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Showing posts from February, 2017

10 best travel apps for Android

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Mobile phones are important tools for travelers. You can look up information, book hotels, book flights, find pit stops, and find out all kinds of information in the palm of your hand. More and more people are depending on their mobile phones for travel. Frankly, it’s easier that way. We’d like to help make your next trip easier too. Here are the best travel apps for Android! In the interest of variety, we do not cover any GPS or navigation apps here. You can find those linked just below if you need one! Here are some more apps that could help you while traveling!   10 best Android budget apps for money management 5 days ago   10 best GPS app and navigation app options for Android April 14, 2016 Airbnb Price: Free DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY Airbnb is one of the best independent travel apps. It also has some of the most varied options out there. For those who don't know, Airbnb allows people to rent out spare rooms to random travelers. It boasts 2.5 million

Niantic teases Pokémon Go updates, along with Ingress revamp and more

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Developer Niantic Labs recently launched a major new update for its AR mobile game Pokémon Go, and it apparently has some big future plans for that title, as well as some other projects. See also: How to hatch eggs in Pokemon Go October 13, 2016 The last Pokémon Go update added over 80 new creatures to catch to the game. In an address held during the 2017 Mobile World Congress trade show today, Niantic CEO John Hanke said players can expect three major new updates for Pokémon Go in 2017. There are no details yet on what will be contained in these updates, although there are rumors Niantic might be working on adding features like creature trading and Player vs. Player battles. Hanke took no questions from the audience during his MWC 2017 address. However, he did reveal a few bits of interesting trivia about Pokémon Go. Fortune reports that, according to Hanke, players have captured a total of 88 billion Pokemon monsters so far. Those same folks have played the game wit

How I went from a starving artist in a call center to a work-from-home coder

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The AAPicks team writes about things we think you’ll like, and we may see a share of revenue from any purchases made through affiliate links. I graduated college in 2009, right in the aftermath of the 2008 housing crisis. Jobs didn’t exist, especially not for someone with zero experience holding a limp Fine Arts degree . My life quickly stalled, but this is how I pulled myself out of a tailspin thanks, for the most part, to Python . I had slid through my undergrad with just enough scholarships to keep me (mostly) out of debt. I had some college loan credit that helped me survive that first summer without a job. My main medium is linoleum printing, so I threw myself into my art. I thought I had been clever. See, painters have a problem. Once they’re finished with a piece, they can only sell it once . Sure, they can pay to have prints made, but that’s extra expense and your final product – no matter how you spin it – is basically a cheap poster . Linoleum printing is differen

Google’s YouTube TV is a streaming cable TV service for $35 a month

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Google is making another big move for its YouTube service. The company has announced its plans to launch YouTube TV in the US, an internet-based television service that will offer access to local broadcast networks like ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and the CW, along with a bunch of cable networks, for $35 a month. The service will first launch later this year in the largest TV markets in the US, and will expand to more metro areas in the future. See also: YouTube viewers check out over 1 billion hours of videos daily, but has it reached its peak? 3 hours ago In addition to the broadcast networks, YouTube TV will also offer access to over 40 cable channels. They will include entertainment channels like USA, FX, and SyFy, sports networks like ESPN and Fox Sports 1, and news channels like Fox News and MSNBC. The service will also offer access to the YouTube Originals shows that are available for subscribers to its YouTube Red service. YouTube TV will also offer access to the Showtime

BMW backtracks on Android Auto, says it won’t support it after all

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In November 2015, during BMW’s quarterly conference call, its CEO Harald Krüger said that the company would add support for Google’s Android Auto  OS, as well as its main rival, Apple’s CarPlay, in its future vehicles. Well, it looks like BMW has had second thoughts about those plans. In a new interview, a BMW exec has confirmed that it won’t be adding Android Auto support for its cars after all. See also: Android Auto: everything you need to know December 11, 2016 In a chat with TechCrunch during the 2017 Mobile World Congress trade show, Dieter May, BMW’s senior vice president of Digital Services and Business Models, he stated that while Apple CarPlay will continue to be supported, Android Auto will not. The reason May gave is that BMW wanted to be able to control the customer interface inside its upcoming cars, and because of that, the company felt that didn’t include room for an Android Auto screen. BMW is creating its own ConnectedDrive platform, a cloud-based se

Netflix to support HDR video streaming on smartphones, starting with LG G6

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As more smartphones begin to support higher resolution displays, we will also see a rise in video and streaming services designed to use those bigger screens. This week, as part of an address during the 2017 Mobile World Congress trade show, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has confirmed the service will soon support HDR video streaming for smartphones, starting with the upcoming  LG G6 . See also: So what’s up with the LG G6’s 18:9 screen? 1 day ago In addition, Netflix will soon roll out new video encodes for mobile devices, which will help folks with poor internet connections watch the shows and movies they love. These new video encodes will allow smartphone owners to stream up to 30 hours of Netflix video per month if their data plan has a small 2GB cap. However, it’s the promise of higher quality HDR video streaming on smartphones that may get many potential owners of the LG G6, and possibly the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S8 , very excited. We have already talked about how t

Hands on with the Kodak Ektra

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Kodak is synonymous with photography but isn’t the first name that come to mind when thinking about Android smartphones. Kodak is hoping to combine the best of both worlds with their first smartphone offering. While the device was announced last October and has been on sale in some European markets since December, this is the first time we got to spend some time with it. We go hands on with the Kodak Ektra ! Being a Kodak device, the key element of this phone is definitely  going to be the camera. The 21 MP rear camera supports 4K video and HDR, and come with optical image stabilization. It is instantly obvious that this is a phone meant for all the photography enthusiasts out there, a fact that is made even more evident when looking at the interface of the built-in camera application. The interface is similar to what you’d find with any digital camera, and comes with the ability to easily switch between a variety of modes, including portrait, sport, bokeh, night, and more. The

This new Android One phone includes a fingerprint sensor, front camera flash

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Google continues to support its budget-priced Android One smartphone hardware platform with a new model, the General Mobile GM6. The phone will likely have a low price, but will still have some features found normally on higher-end handsets. See also: Is launching an Android One phone in the US a good idea? January 18, 2017 The phone itself will ship with Android 7.0 Nougat , and like all Android One devices the General Mobile GM6 is supposed to get regular operating system updates straight from Google. Inside, the 5.0-inch phone will have a MediaTek MT6737T processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of on-board storage, a 13MP rear camera and an 8MP front-facing camera, with a selfie flash. The phone will also have a 3000mAh battery and will even have a fingerprint sensor on its front home button. While there’s no word on pricing or a release date yet, the whole idea of the Android One program is to offer phones with a stock Android experience at a cheap price to developing countries

Gionee A1 and A1 Plus hands on: big batteries and high megapixels galore

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While most of our time at MWC 2017 has been focused on flagships from LG , Huawei , and Sony , we’re not forgetting about the little guys either. During our time on the floor, we had the chance to check out two new phones from the brand Gionee. So what do they bring to the table? Let’s jump right in and find out. Gionee A1 Plus Let’s start with the specs. The Gionee A1 and A1 Plus both pack full HD displays, with the former coming in at 5.5-inches and the latter at 6. They both have MediaTek Helios chipsets, with the A1 powered by a P10 and the A1 Plus giving us a Helio P25.The A1 and A1 Plus also have 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, support for microSD, and Android 7.0 Nougat onboard. However, where the phones really stand out is in the camera and battery departments. Gionee A1 Plus On A1 there’s a rear 13MP camera and a 16MP front facer. The Gionee A1 Plus takes things a step further with a 13MP and 5MP dual configuration on the back and a whopping 20MP front facing camera. Both

YouTube viewers check out over 1 billion hours of videos daily, but has it reached its peak?

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YouTube is still the single biggest source for people seeking online video content, and has been for a long time now, despite many attempts by competitors over the years to dethrone it from the top spot. This week, Google announced the service has reached a brand new milestone. It stated that over 1 billion (yep, BILLION) hours of content are viewed on YouTube every single day. See also: 10 best video streaming apps and video streaming services for Android December 4, 2016 No matter how you spin it, the fact that people all over the world are spending that much time watching videos on YouTube is a huge achievement. Indeed, Google continues to expand the reach of YouTube to more devices and platforms, as it become the number one way for people to watch any kind of video content, period. It’s also been turned into a real career for many people who create content for YouTube. Some creators now have millions or even tens of millions of channel subscribers. The rise of these

Hands on with the Nubia N1 Lite

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While the flagship launches at MWC  are understandably the stars of the show, the lesser known OEMs take advantage of the general fanfare surrounding the event to showcase their offerings as well. Nubia just took the wraps off their latest entry-level smartphone, which, like a lot of other affordable smartphone out there, is a “Lite” iteration of one of their more premium devices. We go hands on and give you a quick look at the Nubia N1 Lite ! Despite what this smartphone is called, the Nubia N1 Lite doesn’t really share a whole lot with its higher-end namesake, apart from the size of the display. In terms of design, while the latter features a full metal unibody construction, the N1 Lite comes with a primarily plastic build, with a soft touch finish on the back that allows for a lot of grip. The camera has been moved from the top left corner to a more central location, with the fingerprint scanner right below it, for a more symmetrical design. Even the signature capacitive red c