Theta Android News: January 2018

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Motorola’s newest Style Shell Moto Mods are made out of Gorilla Glass 5

I am a fan of Motorola's Moto Mod ecosystem, but even I feel a bit trepidatious about the Lenovo subsidiary's latest Style Shell Moto Mods.

That is because they are made out of Gorilla Glass 5, which Motorola says makes the new Style Shells "damage resistant." No matter what Motorola says, they are still made of glass, so they are still susceptible to cracks when dropped.

Even so, I cannot deny how great they look. Motorola cooked up five new designs, and all of them look great. I would not hesitate to rock any of them on my Moto Z2 Force, but others might and will say different.

Then again, the switch to glass makes these new Style Shells almost twice as heavy as regular Style Shells. At $30 each, they are also more expensive than their wooden and nylon counterparts.

At the end of the day, the new Style Shells are why I enjoy the Moto Mod ecosystem. As cool as it is to slap a printer, projector, or 360-degree camera to the back of your Moto Z, it is also nice to have simpler options available.

Motorola in 2018: Bring on the wow factor

From the high-end, modular Z2 models to the more affordable Moto C devices, Lenovo-owned Motorola had a busy 2017. Its strategy resembled the machine gun approach on which Samsung relied for a long time. According …

Things can get expensive very fast with the ecosystem, which is a valid complaint. However, if you are someone who likes to keep things simple, these new Style Shells seem like they are worth your time.

As previously mentioned, you have five new designs to pick from: Retro Stripe, Overlapping Triangles, Graphic Flowers, Expressive Curves, and Colored Leaves. You can pick any of them up at the link below.

Get the new Style Shell Moto Mods

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Newly published UFS 3.0 spec brings faster storage speeds to smartphones

The standards organization JEDEC has released version 3.0 of the Universal Flash Storage (UFS) specification. The new specification more than doubles the bandwidth from the previous version, providing up to two lanes at 1450 MB/s, for a maximum of 2.9 GB/s, compared to a maximum of 1.2 GB/s. The standard also includes temperature reporting mechanisms on the storage controller intended specifically for the automotive market, where electronics are subject to more adverse conditions.

Newly published UFS 3.0 spec brings faster storage speeds to smartphones was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Google and five other companies join Universal Stylus Initiative, bringing total number of partners to over 30

There are so many styluses available on the market for different devices, yet those with active features are rarely compatible with devices from other companies. That's why the Universal Stylus Initiative, or USI for short, was created: to "develop and promote an industry specification for a cross-system active stylus." Google, 3M, MyScript, and three other companies have just joined the USI, bring the total number of partners to over 30.

Google is joining as a promoter member, MyScript and Tactual Labs are joining as contributor members, and 3M Touch Systems, Lattice Semiconductor, and Maxeye Smart Technologies are joining as adopter members.

Google and five other companies join Universal Stylus Initiative, bringing total number of partners to over 30 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Google can now tell you if your flight will be delayed, even before the airlines

Google

Google is updating its Flights service with predictions on flight delays.
The predictions, along with reasons for flight delays, come from Google's machine learning algorithms.
The Flights feature can also show what's included in some "Basic Economy" flight prices.

If you travel regularly, you're probably aware that flights can get delayed for any number of reasons. Google wants to help make getting information on flight delays a little easier with an update to its Flights search feature.

Google Trips, Flights, and Destinations adds more countries and languages

Summer is coming to a close, but there are still people who are making plans for international trips and vacations doing this off-season. This week, Google announced that it has expanded the reach of its Trips, …

According to Google's blog post, the Flights feature can not only show if a specific flight you are searching for is officially delayed, but it can now also predict if a flight might not arrive or depart on time. This is due to Google's own machine learning algorithms that might actually predict delays before the airlines themselves issue an official announcement. In addition to flight time predictions, the new feature will also share possible reasons for delays, such as weather. Google says its prediction engine will only mark a flight as being delayed if it is at least 80 percent confident that the prediction is accurate.

Another update to Google Flights will help with travelers who are flying with "Basic Economy" tickets. Sure, those prices might be cheaper than business class or first class, but what if you have to pay extra for things like baggage fees or a way to change your seat? The new feature will now show what is and isn't included in Basic Economy tickets from American, Delta, and United Airlines flights. Hopefully this feature will expand to include other airlines in the future.

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Nintendo announces Mario Kart Tour coming to smartphones in fiscal year 2018

Nintendo has announced (as part of an investor call) plans for the release of Mario Kart Tour, the first Mario Kart game on smartphones by the end of the next fiscal year. As is standard for Japanese companies, the fiscal year runs from April 1st to March 31st of the following year, meaning that Mario Kart Tour will grace the Play Store and Apple App Store by March 31st, 2019. Other than the logo, no information about the game was disclosed.

Nintendo announces Mario Kart Tour coming to smartphones in fiscal year 2018 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Google's Calculator app hits 100 million downloads on the Play Store

Virtually every device with a mobile OS comes preloaded with a calculator app, and Google's products are no different. The aptly-named 'Calculator,' which comes on Google's phones and tablets but is available for download to any device, has just hit 100 million downloads on the Play Store.

The Google Calculator is a pretty simple calculator, but it's nicely designed and easy to use. You can add, subtract, multiply, and divide (of course), but there are also basic trigonometric, logarithmic, and exponential functions.

Google's Calculator app hits 100 million downloads on the Play Store was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Snap announced Bitmoji Deluxe, brings 100,000 combinations

Snapchat's Bitmoji Deluxe brings more skin tones, hair colors, and hair treatment options.
Simply go to Settings in the Bitmoji app and then choose "Change Avatar Style."
The update is the company's latest attempt at retaining current users and addressing disappointing user growth.

The newly launched Bitmoji Deluxe brings 40 skin tones, 50 hair colors, and 50 hair options, giving you a total of 100,000 combination possibilities.

As TechCrunch points out, the latest update to Bitmoji brings you a substantial amount of new choices for skin tones, hair colors, and hair treatment options. The total number of options for skin tones is now 40 and for hair colors, it's 50. Indeed, simple math indicates that there are 100,000 possible combinations available now.

Snap acquired Bitstrips, the company behind Bitmoji, in early 2016 for $64.2 million and has since incorporated it into its image-messaging app, Snapchat. While the Friendmoji feature has been well-received generally, Snapchat has been facing stiff competition from Facebook and Instagram. The company failed to meet financial expectations and reported disappointing quarter-over-quarter user growth in Q3 2017. Meanwhile, Instagram continues to attract new users, and its Stories feature, a direct clone of Snapchat's Stories feature, now has more daily users than the original.

The new Bitmoji Deluxe update is clearly Snap's attempt to retain its users and boost its disappointing user growth. Snap's CEO Evan Spiegel faced heavy criticism not too long ago when a former employee alleged that Spiegel had said Snapchat was only for rich people and it was not intended for poor countries like India and Spain. By bringing more options to reflect the diversity around us, Snap is undoubtedly trying to appeal to smartphone owners outside its usual "affluent Caucasian" user base.

Whether the strategy will pay off remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: it's only a matter of time until Facebook will come up with something similar, incorporate it into Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp, and have it work even better than the original.

To update your Bitmoji, simply go to Settings in the Bitmoji app, and then choose "Change Avatar Style" to get started.

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Deal: HTC U11 is available for $100 off from Feb 1 to Feb 15

HTC U11 will be discounted to $549 starting February 1 through February 15.
If you buy the U11 or U11 Life, you can also get the Under Armour HealthBox for $99 instead of $399.

Just in time for Valentine's Day, HTC is offering a $100 discount on its flagship device, and if you buy one, the Under Armour HealthBox can be yours for just $99.

HTC U11 review

There's no denying HTC has had a rough go of it in the extremely competitive flagship space, and the company needs a hit on their hands to make a comeback. Now, with its latest high-end offering, …

It's no secret that HTC loves running special promotions – whether it's Christmas, Black Friday, or the beginning of summer, it seems like the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer is always looking for an opportunity to offer discounts for its phones. No one is complaining, of course. Well, Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and what better time to offer special tech deals than on this "corporate holiday"?

Starting February 1 through February 15, the HTC U11 will be available for $100 off, bringing the total price down to $549. Although it doesn't come with the fancy 18:9 aspect ratio that its bigger sibling boasts, the U11 is still a flagship device by all means: a 5.5-inch Quad HD display, Snapdragon 835, 6 GB of RAM, an impressive 12-megapixel Dual Pixel camera, and a beefy 3,000 mAh battery. Sure, $549 isn't cheap per se, especially when phones like the OnePlus 5T cost around the same, but when you compare it to other 2017 flagships, sub-$900 suddenly sounds like a bargain.

If you're a health nut, you'll be glad to hear that HTC is also offering a special discount on the Under Armour HealthBox this Valentine's Day – that is, when you buy the HTC U11 or the more affordable U11 Life. The Under Armour HealthBox includes a fitness tracker, smart scale, and chest-mounted heartrate monitor and usually costs a whopping $399. With the discount, you only pay $99.

The sales begin the moment February 1 begins EST and ends at 11:59 PST on February 15 right on HTC's official website.

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T-Mobile customers are now seeing voicemail transcripts in Google Phone app

The Google Phone app already has a dedicated visual voicemail tab that allows users to listen to and delete voicemails quickly. It's a huge improvement over the clunky voicemail dialing we used to have to endure. However, some T-Mobile users, myself included, are now seeing transcriptions there as well, making the process even easier. This capability was added to the Phone app back in November.

We received a tip from a T-Mobile user who sent a screenshot our way, at which point I realized that I also had a voicemail transcription thanks to a scam call I'd missed.

T-Mobile customers are now seeing voicemail transcripts in Google Phone app was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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