Category: News

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Google I/O 2015 – Google Updates Photos App with Unlimited Free Storage

At their developer conference today Google unveiled a new Photos app focused on improving search and organization.

Without having to tag or manually identify faces, the new Photos app will group photos for users automatically based on people in the photos and locations pictures were taken.

Editing tools will be built in to the experience, and users can produce videos out of the content shot from their phones easily.

New sharing features will deliver full resolution pics to anyone regardless if they use Google Photos or Google Plus with no restrictions on who or where you can share those photos.

Most exciting is the support on the back end for these cloud sync services. Starting today Google Photos will enable unlimited storage for free on iOS, Android, and on the web. Pictures are saved at up to 16MP quality and video will be saved at 1080p.

This makes Drive and photo sync on Android a lot more valuable and makes Google Photos more competitive against OneDrive and Flickr photo sync.

You can see Google’s teaser vid, and read their full press release below!

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Microsoft Lumia 640XL Budget Phablet “Coming Soon” to AT&T

Screenshot (148)We’ve already spent some time with the international version of Microsoft’s newest budget phablet, but if you’re looking for a big screen at little price here in the States, AT&T just delivered a “Coming Soon” page for the Lumia 640XL.

Now official word yet on pricing or availability, but you can catch our full review, camera review, and speaker test below!

Lumia 640XL Camera Review
Lumia 640XL Speaker Test

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LG G4 Pre-Order on AT&T Starts May 29th

If you were shopping the LG G4 on AT&T, pre-sale starts tomorrow.

Big Blue lands the G4 with either plastic or their exclusive black leather rear plate. The upgrade to premium leather will cost you though. The plastic G4 will cost $199 on two year contract or $630 outright. The leather G4 will bump you up to $239.99 on contract or $669 off contract.

The only special advertised with the G4 is a $0.99 sale on the LG G Pad F 8.0 which is normally $150 on two year agreement. Though if you buy the G4 through AT&T you can still take advantage of LG’s killer free memory card and battery promotion.

We have a full round up of G4 reviews and comparisons, and you can catch AT&T’s press release below.

LG G4 Camera Review
LG G4 Speaker Test
G4 vs G Flex 2
G4 vs G3
G4 vs Galaxy S6

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Smartwatch and Projector Phone Concepts Showcased at Lenovo Tech World

lenovo-new-logo-2015-bgLenovo wrapped up their Tech World conference by talking about the future and showing off some concept products.

As we throw around buzz words like “Internet of Things” the tech industry is actually facing it’s next major hurdle in how we can better integrate data and services into people’s daily lives. Products like smartwatches are another step in that conversation.

smartwatch concept front2Lenovo’s Magic View concept takes the standard smartwatch face we all understand (which looks a lot like the display found on the Moto360), and adds a second virtual screen. That small rectangular patch below the watch face is a virtual privacy display which can project content up to 20 times larger than the watch face.

concept phone with projectionProjection was a hot topic for phones too. Smart Cast is the world’s first laser projector in a mobile phone. Not only will it display the contents of your screen onto a flat surface, but it will also allow you to interact with the UI through the projection.

Lastly, Lenovo announced a partnership with Microsoft to bring exclusive features to Cortana on Lenovo PC’s. REACHit will provide cloud search and sync access to Cortana for popular services like DropBox and Google Drive. Files in the cloud and on various PC’s, Tablets, and Phones will all be accessible to users regardless of where they are or which device they’re using.

As Lenovo continues their lead in the PC space, most of the talk at Tech World focused on a future where services and information are a bit more fluid than the traditional PC experience. Buying Motorola was certainly a step in expanding their influence in the mobile market, and now “Internet of Things” is looking like the next arena they want to play in.

You can see more from the conference on Lenovo’s Youtube channel.

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Lenovo Announces Z41/Z51 and Ideapad 100 “Simple” Laptops

Z51_White

As Lenovo continues their lead as the number one PC manufacturer, the company took the wraps off of two new lines of laptops available next month.

Lenovo Z41/51

Z51_White

Billed as the “Ultimate multimedia workstation for music and movie lovers”, these new Z laptops are focused on home entertainment. Full HD displays will be powered by Intel processors (up to a Core i7) and there will be options for discreet AMD graphics. Dolby is on tap for their surround sound technology, and the Z51 will also come with Intel’s RealSense 3D front facing camera. The RealSense camera can be used for gaming, capturing 3D photos, or scanning objects for 3D printing.

The 14″ Z41 and 15″ Z51 will start at $499. A Z51 with 3D camera and 8GB of RAM will sell for $599

Lenovo Ideapad 100

Ideapad_100_14_Black-8-OutlookGetting down to basics, this new Ideapad is focused on delivering a streamlined experience at a low price.

Ideapad_100_14_Black-11-VideoIn 14 and 15 inch flavors, Ideapad 100 borrows from recent tablet success using an Intel BayTrail low power processor, and can be configured with up to 500GB of storage. The slim notebook will start at $249 when it’s released later next month.

You can catch Lenovo’s full press release below.

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Microsoft’s Cortana Coming to Android and iOS

cortanaAs part of their roll out for Windows 10, Microsoft will be making their services as accessible as possible to people on all operating systems. They’ll be delivering music apps, for example, which will tie into OneDrive for people to stream their entire music collection anywhere they have data.

Most interesting however is the recent reveal that their digital assistant Cortana will also be going cross platform. Syncing any phone with a Windows 10 PC will setup their companion app which provides deep integration with services on the phone.

Similar to Google Now and Siri, Cortana can look for relevant information in emails and calendar entries, and can respond to voice commands. She’s become popular for having a bit more personality than offerings from Google or Apple.

It’s an interesting move from Microsoft as they shift away from making popular services exclusive to their ecosystem, and opens the door to broad adoption from people on every platform. You can catch more info in their announcement video below.

(via Microsoft)

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Does the iPhone Need a Back Button? Halo Back Kickstarter Project Raises $100,000.

halo back kickstarter project iphone back buttonI think the iPhone’s home button is a bit over-worked. Single press, double press, long press, music functionality, and an accessibility custom triple press. At some point some other hardware control might help this poor beleaguered button.

Kickstarter project Halo Back is looking to aid the home button with a special screen protector that will add a bottom mounted back button. As the iPhone has gotten larger, reaching up to the top of the screen for those apps that have software back buttons isn’t quite as convenient as it used to be.

It would seem a number of people agree with Halo Back as the project has already raised over $100,000, over five times their initial goal, and there’s still sixteen days left to back the project.

You can watch their pitch video below, or head directly to their project page for more info.

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6Tag 5.0 Brings Video Uploading to Instagram for Windows Phone

wp_ss_20150522_0001Instagram continues to ignore some of the best smartphone cameras on the market by letting their BETA app on Windows Phone continue to rot. With no updates for well over a year, we can hope they’re working on a Windows 10 app (at least porting over their iOS app), but in the meantime we have Windows Phone developer extraordinaire Rudy Huyn.

His third party Instagram client for Windows Phones 6Tag has long been the gold standard for sharing higher quality pics on Microsoft’s OS. Now his latest update brings video uploading to the table, alongside a few new photo filters.

6Tag has always been able to shoot video, but it was unable to upload previously shot video. A new video editing menu in 6Tag replicates that functionality from Instagram’s app on iOS and Android.

This feature is brand spanking new, and Rudy has already announced a minor bug fix has been submitted to Microsoft, but in the meantime, we’ve had no complaints using it on a Lumia Icon.

6Tag in the Windows Phone App Store

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