Google is late to the podcast party having only released their first official Podcast app just under 3 weeks ago. But despite its tardiness, Google hopes to win over the audio listening crowd with a sleek interface, a massive indexed library, and core integration with your smart home devices…
Looking back at Samsung’s return to form with the Note 8 last year, it’s clear that cost was a significant reason it was unable to receive our unhindered recommendation in our initial review.
In this week’s Friday 5, we’re going to take a look at why the Note 8 is now a more compelling option for the budget-conscious tech enthusiast even with the flagship field being a packed one.
There are obviously lots of phones on the market, but finding the one that suits your needs can be tough. Now that we’ve reviewed the OnePlus 6, let’s take a look at 5 reasons you should consider buying it.
Ahead of I/O we caught wind that there was a revamp of Google News incoming, and on stage at the event, the company officially revealed one of the biggest redesigns of the service we’ve seen in its 15-year history. Not only does it deliver a ton of new functionality, but it’s also an excellent example of the company’s new “Material Theme.” Let’s take a closer look…
After a developer preview earlier this year gave us a peek, Google officially gave us the first look at what it has planned for Android’s next release at I/O 2018. We’ve spent the past day digging through the release to find out what’s new, and we’ve discovered quite a few new things. So, let’s take a closer look.
Samsung’s yearly “S” flagship is the biggest phone of the year in the Android world. Last year, the company completely overhauled basically everything with the debut of the Galaxy S8. For 2018, however, we’re getting a very iterative update, to the point where it feels like the same phone all over again.
The easiest way to sum up the Galaxy S9 is that it takes the years of refinement we saw in the Galaxy S8, and fixes all of its problems. That said, is it worth paying the price for a flagship that isn’t all that different from the one before? Let’s take a closer look.
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Android P is full of lots and lots of small tweaks and redesigns that we’ve covered in-depth this week, but as the week closes out, let’s take a closer look at some of the biggest changes…
Google Home and various Assistant speakers are incredibly handy devices, and they offer a lot of incredibly cool features. Everyone has a favorite, so this week, I sat down with the rest of the team at 9to5Google to find out what their favorite features are…
We all get a ton of notifications every day, and a vast majority of them come from messaging apps. In the past year or so, Google has made strides in making it easier to reply to emails with “Smart Replies,” and made that same tech available to the likes of Android Messages. Now, after being announced a couple of weeks ago, “Reply” is bringing that same functionality to your notifications.
There are two phones that really stick out in my mind from last year. The Google Pixel because of its superb performance, excellent software, and incredible camera. The other is the Huawei Mate 9, a phone that caught me by surprise and easily became one of my favorite phones ever. Now, there are a lot more phones on the market that are worth your attention, so Huawei’s latest, the Mate 10 Pro, has some stiffer competition. Is it worth your hard-earned dollar, though? Let’s take a look.
There are dozens of truly wireless earbuds on the market, and some of them work great on Android. However, there aren’t many that truly rival Apple’s AirPods. To that end, a lot of people have ended up using AirPods with Android devices, albeit with limited functionality.
Third-party launchers are an awesome part of Android, especially because you can customize them in a lot of ways. However, it’s often the case that official launchers still work better in some ways.
The Pixel Launcher Google installs on its Pixel devices is easily one of the best in terms of usability, but it lacks a lot of features people want. Now, a developer has added quite a few features to Google’s launcher…
CES usually isn’t the biggest of deals for the Google world, but for 2018, Google had a bigger presence than almost anyone else at the show. Left and right there were Google Assistant representatives, and the highlight of CES was the company’s outdoor booth. Once it was cleaned up from the rain, we got a chance to check it out in person, and it was basically the most Googley thing ever.
Biometric security has been a core part of our smartphones for the past several years, and fingerprint sensors have only been getting better over the years. Now, though, as a war mounts up against smartphone bezels, fingerprint sensors are losing out. That is, until they end up under the display, as Synaptics is doing with its new Clear ID sensor.
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We’ve seen a lot of Google Assistant powered speakers hit the market in the past few months, and even more made their debut at CES 2018. However, a new Assistant form factor entirely also made its debut this week: smart displays.
Virtual Reality has never really impressed me all that much, but that’s mainly because my experiences have primarily been restricted to smartphone powered headsets. I think Google’s Daydream VR platform is solid, but rarely end up using it because of what’s required. Now, Daydream is finally coming to standalone hardware, and I’m finally excited…
Sony’s Xperia devices are easily forgotten in the US market, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re excellent smartphones. However, in the States, they’ve often had one major flaw, and that’s been the disabled fingerprint sensor.
Google has been trying to get Assistant in just about every part of your digital life, and its latest expansion has been to headphones. Following the Bose Qc35 II’s intro to Assistant Built-in headphones, Google debuted the Pixel Buds at its October 4th event. Now we’ve got a pair on hand, so let’s see what’s in the box and how to set them up.
Back in 2014, the original Moto X quickly became my favorite phone on the market for its uniquely customizable design and clean, yet intuitive software. The Moto Maker service allowed buyers to choose the phone’s colors (and build materials on later models), add a printed signature to the back, and even include a message on the bootscreen.
The new Moto X4 does none of that, and while ditching Moto Maker is definitely a bummer for longtime fans like myself, that doesn’t stop the X4 from being one of the best values around.
LG has a funny habit of announcing new phones way ahead of their release, then losing excitement from the would-be buyers who get tired of waiting and decide to buy something else. That’s a shame, because LG has really started to offer some phenomenal flagship devices.
That couldn’t be more true of the V30, which we’ve already had for months in the forms of both retail and preview units, but the phone only just launched in the US over the past week, and you know what? The V30 is the best phone LG has ever made, and I’d even say it’s one of the best Android phones of the year — with some caveats, of course.
The Alcatel Idol 3 was one of the first phones I ever reviewed, and it was so impressive that I’ve since associated the Idol brand with high performance and low-cost. The budget market has gotten more aggressive since then, however, with excellent devices like the Moto G5 offering near-stock Android software at similarly low prices … so can the Idol 5 still compete?
When our initial reviews of the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL went live earlier this week, it’d be generous to say that some people were unhappy with our findings. Both Ben and I criticized our respective review units for some of the aspects of their hardware, but most of our complaints were reasonably subjective — and regardless, a phone’s hardware only tells half the story.
In this week’s Friday 5, we’re covering five of the many reasons why you should still consider picking up the Pixel 2 or Pixel 2 XL.
It’s been a while now, but a few years back, the Moto X was my favorite line of smartphones. I loved the close-to-stock software, and having the ability to choose whatever colors and materials my phone was made of; it really gave off the feeling of a phone tailor-made for you, and only you.
After a two-year hiatus, Motorola is finally refreshing its enthusiast brand with the Moto X4, that ditches my beloved Moto Maker but brings a clean and familiar software experience and a much more modern design.
When ZTE unveiled its new foldable phone, the Axon M, yesterday at Duggal Greenhouse, it made some pretty grandiose claims, saying that it was “creating a new smartphone category.”
That didn’t seem entirely true to us, as we’ve seen a few similar phones in the past like the Kyocera Echo, but this latest attempt seems to be the most refined take yet on a niche design.