Author: Clinton

Today’s Deal over at Amazon is a great one if you are needing to pick up an external power pack for your devices.  Today you can pick up the Anker PowerCore 10400 for $19.99, a savings of 60% off the regular $49 price tag.  As the name suggests, this power pack has a 10,400 mAh battery in it so you can easily charge most devices three times before having to recharge it.  It has two USB-A connectors so you can use it with really anything out there:  MicroUSB, USB-C (A to C cable) and an Apple Lightening cable.  It is designed to work with any device and get you powered up and going again.  It also is in a small package.  This pack is slightly larger than a deck of playing cards so you won’t have a big, bulky battery to carry around with you.

The HBO Go and HBO Now apps for Android have been updated and the changes are both visually and functionally.  The update is rolling out in the Play Store now and you are looking for version 10.0.  You’ll know that you have the update when you open the app and see a dramatically improved landing page in the app that has larger panels for the movies and shows available from the cable service.  Navigation in this new version is also improved and overall the performance of it has improved too.

Perhaps the biggest news in this update is a new auto-start of the next episode in a series.  In the old version of the app, you can to tap to start the next episode in a series in the app.  It works but if you are in proper binge watching mode, it is a bit annoying.

Building on the addition of over a dozen new banks earlier this month, Android Pay has added support for five more banks here in the United States.  The update brings the total 18 new banks & financial institutions adding support for the tap-to-pay service in April alone and adds to the over 150 new banks added in 2017.  As with the update earlier this month, this round of supporting banks are mostly credit unions and smaller institutions.  They include:

• Barksdale Federal Credit Union
• Florence Savings Bank
• J.S.C. Federal Credit Union
• O Bee Credit Union
• Security State Bank of Hibbing

If you are a customer or member of one of these credit unions or banks, you can now add your bank-backed credit and debit cards to Android Pay to use them where it is accepted.

After two years of behind the scenes work, the new Google Earth has been announced and released today.  The update brings vast improvements to the app for Chrome on the web and the Android app along with several new features.  The web-based version of the new Earth is now available while the Android app, version 9.0 for those keeping score at home, is rolling out now to the Play Store.  The app sports an all new icon along with the app improvements.

The banner new feature in this update is the new Voyager feature.  Teaming up with scientist, non-profit organizations and storytellers, this new feature allows you to have an interactive guided tour of a locale within Google Earth.  My personal favorite is The Hidden World of National Parks which takes you on a journey through these protected areas here in the United States and includes a combination of Street Views, videos and, of course, interactive maps.

While we are still a few weeks out from the Samsung Galaxy S8 being shipped and available, that doesn’t mean you can’t get the look of it on your phone today.  I’ve not received and posted on the wallpaper page 18 new wallpapers that will be shipping with the Galaxy S8.  This brings the total to 21 with the three that were released earlier.  All of these new wallpapers are in QHD so you can put them on any device or tablet and enjoy some of the great looks.

For those of you who are not interested, I’ve purposely posted them after the break so you don’t have to wait for them to load in your browser, your mobile or in the app.  Those who are interested, tap the headline and you will be able to see them and download them.

The Google Pixel XL, and its smaller sibling the Pixel, were released in October 2016.  At the time of their launch, they were lauded by many as the benchmark for other Android phones.  Samsung at the time was still dealing with the debacle that was the Galaxy Note7 while companies like Huawei had solid phones but less-than-stellar user experience in EMUI 4.0.  Even the younger kids on the block like OnePlus were touting their phones but from an overall experience, none of them matched the Pixel XL.

Fast forward six months.  Is the Pixel XL still a benchmark device?  In my opinion, absolutely.  It is from many perspectives:  Performance, photo quality, and perhaps most importantly, the upgrade experience.  If there is one thing that the Google Pixel lineup offers that virtually no others do, it is a pure, as Google intended it, Android experience.  Others are close – Motorola and OnePlus – but none are unadulterated Android.  When the Pixel was announced, the immediate response was “iPhone copycat” and, to be fair, it is a bit true.  If you hold a Pixel up to an iPhone 7, minus the Home button, they look strikingly similar on the front.  Is that a bad thing?  I don’t think so.  Apple, love them or hate them, has done a great job of selling iPhones these past few years and it is a proven look for a smartphone.

Unlike deep dive reviews of phones I’ve done here on the site, I’m not going to do that with the Pixel XL.  Instead, I’m going to highlight three key areas that I think make the phone a benchmark by which to measure other phones in the market.  You may feel different, and that’s okay.  We are all adults and can have a healthy debate on it.