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Showing posts from August, 2016

Snapchat gets more features, and custom geofilters are easier to make now

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Snapchat for Android is getting some fun formatting features (gotta love some alliteration!). Now you can make your caption italic, bold, and underlined simply by press and holding on the text, and if you’re taking a video Snap, you can press and hold to pin a big caption anywhere in your video. It’s no exaggeration to say that Snapchat brought substantial changes to the social media world. Everyone wants to do what Snapchat does: Instagram has Stories , and Facebook is more video-centric than ever . Hell, it even introduced its own app called Lifestage , which is essentially Snapchat for – and only for – teens. See also: Snapchat is buying a company you’ve never heard of for $110 million 9 So it’s not surprising that the folks behind Snapchat are keeping themselves busy to bring more and more features to the app. With the most recent update, Snapchat users can now press and hold on a caption to make it italic, bold, and underlined as shown below. Not only that, if you’re send

Chinese regulators appear to verify alleged Lenovo Vibe P2’s rumored specs

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The suspect still hasn’t been fromally ID’d, but a handset rumored to be the Lenovo Vibe P2 was just patted down by regulators in China, and it appears to be carrying a robust 5,000 mAh battery. TENAA might have even confirmed the name of the phone when the Chinese regulatory agency posted specs and a codename “P2c72” for a device we last saw creeping through Geekbench in late July. The translated listing indicates that the suspected Lenovo Vibe P2 will include a 5.5-inch display with a full HD resolution. It’ll come with a card slot to add more space to the phone, which comes in 32GB and 64GB versions. See also: Alleged Lenovo Vibe P2 shows up in benchmarks 8 The P2 will sport a 13 MP primary and 5 MP secondary camera. The TENAA listing indicates that the phone will have an eight-core processor, though the Geekbench profile went a little further and reported that the P2 will employ a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625. The 5,000 mAh battery isn’t new to the Vibe series, as the Vibe P1

Snapseed 2.9 update adds new editing tools and RAW support for iOS

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It wasn’t too long ago that Google’s own photo editing app, Snapseed , saw a revision that added welcomed text customization and image resizing features . The software still isn’t the most robust mobile image editor, but we can’t deny that Snapseed’s nifty interface and ease of use is pleasurable for light tweaks. Developers aren’t done expanding the app’s capabilities, and today, we have another incremental update to version 2.9. See also: 15 best Photo Editor Apps for Android 115 A handful of enhancements are added. A brand new Face tool lets the user close in on faces and enrich the quality of skin or eyes. Another new one, called Perspective, can straighten lines to correct for perspective effect in the original image. And White Balance gives fine color balance adjustment using an eye dropper tool. You’ll also now be able to set a JPG compression rate preference and save lossless (PNG) when exporting. One other highlight in the revision is full support for the RAW format on i

Justice Monsters V is a Final Fantasy pinball game

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With little ado and small fanfair, Square Enix has launched a new pinball game into the Google Play Store: Justice Monsters V. Unlike most of the developer’s offerings, this is by no means a fantasy RPG. Instead you’ll find all the rocketing gizmo action of classic arcade staples that have kept players plugging quarters into machines for decades. If you’re not intimately familiar with the series, then you might be wondering what the hell Justice Monsters Five has to do with Square Enix’s biggest intellectual property, the final Fantasy Series. Well, in Final Fantasy XV,  Justice Monsters is a mini-game couched inside the normal questing, giving players a break from the high drama of the story proper. See also: Mobius Final Fantasy arrives to the west, on Google Play now 7 Square Enix has effectively ported this mini game over to the mobile platform, letting you rock your pinball wizarding skills on the go. The company seems incapable of shaking their RPG roots, so although this

Inside Google Play: These are the top trending apps and games in August 2016

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With so many new app and game announcements every month, it can be a little difficult keeping track of them all. Application developers are constantly trying to create ‘The Next Big Thing’, but a lot of the time the finished products get lost in the congested app space. If you’ve been wondering what are the hottest apps and games of the month, we’ve got you covered. Here are the apps that are trending on Google Play in August 2016: Prisma : Turn a selfie into a portrait or make a snapshot look like a still life painting. ESPN Fantasy Football : Android users are getting psyched for the NFL season with ESPN’s Fantasy Football app. Canvas : The one-stop-shop for back-to-school planning is filled with tools for course assignments, scheduling assistance, and so much more that has this app trending in the Google Play store. Google Duo : Google Duo, the fast and reliable way to video chat with friends near and far. Since launching, Duo was downloaded more than 5M times in the Play St

Google OnHub gets Philips Hue support on its first birthday

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Google is never one to shy away from new hardware. Over the years they have introduced various items that have caused a mighty splash in the market. From Android smartphones to simple and cheap game changers like Chromecast, they have had quite a few hits. A year ago, they introduced OnHub . OnHub is a router that is both easy to use, and definitely easy on the eyes. The best part? OnHub software is supported via Google, meaning that the devices get better with every software update. This is similar to the many updates Chromebooks get. See also: Setup shared devices in Google OnHub guest network – Android customization Today Google is celebrating the first birthday of their router. To commemorate this, they have formed a partnership with Philips Lighting. This means that you can now control your Philips Hue lights directly from your router. This can be done by simply typing “On.Here” in any browser on a connected device. Apart from Philips Hue, here are 10 awesome things OnHub

Nest developers conscripted to work on Google Home

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Previous reports indicated that Google was moving all of the developers at its Nest subsidiary and assigning them to work on a unified platform for the Internet of Things, according to Fortune.  However, we’re now seeing that Nest won’t be gutted quite as dramatically as that early report claimed. Only some of the development team will be transitioning to work for Google Home, so Nest isn’t down and out yet. The reassigned Nest developers will work on Google Home under Google’s senior vice president for Android, Hiroshi Lockheimer. Although some have been making jabs about an empty Nest, it would seem that a number of developers will stay on at the smart home company that Google bought for $3.2 billion two years ago. It’s unclear how many developers will leave nest or how many will be staying behind. See also: Nest CEO: “Nest is not for sale” 6 That unified IoT platform Google is allegedly working on would be a major shift in the company’s smart home strategy, which was recently

GSM Unlocked Moto Z and Moto Z Play coming in October

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The Moto Z and Moto Z Play are on their way, but so far most of the focus has been on the Droid variants of these devices. That “Droid” branding is Verizon exclusive, but just a couple of weeks after their launch on Verizon, unlocked variants of these devices will be on the way. These impressive modular devices started out as Verizon exclusives, with the the Moto Play variant going for $17 per month, landing you at $408 over the course of two years. The Moto Z is $26 per month, and you’ll end up paying $624 over the same time period. However, starting September 15, unlocked versions will be open for pre-order, meaning non-Verizon subscribers can get into the Moto Z action. See also: Moto Z Play Droid review 3 The unlocked versions are slightly pricier at $449.99 for the Moto Z Play and $699.99 for the Moto Z, and they will ship in October. Since they are GSM unlocked, they won’t work on Verizon, but they will work on networks like AT&T and T-Mobile. What are your thoughts

Moto Z Play Droid review

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Check it out at Verizon LG was the first out of the gate this year to introduce us to the concept of a modular smartphone. The company’s implementation with the G5 was what many agreed to be underwhelming, subsequently evident by the poor sales of the phone. Many believed that the modular idea was a dead end, barely able to mold and blossom into something tangible, but that was until Lenovo introduced a better implementation with its Moto Z and Moto Z Force – and boy did it change all of our perception! One of the delightful surprises about the new phones were the various Moto Mod accessories that brought versatility to the phones, dishing up this new concept of “expanded functionality.” Given that many companies are on board with their own unique Moto Mods, which range from battery packs, to projectors, and much more, it means that future devices in this new line will probably harness them as well. Why make another variant of the same accessory to accommodate a new phone, right?