The next Moto X may pack a smarter, metal-clad design
Way back in December, rumors suggested that Lenovo’s next big Motorola phone would go in a very different than ages past, including a metal chassis and a curious camera bump. Well, those rumors just got some validation. HellomotoHK has posted images of what appears to be both the next Moto X and its Droid-branded Verizon equivalent. Sure enough, they hint at a flatter, metallic body with a more elaborate camera array — are those dots on the side a clue to laser autofocusing? There’s also a fingerprint reader on the front, which puts the kibosh on the Pure Edition’s front-facing stereo sound… sorry, folks.
As for what’s inside? That’s less than clear, but supposed benchmarks from late last month hint that the top-end Motorola phone will carry a Snapdragon 820 processor and 4GB of RAM. It’s par for the course among 2016 Android flagships, then. You might not have to wait long to see how accurate these leaks are, though, as Lenovo has been teasing the launch of new Motorola devices on June 9th. The only question is whether or not you’ll see this particular phone among them. Although a high-end Moto seems like a good fit for that event, we won’t be surprised if you see something else on stage (such as the next Moto G) in a month’s time.
Source: HellomotoHK (Google+), Evan Blass (Twitter)
Facebook is testing a ‘discover’ feature for Groups
Groups on Facebook have evolved from being things you joined because they had dumb names and you were in college, to being legitimately useful ways to find new information. As a reflection of that, The Social Network is apparently testing a new feature on the iOS and Android apps, International Business Times writes, dubbed “Discover.” That also lets you peruse public and private groups and see which friends are in local groups, according to Mashable.
The groups are cordoned off into categories for different interests like parenting, networking and food. The functionality is expected to roll out to more users over the next couple of weeks. We’ve reached out to Facebook for more info and will update this post if there’s a response.
Source: International Business Times, Mashable
Evernote enhances document scanning and annotation on Android
It’s now much easier to scan documents using Evernote for Android. The app’s latest update adds an automatic mode that determines a document’s size and type the moment you point your camera at it. Evernote even automatically crops and adjusts the resulting image to get the best copy possible. Just like Scannable for iOS, which is a standalone Evernote app, the Android application temporarily keeps scanned documents in a gallery. You can delete anything you don’t want and save everything else to the service, so they don’t take up space on your phone’s gallery.
Any image you load adjusts to the width of the screen for optimal viewing. And if you want to annotate or scribble on it, you can now draw arrows and shapes on the photo, and even type in text. Besides these new features, the update also adds a couple of abilities if you have a Premium account. First is the capability to detect a business card if you’re scanning one and instantly saving its details as a note. Plus, having a Premium account means you can annotate PDF files attached to notes the same way you can annotate images.
Source: Evernote
WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM ANDROID MARSHMALLOW?
It’s not quite an all-out overhaul yet the new Marshmallow update looks the part and is filled with some superb tweaks and improvements that will go a long way in boosting the overall quality of your current Android 6.0 smartphone. The latest version of Google’s software is filled with welcome enhancements that include an OS clean up, more internal storage and superior battery life.
It’s been nearly 6 months since version 6.0 was unleashed on the market, notably onto various Nexus devices, and then slowly but surely a whole host of other devices have been receiving the update. With the arrival of the previous update came plenty of excitement which unfortunately as users familiarised themselves with turned a little more into slight frustration and added disappointment. Thankfully, with the release of Android Marshmallow the majority of bugs and more undesirable elements of the previous update have been given a much needed facelift.
Marshmallow is set to polish up your smartphone in many ways boasting lots of brand new features and developments. First up Google Now has been significantly improved and is pretty much present at every corner on the new operating system. What makes it all the more better than previous efforts is its focus on understanding the actual context of your searches and requests.
There’s an all-round smoother app experience on the latest update which is great for gamers in particular and those who enjoy online gaming and playing online casino sites such as onlineroulette.org.uk. The smoother experience allows players to play slots without the interference of lag and jittering. For those app lovers who fill their phones to the brim with various games will be pleased to hear that managing storage on their smartphone will be easier than ever. The new OS will give users a chance to keep a closer eye on the space they’ve used especially thanks to a much more efficient interface. Coupled with its new Doze feature, which will automatically detect if your phone is inactive and not moving and adjust applicable settings in order to preserve battery life, Marshmallow looks set to be Google’s most impressive OS update to date.
Apple Pay has been a big highlight of recent Apple smartphone releases and now Marshmallow users will be able to utilise Android Pay. It allows you to pay for goods and services in-store wirelessly and more securely with the use of a virtual-based account number and also allows you to keep track of all your past transactions and purchases using the Android Pay app.
As already mentioned there are plenty of improvements on the Marshmallow update just as much as there are new and exciting features to enjoy. One of which is the addition of a new System UI Tuner which allows you to pick and choose which info you want included across the top status bar. And there’s even a nice little add-on text box below the lock screen that will allow users to create their own personal message.
Samsung to release Android 6.0 on the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge today
Samsung is rolling out the global update for its flagship Android devices starting today. The Galaxy S6 and S6 edge are the first of Samsung’s flagships to receive the latest version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow. For a quick refresher, some of the best features in Android M are listed below:
Contextual Assistance
- Now on Tap: get assistance without having to leave what you’re doing—whether you’re in an app or on a website. Just touch and hold the home button.
- Do more with your voice. Now you can have a dialogue with any of your apps that support the new voice interaction service. For example, if a user says “play some music on TuneIn,” TuneIn will respond by asking “What genre?”.
- Direct Share: a fast and easy way to share to the right person in the right app.
Battery
- Doze: when your device is at rest, Doze automatically puts it into a sleep state to increase your standby battery life.
- App Standby: no more battery drain from seldom used apps; App Standby limits their impact on battery life so your charge lasts longer.
Privacy & Security
- On an Android Marshmallow device, apps designed for Android Marshmallow only ask for permission right when it’s needed. You can deny any permission and still continue to use the app.
- Advanced controls to turn permissions on or off for all your installed apps.
For U.S. models, depending on the carrier, Samsung will make separate announcements on the details of OS update schedules. What that means is if you bought your Samsung Galaxy S6 from AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile, you will not be getting your Android M update today. Each carrier in the U.S. has to make modifications to Samsung’s update in order for it to be compatible on their networks.
In addition to the Android M updates, Samsung is also including new features with the S6 edge display which will hopefully make the edges more useful.
- Increased edge display from 260 pixels wide to 550 pixels for more content to be displayed.
- Users can now customize up to nine panels, including the People edge and Apps edge panels.
- With all the expanded space of the upgraded edge panel, users can now add ten apps instead of five. In addition to single apps, users can add entire folders for maximum smartphone organization.
- A brand new Quick tools, which includes a ruler, compass and customizable flashlight, has also been added in a separate panel to simplify one’s everyday life.
- Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Sports and Yahoo! News come pre-equipped with the OS upgrade, delivering the latest stock reports, the scores of the big games and the biggest headlines right to the edge screen.
It has taken Samsung four months to release the Android M update to just its S6 and S6 edge. Are you excited for the update? You should be because Android 6.0’s improvements are significant.
Samsung press release
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge | SpecOut
Samsung Galaxy S6 | SpecOut
LG’s ‘Specialist’ phones each bring one high-end feature
We still haven’t seen all of LG’s next premium phone, the G5, but tonight it’s unveiling two interesting midrange handsets. Dubbed the Specialist S Series, the X cam and X screen are both fairly basic phones with Android Marshmallow 6.0, quad-core CPUs, 2GB of RAM and a smallish 16GB of storage for what we assume will be a reasonable price. As you can probably guess, each one then brings a extra…special feature.
The X cam has a dual 13MP / 5MP rear camera setup to go with a curved finish up front, while the X screen steals its small always-on second-screen display feature from the V10, with a 1.76-inch screen that displays notifications, battery life and other info. We’re learn more about these phones in a week at Mobile World Congress 2016, and LG says they’re coming to certain Asia, Europe and Latin America markets next month.
Source: LG
Duplicate Files Fixer review: automatically detect and remove duplicate items to save space.
Does your device run out of storage, forcing you to painstakingly go through your phone and delete your contents ? Too busy or just too tired to go through your contents? Worry no more! Duplicate Files Fixer(free), available and rated 4.5 stars on the Google Play Store, does all this for you.
Objective View
Entailing a simplistic and easy to use interface, this is a user-friendly application that can be operated 
by anyone. Within the program, you are met by several options including Scan Audio, Scan Videos, Scan Pictures, Scan Documents and Full Scan.
Upon inspecting the miscellaneous categories, your device will scan each for the respective content and display a screen with all the duplicates. It then has all the duplicates selected and gives you the ability to unmark the duplicates you intend on keeping. After pressing the delete button, you are asked to confirm your decision in the event of you making an error.
Although the purpose of this application is to optimize your tech by cleaning duplicate files, it does not include the option to delete the original file. Sometimes when choosing what to clean, you may come across files you have no intention of keeping and want to delete it as well as the duplicate, but alas, you can only remove the duplicate and have to locate the original afterwards. Perhaps developers would take a look into that matter.
Summary
I used this application for a mere few hours and found that it is an absolute blessing. I was able to delete approximately 800 megabytes of duplicate files alone, including pictures, voice notes, music tracks and documents. It’s a really simple program and has only one screen excluding 
the help menu which includes a basic tutorial of pictures. Despite the few flaws and improvements which could be made, Duplicate Files Fixer was definitely well thought out and has a smooth and polished UI.
In conclusion, this simple program is definitely worth downloading, and it will most definitely help you clean up your device and free some space for your more important information, but more so, it will help save your time.
Google Play Store – Duplicate File Fixer
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Love is in the air with AT&T’s buy one smartphone get one free program
Valentine’s day is a perfect excuse to upgrade your phone as well as your significant others’ device. AT&T is now running a buy one get one program on select smartphones for this celebration of love.
Here are the highlights of the program:
- Available to new and existing customers
- Both phones must be purchased on AT&T Next
- The first phone can be a new line or an upgrade
- The second phone must be a new line and purchased on AT&T Next 24
- Add both phones to a qualified plan, like Mobile Share Value, for as low as $70 a month for two phones
- Starting in up to three bill cycles you will receive up to $650 in 30 monthly bill credits
Remember one of the lines must be new so you cannot upgrade two lines with existing phone numbers. And the deal does apply to iPhones, Samsung and LG devices. Keep in mind that Mobile World Congress is just a couple weeks away where we will be getting the latest releases from Samsung and LG, so if you want the latest and greatest it might be in your best interest to wait.
Learn more at AT&T
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Android app turns your phone into an earthquake detector
Your smartphone can already warn you about earthquakes. UC Berkeley, however, is going one step further: it wants your phone to help detect those quakes. The school has released an Android app, MyShake, that uses your phone’s motion sensors to detect the telltale signs of tremors and combine that with the data from every other user. For all intents and purposes, you become part of a crowdsourced seismic station network — you can confirm a quake just by leaving your phone turned on. That could be a big help when there aren’t enough fixed stations to trigger an alert through conventional apps.
MyShake might even give you a heads-up in the future. Once the software is known to be trustworthy, it could send early warnings to nearby areas and even provide a countdown to help you find a safe area in time. And yes, there are plans for an iOS app as well. The system is only as effective as the number of people using it (a handful of testers won’t accomplish much), but it could prove to be a life-saving tool if it really catches on.
Via: Ars Technica
Source: UC Berkeley, Google Play
Google gives My Maps for Android a much-needed revamp
Google’s My Maps for Android hasn’t received a lot of affection lately, but the company is making up for that in style. It quietly released a big upgrade to the custom mapping app that, on top of a “new look and feel,” throws in features that arguably should have been there ages ago. You can see Street View imagery for all your map points, to start with — you’ll know what your destinations look like on the ground without having to jump to Google Maps. You can also see photos and videos that were added on the web, and the app should be much faster as a whole. Give it a spin if you’re planning a big trip, or just want to document your favorite haunts.
Source: Google Play
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