Qualcomm’s Wear 3100 chip for Wear OS is all about extending battery life

Battery life should be 2 – 14 hours longer compared to Wear 2100.

At a press event in San Francisco today, Qualcomm announced its next-generation wearable platform as the Snapdragon Wear 3100. This is the processor that’ll be found in all new Wear OS smartwatches going forward, and based on everything we just learned, it sounds like we’re in for a real treat.

With the Wear 3100 platform, Qualcomm’s doubling down on battery life. It uses quad-core A7 processors, has ultra-low power co-processors, and is just around 21mm2. Wear 3100 is able to reduce power usage with low-power functions, including music playback, GPS tracking, voice commands, etc.

Along with these day-to-day benefits, Qualcomm’s also created three new usage profiles to take things a step further:

• Enhanced Ambient Mode — The second-hand moves much more smoothly, there’s support for 16 colors, increased brightness, and live watch complications.
• Dedicated Sports Experiences — Designed to be used during long, intensive workout sessions. Custom watch face that shows fitness stats and supports up to 15 hours of battery life with GPS and heart-rate sensors actively working.
• Traditional Watch Mode — A simplified experience that boats an analog watch face and some smart features. Up to 1 week of use with 20% battery left or 30 days with a full charge.

Depending on what you’re doing with your watch, Qualcomm estimates that the Wear 3100 offers 4 – 12 hours of additional battery life compared to the Wear 2100.

As for when we’ll start seeing the 3100, Fossil, Louis Vuitton, and Montblanc have all confirmed that they’re already working on hardware that’s powered by the new platform. We aren’t entirely sure when these watches will hit the market or how much they’ll cost, but they should be heading to stores soon.

Commenting on the announcement, Google’s Director of Product Management for Wear OS, Dennis Troper, said:

Together with Qualcomm Technologies and the ecosystem, Wear OS by Google has enabled a vibrant set of wearable devices, offering consumers with great choice and diversity. We’re excited to see Qualcomm Technologies’ new Snapdragon Wear 3100, their continued investment in the wearable space, and we look forward to the ecosystem bringing the next generation of smartwatch technology to the industry.

What do you think about Qualcomm’s announcement? Is this a big enough change to bring Wear OS back into the limelight? Sound off with your thoughts in the comments below!

No, Google won’t be releasing a Pixel Watch this year

Google Wear OS

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

Leave cable behind for good with the $100 Tablo Dual over-the-air DVR

Forget cable subscriptions.

The Tablo Dual Lite over-the-air Wi-Fi DVR is down to $99.99 through Amazon, Best Buy’s official eBay store and the main Best Buy site. This price is $40 lower than what it usually sells for and the best we’ve seen from any retailer. It’s also $50 better than the version with 64GB onboard storage.

If you’ve left your cable subscription behind and mostly watch TV using an HDTV antenna like this one, you should consider the Tablo. It works with your over-the-air antenna to add some DVR functionality so you can record your favorite shows and watch them whenever you want. It’s called the Dual because it can record two live shows simultaneously. With the DVR, you can browse upcoming shows, schedule and manage your recordings, sort them by episode or series, skip commercials, and rewind. It connects to your home network via Wi-Fi and has a free app you can access from just about anywhere, including iOS, Android, and streaming devices like the Roku. Expand your storage with an external USB hard drive.

Tablo does have a subscription service that will give you 14 days of access to future programming through a Guide, different views and filters for all your shows, and out-of-home streaming. It costs $4.99 a month or $150 for a lifetime

Read more about the Tablo through CordCutters’ breakdown of the different models and look at new features Tablo continues to add, including surround sound.

See on Amazon

Battery life is the biggest reason to care about Snapdragon Wear 3100

If you care about battery life, you’re going to want to make sure your next watch has this processor.

The biggest limitation for any mobile gadget is battery life. It’s often not a matter of whether your phone or watch can do something, but what the cost of that something is in battery life. And much like your phone, it’s really important for your watch to last you the entire day no matter what you do with it. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor is in basically every watch that doesn’t have an Apple logo on it right now, and when you consider it’s been a couple of years since we’ve seen a new processor, that’s kind of a problem for adding new features onto watches.

With the launch of its new Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor, Qualcomm is promising a smaller, faster chip with better power management. While that naturally means we can expect new features from manufacturers coming soon, the bigger news, in my opinion, is the dramatic impact on battery life. Here’s what you can expect from this new chip, according to Qualcomm.

Battery sipping, not gulping

If you look at an existing Snapdragon Wear 2100 watch, there are a few things you’ll find universally true. With “average” use, the watch will get you one full day (18-24 hours) of use and not much more. If your watch has a low power mode, you can stretch that by 6-12 hours depending on the manufacturer and battery capacity. Ultra Low Power modes, like the one on the TicWatch Pro, will extend the battery for considerably longer but dramatically reduce features.

Excessive GPS usage, like for fitness tracking, will drain the battery fairly quickly. Heavy voice translation or calls through the watch will drain the battery fairly quickly, and of course playing music from the watch via Bluetooth headphones will drain the battery fairly quickly. These are universal constants with these watches, not really something one Snapdragon Wear 2100 watch does better than another.

The good news is Qualcomm’s latest chip tackles all of these things, and boasts some fairly promising improvements. According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon wear 3100 processor offers:

• 49% lower power use for GPS activities
• 34% lower power use for MP3 playback
• 67% lower power use for Low Power modes
• 13% lower power use for Voice Queries

Some of these reductions are going to have huge, immediate benefits to users. The GPS reduction means apps like Strava, which usually consume 35% of the battery on my watch in a 4 hour ride, will now consume nearly half that. Low Power modes will be better, music playback will be more useful, and all of those actions add up fast. All of this paints a fairly clear picture of a future watch generation that will last more than one full day even when using the watch to its fullest, and the ability to extend into possibly multiple days if you really need it.

New features are coming

Reduced power consumption means developers and manufacturers have more room to play with new features. One of the biggest drops in battery consumption with this new processor is hotword detection, which will consume on average 43% less battery when active. This means OK Google will not only be a standard feature people will want to keep enabled, but also that more hotword-style features will be considered standard.

This flexibility also means more features will likely become available when you’re trying to save battery. Qualcomm estimates a Snapdragon Wear 3100 watch will get you through an entire day no matter what you do, but in low power modes, that same watch is expected to get the user through an entire week of use. That’s a fun figure to brag about in a presentation, but in practice, that only works if the watch is able to be more than just a watch in these low power modes. If watch manufacturers are able to offer a watch with a week’s worth of battery and still offer basic fitness tracking or even simple notifications, that’s going to be a much bigger deal.

It’s clear we’re going to be seeing and hearing a lot more about watches packing this new processor in the coming weeks, but the picture painted with the battery life claims in particular is enticing. It’s exciting to think about smartwatches lasting a week being the new normal, but it’s even more exciting to think about what apps are going to look like on these wrist computers when that flexibility becomes available.

The new Skagen Falster 2 and Diesel Full Guard 2.5 are truly gorgeous smartwatches

Google Assistant gets magical with three new Disney games

There’s a lot going on with the Google Assistant — let’s break down the important stuff.

In May 2016, we got our very first taste of the Google Assistant with the debut of Allo. The Assistant was a big draw to Allo at the time, with Google marketing it as a helpful bot that could make restaurant reservations, search the web, and more within your conversations.

Since then, the Assistant has gained heaps of new features and expanded to smartphones, tablets, speakers, and more. Google’s shown no interest in slowing down development for the Assistant, meaning that it’s likely here for the long-haul.

Whether this is your first encounter with it or you just need a quick refresher, here’s everything you need to know about the Google Assistant.

The latest Google Assistant news

September 10, 2018 — Disney doubles its Google Assistant content with three new games

Google Assistant can help your kids with questions about their homework or the universe, can help remind you and your kids when you need to get going for soccer practice, and it can even tell them a bedtime story. Disney is bringing a little more magic to the Google Home and beyond with three new Google Assistant activities.

• Maui’s Music Game lets kids help Maui defeat monster and reunite with Moana after getting separated from his hook in Lalotai, the Realm of Monsters. While playing, you’ll be rewarded with musical conch shells that play music from the film. You’re Welcome!
• Disney Princess brings you along on a daily adventure with one of your favorite princesses. Help Ariel learn what human world objects are called, navigate Jasmine through a horse race, and hear fun stories from Cinderella and Tiana. You can also get nerdy with Belle answering her questions about your favorite books.
• Toy Story Freeze Dance gets active with an interactive dance game that initiates you as one Bonnie’s new toys. Learn the moves and the meaning of being a toy, but make sure you pay attention, because at any moment, you could have to FREEZE! to avoid exposing the biggest secret in toydom.

These games are designed for Google Home, but you can also play them on phones and Google Assistant-enabled Chromebooks and TVs, as well as those nifty new Smart Displays. These games join Disney’s current Google Assistant offerings:

• Mickey Mouse Adventure
• Cars Adventure
• Belle’s Castle Adventure
• Star Wars Trivia Challenge

August 21, 2018 — “Hey Google, tell me something good” now dishes out “good news”

Staying up to date on all of the current news is important no matter who you are, but with everything going on in our world, sometimes it’s easy to feel like nothing good is happening. In an effort to bring “good news” to light, Google’s launching a new Assistant command in the U.S.

When talking to the Assistant on your phone, Google Home, or Smart Display, you can now say “Hey Google, tell me something good” to hear about how people are solving real issues all around us.

Google partnered with Solutions Journalism Network for this feature, and per Google, solutions journalism, “highlights how problems are solvable and that doing better is possible.”

If you’re in the U.S., you can try out this command starting today.

August 14, 2018 — Pandora Premium now supported by Google Home and Smart Displays

Users have been able to stream Pandora through Google Home speakers for quite some time now, but starting today, you’ll be able to link your Pandora Premium account so you can listen to specific, on-demand songs/playlists in addition to the service’s popular radio stations.

Pandora Premium costs $9.99/month like the majority of its competitors, but if you own a Google Home, you can get a free 90-day trial to test out the service before handing over any of your hard-earned cash.

You can start listening to Pandora Premium on the Google Home, Home Mini, Home Max, Lenovo Smart Display, and other Google Assistant speakers right now.

August 9, 2018 — Deeper, more specific news coverage is now rolling out

Pretty much since the Assistant’s inception, you’ve been able to say “Hey, Google, what’s the news?” to get a quick overview of all the big headlines for any given day.

Starting today and rolling out to users across the U.S., you can now ask the Assistant about news for specific topics, such as “What’s the latest on NASA?” or “What’s the news on the women’s national soccer team?”. Asking these questions on a Smart Display will pull up related YouTube videos while audio-only speakers such as Google Home will read out excerpts from news articles.

Additionally, this command will also be available for Android Auto, Android phones, and Assistant-powered headphones like the Bose QC35 II.

August 3, 2018 — Google Home can now understand what room it’s in for contextual light controls

That title might make this not sound all that exciting, but this is actually pretty cool.

Up until now, asking your Google Home to “turn on the lights” or “tune off the lights” without specifying a certain room would result in every single connected light being turned on/off. However, a new update now allows the Google Home to only control the lights in the same room as it when this command is issued.

For example, if you have a Google Home assigned to the same room as the smart lights in your living room, asking that Google Home to turn on the lights will only activate the bulbs in the living room. You can still specify rooms with your voice, but this update should make these interactions a lot more natural.

Following numerous Redditors discovering this feature, Google confirmed to Android Police that this is indeed rolling out to users and will be making its way to everyone over the coming days.

July 27, 2018 — You can now schedule custom routines for specific times/days

Building upon Custom Routines that were added to Google Assistant earlier this year, users can now schedule these routines to go off at a certain time/day. Previously, custom routines you made could only be used after saying a specific command.

While creating a routine, you’ll now see a new “Set a time and day” option under the “When” section. Here, you can choose the time you want it to play and what day(s) it should repeat.

There are a lot of ways to take advantage of this, with one example being to have your coffee pot turn on, crank up the AC, and hear about the weather as you’re waking up without having to ever speak to your Google Home. Neat!

July 26, 2018 — Dutch is now an officially supported language

Good news, Dutch speakers! As of July 26, 2018, Google’s confirmed that the Google Assistant now speaks Dutch as one of its official languages.

Assuming you’ve got an Android phone running Marshmallow or later, you can now access the Assistant to ask it questions about the weather, create calendar appointments, control smart home devices, and more.

In addition to your phone, you’ll also be able to use Dutch on the Google Home later in the year once the smart speaker goes on sale in the Netherlands.

July 17, 2018 — New Google Assistant page shows commute times, packages, upcoming flights, and more

Starting today, the Assistant on your phone is getting a big visual overhaul. After prompting the Assistant, tap the icon near the top right that previously opened up the Explore page for finding new Assistant actions and it’ll now show a visual overview of your day.

Similar to old Google Now cards, this page shows things like your commute to work, the current weather, upcoming flights, packages that are on their way from recent online orders, calendar appointments, and much more.

In the near future, Google says it’ll let you see a quick overview of notes/lists from Google Keep, Todoist, Bring!, and more, a discovery page that’ll help you find nearby events/activities, reminders of where you last parked your car, and recommendations for songs and podcasts the Assistant thinks you’ll like.

This new interface is rolling out today and is available on Android and iOS for all languages the Assistant supports.

July 10, 2018 — Google updates the UX for selecting the Assistant’s voice

During Google I/O this past May, four new voices were added to the Assistant’s existing male and female voices to help give it some more personality. Starting today, English users in the United States will see a new user interface when changing the voice.

With the new UX, users will now see a horizontal row of colors that denotes each voice rather than a vertical list of Voice 1, Voice 2, etc. The colors are entirely random and consist of Red, Orange, Amber, Green, Cyan, Blue, Purple, and Pink.

Google says the new look should be live for everyone by the end of the week!

July 10, 2018 — Deezer Premium is now supported on Google Homes in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Italy

Deezer may not be as popular as rivals like Spotify and Pandora, but for subscribers of the paid Deezer Premium service, you’ll be happy to know that you can now listen to all of your Deezer songs and playlists through your Google Home.

Deezer Premium streaming has been available through Google Home since August 2017, but it was initially only live in France and Germany. This was later expanded to the United Kingdom in April of this year, and with this latest rollout, Deezer Premium now works on Google Homes that are in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Italy.

To link Deezer Premium to your Google Home, open the Home app, go to Music, and link your Deezer account.

The service regularly costs $9.99/month, but if you’re a new member, Google’s offering three months for just $0.99. If you want to take advantage of this offer, it’s good until September 20.

June 26, 2018 — All Google Home speakers now support Spanish

While users have been able to talk to Assistant in Spanish on their phones, we’re just now getting the ability to do the same on Google Home speakers.

Now, users in the United States, Spain, Mexico and other countries can choose to speak to Google Assistant in Spanish. If you want to change what language Google Home uses, open the Home app on your phone. The tap Settings -> Preferences -> Español.

All Google Home Speakers now support Spanish

June 12, 2018 — Google Home can now handle up to three commands at once

It can get old trying to ask multiple questions to our smart speakers — “What’s the weather” and “How’s my schedule” — but nowGoogle Home can understand up to three commands. Now, you can get your calendar, find out the weather and start playing music by only saying “Okay Google” once.

Another new feature is support for Multiple Actions. So now, instead of asking, “What’s the weather in New York and the weather in San Francisco?”, you can ask, “What’s the weather in New York and San Francisco?” This is a subtle change, but it makes conversing with Google Assistant much more like conversing with a human.

Google Home can now handle up to three commands at once

May 9, 2018 — Google announced a heap of new features at I/O

To little surprise, the Google Assistant was the star of the show for a good chunk of I/O’s opening keynote this year.

A lot of new features were announced for the Assistant, including new voices, the ability to ask follow-up questions without having to say “Hey, Google” each time, and an option for making your own custom Routines.

However, the most exciting thing was a system called Google Duplex. With this, the Assistant can call businesses and make appointments/reservations on your behalf. It’s wickedly cool and definitely one of the wildest things to come out of this year’s conference.

What’s new in Google Home and Assistant at Google I/O 2018

All the important details

Google Now paved the way for Google Assistant

The Google Now page compared to the new Google Feed.

Before there was the Google Assistant, we had Google Now. Google Now was introduced to the world all the way back in 2012, offering contextual info through the Google Now page and helpful answers to random questions with an “OK Google” voice command.

A lot of what made Google Now so great can still be found in the Google Assistant today, with the exception of the Google Now page. The Google Now page used to be home to cards showcasing the weather, information on packages that had shipped from online orders, boarding passes, and more. It’s since been replaced by the Google Feed – a collection of news stories Google thinks you’ll be interested in – and it’s definitely the biggest departure between the two services.

The Google Assistant as a whole is still more powerful than Google Now ever was, but long-time Android users like myself are still mourning the loss of that Now page. RIP, old friend.

Read more: Google Now is being left to wither and die as Google Assistant takes the focus

It’s available on just about everything

In just a few short years, the Google Assistant’s gone from being exclusive to a now-failed chat app to being integrated into just about anything you can think of.

You’ll find Google Assistant built right into most Android phones, it’s the star of the show for the Google Home lineup, and it’s even making its way into sound bars.

Here’s the full list of devices with Google Assistant

Setting up the Google Assistant is as easy or complex as you want

When you set up a device for the first time that has the Assistant, getting started is pretty simple. Accessing it is just a voice command or tap away depending on what gadget you’re using, but if you want to really fine-tune your experience, Google’s got you covered.

Take a quick dive into your Assistant settings and you’ll find options for just about everything – including your weather preferences, changing the Assistant’s voice, retraining your voice model, picking out preferred news sources, and much more.

How to set up and customize Google Assistant

Google Assistant is available in multiple regions and languages

Of course, a smart voice assistant isn’t any good if you can’t actually use it. Fortunately, Google Assistant will be available in 52 countries —adding 38 countries this year — and 17 languages by the end of 2018.

More: Google Assistant will expand to 38 countries and 17 languages in 2018

Google Home’s the premier way to get the Assistant in your house (at least for now)

It’s great to have the Google Assistant on your phone, but if you want to truly experience just how helpful it can be, you’ll want to consider picking up a Google Home.

Google Home is Google’s line of smart speakers that put the Assistant on full-display, allowing you to control smart devices, ask random questions, set timers, play music, and more by just using your voice.

You can spend as little as $49 for the Google Home Mini, $129 for the original Google Home, or a whopping $399 for the Google Home Max.

However, as great as the Home series is, don’t forget that Smart Displays are just on the horizon.

Announced at CES 2018, Smart Displays are essentially smart speakers with the Google Assistant and a touch screen display that can show you helpful visuals when talking to them. It’s basically Google’s answer to the Amazon Echo Show and Echo Spot, and we can’t wait to see more from them.

Everything you need to know about Google’s Home speakers

Then again, is an always-listening speaker the right fit for your home?

However, the convenience of a Google Home (or any smart speaker for that matter) does come at the cost of privacy. Speakers like the Google Home are “always listening”, meaning they’re constantly on the lookout for a hot word to know when you’re talking to it (such as “Ok, Google” and “Hey, Google”).

This means the microphone on a Google Home is always active, but it’s not necessarily storing all the audio it hears when it doesn’t detect its hot word.

Most all speakers allow you to restore some privacy by being able to mute the microphone, but if you want to start asking the Assistant questions, you’ll need to unmute it first.

To learn more about these “always listening” speakers, I’ll pass the mic over to Jerry

Big upgrades are coming to the Assistant on Wear OS

Switching gears for a second, the Google Assistant on Wear OS (formerly Android Wear) is about to get a big upgrade.

In the near future, the Assistant on Wear OS will support Assistant Actions (basically apps for the Assistant) and give you the option to hear its responses through your watch’s speaker or a pair of connected Bluetooth headphones.

Along with this, Google will be adding something called “smart suggestions.” After asking the Assistant for the weather, for example, you’ll see little bubbles for “weather tonight”, “use celsius”, and more so you can continue the conversation with just the tap of your finger. Google Assistant on Android offers something similar, and it’s a great tool to have.

IFTTT supercharges the Assistant’s usefulness

IFTTT (If This Then That) is a powerful online tool that allows you trigger something (that) if a certain event (this) happens. You can connect IFTTT to the Google Assistant to create your own recipes using this formula, and it can allow for some incredibly helpful combinations.

Some of our favorite uses for IFTTT and the Assistant include adding contacts to your Google account, setting your Google Calendar status to Busy for a certain period of time, and much, much more.

Getting started with IFTTT can take some time and patience if you’re new to it, but once you’re all set up and ready to go, it can prove to be a lifesaver.

How to connect Google Home and IFTTT to do amazing things with your connected tech

You’ll get the same experience no matter what devices you use

With so many devices capable of running the Assistant, it’d be easy to think that the experience you get on one gadget would be different from another. This is something that Google struggled with for a while at first, but we’re finally in a position where the Assistant experience you get on a smart speaker, for example, is the same you’ll get on your phone.

There are a handful of features here and there that still create for some discrepency, but for the most part, the Assistant you use on your Pixel 2 is the same one found on Google Home.

Google Home and Google Assistant finally offer the same experience

Google Duplex is actually going to be a thing

Google showed off Duplex — Google Assistant making natural-sounding phone calls on your behalf — at I/O 2018, but quickly noted that it was just an experiment. Flash forward a couple months, and Google announced that certain users have started testing Duplex, and a public release will be here in the next few months. Before you know it, Google Assistant will be able to book hotels, dinner reservations, hair appointments and more without you lifting a finger.

More: What is Google Duplex?

Updated July 2018: Added the Google Duplex and language support sections, as well as links to recent Assistant news.

How to buy a digital copy of a PlayStation 4 game for your friend

We all want to find the perfect present for an unsuspecting loved one. Why not a copy of a game they’ve been wanting? So, you get to the PlayStation Store, pick your game of choice and purchase. Whoops, now it’s downloading to your PlayStation and not theirs. Fret not, here we’ll explain how to use

What we use for PlayStation gaming gifts

• The following can be found on Amazon:
• PlayStation 4 Pro 1TB Console ($546)
• The Hottest Gift: Marvel’s Spider-Man Digital Deluxe Edition ($80)
• Alternate Option: PlayStation $60 Gift Card ($10)

How to purchase a digital code download for your friend

Decide which game you would like to gift to your friend.

Find the digital copy option on Amazon. For this guide, we chose Marvel’s Spider-Man Digital Deluxe Edition. You can also order a PlayStation Gift Card with these same steps.

Make sure you have “PS4” selected as your platform, and that your “Edition” matches the digital title description. In this case, the Deluxe is the “Digital only” copy.

Add the item to your cart, whether it’s a pre-order or not.

When the game becomes available (or, as soon as you purchase if it already is) you will receive a code from Amazon to download the game. Send this code over to your friends and have them redeem the code on their PlayStation and get their game on!

Our recommended gifts

Not sure what game to get your friends or family? Here are some of the hottest games out there from newer options to ever-loved crowd favorites.

Hottest new game

Marvel’s Spider-Man Digital Deluxe Edition

$80 on Amazon

A long-anticipated adventure

We all grew up loving Spider-Man and all his glory. Whether you loved the alternate universe comics, or the games themselves, this is one superhero that will always be in our hearts. Give your friends a game packed with action and a riveting story!

A phenominal roleplay adventure

God of War Digital Deluxe Edition

$70 on Amazon

A heart-wrenching story

The first God of War was well-known for its stunning graphics and an amazing combat system. This sequel not only blows us away because of the modern-day advancement, but the story you follow of this Father and Son. Give your friend the best action, and heartaches, with this game.

Their own kind of freedom

PlayStation Gift Cards

$60 on Amazon

Let them choose for themselves

A gift card can go a long way. For $60 you could get just about any game you want for your PlayStation. Either that, or it could get them a whole bunch of smaller games they want! Gifting your friend with their own choices eliminates you having to choose and ensures that, whatever they decide, you know they’ll love it. You can also find cards for $20, $25, $50, or $100.

Ask Alexa to start this $180 RoboVac while you watch some football this fall

This price is good for a limited time.

Right now you can save $70 on the purchase of this Alexa-enabled Robovac at Amazon when you combine the on-page coupon with the existing discount, bringing it down to just $179.98. This normally sells for $250 and has only dropped as low as $200 in the past. The price drop is temporary, though.

The vacuum can be scheduled to clean at certain times, monitored through the free smartphone app, and even activated using just your voice through an Alexa device, like the Echo Dot. It provides just under two hours of cleaning per charge, and it is good to use on both hard surface floors and thin carpets.

See at Amazon

Samsung’s 2nd generation SmartThings hub has dropped to $57

Turn everything on and off with your voice.

The Samsung SmartThings smart home hub is down to $56.99 on Amazon. This is its lowest price of the year on Amazon and a huge chunk off its regular price between $90 and $100. It has been replaced by the 3rd generation SmartThings hub, but that new hub is $66 right now.

Hubs like this act as the “brain” of any smart home. As you start adding more smart features, like a motion sensor or smart plugs, you want to be able to control all of them at once. The hub lets you connect everything to it and then control them from one single place. The $142 home monitoring kit, for example, can use that hub to connect all of your appliances, monitor your home and notify you when anything unexpected happens. The SmartThings Hub works with Wi-Fi networks and wireless protocols like ZigBee and Z-Wave.

The Samsung SmartThings Hub is one of the best reviewed smart hubs out there. Tom’s Guide called it the Best Smart Home Hub in 2017 and 2018. PC Mag named it their Editor’s Choice, gave it 4.5 stars out of 5, and called it “one of the most versatile home automation hubs around.”

See on Amazon

Montblanc Summit 2 is the first Wear OS watch with the Snapdragon Wear 3100

You’ll be able to buy the watch this October for an unknown price.

Today at an event in San Francisco, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon Wear 3100 as its next-generation processor for Google’s Wear OS. A few partners have already been confirmed to be working on hardware with the new chip, including Fossil and Louis Vuitton, but Montblanc will be the very first company to release a 3100-powered watch.

Following up on the Summit that was released last year, Montblanc’s Snapdragon Wear 3100 smartwatch is the Summit 2.

The Montblanc Summit 2 is set to launch this October. In addition to the new processor, the Summit 2 will also ship with Wear OS’s all-new UI that puts a bigger focus on Google Fit, Google Assistant, and easier navigation.

The original Summit skipped out on NFC, GPS, and waterproofing despite its monstrous $890 price tag, so hopefully the Summit 2 offers these features. Pricing and other details for the new wearable are still a mystery, but they should be revealed soon.

Do you plan on getting the Summit 2?

Everything we know about battery improvements on the new Snapdragon Wear 3100

Google Wear OS

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

The best weather apps for Android! ⛈

Keep an eye on the weather with these apps!

In today’s world, we’ve gotten used to seeing the weather change with little notice — and sometime no notice at all. From flash floods and hurricanes to knowing precisely how hot — or cold — it is outside, having a trusty weather app on your side can make all the difference. There are plenty of weather apps available from Google Play, but we’ve got the best of the bunch for you here!

• Today Weather
• Yahoo Weather
• Dark Sky
• 1Weather
• Accuweather

Today Weather

TodayWeather is a relative newcomer to the weather app scene, but it has made quite the impression with its simple UI that’s easy to read as black as an abyss. The app will greet you by your name and then display weather information for your given locations from one of the user-selectable sources including AccuWeather, Dark Sky, and Yr.no, a Norwegian forecasting service that can produce more accurate forecasts for many parts of the world that aren’t America. If you’re looking for a weather app that’s black as night and will help you see what’s coming on a dark and stormy night, Today Weather is for you.

Free at Google Play

Yahoo Weather

Yahoo takes the honor in this humble writer’s eyes for being the prettiest weather app, and it’s powered by Weather Underground, so its forecasts and data have the accuracy of its nationwide network of personal weather stations. The background images for the app are pulled from Flickr, Yahoo’s picture service, so if you’re looking weather at picturesque locations like New York City or Walt Disney World, you’re likely to get a new and beautiful image every time to go into the app. The layout for Yahoo Weather is nice for checking multiple locations quickly, as you scroll up and down for the data about one location, then scroll side to side to switch between locations.

Free at Google Play

Dark Sky

Dark Sky is one of the most popular weather apps around. Its claim to fame is “hyperlocal” accuracy that can tell you within minutes of when it’s actually going to rain. Another standout feature is a global map view that shows you where the rain (and snow) is worldwide at any given time. Dark Sky also features a dedicated do not disturb mode so you can be assured it won’t wake you up in the middle of the night, but as someone living in Tornado Alley, I highly advise against it.

$3/year at Google Play

1Weather

1Weather has always been a beautiful weather app with a bounty of customization options and a dozen weather widgets that can be customized six ways to Sunday. Functionally, there are very few flaws we’ve found in our extended use of 1Weather, and most of them can be attributed to the horizontal, tabbed layout 1Weather uses, such having to tap an expand button before you can zoom or move the radar map. You can pay to ditch the ads in 1Weather via a one-time $1.99 in-app purchase.

Free/$2 at Google Play

AccuWeather

Many apps and widgets — including most preloaded manufacturer weather widgets — use Accuweather for the same reason you should: it’s dependable and damn accurate. Minutecast is scarily accurate, and it’s hard to leave Accuweather for another weather app without it. The app is smartly laid out, comes with a lovely dark theme option, and you can disable ads and expand your forecasts with a one-time $3.99 in-app purchase.

Free/$4 at Google Play

What’s your weather (app) like?

Do you have a favorite app for making sure you’ve got an accurate read on the weather? Is there an excellent app we should have included on this list? Let us know about it in the comments!

Updated September 2018: The weather is always changing, but these weather apps remain the best of the bunch on Android.

Sphero Debuts Education-Focused ‘Bolt’ Robotic Ball With Programmable LED Matrix

Sphero today announced the “Bolt” robotic ball, which is aimed at teaching kids basic programming with its advanced sensors, LED matrix, and infrared communication that lets it interact with other Bolt devices (via Gizmodo).

The Bolt is the same size as previous Sphero balls, but has an increased runtime of two full hours thanks to a bigger battery. The device connects to the Sphero Edu app, allowing users to discover community-created activities, build their own program, analyze sensor data, and more.

One of the device’s biggest updates is an 8×8 LED matrix that can be seen through the Bolt’s translucent shell. This matrix displays helpful prompts like a lightning bolt when Bolt is charging on its inductive cradle, but users can fully program the matrix to display a wide variety of icons connected to certain actions, like a smiley face when a program is completed.

Infrared sensors allow the Bolt to detect other nearby Bolts, and users can program specific interactions if they have multiple devices. According to Sphero, this means that the Bolts can join up and create a swarm of robotic balls, or avoid one another. Gizmodo gives an example: “So imagine a real-life version of Pac-Man where you’re controlling one Bolt and escape other Bolts programmed as ghosts perpetually giving chase.”

The connected Sphero Edu app includes the ability for users to learn to code by drawing on an iOS device’s screen, using Scratch blocks, or writing JavaScript text programs. Written programs can affect the Bolt’s speed, acceleration, and direction. If users simply want to play with Bolt, the robot can also connect to the Sphero Play app.

The Sphero Bolt is available to purchase today for $149.99 on the company’s website.

Tag: Sphero
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