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Friday, November 13, 2015

Don’t Miss These Android Stories: November 13, 2015

The work week has come to a close, but it has left us with plenty of topics to discuss. This week, we reviewed the LG V10, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 820 processor, T-Mobile unveiled Binge On for Simple Choice customers, Apple released Apple Music for Android devices, and we went hands-on with the TAG Heuer Connected smartwatch.

If that is not enough for you, we went hands-on with the BlackBerry Priv (review coming shortly), Samsung announced the Exynos 8 Octa processor, YouTube Music was released for all, and so much more.

These are the top stories from the week in Android.

Have a good weekend, everyone.

Don’t Miss These Android Stories: November 13, 2015 is a post from: Droid Life



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Support Docs for Android Wear Detail New Wrist Gestures and Audio Feedback Support

In two recently published support docs detailing features for Android Wear on the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE, Google has confirmed that an upcoming update for Android Wear will bring additional wrist gestures and audio speaker support to devices with the necessary hardware. Google recently announced cellular support for the platform, so the timing for making “Audio Feedback” support official is spot on.

Audio Feedback will allow owners of a smartwatch with a microphone and speaker to place and receive calls, something only the Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE is currently capable of. Another device, the Huawei Watch, is also reported to feature a speaker. Once the device receives this future update to Android Wear 1.4, folks will likely be able to utilize it.

Not only would you be able to take and place calls, but Audio Feedback will also read the time and notification cards when you are too busy to look down.

Audio Feedback reads the time and notification cards, including the actions you can perform on them. By using Audio Feedback along with voice actions, you can perform tasks such as sending and responding to SMS messages and making and receiving calls from your watch.

Audio Feedback works only on devices with a built-in speaker, currently the LG Urbane 2nd Edition LTE.

As for the new gestures, Android Wear 1.4 will include actions for pulling down your settings shade, opening the app menu, returning to home, canceling an action before it is completed (undo), and performing actions on notification cards.

We don’t yet have a timeframe on when we should expect Android Wear 1.4 to hit devices, but with Android Wear now supporting cellular and audio feedback, it seems likely we will soon see a whole gang of new devices hit the market that feature the necessary hardware for taking complete advantage of this.

Via: Google [2] | 9 to 5 Google

Support Docs for Android Wear Detail New Wrist Gestures and Audio Feedback Support is a post from: Droid Life



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Liked Those Snapchat Selfie Lenses? You Can Now Buy Them For a $1 a Pop

Back in mid-September, Snapchat released lenses for selfies. They are animated frames you can place on top of your face, making any selfie that much more interesting to look at. Most of them were actually quite good, and now, users of Snapchat can access a library of lenses, all available for purchase at the price of $1 a pop. A few of the basic lenses are still free, but the good ones each cost a $1. 

To activate these lenses, switch to the front-facing camera in Snapchat, then long press on your face. Your face will then be scanned, and a whole mess of lenses will pop up. Each one has you either open your mouth for activation or raise your eyebrows. They range from hysterical, cute, to downright stupid. Personally, the “sickly” one is the best, as at first glance, I thought it had me smoking a marijuana cigarette looking as high as a kite. That’s comedy right there.

Below, I have spared you the trouble of going through the new lenses yourself, modeling all of them for you. Please, feel free to share these images with your loved ones, as they will surely enjoy them as much I had making them.

The update is now live on Google Play. Go check it out.

Play Link

Snapchat 8 Snapchat 12 Snapchat 1 Snapchat 9 Snapchat 13

Snapchat 14 Snapchat 7 Snapchat 11 Snapchat 10 Snapchat 15

Liked Those Snapchat Selfie Lenses? You Can Now Buy Them For a $1 a Pop is a post from: Droid Life



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Huawei’s New Quick Charging Batteries can Charge to 50% in 5 Minutes

This morning, Huawei announced a new quick charging technology that charges new batteries up to 10 times faster than current batteries. Huawei says that they can reach a 50% charge in these new batteries in “mere minutes.”

The technology was unveiled at the 56th Battery Symposium in Japan, with Huawei showing off two new lithium-ion batteries that utilize the capability. One was a 600mAh battery that was charged to 68% in just two minutes, while the other was a 3000mAh battery that reached 48% in just five minutes. 

Huawei says that they “bonded heteroatoms to the molecule of graphite in anode, which could be a catalyst for the capture and transmission of lithium through carbon bonds,” in order to achieve these insane results. They also said that all of this new quick charging tech has been certified by their terminal test department and that this breakthrough will “lead to a new revolution” in charging of mobile phones, electric vehicles, wearable devices, and more.

Think about this for a second. If Huawei’s new batteries are the real deal and in your next phone, you could charge it to 50% in the time it takes you to brush your teeth or go to the bathroom. That’s nuts. Qualcomm’s Quick Charge is great and all, but I’ll take 5 minutes for 50% over “only 15 minutes to get 8 hours of battery,” any day of the week.

Huawei didn’t say when we can expect to see this technology in a phone or any device.


Huawei reveals the next generation of quick charging technology

The new batteries can be charged 10 times faster than current batteries, reaching approximately 50% capacity in mere minutes

[Nagoya, Japan, Nov.13, 2015] Watt Lab, which belongs to the Central Research Institute at Huawei Technology Corporation Limited, unveiled their new quick charging lithium-ion batteries at the 56th Battery Symposium in Japan. Using next generation technology, these new batteries have achieved a charging speed 10 times faster than that of normal batteries, reaching about 50% capacity in mere minutes.

Huawei presented videos of the two types of quick charging lithium-ion batteries: one battery with a 600 mAh capacity that can be charged to 68% capacity in two minutes; and another with a 3000 mAh capacity and an energy density above 620 Wh/L, which can be charged to 48% capacity in five minutes to allow ten hours of phone call on Huawei mobile phones. These quick charging batteries underwent many rounds of testing, and have been certified by Huawei’s terminal test department.

According to Huawei, the company bonded heteroatoms to the molecule of graphite in anode, which could be a catalyst for the capture and transmission of lithium through carbon bonds. Huawei stated that the heteroatoms increase the charging speed of batteries without decreasing energy density or battery life.

Huawei is confident that this breakthrough in quick charging batteries will lead to a new revolution in electronic devices, especially with regard to mobile phones, electric vehicles, wearable devices, and mobile power supplies. Soon, we will all be able to charge our batteries to full power in the time it takes to grab a coffee!

Huawei’s Watt Lab works closely with industry partners to promote technological development and pursue a new energy era. Watt Lab specifically focuses on the technical development of energy storage to support a better connected world via sufficient energy.

The url of Huawei quick charging experiments videos:

Two minutes quick charging demo: http://ift.tt/1lnsC5n

Five minutes quick charging demo: http://ift.tt/1HNEX7F

###

Huawei’s New Quick Charging Batteries can Charge to 50% in 5 Minutes is a post from: Droid Life



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Droid Life Q&A Sessions: Volume 34 Answers

We have gone over your questions, tasking our team with answering them, and are now ready to provide Volume 34 answers for the DL Q&A Sessions. Topics covered include our thoughts on the stagnation of the mobile tech space, quick charging and batteries in general, what we would ask Google if given the opportunity, and if the Nexus 9 is still a good purchase.

We go into great detail with our answers, so please, give them a look over and see if you agree with any of our personal takes. If you disagree, well, let us know in the comments so we can argue with you directly.

Read on to see our answers to your questions. 

Reminder: K is Kellen, T is Tim, and R is Ron.


Do you feel mobile tech, with all the advancement in years, is starting to get stagnant?

K:  I’m tempted to say yes, only because we haven’t seen any major advancements in anything in the past year or so. However, I feel like everything everyone makes is sooooo good these days, that it’s hard not to get excited. A couple of years ago, we had qHD displays, 5MP rear cameras, and single-core processors. Now, we have full-blown computers in our pockets with point-and-shoot level cameras, Quad HD displays, bodies made of premium materials, and insanely robust software ecosystems. Not only that, but you can get all of this new stuff for half the price of that old terrible stuff from a few years ago. So there may not be these major advancements to get excited about, but it’s still easy to find fun in how good everything is.

T:  It depends on what you label as innovative, I suppose. To me, I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s getting stagnant, but we aren’t seeing new features pop up left and right. However, new tech is being baked into devices all of the time, which leads me to believe it’s not stagnant, such as fingerprint readers, mobile payment technology, and super good display technology. I think what we have seen take place over the past few years will just continue to evolve. Displays will see high resolutions, processors will get faster, cameras will get better, etc. I’m fine with this, as long as Google keeps making Android fun to use.

R:  In some ways, sure. We’ve seen smartphones for a while now. We know what the future of tech looks like for a while. That makes it less exciting, but at the same time that makes it ripe for disruption. As things “stagnate,” or perhaps more accurately, proliferate and become more common it becomes easier for someone to come in and shake things up. We might not see that for a little while, but it will come eventually. And that’s besides the fact that we just entered the second major phase in the design of mobile with Metro, Material, and iOS 7+. That was a huge undertaking that dramatically transformed how our devices look and work. I don’t think that should be underestimated just because we want to see the next phase in hardware evolution.

nexus 6p white

Which OEM will make the Phone of the Year for 2016 based on their growth from their 2014 flagships to 2015 flagships?

K:  Google. The Nexus 6P is probably the phone of the year, or at least a close 2nd behind the Note 5. Assuming they don’t take some sort of weird step backwards, they’ll likely topple Samsung.

T:  I really hope it’s HTC. I’m not even joking. I want them to have a winner, but to do so, they need to put some effort into their strategy. We don’t need iPhone clones – we need sophisticated hardware and software design, integration, and better update support. No gimmicks. Everything was good during the M7 and M8 period, but with the M9, the train get derailed and has yet to correct itself. If HTC is gone by next year, then I guess Motorola and Huawei have put themselves in a good spot to succeed.

R:  I think we should expect to see Huawei become more and more important in 2016. Whether or not they’ll make the phone of the year is yet to be seen, but I’ve been the most impressed with them this year.

Is purchasing a Nexus 9 a bad idea at this point?

K:  No, not really. If you really need a tablet, it’s a solid tablet that runs stock Android and gets the latest updates the fastest. I don’t know that there are any others out there that can claim that title, except maybe NVIDIA’s Shield Tablet. Honestly, almost all Android tablets fall into the “We just made this to have something, but it’s not even our full effort” category, so I’m not sure what else you would even consider.

T:  Absolutely. Don’t do it. Better options are probably coming, believe that.

R:  Probably. Honestly I don’t know that there’s ever a great time to purchase an Android tablet. Because they’re low in sales they don’t get updates as quickly or regularly as they should. Honestly I’d get an iPad or wait for another tablet refresh from Google.

Google logo Pixel

If you had 10 minutes to ask Google anything and they had to answer, what would you ask them?

K:  I feel like you are looking for something deep and moving, but I don’t have that. I want to know simple things like – Why does Hangouts on Android suck so bad? Why did you kill the swipe-up for Google Now in Marshmallow (Now on Tap is a niche feature and shouldn’t have replaced it)? What is Matias wearing today? Why doesn’t stock Android have double-tap-to-wake in phones? Where is my damn Google Music Family plan?

T:  I would probably ask about company financials, Eric Schmidt-related questions regarding his lifestyle choices, and probably just a lot of personal questions that I don’t need to air here. Oh, and why they limit me to deactivating only 10 devices a year on Play Music. Don’t they understand I use about 30 devices a year?

R:  I don’t think I have any questions that I want them to answer so much as things I want them to do. I like what I’ve seen with the Pixel C, but I’d love an actual Android phone from them. I want to see them continue to do services really well and to make more native options because while the cloud is the future, native is forever.

How many tattoos do each of you have? Meaning of them? If none, why not?

K:  None. Don’t know why, but just hasn’t ever really been something on my list of things to do.

T:  Counting each one individually, I believe I have 10. A few have deeper meanings, others do not. A few of them I just thought looked badass. The two sleeves I am working on represent the 7 Deadly Sins. I’m not an overly religious person, but again, I think it’s a great platform for art. I have a Danzig skull, the beginnings of the cover artwork for Gojira’s The Link, a Les Paul tribal-ish guitar, a Suehiro Maruo piece, and some other little stuff. I got into tattoos when I was at an early age, but of course, I was too young to get them. So, when I was 18, I started up fast!

R:  I don’t have any tattoos. There isn’t a major reason for this. I just don’t have any desire to have something printed on my body for most of my life. I’m not necessarily opposed to them, but I don’t feel a need for one in my life either.

nexus 5x rapid charging-2

With the advancement of Quick Charging and wireless charging, do you see the advancement of battery technology stopping?

K:  Lord, I hope not. The last remaining weak point in modern phones (well, laptops and tablets too) is battery life. It’s ancient technology that no one can seem to find a way to advance. I’m not an engineer or a scientist, so I’m not going to even attempt to understand why that is. But come on, there has to be some smart dude out there that can crack this thing. If we can pack a 4K display into a phone, why can’t we find a battery material or technology that lasts more than 18 hours?

T:  I hope not. I think it’s fantastic that I can charge my battery very quickly these days, but it would be better if I just didn’t have to plug in as much, or at all. I’m sure one day, when our devices are all powered by nuclear fission or fusion energy, that will be great. Battery life for days!

R:  Absolutely not. Quick Charging and wireless charging are workarounds to the real problem: batteries don’t last as long as we need them to daily or yearly. There have been some breakthroughs reported, but we still need better batteries that keep a charge longer, not that have better and faster ways to charge.

As of right now, what is Phone of the Year for 2015?

K:  I feel like I still need more time to decide. I’m finally using the Nexus 6P on the daily, but as I mentioned above, the race is between this and the Galaxy Note 5. I love stock Android and this 6P design, but you’ve got to hand it to Samsung – they killed it this year.

T:  I am stuck between the Galaxy Note 5 and Nexus 6P. If I had to choose right now, it would be the Nexus 6P, I think. However, the Galaxy Note 5 is very good. Both have a lot of pros and not many cons. You can’t go wrong with either. Maybe it’s a tie in 2015? That’d be a first.

R:  I think the Nexus 6P is the front runner for now, but there have been a lot of solid phones this year.

Jordan 3

What are your top 5 sneakers of all time?

K:  The Jordan 3 “White Cement” is the best sneaker of all time and I don’t think it’s even close. After that, in no particular order, I’d probably go Jordan 1 “Royal,” Air Max 1 in the original red/white/grey, Kobe 6 “Grinch,” and the Jordan 3 “True Blue.”

T:  My list will likely be a lot different from Kellen’s, as I enjoy the new school kicks a bit more. In no particular order, I would go Kobe 9 iD “Multicolor” Low QS, KD VI “DC Preheat”, KD VI “What The”, Kobe 8 “What The”, and probably the Jordan 4 “Cement.” I’m a big Kevin Durant fanboy, so anything KD gets me excited. I like a lot of different shoes, but right now, Nike gets most of my shoe money. They are my next door neighbor, after all.

R:  I’m wearing some 2 year old New Balance sneakers. I don’t follow Sneaker-Life.com or anything. At some point I’d like to get some nice new shoes, but it just isn’t something that’s on my radar.

How are you enjoying Black Ops 3?

K:  Wish I had time for this game.

T:  I could probably take up hours talking about this, but so far, I like it a lot. It’s a whole lot better than Advanced Warfare, that’s for sure. The balancing seems good, even with all of the Specialist abilities and weapons. All the guns are OP as heck, the time to kill is insanely low, but overall, I love playing the game. My main beef right now would be the sound. Listening for footsteps is insanely powerful, which is great for clutching SnD rounds, but it makes gameplay pretty slow and campy. It reminds me of MW3 when Sit Rep was buffed to hear Dead Silence, which essentially ruined that game for competitive players such as myself. If you like CoD, definitely check out BO3.

R:  I’ve been debating whether or not to pick it up. It looks good, but I haven’t played through an actually Call of Duty game since Modern Warfare 3. Most of the time if I have time to play a game it’s Destiny. Battlefront looks amazing.

Droid Life Q&A Sessions: Volume 34 Answers is a post from: Droid Life



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Yep, Motorola Connect is Being Retired This Month (Chrome Extension)

In early October, Motorola announced that it would be shutting down a handful of its popular software applications, including Migrate and Assist. Those two are being phased out because Android 6.0 Marshmallow included similar features and so Motorola figured you would rather they save you space on your phone instead of doubling up on features already present. Those aren’t the only features going away, though. Motorola Connect, a Chrome extension that allowed users to send/receive texts, see who was calling them, and keep up on battery life and connection, is also being retired. 

We weren’t sure when all of these services were going away, but users of Motorola Connect noticed a message this week that said Motorola would be retiring it before December. In other words, November is the last month you can enjoy Connect’s features.

The exact message read as follows (pictured above as well):

The Motorola Connect Chrome Extension will be retired in November 2015. Alternate solutions in Google Play Store that consumers have found useful include MightyText and Pushbullet.

So there you have it. It’s time to find an alternative. While I haven’t used MightyText, a number of our readers do and can tell you why it’s awesome in the comments. As for Pushbullet, well, it’s been well-documented around these parts why we love it so much.

Cheers Andrew!

Yep, Motorola Connect is Being Retired This Month (Chrome Extension) is a post from: Droid Life



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This Icon Pack is Hot: Artico

You need a fresh icon pack to take you into the weekend, I knew it. So here is one! Artico icons, recently released to Google Play, are a playful concept on Material Design-styled icons that are indeed hot

In this pack, which features heavy amounts of tinted yellow, red, and a light green, you get over 1,000 icons, multiple colors of each, compatibility with your favorite launchers, and one hell of a set of wallpapers. The colors here won’t be for everyone, but if you like the idea of a whole set made up of three colors and two supplementary tones, I think you’ll appreciate the theme. And not only that, but the 20 specifically designed wallpapers may be worth the purchase alone.

The UI of the app is quite good, there is an icon request tool, and quick applying to launchers.

Play Link ($1.39)

artico screenies artico screenies-2 artico screenies-3

This Icon Pack is Hot: Artico is a post from: Droid Life



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T-Mobile to Sell the Samsung Gear VR Starting November 27 for $99

Starting November 27, T-Mobile will be the first US carrier that you can walk into and purchase a Gear VR from Samsung. Priced at $99, you will find units at participating stores, as well as online through T-Mobile’s official website.

As you likely already know, you will need a supported Galaxy device from Samsung, which includes the Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy Note 5, and Galaxy S6 Edge+. 

With Gear VR, you download a VR hub application that shows off all of the content you can watch and enjoy. This includes movies, shows, and video games. You can also watch a few YouTube videos with it, too.

Have you tried VR out yet? It’s the future of everything, I hear.

T-Mobile to Sell the Samsung Gear VR Starting November 27 for $99 is a post from: Droid Life



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