Smashing the Battle review: Mow through murderous robots like a badass
It’s time to smash your way through a wave of robotic enemies.
The Oculus Store on your Gear VR has tons of great games, but nothing that is quite like the glory of playing an armored up woman smashing her way through robotic enemies with a giant hammer or wrench. If it sounds awesome, it is, and it’s called Smashing the Battle. It’s a hack and slash adventure game that centers around two badass women smashing their way through the robots who have taken over the construction site.
Read more at VR Heads!
Get two Samsung Galaxy S7s for the price of one at T-Mobile
T-Mobile has a great deal for those who need a pair of smartphones.
The Galaxy Note 7 is no longer a phone you can buy. But if you’re looking to wield a Samsung device regardless, the Galaxy S7 is absolutely the next best thing.
T-Mobile subscribers, this weekend your carrier is offering you a buy one, get one free deal on Samsung’s flagship. Beginning Friday, you’ll get a free Galaxy S7 if you buy one on an equipment installment plan. The second Galaxy S7 will be free based on 24 monthly bill credits. However, if you cancel your service before those two years are up, you’ll have to pay off the remaining balance.
If you’re looking for a deal to equip you and your loved one with a pocketable, powerful little device, the Galaxy S7 is definitely worth your consideration.
Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge
- Galaxy S7 review
- Galaxy S7 edge review
- U.S. unlocked Galaxy S7
- Should you upgrade to the Galaxy S7?
- Best SD cards for Galaxy S7
- Join our Galaxy S7 forums
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Small number of Pixel users reporting LTE problems
A minor problem for the Google Phone.
Google’s new Pixel phone has been pretty free of controversy since its release last month. No show-stopping software bugs; no severe hardware issues.
Google has acknowledged the problem, but isn’t saying specifically what is the outright cause.
But like any phone release, there have been a few waves of protest by people saying their device isn’t working well in a particular situation. One such situation is on several South American and Canadian carriers that rely on Band 4, also known as AWS, to transit signal over the air. According to a number of Pixel and Pixel XL owners, their phones have trouble staying connected to the network on that band, but the problem is not consistent nor does it appear to be widespread.
Many of the complainants live in South America, and subscribe to carriers like Claro that rely primarily on Band 4. Other people, such as Telus and Bell customers in Canada, have the same problem, but Band 4 is one of four possible frequency combinations used in many larger cities.
Google has acknowledged the connectivity instability, but isn’t saying specifically what is the outright cause — and Google may not know, because it may go deeper down the rabbit hole, into the X12 baseband drivers supplied by Qualcomm.
The bigger problem is that with connectivity issues, it is often a caused by a combination of factors — signal strength, interference, handoff instructions, carrier aggregation protocols — that can’t be traced to just one source. In other words, people are saying “the problem is with Band 4,” but it’s more likely that the problem is with merely most pronounced on that frequency. In the U.S., T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon operate parts of their network on Band 4, and we haven’t heard of any Americans with this problem.
Throughout our testing the Pixel’s signal came through strong and consistent, and we could not reproduce the issue.
Here at Android Central, we tried to simulate the issue on a number of devices, including those on T-Mobile in the U.S. and Bell in Canada. Throughout our testing, the Pixel’s signal came through strong and consistent, and we could not reproduce the issue.
If you’re experiencing LTE problems on the Pixel, let us know, but also know this: it is almost definitely a software problem and will almost certainly be fixed in a coming update.
Google Pixel + Pixel XL
- Google Pixel and Pixel XL review
- Google Pixel XL review: A U.S. perspective
- Google Pixel FAQ: Should you upgrade?
- Pixel + Pixel XL specs
- Understanding Android 7.1 Nougat
- Join the discussion in the forums!
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HTC offering various discounts on phones and accessories prior to Black Friday
It takes just a few clicks to start getting deals from HTC right now.
We’re still a couple weeks away from the real Black Friday deals (if they exist anymore), but HTC is offering up a few discounts early if you sign up for the “Team HTC” rewards program. The savings aren’t huge, but it only takes a second to sign up for Team HTC and you instantly save some money if you’re going to be buying one of HTC’s recent phones or accessories for them.
On the highest level, you save $50 off the already discounted HTC 10, knocking the price down to $500. The One A9 is just $275, down from $429, and if you for some reason still want an HTC One M9 you can snag one for $299. You can also get a fun RE Camera for just $75 or an Under Armour Band at a steeply discounted $79.
If you already have an HTC phone, you’ll want to check out the discounts on cases and accessories. Cases for the One M8 and M9 are just $10, and all other accessories can be had for 40% off. Whether you’re shopping for yourself or maybe snagging a couple gifts early for the holidays, it only takes a minute to sign up for Team HTC — once you sign up, a unique discount code will be emailed to you that applies to everything above. The sale runs until November 14.
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- HTC 10 review
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- These are the HTC 10 colors
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Snapchat World Lenses aren’t for your face: Here’s how they work
Let’s be real: Lenses are the best part of Snapchat.
The popular mobile app enables you to capture photos and videos and overlay them with doodles, text, filters, and lenses. Lenses are animated overlays that augment your face. You can see yourself – in real-time – do things like puke rainbows. Other filters morph your face into a noseless blob or a dear or a blowfish. Snapchat’s been really creative with the different lenses it’s offered so far, including the new World Lenses.
World Lenses are slightly different from the original type of lenses we’ve seen and used so far in Snapchat. They don’t augment your face but rather the background of your photo and video. Here’s everything you need to know about how World Lenses works.
- What is Snapchat and how does it work?
What are Snapchat World Lenses?
Snapchat updated on 9 November to include a new type of lenses called “World Lenses”. These lenses apply an animation or effect to the world around you. The feature has launched with seven lens options, including lenses that show falling snow and hearts and bursts of stars and bubbles. Like the original lenses, we expect Snapchat to introduce more over time, swapping new creative ones with old classics and visa versa.
How do Snapchat World Lenses work?
First, open Snapchat. While on the Camera screen, whether the camera is facing your face or something else, tap and hold down on your screen. You may see a web graphic, which indicates Snapchat is trying to recognize the environment and serve up lenses. Once it’s done thinking, you’ll see a row of lens options appear next to the capture button. You’ll notice the World Lenses are in the same row as original lenses.
Swipe through this row of lenses to browse them all. The World Lenses should be up front. If you’d like to see how one looks in real-time, simply tap and select a lens. To change to a different lens, tap the new lens. To ditch the lens experience all together, tap the X button below the capture button. You can do what you want and try what you want. And, of course, you can always share your creation with friends or to your story.
Is there an example of Snapchat World Lenses?
Yep. Right here.
Your World ???? New Lenses ???????? Just tap to activate a fun surprise! pic.twitter.com/Hl1Lff2RJD
— Snapchat Support (@snapchatsupport) November 8, 2016
Are Snapchat World Lenses free?
Snapchat World Lenses are free to use, just like original lenses.
What’s the point of Snapchat World Lenses?
Snapchat’s 9 November update also includes support for the company’s yet-to-be-released AR video camera glasses, called Spectacles. These new lenses were obviously designed for Spectacles, allowing wearers capture and augment the world around them as they’re out and about. To learn more about Spectacles, check out Pocket-lint’s guide. We don’t yet know a release date for the glasses.
When will Snapchat World Lenses be available?
Snapchat World Lenses are now available in the iOS app and Android app.
Even breastfeeding is getting quantified, thanks to Momsense
The health benefits of breastfeeding are well-known, yet for various reasons, many new mothers quit after a few months. Maybe they don’t have the time, they find it uncomfortable or they believe that the baby isn’t getting enough milk. A new product called Momsense is taking aim at this last problem with a product and app that can keep track of how much a baby is actually drinking, hopefully putting a mom’s worries at ease.
We live in an age of smart baby cribs, scales and onesies, so it seems only natural that something like breastfeeding would be next. Newborns can nurse eight to 12 times per day, meaning there’s a lot of data for moms to keep track of. So why not delegate it to an app? And rather than ask moms to guess how much the baby drank (which is what traditional pen-and-paper methods demand), Momsense’s small sensor handles that task.
Momsense attaches to the baby, not the mom: It’s a small circle that the mother places under the child’s ear, along their jawline. The device functions similar to a stethoscope, listening to the sound of the baby’s swallows to determine how much the baby is drinking. It’s also smart enough to tell the difference between a real swallow and random gurgles or half gulps. Mom can also listen in, thanks to the attached headphones, so she’s not ceding all responsibility to the app: She can still take action if something’s wrong, or she may just feel reassured having all of that sensory data available.
I don’t have children, so the sounds in the demo I checked out were a little too visceral for me, but I can see how they might benefit a new mom. By making breastfeeding more immersive, the Momsense monitor might help mothers bond with their offspring even more.
What lifts Momsense beyond an ordinary stethoscope is the app that keeps track of all of this data being generated. Unlike most health-tracking apps, Momsense isn’t built around a particular goal. Even though it keeps track of feeding time and quantity, it doesn’t say “your baby needs this much milk” or “your baby should feed for this long.” Every baby is different, and adding any kind of metric puts unnecessary pressure on the mother.
To that point, the app doesn’t present its data like a fitness app would. Fitness apps tend to focus on bar or line graphs a lot, which let a person easily compare progress over a given period of time. Momsense eschews comparisons by displaying each day as a circle with each feeding as a small bubble that sort of orbits around it like a moon around a planet. The larger the bubble, the more milk consumed during each feeding, and you can click on it to see more details like time spent and a breakdown by individual breast.
The Momsense connects to phones via a traditional headphone jack (sorry, iPhone 7 users), so it’s easy enough to get started and never have to worry about the signal dropping out. When a mom starts a session, the app displays a weird design of interlocking circles that pulses in time with the baby’s swallows. The design feels reminiscent of mammary glands and I personally found it a bit unsettling, but mothers using it will probably be more focused on their babies anyway.
Right now the app can only handle one baby at a time, so mothers taking care of multiple children will have to rely on work-arounds like using alternate mobile devices for different babies or reserving their left or right breast for a particular child. Regardless of how many children they have, they’ll only need one Momsense, which can work with any Android or iOS device. Momsense is available at the company’s website for $89 or via stores like Target, Babies “R” Us and Bed, Bath and Beyond, which happen to have baby registries — great for expectant mothers who’d like to give this quantified-parenting thing a try.
Clinton urges supporters to speak outside secret Facebook groups
A political candidate’s online support isn’t always in the open, and Hillary Clinton wouldn’t mind changing that. In her presidential campaign concession speech, she indirectly thanked “secret, private” Facebook support groups like Pantsuit Nation, a 3 million-strong outfit she’d messaged (through her digital team leader) on election day. At the same time, she didn’t want supporters keeping their message bottled up in these groups — she wanted them “coming out from behind that” to make sure their “voices are heard.” You can see the statement below at the 15:15 mark.
Both statements were brief, but they acknowledge both the importance of social networking in modern political campaigns as well as the problems it can create. The very fact that millions of supporters had their own space to discuss the campaign and political issues is relatively novel, and opening it to the public could easily have invited trolling and harassment. However, a private group also isn’t sharing its ideas with the outside world. How many voters might have been swayed if they could have seen and participated in some of these discussions? As important as organizations like Pantsuit Nation might be to galvanize fans, they risk creating bubbles that prevent messages from spreading.
Source: PBS (YouTube), Mic
‘Dishonored 2’ gets a full trailer days before launch
It’s been a long time coming, but Dishonored 2 is almost here — the game arrives this Friday. We’ve gotten our fair share of glimpses of the game recently, but today developer Bethesda dropped an official launch trailer to get excited players as hyped as possible. Sure, it’s no live-action trailer like we saw earlier this year, but there’s a lot to like here, particularly if you were a fan of the first game in the series.
The original Dishonored gave players plenty of choice in how they wanted to approach what could have been a pretty standard action-adventure game, and it looks like Bethesda is taking that approach even further. Plus, you’ll get a chance to play as either the first game’s protagonist Corvo or Emily Caldwin, another character from the first game. That choice will give you different story outcomes — and let’s not forget about all of Dishonored 2’s new “creative kills.” Dishonored 2 will be out for PS4, Xbox One and Windows on Friday November 11th.
Via: Venturebeat
Source: Bethesda (YouTube)
The Blume cigar humidifier keeps tabs on your collection
When it comes to keeping cigars fresh in a small humidor, the options range from humdipacks to compact devices that measure and regulate humidity. If you forget to check on the packs or miss a low water or battery alarm, you could be throwing away the money you’ve invested in your smoking habit. Some of those units allow for optional accessories that add WiFi connectivity, but Cigar Zen has a more modern solution for maintaining a cigar collection. The company has developed Blume: a smart humidification device that connects to your phone to help you keep tabs on the storage space.
Blume’s built-in sensor monitors the air inside your humidor and releases water vapor to maintain a certain level as needed. Cigar Zen says that the gadget is different from other active humidifiers, like those from Cigar Oasis, because it employs an atomizing transducer to disperse tiny water droplets that evaporate quickly to adjust humidity. The company explains that this is a much more efficient method for regulating humidity. It also looks a heck of a lot better than the options that are currently available as Blume has a chrome base and either faux leather or carbon fiber top.
With a companion smartphone app, Blume keeps tabs on humidity and alerts you when its time to refill the 250 ml (8.8 ounces) water supply. By the way, the company says you’ll only need to do that about once a month. Unlike some active humidors that are on the market, this device is battery powered so there’s no cord running into your humidor. That battery is also said to last about a month and there’s a backup battery that allows Blume to keep doing its job while the main unit is recharging.
In addition to keeping tabs on the status of your humidifier, the Blume app also helps you keep track of your cigar collection. Inventory controls make use of a range of data, including letting you know when a cigar has aged long enough to ensure the best smoking experience. Cigar Zen is planning on having both iOS and Android versions of the app when Blume launches.
Speaking of availability, the company is currently taking pledges via an Indiegogo campaign with plans to ship in September of next year. The Blume will retail for $295 when it officially goes on sale, but if you’re willing to commit now, you can save $50. There are also deeper discounts of $70 and $100 for the first 200 cigar smokers who opt in (100 at each tier). For now, have a closer look at the device in action down below.
Source: Blume
Google will retire Map Maker, the tool that let anyone update Maps
Google’s Map Maker tool was released in April 2011 as a parallel version of its official Maps app that encouraged user-submitted geographical and business changes, essentially crowdsourcing updates. Ideally, moderators would check the edits and roll them into the official versions once confirmed, though some trolling vandalism has squeaked through in the past. But it seems the dream to trust everyone with public maps is dead. Yesterday, the search giant announced that they will retire Map Maker and fold it wholly into Maps by March 2017.
Starting today, edits made in Map Maker won’t be up for moderation, Google stated in a blog post. Instead, they’ll be fully moved into Maps, . This begins a slow process for the search giant to transfer most, but probably not all of, the tools from Map Maker over to Maps leading up to and after its transition date next spring. What aspects won’t make the jump are unclear, but restricting edits and suggestions to its Local Guides program might prevent another vulgar joke edit from shutting down the public-facing site for a few weeks.
Via: SearchEngineLand
Source: Google Maps blog
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