The best apps for dog owners

Apps can bring you and your dog closer than ever.

Technology is amazing. And while there is no substitute for spending quality time with your pupper, the right app can help you do more in that time — or, if you’re away, find someone else to do it for you. If you’ve got a dog, these apps may make your life easier and your time with that fluffy friend even better.

Walk for a Dog

You’re probably aware of the overcrowding issues in animal shelters and pet rescue organizations. With hundreds of animals looking for forever homes, these facilities are often run on shoestring budgets and rely on donations and fundraisers to keep their doors open. While donating might be feasible for some people, you can actually hep out these organizations by doing something as simple as walking your dog, with the Walk for a Dog app.

This app will let you choose from one of more than 6000 facilities, and each time that you open the app and take your pooch for a walk, it will donate money to the charity you’ve chosen. The app operate similar to Charity Miles, and donates a certain amount of money per distance walked. It’s a great way to help out local shelters, and spend some time with your furry best friend in the process.

Download Walk with a Dog (free)

DogVacay

While you might want to spend as much time with your pet as possible, there are always things that eventually get in the way. From work to a weekend conference trip, there are times when you just can’t bring that fluffy ball of love with you. While there are plenty of great kennels and doggie day care facilities across the U.S and Canada, you might be hoping to find a dog sitter that can provide a more personal experience for your pooch.

That’s where DogVacay comes in. This app connects you to hundreds of pet sitters in your city that will watch your dog for a few hours, or let them stay overnight for a few days. You can have them watch your dog at your own home, or theirs, and you won’t find any kennels with cramped quarters. They even offer dog walking services, or dog taxi services if your schedule makes vet visits difficult. For anyone looking to make sure their dog is well taken care of even when you’re out of town, DogVacay has you covered.

Download DogVacay (free)

Whistle

Integration between wearable technology and your phone isn’t new, but did you know that there’s a way to track your dog using something like a Fitbit? Whistle offers you wearable tech that attaches to your dog’s collar, that will send you notifications if your dog wanders away from the safe zone.

Whistle requires you to pick up the Whistle GPS collar, which is available for $49.99 on their website. After you’ve got the collar you’ll be able to get live GPS tracking of your dog, along with email and text alerts. If you enter any of your pet’s medications into the app, you’ll also get notifications about when to give them to your pup. For anyone with a dog who has a tendency to wander, or who you want to keep an eye on Whistle is a great way to do it.

Download Whistle (free)

DoggyDatez

Dogs are primarily pack animals, which means that they really do enjoy playing with other dogs. However finding a good playmate for your dog, or finding people nearby with dogs of their own, can be a pesky process. That’s where DoggyDatez comes in.

It allows you to set an area of 200 metres and will notify you when other users of the app are around. You can also search for other users by dog breed or name. It’s a great way to find new friends for both you and your dog, all without having to spend hours by yourself in the dog park.

Download DoggyDatez (free)

Pet First Aid

Everyone does their best to make sure that Man’s Best Friend is properly taken care of. There’s vet appointments and medications, sure, but every once in a while your dog will eat something it shouldn’t. While knowing what is dangerous to a human is pretty easy to suss out, doing the same with your dog can be an issue. That’s where Pet First Aid comes in.

The app comes with plenty of options to make sure that even in an emergency your pet is getting the best possible care. You can input your vet’s phone number for those serious emergencies, but the other features can help you out before things get to that point. This includes checking your dog’s health, the best way to deal with small issues, and even lets you program vet appointments into the app. For anyone who wants to make sure that their dog is always getting the best care, Pet First Aid has you covered.

Download Pet First Aid (free)

Your turn

For many people, their dogs are a member of the family. The apps we’ve found here will help to make sure your dog never gets lost, what to do in case of an emergency, find a competent dog sitter and plenty more. Each one has their own strategy on how to make your dogs life as awesome as possible. Did we miss an awesome app? Have you used any of these before? Be sure to drop us a line in the comments and tell us all about it!

South Floridians will soon be able to order McDonalds via UberEATS

Ever wanted a Big Mac without the hassle of leaving the house? Good news! Your dream may soon be a reality.

UBEREats will soon deliver McDonald’s from 200 franchises around Tampa, Miami, and Orlando as part of a pilot program by the fast food chain. Once a customer orders off the menu in the UBEREats app, they can track their order just as they would an approaching Uber ride.

While a program like this is no guarantee that McDonald’s will expand the program to the rest of us, the test is certainly the first step. And as someone whose college dorm was next door to a McDonald’s in college, this is dangerous power to put at our fingertips…

Honor Magic now official with dual-curved display, high-end hardware, and AI smarts

Honor Magic uses AI to anticipate your needs.

At an event in China, Huawei’s sub-brand Honor unveiled its latest phone, the Honor Magic. The phone is set to go on sale in China later this week, and while it isn’t slated to make its way to other markets, it comes with an all-new Honor Magic Live OS that sees the introduction of an AI service.

Before we get to the AI features, let’s take a look at the hardware on offer: the Honor Magic is curved on all sides, and offers a dual-curved display up front with a 5.09-inch QHD panel. The phone is powered by Huawei’s 16nm octa-core Kirin 950 SoC, 4GB of RAM, 64GB storage, 12MP dual cameras (same as the Honor 8), 8MP front shooter, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 4.2, LTE, and a 2900mAh battery. Honor is introducing a new Huawei Magic Power fast charging technology that allows the phone to be charged up to 70% in just 40 minutes, or up to 40% in 10 minutes.

Normally, the hardware is the most interesting part of a new phone launch, but that’s ancillary on the Honor Magic. The main attraction is the company’s new Honor Magic Live OS, which runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The OS relies on several AI-driven features that enable “human-like interactions,” including a recommendation service that’s similar in functionality to Google Now:

• Imagine when you are chatting about movies with your friends on Wechat, Honor Magic will then be able to recommend the latest blockbusters for you.
• Imagine when you are on the road, Honor Magic automatically recognizes that you are driving and will prompt a reminder for you to switch the device to driving mode.
• DeepThink – Press and hold the home button and Honor Magic will offer multi-facet information based on the current webpage you visit.
• Once you use Honor Magic to order a cab, the driver’s license plate information will be shown on the display under locked screen mode.
• Once you arrive at the theatre, Honor Magic will automatically display the ticket booking number.
• When you approach the parcel collection counter, Honor Magic will automatically show the tracking number.

Then there’s the WiseScreen Sensor Magic sensor, which automatically switches on the screen when you pick up the phone, and turns it off when you put the phone in your pocket. FaceCode Intelligent Recognition protects your privacy by revealing message notifications only after authenticating your face.

The home button doubles up as an all-in-one navigation button, allowing you to go back or access the recents pane by simply double tapping or swiping. We’ve seen similar functionality on Lenovo’s mid-range Z2 Plus (the ZUK Z2 globally) earlier this year, and once you get the hang of it, it’s a delight to use.

The Honor Magic launch comes on the heels of the rand’s third-year anniversary. The phone will go on sale in China from December 16 for ¥3,699 ($535).

NES Classic available in-store at Best Buy on December 20th

Forget Hatchimals. The NES Classic has been a hot ticket item all fall, and users are getting one more shot at snagging one before Christmas

Best Buy is holding a one-day event for the NES Classic at over a thousand of its brick-and-mortar stores on December 20th when they will have a limited restocking of the nostalgic console. Best Buy is treating it exactly like Black Friday, meaning they’ll pass out tickets for the item to those in line, and you can only purchase one console per person.

If you’ve been unsuccessful in securing an NES Classic for someone’s Christmas gift, this may be your best chance. It might also be a long night standing in line, as Best Buy says it’s been their most-asked-about item. If you miss out — stores will only hand out as many tickets as they have units — might I suggest choosing something from our Holiday Gift Guide that doesn’t sell out so quickly?

Best Tech Gifts for the Chef in Your Life

What’s the best tech gift for a chef? Here are some options that sizzle!

Cooking predates any form of technology, really (unless you count the wheel), but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get your favorite chef something to bring his or her kitchen into the 21st century and beyond!

Here are some chef-worthy gift ideas that won’t make you roux the day you gave them to the chef in your life.

• Somabar
• FOODsniffer
• Prep Pad
• Amazon Echo
• Mellow
• Spectrum universal tablet stand
• Smart Crock-Pot (with WeMo)

Somabar

The Somabar is just plain cool as hell. It’s essentially a robot bartender that mixes drinks based on what you tell it in the Somabar app. You just keep the Soma Pods filled with your favorite alcohol and mixes, and the app will even help you concoct cocktails of your own creation.

This is a Kickstarter that’s been funded and available for pre-order.

Pre-order at Somabar

FOODsniffer

If you’re like me at all, you sometimes have a hard time figuring out if meat has gone bad or not. If it’s funky and discolored, then of course I know, but there’s always that awkward window where I’m not quite sure.

The FOODsniffer is like that dude who tested the food for the king to make sure it wasn’t poisoned — by detecting the gases associated with rot, it accurately lets you know if the meat, fish, and poultry you’re thinking of cooking has gone bad.

The FOODsniffer only detects via gases, and the disclaimer on its website says that it won’t be able to discern the presence of bacterial growth, like Salmonella or E. coli, so if you have week-old chicken, but it’s not producing rot gas (by some random act of bad luck), still chuck it, or be careful at the very least.

Comes in black, white, green, and purple. The gadget, not the meat.

See at FOODsniffer

Prep Pad

The Prep Pad is the food scale of the future, and it connects to your phone via Bluetooth and the cool Orange Chef app, which gives you a complete nutritional picture of your meal with just a bit of input from you.

If the chef in your life is also a calorie counter or simply wants to start eating more healthily, the Prep Pad is a great tool to help figure out nutrition while cooking.

See at Amazon

Amazon Echo

The perennial Android Central favorite, the Amazon Echo is the smart assistant that every chef needs. Set timers, search the internet for recipes, cue up some music, and tons more, using Amazon’s digital assistant, Alexa, and just your voice. No needs to touch buttons with messy paws.

The Echo isn’t just a personal assistant, but a powerful Bluetooth speaker as well. If you don’t need the speaker but still want the Alexa functionality, there’s the less expensive Amazon Echo Dot.

If all else fails and dinner just isn’t going as planned, you can just order a pizza from Domino’s!

See at Amazon

Mellow

Mellow is the smart sous-vide machine of your dreams. To cook sous-vide is to place food in airtight plastic bags and throw them in a warm water bath, sort of like an underwater slow cooker. The plastic bags lock in flavour and the slow cook time make everything scrum-diddily-umptious.

Mellow lets you control temperature, cooking time, and more through the app. So if you’re at work and know you have a steak that’ll take an hour, fire it up an hour before you get home and boom, you come home to a hot meal.

You can make up to six portions at a time in Mellow, it weighs your food automatically, and the in-app chef learns your tastes over time to make recipe recommendations and what not.

Pre-order at Mellow

Spectrum universal tablet stand

You need a place to hold your tablet. A countertop tablet stand is great, but if you’re dealing with some very unstable herbs, things could messy.

The Spectrum stand is a floor stand that adjusts from 36 to 64 inches, so you can stand it next to you while you cook, reading recipes and learning techniques from YouTube videos, without getting it all filthy on the counter.

Fits 7- to 10-inch tablets.

See at Amazon

Smart Crock-Pot (with WeMo)

Who doesn’t like coming home to a hot meal at the end of the day? Not having to cook when you get home is the cat’s pajamas, and a slow cooker is the perfect to make sure dinner’s hot and ready when you are.

Even better, WeMo’s app lets you control the Smart Crock-Pot over Wi-Fi, so you can control the temperature and settings while you’re away from home. If you’re worried that your grub is going to burn, you can even set it to warm or turn it off completely. No more “did I leave the oven on?”

See at Amazon

OnePlus 3T vs Apple iPhone 7 Plus: Battle of the big phones

OnePlus 3T is the latest phone from the original market disruptors, and comes as one of our most highly recommended smartphones of the year. It essentially took what was great about the OnePlus 3 and made it faster, and last longer.

Similarly, the iPhone 7 Plus is an improved version of the 6s Plus, which in itself was an improved version of the 6 Plus.

Both phones are available to buy now, but come with hugely different price tags. The question is: does the difference in experience justify the price gap?

OnePlus 3T vs iPhone 7 Plus: Design

• OnePlus is curved and narrower
• Both made mostly from aluminium
• iPhone 7 Plus is IP67 rated

The OnePlus 3T’s chassis is hewn from a single piece of aluminium, giving a solid, sturdy feel. It measures in at 152.7 x 74.7 x 7.35mm and weighs just 158g. Its fingerprint sensor is built into the front frame beneath the screen, while the bezel around the display is impressively slim. There’s a Type-C port next to a speaker grille and 3.5mm jack on the bottom edge.

As for colour options, you get to choose between a gunmetal grey and soft gold variant. The latter of those isn’t available to buy just yet, and will only be available with 64GB storage.

Switching to the iPhone 7 Plus, and we’re looking at another all aluminium chassis, but with a different, flatter design. At 158.2 x 77.9 x 7.3mm, it’s noticeably wider and taller, which makes it a little harder to hold in one hand. Like the OnePlus, it has a fingerprint sensor built into its front-mounted home button.

Unlike the OnePlus, the iPhone 7 Plus has IP67 certification, which means it’s resistant to water and dust. It’s also available in a stunning Jet Black colour option, which swaps the traditional anodised metal finish for a more glossy lacquer. It’s pretty, but very prone to scratching and collecting fingerprints.

Being Apple, there’s no Type-C connection on this phone, instead there’s the usual proprietary Lightning port which Apple uses in several of its smaller products.

OnePlus 3T vs iPhone 7 Plus: Display

• Both 5.5-inch screens
• Both 1080p resolution
• AMOLED vs LCD IPS technology

The OnePlus 3T sports a 5.5-inch screen using the same AMOLED technology found in its predecessor, the OnePlus 3. This 1080p display features dual polarising layers to help it be more visible in daylight. All this is packed behind a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 4.

Apple’s biggest phone has the same screen size and resolution as the 3T, except it uses LCD IPS technology which isn’t quite as vibrant. Whites are cleaner, and colours are more natural and accurate, but it does lack the contrast and punch of its competitor.

OnePlus 3T vs iPhone 7 Plus: Camera

• iPhone has dual 12MP system
• 3T has 16MP front and rear cameras
• Both have OIS, 4K video

Compared to the iPhone, OnePlus’ main camera is a pretty standard affair. It’s a 16-megapixel sensor built into a camera with both optical and electronic image stabilisation for blur-free shots. It takes images quickly and can shoot video up to 4K resolution.

Apple went with an interesting dual camera 12-megapixel setup on the back, where the secondary lens is a telephoto zoom lens capable of giving you 2x zoom without losing any detail. It’s also paired with a quad LED true tone flash, for better party shots.

The iPhone is very much a point and shoot affair, while the OnePlus gives you manual controls to give you a more fine-tuneable experience when shooting photos.

As for results, the iPhone tends to take better photos quickly and more consistently, although similar photos side by side show very little difference in overall quality.

Switching to the front cameras, and OnePlus decided to cram in 16-megapixels into the selfie snapper, while Apple has been more restrained with its standard seven megapixel system.

OnePlus 3T vs iPhone 7 Plus: Hardware

• iPhone has A10 Fusion processor
• OnePlus has Snapdragon 821 chip
• OnePlus has 6GB RAM and Dash Charge

The OnePlus 3T’s spec sheet makes for impressive reading and performance. With its Snapdragon 821 processor and 6GB RAM, it can cope with any task you can throw at it. It also has a large 3,400mAh battery to get it way past one day of moderate use. When it’s empty, you can charge it up super quick with the Dash Charge adapter which gets it from 0-70 per cent in thirty minutes.

Apple went with its latest custom chip in the iPhone 7 Plus. The A10 Fusion chip is quad core, and paired with 3GB RAM. It may not look much compared to the OnePlus, but it easily outperforms the Snapdragon in Benchmarking tests, and results in very smooth and fast performance in daily use thanks to Apple’s control over hardware and software optimisation.

Because of this optimisation, the 7 Plus’ 2,900mAh battery is capable of lasting just as long as the OnePlus’ battery, but it doesn’t charge anywhere near as quickly.

OnePlus sells the 3T in both 64GB and 128GB variants, while Apple sells the 7 Plus in 32GB, 128GB and 264GB versions.

OnePlus 3T vs iPhone 7 Plus: Software

• iPhone runs iOS 10
• OnePlus runs Android Marshmallow

Like the last model, the OnePlus 3T runs a customised version of Android Marshmallow. The company’s software, known as OxygenOS, comes with lots of customisation choices, including changing icon size and shape, as well as the ability to lock individual apps behind fingerprint authentication requests.

iOS 10 is Apple’s latest version of the iPhone operating system, and ships on the 7 Plus, complete with the new version of the Messages app, stickers, emoji and updated Mail app. There’s also the new Maps app which is more proactive at suggesting routes, and a Home app for controlling all your HomeKit enabled smart home products.

OnePlus 3T vs iPhone 7 Plus: Price

• OnePlus 3T starts at £399
• iPhone 7 Plus starts at £719

The OnePlus 3T is available to buy now and starts at £399. Although more expensive than its predecessor, it’s still far cheaper than Apple’s flagship phone, and is available from OnePlus direct or from O2 in the UK.

Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus starts at £719 and is available from a plethora of retail stores and carriers, both on the high street and online.

OnePlus 3T vs iPhone 7 Plus: Conclusion

The OnePlus 3T is smaller, and more comfortable to hold in one hand, has a higher resolution camera, charges much, much quicker and has a larger starting storage capacity.

The iPhone on the other hand performs slightly faster, gets more speedy software updates and is available to buy in more places.

In truth, both phones are fantastic, but there’s a huge difference in pricing. OnePlus’ largest 128GB storage costs £439, while the same storage option of the iPhone 7 Plus costs £819. While the iPhone may be a better all rounder, it’s nowhere near its competitor when it comes to value for money.