Category: Android

When the Nextbit Robin was released earlier this year, I purposely held off on review it.  My logic was two fold.  First, at $399 I felt for what the phone had to offer, it was over priced.  I appreciate it has some unique features and by buying it you are supporting a new American-based startup, but facts-are-facts.  The current price of $299 feels a bit more accurate.  Second, I knew that it would have issues.  And it did.  The initial build of Android running on the Robin was buggy with numerous reports of the camera being poor and slow and battery performance to match it.

Fast forward seven months and the world is a much happier place for the Nextbit Robin.  The price is down to where I think it should be frankly (and it has run as low as $199 on Amazon a couple of times which is an absolute steal) and after a couple of major updates that included a bump up to Android Marshmallow, the Robin is now a solid performing phone that has great features.  I’ve been using the device as my primary phone over the course of the last few weeks and I have no hesitation in recommending it if you are looking for a well appointed handset that is in the low cost/budget category.  In fact, for what it has to offer, you will be hard pressed to find an equally well appointed phone.  Here’s my review.

If you have an Android phone or tablet that is being sluggish, it can be one of the most frustrating experiences with technology.  Android, like other Operating Systems, caches app and system data to use in efforts to speed up apps and processes.  Yes, the irony wasn’t lost on me either.  The problem is that this cache can become corrupt or simply too big for the device to be able to manage effectively.  Every OS suffers from this – Android, iOS, Windows and MacOS.  Perhaps the only real notable exception is Chrome OS.

The good news is, on Android, there are two things you can do on any device that will help you clear out the cache and restore order to your particular world.  One is found in Settings while the more aggressive step requires you get your device into Recovery mode.  In this How To I will show you how to do both.

Microsoft is rolling out a big update to OneDrive for Android that brings some much need user requested features to the cloud storage app.  The first big feature is the ability to create Office documents within the app.  If you need to create an Excel, PowerPoint or Word document, you can now do that within OneDrive itself and not necessarily have to open up the particular Office app on your phone or tablet.  This is a great time saving feature but also allows the app to be the center touch point for all of your Microsoft file activities.  This feature has been requested for a long period of time and mirrors the functionality that Google Drive has had for a long time.

The powerful new compact phone from Sony, the Xperia X Compact, is now available on Amazon.  The unlocked phone comes in Black, Blue or White and is $499 and eligible for Prime Shipping.  The X Compact was announced last month at IFA in Berlin and the new 4.6″ Android phone turned heads there and created a lot of excitement when Sony announced it would be coming to the US.  Spec wise, while the package of the phone is small, it is power packed.  It runs on the Snapdragon 650 processor Hexa-core (4 cores 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53 & 2 cores 1.8 GHz Cortex-A72).  It is mated with the Adreno 510 GPU, has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of Storage.  That storage can be expanded up to an additional 256GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.  The display is 4.6″ rendering at 720 x 1280.  That equates to 331 PPI and it is protected by Gorilla Glass 4.

Capital One has become the latest financial institution to add fingerprint authentication support to their Android app.  The US-based bank and credit institution has updated their Android app to give customers the ability to authenticate and access their accounts on their phones via their fingerprint.  Setup of the new feature is easy and can be found off of the settings menu.  Once it is enabled and configured, you can start the app then access your accounts by touching your fingerprint scanner on your phone.  For security purposes, your PIN or Pattern authentication that you previously used will become the backup way to get into the app and your accounts.

With the release of Google Allo earlier this week, Google also released an increadbly powerful feature inside the app.  Google Assistant, as the name suggests, aims to give you information, weather and even play games (and tell a joke or two) all within Allo.  Indeed, with Allo itself still needing some fleshing out, Google Assistant is by far the killer feature of the app and gives us a glimpse as to what we can expect as the company starts rolling this out to other devices like Google Home.

One of the great feature of Assistant is the ability to sign up for news, weather and other information in a subscription that is delivered to you daily.  It is a great way to stay up-to-date with the latest information on a topic of your choice.  In this How To I’ll show you how to subscribe and manage your subscriptions within Assistant.