Tag: Android

Like many accessories for Android phones and tablets, desktop stands are, as they say, a dime a dozen.  Everyone it seems makes one but like so many things, you do get what you pay for in most cases.  I say most because the team over at iClever have made an excellent stand that is certainly a good value for this type of accessory.  The iClever Adjustable Stand, as the name suggests, is not just a fixed stand for your phone or tablet.  Rather, it has an adjustable plane where you phone rests that can be rotated 270-degrees.  It makes the stand easy to use no matter if you are viewing your device in portrait or landscape mode.  Plus, it is made of aluminum so it looks great and is rugged enough to handle a drop from your desk to the floor.  Backed with a lifetime warranty, this $13 stand is well worth the consideration if you like desktop stands for your devices.

I recently picked up two of the IC-CS01 stands on Amazon to replace two aging stands that had lost their ability to hold my devices securely.  What appealed to me was first the iClever name (I’ve reviewed many of their products and have always found them to be excellent in price and performance) but also the non-skip pads on the stand’s base and phone plane to hold my Nexus 6P and Nexus 9 securely.  That do that and do it well.

Owners of the Nextbit Robin will want to check their devices for updates over the course of the next few days.  Nextbit has pushed out a series of updates for the phone, updating a system level app as well as the Camera, Gallery and Smart Storage apps.  The updates are all being pushed at the same time so once you get one, you like will see all of them.  Robin owners will get these via an OTA update.

The first and probably the one you will notice first is the Nextbit Servcies update.  This update will pop up a notification that will allow you to opt-in to have additional performance metrics about Robin to be measured.  This is 100% opt-in and is not required… but if you want to help the Nextbit team improve the software on the Robin and likely learn things for their next phone, doing so isn’t a bad thing.  No, nothing you do on your phone is tracked, it is all anonymous data.

Some eleven months after it was made available for iOS users, Microsoft Selfie has finally hit the Google Play Store for Android devices.  The app is aimed at giving you some filtering options for photos you take with the app or selfies that you have in your camera roll.  While the selfie camera app-meets-filter app is not something new, this app does a pretty good job.  With each filter in the app you can adjust the intensity and there are 12 different filters that you can apply to your photos.  There is also a preview button that you can tap and hold to see the photo with and without the applied filter.

[Note:  While comments on this post are welcome, any post regarding one political party or another will be deleted.]

Regardless of where you stand politically, Google Search has you covered tomorrow.  With Americans going to the polls to decide not only the presidential election but multiple Senate, House or Representatives and other local elections, November 4th every four years is an seemingly endless flow of information.  Google is trying to give you a one-stop-shop for all that information.  On your Android Phone you can type in “Election Results” in Google Search and you will be taken to a comprehensive overview of all the election results for the country and your particular state.

Starting when the polls close on Election Day, you will be able to find U.S. election results integrated right into your Google searches in over 30 languages around the world. You’ll also be able to see detailed updates and results of the Presidential, Senatorial, Congressional, Gubernatorial races as well as state-level referenda and ballot propositions.

But, if you want live streaming of information, Google has an answer for you there too.  YouTube.

Today’s Deal over at Amazon is on the fantastic Android phone, the Nextbit Robin.  Right now you can pick one up in their Midnight color for just $169.  That is a phenomenal price for such a power packed phone.

For those that don’t recall, the Nextbit Robin has some great features and offers a unique device-meets-cloud storage solution.  It has 32GB of onboard storage merged with 100 GB online storage, so you always have the space you need. Robin seamlessly backs up your apps and photos, intelligently archives the stuff you’re not using, and easily restores items when you need them.  The idea is that you never run out of space.  Those less used apps are backed up into the cloud but then are instantly available when you want them.  You’ll know an app has been backed up into the cloud as it will be grey on your Robin.

Microsoft has started rolling out an update to PowerPoint for Android that has a new Shape Recognition feature.  The update now gives you the option to have the app recognize any shape you draw with your finger or stylus in free form and snap that into a perfect version of that shape.  So, for example, if you draw a square, with this feature enabled, you will get a perfectly formed square on your slide instead of your free form version.  You can, of course, not enable this, but it is super handy and is something that until now hasn’t been in the mobile version of the app.