Androidifying

Even though the diminutive Echo Dot and larger Echo are the best gateways for Amazon’s Alexa personal assistant, both speakers must be plugged into the wall to work. Not so with the Amazon Tap, which saw a $45 discount for a limited time. The discount brings the Tap down to $85, which is not the steepest discount we have seen on Amazon’s portable speaker. Still, this is the only Amazon speaker that is not chained to an outlet and features a rechargeable battery. That battery should be enough for up to nine hours of continuous playback. Editor's Pick 10 best skills and apps for Alexa! Alexa is one of the most popular and powerful personal assistants. Amazon is a little weird with it, though. You can only get the full experience on select Android phones, Amazon Fire devices, and Amazon … Thanks to an update it received a while back, the Tap also features a hands-free mode that lets you bring up and respond to Alexa. With your voice, you can control your music, smar

Research has found Android Auto to be less distracting than native infotainment systems. In testing, users were able to perform tasks quicker when using Android Auto. However, Android Auto can still create unsafe distraction levels. Google’s vehicle infotainment system Android Auto is less distracting to drivers than built-in infotainment systems, according to research from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety . The research found that drivers are able to make calls 24 percent faster and program navigation 31 percent faster on average when using Android Auto or Apple’s CarPlay. The ability to perform tasks quickly is crucial for the safe use of infotainment systems. The AAA says that drivers who take their eyes off the road for more than two seconds are at double the risk of a crash. Distracted driving causes 390,000 injuries and 3,500 deaths every year, according to the AAA. The results were reached after researchers compared the visual and mental demand placed on drivers

Huawei announced it will launch a gaming-centric smartphone by the end of 2018. The company also confirmed it will launch a foldable smartphone in 2019. Huawei would face stiff competition from Razer, Asus, and Samsung. With gaming phones already a reality and foldable phones getting closer than ever before, Huawei announced it wants to be part of both conversations with its own gaming and foldable phones. According to GadgetMatch , Huawei consumer business president Jim Xu confirmed that the company will launch a gaming-centric smartphone in the second half of 2018. The gaming phone will take advantage of the company’s GPU Turbo technology, though not much else was said about the device. Announced in early June, GPU Turbo theoretically allows Huawei phones to play games without as much of the battery penalty as they typically see. The technology also increases graphics processing efficiency, reduces SoC power consumption, offers HDR gaming, and improves frame rates relati

An Android developer posted screenshots of a Material redesign of the Google Home app. The biggest changes are the addition of a bottom menu bar, and a total revamp of the devices page. We don’t know when this redesign will roll out to everyone. The Google Home app has gone through a lot of transformations over the years. It was originally the Google Cast app which itself was originally the Chromecast app. Now, it looks like a redesign with Material Design elements is coming to Google Home. First spotted by “Quinny899” over at XDA Developers , the redesign’s most notable change is the removal of the “hamburger” icon in the top left corner and the addition of the bottom menu bar. Check out the new designs below: XDA Developers And here’s what the original design looks like, in case you don’t use your Google Home app every day as I do: XDA Developers The other major redesign is on the devices page, which now looks wholly different from its current layout. It seems like

When it comes to putting tech on your wrist, you’ve got a lot of options to choose from. The modern smartwatch landscape can be a bit difficult to engage since it’s a nexus of style and functionality, so we thought we’d take a look at the pros and cons of three consumer favorites and see how they stack up against each other. By now, the TicWatch E, Apple Watch, and Fitbit Versa have been in play long enough for users to get a good handle on their feel and practicality. Choosing the smartwatch that’s best for you takes a little bit more digging than picking out an analog watch, so let’s dive into the deets. For this Battle Royale of savvy wearables, we’ve taken a more day-to-day approach rather than cracking open the hood of each device to check the nuts and bolts. It’s all about how these devices slide into your budget and routine here, but we’ve provided links to more technical content if you want the nerdy nitty gritty before you make your call. Contender #1: TicWatch E TicWatc

In May of 2011 the Chromebook line was first announced, immediately finding itself a target of mixed reception. Many felt a computer that was “limited to the web” would ultimately struggle to find a following, and yet despite this the Chromebooks market has exploded in recent years, especially in the education market. While Chromebooks are still considered a niche part of the PC industry, there a growing number of people that are looking for an affordable, virus-free computing experience that serves as their gateway to the web. The fact that Chrome OS only has a number of true offline apps simply doesn’t matter to this type of web-centric user. In the past couple of years, the usefulness of Chromebooks has expanded, as many of them now can run Android apps from the Google Play Store. Read more : All the Chromebooks that support Android apps In the early days, there were only a limited number of Chromebooks to choose from, but in 2018 there are dozens of models to pick from, includi

Amazon Editor's Pick What is a Smart Home — and why should you want one? What is a smart home? That seemingly simple question has many different answers, depending on who you ask. In short, a "smart home" is a residence equipped with a number of devices that automate tasks … It’s hard to buy just one smart home device . Once you get started, you’ll want to keep going. Soon enough you’ll have a ton of devices that are smart on their own but feel a little chaotic together. That’s where a good smart home hub comes in to keep things connected and manageable from a single place. At DGIT we’ve already talked about smart hubs a lot, but we thought it was time to make a guide for our Android Authority audience as well. Which smart home hub is best for you depends on the devices you use and how you’ll want to interact with it. Let’s dive in. Samsung SmartThings Samsung’s SmartThings is one of the best smart hubs, and it’s quickly become one of the most popular