Let's Talk Tech
Was it my favorite Android Wear Watch? Nope. But it still represents one of the most stylish entries into the world of wearable tech, and now you can get it for a LOT less.
Originally launched at $249, you can now find it for $165 on Google Play before tax and shipping, or $179 on Amazon for you Prime folks. Not a bad piece of kit at around half the price of the Apple Watch. You can catch our full review below.
Recently, gadget insurance company SquareTrade made some waves showing off a stress test of the Galaxy S6 Edge, claiming it had bending issues similar to the iPhone 6 Plus, and that it wasn’t as “bend resistant” as the HTC One M9.
Samsung today replied with a video showing how they test the durability of their phones, comparing it to the amount of force necessary to snap five pencils.
While a three point test is certainly dramatic, what’s concerned me about phone durability, since the release of the iPhone 6, has been deformation over time, especially uber-thin phones utilizing aluminum shells.
It’s all well and good that a phone can bounce back from one brief instance of extreme force, but how does it hold up to months of lower pressure “influence” exerted by pockets and the contours of the human body. In that regard, having a glass back plate might actually be a benefit, and we’ve seen (anecdotally) that the Gorilla Glass 4 shell seems pretty durable.
Does this response from Samsung assuage your concerns over claims of another “Bendgate”? Drop us a comment, and you can read Samsung’s full response below.
Continue reading “Samsung Responds to SquareTrade “Bendgate” Galaxy S6 Edge Video”
Continuing their trend of delivering updates to services via app updates, HTC has unleashed Sense 7 for the M7 and the M8.
One of the more anticipated new features from the M9, Sense Home provides easy tools to customize and skin the Sense skin overlay on HTC handsets. They’re also building a community around sharing wallpapers and skins.
Sense is also more predictive now and, like launcher Aviate, it will try to offer up apps and services you might want to use in that moment, while also using your location for restaurant suggestions.
It’s also a nice consideration that this functionality is coming not only to last year’s M8, but is running pretty snappily on my two year old M7.
Amazon has been notoriously slow in bringing their Prime Video service to Android. Cross platform compatibility was a key factor in making the Kindle service the most widely used way to consume e-books, but Amazon seemed happy to let Netflix, Hulu, and Google Play run away with the Android streaming video market.
Recently they caved on allowing Android phones to stream video, and now, the most recent update for the Prime Video app includes support for Android tablets.
It’s not all roses however. Getting the service up and running still requires a multi-app strategy. The fastest way we got it running?
Install the old Amazon App Store APK manually.Congratulations, you’ve set up Prime Instant Video on your Android tablet! From here on out, you should be able to continue using the service by using your browser to search for videos to watch.
I don’t see Amazon Prime Video unseating Netflix, Google Play, and Hulu on Android devices any time soon…
iFixIt is home to some of the most detailed (and humorous) gadget dis-assembly posts on the internet. Diving into the minutiae of what it takes to tear down, repair, and reconstruct our precious phones, tablets, and laptops.
The challenge for the iFixIt team was to see if HTC had improved upon the build of the M8 in being difficult to repair. It would seem that the hardware similarities between the M8 and M9 are more than just skin deep, as the M9 receives a “2 out of 10”, making it one of the more difficult phones to repair on the market today.
Highlights include a difficult to replace screen and a battery glued to the rear wall of the phone.
If you want to see what’s actually inside your magic glowing rectangle, I would highly recommend checking out one of their tear down guides.
If you’re looking to save a little cash on your cell plan by shopping an MVNO, you can now pick up a Cricket Wireless SIM card kit for $9.99 on Amazon.
The kit comes with a Nano SIM and adapters for phones that use Mini and Micro SIM cards. Just about any unlocked GSM device should work as Cricket is powered by AT&T’s network. It’s the beauty of a Bring Your Own Device program, you don’t have to buy a new phone when you switch networks.
Plans start at $35 a month for unlimited talk, text, and “slow data” with 2.5GB of LTE “fast data”. This pricing includes taxes and fees.
You can grab a Cricket kit here, and read their full press release below.
Continue reading “Amazon Now Carries Cricket Wireless BYOD SIM Card Kit”
We all love a good internet mystery or alternate reality game, and Reddit cooked up a simple, but compelling gag which at the time of this post, is still on-going. All it takes to “play” is a simple press of a button…
From the Reddit Blog:
reddit,
When this post is 10 minutes old, a button and timer will become active at /r/thebutton. The timer will count down from 60 seconds. If the button is pressed the timer will reset to 60 seconds and continue counting down. Only users logged into accounts created before 2015-04-01 can press the button.
You may only press the button once.
We can’t tell you what to do from here on out. The choice is yours.
Cryptic. Right now, Reddit users are clicking quickly, with over 100,000 people already having pushed the button. The timer rarely drops below 58 seconds. I’ll be saving my press for later.
What happens when the timer runs out? We’ll just have to wait and see…
Microsoft quietly took the wraps off their new Surface tablet, and it looks like a winner! Here’s the full scoop on their new consumer focused Windows tablet!