How to use Google Home to call an Uber

Google Home is supposed to be a digital assistant, so why not use it to call a car?

One of the first integrations announced with Google Home was Uber, meaning you can use your new smart connected speaker to seamlessly call a car to get you and your friends where you need to go. The problem, as is always the case with voice-activated interfaces, is that you don’t know how this all works until you try it — and when it comes to Uber, you don’t want to be messing around with calling actual people in actual cars to come pick you up.

That’s why we did the work for you. Here’s what it’s like to call an Uber from your Google Home, and what you need to be ready for when you do it for the first time.

In order to use these third-party app integrations, you’ll have to start the process on your phone.

Make sure you have the Uber app installed, an account created and a payment method linked to your account
Open the Google Home app, go to Devices, then Google Home settings
Tap on More, then Services and scroll down to find find Uber
If your Uber account isn’t already linked, tap Link account
A browser window will open asking for your Uber account and password
Once you accept the integration, your account is linked to Google Home

Once you’re done with that setup, you’re back to using your voice. To start the process, you can say either “OK Google, get me an Uber” or “OK Google, request an Uber” and you’ll be handed off to an Uber-specific voice interface. The first time you use it, it’ll ask you to confirm your pickup address. Then, it will note how far away the nearest UberX driver is, and as you whether or not you want a pickup — if surge pricing is in effect, you’ll be informed before you confirm your pickup.

Does Home make calling an Uber any easier than the app? Not really.

Since the Uber interface on Google Home doesn’t ask you for a destination, you’ll have to then open up the Uber app to enter your destination before your pickup time. Depending on how far away the Uber driver is, this could be a tight timeline or a leisurely one.

Once you’ve successfully called the Uber, there are two follow-up requests you can make with your voice — “OK Google, where’s my Uber” will give you information on approximately how far away it is and “OK Google, cancel my Uber” will cancel out the trip. Remember that Uber has a 5 minute window after requesting in which you can cancel without penalty.

One last thing to look out for when requesting an Uber from Google Home is your payment methods. The Uber integration doesn’t seem to handle multiple payment methods well, so if you’re running into issues consider dropping unused cards from your account.

Google Home

• Google Home review
• These services work with Google Home
• Google Home vs. Amazon Echo
• Join our Google Home forums!

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These are the Yule Log videos to put on your Chromecast this Christmas!

Yule needs a Yule Log, does it not?

There have been Yule Log DVDs around for as long as there have been DVD players, but let’s face it, these all suck. That’s a DVD you have to store all year long that always has the same boring music and the same low quality video year after year. We can do better! We have the technology! With a Chromecast in your big-screen, skip the boring old DVDs and cast one of these excellent Yule Logs instead!

Vader Yule Log

Is this a five hour video of a son burning his father’s dead body? Yes, yes, it is. Is that a really morbid thing to put on your digital fireplace this Christmas? Yes, yes, it is. Is this still a really cool, really nerdy Yule Log?

Why yes, yes, it is.

BB-8 Yule Log

Sphero, makers of the adorable BB-8 toys that we all wanted so badly last Christmas, has released a Yule Log so that we can get nerdy without, y’know, desecrating a corpse. BB-8 moves his head about and chirps happily as he sits warm by the hearth, apparently resting atop a- is that a wookie pelt?

Marvel Fireplace Series

Marvel teamed up with Coca-Cola to help put superheroes on your hearth all through the holiday. They have five Yule Log videos from Captain America and Thor to the Guardians of the Galaxy. You even get two lovely views: a more traditional Close Up Yule Log loop or a more detailed home view. Each loop has its own details, sounds, and quirks, from vintage carols on Cap’s to technological chirps on Iron Man’s.

Nick Offerman’s Yule Log

You may know Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson from NBC’s Parks and Rec. He and Lagavulin got together and produced both a Christmas Eve Yule Log video and a ‘New Year’s Eve’ Countdown that feature Nick Offerman being Nick Offerman, sipping some lovely single-malt scotch, and staring in the general direction of the camera for a ridiculously long amount of time. Each video has its own quirk, but seeing an entire party going on behind the New Year’s Eve video, complete with singing and fireworks is pretty ridiculous.

Hulu’s Streaming Wonderland

Want to go beyond the fireplace? Hulu is here for you with other cute, festive videos to place on your big screen instead. Watch syrup drip out of a maple tree, Santa get stuck in the chimney, or best of all: watch a gorgeous stnading rib roast cook to tender, mouth-watering perfect, in an old-fashioned gas oven, no less.

Hulu’s Streaming Wonderland

Google Play Music Chromecast Fireplace Visualizer

Want a fireplace Yule Log without hearing music you hate? Google Play Music’s got you covered. You can make any song a Yule Log with their Chromecast Fireplace Visualizer, which replaced the ultra-zoomed and usually awful album art with a roasting fire. This is a yule log you can use all year round (and I do).

How to enable Google Play Music Chromecast Fireplace Visualizer

Warner Brothers Classic Christmas Yule Log

Dont’ want to hassle with building a playlist for your log? You just want some holiday songs and a crackling fireplace? Okay. We can do that, too. Warner Brother’s two-hour loop is as modern as it is classic, with songs from Michael Buble, Josh Groban, Idina Menzel.

PBS Newshour 4K Yule Log

You don’t even want music, just a nice, crisp, crackling fire? PBS has got you covered. No ads, no muss, no fuss. Fine.

Whatever Yule Log you use, have a happy holiday, and celebrate as much or little as you want. Save me a piece of fudge!

Chromecast

• Chromecast and Chromecast Audio review
• Chromecast Ultra vs Roku
• Chromecast vs Chromecast Ultra: Which should you buy?
• Join the discussion in our forums

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Chromecast Audio:

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Goodbye CyanogenMod, hello Lineage Android

CyanogenMod is shutting down, but the Lineage Android Project is poised to keep its spirit alive.

CyanogenMod is no more.

In a post on the official CyanogenMod blog, we’re told that the current state of everything Cyanogen means it’s no longer feasible to continue and that the best path forward requires change. Nobody should be surprised after recent events within the Cyanogen Inc. parent company and today’s announcement that it has reached the end of the road and will shut down operations.

The puts some hurdles in front of the community-driven CM that can’t be jumped while holding on to the legacy name and structure. Servers and infrastructure are going to soon disappear, nobody is at the helm to direct the way forward and the very name Cyanogen itself is available to the right bidder. CyanogenMod depended on Cyanogen, Inc. A void at the very top isn’t going to work.

However, CM has always been more than the name and more than the infrastructure. CM has been a success based on the spirit, ingenuity and effort of its individual contributors – back when it was Kondik in his home, to the now thousands of contributors past and present.

But the ideas behind CM aren’t dead. The latest version has been released and updated to the current Android Security Bulletin patches, and mountains of source code are in the process of being forked into something new — the Lineage Android Distribution.

Lineage Android will use everything that CM has made to build a better grassroots alternative to the software from phone manufacturers. Even more important than the code and assorted software eight years of CM has built is the spirit of people who want to make something different and better. And it lives on under a new name with a new future.

Seeing CM say goodbye is hard. They’ve been here in one way or another since the beginning and we’ve watched them reach both the highs and lows that accompany any long journey. They embody the spirit of what Android is once you strip away the dollar signs and corporations and make it about us. The users, the builders, the dreamers. We are CM. We’re losing a small part of ourselves today.

But we can look forward to the future with the Linage project, and do everything we can to keep those dreams and that spirit alive. To everyone involved, We wish you the best. Let us know how we can help.

In 2017, Google is finally ready for your living room

Google has been talking about your living room for a long time.

We imagine any new tech thing takes a lot of planning, a lot of money, and a lot of time. The push to get Google into the living room certainly did. Ideas to expand Android and use new technology in your home were being kicked around out loud in front of groups of developers as far back as 2011. We’ve discussed Google’s plans for living room domination almost as far back as that on our podcast. It was never a secret, but in 2017 it might actually happen.

A lot of people have written some really smart words about Google’s movement into places where you and your family and friends hang out and relax. I’ve spent the majority of the year in anticipation, afraid to jinx it by writing anything of my own. I was afraid that Google wouldn’t be able to do the most important thing they needed to do to get into those places: nail the experience. They have to get that right to have any chance of success with a unified push for everything Google where you work and play.

More: With Google Home and Google Wifi, we’re finally getting a proper smart home foundation

Getting it right doesn’t mean getting it perfect. It means showing everyone who uses it that it’s a foundation for something that not only does what we need but makes it easy and fun. And Google did nail it.

Google Cast, Google Home, and Google Wifi feel like they belong together when you use them. You could add Nest and Android TV to that list and enthusiasts would agree. None of the devices or services are perfect, and even Google Cast has its quirks and can be stubbornly stupid sometimes. But you really do feel as if these products were made for each other in a way that no other Google products have. Articles and debate about what they do wrong or how they match up to the competition are important to have but often overlook the bigger picture that these are great products that everyone only expects to become better. They don’t need to be fixed or redone, they need to be refined and more great features need to be added on top of the great features already there. Nothing is broken.

We didn’t arrive here overnight. Chromecast started as a small idea with a goofy name and has taken some time to get where it is today. Google spent a year learning what people wanted from a router. And they’ve been trying to be smart and build something you want to talk to for at least a couple years. These past products were all good in their own right, but mostly lacked the broad consumer appeal needed to be successful in the homes of folks who weren’t waiting for the next thing from Google they could buy and just wanted cool stuff. This year, they finally reached that “just cool stuff” status for everyone.

Google’s current crop of hardware products are all better versions of things we have been using for a while.

That makes 2017 an important year for Google in a new way. With the products and technology ready to convince the consumer at large that it’s time to buy them and increased presence in advertisement and stores, the cost of doing things wrong has skyrocketed. Each decision and each change in the way Home, Wifi and Cast work or even feel when using them has to be great and make everything better to carry this momentum to more cash registers and more coffee tables. A major gaffe or fundamental change to the way things work — things we’ve seen from everyone a time or two — could tank the living room initiative.

I’m not particularly worried for 2017, though. This is a new Google. They do things we don’t like but they also seem to have become focused on the user experience more than the past. There’s still a way to go, but they are steadily moving in the right direction.

I can’t hide the fact that Google Home, the whole Google Cast ecosystem, and Google Wifi have wowed me and I’m not going to try. Even when they don’t or can’t do what I want the way I want it, they are still great products that do a lot of other great things. They’re fun to use and I never thought I’d have a microphone listen to my life voluntarily, even if it is confined to my office behind a shut door. They’re even fun after they’ve malfunctioned at the beginning of an important company online meeting and started playing music and announcing loudly to everyone that they were sorry but couldn’t do … something. I’m not surprised that I’m excited about a router but am surprised that so many other people are. It tells me Google is ready for the living room and 2017 might not be another year where we’re all left wanting.

Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and season’s greetings everyone. Love each other.

Honest Few turns your social media posts into money for books

With e-book libraries, Amazon Prime Reading and the plethora of online services available putting free publications in your various devices, it’s a wonder that people still pay any money for books anymore. But a new website called Honest Few is founded on the belief that you should still give something in return for your digital books: social media shares. Instead of shelling out the $3 to $20 you would normally drop for an Amazon bestseller, Honest Few is offering popular titles for free, as long as you spread word of the service and book on Twitter or Facebook. As a former bookworm who now only borrows books via New York Public Library’s app or Prime Reading, I was intrigued by this new way of getting a good novel for free.

The process of downloading a book for free on Honest Few is quick and straightforward. Browse the library of available titles, either by cover or on a grid of tiles containing one-sentence synopses. When you see something you like, click on the link below either the image or the quote, and you’ll be taken to the book’s author page. There, you can read more details about the story, get to know the author’s background, and see a list of reasons why the writer thinks you’ll enjoy the book. Once you decide you want to read it, you can either purchase it or get it for free.

To get it gratis, you’ll have to trade a share or like from your Facebook or Twitter accounts. The idea of exchanging social media exposure for goods and services isn’t new. Amazon sellers frequently give users products in return for reviews on the site, while prolific YouTube, Instagram and Twitter stars often get rewarded for talking about certain brands on their accounts. Heck, some people have made a living out of doing just that. But Honest Few lets basically anyone get books for a simple share; it doesn’t matter how large your following is.

Honest Few’s library is diverse but very limited, with only 59 titles right now. Its offerings range from nonfiction self help and anthologies to fictional tales of romance, suspense and crime. I found the discovery grid interesting, but ultimately a letdown. Everything sounds intriguing when it’s summarized in one well-written sentence (kudos to Honest Few’s team here). They were so intriguing, in fact, that I ended up checking out new genres I wouldn’t have read otherwise. In that sense, the discovery system is effective. But after landing on one too many listings for romance novels I didn’t want to read, I started to feel tricked. Or maybe I was a bit embarrassed at my evident taste for cheesy love stories.

If you want to hate-read any of the titles you discover, you can do so at basically no cost to you. It’s free; you just have to tweet something, anything, to get access to the book. In theory, when you want to get a book for free, all you need to do is like Honest Few’s Facebook page or share that link on Facebook or Twitter. A pre-written post appears, tagging the website’s social media accounts and including a link to the page. After you submit your post, you’ll get a link to a Google Drive folder with the book you wanted, in MOBI, EPUB and sometimes PDF formats.

Before you can download anything, though, you’ll have to sign up for an account. Registering requires that you abide by the site’s terms and conditions, which includes a section on Deals. Here, it says that the company only offers “a limited quantity of free or discounted products.” Because of that, securing one of these products is not guaranteed, and “most deals are first-come-first-serve, and each can be redeemed for the purchase of one (1) item only.” This, I believe, is the part that is supposed to enforce self-government on the user’s part. It’s oddly worded, though; deals here refers to books, although I wasn’t sure until I clarified with the company.

This expectation of good behavior from the user is important because you don’t actually have to tag Honest Few or share the link to that particular page to get your free book. You can craft any tweet at all and still get access to the download link. I ended up going on a download spree, and all I did was post some Tweets to my personal account, without even tagging the site. I felt a little bad, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to talk about a book I was reading before I knew whether it would be good. To assuage my guilt, though, I tweeted once about trying out the service to feel better about not paying anything for these books.

Having to look at the author’s profile before you get the book for free certainly makes you think twice about gaming the system. But it’s also very easy to skip the part of each listing that makes you learn about the writer, whether you simply scroll past the details at top speed, or click the “Get It Free” link to just straight to the share-to-download area. If the company wants to truly ensure it gets publicity, it should find a way to make sure that only shares that tag the Honest Few account or link to the site qualify for free books. But perhaps giving away these files for non-restricted posts could be enough to generate the word of mouth that the tweet-for-books system was meant to.

In the end, although I got a few interesting new books out of my time with Honest Few, my biggest takeaway is the realization of how valuable my social media profiles are. If the future of technology involves a similar form of barter trade, I’m curious to see what I will eventually be able to afford. Meanwhile, I’ll curl up with some new e-books that I got just by tweeting about a new service.

Best games to play during Christmas dinner

You can get together with your family — but then maybe play a game to get away.

We’ve already touched on the best games to play with friends and family over the holidays season, but for some folks the holiday season means forced, awkward interactions with your extended family.

Whether you still find yourself relegated to the kids table, or you need something to distract you from your family holiday snoozefest (no judgement here), we’ve got some recommendations that offer a more rewarding challenge than arguing politics with your in-laws. These are some of our favorite casual games of the past year and a bit that’ll help you kill some family time.

• UltraFlow 2
• Brain it On!
• Trivia Crack
• Downwell
• Slither.io
• Alto’s Adventure

UltraFlow 2

UltraFlow 2 is a simple yet challenging puzzle game that you could (in theory) easily play under the table at family dinner. It features very casual gameplay wherein your goal is to launch the fling the ball into the whole by bouncing it off the provided obstacles — but you only have a set number of ricochets per level.

The game features a chill, minimalist vibe and can be pretty relaxing even when you’re trying to brute force your way through a particularly tough level. It’s a free game so you have to deal with the occasional ad, but they’re spaced out enough so that it doesn’t feel overly intrusive.

Download: UltraFlow 2 (Free)

Brain It On!

This physics-based puzzle game is unique and challenging, requiring you to think outside the box to solve each level.

You use your finger to draw lines, shapes, weighted objects, and whatever else you think you need to solve each screen. Things get progressively creative and difficult as you progress through the over 200 levels, but you’ll eventually need to go back and revisit old levels to get three stars to unlock new ones (stars are earned by finishing the level under time within the limit of shapes number of shapes).

It’s a really fun game that’ll make you feel smarter than everyone around you… when you’re not stumped by a tricky level.

Download: Brain It On! (Free)

Trivia Crack

Enjoy the festive update for Trivia Crack as you prove how smart you are at the end of 2016. Just like the name suggests, Trivia Crack is the fix for anyone addicted to trivia.

You login via your Facebook profile and can either challenge your friends or a random opponent, then spin the wheel to answer multiple choice questions from six different categories — Entertainment, Science, Arts, Sports, Geography and History. As long as you keep answering the questions right, you can keep picking up pieces. Collect all six category pieces and you win!

There’s also Challenge mode, where you go head to head with seven other opponents at one time, where time and accuracy is needed to win. This one might start as a solitary escape, but plays just

Download: Trivia Crack (Free)

Downwell

Grab your gun boots and jump down the well in Downwell. This retro-styled roguelike game is extremely challenging, with a steep learning curve. But it’s quick to jump right into the game, no pun intended.

Since your character is falling, enemies and shops come from the bottom-up, so you need to be strategic in your freefall do you don’t accidentally land on an enemy and lose a heart. There are a number of different ‘styles’ you unlock through repeated play, which give you different numbers of hearts at the start, changes the way end of level upgrades work, and slightly alters the way your sprite falls down the well.

The goal is to survive as you fall deeper and deeper down the well. There’s no in-app purchases, save points, or continues, so when you die you must start at the entrance of the well again.

Download: Downwell ($0.99)

Slither.io

Simple snake gameplay meets massive multiplayer in this wonderfully addictive casual game that will eat up your free time as you eat up your enemies.

The Snake Game has been a mobile gaming mainstay since the Nokia phones of the 90s, but slither.io updates the format in a big way. Slither.io allows for free-roaming, 360 degree movement and a smorgasbord of pellets to eat and grow your snake — and you’re never alone. You’re dropped into a circular arena with hundreds of other players, all battling for the same pellets.

You start as a tiny snake but quickly grow as you collect pellets. Double-tap and hold to go fast and try to cut off other snakes — if you run into another snake, you explode into energy pellets and must start from scratch. You can change your skin, set a custom nickname and go online, or play against A.I. opponents for faster gameplay.

Download: Slither.io (Free)

Alto’s Adventure

Beautiful visuals, intuitive controls, and endless playability. Alto’s Adventure is one of the best games of 2016 and a great way to kill some time.

You play as Alto, a snowboarding llama farmer who must race down the mountain to collect runaways. This endless side scroller features smooth gameplay and simple controls: tap to jump, tap and hold to do a backflip. Landing tricks — backflips and grinds across buildings and bunting lines — gives you a speed boost to help blast past obstacles. Collect coins and spend them on upgrading power ups that will assist you on your next adventure.

Alto’s Adventure includes objectives, which are challenging but fun and greatly enhance the replayability. Overall, it’s a fairly relaxing gaming experience, with tight physics and a great sense of speed.

Download: Alto’s Adventure (Free)

Happy holidays!

No matter what you get up to this season, we want to wish you seasons greetings and a very Happy New Year!

Adding an OnHub router to your Google Wifi network

Your Google OnHub is now a bigger Google Wifi node.

Google Wifi is a great product. It’s easy to setup and easy to make any adjustments or additions to the wireless network in your house. But it’s not the first Wi-Fi router from Google. That’d be the OnHub.

Many were worried that the OnHub would be abandoned when news of Google Wifi was revealed. With good reason — the OnHub is a great product, and we’ve seen great products wither and die before. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. We were told during the initial product briefings that an update was coming that would let the OnHub and Google Wifi work seamlessly. Google later made a similar public announcement when the required software updates started rolling out to OnHub users.

I’ve been using a network with an OnHub and three Google Wifi node for about a week. “Seamlessly” is a great description of how the two different products now work together and act the same.

What changed for the OnHub

The software. Basically, all of it.

The OnHub now performs exactly like any Google Wifi would, through the same interface in the same Google Wifi app. it is now a bigger Google Wifi mesh node. The unique features are still there: I can still wave my hand over the top of my ASUS OnHub like a Jedi to prioritize a device for an hour. You still have 13 antennas (six for the 5GHz radio, six for the 2.4GHz radio and a signal booster) that aren’t designed for a straight line long range signal like many other routers in the price range. But the brains inside are now the same as we see used for Google’s mesh network product.

You still have the strong antennas and unique features of your OnHub, but the way they work and how you set them up has changed.

You can use it the same way you would use a Google Wifi node, too. It can be added to an existing network as a Wi-Fi bridge (things worked exactly as expected and setup was easy), added to an existing Google Wifi network as a new node (we’ll talk about that in a bit) or as a NAT Gateway router attached to your modem or ethernet service — which is how I recommend using it.

Performance in every configuration was similar to the older software when the OnHub was a stand-alone router. The range seems a little more broad than a Google Wifi unit, but they are very similar and if you’re inside the magic bubble (I say the number is 45 feet in any direction) you’ll have pain free wireless with any modern wireless interface. Go much further and you’ll see things drop off, slowly at first but there is a definite distance where things just quit. That depends on what’s between you and the unit, but in general, I’ve found one OnHub can cover my average-sized home. When added to an existing Google Wifi network, you have one more node that can stretch great wireless to even more corners and crannies in your house. It was shockingly flawless in this configuration and performance was equal to or better than a Google Wifi node would have been.

The setup process

You’re basically following the same process as you would for Google Wifi — unbox the product, open the app and follow the simple step by step instructions. After you’ve read a few hints, though.

The biggest difference is that you’ll need a software update. If you’ve been using your OnHub and have switched to the Google Wifi app, you already have the correct software. If you haven’t had it up and running or you just got it, you’ll need to take it out of the box and attach it to your modem or ISP gateway and let it download some software. Get it connected and let it sit for about 30 minutes, then open the Google Wifi app and make sure it’s showing in the app. You’re now good to go.

Once you update the OnHub software, you set it up the same as Google Wifi through the same app.

You can add an OnHub to an existing Google Wifi setup, but I found that the setup process complains about doing it and suggests you try using the OnHub as your NAT Gateway instead of a mesh bridge and sometimes just refuses to start the setup process. Once the setup does commence, the rest is easy and it just works. The good news is that you won’t have to be playing with the setup more than once. The bad news is that you might not have any luck the first time. In any case, the setup that it recommends — building your Google Wifi network with the OnHub installed first and as the gateway to the internet — was a breeze and everything worked great the first time. I haven’t touched the setup since.

Setting an OnHub up as a bridge on an existing network is similar to adding it to an existing Google Wifi network. You’re told that this is not an optimal setup (but not given any real details why) but you can tap your way through anyway. The reason why, by the way, is because it can create what’s called a double NAT (Network Address Translation). Most of the time your first router can send data through a bridged router seamlessly, but not all the time. It’s something I’m more than happy to discuss in the comments if anyone wants to know more. With that out of the way, once set up and running it works fine. You just have to be careful when changing advanced network settings.

The way I recommend you set things up is to unhook all the things you have on your existing network and build your mesh network around the OnHub. Plug it into the modem and power, let it get its software updated if it needs it, and start the process in the Google Wifi app to build a new wireless network. You won’t have the app fussing at you, and you’ll have a strong router near the modem that still has a free Ethernet port. That leaves any other Google Wifi nodes as the smaller and easier to place newer units.

An extra Google Wifi unit can be a wonderful thing

This is the most exciting part. OnHub routers can frequently be found on sale and will end up a good bit cheaper than the single Google Wifi unit. It’s a great way to add a fourth node to a network and can give you the freedom to be creative.

Google Wifi units (including the OnHub) are wireless other than the power connection. Plug the first one into your modem, and place the rest anywhere within range. But you can use a wired connection between one or all of your nodes. And Ethernet cables can get long.

Wi-Fi in the kid’s (or your) treehouse is an entirely different level of awesome that’s easy to do if you have an extra Google Wifi node.

A Google Wifi three pack can make for damn near perfect wireless everywhere in an average home. Even the porch and driveway. But many of us have a workshop or pool or other areas around our house where good wireless would be a great addition. A 100-foot, 200-foot or even longer CAT-6 cable can be attached to two Google Wifi units to stretch them far apart. You can even buy long cables that are designed to be buried directly in the ground. It works great, and you don’t lose the wireless speeds you would trying to cover 200 feet of distance — Ethernet is fast, too.

I suggest setting the unit up wirelessly first while it’s in the range of everything else. Once finished, unplug it from the power and take it out to the deck or treehouse and connect it to the cable you’ve run. Power it up, give it a minute or two, and enjoy the fast Wi-Fi for your phone or your Chromecast or TV.

It’s late December. It’s far too cold for me to be outside scratching away at the frozen dirt with a shovel. But I’ve tested this with a 200-foot cable and a Chromecast audio setup and it works just grand. I’m looking forward to a nice Springtime project that’s easy to do and can make a great home improvement.

Google Hardware

• Google Wifi review
• Google Home review
• Everything you need to know about the Chromecast Ultra
• Chromecast vs Chromecast Ultra: Which should you buy?

Google Wifi:

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Google Home:

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Chromecast Ultra:

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Samsung Galaxy S7 Deals

Looking to save some money on a Galaxy S7? Here are the best deals available right now!

Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge have been extremely popular since being announced, and Samsung has been marketing them with a big push. From offering freebies with the handset to carriers discounting it, there are a ton of different deals available out there. Before you can pick the best deal for yourself, you need to make the decision on which model you are even looking at.

The two models are very similar but also very different. On the regular Galaxy S7 you’ve got a 5.1-inch flat display while the Galaxy S7 edge offers a 5.5-inch display with dual curves. If you are looking for a smaller form factor that is a bit easier to hold, the regular Galaxy S7 is the one to look at, but if you want something a little more unique then the Galaxy S7 edge is sure to catch your attention.

Aside from the screen difference, the only other big difference you will find here between the two models is the battery capacity. The Galaxy S7 edge features a 3600mAh non-removable battery while the Galaxy S7 a 3000mAh battery inside. Besides this, the camera, processor, storage and everything else is the same between both models.

Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge: Which should you buy?!

Now that you have some more insight as to which one you’ll want to pick, let’s take a look at some of the best deals available right now to help you save some money!

Samsung Galaxy S7

• Best Buy is offering a free $400 e-gift card when purchasing on new installment plan
• Samsung is offering a free Gear VR with the purchase
• Verizon is offering the Galaxy S7 for free with eligible trade-in
• T-Mobile is running a Buy One Get One promo on both models
• B&H Photo discounted the unlocked version by $120 and is including a free wireless charging battery pack

Samsung Galaxy S7 edge

• T-Mobile is running a Buy One Get One promo on both models
• Best Buy is offering a free $200 e-gift card when purchasing on new installment plan
• Sprint is offering a Buy One Get One promo
• Samsung is offering a free Gear VR with the purchase

Other deals?

Have you found any other deals that aren’t mentioned here? If so, be sure to drop a comment in with a little about the deal and a link to where others can grab it!

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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