Author: Clinton

Today’s Deal over at Amazon is on the solid performing BLU VIVO 5R phone from BLU.  This 5.5″ phone with 3GB of RM and 32GB of storage is down to $179 if you pick it up in black and grey.  While BLU has always been known for their budget friendly phones, over the past year the company has made great strides in the quality and performance that you get for that budget price.  The VIVO 5R is a great example of this fact.

The phone comes with a 5.5″ Full HD curved glass display that gives you an eye appealing ~401ppi.  It is powered by the MediaTek 6753 octa-core processor running at 1.3GHz and is coupled with 32GB of internal storage and 3GB of RAM.  That storage can be expanded up to an additional 64GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.  Powering all of this is a 3150mAh battery which should keep you going all day.  The phone ships with Android Marshmallow but it is expected that BLU will update it to Nougat at some point – but when or if is unclear.

Most certainly file this one under finally!  Microsoft has announced that support for Google Calendar and Google Contacts is finally coming to Outlook for Mac.  For those on Windows 10 using Outlook for Windows, this is no big deal.  The support for integrating your Google Calendar into Outlook has been there pretty much from the beginning.  Not the case for Mac users.  While adding your Gmail account to Outlook for Mac was no biggie, your calendar and contacts from Google would not sync.  It just wasn’t an option.

In an announcement to the Office Insiders, Microsoft has started rolling out the support for Google Calendar and Contacts to those in the Insider Fast Ring.  The feature is certainly still in the test phase, so much so that Microsoft isn’t rolling it out to everyone who is an Insider.  Those who don’t get it immediately will be prompted at some point in the future to add their Google account so they can start testing.

[Update:  Version 3.1 has officially been released!]

The Microsoft Garage team behind Arrow Launcher for Android have had a busy few weeks.  Last week they released a major update, version 3.0, to the public channel which brought a significant number of changes to it.  While performance and stability improvements were the hallmark of the release, the new Utility page which shows your frequent contacts, apps and recent documents on one page was the big new feature.  Right on the heels of that 3.0 release, the 3.1 build has hit those in the beta program with further refinements.  The big news though is support for tablets.

Arrow Launcher on tablets works the same way as it does on phones with the ability to customize the launcher as far as icon size, rows and columns and some included widgets.  It also supports app notifications (for apps that support it) and works in both landscape and portrait viewing.  It is also incredibly stable.  Those who visit often know that I generally shy readers away from betas because of bugs and stability issues.  This beta of Arrow Launcher however is pretty rock solid in the couple of days I’ve been running it on my Nexus 9.  Obviously proceed at your own risk but I’m happy with it so far.

The growth of Android Pay continues at an impressive clip with the tap-to-pay service adding an additional 31 banks and financial institutions.  Those additions brings the total number of banks supported to over 600.  For Google, it is pretty straightforward:  More banks mean more potential users of the service.  The good news is that a lot of the new additions are regional banks or Credit Unions.  That opens it up to more people who don’t necessarily live in large metro areas where the larger national banks have branches.

I’ve made the point in previous posts about new banks being supported that if you see an sticker at a retailer that they support Apple Pay, they support Android Pay too.  The technology between Apple Pay and Android Pay are identical so you can use either one (even if the clerk argues with you that they don’t accept it – which happened to me, which I proved them wrong with a tap of my Nexus 6P…. but I digress).  The exception to this is Samsung Pay which is a different technology and can be used at non-touch terminals.

Google has quietly updated the supported services page for Google Home, adding iHeartRadio as a supported music streaming service.  Once it goes live, likely in the next few days, you will be able to request specific songs and artists to be played from the service.  Adding it will be similar to other services like Pandora and Google Play Music.  It will be under the Music section in the Google Home app where you will use your iHeartRadio account to sign in and link it to your Home.

The addition of this new service is another step in the continued growth of Google Home.  Dozens of informational services have been added since the smart speaker-meets-Google Assistant was released back in November.

Google’s announcement today of YouTube TV, a subscription based streaming service of live TV, has been met with mixed reviews.  When you compare the service to those of DirecTV Now and Sony Vue, it certainly has big holes in the offering.  It is pretty clear that Google was able to negotiate deals with the national carriers like ABC, CBS and NBC but weren’t (or haven’t completed yet at least) the big brands in cable like Viacom and AMC.  That means things like HBO just aren’t there in the offering.  That doesn’t mean they won’t be later, but Day One, nope.

So is it worth the $35 per month price tag?  It really depends on the content you are wanting to get.  For sure, having the ability to stream your local stations and have them stored in a Cloud DVR has a lot of appeal.  I rarely watch a show in real time.  It is always on my DVR or via an app on my phone or tablet.  I’m not alone, nor are you, and YouTube knows this as well.  The ability to record this week’s Big Bang Theory then watch it when I have time is a big bonus.  So having local channels while I’m on-the-go is nice.

But the real winner for viewers may be sports.