Author: Clinton

Google Photos version 2.13 is rolling out right now in the Google Play Store and with it comes a new video stabilization feature.  The new feature allows you to post-process videos you have shot and uploaded to the service to give your videos a more stable look.  This, my friends, is Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence at its best.  Using ML and AI, Photos is analyzing your video and essentially correcting the video at the pixel level.  It is astonish that it can sort it out and even more astonishing that you have this in the app.  A free app.

The new feature is located on the edit menu when you select a video from your Google Photos library.  Once you have the video open, you will see a new stabilize button.  Tap it and Photos will start processing the video and smoothing it out.

Good news for those of you who have the Samsung Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge on either AT&T or Sprint.  Both carriers have released the Android Nougat update for the devices on their respective networks, following up after the general release of the update by Samsung last month.  Principally, the updates for both carriers are the same.  Both bring all of the features of Nougat to the devices and both updates also bring device specific UX updates too.

The updates, as expected, are hefty.  They weigh in at over a 1GB on both carriers, regardless of variant, so you will certainly want to make sure that you are connected to Wi-Fi when you download the update.  Once it is downloaded, expect the update to take 15-20 minutes on either of the 2015 flagship devices.  After a reboot, you will be on Nougat.  If you need a refresher on what Android Nougat will bring to your phone, check out my review from last year.

Google Text-to-speech is not an app you probably do a lot of tweaking on but it is an important foundational app for Android.  The app essentially serves as an engine for other apps so they can read text on the screen aloud to you.  For example, if you are in Google Play Books and want the app to read aloud a book, this is the app that makes the magic happen.  Or Google Translate to translate text.  So when an update comes out for it, it is important to get it.  The latest update to Google Text-to-speech is rolling out now and it is version 3.11.12 for those keeping score at home.  It comes with several new tweaks for users as well as new languages.

First, let’s cover the languages.  In this update, support for Bangla (India, Czech, Khmer, Napali, Sinhala and Ukrainian have been added to the engine.  Along with this, Google has added intonation control over several more voices that are in the engine and have made general improvements on many of the voices in the app.  Google did not specifically call out which languages were impacted by these latter two.

Today’s Deal is actually on a lot of things today.  Amazon has a wide range of SanDisk storage solutions as part of their Gold Box Deal that can save you up to 35% off.  All of the items on sale can be found here and some of them are a great deal.  For example, you can pick up a 128GB MicroSD card for just $32.99 and a 64GB card for $21.99.  One of my personal favorites, the SanDisk Ultra Fit USB Flash Drive, is down to $14.29 for the 64GB model.  The sale has really any form factor that you could need, from MicroSD cards all the way up to SSDs and external hard drives.

Amazon every quarter or two does one of these huge sales and it typically involves SanDisk when it comes to storage.  I often highlight them in Today’s Deal because I one, use them personally, and two, I know they are reliable with great performance.  The great thing is, even if you aren’t an Amazon Prime customer, you can still get these great prices.  Prime just gives you the free shipping.

The sale is today only and at the time of this post, all of the products on the Gold Box page were in stock.  There is typically no limit to how many you can buy but things to tend to go out of stock the further we get into the day.  For all the SanDisk products in Today’s Deal, head over to Amazon to check out the details.

The steady and fast climb of LineageOS continues with the latest update bringing several new fixes and support for new devices.  Based on the latest statistics from the company, over 1.3 million installs of the platform have now been installed on a wide range of Android devices.  Just last month they hit the 1 million mark to give you perspective on the growth.  Now the company has released another new update and have added a handful of additional devices that are officially supported.

From a feature perspective, there are two new apps and an improvement on one.  First, there is a new gallery app with easier navigation between timeline, albums and videos view and the app now supports full screen video playback.  Second, there is a new FAB (Floating Action Button) in the Recorder app and you can also choose when the recording actually starts.  As for improvements, the LineageOS Updater has been improved and should no longer break downloads or corrupt them in certain situations.

I’ve been reviewing mobile devices for the better part of 15 years now.  I’m often asked, “What is the best phone to get?”  My answer is always the same:  The phone that works best for you.  For some, that’s iPhones.  For some, that’s Android.  But when it comes to any phone, rarely do you find one that ticks all the boxes when it comes to performance, a solid camera, good battery life and user experience.  I’ve found one of these rare phones in the Huawei P10.  It’s not perfect, but it is close and this 5.1″ phone is once to seriously consider.

I’ve had the opportunity over the past few weeks to use the Huawei P10 as my daily driver and it has not disappointed.  It has the power to get me through the day and the performance to do anything I need it to do – from email, to streaming music and video, to playing a game or two.  It is a device that I have no reservation in recommending.  Yes there are some things to get use to with it, most notably the multi-function fingerprint scanner, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll really unlock this phone.