Can Amazon Music Unlimited’s discounts beat YouTube Music’s selection?

We’re a virtual company made up of tech experts from across the globe. After years of using, abusing, and testing music services of every kind, we can say for certain which service is best for you.

YouTube Music

Bigger (beta) Selection

$12/mo at YouTube

Pros

• Truly unrivaled music database powered by YouTube.
• Easy controls and playlist sharing.
• YouTube Premium unlocks features in six apps.

Cons

• Still working out a lot of bugs.
• Features needed before Google Play Music migration.

YouTube Music is new, weird, and exciting, and if a song exists in the world, you can probably find it here. Built upon the backbone of the most popular video platform in the world, YouTube Music is still working out its kinks, but it makes YouTube Premium a worthwhile media subscription.

Amazon Music Unlimited

The Alexa choice

$8/mo at Amazon

Pros

• Solid, stable cross-platform music player.
• Integrated music store for augmenting subscription catalog.

Cons

• Works with Amazon Alexa, but not Google Assistant or Apple Siri.
• Abounding confusion over tiers and features.

Amazon Music Unlimited is quite a decent music service, especially if you’re an Amazon Echo user or you frequently buy music from Amazon’s store. Amazon just makes the tiers of its music services more confusing than Google does, which is a feat in and of itself.

Availability, bugs, and compatibility

Amazon Music Unlimited has been around the block for a while, so it’s a more polished service that’s available a few places YouTube Music is not, including Android Auto and a dedicated desktop app. Amazon Music Unlimited isn’t available on Google Assistant — and YouTube Music isn’t available on Amazon Alexa — but Amazon Music Unlimited has a more stable Chromecasting experience than YouTube Music does. This is as odd as it is unfortunate since YouTube Music is one of the four music apps integrated with Google Assistant since day one.

YouTube Music just rolled out their improved audio quality controls, bringing their highest audio quality up to 256kbps AAC, which “is equivalent in audio quality to the 320kbps CBR mp3 that we had for GPM, but it uses less data” according to YouTube Music’s product manager Brandon Bilinski. Amazon Music Unlimited is 256kbps, has slightly more lyric support than YouTube Music — which is again as odd as it is unfortunate since the lyrics pop up right below the YouTube video when you google most popular music.

Wear OS app	❌	❌
Android TV app	YouTube app	❌
Android Auto compatibility	❌	✔️
Web client	✔️	✔️
Desktop client	❌	✔️
Chromecast compatibility	Unstable	✔️
Google Assistant compatibility	✔️	❌
Amazon Alexa compatibility	❌	✔️
Overall stability	Buggy	Stable
Max audio quality	256 kbps	256 kbps
Lyrics	Lyric videos only (display on device and Chromecast)	Xray lyrics (only on phone)
Gapless playback	In the works	❌
Available countries	20	46

Amazon Music Unlimited is a bit stale but stable. YouTube Music is shiny, “new,” and weird, and that brings with it a lot of bugs, and YouTube Music’s team is working to fix them, but they’re outnumbered and it’s been a slow process. In the meantime, though, YouTube Music is definitely still a viable, usable music app — I’ve been using it pretty consistently for five months now, and I wake up to it every morning — but the bugs are annoying and absolutely worth mentioning, especially in regards to casting and library management.

Your Mixtape knows my music tastes so well, it scares me.

Bugs aside, features like algorithmic mixes and recommendations are already hitting it out of the park. Three days in, Your Mixtape played Play’s self-titled album out of the blue. This 24-minute, 2001 album with a generic name — by a Swedish girl group with a generic name — is usually a bear to try finding anywhere, and YouTube Music dumped this grade school flashback in my lap less than a week into our relationship.

Even after months or years of listening history, no other music service has come as close to “getting me” as YouTube Music’s Your Mixtape. Even today, it’s still shocking me with songs I love that I didn’t even know were in YouTube Music’s seemingly endless database.

Going beyond: YouTube Music’s unmatchable selection

If a song exists in the world, chances are it’s hiding somewhere on YouTube.

It’s hard to overstate just how ridiculously big the music selection is on YouTube Music because YouTube is the biggest video platform in the world and one of the most-turned to places for music and music videos. Granted, depending on what content is in a video and how a video is classified, it may only appear on YouTube, not YouTube Music, but user-uploaded content isn’t all YouTube Music has.

YouTube Music also has content deals with various record labels for a selection similar to Google Play Music’s 35 million+ song catalog. Between that more traditional catalog and the millions upon millions of music videos, lyric videos, mashups, remixes, fan covers, and uploaded music of every color and legality, YouTube Music’s selection blows Amazon Music Unlimited out of the water.

Songs available	Unknown	“Tens of millions”
Library limit	Unlimited	100,000 songs
Playlist size limits	5,000 songs	Device-dependent (500 songs on some platforms)
Offline limits	10 devices, unlimited songs	10 devices, unlimited songs
Device limits	Only for offline (10 devices, 4/year automatic de-auth limit)	10 devices

When it comes to corralling that selection into a library, YouTube Music still has the advantage. While Amazon Music Unlimited’s 100,000-song library limit is far higher than Spotify, Deezer, and Tidal, YouTube Music’s library is unlimited. Individual YouTube Music playlists may be limited to 5,000 songs, but you can add as many playlists and albums to your library as you want.

Amazon Music can hold thousands of songs in a playlist, however on Android, there’s a bug where you can’t see or download past 500 songs, which is a bit of a downer. Both Amazon Music and YouTube Music have device limits of 10 authorized devices, but YouTube Music only authorizes a device when it’s being used for offline content, whereas Amazon Music authorizes devices whether you’re using offline or not.

While Amazon Music did have a music locker that would integrate with Amazon Music Unlimited in the past, that function has been retired and current users are being phased out of it. Meanwhile, YouTube Music doesn’t have a music locker at the moment, but it’s going to have one eventually as part of the eventual Google Play Music migration — and you can upload 50,000 songs to Google Play Music for free and listen to them there until they make the jump to YouTube Music down the line.

Bundles and bungled deals: finding the best deal

Before we get started, let’s get one thing straight: if you’re going to pay for YouTube Music, for the love of the gods of music, buy YouTube Premium instead of YouTube Music Premium. YouTube Music Premium is 83 percent the price of YouTube Premium with only 17 percent of the benefits. YouTube Premium is a phenomenally better value, especially once we get into family plans and the quagmire that is Amazon Prime bundling “discounts.

Standard Price	$12/month	$8/month with Prime ($120/year) or $10/month without Prime
Yearly cost	$144	$216 with Prime or $120 without Prime
Student Discount?	❌	No student discount on Unlimited, Prime Student ($60/year)
Student yearly cost	$144 (no discount)	$156
Family plan?	$18/month	$150/year with Prime or $15/month without Prime
Family plan yearly cost	$216	$300 with Prime or $180 without Prime

Amazon Music Unlimited can sound like quite the bargain on its face: $8/month for Prime customers and $10/month for everyone else. That’s $2 a month, or $24 a year in savings, but Amazon Prime is $120 a year, meaning that looking at Amazon Prime + Amazon Music Unlimited as a video/music bundle like YouTube Premium, YouTube is only two-thirds the price and comes with a second music subscription to Google Play Music as a bonus.

Family/content settings	Restricted mode	Block Explicit Songs
Music offerings	YouTube Music, Google Play Music (with Google Play music store integration)	Amazon Music Store integration
Video offerings	YouTube Premium, YouTube Kids, YouTube Gaming, YouTube VR	Amazon Prime Video
Video purchase integration	YouTube/Google Play Movies & TV store integration, Movies Anywhere digital copy integration	Amazon Video store integration, Movies Anywhere digital copy integration

Granted, there’s a lot of features to take advantage of with Amazon Prime — free two-day shipping, unlimited photo backups, etc. — but a small discount on a streaming music subscription doesn’t really rank up there with the other mainstay benefits. Comparing the selection and features of YouTube Music and Amazon Music Unlimited, a $24/year discount doesn’t quite stack up to the almost overwhelming selection on YouTube Music, especially when paired with Google Play Music and YouTube proper through YouTube Premium.

Again, I really can’t stress this enough: buy YouTube Premium instead of YouTube Music Premium.

YouTube Music

Bigger (beta) Selection

$12/month at YouTube Premium

Jam out with just about any song ever made — and a fair few bugs.

YouTube Music marries the biggest video platform in the world with traditional label-contracted songs and a colorful, dynamic (and slightly buggy) experience. As part of YouTube Premium, you also get a two-for-one music subscription deal: YouTube Music and Google Play Music, which makes it the best value, best selection, and the best buy in music streaming today.

Amazon Music Unlimited

The Alexa choice

Amazon’s music subscription alternative is built to compete.

$8/month at Amazon (with Prime)

It might not be quite the shiny new toy that YouTube Music is, but Amazon Music Unlimited is stable and easy to use. If you’re a dedicated Amazon Echo user or Amazon Prime user, this subscription can fit well and keep your music flowing.

SeatGeek adds support for saving tickets in Google Pay

Here’s what you should know about Google’s big bet to take on Apple Pay.

Gone are the days of messing with Android Pay and Google Wallet. Instead, the home of all things mobile payments on Android now rests on the shoulders of Google Pay.

Google Pay first started rolling out to handsets in early 2018, and while there’s still some work to be done, it’s clear that Google is finally ready to take on Apple Pay with everything it’s got.

From the latest news to all the important details, here’s everything you should know about Google Pay!

• The latest Google Play news
• Everything you need to know

The latest Google Pay news

September 28, 2018 — SeatGeek adds support for saving tickets in Google Pay

When Google announced support for boarding passes and tickets earlier this year within Google Pay, Ticketmaster was the only event ticket-seller to jump on-board. Now, the second big name to join the fun is SeatGeek.

Just like with Ticketmaster, tickets you purchase via the SeatGeek app now have a “Save to phone” button that allows you to store the tickets right in the Google Pay app for safekeeping with all of your other virtual cards and passes.

Commenting on the news, SeatGeek said:

SeatGeek has always championed an open ecosystem for live events, and by working with Google we are able to give fans yet anothe way to save and use their tickets.

August 27, 2018 — United Airlines now supports boarding passes in Google Pay

Earlier in the year, Google Pay picked up a feature that allowed you to store boarding passes and event tickets alongside all of your credit, debit, gift, and membership cards.

Southwest was the first U.S. airline to support this back in May, and now as part of the latest update to its Android app, United Airlines is joining in on the fun, too.

In the What’s New section for the United app on the Play Store, it says, “We’re happy to announce the launch of Save to Google Pay Mobile Boarding Pass, you now have the ability to store your Mobile Boarding Pass as part of the Google Pay.”

Downlod: United Airlines (free)

August 24, 2018 — 30 more U.S. banks are now supported

As part of its latest expansion, Google Pay recently confirmed support for 30 additional banks and credit unions in the United States. The list of newcomers is as follows:

• BlueOX Credit Union
• City Credit Union
• Community First Credit Union (CA)
• Community Trust Bank
• Cortland Savings and Banking
• Desert Rivers Credit Union
• EFCU Financial
• Edge FCU
• Fall River Municipal Credit Union
• Family Savings Credit Union
• First Community Bank (SC)
• First National Bank in Howell
• First National Bank of Sandoval
• Forward Bank
• Generations Credit Union
• Glass City Federal Credit Union
• Granite Credit Union
• IncredibleBank
• Kentucky Bank
• Los Alamos National Bank
• MembersOwn Credit Union
• Monson Savings Bank
• North Shore Trust and Savings
• OU Federal Credit Union
• Prospera Credit Union
• Rockford Municipal FCU
• The Village Bank
• United Bank and Trust
• Wellington State Bank
• Wyoming Bank & Trust

August 8, 2018 — Tangerine now supports Google Pay

Tangerine, a Canada-based bank that operates entirely online, has finally confirmed that it now supports Google Pay.

The wait is over, Google Pay and Samsung Pay are here!

— Tangerine (@TangerineBank) August 8, 2018

Samsung Pay is also being added along with Google Pay, so no matter which service you prefer to use, your Tangerine card will now work with it without a hitch. Enjoy!

August 2, 2018 — Google Pay comes to Croatia; now available as a payment method in the Starbucks app

A couple Google Pay tidbits have surfaced over the last few hours, starting first with the service coming to Croatia. This is the third nation in Central Europe to get Google Pay, so be sure to keep an eye out for the app if you live in the area.

Secondly, Google Pay can now be used when reloading your card in the Starbucks app. Google Pay is added to your account automatically, and at this time, can only be used for one-time reloads

July 20, 2018 — Revolut in the UK is now supported

Good news, UK readers that bank with Revolut! The bank’s been sending out emails to its customers confirming that it’s now starting to support Google Pay.

In am email Revolut’s been sending out to its 2 million+ users:

Test drive the convenience of paying with your phone by adding your Revolut card to Google Pay, to make quick and secure payments – instantly.

July 10, 2018 — The main Google Pay app finally supports peer-to-peer payments

It’s finally happening! After a few months of having to deal with the awkward Google Pay Send app, peer-to-peer payments are finally coming to the regular Google Pay. In other words, you can now make in-store payments and send/request money from friends under one single app.

Along with this, Google’s also announced that it’s officially supporting boarding passes/event tickets and has revamped the Google Pay website to be more in-line with the current Google Pay app.

June 29, 2018 — 65 new banks and PayPal Mastercard join the list in the U.S.

Google recently announced that it’s added 65 additional banks/credit unions to its Google Pay lineup.

You can find the full list below, and along with this, the PayPal Mastercard can be used with Google Pay, too.

• Aeroquip Credit Union
• Affiliated Bank
• AllSouth Federal Credit Union
• American Bank & Trust Company (LA)
• AuburnBank
• Audubon State Bank
• Azura Credit Union
• Bangor Federal Credit Union
• Barrington Bank & Trust
• Beverly Bank & Trust
• Cape Cod 5 Cents Savings
• Citizens Bank (TN)
• Citizens National Bank of Albion
• Classic Bank
• Cornerstone Community Financial CU
• Crystal Lake Bank & Trust
• D.L Evans Bank
• First Bank and Trust (LA)
• First Community Bank of the Heartland, Inc
• First Federal Savings Bank of Lincolnton
• First National Bank of Fort Smith
• First Volunteer Bank of Tennessee
• Forreston State Bank
• Glacier Bank
• Goodfield State Bank
• Gratiot Community Credit Union
• H-E-B Federal Credit Union
• Hinsdale Bank & Trust
• HNB National Bank
• Home Town Bank (VA)
• Interra Credit Union
• Lake Forest Bank & Trust
• Libertyville Bank & Trust
• LNB Community Bank
• Maspeth Federal Savings and Loan Asso
• Mid-Atlantic FCU
• Midwest Bank
• National Bank (IL)
• Northbrook Bank & Trust
• Northway Bank
• Old Plank Trail Community
• OneUnited Bank
• Orlando Federal Credit Union
• Peoples Bank & Trust (IL)
• Putnam Bank
• Scott Credit Union
• Shaumburg Bank & Trust
• Springs Valley Bank and Trust
• St. Charles Bank & Trust
• State Bank of the Lakes
• Teachers Federal Credit Union
• The Bank of Elk River
• The State Bank (MI)
• Town Bank
• TruChoice FCU
• United Bank (AL)
• Unity One Credit Union
• U.S. Postal Service FCU
• Vantage Bank
• Veridian CU
• Village Bank & Trust
• Wheaton Bank & Trust Company
• White River CU
• Wintrust Bank
• Yampa Valley Bank

All the big details

Google Pay has replaced Android Pay and Google Wallet

Rather than maintaining two separate services for in-store payments and sending money to friends, Google decided to replace Android Pay and Google Wallet with one new app called Google Pay.

There was an awkward transition period at first in which you had to use a separate Google Pay Send app to send/receive money, but Google’s since brought that feature over to the main Google Pay app.

As such, Google Pay is now your one-stop-shop for all things mobile payments if you’ve got an Android phone.

How to get started with Google Pay

That’s all fine and dandy, but how does one actually start using Google Pay?

Thankfully, Google’s made this fairly simple. After downloading the app, you’ll be able to quickly add credit/debit cards, gift cards, loyalty programs, and more.

Need a helping hand? Check out Marc’s how-to guide right here!

What countries are supported?

Google’s regularly adding support for more and more countries that can use Google Pay, and as it currently stands, the list of supported areas is as follows:

• Australia
• Belgium
• Brazil
• Canada
• Croatia
• Czech Republic
• Germany
• Hong Kong
• Ireland
• Japan
• New Zealand
• Poland
• Russia
• Singapore
• Slovakia
• Spain
• Taiwan
• Ukraine
• United Kingdom
• United States

Make sure your bank/card is compatible, too

Live in a country that supports Google Pay? Awesome! However, that’s just half the battle in ensuring you can use the service.

Even if you live in one of the above countries, you still need to have a bank and card that supports Google Pay before you can start making payments in stores with your phone. Thankfully, Google’s been building up this list for quite a few years meaning there’s a good chance you’re covered.

Major brands like AMEX, Capital One, Chase, Discover, and Wells Fargo are all on-board with Google Pay in the U.S. Along with this, you’ll also find a huge list of smaller banks/credit unions that are supported as well.

See the full list here

You can use the app to store boarding passes, event tickets, and more

In addition to your credit/debit cards, you can also use Google Pay to store gift cards, loyalty programs, and most recently, boarding passes and event tickets.

You’ll find all of these items in the Passes section of the app, and if you’ve got a lot stored in there, you can hold down on an item and move it around to make sure everything’s as organized as can be.

Support for passes/tickets is still relatively new, with brands like Southwest Airlines, Ticketmaster, and the Las Vegas Monorail being among the only ones available at the moment. Similar to what iPhone users have been treated to for years with Apple Pay, you’ll now see an “Add to G Pay” button when ordering a ticket from these brands so you can easily store everything under one single app.

Track your payment activity on the web

While you’ll likely interact with Google Pay on your phone the majority of the time, you can access it from your computer, too, by going to pay.google.com.

Here, you can see all of your Google Pay activity, send or request money, edit/add/remove payment methods, manage any active subscription services you have, edit your addresses, and more.

Google Pay is present in Android Messages and the Google Assistant

Google occasionally fails to make its various services play nicely with one another, but thankfully, Google Pay has been an exception to that rule.

While sending money to people is pretty simple through the Google Pay app, you can also do this through Android Messages and by talking to the Google Assistant on your phone.

In Android Messages, just tap the + icon at the bottom left and you’ll see two G Pay buttons for sending or requesting money from the person in your conversation. Just enter the amount you want, tap attach money, and your payment/request will be sent off just like that.

Alternatively, you can simply open the Google Assistant and say something along the lines of “Send Tom $15 for Pizza.” After confirming your identity (e.g. fingerprint or PIN), the Google Assistant will send the money for you — all without having to ever open up the Google Pay app.

Action cameras, video games, and more are discounted today

Whether you’re looking for new tech gear or household items, we’ve got you covered.

We found plenty of great deals today that include big discounts on the GoPro Hero6 action camera, the Shadow of the Tomb Raider video game, Bose’s wireless speakers, and more!

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If you want to know about the deals as soon as they are happening, you’ll want to follow Thrifter on Twitter, and sign up for the newsletter, because missing out on a great deal stinks!

LG Watch W7 hybrid Wear OS smartwatch to launch with the LG V40

It’ll be the first big Wear OS smartwatch with physical watch hands.

LG’s holding an event on October 3 in New York City to unveil its V40 flagship smartphone. According to a new report, it would appear that it isn’t the only new gadget that’ll be announced that day.

Back in late April, Android Headlines claimed that LG was working on a new smartwatch called the “LG Watch Timepiece.” The Timepiece reportedly had a hybrid design that combined Wear OS smarts with a mechanical clock so that users could get the best of both worlds.

Other key specs included a 1.2-inch 360 x 360 LCD circular display, IP68 dust/water resistance, 240 mAh battery, and physical watch hands with “highly precise quartz movement.”

Nothing ever came of the Timepiece, but now according to Evan Blass, the wearable will be launched alongside the V40 and go by the name of “LG Watch W7.”

Half a year later, this will launch alongside the LG V40 ThinQ as the LG Watch W7. https://t.co/vEXJ6BOvvG

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) September 28, 2018

Key details like the processing package and price as still up in the air, but assuming we’re introduced to the W7 next week, we won’t have to wait too much longer to learn all of the nitty-gritty.

Would you be interested in a new LG smartwatch?

LG V40 ThinQ: News, Rumors, Release Date, Specs, and More!

Google Wear OS

• The best Wear OS smartwatches
• Discuss Android Wear in the forums!

Does Amazon Cloud Cam protect your privacy?

Best answer: Yes. Video from your Cloud Cameras is sent to Amazon’s servers whenever it detects motion. Amazon stores this video on its servers but does not share it with third parties. Whether you’re comfortable with that will determine whether you want to purchase an Amazon Cloud Cam.

• The following products are from Amazon:
• Amazon Cloud Cam ($120)
• Foscam Home Security camera ($75)
• Western Digital 3TB My Cloud ($180)
• Western Digital 6TB My Cloud Dual Drive ($350)

How cloud cameras work

Cloud cameras generally work by capturing footage of a room whenever they detect motion or sound. You can then watch the footage (or just check in on the cameras at any time) from your smartphone or a website. Then, the footage is uploaded from the cameras to a remote server. So, when you go to access the footage from your phone or other devices, you’re getting the footage from the remote server, not straight from the camera. This is still true even when you’re looking at a live feed.

You can get cameras that record to and transmit from a Network Attached Storage (NAS) box in your home if you don’t want to send videos of your living space to a company. We recommend the Foscam Home Security camera, which is not only cheaper than the Amazon Cloud Cam, but works similarly by only recording when it detects motion or sound. You can upload the data and store it on a local server like this Western Digital NAS with 3TB of storage.

How the Amazon Cloud Cam works

The Cloud Cam starts recording when it detects motion, and you can check in on your feed from anywhere in the world on your phone. Again, there has to be something that gets the feed from the camera to your smartphone, and that something is Amazon’s servers.

The Cloud Cam terms of service — that thing you agreed to whether you read it or not — explicitly says:

Cloud Cam streams your Cloud Cam recordings to the cloud when it detects motion. Amazon processes and retains your Cloud Cam Recordings in the cloud to provide and improve our products and services. You give us all permissions we need to use your Cloud Cam Recordings to do so. These permissions include, for example, the rights to copy your Cloud Cam Recordings, modify your Cloud Cam Recordings to generate clips, use information about your Cloud Cam Recordings to organize them on your behalf, and review your Cloud Cam Recordings to provide technical support. Learn more about Cloud Cam, including how to delete your video clips.

It’s important to note that Amazon isn’t sharing the footage with any third parties, and Amazon Web Services has proven robust enough for a lot of third parties to run their websites right from AWS. It’s never a bad idea to be aware of who you’re giving your data to, but we think Amazon is perfectly safe.

Putting a security camera in your home — especially a cloud-connected one that feeds video to someone else’s server — understandably causes some privacy concerns. Yes, we all walk around with smartphone cameras and microphones, but that doesn’t mean more cameras are a good thing. Ultimately, you’re in charge of your privacy and your home. If you’re comfortable having your footage stored on Amazon’s servers, the Cloud Cam works really well. If not, there are other options.

Our pick

Amazon Cloud Cam

$120 at Amazon

If you’re okay sending video to Amazon, this is a great security camera.

If you do want a cloud-connected security camera, the Amazon Cloud Cam is one of the best choices. It’s less expensive than comparable cameras from Nest and others, and the subscription fees are smaller too. Most of all, it’s just an easy-to-use camera.

Do it yourself

Foscam Home Security camera

If you want videos stored on your own server, this is the camera for you.

This camera from Foscam is a good bit cheaper than Amazon’s Cloud Cam, but you’ll need to spend the money on storage as well. It starts recording when it detects motion or sound, and you can watch recordings or the live feed from a smartphone app or website. There’s two-way audio support so you can talk to people at your door, and you can get push notifications from the smartphone app. The camera connects to your network with Wi-Fi or Ethernet, and the night vision feature works better than expected.

$85 at Amazon

The NAS for you

Western Digital 3TB My Cloud

Plenty of space for your home surveillance needs.

This NAS from Western Digital gives you 3TB of space, enough for about a month’s worth of continuous footage. This is a single drive, so it doesn’t have a backup built-in. This drive will plug right into your router with Ethernet, where it can be used by any of your devices — including your security camera.

$180 at Amazon

A NAS with a backup

Western Digital 6TB My Cloud Dual Drive

If you want automatic disk backups.

If you want your NAS to be backed up automatically, you can get a dual-drive model like this one. This offers two 3TB drives, so even if one fails you still have a copy of your home security footage on the other drive. This connects to your network with an Ethernet cable just like the previous model, so recording your security footage and having a backed up disk will be automatic once you get everything installed.

$350 at Amazon

Canada Daily Deals: Game of Thrones DVD Box Set, Philips Hue, and more

Whether you’re looking for new tech gear or household items, we’ve got you covered.

We found plenty of great deals today that include big discounts on Game of Thrones: Seasons 1-7 on DVD, Philips Hue Starter Kits, portable storage, and much more…

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Each day, the Thrifter Canada team scouts out and shares amazing deals on products you know and love, helping you find the best prices on the ‘net.

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

Sony won’t host a PlayStation Experience this year

This is rather surprising to say the least.

Every year, Sony hosts an event called the PlayStation Experience where the company reveals new games and other details about upcoming projects. It’s become somewhat of a tradition that even Xbox One owners have been urging Microsoft to adopt. Unfortunately, there won’t be a PlayStation Experience this year.

Today, on the PlayStation Blogcast, Sony Worldwide Studios Chairman Shawn Layden announced its cancellation. According to a report by Polygon, Layden provided the following statement.

The reasons behind that really are, we don’t have… we have a lot of progress that we’re making in our games, and we’re seeing that coming out. Now that we have Spider-Man out the door, we’re looking down into 2019 games like Dreams and Days Gone… we wouldn’t have enough to bring people all together in some location in North America to have that event. We don’t want to set expectations really high and then not deliver on it. It was a hard decision.

Sony has many games coming out for PlayStation 4 on the horizon like Dead Stranding and Ghost of Tsushima, but it’s unclear when these titles will launch. It’s understandable that they wouldn’t want to hold an event if these titles weren’t ready to be properly showcased.

Interesting enough, a few days ago Microsoft announced an “X018” gathering in Mexico City for November. The event will consist of the longest “Inside Xbox” show ever. Microsoft lags behind Sony and Nintendo when it comes to first-party exclusives so X018 will be interesting to say the least.

How do you feel about a PlayStation Experience not taking place this year? Let us know.

PlayStation 4

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

Amazon

Realme 2 Pro review: A step in the right direction

The Realme 2 Pro comes hot on the heels of the Realme 2, which itself came just a few months after the Realme 1.  However, the Realme 2 was a bit of strange iteration. It added a fingerprint scanner and a dual lens camera — both missing from the first — but actually shrunk the resolution and downgraded the SoC. This was likely because Realme recently broke away from Amazon and Oppo to form its own separate entity and wanted to make a name for itself.

Rather than a true next-gen upgrade, the Realme 2 was more a “rethink” of the Realme 1 with different priorities.

Is this Realme 2 Pro the genuine upgrade the Realme 2 might have been? Let’s find out in this Realme 2 Pro review.

Hardware and design

This device is a massive upgrade in a whole bunch of different ways. It has a Snapdragon 660 AIE SoC, which is a huge step up from the Snapdragon 450 we saw last time. It comes with up to 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. It has a 3,500mAh battery, 16MP dual rear camera with an f/1.7 aperture, and 16MP around the front as well (f/2.0). It’s running Android 8.1 with ColorOS 5.2 on top.

That 3,500mAh battery is the only downgrade from the base model Realme 2, which packed a whopping 4,230mAh cell.

This thing doesn’t have crazy performance by any stretch, but it’s certainly a big step up and more than enough for most games on the Play Store.

The screen is a 6.3-inch TFT LCD 1080 x 2340 display. It has a notch, but it’s a tiny “dewdrop” notch which is actually pretty nice and gives the phone an outstanding screen-to-body ratio of 90.8 percent. The design is actually one of the bigger selling points at this price range.

It’s even a big step up in the looks department. Gone is the plastic diamond-patterned back, replaced with what Realme calls a “Dewdrop back cover.” I have no idea what this means, but it’s polycarbonate, it looks nice, and appears to have a second transparent layer. There’s no IP rating or wireless charging, but that’s normal for the price. The three colors available are ice lake, blue ocean, and black sea. Mine is the ice lake edition.

The bizarre decision to go with a microUSB is poor future-proofing.

There’s also a fingerprint sensor again, combined with blazing-fast facial recognition, and a headphone jack. Camera-based face unlock is really quick thanks to some AI smarts. It all seems like a real upgrade, except for the bizarre choice of a microUSB port for charging.

D’oh!

This is not a big deal by any stretch. You can certainly live with marginally slower transfer speeds and occasionally needing to make sure your plug is the right way around (USB Type-C: it’s reversible!). However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find compatible chargers and devices for that old format. Since most of us keep our smartphones for a good few years, that will only get worse. This is poor future-proofing. Other manufacturers have shown you can include a USB-Type C at a budget price, so I’m not sure why it’s absent here. It’s a blight.

A blight I tell you!

There’s also no NFC, which means no Google Pay support.

There’s also no NFC, which is fairly common at this price point.

Daily use and camera

The Realme 2 Pro is quick and reliable, its battery performance is good, and ColorOS is annoying. It’s not a huge deal, but it’s probably the ugliest skin in town these days, with annoyances like the fact that notifications that can’t be dismissed (why??). I’m also not a fan of how the lock screen works — you need to make an additional swipe after you’ve registered a fingerprint or a face, which often results in me staring blankly at the screen for a few minutes before realizing I can get in. These are not deal breakers, though. ColorOS also has a couple of additional features thrown in.

The general experience of using this phone is absolutely fine and what you would expect for that fairly decent spec-sheet. I’ve been using it for a few days and haven’t run into any problems.

The camera is slightly better than I expected. I was ready to hate it, but it actually performed quite well. Photos have good saturation and contrast, and the low-light performance was surprisingly impressive. I tried tripping it up a few times and it consistently bested me. This of course is thanks to that f/1.7 aperture, which is also what allows for some good natural depth effects.

Sample from the Realme 2 Pro Camera

The bokeh “portrait mode” also makes an appearance on both sides, and does hit-and-miss job, which is normal at this price point. There are also a bunch of beauty mode effects for those interested, including the option to beautify multiple people in a single shot. It’s great if you have a lot of ugly friends.

The selfie camera

The biggest drawbacks in the camera department are the relatively low detail when you zoom in on distant objects, and the all-over-the-place exposure. This significantly neuters the benefit of the 16MP selfie camera, which would have otherwise been ideal for vlogging and such.

Exposure is all over the place.

The camera app is also somewhat irritating, in particular needing to enter a “video mode” to record video, rather than simply hitting a record button. Apparently there’s some AI scene-detection going on, but I didn’t notice it much myself other than the phone occasionally pointing out the lighting was good.

Low light performance is very good

This obviously isn’t going to be the camera phone of choice if you spend a lot of time on social media, but it’s also not horrible. It will be a good companion when chronicling meals out with friends and all the funny things your dog does.

You can see some more full-res camera samples here.

Price, value, and competition

How compelling an offer this is will depend on the price. That comes in at 13,990 rupees (~$193) for the base model and 17,990 rupees (~$248) for the higher specs.

If you’re going for the more expensive model, you could get a Pocophone F1 for just $50 more, which has a significantly better SoC and a larger battery. The lower priced phone is competing with phones like the Xiaomi Mi A2, which comes with fairly similar specs.

The Pocophone F1 — not that much more expensive

I was kind of hoping this might be to the budget market what the Pocophone F1 is to the mid-range — it’s not. However, it’s a solidly built device with attractive looks and strong performance. It’s good value and it’s yet another example of how these days you can get a very appealing smartphone without spending a small fortune.

It’s certainly a big step in the right direction for Realme. (That’s a callback to my review of the Realme 2 for those that missed it. It was very clever. In other news: I’m really tired.)

I give this phone a “well done, Realme.”

The hybrid LG Watch W7 may launch alongside the LG V40 ThinQ

Remember the rumors from early 2018 that LG would be putting out a watch called the “LG Watch Timepiece” that would combine being a smartwatch with analog watch hands? It seems that idea might not be dead yet, and might be returning under a new name alongside the new LG V40 ThinQ. Here’s everything we know about the LG Watch W7.

Details on this watch are currently extremely thin on the ground. Experienced and usually accurate leakster Evan Blass was the first to break the news, linking to a news piece for the original LG Watch Timepiece, and claiming that this watch would not launch six months later, under a new name.

Aside from that, it’s presumed that most of the details for the LG Watch Timepiece will also hold true for the LG Watch W7. That means you can expect to find a hybrid smartwatch, equipped with physical watch hands as well as a 1.2-inch screen with a 390 x 390-pixel resolution running Google’s Wear OS.

Older rumors for the device suggested that users would be able to switch over to a heavily energy-saving analog mode for the watch, shutting down Wear OS almost entirely, and increasing the watch’s lifespan to up a hundred days. This is similar to what we have now seen in the Mobvoi Ticwatch Pro, and it’s likely that such a mode would make it popular amongst crowds who hate the idea of charging a watch daily.

The LG Watch Timepiece was originally set to feature the Snapdragon 2100 platform, 768MB of RAM, and 4GB of memory but with the Snapdragon 3100 now on the horizon, it’s entirely possible that the Watch W7 will feature Qualcomm’s newest wearable tech.

It’s expected that the W7 will also come with NFC, Bluetooth, and motion tracking but it’s unknown whether heart rate monitoring will also be a feature. With Google Fit taking a much more prominent role in Wear OS, it might be unwise to ship out a smartwatch without more fitness-tracking capabilities but then, this is a hybrid watch.

Since the LG V40 ThinQ is expected to launch on October 3, we won’t have long to wait to find out if Blass’s claim holds water. LG hasn’t launched a new smartwatch in some time, so the LG Watch W7 is likely long overdue for fans.

Editors’ Recommendations

• LG V40 ThinQ: Absolutely everything we know
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• LG reveals its first Android One phone and a cheaper LG G7
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A.I. security camera can identify guns with 99 percent accuracy

The U.S. company Athena Security has developed a smart camera system which is reportedly 99 percent accurate when it comes to spotting guns in video footage. It can then be used to alert law enforcement automatically, potentially saving lives in the process. The technology is already being employed at Archbishop Wood High School in Warminster, Pennsylvania, among other locations.

“The technology works by using computer vision A.I. algorithms to detect objects, and also measure the velocity of objects to determine what are clients are looking for,” Chris Ciabarra, chief technical officer and co-founder of Athena Security, told Digital Trends. “The main hardware technologies use CUDA cores by Nvidia for the processing of the information and Nvidia’s DGX-1 box, which we think has the fastest GPUs on the market, for processing our computer vision algorithms.”

In a scenario like a school shooting, Ciabarra says that the system would result in the police being called within minutes of a shooter (or would-be shooter) pulling out a gun for the first time. In a best-case scenario, the Athena Gun Detection System might serve as enough of a deterrent that causes the gunman to flee before shooting anyone. In a worst-case scenario, it would still mean police arriving more quickly on the scene, and potentially medics being alerted to the situation more rapidly as well.

Athena Security

“[The technology] is ready to go, and we are installing [it] into schools that want the students to be safe, corporations that value their employees’ safety, and homes that want to protect themselves and their loved ones,” Ciabarra continued.

Installing the technology is as simple as providing Athena with the IP address being used by an existing security camera system, after which the company will take over and plug it into their cloud-based system. In the event that no cameras are yet installed, Athena can also provide these as part of its package.

While protecting against potential shootings has so far grabbed the most press coverage, Ciabarra notes that the same technology can also be used to identify potentially less lethal incidents, such as a fight or a slip and fall. The camera tech can additionally be connected to other third-party security technologies — for instance, making it possible to stop elevators or lock security doors in the event that a certain behavior is identified.

Editors’ Recommendations

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