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Monday, November 23, 2015

Google Awakens the Force With Star Wars Themes for Apps, Includes Gmail and Maps

Because there was not already an over saturation of Star Wars crap for you to buy in stores, Google has launched Star Wars themes for your apps, just in case you needed more Force in your life. If you have a Google account, and use it for Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, and other Google services, you can experience what the Light or Dark side have to offer their users.

To start, you will need to choose a side – Light or Dark. Once a side is chosen, you will begin to see Star Wars themes throughout many of Google’s applications, whether it is on an Android device or desktop computer. For example, I chose the Dark side, opened my Gmail, and I was greeted with a darkly colored Empire theme. In addition, if you open Google Maps, find your home, you should see a Death Star. 

As for which applications you will see changes take place, Google lists that YouTube, Chromecast, Google Maps, Waze, Gmail, Inbox, Google Translate, Android Wear, Google Search, and Google Calendar will all see a Star Wars transformation.

Here are a couple of notes. Yes, you can change sides once you have already made a selection. If you don’t care for these themes, you can also easily go back to the default settings. Also, Google notes that it may take a couple of hours for all changes to take place, so once you make a side selection, allow for time to pass before you get upset about not seeing wookies and what have you. And finally, these themes are only available for regular Google account users. No Google Apps for Work, Education, or Government are supported.

You can join a side by clicking the link below and signing into your Google account.

Join the Light or Dark side here.

Via: reddit

Google Awakens the Force With Star Wars Themes for Apps, Includes Gmail and Maps is a post from: Droid Life



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Here are Verizon’s Black Friday 2015 Deals

Verizon posted a PDF file this morning that contains its plans for Black Friday 2015 and the days that follow. Like most years, Verizon has some decent deals, though many revolve around switching carriers, trading in your current phone, and then signing up for new service. Verizon is also doing some decent discounts on phones too, plus they are offering discounts on a number of accessories. 

The big push Verizon is making is for this $500 switch credit/discount when you trade in your smartphone from another carrier and join their network. With this deal, they are slashing $200 off of smartphones, then giving you up to $300 for your trade-in. If you do that and qualify for the full $500 off, you can get into phones for these prices:

If you don’t want any of those phones, Verizon is also doing $100 off other phones, plus the $300 trade-in credit. That would get you into these phones for the these prices:

And if none of that sounds fun, here are some other deals.

You can access all of these deals come Black Friday at the link below.

Verizon Black Friday Link

Verizon Black Friday Deals 2015

Verizon Black Friday Deals 2015

Via:  Verizon (pdf)

Here are Verizon’s Black Friday 2015 Deals is a post from: Droid Life



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Android Studio 2.0 Previewed, Includes “Instant Run” and GPU Profiler

The Android Developers team at Google is beginning to preview the launch of Android Studio 2.0, detailing what features app developers can look forward to upon release. All features detailed are available via the canary release channel, but given this is merely a preview of what is to come, Google recommends you download and run an additional copy of Android Studio in parallel with your current version. 

The first feature, Instant Run, should dramatically improve development workflow, allowing you to view changes made instantly on your emulator or development device. All new projects started in Studio 2.0 will feature Instant Run, but if you have pre-existing projects that you would like to enable Instant Run for, Google has a very easy process for doing so. During usage, you will select “Run” app as normal, then when changes to the source code are made, pressing Run again will deploy your changes directly into the running app.

Also detailed in Android Studio 2.0 is GPU Profiler, which allows easier profiling of OpenGL ES Android code. According to Google, this tool is in early preview, but is “very powerful,” not only showing details about the GL State and Commands, but allows you to record entire sessions and walk through the GL Framebuffer and Textures as your app is running OpenGL ES Code.

Again, it is in early preview, but is available through the GPU Debugging Tools package from the Android Studio SDK Manager.

Google says this is only the beginning, so if you dev for Android, be on the lookout for more big changes.

Via: Android Developers

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Square’s New Reader Takes NFC Mobile Payments, Launches Today

Square, the payment dongle that you see stuffed into iPads at all of your favorite overpriced coffee shops in hipster neighborhoods across the US, has a new reader out today that allows merchants to accept mobile payments over NFC. Square has teamed up with 100 local businesses for today’s launch, but the plan is obviously to make this a much bigger rollout over time. 

The new reader lets you pay with Android Pay or Samsung Pay or (Gasp!) Apple Pay with the tap of a phone. Actually, Square is only really telling the world that Apple Pay, Apple Pay, Apple Pay, and Apple Pay works with it, but in reality, it’s just an NFC terminal that will take all of the NFC-based payment solutions. Seriously, go look at their promo page. It doesn’t mention any other mobile payment solution outside of Apple Pay. It’s kind of ridiculous, if I’m being honest.

This new Square reader also works with EMV chip cards, for those next-level secure payments.

So there you have it, Square is now all up in the mobile payments game. Enjoy that $10 pour over.

Via:  Square

Square’s New Reader Takes NFC Mobile Payments, Launches Today is a post from: Droid Life



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DEAL: $45 for 128GB SanDisk MicroSD, Plus 60% Off Others

Here come the deals!

Today, Amazon is running one of its typical memory discounts, with SanDisk at the helm. You can grab their memory products for up to 60% off, which includes 200GB and 128GB microSD cards. The 128GB card has now dropped to $44.99, while the 200GB is now just $134.99.

The deal also includes thumb drives, full sized memory cards, and solid state drives, all of which have Prime shipping.

Amazon Link

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Samsung Pay Adds Chase, Another Handful of Cards, and Gives Out $100 Coupon for Signing Up

Samsung added Chase to its line-up of supported cards for Samsung Pay! Nice timing there, with holiday shopping for everyone about to kick into overdrive.

The mobile payment system also now supports cards from Citizens Equity First Credit Union, Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union, Security Service Federal Credit Union, State Employees’ Credit Union, SunTrust and Virginia Credit Union. When you install Samsung Pay on your compatible Galaxy smartphone, you’ll now be able to add all of these new cards without a hitch. 

As a bonus to go along with this news, Samsung is handing out $100 coupon codes when you sign-up that can be used to “get up to $100 off any” Samsung.com purchase.

To get more details on the $100 “gift,” head over to Samsung’s promotion site.

But yeah, Chase!

Samsung Pay Adds Eight More Credit and Debit Card Issuers Including Chase

Starting Today Samsung Pay Supports Chase Visa Credit and Debit Cards and New MasterCard Issuers

NEW YORK – November 23, 2015 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. announced today that Samsung Pay, the most accepted mobile payment system, now supports eligible Chase Visa® credit, debit and Liquid® cards, as well as debit and credit offerings from MasterCard issuers: Citizens Equity First Credit Union, Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union, Security Service Federal Credit Union, State Employees’ Credit Union, SunTrust and Virginia Credit Union. Samsung Pay also now supports Navy Federal Credit Union Visa® credit and debit cards. Cardholders of all these issuers will be able to use Samsung Pay to pay almost anywhere they can swipe or tap their card.

“With expanded support from eight additional issuers, including Chase and SunTrust, we look forward to building even more momentum around Samsung Pay,” said Injong Rhee, EVP of Samsung Electronics, Global Head of Samsung Pay. “Through our ever expanding ecosystem of financial partners, Samsung Pay users will be able to take advantage of the most widely accepted mobile payment solution.”

“Samsung Pay gives our customers another convenient way to pay with their Chase cards,” said Gavin Michael, Head of Digital forChase. “They choose how they want to pay.”

All three major payment networks will continue to be supported by Samsung Pay: American Express, MasterCard and Visa, as well as major banks including Bank of America, Chase, Citi, Navy Federal Credit Union, SunTrust, U.S. Bank, and key partners includingBlackhawk Network, First Data, Global Payments, Synchrony Financial, TSYS, Vantiv, and Worldpay.

  • SIMPLE: To make a payment on Samsung Pay, users can simply swipe up, scan their fingerprint and pay.
  • SAFE: Samsung Pay uses tokenization, Samsung KNOX, and fingerprint authentication to provide secure payments. And, as terminals are upgraded to EMV, that security is leveraged, too.
  • ALMOST ANYWHERE:  Samsung Pay is compatible with most existing and new terminals, including most magnetic stripe, EMV and NFC terminals*. That means Samsung Pay works at more places than any other mobile payment service.

 #

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Saturday, November 21, 2015

FoxFi has Stopped Working With Verizon

I hope this isn’t the end, but it may be. FoxFi has stopped working with Verizon unlimited data plans.

According to a number of our readers and dozens more who have commented on Google Play, FoxFi, the popular tethering app that doesn’t require root and was used by many unlimited Verizon data plan subscribers, stopped working yesterday and is still not working today. Some of our readers have tried FoxFi with multiple phones, asked friends to test, and done everything else they can think of to see what the issue is, yet have come up empty. 

Many are seeing a subscription request from Verizon, which is typically the screen seen when you try and tether without having signed up for a tethering plan from Verizon. Woof.

Of course, the timing couldn’t be worse, since Verizon is also adding a $20 increase to unlimited data plan subscribers on their next billing cycle after November 15.

There is always a chance that FoxFi will issue an update that bypasses Verizon’s subscription check. Until then, you may be out of luck.

Play Link

Cheers Elias, Jimmy, Jose, and everyone else!

FoxFi has Stopped Working With Verizon is a post from: Droid Life



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