FROM ANDROID CENTRAL © (All Rights Reserved). Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile have introduced a new budget phone from Alcatel, the Dawn. The 4G LTE phone runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow and is available for $69.99 without a contract. The Alcatel Dawn sports a 4.5-inch 854×480 TFT display. It’s packing a 1.1GHz quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM. The Dawn has 8GB …
Samsung Gear S2 update rumored to allow using your own photos as watch face backgrounds
FROM ANDROID AUTHORITY © (All Rights Reserved). The Samsung Gear S2 – arguably the best smartwatch around, that, amusingly enough, doesn’t even run Android Wear – is apparently due for a pretty big update. The update is reported to deliver a bit of a UI overhaul and deliver a host of new features. Sam Mobile reports the update “will be released …
OnePlus has absolutely spoiled me: Every Android should have an ‘Alert Slider’
FROM ANDROID CENTRAL © (All Rights Reserved). Such a simple addition makes a world of difference in usability. There’s clearly a lot about the OnePlus 3 that impresses me. It’s fantastically built, offers great performance, has a solid camera and perhaps best of all undercuts flagship competition by hundreds of dollars. And though the OnePlus 3 doesn’t offer as many whiz-bang …
Nova Launcher creator explains why third-party launchers can’t integrate Google Now
FROM ANDROID AUTHORITY © (All Rights Reserved). If you ever wondered why you can’t set Nova Launcher to open Google Now with a swipe from the left like you can with Google’s own launcher, Kevin Barry has an explanation. Barry, founder of TeslaCoil, the company behind the hugely popular Nova Launcher, talked about the limitations that Google currently sets on the …
Smartening up the shoe: How connected footwear will invade your life
FROM WAREABLE © (All Rights Reserved). The shoe is the original wearable. It’s the one that has allowed humans to walk on tougher terrain thousands of years ago, helped the Romans conquer Europe and allow elite athletes to run hundreds of miles without turning their feet into bloodied stumps. Pretty much everyone has at least one pair, so it’s a no …
LG is also looking at a two-year high quarterly profit, up 140% over last year
FROM ANDROID AUTHORITY © (All Rights Reserved). There must be something profitable in the water in South Korea right now. Hot on the heels of the news that Samsung is expecting to post its highest quarterly profit in over two years, LG has today announced it is also expecting its strongest quarterly profit in – you guessed it – two years. …
The best things to happen thanks to Pokemon Go
FROM ANDROID CENTRAL © (All Rights Reserved). You people have no chill, and it is hilarious to watch. The world has been waiting for months for the release of Pokemon Go. And it is ready and available for the world to jump into. That means the memes, crazy news, and wacky stories of people playing this game have only just started. …
Facebook starts testing ‘secret conversations’ in Messenger with end-to-end encryption
FROM ANDROID CENTRAL © (All Rights Reserved). Facebook has begun testing end-to-end encryption for conversations in Messenger. Dubbed “secret conversations,” encryption allows you to securely message your friends and loved ones securely, in a way that nobody else, not even Facebook, can see. From Facebook: To enable you to do this we are starting to test the ability to create one-to-one …
These are the top Huawei phones you need to know
FROM ANDROID CENTRAL © (All Rights Reserved). The smartphone space is an increasingly populated – read, crowded – place to be. And it’s getting more so as manufacturers such as Huawei start to pump out more, and better, phones, and push to expand its availability into more western markets. The past year was a pretty good one for Huawei with some …
I survived Derren Brown’s VR-fuelled, psychological mind game of a Ghost Train
FROM WAREABLE © (All Rights Reserved). Eccentric illusionist Derren Brown is known for his dark yet entertaining mind games. Convincing people to push someone else off a building. Making others believe that the human race has been lost to a zombie apocalypse. Tricking hapless poor souls on their way to work into feeling like they’d actually really like to rob a …
The YI 4K Action Camera will launch in the U.S. on July 12 for $249
FROM ANDROID AUTHORITY © (All Rights Reserved). As you may recall, Xiaomi-affiliated YI Technology unveiled the successor to the original YI camera – the YI 4K Action Camera – a couple of months ago in China. The impressive action camera that hopes to compete with the GoPro Hero series and other similarly spec’d action cams is now looking at a U.S. launch on …
Song of the Deep Review
FROM GAMESPOT © (All Rights Reserved). If Insomniac’s Song of the Deep was a children’s book or a graphic novel, I would have no problem singing its praises to anyone of any age. Its captivating portrayal of a young girl’s undersea adventure not only looks and sounds beautiful, it also tells a story that sparkles with all the wonder, danger, and …
Galaxy S7, S7 edge now receiving July 1 security patch from T-Mobile
FROM ANDROID CENTRAL © (All Rights Reserved). T-Mobile is now pushing the July 1 security update to both the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge. This time around, Google is offering two security patches, one dated July 1 and one dated July 5 which included a few extra things. While it would be nice to see Samsung pushing the July 5 …
Error 53: E-waste, the “right to repair” and why no one is confronting the problem
FROM ANDROID AUTHORITY © (All Rights Reserved). E-waste is a growing problem. Discarded electronics are estimated to exceed 65 million tonnes by 2017. Our rapacious appetite for new gadgets fuels the problem because we dispose of gadgets much sooner than their expected life span. Planned obsolescence doesn’t help and our e-waste management systems are sadly lacking. So what is to be …
Android Wear 2.0: Living with Google's latest smartwatch OS update
FROM WAREABLE © (All Rights Reserved). Android Wear 2.0 is here, as long as you’re prepared to put up with a few bugs and rough edges and install the developer version. If that doesn’t sound like you, don’t panic — we’ve installed the early beta code on our Android Wear smartwatch so you don’t have to. The developer previews currently work …
Snapchat Sued for Serving Sexually Explicit Content to Minors
FROM MACRUMORS © (All Rights Reserved); Snapchat is facing a lawsuit over claims that the app is guilty of routinely serving sexually explicit content to minors without warning (via The Verge). The lawsuit was filed this week by a 14-year-old boy and his mother in a district court in California. The plaintiffs argue that offensive content was shown in Snapchat’s Discover …
You can save $65 on a Pebble Time smartwatch right now
FROM ANDROID CENTRAL © (All Rights Reserved). Right now you can pick up a brand new Pebble Time smartwatch for just $85 at eBay, a savings of $65 from its retail price. Whether you are in the market for your first smartwatch, a fitness tracker or want to upgrade your current Pebble to something newer, this is a deal you won’t …
Alexa can now quickly update you on what’s happening in the world
FROM ANDROID CENTRAL © (All Rights Reserved). You can order products from Amazon with Alexa, thanks to a recent update, but now the online retail giant has gone a step further by baking in deals and having Alexa serve as your news digest. There are a bunch of deals available in the run up to Prime Day, and when July 12 …
7 problems with the HTC 10 and how to fix them
FROM ANDROID AUTHORITY © (All Rights Reserved). HTC has another great smartphone on offer with their latest flagship. Granted, there’s not a lot that makes this device stand out from the competition, such as curved screen edges or modular capabilities. However, the HTC 10 retains what has always been the biggest selling points of the line, a beautiful full metal design, …
Samsung Galaxy J2 (2016) and Galaxy J Max announced in India
FROM ANDROID AUTHORITY © (All Rights Reserved). Remember that interesting looking Samsung phone we shared last week with the ring flash-looking thing around the camera called Smart Glow? Well, that phone – the Galaxy J2 (2016) – and a massive, 7-inch monster called the Galaxy J Max have just been announced at a Samsung event in Delhi. See also: Facebook to …