Author: Clinton

Today’s Deal is on the Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact, the company’s 4.6″ Android phone that was launched in September of last year.  The XZ1 Compact is the follow up to the popular Xperia X Compact from 2016 and has some mighty impressive specs for its small size.  Right now on Amazon you can pick up the phone in Midnight Blue for $505, a savings of $94 off the normal price.  If blue isn’t your thing, you can get it in White Silver for a little more, $539.  If  Twilight Pink is your color, you can pick up the XZ1 Compact in that color for just $499.

The  Xperia XZ1 Compact has a 4.6″ full HD display (1920 x 1080) and is powered by the Snapdragon 835 SoC and coupled with the Adreno 540 GPU.  It has 4GB of RAM and has 32GB of storage.  That storage can be expanded up to an additional 256GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.

As for cameras, the Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact follows up last year’s X Compact well.  It has a 19MP rear camera that uses Sony’s SteadyShot for image stabilization.  The front facing camera is an 8MP shooter that has 120° wide-angle to capture the most in your selfies.

One of the most common questions that I get asked, both here on the site, as well as by friends and family has to do with the hardware and software I use every day.  It is a fair question and one that people ask out of both curiosity as well as doing a “stare and compare” with their own tech.

I’ve always said that you need to use the right technology that works for you.  That may be an Android Phone or an iPhone.  That may be a Windows PC or a MacBook Pro.  Whatever the technology, it has to get the job done for you and for me, this list of hardware and software, works for me.  I encourage readers to look into what I use to see if it fits their needs but at the end of the day, it is a personal use case as to whether it will or will not.

I’ve broken this article into two parts.  The first is the primary hardware that I use each day with the second focused on the apps that I use on them.  The apps could be on my phone, my tablet or my Chromebook and I’ll note that as I go along.  As for hardware, I’ll cover what I use every day as well as other devices I use from time-to-time.  You’ll note that very little of what I have is new and that’s on purpose.  I tend not to buy the latest and greatest because I, like most of you reading this, are looking for value in my purchases or I use things for a long time before replacing them.

As we begin 2018, another phone is getting updated to Android Oreo.  The ASUS ZenFone 4 is that phone, with the announcement of the release of the Oreo update coming last Friday.  The update, build V15.0405.1711.76 for those keeping score at home, will start rolling out as an OTA update this week to owners.

The update brings all of the normal features of Android Oreo to the ZenFone 4 along with the December 2017 Android Security Update patch.  While an exact size of the update wasn’t disclosed in the announcement, you can expect it to come in at or just over 1GB based on other phones getting their Oreo update.  It is an update you will certainly want to download connected to WiFi and you will need at least 80% battery life remaining in order to install it.

One of the great features of a Chromebook is the ability to save a site you regularly visit to your Shelf for quick access.  It is a feature that is exclusive to Chrome OS and not something you can do on the Chrome browser for Windows or MacOS – at least not yet.

If you are new to Chrome OS and a Chromebook, adding a site to your Shelf is very easy to do and in this How To, I’ll show you were to find the somewhat buried menu to do so.

First, navigate to the site that you want to add to your Shelf in the browser.  Now go to the overflow menu (the three vertical dots) and go down to More Tools.  There you will see the second menu option, Add to shelf.

The Microsoft Store, the Redmond company’s online retail site, has had a quite but important shift on their phone offerings.  For the first time, the store is now selling more Android based devices than Windows 10.  It is a move that isn’t overly shocking given that Microsoft has more-or-less put Windows 10 Mobile into maintenance mode.

Two Windows 10 Mobile phones have been removed from the store which caused the shift to Android.  The Acer Liquid Jade Primo and Acer Liquid M330 were removed from the store yesterday, leaving only the HP Elite x3 and Alcatel IDOL 4S as offerings for Windows 10 Mobile devices.  Meanwhile, the store now lists the Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy Note 8, and the new Razer Phone as options for shoppers.

After releasing the Android Oreo based OxygenOS 5.0 build last week for the OnePlus 3 and 3T, OnePlus as rolled out a minor update to address some bugs that cropped up in that build along with a few new features.  The new build is 5.0.1 and, as is always the case with OnePlus, they are slow rolling the update out to users.

The bug fixes are a key part of this update to OxygenOS as well as some performance improvements.  This 5.0.1 build also has the December 2017 Android Security Update patch.  According to the change log, here is the full rundown of features & improvements:

• Added support for aptX HD
• Added Wi-Fi hotspot device manager
• Added “adaptive mode” screen calibration
• Updated Android security patch to December
• General bug fixes and stability improvements

If you are already running the 5.0 build, the OTA incremental update is just shy of 145MB in size.