Author: Clinton

It looks like we could see the budget friendly Android One phone here in the United States by mid year.  A report in The Information suggests that Google is planning on launching the phone at a $200-300 price range that will give branding recognition to Android in addition to giving uses a true Google Android experience.  Further, like the Nexus and Pixel phones,they would get updates and security patches for two years meaning they would more-or-less be the most up to date.

For those who may not know what Android One is, it was a low budget phone that was launched in India back in 2014.  The idea was to give a Google Android experience at a $100 price range.  It didn’t do well as it didn’t get the marketing support it needed and the phones were under powered and under featured compared to similar phones in India at the time.

If you haven’t figured it out, the Samsung Galaxy Note7 is dangerous, it has been recalled and basically every mobile carrier has thrown a Samsung-built kill switch update that renders the phone useless.  Verizon rolled out an update a couple of weeks ago that prevented the phablet from charging but some Note7 owners never updated to it as they figured out how to get around it.  So, meet Verizon Note7 kill switch 2.

Verizon has begun re-routing calls made from the Note7 to customer service.  This is on every call you make with the exception of 911.  They are serious about you getting that phone back to them.  Oh, and if that isn’t enough to get you to turn in the phone at your local Verizon store, don’t be surprised if you see an $800 charge on an upcoming bill for the phone.  Now to be fair I question how they could get away with this but the point here is that Verizon is making a statement: Turn in your Note7.  Now.

A new beta of Microsoft Cortana, the personal assistant AI from the Redmond company, is out for Android and with it comes a pretty nice new feature.  In the beta, you can allow Cortana to have access to your Lock Screen.  Why is that a big deal?  You could ask Cortana for information without having to actually unlock your phone.  It appears to function in nearly an identical way to Google Assistant in the Google Pixel Launcher or the Google Now Launcher.

Cortana, the AI character from the Halo series, is perhaps the most forgotten of the AI assistance out there, behind Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant.  But it is a solid performer and is integrated into Windows 10 and in Windows 10 Phone.

Sony has begun rolling out the Android Nougat update to some of the Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z5 lineup.  The Xperia Z5 and Z5 Premium started seeing the update to the 7.0 build yesterday while today, the Xperia Z3+ and Z3+ Dual started having the update roll out to them.  The update will take several weeks to get to everyone but you can always manually check for it by going to Settings>About Phone>Software Update.  In general, you can expect the download of the update to be about 1.5GB for the phones and the update time will take 15-20 minutes including a reboot.  Once you have it installed, you will have all the goodies that come with Nougat along with some improvements in the Sony apps on the phones.

If you don’t remember what’s all in Nougat, you can take a look at my review for the highlights.

Last month I wrote about a referral program that Project Fi had going on last month.  Basically the way it worked is that if you used a referral link from a Project Fi customer (like mine for example), you would get a $20 kick back on your bill have you have been active for 30 days.  In return, I get the same kick back after you have been active for 30 days.  It was a win-win and it was a great for you to try Fi with a little bit less risk.

And while I’m at it, thank you Alan, Rodger and Stef for using my referral link last month!  😀

Now the referral program has been extended indefinitely.  If you want to try out Fi, you can use a referral link from any current Fi customer and sign up.  After you have been with the service for 30 days, you too will get a referral link so you can share the love too.

Age of Empires: Castle Siege has been available on Windows Phone since 2014 and was a banner game for that platform.  The developer, Smoking Gun Interactive, worked closely with Microsoft on the real-time strategy game and up until last week, you could only get it on Windows Phone and Windows 10.  Last week it launched for iOS and now it looks like we Android users will get the game in March.

For those not familiar with Castle Siege, the game is a top-down tower defense style game where you select a civilization and begin building your empire.  The game starts with plenty of step-by-step tutorials so even if you have never played AoE you will get the hang of it pretty quickly.  Picking your civilization is important as each one has unique skills or technologies to it over others.  If you have played in the past then again, this will feel familiar.