BLU has launched yet another of its affordable Android smartphones, the Vivo 8. This 5.5-inch phone has a couple of interesting hardware features, including a pretty big battery and a 16 MP front-facing selfie camera.
BLU Life Max Review
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The 4,010 mAh battery in the BLU Vivo 8 is supposed to make this phone last up to two days on a single charge. Also, the battery should take less than 90 minutes to fully charge up.
Update, July 18, 2018 (2:12PM EST): You can now download Life is Strange for your Android device. The game weighs in at just over 1GB, so make sure you download the game over WiFi.
The first episode is free, while the second episode sells for $0.99. The remaining three episodes cost $4.99 each, though you can get every episode as a bundle for $8.99.
You can download the game at the link below.
TL;DR
A user found that v0.115.2 of Pokémon Go stated that he was using an unauthorized device despite not being rooted. Further testing by multiple users found that the game uses the storage permission to snoop through the device to find evidence of root. Simply having empty files with the same name as rooting tools was enough to block Pokémon Go from running. When Pokémon Go was first released, players found multiple ways to cheat within the game.
It feels like ages since we last saw a modular smartphone from a major manufacturer. Motorola was perhaps the most prominent proponent of the concept, but it quietly ditched the Moto Mod system of add-ons a couple of years ago.
Would you put your money where your mouth is and buy a modular phone, be it a current device or something new? That’s the topic of our featured poll today. So make your voice heard by voting below and leaving a comment if you’ve got more to share.
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
Over the past two years, there have been a lot of changes for OnePlus. Co-founder Carl Pei left to start his own company called Nothing. The Nord line expanded to include several super-budget OnePlus phones for the US that were essentially re-branded Oppo phones. And, earlier this year, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau announced that OnePlus would “further integrate” with its larger BBK stablemate, Oppo.
Android Authority and other tech outlets recently had a chance to sit down with Lau and hear about what’s happening for OnePlus in the future.
Tonight LG officially took the wraps off its latest hero device, the LG V10. That wasn’t the only announcement that LG had for us though, as they have also revealed their latest Android Wear smartwatch, the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition.
The new LG Watch Urbane sports a similar design to the original, albeit with a more refined look this time around. Cosmetics aside, the biggest difference is under the hood, as the Urbane 2 is the first Android Wear device to feature cellular connectivity.
Update, February 12, 2019 (12:59 PM ET): If you are currently in the One UI beta program on your Samsung Galaxy Note 8, you should soon see a new update come your way (via SamMobile). The Android 9 Pie update will be the fourth beta update for the Note 8.
The update weighs 578MB and carries version number N950FXXU5ZSB2. The changelog is fairly small, with the biggest update being a fix for a problem with editing hotspot names.
Google sure did announce a lot of new things yesterday, but it was slightly interesting to see the entire audience at the I/O Keynote yesterday enthusiastically cheering for one of the few things that weren’t entirely surprising: an update to Google Earth (now at version 7.0) that brings 3D mapping capabilities, as well as an update to Google Maps that brings the ability to download maps for offline use.Google had already announced these features a few weeks ago at a Maps-centric event, but it’s always nice to see promised stuff actually becoming available for us, the end-users.
It’s the end of an era for Windows on smartphones. Today is the final day Microsoft will officially support Windows Phone 8.1, which was made generally available to consumers on July 15, 2014. The end of the OS also signals what most people have accepted for several years. There are only two mobile operating systems now — Android and iOS.
Some of you might be saying, “What about Windows 10 Mobile?
Eric Zeman / Android Authority
Plastic was used extensively in smartphone design just a few years ago but has since been usurped by glass on many modern devices. Now that phones regularly cross the $1,000 barrier, most buyers have grown used to expecting the premium feel of glass on these expensive devices. Now, this isn’t quite the case with the Samsung Galaxy Note 20.
While the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra does use an extensive amount of glass in its design, the $1,000 Galaxy Note 20 uses glasstic, a supposedly glass-like plastic that Samsung is hoping offers a better look and feel than traditional plastic.