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Google CEO Pichai appears to side with Apple in series of vague tweets on FBI encryption battle

Avatar for Chance Miller Feb 17 2016 - 6:54 pm PT
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It has been a wild 24 hours when it comes to smartphone encryption and user privacy versus national security. Last night, a U.S. judge ruled that Apple must help the FBI obtain data from a passcode-locked iPhone 5c used by one of the gunmen in the fatal San Bernardino shooting. Just hours later, Apple CEO Tim Cook responded by posting an open letter on Apple’s homepage saying that Apple would not comply with the court’s request. Now, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has chimed in on the matter, saying that he agrees with Cook.


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Deal: Buy a Moto X Pure Edition 64GB, get a free first gen. Moto 360 ($200 value)

Avatar for Stephen Hall Feb 17 2016 - 2:06 pm PT
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Moto X Pure Edition is one of the best phones that launched last year, and now you have even more reason to buy one. Just last month we gave it a “3 months later” second look (spoiler: we still think it’s great), but Motorola wants to make the deal even sweeter with a free Moto 360 Android Wear watch…
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9to5Toys Lunch Break: LG Watch Urbane (refurb) $155, Amazon 6-inch Fire HD $90, free Chromecast w/ Spotify Premium, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Feb 17 2016 - 10:53 am PT
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Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

TODAY’S CAN’T MISS DEALS:

LG Watch Urbane Android Wear smartwatch (refurb): $155 shipped (Reg. $200+) | A4C

Amazon’s 6-inch Fire HD Wi-Fi tablet: 8GB $70 or 16GB $90 shipped ($30 savings)

Spotify tempts new Premium subscribers with free Google Chromecast offer

Spigen micro USB cable 5-pack $7.99 Prime shipped (Reg. $10) w/ code KGCS66BA, USB car charger $3.99 Prime shipped (Reg. $9) w/ code AFFK33YM | Amazon

MORE NEW GEAR FROM TODAY:

Games/Apps: Mario Maker Wii U + game of choice, amiibo, more $309 ($390+ value), more

MORE DEALS STILL ALIVE:

Cambond 10-ft. Braided Nylon MFi Apple-Certified Lightning Cable $11 (Reg. $17), USB-C Cable, more

NEW PRODUCTS & MORE:

The Coleco Chameleon retro gaming console is sure to appeal to any Millennial

NERF’s Fall 2016 line includes battery-powered 70MPH blasters, Alien designs, more

Freedom 251 $4 smartphone reportedly rips its home screen icons straight from iOS

Avatar for Stephen Hall Feb 17 2016 - 9:11 am PT
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Update: A new hands-on video shows the $4 iPhone clone in all its glory (embedded below).

We told you earlier today about the insane $4 Freedom 251 phone, and now at least one publication has managed to get their hands on the device. Initial impressions aren’t great, and it looks like this phone — unsurprisingly — is just a mess of copyright infringement. Not unlike many other low-end offerings from dozens of overseas manufacturers, the phone pulls a lot of “inspiration” from the Cupertino company’s smashing successes…


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‘J’ in Alphabet is now ‘Jigsaw’, formerly Google Ideas

Avatar for Cam Bunton Feb 17 2016 - 3:04 am PT
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Google Ideas, Google’s think tank, has officially split off from the rest of the Google products to become its very own sub-division of Alphabet. J, in the company’s ever growing list of companies, now stands for ‘Jigsaw’. Jared Cohen is Jigsaw’s newly appointed president, having run as the Director of Google Ideas for some time. Eric Schmidt announced the move in a Medium post.


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9to5Toys Lunch Break: SanDisk Ultra 200GB microSD $90, ad-free Trivia Crack $0.10, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Feb 16 2016 - 10:48 am PT
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Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

TODAY’S CAN’T MISS DEALS:

SanDisk Ultra 200GB microSD for Android phones: $90 shipped (Reg. $100) | Amazon

The popular ad-free version of the Trivia Crack app for Android drops to just $0.10 (Reg. $3)

USB Power: KMASHI 20,000mAh Quick Charge 2.0 Battery $25 (Reg. $40), 10-ft. Braided MFi Lightning Cable $11, more

Daily Deals: D-Link AV2000 Gigabit Powerline Starter Kit $60, more

Aukey 2-in-1 Mini Clip-on SmartPhone Camera Lens Kit $9 Prime shipped (Reg. $15)

MORE NEW GEAR FROM TODAY:

Home: Hoover Upright Vac $79 (Reg. $130), MIU color-changing humidifier $30 (Reg. $40+), more

MORE DEALS STILL ALIVE:

Beats by Dr. Dre Solo 2 On-Ear Headphones now half off: $100 w/ free shipping (Reg. $200)

Beats by Dr. Dre Solo2 Wireless Headphones Active Collection: $230 (Reg. $300)

Beats Studio 2.0 Over-Ear headphones (multiple colors) $150 (Orig. $300)

NEW PRODUCTS & MORE:

The new Assault on Hoth LEGO Star Wars kit recreates every detail with flawless execution

The latest Monopoly goes digital with an ATM to manage properties & bank accounts

Glass: Enterprise Edition appears again in newly-granted Google patent [Gallery]

Avatar for Stephen Hall Feb 16 2016 - 8:27 am PT
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Earlier this year, we told you across several exclusive reports that new Glass hardware was in development, namely a variant of the device reworked with the enterprise in mind. Now, a couple months after getting our first look at the device in the flesh, a newly-granted Google patent provides us yet another look at the elusive remnant of a less than ideal Glass of the past…


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Sony has already discounted the hard-sell Xperia Z5 and Z5 Compact by $50+

Avatar for Stephen Hall Feb 16 2016 - 7:22 am PT
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Sony has had a lot of pricing problems with the Xperia Z5, Z5 Compact, and Z5 Premium. It seems like the company thought that its phones somehow stood out from the crowd (which they do in some ways), but it’s clear that the market just doesn’t see it. After reducing the phones’ prices before even launching them, Sony has now dropped them yet again by $50 and $60…


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Project Loon has successfully delivered video-capable speeds as it moves into carrier testing

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Feb 16 2016 - 5:25 am PT
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Google’s parent company Alphabet told a TED conference in Vancouver that its Project Loon Internet-delivery balloons had successfully delivered speeds of 15Mbps – fast enough for streaming video. It is preparing for carrier tests in Indonesia and elsewhere this year.

Alphabet X head Astro Teller said that the company tried a lot of unsuccessful balloon designs before finally finding one that was up to the job, reports Re/code.

There were shiny balloons and round balloons and balloons that looked like giant pillows. But eventually the company found a design that could be made cheaply and still navigate precisely. That balloon, Teller said, last year travelled around the world 19 times over 187 days last year.

Teller also shared a key part of the company’s approach to Alphabet X projects, along with details of two which the company has abandoned …


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Google’s latest Android ad is just as beautiful as it is simple [Video]

Avatar for Stephen Hall Feb 15 2016 - 3:11 pm PT
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Google has today uploaded its latest “Be together. Not the same.” ad to YouTube, and it’s a profound statement of how the company views its mobile platform, as well as how it views competitors. In the ad, dubbed “Monotune,” an unnamed pianist plays a tune in two versions: one using all the piano’s normal variety of keys, and the other on a special piano Google rigged to play the same note on all its keys…


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Opinion: Can the LG G5’s ‘modular’ features breathe new life into the smartphone market?

Avatar for Edoardo Maggio Feb 15 2016 - 1:35 pm PT
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When looking at the landscape of Android flagship smartphones, I rarely find it easy to pinpoint a single manufacturer that, in one way or another, has consistently been able to meaningfully innovate one year after the other. More often than not, the OEMs have a go at things that are then removed the following year, or that in some way fail to broadly introduce a proper trend, like for instance the first attempts at fingerprint sensors or stereoscopic cameras…


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Report: Alphabet seeking an R&D site for its self-driving cars near Ann Arbor, Michigan

Avatar for Stephen Hall Feb 15 2016 - 8:29 am PT
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According to a report over the weekend from Crain’s Detroit Business, Google/Alphabet is seeking an R&D site for its self-driving cars near Ann Arbor, Michigan. This report comes as FCC documents last month revealed that the Mountain View company was planning to bring the cars to four new cities. Kirkland, Washington officially became one of those locations two weeks ago, and as we noted, a location near Ann Arbor makes perfect sense to be one of the next bunch…
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BandPage, a startup that helps artists connect with fans, has been acquired by YouTube

Avatar for Stephen Hall Feb 12 2016 - 11:42 am PT
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BandPage, a startup whose goal is to make it easier for artists to connect with their fans, has today announced that it has been acquired by Google’s YouTube. “More than 500,000 musicians use BandPage to reach & build deeper relationships with music lovers everywhere,” the company says, and now it’s going on to build those relationships for YouTube instead…


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Latest update to Google’s Clock app lets you resize its home screen widgets

Avatar for Stephen Hall Feb 12 2016 - 9:29 am PT
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Google recently pushed out an update to its Clock app, and this one’s a game changer. You know the clock widget that lets you put analog and digital clocks on your home screen? Until now, dragging it around and resizing the widget simply changed its alignment. Now, when you resize the widget, the clocks themselves actually change size too…


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9to5Toys Lunch Break: Nest (2nd gen.) $170, Fitbit Charge $80, 5-Port USB hub $24, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Feb 11 2016 - 12:52 pm PT
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Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

TODAY’S CAN’T MISS DEALS:

Daily Deals: Nest 2nd Gen Learning Thermostat $170, Cable Modem $50, more

Fitbit Charge Wireless Activity & Sleep Band w/ OLED display: $80 shipped (Reg. $130)

Tronsmart Titan 5-Port USB Charger: $24 shipped w/ code USBTITAN (Reg. $38) | Amazon

Beats Studio 2.0 Over-Ear headphones: $150 shipped (Orig. $300)

Free MP3 downloads from hit artists like Adele, Ed Sheeran, 1D, more

Anker mega-review: PowerCore+, PowerDrive+, and PowerPort+ USB Quick Charge 2.0 & 3.0 gear is some of the best money can buy

MORE NEW GEAR FROM TODAY:

RAVPower USB-C/A Charger $38 (Reg. $56), uNu w/ Lightning Cable $12 (Reg. $20)

[tweet https://twitter.com/9to5toys/status/697817821871521792 align=’center’]

MORE DEALS STILL ALIVE:

Moto X Pure Edition 32GB Unlocked Smartphone: $375 shipped (Reg. $400+)

Amazon offers rare 25% discount on Kindle Unlimited subscriptions: 6-months $45 (Reg. $60), more

NEW PRODUCTS & MORE:

OMBEE’s modular standing desk turns any table into a upright workstation

The new Andy Warhol Where’s Waldo book is perfect for any Pop Art connoisseur

Google to comply more strictly with EU’s ‘right to be forgotten’ act

Avatar for Edoardo Maggio Feb 11 2016 - 4:01 am PT
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Following a series of pressures by European regulation and privacy authorities, Google will soon start removing unwanted results from all of its domains. Despite having complied with the EU’s rules regarding the so-called ‘right to be forgotten‘ act, the search giant has so far only removed the results within the specific country’s domain.


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Opinion: Samsung’s Galaxy S7 is shaping up to be a monster, but is that enough?

Avatar for Edoardo Maggio Feb 10 2016 - 1:06 pm PT
3 Comments

We are about two weeks away from this year’s Mobile World Congress, which means we are entering the first of the two big periods of the year where all the major OEMs refresh their lineup of high-end devices. On February 21st, just a day before MWC kicks off, Samsung is expected to announce both the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge.

Unlike last year, where the edge variant was simply a curved version of the 5.1-inch screened flat sibling, this year’s model should bump up the panel size to 5.5-inches, making it closer to the Galaxy S6 edge+, which made its way to the store shelves alongside the Note 5 later last September…


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9to5Toys Lunch Break: Moto X Pure Edition (unlocked) $375, LG Watch Urbane $180, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Feb 10 2016 - 9:48 am PT
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Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

TODAY’S CAN’T MISS DEALS:

Last Call Updates:

Acer 11.6-inch Chromebook 2.16GHz/ 2GB/ 16GB (Refurb): $85 shipped (Reg. $179)

Moto X Pure Edition 32GB Unlocked Smartphone: $375 shipped (Reg. $400+)

LG Watch Urbane Android Wear Smartwatch: $180 shipped (Reg. $259)

 

Amazon offers rare 25% discount on Kindle Unlimited subscriptions: 6-months $45 (Reg. $60), more

Apple 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro (Newest Version) 2.2GHz/16GB/256GB: $1,600 shipped (Reg. $1,999)

MORE NEW GEAR FROM TODAY:

Internal 2.5-inch Solid-State Drives: Samsung 850 EVO 1TB $280 (Reg. $300+), PNY 240GB $60 (Reg. $80)

MORE DEALS STILL ALIVE:

Luminid Touch light-up charging cable is ideal for plugging in at night: $10 (Orig. $20, CA Tax only)

A .edu email can get you the Sharp 32-inch 1080p HDTV for $150 shipped (Reg. $170)

Add 2TB of portable storage to your Mac, PC or Xbox One w/ this WD USB 3.0 Hard Drive for $73 (Reg. $90)

NEW PRODUCTS & MORE:

3Doodler Start reimagines the popular Kickstarter project with a focus on children

BearTek’s new Smart Gloves offer iPhone/Android controls + GoPro support

Latest U.S. smartphone market numbers show Apple in the lead, but Samsung is catching up

Avatar for Stephen Hall Feb 10 2016 - 8:32 am PT
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According to the latest U.S. smartphone market share numbers from Parks Associates, Apple is still well in the lead compared to competing manufacturers, holding a beefy 40% of the smartphone market. But the latest figures also show that Android OEMs are gaining ground on the dominant Cupertino, California-based iPhone maker. Now, Samsung holds around 31% of the market and LG is next in line with 10%…


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U.S. government says that Google’s self-driving car system will be treated like a normal driver

Avatar for Chance Miller Feb 9 2016 - 5:57 pm PT
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The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, has announced today that it will recognize Google’s self-driving car system as a legal driver. The announcement comes after Chris Urmson, the head of Google’s self-driving car project, petitioned that the government treat the initiative the same as it does normal driver cars.


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New Google/Alphabet patent describes putting self-driving delivery trucks on the road

Avatar for Stephen Hall Feb 9 2016 - 2:26 pm PT
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A new patent that surfaced on Tuesday (via Qz) suggests that Google/Alphabet could have plans to use its self-driving car technologies for a truck-based delivery service. The patent describes an “autonomous delivery platform” for an autonomous truck with lockers (not unlike an Amazon locker), driving to a customer’s location to deliver a package…
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LlabTooFeR contradicts oft-reliable Evleaks, says HTC One M10 will be 5.2-inch

Avatar for Stephen Hall Feb 9 2016 - 11:26 am PT
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A couple weeks ago, Evan Blass came out to unveil pretty much all of the upcoming HTC One M10’s specs, saying that — among other details — the phone is going to ship with a 5.1-inch display. Now, famed Android leaker LlabTooFeR has come out on Twitter to challenge Evan’s great track record. Apparently, the M10 is going to ship with a display not 5.1-inches in size, but 5.2-inches.


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