Review – iClever BTS09 Bluetooth Speaker – Modern Style and Booming Sound

When it comes to Bluetooth speakers, the vast majority of them are rectangles or maybe an elongated pill design regardless of manufacture.  That’s why the new iClever BTS09 Bluetooth speaker stands out in the crowd.  It is a striking, modern design that is dominated by the aluminum disk that covers the dual 10W speakers.  It is a far cry from your run-of-the-mill box style that will get anyone’s attention at first glance.  Looks are one thing but the expectation of a Bluetooth speaker is that it will have solid audio quality.  The BTS09 does not disappoint.  Its design allows sound to project, easily filling a room with music but in a distortion free, crisp way.  Plus, with the 4000mAh battery built into it, it can go for hours without charging.  That makes it great for get togethers, parties or just listening to some music as you work or relax.

A few weeks ago, the iClever team sent me the BTS09 to review.  I’ve been fortunate to review their Bluetooth speakers in the past and I’ve never been disappointed.  With the BTS09, I think it could arguably be their best yet.

Today’s Deal – SanDisk Ultra USB-C 64GB Flash Drive for $21

Today’s Deal is on an excellent flash drive for USB-C.  The SanDisk Ultra USB-C flash drive allows you to have external storage with super fast transfer speeds and storage up to 128GB.  Right now you can pick up the 64GB model for $20.99 on Amazon.  As the name suggests, this flash drive has the new USB-C connector, not the older USB-A connector you see on most flash drives.  This allows this to work with the latest lineup of Macs and Chromebooks easily.

Because this drive is leveraging USB-C, transfer speeds are impressive.  You get up to 150mb/s using this drive so moving files to and from this drive is fast and efficient.  That USB-C port is also protected by a sliding cover that is built into the chassis of the drive.

The SanDisk Ultra USB-C drive is offered in four different sizes to meet your needs.  Here are the prices and savings on this deal today.

At the time of this post, all sizes were in stock although quantities were limited on the 64GB model.  If you are an Amazon Prime customer, you get free shipping on these too.

Showtime App Update Brings Offline Viewing of Movies

The premium movie service Showtime has released an update for their Android app that gives users the ability to view movies and shows offline.  The new feature allows you to download content to your Android phone or tablet so you can view that content offline.  By default, the app will continue to stream content when you view it but now you have the option to download it and take it with you for situations like car trips or plane trips where you don’t have access to the Internet for streaming.

The new feature is simple to use.  Just find the title you want to view then tap the download button.  This will download that movie to your phone so you can view it later.  There is also a new downloads section in the Showtime app that shows you all of the content you have downloaded to your phone or tablet.  Keep in mind that downloading on your phone will give you a maximum resolution of 720p while on a tablet you can download in 1080p.  This is due to screen sizes and to save a bit on storage space on your phone.

Android Things Developer Preview 3 Released

Google’s Internet of Things (IoT) version of Android, Android Things, has been updated to Developer Preview 3.  The platform, built on Android but in a much more stripped down version to work with smaller memory and hardware footprints, has been in Preview mode for well over a year now with the latest update bringing some much needed features for the platform.  The idea behind Things is that, if you are a developer on Android today, you can develop on Android Things and create IoT devices.  In other words, you don’t have to learn another coding language.

Perhaps the biggest new feature is support for Android Bluetooth APIs.  Developers can now write to these APIs, both the Bluetooth classic and Bluetooth LE stacks, just as they can in full Android.  Bluetooth is expected to be a critical part of the development of IoT so having this support on board is great to see for developers.

Google Search Fact Checking Feature Goes Live

After testing for several months, the new fact checking feature in Google Search has now been enabled for everyone.  The new feature is rolling out now and it could take a few days for everyone to receive it.  Just make sure you are running the latest version of the Google app on your Android phone.  The new feature is pretty straightforward in how it works.  Type in a search as you would normally do and if it is a search on a topic that has been fact checked, you will see a link below your search results with a source and if the fact is true, mostly true, mostly false or false.

If you want to check the validity of the facts, you can tap that link to go to the source and do your investigating on if it is really true or not.  For their part, Google is trying to bubble up this information quickly & easily so you don’t have to do a lot of tapping around to check the facts of a story.

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