Unlocked Samsung Galaxy S6 slashed to $499 on eBay
The Samsung Galaxy S6, easily one of the best Android phones available, is on sale right now. At least through one eBay retailer, that is.
Techno Trading House is currently selling the 32GB Samsung Galaxy S6 for just $499, much less than what carriers are charging for an unlocked version of S6.
Since this is a factory unlocked GSM model, it should only work with the GSM carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile. As of right now the phone is available in two color choices: Black and White. The Gold and Blue colors are currently out of stock.
Source: eBay
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MailDroid provides a feature-rich email experience – App Review
The most used app on our Android devices has to be the email app. Even though these are the times of instant messaging and social exploration, email will always remain as important as it was, be it for official or personal communication. I came across this app called MailDroid, as I was looking for a change from the regular ‘Gmail‘ app.
Flipdog Solutions, LLC has developed a very feature-rich email application which can give a tough competition to any email app. MailDroid contains some special features which makes it one of the more desirable apps to switch to for all your email needs on your Android device.
Starting with the look and feel of the app, it’s very simple. No snazzy animations or material inspired transitions but a plain design. There are also some theme combinations that you can try from within the app. The developer also has an app for theming of MailDroid, but as of now it’s incompatible with devices running Android version 5.0 and above.
Now, coming to the main features. Like any other email app, MailDroid has all the standard features like compose, delete, archive, unified email account view, etc. MailDroid also supports all types of email accounts as well, even Exchange. That’s all for the basic things. What I saw different in this app was certain features like the option to save the mail for viewing later, even when you’re offline.
The other thing I really liked about MailDroid, is the ability to choose whether to delete the mail from the device or from the device and server. This really saves up a lot of time and confusion. Emails can also be encrypted thanks to MailDroid’s built-in encryption capability. It also claims to have full WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor when composing an email and MailDroid surely lives up to it. This is one great feature to have for those who like to compose designer emails from their mobile devices.
The app interface is fairly simple to use and navigate around. I enjoyed using this email app and it gave me a different taste over other email apps available in the market. One more thing I would like to see in future updates, is the integration of GCM (Google Cloud Messaging) notifications in MailDroid.
It’s one of the most important requirement for me for any productivity app I use, since it keeps my notifications coming on time. Also, Greenify users will find it very useful. Saves up a ton of battery.MailDroid really urges you to ditch your current email client for good, but it’s still not perfect.
I found some things that the developer can still work with. The email notifications do not feature any options like delete, reply, mark as read etc, and the notifications are also not expandable. It means you have to open each and every e-mail to read and perform your desired action on it. I use TypeMail as my daily email grabber, and the lack of this important feature in MailDroid draws me away from it.
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MailDroid is free in the Google Play Store and is ad-supported. They can be removed by the purchase of the pro version, which comes with a few added features. MailDroid is the email app you should try for once at least, before you decide what’s the best email client for your Android device. Click on the link below to download the app and share your experience in the comments below.
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Minecraft Story Mode now officially official for Android
As we previously reported, Telltale games and Mojang have collaborated to create a game based on the ever-popular Minecraft called Minecraft Story Mode. As with Telltale’s other games, Minecraft Story Mode will be a narrative-driven video game, and of course it will be about Minecraft.
Story Mode will focus on Jesse. He and his group of friends revere the legendary Order of the Stone; four adventurers that slayed an Ender Dragon. The Order are the very best at what they do: Warrior, Redstone Engineer, Griefer, and Architect. While at EnderCon, Jesse and his friends discover that something is wrong… something dreadful. Terror is unleashed, and they must set out on a journey to find The Order of the Stone if they are to save their world from oblivion.
It will be released in a 5 part episodic series that will take you to the Nether, the Farlands, the End, and beyond! You will drive how the story flows through the decisions you make: what you say to people (and how you say it), and what you choose to do in moments of thrilling action.
The Minecraft Story Mode voice cast includes some very high caliber voice talent as well.
- Patton Oswalt (Ratatouille, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D)
- Brian Posehn, (The Sarah Silverman Program, Mission Hill)
- Ashley Johnson (The Last of Us, Tales from the Borderlands)
- Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights, X-Men)
- Martha Plimpton (The Goonies, Raising Hope)
- Dave Fennoy (The Walking Dead: A Telltale Games Series, Batman: Arkham Knight)
- Corey Feldman (The Goonies, Stand by Me), Billy West (Futurama, Adventure Time)
- Paul Reubens (Tron: Uprising, Pee-Wee’s Playhouse)
The first episode will be released some time in 2015, and will be available on Xbox consoles, PlayStation consoles, PC, Mac, iOS, and most importantly, Android-based devices.
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Paranoid Android finally releases Android 5.1 builds for Nexus devices
Paranoid Android fans with Nexus devices have been suffering for quite some time. Well, don’t you worry, as today is your lucky day! The team has announced via a blog post that the new version of the popular ROM is now available for a select list of Nexus devices.
Unfamiliar with Paranoid Android? Android geeks shouldn’t be, so let’s tell you a bit about them. Paranoid Android makes one of the most popular Android ROMs out there. In fact, they are the biggest ROM aside from CyanogenMod, which makes them an important part of the developer community. They have been forced to go through some major changes lately, though, as OnePlus has hired a large portion of the team’s talent.
While we are not sure this is the direct cause of the delays to Paranoid Android’s Android 5.1 release, the team does state it’s because they “are missing the manpower they had in the past on their core team.” I would bet my money on this being about the people who left for OnePlus! Regardless, the team has brought most supported Nexus devices up to speed with the supported legacy devices.
There are a couple caveats, which we should go through before telling you more about the new build. The team has been working very hard to get this build done, but they haven’t been able to finish everything just yet. As a result you will be missing cool features like Theme Engine, Quick Settings Reordering, App Ops, Advanced Power Menu and Immersive Mode. Also, keep in mind you will have to flash Google Apps.
Without further ado, let’s talk about the newly supported Nexus devices! Today’s release adds Android 5.1 support to the shamu (Nexus 6), hammerhead (Nexus 5), mako (Nexus 4), flounder (Nexus 9), flo (Nexus 7 2013) and grouper (Nexus 7 2012). This leaves only cellular-capable tablets and the Nexus 10 out of the loop, but it’s only because they don’t have the devices in hand. They do suggest owners of these devices come test their builds if they are willing. You can contact Evan Anderson at evananderson@aospa.co if interested.
Paranoid Android is also announcing they are easing up on releases from now on, due to obvious reasons. Instead of offering weekly releases, they are switching to a “release when appropriate” schedule. Makes sense, even if it does sadden us. Hopefully they can get more team members on board soon! As for now, Nexus device owners can go ahead and download the necessary files from their official distribution site. Also, try to help them with coding through gerrit if you can, they need it now more than ever.
Microsoft’s latest app experiment helps you get friends together
Microsoft’s Garage team has tried to solve many everyday problems with its experimental mobile software, but it’s now tackling one of the most common: how do you get your friends together for a night on the town? The group’s new Tossup app for Android and iPhone gives you a simpler, shared experience for deciding on where you’re going, when, and who’s coming. You only have to ask your friends for a vote, and Tossup will automatically plug your decisions into your calendar. Is this a one-trick pony? You bet — but that might be all you need if you don’t want to set up a Facebook event (or juggle multiple conversations) just to head out for Korean barbecue.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile, Microsoft
Source: App Store, Google Play
Amazon’s Cloud Drive storage service gets dedicated mobile apps
While Amazon already offered mobile apps for sorting your photos and music parked in its Cloud Drive repository, there wasn’t an option for getting at all of your stored files. Late last week, a dedicated Cloud Drive app for iOS arrived in the iTunes App Store, joining both Android and Amazon versions that debuted in late June — all three of which rolled out rather quietly. Similar to the Dropbox app, the mobile software allows you to organize and access photos, videos, documents, spereadsheets and other files you’ve stored in Cloud Drive. As you might expect, you can also preview images (no editing abilities), PDFs and other documents from within before sharing in another app, with a link or as an email attachment. And yes, you can use the app to play videos and music stored in Amazon’s cloud, too. Until now, desktop apps for PC and Mac offered the only direct access to Cloud Drive as a whole, and mobile devices could only leverage those media-specific apps.
If you’re in need of a refresher, there’s not free tier for the service, only a 3-month trial at no cost. From there, unlimited photo storage will set you back $12 a year while $60 per year secures the Unlimited Everything plan. Of course, Prime and Fire device owners get the unlimited photo storage option for free.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Amazon
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Amazon, Google Play, iOS
“Did you mean” corrections start showing up in Google Search app
We have all seen those “did you mean” corrections Google offers, right? These word suggestions usually come up when a search query was written with a typo or error. They tend to show up mostly in PC and web search results, but I bet you have probably never seen it appear in the Google app for Android. I say probably because a few of you may have by now.
New reports claim the Google app for Android has been suggesting corrections using the dreaded “did you mean” phrase we all know way too well. The Android app is said to apply this feature in a very peculiar way, though. It seems these corrections are showing up in the drop-down menu that appears when one is still typing a search.
This is very odd, considering no other version of Google Search does this. Not the web version, not the other apps, none. All other instances of the “did you know” suggestions occur after the search is done, in the results page.
Is this the future of Google Search? Is it just Google going crazy and testing out some things sooner than they should have? We are not sure, but it would be lovely to see something like this coming to more Google services. Little upgrades like this one may seem insignificant, but they save users time, and one can no longer live without them after they enter your life.
I wasn’t able to recreate this, but we would love to know if any of our readers are beginning to see this “did you mean” section in the Google app. Please let us know in the comments!
Umi Zero 2 teaser shows dual-display phone
Chinese manufacturer Umi tends to be ignored most of the time around this side of the planet. Their focus market is definitely not the USA, but today they are getting a lot of attention from us thanks to a very interesting teaser the company has released through its social network accounts.
They call this phone the Umi Zero 2 and it has more than one thing that makes it special… it has two. The main design element in this phone is that it comes with a traditional smartphone screen, as well as what looks like an e-paper display on the back.
E-paper is the same panel technology we find in products like e-readers. These types of screens are known for their amazing energy efficiency, elongating battery life up to days (and even months), depending on the device. Some of these even have image retention, allowing you to, say, place a map in your e-paper display and leave it visible even if the phone is powered down.
Looks familiar? Yes, you have heard of something very similar to this phone. It’s pretty much the same concept Russian smartphone maker Yota Devices came up with when making the YotaPhone and YotaPhone 2. These couple of smartphones were the first to bring us a good Android experience mixed with a secondary e-paper display.
In theory, it should be hard for Umi to really compete against Yota Devices at this point. We (like many other sources) gave the YotaPhone 2 a great review and we even named it one of our favorite CES 2015 products. The phone is already available in the USA, giving it a nice head start, but we doubt Umi really wants to compete against Yota Devices – at least not in markets outside Asia.
Another factor we have to keep in mind is that Yota Devices may be dropping Android in favor of Sailfish OS in future iterations of their popular smartphone line-up. If this ends up being the case, us Android fans will be left with no other option but to go with Umi if we really want that e-paper display.
Other details are still unknown, but recent rumors suggest the phone will come with a Mediatek MT6752 processor, 3 GB of RAM, a 5.2-inch screen, 16 GB of internal storage, a 13 MP rear camera and an 8 MP front-facing camera.
These specs are nothing but rumors, so don’t hold your breath on them, but if they prove to be right we will have a pretty good phone here. We are also almost sure Umi will offer the Zero 2 for much less money than the YotaPhone 2 costs.
How many of you are interested in a phone with an e-paper display? I personally love the idea. Hit the comments section and share your thoughts!
Samsung and Oppo challenged in court over bloatware
The Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Commission has announced that they are taking legal action against Samsung and Oppo over its practice of installing bloatware. In a study of over 20 different smartphones, they found that several were sold with non-essential apps preinstalled on the device. It was further discovered that these apps could not be uninstalled and many “stole” cellular data.
Two of the devices studied were the Samsung SM-N9008S (Galaxy Note 3), which had 44 such bloatware applications preinstalled and the Oppo X9007, which had 71 such bloatware applications pre-installed.
Some of the offending bloatware on the Samsung included an electronic dictionary and an online shopping program. The Oppo came with various programs and games.
The major problem that the commission found with these bloatware apps is that they were not disclosed to the purchasers of the phones before the purchase.
“The litigation is our latest attempt to safeguard consumers’ rights after other methods failed… We hope it will force other companies in the sector to end the unreasonable, but common, practice of pre-installing apps without telling consumers. This is something that is very much necessary for the healthy development of the whole industry,“
In the legal challenge, the commission is hoping to bring to an end the practice of pre-installing applications without informing the consumer of said actions. If they win their case, manufacturers will be legally obligated to not only inform consumers of what apps come pre-installed but to also provide them a clear method of removing unwanted apps.
Samsung and Oppo have until July 17, 2015, to file their defense and then the court will announce a trial date.
Hopefully, this will lead to a legal precedent that will end the practice of installing unwanted and uninstallable programs. What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: Shanghai Daily
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Sony’s balloon photo app is now available in Beta on the Google Play Store
Sony’s new balloon photo app is not just another camera app that lets you take pictures and add captions and other designs, well, it is to an extent, but what’s different about this app is that it lets you add thoughts directly to your photos.
The new balloon app is still in beta, and it’s very similar to the voice balloon app the company already have, which lets you add captions to your photos based on voice dictation. Since the app is in beta, it seems Sony are trying to gauge the direction to take this but at the moment you’re able to select previously taken pictures, add and edit text, and drag balloons around the picture.
You can download the balloon photo app beta for free from the Google Play Store and no doubt this one will be updated with some cool new features as the company decides what they’re going to do with the functionality, but it’s certainly one to keep your eye on.
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