Author: Clinton

When it comes to external battery packs to charge your devices, the options are endless when it comes to size and performance.  Many of these battery packs, however, are not necessarily hardened to withstand the elements.  Enter the Coocheer Mobile Power pack CH-242.  This 7500mAh pack has an aluminum chassis and body surrounded by a rubber edge.  More importantly, the CH-242 has a rubber cover over its 2 USB ports to help keep water and dirt out while you are using it in the outdoors.  While it certainly is not the most powerful pack you can get, for a price of just under $21, it is a great value.  Here is my review.

Today Google has announced that they will start using images from the Landsat 8 satellite for Google Earth and Google Maps, bringing far superior images for both apps when you view the earth in satellite mode.  The change moves the primary imaging source of Google from Landsat 7 and both of the satellites are operated by the USGS/NASA Landsat Program.  What this means for you is far more detailed and clearer images when you use either of the apps.

Today we’re rolling out an even more beautiful and seamless version, with fresh imagery from Landsat 8 satellite and new processing techniques for sharper images than ever before. Satellite images are often cloudy, but not always over the same place, so we looked at millions of images and took the clearest pixels to stitch together this cloud-free and seamless image.

There is nothing we as users have to do.  This is a back end update from Google and you should start seeing higher quality images in both apps today.

For those of you who are Verizon customers who have the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, take a few minutes to check your phone for updates.  Verizon has started rolling out the June Android security update to the device and given it is a sub-200MB download, it should be available to pretty much everyone at this point.  The updated build is version MMB29M.N910VVRU2CPF3 for those keeping score at home.

There is a new update to Snapseed for Android available in the Play Store that brings a few but nice improvements to the photo editing app.  The update is version 2.6 for those keeping score at home and if you have the app already installed on your phone or tablet, you should get the OTA update in the next few days.

The first change is the addition of a blue filter to the Black and White filter of the app.  This allows you to create high contrast B&W images by ramping up the blue while toning down the yellow.  You don’t see the colors obviously in the black and white image but the effect creates the high contrast for your photo.

So first, let me be clear.  This update to the Project Fi app that is rolling out to the Google Play Store does not enable U.S. Cellular support.  Yet.  If you are a Fi users then you will be seeing the update come to your Nexus 5X, Nexus 6 or Nexus 6P over the course of the next few days and it is part of the puzzle for U.S. Cellular support with Google’s MVNO.

As readers will know, U.S. Cellular was announced as the 3rd carrier that makes up the service, joining T-Mobile and Sprint.  That announcement was last month and the expectation has been that an update to the Fi app would be required to make all of it work on the back end.  That, effectively, is this update.

Let’s all give AT&T a slow clap.  It only took them three months after every other carrier released it but they finally have dropped Android Marshmallow on the Galaxy Note 5 for their customers.  Well done.

The OTA update for Marshmallow 6.0 is huge at 1.4GB so be prepared to wait a while for the download.  Once you get the update, it will take 20-30 minutes to install and your phone will reboot.  As always, I highly recommend that you have all your files and photos backed up before you begin the update process.