Apple’s iPhone 7 Smart Battery Case Offers 26% More Charge Than iPhone 6s Version

As customers around the world begin receiving Apple’s iPhone 7 Smart Battery Case, it has now been confirmed that the charging case is rated for 2,365 mAh, a 26% increase over the iPhone 6s Smart Battery Case’s 1,877 mAh rating.

Chinese technical certifications revealed that the iPhone 7 likely has a larger 1,960 mAh battery, as previously rumored, meaning Apple’s Smart Battery Case can charge the smartphone fully with roughly 17% capacity remaining.

iPhone 7 Smart Battery Case is 2365 mAh, up from 1877 for iPhone 6. pic.twitter.com/cQ7LMR0KDk

— Nick Guy (@thenickguy) September 14, 2016

Apple officially says a fully charged iPhone 7 with a fully charged Smart Battery Case can provide combined talk time up to 26 hours, internet use up to 22 hours on LTE, and video playback up to 24 hours.

When the Smart Battery Case is turned on, a battery status is displayed on the Lock screen and in Notification Center to keep track of its charge level. The case has a silicone exterior in white or black, while the inside has a soft microfiber lining.

The iPhone 7 Smart Battery Case is available now for $99 on Apple’s website.

Related Roundup: iPhone 7
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How to Use Apple Music Lyrics in iOS 10

One of the newest features in iOS 10’s redesigned Apple Music app is the ability to view lyrics for your favorite songs. While the ability to quickly access song lyrics to learn the lines is helpful, the new feature may get lost in the midst of Apple Music’s new look. We’ve put together a how-to guide to show you how to view lyrics for your songs.

First, you’ll need to start playing a song. Once a song is playing, click on the song’s banner, just above the Apple Music menu bar at the bottom, to open the song’s individual card. From here, there are two methods to view lyrics.

Method One:

Tap the “three dots” button in the bottom right corner. This brings up a menu overlay displaying options for the song, like adding it to a playlist or creating a station.
Tap the “Lyrics” button below the “Share Song” option. Songs with available lyrics will have this option displayed, while songs without lyrics available will not.
The lyrics will pop up in a separate translucent window that slides over the song window.

Method Two:

Scroll down while in the song card.
The lyrics toggle will be displayed directly beneath the song, right above the “Up Next” feature.
Tap on “Show” to reveal the lyrics to your song.
Currently, lyrics are not available on all songs and albums, but Apple has been rapidly expanding the number of tracks with lyrics support throughout the beta testing period and coverage has become fairly broad in time for the public release.

Related Roundup: iOS 10
Tag: Apple Music
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Apple’s First Mexican Store and Sixth Hong Kong Store Open Next Week

Apple has announced that its first retail store in Mexico, located at the Centro Santa Fe shopping mall in Mexico City, will open on Saturday, September 24 at 11:00 a.m. local time. Apple’s sixth retail store in Hong Kong, located at the apm shopping mall, also opens on Thursday, September 22 at 11:00 a.m. local time.

Reforma Gadgets via Twitter
Apple is celebrating the opening of its first Mexican store with a colorful Hola México banner and a matching construction barrier at Via Santa Fe, the upscale wing of Centro Santa Fe, the largest shopping mall in Latin America. The store, first rumored in January, will be located on the upper level of the shopping mall.

Apple’s sixth retail store in Hong Kong will be located at 418 Kwun Tong Road in the Kwun Tong district. The store will be open seven days a week between 11 a.m. local time and 11:00 p.m. local time. Apple’s other five stores in Hong Kong are located at Canton Road, Causeway Bay, Festival Walk, IFC Mall, and New Town Plaza.

September is shaping up to be a busy month for Apple retail, starting with two U.S. stores that reopened on September 2, another four locations reopening on September 10, and three more to follow on September 16.

Related Roundup: Apple Stores
Tags: Mexico, Hong Kong
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‘Safe’ Galaxy Note 7s may use a different battery icon

New Galaxy Note 7s will reportedly use a green battery icon, not white — but will it make any real difference?

As Samsung prepares to replace potentially explosive Galaxy Note 7 phones with new versions, it seems the company is considering new ways help Note owners know whether their device is safe or not. Now it appears a visual change to the phone’s software may reassure Note 7 owners (and possibly airlines, aviation authorities and others) that their phones are safe.

New, safe Galaxy Note 7 handsets will use green battery icons, as opposed to the standard white, ZDNet’s Cho Mu-Hyun reports from Seoul. It’s unclear whether the green hue will apply at all times, or just when the phone is charging. It’s also not known whether the change will apply to all “safe” Note 7s globally, or just in Korea; we’ve reached out to Samsung for further info. AC’s Russell Holly, who exchanged his Note 7 as part of the U.S. replacement program, sees the standard white battery icon on his phone, even when charging.

Earlier this week it emerged that Samsung will limit unsafe Korean Galaxy Note 7s to 60 percent battery charge though a software update. Samsung has yet to clarify whether this OTA will apply to Notes outside of Korea.

No bureaucrat is going to deal with ‘Note 7 Exploding Version’ vs ‘Note 7 Non Exploding Version.’

The new battery icon, if it becomes widespread, highlights the problem Samsung (and its customers) will face in proving that their phones are the “safe” versions. In the past week, most of the world’s major aviation authorities have told passengers not to use or charge their Galaxy Note 7s onboard planes, while also excluding the phone from being carried in the hold of aircraft. Yesterday New York’s MTA and New Jersey Transit told rail and bus travelers not to use the phone in transit, citing battery explosion fears.

The nightmare scenario for Samsung — and Note 7 owners who frequently travel — is that the phone will be permanently tarred as “unsafe,” even after the recall process has been completed. PCMag’s Sascha Segan summed up the predicament in recent tweet: “No bureaucrat is going to deal with ‘Note 7 Exploding Version’ vs ‘Note 7 Non Exploding Version.’ Easier to just ban them all,” after suggesting it might be easier for Samsung to just rename the “safe” version of the phone as “Note 7S.”

However things pan out, it’s clear Samsung’s Note 7 woes are far from over. The company will begin swapping out potentially unsafe Korean handsets with replacement units from September 19.

Samsung Galaxy Note 7

• Galaxy Note 7 recall: Everything you need to know
• Samsung Galaxy Note 7 review
• The latest Galaxy Note 7 news!
• Here are all four Note 7 colors
• Complete Galaxy Note 7 specs
• Join the Note 7 discussion in the forums!

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Awesome early access games available on Gear VR

What Early Access games are best to try?

Early access games give players the chance to check out games that aren’t quite polished yet, or ready for mass consumption. You may have seen them over on Steam, without realizing there is an entire category of them available for play on your Gear VR. There are over a dozen different games and experiences that you can take a look at, and we’ve gathered the best of the best. Best of all, each game that we talk about here is available for the low, low price of free.

Read more at VR Heads!

Riptide GP: Renegade, a beginner’s guide

High-speed racing thrills: wheels not required.

It was 20 years ago when games like Wave Race 64 for the N64, and the Jet Moto series for PlayStation proving that racing games need not be confined to the asphalt track. In the time since, notwithstanding a few sequels and reboot attempts, not much has been done with the jet-ski racing genre.

Developers Vector Unit had done their part to breathe new life into the genre. Their first title, Hydro Thunder Hurricane, was a surprise hit on the Xbox Live Arcade. Since then, they’ve turned their focus to bringing console-quality racing to Android and other mobile platforms. Their latest game, Riptide GP: Renegade, is the third in the series and a guaranteed blast of nostalgia for fans of Wave Race 64 or Jet Moto.

Set in not-too-distant future where water is seemingly everywhere and rocket-powered hydrojet racing is apparently a huge big deal, Riptide GP: Renegade is a visually stunning game featuring outstanding water physics and a great sense of speed. There are multiple single player and multiplayer options to choose from — a story-based Career mode where you must redeem your racer’s reputation after a run-in with the law, as well as leaderboard challenges, quick races, and both online and local split-screen multiplayer options — which help to justify its $2.99 price in the Google Play Store.

But before you dive in, we’ve compiled our best tips for beginners so you can leave your opponents in your wake.

• Control is everything
• Master the motion of the ocean
• Tricks are cool, but upgrades are more important
• Don’t trip yourself up with tricks
• Find all the shortcuts

Control is everything

If you’re playing Riptide GP: Renegade on your phone, by default you’ll be stuck using the all-too-common tilt steering controls. The tilt control scheme is quite apropos, given the riders really lean into their turns on their hydrojets. Unfortunately, it’s just hart to steer precisely — more than fine in games when you’re drag racing a car down a flat strip. But when you’re dealing with the choppy waterways in Riptide GP, the slightest angle difference can fling you way off your preferred line and, given how unrelenting the AI, likely knock you out of a podium finish. Fortunately, you also have the option of using a Bluetooth gamepad.

The first time you play Riptide GP with a controller, the added control an analog stick allows is instantly noticeable. Making small tweaks as you line up an epic jump suddenly involves less guesswork than finding the sweet spot with the tilt controls.

Using a controller also lets you pull off stunts more efficiently. With the default control scheme, you swipe with both thumbs in tandem to pull off stunts in the air. That works just fine. But again, the tactile responsiveness of the sticks and the sheer fact that your thumbs naturally rest right on them as you play just makes pulling off tricks that much faster and easier.

And of course, if you ever want to make use of split-screen multiplayer — a rarity on console games these days and nearly unheard of for mobile games — you’ll need at least two (up to four) gamepads. For what it’s worth, Riptide GP: Renegade also plays fantastically on the Nvidia Shield TV Box, so you can play with friends without cramming around your tablet.

Master the motions of the ocean

As Vector Unit boasts on the Google Play page for Riptide GP: Renegade, “Every race is different because the surface you race on is always changing.”

This is very true, and the outstanding water physics are one of the features that makes this game worth checking out. But they can make each race completely unpredictable in a bad way. If you awkwardly bounce off an opponent’s wake or don’t properly prepare for that massive wave coming your way, you’re bound to be flung well off course, or into something that will cause your rider to crash.

The problem is the learning curve for mastering how to maintain top speeds through choppy sections is pretty high. Considering you often need a perfect run to finish first, knowing how to read the water and, most importantly, how to quickly recover when you’re thrown off course is crucial. In the end, you’ll have to play through each track multiple times to figure out your best lines through the choppiest bits so you can keep up with your competition.

Tricks are cool, but upgrades are more important

Every time you level up your rider in Career mode, you earn skill points. Skill points can be spent to unlock different upgrades for your rider, including a bunch of super cool tricks. Once you start collecting skill points and checking out everything that’s available, you’re going to be tempted to spend them on a flashy new trick because landing tricks during a race is how you fill up your boost bar — the crazier the stunt, the more boost you receive.

But you should really hold off on upgrading your bag of tricks until you’ve snagged the first three skill point upgrades on the list: Boost Bonus, Boost Start, and Drafting. These three upgrades are absolutely necessary to keep up with your opponents as you progress through Career mode.

Boost Bonus increases the length of your boosts, which is crucial for when you’re trying to pass opponents down the final stretch, or when you bail and need to get back up to speed. Boost Start gives you the option to tap the boost icon right when the lights turn green at the start of the race for an acceleration boost off the line. Drifting lets you get a minor speed boost when you’re riding behind your opponents, indicated by wind effects.

Drifting seems to be the most important of the three, as once you get good at following your opponent’s lines you can use the added speed from drifting to blast past them at the perfect moment.

There are three levels for each upgrade, which become available at rider levels 2, 5 and 10. Ensuring you have the skill points saved up to unlock these crucial upgrades will be key for a smooth progression through Career mode.

Don’t trip yourself up with tricks

On the topic of tricks, you’ll soon learn to use them sparingly and strategically. The basic set of tricks are typically easy to do off of every jump, wave, or drop — but they barely fill the boost meter. This will lead you to take more risks and try to squeeze a trick into every jump. Do not do this.

The risk-reward for tricks is pretty steep. Sure, filling the boost meter can help you zip past an opponent on a straightaway, or recover after taking a speed-killing sharp turn. However, if you don’t finish the trick before you hit the water, you crash causing the rider to go flying.

You’ll quickly learn how impossible it is to fully recover from a crash in Riptide GP: Renegade. If you’re in first place and you crash, you’ll likely drop down to fourth. If you ride clean for the remainder of the race, you might be able to claw back up to second place, but getting back to the front of the pack is incredibly hard.

The AI is just not as prone to messing up their stunts, so you really got to be strategic when to pulling off tricks. If you didn’t hit a jump at max speed, you’re probably better off just taking the jump, forgoing collecting some boost, and focusing on maintaining speed and lining up the next section of the course.

Find all the shortcuts

Vector Unit did a great job with the level design for all the courses in the game, throwing in a bunch of objects to interact with and at least one or two secret shortcuts on every track.

Finding shortcuts isn’t too hard, as long as you keep an eye on your surroundings as you race. Our best tip for discovering and mastering shortcuts is to really explore the courses outside of the competitive races in Career mode or multiplayer. Pick a track in Quick Race mode and take a slow, leisurely tour. Think you saw one? Turn around and check it out. You’ll quickly notice the off-map paths, and can learn their twists and turns at your own pace. Once you’ve mastered them, you can incorporate them into your competitive races and — hopefully — cut out in front of the other racers.

But just like pulling off tricks, you really have to be confident and strategic with using shortcuts. Try to cut into a shortcut too late and you risk bailing and making things much worse for yourself.

Got any other tips?

Have you played Riptide GP: Renegade? Let us know your favorite tips in the comments!

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Grab an unlocked HTC One A9 and 15000mAh power bank for just $360

Newegg is currently offering the unlocked HTC One A9 in topaz gold for just $360, and to sweeten the deal you can also score a free 15000mAh power bank with your purchase. The HTC One A9 has 32GB of internal storage and 3GB of RAM under the 5-inch display. HTC has already stated the One A9 will be receiving an update to Android Nougat in the future, which makes this an even better deal.

If the $140 savings on the phone isn’t enough, the free 15000mAh power bank sweetens it even further. This will help you keep it charged while on the go, ensuring you don’t run out of power. This deal is only available for a limited time, so be sure to act quick if you are interested.

See at Newegg

Amazon Echo: What can Alexa do and what services are compatible?

Amazon Echo is a hands-free speaker controlled with your voice. It features a personal assistant called Alexa, who will perform various tasks for you and control various systems.

There are seven microphones within Echo, all of which feature enhanced noise cancellation and far-field voice recognition, meaning you can ask Alexa a question from any direction, even when playing music, and she should still hear you.

Amazon Echo’s personal assistant will respond to the wake word “Alexa”. If you have more than one Echo, or Echo Dot in your home, Alexa will respond from the device closest to you. She is always listening, but you can turn the microphone off with the button on the top of the Echo if you want some privacy.

What can Alexa do?

Alexa will play music, provide information, deliver news and sports scores, tell you the weather, control your smarthome and even allow Prime members to order products they’ve ordered before.

She updates through the cloud automatically and learns all the time. The more you use Echo, the more Alexa adapts to your speech patterns, vocabulary and personal preferences.

Pocket-lint

What can you ask Alexa?

There are plenty of things you can ask Alexa to do. A feature called Skills in the Alexa app will enable you to customise your Echo device with capabilities to suit your preferences.

There are a number of different skill categories within the Skills section of the app, including Go Places, Stay Informed, Make Your Home Smarter and Be Entertained. To get started, you just have to tap Enable Skill when you’ve found one that is suited to you.

Some will require you to link to an existing account or separate subscription to use. For example, to use Uber with Alexa, you’ll need to have signed into your Uber account within the Skills section of the the Alexa app. Here are just a few examples of what you can ask Alexa to do.

“Alexa, wake me up at 7 in the morning”

“Alexa, ask Skyscanner for a flight to New York”

“Alexa, ask The Telegraph for the top stories”

“Alexa, what’s on my calendar today?”

“Alexa, what’s the weather in London?”

“Alexa, play Taylor Swift from Amazon Music”

“Alexa, how’s my commute?”

“Alexa, shuffle my Favourites playlist”

“Alexa, turn it up”

“Alexa, will it rain tomorrow?”

“Alexa, read my audiobook”

“Alexa, what’s in the news?”

“Alexa, ask Uber to request a ride”

“Alexa, open Just Eat and ask for my last order”

“Alexa, turn on the coffee machine”

“Alexa, turn on all the lights”

“Alexa, set the master bedroom to 20 degrees”

“Alexa, ask Jamie Oliver for a recipe”

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What apps and services work with Alexa?

Numerous companies have announced partnerships with Amazon Echo, as you will have seen from some of the questions above. Here are some of the services that work with Alexa and what they mean you can do.

Just Eat

The Just Eat partnership means you can get Alexa to order you a take away from one of the thousands of restaurants it has available.

Uber

Need an Uber from home? No problem. Just ask Alexa to request you one and you’ll have a driver on its way to you.

National Rail

Want to know what your commute has in store for you before you leave the house? Ask Alexa to check and she will pull in the information from National Rail regarding train times and schedules.

The Guardian

For those that read The Guardian, Alexa will give you a rundown of the paper’s top stories so you can find out which ones you’ll want to read before your commute.

The Telegraph

Like The Guardian, the partnership with The Telegraph means users can ask Alexa for this paper’s top stories too.

Sky Sports

Want to know how your favourite football team is doing? Or how your rival team is doing? Just ask Alexa and she’ll deliver the bad news in her lovely accent.

Jamie Oliver

Need a recipe from the Jamie Oliver app but have your hands full? Just ask Alexa and she’ll find it for you so you can carry on with whatever you’re doing.

Fitbit

Want to know how you slept or how many steps you’ve done? Fitbit’s partnership with Echo means you can just ask Alexa and she’ll let you know. No need to open the Fitbit app.

Skyscanner

Take me to New York. The partnership with Skyscanner allows users to ask Alexa for flight dates and prices using a natural conversation search method.

TuneIn

For those that love a random radio station, the TuneIn partnership with Echo allows you to ask Alexa to find your favourite station and listen to it all day.

RadioPlayer

Like TuneIn, RadioPlayer offers numerous radio stations meaning you can ask Alexa to recommend you one or just play one you know you like.

Spotify

The Spotify partnerships allows users to request songs, artists or playlists through Alexa, which she will then play through Echo’s 360-degree omni-directional audio.

Laundrapp

Have a suit or dress that have needed dry cleaning for months? Ask Alexa to take care of it and the partnership with Laundrapp means they will be collected, cleaned and redelivered.

BMW

BMW Connected is available as a Skill, allowing users to ask Alexa for an update on their fuel and battery levels, as well as ask her to lock their car remotely.

Tado

The partnership with smart heating system Tado means users of the system can ask Alexa to set, increase or decrease their home temperature without moving a muscle.

Netatmo

Like Tado, the collaboration with Netatmo means users with this heating system can also ask Alexa to turn the temperature of their house up or down.

Hive

British Gas-owned Hive is another smarthome partner of Echo, allowing users to ask Alexa to turn the heating up or down, turn lights on or off, as well as turn anything with a Hive Active plug on or off.

Philips Hue

Need to turn off the bedroom light, or all the lights? The Philips Hue partnership allows you to control your Hue lights by asking Alexa rather than having to go into the app.

EDF Energy

The EDF Energy partnership allows users to ask Alexa to access their energy account, check their next payment data give a meter reading, without lifting a finger.

TP Link

The partnership with TP-Link means users with any of the company’s smart plugs or bulbs can ask Alexa to control them with their voice.

WeMo

Like TP-Link, the WeMo collaboration means users can ask Alexa to turn their WeMo connected devices off or on without needing to open the app.

Honeywell

Have a Honeywell connected system? Just ask Alexa to turn your heating up or down in and she’ll make sure it gets done.

SmartThings

SmartThings is also a partner of Echo, offering users the ability to command their smart home through Alexa, whether it’s turning the lights off or the temperature up.

Nest

The Nest compatibility with Echo means users can control their thermostat through Alexa, like other smart heating systems on this list. You can set a specific target temperature, lower the target temperature, as well as say things like “I’m too hot”.

Sonos

It’s not available yet, but Sonos has announced it will add Alexa voice support in 2017, meaning you’ll be able to ask the personal assistant to play music in your living room without even opening the Sonos app.

• Amazon Echo vs Amazon Tap vs Echo Dot: What’s the difference?
• Amazon Echo comes to Europe, UK customers can finally use Alexa
• Amazon Echo Dot (2016) preview: Alexa for those who use their own speakers
• Amazon Echo review: Ace assistant, average speaker