Category: Android

As part of their Black Friday sale, Samsung has dropped $150 off the unlocked variants of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus through their Amazon Storefront.  These are the unlocked variants of the phones and they have 64GB of onboard storage which can be expanded.

Samsung Galaxy S8 – $574.99

Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus – $674.99

These are by far the lowest prices on the Samsung flagship phones since their introduction earlier this year.

The 5.8″ Galaxy S8 is powered by the octa-core Snapdragon 835 processor running four cores at 2.3GHz and the other four running at 1.9GHz.  It is coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage which is expandable up to an additional 256GB thanks to the MicroSD card.  The display renders at 2960 x 1440 QuadHD with an impressive 571 PPI.  Powering all of it is a 3000mAh battery which is charged with inductive charging.

Good news for readers who have the Nokia 8 flagship from from HMD Global.  The company’s Chief Products Officer, Juho Sarvikas, took to Twitter this morning to make the announcement.

O k, here we go
R eviewed your feedback
E verything is polished
O fficial update rolling out today! #AndroidOreo #Nokia8 #Oreo #Nokiamobilebetalabs pic.twitter.com/QpZeh9JTu0

— Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) November 24, 2017

The beauty of the Nokia 8’s Android Oreo update is that it is completely uncluttered with bloatware or skins. It is pure Android, just what the company had indicated they would be doing for all of their devices as Oreo is rolled out.

As part of Black Friday sales, Amazon has discounted both the Samsung Chromebook Pro and the Chromebook Plus by $100 today.  These are new-for-2017 models that really set the tone for Chromebooks this year.

The Chromebook Plus is down to $349 today while the Chromebook Pro is down to $449.

The Chromebook Plus has a 12.3″ display rendering at 2400 x 1600.  It is also a touchscreen which makes using the included stylus or your finger for apps easier.  It has 4GB of RAM, 32GB of Storage and you can expand that storage thanks to the MicroSD slot.  It has dual-microphones, a 720p Webcam and, of course, Wi-Fi.  It only ways 2.4 lbs so it is designed for portability and with it being able to be be used as a laptop or a slate, you have a lot of flexibility in where and how you use this Chromebook.

The Samsung Chromebook Plus is powered by the OP1 ARM processor which is both battery efficient and powerful enough to get your daily work done.  The 39Wh battery is rated to give users up to 8 hours of life per charge and charging is done via a USB-C connector.  As you would expect, Android app support is also there for the Chromebook Plus.

Today’s Deal is on the fantastic phablet from Huawei, the Huawei Mate 9 that is bundled with the Huawei Band 2 fitness tracker.  Today only, on Amazon,  you can pick up the 5.9″ phone with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage and the Band 2 for $399.  That’s $200 off the original $599 price tag for the phone alone.   I reviewed the Mate 9 earlier this year and it is an outstanding device with an awesome display, great battery life and excellent cameras.  At this price, it is well worth considering.

So what does $399 get you in the Huawei Mate 9?  A lot frankly.  It is a 5.9″ phone running Android Nougat, an octa-core processor running at 2.4GHz and Leica optics dual-camera setup shooting at 20MP and 12MP respectively with OIS.  The front facing selfie camera is 8MP shooter.  You also have 64GB of built-in storage that can be expanded up to an additional  256GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.  Finally, it comes with a US warranty so you are not buying an international version of the phone.

A new update to Microsoft Lens for Android is rolling out today that brings improved offline support to the content capturing app.  The update, version 16.0.8730.2076 for those keeping score at home and who like version numbering BINGO! allows users to safe content as PDFs while offline.

Previously, in order to capture content using Lens and converting it to a PDF, you had to be online.  Now, if you are offline and capture something with lens, it is save as a PDF locally and when you are back online, it will upload it to your OneDrive account as usual.

For those who aren’t familiar with Office Lens, the app trims and enhances images of documents, business cards, whiteboards and other content and allows you to convert those images to PDF, Word or PowerPoint files.  You an also save the captures to your OneNote account or your OneDrive account.

The Microsoft To-Do app has an important update rolling out this morning that brings a handful of fixes and improvements.  The updated build is version 1.18.40 for those keeping score at home and is primarily focused on performance improvements and bug fixes.

The biggest improvement is around TalkBack, the screen reading Accessibility feature in Android.  Users with multiple lists would not be read the list name or the correct one in the last version of the app.  That has been fixed now and you will have your list name vocalized as it should be with this update.

Reminders have also been updated to where you can now get them down to the second.  Why you would need a reminder at specific second I’m not so sure, but hey, it’s there now if you need it.