Google Fit and new notifications arrive in much-needed Wear OS update

Google’s Wear OS is evolving. The wearable device operating system has been crying out for an overhaul for sometime, and following the release of a revitalized Google Fit app, Wear OS is also receiving a small but meaningful update.

At the time of writing we have not tried it out, and there are a few unanswered questions over how the alterations will work at this point. Once we’ve got some clarification, we’ll update here; but in the meantime here’s what’s new.

Easier, faster access

Perhaps most welcome of all among the changes is a new notification system, which Google says makes it easier to browse, dismiss, or interact with incoming alerts. Swipe up in the new notification stream to show all your notifications in one go, with quick replies available with a tap, including the pre-made smart replies. We’re interested to see how this works, as it doesn’t sound drastically different to Wear OS’s current way of delivering notifications, but in Google’s screenshots and animations it looks a lot neater and more concise.

A downward swipe displays shortcuts to often used features including Google Pay and Find my Phone, although it’s not clear whether these can be manually added, are fixed shortcuts, or generated by usage. Google Assistant is closer to hand in the updated Wear OS. Swipe right to see contextual alerts, such as flight status and hotel details, and smart suggestions will also arrive here with updates related to these situations, like weather and directions. The Assistant will also learn your behavior and provide helpful daily reminders, plus suggest features you’ve never used.

Following on from the new Google Fit app, Wear OS also incorporates changes to Fit, which is now integrated as a swipe in from the left. You can see current activity levels based on Move Minutes and Heart Points, and it’s also possible to start a new workout from this screen too. In the screenshots, the circular progress dials seen in the new Google Fit app appear on the watch, in a similar fashion to Apple’s Activity rings on the Apple Watch.

Google plans to send the new Wear OS version out over the coming month, but has not given a precise date, and also warned that features will vary depending on not only the watch, but also on the phone’s operating system. This suggests some older versions of Android may not run all the features we’ve described. An update of Wear OS comes at an interesting time, as rumors swirl about a Pixel smartwatch, and the impending arrival of a new Qualcomm chip designed for wearables, replacing the aging Snapdragon Wear 2100.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The Google Pixel Watch: Here’s everything we know
• Is Google launching an A.I. fitness coach for smartwatches?
• This is how Google will improve the quality of Wear OS apps
• Google Assistant: Everything you need to know
• Google Fit hands-on: Bare-bones, but effective

Nimble’s battery packs and wireless chargers are eco-friendly

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Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Nimble Wireless Pad with Travel Kit. Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

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Nimble Wireless Pad Travel Kit. Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

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Nimble Wireless Stand. Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

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Nimble Wireless Dual Pad. Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Scroll through Amazon and you’ll find a countless number of companies churning out portable battery packs and wireless charging pads. Nimble is yet another, but it stands out from the crowd for two reasons: It places a heavy emphasis on building eco-friendly products made of sustainable materials, and it’s founded by former Mophie executives.

Nimble, which launched today, August 29, is starting off with two categories: Wireless charging pads and portable battery packs. The products are made of “plant-based bioplastics,” with the wireless chargers utilizing 100-percent organic hemp and recycled polyester. There’s also recycled aluminum involved, no paint or toxic substances, and the products have “natural mineral crystals” mixed in with the thermoplastic elastomer (TPE), which delivers a unique pattern to every device. Even the packaging is made of 100-percent recycled scrap paper, and the company said it’s completely compostable.

Nimble co-founders Ross Howe, Kevin Malinowski, and Jon Bradley — all ex-Mophie executives — wanted to introduce a new aesthetic into the accessory category, with designs that blend into the home and don’t look too “tech-y.”

“In addition to the best specs available out there right now and the considered approach for the packaging and materials used — and the responsible ethical approach we took — we also focused on unique feature sets, like little things that other people making similar products haven’t really thought about that adds value for the customer,” Malinowski, head of brand and marketing at Nimble, told Digital Trends.

Here’s a look at the first products from the startup.

Wireless charging pads

• 1.
  Nimble Wireless Pad with Travel Kit.
• 2.
  Nimble Wireless Pad Travel Kit.
• 3.
  Nimble Wireless Stand.
• 4.
  Nimble Wireless Dual Pad.

The wireless charging pads are wrapped with a 100-percent hemp material that looks elegant, with TPE bases that are quite grippy. They come in either charcoal black or gray — the latter color is what’s pictured. All of them support the Qi wireless standard, and come with a Quick Charge 3.0 USB wall charger, as well as a USB-A to USB-C cable.

The Nimble Wireless Pad is a small rectangular pad with rounded corners, and it’s the cheapest on the list at $40. It’s capable of charging compatible iPhone devices at 7.5 watts, and Android phones at 10 watts. The fast-charging USB Type-C port is what you’ll use to plug the pad to the wall outlet, but there’s also an additional USB-A port in case you want to charge a second device.

In the Nimble Wireless Travel Kit, you get the same Nimble Wireless Pad as well as a dual USB wall charger. With the wall charger plugged in and connected to the Wireless Pad, you’ll now have two extra USB-A ports to charge other devices. The wall charger has space to store one cable, and it magnetically attaches to the Wireless Pad for carrying convenience. The Travel Kit includes the Wireless Pad and costs a little more at $60.

Then there’s the Nimble Wireless Stand, which lets you prop up your device vertically or horizontally while charging. It has the same specs and ports as the standard Wireless Pad, and it costs $50. The Nimble Wireless Dual Pad is the more interesting device of the lot, allowing you to wirelessly charge two devices at once. They’ll have to lay flat, though, unlike Samsung’s new Wireless Charger Duo.

Since there are only two charging coils inside, you’ll need to make sure you place the devices correctly to ensure they are charging — something you won’t need to worry about with Apple’s upcoming AirPower charging pad, which we may see at the company’s September event. The Dual Pad also costs $50.

Battery packs

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The battery packs are a little more versatile, as they allow you to charge a wider variety of devices, and they’re easy to carry on the go. Nimble has four portable chargers at varying capacities, all housed in recycled aluminum: The smallest is the 10,000mAh battery, followed by a 13,000mAh, 20,000mAh, and 26,000mAh capacity.

The 13,000mAh and 26,000mAh chargers have three USB-A ports, whereas the other two only have two — but all of them have at least one that supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 fast-charging technology. All come with an 18-watt USB-C PD port that you can use to recharge the battery or another device as well.

What’s unique are the LED lights — they not only tell you how much juice is left in the pack, but an extra LED light confirms when a device is utilizing fast charging. Most Android smartphones let the user know on the lock screen, but there’s no way to tell on other products like iPhones; this makes it handy when you want to make sure the device is charging as fast as possible. All the battery packs also come with a cable management strap that magnetically attaches to the bottom of the battery, which helps keep things tidy.

The 10,000mAh battery costs $50, and pricing ramps up all the way to $100 for the 26,000mAh battery.

The Tech Recovery Project

The choice to use these eco-friendly materials wasn’t easy, as Howe said manufacturers pushed back, suggesting they use materials everyone else is using.

“How come no one is sourcing better materials, low-impact materials, thinking about the environment?”

“How come no one is sourcing better materials, low-impact materials, thinking about the environment?” Malinowski said. “They’re doing it in shoes, they’re doing it food, they’re doing it in clothing … every other industry has taken a more ethical approach except consumer tech. So we’re like, ‘Wow this is a gaping hole and somebody has to enter and kick-start the new way of doing things.’”

Doubling down on the company’s goal of reducing electronic waste, every product you buy from Nimble comes with a pouch you can use to send any used electronics lying around. Nimble claims it will “recycle up to one pound of e-waste for every product sold,” and it has partnered with Homeboy Electronics Recycling to make it all work. Shipping is covered, too; you just need to nab a label from Nimble’s website.

While Nimble is starting out with battery packs and wireless charging pads, it’s planning on unveiling products in completely different categories early next year — and they will still maintain a heavy focus on using sustainable and recycled materials. The new portable batteries and wireless charging pads are available from Nimble’s website, and they’ll be available through Amazon soon.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The best portable chargers of 2018
• The best wireless phone chargers for your iPhone or Android
• Mophie vs. Belkin vs. Anker vs. iOttie: Finding the best wireless charging pad for iPhones
• Samsung’s Wireless Charger Duo can charge two devices at the same time
• Nomad creates a wireless charging pad just for the Tesla Model 3

Get Freesync working on Nvidia graphics cards with any AMD GPU

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

It turns out you don’t need to shell out a couple of hundred dollars extra to enjoy frame synchronizing support with Nvidia’s G-Sync — you can simply force your Nvidia card to run Freesync instead. You will need an AMD card or chip (like an APU) of some description to make it work, but once you have the hardware in place, the process for getting Freesync working is relatively painless.

Of the two frame-syncing technologies, Freesync is the more open and affordable standard, with G-Sync monitors often requiring extra expenditure to enjoy the feature. However, typically you need an AMD graphics card to run it and as great as those cards can be, the best graphics cards are almost all Nvidia branded. Fortunately, a new workaround to give you the best of both worlds has been discovered.

Redditor Survfate was the first to post up the full guide on how to do it, showing that it was possible to get Freesync running on a GTX 1060 graphics card. It’s not the most convoluted process, but there are a few steps to adhere to, so following along with Survfate’s instructions is your best way to get the desired end result. Suffice it to say though, it involves having the display itself run on the AMD GPU, be that a dedicated graphics card or an APU, but rendering the game you’re playing on it is done through the Nvidia card instead.

With Freesync, enabled gamers are able to enjoy frame syncing for a smoother gaming experience without shelling out for a more expensive G-Sync monitor. WCCFTech reports that there is almost no performance overhead from using such a workaround, but does suggest that if you’re using an APU rather than a dedicated CPU, you won’t be making the most of your gaming experience. Fortunately, Survfate seems confident that you can use any supporting AMD graphics card, too.

Since Nvidia may end up patching this hole in its exclusivity deals, it’s probably not advisable to go out and buy a Freesync display or any of the other required hardware to make this happen. But if you happen to have an older AMD GPU doing nothing and are otherwise using an Nvidia card on a compatible display without Freesync, it’s certainly worth giving it a go.

Editors’ Recommendations

• G-Sync vs. FreeSync: Refresh technologies vie to up gaming experience
• Nvidia’s RTX 2000 GPUs look like A.I. hardware dressed up for gamers
• Cryptocurrency may be why you still don’t have Nvidia GTX 11 Series graphics
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 11 Series’ arrival is uncertain after Computex remark
• Everything you need to know about the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2000 series

New Intel CPUs bake in gigabit wireless and Alexa support

Intel isn’t quite ready to release its 10nm Cannon Lake chips just yet, but it does have some mid-generation upgrades for its eighth generation chips in the works. The new Whiskey Lake U-series CPUs integrate a gigabit wireless controller, potentially opening up much faster Wi-Fi speeds to midrange laptops. Y-series CPUs will introduce native support for smart assistants like Cortana and Alexa.

The release schedule and lineup of Intel hardware from the past year and the year to come have been shaken up dramatically by AMD’s stellar Ryzen CPU lines. The stiff competition encouraged Intel to up core counts and push out refreshes of eighth-series CPUs to stay competitive and that’s great for consumers. We’ve seen six-core Core i5 CPUs, and the super-fast ninth-generation CPUs which can hit clock speeds of 5GHz on a couple of cores aren’t far away now.

In the meantime though, Intel is also bolstering its eighth-generation lineup of Kaby Lake R hardware with the new Whisky Lake U-series and an Amber Lake Y-series. Both are based on the same underlying Kaby Lake architecture but do include a couple of new features which could make them attractive to system builders and potential buyers. The U-series CPUs have a powerful gigabit Wi-Fi module built in, and this should lead to far faster wireless internet access for the lower-end laptops that these chips are targeted at.

The new chips include: the Core i3-8256U CPU with two cores, four threads, and a clock speed of 3.9GHz when boosted; the Core i5-8256U with four cores, eight threads, and a boost clock of 3.9GHz, and the Core i7-8565U with four cores, eight threads, and a boosted clock of 4.6GHz, as per The Verge.

Joining the new U-series CPUs are an additional three in what’s being called the Amber Lake Y-series. The big new feature of those chips is the baked-in support for smart assistants. Alexa recently made headway in specific laptop brands, but with support built right into the hardware itself, we could see this expand into many more laptops in the future.

The Y-series includes the Core m3-8100Y, with two cores, four threads, and a boosted clock of 3.4GHz; the i5-8200Y with two cores, four threads, and a boosted clock of 3.9GHz, and the Core i7-8500Y, with two cores, four threads, and a boosted clock of 4.2GHz.

Expect these chips to begin showing up in entry-level and midrange laptops in the coming months.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Dell’s refresh of the XPS 13 2-in-1 series dips its toes into Intel’s Amber Lake
• Intel’s 9th-generation processor could launch next month with 8 cores
• Intel may debut a Core i9 desktop CPU for the general market in 2018
• The MacBook Pro may finally get updated with faster processors
• Intel 9th-generation CPUs are refreshes with slight clock speed bumps

What are the Android Support Libraries and why are they important?

Android is a fragmented mess. There is no getting around this simple fact, and because of what Android is and how it’s distributed, it’s never going to change.

Once you face the simple truth that fragmentation is here to stay, you’re left with trying to find ways to mitigate it so that device makers can keep the freedom they currently have while app developers can build the newest, coolest things to install on them. That’s why Android is as popular as it is, and if you go fiddling with that formula, you might do more harm than good. Getting a turn-key suite of productivity services and a giant application marketplace on showcase hardware it develops in-house is what keeps Samsung making Android phones and not slapping Tizen on all the things.

Google works hard to make the whole fragmentation thing a non-issue. Some ways are successful — Play Services allows some features to be almost version independent and offers a few extra protections for devices without the latest security tweaks. Some are not as successful; Material Design was supposed to make all apps look great on all devices. Some will be successful in the future, like Project Treble. But one of the things Google does transcends success and turns into amazing, especially if you’re an app developer: the Android Support Libraries.

Nobody blames you if you have no idea what they are and haven’t ever heard of them. Unless you’re a developer, you don’t need to know anything about how they work or how they are used, but they are one of the more interesting things Google does so that fragmentation is only a thing smartphone nerds care about instead of a real issue in the real world for real people.

What are the Android Support Libraries?

The Android Support Library is a set of code libraries — resources that can be used to build features and/or functions into an app — that provide things like features or widgets that would normally require an actual Android framework API to include in an app. Android framework APIs are the core features available to developers provided by a specific version of Android. For example, Android 7.0 APIs enabled multi-window support for every app on every device. Support Libraries can provide similar features independently of the operating system version.

More: Here are the Android Pie features that work on earlier versions

There are generally two types of support library packages. One set enables features of new versions of Android on devices running an older version and the other provides standalone features for all versions of Android. Because these aren’t part of Android proper, they can be improved and updated without waiting for a major Android platform release.

At Google I/O 2018, we learned about Android Jetpack, and one of its features is a new way to include library support — meaning we should see the even faster adoption of new features into the Support Libraries because of it. That means small but cool ideas and tweaks can be available for app developers long before next August when Android Q (not Quiche Lorraine) comes around.

Why are the Android Support Libraries important?

There is one specific thing that makes them important to you and me — we don’t have to wait for the next version of Android to get an update if a feature is provided by the Support Libraries. This allows developers to add and improve how their apps work, especially on phones that don’t run the current version of Android, whenever the libraries are updated. We saw that when Android Messages kept seeing improvements in the notifications before those features were bundled into Android 8.0 and it means that phones running Android 6.0 or higher can have apps that use the changes without getting updated to Oreo.

Modularity means faster updates; this is true for code libraries as well as operating systems.

Updating Android from one platform version to the next is a difficult task. It takes a long time, and currently, we only see a major platform update about once per year. Mobile is an incredibly competitive space, and a company’s phones will live or die based on the features it has and how marketable they are. Mobile enthusiasts like to argue about who copied who, but consumers only care that the phone they saw advertised has a cool feature and wants their next phone to have something similar. Apple (and Microsoft when it made a phone OS) can update every single phone to have every possible feature because they control how the software is written and distributed. Google doesn’t have that luxury.

Some phone makers, like Samsung or Huawei or LG, can mitigate this a bit on their own. These companies are big enough and have a mobile development team with the resources to build things like dual-camera support or animated avatars into the operating system. Others, like Motorola (Lenovo), aren’t yet ready to spend billions each year — so they depend on Google to provide new features in a timely manner so that apps can fill in for OS features. That’s why Google had to do something in this space; most phones aren’t running the latest version and many never will. Something had to be done to get cool stuff onto those phones if anyone expected us to buy them.

It’s always a good idea to have the latest version of any software whenever you can. If for no other reason than security tweaks, the newer software has been improved. But since fragmentation is never going away, embracing it and then doing something about it was the smart move.

Android 9 Pie review: Greater than the sum of its slices

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

UK Deal: Save on SanDisk Flash Drives, microSD and SD cards today only

You can never have too much extra storage, and this sale makes it even more affordable!

As part of its daily deals, Amazon UK is running a nice sale on some SanDisk microSD cards, SD cards, and flash drives, with prices starting at just £6.79.

These can be used to expand the storage of your phone, tablet, camera, Nintendo Switch, computer, and much more, or you can just use them as ways to transport your files from one place to another. We live with a lot of our data in the cloud these days, but sometimes having a local copy of it that you can carry around is more satisfying and easier for the times you don’t have a data connection.

The deals include:

• 128GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC Class 10 A1 £23.89 (was £35)
• 64GB SanDisk Extreme PRO SDXC £20.99 (was £30)
• 32GB SanDisk Ultra microSDHC Class 10 £6.79 (was £9)
• 64GB SanDisk Ultra Flair USB 3.0 Flash Drive £12.08 (was £19)

These prices, and more in the whole range, expire today so be sure to get your orders in now so you can stock up on them! SanDisk is also running a sale on a number of other storage items including portable SSDs, CompactFlash Cards and high-capacity SD cards, so be sure to give that a look too and score some savings.

For more UK deals coverage, be sure to keep an eye on Thrifter UK, sign up for the UK newsletter and follow the team on Twitter.

See at Amazon UK

Is the Galaxy Note 9 too big?

With a 6.4-inch display, the Note 9 is the largest Note yet.

Ever since the first Galaxy Note was released in 2011, Samsung’s famous series of phones has always been known for being among the largest on the market. With the Note 9’s display measuring in at a massive 6.4-inches, it’s easily the biggest Note to-date.

Galaxy Note phones are supposed to be huge, but with the Note 9, has Samsung gone too far?

Here’s what some of the AC forum users have to say about the Note 9’s size.

ivanwi11iams
08-28-2018 05:38 AM

“

Only two days in, and the size of the Note 9, is slowly getting the better of me.

Since the release of the iPhone X, I have been using one, and took a step down from the iPhone Plus range.

Although I have only two bottom row of icons, the handling of the device certainly takes some getting used to.
I will give it to the end of the week, to see how I can adjust to the sheer size of the…

Reply

LadiJae
08-28-2018 06:44 AM

“

Interesting…my husband has it and I’ve been toying with it….it doesn’t seem that big. I have the iPhone 8plus…it doesn’t seem THAT much bigger in hand…

Still deciding if I’m gonna get it

Reply

donm527
08-28-2018 07:43 AM

“

I have always felt that the iPhone Plus’ are just too big a phone so I’ve never been a fan of the current Note 8/9 size even though this is my favorite phone to date.

It’s doable but ever since I’ve gotten this phone, there are some things I haven’t done or just don’t want to lug a phone this size… like running. Running NY this November and deciding if I was going to but I think I’ll go with…

Reply

hasasimo
08-28-2018 09:40 AM

“

The size was the only thing putting me off, but I finally caved and bought one. I thought the Note7 was the sweet spot for Note sizes. But it has steadily gotten larger since.

I prefer full-time, one-handed use, which I was enjoying with my S9. With the Note I can only go one-handed part of the time, and that often involves some hand gymnastics.

If there was a Note Mini of some kind I’d…

Reply

What do you think? Did Samsung make the Note 9 too big?

Join the conversation in the forums!

Samsung Galaxy Note 9

• Samsung Galaxy Note 9 review
• Galaxy Note 9 vs. Note 8
• Where to buy the Galaxy Note 9
• Galaxy Note 9 specifications
• Is the Note 8 still a good buy?
• Join our Galaxy Note 9 forums

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Google debuts all-new Wear OS interface with Google Assistant feed

An all-new way to get to the core features of your smartwatch.

Wear OS hasn’t been the most exciting platform the last few years, even back to when it was still called Android Wear. The interface has always focused on notifications and simplicity, but kind of lost its way when Google decided to make its watches feel more standalone and focus on apps. Now, Google’s restoring some of the simplicity with an all-new interface for Wear OS.

Here’s the core of the experience: everything centers around the watch face, of course, and with a swipe up, down, left or right you head into a distinct (and currently non-customizable) area. Swipe down to reveal quick toggles for things like airplane mode, settings, do not disturb, volume and more. Swiping left reveals the just-announced all-new Google Fit interface, always ready to show you the latest progress on your health goals. As before, swipe up to see your notifications — each one takes up a majority of the screen, with actionable items available with a single tap. Unlike the current Wear OS interface, you can see parts of more than one notification at once.

Swiping right, you get perhaps the biggest change to the whole thing: a new Google Assistant interface. Rather than being a one-screen affair for talking to Assistant, this is a scrollable feed of upcoming information very similar to the old Google Feed or the latest Google Assistant interface on your phone. Scrolling through, you’ll see information on the weather, upcoming appointments, travel times to points of interest, reservations and prompts to initiate a search with a single tap.

The previous idea that you’d be speaking to Google Assistant on your watch and getting audible responses didn’t make a lot of sense, and this model is much more conducive to viewing quick bits of information all in one place. On such a small screen you want to limit the amount of time you’re tapping around and waiting for things to load, so having that regularly refreshed and pushing information to the watch to be available at any time feels like a big improvement. It also seems like a good indication of the direction for Google Assistant on phones.

The new interface retains the option to scroll through a list of apps and launch specific apps, but it isn’t a core interface paradigm — and considering what most people do with a small-screened smartwatch, that makes sense. With this initial release there isn’t any customization of the swipe options, though — Assistant will be on the left, and Google Fit will always be on the right unless the smartwatch maker decides to replace it with their own fitness app. One question that remains is whether Google has cleaned up some of the odd bugs and interaction issues with various notifications on different screen sizes — too often on Wear OS you run into issues with buttons and interface areas being cut off because apps aren’t being designed with a particular eye for detail on the platform.

This whole interface feels more complete and focuses on what matters in a smartwatch.

Google isn’t announcing specific software update plans, but has said that the new Wear OS interface will start rolling out to existing smartwatches starting in September. Considering the hardware similarities between all of the current crop of Wear OS devices we can expect most modern devices to get the latest update, but that decision is ultimately up to the manufacturer.

This ultimately isn’t a huge change, but feels like an important step forward in usability for Wear OS. Focusing on the core interactions with simple, well-defined swipes makes a whole lot more sense than being able to quickly change watch faces or access a scrolling list of apps. The lack of customizability feels odd for a Google product, but could be changed in subsequent releases. With this new software out in the world, now it’s time to get some fresh Wear OS hardware based on the forthcoming Qualcomm wearable processor to make this feel like a complete generational jump.

Spigen’s $11 Moto G6 case is the one to get

Protect your Moto G6’s glass back without spending an arm and a leg.

The Moto G6 is one of the best values in smartphones right now, and while it gets a lot right, can still be made even better with the right accessories.

While the glass back of the Moto G6 is a welcome touch we don’t usually see for phones in this price range, it’s not something that’ll hold up well in the event of a drop or fall. Thankfully, that’s where the Spigen Rugged Armor case comes into play.

Affordable and reliable

Spigen Rugged Armor Case for Moto G6

$10.99 at Amazon

Great protection in a slim profile

Spigen’s Rugged Armor cases have always been great, and this one for the Moto G6 is no different. It’s protective, comes in a slim package, and is easy on the wallet.

The Good

• Feels great
• Excellent button + port cutouts
• Solid protection in a slim profile

The Bad

• Back is slippery
• Only comes in black

Spigen Rugged Armor Case for Moto G6 What I like

Spigen’s Rugged Armor line of cases isn’t anything new. It’s easily one of the company’s most popular budget options, and considering that the Moto G6 is also designed to help people get the most bang for their buck, the two are a perfect pair together.

The Rugged Armor goes onto the Moto G6 with ease, and while it’s easy to take off when you want to, never feels like it’ll fall off on its own. The flexible TPU material is designed to absorb the impact of any drops it encounters, and thanks to the lip that comes up over the G6’s screen, the front is also protected from any accidents.

Cutouts for the USB-C port and 3.5mm headphone jack are plenty big, the covers for the volume rocker and power/lock button feel great, and the carbon fiber pattern on the back helps to add a nice bit of flair to the case’s design.

Add that together with the fact that the Rugged Armor case doesn’t add a lot of thickness to the Moto G6, and you get a really compelling option.

Spigen Rugged Armor Case for Moto G6 What I don’t like

One thing I noticed while using this case is that the back material isn’t quite as grippy as I would have liked. While the Moto G6 is still easy to use with the case on, I was unpleasantly surprised with just how slippery it is.

Also, while the overall look of the Rugged Armor case is fine, it’d be nice to see Spigen offer more colors than just black.

Spigen Rugged Armor Case for Moto G6

If you’ve used a Rugged Armor case from Spigen before, you already know what you’re getting with this one for the Moto G6.

Once again, Spigen’s crafted a case that offers great protection on all fronts, isn’t too bulky, feels good in the hand, and is affordable for just about everyone.

4
out of 5

This isn’t the flashiest or fanciest case around, but if you just need something that’ll keep the Moto G6 safe, this is an excellent pick.

See at Amazon

YouTube Premium is now available in the Netherlands, Denmark, and more

The service costs $11.99/month and gives you access to a ton of stuff.

Back in 2015, YouTube Red launched as a way for people to get an even better YouTube experience than what was offered in the free version. For $9.99/month, YouTube Red gave you access to ad-free videos, all-new original shows, and much more.

YouTube Red is now being replaced by YouTube Premium, and for folks that are hardcore or just moderate YouTube users, it’s definitely worth checking out.

The latest YouTube Premium News

August 29, 2018 — YouTube Premium expands to 4 more countries

As the YouTube Premium rollout continues, it’s now been confirmed that the service is available in four additional countries. Specifically, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands!

Similar to other parts of Europe where YouTube Premium is available, the service costs €11.99/month and 119 kroner/month in Denmark.

June 18, 2018 — YouTube Premium is finally launching!

It’s been over a month since Google first announced YouTube Premium, but starting June 18, the service is finally rolling out to replace YouTube Red in 17 countries around the globe.

YouTube Premium is initially rolling out to the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico and will then expand to additional markets. If you never signed up for YouTube Red and want to give Premium a try, Google’s giving away three months of the service for a limited time.

All the big details

What’s included?

As mentioned above, YouTube Premium comes with a load of goodies that make its monthly fee well worth the asking price.

All of the old features from YouTube Red are here, including:

• Ad-free videos
• Play videos in the background
• Download videos for offline use
• Access to all YouTube Originals content

In addition to these perks, a YouTube Premium subscription also gives you full access to YouTube Music. With a YouTube Premium plan, you can use YouTube Music to listen to music without ads, let your tunes play in the background, and download songs/playlists for offline listening.

How much does it cost?

That’s all fine and dandy, but how much will you be paying for all this?

YouTube Premium costs $11.99/month, and you can cancel or change your plan at any time. However, YouTube now has a second, more affordable option you can check out called YouTube Music.

Where is YouTube Premium available?

At this time, you can sign up for YouTube Premium in the following countries:

• Australia
• Austria
• Belgium
• Canada
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Ireland
• Italy
• Luxembourg
• Mexico
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Russia
• South Korea
• Spain
• Sweden
• United Kingdom
• United States

What’s the deal with YouTube Music?

For a cheaper $9.99/month, you can subscribe to YouTube Music. That monthly fee will allow you to listen to music ad-free, let songs play in the background, and download them so you can keep jamming even when you’re without an internet connection, but you won’t get any of the perks in the bullet list above.

If you subscribe to YouTube Music but decide you want to upgrade to YouTube Premium later on, you can make that change at any time.

You’ll access your tunes through the recently upgraded YouTube Music app, and while new features are in the works, it’s already pretty great in its current form.

Download: YouTube Music (free)

What if I was already subscribed to YouTube Red?

YouTube Premium is a pretty great deal, but old YouTube Red subscribers might think differently. YouTube Premium has all of the same features that were previously found in Red, but it now costs $2 more each month.

Thankfully, if you were previously subscribed to YouTube Red on or before May 21, 2018, you get access to all of YouTube Premium for YouTube Red’s old pricing of $9.99/month.

YouTube Music has the potential to solve Google’s streaming conundrum

Updated August 2018: Added a new section for where YouTube Premium is available.