iFixIt Gives HTC One M9 a Low Score for Repairability

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.

HTC One M9 Teardown – iFixIt

Chrome App Tutorial: ARC Welder – Running Android Apps on Windows PC’s

There have been several ways you can run Android apps on Macs and PC’s, but now using the ARC Welder Chrome app, you can load an APK and run it through your Chrome browser just like on a Chromebook. Here’s everything you need to know!

ARC Welder in The Chrome App Store: http://goo.gl/9ykdOI
APK Mirror: http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/

Amazon Now Carries Cricket Wireless BYOD SIM Card Kit

cricket wireless logoIf 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.

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Reddit Wins for Most Mysterious April Fools Day Prank?

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…

reddit april fools the button game arg mystery

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…

Should You Run From ‘It Follows’? – A Movie We Hope You Don’t Miss!

I loves me a good scary movie! Producer Marie and I went to a late showing of indie sweetheart ‘It Follows’, and I had to share my thoughts as soon as I got home. It’s an indie horror sweetheart, but does it live up to the hype? Let’s chat about some spooooooooky things…

Microsoft Surface 3 (not Pro) Revealed! Everything You Need to Know!

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!

More info on the Surface 3.

Google FINALLY Combines Google+ Photos and Drive Cloud Storage

It’s been a perplexing division. Uploading photos online to services like Google+, you get a bucket of cloud storage to use. Using a service like Drive, you get a bucket of cloud storage to use. Why have these been separate buckets?

Google is finally addressing and rectifying this division. Announced via the Google Drive Blog, now you can open your Drive app on Android and iOS, or jump into a web browser, where you will now find a new menu option for Photos. This also means you’ll have better tools for organizing your photos in folders.

After relying on services like OneDrive and DropBox, it seemed such a simple solution to organize files online, and now Google is finally joining the club.

You can read Google’s full press release below.

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App Review: Broadcast Live Video with Periscope

The video broadcasting wars are heating up. Where we used to only have Google’s Hangouts, now we have services tied to Twitter for real time live streaming video and chat. Let’s take a quick look at Periscope, currently only available for iOS

Periscope on the iTunes App Store