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Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Report: LG G5 to Feature Metal Exterior, No More Plastic

According to a report out of Korea, LG may look to ditch its plastic past, opting for an all-metal design in 2016 for the G5 smartphone. With many competitors choosing “premium” materials to build phones, such as metal, glass, and wood, LG is still one of the only companies to offer an all-plastic flagship device. However, LG’s new V10 features a metal trim on its siding, and the G4 had custom backsides that featured leather. 

According to a source who has seen LG’s G5 prototype, they state that, “the design takes a major step forward than previous smartphones.” Whether this means LG is designing a unique shape or we can expect to see the same rear-facing button arrangement is yet to be seen.

In addition to metal being used on the G5, it is reported that LG wants to be more aggressive in making the device available as soon as it is announced. Many times, a company will announce a smartphone, then consumers must wait weeks or sometimes even months to get their hands on the device. By this time, hype has worn off and something newer comes along. LG likely wants to avoid this, so having supply ready in time for the announcement will be crucial.

In terms of when, it is expected that LG will announce this device in the February/MWC timeframe, right in time for battle with Samsung and a possible Galaxy S7 flagship.

Not only do I think it would be nice for LG to dip into metal for the G5, but I think more importantly, the company needs to spend a lot of time on simplifying its software and making it nicer to use.

Via: etnews

Report: LG G5 to Feature Metal Exterior, No More Plastic is a post from: Droid Life



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Video: Samsung Galaxy View Hands-on and First Impressions

The Galaxy View tablet from Samsung, available on November 20 from AT&T, is large. There’s nothing else to say about its size. The device features an 18.4″ Full HD display, powered by a Exynos octa-core processor and 2GB of RAM. We received a unit from AT&T, preloaded with all of the DIRECTV and NFL Sunday Ticket goodies, so allow me to share my first impressions with you. 

Once you accept the fact that the device is ridiculously large, you begin to think about all of things you can do with a device of its size. You can consume tons of videos, mobile games, and browse the Internet on a massive touchscreen. The tablet runs TouchWiz, Samsung’s custom Android skin, on top of Android 5.1.1, which offers a few helpful software tweaks you can’t normally do on a stock Android device. For example, you can have multiple apps running at the same time, which is useful considering how much screen real estate you have access to. You can have the Chrome browser open, while also watching a movie simultaneously.

On the AT&T-branded model, the carrier pushes DIRECTV quite heavily. For anyone who has DIRECTV, it may be the perfect companion device for your home, as consuming your regular TV programming, NFL Sunday Ticket, and movies is quite enjoyable on the 18.4″ display. DIRECTV access is actually built directly into the Home launcher by swiping right on the display. This brings up a quick access guide to what DIRECTV currently offers.

Beyond the specialty feature of DIRECTV and NFL Sunday Ticket access, it’s basically just a large Android tablet, and we all know how useful those things are (slight hint of sarcasm). With the backside of the device featuring swiveling kickstand for use on a table or in your lap, the device is rather cumbersome and not very portable. I should also note it is rather heavy, although, not as heavy as you may expect from such a large device.

Inside, the Galaxy View features just a 5,700mAh battery, which seems relatively small considering how much size they had to work with. On the exterior backside, you will find stereo speakers for loud, clear audio playback.

Below, watch me go hands-on with the device, going over a few of its software features, and providing a tour of the DIRECTV and NFL Sunday Ticket apps.

Hands-on

Video: Samsung Galaxy View Hands-on and First Impressions is a post from: Droid Life



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Google Introduces New Google+ With Revamped UI and Focus on Communities and Collections

This afternoon, Google announced that it has been working on a new version of Google+ that is ready for prime time. Over the past couple of months, Google (with help from users of Google+) realized that a big part of the social platform’s growth was in Communities and Collections, and so that’s where the latest redesign takes its focus.

With Communities, you get a forum-like atmosphere within G+ that allows you to discuss topics with like-minded folks. With Collections, you have a way to bundle together the posts you like by topic, to help you stay organized and on top of your favorite things. 

In this new G+, you’ll see in image above and GIF below, that just below the top “Home” tab, there are easy-to-reach shortcuts for Collections and Communities. From within those specific pages, you can quickly find new groups or topics to entertain, or just browse the ones you are already a part of.

Google also said that this new Google+ has been better optimized for mobile, should let you post, search, and connect easier, while keeping up with content.

To try out the new Google+ on the web, be on the lookout for a “Let’s go” button at the top that will let you make the switch. Google did say that not all of the old Google+ features will move over to the new version, so if you want to switch back to the classic, you can do that.

As for mobile apps, the Android and iOS Google+ apps are brand new and will arrive “in the coming days.”

Dragon Final Animation

Via:  Google Blog

Google Introduces New Google+ With Revamped UI and Focus on Communities and Collections is a post from: Droid Life



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Sprint CEO to Make “Major Announcement” Tomorrow

Tomorrow, at 11:15AM CT, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure will make a “major announcement.” Do we have any guesses as to what that may be? Not really, no. He will field questions from journos during a teleconference to address the announcement, though, so we’ll be sure to tune in to see what comes of it.

Any guesses? 

Via:  Sprint

Sprint CEO to Make “Major Announcement” Tomorrow is a post from: Droid Life



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DEAL: Nexus 5 32GB in Black or White for $209 in Newegg Flash Sale

In my Nexus 5X review, I mentioned that the original Nexus 5, a phone two years old, performs better with Android 6.0 Marshmallow than the new LG model. I don’t know how that is possible with all of the new tech inside of the 5X, but it was painfully obvious. Outside of the camera being pretty poor in the original Nexus 5, it’s still a phone worth considering at the right price. $209 might be the right price. 

In a deal currently running through Newegg Flash, you can buy the Nexus 5 with 32GB of storage in either white or black for just $209. This is model LG-D820, which is the North American variant that works on carriers in the US like AT&T and T-Mobile.

As a recap, the original Nexus 5 sports a 5-inch 1080p display, 2GB RAM, Snapdragon 800 processor, 8MP rear camera (with OIS), and 2300mAh battery. It has also been officially updated to Android 6.0.

The phone purchase includes free shipping.

New Egg Deal Link

Cheers enigmaco!

DEAL: Nexus 5 32GB in Black or White for $209 in Newegg Flash Sale is a post from: Droid Life



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Google Photos Updated With New Ways to Save Your Storage

An update for the Google Photos application is set to rollout today for Android users, one which aims at saving you precious storage space on your device and in the cloud.

Once updated, a “Free Up Space” button will appear in the Settings menu, which will prompt users to clear up bulk amounts of photos that are likely being duplicated. For example, if your photos have already been uploaded to the cloud, Photos will give you the “okay” to delete them off of your device, so as to save space for additional photos. To prevent device copies from being accidentally deleted, Google is asking users to double-confirm their intent during the “Free Up Space” process.

Google is also rolling out a fix that will allow users on select SD-card enabled devices to delete photos stored on an SD card. The hope is that this will prevent the issue of a photo continuing to appear in the Photos view even after being deleted.

The Photos app will now also allow users to downgrade uploaded photos from “Original quality” to “High quality,” which will certainly free up some space on the cloud. Original quality photos are uploaded in full resolution and uncompressed, and Google only provides a certain amount of space for this unless you pay. However, with the high quality setting, users can upload compressed files as much as they want with no limit in space. So, with the update, all of your previous uploaded photos in original quality can be reset to high quality, freeing up storage for more photos and videos.

The update is rolling out now, so be on the lookout.

Via: +John Elstone

Google Photos Updated With New Ways to Save Your Storage is a post from: Droid Life



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FYI: Google Removed Tasker From Google Play

Yesterday, Google removed Tasker, the automate-the-world with insanely complicated triggers and scenes and actions and tasks, from Google Play and has yet to restore the app for the hundreds of thousands of users who have downloaded it over the years. No one is quite sure the exact reason for the removal, which is often the case when Google suddenly, without warning, removes an app, but the developer did take to the app’s support group to say that Google did so “mistakenly.” 

Here is the full short response:

Google have removed it, as far as I can see mistakenly since they are complaining about something being in the manifest which is simply not there.

In a couple of days, after I’ve got a few thousand complaint emails, they may have gotten round to reading the appeal.

Others are speculating that the developer possibly included a specific battery-related permission that Google isn’t allowing developers to utilize at the moment, though that hasn’t been confirmed as the issue.

Hopefully, for all of the Tasker die-hards out there, this get sorted out quickly. Hah, did I really just hope for a suddenGoogle Play app removal to be resolved quickly? I must be smoking something today.

Play Link (dead)

Via:  Google Groups | reddit

FYI: Google Removed Tasker From Google Play is a post from: Droid Life



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