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Monday, June 15, 2015

Motorola Drops No-Contract Moto X (2nd Gen) to $299, Offers Free Trial Program for 30 Days

Motorola just announced a limited-time deal on the Moto X (2nd gen) that gets you the phone for $299 (after $50 rebate), but also lets you try it for up to 30 days “risk free.” They are attaching this deal to the idea of people buying phones without a contract, so if you buy any of their models without signing a contract through a carrier, you get it for as little as $299. 

The deal includes custom-made phones through Moto Maker, along with a free trial program for those who want to test the phone a bit before committing. If you buy a Moto X off-contract, Motorola will give you 30 days to test it, including a do-over should you not like the original Moto Maker design you chose. Finally, if you don’t want to pay the $349 up front, they also have 6, 12, and 18 month payment plans that require $0 down.

Here are some of the details provided to us through a post on Motorola’s blog:

With that in mind, we’re offering you the opportunity to customize and try a new Moto X for 30 days, risk free at a new off-contract price of $299** (after $50 rebate).

To try one out, simply design and order your device at motomaker.com and activate it on a no-contract plan. If you don’t love your Moto X, simply ship it back to us for free any time in the first 30 days. No hidden fees or restocking charges — and if your Moto X didn’t turn out how you envisioned, we’ll even give you one “do-over” for another shot at designing your Moto Maker creation. If you love it, keep it and get a $50 discount off the purchase price**.

The rest of the details can be found at the Motorola link below.

You can also now buy black or bamboo versions of the unlocked GSM Moto X at Amazon for $299.

Motorola Link

Via:  Motorola

Motorola Drops No-Contract Moto X (2nd Gen) to $299, Offers Free Trial Program for 30 Days is a post from: Droid Life



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Saygus V2 Will Ship Some Day (Maybe This Fall), Founders Party at E3 and Launch Indiegogo Campaign for Now

Saygus and its supposedly-existent, oft-delayed “world’s most advanced” smartphone, the V2 (or V-SQUARED), stopped off in early buyers’ inboxes this morning to update everyone on potential shipping times. Well, that’s being optimistic, as the email dances around virtual mailboxes with talk of “two SIM cards!” and “Android 5.1!” before “grumble grumble grumble…we’ll ship soon!”

The email specifically states that we “are approaching time for you to receive your V-SQUARED and will notify you of your shipment soon!” There is also a mention of a production partner change that was supposedly shared with us, though I don’t recall anything about such a major change in the last delay email. All I remember was something about “quality assurance and network testing,” not completely switching to a new partner to manufacturer the phone. Hey, who’s keeping track of such details? 

The email was also used as a means to announce a new Indiegogo campaign to fund future sales of the phone or as “another vehicle to let people know about” it or something. That campaign is now live. While we typically crack jokes about Indiegogo campaigns, this one might actually prove to be useful. If you scroll down to the bottom where it says, “The Plan,” we may now know exactly when these phones, that were supposed to ship in March, will actually ship. According to the V-2’s Indiegogo campaign, which somehow has 1,431 backers in 22 minutes time (and how is that possible?), we are looking at a “Fall 2015 shipment.” Yep, this schedule says that they essentially took everyone’s early adopter money to finally manufacture a real prototype, then spent three months dealing with partners who could make it, and will take June and July to “finalize tooling” before ordering parts. In August and September, they will test the phone and then ship it at some point in the Fall. So we have gone from March to “Fall.” Awesome.

To add to the awesome story of the Saygus V-SQUARED, a separate email – sent moments before the hardly-informative shipping email – invited early buyers to a 2-day VIP party at E3, hosted with your funds by the Saygus founders! Yeah, bruh! Party with the Saygus founders and YouTubers at E3 in a swanky penthouse!

Have you requested a refund yet? You probably should.

Saygus V2 Will Ship Some Day (Maybe This Fall), Founders Party at E3 and Launch Indiegogo Campaign for Now is a post from: Droid Life



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NVIDIA SHIELD Receives 1.2 Update, Includes 4K Picture Sharing and GameStream Enhancements

The SHIELD Android TV set-top box from NVIDIA is receiving a big update this morning, labeled as upgrade 1.2. Inside, owners who have a 4K TV in the living room can now share photos with super high resolution directly from the Photos & Videos app. 

NVIDIA also baked in enhancements for SD card auto-move settings, improvements for GameStream (PC game streaming over home network), notifications for low battery on SHIELD Remote, plus an update for the SHIELD Remote that should make the accessory a bit more snappy.

Lastly, streaming performance for apps such as Netflix and Google Play Movies has been included. Check out the full changelog below, then go grab it. Unless you are busy at work. Then you will have to wait until later.

What’s New

  • Share your pictures in 4K on Ultra HD TVs with the Photos & Videos app
  • Delivers enhancements for SD card auto-move setting
  • Optimizes streaming experience for Google Play Movies and Netflix
  • SHIELD Accessories Upgrade for SHIELD Remote for snappier response
  • Adds notifications for low battery on SHIELD Remote
  • Delivers enhancements for NVIDIA GameStream (requires update to GeForce Experience v2.25 beta or later)

Did you recently receive your SHIELD in the mail? How are you liking it?

NVIDIA SHIELD Receives 1.2 Update, Includes 4K Picture Sharing and GameStream Enhancements is a post from: Droid Life



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ASUS Didn’t Say They Talked to HTC About a Merger, But HTC Wants You to Know They Didn’t

Last week, ASUS admitted during an investor call that internally, they had tossed around the idea of trying to acquire HTC. That’s it, though, they just threw out the idea at a board meeting or something before moving on to other matters. They even followed up the brief mention of an acquisition by saying that they were unlikely to even attempt such a thing, because they aren’t interested in buying companies on their deathbeds like to grow organically. 

We thought the story was done there because it’s almost a non-story, but HTC decided that it needed to make a bold statement on the matter. HTC said that it “has not made any contact with Asus regarding this matter, and it will not consider a merger with Asus.” OK! They continued with, “As an international brand, HTC will continue to design world-class innovative smart devices through its pursuit of brilliance brand promise.”

There, you see, HTC isn’t interested in your ASUS acquisition chatter.

On a related note, HTC’s stock rose by 10% following all of that acquisition chatter.

Via:  HTC | Reuters

ASUS Didn’t Say They Talked to HTC About a Merger, But HTC Wants You to Know They Didn’t is a post from: Droid Life

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These Icon Packs are Hot: Polycon and Elun

What do you say we start off the week with a couple of icon packs to freshen up your home screens? After taking a mini break from icons that we consider hot, we get the feeling that a number of you missed this little ongoing feature of ours. So, we’ll try to be better about sharing the best in Android customization.

To kick things up again, we have two icon packs that are well worth the effort of installing. The first is called Polycon, a Material Design-heavy icon pack that brings a new flavor to the abundance of Material packs. After that, we wanted to draw some attention to an old favorite called Elun. We first showed you Elun almost a year ago, but it deserves a second look today, if anything, just to support the developer. Remember that icon pack we featured last week? As it turns out, the icon designs there may have been completely lifted from Elun, only sporting a new color scheme. That’s not exactly something we like to see, especially when it comes to the icon world, where your original designs and hours of hard work are what help you stand out. So if you feel like spending a buck to support the cause, give Elun another look. You can read all about the back story here.

Here we go! 

polycon icons3 polycon icons1 polycon icons2

Polycon

These icons, at least to me, seem much more compact than most Material Design icons while showing some playfulness or freshness, and a simplicity that is enough to look good in almost any setup. You know just by looking at these icons that they were custom made for Material Design, but yet they still feel very new. The colors used are from the Material Design color palette, so you should have no problems matching this up to the rest of the colors on your current theme.

The pack includes a set of custom wallpapers and should work on just about every major launcher.

Oh, and did I mention that it’s all free?

Play Link

elun icons3 elun icons2 elun icons1

Elun

This is what I wrote about Elun a year ago:

“This pack meets my needs at the moment because round icons are just my thing right now. Beyond being round, the icons are fully flattened, aren’t going overboard with neon colors or shadows, and give you more than enough alternative color options for some of the most used apps out there, like the dialer, camera, or Hangouts. The icon pack is simple and classic, utilizes ‘stock’ colors, and would work well with almost any setup.”

There are over 2,200 3,100 HD icons and 31 HD, cloud-based wallpapers that work perfectly with the scheme. All of your favorite launchers are also supported, plus the wallpapers work with Muzei.

Play Link ($0.99)

These Icon Packs are Hot: Polycon and Elun is a post from: Droid Life



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T-Mobile Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge Receiving Update to Android 5.1.1

Both the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge on T-Mobile are receiving an update today to Android 5.1.1. The build drops in as G920TUVU1AOF6 for the regular S6 and G925TUVU1AOF6 for the S6 Edge. The update also weighs in at 630MB and 635MB, respectively.

So what’s new? The only “new” feature is Google’s anti-theft protection for Android, which forces users to login to their Google’s accounts even after factory resetting. This step should make it quite difficult for those considering stealing your phone and then wiping it clean before either using the phone or re-selling it. 

The rest of the update should fix who knows how many bugs from earlier builds of Lollipop. T-Mobile lists that the update improves the following:

  • Black boxes in email is resolved
  • Camera LED flashlight is resolved
  • Check for Amazon error is resolved
  • Failed to reboot – error message is resolved
  • Fingerprint scanner improvements
  • Various bug fixes and device improvements

I can’t help but think the bulk of that 630MB file is tied to that last bullet point.

A number of users are already receiving the update, so if you would like to pull it, head into Settings>About device>Software update.

Via:  T-Mobile [2]
Cheers Jason and enigmaco!

T-Mobile Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge Receiving Update to Android 5.1.1 is a post from: Droid Life



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Friday, June 12, 2015

Don’t Miss These Top Android Stories: 6/12/2015

Another week in the books here at DL. This week, Apple took the stage at WWDC and ruled most of Monday, but Google capped the week off with the announcement of YouTube Gaming, set to launch later this summer. As a gamer myself, I am highly interested.

Other big news from this week included our exclusive unveiling of Google’s upcoming Nest Cam, an unboxing of the Galaxy S6 Active, Motorola finally shedding some light on the DROID Turbo Lollipop update status, a major Hangouts 4.0 leak, and maybe shockingly to some, but we sat down for Episode 84 of the Droid Life Show.

If you happened to miss any of this week’s action, we have the goods for you below. 

Have a fun-filled weekend, folks!

Don’t Miss These Top Android Stories: 6/12/2015 is a post from: Droid Life



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