Category: Amazon

Today’s Deal is a great one for those of you looking to pick up a powerful external battery.  The Poweradd Pilot X7 20000mAh Power Bank is down to $16.49 today only over at Amazon.  Normally this dual USB port pack is $49.99 so this is a solid deal. 

The Poweradd Pilot X7 is powerful enough to charge a Samsung Galaxy S8 up to four times while it can charge an iPhone X about 4.5 times.  For those of you who have an iPhone 7 or 8, you can get 8, count ’em, 8 charges out of the pack before it needs to be recharged.  

Last week, Amazon announced that they were going to be updating their lineup of Prime phones to removed the lock screen ads that had been on them since the program’s inception.  That process, which is a OTA update to the phones, is underway now.

One of the questions that came up last week however was what would the online retailer do with those who had paid the $45 fee to remove the lock screen ads?  The answer is they are getting a refund of sorts.  No, it’s not cash but rather a gift card to spend with the retailer.

Today’s Deal is on the Essential Phone, the PH-1.  As readers will know, this is the first phone from Andy Rubin’s company and after a few software updates that have come out for it, the PH-1 has proven to be a solid performer.  Right now you can pick on up for $434 on Amazon, a savings of $264.  That price is for either the Black Moon or Pure White colors.

The Essential Phone has a titanium body with a ceramic back, a 5.7″ 2560 x 1320 Quad-HD display, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage built-in.  It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor.  This octa-core processor has four cores running at 2.45GHz and the remaining four clocked at 1.9GHz.

For the second time in less than six months, it looks like Google is going to be revamping the online Google Store.  A report from Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources within Google, suggests that the revamp will have Google Assistant front-and-center in the redesign where Google will sell their devices and those of sister Alphabet companies like Nest.

The move is in response to Amazon and their own digital assistant, Amazon Alexa.  Amazon had a two year start on Google when it came to personal AI-driven assistants, with Amazon still holding an estimated 68% market share with their Amazon Echo devices compared to the 25% for Google with Google Home.  The disparity has the Mountain View company worried and they are going all out to meet Amazon head on in the space.

Today’s Deal is on the entry level but well appointed LG X Charge.  This is one of the Amazon Prime phones and right now you can pick it up for $119 with the Prime ads on the lock screen.  Normally this version of the phone is $149.

The LG X Charge is a 5.5″ 720p display phone powered by the MediaTek MT6750 SoC.  It has 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and a MicroSD slot for memory expansion.  That memory can be expanded up to 2TB.  It has a 13MP main camera and a 5MP selfie camera.

Amazon has a great last minute promotion for those of you who are looking to pick up a Chromebook as a gift or for yourself.  Now through Christmas Eve, December 24th, if you purchase an eligible Chromebook from Amazon, you will receive a $50 Amazon Gift Card.

The list of devices that are eligible is pretty solid with most focused on the mid-to-high end market of these devices.  You can check out the full list over at Amazon, which includes:

• Acer Chromebook 14
• Acer Convertible R 13 Chromebook
• ASUS Chromebook Flip C302
• Dell Chromebook 11
• Google Pixelbook
• HP G1 Chromebook
• Samsung Chromebook Plus
• Samsung Chromebook Pro
• Toshiba 13.3 Chromebook

All of these device are capable of running Android apps which makes them an even better platform for all around use.