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Friday, March 25, 2016

Don’t Miss These Android Stories: March 25, 2016

This week at DL, we delivered our Galaxy S7 Edge review, talked about our favorite features on the LG G5, and gave you five fantastic reasons the Galaxy S7 (or Galaxy S7 Edge, for that matter) should be your next smartphone purchase.

Besides your standard flagship news, we discussed the idea of being together, not the same, HTC confirmed the HTC 10 will be unveiled on April 12, while also getting more details about what to expect from Google’s Android N.

Also, if you missed it, we are giving away a NVIDIA SHIELD prize pack.

Did you miss any of the craziness? Look below. 

Have a great weekend, folks.

Don’t Miss These Android Stories: March 25, 2016 is a post from: Droid Life



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Deal: Buy a Nexus 6P or Nexus 5X for $50 Off Through the Weekend

Google is celebrating the Google Store’s first birthday, and to do so, it is offering $50 off both the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P. For the Nexus 5X, which starts at $349 for the 16GB model, you can purchase this device for $299. Need something a little larger? The Nexus 6P, typically priced starting at $499 for the 32GB model, can be bought for $449. 

This $50 off promotion can be applied to any color and storage model you choose. For example, if you want the largest 128GB model of the Nexus 6P, your price will be $599 instead of the usual $649.

Stated on the Google Store, the $50 off will be applied at checkout, so if you go browsing and don’t see the sale pricing, don’t worry, it will be there.

The birthday promotion ends this Sunday.

Google Store Links: Nexus 5X | Nexus 6P

Deal: Buy a Nexus 6P or Nexus 5X for $50 Off Through the Weekend is a post from: Droid Life



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$150 Nik Collection of Photo Editing Plugins Now Free for All

In 2012, Google acquired Nik, the company behind Snapseed. After bringing Snapseed to Android, the collection of Nik plug-ins for desktop photo editing clients, such as Photoshop, were still available for purchase at $150. However, as of this week, the entire Nik Collection is free to download for anyone and everyone to use. 

Shared to the Nik Collection Google+ page, the following was shared in the announcement.

Photo enthusiasts all over the world use the Nik Collection to get the best out of their images every day. As we continue to focus our long-term investments in building incredible photo editing tools for mobile, including Google Photos and Snapseed, we’ve decided to make the Nik Collection desktop suite available for free, so that now anyone can use it.

If you recently purchased the Nik Collection for its $150 price, fret not! Google is automatically issuing refunds to all purchasers who acquired the collection so far in the year of 2016. If you purchased in 2015, you are out of luck.

Edit photos on your Mac or Windows desktop? Go grab the collection.

Download Here

Via: +Nik Collection

$150 Nik Collection of Photo Editing Plugins Now Free for All is a post from: Droid Life



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Google Announces Android Experiment Challenge, Winners to Attend Google I/O

Fancy yourself a developer? Miss out on your chance to attend Google I/O this year? Well, Google is offering folks with Android development skills the opportunity to submit an Android Experiment, and one lucky winner will showcase their experiment live at Google I/O to attendees. If you don’t win the grand prize, don’t worry, runner-ups will receive a Nexus 6P. 

An experiment will use the Android platform in a unique and innovative way, highlighting features, using interesting visual aesthetics, while also being open source for use by other developers.

If you need a more detailed overview, Google explains below.

  • Creative uses of Android’s new or distinctive features
  • Projects that explore how we interact with our devices, in small and big ways
  • Unique visual aesthetics
  • Open source projects that can inspire other developers
  • Surprise us – we want to see the amazing things you’re cooking up.

Think you have what it takes? You can enter your experiment by following the via link.

Maybe we’ll see you at I/O!

Via: Android Experiments

Google Announces Android Experiment Challenge, Winners to Attend Google I/O is a post from: Droid Life



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Chromecast Update Available Now, Rebrands to Google Cast

As detailed earlier this week, the update that rebrands the Chromecast app name to Google Cast, is now available for all on Google Play. Beyond the name change, not much has changed, but Google did launch an updated Google Cast website to help promote the change. 

Inside the Google Cast app, users will still find support for controlling their Cast-supported devices, such as changing Backdrops settings and more. However, instead of only Chromecast dongles appearing on your supported device list, you should now see Android TV boxes and supported speakers.

The update is populating Google Play right now.

Play Link

Chromecast Update Available Now, Rebrands to Google Cast is a post from: Droid Life



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Casio Smart Outdoor Watch Available on Google Store, Priced at $499

After seeing it unveiled at CES this past January, the Smart Outdoor Watch from Casio is now available for purchase on the Google Store, priced at a whopping $499. With that $499, you get a Android Wear-powered smartwatch that, as the name would suggest, was built for the outdoors.

Including water resistance, stainless steel body, mineral glass, and a urethane wristband, this watch should be able to take quite a licking, but shall keep on digitally ticking. Built-in by Casio, the watch features a hefty amount of custom watch faces, as well as software tweaks that greaten the device’s usability while doing outdoor activities such as running, biking, and camping.

One huge omission from this device, especially considering its $499 price and outdoor centric approach, is GPS. The Smart Outdoor Watch has no GPS antenna. Go ahead and let that soak in for a second.

The watch is available now for purchase.

Google Store Link ($499)

Casio Smart Outdoor Watch Available on Google Store, Priced at $499 is a post from: Droid Life



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Netflix has Been Throttling Verizon and AT&T Streams to 360p

Last week, as a part of YouTube and T-Mobile’s joint announcement that YouTube was joining Binge On, T-Mobile CEO John Legere released a video to help sell the news. During that clip, he made reference to Netflix streaming on T-Mobile that was dropped to DVD-like quality with BingeOn enabled, but noted that the 480p resolution was better than what you would see at AT&T and Verizon, who were only “delivering” content for Netflix at 360p (clip here). The news was somewhat shocking, because no one had heard this before and either assumed Legere was talking out of his ass or knew something no one else knew. As it turns out, he may have had the inside track to information that even Verizon and AT&T weren’t aware of. 

After that video showed, Verizon’s PR crew took to Twitter to attack Legere over the claims, saying that they weren’t throttling Netflix. Legere was quick to point out that he never said they were throttling, only that the content was coming across their network in 360p. You can see the exchange here.

What was he referring to? We think we now know.

Last night, Netflix told the Wall Street Journal that it has been throttling its content through both Verizon and AT&T without their knowledge. In fact, Netflix says that it has been throttling video playback through numerous carriers for five years as a way to protect customers from themselves. They have not been throttling streams at Sprint and T-Mobile because “historically those two companies have had more consumer-friendly policies.” The thought was that Netflix users may have limited data plans and 360p streams could help them extend the use of those data plans or at the very least, not blow through those buckets too quickly.

AT&T is actually pissed about it and probably should be. An AT&T executive said that they are “outraged” to learn that Netflix has been throttling content without letting customers know. Verizon on the other hand, just said that they deliver whatever content providers are providing.

Alongside this acknowledgement from Netflix, the streaming company says that it will soon give customers more control over the quality of stream they see. By May, an update should arrive on the Netflix app with a “data saver” option that will allow customers to raise or lower the quality of streams when on mobile.

Is it just me, or is it not cool of everyone in this wireless industry to try and protect us from ourselves? Warnings and pop-ups and emails and all that are all we need to know about these types of issues. After that, let us make our own mistakes and learn from them.

Via:  Netflix | Wall Street Journal

Netflix has Been Throttling Verizon and AT&T Streams to 360p is a post from: Droid Life



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Verizon Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge Get Connectivity Fixing Updates, LG G4 and G3 Get Security Patches

To end the week, Verizon is pushing out a bunch of smaller updates alongside the Marshmallow goodness for the LG V10. Both the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge from Big Red are seeing updates that should improve WiFi connectivity, while the LG G4 and G3 are seeing March’s security patch. 

According to Verizon, the S7 and S7 Edge will see an update as software version VRU2APB5 that “improves Wi-Fi connectivity on Marshmallow.” That means fixes for “trouble connecting to the internet,” frequent data disconnections, and problems while loading files or web pages.

To check for this update, head into Settings>About phone>Software updates>Check for Updates.

As for the LG G4 and G3 on Verizon, we are looking at software versions VS98625A and VS98547A, respectively. Each update is simply listed as the “latest Android security updates.” Both seemed to have started rolling out yesterday for most, but to check, you can head into Settings>About phone>Software updates>Check for update>Download now.

And finally, if anyone still has a Galaxy Note Edge on Verizon, it also is receiving March’s security patch.

Via:  Verizon [2] [3] [4] [5]

Verizon Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge Get Connectivity Fixing Updates, LG G4 and G3 Get Security Patches is a post from: Droid Life



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