All Posts by Phil Nickinson | Android Central

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All Posts by Phil Nickinson

Huawei P9 and P9 Plus specs

36 Comments
Posted by Phil Nickinson on 6 Apr 2016 9:30 am
Huawei P9 and P9 Plus
The Huawei P9 and P9 Plus are officially official. Two phones. Two rear cameras on each phone, Leica-certified, no less. And as you'd expect from Huawei, they're packed with the latest tech the Chinese manufacturer has to offer, including an updated Kirin 955 processor, some of the best fingerprint security in the business — and all in a footprint that shouldn't leave you wishing you had a...

Huawei announces the P9 and P9 Plus with dual Leica cameras

21 Comments
Posted by Phil Nickinson on 6 Apr 2016 9:30 am
Huawei P9 and P9 plus
Huawei is betting a partnership with Leica will help their new cameras stand out in the crowd. Dual-lens smartphones have been a hot topic over the last couple of months, and Huawei is hot on LG's heels with an impressive pair of new smartphones to show off exactly that. To help drive these selling points home, Huawei has stamped the Leica brand on the back of the phone and offered up some...

Bubba Watson blasts his way onto your phone with Bubbamoji!

6 Comments
Posted by Phil Nickinson on 5 Apr 2016 9:04 am
You're Bubba Watson. You already own two green jackets and are looking for a third this week at The Masters golf tournament. You've got a hovercraft golf cart. Played Bubba Claus. Host Bubba's Bash. Did, uh, this thing. You were just featured on CBS' "60 Minutes.". You're part owner in one of minor-league baseball's top organizations. And you've got more trick shots than one man should be able...

The top phones you need to know, by manufacturer

78 Comments
Posted by Phil Nickinson on 4 Apr 2016 8:24 pm
Android Phones
How many different Android phones do you think are out there? Chances are whatever you guessed is low. We're talking thousands of models from more manufacturers than we care to count. So we don't blame if you if you're new to the smartphone game and feel a little overwhelmed. It's a big, big Android world out there. But we're going to make it a little easier on you. We've broken down the top...

Amazon Echo Dot review: An inch and a half of Alexa may be all you need

35 Comments
Posted by Phil Nickinson on 4 Apr 2016 11:00 am
The cliche is true — good things can come in small packages. Don't overthink the Amazon Echo Dot — particularly if you already know Alexa. Echo Dot is what you get if you lop off the top inch and a half of an Echo. You keep the brains, of course — the voice recognition that makes Echo so powerful and Alexa so friendly. You keep the connected nature of the device — it still connects to Wifi....

LG Home 4.0 is available, and a concession for G5 owners

67 Comments
Posted by Phil Nickinson on 3 Apr 2016 11:06 pm
LG G5
If you hate the default launcher on the G5 and for some reason don't want to download another from Google Play, LG has its own option available. LG's default user interface on the G5 has been, to say the least, polarizing. Those who know a thing or two about launchers (we're a small but vocal minority, to be sure) haven't exactly greeted UX 5.0 — with its lack of a proper app drawer — kindly....

From the Editor's Desk: Love & stagnation ...

131 Comments
Posted by Phil Nickinson on 3 Apr 2016 8:31 am
Nest and Sonos are still excellent products, even with their futures very much in question. Two of my favorite connected home devices (that's a really unsexy description) haven't changed much since I bought them, though they remain just as useful as the day they were first turned on. My second-gen Nest Thermostat and a couple of Sonos speakers (a Play 1 and a Play 5) get used every single day...

Head of mobile chips said to be to leaving Intel

27 Comments
Posted by Phil Nickinson on 2 Apr 2016 7:04 am
Aicha Evans talked of company's struggles in the mobile market in February. Aicha Evans may be leaving Intel, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing unnamed sources. The move may be part of a larger management change, WSJ said. Bloomberg also reported Friday that Evans had submitted her resignation. Evans had been with Intel for more than 10 years but was still in the early stages as...

Android Central 281: Butts are still funny

6 Comments
Posted by Phil Nickinson on 1 Apr 2016 5:00 pm
We recruited three of the most attractive minds in mobile tech for an all-questions, all-answers episode. When they couldn't show up, we brought in Jerry, Phil and Russell to run things. This is nearly 90 minutes of your questions, and our answers. Strap. In. Thanks to this week's sponsor! Harry's: Start shaving better today and save $5 off your first purchase with coupon code AC.

Android Central Podcast Live!

Posted by Phil Nickinson on 31 Mar 2016 4:31 pm
Watch the Android Central Podcast live at 3 p.m. EDT March 31! The Android Central Podcast is recorded live in front of a live studio audience, so you can catch us in the act. To take part in the live Q&A, hit up this link. Or watch us live from your phone with the official Android Central app!

AT&T has made its bloatware even worse on the LG G5

184 Comments
Posted by Phil Nickinson on 31 Mar 2016 11:00 am
AT&T bloatware
There's no point in pretending to be surprised about this. Here we go again. If you caught the saga of AT&T's Galaxy S7, you probably know what's coming. Fire up the operator's version of the LG G5 and marvel in the amount of bloatware packed into a single phone. Let's take a look at what you'll find, out of the box:

LG G5 unboxing: Bringing some 'Friends' along for the ride

54 Comments
Posted by Phil Nickinson on 30 Mar 2016 9:16 pm
LG G5 and friends
All things must be unboxed. And occasionally they must be filmed at the same time. Said it before, and we'll say it again. We're generally not huge fans of the pomp and circumstance that tends to come with taking phones we've already seen out of boxes. But sometimes things are special. There was the LG Optimus Black "Unbooking" way back in 2011. Only a few months later we had the bizarre alien...

Verizon Galaxy S7 review: What to expect on America's largest carrier

86 Comments
Posted by Phil Nickinson on 30 Mar 2016 12:10 pm
We've been using the best Android smartphone on America's largest operator for a month. Here's what we've found ... Not every Samsung Galaxy S7 is created equal. OK, they're mostly created equal. That is, you're going to get the same hardware no matter which U.S. operator you go with. Same Snapdragon processor. Same 32GB of on-board storage. Same look and feel. Like so many (or too many,...

Where to buy the LG G5 in the United States

38 Comments
Posted by Phil Nickinson on 29 Mar 2016 9:29 am
LG G5
The LG G5 officially goes on sale in the U.S. on April 1. You're already able to preorder it at some retailers and carriers, and others will announce their intentions in the days ahead. Updated March 29, 2016, with new info from T-Mobile and US Cellular.

Acer's new 14-inch metal Chromebook: 1080p, 4GB of RAM for just $299

105 Comments
Posted by Phil Nickinson on 29 Mar 2016 8:30 am
Acer Chromebook 14
More RAM and loads of battery life comes with a price, though — the display tops out at 1080p. Ask any discerning Chromebook user what they want more of, and you'll undoubtedly hear two specs toward the top of the list — battery life for longevity, and RAM to keep all those tabs going. The new Acer Chromebook 14 looks to fit that bill with a new metal beast (a couple of them, actually) that...

Last call! Order your limited-edition Android History T-Shirt today!

51 Comments
Posted by Phil Nickinson on 28 Mar 2016 5:35 pm
Android has a long and storied history. It also has Cupcake and Donut and Eclair and Froyo and Gingerbread and ... Well, it's got a long lineage of tasty treats. And now you can not only house those scrumptious morsels on your phone (OK, hopefully something newer than Gingerbread), you also can do so on your belly thanks to this new — and limited-edition — Helvetica Android History T-shirt!...

LG G5 is getting an app drawer option after all

148 Comments
Posted by Phil Nickinson on 27 Mar 2016 12:54 pm
LG G5
A new video showing off the LG G5's UX 5.0 shows an new option for adding an app drawer back to the default launcher. You can't talk about the LG G5 without someone bringing up the fact that it's the latest smartphone to eschew the app drawer in favor of a single-layer springboard approach. Maybe it's a big deal, maybe it's not. But in any case, LG apparently is adding in an option for a...

From the Editor's Desk: Going (even more) global ...

146 Comments
Posted by Phil Nickinson on 27 Mar 2016 10:03 am
We're making it easier than ever to see all the news you want from your neck of the woods — and less of what you don't. New features always are a fun thing, and we've just rolled out a long-awaited improvement to the site — particularly for those of you outside the United States.

Google's Amazon Echo competitor has always been a question of *when*

56 Comments
Posted by Phil Nickinson on 26 Mar 2016 2:00 pm
Google's been knocking on the door of your home for years. But it's way past time for it to come in and join the party. When it comes to interpreting your voice and feeding back relevant information, nobody does it better than this company. Especially when it comes to putting it into a product that can be conveniently tucked away in a corner, or on display for all to see. If you're thinking...

iPhone SE and iPad Pro 9.7 — two big reviews on two smaller devices

208 Comments
Posted by Phil Nickinson on 26 Mar 2016 9:51 am
A couple reviews this week worth checking out from our cousins at iMore. First up is the iPhone SE. It looks exactly like the 4-inch iPhone 5, only with upgraded internals. Do the price and smaller size make it worth it? And there's also the smaller iPad Pro 9.7. It's like the 12-inch iPad Pro, only not 12 inches. Smaller. Diminutive, even. But is it still "pro"? Two good reads that are...

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