Just in time for summer, Pebble has launched version 3.12 of their smartwatch’s software, and the spotlight is on the expansion of health-tracking services. Previously, your Pebble device has been able to count steps and monitor your sleep, but with the new tools in this update you can get a much more comprehensive perspective of your fitness life and better metrics to determine if you are meeting your goals.
Pebble Health, the fitness focused smartphone app that accompanies your smartwatch, now shows a larger picture of your achievements.
Unfortunately it’s these expensive models that grab all the attention, headlines, and bragging rights when showing off to your friends. Most of us probably look at these models first because we think we should, anything less is a cut down experience, but it doesn’t have to be that way. This handy guide is here to help you figure out what type of handset you should spend your cash on.
Premium tier flagships Every company has its flagship products, but on an industry scale there are few handsets really worthy of this title.
Samsung’s new flagships come with an option for an always-on home button. For those of you who were worried about burn-in problems, you’ll be happy to know that the button actually moves around slightly to prevent any unintended image retention.
Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus review: Almost to Infinity
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This year’s Galaxy S flagships – Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus – may not have the iconic physical home button on the front, but they do have a pressure sensitive software home key.
Google Play Books 3.4.5 brings a change that typography aficionados will appreciate: a new default typeface called Literata.
Literata, which was officially introduced yesterday on Twitter, is an elegant serif typeface that Google commissioned from type foundry Type-Together in April 2014, designed to replace Droid Serif as the default typeface of Play Books. (For a discussion about the difference between font and typeface, read this Fast Co Design article.)
Literate delivers, according to Type-Together, “outstanding reading experience on a whole range of devices and high resolution screens.
CyanogenMod 12 is based on Android 5.0.1 Lollipop, which is Google’s latest build of the Android OS. If you are unfamiliar with the title, Nightlies refer to a ‘beta’ stream of the custom ROM, which will include some bugs and omit a few features and hardware support.
Cyanogen Inc. say they are about 85% done the official stable release of CyanogenMod 12 M. For now, CM12 Nightlies are available for about 30 devices, including the Nexus 4, 6, 7 (2013 WiFi), OnePlus One, LG G3 and the HTC One (M7) and (M8).
Several months ago, the popular Plex media server added support for controlling it with your voice via Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant. Today, the Android version of Plex started rolling out an update, and it includes support for using another digital companion, Google Assistant, if you use a Android TV device. Basically, you can now use your voice to search and launch for videos and TV shows with Google Assistant on Android TV-based televisions, along with set-top boxes like the NVIDIA Shield TV.
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
USB-C ports on smartphones are used for a variety of reasons, with the two main uses being charging and connecting to a PC (for data transfer or tinkering). These ports can be used for much more though.
We thought it would be a good idea to ask Android Authority readers whether they use their phones’ USB-C port for more than just charging and connecting to a PC.
A group of former Samsung engineers is putting their heads together to create new a device called Glamos. It uses LIDAR technology to turn just about any screen into a fully interactive touchscreen.
Well, it functions as a touchscreen of sorts, but you don’t actually have to touch anything to interact with it. Instead, Glamos detects motion and sends a signal to the device telling it what to do.
This creates a situation where a user can control a laptop, smart TV, smartphone, or tablet without actually needing to put their hands on anything but the air within a 180-degree area.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini was finally released in the U.S. without much fanfare. If you missed the opportunity of grabbing the S3 Mini at a steal a few days back, don’t feel too bummed out, as you can now purchase the white variant of the phone from a third-party seller on Amazon.
Granted, there’s no price cut to be found on the online retailer’s website. This means you’ll have to cough up $420 for the mini version of the Galaxy S3.
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0While both the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 and Galaxy Tab A 9.7 do have their positives, with the great battery life a highlight, the low resolution displays and slower performance make it difficult to justify their relatively high price points when compared to the competition. Table of contents
After staying away from the tablet market for almost a year, Samsung introduced a new budget-friendly tablet series back in March.