At $10 each, these smart home accessories are no-brainer buys for Alexa device owners

Buy now, think later.

Right now, you can grab TP-Link’s Wi-Fi smart plug mini or LIFX’s mini white smart bulb for just $10 at Amazon when you use coupon code SMART10 during checkout. This pricing is impulse buy territory, seriously. At $10 each, you can afford to give both a try and finally see what all the smart home stuff is about, or expand your current one at a small cost.

This promotion is only available to those who have an Alexa-enabled device, like the Echo Dot linked to their Amazon account, but at this point that’s likely most of you. Both of these accessories can be controlled using your Alexa device with a simple voice command, so if you’ve been looking to expand your current smart home system, or finally try one out, this is the best way to do it. Amazon also has a bunch of other smart home accessories on sale at 20% off, so be sure to check them out as well.

See at Amazon

Android Pie’s new Overview is giving first-party launchers a big advantage

Would you rather have a good Overview or a good launcher?

Android Pie is here and it’s got goodies for everyone — except for third-party launchers, it seems. Android Pie overhauled the recent apps screen when it switched over to the new gesture navigation system and renamed this new recent apps and app shortcuts screen Overview, and Overview also has the app drawer built right into it, meaning that you can pull open your app drawer with two quick swipes up from the new pill-shaped home button.

There’s just one problem: it’s a launcher feature that almost no launchers can actually use.

The new Overview interface is lovely: the app previews are bigger, the horizontal carousel means that it’s harder to accidentally tap the wrong app by mistake, and the quick access to any app through the included app drawer means that I need return to the home screen far less while I’m trying to get things done. Then I switched from the Pixel Launcher back to Nova Launcher for my patriotic summer themes, and suddenly the Overview menu got a whole lot less useful.

Because of the app suggestions and app drawer being built into this new recent apps UI, Overview is a launcher feature that still required system permissions. Google won’t give third-party launchers the permissions they need to use it, but manufacturers can build it right into the launcher they ship on their phones, just like the Google feed pane that originated in the Google Now Launcher, may it rest in peace.

“Okay, so third-party launchers will just build a companion to build into Overview the way they did for Google Now, right?” Well, not so fast.

The key difference here lies in the permission levels needed for each feature. The Google Now pane required either a launcher with system permissions or that the client app using the Google Now feed be debuggable. That loophole allowed third-party launchers to create debuggable add-ons to enable Google Now without system permissions that they can’t get, and there’s no such loophole for the Overview suggestions and app drawer features in Android Pie. It’s not looking good, but it isn’t going to stop launcher developers from trying; the Smart Launcher team tells Android Central it is looking for ways to try and bring this feature to its users, and it is not alone in that search.

Since third-party launchers can’t offer up suggestions or app drawers in Overview, users are left with a bit of a choice. Would you rather have a launcher with robust features like customizable gestures and smart app drawer sorting, or would you rather have the app drawer in Overview and just try to ignore the shortcomings of Android’s lackluster first-party launchers?

For those who only use the home screen for a couple of app shortcuts and a cute wallpaper, the the Overview screen will essentially replace their home screen. After all, why go back to the home screen when you can open your app drawer anywhere? Power users that swear by Smart Launcher 5’s app drawer or Nova Launcher’s subgrid positioning would rather return to a home screen that’s set up just they way they want than deal with the dull and often cringeworthingly mismatched app drawers most manufacturer launchers come with.

As for me, I’m stuck here in the middle. Sure, the app drawer in the Pixel Launcher is a downgrade from my Nova Launcher tabs and my Smart Launcher categories, but being able to open any app on my phone in three seconds via the Overview menu is such a time saver, especially when my most used apps are always sitting in that five-app dock below my most recent app.

In a perfect world, I could have both, but we all know the world we live in today is anything but perfect. I can hope and dream that Overview can work together with the best launchers on Android to give users the experience they deserve no matter where they open their app drawer from. But I remember how long it took for Google Now panes to come from the Google Now Launcher to third-party launchers, and so I’ll settle in.

I’m going to be hoping and dreaming for a long, long time before that day comes.

Android 9 Pie

• Android 9 Pie review: Greater than the sum of its slices
• Everything you need to know about Android 9 Pie!
• Will my phone get Android Pie?
• How to get Android 9 Pie on your Pixel right now
• Join the Discussion

Qualcomm sets date for event unveiling new Wear OS chipsets

The future for Wear OS will be unveiled on September 10.

Anyone who’s curious about the future of smartwatches running on Wear OS will want to circle September 10th on the calendar. That’s the day that Qualcomm will formally announce its new processing platform for smartwatches.

Hmmm. Just got a save-the-date from Qualcomm. Wonder what’s happening September 10? pic.twitter.com/HVeJrVSo2k

— Michael Fisher (@theMrMobile) August 7, 2018

As we’ve previously reported, this announcement is expected to reinvigorate the Android smartwatch segment and provide a significant upgrade from the Snapdragon Wear 2100, which is currently the best Qualcomm chipset available for wearables.

According to what’s been leaked so far, the new chip will come standard with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, with options available for GPS and LTE. The new chipset should allow for smaller smartwatches and improved battery life, and the event will also be used to unveil a new smartwatch running the chipset, along with announcements for other smartwatches that will be available for the holiday shopping season.

So far, we only have scant details on what to actually expect from the event. Still, it’s good to finally have a firm date set to see the future of Wear OS.

Are you excited to see what Qualcomm has in store for the next generation of Android Wearables?

TicWatch Pro review: A best-of-both-worlds hybrid

Google Wear OS

• The best Wear OS smartwatches
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How to use Android Pie’s Digital Wellbeing tools

Make the most out of your phone addiction.

One of the major pieces of the Android Pie — then Android P — presentation at Google I/O this past May aligned with what many other companies are trying to do: make it easier to disconnect. They’re doing this by providing usage metrics, and incentive through various “wind down” or Do Not Disturb features, that both inform the user and help them check their phone only when necessary.

On Android, these features rolled out as part of a Digital Wellbeing beta announced alongside the public Android 9 release, and there’s a lot to like here, along with some things to look forward to. Here’s how it all works.

What is Digital Wellbeing?

The idea behind Digital Wellbeing isn’t necessarily using your phone less, though it can lead to that behavior. Instead, according to EK Chung, a UX designer at Google who played a role in designing the new features, “[It’s] is all about high efficiency, and making your interaction with your device more meaningful and efficient so that you can get things done and then get back to what’s really meaningful in your life … actually simplifying how people get things done.”

In other words, if you’re spending too long on Twitter or Facebook right now, you may intellectually know this and may want to cut down but don’t know how to do it. Google is providing tools to not only make the whole OS feel more fluid and efficient but the ability to see how many minutes or hours you’re spending in an app, with an easy way of adding soft limits that make it more difficult to open it once you’ve hit them.

Digital Wellbeing: Everything you need to know

What phones support Digital Wellbeing right now?

Just the Pixel lineup running Android Pie supports Digital Wellbeing, which includes the Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, and Pixel 2 XL. It’s unclear whether other phone makers will add their own versions, use Google’s exact version, or just leave it out altogether, but they likely have the option of all three.

How do I sign up for the Digital Wellbeing beta?

Given that the tools are optional and are not currently baked into Pie, you have to sign up for the beta with the same email as your Google Play account, and once approved, you’ll receive an email from Google walking you through the sign-up process.

How to activate Digital Wellbeing once you sign up

Once you receive the approval for Digital Wellbeing, actually setting it up is quick and easy.

On your phone, open the email and tap Access the Beta now.
Once the web page opens, tap Become a tester.
Tap Download it from Google Play.
Tap Update on the Google Play Store link.

Once installed, you’ll now be able to find the Digital Wellbeing section in your Pixel’s settings page. Let’s go through the features.

The Dashboard

To find the Digital Wellbeing section, you must open your phone’s settings page and scroll down to find it. You can do this by opening the app drawer and tapping Settings, or swiping down the notification tray twice and tapping on the little settings cog.

Once in there, you’ll see the dashboard which will show you a circular chart of all the apps you’ve used that day. Tapping on it will take you into a list of all the apps you’ve used, ranking them by “screen time” by default. You can also rank them by “notifications received” and “times opened,” which may change the order considerably. For instance, I’ve only used Slack 18 minutes today (I use it mainly on my computer), but I’ve opened it 37 times. Yikes.

Tapping on an individual app shows you the breakdown per day or hour, which is helpful, but also lets you set timers and manage notifications.

How to limit the time you can spend in an app

App timers limit the amount of time you can spend in an app. When a timer is set, Android keeps track of how long that app has been open throughout the day and gives you warnings as you approach that limit. Once the limit is set, the app icon is greyed out and the OS gives you a warning saying you can’t open it until the following day. Of course, you can undo the app timer — it’s not a prison — but it’s a good way to prevent endless scrolling in Instagram and Twitter, for instance.

From the main Digital Wellbeing page, tap Dashboard.
Next to the app you want to limit, tap the arrow next to the words “No timer” and set a limit.

• By default, the limits are 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and 1 hour, but you can set a custom timer.

Use the app until your limit.

How to change or disable an app timer

When you butt up against your own app usage limits, the icon will grey out and you’ll get a notification saying that you can’t use it anymore. Of course, you can lengthen the timer if you really want to.

Tap on the greyed-out icon.
Tap Learn more.
Change the app timer to the number you want.

Wind Down

The idea behind Wind Down is pretty interesting. It combines existing Do Not Disturb behavior with the also-existing Night Light feature and, new to Pie, a Grayscale mode that turns your screen monochrome.

All of these things — fewer notifications, a warmer screen tint, and black-and-white imagery — are meant to make it easier to “wind down” and settle before bed. Here’s how to configure it.

From the main Digital Wellbeing page, tap Wind Down.
Check Use Wind Down to enable it.
Configure the time you want Wind Down to begin and end automatically.

• I have it between 11:30 pm and 7 am.

Check Grayscale and Do Not Disturb, which will help calm you down before bed.
Tap Night Light schedule to decide whether you want to tint your screen amber before bed.

• I recommend allowing the schedule to happen automatically at sunset and sunrise.

Reducing interruptions

Using your phone less is one of the strategies around Digital Wellbeing. The other is being distracted less when you’re using it, or when you’ve put it down.

One of the major parts of this is managing notifications. The fewer notifications you receive, the less likely you are to get lost in your phone when you only meant to pick it up to check something quickly.

How to manage notifications

In Android Oreo, Google introduced the idea of notification channels, which allow developers to break down the notifications they send you into various categories. The idea was to make it easier for the user to turn off specific notifications without disabling the app’s correspondence entirely.

With Pie and Digital Wellbeing, Google has made it easier to configure these notifications using the Digital Wellbeing tools.

From the main Digital Wellbeing page, tap Manage notifications.
Next to the app you want to manage, either:

• Uncheck the button to disable notifications entirely.
• Tap on the app icon itself to check for notification channels.

Some notifications, like phone calls, can’t be disabled, but it’s worth digging into the apps that annoy you the most to see whether it’s worth disabling them either partly or entirely. You may realize you don’t need any of them at all.

How to change Do Not Disturb features

Under “Reduce interruptions,” Google has also added a handy shortcut to the Do Not Disturb section, which has been improved for Android Pie. It’s now much more granular than before, allowing you to choose between seeing, but not hearing, notifications when they come in, along with what constitutes an exception.

It’s worth looking into the rules that automatically kick in, too. For example, you can choose to have Do Not Disturb turn on while you’re driving based on the phone’s motion or the Bluetooth receiver it’s connected to.

From the main Digital Wellbeing page, tap Do Not Disturb.
Near the bottom, tap Turn on automatically.
Tap on the rule you want to manage.

• You can also create new rules based on specific calendar events, or times of the day.

What’s yet to come?

At Google I/O, the company announced a couple of additional features that aren’t yet available in the Digital Wellbeing suite. For example, soon you’ll be able to turn over your Pixel phone to automatically enable Do Not Disturb, something that will definitely be helpful during meetings and coffee dates.

Google also plans to bring its popular Smart Replies feature to Android Pie, making it much easier and faster to respond to an incoming message without picking up your phone.

What do you think of Digital Wellbeing?

This is the beginning of Google’s digital wellness initiative, something that the company, despite wanting you to use your phone as much as possible, thinks will help you strike a better work-life-play balance.

So what do you think of its early incarnation? Let us know in the comments below!

Android 9 Pie

• Android 9 Pie review: Greater than the sum of its slices
• Everything you need to know about Android 9 Pie!
• Will my phone get Android Pie?
• How to get Android 9 Pie on your Pixel right now
• Join the Discussion

Refresh your phone accessories with discounts on Anker cables, chargers and more

Keep your phone charged and protected throughout the school day.

This week only, Anker is offering various Back to School deals on smartphone accessories and tech that’ll be super helpful for those getting back in the groove of classes. You’ll need to use the code ANKERBTS during checkout to activate the deal for each item. Prices start as low as $5 on essentials like iPhone X cases, USB wall chargers, and charging cables, but you only have until August 12 before the code becomes unusable.

If you’re in need of a charging cable, this 6-foot USB-C cable falls to $9.59 with the code, while a 3-foot version becomes $7.99. Alternatively, Anker’s 3-foot Lightning Cable is down to $11.19 in grey or red with the code. There’s also a Wireless Charger that drops to only $7.99.

One dorm room essential every new student will come to wish they had is the PowerPort Power Strip which features 12 outlets along with three USB ports. Using the code discounts its price by $8 down to $28. Any incoming dorm room occupant will also need a wall charger; you can get a standard dual USB charger for $11.99 or a USB-C version for $20.79.

Lastly, the Roav dash cam could be a great addition to your car during your long rides back and forth from home. It has a unique promo code C1AUDEAL to enter during checkout, which will make it available to you for just $54.99.

Other Anker products you could use the code ANKERBTS on include:

• 4-port USB Hub for $12.79
• 2-in-1 USB-C Memory Card Reader for $10.39
• SoundCore Boost Bluetooth Speaker for $63.20

Newton Mail will shut down in September

Newton will shut down in September after failing to find a viable business model.

Newton, a popular email app for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS, has announced that it will soon shut down. Founder Rohit Nadhani said that CloudMagic, the company that owns Newton, couldn’t find a viable business model that provided profitability and growth, citing stiff competition from first-party email apps. Newton will end service in September.

Writing on the Newton blog, Nadhani said:

It was a tough business decision. We explored various business models but couldn’t successfully figure out profitability & growth over the long term. It was hard; the market for premium consumer mail apps is not big enough, and it faces stiff competition from high quality free apps from Google, Microsoft, and Apple. We put up a hard and honest fight, but it was not enough to overcome the bundling & platform default advantages enjoyed by the large tech companies.

New sign-ups for Newton have been suspended immediately. Subscribers for Newton’s annual plan for $99.99 can claim a pro-rated refund, though this must be done by September 18, 2018. Newton’s app will be shut down on September 25, 2018.

CloudMagic originally launched its email app in 2013, later relaunching as Newton in 2016 as a subscription-based service. Newton could connect to apps and services like Todoist, Trello, and Evernote, the Tidy Inbox feature kept your inbox clutter-free, and the Recap could help you revisit unfinished conversations to find things you might have missed.

For those that loved Newton and the services it provided, it’s surely a sad day. I know many people across the Mobile Nations team are avid users of Newton, and will be sad to see it go.

Apple CEO Tim Cook on Apple Music: ‘We Worry About the Humanity Being Drained Out of Music’

In an extensive profile of Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek, Fast Company’s Robert Safian recently sat down to speak for a few minutes with Apple CEO Tim Cook at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California.

The topic was, of course, Spotify and Apple Music, two of the major players in the streaming music market and fierce competitors. Cook said that he looks to music as inspiration and motivation, a philosophy that’s shared at Apple and has guided its focus on human-based music curation.

“Music inspires, it motivates. It’s also the thing at night that helps quiet me. I think it’s better than any medicine,” Cook said.

While he declined to mention Spotify by name, Cook told Fast Company that Apple worries about streaming music losing the human touch, alluding to Spotify’s more algorithmic approach to highlighting content.

Cook’s words embody Apple’s longstanding critique of Spotify, which is that its algorithms are eroding music’s spiritual role in our lives. Cook doesn’t mention Spotify by name but says, “We worry about the humanity being drained out of music, about it becoming a bits-and-bytes kind of world instead of the art and craft.”

Despite launching just three years ago, Apple Music has 50 million paid subscribers and free trial members, with the company slowly catching up to Spotify. At last count, Spotify said that it had 83 million paid subscribers around the world.

Apple has always had an edge over Spotify due to its massive 1.3 billion active installed base, and the fact that it’s never needed to worry about profitability like Spotify has. “We’re not in it for the money,” Cook told Fast Company.

Ek, too, didn’t mention Apple Music by name, but he said he believes Spotify has something going for it that other companies don’t: a singular focus. “Music is everything we do all day, all night, and that clarity is the difference between the average and the really, really good,” he said.

Spotify’s dedication to music and music alone is what Ek believes will ultimately help the company beat Apple and expand the Spotify service in the future.

Competing with Apple was always Spotify’s plan, says Ek, even before Apple Music. Apple dominated digital music downloads via iTunes in 2008 when Spotify launched, with Ek aiming to replace the iPod with on-demand music.

Competition with Apple and working within tight margins, Ek says, has driven Spotify to be more disciplined.

Despite industry complaints and criticism from Apple, Spotify has continued to focus on free music, which is how Spotify draws in new paying subscribers. After going public earlier this year, Spotify overhauled its free listening tier, offering new features that include on-demand playlists and a data saving mode, which were previously limited to paying subscribers.

Ek believes that there’s money to be made with Spotify’s free tier, with radiolike advertising options. “Billions of people listen to radio, and most of that today isn’t monetized very efficiently,” Ek said.

Going forward, in addition to working to expand revenue via its free tier, Spotify plans to focus on artists. Ek eventually wants to get 1 million artists to make a living off of Spotify, ultimately imagining something akin to YouTube where artists and listeners can interact.

For anyone interested in the inner workings of Spotify or how Ek operates, Fast Company’s full profile of the founder is well worth checking out.

Tags: Spotify, Tim Cook, Apple Music
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Popular Newton Email App for iOS and Mac Shutting Down in September

Newton, a popular email service for iOS and Mac, is shutting down on September 25, the company’s founder Rohit Nadhani announced today.

Newton is a subscription-based app that costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year, a business model that did not end up being successful. Nadhani says that the company explored “various business models” but wasn’t able to “successfully figure out profitability & growth over the long term.”

According to Nadhani, the market for premium consumer mail apps is “not big enough” and faces competition from high-quality free apps from Google, Microsoft, and Apple. “We put up a hard and honest fight,” wrote Nadhani. “But it was not enough to overcome the bundling and platform default advantages enjoyed by the large tech companies.”

Starting today, Newton is disabling new sign-ups and will not be renewing monthly subscriptions. Customers who paid for an annual subscription will also be refunded on a pro-rata basis, with Newton to offer instructions on claiming a refund no later than September 18.

CloudMagic, Newton’s parent company, will continue to operate and will be focusing on “new and innovative products.”
Discuss this article in our forums

Apple Responds to U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce: ‘The Customer is Not Our Product’

Last month, the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce sent letters to Apple and Google parent company Alphabet with 16 multi-part questions about how the companies handle customer data.

Apple has since responded to the letter, reiterating the company’s belief that “privacy is a fundamental human right” and that it purposely designs its products and services to minimize its collection of customer data.

Timothy Powderly, Director of Federal Government Affairs at Apple, responded on behalf of Apple CEO Tim Cook:

Dear Mr. Chairman:

Thank you for your inquiry regarding the capabilities of Apple iPhone devices. Not all technology companies operate in the same manner— in fact, the business models and data collection and use practices are often radically different from one another. Apple’s philosophy and approach to customer data differs from many other companies on these important issues.

We believe privacy is a fundamental human right and purposely design our products and services to minimize our collection of customer data. When we do collect data, we’re transparent about it and work to disassociate it from the user. We utilize on device processing to minimize data collection by Apple. The customer is not our product, and our business model does not depend on collecting vast amounts of personally identifiable information to enrich targeted profiles marketed to advertisers.

Because we strongly believe the customer should control their personal information and the way it’s used, we provide a number of easily accessible resources on our website so that they can make wise choices. Most of your questions are addressed in public-facing documents such as our privacy website, which can be found at http://www.apple.com/privacy. In addition, we recently answered similar questions from Senator Charles Grassley, and our responses are available online.

Innovation at Apple means designing a new product or service with customer privacy as a key element of design, and not an obligation. We hope that the responses below are helpful in understanding these topics and make clear Apple’s position that customers are entitled to transparency, choice, and control over their personal information. We would be pleased to brief Committee staff at your convenience.

Apple provided detailed responses to all 16 questions, and background information on location services, in its full-length letter.

Apple’s Response to U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee Questions on Personal Data Collection by MacRumors on Scribd

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: privacy
Discuss this article in our forums

Pentagon restricts fitness trackers and other geolocators in high-risk areas

Security threats from wearables with geolocation features led the Pentagon to restrict the use of fitness trackers and other devices, according to The Associated Press.

Citing a Pentagon memo, the AP reported military leaders would make the call on mobile device use. When command staff determines the security threat level from wearables’ GPS use is too high, personnel will be banned from activating geolocation features or from using the devices at all.

Many fitness trackers and other mobile devices with geolocation functions can reveal current locations and routes to social media. Unrestricted use of devices with location features is a significant concern when personnel are in war zones or sensitive areas.

“These geolocation capabilities can expose personal information, locations, routines, and numbers of DOD personnel, and potentially create unintended security consequences and increased risk to the joint force and mission,” the memo said according to the AP.

The Pentagon began investigating fitness devices that reveal global user locations earlier this year. Fitness-focused social networking company Strava published The Global Heat Map using subscriber data to show where people worked out. Pentagon personnel were not pleased when it was discovered that military base locations and troop movements were inadvertently revealed.

The security threat presented by The Global Heat Map prompted predictions that use of GPS-equipped fitness devices would be restricted. The penny dropped with the recent Pentagon memo.

“It goes back to making sure that we’re not giving the enemy an unfair advantage and we’re not showcasing the exact locations of our troops worldwide,” Pentagon spokesman Army Colonel Rob Manning told The AP.

In May, the military instituted new regulations for cell phone use at the Pentagon itself, according to the AP. Cell phones are not allowed in areas where sensitive topics are discussed but must be left in storage containers outside secure areas.

Rules limiting cell phones in secure locations inside the Pentagon were previously in place, but the May memo tightened and added to those restrictions. Now Pentagon personnel will need to leave their fitness trackers, smartwatches, and any other devices with geolocation functions in the storage containers.

Cell phones and fitness trackers are not banned entirely from the Pentagon and other military locations, but the new regulations underscore concerns about revealing location information.

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