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Tuesday, February 2, 2016

ZAGG, King of Mall Kiosks, Acquires Mophie, King of Those Ugly iPhone Battery Cases

ZAGG, maker of all sorts of mobile accessories, but who is probably best known for its InvisibleShield screen protectors and empty mall kiosks, has acquired Mophie, a company who specializes in battery pack cases that everyone you know with an iPhone uses. They are both bigwigs in the accessory game, so yeah, this is pretty big news.

ZAGG is posturing this as a “merger,” but this is an acquisition of Mophie, with ZAGG forking out $100 million. 

Going forward, ZAGG and Mophie hope that this will allow them to create “numerous opportunities to drive revenue growth and increase profitability.” It probably also helps secure their dominance in their respective arenas, which are screen protection and battery packs.

Bigger deal – this acquisition or Microsoft buying Swiftkey?

Via:  ZAGG

ZAGG, King of Mall Kiosks, Acquires Mophie, King of Those Ugly iPhone Battery Cases is a post from: Droid Life



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SwiftKey Reportedly Acquired by Microsoft for $250 Million

Reportedly set to be announced later this week, Microsoft will acquire SwiftKey, the predictive keyboard powered by AI, for a whopping $250 million. The co-founders of the keyboard app, Jon Reynolds and Ben Medlock, are set to make upwards of $30 million when the deal finalizes, according to sources familiar with Microsoft’s plan. 

Over the past year, Microsoft has been gobbling up popular apps, such as Wunderlist and Sunrise Calendar, all to help bolster its mobile offerings. As the deal is not yet official, we do not know Microsoft’s exact intentions with SwiftKey, but given its huge popularity, it’s hard to image MS plans to just shut it down and integrate its tech into Microsoft’s. Instead, for the time being, SwiftKey will probably operate as normal, and maybe down the road we could see a shutdown. Until the dust settles, nothing is confirmed.

Do you use SwiftKey? Does this news excite or disappoint you?

Via: Financial Times

SwiftKey Reportedly Acquired by Microsoft for $250 Million is a post from: Droid Life



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Question of the Day: What’s Keeping You With Your Current Wireless Carrier?

Every time we share news about a wireless carrier (whether it be good or bad), the comment section fills up with conversations about which is the best or why this one is better than that one or why they are all terrible. We typically get a bunch of, “Glad I left them when I did!” comments, as well.

Because of those almost-always-entertaining conversations, our question of the day will be to ask you what it is that’s keeping you with your current wireless carrier. You all seem to have very specific, well-informed (or at least passionate) reasons for sticking with one over another, so this is your opportunity to share it all in one place.

Is it all about network? Is it price-related? Does one carrier have better phone choices over another? Do you just hate this carrier less than the rest? Feel free to drop those thoughts below.

Question of the Day: What’s Keeping You With Your Current Wireless Carrier? is a post from: Droid Life



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TRI’s Turing Phone Will No Longer Ship With Android OS, Comes With SailFish OS Instead

Are you sitting down? Good, because you are about to receive a bit of shocking news. Yet another delay has struck the Turing Phone. Hyped as a phone with ultra security, made of Liquidmorphium, will probably never launch at this point, even though TRI, the company behind the phone, would like you to think otherwise. TRI has sent out a letter to those who pre-ordered, claiming that they are shooting to launch the device in April, pushed from their previous target of March, but there is also something else… The phone won’t run Android anymore, either. 

Stated by TRI, “We can now confirm that TRI has chosen to drop Android and use Jolla’s Sailfish OS. Sailfish OS is now running perfectly on the Turing Phone and we have started the final OS software testing phase.” TRI goes on to claim that SailFish OS blazes on the Snapdragon 801, an outdated processor that should not be shipped on a device that costs north of $600. TRI also states that the Turing Phone will come with an “Android application store” if you need to download any important Android apps to the device. To go along with this mess, TRI says that they are hosting a Turing Developers Conference in Q2 of this year. No word on when or where exactly this “developers conference” is taking place.

To recap all of this, in case you have not been paying attention, the Turing Phone went live for pre-order in September of last year. Orders were supposed to ship in time for Christmas. Nothing happened. Those who pre-ordered were left wondering what happened. On Facebook, TRI stated shipments were being pushed to March, and that anyone who pre-ordered would receive a free upgrade. Now, shipments are expected in April, TRI is just now getting to software testing, and the SailFish OS is distributed by a company that doesn’t even have enough money to refund people who purchased its dead Jolla Tablet. This is a bad situation.

If you pre-ordered this device, honestly, I implore that you cancel your order immediately and pray TRI refunds your money in a timely manner. TRI should be held accountable for claiming that the Turing Phone would ship with the Android OS and then taking people’s hard-earned money. And now, after all of these delays, you are receiving SailFish with an “Android application store” to download your apps. In my eyes, this is unacceptable. When you gave TRI your money, you expected to have a Turing Phone running Android in your hands by Christmas time. Now, you might see a phone running a completely different OS in April, and that’s if there are not anymore delays, which there probably will be. Cancel your order, get a refund, and wipe your hands of this disaster. And remember, backing a crowdfunded phone is almost always a terrible idea.

Here is the complete letter to Turing Phone pre-orderers.

Dear Turing Fans,

You will be pleased to know that we have ironed out the final development tasks before we deliver the Turing Phone to your hands. We fully expect the Turing Phone to be delivered in the month of April 2016.

Many of you have asked numerous times through our Facebook fan page as well as emailed us about our OS development. We can now confirm that TRI has chosen to drop Android and use Jolla’s Sailfish OS. Sailfish OS is now running perfectly on the Turing Phone and we have started the final OS software testing phase.

Sailfish OS runs exceptionally fast on the Turing. You will not have to worry about performance issues with Turing’s Snapdragon 801 because Sailfish OS has been optimized to run fast on your Turing Phone. The Turing Phone will still be able to run Android Apps on the Sailfish OS without issue. An Android application store will be available for you to download your favorite apps.

The Sailfish OS is an evolved continuation of the Linux MeeGo OS previously developed by an alliance of Nokia and Intel. MeeGo mobile software platform was created through the merging of Moblin and the Maemo OS originally developed by Nokia.

This essentially means you have one of the world’s fastest mobile device running the fastest mobile OS with the capability of running your favorite apps in a secure environment.

TRI will also be hosting its first Turing Developers Conference (TDC) during Q2 2016.

We can’t wait to get the phones out to your hands. Thank you so much for your continued patience and support for the Turing Project.

Turing Phone Team | Turing Robotic Industries

Via: Android Police

TRI’s Turing Phone Will No Longer Ship With Android OS, Comes With SailFish OS Instead is a post from: Droid Life



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Best Buy Deals: $25 BBY Gift Card With Nexus 6P, $50 Nexus Player, $20 Off Google OnHub Router

Best Buy is hosting three solid deals today on three products I seem to use almost every day. I’m referring to the Nexus 6P, Nexus Player, and the TP-Link Google OnHub router.

Last week, Best Buy slashed the gold model of the Nexus 6P by $50, but they are now including a free $25 Best Buy gift card with purchase. So not only are you seeing the discount, you then have another $25 to turn around and spend on something else from BBY. Not bad, not bad. 

Along with the 6P offer, you’ll find the Nexus Player down to $49.99 ($50 discount). It’s been to this price point time and time again, likely in a move to kill off the remaining inventory of it. By no means is the Nexus Player the most high-end Android TV box, but if you don’t have a budget for the NVIDIA Shield Android TV and want something more robust than a Chromecast, it’s a decent option at this price.

Finally, the TP-Link Google OnHub router is down to $179 ($20 off) for a short time. I recently made the switch to this particular OnHub and must say that my wireless home setup hasn’t missed a step. Its range is solid and it includes access to the Google OnHub app, which has come in handy more than a couple of times when I need to reboot the router, test a connection, or give priority access to a device. It also has cool lights. Mmm, cool lights.

All of these deals include free shipping.

Best Buy Links:  Nexus 6P (Gold) | Nexus Player | TP-Link Google OnHub Router

Best Buy Deals: $25 BBY Gift Card With Nexus 6P, $50 Nexus Player, $20 Off Google OnHub Router is a post from: Droid Life



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Samsung Developer Site Confirms Galaxy S7 Edge, Mentions Android N

On February 21, we know that Samsung will show off “The Next Galaxy.” While their latest teaser for that event only mentions “Galaxy” in a singular form, we are fully expecting there to be two devices starring in their presentation. The first device should be the Galaxy S7 and the second should be a slightly bigger Galaxy S7 Edge, which is basically the new version of the Galaxy S6 Edge+.

Want some confirmation of that happening? Look no further than Samsung’s own developer site, under the Look SDK section where you’ll find feature listing for their Edge devices. 

The image below shows “S7 Edge” mentioned twice next to “S6 Edge” and “S6 EdgePlus.” Umm, yeah, I’d say that confirms the phone’s existence. There is another mention lower in the page that talks about the S7 Edge and its “M OS,” in case you needed more. I’m going to take a wild guess here and suggest that is in reference to Android Marshmallow.

Screen Shot 2016-02-02 at 9.14.24 AM

Beyond the confirmation, this page also appears to be giving us a sneak peek of a new feature that is coming to not only the Galaxy S7 Edge, but the S6 Edge and S6 Edge+ as well. In the box for “Wide type” and “Edge Single Plus,” we are seeing a wider panel that you should be accessible via swipe out when using one of those three Edge devices. You can see here that we are getting bigger sports scores, stock updates, system status (battery %, RAM, storage usage, and security), and a compass mode. That’s neat.

OK, as the title suggests, we may have even more. On the same Look SDK page, Samsung suggests that a bunch of features for devices like the Note 3, Note 4, Note Edge, Note Pro line, and other Note tablets will go away once Android N arrives. Below, you’ll notice that AirButton, SmartClip, and WritingBuddy will all be “deprecated in N.”

One could take this to mean that Android N will feature new stylus support or something along those lines, but since there isn’t mention of the Note 5 at all, which is Samsung’s newest S Pen device, I think this is more of Samsung admitting that these older features will die for good with Android N. That really just means that they won’t support them anymore and may even phase them out from these devices.

Screen Shot 2016-02-02 at 11.37.43 AM

That’s a whole bunch of hype in one developer page.

Via:  Samsung | reddit

Samsung Developer Site Confirms Galaxy S7 Edge, Mentions Android N is a post from: Droid Life



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Flyperlink Brings Floating Web Browsing to Your Android Device

Flyperlink, an app available for download on Google Play, brings Chat Head-like web browsing straight to your phone. When skimming through links on your device, whether it be on Twitter or through Google Now, Flyperlink can pop up these webpages in individual bubbles, viewable and moveable for your convenience.

After initial setup, Flyperlink runs in the background until you click on a web link. At that point, you will decide which app you want to open a link with – Chrome, Flyperlink, or any other browser you may have installed. If Flyperlink is selected, you can then choose to open the link with Flyperlink just once, or always. When Flyperlink chosen, a bubble will appear that you can expand and minimize, and the bubble can be moved to wherever you would like, in case it is getting in your way. When you are done with a website, simply drag the bubble to the trash icon at the bottom of your screen.

Bubbles can also be customized, with size, position, toolbar position, and JavaScript browsing available for changing. However, many of the tweaks you can perform are limited to the Plus version, available as an in-purchase for just $0.99.

If you want to get down on a bit of bubble browsing, follow the link below.

Play Link

Via: reddit

Flyperlink Brings Floating Web Browsing to Your Android Device is a post from: Droid Life



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Bill Simmons Says Podcasts are Coming to Google Play Music This Month

Back in October of last year, Google announced that podcasts would soon join the line-up of offerings on Google Play Music. October seems like a hell of a long time ago, so as you can imagine, many of us have been itching for some news on when they might actually arrive. According to former ESPN and Grantland talking head, Bill Simmons, we should see podcasts show up this month (as in, February). 

Today, Simmons, who has a popular podcast called the “Bill Simmons Podcast,” announced that he has some 27 million “listens” in just 4 months of existence. Of course, he hit those numbers in such a short amount of time after years of successful podcasting while with ESPN. Not that you care unless you are a sports nut who appreciates Simmons’ often wild takes on sports and homerism of all things Boston, but many of you are probably wondering who Bill Simmons is and why you should care what he says about podcasts coming to Google Play. In short, the dude is a big time podcaster and would probably know.

So, assuming Simmons is correct, we should finally see podcasts come to Google Play Music this month. That’s awesome news, especially for those of you looking to keep up with the Droid Life Show. We are signed up and ready for launch there.

google play music podcasts

(We went with the image embed here because he’ll likely delete the Tweet in 5..4..3..)
Via:  @BillSimmons

Bill Simmons Says Podcasts are Coming to Google Play Music This Month is a post from: Droid Life



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Android Distribution Updated for February 2016: Hey, Marshmallow Hits 1%!

Google updated its Android distribution numbers this morning for the month of February, showing minor adoption of Android 6.0 Marshmallow. In fact, Android 6.0 jumped from just 0.7% the month prior to 1.2%. That seems, at least to me, like pretty slow movement to the newest version of Android after almost four months of it being available. And when consider the fact that Android 6.0 was released as developer previews as early as last May, you have to wonder what is taking the world so long to update to it. 

The rest of the Android landscape hasn’t changed all that much from January until now. Lollipop now sits at 34.1% of the pie, up from 32.6%. Everyone else is (and should be) dropping, like KitKat to 35.5% (from 36.1%), Jelly Bean to 23.9% (from 24.7%), Ice Cream Sandwich to 2.5% (from 2.7%), Gingerbread to 2.7% (from 3.0%), and Froyo to 0.1% (from 0.2%).

You can see last month’s numbers here.

Via:  Android

Android Distribution Updated for February 2016: Hey, Marshmallow Hits 1%! is a post from: Droid Life



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Report: Gear 360 VR Camera to Launch Alongside Galaxy S7

According to the latest from SamMobile, Samsung will introduce the Gear 360 VR Camera alongside the Galaxy S7 next month at MWC. The Gear 360, a compact spherical camera, will allow users to shoot live video in full a 360 degrees, which can then be viewed on the Gear VR and shared with the world. 

Likely based off of Samsung’s Project Beyond (video below), the Gear 360 brings VR content creation to the masses, and it is reported that Samsung may price this device quite competitively. The device is said to feature its own internal battery, so no power cords will need to be connected during usage, and while shooting, your basic camera settings will be available for usage, such as exposure, ISO, and white balance controls.

To give you a few examples of usage, you can set the Gear 360 onto a tripod on your next nature hike, capture a scene in complete 360 degrees, and then enjoy that moment over and over through virtual reality. The same could be done during your next holiday family get-together, a trip to the beach, or any other lovely scene that you might want to relive again.

No exact pricing or release information is currently known, but if Samsung plans to unveil the Gear 360 alongside the Galaxy S7, we assume it may see a launch around the same time, too.

If priced at say, $149 or $199, would you be interested in creating a bit of VR content?

Via: SamMobile

Report: Gear 360 VR Camera to Launch Alongside Galaxy S7 is a post from: Droid Life



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T-Mobile’s Super Bowl Ad Suggests Other Carriers Would Ruin Drake’s Hotline Bling

This is T-Mobile’s Super Bowl ad, starring Aubrey Drake Graham. It suggests that the other carriers of the world would try to ruin the dancing magic that is Hotline Bling, because other “wireless carriers ruin everything.” Yeah, so, it’s actually not a very good commercial.

Hey, grumpy Kellen is back today! Hi, everyone!

T-Mobile’s Super Bowl Ad Suggests Other Carriers Would Ruin Drake’s Hotline Bling is a post from: Droid Life



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