On a busy announcement day from CES 2016 in Las Vegas, Samsung introduced more than one new computing device. Also making a quiet appearance is the Chrome OS-powered Chromebook 3.
Samsung has been a long time player in the Chromebook market, indeed, this is their third version of their simply named Chromebook line. With pricing and availability not yet released, we’re expecting an official release sometime in early 2016.
Considering the minimal fanfare of this announcement, it should come as little surprise that the Chromebook 3 includes just a minimum of new specs and features, starting with a familiar 11.
15 best Android games available right now
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Today, the official end-of-life of Westworld for Android begins. Users who open the app starting now will be greeted with a message that states that “the park is entering a new phase and will no longer be taking applications for new employees.” Users are instructed that they have until April 16, 2019, to spend any in-game currency before losing it forever.
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Google Lens is coming to the Chrome browser soon. You’ll be able to search and highlight text, images, and videos within a page. Search results from using Lens will open in the same tab so you don’t need to jump around. On your Android smartphone, Google Lens can be a powerful tool. You can use it with your camera’s viewfinder and identify real-world objects. You can use it to search for text within an image, and then even copy-and-paste that text into other apps.
One of the best reasons to get a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is for downloading files. Using a VPN, you should be able to access files from networks and countries that would otherwise be blocked. For people who use torrent links to download files with protocols like BitTorrent, access to a VPN is really important. By its very nature, torrents require the use of a number of online servers, each of which shares a small part of a larger file.
Motorola just announced a wild modular smartphone project that hopes to change the way we buy and use mobile devices.
Motorola’s initiative, called Project Ara, is very similar to Phonebloks, the modular smartphone concept launched in early September by Dutch designer Dave Hakkens. Motorola said it’d been working on Ara for over a year, and that it teamed up with Phonebloks to popularize the concept.
Moto wants to create devices that are made of an endoskeleton, which is similar to the motherboard of a PC, and various specialized modules that users can install and replace themselves.
During the Verizon media event in which the new Droid models were introduced, Motorola officials mentioned for the first time ever the company’s own system-on-chip architecture, the eight-core X8 Mobile Computing System that will be found inside all the new Droids.
The interesting thing is that the new SoC will have a regular chip for “regular” smartphone duties, but also dedicated new chips that will be in charge of specific features including language processing and contextual computing.
HTC hasn’t put much focus on the mid-range smartphone space in a few years, but that changes today. What has perhaps been one of the most-leaked smartphones of the year is finally here—HTC has officially announced the HTC U11 Life.
This new budget-friendly phone is a U-series device through and through. It has the same iconic HTC design as the U Ultra and U11, while also offering up solid under-the-hood specs and a familiar software experience.
Keen followers of the new Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P smartphones may have spotted references to a ‘double twist’ camera launching feature lately. Qualcomm recently mentioned the feature in a blog post about the new phones, but it turns out that the feature was dropped.
Originally, the phone camera was supposed to have a launch shortcut that could be activated by twisting the device around twice using your wrist. The shortcut was originally to be powered by Qualcomm’s Context Core, which has since been renamed to the Android Sensor Hub.
Cheap phones have long been in existence, but Verizon’s newest addition to its prepaid family is bringing a lot more to the table than most cheap phones. The Moto E4 not only dips below the $100 threshold, it’s currently coming in at just $69.99. That’s an incredible discount considering this is a new phone we’re talking about here, and while occasionally you get what you pay for, sometimes you get a whole lot more.
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Blu has quietly listed the Blu Vivo XL4 on Amazon. The phone packs plenty of features for a low-end device, such as dual cameras and a 4,000mAh battery. Blu’s new device will set you back $150, but it’s not shipping just yet. Blu might be one of the more polarizing smartphone brands in the U.S., but it’s hard to argue that they don’t offer some bang for your buck devices.