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Amazon has a $50 Google Play Store digital gift card on sale for $45 when you use the coupon code GOOGLE5 at checkout. This is $5 off of the normal price, saving you a few bucks this holiday season.
From 9to5Toys:
Amazon is having a big Gold Box on much of its storage but the standout is the SanDisk Ultra 200GB MicroSD with 100MB/second transfer rate for $62.99 shipped. That’s 25% off and the lowest price we’ve seen on this card which gets impressive 4.5/5 star reviews from Amazon customers. Check out the whole sale for more including the 256GB monster.
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Google today announced the 30 games it would be showcasing at this year’s Indie Games Festival held in San Francisco CA on September 24th 2016.
Emceeing the event will be veteran game designer and professor Richard Lemarchand who was lead designer at Crystal Dynamics and Naughty Dog, and is now Associate Chair and Associate Professor at the University of Southern California, School of Cinematic Arts, Interactive Media and Games Division.
Fans will also have the opportunity to play and to vote for their favorite games at the festival, along with an authoritative panel of judges from Google Play and the game industry. They include:
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From Electrek:
Chris Evans was until recently the head of Google’s Project Zero, a team of hackers employed full-time by Google to find zero-day vulnerabilities on not only their own products, but any software that could affect Google’s users. Today, Evans announced that he will soon join Tesla Motors to lead its security team.
It appears that a series of promo videos have leaked which feature HTC’s upcoming M9 smartphone. The videos were originally published by @Upleaks which appear to be legitimate and straight from the marketing department over at HTC…
Microsoft has a big day today at its Windows 10 press event, where in part it is expected to unveil a brand new web browser called “Spartan” as part of its latest operating system. ZDNet reports that Spartan will not simply be another Internet Explorer release, but rather a lightweight web browser that looks and functions more like Chrome, Firefox and Safari.
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Google notified publishers on Wednesday that AdSense Direct will be closing on February 10th, just days after the one-year anniversary of the direct ad sales service. There will no longer be support for any campaigns created with the feature, while access to the Direct Campaigns page will be removed. Outstanding account balances will be settled when the service shuts down.
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Google today released a set of improvements to the Google Maps APIs for developers looking to use transit directions in their Android apps. Specifically, users can now receive fare info where available and make use of the same mode and routing options as the Google Maps app.
While rumors that Samsung was in talks to acquire BlackBerry for as much as $7.5 billion ultimately proved to be untrue, the two smartphone makers remain interested in working with one another. “We want to work with BlackBerry and develop this partnership, not acquire the company,” J.K. Shin, head of Samsung’s mobile phone business, told The Wall Street Journal.
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It appears that Google could soon release its promised redesigned Calendar app for iPhone after first making the announcement and releasing the app for Android last November. The Next Web this morning shared a handful of leaked screenshots that provide a first look at Google Calendar for iOS, including info cards that indicate Gmail, Photos and Maps integration will be key features of the app.
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Bloomberg on Monday reported that Taiwanese handset maker HTC will unveil its flagship One M9 smartphone and first smartwatch in March. HTC is widely expected to announce the new products at Mobile World Congress as part of its press event scheduled for March 1st.
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The Tech Block on Thursday shared an email exchange between Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller and the website’s founder Abdel Ibrahim that pokes fun at Google Glass for its perception of being an unstylish device. The email from 2012 surfaced just days after Google announced that it will be ending its Glass Explorer program on Monday as it works on a new version under the leadership of Tony Faddell.
After being sent a picture of actor Steve Martin wearing obnoxious looking glasses in the film “The Jerk,” mocking Google co-founder Sergey Brin wearing Glass, Schiller responds to Ibrahim saying “that is very funny” and that he “can’t believe they think anyone (normal) will ever wear these things. It reminds me of the push to market video goggles a few years back.”
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Following some Nexus 6 users complaining about the smartphone’s back cover coming unglued, The Times of India reports that Motorola is aware of at least a few devices affected by the problem. The handset maker tweeted earlier this week that it has received at least a few complaints about the defect, but fortunately appears to be willing to help affected customers replace their devices.
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Robogaia Industries is using Kickstarter to seek funding for a product called Kalt, an infrared sensor that plugs into a smartphone or tablet’s headphone jack and turns the device into a precise, non-contact thermometer. The Cleveland-based company is looking to raise $10,000 over the next three weeks to cover development and manufacturing costs.
The palm-sized Kalt sensor reads the infrared energy that an object omits and converts it into readable temperatures in Fahrenheit, Celsius or Kelvin. Simply point Kalt towards the object and it will automatically show the temperature on the companion app for Android and iOS. The sensor is powered by the device it is plugged into and requires no batteries.
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Sprint announced on Friday that it will be expanding its smartphone leasing program to cover the LG G3 and Galaxy Note 4. Beginning today, new and existing individual and business customers can purchase the LG G3 for $15 per month or the Galaxy Note 4 for $25 per month with zero down payments through the Sprint Lease program.
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Citing “highly credible sources,” SamMobile reports that Samsung’s next-generation Galaxy S6 will have a touch-based fingerprint scanner for improved usage. Samsung has equipped several of its devices with fingerprint scanners in the past, dating back to the flagship Galaxy S5, but each has used swipe-based technology that often resulted in identification errors.
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If you have ever wanted to experience the Northern Lights without traveling to countries such as Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden, look no further than Google Maps. Starting today, it is now possible for people from all over the world to explore the Aurora Borealis through Street View on Google Maps.
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T-Mobile continues to shake up the wireless industry by introducing a number of affordable plans and options as part of its ongoing Un-carrier initiative. Today, the carrier announced that it is expanding choices for prepaid customers with new Simply Prepaid plans for as little as $40 per month. The new plans will be available for new and existing customers starting January 25th.
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Google is getting serious about its self-driving car initiative.
Reuters reports on Wednesday that Google has entered discussions with several top automative manufacturers about self-driving cars, including General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen and Daimler, the German company behind Mercedes-Benz. The company has also partnered with a number of auto suppliers to develop and refine self-driving systems and components, such as Continental AG, Robert Bosch, LG Electronics and Nvidia.
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Chinese handset maker Oppo on Wednesday officially launched its R1C smartphone in China for ¥2499 (around $400). The handset has an ultra-thin 6.85mm design backed by sapphire glass, making it one of the thinnest smartphones with 4X optical zoom ever. The R1C will be available for purchase through the Oppo website beginning January 20 at 10:00 AM local time in China.
Oppo’s hardware specifications include a 5-inch 720p display, Qualcomm 1.5GHz Snapdragon 615 64-bit octa-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB internal storage with up to 128GB of expandable storage, 2,420 mAh battery, 4G LTE connectivity with dual SIM card slots, and 13-megapixel rear-facing camera with Sony’s Exmor RS IMX214 sensor. The device runs Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box.
The Oppo R1C joins the company’s existing devices, including the N1, N3, R5, Find 5 and Find 7.
The latest numbers from app metrics tracking firm AppFigures reveal that Google’s Play Store topped Apple’s App Store based on total number of apps and developers for the first time in 2014. Google moved ahead of Apple with 1.43 million Android apps in the Play Store, compared to 1.21 million on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
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Following an invite-only rollout last June, Google Domains on Tuesday became available as a public beta in the United States. Google Domains is a domain name service, similar to GoDaddy or NameCheap, that enables users to search for, register and manage domain names. Alongside the public beta, Google has announced a number of new features to the service.
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