million+ subscribers, but it’ll be interesting to see how the company approaches this market.

Will Spotify create its own smart assistant or use something like the Google Assistant? Will you be able to listen to any music service you want or just Spotify? There are a lot of questions that remain unanswered, but we’ll be keeping an eye out to see what comes of this over the following months.

Assuming we do get a smart speaker from Spotify, what features would it need to have for you to consider buying it?

Stations by Spotify beats Pandora at its own game

Best theming widgets for Android

Finding widgets that work with one theme can be hard. Finding widgets that work with many is like a diamond in the rough, and here they are, ready to shine.

Android has hundreds of thousands of home screen widgets out there for you to try out, from advanced widget creators to those that come with your favorite apps. Some are beautiful, some are extravagant, and some are refined, but above all, they have to work. Widgets have to earn their keep on my home screen, or they’ll be deleted and replaced with something I actually use.

Not all apps have customizable widgets, and no matter how good some of those widgets are — like Google Keep — if they don’t play well with themes, then I can’t count on them when I’m building my home screen.

Another Widget

The Google Pixel 2 brought a few new tricks to its home screen this year, but none have been as popular as the At A Glance widget. This refined, easy-to-see and easy-to-use widget is only available on the Google Pixel, but enterprising developers have begun to mimic it in apps like KWGT and launchers like Action Launcher. The best interpretation of the At A Glance widget so far is hands-down Another Widget.

Despite the pedestrian name, Another Widget is not just another imitator. Another Widget goes beyond the original by allowing users to customize the text size, text colors, shadows, data shown, and the apps triggered by tapping the calendar and weather portions of the widget. In short, Another Widget is more flexible than the original and available to everyone, not just those who could blow $650 on a new Pixel.

Whether you’re trying to make your phone look as Pixel-y as possible or just want an informative widget that doesn’t get in the way of a good theme, give Another Widget a try. The app itself is free, but you can support the developer by buying them a coffee, breakfast, or dinner should you appreciate their work.

Download: Another Widget (free, in-app purchases)

Calendar Widget Month + Agenda

I’m not going to sugarcoat it: Most calendar widgets are ugly and don’t theme particularly well. That said, if you have to have a calendar widget on your home screen beyond a next appointment widget like Another Widget, then Calendar Widget Month + Agenda by Milan Sillik is probably going to be your best bet. The widget is easily resizable and adaptable, you can recolor it and change the transparencies to your liking, and you can try it out for free with all features enabled. Free users have a bar at the top of the Agenda advertising the PRO version license, but it’s easy to scroll past while you’re testing it out.

Using it with 100% transparency allows your calendar events to scroll in and out of your wallpaper seamlessly, and it’s easy to turn the transparency back up when using a busier wallpaper. Just don’t set the bottom toolbar to Minimalistic, or you won’t be able to get back into the widget’s settings without clearing the app data.

Download Calendar Widget Month + Agenda (free, $1.99)

1Weather

Weather widgets are the most popular widgets on the block, and no matter what weather app you have installed, there’s bound to be a widget or two with it, but no weather app has quite the diversity or flexibility of the widgets included with 1Weather. 1Weather is a weather app designed by OneLouder, the development team behind popular Reddit app BaconReader and Twitter client TweetCaster, and 1Weather’s layout is as easy to use as it is easy to customize.

1Weather’s widgets come in all shapes and sizes, and while the icon sets are either black or white, you can set accents for each widget to help the widgets blend or pop against your current themes. 1Weather’s widgets are highly adaptable, and I’ve used them in dozens of themes.

Download 1Weather (Free, in-app purchases)

KWGT, king of the widget-makers

When it comes to widgets that fit your theme, sometimes you can’t rely on an app to have a widget that fits. Sometimes, you have to make your perfect widget, and when it comes to making your own widget, KWGT is king. KWGT — short for Kustom Widget — is a WYSIWYG widget creator, and its basis is quite simple: what you see is what you get. KWGT allows users of all skill levels to build and modify widgets layer by layer, piece by piece so that they get a widget that fits and performs exactly as desired.

Read more: Why KWGT is an essential tool for Android themers

Don’t worry, you don’t have to build each and every widget from scratch. KWGT Pro enables you to pull in presets — pre-built widgets — from other users and from Kustom packs, packaged KWGT presets and komponents. This means that KWGT widgets are easier the share than they are to build, and themers often share their KWGT presets while showing off their themes in communities like r/androidthemes/.

KWGT is also a good way to introduce yourself to WYSIWYG editors and Kustom’s framework before you dive into KLWP — Kustom Live Wallpaper — KWGT’s beefier big brother.

Download: KWGT (Free, $4.49)

Why Zooper isn’t here

Once upon a time, Zooper was the WYSIWYG widget maker that diehard themers turned to. The UI was a hair easier to pick up on Zooper, but unfortunately, Zooper hasn’t been updated since 2015, and it was even briefly removed from Google Play in December. In short, it’s outdated, unreliable, and not worth your effort today.

Your turn

If you have widgets that are team players when you theme, sing out in the comments below! We’re always on the lookout for a few good widgets.

Read more: the best music widgets for Android

Updated February 2018: This article has been completely overhauled and rewritten to reflect developments and discontinuations in the Android widget space.

Apex Construct review: A great experience held back by PlayStation VR

Interesting puzzles and beautiful world interspersed with moments of screaming frustration.

The PlayStation VR community has been spending a lot of time in Sprint Vector lately, and while it isn’t a new virtual sport, Apex Construct will no doubt soon be hogging some of the spotlight.

Developed by Fast Travel Games, it has been created from the start with story-driven VR content in mind. You play as someone called into a dystopian future world by Fathr, an AI created before “The Shift.” It seems that — no surprise — humans turned everything upside down with their experiments, and the world is now stalked by robotic spiders, dogs, and more.

A narrator fills you in on what’s going on here, and you soon learn that the voice is that of Fathr. There’s another AI on the loose here named Mothr, created by a competing tech company before the world was rearranged. They seem to be at odds, and you immediately feel like you’re caught between the two, used as some sort of tool. Whoever came up with the plot might have had a rough childhood.

After a quick tutorial, you’re let into your safehouse, where you can buy upgrades for your bow, shield, and arrows, as well as choose which section of the city to venture out into to either progress the storyline or repeat to find all the secrets. As soon as you get into a real mission, it’s evident that the game is going to be a treat.

See at PlayStation Store

About this review

I did a playthrough of Apex Construct using a standard PS4, though PS4 Pro is recommended. Released February 20 for PSVR, Apex Construct is also expected to be released March 20, 2018 for HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows Mixed Reality.

Apex Construct gameplay and mechanics

During the initial setup you’re asked if you’d like to play seated or standing (you can also change this from the main menu). I chose the latter and didn’t look back, as you’re often required to make quick turns and often can’t get quite get close enough with the teleport mechanic to properly reach out and grab something on a shelf or table.

I imagine seated play would be a bit frustrating, but at least there is standard locomotion available that lets you sidle right up to the edges without having to carefully point your controller and click to move. I suggest enabling smooth movement, as you can still teleport with it enabled. The combination is much better than just teleporting.

In the brief tutorial you’re given a bow and arrows that will follow you through the rest of the game. This is your main weapon, equipped with an energy shield that can be deployed when you aren’t firing arrows. While you can send it back into your artificial hand, I found that keeping it out beside me was easier.

There is usually an audio cue that heralds enemies in the area, but you will be surprised once in awhile. Entering the inventory screen above your left hand, choosing the bow, and drawing an arrow before you’re attacked is often too slow when using the clunky Move controllers.

The inventory is laid out well, and you have six slots into which you can insert objects you find in the world. This makes for some interesting inventory management issues in the later game. Within this hand menu is also where you can choose which arrows to use based on the task at hand (some deliver different damage and some are required to complete puzzles), a health bar, and a currency counter.

A lot of the time you’ll be walking around, discovering the world and solving puzzles, and this is for the most part the best part of the game. There is some seriously frustrating typing you have to do to gain access to doors and to read files — a must for anyone who wants to get the whole story — that will have you screaming when, for the eighth time in a row, your virtual finger mashes three keys at once and you’re hitting the Del key once again. Hacking terminals with a keyboard in VR is certainly a good idea in theory, but the PS Move controllers don’t seem up to the task.

The big keyboard on the left isn’t a problem, but the one on the right will give you a hard time.

The Move controller problem carries over to combat. There are already a few archery VR games on the market that get the mechanics right, and I think Apex Construct can sit among them. But that’s only when your bow isn’t ghosting around on its own because you’ve put the controllers close together to draw the bow and the camera has lost tracking. Again, this is an issue with PSVR rather than the game itself. When your bow works as it should — which is about 75 percent of the time — downing an enemy is satisfying, especially when you can nail them before they get close.

Playing Apex Construct with a 360-degree trackable environemnt would make a lot more sense.

You can choose from either a click-and-flick method of snap turning or smooth rotation with a button press, but can’t use both though they use different buttons on the Move controller. When you’re under pressure, the former method often fails. If you don’t flick your wrist quite far enough, you’ll turn 180 degrees rather than about 45, and turning your physical body doesn’t work either because the camera is only in front of you.

Smooth turning is a bit better, but playing Apex Construct with a 360-degree trackable environemnt would make a lot more sense and would no doubt result in far fewer deaths at the hands of an enemy who probably recounted the tale to his pals later about how I was spinning around with a flailing bow while he/she shot me undisturbed.

Luckily, when you do die, you’re able to continue from just before the moment combat was initiated. You don’t get by without a penalty though, and the in-game currency, Radiance Points (RP), are removed from your person. RP is only safely banked when you make it back to your safehouse at mission’s end, and from there can be used to buy upgrades.

Apex Construct immersion and world

The world after The Shift is one that I didn’t at all mind exploring. Right down to bus numbers inside of the wind shelters, it is beautiful and full of detail. Buildings sit every which way, and water trickles out of enormous rock formations, gurgling and sparkling. It’s easy to run through the game at top speed, hitting the bare minimum of requirements to complete puzzles, but once you slow down, you begin to notice the small stuff.

Inside, where there’s a bit less to look at, there are notes and charts and storerooms full of tidbits that tell just a bit more of the story, enticing you to go back and search through the level again when you see that you’re still missing a secret or two. The first few times I returned to the safehouse, I went straight back to the mission screen to continue. I finally decided to explore a bit at home and discovered that even here there were a few things that contributed to the overall feel of the game.

It takes about five hours to get through the story, but you can no doubt spend a lot more time here getting to 100 percent completion. Some areas are not accessible the first time through, so all you can do is make a mental note to come back later. Other than the frustrations here and there brought on by the hardware limitations, I left feeling satisfied. The voice of Fathr has a bit of a cheesy whisper sound to it — my significant other asked if I was playing a Batman game — but even that kind of adds to the mystical feeling once you listen to it for awhile.

If you’re running PSVR with a standard PS4, don’t fret. Graphics are impressive, even on the older console, and I imagine running the game on PS4 Pro will take it even further. I saw a couple of minor bugs I think had to do with objects clipping with others, but nothing at all close to game-breaking.

Apex Construct review: Conclusion

Apex Construct is a game clearly created with love, and it shows in the beautifully shifted world and its many secrets. The story is intriguing and once completed, the list of secrets pulls you back for just one more foray into the city. The puzzles are varied enough that they don’t get stale, and you’ll only be screaming in frustration at the virtual keyboard part of the time.

The combat has you dodging and alternating between shield and bow, and it changes things up by forcing you to choose the right arrow for the enemy at hand, but the PSVR’s Move controllers often bug out and have you shooting anywhere but at the robotic foe. Likewise, in tense moments, snap turning in the game and really turning in your VR space get mixed up, and once the controllers are out of sight of the PS camera, it’s time to restart from a checkpoint without the RP you gained.

Bottom line here is that Apex Construct is a great game (especially at about $30), but the overall experience is held back by the hardware. Any game with a bow should make you feel like you’re a dead-eye shooter, but you’ll almost feel yourself dreading the next encounter, and not because the enemy is too skilled or strong.

When it all works as it should — which, I should say, is still the majority of the time — I can see that the developers really cared about their project, and I can see that it’s going to be a memorable experience for a lot of people.

See at PlayStation Store

Pros:

• Detailed, beautiful world.
• Interesting story.
• Lots of secrets to find.
• Varied puzzles to solve.

Cons:

• Typing is a nightmare.
• Combat often feels like a coin toss.
• Overall held back by hardware.

Incredible

4/5

PlayStation 4

• PS4 vs. PS4 Slim vs. PS4 Pro: Which should you buy?
• PlayStation VR Review
• Playing PS4 games through your phone is awesome

Amazon

Best Cases for the Honor 7X

The Honor 7X is a great phone, so why not protect it with a great case?

The Honor 7X is one of the latest phones in the Huawei subsidiary’s lineup, and we’ve called it one of the best budget phones you can buy. It’s fast, it’s long-lasting, and its display and cameras both outperform most similarly priced options.

If you’re the proud owner of a 7X, you probably want to keep it safe. That’s why we’ve rounded up some of the best cases we could find.

• Spigen Rugged Armor
• KuGi Flexible Soft
• TopACE Silicone Cover
• Nillkin Sim Thin
• Yiakeng Dual Layer

Spigen Rugged Armor

Spigen is one of the most recognizable and reputable case brands around, so naturally it’s the first choice on our list. The Rugged Armor provides full coverage protection for the Honor 7X without adding much bulk.

Its TPU material is flexible and easy to apply, and uses a webbed inner lining to absorb shock from drops. The cutouts give full access to all of the Honor 7X’s ports, and the carbon fiber styling up top and bottom adds a nice aesthetic touch.

The Spigen Rugged Armor case is available on Amazon for just $11.99.

See at Amazon

KuGi Flexible Soft

If you prefer the look of leather to carbon fiber, KuGi’s case may be more to your liking. This case offers similar protection to the Spigen Rugged Armor, wrapping around the Honor 7X to protect the sides and back from damage.

This case is made of TPU, with a ribbed texture along the sides to make it easier to grip. Though the leather on the back isn’t real, it adds some nice texture of its own, and maintains a clean look that’s mostly free of branding, with just a small logo in the upper right corner.

The KuGi Flexible Soft case is even cheaper than the Spigen case, at just $8.50 on Amazon.

See at Amazon

TopACE Silicone Cover

This clear silicone cover from TopACE is perfect for shoppers who still want to be able to see the premium design of the Honor 7X through a case. Like the others before it, this case is made of a flexible TPU, offering enough protection to save the phone from most drops.

The TopACE case offers large cutouts for its ports — unlike the clear case included in the box with the Honor 7X — as well as for the cameras, ports, and fingerprint sensor.

You can snag one a TopACE case for just $7.55 at Amazon.

See at Amazon

Nillkin Slim Thin

Though full coverage cases offer the most protection, some users simply want the lightest case possible to keep the back from getting scratched up. The Nillkin Slim Thin is a simple shell-style case that clips onto the sides of the Honor 7X while leaving the top and bottom of the phone exposed.

This case’s polycarbonate material is harder and more durable than TPU, and comes with a grippy non-slip finish. The open bottom makes it easy to plug in cables of all sizes, and the buttons are exposed for easy access as well.

The Nillkin Slim Thin is just $9.99 on Amazon.

See at Amazon

Yiakeng Dual Layer

Slim cases are great, but sometimes you need a bit more protection — that’s where Yiakeng comes in with its dual layer case. This case combines soft TPU with a hard polycarbonate outer shell, offering superior drop protection.

In addition, the textured backing adds some grip to the phone, and the case even features a pop-out kickstand for watching movies.

The Yiakeng dual layer case is available on Amazon for $7.98.

See at Amazon

Which one should you buy?

There are plenty of good cases to choose from, but no matter which you use, the important thing is that you’re protecting your phone. Let us know what case you’re using (or thinking about ordering) in the comments below!

If you’re not using night mode on Google Home, you’re doing it wrong

Don’t let dumb AI kill the mood.

When you think of “night mode” on a device, you think of a dimmed screen and muted notifications. I’d never really thought about it on something that doesn’t have a display.

That is, until I stashed the Google Home Max in my bedroom.

Because there’s nothing quite like enjoying a day full of Norwegian death metal in the comfort of one’s own chambers, only to retire to bed in the evening and command Google Assistant to turn off all the lights and OK TURNING OFF NINE LIGHTS — IT LOOKS LIKE FOUR LIGHTS AREN’T AVAILABLE RIGHT NOW GOODNIGHT PHIL SORRY ABOUT WAKING THE KIDS AND FOR TOTALLY KILLING THE MOOD BUT DON’T WORRY I’M SURE THIS SORT OF THING HAPPENS ALL THE TIME.

Google Home — and especially Google Home Max when kept where the magic happens — badly need a night mode.

Turns out Google Home has a night mode.

Head into the Google Home app and hit that awful little devices icon to get to the list of all your Googles Home. (Or is it Google Homes? Whatever.) Then find the device you want to enable night mode on. Hit the three-button overflow menu and choose settings. Then choose Night Mode.

From there, you can set the Night Mode schedule (mine is now at a depressingly early 9 p.m.), adjust the LED brightness (less of a big deal) and maximum volume (a very big deal).

What you can’t do is set this from the Google Home itself — you’ll have to go into the app to do the deed. So much for smart assistants, eh?