All Posts by Alex Dobie | Android Central

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All Posts by Alex Dobie

Galaxy S8 Daydream rollout begins as Google promises support on 11 phones by end of year

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Posted by Alex Dobie on 26 Jul 2017 1:17 am
Galaxy S8 Daydream
As Verizon's GS8 gets its Daydream VR update, Google CEO Sundar Pichai says a total of 11 Daydream phones will be available by the end of 2017. It was promised back at Google I/O, and now the Samsung Galaxy S8 has started receiving firmware updates to enable Google's Daydream VR platform. As spotted by 9to5Google, the update is hitting Verizon models first in the U.S., and also brings the...

Huawei's Porsche Design Smartwatch is now available in Europe

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Posted by Alex Dobie on 25 Jul 2017 5:27 am
Huawei Watch Porsche Design
Exclusive version of Huawei's latest wearable will set you back €795 ($925). You could be forgiven for forgetting all about the Huawei Porsche Design Smartwatch, a footnote at the company's Mobile World Congress press conference back in February. But now the watch is actually available to buy, with the listing on Porsche Design's official site having quietly gone up in the past 24 hours.

Snapdragon 836 in a Google Pixel 2 would be the least interesting thing about the phone

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Posted by Alex Dobie on 25 Jul 2017 1:25 am
Snapdragon 835 announcement
It's slightly faster. The Google Pixel 2 might ship with revised internal hardware from Qualcomm in the form of a new processor, the Snapdragon 836. That's according to silicon rumormonger Fudzilla, which offers up the following plausible but completely unsurprising info, courtesy of its sources:

HTC U11 gets Alexa in the UK

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Posted by Alex Dobie on 24 Jul 2017 4:35 am
HTC U11 Alexa
App update brings Amazon's virtual assistant to British U11 phones. HTC has updated its Alexa app for the U11, bringing Amazon's virtual assistant to UK models of the phone. As we saw a week ago when the service launched in the U.S., the app effectively turns the HTC U11 into a portable Amazon echo, responding to voice commands, and living harmoniously alongside Google Assistant, which...

Best MicroSD Card For Android

Posted by Alex Dobie on 23 Jul 2017 11:00 am
Best overall Best value — capacity Best value — speed Best balanced Best top-tier Samsung EVO+ 256GB See at Amazon Samsung's very-highest-of-the-high-end microSD card isn't cheap. In fact, it's the priciest on this list. But you're also getting a winning combination of performance and storage capacity, with 90MB/sec write speeds and 95MB/sec reads, and an enormous 256GB of space. That's...

5 things I learned traveling with the OnePlus 5

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Posted by Alex Dobie on 21 Jul 2017 8:00 am
OnePlus 5 travel
Travel revelations from OnePlus's latest creation. As a person who has to travel with lots of smartphones to do his job, choosing which one to use as your main device on a trip can be quite a conundrum. Nothing tests a phone to its limits like travel, where you're pushing the phone's storage, battery, camera and other features harder than ever. This time around, as I start a four-week stint...

LG Q8 is a smaller, waterproof V20

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Posted by Alex Dobie on 21 Jul 2017 3:31 am
LG QQ8
Major features of last year's handset packaged into 5.2-inch chassis for new Q series device. LG is building out its new mid-tier Q series of phones with a more pocketable take on last year's flagship V20. The LG Q8 includes basically all the main features of the V20, only now in with a 5.2-inch Quad HD screen, and with the added bonus of IP67 water resistance, and a fixed internal battery. (...

Samsung Pay launches on Gear S3 in the UK

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Posted by Alex Dobie on 21 Jul 2017 2:19 am
Samsung Pay
Payment service comes to all Gear S3 owners whose watch is paired to an Android smartphone. Samsung has announced that its mobile payments service has finally arrived on Gear S3 series smartwatches in the UK, following the rollout of Samsung Pay on phones in the country a couple of months ago. Just like in the U.S., British Gear S3 owners can use an app similar to the phone version of Samsung...

Samsung Galaxy Note 8: What we know so far, the video

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Posted by Alex Dobie on 20 Jul 2017 10:00 am
It's almost time for a new Samsung Galaxy Note! As you may remember, things didn't go so well for the Note 7 last year, but after the success of the Galaxy S8, Samsung's going to be hoping to well and truly move on with a strong next-gen Note. But the Galaxy S8 also presents a few challenges. Since there is a larger S8 this year, the Note 8 is going to have to do more to stand out...

What you need to know about dual-SIM on the OnePlus 5

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Posted by Alex Dobie on 20 Jul 2017 9:00 am
OnePlus 5 dual SIM
Here's what you need to know about one of the OnePlus 5's most underrated features. There are many reasons why you might want to pick up a OnePlus 5 — the price, the clean software experience, fast performance, or the bragging rights that go with 8GB of RAM. But one of the phone's most useful features for travelers isn't being heavily advertised. OnePlus's latest phone, like earlier models, is...

'Lawnchair' is the best new Android launcher you (probably) haven't tried yet

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Posted by Alex Dobie on 19 Jul 2017 8:00 am
Lawnchair
New open-source launcher brings Google Now and Pixel Launcher capabilities to all phones — along with a huge loadout of customization features. I'm usually pretty lazy when it comes to customizing my home screens. For the most part, I tend to stick with the stock launcher on whatever phone I'm using, and I don't go over-the-top tweaking absolutely every setting on my home screen. Yet with the...

Nexus in 2017: How Google could revamp the brand for a new purpose

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Posted by Alex Dobie on 18 Jul 2017 12:00 pm
Nexus 5X
Strap in: It's time for some wild speculation. It's been almost a year since we first learned that Google's Nexus brand would be going away, replaced at the high end by Pixel, as the company ramped up its new hardware division. But rumors continue to swirl around Google's future plans for Project Fi and Android One. The former needs something to replace the aging Nexus 5X and 6P, and I'm not...

Essential Phone reportedly coming to the UK, Europe and Japan

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Posted by Alex Dobie on 17 Jul 2017 7:42 am
Essential phone
EE among carriers in discussion with Android founder's company over exclusivity deal. Andy Rubin's Essential Phone is looking to spread its reach beyond the United States, according to The Financial Times. The paper reports that Essential wants to bring its phone to the UK, mainland Europe and Japan, and that the company is already in talks with UK carriers including EE around an exclusivvity...

HTC keyboard ads likely an error, but damage is already done [Updated]

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Posted by Alex Dobie on 16 Jul 2017 8:22 pm
HTC
HTC is telling users to roll back the latest stock keyboard update, which clutters up the screen with ads. Update, 10:50pm ET: HTC has confirmed to AC that the ads were mistakenly included. An HTC spokesperson provided the following statement: Due to an error, some HTC customers have reported seeing ads on their phone's keyboard. This is absolutely not the experience we intended, and we're...

Google Pixel 2: Everything you need to know

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Posted by Alex Dobie on 14 Jul 2017 9:00 am
What do we want from the Google Pixel 2? A new, delicious version of Android will soon be upon us and if history is any indicator, not long after that we'll have some brand new Google Pixel phones to look forward to. Up until recently, we thought this year's crop was to be a fairly predictable update to last year's — two devices built by HTC with improved specs and a newer version of Android...

Google Pixel 2 leaks: What we know so far

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Posted by Alex Dobie on 13 Jul 2017 11:30 am
We're a few months out from the launch of Google's next Pixel phones, but the first details are already starting to leak, painting a very interesting picture of at least two new Pixel models for 2017. Same as last year, it looks like we're getting two phones from Google in 2017, but this time there are two different manufacturers: a smaller Pixel made by HTC, and a larger one...

LG V30: Our wishlist for the next LG flagship

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Posted by Alex Dobie on 12 Jul 2017 12:55 pm
LG V30
In a year of comebacks, the LG V30 could be the phone maker's best handset to date. Here's what we're hoping to see when it finally breaks cover. We don't know a whole lot about the LG V30 just yet. (That'll likely change in the run up to release, as more details inevitably leak out online.) But for the time being, all we have is a collection of CAD renders and some vague details around its...

Now there's a KFC-branded Huawei smartphone

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Posted by Alex Dobie on 12 Jul 2017 8:33 am
Limited edition Colonel phone to celebrate 30th anniversary in China. KFC is celebrating its 30th anniversary in China, and that means one thing: Limited edition promotional products. Like this bright red Huawei smartphone bearing the face of Colonel Sanders. As AdAge, KFC was among the first Western brands to arrive in China, and the inaugural year of 1987 is emblazoned alongside the image...

This is (probably) the LG V30

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Posted by Alex Dobie on 11 Jul 2017 11:10 am
LG V30
Surprise: On the outside, it's pretty much a bigger, curvier G6. LG looks set to follow up the well-received G6 with a new member of the big-screened V series, and noted leaker Steve Hemmerstoffer (aka @onleaks on Twitter) has teamed up with MySmartprice to reveal a full 3D render of the device, based on CAD specs given to accessory manufacturers.

Best Cases for the HTC U11

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Posted by Alex Dobie on 11 Jul 2017 11:00 am
HTC U11 case
Keep your HTC U11's lustrous chassis in perfect condition with these cases. With a beautiful mirrored glass finish, the HTC U11 is one of the most striking Android flagships available today. But exposed glass isn't the most sturdy of materials, and if you use the U11 for long enough, it's inevitable that you'll start to pick up a few scrapes and scratches. That's why we've rounded up the top...

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